Saturday Night Live Season 1 Episode 6

So I'm now five and a half hours in and already there's been the good, the bad and the ugly. Members of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players have started to shine through, guests are getting in on the sketches and famous characters and sketches have already started to appear. Tonight's host is Lily Tomlin, who I've enjoyed in a number of films especially All Of Me. Anyway on with the show.

• Looks like we are starting with a presidential address, Chevy is doing "Gerald Ford", they acknowledge in writing at the bottom it's not a good impression ha ha. He does the shtick you expect - the phone rings and he answers a glass, bangs his head on desk - he tries to show a popularity chart but somehow falls over his desk before Chevy does the usual "Live from New York..."
• Now the credits, starring Lily Tomlin with Howard Shore and His All Nurse Band. Shore is/was the leader of the house show band - is it possible a singer dropped out at the last minute?
• We also get Jim Henson's Muppets and a film by Albert Brooks. 
• Lily Tomlin is out for the monologue with a shiny top on - as she had the same haircut for 40 years? 
• She brings out a notebook and reads out some thoughts - they are stuff like "have you actually seen somebody laughing all the way to the bank?", "being a New Yorker is never having to say you're sorry" etc., not too bad, slightly old fashioned humour but it's not really a bad thing. She does a weird song and dance about New York which just comes across weird rather then funny. She seems happy to be here anyway.
• John Belushi up now as Beethoven at the piano with Gilda Radner has his wife (love her attempt at an accent), Moonight Sonata is playing until she and the maid leave the room where he starts hearing another tune and it turns into Tie A Yellow Ribbon. Funny with cool performances
• Lily Tomlin introduces Howard Shore and The All Nurse Band, the nurses are all sadly males, she is singing with them. Good little number.
• Triopenin advert, wasn't funny the first time, guess what? It hasn't become funny by the third time.
• Laraine is on the phone to her mother (who's off screen)... yes it's another LAND SHARK, brilliant, one of the things the land shark aks his "are you double parked I think you're locking me in" - they are calling it Jaws III now, Belushi and Aykroyd are reprising there characters "Land Shark... still the cleverest species of them all". Jane Curtin turns off the radio and goes to the door. Aykroyd is on the other side of the door and she opens the doors and hits him on the head, Belushi gives her the advice. She is killed quickly after they leave. Aykroyd has a funny bit left alone with the shark. Gilda Radner is listening on the radio and the announcer is killer, where the shark takes over and says to let them in. Gilda is stupid enough to fall for it. Belushi is on his own now, Lily Tomlin is playing Aykroyd's wife, she's in mourning and hitting on Belushi, the scene gets cut short which was a trick by the shark. Awesome sketch.
• Garrett and Jane are making out on the couch. Chevy comes in as a bellboy with loads of newspapers, he keeps dropping them all.
• Lily Tomlin is being a little girl ice skating in a pre-recorded bit now. She is having a lot of trouble skating, her dog is not allowed to skate with so she pasted his paws to the floor. Not bad
• Beethoven again, it's similar to the one before but he goes into My Girl, funnier then the last Beethoven bit.
• Gilda Radner says there is no show for a couple of weeks, and everyone can go on a date, and they should ask her, she says Richard Pryor will be the host when they come back then. Adorable
• Chevy Chase is now doing Weekend Update. More Gerald Ford jokes. I know Chase is held up in high esteem as Weekend Update anchor but he's yet to really, really make me laugh. He does like I think I've said before seem to get comfortable with more episodes
• Advert for a Spud Beer... for people who can't tell the difference... not really funny
• Chase is now pouring Spud Beer on his suit as we come back to Weekend Update. Funny bit about a new Peanuts characters. Garrett does the hard of hearing bit yet again.
• Lily Tomlin is up next playing a sorority girl writing, when Laraine comes in, she's writing a letter to an old sorority sister that she reads out until it turns into a song. I' guessing the song was about Patty Hearst? Was a time waster for me.
• Speaking of time wasters - The Muppets - Scrat is not about and getting shouted for, he s not about, they says he's in love.. and the main Muppet and his wife check his crater where he lives, he has a picture of Lily Tomlin... they also find a draft to a love letter to Lily. 
• We know cut to Scrat and Lily Tomlin, the first interaction between a Muppet and a guest. He tells her he loves her, she says its hard for a woman in her position to be romantically linked to a puppet they both go into a duet of I Got You Babe. He gives her a rose at the end of the song in a sweet moment.  Good moments
• Lily Tomlin is back after the break still with a rose in hand, she is introducing Albert Brooks film, she says we are going on hiatus, which is funny when she points out she's made herself as part of the collective. They are replaying The Impossible Truth, I am going to skip it for the purpose of this recap.
• After the film, we are back to Beethoven again, same set up as before, he snuffs something this time though (chance it's real with it being Belushi), he's goes into a funny version of What I'd Say. Gilda and Laraine who where at the start of the sketch come running in and become his backing singer. Very Funny.
• Lily Tomlin is in a classroom as a drilling showing the female cast members how to call for men. Dan Aykroyd is brought in for them to call out too. She gets Jane to say something but she's too shy before getting told different before going full on. Gilda's turn is hilarious when she follows Aykroyd going boom boom ba ba. Funny stuff and done on a role reversal angle. Lily as been at her funniest in this so far. Gilda and Aykroyd also have a really sweet moment at the end.
• Fake advert, about a mother and how she manages to do everything, it's an advert for speed. Cool advert for a change.
• Lily is back dressed like it's the 50s. it's her doing a sort of monologue at a 50s club. The audience don't really laugh and neither do I - goes on too long and stops the show dead.
• Lily Tomlin is around the piano with 4 of the casts as Bees (Gilda, Garrett, Chevy and Laraine), Gilda gets Lily to sign a record for her, and they all start singing along (mostly just jibberish) with Howard Shore and The All Star Band. Gilda stands out with her deep throat singing that makes her cough. Seems like there all having fun as it's time to say good night.

Overall Thoughts - I don't know, a couple of Lily Tomlin solo bits dragged down the show but it had the return of the Land Shark, Belushi doing Beethoven and other sketches which made the show work. The Lily Tomlin bit singing with the Muppet Scrat maybe gets you thinking is what they needed was to interact with humans.