"Saturday Night Live '80" - 13 Week Theatre
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- This week, 13WT takes on the ill-fated 1980 reboot of "Saturday Night Live," from Al Franken shooting his mouth off to Charlie Rocket's F-Bomb and beyond!
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In defense of the cast, it didn't matter who was cast in Season 6. WHOEVER it was, was going to have an impossible job.
No the season that replaced them had it even harder - they had to convince everybody that the disastrous 80/81 season was just a fluke, and SNL was back, baby! Knowing Eddie Murphy would be promoted to series regular was a good start, as was knowing the late Gilbert Gottfried would not be a member - Gottfried has always been an acquired taste, and one I never acquired, either.
I disagree. If you look at season 5, you could see that Lorne was laying the groundwork for season 6. He brought in Harry Shearer and Matthew Laurence, then promoted Shearer halfway. Many of the writing staff became featured cast members like Brian Doyle-Murray, Don Novello, Jim Downey.
A hiatus spent trolling the comedy troupes of the time would have yielded at least one woman to fill Gilda’s slot. Remember that before Doumanian was hired, only Gilda had made her departure official.
Had Franken not bit the hand that fed him, the Season 6 cast might have been Peter Ackroyd, Jane Curtain, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Mary Gross, Matthew Laurence, Gail Matthius, Garret Morris, and Harry Shearer with Don Novello/Fr. Guido staying as featured.
That cast, and a mostly intact writing team from Season 5 would have been familiar enough to not alienate existing fans yet breathe some new life into the franchise. Would ratings have gone down? Yes. But it wasn’t the ratings that killed the Season 6 cast.
Imagine if Carrey, Goodman and Reubens had been hired for this year, and if O'Hara had stuck around. They might never have had the remarkable careers they ended up with.
@@PabSungenis I know it's been awhile, but did Neil Levy return for season 6?
as Gilbert has said on numerous discussions of this show, it was like you were going to see the Beatles and at the last minute they were replaced by Beatlemania
It's just not the same ... EVER.
Except that Beatlemania was good!
The absolute SILENCE in that sketch after Rocket drops the 'n' bomb is incredible
To this day, "Commie Hunting Season" is generally agreed upon as the absolute worst SNL Sketch of all time. The Malcolm McDowell episode is also agreed upon as perhaps the worst episode of all time. It's legitimately fascinatingly bad. "Yoko is just Loco about my cocoa"...
It's so bad that 13 years later Gary Oldman was due to host and Malcolm didn't know that the casts and crew change over time and he talked Gary out of hosting at the last minute and Tom Arnold took over on like Wednesday of the same week.
I honestly don’t know if this was the case at the time, but today they have an audience at the dress rehearsal so they can judge audience reaction to sketches. They also over-write so they can kill sketches that bomb.
My bet is that Doumanian never having been a writer didn’t know of this practice, or Mason Williams was overconfident. Today, “Commie Hunting Season” would not see the air after that deafening silence at dress.
The alternative I don’t want to think of is that there may have been an even WORSE sketch that got cut instead.
@@PabSungenis Jean had the poisonous mixture of both thinking she was "above comedy" and having no idea what she was doing. Also having the distinction of being the first time that the cast changed over, everyone was able to see the writing on the wall almost immediately.
That being said and known, most of the cast didn't deserve to be fired. Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius should've been given a shot in S7. There are amazing SNL podcast episodes with both Denny and Mitchell Kriegman on RUclips here that are awesome. Especially considering what Mitchell went on to do.
S6 isn't the worst, if only because of how hard they worked at it as it failed horribly. The Bill Murray episode is honest a top 25 episode of all time. That writer sketch is also top 25 and Altered Walter was funny and high budget for the time.
Chevy chase said it on SNL
just awful
I watched every excruciating episode of the 1980 season. I remember Rocket dropping the f-bomb. I find that version of Gottfried more palatable than the current version. Thank God for Joe Piscopo & Eddie Murphy!
So did I, I watched it with my best friend at the time. We were horrified at how not funny it was, and having recently emerged from a "political vaudeville" kept writing sketches and sending them off to NBC hoping to get a job because we had to be better than anybody riding for them then!
Eddie Murphy had a sexual relationship with Joe Piscopo?!?!
@@braxtongreenwell5482No, Braxton.
@@Delmo5 I didn't think you were right about them having a sexual affair because Murphy has a lot of kids. Piscopo is a notoriously well-known "bear" in the gay community who has slept with every open guy in Hollywood and anyone closeted.
News to me@@braxtongreenwell5482
RIP Gilbert and Charles 🙏🙏
Eddie and Joe, saved the show the next season
Eddie Murphy was the only thing that was funny about that show when the original cast left. Joe Piscopo wasn’t funny, but he thought he could become funny by pretending to be Eddie Murphy’s best friend. It didn’t work.
a tip : watch series on flixzone. Been using them for watching loads of movies recently.
@Milan Alberto Yea, been watching on Flixzone} for since december myself =)
@@collegeman1988 - No, given good writing Piscopo could be funny. Left his own devices? Not so much…
Yes they did
I am currently watching season 6 episode 1 dated Nov 15 1980 on NBC's Peacock channel. How surreal in one of the shorts featuring Charles Rocket, they are outside John Lennon's Dakota apt talking to outsiders about his upcoming album. Date is about 3 weeks before he was killed :(
That is just bonkers and harrowing 😣
Malcolm McDowell actually played John in a live skit on weekend update, when he hosted.
@@wylier The real John Lennon saw that and had said he loved it.
@faynee4157 now THAT is eerie
Wow. That's really dramatic. I didn't realize they did that and the timing
I adore every single episode you crank out. Not only is it entertaining, I learn all kinds of stuff!
Eddie's first Raheem Muhammad commentary may've been THE moment that saved SNL from cancellation. The applause was the loudest of the entire (mostly quiet) season.
JOE PISCOPO LIVE. SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS is honestly also quite legit. Frankly, Weekend Update was even worse a year later and Joe frequently saved it with bits like that.
The worst part is that it was basically never Charles' fault, the writing was just terrible. They also fired Michell Kreigman during update of the David Carradine episode.
Essentially NBC was in just as bad if not a worse situation than SNL was at the time and Fred Silverman made Jean the EP for no other reason but to save money. The theme, opening sequence and goodnights music is honestly legit and S6 is frankly enjoyable as a study of how not to make SNL, but even then there are bright spots like the Rocket Report and the musical guests are f***ing amazing too. There was a pre fame Prince, Aretha Franklin's band bailed on the show because Lorne wasn't involved so the house band played "Can't Turn You Loose", Debbie Harry as a host, who had a lot of fun with Gail Mattheus as Vicky Valley and did her own number. It's not as good as the Blondie songs we know now, but there was also a number of then obscure artists along with Linda Ronstadt and the Pirates of Penzance cast, which do two numbers from the show and an amazing Christmas song.
Eddie's portrayal of Velvet Jones was outrageous too . May have been the first time "HO" was spoken on a late night comedy show.
Very well done video on one of SNL's most infamous season. I do want to add a few things.
1. Catherine O'Hara actually said in a podcast that it wasn't Michael O'Donoghue who drove her out of the show, but she didn't feel comfortable and after hearing about SCTV coming to NBC, she opted to do that show instead.
2. There were two feature players hired for what ended up being the final episode of the 80-81 season: Laurie Metcalf (who later played Jackie on Roseanne) and Emily Prager. Laurie got to appear during Weekend Update and Emily was completely absent.
3. Terry Sweeney was a writer for the 80-81 season. He would later end up as a writer and cast member for equally bad 1985-86 season, which was Lorne's first season back.
4. Charlie Burnett was also considered the spot that eventually went to Eddie Murphy. He was "self-conscious" after auditioning.
5. Gail Matthius was a co-anchor on Update starting with the January, 10 1981 episode.
Other than that, excellent take on the show. I would love to see you cover the 1985-86 season. Even though it was 18 episodes that season, it was also panned that lead to SNL close to ending for good.
Catherine O'Hara wasn't afraid of Michael. She already knew him from seeing him at parties.
@@good03boy That I knew about. I heard she laughed during a podcast when she was asked about that rumored moment.
Rumor is that charlie didn't make the final cut because he was illiterate.
The 85-86 season of SNL reminded me of an expansion team with filled veterans and rookies and the rebuilding challenges they face. The 94-95 season was dreadful, dubbed "Saturday Night Dead."
Season 11, unlike season 6, did have more returning cast members (John Lovitz, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, and featured player A. Whitney Brown continued to be one). That was one good thing about 11 that 6 didn't have.
Also, more cast members went on to do bigger things. Anthony Michael Hall went on to do Weird Science, we ALL know what became of Robert Downey Jr. One very interesting footnote of season 11 was one featured cast member was Damon Wayans, who went on with his brother to create In Living Color, which was one of the first major hits that FOX had, which was the start of a rise in popularity and notoriety for that network as it was expanding its schedule.
The cold opening with Bill Murray was a takeoff on Meatballs and his character doing that motivational speech.
I think that was pretty self-explanatory.
Oh boy, anyone who can stomach this atrocity is very brave. Thank God Eddie Murphy saved SNL.
Thank God he made him lolololol
Gotta say i absolutely love the SNL opening for the(1980 81)season. The black and white photography really captures the grimy,magical feeling of New York circa 1980. The intro is great.
I agree, but the one you remember is from 1981-1984. I imitated that one for my "what if" cast opening because (a) it's more iconic and (b) easier to recreate than the "peel away" and "sweep in" digital graphics of the 1980 season.
I think that might also be evidence of one of the problems of the season. The original show and the early Ebersol years were meant to look rough and gritty, unpolished right down to the garage sound of the band. 1980 was slick computer graphics, bright, and new wave synthesizers. A sudden shock.
@@PabSungenis but Pab...I remember in the early 90s when the comedy channel(i think)actually showed the 1980 season(Denny Dillon-Charles Rocket) and I remembet that opening. I remember the guy spinning the records in the DJ booth. For me that opening is a black and white work of art that really captures that time in New York..disco new wave..punk..sleeze..a film noirish flash of New York..dangerous unpredictable and exciting.
Agreed.
Used to watch that 1981-82 intro back when SNL’s Wikipedia page had each intro as a video file. The whole is just a classic from start to finish:
•The contrast between the gritty black and white film and GIANT red lettering
•Mel Brandt doing the announcing
•That pop of wild applause when Eddie Murphy’s credit shows up
•The big cast reveal at the end after which they run off to their positions
All topped with that stellar theme music playing throughout.
Just a textbook example on how to hype a viewer regardless of overall show quality.
It was just the 81-82 season where Pardo was gone. He did come back in the fall of 82, and stayed until his death.
I think I was more into "Fridays" during this season. Eddie Murphy brought me back though.😁
I saw a few episodes of Fridays when it used to be on Roku TV. That was a really funny show. I especially loved the ones hosted by the late Andy Kaufman. As a comic, he was a genius. You never knew what you would get with him. Truly brilliant.
That was a brilliant summation of the lost year of SNL. Eddie Murphy was as vital to the show as any of the original 1975-80 cast members. Maybe more so. If the originals were comedy's Beatles as Lorne Michaels has said, then Eddie was Michael Jackson, the singular star who saved the show.
More like Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscipo being Simon and Garfunkle.
The late season start was also affected by the three-month actors strike in the summer and fall of 1980. By the time that strike was over, preparing the studio for the presidential election needed to start. The 1976-77 season still started in September, although there was a brief break in November to convert studio 8H for presidential election coverage. It's interesting that this ill-fated season was bookended by two industry strikes, the actors strike as well as the latter writers strike.
Wow, the silence in some of those sketches is DEAFENING. And as bad as the f-bomb was, Rocket dropping the n-word was worse because they actually scripted it that way. The audience sitting there utterly refusing to respond was the capper.
It was the f-word.
Oh, you were right, I forgot about the line here that had to do with Klansman sketch. I didn't know he was the one who said it though, I only heard of the line.
The N-word was uttered in "Commie Hunting Season", which was a truly laughless and offensive sketch. However it was uttered before.....by Chevy Chase in the "Word Association" sketch with Richard Pryor from Season 1. That sketch, where both actors exchanged racial slurs, was hilarious and legendary in some circles. Of course, you can't get away with such a sketch nowadays.
Charles' F-bomb wasn't the first one uttered on that show. It just gave NBC a convenient excuse to fire him, many other players, and EP Jean Doumanian, as the show's ratings were at an all-time low.
Clifford Shafran The sketch was not funny, but finding it offensive might be missing the point. It was satirizing racism and the n-word didnt carry the same weight in 1980. Up until a few years back it was never censored on tv
I am shocked that SNL survived after this horrible season. I am happy that Eddie Murphy became a big star because he is one of my favorite Not Ready for Prime Time Players. BTW, I love how Al Franken blasted the King of TV Fred Silverman and his failure at NBC. That took guts!
Al Franken did write an apology to Silverman's ass. But Silverman at that point turned Lorne over to Brandon Tartikoff.
It's interesting that Brandon was in the audience that night and laughed hysterically along with the crowd at what Al said.
Not only did Fred Silverman make a mess of Saturday Night Live.....He cancelled 14-year veteran Hollywood Squares, Chain Reaction, and Alex Trebek's High Rollers, and initially cancelled and then retracted Chuck Woolery/Susan Stafford's WHEEL OF FORTUNE in June 1980 to make room for.....A 90-minute morning David Letterman program. That program would be shortened to 60 minutes in the fall of 1980, and then cancelled in 1981. If Wheel of Fortune had been cancelled, it would most likely not have made it to syndication in 1983.
@@millenniumman75 David Letterman's morning show was canceled in October 1980, not 1981.
@@good03boy That's what I get for being optimistic LOL. Either way NBC was a mess in 1980. Diff'rent strokes and Facts of Life were the few bright spots that season on NBC. I was only in afternoon kindergarten at the time
Hey! This is my first time seeing Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy in the same room together😮
Murray came back to host the 81 christmas episode and did an underated sketch with Murphy "at home with the Psychos" that i loved but nobody else has apparently seen, and its edited out of the Peacock reruns..
Still one of my favorite SNL themes. I ripped the theme from Charlene Tilton (that seems to be the longest, featured players and all), it's such a mood lifter!
Spent the whole day falling down the 13 Week Theatre rabbit hole. It all started with 'Meego'
Probably the first time that sentence has been used to mention something positive.
Pardo actually came back about a year later and stayed there until he passed away.
Why was he fired though? I didn't get that part.
Dick Ebersol wanted as clean a break from the original show as possible.
@@mirandadickerson563 According to the book by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad, Michael O'Donoghue wanted to fire him ( his plan was to do so on air). He didn't think he was fu any an whatever camp value he added had dissolved.
@@MelBrewer Yes, that was what happened.
Michael O’Donahue wanted to fire Don Pardo live on the air. Thank goodness Ebersol said no.
Just watched this season on peacock. All I can say is, I need therapy and Charles rocket was great in hocus pocus. May he Rest In Peace
I remember this transition season well. Joe Piscopo must have been sweating his nuts off during all the firings, I’m glad he survived to return the show to greatness along with Eddy Murphy and others.
The way I've read it was that he did the show on an almost lark. At least until him and Eddie became a powerhouse. I don't care what happened to Joe Piscopo post SNL, he's awesome to me to this day and should be an SNL Hall of Famer.
His best sketch IMO is the "Joan Vs Joan" with Joan Rivers. Straight Fire. And his JOE PISCOPO LIVE. SATURDAY NIGHT SPORTS were often the sole highlight of otherwise dire Weekend Updates. At least until Tim Kazurinsky brought his character along.
Imagine what it is like being the person who was actually or fake-offended by "who the fuck did it," calling 411, getting the number for NBC, working your way through a switchboard, to complain about this.
Seriously imagine being that person. What is that even like.
Sometimes they just ask 411 for the number of the FCC.
By the way, love the user name. Rabelais fan? Or John Green fan? Either way, great choice.
@@PabSungenis Rabelais. But even so. Whoever called the FCC wasn't offended. They were just excited they saw something you don't normally see on TV and played morality cop, believing themselves to be a hero to the millions of innocent, uncorrupted little souls WATCHING TELEVISION AROUND 1:00am.
And I wonder exactly how long that little sanctimonious rush lasted and whether the next day when they were GATHERED TOGETHER IN A CIRCLE WEARING DARK ROBES AND WORSHIPPING BAAL if they were thinking about "HA, I REALLY SCREWED SNL LAST NIGHT!" as they sacrificed a small child and drank the blood of the she-goat.
Sorry, all mad.
Thank you for this...Season 6 was interesting for so many reasons...I actually have all of the full episodes...the musical guests were top notch and there were moments of laughs but overall, it was miserable...I actually like the next season quite a bit...The George Kennedy episode was so funny and nearly perfect.
This was the first year i was allowed to stay up to watch snl om my own B&W white tv. The Best of SNL was already playing daily on the local affiliate channel and i caught up on all the episodes from 75 to 80
This season wasn't that bad. Dillon, Matthias, Piscapo and Murphy were all fine.
Rocket was pretty rough. Risley was practically invisible, and Gottfried just didn't fit despite having a couple singular segments on his own.
It's a testament to how popular SNL was that it managed to survive this, a season that would have killed most shows...
It also helps there wasn't competition, and no other network really bothered putting things on against it. Late night weekends are a low bar to get over.
@@christianlorre Well, there was Fridays...
@@imrustyokay And SCTV
@@sralyn - for some reason, nobody counts SCTV, probably because it was a syndicated show, except for season or two on NBC...?
@@drdarkeny SCTV was never as popular as SNL but it gets credos from the cult audience. Credos that are not in proportion with reality, IMHO.
I like bits and pieces of SCTV but is it as easy or easier to sit through than most episodes of SNL were in the 1970s and 1980s? Highly debatable!
SCTV still has its classic sketches but I don't think it's any easier to sit through an average SCTV episode than an average SNL episode and SCTV is supposedly a comedy writer's series! Either show is easier to stomach with "Best of compilations" than actually watching most full, uncut episodes as they were originally broadcast. (Hell, I HATED 98% of the music acts they ever had on SNL and the show became more insufferable as the guest hosts were "let in" on the jokes. At least a good third of every SNL episode seems to be crap. It's been that way since the beginning. Watch first season SNL and the episodes can seem interminable and full of drug humor that hasn't aged well.)
These sketch shows are crap shoots and most of the time they don't age particularly. For me, Kids in the Hall is more rewatchable than SNL, SCTV, or In Living Color. (MadTV had a few good seasons at the beginning but was generally crap later after most of the original cast left.) I cannot watch Carol Burnett or Laugh-In... The 1960s humor is corny and I don't laugh at that stuff like I would Airplane! or Blazing Saddles. Comedy is generally a product of its time that doesn't age well unless they choose timeless themes (like Airplane! and Blazing Saddles did). SNL in particular tends to be TOO topical and in the present which dates shows BADLY.
No question a lot of great cast came out of SCTV -- people who were excellent character actors. People who have had longer and arguably higher-quality careers than most SNL alumni have had.
Martin Short, Dave Thomas, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, the late Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, and Rick Moranis all did better than average. A lot of the SNL guys burned out or did so many bad movies that their careers stalled -- this arguably happened with Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase. Probably would have happened with John Belushi, too, if he had lived -- arguably DID happen with Belushi's kid brother, Jim. Can anyone really name ANYTHING memorable Jim Belushi did?!?
You forgot the end of the Bill Murray episode, where he refused to embrace the new cast, except for Murphy, and turned away from Charles Rocket--after apologizing to his former castmates (including Belushi and Aykroyd) for hosting (and, if it had been Jean Doumanian's choice, Murphy wouldn't have been hired at all)...
Yeah, this was bad--REALLY bad...
Charlie hugged him but Billy didn't hug him back.
@@sha11235 - ironic given Charles Rocket was what Bill Murray WOULD be if he hadn't gotten some lucky breaks.
Legend has it Charlie Barnett was Damanian's choice over Murphy. But due to Barnett's reading difficulties, he chose to not show up for another audition.
The network wanted Robert Townsend over Eddie. It was Charlie that won over the producers tho. He was let go because he wasnt adept at theater direction.
Gail Matthius was actually really good. Her Valley Girl bit preceded the craze and was the funniest thing on the show. Plus I had a crush on her.
She went on to Tiny Toon Adventures later voicing Shirley the Loon.
She used her Valley Girl voice from SNL for that character.
She was also a friend of Laraine Newman and later got her into the cartoon voice business.
@@PabSungenis Thanks.
Also, Gilbert Gottfried and Laraine Newman did voices for the Problem Child animated series - the only two actors associated with the Problem Child films to do the animated show. (Although Laraine's contribution tends to be ignored in discussion about the animated series).
Gottfried reprised his role from the films, while Newman did additional voices rather than reprise her LaWanda Dumore role from Problem Child 2.
@@andrewbarton2590 gilbert godfried did a voice for a cartoon on PBS,but dont remember what it was
I remember watching the season premiere of the 6th season on comedy central back early 90's,and they aired the whole 90 mins.
Even odder: My source for the "Mean Majority" episode was from when the episode was actually re-run on NBC itself during the late 90's. NBC O&O's (Owned and Operated Stations) and other affiliates who chose not to air something else were fed a "classic" SNL episode on Sunday mornings at 1 AM, right after the current week's live show was done. Under Lorne's contract NBC was only supposed to rerun shows he produced, not Doumanian or Ebersol. But this one snuck in.
I remember the ''classic'' ones that aired.
Wow, 1980 John Goodman looks almost unrecognizable. Reubens and Carrey still pretty much look the same though. I do have to admit that the elevator set they used for this season was neat.
Jim Varney and Robert Townsend would have made the cut too.
That was very well done
Pab Sungenis.
Dick Ebersol, who took over production of the series from Jean Doumanian in April 1981, did NOT appeciate Al Franken's biting comments about him, or mentioning some of his previous failures at NBC. This is what Franken said that pissed Ebersol off:
"Now, let me give you some background on Dick 'Mr. Humor' Ebersol. His credits include 'THE WAVERLY WONDERS' starring Joe Namath, 'ROLLERGIRLS', and a show called 'JOE & VALERIE', about a kid from Brooklyn who dances every night at a disco. Now, to this day, Dick claims that he never saw 'Saturday Night Fever', and that it was all an amazing coincidence. Anyway, I know Dick, and I can tell you that he doesn't know ----."
When the writers' strike ended, and the series began a new season that fall, Ebersol "conveniently" forgot to contact Franken and Davis about hosting the show. In fact, they never appeared during the remainder of his tenure as producer. They had to wait until Lorne returned in the fall of 1985 before they were involved in the show again.
That was the era of SNL when they were non-PC. Besides Robert Townsend auditioned for SNL, Kennan Ivory Wayans did too before hiring Eddie Murphy.
Okay, I'm actually one of the few people in the Solar System that didn't think SNL '80-81 was that bad. Judging that cast on its own merits (not comparing them to the previous one), there were some funny moments - Gail Matthius's valley girl; Piscopo, Risley and Dillon as the Carter first family - even some of those scenes in this video... the army test, how to find a black Republican, the "Bob and Ted and Carol and Alice" parody - were pretty funny. Head writer Mason Williams got kind of a bad rap.
What was not good was Charles Rocket - not only was he unfunny but he kept blowing his lines, and should NOT have anchored Weekend Update, or been allowed to do that horrendous "Rocket Report." (He even flubbed his infamous "Who shot J.R?" line, ironically.) He sort of dragged everyone else down with him, including Gail Matthius and Anne Risley, who I think were both underrated.
I think Charles had charisma, which is how he got hired in the first place. He had his demons tho.
I watched a few episodes of season six on Peacock. And I don't think it was as bad as it was made out to be. What I think was that with the new cast, no matter who it was, had HUGE shoes to fill and was NOT going to live up to the expectations of the fans compared to Bill Murray, Jane Curtin, Larraine Newman, etc. And while I loved the old theme song and openings, the season six theme song was awesome and the opening to the show was well done.
Here is the biggest flaw and problem of season six that really f***ed things up: Writing. A lot of the writing was so awful. Seemed like in just some bits, they opted to be as edgy and nasty as possible, but not put any humor into them. Ann Risley, in my opinion, was the WORST out of the six. She didn't have too many good moments and was uninspiring. Charles Rocket had the potential to be a big star for SNL. But I read stories that his ego and attitude got the best of him. He had a habit of ruffling feathers and tried to sabotage Joe Piscopo for becoming the breakout stars of the show. I will get to them in a bit. Plus, I don't think his F-bomb on SNL was just a slip. I really believe that he did that by grand design as he wanted to make a moment for himself as he didn't think that NBC and the public would make that big of a deal out of it and would eventually blow over. How wrong he was.
Denny Dillon was fair. Interesting, though, she went from being on a kid's TV show on NBC the year before (Hot Hero Sandwich) to starring on SNL. Gail Matthius, I thought, was really good. She was funny, at times, and I really loved her Vicky character. Plus, I thought she was hot and brought sex appeal to the show. Gilbert Gottfried was one of my favorite comedians, but he just wasn't given enough to do on SNL to let him shine as Doumanian wanted the focus to be on her "Golden Boy", Charles Rocket. But he did more than okay after being released from SNL after the sixth season.
Now Piscopo and Murphy, they became the HEART and SOUL of SNL during season six. They're so naturally funny and had the charisma to get the audience to appreciate them. They were the two biggest bright spots to the sixth season and Dick Ebersol knew that. That is why he did the right thing by retaining them when gutting the rest of the cast. However, I personally think that he should have kept Gail Matthius along with Piscopo and Murphy.
I think Rocket thought he could get by on his good looks.
@@wylier A kind of charisma, yes - but not comedic. I guess that one can say that he had charisma without charm.
Excellent work. This is so informative and really well done. Thanks.
Although Don Pardo was fired in 1981, he returned the follow year, where he remained until his death in 2014.
The Gilbert Gottfried was not embarrassed at all about his time with SNL 1980. He signed my SNL book with no problem.
😊 Nothing like the first 5 years of the show. Gilda was my favorite from that time.
Gilda is a Goddess.
I love pretty much every second of Gilda on SNL.
I’m guessing Charles Rocket was groomed to be the next Chevy Chase.
This was well done. 👏👏👏
ABC'S "Fridays" was funnier than SNL that year and had better music guests.After everyone on SNL got fired except Eddie and Joe the laughs returned and Fridays ended soon after.
I had never seen some of those clips, thanks for this. Well done.
Just found your channel curious about SNL's history. This is more information on this era than NBC provided in their own documentary about the show. Thank you so much! Subscribed!
Well, SNL, and Lourne Michael really like to bury this season, as with all of their Low Points before 2000 (Including Season 11 and 20.)
13 week theater is terrific. Great job.
The landshark and Mr. Bill got bigger reactions than the season. Wow.
Pab you are a genius. Great execution and narration on these. 👍👍👍
I still have a crush on Gail Matthius.
The dirty secret is that the Billy Crystal / Martin Short season was the best ever.
It should have been. Was definitely the most talented cast. Harry Shearer left in frustration after 3 episodes because of he felt the writing sucked. "I didn't sign up for the Billy Crystal show". Chris Guest was a disaster as "SNL News" host. ( For some reason it wasn't called weekend update in the Ebersol era).
Underrated. Christopher Guest was great as well.
Correct.
100% agree. Best cast Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Chris Guest. Watch the Jewish Deli Gumby skit, Al Franken Liberace, Fernando's hideaway with Hulk and Mr
T, Jackie Rodgers Jr. 100,000 jackpot Wad
@@jimringomartin Lorne Michael's controls SNL but he was not involved in this season so it doesn't get as much credit as it should. Jackie Rodger's Jr 100k Jackpod Wad has a case for funniest skit ever. Ed Grimley on plane with Jessie Jackson does too.
Catherine O'Hara, Robin Duke, and Tony Rosato had all been in the Toronto Second City cast, and on "SCTV" (created and written by members of the cast). But Catherine and Robin had been friends since high school!
Robin Duke was under rated under used, she had great comic skills. in 1989 she was a member of the short lived Second City West in Santa Monica and her improv skills were mind blowing
One thing I can say for this season, and it’s almost completely absent from the Peacock episodes: the musical acts are incredible. In a few weeks time you have James Brown, Aretha Franklin, a full Broadway performance of the Pirates of Penzance, the first live performance of Prince.
It was also short. Jean only has 12 episodes and she was essentially fired after 11. One is honest to god watchable (Karen black).
Other dire seasons (85-86) (94-95) seem to go on forever
Funnily enough, I was introduced to Gail as a kid not through SNL...but from a Saturday MORNING show called, oh, Bump in the Night.
Gail Matthias was also Shirley the Loon on Tiny Toons, and got Laraine Newman into voice acting.
@@PabSungenis Also forgot she was in the original Hanna-Barbera Pound Puppies special as well.
She was also the voice of Martha Generic on Bobby’s World.
RIP Gilbert Godfrey
Wow, someone actually thought it was a good idea for opening of the first episode to start with the cast comparing themselves to the previous cast? With a start like that, no wonder the season went badly!
Awesome video man; subscribed due to it. One thing at the start and it's not really your fault as people have reported it wrong for ages but Jim Carrey auditioned in 1985, not '80 as he was only 18 in 1980 (just imagine though Eddie and Jim on SNL when they were really young.. wow what a awesome what if?) Al Franken didn't like him and he wasn't picked, first dumb move of many in 1985. I love you're imagined SNL art of 1981 at the start that was well made.
Jean's problem ultimately was she was destined to fail. NBC wanted SNL to drop so they could take it over and make it their own show and not Lorne's anymore. Lorne drove them nuts in the prime years and spent a lot of money especially in years 4 and 5. Year 5 wasn't as good as the 3 before it (not anyone's fault they were just tired and burnt out, well John's cause of a lot of it as he brainwashed Dan to leave,) so NBC wanted some revenge and they hired someone they thought they could control but they couldn't. Jane was just incompetent at the end of the day as she knew jack about comedy and had real unfunny tastes. Gilbert wasn't lying when he called her a goof.
I've almost every show from this year 2 or 3 times and to be honest it's not as bad as everyone says. There's some shows that are horrendously bad (McDowell's show, Sally Kellerman's, 2nd half of Robert Hays's show,) but there were some average to decent shows from David Carradine, Karen Black, Debbie Harry, Tilton, and Murray. It's a typical first year season but at that point in time it was so unusual and no one liked it. The cast wasn't as great as the 70's or 86 cast and that didn't help. Rocket was pegged for super stardom and while he was a solid character actor he just wasn't funny or likeable ont he show. You also had Ann Risley who wasn't a bit funny and was out of the Woody Allen playbook (he and Jane were close then, a lot of people believe they were working together then she denies it but I believe it.) A majority of the featured people besides Lawerence were bad. Denny Dillon was very annoying and loud. Only good picks that year were Piscopo, Gottfried, and Mathias. Piscopo ended up being the standout in terms of being the pitchman/loud guy but he wasn't open for carrying the show hence Murphy's rise. He was a once in a lifetime talent to boot. Gottfried saved a lot of the updates during the season with his character roles and had some funny bits but sadly he hated it there and you could tell he wanted out. Then you had Matthias who imo is the sexiest cast member the show ever had. She was a natural for SNL and had some good characters; imo cutting her for Christine Ebersol in 1981 was a dumb move on Dick's part. Christine ended up being a gimmick cast member Gail coulda done more that next year and became solid.
1980's problem just was that shock humor. Original SNL was WAY more subtle for it but this show had no clue what being subtle was. That 2nd episode is imo one of the top 5 if not the #1 worst show in SNL's history. Not much of anything went right with terrible skits all around. Granted there were a couple of good ones in the book store skit as well as the Reagan bit and especially Gottfried's smoking skit, but you have the stripper skit and that awful Greensboro skit. UGH.
I think if Al had gotten it I see season 6 being okay. They woulda gotten bad press regardless but the ratings woulda stayed okay and they woulda found their footing eventually. He also woulda picked a better group plus having the orginal folks pop up here and there woulda worked well. Oh, what if..
What if what?
Actually, Jim Carrey auditioned THREE times. He auditioned in 1980 (he and Eddie Murphy were both 18 at the time). Neil Levy wanted both of them, but knowing Doanian would not hire two teenagers went to the mattress for Murphy and let Carrey go.
Jim Carrey auditioned by tape for Lorne Michaels in 1985 but didn’t make the cut. After almost that entire cast were fired in the infamous “studio fire cliffhanger” Carrey auditioned at the same time as Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman. Carvey later said that he and Hartman expected Carrey to get the job and not them, but they were both surprised.
@@PabSungenis Oh well I stand corrected. Never knew about the 1980 audition I always figured that was a typo. I guess it was some of his 1986 tape I seen. Hartman's audition was solid, Carvey's not so much imo.
Thanks for the info!
Some of Jean's show wasn't too bad, true, but Jean wasn't really a person like Lorne, who knew how to run this type of show. She needed a head writer who could help her out. Jean wasn't a person who thought she needed help, that was her problem. She didn't want to turn over that stuff to Mason Williams and another person who came on the show but was fired before the premiere, Peter Tauber. I think also the writers didn't like taking orders from a woman. This was a different era. There was crap on both sides of the fence I feel.
Jim Carrey did audition for SNL more than once, including 1980. mentalfloss.com/article/55008/32-famous-people-rejected-saturday-night-live
Secretary of Milk got me again... 6 years later.
If you read the SNL history book, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, it does NOT paint a pretty picture of Jean Doumanian and half the SNL 1980 cast. Not gonna name names of the mean cast but the only guys who really came off well were Piscopo and Murphy. Gilbert was very depressed and the others had their issues. There were 3 particular cast members who were NASTY (names not being Dillon, Murphy, Piscopo, or Gottfried) and they kind of got theirs in the end.
Doumanian was grooming people to be the new Chevy, the new Gilda, the new Belushi and I think between the writing and her cluelessness about comedy it wasn't going to happen.
How she got promoted from a glorified talent scout/hirer of bands to executive producer of SNL is a mystery. She's a prime example of being promoted beyond your talent and field of experience!
Honestly, I recommend browsing Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live for a better view of SNL's early days. It's an unauthorized book in a field where over half the SNL history books are authorized, sanitizied histories. It doesn't paint a nice picture of everyone but it's probably more balanced than the other books (although I think another SNL history book co-written by Tom Shales is also excellent). This book covers the first 10 years of SNL's history. I have the first edition hardcover with the caricatures of the castmembers on it. The later post-2014 edition (trade paperback) has a bland photo cover on it.
Interesting, I'll have to check it out.
Thank you.
@@nickhill8612 To be fair, the first cast had its share of characters, too. Belushi and Chase were both abusive to people and just unbearable at times; they were both very arrogant, insecure men. Half those cast members were serious drug users and it's amazing nobody OD'd during the first 5 years of that series!
They all continued working after the 5-year-run was over but the true breakouts were Chase, Belushi, Aykroyd, and Bill Murray. With the exception of Aykroyd, 3 of those guys had serious issues and didn't always play nicely with everyone else.
@@AvengerII
I can see that happening back then.
Didn't Chevy Chase and Bill Murray get into a fight?
@@nickhill8612 Yes, Murray and Chase had a scuffle backstage when Chase returned to host SNL about a year or so after he left the show. Allegedly, Chase told Murray (who has terrible acne scars) that he could see where "Neil Armstrong landed on him!" meaning Murray has "moon face," not that Murray was gay!
The guy who instigated the fight was Belushi who said things to both Chase and Murray to rile them up. Murray and Chase had personal tension but Belushi lit the match that made the gas explode!
John didn't get away unscathed, though. He tried to act like a "good knight" and stop the fight (HE instigated!!) but caught punches from both Chase and Murray when he (Belushi) got between them! LOL What an asshole. He got what he deserved! LOL
oh damn. I love this. That leather weather report looks sooooo cheap. They didn't even TRY with Denny's costume. Also, Charles Rocket was terrrrrible.
I love Charlene's pause and then shreiking "OKAY!" after Charles' fbomb
And how Gilbert seemed like that he was going to grope Charlene Tilton's tits, then thought about it and decided nah.
Charles stumbles over his own lines doing WU.
and he was supposed to be the next chevy chase. chase at his worst has more personality in his pinky toe than rocket would ever have as he was never funny let alone interesting. so he blew his head off in the end. good riddance.
jean doumanian was a stupid bitch. plus, she almost destroyed woody allen's career when she became one of his producers but her involvement drove away key people who collaborated with him and fucked him over money he was owed. she is someone that no one should do business with.
And her hyperactive nervous laughter afterwards!
and everyone said he was going to be the next chevy chase. chevy had personality. chevy knew when less is more. rocket wished he had an ounce of the talent that chevy had. oh, and they also didn't mention that prince said the f-word during his performance in that episode.
Doing a 13 Week Theatre crawl from Supertrain, to Pink Lady and Jeff, wrapping it up with Saturday Night Live 80.
That’s crazy, I was born on April 11th 1981
The 1998-99 Chicago Bulls of comedy
This was great. I wish it was about an hour longer.
Once Eddie Murphy came 2 SNL the ratings were great between 81 through 84
Interesting that Denny Dillon was actually on one of the earliest episodes of Saturday Night Live in 1975
Gilbert not using his trademark voice
In the 70s, I’d catch the odd segment of Saturday Night Live, but it was never on my list for appointment viewing. So I’m hearing this for the first time - and it is PAINFUL. 🤦♂️
Here’s an alternate-history exercise: What if Jean Doumanian had agreed to Harry Shearer’s deal? Who would he have selected to write and fill out the cast, and would it have prevented what happened in 1980?
I tend to think he would have convinced Peter Aykroyd and Brian Doyle-Murray to stick around and be promoted to full cast from featured. He specifically mentioned Christopher Guest and Tom Leopold by name and had an affinity with the National Lampoon Radio Hour cast.
Not sure who he would have found for female cast members, but he would probably have drawn from the same sources as Doumanian. As for the writing staff, the Firesign Theatre was pretty much breaking up with Proctor and Bergman out doing their own thing so he probably could have twisted his buddy David Ossman's arm into joining the writing staff and maybe even tapped him to replace Don Pardo.
So my guess would be a main cast of Peter Aykroyd, Denny Dillon, Brian Doyle-Murray, Robin Duke, Christopher Guest, Gail Matthius, and Harry Shearer with recurring performers John DeBella (from NLRH), Tom Leopold, Don Novello, Paul Shaffer, and David Ossman.
Would it have lasted? It might have stood a better chance than Doumanian's because the writing would have been better. Ratings start down but build as time goes on.
Not only did Fred Silverman make a mess of Saturday Night Live.....He cancelled 14-year veteran Hollywood Squares, Chain Reaction, and Alex Trebek's High Rollers, and initially cancelled and then retracted Chuck Woolery/Susan Stafford's WHEEL OF FORTUNE in June 1980 to make room for.....A 90-minute morning David Letterman program. That program would be shortened to 60 minutes in the fall of 1980, and then cancelled in 1981. We almost don't have Wheel of Fortune today in syndication because of him!
The reason for the shortening of David Letterman's show was to launch a new soap opera, Texas.
Texas struggled, because it aired at 3pm, against General Hospital. Another casualty of this was The Doctors, which was moved to 12.30pm, facing Ryan's Hope and Search for Tomorrow, as well as NBC affiliates not airing the soap in favour of local newcasts.
In one last bit of desperation, Texas was moved to 11am against The Price Is Right, forcing WOF to move to 10.30am.
The Doctors was moved to noon to accommodate Search For Tomorrow (which had moved from CBS), forcing it to compete with Family Feud and Y&R. That and more affiliate preemptions.
Five minutes in and stopped to like and subscribe.
Fascinating and very well produced. I look forward to viewing more of your content.
🙏🏽✌🏽💙 from Minnesota
I met Charlene Tilton at a comic convention a few years ago and we discussed her parents on SNL when Charles rocket was on and cursed. She even pointed out that prints cursed as well as he was the unannounced guest, but nobody noticed. She told me that Rocket was fired before he even left the stage.
Denny Dillon IS funny but only when she's properly written. Actually the same can be said for that whole cast. The one saving grace was an unexpected Eddie Murphy. He was not hired in the normal manner and wasn't really supposed to be there. Yet he took the show by storm and probably saved it from being cancelled permanently with only six seasons. And it also launched an epic career as a bonus.
O’Hara left SNL because SCTV went back into production… thanks to NBC, ironically. When Ebersol went to SNL, NBC had to cancel The Midnight Special because he had been running that show. NBC suddenly had a 90-minute hole in their schedule on Fridays and decided to plug the hole with SCTV (which had been touch and go financially for a couple years in Canada). So O’Hara suddenly had her old job to go back to.
This kind of reminds me of what would happen over 20 years later with All That on Nickelodeon. Like SNL back in 1980, All That was relaunched with an entirely new cast. And like Season 6 of SNL, Seasons 7-10 of All That weren't well received. In the case of All That, they for one thing, traded slapstick and zaniness for low-brow gross-out humor.
It should also be noted that technically, one cast member from the 70s stayed on, Yvonne Hudson (a featured player this season) had appeared in sketches during the Lorne era (though never credited on air until this season).
That 80-81 season is probably funnier than current SNL...
Uh, not really. Most of those people were comedians, not improv people who had even worked together before.
Any TV from the past is better then today!
It’s not. Even snl today at its worst is better than this season.
I've seen most of this season and I would say most of the sketches were on par with Boy Scout campfire skits. Denny Dillon and Charles Rocket were awful, Gail Matthius wasn't great but showed some promise, and Gilbert Gottfried and Ann Risley were actually pretty good. I would have liked to see them stick around. Joe and Eddie were definitely the stars of the season though.
I saw the F-Bomb bit, but I missed the F-Word entirely.
Ebersole did some good work. Martin Short, Billy Crystal and Chris Guest made some comedy gold.
I just found your channel tonight and have watched 5-6 of your videos already! I love your stuff, especially this one... as I run SNL Super Fans on Facebook. Any SNL fans out there... come see us! SNL Super Fans Group and I'm sharing this video to the group now because this video is so damn good.
Is it just me, or is the audio for the Charlene Tilton stuff impossible to hear?
I spent a very long time on SNL 80-81 for a podcast (back when I was healthy). This is generally a pretty accurate summary (some details are never clear or consistent from the sources anyway). Obviously in 18 minutes you don't have time for all the details.
I think it should be clear with Murphy with "they had him do a monologue", he was pushing to get lines and someone told him to write for himself. It don't remember who now, maybe Sheffield & Blaustein or Piscopo. It was some of the guys who believed in Murphy. Murphy wrote the High School sketch and the writers helped clean it up for TV. Murphy was brilliant, but never great with the written word.
The moment you cut on in the sketch is amazing, because you can see Murphy, for just a moment, break out of sketch and realize it's working and they love him. There's another moment at the end where Piscopo gives a sort of "you did it" look. 19-year old kid on his way to being the biggest star in the world, at least for a little while.
The complex part of the story is about the F-Bomb, which matters, but not the way it's usually presented.
There was a battle for the show's future going on already when the Rocket moment happened Rocket's move did not really end the show. Rocket was already forgiven, and the show was already dead for weeks. NBC had decided to move on from Doumainian long before. They hadn't told her, but she had a pretty good idea (which can't be said about her comedy senses).
The problem was that NBC had two men fighting for control of the show behind the scenes and both were trying to take over. Both were close to striking. NBC would not have pull the show for FCC complaints. It was very expensive to not air it. But Rocket was a flashpoint and Dick Ebersol felt he had to make his move. Ebersol's plan required a house cleaning and a break. In another takeover scenario, the show finishes out the (still shortened) season without a break.
Ebersol's years don't get the credit they deserve. When Michaels (non-triumphantly) returned from Hollywood he worked very hard to erase all the Ebersol years, and he even failed for a year himself in a story I never was able to finish telling.
Also not getting the credit he deserves is the late Gilbert Gottfried, who was a better actor than anyone was aware of.
8:05 Holy crap! Dead silence...
The font for Weekend Update is the font used for Batman the animated series. Also, thanks for this video. It's very hard to find footage from this season. Bad as it may be, the life-long SNL fan in me has always still wanted to see it.
The Peacock streaming channel has every SNL episode that ever aired.
@@SoulStylistJukeBox with many episodes having most of the content cut out for copyright. 😥
I always thought they should have kept Gail Matthius along with Joe and Eddie.
Yeah, she was pretty funny.
Denny Dillon always looked like she should be married to Yosamite Sam. Theres something so..cartoonish about her. She looks like a Don Bluth character come to life.
I just remembered: Sometime in 79, while the Not Readys were still on, they had an on-stage skit where they 'intro'd' their supposed replacements - who were all nice but unqualified to follow in the footsteps. The SNL 80 cast wasn't quite that, but still somewhat prophetic.
from what ive seen of the 6th season, lot of it was horrible
only person who would come back after the 70's was don pardo
And Harry Shearer.
Not so prophetic because that skit was on the last episode of the original cast. Hosted by Buck Henry and best remembered for the “Lord and Lady Douchebag” sketch.
Irish dance kick. Brilliant!
Saw the re-edited 1 hour versions on Comedy Central in the late 90s, all of the episodes were shown save for the season premiere hosted by Elliott Gould with musical guests Kid Creole And The Coconuts for some reason
They actually showed the 90 minute version of that one around the summer of 1995.
Cant believe that Elliot Gould actually agreed to host the first episode of season 6.probably was thinking that it was going to be just like how it was in the 70's.boy was he mistaken.dont think he ever hosted again.probably was like boy ,was that bad.
He might not have known about the change from Lorne to Jean. And it took Jean a long time to even get a host.
Supposedly Gould didn't know about the change in cast until he already committed. It was indeed his last time hosting, though he did cameo during the first "Five Timers' Club" monologue with Tom Hanks.
Elliot Gould is acting and joking circles around them effortlessly. And he's not even a comedian. That showed the great chasm between an actor with comic timing and the new cast of "professional comedians". This was his last time out of six hosting, possibly due to the stigma of hosting with this cast.
They really missed the boat by not using Gilbert Gottfried. But who knew 🤷♂️
This Season is like a Completely Different Comedy Show that Nobody Watches
Jean Doumanian was a terrible choice, but there were a lot of factors at play that made that season doomed from the beginning
She was an associate producer who was responsible for booking musical act and the like. It was an important job but she was never a part of the nuts and bolts of writing, producing and creating the comedy when Lorne Michaels was first running things.
I know, I read the books. Thanks anyway@@TMC1982Part2
@@TMC1982Part2 Doumanian was great at what she did in the show's formation years. She picked edgy musical acts that helped the show get its underground quality, many of whom were about to break out. She wasn't good at comedy, though, and she wasn't good at cultivating creative energy from her staff.
Yes, Season 6 was mostly a train wreck. Other than Murphy and Piscopo, the best thing out of that season was the musical acts, especially James Brown and a young Prince (before his popularity exploded). Comparing the new cast with the old was mistake #1 indeed, along with not hiring Murphy initally, and ignoring talents like John Goodman and Jim Carrey. The sketches were truly awful for the most part with no laughs and some offensive content, epecially "Commie Hunting Season". While Fred Silverman had a bad stint on NBC, Al Franken dug his own grave with his "Limo for Lame-O" commentary. So, it's easy to see why he wasn't hired as next producer, although Jean was a bad fit.
Jim Varney,Paul Ruebens and Robert Townsend, all missed the 1980-81 SNL cut. If only......
Al Franklin was actually funny most of the time on this show. I had feelings that he wasn’t very good on the show but he and Michael O’Dannol were good in a dark sort of way.
This was such a disaster each Saturday Night for three months. It was needed in the story of the show. If couldn’t come back if the quality hadn’t gone away for a period.
As the show has 45 seasons behind it we can look at the peeks and valleys. After all the show used the n-word twice in six years.
I'm pretty sure that studio audience walked out after 20 minutes.
Well done.