It seemed like a good idea at the time.

S01E02: Paul Simon/Randy Newman/Phoebe Snow/Art Garfunkel

I can’t do a highlights for this episode because they’re all pictured above. I have a passing interest in Simon and Garfunkel (because I have smoked pot before, and also because Art and I share a birthday) but I cannot watch an entire episode dedicated to music you’ve heard in your dentist’s waiting room. I’m embarking on this endevor because I’m interested in comedy history, not history of easy listening.

Now, to the show itself: there are 3 appearances by anyone in the cast: Chevy once again delivers the Live From New York tag, coming in with a lovely pratfall from stage right. Paul Simon has the cast out as The Bees and informs them that the skit was cut due to poor response the week prior. Chevy mans the anchor desk and gives fantastic mugging faces to the camera when his jokes land. He cuts to a pre-taped sequence that involves Paul Simon (who was the host of this musical episode) which marks the first time (in two entire episodes!) that the host does any sort of segment that doesn’t involve his main profession. Carlin in the previous episode didn’t interact with anyone at all.

In skipping the rest of this episode I happily did not watch The Muppets (these jokes do not land and seem entirely out of place though I do appreciate them as a precursor to TV Funhouse) and another short film from Albert Brooks.

S01E01: George Carlin/Janis Ian/Billy Preston

So it begins.

Highlights:

• Chevy Chase delivers the first iconic “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
• I’m a huge Carlin fan so to see him do his stand up, some bits that I hadn’t seen before was great.
• Andy Kaufman’s classic Mighty Mouse bit (which just gets funnier the more I watch it. I don’t remember the first time I saw it but it feels like something I always just knew about, you know?)
• Chevy Chase having no idea which camera to look into during the first ever Weekend Update.
• The penultimate sketch featuring Dan Aykroyd and Garrett Morris as security system salesmen whose selling tactic is breaking into an unsuspecting couple’s home (John Belushi and Gilda Radner).

It was kind of jarring to see the show in this format. Instead of how it is now, where the guest host is kind of propped up by the sketch players it’s the opposite. The “Not Ready For Prime Time” players, as they were called then, seemed only to serve to fill time between the musical guests and George Carlin. The sketches were all really short, and almost surrealist. It kind of reminded me of some of the more conceptual skits from The State.

A very interesting beginning.