A compilation of highlights from the 1984-85 season, including “I Am Also The World”, “Rescue Mission”, “Black History Minute”, “Jackie Rogers Jr.’s $100,000 Jackpot Wad”, “60 Minutes”, “Saturday Night News: Eddie Murphy on dolls”, “Wheel of Fortune Interview”, “Superman Auditions”, “Fernando’s Hideaway”, “The Question is Moot!”, “Do You Know What I Hate? (II)” and “Houses of Shame.
Read MoreBilly Crystal hosts a selection of SNL’s filmed segments from the past few seasons; Siskel & Ebert are on hand to give their reviews. Films include “Synchronized Swimming”, “Kannon AE-1”, “Walking After Midnight”, “Buddweiser Light”, “Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich & Famous”, “Needleman”, “Prose and Cons”, “Hitchhiker”, “Video Victims”, “Ballplayers” and “White Like Eddie”.
Read MoreSketches include “Green Room”, “MacDouglass-Drummond”, “Do You Know What I Hate (IV)”, “Nose Hair Trimmer”, “Safeco”, “Fire Dance”, “Predictions”, “The Joe Franklin Show”, “Boxer”, “Scary Lady” and “Strictly From Blackwell”. John Waite performs “Saturday Night”.
Read MoreSketches include “Buckwheat Lives!”, “White Like Eddie”, “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood”, “Milestones”, “Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich & Famous”, “The End of Buckwheat”, “Broadway Gumby Rose”, “Newsmakers”, “Black History Minute”, and “Climbing the Stairs.” Robert Plant & The Honeydrippers perform “Rockin’ At Midnight” and “Santa Claus is Back in Town”.
Read MoreSketches include “Beatles Auction”, “Unlucky Man”, “Do You Know What I Hate?”, “Ringo’s Buyers”, “Strictly From Blackwell”, “Massacre on 34th Street”, “Reverse Psychology”, “Fernando’s Hideaway” and “Draft Dodger”. Herbie Hancock & The Rockit Band perform “Junku” and “Rockit”.
Read MoreSketches include “Adopted Son”, “Kate & Ali”, “Book Beat”, “Seventh Wedge”, “Let’s Watch T.V.”, “Marty”, “Vaudeville Funeral”, “Eyeball to Eyeball”, and “Elevator Stool”. Billy Squier performs “Rock Me Tonite” and “All Night Long”.
Read MoreSketches include “Rescue Mission”, “Walking After Midnight (Wing Tips)”, “Thanksgiving”, “60 Minutes”, “Me and Julio”, “Bowling”, “Tippi Turtle”, “You Can’t Put Too Much”, “Public Service Announcement”, and “Peter Pan”. The Kinks perform “Do It Again” and “Word of Mouth”.
Read MoreSketches include “Mondale Impression”, “Do You Know What I Hate? (II)”, “Profiles in Sports”, “The Joe Franklin Show”, “Rich Hall’s Election Report”, “Strategic Airborne Contraceptive”, “Ye Olde Comedy Shoppe”, “The Ghostbuster Show”, “Ted’s Book of World Records”, “Alan Thicke’s In Thickeness and In Health”, “International Star Health”, and “Not A Cop”. Frankie Goes To Hollywood performs “Two Tribes” and “Born To Run”.
Read MoreSketches include “Gerry and the Mon-Dells”, “The Chosen Pray”, “Baby Double”, “Fernando’s Hideaway”, “The Folksmen”, “Buddy Young Jr. is Back!”, “First Draft Theatre”, “Madonna Navel Accessories”, “PBS Pledgebration”, “Rabbi”, “Mondale Headquarters” and “SNL Fashion Report”. Chaka Khan performs “I Feel For You” and “This Is My Night”.
Read MoreSketches include "Advice", "Do You Know What I Hate?", "The Question Is Moot!", "Refrigerator Magnet Safety Advisory Board", "Just Kidding", "First Class", "Tippi Turtle", "Wrong Voice, Right Face", "Funny Black People", "Jeane", "Rich Hall's Election Report", "Fashion Report" and "Rainbow Coalition". Andrae Crouch performs "Right Now" and Wintley Phipps performs "Tell Me Again".
Read MoreSketches include "Password", "Snap, Crackle & Pop", "An American Portrait", "Little League Trade", "Brokaw's Complaint", "The Mamie Eisenhower Center for the Dull", "7x4", "Ballplayers", "Lost & Found", "Tippi Turtle", "SNL Mailbag", "Fresh Squeezed", and "NBC Sports Update". Peter Wolf and the House of Hits All-Stars perform "Lights Out" and "I Need You Tonight".
Read MoreSketches include: "Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich & Famous", "Return of the Torch", "Rich Hall's Election Report", "Wheel of Fortune Interview", "Grandpa Howard", "Synchronized Swimming", "Mondale & Ferraro", "The Bulge", "First Draft Theater", and "Book Beat". Thompson Twins perform "Hold Me Now" and "The Gap".
Read MoreSaturday Night Live executive producer Dick Ebersol and producer Bob Tischler had more or less righted the ship by 1984, but Eddie Murphy’s departure that February meant the show had lost its biggest star and a crucial factor in the show’s survival to that point. Despite this loss, the show made it to the end of the season, but SNL’s future was uncertain; the season finale featuring five hosts could have wound up being the last show, but was successful enough to earn the show another season and its first Emmy nomination since 1980.
Breaking with the show’s tradition of breaking undiscovered talent, Ebersol and Tischler signed a number of established comedy performers, many to higher-priced one-season contracts: Billy Crystal, already a two-time host the previous season; Martin Short from the just-ended SCTV; Christopher Guest and one-time SNL regular Harry Shearer, fresh off acclaim (and an SNL musical guest gig) for This Is Spinal Tap; Rich Hall from Fridays and Not Necessarily The News, and Pamela Stephenson from NNTN’s British progenitor Not The Nine O’Clock News. All but Stephenson were also credited as writers.
To make room for the new group, Ebersol and Tischler cleaned house: Joe Piscopo, whose impact on the show slowly waned over the course of the previous season, was out, as were Tim Kazurinsky, Robin Duke and Brad Hall. In the writers’ room, rookies Adam Green and Michael McCarthy were gone; Pam Norris, Margaret Oberman and head writer Andrew Smith had also departed as full-time writers, though the latter two would still occasionally contribute to SNL on a freelance basis over the coming year. Joining the writing staff that year were Fridays regular Larry David, Second City alum Rob Riley, and returning SNL writer Jim Downey, as well as a number of guest writers over the course of the season.
Despite these big changes, returning players Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger and Julia Louis-Dreyfus helped lend the show some continuity. Many key writers from the previous seasons also remained: Andy Breckman and Kevin Kelton returned for their second year, Andrew Kurtzman his third, Bob Tischler, Eliot Wald and Nate Herman their fourth; original SNL writer Herb Sargent also remained on board. Like in previous years, Ebersol and Tischler prioritized sketches featuring the bigger stars, leaving the remaining cast and writers to compete for the remaining airtime; beside the new group of writer-performers, Breckman and the team of Kelton, Kurtzman and Wald contributed a lot of this year’s scripts.
SNL in 1984-85 featured a growing reliance on pre-taped sketches (most directed by Guest, Breckman, Claude Kerven or John Fox), and an even stronger reliance on recurring characters: on any given show, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest and Martin Short usually dominated the first half hour with immediately recognizable characters. Crystal in particular thrived this year, owing much to his professionalism and willingness to collaborate with the other writers, while Harry Shearer’s relationship with the show soured almost immediately. A talented but exacting writer and performer, Shearer’s strengths were less compatible with Dick Ebersol’s more commercial direction for the show, and backstage tensions grew so toxic that Ebersol cut him loose mid-season.
Saturday Night News continued to limp along with guest anchors until Christopher Guest was installed as permanent anchor in December, with mixed results; Guest’s versatility made him a valuable addition to sketches, but on-camera as himself, his aloof demeanor tended to cross over into outright dullness. An SNL staple since the first show, the news parody had de-emphasized political satire in favor of guest commentary pieces by this point, and several shows this season dispensed with the news segment altogether.
A writers’ strike briefly interrupted the season in March, but the show returned for a final three-episode stretch, ending the year a month earlier than normal on April 13. By that point, Ebersol had grown tired of SNL’s grueling production schedule, and opted to focus his energies on Friday Night Videos and Saturday Night’s Main Event, a series of wrestling specials that ran in the SNL timeslot.
As usual, I will be posting sketch-by-sketch reviews, with new posts uploaded every weekend. Any information regarding the sketches (such as sketch authorship) and shows is certainly welcome, and will be incorporated into my reviews with acknowledgement
The episodes (with links to episode summaries in the SNL Archives):
October 6, 1984: (no host) / Thompson Twins
October 13, 1984: Bob Uecker / Peter Wolf
October 20, 1984: Rev. Jesse Jackson / Andrae Crouch, Wintley Phipps
November 3, 1984: Michael McKean / Chaka Khan
November 10, 1984: George Carlin / Frankie Goes To Hollywood
November 17, 1984: Ed Asner / The Kinks
December 1, 1984: Ed Begley Jr. / Billy Squier
December 8, 1984: Ringo Starr / Herbie Hancock
December 15, 1984: Eddie Murphy / Robert Plant & The Honeydrippers
January 12, 1985: Kathleen Turner / John Waite
January 19, 1985: Roy Scheider / Billy Ocean
February 2, 1985: Alex Karras / Tina Turner
February 9, 1985: Harry Anderson / Bryan Adams
February 16, 1985: Pamela Sue Martin / The Power Station
March 2, 1985: SNL Film Festival with Siskel & Ebert
March 30, 1985: Mr. T & Hulk Hogan / The Commodores
April 6, 1985: Christopher Reeve / Santana
April 13, 1985: Howard Cosell / Greg Kihn
Sketches include "Simulated Cat Fight", "Lie Detector", "Iceman", "2 On the Town", "Spinal Tap Interview", "The Turkey Lady", "La Cage aux Folles", "Unanswered Questions of the Universe", and "Dog Day P.M." Spinal Tap performs "Christmas With The Devil" and "Big Bottom". Comedian A. Whitney Brown also appears.
Read MorePersonal website of photographer and writer Bronwyn Douwsma.
I’m on the bus. It’s too early to be human and I haven’t had my coffee yet so I don’t really want to do much; maybe read or listen to music, things that help tune out the other people or the monotony of the commute. When I leave the suburbs, it's usually dark. I sometimes look out the windows, but more to see how far I’ve traveled than at anything interesting. By the time I arrive downtown, I can see the sun coming up over the harbour.
The year is winding down. I’m preparing to go to New Brunswick for my regular Christmas visit with the family; my travel arrangements up there have all been taken care of. I haven’t bothered with Christmas shopping yet; my cash flow was a little tight until my last paycheque came in, and my tolerance for the malls has dropped over the years. Everything costs too much money now.
“The Cisco Kid” sketches include “Message From Prickley: The Cisco Kid”, “Marlon Perkins’ Wildlife Dinner Restaurant”, “Promo: Neil Jung, Psychiatrist”, “Promo: The Love Boat”, “Kanadian Korner” and “The Cisco Kid”.
“The Best of SCTV” sketches include “Message From Guy: Satellite”, “Sunrise Semester: Do-It-Yourself Advertising”, “Promo: The Merv Griffin Show”, “Kanadian Korner”, “Promo: Taxi Driver”, “The Dick Cavett Show”, “Promo: Elvis ‘N Costello”, “K-Tel’s Fast-Talking Playhouse”, “Promo: White Man, Black Girl”, “Promo: My Fair Lady”, “Promo: My Life, One More Time”, “Mamorex Video Tape” and “Signoff: The National Anthem”.
“Mel’s Rock Pile - MacArthur Park” sketches include “Sunrise Semester: Greek Travel”, “Message From Prickley: Mel’s Rock Pile”, “Promo: Jackie Stewart’s Wide World of High Voices”, “Exercise Is Easy”, “Kanadian Korner” and “Mel’s Rock Pile”.
“Dick Cavett” sketches include “Cooking With Marcello”, “Kanadian Korner”, “Promo: Fish ‘N Chips”, “Logos Galore”, “Monster Chiller Horror Theatre” and “The Dick Cavett Show”.
“The Mating Game” sketches include “Promo: Starting Out with Bill Needle”, “Eskimo Arts”, “Message From Prickley: The Mating Game”, “Kanadian Korner”, “Promo: Taxi Driver”, “SCTV News” and “The Mating Game”.
“Gene Shalit’s America” sketches include “Sunrise Semester: Societal Behavior”, “American Express”, “SCTV Special News Report”, “Kanadian Korner”, “SCTV News”, “Comment with David Brinkley”, “Gene Shalit’s America” and “Dialing For Dollars”.
“Midnight Express Special” sketches include “Sunrise Semester: Basic Photography”, “Mamorex Video Tape”, “Kanadian Korner”, “Promo: Tomorrow, Today, Tonight”, “Bill Needle’s Mailbag”, “Message From Guy: Midnight Express Special”, and “Midnight Express Special”.
“Cookery Crock” sketches include “Sunrise Semester: Disasters In The Home”, “Nasex Nasal Deodorant”, “Bill Needle’s Mailbag”, “Kanadian Korner”, “Promo: The Freddie De Cordova Show”, “Cookery Crock” and “Quincy: Cartoon Coroner”.
There’s a podcast called The Loudest Girl In The World, hosted by Lauren Ober. The show concerns Ober’s autism diagnosis at 42, as well as her experience dealing with this information and opening up to others about it. When I listened to it last summer, I related pretty heavily to what she was talking about. I’ve also started to make peace with how my own brain works in the last few years. It’s been a rough road, though.