SNL Season 6: Final cast and episode summary

The cast:

Denny Dillon and Gilbert Gottfried

Denny Dillon: Dillon made a strong impression fairly early by carrying a lot of the sketches in the first two shows of the season, having the first recurring character of the new cast, and bringing needed energy to weaker sketches.  There was a little bit of a sameness to her performances that became more evident over the season, but she was a consistent, dependable performer.  She gave a lot of her castmates a boost whenever she shared sketches with them (Gail Matthius' Vickie was better once she had Dillon's Debbie to play off), and just seemed to exhibit a willingness and commitment in whatever she appeared in.  [MVP: Gould, McDowell]

Gilbert Gottfried: It's a little disarming to see Gofffried in these shows, especially since he was so young, with his eyes wide open and not speaking in that famous stilted squawk.  Where Dillon jumped in, Gottfried had a tendency to hold back: the legend goes that he didn't want to use his A-material on the show because he was concerned the network would claim ownership.  Gottfried's performances would end up being the clearest barometer of the Jean Doumanian era: early on, he's more lively and animated, if a little green, but toward the end of the season, he is a little more sullen and withdrawn.  His decrease in spark could have been because he got some of the most thankless jobs on the show that didn't go to featured players (having to wear the Master Po makeup all night in Carradine, playing a vegetable along the featureds in Dazola, and his nadir: being the corpse in a funeral sketch).  Like most of the cast, though, he was not without his moments: he worked well with Dillon as the Waxmans, and I thought his collaborations with writer Ferris Butler were particularly fruitful.  [MVP: Kellerman]

Gail Matthius

Gail Matthius: Matthius definitely had potential to be a great cast member, and hit the highest highs out of all three female leads, but she also had a few really frustrating moments on the show.  Impressions were her weakest point, and despite her efforts, she didn't really have the ability to rise above some of the material she was given.  She had a rough time on Weekend Update as well; fumbling a bit in her early shows at the desk and getting saddled with some of the worst jokes ever written.  These missteps seem even more disappointing because when she was actually given good material, she did quite well: I especially liked Francis Lively and the little girl character she played in "Lonely Old Lady", and thought she ended up going out on a strong note with "Same".  I can only wonder how she would have fared on a different incarnation of the show.  [MVP: Carradine, Harry]

Joe Piscopo

Joe Piscopo: Piscopo ended up being one of the two castmembers that stole Charles Rocket's thunder by demonstrating he was a better fit for the characters and celebrity impressions that the show built its name on in the first five seasons.  Piscopo was consistent, well-rounded, and seemed to feel more natural in the prominent roles that Rocket was being schooled for.  I'd draw the line at calling Piscopo an MVP of the season: I believe the key to his relative success this year were clear and repeated hooks in his signature bits (SNL Sports and Paulie Herman; Sinatra developed more fully after Ebersol took over), but he was always more of a "safe" performer and didn't have the kind of charisma that demanded attention like what Eddie Murphy provided, a quality that was desperately needed this season. [MVP: Gould]

Charles Rocket and Ann Risley

Ann Risley: I actually thought Risley handled the straighter roles fairly well.  Risley never managed to have a recurring character, and there were a few performances of hers that were pretty dodgy (mainly as the hosts of "Dying To Be Heard" and "Was I Ever Red"), but I wonder how much of it was actually her acting style (she's more of a straight actress) and how much of it was the writers not finding a breakout role for her (she did come close with the Toni Tenille sketch).  Some say that she was a poor fit for SNL, but I saw a few small glimpses of a potential Kristen Wiig-style performer whose true gift was understatement, although Wiig had the added benefit of being able to write for herself.  A key part of success on the show is either writing for yourself or finding the right writer to collaborate with; I don't know whether Risley had that support for herself.

Charles Rocket: Doumanian was banking too much on Rocket to be the breakout star: usually when something is pushed so heavily, it only helps build a backlash toward the performer.  Rocket was no exception, and he had a few liabilities that probably hurt him on the show: his impressions were weak, and whenever he tried to play big (like his February Updates or even in Billy-Gram), he chewed so much scenery it was distracting.  When he dialed it back, though, he was a decent utility player, and his strengths in those roles presage his respectable career as a character actor.  Rocket's true strength on the show, though, was catching people off-guard during The Rocket Report, where a different type of charm emerged than when he was doing sketches.  Unfortunately, Rocket became the public face for Jean Doumanian's mistakes on the show, and that one moment during the Charlene Tilton goodnights overshadowed pretty much everything he did since, even after he took his own life.  [MVP: Black]

Yvonne Hudson and Charles Rocket

Yvonne Hudson: SNL's first black female featured player was essentially doing the same types of roles she had been doing uncredited for the previous few seasons; aside from some increased prominence in sketches for a few episodes, she was still essentially an extra on the show.  There is actually one episode where she has less lines that SNL's resident "old man" extra, Andy Murphy.  Despite no longer being in the opening credits, she was kept around as an extra the next few seasons.

Matthew Laurance and Eddie Murphy

Matthew Laurance: Aside from Eddie Murphy, Laurance was the most prominent of the featured players.  I thought he was decent as a utility man, and served as a good counterpoint to the more exaggerated performances of Rocket and Piscopo, even if he didn't make a strong impression on his own.  I wonder how he would have done with one of Rocket or Piscopo's pitchman roles.

Eddie Murphy: From his first speaking role, Murphy demonstrated why he was full cast material.  There were a few appearances that betrayed his inexperience (particularly Newsbreak in Harry), but he had a confidence that the others in the cast seemed to lack, and made stronger impressions in less airtime than most of the cast did in more.   [MVP: Burstyn, Sharkey, Hays, Tilton]

Patrick Weathers

Patrick Weathers: His Bob Dylan sketch in Carradine was the main thing that distinguished him; he might have made a bigger impact if he was given more to do.  I won't hold Ravi Sings against him.

Robin Duke

Robin Duke: Out of Dick Ebersol's three full-cast hires, Duke made a smallest impression of the three, getting a band intro, a leftover Jane Curtin role, a decent part in a five-man sketch and a last-minute voice-over in the bag lady film.  None of these roles really showed what she was known for on SCTV, and viewers would get a better glimpse of her capabilities the next season.  Part of this can be attributed to the fact that Duke was a last-minute addition: Catherine O'Hara was originally slated to be on the show in her place (and was listed in news articles as late as five days before airtime), but O'Donoghue's first staff meeting seemed to justify her reticence towards joining the SNL cast.  O'Hara recommended old friend Duke for the show, and a month later, O'Hara was on the same network with the resurrected SCTV.  If the strike hadn't happened, Duke could have made an impact as soon as the next show.

Tim Kazurinksy and Tony Rosato

Tim Kazurinsky: Kazurinsky seemed to fit SNL immediately, and ended up dominating the first Ebersol-produced show.  Part of Kazurisnky's strong first outing comes from his prominence in two of the longer pieces, but being a combination writer/performer, and coming from an improv background certainly helped him hit the ground running.  It was John Belushi's recommendation that got Kazurinsky hired on the show, and Belushi's instincts turned out to be correct.  [MVP: Finale]

Tony Rosato: Like Duke, Rosato came from SCTV, and like Kazurinsky, he was hired as a writer/performer and made a fairly strong impression in his first show.  He and Kazurinsky worked well together in their two main sketches, but he would find a stronger footing the following season.

Laurie Metcalf

Laurie Metcalf: One of the most successful people to have an incredibly brief SNL tenure, Metcalf's sole appearance on the show was a pre-filmed "man on the street" piece.   I can't assess how she would have fared if Ebersol kept her on based on that one segment.

Emily Prager

Emily Prager: Prager didn't even appear on-camera during her only live show.  She has, however, appeared on the show before and after her tenure as a featured player: she was a girlfriend of Tom Davis' and appeared occasionally as an extra around 1977-78; she and Davis also appear in the Button film next season.

Strongest shows:

1.  Karen Black / Cheap Trick, Stanley Clarke: (Average rating: 3.18/5) The show where everything seemed to go right.  It's not flawless (SNL rarely is) but the combination of an energetic host, more determined writing and a receptive audience worked wonders.  As much as Black and the audience kept things lively, the victory belongs to the cast and writers.
2. Bill Murray / Delbert McClinton: (Average rating: 3.11/5) This is the textbook example of the host bringing a boost to the show.  The previous four shows were dispirited affairs, and the prior show in particular contained the moment that overshadowed the rest of the Doumanian-era.  Murray shows up and infuses what would be the final Doumanian-produced SNL with energy and the sense of fun that had all but vanished in the second half of the season.
3. No Host / Jr. Walker & The All-Stars: (Average rating: 2.88/5) Ebersol takes over, cleans house (as much as the budget would allow), and makes an appeal to nostalgia with his first show.  It's weighed down by Chevy Chase's disappointing Weekend Update return engagement, but this one remains consistently watchable if not an all-out return to form.

Weakest shows:

1. Robert Hays / Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crown, 14 Karat Soul: (Average rating: 2/5) The string of mediocre-to-bad sketches that come after Weekend Update is the air seeping out of the SNL '80 tire that they finally were able to inflate the week before.
2. Jamie Lee Curtis / James Brown: (Average rating: 2.22/5) The first three shows of the season had enough highlights to counteract the weaker material.  Here is where the good to bad ratio finally tips to to the other side; while nothing in this show is as bad as "Commie Hunting Season", a significant number of sketches were underdeveloped and uninspired. 
3. Charlene Tilton / Todd Rundgren, Prince: (Average rating: 2.26/5) A fair amount of OK material here, but the backstage runner that culminates in "Who Shot C.R." is underwhelming, and the highs don't really offset the lows enough.

Best sketches:

1. The Writer (03/07/81) Bill Murray is in front but playing it straight, while the new cast gets the fun of acting out the revisions he makes to his story.  Just a good sketch done well.
2. Hospital Bed (01/17/81) Probably one of the saddest sketches the show has ever done, with Gilbert Gottfried's disembodied voice communicating the thoughts of a stroke victim.  It's punctuated enough with humor to avoid mawkishness, but the writers wisely put the emotion of the scene first.
3. Mister Robinson's Neighborhood (02/21/81) The debut of one of Eddie Murphy's signature sketches, pretty much fully-formed.  The audience is on board by the end of the theme song.

Honorable mention: The Rocket Report - Fifth Avenue Charles Rocket's signature piece remains the place where his talents were best put to use.

Worst sketches:

1. Commie Hunting Season (11/22/80) SNL tries to make a pointed statement about the Greensboro Massacre acquittals; it's uncomfortable and alienating, but without the humor to redeem it.
2. Ravi Sings (01/24/81) The only joke in the sketch: a cartoonish portrayal of an Indian musician singing American love songs.
3. Badgers (12/13/80) A grating, amateurish sketch that hinges on a pun.

Best musical guests:

1. James Brown His sweat-drenched eight-minute medley of classics is a high point of both the season and the series, especially when taking into consideration that the band exceeded their allotted time.
2. 14 Karat Soul Five young singers with no instrumental accompaniment get one of the biggest reactions from the audience this season.
3. Stanley Clarke Trio Instrumental jazz-fusion that rocks as hard as any other musical guest this year.

Worst musical guests:

To be honest, I couldn't really say that there were any truly bad musical guests.  Joe "King" Carrasco may have had a rough and raw sound but it was clear the band was going for energy over technique, and the worst I could really say about Ellen Shipley is that she was decent but a little generic-sounding.  The other musical guests only really pale in comparison to the stellar choices Doumanian (and whoever else was involved in snagging musical guests) made this year.  I wonder how much of the booking strategy was intentional and how much of it was necessity, but this was where the Jean Doumanian show had some of their biggest victories.

Writer tally and turnover:

(*) indicates the writer returned the next season, (~) indicates a previous writer returning to SNL.

Aside from Ferris Butler's contributions (special thanks goes to Butler for providing a lot of insightful information about the season, by the way), knowledge of Blaustein & Sheffield's partnership with Eddie Murphy and a handful of other sketches whose writers have been identified, I don't really know what each specific writers' voices are in the show and whether any shifts in quality were from writers joining or leaving, or being favored or disfavored.  If anyone has more information regarding who was responsible for any sketches, please feel free to drop me a line.

Full season:

• Barry W. Blaustein*
• Billy Brown & Mel Green
• Patricia Marx
• Douglas McGrath
• Pamela Norris*
• David Sheffield*
• Terrence Sweeney

Full Doumanian run:

• Larry Arnstein & David Hurwitz
• Ferris Butler
• John DeBellis
• Jean Doumanian
• Brian Doyle-Murray*~
• Leslie Fuller

Shorter tenure:

• Mason Williams (head writer, Gould through Carradine)
• Jeremy Stevens & Tom Moore (head writers, Sharkey through finale)
• Nancy Dowd (Gould and McDowell only)
• Sean Kelly (Gould and McDowell only)
• Mitchell Kreigman (Gould through Carradine)
• Mark Reisman (Harry through finale)

Post-hiatus hires:

• Mitchell Glazer
• Judy Jacklin
• Tim Kazurinsky*
• Matt Neuman~
• Michael O'Donoghue*~
• Tony Rosato*
• Dirk Wittenborn

An essay regarding the season as a whole will follow in a subsequent post.

Tom Davis and Nelson Lyon

Cancer claimed two former SNL writers this week.  Nelson Lyon, a writer for the 1981-82 season, died Tuesday of liver cancer at the age of 73.  Two days later, Tom Davis, one of the show's original writers and a returning contributor to the show following Lorne Michaels' re-arrival, succumbed to throat and neck cancer at 59.

Davis was a prominent figure in the show's history: he was responsible for many of the well-known sketches such as Coneheads, Final Days, and got more than a few complaints with his and Al Franken's Stunt Baby, X-Police, and First He Cries.  He appeared on camera fairly often through his tenure on the show, usually in tandem with Franken, and at one point landing "featured player" status with the other tenured writers for 1979-80; he also provided countless voiceovers for sketches.  He left with the original writers in 1980, then returned along with Lorne Michaels and Al Franken five years later.  Franken and Davis produced the poorly-received 1985-86 season (with Michaels as executive producer).  When Michaels took a more direct involvement with the show the following season, Davis was gone, but not for long: he rejoined the writing staff in January 1987 and stayed through the 1993-94 season.  Since then, he contributed sketches on 12 shows between 1997 and 2004, including "Leather Man" with Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz.

Lyon was more of a shadowy, underground figure; a collaborator of Michael O'Donoghue's, and probably known more for his sex comedy "The Telephone Book" and his association with John Belushi during his final days.  Lyon contributed to O'Donoghue's "At Home With The Psychos" (with Terry Southern and Rosie Shuster) and penned "The Mild One", an existential biker sketch featuring Bruce Dern.  He had a handful of on-camera appearances as well, as a prisoner, a bodyguard and Josef Stalin.  Lyon's impact on SNL may be less apparent than Davis', but as the basis for O'Donoghue's "Mr. Mike" and a key part of the unique tone of the 1981-82 SNL, it should not be underestimated.

Name the SNL extras (and guests), volume 2

I thought I'd try to get a few more names to faces here:

Burl Ives Fan: This extra has a small speaking role at the end of "Viewer Letter" in the Robert Blake show (Eddie Murphy dispelling that he hates white people like his Tyrone Green character).

Hallway Blondes: Right at the beginning of the Drew Barrymore show, these two extras get a few seconds of airtime before Brad Hall and Joe Piscopo enter the scene.

Garage Band drummer: The bearded guy.  (Hey Late Show fans, that's Tom "Bones" Malone with the bass!) [Addendum: Identified! He's Malone's personal assistant Barry Nicholls]

Guest singers, 11/05/88: The SNL Band would occasionally have a guest musician sitting in with them, and they would normally be acknowledged during the goodnights, or at least credited with the SNL Band personnel.   I've been trying to identify this trio of doo-wop singers for a long time now.

My first Splitsider contribution

I made a list of 10 random sketches that were taken out of repeat versions of SNL.  By no means is it a complete list, but I figured it would be an interesting topic for an article.  Read it here.

PS: if someone has a copy of the live Robert Blake show with "Best Little Whorehouse On The Prairie" intact, let me know.  I didn't include it in the list because I stuck to segments I've actually seen.

Ambiguous Sesame Street Song Corner

Is "Kids Just Love To Brush" merely a Cyndi Lauper parody that promotes good oral hygiene?  Or is it really a chronicle of obsessive-compulsive behavior by Muppets that don't even have teeth?  You be the judge. 

If you're watching videos with your preschooler and would like to do so in a safe, child-friendly environment, please join us at http://www.sesamestreet.org A musical number about brushing teeth. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization which also produces Pinky Dinky Doo, The Electric Company, and other programs for children around the world.

(SNL connection: the song was co-written by Cheryl Hardwick, longtime SNL band member).

Name the SNL extras

As part of my research for the SNL Archives, I go through old episodes to see if I can identify writers, crew, and various other production staff, especially if they are used prominently in sketches.  I was wondering if anyone reading can confirm the identities of some of these staffers:

Nerdy writer guy: seen in the cold opening of Howard Hesseman / Men At Work (original air 10/23/1982).  If I had to guess out of anyone on the writing staff it would be Tracy Torme but I can't say for sure if it is him. [ADDENDUM: Identified! It's writer Paul Barrosse.]

Grey-haired lady: seen prominently in season 2 (particularly in Hollywood Bingo as "Joanie" who "eats food").  I've spotted her around other sketches; I believe that's her in the Fred Willard cold opening as the uncomfortable woman sitting next to Bill Murray as Honker, and I've even seen her in the Hesseman cold opening that the "nerdy writer" cap comes from. [ADDENDUM: Identified!  It's costume designer Karen Roston]

Ski Lodge extras: there's a prominent extra playing Vicky Lazlo (top picture, far left with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy), but she doesn't have lines. [Addendum: Identified!  It's talent executive Laurie Zaks] There are two that have lines, though: "But, Rick, what about Vail?" (middle picture, standing in background) and "But Rick, what about Sun Valley?" (bottom picture, in purple).

This is not really important by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured I'd throw the questions out there.

The "Glee" episode I'd like to see

I have to admit I'm not a fan of the show Glee.  I've seen a few episodes, and while there is talent in the cast (this is the show that got Jane Lynch much-overdue mainstream recognition) and I admire them for putting certain issues in the forefront, the simple problem I have with the show is that it's just not very good.  The writing is inconsistent, the characters aren't particularly likable (which is more a problem if it's not deliberate), and the whole thing seems like it only exists to move compilation albums of cover versions.  I was thinking, though, it would be entertaining to see those kids do some music that's so horrifically inappropriate for a high school environment.   But at the same time, it has to fit the Glee aesthetic.  It wouldn't work with covers of death metal.  But what band fits the melodic aesthetic the show has while having incredibly dark, inappropriate-for-school lyrics and subject matter?

The answer is clear: Steely Dan.

But they wouldn't stick to "Do It Again".  Too easy.  "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a cop-out.  "Any World (That I'm Welcome To)" would actually be thematically appropriate for the show, but not any fun.  No.  I want the songs that Sue Sylvester could use as ammo to gave the Glee club shut down once and for all:

• Time Out Of Mind: A smooth, mellow bit of upbeat jazz-pop about smoking heroin ("Tonight when I chase the dragon...")
• Everyone's Gone To The Movies: The song's movie-screener Mr. LaPage is not someone you want around your children.
• Everything You Did: An infidelity song that takes a disturbing turn by changing a verb in one of the lyrics.
• Peg: Porn!
• Kid Charlemagne: The Owsley Stanley song (more drugs!)
• Chain Lightning: I'm not going to spoil it for you.  Look it up.
• Gaslighting Abbie: Fun with psychological abuse!

The episode ends with all the students expelled and Mr. Shu being led out of the building in handcuffs.

How Full House should have ended

Confession time: I used to watch Full House religiously as a kid.  At least, until I hit the age where I could understand just how completely inane and awful the show actually was.  I think I was about 11 or 12...maybe that's a little old.  Even before that, I have to admit something about it just bugged me sometimes.  Maybe it was the whole principle of "familiarity breeds contempt", but even then the nauseating treacle started to get to me after a while.  Once I outgrew the show, I just avoided it like the plague afterwards.  I still can't actually watch more than a minute of it.

However, I can't help but enjoy reading the discussion thread about the show at Television Without Pity, or Full House Reviewed, mainly because both these sites articulate a few of the major problems with the show.  In addition to bad writing and sugary moralizing, the characters themselves are largely awful and/or disturbing.  If rebooted like other old series, it could actually work as a cautionary tale of the effects of incompetent parenting.  

Special scorn goes to two characters: the majority goes towards Michelle, an entitled budding sociopath who has a creepy co-dependent relationship with her Uncle Jesse and inconceivably holds the balance of power in major family decisions despite being noticeably dim for her age.  The other character who gets as much hate is Joey Gladstone.  If you think about it, Joey is a pretty disturbing character once you realize there's really no reason for an unemployed manchild with a questionable stand-up career and a compulsion to do cartoon voices to live in the Tanner house.  Maybe the whole Dave Coulier / Alanis Morissette thing has something to do with Joey's dark undercurrent.  

The family's tendency to hate on Kimmy Gibbler is also a little disturbing when you realize that she's a minor and not a particularly bad kid.  It would have been more apparently nasty if Danny, Jesse and Joey ganging up on her fazed her in the slightest.

Maybe that's how the show should have ended: Gibbler finally breaks after the family gangs up on her, and after her family's cruelty is dismissed by D.J., Gibbler reports the family to social services.  The authorities discover Danny Tanner's declining mental state and crippling OCD, have suspicions about Joey's proximity to three underage girls, and Jesse and Becky's weird attic apartment with Buster Bluths-in-the-making Nicky and Alex.  Stephanie is starting fires but nobody cares, because the adults in the house think D.J. is selling drugs when she's really spearheading a community initiative.  

At first, the authorities recommend that the men only just discipline Michelle once in a while, but when they see Danny, Joey and Jesse have another complete mental collapse upon Michelle reacting badly to it, they order them all to live separately or lose custody of the children.  The family finds out about Gibbler's complaint and disproportionately punishes D.J.  

Then, out of nowhere, one of the social services agents gives a heartwarming moral (with sappy background music) about how sometimes growth means doing painful things, and the family agrees it's time for them to move into separate quarters.  D.J. and Gibbler are still on the outs for a while after this, until magically (like so many other Full House resolutions), D.J. realizes that her family really was messed up and Gibbler indirectly fixed a problem they didn't know they had.

They all have a party celebrating the new chapter of their lives, with a sing-along that fades into a really bad cover of a Beatles song.  Fade to black.

Infamously Bad SNL Musical Performances

Last night's performance by Lana Del Rey on Saturday Night Live received a lot of attention, but it wasn't exactly what the singer or her label wanted: within minutes of Del Rey's American television debut, Twitter exploded with biting comments.

One likened her performance to a real-life example of what they were making fun of minutes earlier in a sketch called "You Can Do Anything", where people who have never been given honest reactions to their lack of talent perform.  Even more tellingly, the likes of Juliette Lewis, Eliza Dushku and Rachel Dratch had pithy zingers of their own directed at Del Rey's wobbly singing.  One article even surmised this might be a career-killer.  Her second performance in particular reminded me of an obscure Victoria Jackson character from the late 80's: Nancy Maloney, a lounge singer who goes from high-pitched screeching to a forced deep, husky voice all in the space of a single song.

The last time a musical guest bombed this bad on the 'SNL' stage was in April 2010.  Ke$ha performed "Tik Tok" with an American flag cape a bizarre laser show and astronaut-suited backing band, with a pause to ask "Did anyone ever stop to think we were the aliens?", which seemed to be an attempt at invoking Robert Plant's "Does anybody remember laughter?" while just looking even sillier.  Her second number, "Your Love Is My Drug" was even more bizarre, with her and her band covered in day-glo body paint.  I wrote at the time that Ke$ha came off as a half-assed Lady Gaga impersonator: I stand by that assessment.

Some other SNL musical moments of note, for all the wrong reasons:

• Kanye West's attempt to replicate his autotune album "808s and Heartbreak" on the SNL stage with a giant video screen behind him.  There were a few times when the autotune "glitches" weren't able to cover West's weak singing ability, and the whole stage presence felt completely underwhelming.  I actually don't mind West's other performances (despite his braggadocio) and actually thought his 2010 performance art style numbers were a significant bounce back from this misstep.

• Ashlee Simpson's appearance in 2004 has been the subject of enough commentary already.  When she was booked on the show, I just thought it was weak to have someone best known for riding the coattails of her more successful older sister (who by that point was better known for being an airhead on an MTV reality show than any music she put out beforehand).  For a brief moment, Ashlee did eclipse her sister...but only as the subject of scorn and derision.  Once her second number began with her vocals from the first song playing, while her mic was at hip level, she realized what was going on, did a little jig to save face and then left her band on stage to play out.  The show had to scramble to fill time because her aborted performance threw the timing off that night, and Simpson blamed her gaffe on her band playing the wrong song during the goodnights.  Post-script: Simpson got a do-over performance for her next album a year later to mass indifference.

• Brian Wilson appeared on the show in 1976, during one of his low ebbs.  Overweight, bearded and with hair resembling that of a Fisher-Price man, Wilson was there to promote the Beach Boys' "comeback" 15 Big Ones, but despite able backing from the SNL band, he was not in any shape to perform.  His missed high notes in "Love Is A Woman" are painful enough to watch even without the tragic biography, but even sadder is a solo piano "Good Vibrations" in a giant sandbox at the end of the show.

• Laura Branigan had a big hit with "Gloria" in 1982, and was booked on the show in December of that year.  Unfortunately, it seems she was under the weather that weekend because her voice was shot.  She resorts to speak-singing for much of the song, but at one point her voice gives out and squeaks a high note.

• Spice Girls received much criticism when they performed "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There" in 1997: their vocal performances left much to be desired, but their dance moves bordered along the territory of the Juul Haalmeyer Dancers from SCTV, without the intentional comedy.

• Backstreet Boys' appearance in March 1998 had a dance break where with the Boys doing this bit of choreography with folding chairs.  Even watching this with the benefit of hindsight and a bit of distance from when they were all over the radio playlists, it wasn't a very good performance to begin with, and the chair dance just made them look stupid.

• The Go-Gos' appearance in 1981 was completely flimsy, slippy and lethargic at the same time.  Belinda Carlisle has admitted in her autobiography that this is due to being coked and boozed up that particular night, even going so far as calling it the worst performance the band ever did.

Much has already been written about Sinead O'Connor's well-intentioned but overly-strident protest of Catholic sex abuse at the end of her performance of "War", and Rage Against The Machine being tossed out of the studio for hanging down an upside-down flag on their amps (which was torn down before showtime) but I didn't really find too much fault with either performance.

Anyone who has their own nominees for infamously bad SNL performances, please leave a detailed comment.

RIP Joe Bodolai

When I logged into the SNL message board this afternoon, I saw that Joe Bodolai was found dead of an apparent suicide.  I had a bad feeling it was going to come to this before: I actually had seen his final post posted a few days before Christmas, and it did worry me based on the finality of it all, and sent him a message.  

We had been twitter buddies (for what that means) since February, and we replied and retweeted each other quite a bit since then.  He had quite the life, and an unsung importance in the world of Canadian comedy: SNL, Kids In The Hall and Comics! were three of the shows he worked on.  I never met the man in real life, but if going by what he left online reflects who he was, he was someone who had seen and accomplished so much, and helped so many people on their way, and was generous enough to even offer a few words of encouragement about my own writing.

He leaves behind a lot of friends that miss him (I recommend that you read Tara Dublin's post about him) and of course family and co-workers.  His pain is over.  We're left to make whatever sense we can of the whole thing. 

Thanks for everything, Joe.

Pawnee Police Station = Mathnet HQ

I was watching the episode of Parks and Recreation "Ron & Tammy II", and noticed something about the Pawnee Police Station.  You only see it at the start of the scene when Ron Swanson and Tammy are in jail, but there's an establishing shot of the police station.

It looked very familiar.  Parks and Recreaction is shot in California, and there was another show that was shot there about 25 years earlier.  The building looks a tiny bit different (and thanks to the wonders of modern computer graphics, had "Pawnee Police Station" added to the top), but the architecture design was unmistakeable.

Yes, the Pawnee Police Station was the same building they used for exterior (and interior) shots on the Mathnet segments of Square One TV, the PBS sketch-comedy math show, at least while they were still shooting in L. A.  Remember those?

In real life, the building is the former Los Angeles Police Station No. 11 on Yost Boulevard, now the Northeast Area L. A. Police Community Service Center, and home to the L. A. Police Historical Society Museum.  The building has also been used for other TV and film productions over the years.

Name the extra: L'Homme D'Orgasme

vlcsnap-299300

I help Joel, the webmaster of the SNL Archives, with basic fact-finding and identification for his site.  A lot of what I've done in the past is identifying smaller parts that are usually played by the show's writers and miscellaneous production staff, but sometimes there are prominent roles in shows that I can't put a name to a face.  Perhaps the most frustrating one of these is the guy who played Orgasm Guy's (Rob Schneider) French cousin in the Heather Locklear show from May 1994.  Here's his picture:

If anyone can identify this person, please let me know.