12 Days of Christmas Watching 2022 #11: I'm gonna watch a Christmas SNL one way or another, dadblast it!

I was determined to see a new-to-me (or at least in the last 25 years or so) Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live this season. I had to step outside our BOTNS time frame, and even then I ended up seeing a notorious bomb of episode, one that didn't have a lot of Christmas atmosphere, anyway!

I tried first with a 1984 Season 11 episode from December with Jay Leno. Well, Peacock says it is from December 22, 1986, but in fact the airdate is FEBRUARY 22.  No wonder I didn't see a lot of Christmas!

I didn't see a lot of anything in the episode because Peacock edits it to a ridiculous 22 minutes. The cold opening is gone. The monologue is there. Weekend Update is (for the most part) there with the first appearance of A. Whitney Brown. There is an amusing sketch with the observational comedy guys ("I mean, HEY!").

That's about it! Missing are both Neville Brothers performances. No surprise there, but also cut are 6 sketches not counting the cold open, including one with Randy Quaid as Lyle Alzado! What a tragedy! This sample of the Quaid/Anthony Michael Hall/Robert Downey Jr. season is barely there.

So I time-jumped to 1994 and Season 20's ninth episode, starring George Foreman and Hole. This one actually DID air December 17, 1994, so, yay, Peacock, for getting that right. The stage is decorated.  The first sketch has the Clintons in front of a Christmas tree. 

That's as far as it goes, though, and not only is this a terrible episode, but Peacock cuts the most interesting bad segments and leaves us with barely over a half-hour. Missing are Foreman going back in time to box Adolf Hitler and Foreman as the Hulk ripping on the writers for making lame sketches. I'd rather see either of those than what is left, even the sketch with my guy Chris Elliott getting George to read a bedtime story (I liked parts of that, actually).

I won't go into detail, but it starts poorly and doesn't improve much. The opener has Bill and Hillary--so Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks, right? WRONG! They are not here anymore. It's Michael McKean--great but miscast here--and Janeane Garafolo, who is ALL over this episode (I mean like in almost every segment that exists in this version) and ineffective throughout. If your kids ever ask you why she was "a thing" in the Nineties, this is not good evidence.

I love Big George and was a huge fan when he won the Heavyweight boxing crown in 1994, but he was much better as a broadcaster on HBO later. This is not his best work.

NOTE: I later saw that the Leno episode was situated between two other episodes that did have proper dating, so it was obvious looking at the whole season that it was out of place. Also, Season 11 did have an actual Christmas episode with Terri Garr. So I missed out on that...all 24 minutes of it. Peacock, you deserve a spot on the Naughty List. You can get off it by adding Quincy in January.

We cannot end this season of watching on such a sour note. We need something truly Christmasy to get this SNL debacle out of our chimneys, something that will give us surefire entertainment and help us maintain those holiday smiles. Yes, we have to turn to one of the heavy hitters, and it just so happens it has a Christmas episode I have not seen. Be here tomorrow as I unwrap the 12th present and close out our 12 Days of Watching!

(I wouldn't mind seeing Randy Quiad as Lyle Alzado as a stocking stuffer)

YouTube Spotlight: Ed Koch on SNL

One of the clips in our Night of 100 Stars playlist features the then-mayor of New York City in his monologue as host of Saturday Night Live. 

His Honor was by no means camera shy. Not only was he on SNL four times while in office, he was on plenty of talk shows, variety shows...Koch even made appearances on My Two Dads and Gimme a Break!

His catchphrase, "How'm I doin'?" and his ubiquity in the media, plus New York's prominence in the media landscape, made him a very well known public figure in the 1980s.

YouTube Spotlight: "60 Minutes" Point/Counterpoint

One of the clips in this week's 60 Minutes video playlist is an example of the segment that preceded Andy Rooney's commentaries on the show: "Point/Counterpoint."

When the newsmagazine debuted in 1968, it featured "Digressions,"  which showed a then-behind-the-camera Rooney and producer Palmer Williams ("Ipso and Facto") making wry exchanges about one of the topics on the episode. "Point/Counterpoint" replaced it in 1972 with debates between two Washington newspapermen: conservative James Kilpatrick and liberal Nicholas von Hoffman.  Later, Shana Alexander sparred with Kilpatrick, and the ensuing dynamic is the source of the Dan Akroyd/Jane Curtin segments on Saturday Night Live:

The Andy Rooney commentaries in essence replaced the segment, though there was apparently some overlap. Kilpatrick himself said that 60 Minutes jefe Don Hewitt axed the bit after Alexander asked for a pay raise.

YouTube Spotlight: This one's a real gas, man!

Let me tell you cats something, man, this video was not in the Poor Devil playlist when it first went up this week, but it should have been, and it's there now! From Saturday Night Live November 19, 1983, guest host Jerry Lewis gets bypass surgery less than a year after his real-life heart attack:

This is the opening sketch of the episode, and the cast seems to be having a good time. LEWIS sure is. Did he really get some anesthesia?  He's almost too loose, and the quality of the sketch doesn't necessarily merit the reactions on stage, but so what? Jerry is a veteran of live television and "breaking up" during the hijinks, so why not go with it and try to make it a happening?

You may be familiar with Joe Piscopo's Frank Sinatra, but his Dean Martin is much less known! And as for Eddie Murphy, he's magnetic as always, but you can tell the audience is gonna love him even if he starts lapsing into Michael Jackson instead of Sammy Davis Jr.

Got a condo made of stone-a!

On this day in 1923, a team of archaeologists (meddlers?) opened King Tut's tomb. Legend has it that just thinking about this event subjects you to the infamous CURSE....unless you watch this:

The YouTube playlist for Saturday Night Live is now--well, it's live!

In this week's YouTube playlist, you get much more Ray Charles, plus promos and commercials including Jane Curtin for One a Day vitamins (in 1976)! John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd take Brian Wilson surfing! And Garrett Morris sings!



Remember, you can always head to our official YouTube page to find episode-specific playlists for all of our podcasts!

Show Notes: Episode 5-12: Saturday Night Live

*Ray Charles hosted the fifth third-season episode of SNL on Saturday, November 12, 1977, at 11:30 EST.

*The original cast lasted 5 seasons, more or less (there were changes along the way).

*The New Show aired January-March 1984 on NBC and bombed.

*Other SNL episodes we mention:

Milton Berle: Season 4 Episode 17
Broderick Crawford: Season 2 Episode 16
Richard Pryor: Season 1 Episode 7

*A Star Trek revival was planned in 1975, and though it didn't happen, the premise of the pilot was later reworked into Star Trek the Motion Picture. The show was going to anchor a proposed Paramount Television Network that never happened.

*The "What the Hell Is That?" sketch with Bill Murray and guest Steve Martin aired on the season 5 premiere October 13, 1979 with Martin as guest host. You can see it in very un-pristine form in our YouTube playlist this week.

*The Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad book on the show is Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. It's one of my favorite TV books, and while the Tom Shales/Jim Miller oral history is now more famous, the 1986 book is much deeper, partly owing to its ability to focus on the early years instead of decades of the series. It's a must-read for any fan of the show.

*The most successful SNL movie adaptation in terms of box office = Wayne's World (183 million bucks). The lowest is It's Pat, with...60-something-thousand dollars? Is that right? I mean, I didn't think it did well, but...

Wikipedia says it opened in 3 theaters and was pulled after its opening weekend. Wow!