Ever smelled the aroma of a comedy show cooked to perfection? That’s exactly what you’ll experience when you open up the Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season boxset. The show had reached comedy institution status at this point. The Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Players were superstars during daylight hours. However this would be the final year of the comedic dynasty’s golden lineup. John Belushi had become a cinema superstar with Animal House. But unlike Chevy Chase’s star trip during the second season, Belushi didn’t skip shows with lame excuses and punch the clock when he contractually showed up. The recurring sketches such as the Coneheads, the Greek Cheeseburger joint, the Nerds and Mr. Bill weren’t guaranteed to be part of the show every week. They didn’t bring them back unless they had a sketch worthy of the characters. They hadn’t been reduced to time killers like today’s recurring characters. This Fourth Season was a seven-course gourmet served at 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays to America. We haven’t eat so well since then.
The season kicks out the jams with the Rolling Stones as hosts and musical guests. They’re promoting the Some Girls albums. Instead of performing two separate slots, they hit the stage for “Beast of Burdon,” “Respectable,” and “Shattered.” It’s a mini-concert. Mick’s comes off sounding very rough. When he looks like he’s going to slip Ron Wood the tongue is vital viewing. The highlight of the show is New York mayor Ed Koch giving an award to John Belushi for all his success. John gets pissed when he doesn’t get a key like Dolly Parton. Season Four was bittersweet to me since the opening montage featured a picture of Bucky “F’n” Dent celebrating in New York Yankee pinstripes. The pain was slightly lessened when Fred Willard appeared in a Red Sox jacket to introduce Devo. Willard dominates his night with great sketches. “One-Night-Stand vs. Phone Talk” has him in bed with Laraine Newman. Her old boyfriend calls and Willard isn’t sure if he should sleep over or head home. When the complete reality of the moment hits, it’s comedy gold. “The Scotch Boutique” has Willard play a business man with a dream. He thinks a store that only sells Scotch tape can make it at the mall. But his wife isn’t so sure. Even 30 years later, Devo’s performance is still beyond the mainstream.
Frank Zappa does the host and musical guest double duty. He mingles with the Coneheads. “Night on Freak Mountain” has him stuck with a pack of hippies that can’t believe he doesn’t smoke weed. Paul Shaffer plays Don Kirshner so well that he could probably cash Don’s Rock Concert checks. Gary Busey hosting is almost a let down since this is before he became a drug-fueled, head trauma trainwreck. He’s almost normal. The fake feud between him and Belushi is entertaining enough. Richard Benjamin unleashes “The Pepsi Syndrome.” The comic view of the Three Mile Island accident and the aftermath of President’s Carter’s visit is a rare long sketches that works. Having Garrett Morris in a dress always uplifts a comic moment. John Belushi tackles Bruce Jenner’s lame Wheaties ads in “Little Chocolate Donuts.” Milton Berle does his normal schtick, but somehow it plays better with this audience instead the Bob Hope special crowds. “The Village Persons” has the group singing “Bend over Chuck Berry.” Belushi is sizzling as the Indian. Garrett Morris sings the role of the cop. He really should have done a disco record.
There’s plenty of topical humor so you might need to keep the wikipedia page open to know what was going on in 1978-79. A constant victim of sarcasm is Fred Silverman. Who was he? He turned around CBS and ABC’s programming so they became the top networks during his tenure. The beancounters at NBC brought him for a dose of turnaround magic. Silverman’s early new series choices were disaster including Supertrain. During the Kate Jackson episode, a continuing joke is that Silverman (played by Belushi) is still working for ABC. He needs her Charlie’s Angels‘ skills to lure the Saturday Night Live cast off the show and onto bad primetime shows in order to kill the network. This might have been true.
Star Wars fanboys will go nuts seeing Carrie Fisher perform her opening monologue in the cinnamon bun hairstyle. She allows us to see what if Princess Leia beamed down into a Frankie and Annette Beach Party film. Her musical guests are the Blues Brothers. A few months later she’d be on the set with Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers movie. Buck Henry and Monty Python’s Michael Palin are the only two-time hosts during this 20 episode season. Steve Martin would only be in Studio 8-H once to have a wild and crazy time with Dan Aykroyd. While I’m not much of a fan of Al Fraken and Tom Davis’ segments, their sketch with dueling political ads does foreshadow Franken’s nasty senate race.
The musical guests this season are an eclectic mix with stadium superstars, cult favorites, a ragtime legend and free jazz giant. They don’t dare book diverse acts like this anymore. Van Morrison is “Van the Man” unleashing “Wavelength.” The Grateful Dead come off the road to share “Casey Jones,” “I Need a Miracle,” and “Good Lovin’.” The Doobie Brothers” song selection will please the Squidbillies. Mick Jagger surprises the crowd by sneaking on to duet with Peter Tosh. The excitement for me was finally seeing Kate Bush’s performances on the Eric Idle show. Around 1989, they released individual episodes on VHS. We rented the tape hoping to finally see Kate’s only real appearance on American TV. Her picture was on the box. But her songs had been snipped. She was waving at the crowd at the end of the show, but that was it. We felt ripped off. Luckily the guy at the video store let us check out a new title. Now it is here. For “The Man With The Child In His Eyes,” Kate is wearing a gold lycra bodysuit while sitting on the piano. Her performance defines tempting talent.
Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season is greatness at the summit. However this would also be the end of the good times. Belushi and Aykroyd would split for Hollywood after this season. The rest of the players would stick around another year. But let’s not focus on the bleak future and the Saturday Night Dead headlines. The Fourth Season gave everyone a moment to shine. Even Garrett Morris was able to elbow his way to the front with his Chico Escuela character attempting a comeback with the New York Mets. This boxset is pure bliss for people who love to laugh and can win games of Trivial Pursuit: The ’70s Edition.
The Episodes
“The Rolling Stones,” “Fred Willard/Devo,” “Frank Zappa,” “Steve Martin/Van Morrison,” “Buck Henry/The Grateful Dead,” “Carrie Fisher/The Blues Brothers,” “Walter Matthau/Garrett Morris,” “Eric Idle/Kate Bush,” “Elliott Gould/Peter Tosh with Mick Jagger,” “Michael Palin/The Doobie Brothers,” “Cicely Tyson/Talking Heads,” “Rick Nelson/Judy Collins,” “Kate Jackson/Delbert McClinton,” “Gary Busey/Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield, Eubie Blake and Gregory Hines,” “Margot Kidder/The Chieftains,” “Richard Benjamin/Rickie Lee Jones,” “Milton Berle/Ornette Coleman,” “Michael Palin/James Taylor,” “Maureen Stapleton/Linda Ronstadt, Phoebe Snow” and “Buck Henry/Bette Midler.”
The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The show was shot on video so it’s not nearly that sharp. This will not be upgraded to a 1080p Blu-ray release. The quality of the sketches more than make up for the lack in resolution. The audio is Dolby Digital mono. The levels will shift if a character wanders away from the boom microphone. That’s what happens in live TV.
Today Show Interview with John Belushi (7/27/78) (2:14) has him promoting Animal House with Gene Shalit. John talks about cutting the first Blues Brothers record. Gene thinks it’s a comedy record. John confirms he will be on SNL for “this year.” There’s even a plug for a special Spider-man comic book.
Today Show Interview with Gilda Radner (4/14/80) (5:03) lets Gene interview her. She explains how Roseanne Roseannadanna was born. There’s also a tale of her encounter with Barbara Walters.
Tomorrow Show with Walter Williams (Mr. Bill) (4:44) allows you see the Tom Snyder that Dan always spoofs on the show. Tom is very alarmed at how Mr. Bill gets tortured. Walter’s extraordinarily nervous in the spotlight. He was the creative hand behind Mr. Bill. Who knew that after 30 years, Mr. Bill would be a spokesman for Subway?
Savour each episode on Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season. They don’t make sketch comedy shows with this much talent anymore. Even when a sketch doesn’t leave you breathless on the floor from a laughing fit, there’s more creativity in them than a recent SNL episode.
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Universal Studios Home Entertainment presents Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season. Starring John Belushi, Dan Akyroyd, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris. Boxset Contents: 20 episodes on 7 DVDs. Released on DVD: December 2, 2009. Available at Amazon.
