HTF DVD REVIEW - Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season - Highly Recommended

Kevin EK · 12-10-2007, 10:28 PM

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE
THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON

Studio: Universal
Original Broadcast: 1976-1977
Length: Approximately 24 hours 28 mins (Each ep roughly 1 hour 8 mins)
Genre: Sketch Comedy

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame
Color/B&W: Color

Audio:

English Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles: None (an English SDH track is listed, but I couldn’t find it!)
Rating: Unrated (Some adult humor, even by today’s standards!)

Release Date: December 4, 2007

Rating: 4 /

Starring: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Michael O’Donoghue and many guest hosts

Executive Producer: Lorne Michaels
Directed by: Dave Wilson

Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season is the full-season DVD release of the second year of the revolutionary late night comedy show. I do not use the word “revolutionary” lightly here – what was happening on SNL during the 70’s literally changed the face of late night television and broke through many taboos years before they would be approached by any other venue of television. Rather than just bring on the usual impressionists or entertainers as was typical of television comedy shows, Lorne Michaels brought an eclectic mix of edgy comedians, avant garde musicians, performance artists and even some politicians. And that was just the guests. The regular group of comedians on the show every week comprised a fairly edgy group indeed. Topics discussed on the show ranged from drug use and sex to Michael O’Donoghue’s darkly hilarious takes on children’s bedtime stories. This was comedy that didn’t pander to the audience and in many cases seemed not to care if everyone thought it was funny or not. This may sound tame today, but in 1976, it was a big deal – You just didn’t talk about this stuff on TV, at least not like THIS. During the first season of the show, SNL had an extremely raw edge to it while it found its original format, and it deservedly won an Emmy. When the show returned for its second season, the performers and writers responded to their success by raising the bar and pushing themselves farther. That attitude, coupled with the talent on display, helped propel the show to an extremely successful run for the next three years, and launched the lucrative careers of many of its cast members.

Universal has released the full second season of SNL on 8 standard definition DVDs, most containing 3 episodes, and the final one containing the season finale, the notorious 1977 Mardi Gras special, and a few other goodies. The episodes are presented in their original full frame aspect ratio, presumably from the master videotapes. Based on the crediting in the later episodes, I believe the syndication credits may have been used, but I can’t be sure without seeing tapes of the original broadcasts. I’ll explain as we go through the discs. The video quality is good but not spectacular – it’s a combination of vintage videotape and ragged film footage, and it’s the best we can really expect. It’s the quality I remember seeing from the time it was aired. The sound quality is similarly good – it’s a simple 2.0 mono mix that makes the voices clear and doesn’t try to do anything else. I’ll also note that this season set, just like the first season, presents the episodes without the cast photo bumpers other than the final one before the goodbyes. The regular segues to commercials have been included, so that we either close in on an unsuspecting audience member who gets an interesting caption or we go wide and see a gag title for what’s “Up Next”.

So now we dive in. Given the nature of this set, I’m dispensing with my usual divisions regarding special features and spending more time on the contents of each episode. THERE ARE MANY SPOILERS HERE, but this is to help fans of the show easily locate some of their favourite sketches and gags. This will be a much longer review than I normally do, but I feel I owe it to the readers and to the show to be thorough here. I’ll take each disc in order. All the regular episodes are presented in full-frame with the aforementioned 2.0 soundtrack.

DISC ONE:

Ep 1 - Guest Host Lily Tomlin/Musical Guest James Taylor – This is the first ep of the new season, and they pretty much pick up where they left off at the end of the first season. Since this season takes place during the 1976 election, we are introduced to Dan Aykroyd’s impression of Jimmy Carter in a sketch debate with Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford. During the sketch, Chevy’s pratfall actually injures him to the point that he is forced to sit out the next two episodes. Lily Tomlin plays a variety of characters including her beloved telephone operator “Ernestine” who demonstrates exactly what the phone company thinks of our calls. The Muppets make a final appearance on the show, poking their heads out of filing cabinets, and telling Lily that the new Muppet Show (which was just starting at the time) would not feature these adult-themed characters. Toward the end of the show, Lily performs the Antler Dance in a film and then for the show finale. I don’t know where the Antler Dance came from, but it’s a running theme for the season, in a way.

Ep 2 – Guest Host Norman Lear/Musical Guest Boz Scaggs – For the 2nd show, they get Norman Lear to play. He does okay, particularly in his opening monologue video, which incorporates appearances by all the actors on all of his then-current series. Since Chase was injured, this episode allows Jane Curtin to take over the anchor position at the Weekend Update desk for the first time. (Chase actually has to literally phone in his opening pratfall...) Standout sketches here include the new Norman Lear sitcom “The Snakehandling O’Sheas” and the musical number “Chevy’s Girls”, which is preceded by a surprising pratfall by Norman Lear himself. An early bit with Aykroyd’s Jimmy Carter references the then-current Playboy interview with Carter, which results for much of the season in SNL’s Carter being played a tad “lusty”. I should note that Boz Scaggs’ two performance sets here are solid. He does a really nice “Lowdown” that literally took me back to 1976.

Ep 3 – Guest Host Eric Idle/Musical Guests Joe Cocker & Stuff – This was Eric Idle’s first appearance on the show, and he pretty much walks in and makes himself at home. (The humor of the Pythons was really not all that removed from SNL – or at least they complimented each other nicely) The episode begins with a then unknown Richard Belzer impersonating Chevy Chase only to be phoned up by the real (and real angry) Chase on the other end of the line. This episode is filled with classic bits, from Dan Aykroyd’s dual AM/FM Deejay performance (which includes another reference to the Antler Dance!), to Lorne Michaels trying to explain that Eric Idle stole his Beatles offer money from the first season, to Eric Idle serving a full course meal to goldfish in a tank. Joe Cocker is in pretty good form here, but it’s in his second song that the show really goes to Mars. I’ll just say that if you know anything about John Belushi’s Cocker imitation, you know what happened here. I don’t even know how to describe the performance other than to say that Cocker was a really good sport.

DISC TWO:

Ep 4 – Guest Host Karen Black/Musical Guest John Prine – This is one where the guest host didn’t participate much. She’s in a minimum of sketches, and the regular cast pretty much carries the show. Chevy Chase returns to the show here to take the first pratfall of the show again, and then do another debate with Aykroyd’s Carter without injuring himself again. Near the end of the show, we get a home movie with the legendary Mr. Bill, and then a pretty interesting high school reunion character sketch with Aykroyd and Jane Curtin. The show ends with a musical number led off by Karen Black doing a lovely version of “Ten Cents a Dance” followed by the cast members singing songs dedicated to American Coinage. When Belushi starts singing, a crawl plays over him saying some unfortunate things about his ways with money. The show then ends abruptly with no goodbye from the host and cast. Instead, we see her bumper and then the credits run quickly over a montage of frames from the opening titles.

Ep 5 – Guest Host Steve Martin/Musical Guest Kinky Friedman – It’s safe to say that Steve Martin starts his SNL hosting history with a bang. He’s in most of the sketches and does two standup routines to boot. If anything, this is an episode that shows SNL firing on all cylinders throughout. One key sketch is “Jeopardy! 1999” which manages to skewer the JEOPARDY! TV show and take a backhanded jab at then-current “Space: 1999” at the same time. Another is a typically dark Michael O’Donoghue-scripted take on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”.

Ep 6 – Buck Henry/Musical Guest The Band – Buck Henry returns from the 1st season for the first of three appearances this season. This one is notable for many reasons. One is that it’s the final appearance of Chevy Chase on the show as a regular cast member. A second is that it marks the first of Michael O’Donoghue’s appearances telling horrifyingly funny versions of children’s bedtime stories. A third is that this is the episode where John Belushi inadvertently hits Buck Henry in the head with the sword in the samurai sketch. Given that it’s not anything more than a nick, Buck Henry continues in the show with a bandage. In keeping with the humor of the show, all the other cast members begin wearing bandages until pretty much everyone has a bandage on during the goodnights. But the most important distinction of this episode is that it features one of the last live gigs played by The Band before their Last Waltz concert, whereupon they effectively broke up. And The Band plays several pieces, the centerpiece of which is a superb performance of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.

DISC THREE:

Ep 7 – Guest Host Dick Cavett/Musical Guest Ry Cooder – Another solid episode with a returning guest host from the first season, this one is surprising in its effectiveness, particularly Dick Cavett’s opening monologue, where he reads some very interesting questions from the audience. The show opens without a Chevy Chase pratfall of some kind for the first time in over a year. But Chevy does appear in a filmed segment in the middle of the show. As of this episode, Jane Curtin takes over Weekend Update for the rest of the season (and the next three years)

Ep 8 – Guest Host Paul Simon/Musical Guest George Harrison – And here’s another classic, starting with a quick Chevy Chase video cameo and proceeding right into Lorne Michaels trying to explain his offer from last season to George Harrison. This immediately gets topped by the costume Paul Simon is given for his first song. Simon primarily does musical performances here, including two duets with Harrison. His “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” is a bit tentative, but all the others are solid. Harrison also presents a filmed music video of “This Song”. Simon pops up in two sketches, one of which is a pretty funny parody of “Billy Jack”. In his goodnights, Simon makes an apology to Michael O’Donoghue, presumably for a sketch not making it on the air, possibly because Simon did a performance of “Bridge over Troubled Water” instead.

Ep 9 – Guest Host Jodie Foster/Musical Guest Brian Wilson – This one’s a bit of a mixed bag. Jodie Foster at age 14 is the youngest host to be on the show up to that time. And while she’s certainly game for the sketches, including the latest Rovco invention, she only appears in a handful. Then there’s the matter of Brian Wilson, who gives an unnervingly bad performance and appears to be completely disoriented onstage. He also appears in one sketch, looking and clearly feeling very awkward. But this episode does contain one of the classic Michael O’Donogue bedtime stories: He relates to an adoring Jodie Foster the story of “The Little Train That Died”. This is the final episode to feature a new filmed cameo by Chevy Chase, this time being a commercial for Feedbag Dinners.

DISC FOUR:

Ep 10 – Guest Host Candice Bergen/Musical Guest Frank Zappa – Candice Bergen returns to host, and pretty much picks up where she left off during the last season. There’s a lot of great material here, including one sketch between her and Gilda Radner where Bergen simply loses it midway and bursts out laughing for the remainder of the sketch. We also get to meet Aykroyd’s Irwin Mainway and his many wonderful kids’ toys like “Bag o’ Glass”. The hidden pleasure of this episode is Frank Zappa, who puts on a delirious series of nearly abstract performances with his band. During one, he is joined by Belushi’s samurai on the saxophone. Zappa also makes an appropriate cameo in a police lineup during the “Killer Trees” sketch. The episode concludes with a videotaped holiday goodbye shot outdoors as the cast ice skates.

Ep 11 – Guest Host Ralph Nader/Musical Guest George Benson – This one’s another mixed bag. Nader does his best to fit in here, but he’s clearly uncomfortable in this milieu. On the other hand, this episode marks the first appearance by Bill Murray, fresh from the Howard Cosell variety show that would give its name to SNL less than 2 months later. As John Belushi is out with an injury, Murray immediately jumps in with several sketches, including a dress-rehearsal for an execution that spotlights his director persona. This episode introduces us to The Coneheads and features the only appearance this season by Andy Kaufman, this time doing a fairly convincing Elvis.

Ep 12 – Guest Host Ruth Gordon/Musical Guest Chuck Berry – John Belushi returns for a solid instalment, with Ruth Gordon appearing in five sketches including a turn as Emily Litella’s sister. Chuck Berry turns in an okay performance of several songs, although there’s a strange video pattern visible on him from one camera during “Memphis Tennessee”. There are a lot of good sketches here, including Belushi’s impression of Dino deLaurentis, the mock commercial pitch by Crazy Frank (whose prices are insane because he REALLY IS insane and angry enough at his brother to sell his whole inventory for nothing), and another appearance by the erstwhile Mr. Mike. We also get to see a strange magic act as performed by a young Ricky Jay, and a home movie featuring Mr. Bill in a magic show. (Hint: Mr. Bill doesn’t do well with the “sawing the lady in half” trick)

DISC FIVE:

Ep 13 – Guest Host Fran Tarkenton/Musical Guest Leo Sayer & the Donny Harper Singers – Here’s a great episode, this time with a Super Bowl theme, as would be appropriate for Tarkenton, with Belushi spending much of the show playing the football coach sending Tarkenton and the cast in for another play (sketch). There are some great sketches in this one as well, including the Rovco Swiss Army Gun (including corkscrew, toothpick and rocket launcher), Tarkenton’s commercial for the new cereal “Sugar Coated Anabolic Steroids”, and a classic sketch featuring a French Home Restaurant staffed by Aykroyd and Radner and Laraine Newman doing a horrifying job of trying to play the recorder.

Ep 14 – Guest Host Steve Martin (with Lily Tomlin)/Musical Guest The Kinks – With the lineup on this episode, there is no way it could fail. Starting with a cold opening centered on Steve Martin’s success having ruined him, there are too many good sketches to name here, and top it off, we have two solid performances by the Kinks at the top of their game.

Ep 15 – Guest Host Sissy Spacek/Musical Guest Richard Baskin – An all-around solid show, starting with a control room sketch concerned with the death of the show’s director, Dave Wilson. Bill Murray accidentally blows an early sketch about a man who can only say five words, but pulls off a credible Walter Cronkite call-in show with Aykroyd’s Jimmy Carter. (This is the bit where Carter handles the caller who’s just taken a hit of “orange sunshine”...) This episode won an Emmy for Writing.

DISC SIX:

Ep 16 – Guest Host Broderick Crawford/Musical Guests Levon Helm, Dr. John & The Meters – Here’s one where the guest host really does very little and the cast pretty much constructs the show either around him in some scenes or simply without him. There’s still some great sketches here, including “Samurai Hit Man” and a Michael O’Donoghue-scripted take on “I Love Lucy”, as well as Bill Murray’s appeal to the audience to give him a chance. We also get to see Baba Wawa interview Godzilla. The high point has to be John Belushi’s Weekend Update take on “The Luck of the Irish.” The very beginning of the show features a cameo by Linda Ronstadt.

Ep 17 – Guest Host Jack Burns/Musical Guest Santana – This is one where the guest host blends right in and the show fires on all cylinders. Starting with Belushi’s attempt to hold the show’s opening hostage, continuing with a “Coneheads meet the Farbers” sketch where both Radner and Belushi crack up on camera, a Marine Wedding and on from there, the show is simply loaded with classic moments. And there’s also a fine pair of performances by Santana to boot. It should also be noted that this episode marks the point where the show officially became “Saturday Night Live”, and the opening credits reflect that change. (Curiously, the subsequent episodes in this set do not, which doesn’t really make sense, does it?)

Ep 18 – Guest Host Julian Bond/Musical Guests Tom Waits & Brick – For the second time this season, a political guest is the host, and for the second time it’s a bit awkward. Julian Bond is certainly willing to play, including an edgy exchange with Garrett Morris on race and IQ, and an edgier commercial for “Right on Afro Lustre”. The sketches with the regular cast steam along, including a horrifying family counselling session with Dr. X, Belushi’s “H & L Brock” commercial, and possibly the best Michael O’Donoghue bedtime tale of all, “Uncle Remus Meets Mr. Mike”. And Tom Waits turns in a customarily throaty performance.

DISC SEVEN:

Ep 19 – Guest Host Elliott Gould/Musical Guests The McGarrigle Sisters & Rosalyn Kind - Elliott Gould returns for his only second season appearance, and immediately sets the mood with the 1920’s song & dance sensation “The Castration Walk”. The episode is another classic sketch showcase, including another Coneheads sketch, a Weekend Update appearance by Gilda Radner’s Debbie Doody, and the first appearance of Murray’s Nick the Lounge Lizard. The Chevy Chase Feedbag Dinners film commercial gets used again here.

Ep 20 – Guest Host Eric Idle/Musical Guests Alan Price & Neil Innes – Eric Idle returns for what is actually his THIRD appearance, since he also worked on the Mardi Gras special (see below). As he did before, Idle simply makes himself at home and fits right in with the regular cast. This time, the show is centered on a telethon to save Great Britain, and the standout sketches include a take on the Frost/Nixon interviews. There’s also a performance of a Rutles song by Neil Innes in character as a Rutle.

Ep 21 – Guest Host Shelly Duvall/Musical Guest Joan Armatrading – This is another solid showing, with Duvall featured in many of the sketches throughout. From the opening “Video Vixens” bit to a Michael O’Donoghue-scripted takeoff on zombie films called “Night of the Moonies”, the show maintains a solid level of quality.

DISC EIGHT:

Ep 22 – Guest Host Buck Henry/Musical Guests Jennifer Warnes & Kenny Vance – Buck Henry returns to close out the season with one of the strongest shows of the year. The fun starts with Buck’s unfortunate sexual dare, continues with yet another Samurai sketch, the return of the Coneheads to Remulak, the shower song stylings of Bill Murray, and concludes with Michael O’Donoghue and the entire cast doing their impression of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir having their eyes gouged out. Chevy Chase pops up with a voiceover cameo and an appearance by one of his best-liked characters. During the first musical performance by Jennifer Warnes, there’s a bit of a video stutter, but it is quickly corrected.

The rest of the eighth disc is taken up with the special features:

Mardi Gras Special (1:15:00, Full Frame) – This is the most significant of the special features. Originally aired on Sunday, February 20, 1977 and not seen in more than 30 years, this was a prime time special that took the cast to New Orleans to do their sketches on location all over the area during Mardi Gras. The special is notorious and legendary for how wrong the situation went, with the cast being pelted by drunken revelers and the real world intruding in all kinds of ways. The Weekend Update material with Buck Henry and Jane Curtin is funny enough, but it’s clear that beads and who knows what else is being thrown at them while they’re trying to keep going. One sketch has John Belushi getting fake bricks thrown at him while he tries to play the trumpet, except that you can clearly see the crowd is adding beads and other items to the list as well. There are still some good bits here, including a Mussolini sketch featuring Belushi, and a Tom Snyder interview session at a topless bar. And we also get another song and dance performance of, oh boy, The Antler Dance! It should be noted that in the midst of all this, Randy Newman delivers some terrific songs at the Theater of the Performing Arts, backed by a full orchestra. (I had totally forgotten about those songs. They’re truly wonderful.)

Andy Kaufman Screen Test (4:18, Full Frame) – Andy Kaufman’s screen test, consisting of him reciting two identically deadpan versions of the song “MacArthur Park”. This screen test is listed on the back of the packaging, but not on the interior disc holder.

Dress Rehearsal Audio – Audio of an unused Farbers sketch from the Sissy Spacek episode is included here. It’s an odd experience, and one wonders if any of the early dress rehearsals were videotaped (as has been common for many years on the show). But for this and the following special feature, all we have is an audio recording.

Dress Rehearsal Audio – This one is the audio of an unused Susie & Sherry sketch from the opening Lily Tomlin episode.

Trailers – (1:05, Non-anamorphic widescreen) Here are quick previews for the television series “30 Rock” and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry.

Beyond this, the packaging includes a 32 page collector’s scrapbook of the 2nd season, and the inner cover features a 2nd season cast photo that has simply been glued on this time around.

While the packaging indicates there are English subtitles, I was unable to activate them on any disc. Nor was I able to bring up captioning with that option on the HDTV. So I don’t believe there are any subtitles available here. If anyone can find them, please post a response.

VIDEO QUALITY: 3/5

Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season is a full-frame presentation of what looks like the broadcast video master or perhaps the syndication master. It’s completely serviceable, but nothing that will knock your socks off. The filmed segments look quite rough, which is pretty much how they always looked. Basically, what you see here is what you saw when these episodes originally aired. And I really doubt anyone is looking for spectacular image quality. The point here is just to be able to see these episodes uncut.

AUDIO QUALITY: 3/5

Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season is presented in an English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono mix that just gives you the original audio as was heard when the shows aired back in the day. The voices are clear and the music comes through nicely. As with the video, this isn’t really the set for discussions about high end audio – it’s just nice to hear the original shows in their original format.

IN THE END...

Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season is a must buy for anyone who is a fan of the original “classic” years of the series. It is a must rental for anyone who hasn’t seen these shows before. I’m sure there will be debates about whether every episode is truly the uncut original, particularly given the bumper issues and the opening titles. Again, as of the 3/26/77 episode, the show took on the name “Saturday Night Live”, but only that episode in this set reflects that title. On the other hand, almost all the endings feature the original goodbyes and Don Pardo’s sign off (including some interesting song stylings from time to time). The only episode without proper goodnights is the Karen Black segment, which may have gone overtime. I’ll leave it to the many fans to dissect all this and let us know which areas I have missed. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to try to see these shows. They’re still groundbreaking, even after 30 years.

Kevin Koster
December 10, 2007.

bjdwsm · 12-10-2007, 11:23 PM

I'll clarify about a few things, since I have recordings of the second season from Canadian cable aired circa 1998. Here's what I noticed on those tapes:
-the Burns and Bond shows are the only two that actually used the Saturday Night Live title in the montage; Gould onward reverted back to the old title in the montage but used the Live in bumpers.
-the credits and superimposed titles for Bond afterwards are all in a slightly different font for an unknown reason
-I do remember the video stutter in Henry/Warnes as well. I haven't seen the DVDs but Tarkenton also seems to have a few video issues according to one person I talked to (faded-looking waves...they were present in the classic SNL rerun)

Brian Himes · 12-11-2007, 01:40 PM

Good review! I think you covered all of the main points.

I really enjoyed this season more than the first season. The show really took off during this season.

Ethan Riley · 12-11-2007, 02:08 PM

The first Eric Idle episode was the first time the show really "hit" for me. It's an almost flawless 90 minutes!

David Rain · 12-12-2007, 12:24 AM

It's Always Something . Either people throw bricks at you or they cut off your bumpers.

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Brian Himes · 12-12-2007, 03:20 PM

Quick question. What season is the 'cheeseburger, cheeseburger, chip, chip, Pepsi' sketch?

Kevin EK · 12-12-2007, 03:56 PM

Third season, 10th episode. Robert Klein was the first victim, ahem, customer. (He basically introduces us to the place) As I understand it, Dan Aykroyd really WAS cooking hamburgers on the grill!