Season 2, Episode 5, Host:Steve Martin, with Kinky Friedman

Aired October 23, 1976.

Cold opening:"The Yankees lose the World Series"

The New York Yankees have just lost baseball's World Series in a humiliating fashion.  Their manager (Dan Aykroyd) is standing on a stool while apologizing for some of the decisions he made and for being ejected in the last game.

When the manager says that "it won't happen again," a player (Chevy Chase) replies "you bet it won't, coach" and kicks the stool out from under the manager, which results in the manager being hanged.

The player then slides back into camera view and announces "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Monologue #1:"I'm a ramblin' guy!"

Host Steve Martin says he always likes to do one thing that's impossible during every performance,so he attempts to suck a stool through a straw.

Martin then grabs his banjo and sings a song about how he's a "ramblin' guy."  In order to "keep the laughs rolling" while he's playing banjo, Martin puts an arrow "through" his head.

The "ramblin' guy" song would later appear  on Martin's 1977 debut album Let's Get Small under the title "Ramblin' Man/Theme from Ramblin' Man."

"Chevy Chase speaks out for milk."
Chase promotes the benefits of drinking milk.  The commercial goes off the rails when he also decides to promote the unpleasant aspects of milk, such as increasing your cholesterol level and causing fatty deposits under your eyes.

Game Show:"Jeopardy 1999"

In a future version of the popular game show, contestants are given clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in the form of questions.  One example:
Answer:1st President to accidentally kill himself in office.
Question:Who is Walter Mondale?

Kinky Friedman:"Dear Abbie"

Musical guest Kinky Friedman performs "Dear Abbie," which appeared on his 1976 album Lasso From El Paso.

The song was about Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman, who was a friend of Friedman.[1]

"Weekend Update":
Anchor Chevy Chase's reports on the headlines of the day, which include:

In the previous night's Presidential debate, Jimmy Carter revealed that "when the mood hits him, he likes to dress up as Eleanor Roosevelt."

And David Bowie paid a surprise visit to New York, fans remarked that he looked much bigger in person.

Plus, Jane Curtin delivers a commentary about the dangers of florocarbons that are released by aerosol products.  While she's addressing this serious topic, Chevy makes faces behind her back.

 Commercial:"Fido-Flex"

A pitchman (Martin) promotes Fido-Flex, the digital watchdog, the only watch that nurses it's young and the only dog you can wear underwater.

"Plato's Cave"
Written by Anne Beatts and Rosie Shuster. [2]

A visit to a Beatnik bar in the 1950s, where a very hip audience is entertained by a variety of performers:

Flamenco guitarist Juan Kutner (Chase):

Rodney Chernin (Martin) recites a beat poem dedicated to "Mr. Commuter":

Blind blues singer Josh Jackson (Garrett Morris) performs his song "Trouble And Misery Blues":

Shelly Bayless (John Belushi), "the world's most paranoid hip comic":

And last, but not least, Isadora Schwartz (Laraine Newman) recites a "zen" poem while performing an interpretive dance.

Talk show:"Looks At Books"

Jane Curtin interviews Dr. Lloyd Kaufman (Steve Martin), author of the book Sex And Sports.  Kaufman's research shows that when baseball players abstain from sex, it improves their performance on the baseball diamond.

Film by Gary Weis:"Autumn In New York"

SNL filmmaker Gary Weis walks around New York City while he and passersby look into a camera and lip-sync to recordings of the song "Autumn In New York," which was written by Vernon Duke and used in the Broadway musical Thumbs Up! in 1934.

The most commercially successful version of "Autumn In New York" was Frank Sinatra's recording, which reach #27 on on the charts in 1949.

"Ted Kills Mary"

In this parody of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WJM news producer Mary Richards (Newman) dies when anchormanTed Baxter (Martin) puts Drano in her coffee.

Ted's boss Lou Grant (Belushi) orders Ted to confess to the murder on live TV during his next newscast.

"Mysteries In Medicine"
Written by Dan Aykroyd.

Dr. Paul Cone (Martin) has a unique, "extreme" weight loss program for his patients.  He puts them on "the unizoid wonder-diet with Blog treatments."

This involves sending the patients to the arctic where they are forced to fight over food with an Inuit ice fisherman named Blog if they want to eat.

Monologue #2:
Martin talks about past relationships with women, a recent argument with his mother and his chance encounter with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at a laundromat in Tuscon.

Goodnights:

Martin is joined by the cast at homebase.  He says they had a good time and mentions that next week's show will feature Buck Henry and The Band (or "a band" as he calls them).  The Not Ready For Prime Time Players have their backs turned towards the audience and the women are wearing shirts that have "Saturday Night" embroidered on their backs.

Notes about this episode:
Steve Martin hosted SNL 8 times during its first five seasons and has hosted 7 times since the original cast departed.  He also appeared as a special guest five times.

However, contrary to popular belief, he was never a member of SNL's cast.  I'm guessing this confusion is caused by DVD releases like Saturday Night Live-The Best Of Steve Martin and simply because he's hosted so often.

The cold opening shows the Yankees in their locker room after their World Series loss.  The Cincinnati Reds easily won the 1976 World Series, sweeping the Yankees 4 games to none and they outscored the Yankees 22-8 in those 4 games.

Classic moment:
Steve Martin's first time hosting SNL-as I mentioned above, he's one of the most frequent hosts and most fans of the classic era considered him to be the series' best host.

What stands out:
"Plato's cave"-this hilarious parody of Beatnik culture is one of the longest sketches so far but not a second is wasted.  This sketch also features every cast member, which adds to its quality.  Laraine Newman is especially great as Isadora Schwartz.  It's one of my all-time favorite SNL sketches.

Steve Martin's opening monologue-This is the best monologue since Richard Pryor's during the first season.

"Mysteries In Medicine"-The premise of this sketch is crazy and it shows how the cast and writers of the early seasons were willing to try just about anything.

J.A. Morris' rating:
This is a fantastic episode, one of the best so far.  Martin's monologues are great and every sketch is strong, so it gets my highest rating.

4 stars!

Footnote:
[1] Telling Stories, Writing Songs: An Album of Texas Songwriters, by Kathleen Hudson, p149.
[2] Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue (Amazon Kindle version), By Dennis Perrin, chapter 7.