Aired October 30, 1976.
Cold opening:"Trick or Treat!"
A woman (Gilda Radner) is sitting alone in her apartment on Halloween Night. Suddenly, her doorbell rings.
When she asks who it is, a voice says "trick or treat?" She tells him it's 2:00 AM, Halloween is over and he should be in bed. When the trick-or-treater persists, she says he's out of candy.
However, when he tells her he's collecting for UNICEF, she opens the door to give a donation. Unfortunately for her, the trick-or-treater is the Land Shark!
After eating the woman, the woman, the Land Shark opens his mouth, revealing himself to be Chevy Chase. He then announces "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Monologue:
Host Buck Henry tells viewers that the Not Ready For Prime Time Players all have deep secrets. For instance, John Belushi is indebeted to the mafia and Dan Aykroyd sleeps with a bicycle chain in his mouth. Henry also mentions that tonight is Chevy Chase's last episode.
"Samurai Stockbroker":
Written by Alan Zweibel and John Belushi.
Mr. Dantley (Henry) complains to his samurai stockbroker (Belushi) that his investment advice has caused him to go bankrupt.
During the sketch, Belushi accidentally cuts Henry's forehead with his sword!
Talk show:"Not For First Ladies Only"
Baba Wawa (Radner) interviews First Lady Better Ford (Jane Curtin) and Roslyn Carter (Larainne Newman) about the roles they play in their husbands' political careers and whether or not they still have time for sex.
"Garrett Morris' Roots":
Garrett Morris has done extensive research into his family's history and reveals that an ancestor was gang-raped by all the signers of the Declaration Of Independence.
Morris then shares photos of many of his ancestors (which are actually photos of Morris wearing costumes and heavy makeup).
"Debate '76":
Pres. Gerald Ford (Chase) and challenger Jimmy Carter (Dan Aykroyd) meet for their third and final Presidential debate. Unlike their previous debates, which covered foreign and domestic policies, this one will focus on the candidates' "beauty, talents and poise." It opens with a swimsuit competition.
During this sketch, you can see that Buck Henry, who plays the debate moderator, has been bandaged up after being cut by the sword.
Chevy Chase is wearing a bandage on his forehead in sympathy with Buck Henry's injury.
"Weekend Update"
Anchor Chevy Chase's top story is "Buck Henry cuts himself in the forehead in a sketch on the Saturday Night show, as a far-gone and downed and drugged-out John Belushi hits him with a sword."
In between "Debate '76" and "Update," Chase has applied an additional bandage to his forehead.
In other news, First Lady Betty Ford wins first place in a dog-smelling contest.
And correspondent Jane Curtin (who is also bandaged) presents "People In The News," which includes a story about Chevy Chase's impending departure from Saturday Night so that he can take over Johnny Carson's desk on The Tonight Show.
Curtin adds that "Chase says he’s looking forward to interviewing self-indulgent Las Vegas performers and meaningless personalities every single day for the next ten years."
Plus, Chevy gets a call from...Generalissimo Francisco Franco?
Commercial:"Bat-O-Matic
This new device helps "witches, warlocks, conjurers,sorcerers, black magicians, white magicians" mix their potions in time for Winter Solstice!
The Band:"Life Is A Carnival,"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "Stage Fright"
Buck Henry introduces The Band and mentions that they will be playing their final concert on Thanksgiving. The Band performs three songs.
"Life Is A Carnival" was written by Written by Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson, and was the lead track on The Band's 1971 album Cahoots. The song reached #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Next up is "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", written by Robertson. This song was released as the B-Side of "Up On Cripple Creek" and it appeared on The Band's self-titled 1969 album (AKA "The Brown Album"). Drummer Levon Helm sings lead on this song.
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" found its greatest success with Joan Baez' recording of the song, which peaked #3 on Billboard Hot 100 and reached #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
The Band's set closes with "Stage Fright," the title-track of The Band's third album. "Stage Fright" was also written by Robertson and features Rick Danko on lead vocals.
"The OintMENt"
In this parody of The Omen, Ambassador Thorne (Henry) notices that people die in bizarre ways when they're around his son Damien (Belushi).
The boy's nanny has been hanged and their priest has been impaled on a lamp. What is the mystery of the strange boy's power and does he have a connection to Satan?
In solidarity with Buck Henry, Damien's teddy bear has a bandage on its head:
This week's film shows us the process Buck Henry undergoes while being made up for Halloween. Henry's transformation is accompanied by a new song written and sung by SNL band leader Howard Shore titled "It's Halloween Tonight."
"Houdini's Grave Part. 1"
Henry says that exactly 50 years ago, Halloween 1926, was the day Harry Houdini died. The great magician said that if it was possible to return from the dead, he would do so exactly 50 years after his death. With this in mind, Buck cuts live to Machpelah Cemetery in Queens, where Garrett Morris is keeping vigil at Houdini's grave. Morris says strange things are afoot in the cemetery, but so far there's no sign of Houdini.
"Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales"
Mr. Mike (Michael O'Donoghue) tells the story of "The Enchanted Thermos," and how it was discovered by "the littlest Eskimo."
O'Donoghue is also wearing a bandage.
"Houdini's Grave Part 2"
The host cuts back to Garrett Morris at the cemetery. Morris is so frightened that his hair is standing up and he's babbling incoherently.
The Band:"Georgia On My Mind"
The Band's piano player Richard Manuel sings lead on "Georgia On My Mind," which was written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell. Carmichael recorded it first and released it on September 15, 1930. Ray Charles' definitive version of "Georgia On My Mind" was released in September 1960 and reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100.
The Band released this song as a single in 1976, intending it to serve as a campaign song for Jimmy Carter, who was Georgia's governor from 1971 to '75 (see notes below). It later appeared on The Band's 1977 album Islands.
Goodnights:
Buck Henry closes the show by saying "thank you Band, thank you folks, and thank you Garrett, wherever you are!" The cast is wearing bandages on their heads. John Belushi is wearing more bandages than anyone and is pretending to be a reporter. He asks Henry if he thinks the cut "was done on purpose."
Since it's Chevy Chase's last episode, he's embraced by the cast as the credits roll.
Everyone joins Chevy in taking one final fall and they all fall on top of each other.
Notes about this episode:
Here's a short interview with Buck Henry where he discusses his unfortunate encounter with the business end of a samurai sword:
Here's a quote from The Band's drummer Levon Helm about "Georgia On My Mind" and Jimmy Carter:
“Jimmy Carter had been kind enough to receive us in the Georgia governor’s mansion when we passed through Atlanta back on the 1974 Dylan tour, and now he was running for president against Gerald Ford. We’d been getting calls asking us to help, so we released a single of ‘Georgia on My Mind’ in Mr. Carter’s honor. Richard (Manuel) sang it with the soul factor turned pretty high. On 30 October, 1976, we played ‘Georgia’ on Saturday Night Live, and a few days later Jimmy Carter was elected President of the United States.”
During her "People In The News" segment on "Weekend Update," Jane Curtin mentions that Chevy Chase will take over The Tonight Show from Johnny Carson where he will be "interviewing self-indulgent Las Vegas performers and meaningless personalities every single day for the next ten years." That line was inspired by a comment Chevy made in a New York magazine profile by Jeff Greenfield. In 1975, a lot of people (including some NBC executives) saw Chase as "the heir apparent" to Johnny Carson. When asked about hosting Tonight, Chase said “I’d never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities." [1] Of course Chase never became host of The Tonight Show.
While this is Chevy Chase's last episode, he would appear in the next three episodes in pre-recorded cameo appearances.
As Buck Henry says in his introduction, The Band would play it's last concert on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, about 3 and a half weeks after this episode. Their last concert was filmed and released as The Last Waltz. Guitarist Robbie Robertson, who wrote most of The Band's songs, never toured with them again.
Classic moments:
Chevy Chase's last episode-Chase did a lot of heavy-lifting during the first season of Saturday Night and the fact that "Weekend Update" is still part of the show more than four decades after his departure is a testament to his talent. His last "Update" is a good one and it was also nice to see Chase play the Land Shark one last time. He get's in some good zingers on Pres. Ford, including a replay of Ford's pardoning of his predecessor Richard Nixon.
It's interesting how life works sometimes. Chevy Chase gained fame imitating Ford and three days after Chase's departure from SNL, Ford was voted out of office.
"Samurai Stock Broker"-One could make the case that SNL was never more "live" than the time where John Belushi accidentally cut Buck Henry's forehead with a samurai sword. Henry was certainly a trouper for soldiering on the rest of the show. This is also another funny "Samurai" sketch.
"Mr. Mike’s Least-Loved Bedtime Tales"-I'm generally a fan of Michael O'Donoghue's work and this is the debut of his "Mr. Mike" persona, which was basically an exaggeration of his real personality. His "Enchanted Thermos" story is unlike anything else you'd see on television in 1976.
What stands out:
The Band-Getting The Band to play their penultimate concert on SNL seems like the sort of thing Lorne Michaels had in mind when he conceived the show, when any episode could turn into an event.
"Houdini's Grave"-Saturday Night has rarely done live remotes from outside its studio, but this one worked nicely and added a little bit of Halloween spookiness to the episode. The shot of Garrett Morris' hair standing straight up is one of the funniest moments of the evening.
The various Halloween sketches-As some of you may know, I have another site where I review holiday-themed episodes, movies, and specials. So I appreciated the Halloween and horror material in this episode, like "The Ointment," the Land Shark opening, "Bat-O-Matic," and the aforementioned reports from Houdini's grave. Richard Manuel even has a little jack'o lantern on his piano, which is a nice touch.
What doesn't work:
In the middle of The Band's performance of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," the camera switches to a photo montage of The Band from their early years to the (then) present day. I'm not sure whose idea this was, but I would've much rather seen the full performance of one of their best songs.
J.A. Morris' rating:
Another good episode, Saturday Night was in the midst of a hot streak at this time. Chevy Chase goes out on a high note and Buck Henry shows what a great host he was by giving all he's got in spite of getting his head cut open on live television. Plus, The Band was one of the better musical guests so far.
.5
3 and a half stars.
Footnote:
[1] "He’s Chevy Chase and You’re Not, and He’s TV’s Hot New Comedy Star," Jeff Greenfield, New York, 22 Dec 1975.
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