Aired November 20, 1976.
Cold opening:Paul Simon arrives.
Paul Simon, this week's host, arrives at 30 Rockefeller Center. On his way inside, he runs into Chevy Chase, who is playing guitar and singing on the sidewalk for money.
He tells Simon that his career has been going great since he left Saturday Night and has no regrets. Chase wishes Simon good luck and Paul invites Chevy to the after-party.
When Simon goes upstairs, he runs into Saturday Night producer Lorne Michaels and former Beatle George Harrison. Simon tells Lorne he has "grave doubts" about his opening performance. He worries that he'll look like a fool.
Meanwhile, George Harrison says he expected the $3000 Lorne promised to the Beatles in his offer last season, but Lorne reminds him that the $3000 payday was for all four Beatles and that he intends to pay George only $750.
When Harrison says that figure sounds "chintzy," Lorne says there's a $250 bonus for whoever says the show's opening line. So Harrison looks into the camera and announces "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
Monologue:"Still Crazy After All These Years."
Written by Paul Simon and Lorne Michaels.[1]
Since Thanksgiving is five days away, Simon walks onstage wearing a turkey costume. He then sings "Still Crazy After All These Years," the title track from his 1975 album.
"Still Crazy" peaked at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1976. Simon previously performed the song on episode 2 of SNL's first season.
After the first verse, Simon stops singing, says he feels ridiculous and walks offstage to change. He runs into Lorne Michaels, who tells Paul the turkey suit looks great. Simon storms off to his dressing room, only to realize the turkey costume won't fit through the door.
Commercial:"Quarry"
Written by Michael O'Donoghue.
Quarry cereal is full of minerals...
...because it's made of rocks and pebbles.
Paul Simon:"50 Ways To Leave Your Lover"
The host performs "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover." This song appeared on Still Crazy, reached #1 on the Billboard pop chart and also topped the Easy Listening chart.
Talk Show:"Baba Wawa At Large"
Baba Wawa (Gilda Radner) interviews outgoing Secretary Of State Henry Kissinger (John Belushi) about the high and low points off his tenure at the State Department. She also asks why Kissinger still speaks with a German accent 40 years after his arrival in the U.S..
"The Twilite Zone":
Three aspiring young actresses (Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman) have all checked into the same room and been told a theatrical agent would meet them in the room for an audition. What the actresses don't know is that they've just checked into...The Twilite Zone!
"The Twilite Zone" is narrated by Rod Serling (Dan Aykroyd).
"Weekend Update":
Jane Curtin's top headlines of the day include:
President-elect Jimmy Carter has been seen on the streets of Plains, GA begging for money to pay off his campaign debt.
It has been discovered that the Bermuda Triangle is actually part of a larger configuration now called the Bermuda Shorts.
Laraine Newman reports from Mineola, Long Island, where last week it was revealed that long-time resident, Boleslays Maikovskis was a Nazi war criminal who entered the United States illegally.
And "Weekend Update" science editor Garrett Morris reports on a new strain of gonorrhea that kills penicillin.
Paul Simon and George Harrison:"Here Comes The Sun" and "Homeward Bound."
Simon introduces his special guest George Harrison and they perform a duet of "Here Comes The Sun." This song was written by Harrison and it appeared on the Beatles' album Abbey Road, which was released on September 26, 1969.
Harrison remains onstage and joins Simon in performing "Homeward Bound." Simon wrote the song and recorded it when he was part of Simon & Garfunkel. "Homeward Bound" was released as a single on January 9, 1966 and reached #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 and it later appeared on Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
When the song is over, Simon says Harrison has brought two films (music videos) with him and introduces one of them.
Film:George Harrison-"Crackerbox Palace"
The song appeared on Harrison's album Thirty Three & 1/3, which was released on November 19, 1976. "Crackerbox Palace" was issued as a single on January 24, 1977 and reached #17 on the Billboard pop chart. This music video was directed by Harrison's friend and frequent SNL host Eric Idle.
"Billy Paul"
In this parody of the movie Billy Jack, Billy Paul (Simon) protects non-white teenagers from local bigots.
During "Billy Paul" Gilda Radner's character sings "Until It's Time For You To Go." This song was written by Buffy Sainte Marie and it first appeared on her 1965 album Many A Mile.
When Billy Paul leads his friends in a march at the end of the sketch, the song "One Tin Soldier" by Coven can be heard playing over the studio's PA system.
"One Tin Soldier" was written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter and first recorded by the band Original Caste in 1969. Coven's version appeared on the Billy Jack soundtrack and reached #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 before it was pulled from radio by the film's producer. Coven re-recorded the song in 1973 and that version reached made number 79 on the Pop chart.
Paul Simon:"Something So Right"
This song appeared on Simon's 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon, which was released on May 5, 1973.
"Tomorrow Show, with Tom Snyder"
Tom Snyder (Aykroyd) interviews Paul Simon. It quickly becomes obvious that Snyder has no idea who Simon is.
Film:George Harrison-"This Song."
"This Song" appeared on Harrison's aforementioned album Thirty Three & 1/3. It was released as a single on November 15 and peaked at #25 on the Hot 100.
"This Song" was written in response to the copyright infringement suit Harrison faced when it was alleged his song "My Sweet Lord" was too similar to the Chiffons' song "He's So Fine."
Paul Simon:"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
For his final song of the evening, Simon performs "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which was the title track of the final Simon & Garfunkel album. It was released on January 20, 1970 and reached #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary chart.
Goodnights:
Simon says goodnight, wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and says "and my special apologies to (SNL writer) Michael O'Donoghue, he knows why."
Notes about this episode:
This episode opens with a Don Pardo voiceover that states "Portions of this program have been prerecorded."
I know that George Harrison's performance on the show was prerecorded. During the prior week's closing credits, Pardo mentioned that the episode would feature "a special recorded appearance by George Harrison." Supposedly there was a scheduling difficulty that prevented Harrison from appearing live. The conversation between Lorne Michaels and Harrison was also prerecorded and I'm guessing Chevy Chase's cameo was also prerecorded.
Harrison and Simon performed more songs, but I guess they weren't considered to be good enough for TV. This Youtube video features audio outtakes of them singing "Rock Island Line" and bits of other songs:
When Paul Simon walks in on Harrison's conversation with Lorne Michaels, he sings the "He's So Fine" and follows it up "My Sweet Lord." This is another reference to the lawsuit that inspired Harrison's "Your Song."
Laraine Newman's report about Nazis living in Mineola, Long Island is based on real events. In October of 1976, the U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Service made plans to deport several U.S. residents for being Nazi war criminals.[2] Among these criminals was Boleslays Maikovskis, who is mentioned by name in Newman's piece. Maikovskis remained in the United States until 1987 when he fled to Germany where he died in 1996. Both the Soviet Union and Latvia tried Maikovskis in-absentia and sentence him to death for war crimes. He was eventually put on trial in Germany, but the case was closed when it was determined Maikovskis was too old for the trial to continue. [3]
During Chevy Chase's brief appearance as a street performer in the opening, he sings bits of these three songs:
"This Land Is Your Land" was written by Woody Guthrie in 1940, recorded by Guthrie in '44 and has been performed by countless artists.
"Do You Know The Way To San Jose" was composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David and recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1968. Warwick's recording of the song reached #10 on the Hot 100.
"Just Like A Woman" was written by Bob Dylan and appeared on his 1966 album Blonde On Blonde. It was released as a single and peaked at #33.
I mentioned that Paul Simon apologizes to Michael O'Donoghue at the end of the show. During goodnights and closing credits, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi are wearing costumes, Aykroyd has an ax and Belushi is carrying a guitar, as seen in this screencap:
I'm guessing a sketch written by O'Donoghue was cut and perhaps their costumes and props were part of that sketch.
Classic Moment:
Paul Simon in the turkey costume-This has been used in various SNL Thanksgiving-themed compilations and it's still a sight to behold. Kudos to Simon for making fun of his "serious" image and to Saturday Night's costuming department.
What Stands Out:
George Harrison and Paul Simon's duets-This was a once-in-a-lifetime event and they perform beautiful, acoustic versions of "Here Comes The Sun" and "Homeward Bound." I'm a big Beatles fan and "Here Comes The Sun" has long been one of my favorite songs. Harrison didn't perform on television very often during his "solo" years, so I'm glad this performance is preserved on DVD.
What Doesn't Work:
"Bridge Over Troubled Water"-There's nothing wrong with the performance, in fact it's an excellent solo acoustic performance of a song that featured lots of production and orchestration in the album version. I've said before that I don't care for quiet ballads as show-closers. I would've rather seen a sketch or one of Harrison's music videos. I guess Lorne Michaels and I just have different opinions about how to end episodes.
Not enough sketches...and where's the cast?-The show opens with Simon and Chevy Chase (who had already quit the show), then Simon bumps into Michaels and Harrison. After that, Simon appears onstage in the turkey suit. The filmed commercial parody "Quarry" features Jane Curtin, then Simon performs a song. No one from the cast appears "live" onstage until the 13-minute mark, when the Baba Wawa/Kissinger sketch begins. This episode features five musical performances and two music videos. I enjoyed most of the music, but I would've liked to have seen at least one more sketch.
J.A. Morris' rating:
I have mixed feelings about this episode. The Harrison/Simon duets are great and the turkey costume is very memorable, but this episode needed a little more comedy. Like Simon's appearance in Season 1, this feels more like a Paul Simon variety special with the Not Ready For Prime Players as special guests than an episode of SNL.
3 stars.
Footnotes:
[1] Saturday Night Live, edited by Anne Beatts and John Head, p.4.
[2] "U.S. Files to Deport 3 Accused of Nazi War Crimes," By Ralph Blumenthal, New York Times, 14 October 1976:18
[3] "After Four-Year Trial, Bad Heart Wins Alleged Nazi War Criminal Freedom," by Frank Bajak, Associated Press, 18 February 1994.
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