Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary

Saturday Night Live: 15th Anniversary [fragments]
NBC
September 24, 1989
Variety
VHS
C+

Jumping the gun by over a year (but not as badly as Sisbert with their "500th anniversary"), this is a self-back-patting salute that I was so enthralled by that I taped two of the Timothy Dalton Jane Eyre episodes over part of it.  I've got the first couple minutes and then the last half hour or so.  None of it, even Robin Williams teasing the celeb-filled audience, is particularly funny.  Also, I'm not thrilled that I have to tag, blech, Bruce Willis.  But Paul Simon sings "Still Crazy After All These Years," and that's always good.  This is the 2000th show of mine I've reviewed, and no, we will not hit 3000.

Square Pegs: Pac-Man Fever

Square Pegs: Pac-Man Fever
CBS
October 11, 1982
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Marjorie Gross's first of four stories has Marshall developing the affliction of the episode title, leading to Marshall's three friends convincing Jennifer to try to "seduce" him in order to stop his rivalry over the game with Vinnie.  Maybe the sexuality on this show is even more complex than I imagined, although it doesn't get past Marshall touching Jennifer's elbow and then asking for her quarters.  Don Novello appears as his Father Guido Sarducci character and has to listen to Marshall imitate him.

Gary Towles is back as the Uncredited Student.  This is the first of seven episodes Terry Hughes directed.

Saturday Night Live: Elliott Gould & Gary Numan [Condensed]

Saturday Night Live: Elliott Gould & Gary Numan [Condensed]
NBC
February 16, 1980
Variety
VHS
B-

This is one of the hour-long (I think they were called Best of Saturday Night Live) editions that were syndicated later in the '80s, in this case '87.  The highlights here are Kramer vs. Godzilla and the Wizard of Oz parody, although the latter does have regrettably racist casting of Morris as a flying monkey.  (Poor Garrett was in tears a few days afterwards, after five years of mistreatment.)  Numan sings "Cars."  The running joke of Father Guido Sarducci waiting to interview Nixon live outside his new apartment building gets tedious, until there's an unexpected pay-off right at the end.

And, yes, the jokes about candidates Carter and Reagan are pretty ironic of course, especially the one about Reagan being senile.  (He had recently turned 69, which is right between the ages of current candidates Clinton and Trump, although at the time he was definitely the oldest American presidential candidate ever.)