Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season, 1977-1978 Review

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(More customer reviews)This season still features the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players - John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris,Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. Plus newcomer Bill Murray.
When SNL (at this time it was NBC's Saturday Night Live) first came on it changed the variety format from skits and musical numbers to what is now called sketch comedy with music from popular and upcoming rock groups. Each episode was "hosted" by an actor who was usually promoting their new film.
Each show had an opening skit that end with "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night", the credits followed, then the guest host would come out do some sort of monologue. This would fade into either an original SNL cast commercial (remember The Taste Bud's for Budweiser) or a parody of a commercial. Skit, musical guest, skit, Weekend Update, skit, second musical number, skit and closing.
The show had a number of reoccuring skits, which were rotated to keep them fresh (unlike today when they get an idea they flog it to death!). The best were Two Wild and Crazy Guys (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd), the coneheads (Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Lorraine Newman), Samuari "Whatever" (John Belushi), the Killer Bees (cast).
If you have not seen the original episodes uncut then you will understand why this show was so revolutionary. And remember that at this time people had to stay up to watch the show "Live" as most people did not own VCR's in 1977. So it became a fashionable for groups of young people to have parties and watch the show.
The following are this season's hosts and musical guests:
Steve Martin / Jackson Browne (Running on Empty and The Pretender)
Madeline Kahn / Taj Mahal (Queen Bee) - guest performer Dame Edna Everedge
Hugh Heffner / Libby Titus (Fool That I Am)
Charles Grodin / Paul Simon and The Persuaders (Slip Sliding Away and You're Kind) - Coneheads, Samuai Dry Cleaner, Killer Bees. Art Garfunkel appears in a skit with Grodin and Simon
Ray Charles and the Raylettes (I Can See Clearly Now, What I'd Say and Hit The Road Jack)- Ray does a parody of Andre Agassi's Cannon commercial.
Buck Henry / Leon Redbone (Champagne Charlie and Please Don't Talk About Me When I Am Gone) - Samurai Psychiatrist
Mary Kay Place / Willie Nelson (Whiskey River, Blue Eye's Crying in the Rain and Something to Brag About) - with appearance by Andy Kaufman
Mrs. Miskel Spillman (Anyone Can Host winner) / Elvis Costello (Watching the Detectives)
Steve Martin / The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (On the Looose with the Blues) & Randy Newman (Short People and Rider on the Rain) - Two Wild and Crazy Guys, Coneheads
Robert Klien / Bonnie Raitt (Runaway and Give It All Up or Let Me Go) - Lobsters Attack the Show
Chevy Chase / Billy Joel (Only the Good Die Young and Just the Way You Are) - Chevy as Ford
O.J. Simpson / Ashford and Simpson (So, So Satisfied and Don't Cost You Nothing) - Samurai Night Fever, Hertz
Art Garfunkel (All I Know, Scarsburough Fair and Crying in My Sleep)/ Stephen Bishop (On & On)
Jill Claburgh / Eddie Money (Two Tickets to Paradise and Baby Hold On) - Coneheads
Christopher Lee / Meatloaf (All Rewed Up & No Place to Go and Two Out of Three Ain't Bad) - appearance by Richard Belzer
Michael Palin / Eugene Record (Have You Seen Her and Trying to Get to You) - Academy Awards, Mr. Bill
Michael Sarrizin / Keith Jarrett - La Dolce Gilda
Steve Martin (again!) / The Blues Brothers (Hey Bartender and I Don't Know) - Two Wild and Crazy Guys, Dancing in the Dark (Steve and Gilda classic), King Tut
Richard Deryfuss / Jimmy Buffett (Son of a Sailor) & Gary Tigerman (White Oaxacan Moon)
Buck Henry / Sun Ra (Space is the Place and Space Loneliness) - Samurai TV Repairman, Mr. Mike
This is when the show was at its zenith and is still funny today.

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Continuing the enormous success of the previous two years, the third season of SNL (1977-78) showcased a fearless cast that created some of the most memorable sketches to ever appear on the show. With hilarious breakthrough characters like The Nerds (Bill Murray and Gilda Radner), Coneheads (Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin), lounge singer Nick Winters (Bill Murray), Samurai Warrior (John Belushi), a singing King Tut (legendary SNL host Steve Martin) and featuring Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) as well as "The Franken and Davis Show" (Al Franken and Tom Davis), SNL continued to define itself as the pinnacle of irreverent humor and political satire.The complete third season of SNL contains unforgettable appearances by hosts Steve Martin, Michael Palin, Hugh Hefner, Buck Henry, Robert Klein, Chevy Chase, Madeline Kahn, Richard Dreyfuss, O.J. Simpson and the winner of the "Anyone Can Host" contest, Miskel Spillman, and classic musical performances by Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Leon Redbone, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ashford & Simpson, Meat Loaf and The Blues Brothers.

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