SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE {LAUREN HUTTON, RICK JAMES} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of live, late-night comedy/variety programs featuring topical satire. Actress/model Lauren Hutton hosts this program, with musical guest Rick James and the Stone City Band. In the opening sequence, Eddie Murphy appears as Bill Cosby, selling a record of his "Tonight Show" monologues, complete with his trademark rambling stories, but Murphy is then called to Hutton's dressing room. There, she tells him that he is a "star" and asks him to do a few of his classic impressions, and he soon surmises that she is interested in him. He prepares to make a move, but co-star Joe Piscopo appears to him and convinces him otherwise, making him nervous with a lot of talk about her fame. Sketches include the following: a meeting with President Reagan and his aides, in which he believes he is starring in a movie, questioning his "character's" motivation and requesting "more action"; an ad for TransEastern airlines, complete with its incompetent staff; Hutton's commercial for Whisper soap product, which doubles as bath moisturizer and dish-cleaner; "The Two Faces of Jerry," featuring both the funny and "bitter" sides of comedian Jerry Lewis; a trailer for the not-so-original Brian De Palma horror film "The Clams"; a "Cheap Laffs" segment in which sophomoric, rejected sketch ideas are presented, including a commercial for "Macho Wipe" toilet tissue; and "SNL Newsbreak," with Brian Doyle-Murray discussing political news, the suspiciously-timed pregnancy of Diana, Princess of Wales, the threat of nuclear war, and an interview conducted by Ted Koppel between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which quickly devolves into argument and then resolves itself just as quickly, and comments from Eddie Murphy about his strange habits with his pets at his new apartment. Rick James and the Stone City Band perform "Give It To Me Baby" and "Superfreak."
Other highlights include the following: an installment of "Reach Out," in which vapid celebrity models Brooke Shields and Cheryl Tiegs attempt to help audience members with their problems, with largely unsuccessful results; advice from an assertive "guardian angel" on how to protect oneself from muggings; a reading from a Harlequin romance novel aimed at men, in which a timid man disguises himself as a woman to join a tough all-female group of jungle explorers, who treat him with aggressive interest when he is discovered; an ad for the Velvet Jones School of Technology, offering a new book on how to become a successful pimp; an episode of "Reality '81" explaining the addictive "missing ingredient" in Coca-Cola, and promoting a distilling machine to recreate "the real thing"; readings from "The Naked Lunch" and "Nova Express" by famed beat poet William S. Burroughs; and a short, artistic black-and-white French film about "literary dog" Maurice Blaget, "inspired and misunderstood" until his death. Hutton then bids the audience good night. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 7, 1981 11:35 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:16:44
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:41981
- GENRE: Comedy/Variety
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy/Variety
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1975-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dick Ebersol … Executive Producer
- Bob Tischler … Supervising Producer
- Michael O'Donoghue … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Audrey Peart Dickman … Associate Producer
- Mary Salter … Film Producer
- Barbara Lieberman … Film Associate Producer
- Barry W. Blaustein … Writer
- Joe Bodolai … Writer
- Brian Doyle Murray … Writer
- Nate Herman … Writer
- Tim Kazurinsky … Writer
- Nelson Lyon … Writer
- Pamela Norris … Writer
- Mark O'Donnell … Writer
- Tony Rosato … Writer
- David Sheffield … Writer
- Rosie Shuster … Writer
- Terry Southern … Writer
- Eliot Wald … Writer
- Dave Wilson … Director
- Lauren Hutton … Host, Performer
- William S. Burroughs … Guest
- Rick James … Guest, Music Group
- The Stone City Band … Guest, Music Group
- Eddie Murphy … Cast
- Joe Piscopo … Cast
- Robin Duke … Cast
- Christine Ebersole … Cast
- Mary Gross … Cast
- Tim Kazurinsky … Cast
- Tony Rosato … Cast
- Brian Doyle-Murray … Cast
- Yasser Arafat
- Menachem Begin
- Bill Cosby
- Brian De Palma
- Diana, Princess of Wales (See also: Spencer, Diana)
- Ted Koppel
- Jerry Lewis
- Brooke Shields
- Cheryl Tiegs