NBC'S SATURDAY NIGHT {SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE} {ROBERT KLEIN, ABBA, LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III} (TV)
Summary
One in this series of live, late-night comedy/variety programs featuring topical satire. Robert Klein hosts this program, with guests ABBA, Loudon Wainwright III, and Jim Henson's Muppets.
In the opening sketch, an embittered pageant winner disavows the beauty-contest concept and storms offstage, leaving the befuddled emcee alone. Klein performs a stand-up routine, discusses the perils of live television, including the dangers of working with animals; why animals are not at all like their cartoon portrayals; his role in the unsuccessful film "Rivals" (1972) co-starring Joan Hackett, in which he narrowly avoided performing a nude scene; and his unusual approach to fending off a would-be murderer.
Other sketches including the following: a scene on the Titanic in which ABBA performs "S.O.S."; a game of Pong between two dissimilar students; "One Minute Mystery," featuring an overzealous crime-scene photographer and a murder mystery to be solved by the viewer; "Bee-centennial Minute," featuring bee history from 200 years ago; an interview with musician Gregg Allman, who is reluctant to discuss his love life; film director Sam Peckinpah's attempts to branch out from his violent Westerns to make a romantic comedy, which go awry as he quickly loses patience with his actors; and "Weekend Update," in which Chevy Chase comments on President Gerald Ford's latest travels, a very short book about Richard Nixon's "friends," noted racist George Wallace's bid for president, an appeal from the "Turn Off the Lights Drive" to aid the energy crisis, and "news for the hard-of-hearing," among other things.
Further sketches including the following: a pair of ruthless exterminators who decide that cockroaches are "fantastic creatures" who should not be killed after all; fire-safety advice and poetry from firefighter Gilda Radner; a visit to "The Land of Gorch," where King Ploobis goes to desperate lengths to rid himself of a migraine headache; an installment of "Looks at Books," featuring rambling children's author Emily Litella; an advertisement for glamorous international diplomacy work; and another visit to the Titanic, where ABBA performs "Waterloo." Klein also performs another stand-up routine about the experience of performing comedy at the Air Force Academy; his time at Alfred University and study of abnormal psychology, including the strange tale of Phineas Gage; and science experiments involving rhesus monkeys and marijuana. He also performs a blues song, "I Can't Stop My Leg." Wainwright sings "Bicentennial" and "Unrequited to the Nth Degree." Includes commercials and promos.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: November 15, 1975 11:35 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:17:08
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:50078
- GENRE: Comedy/Variety
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy/Variety; Music
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1975-
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Bic cigarette lighters
- TV - Commercials - Certs breath mints
- TV - Commercials - Con-Tact decorative wall coverings
- TV - Commercials - Delta Airlines
- TV - Commercials - Diet Coca-Cola soft drinks
- TV - Commercials - Geritolm Miss Breck Lasting Hold hair spray
- TV - Commercials - Gillette Cricket cigarette lighters
- TV - Commercials - Golden Griddle pancake syrup
- TV - Commercials - Green Giant Niblets golden corn
- TV - Commercials - Kaopectate Concentrate diarrhea medicine
- TV - Commercials - Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants
- TV - Commercials - L'Eggs Sheer Energy stockings
- TV - Commercials - Nestle's semi-sweet chocolate toll house morsels
- TV - Commercials - RCA ColorTrak televisions
- TV - Commercials - Timex watches
- TV - Commercials - Tone soap
- TV - Promos - "Guilty or Innocent: The Sam Sheppard Murder Case"
CREDITS
- Penelope Spheeris … Producer
- Lorne Michaels … Producer, Writer
- Craig Kellem … Associate Producer
- Dave Wilson … Director
- Albert Brooks … Writer
- Anne Beatts … Writer
- Chevy Chase … Writer
- Al Franken … Writer
- Tom Davis … Writer
- Marilyn Suzanne Miller … Writer
- Paul Mooney … Writer
- Michael O'Donoghue … Writer
- Herb Sargent … Writer
- Tom Schiller … Writer
- Rosie Shuster … Writer
- Alan Zweibel … Writer
- Robert Klein … Host
- ABBA … Guest, Performer
- Loudon Wainwright III … Guest, Performer
- Dan Aykroyd … Cast
- John Belushi … Cast
- Chevy Chase … Cast
- Jane Curtin … Cast
- Garrett Morris … Cast
- Laraine Newman … Cast
- Gilda Radner … Cast
- Gregg Allman
- Gerald Ford
- Phineas Gage
- Joan Hackett
- Richard Nixon
- Sam Peckinpah
- George Wallace