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“Saturday Night Live’s” 1978-79 fourth season, the coke-fueled era of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Buck Henry, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Brian McConnachie, Brian Doyle-Murray, Don Novello and Mr. Bill, found the show at its apex of zeitgeist-tapping rock-star-huge popularity. The headliner of the first fourth-season show was The Rolling Stones (which performed “Beast of Burden,” “Respectable” and “Shattered” in rapid succession late in the episode). The first major movies from Chevy Chase and John Belushi, both released July 1978, were still in cinemas doing big business, through Belushi’s “Animal House” grossed three times what the departed Chase’s “Foul Play” did. The fourth season’s first episode doesn’t really have a host, but New York mayor Ed Koch fills the monologue with a sketch that anticipated Belushi’s impending departure brilliantly: Koch rewards a disappointed Belushi for his big-screen success with a certificate of merit. “I got one of these in grade school!” moans the comedian, who can’t believe he’s not getting a key to the city. Belushi rants about how he should have stayed in Hollywood to pursue a movie career rather than take $450 for each episode of SNL: “You know how much they get on ‘Laverne & Shirley’? Lenny and Squiggy get five grand a show!” Belushi (whom I now realize looked a LOT like a skinnier Jorge Garcia) does not appear in the season’s cold opening. Instead we get a period piece centered on a singing Garrett Morris, as if to diminish expectations. There were signs Aykroyd was also eyeing the exit, the most glaring being the plumbers-crack he brandished during the season’s first Todd & Lisa sketch. Bill Murray took over Aykroyd’s Update anchor chair in the same episode. Even the season’s first, confusing, California-set Shiller’s Reel was a star-studded affair starring Carrie Fisher, Desi Arnaz Jr. and Hal Holbrook. 4.2 brought an “America 2-Night”-era Fred Willard and the perfect nerdgasm that was pre-“Whip It” 1978 DEVO, which performs “Satisfaction” and “Jocko Homo.” It contains at least one funny sketch I remembered not at all, starring Belushi as Moab, a devout ancient who sacrifices his trusting son Schlomo (Murray) to a distracted god (Don Pardo). A “Dancing Fool”-era Frank Zappa, who proves himself no comedian or actor, served as both host and musical guest for 4.3. Guido Sarducci (who looks like Frank Zappa), in his second SNL appearance, explains how John Paul II was elected to the papacy. Al Franken plays Pete Tagliani, a murderous candidate for Congress. Gay Sluggo makes his homosexual debut as an interior decorator. 4.4 supplied Steve Martin’s only hosting appearance that season. “Theodoric Of York: Medieval Judge” teaches us that “The Writ of Common Wisdom” contains an entry for “consorting with Danes.” A Colonel Lingus joke is made on Update. The Festruck Bros. produce a Slovakian “vibrating machine” traded by a Communist Party official for “many fuel coupons.” Todd DelaMuca dry-humps Chaz The Spazz, his rival for Lisa Loopner’s affections. A text crawl under the monologue tells us that 4.5, the season’s first Buck Henry show, is not expected to be as good as the Steve Martin show that preceded it, or the Carrie Fisher show that will follow. Buck accidentally calls the Samurai Optometrist an optician. Nick Sands sings “Theme From Shaft.” Aykroyd provides the voice of Obi-Wan for 4.6, hosted by Carrie Fisher in her Princess Leia outfit and a gold two-piece swimsuit. Belushi plays Eric Von Zipper. Fisher, whose only big-screen appearance between “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” was a cameo in “Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video,” had just turned 22. She’s unbelievably adorable and ended the show by kissing both Jake and Elwood on the lips. Garrett Morris was the musical not-guest in 4.7, perhaps because the Blues Brothers got to perform during the previous episode. Walter Matthau donned the black and yellow to coach The Bad News Bees and gets the Olympia Diner to switch from Pepsi to Coke. This episode features an Update segment about the assassination of San Francisco city supervisor “Harry Milk.” Aykroyd plays a not-German homosexual named “Bruno.” A 20-year-old Kate Bush (!) makes her American television debut writhing in a sparkly gold unitard atop Paul Schaffer’s piano during 4.8, hosted by Eric Idle. Bill Murray bops Idle on the head and noogies him onto the stage for a monologue. This is the episode in which Julie Child cuts “the dickens” out of her hand. “Cochise At Oxford” is a very odd sketch that ends strongly. Bob Elliott, father of Chris and grandfather of Abby, appears on the Elliot Gould-hosted 4.9 with partner Ray Goulding. (Huh. It occurs to me here that Bob & Ray’s last names are almost “Elliot Gould.”) Mick Jagger and Peter Tosh sing “Don’t Look Back.” With 4.10, one of the strongest episodes of the series’ long history, Michael Palin introduces Dickens’ “The Wretched Birth, Miserable Childhood, Agonizingly Painful Adolescence, and Appalling Vile and Degrading Death of Miles Cowperthwaite,” whose title character in this first chapter must contend with a invasive epileptic’s copious drool buckets. (Palin would reprise Cowperthwaite only eight episodes later, and it bears noting that Murray here plays a groundskeeper with a voice not unlike that of “Caddyshack” groundskeeper Carl Spackler.) Palin also portrays Hitler in a sketch about Klaus Kent, the Nazis’ superpowered Überman, who discovers via x-ray vision that Jimmy Olsteyn is a Jew. (Belushi gets to break out his Brando impression as Jor-El.) Palin also hosts the hilariously traumatic game show “Name The Bats.” A Tom Johnston-free Doobie Bros. performs “What A Fool Believes” and “Takin’ It To The Streets.” Talking Heads perform wonderful renditions of “Take Me To The River” and “Artists Only” on 4.11, hosted by Cicely Tyson. This was the installment in which “The Ex-Police” investigate another homosexuality-related death. 4.12 was hosted by Rick Nelson, who played himself, himself, himself, a barber and Jorge Lopez, a contestant on “Quien Es Mas Macho?” A Candy Slice sketch introduced Aykroyd and Belushi as The Elvi. “Charlie’s Angels” star Kate Jackson, a former 30 Rock tour guide, hosted 4.13. It turns out she’s conspiring with fellow undercover ABC employee Fred Silverman to destroy NBC. Larraine Newman was seldom funnier than as the 6-year-old psychologist who needs very much to pee. 4.14 begins with Gary Busey and Belushi ready to come to blows because Belushi thinks Busey stole his Oscar nomination with non-blockbuster “Buddy Holly Story.” In 4.15, Margot Kidder delivers her St. Patrick’s Day monologue dressed in a Catholic school girl’s uniform, while the crew drunkenly celebrates backstage. This installment gave us Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute. An “ear infection” kept Belushi in California and off 4.16, hosted by Richard Benjamin. That episode was dominated by the epic “Pepsi Syndrome” sketch, which combined elements of the unfolding Three Mile Island nuclear crisis, “The China Syndrome” and “The Amazing Colossal Man.” Franken & Davis played pro-nuclear mimes who don’t realize they’re not permitted to talk. Rodney Dangerfield makes a surprise appearance to brief First Lady Roslyn Carter on the president’s condition. 4.17 starring Milton Berle, is rumored to have until now been banished to the SNL vaults by Lorne Michaels, and it does turn out to be a pretty wretched installment. From Wikipedia’s entry on Berle: “On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted Saturday Night Live. Perhaps the comedian saw this as a chance to revisit his live-TV "Texaco Star Theater" glories of three decades before. Whatever his intention, he seemed to spend as much time trying to upstage the show's youthful cast members as he did trying to work with or complement them. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production—whether invited to do so or not—was a cause of stress on the set. One of the show's writers, Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with pre-arranged standing ovation (something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned), resulted in Berle being banned from the show.” 4.18, Michael Palin’s third stint hosting, gave us “I Am Nailed To The Hull,” chapter two of “Miles Cowperthwaite.” Captain Ned, who commands The Raging Queen, proves a firm believer in discipline and punishment, and anxious to “comfort” new recruit Miles. (Alas, we never saw the third chapter, “I Am Eaten By Sharks.”) James Taylor, sporting a full head of hair, sings "Johnnie Comes Back," "Up on the Roof" and "Millworker." 4.19, hosted by Maureen Stapleton, featured a duet by Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow on "It's In His Kiss." Deposed dictator Idi Amin proves a inconsiderate houseguest for a young American couple, leaving slaughtered antelope in the kitchen and interrogating prisoners in the bathroom. A surprisingly funny low-concept sketch deals with a thirtysomething woman (Radner) trying to take her mother (Stapleton) out on her birthday. Season four concluded as two, three and five did, with the return by Buck Henry as host. The last Belushi/Aykroyd sketch of the series ended with Pete dancing on the grave of the fire-gutted Olympia Diner. (The very last sketch of the season, curiously, was an impression of Elvis by charter writer-performer Michael O’Donoghue, who had actually left the show’s staff the previous season!) Special features on the set are on the meager side: * “Today Show Interview With John Belushi (7/27/78).” (2:13) A funny and lucid Belushi, promoting “Animal House,” explains to Gene Shalit that the Blues Brothers album contains no comedy and that he would be doing the fourth season of SNL. * “Today Show Interview with Gilda Radner (4/14/80).” (5:04) Shalit makes Radner talk about the origin of Rosanne Rosannadanna (based on local ABC news anchor Rosanna Scarmadella). She also recalls her first meeting with Barbara Walters, with whom she shared a makeup artist, at the Canadian embassy. * “Tomorrow Show with Walter Williams (Mr. Bill).” (4:45) Tom Snyder grills Mr. Bill’s creator, who relates that “SNL” was pre-empted in Williams’ home market of New Orleans by Marti Gras coverage the weekend Mr. Bill made his first appearance, so his friends were skeptical of his accomplishment until the repeat rolled around. Herc’s Popular Pricing Pantry
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