Live From New York, It's Season Three!
May 1, 2008

I always look forward to taking a nostalgic dip into the past via NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Universal will issue Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season on May 13 and tracking through the seven-disc collection summons up images of myself as a teenager staying up late on Saturdays to check out the newest installments of the most radical TV show to ever hit the airways.

Covering the 1977-78 broadcast year, SNL #3 is a sterling season in the show’s canon, filled with first-time appearances by such characters as Bill Murray’s shtick-filled nightclub singer Nick Springs, and Steve

Equally wild and crazy are the season’s hosts, who truly range from the ridiculous (Hugh Hefner, Michael Sarrazin, Art Garfunkle) to the sublime (Steve Martin, Buck Henry, Madeline Kahn and “Anyone Can Host Contest” winner Miskel Spillman). Chevy Chase made his first-ever return to the show since leaving the year before, much to the consternation of new regular Bill Murray, whose unhappiness with Chevy can easily be seen onstage. (The two reportedly got into a backstage skirmish during the taping.) 

One of the strangest and most disquieting moments of the season occured in the 12^th episode, hosted by O.J. Simpson. A sketch finds O.J. (playing himself), John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Garrett Morris watching a Bears vs. Giant football game in December ’77 wherein legendary Bears running back Walter Peyton is on the verge of breaking O.J.’s famed 2,0003 yard running record. When Belushi and co. ask Simpson if he’s upset about having his recorded overtaken, he replies “It’s nice to think that your name in some record book will lend you some measure of immortality, but that’s just an illusion.” Oh, and that’s right before he plunges a pair of needles into a Walter Peyton voodoo doll! Creepy…

The show also continues its strong musical tradition in Season 3, showcasing such varied acts as Elvis Costello (Radio Radio), Sun Ra ("Space Is The Place," "Space-Loneliness"), Billy Joel ("Only the Good Die Young," "Just the Way You Are"), Jackson Browne ("Runnin' on Empty," "The Pretender"), Paul Simon ("Slip Sliding Away"), Leon Redbone ("Champagne Charlie"), Meatloaf ("All Revved Up & No Place To Go," "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad") and, hysterically, Ray Charles singing “I Can See Clearly Now.”

Posted by Laurence Lerman on May 1, 2008 | Comments (0)