Saturday Night Live/Buck Henry/Gordon Lightfoot

Buck Henry/Gordon Lightfoot
Season 1, Episode 21
Airdate	May 22, 1976
Production Number	024
Written by	Anne Beatts Chevy Chase Al Franken & Tom Davis Lorne Michaels Marilyn Suzanne Miller Michael O'Donoghue Herb Sargent Tom Schiller Rosie Shuster Alan Zweibel
Directed by	Dave Wilson Gary Weis
← 1x20 Dyan Cannon/Leon and Mary Russell	1x22 → Elliott Gould/Leon Redbone, Harlan Collins & Joyce Everson
Saturday Night Live — Season One

Buck Henry/Gordon Lightfoot is the twenty-first episode of the first season of Saturday Night Live, and the twenty-first episode overall. It is the second appearance of its host, Buck Henry, and the first appearance by its musical guest, Gordon Lightfoot, on the show.

Guest Stars: Buck Henry (Host), Gordon Lightfoot (Musical Guest)

Episode Breakdown

• Chevy on Crutches: Chase enters on crutches and says he hurt his leg while he was accepting his Emmy earlier that week, but Newman will do the fall for him tonight. As Chase introduces Newman, he goes on and on about how the rest of the cast is gracious about his having won the Emmy. He also says Newman's fall will not be as good as his would be, because she is not as talented and a woman. Newman jerks Chase's crutch away, so he falls over the chairs and table set up.
• Buck Henry's Monologue: As the show starts, Henry is not on the stage nor in the studio. Producer Lorne Michaels tells Belushi to cover for Henry in the monologue while he goes looking for the missing host, who had gone to get a hamburger. On his way down to the lobby, Michaels explains the situation to Aykroyd, O'Donoghue, Radner, Curtin and Newman. As Belushi complains about working on Saturday Night, Michaels finds Henry in the lobby arguing with a Security Guard (Coe), who says he does not recognize Henry and does not believe he is the host. Michaels vouches for Henry to bring him to the studio, where Belushi is performing a Shakespearean monologue. Henry tries to do his monologue, but he is told they are out of time, and he needs to move ahead, so he does so resentfully.
• Peter Lemon Moodring: A commercial for lounge singer Peter Lemon (Chase), who changes color as he sings songs referencing color, including "When Sunny Gets Blue," "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" and "Ruby." He even changes to rainbow-striped when he sings "Over the Rainbow" and red, white and blue striped when he sings "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue."
• Samurai Futaba - Samurai Taylor: Samurai Futaba (Belushi) chops the head off a suit-making mannequin as his customer (Henry) enters for his wedding tuxedo. Futaba chops the groom's tuxedo off the hook with his katana. When the groom says he wishes he could have a vest, Futaba chops up a piece of black fabric with his sword, and he pulls off the floor a perfectly tailored vest. As the groom tries on the suit, he talks to Futaba about his wedding. The groom realizes there are too many buttons on each sleeve, and Futaba nearly commits harikari, but the groom calls him off. He asks for a few buttons removed, and Futaba slices them off. He also asks for a center vent, and Futaba tears the suit with his sword. He also says there is no fly on his pants, so Futaba pulls back to slice one open, but he stops in a freeze frame.
• Talk Back: Frank Nolan (Henry) hosts a late night call-in talk show where he answers viewers' calls, but the phones do not ring when he announces his topic, "federally supported municipal bonds." He repeats the phone numbers, but still silence. When it is clear Nolan is getting no calls on this issue, he adds the topic of forced bussing to the agenda. There are still no calls, although Nolan repeats the numbers again. One of the phones rings once, but the caller hangs up before Nolan can answer. Frustrated, Nolan speaks out in support of Soviet Communism, but he gets no bites. Nolan tries supporting killing puppies, Hitler and incest, until at last his wife (Radner) comes to take him to bed.
• Dell Stator's 99¢ Toad Ranch Restaurant: Chief wrangler Kenny Longard (Aykroyd) promotes his restaurant, which serves cooked toads for only 99 cents. He gets testimonials from happy customers (Curtin and Henry) before cooking live toads with a blowtorch while two singers (Radner and Newman) sing the jingle. Afterwards, Longard shoves two live toads in his mouth.
• Summertime Dream: Gordon Lightfoot song.
• Polaroid: (Note: Live commercial; not an official sketch.) Morris does a live commercial for the Polaroid Deluxe SX70 Land Camera, featuring photographs taken of the Emmy-winning members of the staff. Radner calls from off-stage, where she is working as a camera operator, so Morris takes a picture of her.
• Weekend Update.
  • Duncan Ebersol reports on the psychological tests given Patricia Hearst as footage shows black & white footage of an old nutritional video. When the camera cuts back, it is revealed Chase himself is supplying the voice of Ebersol by plugging his nose.
• Germasol Air Freshener: The WU commercial, in which a housewife (Radner) is told her house stinks by her two bridge club compatriots (Curtin & Radner). The housewife worries about aerosol sprays, so one of her friends shows her how Germasol, a giant rub-on freshener, makes her house smell better.
• Crowd Audition: Director Craig (Henry) and his assistant director George (Chase) audition an actress (Curtin) for a small role in Craig's major upcoming movie. They move on to the audition for the crowd scene, and a crowd (Aykroyd, Belushi, Coe, Morris, Newman, O'Donoghue, Radner, et al.) enters. Craig asks what their last film was, and they all scream as they shift from side to side to indicate Earthquake! Craig auditions them as a crowd spotting a UFO, an unruly mob, a crowd at Lindbergh's landing and a Tokyo crowd as Godzilla attacks. Craig and George complain about the crowd's acting, but they give them a chance to impersonate Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz. They leave a group photo and a phone book as their numbers. Craig asks if they lynch, and they nearly string up Morris. Craig announces they're hired.
• Lorne's Second Beatles Offer: Having received no word on his initial offer to pay the Beatles $3000 to perform three songs on his show, Michaels says the success of Saturday Night means he can up the offer to $3200, plus cab fare and motel accommodations at the low-rent Crosstown Motor Inn. Michaels closes by saying he has always "liked Yoko."
• Not for Ladies Only: Baba Wawa interviews Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmuller (Newman) about her latest pretentious, confusing film. At times, Wertmuller has trouble understanding Wawa's thick lisp, so she changes the subject to Wawa's hair and clothes. She asks Wawa to gain 200 pounds and appear in her next film saying "totawitawianism," but Wawa says she is "already under contract."
• Toilet Seats: Henry goes to a hardware store's toilet seat section and talks to the customers and salesman about the seats for sale.
• Looks at Books - The Ultimate Expression: Curtin interviews sex expert Dr. Henry T. Ruden (Henry) on his new book, The Ultimate Expression. Although Dr. Ruden promotes the idea of having sex without inhibition, he is unable to say the word "sex," referring instead to, "ah... you know." No matter how much Curtin pushes, Dr. Ruden avoids saying the word, until at last he indicates sex by mimicking it with his right index finger inserted into a hole made by his left index finger and thumb.
• Spanish Moss: Gordon Lightfoot song. After the song, Lightfoot tries to start a third song, but Henry enters and says they only have time for two songs. Lightfoot objects, so Henry has Samurai Futaba cut the strings on Lightfoot's guitar with a wire cutter.
• An die Musik: Garrett Morris song. As Morris sings this piece by 19th-century Austrian composer Franz Schubert, title cards explain Morris had requested the opportunity to sing "an old favorite" of his, and the producers had granted his request, expecting a song from the 1950s or 60s but were surprised when he chose this choral piece. They also say they like the idea of having classier fare, and they are afraid of the knife-wielding Morris. They conclude by saying the song is nice, but they have created these title cards to avoid confusion with PBS.
• Michael O'Donoghue as Tony Orlando: Henry introduces noted impressionist O'Donoghue, who, along with two other women, does his impression of Tony Orlando & Dawn with needles driven into their eyes. O'Donoghue and the two women clutch their eyes and scream in agony as they writhe on the floor.

Notes

"Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!

• Chevy Chase as himself, after being pulled off his crutches by Laraine Newman.

Music

Gordon Lightfoot performs "Summertime Dream."

• Summertime Dream, performed by Gordon Lightfoot: The title track off Lightfoot's 1976 album, which reached #12 on the Billboard charts. The album was the last in a series of commercially successful, critically acclaimed singles and albums for Lightfoot. Much of the album—including this song—has a traditional folk and bluegrass feel for which Lightfoot is noted.

• Spanish Moss, performed by Gordon Lightfoot: Another track off the album Summertime Dream, although it was never released as a single. This is one of the rare televised appearances of Gordon performing the love ballad.

• An die Musik, composed by Franz Schubert, performed by Garrett Morris: Schubert composed this choral piece to set music to the poem of the same title ("To Music" in English) by Franz von Schober. The poem and song are celebrations of the soothing power of music and art.

Trivia

The Show

• Uncredited Appearance: Cast member George Coe is not credited, but he appears as a Security Guard. Michael O'Donoghue also appears, but he is credited separately from the Not Ready for Primetime Players.

• Repeat Sketch: The sketch "Germasol Air Freshener" was first used for episode 1x10 - Buck Henry/Bill Withers, Toni Basil.