Saturday Night Live/Peter Cook, Dudley Moore/Neil Sedaka

Peter Cook, Dudley Moore/Neil Sedaka
Season 1, Episode 11
Airdate	January 24, 1976
Production Number	012
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 ("The Paramount Novelty Store")
← 1x10 Buck Henry/Bill Withers, Toni Basil	1x12 → Dick Cavett/Jimmy Cliff
Saturday Night Live — Season One

Peter Cook, Dudley Moore/Neil Sedaka is the eleventh episode of the first season of Saturday Night Live, and the eleventh episode overall. It is the first appearance of either of its hosts and of its musical guest.

Guest Stars: Peter Cook (Host), Dudley Moore (Host), Neil Sedaka (Musical Guest)

Muppet Voices and Puppeteers: Jerry Nelson (Scred)

Episode Breakdown

• Bomb Squad: A cop (Morris) carefully slides a package out from under the stairs of a concerned couple (Coe & Radner). The cop says he has called in the bomb expert (Chase), who arrives and tells the couple and the cop to leave. When they are gone, he carefully pulls the package out further into the room with a string, and when nothing happens, he goes to pick it up, but he nearly falls into it. He gently lifts the package onto a crate and cuts it open, but when he does, a hand comes out of it and tries to smash a pie in his face, but it misses.
• Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Monologue: Cook and Moore discuss the difference between British and American comedy, and they say British comedy is more subtle, so sometimes the audience doesn't get the jokes for hours.
• Tarzan: A producer (Cook) auditions a one-legged actor, Mr. Spigot (Moore), for the role of Tarzan. The producer explains that, with only one leg, Spigot is inappropriate for the role, which requires two legs. To cheer Spigot up, the producer says he has an advantage over actors with no legs, and if no actors with two legs audition, he may be hired.
• Lifer Follies: A prison warden (Coe) meets with the renowned English director Mr. Maury (Cook), who has offered to direct the prison's annual play. Maury introduces his secretary, Ms. Thompson (Radner), and says he will be doing a production of Gigi. The warden warns Thompson to button her top button, as the prisoners may be overly aroused by seeing a woman. The first auditioner, Boyd Norman (Aykroyd), says he burned his entire family reunion with a flame thrower and he belongs in prison. For his audition, he dances with cockroaches he has trained, but he keeps squashing the cockroaches until he can no longer control himself and starts screaming threats. The guards drag him away, and Maury says, "He has a very good physical presence." The next prisoner, Clyde Sankue (Chase), is in prison for kidnapping, child molestation, arson and "impersonating an officer of the Coast Guard." Sankue's audition starts with a joke, in which he asks Maury to say his name, and Sankue replies, "You're welcome." He then starts to play "Moon River" on the harmonica, but he stops suddenly and tries to molest Thompson. To redeem himself, he starts to sing the song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from the show, but he starts to talk about molesting the little girls, then dives again for Thompson. As the guards drag him away, Maury says, "We'll be in touch, Mr. Sankue." The next auditioner, Gary Johnson (Morris), claims to have written several songs. He performs one of his songs, "I'm Gonna Get Me a Shotgun and Kill All the Whiteys I See." When he, too, tries to molest Thompson, the guards drag him off, but Maury says he has a "wonderful sense of rhythm." The final auditioner (Belushi), a mafioso type, has several aliases, but he asks to be called Steve Bushakis. He says his 15 murders were an accident, and he gives a round of applause to the warden. He sings "That's Life" until he stops suddenly and molests Maury. As the guards drag him off, Maury says he's perfect for the role of Gigi.
  

  

  "I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see!" Gary Johnson sings the song representing "the sum of [his] philosophy."

• Don Pardo's Holiday in an Elevator: Announcer Don Pardo tells a couple (Aykroyd & Radner) they should take his "around the world in 80 floors" Holiday in an Elevator. A man (Morris) enters the elevator and asks for Sweden as the couple arrive with their friend (Curtin), who sees them off. On the elevator, the couple's first stop is Canada, where they find Moore dressed in a warm overcoat and standing next to a reindeer. The door closes, and they travel to Spain, where they find Moore dressed as a matador stabbing a bull. On their next stop, the USSR, Moore pulls a fur coat over the matador costume. They try to go to Borneo, but when the doors open, Moore says, "No way. No way." They next go to Tahiti, where Moore holds up a lei and grass skirt in front of his clothes. Back at "home," the couple talk about how much they liked the tour, where the water was safe in India, and they had nothing in their bags. A customs official (Chase) asks if they have anything to declare, but he is only kidding.
• Breaking Up Is Hard to Do: Neil Sedaka song.
• Weekend Update.
  • Chase once again tries to call his correspondent in war-torn Angola, but this time he direct dials and gets Curtin, who thinks he wants Angela, whom she says is out. Chase explains who he is, and Curtin asks why he's not doing the news right now. Chase apologizes and says Angela is at Chase's place "stringing the beads."
  • Newman debuts her new "man on the street" piece on women's issues, beginning with a piece on abortion. She asks one man (Morris) if he has ever had an abortion and if he would ever consider getting one, and he says no to both.
  • Emily Litella offers an angry response to an earlier editorial on "saving Soviety jewelry," saying the Soviets should save their own jewelry. Chase explains the editorial was on saving Soviet Jewry, and Litella apologizes.
  • For viewers "who may have been in the shower earlier in our broadcast," Chase repeats the top story with the help of a man taking a shower, Alan Zweibel, the Chairman of Wet Americans for a Clean Nation.
• Middle American Van Lines: A commercial which airs during WU. Middle American Van Lines helps a family move, but rather than packing up their belongings into the moving van, the movers throw blankets over the family themselves and throw them into the van.
• Table Talk: A talk show host (Moore) interviews Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling (Cook) about his restaurant, the Frog & Peach, which Streeb-Greebling started immediately after World War II. Streeb-Greebling says the only two menu items are a large frog with a peach in his mouth and a large peach filled with tadpoles. The restaurant has been a failure, and Streeb-Greebling says his wife hates having to feed the frogs.
• The Paramount Novelty Store: At the Paramount Novelty Store, the elderly proprietress shows off many of the store's gags and jokes, including a whoopie cushion, fake insects, bloody worms, a large rubber rat, snakes in a can, black soap, bloody soap, a fake hand and a Polish mug.
• Sonny & Cher: The British Sonny (Moore) & Cher (Cook) enter wearing Scottish kilts and singing "I've Got You, Babe" with thick brogues. They trade quips in the accents regarding Sonny's short stature and Cher's small breasts. Cher says she is pregnant, but the network has said her baby will be cancelled if her ratings don't improve.
• Gilda and Scred: Radner is about to announce the musical guest again, but Scred (Nelson) enters wearing a bee costume. Scred asks about a parody of The Andy Griffith Show, where he was promised he would play Aunt Bee. Radner says the sketch has been complained, and Scred complains about how the Muppets are kept out of the loop on the show. He also says he can't get extra tickets for his parents. He asks Radner if he can "play with your mooglies." Radner declines but lets him introduce Sedaka.
• Lonely Night: Neil Sedaka song.
• Backstage Banter: Curtin hosts a talk show about the theater, and her guest is "male impersonator" Sheila Ellington (Belushi). Ellington talks about her secrets, which include chocolate sprinkles for stubble and masking tape to hide her breasts. She shows a picture of her with her family, which shows her looking very much like a woman. She does an impression of Rod Steiger singing "One (Is the Loneliest Number)," and she also talks about once being shocked by a mouse while performing. She ends by saying she is pregnant, but she is hiding that with masking tape, also.
• Attractive: Chase plays the man in an attractive couple who are out on a date at the fair and the beach. The announcer says they use no commercial products to be this attractive.
• Organ Harvesting: Dr. Collins (Moore) says his patient's (Morris) vital signs have ceased, and he asks his colleagues (Aykroyd, et al.) to raise their hands if they agree he is dead so he can remove the organs. All of the other surgeons raise their hands. When Collins ask for all who disagree to raise their hands, the patient slowly raises his, but Collins and his colleagues ignore it.
• The Gospel Truth: A first-century journalist, Matthew (Moore), interviews Arthur Shepherd (Cook), a shepherd who was present at the birth of Jesus. Shepherd talks about how angels came down and announced the birth of Jesus, how Jesus' swaddling was the worst he'd ever seen, and how he saw the Magi present mostly useless gifts to Jesus, but Jesus accepted them graciously.

Notes

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

• Chevy Chase as the Bomb Expert with an attempted pie in his face.

Music

• Moon River, performed by Chevy Chase: One of the most widely known and frequently recorded songs of all time, "Moon River" was originally written by Johnny Mercer and composed by Henry Mancini in 1961 for the film Breakfast at Tiffany's. It won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

• That's Life, performed by John Belushi: Originally written for and performed by Frank Sinatra as the title track of his 1966 album of the same title, it became one of Sinatra's signature pieces and biggest hits.
  

  

  Neil Sedaka performs "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do."

• Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, performed by Neil Sedaka: Sedaka scored twice with this song, which he wrote in 1962. Its first recording, as a heavily produced rock hit, reached #1 on the US charts, but as the British Invasion and folk singers such as Bob Dylan dominated the charts, Sedaka—like most pop stars of the 1950s and early 60s—found himself out of the public eye. As the 1970s saw musical tastes more heavily fractured again, Sedaka recorded a cover of his own song, this time as a lounge song, accompanied only by himself on the piano. The new version of the song, which Sedaka performs here, again reached the top of the charts.

• I Got You Babe, performed by Dudley Moore and Peter Cook: The male-female duet pop song which became a #1 hit for Sonny & Cher in 1965 and made the duo famous.

• Lonely Night (Angel Face), performed by Neil Sedaka: Another single Sedaka wrote upon his 1970s comeback, Sedaka himself would find only moderate success. However, it became a huge hit for the Captain & Tenille, whose biggest hit, "Love Will Keep Us Together," was also written by Sedaka.

• Take Two: In the cold opening, Chase was supposed to take a pie in the face, but it missed. As a result, over the goodnights, Moore helps the disembodied hand, played by Belushi, find its target on Chase's face.

Trivia

The Show

• MIA: Cast member Michael O'Donoghue is not credited and does not appear in this episode. Sometime-cast member George Coe does appear and is credited, but separately from the rest of the cast.

• The Queen's English: With this episode, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook become the first British hosts of SNL.

• Repeat Sketches: The sketch "Middle American Van Lines" first appeared in episode 1x03 - Rob Reiner, and the sketch "Attractive" was first used on episode 1x04 - Candice Bergen/Esther Phillips.

• Muppet Friends: In the sketch "Gilda and Scred," Gilda Radner becomes the first cast member to interact with one of the Muppets. Incidentally, both this interaction and the Muppets' most recent appearance with a human featured Scred or one of the other Muppets referring to the Bees as separate entitities from the cast and complaining about backstage politics at the show. This type of humor would presage creator Jim Henson's concept for The Muppet Show, which debuted mere months after this episode aired and was framed as the backstage antics at a live variety show.

Memorable Moments

• Lifer Follies.

Quotes

• Gary Johnson: (Pleasantly.) Um, well, um, I've been in solitary for years now, and I studied and developed my talents for writin' music, and I've written a lot of songs. And now here's a song which is the sum of my philosophy. (Piano playing starts. Singing.)
  Iiiiiii'm gonna... get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I see!
  I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I seeeeeee!
  When I kill all the whiteys I see,
  Then Whitey, he won't bother meeeeee!
  I'm gonna get me a shotgun and kill all the whiteys I seeeeee!