or...

It's A No Show, Show

I had lower expectations of this episode going into the viewing. First, I was coming off the viewing of my favorite episode to date and seeing Dick Cavett was going to be the host, lowered my expectations even more. To top it off Cavett started the show with an announcement that he was a last minute replacement for Elliot Gould, who backed out at the last moment.

All of that said, this ended up being a pretty average episode considering the circumstances. The most important part was that I could sense the collaborative cooperation that was just a little off when it was still pretty much Chevy's show.

Though this episode was nothing really worth writing home about, there's still writing involved as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

The show starts with a sketch with Gilda Radner mind f***ing the home audience by lying about the color of her clothing. Cut to: Garrett Morris watching at home angry that the colors are off based on Gilda's lies. He then beats the TV in an attempt to fix the picture quality, knocking Gilda (inside the TV) around in the process.
Dick Cavett then opens the show with an announcement that he was a last minute replacement for Elliot Gould. He then answered questions from the audience that were surprisingly either very dirty or very cruel.
This was followed by a fake commercial for Puppy Uppers and Doggy Downers that promise to regulate your pooch's mood.
This was followed by a Watergate sketch with flashbacks and flash-forwards that seemed to last a lifetime.
Ry Cooder then came out to perform Tattler.
Next was the news with Jane Curtin, again her stories seem to be more satirical than the joke-heavy Chevy news.
The news's commercial was for the Marines where Garrett Morris plays a gay recruiter looking for "A Few Good Men.
The news then concluded with the worst tale of a Good Samaritan attempt gone wrong.
Next was a sketch called Crossroads where Belushi plays a young boy who is contemplating dropping out of school. He seems to have a couple of good points, but everyone beats the crap out of him instead of answering with advice.
This was followed by a parody of an upcoming show to NBC. It was called Mobile Shrink and had Chevy Chase providing therapy at other's jobs. Being that Chevy was in this sketch, I'm guessing it was a bit that missed its mark and was supposed to be scrapped.
Jane Curtin then played the host in an episode of How Things Work, where she interviewed Dick Cavett about the power of Pressure Groups and their fake letter-writing campaigns.
The short film this week was a repeat of the old lady that runs the local novelty shop which added to the filler feel of this episode.
The Bees then made an appearance as they broke down their history of their immigration to America and how they were treated by the wasps.
Ry Cooder returned to play He'll Have to Go.
Michael O'Donoghue returned for his weird segment called Least-Loved Bedtime Tales, where he told a bizarre story about a blind chicken that felt over calculated in its quirkiness.
The comedy duo of Franken and Tom then came out to do a survey sketch that was sort of interaction with the crowd.
Finally, Cavett said his good nights after having to kill a couple minutes because they finished ahead of time.

This was another episode where it was hard to come up with my three favorite sketches but here's what I managed to pull. First, I did laugh when Garrett Morris slapped the TV to get it to work better because that was a technique that worked in the past, Gilda getting knocked about was just an extra bit of comedy that added to the appeal. Next, I'm always a fan of seeing Frank and Tom. Finally, I liked the history of the Bees but more because of the fact that I'm a fan of the characters over the content of the bit on its own.