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The Episode That Shadows The Career Of The Mom Who Saved The World

When I saw Teri Garr's name next in the queue, my first thought was, "Oh, I love Teri Garr," then I thought back to think of a specific role that I loved her in, and the first thing that came to mind was Mom And Dad Save The World. That's not to say that this is the only movie I knew her from, I think it was just the first thing that came to me because it was one of the few comedic films where she was one of the leads and not just a funny supporting character.

Of course, I also loved her in Young Frankenstein and Close Encounters which both definitely should have come to my mind first, but I think the tone of this season's comedy may be why this box office miss was the actual first resume entry that came to mind. That and I genuinely like that movie even if it is just to use as an obscure reference about Kathy Ireland or the funny little dog men that say nothing but, "Oh boy."

This question as to why a higher quality piece of her work got me thinking that this episode kind of mirrored her career where she has the skill for the more significant roles but does a super good job as a character actress who is between the leads and the background.

Though I did think this was a fun episode, this is another case where I don't feel the show treated it like it was truly her episode because she didn't get the superstar host treatment. Hell, there were multiple sketches where she wasn't even involved where one of the cast members play the leading female character.

It wasn't like they had an Eddie and Piscopo sketch with returning characters where there just wasn't a place for the host. No, for whatever reason this episode under-utilized Teri Garr but that said, she still did an outstanding job.

Alright now that I'm done rambling on about what I think of Teri's career, it's time to move on and share what I saw as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show with the girls of the cast as Pom-Pom Girls who welcome Teri Garr into their squad by teacher her their weird cheers that, for the most part, had absolutely nothing to do with sports and those that did were actually anti-sports cheers. Teri Garr then made a horrible attempt to rah-rah in a more traditional way and ended on the chant of, "Live from New York..."
Teri Garr then officially opens the show with a monolog where she played a ditzy character of herself. She insisted that she was familiar with the entire crowd as if, collectively, they were an individual that she met at a party, This joke ended up going nowhere, as did the joke about randomly being chosen to host while checking in for a hotel stay. Though these jokes sort of petered out they were at least delivered in an entertaining way, so I wouldn't necessarily call this a failure.
Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood returns for another installment where the word for the day is "Nutrition" where we got advice on how to live on a budget, which included eating dog food for protein and shoplifting the expensive meats.
Thirsty Guy Contraceptive Sponge was a parody ad for a contraceptive based on the old Bounty ad where they called it the "Quicker Picker Upper."
History: The Real Story was a PBS style history show that gave us the truth about Abe Lincoln's assassination where it turns out that the killing had nothing to do with politics but the fact that Abe was an obnoxious audience member.
We then dropped into Dion's Salon where Dion gives dating advice to a client that was recently dumped, and in the process, she starts to fall for him as if she can't see that he's obviously gay and not even trying to hide it. Piscopo enters the room the moment she forces Eddie to kiss which leads to jealous bickering between the two gay male hair stylists.
We then went to a school assembly where Gary Kroeger as Dwight MacNamara, documentary narrator, addresses the students on career day and he does a perfect impersonation of the warbled voice that one used to hear through crappy school film projectors.
Joe Piscopo then got a sports segment outside of the news where he introduced the song Talking Dope Ball that makes fun of all of the cocaine scandals that were taking place in every sport that year.
We then went to a coffee commercial shoot starring Teri Garr as herself who has problems delivering her lines. This leads her to have to do what seems to be a hundred takes until all of the caffeine causes her to lose her mind.
Joel Hodgson from MST3K made his first appearance where he did a comedic magic act that was brilliant, but I'd consider it more prop comedy than magic.
Once again, Brad Hall gives us the news. This week, Julia Louis-Dreyfus dropped in as a monotoned news reporter who was recently fired and had to take a job as the voice of the lady that used to tell the time over the phone. Gary Kroeger reviewed the movie Star 80 where, for some reason, he ends the bit by stripping down to women's lingerie, probably because the movie had something to do with Playboy. "Ann Landers" then dropped by with advice for the people of El Salvador, and as always. Finally, Sweetchuck got a segment to bash The New York Post.
Kennedy: The Man Behind The Leader seemed it was going to be a sketch about the president's affair, but it turned out to be about how Marilyn Monroe was actually the brains/puppet master.
Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and Lindsey Buckingham then took to the stage to perform Tonight.
Mary Gross then played a very Sarcastic Nun who gets in a lot of trouble because all of her underlings believe every sarcastic thing that she says and acts accordingly to the point where the nuns from this church ended up in a spread for Playboy.
We then went to a grocery store where Gary Kroeger and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play a not so happy couple. The moment that Julia leaves to grab some carrots Gary turns to the cashier and tells her to call the cops because his wife is a witch who turns him into a rabbit the moment they get in their home. When confronted about this witch claim, Julia explains that this was just a prank that's been going on for five years which makes Gary feel like a gullible moron.
Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and Lindsey Buckingham then returned to the stage to perform Way Down.
We then went downstairs for some man on the street interviews where the people of New York were asked, "What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?" and we get some pretty funny answers.
Finally, Teri Garr closes the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Again, despite the fact that I felt the host was underutilized, this was a fun episode all the way through with these as my favorite moments. First, I loved The True History Of Abe Lincoln partially because I'm a fan of the true history genre of documentary but mainly because it was just a hilarious reason to kill one of our most popular presidents. Next, I really liked Gary Kroeger's film projector audio impersonation because he did an amazing job. Finally, I was a fan of the sketch where Gary thinks that his wife is a witch who turns him into a rabbit at will because it tickles my random sense of humor.