or...

Maybe The Rain Was Real

As I said the first time The Smothers Brothers hosted the show, I've been a fan of their work ever since I was a child. Well, at least one of their albums were played whenever there was a family road trip that lasted more than an hour, and up to this point, they are the only of the hosts, cast, or musical performers that I've actually seen live in person.

With that said, this episode started with a joke indoor rain delay which kind of set the tone for the night. Though it was a solidly average episode, it kind of felt like they never had the confidence to commit to stronger content just in case the rain returned even though it was an entirely fictional storyline.

The overall energy of the show also felt more like an early rehearsal or some sort of Sunday morning Matinee. I don't really blame any of the hosts for this because the slower pace seems to be the staple of this season that I don't really hate, I just wish there were a couple more solid high points in each episode to grab onto.

Alright, now that I'm done griping about the season, it's time to move on to share what I saw as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show starts with a "rain delay" as an NBC sports reporter interviews The Smothers Brothers and the cast about their thoughts on the bizarre storm that is taking place within the studio walls. The rain eventually clears up which leads to an official MLB umpire to okay the show to go on by announcing, "Live from New York..."
The Smothers Brothers then officially open the show with a sing-along in place of their monolog where they get the audience to sing If I Had A Ship and Tommy ruins the moment by trying to take a picture of his brother to capture the memory mid-song.
This was followed by a Nightlight parody following Crisis Game '83 where Ted Koppel host a crisis off between "John Glen" and the "Reverend Jesse Jackson" where the two potential presidential candidates answer how they would respond to various crazy events if they were to pull off a win.
Know Your Neighbor is another sketch that I couldn't find anywhere on the internet which based on the description that I read, might be due to the fact that it might come off a bit anti-Semitic as Belushi "scoffs the Jewish holiday celebration."
Tom Carvel then hosts a spot to promote his line of ice cream. He talks about how each franchise is privately owned so that the owners have some freedom to tweak the famous ice cream characters. That is until he interviews Sweetchuck, whose privately owned store is selling erotic versions of the decorated desserts which make Carvel a little nervous.
Big Country then took to the stage to perform In A Big Country.
Mentl is a fake ad for a movie that a parody of Yentl where Barbara Streisand plays her crazy self.
The Smothers Brothers then take to the stage with the Mike Preddy Trio for a musical performance of Fantasy For Auto Horn And Electric Pulse In D Minor.
Once again, Brad Hall gives us the news. This week, Gary Kroeger drops in to talk about the Cabbage Patch Doll trend that apparently exploded that week. He introduces us to a giant Cabbage Patch Doll who is now twenty-one and gets pissed when he finds out he's a toy without a real dad. Sweetchuck dropped in as his scientist character with his list of funny new strains of flu, and Piscopo gave us sports news where he interviews Larry Holmes where he almost gets into a fight with "Mohamad Ali's son" who couldn't be older than five.
Dream Land was a talk show where Belushi tries to interpret the dreams of random guest that he picked up off the street. All the guests are women, and no matter how mundane or obvious the dreams are, Belushi spins them to where they all equate to the girls wanting to have sex with him, except for Mary Gross who as a blatant sex dream about trains and tunnels which stumps mister dream interpreter.
The Smother Brother then came out a played a song for a few notes when Tommy got distracted and told the tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf for some reason only he got the point of the story wrong.
We then got introduced to a horrible garage band that is more interested in being a band than actually making music who get an audition with a major record label because the talent scout is also the friend of one of the band member's dad. They are so focused on gimmicks that it takes the scout a second to realize that they are not good and tells them all to give up. After the scout leaves the delusional group still manages to find a silver lining in what was said.
Mary Gross was then on a date with Tommy Smothers when she notices Dicky across the room. She asks Tommy to go get an autograph which is funny because both brothers are playing themselves and Mary doesn't seem to care at all that she's actually with the second half of her favorite comedy duo. The sketch then randomly ended with another rain delay.
Big Country then returned to the stage to perform Fields Of Fire.
The Smothers Brothers then closed the show by thanking the audience and saying their goodnights.

So, once again, we have an average episode in an average season with these average sketches being my favorites. First, I loved the segment of the news with the giant Cabbage Patch Kid because it reminded me of the giant baby from the end of Beyond The Black Rainbow. Next, I really liked the sketch where Mary Gross sends Tommy Smothers to get an autograph from his brother while not caring that Tommy is right there because it was filled with funny moments. Finally, I was a fan of the Carvel sketch because I used to reference Cookie Puss all of the time back when it was a staple to the Howard Stern Show from when Fred gave the cake to his mom for Mother's day.