or...

Is The Eddie Dependency Over

My complaints about Eddie Murphy during this season don't really have much to do with him but how the show itself dealt with his rapid rise to fame. I still love him in almost every sketch that he does, including the opening bit where he believes he got Jamie Lee Curtis pregnant even though he knows she never actually had sex with him and it was just a threat to make sure he'd appear.

When the host go as far a point out how little he has to do in the show, then you know it's pretty bad. My problem stems more from the fact that the show tried to hide this fact by having him prerecord cast only sketches during the few weeks he was on the show.

To me, it feels that this approach is dishonest and doesn't develop the rest of the cast to increase the quality of future shows while sticking with this cast. It felt like they made the same mistake when Chevy Chase, John Belushi, and Gilbert Gottfried all go too big for the show and rather than let them go right away, they lessened their role while refuse to prop any other cast members up.

This particular show definitely felt like it was from this season but rather than feeling just average, it felt the cast had balanced performance to make it a better than average show, while still not topping the list. If the rest of this season had the same balance and quality full cast writing, I wouldn't feel the need to feel defensive while pointing out the flaws because I'm absolutely not upset with this season like I was with seven and four.

As for Jamie Lee Curtis, I'm still a fan of her work to this day and feel that she like she did a perfectly good job with her second at-bat as host.

So, now that I've reworded that argument once again, it's time to move on from talk of the season's quality and share what I actually saw as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show starts with a rap/breakdance routine by Jim Belushi to hype the crowd before rhyming, "Live from New York..."
Jamie Lee Curtis then officially opened the show by explaining that she sent Eddie a note claiming she would claim to the world she was pregnant with his baby from when they worked together on Trading Places if he didn't show up for at least one sketch on her night as the host of the show. At first, he seems like a no-show until the moment she goes to make the claim. This was when Eddie rushed the stage, happy to be a father which causes Jamie Lee to backpedal and have to explain it was just a joke and is confused why Eddie is accepting this claim when the two never even had sex.
We then got a rerun of the Rubik's Grenade sketch from a couple seasons ago.
This was followed by a really fun sketch where Sweetchuck breaks into Belushi's apartment, tags him and proclaims "You're it." This sends Belushi down a self-destructive path as he tries to track down Sweetchuck in hopes to tag him back because no one will even come close to Belushi because they don't want to catch his "It."
Jake's Video Hut was a sketch that took place in a video rental store on the grand opening day only Eddie, the assistant order nothing but cult films when the customers want nothing but mainstream films from that time. Thinking quickly after almost losing his job, Murphy comes up with the idea to just act out all the movies being requested on the spot, kind of like the parent idea to the movie Be Kind Rewind only he won't do Eddie Murphy films and passes when Sweetchuck requests Deepthroat and tries to get the owner to fill in.
We then got a repeat of a Texxon commercial that's already run multiple times since it originally aired.
El Dorko returns, and this time he wins a date with Jamie Lee Curtis. When all of the characters from the first El Dorko sketch try to ruin the date by making fun of him, only their efforts actually backfire and ends up helping him out.
The Julia Show is a talk show hosted by Julia Louis-Dreyfus who is so narcissistic that everything that any of one of her guest says gets redirected to become about her.
Joel Hodgson then returned to the show for another one of his prop comedy/magic routines.
We then got to witness a Ronald Reagan workout where his aging mind gets so easily distracted while trying to ride an exercise bike while watching TV that he has to give up and take a nap.
Belushi and Jamie Lee then met up in her dressing room to go over their lines for a love scene which sounds ridiculous because they are only focusing on the dialog, which is mainly moaning and groaning, with zero effort to rehearse any of their romantic moves.
The Fixx then took to the stage to perform One Thing Leads To Another.
This week, Joe Piscopo gives us the news where he just informs us that Don Pardo is sick and introduces a new Sweetchuck character who is a Latin-American businessman with a bunch of crazy ideas on how to clean up New York and talks like Razor Ramon.
Persons Express was a fake ad for a new airline that provides affordable flight by treating their passengers like freight.
Heart Tartare was a sketch about a horror movie themed Broadway musical that leaves Jamie Lee feeling that it might not have been the best move to promote the image change that she was shooting for.
Where Are They Now? is a TV show sketch that gives us a twenty-year update on Pete Best after being replaced by Ringo as the drummer of the Beatles.
The Fixx then took to the stage to perform Red Skies.
We then got a repeat of Prose and Cons from many seasons ago.
Finally, Jamie Lee Curtis closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

I'd say this episode was the bottom of my top favorite episode from the season with these as my favorite moments. First, I loved the Heart Tartare musical because I have childhood memories of Jamie Lee from Halloween so I loved how this was "her attempt at creating a new image." Next, I really liked the "Tag, You're It" sketch because I live with my three-year-old nephew and it reminds me of getting stuck in his games. Finally, I was a fan of Eddie Murphy reenacting movies at the video store because it reminded me of the movie Be Kind Rewind.