Saturday Night Live Transcripts
Special: Saturday Night Live in the ’80s: Lost and Found
1981-82 opening montage
Announcer: And now, from New York, the most dangerous city in America, it’s “Saturday Night Live.” Starring Robin Duke, Christine Ebersole, Mary Gross, Tim Kazurinsky….Tony Rosato, Brian Doyle-Murray —
Bob Tischler V/O: The new cast included some seasoned comedy players.
Dick Ebersol V/O: And they were largely choices influenced by John and Danny.
Bob Tischler V/O: They’d done a lot of comedy. They’d done a lot of sketch comedy. They were NOT intimidated by the process.
Mr. & Mrs. T’s Bloody Mary Mix: 10/02/82
Mrs. T: Shut up, old man, shut up! Never canned ’em to the death! I canned the man! But I pity him first!
Spray-On Laetril: 10/17/81
All: [ singing ] “The Pump!”
Sarcastic Nun: 11/12/83
Father Alexander: You do want to serve God, don’t you?
Nun: Oh, no. I’m a nun. I want to worship Satan and dance naked at a black mass.
The Whiners’ Anniversary: 04/10/82
Maitre’D: Your name is, Sir, please?
Doug & Wendy: Doug and Wendy Whinerrrr!
Marvin the Iguana: 10/23/82
Marvin the Iguana: This is exciting. This place brings out the animal in me.
Mary Gross: I’m sorry to say this, but I thought the show was a sinking ship.
Tim Kazurinsky: I didn’t care what a poo the show was in. I just thought, I’m gonna go around and plug up the leaks. I want this thing to stay afloat until I get a house.
I Married A Monkey: 04/11/81
Tim: Don’t you see what I’m trying to do here? I am trying to save a marriage! I’m trying to save a family.
Mary Gross: I think we were very lucky to come in in 1981. Because the cast that came in, in 1980, had to take a lot of abuse from the critics because they were following those five golden years.
Barry Blaustein: Now it’s accepted that you replace the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” and new people go on. At that time, people questioned whether the show should even continue after the original cast.
Robin Duke: There was not a feeling that this was – this was gonna be great. You know, that we were going to save the show, I guess! [ laughs ]
Goodnights: 10/10/81
Susan St. James: “Saturday Night” is back! Good night, everybody! [ Cheers and applause ]
Joe Piscopo: At that point, we went from lackadaisical and cocky to “We’ve got something here. Don’t screw this up, now.”
Andy Breckman: Ebersol was smart enough to know what he didn’t know. He was the only guy in the business I ever heard turn to somebody else and say, “Is that funny? I just don’t know.” Like, he would just admit, “I don’t know.”
Neil Levy V/O: The difference was, there was hip people walking around who knew comedy and had some history.
Dick Ebersol: Lorne said to me, “You know who you should really consider as your right arm in all this, is Michael.”
Lorne Michaels: I said to Dick, at least it will send the right signals.
Tim Kazurinsky: Michael O’Donoghue, the Dark Prince. Oh, my God!
George Thoroughgood & The Destroyers perform “Bad to The Bone”: 10/02/82
George Thoroughgood: [ singing ]
“Now on the day I was born
The nurses all gathered ’round
And they gazed in wide wonder
At the joy they had found.
The head nurse spoke up
Said, “Leave this one alone.”
She could tell right away
That I was bad to the bone.
Bad to the bone
B-b-bad b-b-bad b-b-bad.”
??? V/O: Dick and Michael were at odds from the beginning of day one.
Dick Ebersol: The first fight we had was over billing. Because he wanted to be called “Reich Marshall.”
24:08The Fiesta Cheese Platter: 02/19/83
Marvin the Iguana: [ on the phone ] Oh, no! No. Room Service? Yeah, we’d like to cancel the “Bavarian Pork Surprise.” [ a German marching band suddenly bursts into the room ] Cancel the “Bavarian Pork Surprise!” No!
??? V/O: Just delighted in being outrageous and upsetting people as much as he possibly could.
Tim Kazurinsky: It was nuts. When I showed up to work, Michael said, “Viking death! We’re going to take this ship down.”
??? V/O: And he just wanted to make it as outrageous as possible while it was going down.
The Bizarro World: 02/20/82
Narrator: [ a cubed Earth spins in space ] Somewhere in space, there exists a parallel universe. Where our earthly events are duplicated. But they are duplicated backwards, for it is a reflection. Our Earth is a sphere, so the parallel Earth is, of course, a cube. This is “The Bizarro World.” But even in this strange world, there is one place so bizarre, it scares even them — [ dissolve to: ] The headquarters of “Bizarro Broadcasting Company!”
[ dissolve to interior, Network President’s office, as Secretary enters ]
Secretary: Mr. President, man is here for job interview.
Network President: We too busy. Send him in! [ Writer enters ] Good-bye, good-bye.
Writer: Me want to work for “Bizarro Network.”
Network President: Ever write a script?
Writer: No.
Network President: Ever direct a show?
Writer: No.
Network President: Know anything at all about television?
Writer: No.
Network President: Congratulations!
??? V/O: Dick Ebersol’s most amazing talent is he’s able to deal with the network. And he kept the network away from the show.
Bob Tischler: I don’t remember ever, ever having any network interference at all. You know, except for things that we couldn’t do because of censorship.
The Bulge: 10/06/84
[ Jim Belushi in barroom men’s room, watching as Gary Kroeger stuffs toilet paper in his pants ]
[ Jim Belushi follows suit, and endlessly stuffs toilet paper in his own pants ]
Jim Belushi: We had a film piece. Sasaying, “you can’t do that! That’s a penis!” Ebersol went and fought for that piece. And this is the way he negotiated — “Okay, as long as it’s not smooth.”
The Bulge: 10/06/84
[ Jim Belushi emerges from the men’s room with 6-foot padding in his pants ]
Jim Belushi V/O: So we had this 6-foot thing with all these bumps on it. It looked grosser than it would smooth. Ebersol had a way with the network.
Lone Justice performs “Shelter”: 12/20/86
Lone Justice: [ singing ]
“Let me be your shelter
Shelter from the storm outside.
Let me be your shelter
Shelter From the endless tide.”
Dick Ebersol: The cast benefited on a number of levels from Eddie’s emerging stardom. I think Eddie and Joe Piscopo saved the show. I think that’s fair to say. Because the network was seriously thinking about giving it the ax.
Back | Next: Eddie Murphy Emerges
