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Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season, 1978-1979

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I'm very familiar with this season and would like to offer up a few of my favorite moments. This last season for Belushi and Aykroyd, along with the third season, includes the troupe's finest hours.
Season 4 highlights:

1. Rolling Stones - You may be slightly disappointed by this season-opener if you're a big Stones fan. There is no opening monologue from them, which could have been interesting. Those duties are instead helmed by NYC mayor (actually, I think he was just campaigning at the time), Ed "How Am I Doing" Koch. Jagger shows up as the main guest in a very funny Tom Snyder bit, and Ron Wood & Charlie Watts are patrons of the always-classic Olympia Café. As for the music, it comes in one big chunk, as opposed to the usual two segments. Somewhat disappointingly, the boys perform songs exclusively from the then newly-released "Some Girls" album ("Shattered", "Beast of Burden" and "Respectable"). Amazingly, their biggest hit from that album, "Miss You", is ignored. Worst of all, Mick's voice is in unusually bad form; he sounds strained, hoarse and froggy throughout. My biggest - indeed oddest - memory of this episode's original airing was the talk that followed at school on Monday. "Did you see Mick tongue kiss Keith Richards!?" As time passed and my memory got sketchier, I thought this may have been urban legend, but after getting a copy a few years ago, Mick does actually - if not "tongue kiss" - lick Ron Wood's closed mouth, and tries a similar move on Keith, who seems to shy away from it. Incidentally, this episode also includes the great Nerds "refrigerator repairman" sketch, also the subject of some talk at school that week!

2. Other musical highlights - Devo's bizarre rendition of "Satisfaction" looks as wild today as it did then, beret-wearing Ricki Lee Jones' semi-forgotten hit "Chuck E.'s in Love" recalls the beat poets she emulated, and Belushi's Samurai makes a hilarious cameo during Frank Zappa's fusion-jazz-tinged "Rollo." This is one of the strongest musical seasons, in fact. The Doobie Brothers, James Taylor, The Grateful Dead, Kate Bush, The Talking Heads, The Blues Brothers and Van Morrison all put in excellent performances. And then there's the once-trademark variety, which we also get with old-time jazzman Eubie Blake, reggae maestro Peter Tosh and blues man Delbert McClinton.

3. Tape Store - One of my favorites because it doesn't play for straight laughs, but serio-comedy instead, something completely unknown on the current show. Fred Willard is the overly-proud, overly-optimistic owner of a tape store...."no, not the audio kind, the sticky kind!" Some patrons are cruel, others are sympathetic & supportive. Like the "Nick the Lounge Singer" and the often-overlooked "Knights of Columbus", quieter, and drier reality-based skits like these showcased the incredible range of the cast, and didn't rely on the narcissistic one-joke, one-character premise.

4. Carrie Fisher - What Star Wars geek could forget this appearance! Not only was the country still gripped in the original Star Wars Mania, but Fisher showed up for the monologue in her Princess Leia costume, buns and all! She looks as good as she did in the film, if not even more sparkly. The following skit is a very humorous Star Wars themed take-off of the Annette & Frankie "Beach" movies from the `60s. As a kid, I was most shocked by another skit wherein Fisher smokes pot with her date (Belushi). It actually a humorous parody of the Lauds, the notorious subjects of "An American Family". This one, however, just talks "loud".

5. The Pepsi Syndrome - One of the most finely constructed skits I think the show ever did. Everyone does their job here, from Baba Wawa to Franken & Davis' hilarious mime routine. It's spoof without being imitation, political without being obtuse. Again, one of the great things about the Not Ready for Prime Time Players was their ability to load up skits with a variety of different gags, not relying on the repetition of one (I stress this point a second time because it's one of the biggest killers of the show today).

6. The Bad News Bees - Double entendres abound as the Bees (rarely seen by this point) get the Bad News Bears treatment. Teammates tease another boy (Belushi) for "buzzing off". I don't want to spoil it beyond that. The presence of the great Walter Matthau, reprising his Buttermaker role, gives this one some comedic weight and authenticity.

7. Superhero Party - Margot Kidder, fresh off the heels off of "Superman" success, puts in a solid, St. Partick's Day themed show. As someone of Irish descent, I've always remembered this one fondly (maybe all those Chicagoans at SNL had something to do with it!). Highlights include the Celtic stylings of The Chieftains, and the hysterical Superhero Party, hosted by Lois Lane, naturally. Partygoers are offended at the bathroom odor left behind by Belushi's Hulk, who nonchalantly remarks, "hey, it ain't supposed to smell like roses."

8. The French Chef - SNL clearly drew inspiration from Monty Python, especially in these earlier seasons. Their awestruck admiration was obvious whenever Michael Palin or Eric Idle hosted. Earlier episodes hosted by them include British-themed skits as well as the spilling of one skit into the next, a common Python technique. Here, Dan Aykroyd may be channeling host Idle with his classic Julia Childs imitation. The ridiculous amount of blood-letting that ensues recalls Python's "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" sketch.

There's more, but if you've read this far, I'm not sure what you're waiting for. Haven't you pre-ordered yet?

SNL used to be the most inovative and funny show of the late 70's. It reinvented the variety show with a "supporting cast" and a rotating guest host every week. They knew how to create a funny pieces and keep it moving forward. Every show was not a masterpiece but the hits were more than the misses.

This season had the two best episodes ever with the two most unlikely hosts - Cicley Tyson and Maureen Stapleton.

The following are a list of the 20 guest hosts and musical guests:

Rolling Stones

Fred Willard / Devo

Frank Zappa

Steve Martin / Van Morrison

Buck Henry / The Greatful Dead

Carrie Fisher / The Blues Brothers

Walter Matthau

Eric Idle / Kate Bush

Elliot Gould / Peter Tosh with Mick Jagger

Michael Palin / The Doobie Brothers

Cicley Tyson / Talking Heads - This is the best episode ever. It starts Garrett Morris opening the show in drag as Cicley. And gets even better when she appears on Black Perspectives. She and Garrett visit the wide butts.

Ricky Nelson / Judy Collins

Kate Jackson / Delbert McClinton

Gary Busey / Rick Danko and Paul Butterfield / Eubie Blake and Gregory Hines

Margot Kidder / The Chieftans

Richard Benjamin / Rickey Lee Jones

Milton Berle / Ornette Coleman

Michael Palin / James Taylor

Maureen Statpleton / Linda Rondstat and Pheobe Snow - Maureen has a great skit with Lorraine Newman as the stereotypical Jewish mother.

Buck Henry / Bette Middler

Again, this is when SNL was funny, so prepare to do something than rarely happens when watching SNL today - laugh til it hurts.

"Saturday Night Live: The Complete Fourth Season" is a seven-disc box set containing all the shows from the 1978-1979 season. This is one of the great years of the NBC sketch comedy show, which has just passed its 33rd anniversary. Maybe it's nostalgia, but it seems the comedy landed a lot more frequently then than in the current season of "SNL."
Some of the skits in this set include Nick the Lounge Singer (Bill Murray singing the "Star Wars" theme to a uninterested cocktail lounge audience), Candy Slice (Gilda Radner), The Loud Family (Jane Curtin), Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute (Dan Aykroyd), and the Nerds (Bill Murray and Gilda Radner). Also included is the "Wild and Crazy" Festrunk Brothers (Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd) and Buck Henry's inappropriate "Uncle Roy." Guest hosts include Fred Willard, Carrie Fisher, Kate Jackson, Gary Busey, and Walter Matthau. Musical guests include Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers, Bette Midler, Talking Heads, Devo, Van Morrison, the Grateful Dead, James Taylor, and Rickie Lee Jones.

There isn't much left to say about the shows or the cast from SNL's Classic Years that hasn't already been said and/or written. After watching these shows again all I can say is how amazing and versatile the cast and writers continued to be without resting on their laurels. Back then they didn't beat recurring characters to death. They kept coming up with great new characters and ideas like Buck Henry's "Uncle Roy" and the terrific Knights of Columbus sketches. Even the bits that were repeated often, such as "Point/Counterpoint," remained funny. The big question on my mind is: Will they release a DVD set of SNL's fifth season? As a fan and admirer of Bill Murray, I certainly hope so. He became even more prominent after the departure of Belushi and Aykroyd. So let's hope the fifth season is released even though it featured a somewhat weakened cast. Long live the Not Ready For Prime Time Players!

All of my favorite comedians are in it. TV couldn't get any better. Even though I watched the re-runs a few years ago, I think this DVD set is way better than what you saw on TV. It has all the cool features one would expect. I love the whole first 5 seasons of SNL. 5/5... excellent. This is a collection to own. TV at its best.

I'm currently watching every episode in order. I will say this is probably the best season of SNL since we can not review the Eddie Murphy or early 90s seasons yet.

The show is still revolutionary, but has fnally found its form and is coasting on its genius. Every member of the Not Ready For Primetime Players shines here. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi get some peak performances while Bill Murray gets to really reveal the personality that would make him the greatest artistic showman the show has ever produced. Gilda Radner is like Lucille Ball with balls. Jane Curtain is excellent while Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris (and his patented oddly charming comedic timing) get plenty of airtime, but still don't connect like their more mainstream counterparts.

The amount of exceptional skits is pretty high. And the amount of duds is very low for such an old show. If you are a fan of the modern SNL, you'll find the current writers are still ripping off the early seasons for jokes and concepts. But this is when the show was cerebral, satirical, daring and funny. BELLY LAUGH FUNNY. Not snicker like school children funny.

The time period of a season really makes or breaks it. This is such an interesting season because its leaving the surreal, pot-fueled Chevy Chase era but not yet the coked-out depressed nihilism of the 80s. The tone is realistic and smart, but playful and hip. There is a disco-inspired "Lets have fun before the party's over" spirit here. The show often eerily anticipates the political corruption, passive morals and crass commercialism of the 80s, 90s and 00s with dead accuracy.

I always wondered what the big fuss was about the original SNL. I thought "How could it have been so sharp and influential?" This is the season that proved it to me. This was smething of global importance and it seems almost impossible to replicate.

The '78-'79 Season,the peak of the show,and the last to feature John Belushi & Dan Ackroyd.Some classic stuff here.It's dated a wee bit,maybe not quite as funny as it was 30 years ago,but still great stuff...Let's see if they go further and put out season 5...

The fourth season of SNL features Bill Murray more prominently than the third season does. He has also become more comfortable with his role in front of the camera and nails it pretty much always. This season features hosts like Steve Martin (often), the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, and that's only the first two dvd's.
Although, it makes me sad to see the nervous energy of a cast trying to figure out how to be funny and creative on live tv replaced by a much slicker, more expensive set, the creativity of the writers still outshines that of any sitcom today--in terms of comedy. There's definitely an element of nostalgia for a different era as you watch a brilliant cast in their youth (Akroyd, Radner, Curtain, Morris, Murray, Belushi, Newman).

In some ways this is really outstanding. The list of musical guests and hosts is simply icredible. On the one hand you have the Rolling Stones, Devo, The Talking Heads , the Blues Bothers, the Grateful Dead and others and as hosts you have Carrie Fisher, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and others. Plus you have the original SNL cas with Belushi, Radner and co. This is simply TV history at its best. The down side is that again, the transfer quality is not as goos as it should be for something of this quality. What is also interesting is that while there is some of the best comedy ever, some of it was also very very self-indulgent and at times simply not funny (as Weekly Update) and gives the impression of some stoned students indulging in what they think is funny. However the sheer quantity of what you get is incredible

Back in the day this show was tops; now 30 years later as a middle age guy I have a reason to stay home on Saturday Night. This show was the best, the best writing, the best actors/actresses and most talent. John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner, Lorraine Newman, Jane Curtin and the whole guest cast for 5 years made this show a classic. I have never laughed so hard till I saw this show back then and continue to laugh today. We need laughter more than ever and this is one show for the 1st 5 years that will keep you in Stitches. I can't wait to add this addition to my vast library of dvd's. Another great show from the same era is SCTV and it was also tops in its market.