SNL Review: Eric Idle & Kate Bush S04E08

Keith, Matt and Adrienne review English comic legend and Monty Python member Eric Idle's 3rd foray into hosting with this episode from November 1978. Kate Bush makes her sole US television appearance as musical guest.
Sketches Include: Telepsychic, French Chef, Consumer Probe, What Do You ____, Candy Slice, The Madrigal, Cochise at Oxford. Kate Bush performs two memorable pieces "The Man With The Child In His Eyes," and "Them Heavy People." All this and Weekend Update are here... in SNHell.
Music Credits: SUNDANCE Track Name: "Perséphone - Retro Funky (SUNDANCE remix)" Music By: SUNDANCE @ / sundancemusic The SUNDANCE Official Website is HERE - lefthandmusic.fr/ License for commercial use: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) creativecommon... A NIGHT ALONE: www.youtube.co....

[@Mibbitmaker]

Ah, the French Chef sketch episode.
That was a memorable night. During prime time, I watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail on a small TV (don't remember if B&W or color) while my sister watched the Kiss movie on the big color set.. Almost like a theme, Kiss was known for Gene Simmons spitting out fake blood at concerts, and I enjoyed stuff like the knight fight scene in Holy Grail, only seeing the cartooniness of it on the small TV. But I knew Python did stuff with fake blood.
Once I had the big TV for SNL, it got to the French Chef sketch. The TV reception so far during the show was not great. But there was Aykroyd doing his Julia Child. That was hysterically funny. I was laughing hard, begging my sister to come to the living room, not to miss this! Then, the "sharp knife" and the blood, and my mood changed to angry that my favorite show went that far, since I'm squeamish about that stuff. I will admit, the "it's only a prop, it doesn't work" was funny. Still unhappy, though. I definitely agree with your 3rd chair on the comedic hemorrhaging. The TV reception? It cleared up JUST in time for the fake bloodletting! Figures.
A couple things further from 1978... It's one of the few of that kind of sketch that I can watch (still look away at the "cutting" part, even though I don't think anything gross can be seen then). I've noticed before that part, Aykroyd seems to be vamping a bit, repeating some lines haltingly. It looks to me like the liquid maybe wasn't quite ready to go just yet. Another thing is that Julia Child herself has said she saw the sketch and laughed and enjoyed it. I actually like that, making her really cool for her attitude.
Rating the sketch: 1st half - A+. second half - D (the smartness of it you mentioned about the writing elevates it from an F)
The overall show was mostly good: 8 out of 10.

[@Mibbitmaker]

One more thing about the show/review. I had no problem with the reuse of the game show skit, I liked the Python-ness of it - even though I think I have heard it from the record before. But Matt's annoyance with the sound effects... they didn't bother me at all, but that does make curious: I wonder what he thinks of the Three Stooges and the Monkees TV show (if anything), both of which use sound effects prominently.

[@LionsDenAudioTheatre]

That would have been a really fun night of TV. Good thing you liked Eric Idle. I think the Black Knight scene is absolutely the perfect amount of silly to contain the blood. The garden party sketch the Pythons did might be a bit much for some, though I love it. Blood works well for me, though vomiting can push it. That being said, I love the "barforama" scene in Stand By Me. Of course it would clear up right when you don't want it to. I wasn't aware that Child had seen it. Thanks for sharing that.
I'm a huge Stooges fan - sometime third chair Chilly - and I have talked about going through the Stooge shorts sometime. I'm not sure if we've ever discussed it, but I'd be willing to bet that Matt is a firm no on both the Stooges and the Monkees.
Thanks again for the comments :)