I think the one with Sam Kinison and Seka doesn’t get rerun.
Shhh. We don’t mention Season Six. Especially now that the fatwa against Charles Rocket has been carried out.
As noted, this was on the show Fridays and it was planned with several members of the cast and crew, including Kaufman’s scene partner, Michael Richards.
That’s cold, dude.
Funny, tho.
I can’t recall the title of the history I read. It was written by two people and I read it in the late 1980s, before Gilda Radner’s death. IIRC the specific complaint was that he acted like he knew everything about television production; IIRC Bill Murray put it something like Arnez’s attitude wasn’t “I was television” but “I am television.”
Not sure if this posted…thanks server timeout!..but I’m pretty sure the book I had was “Saturday night: a Backstage History of Saturday Night Live” by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad
I read the Hill/Weingrad book too, probably around 1991. I remember it being very good. I don’t remember the Desi Arnez story specifically, but I do remember the Milton Berle story. He was a giant ass to everyone, and insisted on giving a long monologue in which he plugged his autobiography several times.
I saw Arnez episode rerun back when Nick at Night was showing classic SNL, though the episodes were heavily edited. I recall him performing “Babalu,” but not much else.
I remember a randy newman performance where one of the lyrics was “little nigger boy” - never seen it since
I think Desi Arnaz was something of a male Norma Desmond, but the thing was, he could back it up. He was a comedy legend and he had pioneered many of the things that made television so important. I have to wonder if any part of his rudeness had to do with the drug use or what he deemed unprofessionalism by the Young Turk atmosphere under Belushi/Akroyd/pre zillionaire sellout Lorne Michaels.
I do remember seeing this episode many years ago. There was a sketch based on failed I Love Lucy prototypes (I Loathe Lucy, I Love Broccoli, I Love a Monkey), an Untouchables sketch (that I think the Babalu segment was a part of), and I don’t remember what else. I’d love to see it again though because Arnaz was certainly never rude to me and I’d like to see if he still had it in his later years. (I was surprised to learn that he made a guest appearance on Alice.)
The anti-Arnaz, meaning ‘arrogant legend in his own mind jerk who couldn’t back it up’, seems to have been Steve Allen, who was thoroughly detested by Carson, Paar, and others whose careers he felt responsible for, but I don’t think he ever did SNL. (Great line by Jack Paar that made Allen furious: “Did you know that Steve Allen is the writer of more than 2,000 songs? He is. Twenty bucks to anybody who can name two of them.”)
I think I saw that episode when it was first run. “Waaaah! They rubbed out Fred and Ethel!!!”
I hated I Love Lucy in all its incarnations, and after I quit smoking weed I no longer found SNL funny, so make of that what you will.
Regards,
Shodan
I think I remember seeing it replayed on E!, but instead of the monologue, Don Pardo just reads a message that says he said inappropriate things about the female anatomy. The way that they handle it makes it seem like a fictional parody rather than a factual description of what happened.
Well jeez, now I’m beginning to wonder if I’m mis-remembering. I know that the cast had that reaction to someone and I was pretty sure it was Arnaz. I’m gonna order the book from my local public library and double-check.
Go back to smoking weed.
I remember seeing that when the reruns were on Comedy Central. I agree, it definitely played like a parody of how SNL would treat a truly filthy monologue.
I remember the Desi Arnez episode. He read “The Jabberwocky” from Lewis Carroll. It was hilarious!
First, they do play the monologue, up to the point where problems begin. A transcript (both of the full bit and the editing later), for demostrative purposes.
Second, it’s been a while since I’ve heard it, but the voiceover is delivered by someone with much different vocal inflections than Pardo.
I read that book, too, and I’m positive it’s Berle you’re thinking of. Berle was known as “Mr. Television”, which is the genesis of the observation you quoted.
From the Hill and Weingrad book, Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live:
Milton Berle, who hosted in the fourth season, was terminally afflicted with a disorder known as Comedian’s Disease. Hosts from television’s old guard often proved hard to work with because they were used to doing things their own way. When Desi Arnaz hosted he blew up during a blocking session and started shouting at stage manager Joe Dicso and the Saturday Night band in his famous Cuban accent: “What are you people trying to do, you know! I invented these things, you know! Who the hell you think you’re talking to!” That outburst, however, was the exception, and for most of the week Arnaz was fine. The same could not be said of Uncle Miltie.
They then go on to recount most of the items others have mentioned above about the Berle show, ending the chapter with the sentence: “There may be some poetic justice in the fact that Milton Berle will stand in perpetuity alongside Louise Lasser in the ranks of Saturday Night hosts whose shows Lorne never allowed to be seen in reruns.”
Well, “in perpetuity” until they could make some real money off of them with DVD sales, I guess.
Do you find anything in the book along the lines of my was television vs. is television quote? That quote is burned so brightly in my memory…
The Steven Seagal ep. is not in heavy rotation. I have seen it one, in reruns.
All the bad things attributed to Desi Arnaz, I remember as being attributed to Milton Berle in the books, but I don’t have any of those handy at the moment. There was a charming backstage moment when Berle offered to show Alan Zweibel his legendarily large penis and did so without being asked. Zweibel said something like “Um, that’s really impressive” and walked away. I remember a quote where he said “I am mister television!” and Bill Murray or someone replied “You were mister television!”
I’ve seen the Derek Jeter ep. a couple of times and was surprised at how good a guest he was.
Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video, not strictly an SNL ep. but certainly related, was never rerun intact.
And not too far from the truth, either. Rocket dropped the f-bomb during the closing curtain call and got not only himself, but the producer canned for it. (This was 1981.) The next producer got rid of most of the rest of the cast and basically rebuilt the show from scratch.