The Best Of Saturday Night Live: 1983 | Christopher Guest, Robert Smigel

The Best Of Saturday Night Live: 1983 | Christopher Guest, Robert Smigel | Welcome to Mr. Robinson's neighborhood

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The Best Of Saturd...

	The Best Of Saturday Night Live: 1983 Christopher Guest, Robert Smigel Anchor Bay Entertainment, 1997 average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Murphy Leaves, Emergence of Joe Piscopo

Someone watching these yearly tapes in order might assume that this was just another great Eddie Murphy-era year in SNL history. In fact, it was the end of its era. By the end of the 83-84 season, Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and most of the rest of that cast had departed, making way for Billy Crystal and Martin Short. However, this tape is one of the most well-aged of the yearly tapes from the early 80's, since it mostly sticks to the show's original characters, with a few notable exceptions.

Of course, Murphy is still the centerpiece of the show, and he gets plenty of time on this tape. He is great, as always, as Mr. Robinson and Buckwheat, and he does a short bit as Michael Jackson and delivers what is, in retrospect, the funniest line of the tape. I don't want to give it away, but it involves the song Billie Jean and the irony of his current predicament.

Murphy receives less time than he might have in earlier tapes since he was only on for half the season. Piscopo is also very present, but Murphy's absence allows us to see some other members of the cast that got a little less attention than he did. Brad Hall is in a few sketches, including one where he gets to sing the news, although his wife, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is sadly relegated to the background (as she tended to be during her term on the show). Jim Belushi and Tim Kazurinsky both prove solid throughout--Belushi's synthesis of Flashdance and Swan Lake is great physical comedy, and Kazurinsky gets to play the part of the nerdy, effete White guy quite a bit (and he does it quite well). But Joe Piscopo effectively becomes the star of the show. Whether playing a tomcatting, obnoxious Abe Lincoln or a befuddled talk show host, he becomes a solid fixture of the show, and figures prominently in the best two sketches on the tape. On the first, Piscopo plays a ditzy Good Morning America host, which carries quite a bit of resonance in the age of Kelly Ripa (yes, I did just use the term 'The Age of Kelly Ripa') and Carson Daly. Piscopo's execution here is what makes the sketch work, and he is helped out by another perenially marginalized cast member, Gary Kroeger, as the only slightly-more-connected-upstairs Washington correspondent. The other great sketch involves a talk show where, on the anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, Joe Piscopo asks his ordinary-folk guests if they remember where they were when they heard that Kennedy was killed. Jim Belushi is the first guest, and he exasperates Piscopo when Piscopo finds out that he only learned about Kennedy's death eleven years after it happened, and it gets wackier from there. It's some of the most clever writing of the Dick Ebersol era, with all of the actors in the sketch effectively playing straight men and allowing the brilliance of the idea to shine through, while commenting on Americans' then (and still) heavily prevalent indifference to current events.

Ultimately, although this tape is funny (and generous to the cast's lesser-known children), it begs the question: what happened to Joe Piscopo? He shows the chops here to become a great comic actor. Anyway, this tape is the best yearly tape I've seen so far, and is a great addition to your collection.

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Welcome to Mr. Robinson's neighborhood

The magic of Eddie Murphey's final season on SNL is captured on this best of 1983 tape... and when I say magic I mean Murphy truly went all out before departing from the show. You would have to see it to actually experience the magic that is Eddie Murphy on SNL. I don't want to give away any surprises, and believe me, if you've never seen it before then there are plenty of surprises. But obviously there's Mr. Robinson's neigborhood and Buckweet. No Gumbi on this one, but there is a really good sketch with James Belushi and Joe Piscapo. The star though is Murphy, doing an impersination of Michael Jackson that will have you laughing all night. The only reason I didn't give this one 5 stars is because they rolled the credits right in the middle of James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub.

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