Regarding Belushi's accent in the exterminator scene: Pretty sure he's doing Rod Steiger, which is why he's getting the reaction he's getting. Think not Brando, but Brando's brother, from that "I coulda been a contender" scene.

Chevy's bumbling for effect. He looks amateurish because he hasn't really nailed what he was after, but the worst part about Chevy's performance in these early eps is he was trying to mess up.

I forgot Kilpatrick was in "Kentucky Fried Movie," maybe because Shana's middle finger was distracting. Only Kilpatrick and Steve Stucker (who appears as a stenographer in a courtroom sketch in "Kentucky Fried Movie" and of course has a flamingly bigger role in "Airplane") are in both movies, though Leslie Nielsen…

This was the first SNL in many ways, even if host Rob Reiner never interacts with Chevy. Reiner does play with the other NR4PTP in two sketches, the fashion show (including a foppish O'Donoghue) and the confrontation with Belushi at the end, and you feel for the first time this is a show that really works in…

George Wendt's episode "directed by Francis Ford Coppola" earns points for playing with the formula that way. But "Atomic Lobsters" is the only time a sketch took over the entire show.

George Wendt's episode "directed by Francis Ford Coppola" earns points for playing with the formula that way. But "Atomic Lobsters" is the only time a sketch took over the entire show.

"I Never Played The Game" was the book I think you mean. Man, that's some bitter writing. Al Michaels once called it "cruelty disguised as candor."

"Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell" apparently had a bit with Bill Murray that satirized the Watergate tapes, with Nixon's caddies playing with the golf scores at the request of their boss. Not "leftist," per se, because everyone by now was mad about Nixon's shenanigans, but it aired around this time or even just…

Cardinal Cooke was the man in charge at St. Patrick's down the block from 30 Rock at the time of this broadcast. According to the Hill/Winegrad book, there was never a formal "big stink" and they suggest it was just a prank call made to the network, as no one at the Archdiocese of NY was probably watching the show,…