Gilda Radner died the morning of the 1989 Saturday Night Live season finale. Steve Martin was the host that evening, and instead of his monologue, he showed this clip (where the above .gif comes from) of the two in their “Dancing in the Dark” sketch from 1978. When the clip finished, Steve was near tears.
Mike Myers had just started on the show a few months prior. He had a connection with Gilda when hew as a little boy:
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Alan Zweibel found out early in the morning when he just assumed his mom had forgotten the time zone:
(my local paper Daily Press)
The following morning, newspapers everywhere had her obituary. It was heartbreaking to read each one, even if it was the same information. I wonder a lot what Gilda would be like now had she survived. I imagine she would have hosted SNL eventually, considering she was scheduled to, but due to the 1988 writer’s strike it never happened. She would have owned so many Yorkies, had a house full of them. I don’t know if she would have stayed with Gene Wilder though. Would she have been on Twitter? How many more books would she have written? Guest TV appearances? Simpsons guest voices? Gilda never even got to see Simpsons until she saw the shorts on Tracey Ullman.
About a year before Gilda Radner died, she made an appearance on It’s Garry Shandling’s Show at the advice of her good friend, Alan Zweibel who was a producer.
Garry is going to take a big step in his life tonight, or as he says it, “one more closer step [that’s some good english!] to having children”
I think the theme song is what people know the most from the show. I mean, its so simple.
This is the theme to Garry’s Show, The theme to Garry’s show. Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song. I’m almost halfway finished, How do you like it so far, How do you like the theme to Garry’s Show.
This is the theme to Garry’s Show, The opening theme to Garry’s show. This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits. We’re almost to the part of where I start to whistle. Then we’ll watch “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”.
(whistles)
This was the theme to Garry Shandling’s show.
Now we know how Gary got his poofy hair back then.
OH SNAP. GILDA’S HERE.
I almost cry every time I see how excited she is, and the audience is. This was the first time she had made a TV appearance since the press for the movie her at Gene did, Haunted Honeymoon two years prior due to Ovarian Cancer. This was supposed to be her big comeback, she was even in an article in Life Magazine about beating cancer right before this. She was supposed to host Saturday Night Live, but due to the 1988 writers strike it was postponed. Unfortunately, her cancer would come back just a few months later, and Gilda would pass away on May 20th, 1989.
“Don’t milk the applause like that.”
“I’m sorry, Garry, I haven’t been on TV in a while.”
“Yeah, what was wrong…”
“I had cancer, what did you have?”
“I just a series of bad career moves.”
“Are these the sea monkeys?”
“No, that’s my soup for dinner … boy you have been out of touch for a while.”
Ohhhhhh, I think the reason why this episode is titled “Mr. Smith Goes to Nam” is because Garry’s landlord, Leonard, was running around in the middle of the night having flashbacks and waking up the entire neighborhood. Turns out Gilda’s male nurse, Blake, was in his unit that was captured. You know how shows go to a flashback, welp, the flashback is coming to Garry’s house instead:
“Nance, Nance! Sit over here, you can see Leonard’s past!”
The next day, all three of them come over to see Gilda and Blake.
“Oh no! It’s the Garry Shandling show! No more tapes! No more tapes!” [Gilda thought Garry was coming over to bring her more tapes of his work to make him feel better, she used some of them earlier to tape Lakers games.]
The flashbacks came to Gilda’s house too
I was wondering why Gilda looked so catatonic in one scene in the Fox commercial, it’s ‘cuz she was hit by a coconut, because everything in Garry’s world is literal!
“Don’t you look into the camera, I don’t care how sick you are!”
Aw, they all played Candy Land at the end! Aw, but then Garry said, “I think Gilda’s ready to to television again..”
IS THAT A PORTRAIT OF [Gilda’s husband] GENE DURING THE CLOSING CREDITS?! I hope they let Gilda take that home.
Obviously, I can’t cover the very first episode of Saturday Night Live from 1975, because that would be breaking all the rules of this blog. But, buuut, I can cover the very first SNL of the 1980s. (this was the only place I could quickly find the episode, if that link is down, try one of these, sorry) It aired on January 26, 1980, and the host was Teri Garr and the musical guests was the B-52s! Transcripts are from this amazing page.
Oh noes, Don Pardo tells us that SNL be delayed so it can present continuing nightly coverage, what could it be?
Day 1, January 14th, 1980: Paul McCartney’s luggage is inspected by Customs agents at the Tokyo Airport. It is discovered that he is carrying 7.7 ounces of marijuana. Paul is arrested and taken to a drug treatment center, then transferred to a cell in a Tokyo prison.
Day 2: All music composed by Paul McCartney is BANNED throughout Japan.
Day 4: Linda — Paul’s wife — is allowed her first visit, and the world learns that Paul, while mildly depressed, in still in good health.
Day 5: Paul reads a public statement, praising his captors and regretting his use of marijuana. Linda says: “It doesn’t sound like him. I think he’s trying to tell us something.”
Day 6: The crisis grows more serious, as ALL rock journalists are given 24 hours to get out of Japan.
Day 8: As tensions grow, a 23-year old woman is hanged in a public square in Kobi, for whistling “Michelle”.
Day 9: Kurt Waldheim travels to Japan and is granted a 15-minute visit with McCartney. He says Paul is as well as can be expected under the circumstances.
Which brings us to Day 10. Jane?
Wuh-oh. Turns out that Guido Sarducci wanted to get an exclusive interview with Paul while he was in jail so he traveled to Japan with pot too. Except…he’s not Paul. No tariffs.
It’s funny to see him out of his signature costume during the opening credits. Speaking of, this was the season where everybody kinda looked like watercolors with too much rouge:
Also, there were a ton of featured players that season. Of course you had your Al Franken and Tom Davis, but then you also had Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray’s brothers? Even baby Harry Shearer from The Simpsons.
Terri didn’t even do a monologue, she just told us how excited she was to be there and kinda wiggled her butt a little.
How did I forget that it early in the election year. All the candidates have come over to this lady’s house in Iowa (played by Terri) to help her with the housework while she knits:
Teddy said he’d take Gilda’s math test. That got a big laugh. Also, people in the audience tried to “Kramer” Gilda, by whooping when she made an entrance. That stopped quick though.
[ dissolve to exterior of house, with irised footage of each candidate ]
Announcer: George Bush: Suffered a massive hernia while helping a New Hampshire farmer remove a tree stump from his property.
Senator Edward Kennedy: Withdrew from the race after humiliating defeat in the Massachusetts Primary.
John Connally: Forced out of the race after his indictment on two counts of first degree murder.
Senator Howard Baker: Found in a motel room during the Wisconsin Primary with Congressman Crane.
Ronald Reagan: Forced to withdraw from the race for lying about his age. He was 94.
Jimmy Carter: Re-nominated by acclimation, but lost the General Election, due to Soviet takeover of Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, France and Scotland.
John B. Anderson: Elected 40th President of the United States.
[ image opens up to reveal Anderson seated among the audience in the balcony, as the camera zooms out]
We got some preppy girls in prison.
Even down to the monograms.
They had to bribe Garrett Morris for the newest issue of Town and Country.
haha, Bitsy’s stepmom is Gloria Vanderbilt. “She designs BLUE JEANS!” says her dad. Laraine’s earring falls off when she’s modeling her jeans.
I’m mad as spit that I can’t find the clip of the B-52′s singing Rock Lobster on SNL. They’re all wiped off of YouTube and DailyMotion. Check out Fred Schneider’s pencil mustache!
“A french cargo tanker carrying 300,000 gallons of mineral water broke up off the coast of Massachusetts in the world’s first major Perrier spill. Already thousands of fish have been belched up on the beach, and the Coast Guard worked late into the night squeezing tons of limes onto the area.”
Girl you know I love me a bottled water joke.
“While in Salem, Massachusetts, comedian Gabe Kaplan ran into some unexpected trouble when a witches’ curse turned him into a fire plug!”
…Jane’s wig.
You know that set STUNK. Coffee, cigarettes, and anchovies? (ok, i know the mugs are probably empty, but imagine the smell)
“Anchovies! You Devil!”
…now I want thin crust anchovy pizza…
and this happened.
When you’re out of bosco syrup and you run a studio.
As some know, my favorite Daily Show correspondent, Vance DeGeneres was the original Mr. Hands in the Mr. Bill sketches. I don’t believe this is him in this short, however. (research intensifies)
Nope, that’s not Vance’s hands.
“This is John Anderson, now you know who he looks like!”
I made the mistake of watching the documentary Love Gilda about Gilda Radner a few weekends ago. Why a mistake? Because I cried and cried watching the love a little Yorkie named Sparkle gave to her owner, Gilda while she was going through cancer treatments. Whenever Gilda was waking up from her chemotherapy treatments, her husband, Gene Wilder would bring Sparkle in a little tote bag and when Gilda got up, sparkle would sit in her lap, or lie down next to her.
Around Thanksgiving, 1982, while Gilda and Gene were trying to make their relationship work, Gilda received Sparkle from a friend of the family in Michigan. Gilda said in her book, It’s Always Something, “Sparkle was flown into New York from Michigan, just like me.”
Gilda speculated that Gene finally decided to settle down with her when she showed responsibility when Sparkle accidentally ate rat poison at an airport (from her book):
When Gene and Gilda got married in 1984 in France, Sparkle came along! When they honeymooned in Rome, she came along too:
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In 1986, Gilda was diagnosed with stage IV Ovarian Cancer. In late 1988, it reappeared. In a 1989 interview with Bob Costas weeks before her untimely death (she slipped into a coma after going under for a cat scan and died on May 20, 1989).
He brought Sparkle out when Bob asked how Gilda was doing. Gene said that Gilda was doing great and she was out promoting It’s Always Something while Gene babysat Sparkle.
In 1991, in a People interview, Gene said this:
If I need to cry or think a little bit, I’ll go over to the cemetery where she is buried to make sure the tree our friends planted is doing well and the grounds are kept up. I think one of the things that would make Gilda happiest is if Sparkle, her Yorkshire terrier, pee-peed right on top of her grave. One for Mama. She’d laugh. 2
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