Steve Martin's Best Show Ever

This is a mostly forgotten TV special produced by Lorne Michaels and features some cast members and several writers from the 70's era of SNL. I suppose it is mostly remembered now for having John Belushi giving his last ever performance (released anyway) as the long lost sister to Aykroyd and Martin's "Wild and Crazy Guys".

Dan Aykroyd is in alot of the scenes. Bill Murray turns up, Lorraine Newman too, but it isn't the best written comedy show. A filmed scene with Eric Idle I believe originally aired on his British show Rutland Weekend Television (WORTH SEARCHING OUT BTW) is used. The only live part of this I actually enjoy is the song and dance number Martin does with Gregory Hines. The rest is fairly forgettable.

This was one of the best television experiences of my life. For 23 years, my family watched our tape of it each Thanksgiving Eve. Unfortunately, it has been misplaced. Can anyone help me replace it? Every element of it was wonderful and, although it was a parody, it reminded me of the the great television variety shows at their best. There was something in the show to attract everyone and most of it has been committed to memory: Did dinosaurs build Stonehenge?, Elephant Guy, the wonderful performance of Gregory Hines, Sucker Showcase and Steve Martin positively at his best. NBC really needs to offer this on DVD.

This is a must see for ANY SNL fan that remembers the Golden Years of, Belushi, Aykroyd, and Radner. Produced by Lorne Michaels and broadcast live on NBC, it was like watching a reunion show with Martin as the guest host. We even get to see the return of a few of SNL's best loved characters from that era. The original SNL cast had since moved on at the time of this broadcast, and the SNL cast at that time was one of the worst in the history of the show. For those of us that were thirsting for the return to greatness of SNL, this offered us on last look at what the show once was and would never quite be again. Not every skit was a piece of art, but as a whole, this was a very funny special. This was not a ratings bonanza for NBC (although it did very well in the 18-25 demographic), so I'm betting that many fans of Martin & SNL have never seen it. This should REALLY be released on video or DVD if for no other reason, to allow those who have not seen it the chance to say goodbye to the SNL of the first 5 years.

I don't know if it's just because times have changed or, perhaps, this fourth special by Steve Martin was never funny in the first place. All I know is that it hardly elicited a laugh and was painfully unfunny. A few sketches worked...kind of...such as the Elephant Man skit near the end and the dance numbers. But the rest were a sorry lot...especially the Two Wild and Crazy Guys (was this EVER funny??), the Eric Idle film and the Alexander Haig skit.

The bottom line is that this live Lorne Michaels-produced show just wasn't written all that well and it was, at best, spotty. I have the other three previous specials on DVD and hope they are better than this mess of a show. And, in the end, I don't blame Steve Martin for most of this...it's just that the writing was painfully unfunny and dull.