'Wasn't That Special' Season Six Bonus Material

Stop making faces at us, Charlie Rocket

As the Wasn’t That Special co-hosts watch each season of Saturday Night Live, they compare notes on each episode, chatting back and forth about both popular and long-forgotten sketches. Some of the topics they discuss make it to the final podcast; others are left on the cutting-room floor.

But for those of you who join at the Executive Producer level, you will have access to Christian and Scot’s behind-the-scenes notes, as well as bonus materials the co-hosts used to prepare for the episode. 

Below is the especially-spicy Season Six bonus notes section, with the clips coming next week.

So please help keep the podcast advertisement-free and upgrade to the Executive Producer level, which will keep these emails coming in the future.

Episode One: Elliott Gould

Scot: Much shorter sketches mean you need so many more ideas and then most of them stink, so ... Piscopo & Dillon seem to get how this show works.

New cast wakes up in bed with Gould - Gould tells drug stories - Denny Dillon gets LFNY.

Christian: One of the most disastrous sketches in the show's history - inviting people to compare them to the last cast? Insanity.

Scot: Describing new members as compared to old cast, just as Buck did in E20.

Highway Education commercial - books posted as billboards - brought to you by Petroleum Council.

Christian: First bit of inspiration.

Scot: Walter Wiliams film -- Honestly not bad at all.

Gail Matthius gives herself a breast exam - black box on screen

Scot: I mean, it was fine. Decent verbal gymnastics. I'm trying not to be too vicious in these scores right now.

Heart To Heart - two non-cast members in bed

Christian: Extra point for there at least being the seed of an idea here - that men don't notice changes in their partners. Maybe I am reading too much into it.

Scot: The joke is the relationship is different b/c the actresses literally change.

High school Valley girl (Gail) out on date with sophisticated older man (Gould).

Christian: Get it? The bonds hadn't reached maturity yet? GET IT?

Scot: Gail’s accent is ... rough, rough, rough. Laraine's was much better and it wasn't all that great. More black/race jokes.

Short Shot - Jonathan Demme  "Gidgette Goes to Hell"

Christian: Say no to drugs, kids!

Scot: Just a music video, really.

Episode Two: Malcolm McDowell

Christian: If someone ever suggests I watch this episode again, remind me to schedule a vasectomy instead.

Scot: Fred Silverman was ready to fire Jean after this show. Brandon Tartikoff gave her more rope.

Wild Kingdom with Marlon Perkins (Rocket) "In Search of the Negro Republican"

Christian: With better writers, it had promise.

Scot: Like they're trying to break the record for saying "Negro" in a 3-minute span - Eddie Murphy’s debut (as guy on couch.)

Serf City - standing on Serfs, trying to keep balance

Christian: You see, it's funny because "serf" is the same as "surf."

Short Shot - Ken Friedman 

Christian: Every TikTok video I have ever seen is better than this.

Charles Rocket on Weekend Update, where he interviews “John Lennon”

Scot: Stop making faces at me.

Christian: It's hard to play a smug asshole when you're so bad at your own job. John Lennon was killed 16 days later - on the bright side, he didn't have to watch the rest of this season.

Woman (Risley) enters bookstore, describes specific romantic desires, shop owner comes out as that guy

Scot: These one-joke sketches are really hard to watch.

Christian: These zero-joke sketches are really hard to watch.

Leather Weather Report - no jokes, just whipping Rocket who is suspended to a map

Christian: You seem it's funny because weather sounds like leather.

Scot: Dillon botches the first, titular line of the sketch - Is this where Stern got the idea?

Commie Hunting Season

Christian: Is it a coincidence that the worst season in history turned hard left?

Scot: "Shoot yourself a Jew or a N-----, chances are you're shooting a communist."  Dead silence.  "My friends in the KKK already have shot some and have been acquitted." The urban, blue-bubble sensibility so far this season would rival anything on today's show.

Rocket Report  - pre-taped, Rocket on street

Christian: "Billy on the Street" with someone with zero talent. Asks a black guy if he's an American. What the hell is this?

Scot: Did they intentionally not edit out the bad takes? If so, why?  - Rocket is bad at asking questions. He's bad at *everything*. How could anyone look and see "breakout star?"

Jack the Stripper --- there's some confusion over who "the real stripper" is? 

Christian: You seem it's funny because ripper sounds like stripper.

Scot: Crowd doesn't care. The title of the sketch is the joke and nobody laughed at it. Downhill from there.

Someone Is Hiding In My Apartment

Christian: WHAT

Scot: It's his girlfriend. I don't get it. Why would he not know? Is he selfish? Self-absorbed? If so, why would she stay?

Dillon pitching American wines -- American foods like Baby Ruth demand American wines.

Christian: I enjoyed "Burgundy Helper."

Scot: Burgundy Extender (like Hamburger Helper) "Great for you poor people."

Episode Three: Ellyn Burstyn

Scot: Mason Williams (yes, the "Classical Gas" guy) brought in as script consultant/head writer ... butted heads with Jean immediately.

Christian: So many more bits, which is why it feels like they are so long. Seasons 1-5 usually came in at 10-12 bits counting musical acts and WU. Season Six is at 18.

Rocket as David Rockefeller - message to poor people from Reagan Admin - moving to co-op, have to kick people out

Christian: I'm fine with it having a lefty sensibility, but...have a joke.

Scot: Reagan had just won 44 freaking states. 44. Have a little self-awareness. Or at least be funnier.

What's It All About with Pinky and Leo -- Burstyn is a guest, they talk about their niece or something?

Christian: On a better season, this is a perfectly average sketch.

Scot: I can't believe they brought this back. -- There's some Emily Litella here in that no one understands what they're saying.

Video Dating - Piscopo debuts "Jersey Guy"

Christian: I...sort of liked it?

Scot: That was pretty much just annoying as all get-out, but at least some thought went into the character

Eddie Murphy makes his Weekend Update debut

Christian: And lo, like a bolt of lightning, God handed down Eddie Murphy.

Scot: Murphy just killed simply by showing some semblance of knowing how to work the crowd AND ROCKET IMMEDIATELY DESTROYS MOMENTUM WITH A ZERO-LAUGH JOKE.

Film by Leon Ichaso --- Pepe Gonzalez, NYC bullfighter (Gilbert)

Christian: Not funny, but some interesting visuals, and I liked the vibe.

Planned Parenthood - Vickie Valley Girl & friend (Dillon)

Christian: Matthius is doing a Miley Cyrus impersonation 30 years before its time.

Scot: Censors objected, Jean eventually toned it down - one of three sketches fought over this ep. - why bother fighting over this?

Dillon with tutor and sock puppet --- puppet is rude to everyone

Christian: A puppet in the hands of a master can be comedy gold: See Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Scot: Simply making a sock puppet mean doesn't lead to humor.

Blame the Kids - parents divorce

Christian: Was this written by a sock puppet?

Scot: Not just for divorce but for RFK killing, Vietnam - seed of an idea that is immediately stomped out.

Lonely Old Lady -- kid stops by selling tix for play

Scot: Gail sounds like Laraine's kid - story about cat meat is delivered well - what did happen to her son? - I'll be thinking about this one, which is more than I can say for anything else on the show.

Episode Four: Jamie Lee Curtis

Christian: The great debate of this season - who is worse, the writers or the performers?

“Mean Majority,” mean conservatives who listen to mean preachers and are really mean. God is mean.

Scot: This is so freaking awful. Inadvertent anti-comedy. Franken & Davis, all is forgiven. Come back. Downey, you too. Anyone who can write anything vaguely political.

Christian: Speechless. It's Colbert if he suffered a severe frontal lobe accident.

Attack of the Terrible Snapping Creatures - horror thing for Jamie Lee Curtis - clothespins attack women

Christian: Was this sketch written as it was being performed?

Dying To Be Heard - Female poets kill themselves for attention and recognition - JLC beats herself with book - 2nd woman kills herself too early

Christian: Risley is a Woody Allen find - might be his most objectionable lifetime judgment.

Scot: Ann still is really stiff. Really stiff.  Maybe a sliding scale, but it actually seemed decent enough.

Badger Convention - just being jerks to everyone

Christian: I would have canceled SNL mid-episode after this sketch.

Scot: A 100% accurate representation of the writers' room at the time.

Short Shot - scenes from student film of Martin Brest with Danny DeVito

Christian: Martin Brest would go on to direct Midnight Run, Beverly Hills Cop, and Scent of a Woman.

Scot: We're grading student films now?

Cut and Curl - Roweena & older woman with freaked-out California daughter - slice of life thing

Christian: Curtis’ character changes her name to "Sushi Raw" - isn't that redundant?

Ocelots - Ann Risley in a female biker gang - cleaning up Ohio highways from roadkill - very sad for dead animals

Scot: It truly is as if no one has written for comedy before - What would Ann says she does around here?

Episode Five: David Carradine

Scot: Carradine is a bad, bad host but matches the quality of everything else around here.

Carradine comes to Eddie Murphy's clothing store as Caine from Kung Fu - Murphy sells him pimp clothes

Christian: Hat is "simulated cheetah." Murphy is clearly more talented than anyone on the show, but it's not translating into great sketches yet.

Scot: Disjointed in every way. Murphy would own a role like this soon. Still raw at 19.

Gail and Denny at the mall - Matthius does her bad valley girl

Christian: Her accent is the whole joke.

Scot: So, writers are developing California girl and Jersey guy as the go-tos. What would happen if they met?

Rocket Report - runs around NYC dressed as drunk Santa

Christian: They figured out he can't talk to people, so he does voiceover the whole time. It's pure gibberish.

Scot: Clearly trying to do Murray thing and failing.

Carradine is back as Caine, Murphy is black Bruce Lee

Christian: Um, there's no sketch here. They are now just doing premises.

Scot: "Bruce Lee is back but this time he's black" - Awful.

Carradine as Caine now in the third sketch - tries to get welfare - Yvonne Hudson is told she has to become a prostitute to get welfare

Christian: Makes no sense and is blatantly racist. Maybe the most wretched sketch of the first six years.

Episode Six: Ray Sharkey

Christian: Hasn't America suffered enough? We have been through presidential assassinations, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, and the 12 Charles Rocket episodes.

WASP Interpreter - couple needs interpreter to convey emotions to each other

Christian: Something was here that they never found.

Scot: Just lobbing base insults at each other - Sharkey's energy saves this a bit.

Tommy Torture -  Vicky and Debbie meet punk rocker at club

Scot: Tommy Torture is doing Samurai - Might as well not be an audience; they're not reacting to anything - Bottom of the barrel.

Gilbert confessing to crime - police say they need to record on videotape - coach him on how to perform

Christian: Didn't Gilbert already do a bit about using a security camera to film an acting tape? This is kind of the same thing?

Scot: Echoes of the televised execution sketch - As complete of a sketch as we've gotten this season. Beginning, middle, end.

Unruly surrogate mothers worry moms-to-be - Denny trying to leverage her position for more $$

Christian: A perfectly average sketch! A miracle!

The Waiter-Maker - Ray tries to turn Gilbert into a star waiter - takes a year and he still stinks.

Christian: Gottfried plays a lot of Hispanics.

Scot: What a piece of garbage.

Eddie Murphy "Ever see black people fight?" standup

Scot: This is the show that was running five minutes short. Jean didn't know what to do. Neil Levy said, "Hey, just let Eddie do his tryout piece."

Christian: Right, not great, but historically significant. Now they know they can just let Eddie cook.

Episode Seven: Karen Black

Christian: First Season Six episode that was preferable to watching a live human birth.

Monologue: Karen will say anything to get applause

Christian: Hill and Weingrad said this show was "actually funny all the way through." They have already been made liars.

The Livelys - Game Show host family welcomes neighbors - Must guess the year of the wine he’s drinking to eat dinner.

Scot: Rocket is actually ... good? - There's a premise that delivers, high-energy. Best of the season so far.

Christian: It's very not terrible!

Piscopo's first Sinatra - Reagan visits to talk inauguration - Sinatra makes demands, lose Bush, add Nancy as VP - Nancy put him up to it

Scot: My guess: Crispin Glover's George McFly is based on Rocket's Reagan impression.

Yvonne Hudson as nurse with patient in a coma - Murphy comes in and wants to have sex - Black comes in as patient's daughter

Christian: Kind of melancholy and well-acted by Dillon.

Scot: Is it me or is Black a much better host this time? - Gotta say, this is better than most/all of the Miller pieces from early on.

Rocket sells SNL Cast Member Cast Dolls

Christian: I am sure like two cast members thought this was hilarious. It is not.

Scot: Could be the sketch/commercial with the least amount of planning/production ever.

Episode Eight: Robert Hays

Scot: A rival to S6E2 as the worst episode ever. Look at this string of dog vomit. Hays deserved better.

Piscopo does play by play for Atari game of Asteroids - cut to Murphy in spaceship playing Atari - He shoots down a blimp - "Oh, the humanity"

Christian: I admit, in 1981, I would have thought this was a 10-star sketch.

Scot: Piscopo and two featured players. Gottfried is just invisible.

Funeral accidentally hires the organist from Madison Square Garden to play

Christian: You can see the joke coming from a mile away, but I liked it anyway. Actually laughed out loud when he adds sound effects to the opening and closing of the casket.

Scot: Gilbert plays the corpse. Quite the opportunity.  Still a sense here they blow an opportunity for a better sketch.

Disco Meltdown

Christian: 0/5, no notes.

Scot: Deena Disco - everything is disco inside a nuclear power plant - Atrocious.

Rocket Report - in D.C. on trail of Ronald Reagan

Christian: If you enjoy random clips of nothing happening in D.C. and Rocket talking gibberish over b-roll, this is for you!

Scot: What would they do without Reagan? - Reagan's horse is named "Darkie." Get it?

Ad for America's biggest hits played on sitar by Ravi Shankar

Scot: Is this episode really just an endless string of craptastic commercials? How barren is the writers' room for ideas? - The brownface and accent would not fly today.

Return of Matthius as Rowena, sassy hairdresser

Christian: Rolling Stone ranked Matthius 74th best cast member of all time, calling her "A flicker of hope in the Saturday Night Live 1980 debacle, with a sharp valley girl mall-chick character named Vickie. Matthius and Vickie both deserved better."

Scot: Hey, more Reagan talk. He's been in office LESS THAN A MONTH. - Well, they've successfully killed off another potential recurring sketch - Why are they talking to the camera?

"Dream Date" ad with Rocket - send $40,000 for a chance to win

Scot: Insert gif of Hays' seatmate in AIRPLANE dousing himself in gasoline.

National Enquirer editorial meeting - come up with sensational stories

Christian: How is it possible to make a National Enquirer bit this boring?

Scot: "Cripples are big now. We need more cripple stories." - I think Gilbert literally has quit the show without telling anyone. Even when he's there, he's not.

Episode Nine: Sally Kellerman

Christian: Either this cast isn't doing enough drugs or doing way too many.

Scot: Awful, awful start but a passable close means this might not be quite as bad as E2 or E8.

Was I Ever Red! - My most embarrassing meal - Very slight faux pas triggering rich snobs. Then a dog is served for dinner. Vomit. Sheep birth. Fork in eye.

Christian: What are the people in the audience laughing at? Is comedy that different in person?

Scot: Ann has not a clue about how to be funny. Always chooses the wrong route.

Iranian Joke Book - begins with fake execution ... and that's about it

Scot: Has anyone here written for anything ever in their life?

Lean Acres Fat Farm - Kellerman runs the place, demeaning Denny and Ann for being fat - "Audience member" breaks sketch to call out fat shaming, then does "You're so fat" routine to overweight "writer"

Christian: They expect a laugh out of the "Lean Acres" intro graphic when we've already seen the phrase on their sweatshirts.

Scot: I dunno. Not great, could have been better. At least they realized the source material was garbage.

Episode Ten: Deborah Harry

Christian: The cast members, especially the females, are unwilling to make themselves look silly. This was Radner's secret sauce. They all think they are funny enough just playing "Gail Matthius with an accent."

Monologue: Harry brings parents for Valentine's Day - Murphy as cupid shoots someone in the audience

Christian: She at least seems happy to be there?

Scot: How can writers be expected to develop monologues when their brilliance is showing up in all other places of the show?

Where's Cooter? - Laurence comes in as guy from the "Tennessee Williams society," offers them chance to be a play in front of audience

Christian: The dual threat! Boring AND unfunny!

Scot: Rocket thought the writers were intentionally sabotaging the show by writing crap and I can't say he's definitely wrong.

Jersey Guy buying cards - Finally Debbie Harry in sketch

Christian: Debbie Harry is immediately better than any female cast member.

Scot: Harry really is good. This was heading for a grade of 3 until it just ... ended.

Matthius does her valley girl bit, Harry is graduate who comes back to high school

Scot: Absolutely terrible writing.

Episode Eleven: Charlene Tilton

Greatest Records of All Time - Songs/artists that would not be considered great (Jack Webb, Hugh Downs)

Christian: These jokes would have been a decade old in 1981?

Scot: Haven't they essentially done this one before this year?

Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood - Murphy teaches kids the word "bitch," buys drugs, operates cab by model burned out building

Christian: The first bona fide breakout sketch for Murphy. Might have been the one that saved the show.

Scot: "I ripped him off" as he pushes Gilbert out the door. Pryor dig after the Garrett dig - he's not afraid of anyone. 

Pork queen parade float - Tilton wins, Gail gives speech about how important pork is

Christian: Back to reality. Nothing close to a laugh to be found.

Scot: Another indication that (seriously) this show/staff is missing the "midwestern sensibility" that was apparent at times during the first 5 years.

Dillon as cop on talk show with Laurence complaining about people using handicapped bathroom stalls

Christian: The audience reacts like they have just been told they are orphans.

Scot: This cast doesn't do a lot of interview sketches and it shows.

Women behind bars - Tilton is fresh inmate who they force to...debate whether the public education system was adequate during the industrial revolution

Christian: Imprison whoever wrote this bomb.

Scot: Kinda like “Debs Behind Bars” from S5? - One laugh from the crowd for the graph. Otherwise, stone-cold silence.

The hand puppet boxing bit - Piscopo narrates with Don King

Christian: OK, fine - I laughed a few times. The visual is pretty cool.

Scot: The idea that this was the multi-episode arc the country was waiting for, it's just ridiculously silly. I'm sorry this whole thing is dumb. ANDY KAUFMAN WRESTLING WOMEN BROUGHT US HERE.

Prince performs "Partyup"

Christian: 19-year old Eddie Murphy and a virtually unknown Prince on the same show. The 80s in preview.

Rocket says "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" when Tilton asks him about being shot - everyone looks stunned

Scot: Rocket swore to Jean it was an accident and he had no idea he had even said the word. Come on, now.- Director Davey Wilson: "Well, there goes the end of live TV."

Episode Twelve: Bill Murray

Scot: We’re not even 10 months since the last episode of Season 5. It feels like a lifetime. Writers were begging Brian Doyle Murray and Mary Pat Kelly (Bill's SiL) to have Bill cancel, lest his appearance would goose ratings and lead to the show staying on-air. Bill did it as a favor to Jean and Mary Pat.

What absolutely doomed this version of the show was having ZERO connection to the first 5 years. No one who knew anything. There was no feel. No knowledge of how to run a week, how to write for TV.

Cast walks in to Bill's room. Complaining about how they've been treated. Bill to Charlie: "Watch your mouth. Clean it up." Bill to Gilbert: "You're lucky. Nobody walks up to you on the street and says 'I hated 1941.'" Leads them in chant of "It just doesn't matter!"

Christian: "Vile from New York" was an actual Tom Shales line - "I saved the old cast, I can do it for you." (And he is almost right.) The compliments he gives people are...underwhelming.

Murray is author at typewriter, cast acts out what he's writing behind him

Scot: Charlie shot for a second-straight week.

"Altered Walter" - Murray as Cronkite in deprivation tank - Piscopo as Dan Rather - Cronkite goes to do drugs at an Indian reservation?

Christian: Far too much production for a sketch so bad. 10 1/2 minutes and not a single laugh.

Scot: Usually there would be four sketches in this timeframe but, appropriately enough, those would all be 1s, too.

"Cut Flowers" - film with Bill and BD Murray - BD comes in looking for flowers, finally gets the one he wants and eats it.

Scot: Film by Bill's Sis-in-law, Mary Pat Kelly - only on-screen appearance for Brian Doyle-Murray this year? - I like this. I don't really have a reason. I think it's shot extremely well. Enjoy the twist at the end.

Murray and Dillon as southern divorced couple operating coin op laundry - he gets calls from women, they fight.

Christian: Kind of sad at the end?

Scot: I think Denny accidently flubbed the name of the store and Murray ad-libbed a correction (maybe not) - I wish they went elsewhere with the premise. The half/half ownership could have been funnier.

Rocket gives Murray a big hug during goodbyes, Murray having none of it.

Scot: Murray apologizes to original cast, "I'm sorry for what I've done." (I think he was serious.)

Gilbert Gottfried, Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket's final episode as cast members. Doumanian gets canned, Ebersol takes over for one episode before writer's strike.

Episode Thirteen: No Host

In: Robin Duke (from SCTV), Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato, featured players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager (who doesn't appear on the show.)

Chevy Chase shows up in cold open, sees old props, finds Mr. Bill in trash can - reminisce about old show, Chevy falls

Christian: A stark reminder of the talent gap between the old cast and the new.

Scot: Ebersol refused to take over unless Lorne blessed the effort and helped restore ties to the original cast - Yes, the writers might have sucked all season but the cast also wasn't near good enough to turn chicken excrement into salad.

"I Married a Monkey:" Kazurinsky lives with monkey in soap opera - monkey gives him the cold shoulder - baby monkey doesn't comply, monkey boyfriend calls on phone, hangs up

Christian: Incredibly ballsy sketch for the second one of Kazurinsky's career - monkey is funnier than Charles Rocket.

Scot: All credit to Tim. Like, can you imagine Jimmy Fallon in this? He'd be breaking the entire sketch.

Bill Cosby (Murphy) makes children drink beer, pours it in their hands

Christian: Horrifically prescient.

Scot: Animals and kids back-to-back, like some kind of dare to show SNL still is live and unpredictable.

Rosato as Italian father on Kazurinsky's wedding day

Christian: One-man show premised entirely on Rosato's accent. So long.

Scot: Holy cow, so, so long.

Piscopo for the school of cue card reading - obvious he is reading cue cards

Christian: Dumb and funny.

Scot: Good commercial; so simple yet so much better than the rest of the season's offerings.

Al Franken shreds Jean Doumanian on Weekend Update

Christian: Sure, Franken is an asshole, but boy I needed this. "The show is going to be a little better. No English speaking person could do a worse job than Jean."

Scot: Ebersol was 100% fine with Franken's shots at him. Franken called Ebersol the "First person to steal credit for the success of SNL." Man, that's an old wound resurfaced.

Dillon Doesn't even wave at goodnights, while Gail revives her Irene Cara bit. After this show, they are both gone.