And that’s it for now; I’ll be back around this same time tomorrow. But I leave you with the…
SNL Question of the night: Favorite Break or Screw Up?
Anything can happen when you’re live. Props fail, or someone messes up a line, or can’t help themselves and break up laughing in the middle of a sketch. There have been some memorable ones over the decades, but the one that I loved best happened after Mr. Ed died.
As I mentioned in Laraine’s write-up, the originals didn’t break very often. But things do go wrong on occasion - as they did in a Weekend Update bit. In this piece, Bill Murray was supposed to interview Mr. Ed’s Widow. But the horse, a real horse, wouldn’t cooperate. It wanders all over the place and its trainer can barely keep her steady. At one point Gilda –who was providing the voice- improvises, “Where am I going?” and the audience loses it, as did my siblings and I at home. Murray’s a quick wit too and gets in a nice reply to that. The whole thing is falling apart but it’s even funnier that way. Finally the skit ends and the camera cuts to Jane, who can hardly contain herself, and finally she starts cracking up.
It was one of the funniest moments on SNL. Gilda was the one cast member who rarely flubbed a line, and here she proved that not even an unhappy horse could flummox her. So I gained even more respect for her -and Bill- that night. And seeing the usually cool Curtain break, was the icing on the cake.
Writer, Alan Zweibel explains the sketch (though his memory is a bit faulty)…
https://www.youtube.com/v/ytFUfAzj370