SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE {SIGOURNEY WEAVER, CHRISTOPHER DURANG, BUSTER POINDEXTER, MADONNA} (TV)

Summary

One in this series of live, late-night comedy/variety programs featuring topical satire. Sigourney Weaver hosts this twelfth season premiere, with musical guest Buster Poindexter (David Johansen), and appearances by playwright Christopher Durang and pop star Madonna. Highlights of this program include the following: in the cold opening, Madonna appears on stage to read a statement from NBC dismissing the show's past season as "a terrible dream"; guest host Sigourney Weaver introduces her friend, the playwright Christopher Durang, and the two discuss their commitment to the work of German playwright Bertolt Brecht -- but they are cut off by a commercial break when they prepare to launch into a lengthy scene from "Mahagonny"; a jeans commercial parody promotes "General Dynamics -- the Leader in Laser Guided Defense Technology"; "Church Chat," a talk show with Church Lady Dana Carvey features guests Chris Durang, Sally Kellerman (Jan Hooks), Ann Landers (Nora Dunn), and Weaver as the demon-possessed character she played in "Ghostbusters"; "Quiz Busters," a game show hosted by Phil Hartman, pits contestant Jan Hooks against an opponent she has little chance of beating -- a professional psychic (Carvey); Kevin Nealon plays an advertising executive who manipulates his boss (Jon Lovitz) and his boss's receptionist (Victoria Jackson) with subliminal messages; a parody of commercials for Broadway shows features testimonials from thrilled audience members -- this one presenting tourists who are literally hypnotized to spout rote responses promoting "The Amazing Alexander," a hynotism show; Weaver and Hartman play recording industry executives who get an off-the cuff "demo" from a British rock star (Carvey); Dennis Miller's Weekend Update features a report on the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Iceland with correspondent Victoria Jackson, who shows videotapes of her child, and A. Whitney Brown, who joins Miller with his commentary on the summit; Weaver and the tuxedo-clad singer Buster Poindexter sing a duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside"; Weaver reprises her role as "Ripley" in a spoof of the recent film "Aliens," in which her paranoid crew massacres the gentle space creature, E.T.; a filmed "public service announcement" presents Hartman as the New York deputy commissioner, touting New York's "tough" new ten-week jail sentence for anyone commiting a murder; Poindexter returns with a solo number; Weaver and Dunn appear as a pair of rather gullible women being two-timed by Lovitz's pathological liar character; and Weaver and Durang do a send-up of Brechtian theater, including Weaver's Bobby Darin-style cover of "Mack the Knife," as well as Epic Theater-style performances of "Ohio," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," "Papa Don't Preach," and "Mahagonny" (to the melody of "Oklahoma"). Commercials deleted.

(This is a repeat telecast of a program that aired live on Saturday, October 11, 1986.)

Details

• NETWORK: NBC
• DATE: 1986 rerun of 1986/10/11 show
• RUNNING TIME: 1:15:32
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: T:20269
• GENRE: Comedy/Variety
• SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Films - Paroday; Music, popular (songs, etc.); Rock music; She Made It Collection (Rosie Shuster)
• SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1975-
• COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

• Audrey Peart Dickman … Co-Ordinating Producer
• Lorne Michaels … Producer, Writer
• Ken Aymong … Associate Producer
• Dinah Minot … Associate Producer
• James Signorelli … Production (Misc.), Film Producer, Direction (Misc.), Director for "Levis General Dynamics," , "Ten Weeks in Jail," "Amazing Alexander"
• Annina Lavee … Production (Misc.), Film Associate Producer
• Christoph Lindner … Production (Misc.), Production Manager
• Eugene Lee … Production Designer, Production (Misc.)
• Akira Yoshimura … Production Designer, Production (Misc.)
• Paul Miller … Director
• Bob Caminiti … Direction (Misc.), Associate Director
• Joni Cohen Zlotowitz … Researcher, Film Research by
• Henry MacLure … Researcher
• Andy Breckman … Writer
• A. Whitney Brown … Writer
• E. Jean Carroll … Writer
• James Downey … Writer
• Al Franken … Writer
• Phil Hartman … Writer
• George Meyer … Writer
• Kevin Nealon … Writer
• Herb Sargent … Writer, Script Consultant
• Marc Shaiman … Writer
• Rosie Shuster … Writer
• Robert Smigel … Writer
• Jon Vitti … Writer
• Leon Pendarvis … Conductor, For the Saturday Night Live Band
• G.E. Smith … Instrumentalist, Musical Director
• Steve Ferrone … Instrumentalist
• Alex Foster … Instrumentalist
• Earl Gardner … Instrumentalist
• Lenny Pickett … Instrumentalist
• Steve Turre … Instrumentalist
• T-Bone Wolk … Instrumentalist
• Cheryl Hardwick … Music (Misc. Credits), Musical Director
• Hal Willner … Music (Misc. Credits), Music Coordinator
• Del Gatto, Lew … Music (Misc. Credits), Arrangements by
• Sigourney Weaver … Host, Guest
• Madonna … Guest, Cameo appearance by
• Christopher Durang … Guest
• Poindexter, Buster (David Johansen) … Guest, Singer
• Dana Carvey … Cast
• Nora Dunn … Cast
• Phil Hartman … Cast
• Jan Hooks … Cast
• Victoria Jackson … Cast
• Jon Lovitz … Cast
• Dennis Miller … Cast
• A. Whitney Brown … Cast, Featured Performer
• Kevin Nealon … Cast, Featured Performer
• Bertolt Brecht
• Saturday Night Live Band, The
• Kurt Weill