Rob Reiner

Unlike the opening segment where Chevy Chase does his customary fall (this time from out of a wheelchair), this early Saturday Night Live episode starts to discover its own legs. I would say that somewhere during Belushi's "Joe Cocker" impersonation and in his impassioned dressing down of host Rob Reiner while dressed up as a discarded bee, you can clearly see the attitude and biting humor that would emerge through SNL's first five seasons.

Though the Cocker impersonation is reason enough to watch this episode, this third show has some other moments of note. Andy Kaufman makes another appearance, lip syncing masterfully to "Pop Goes the Weasel". Also, later in the show Albert Brooks' film on becoming a heart surgeon for the day still stands as one of his better contributions to that first year of shows.

Update was also still finding its way, but very much on course to what it would become, one of the weekly highlights of the show. And while not nearly as talented (in my opinion) as Belushi, especially in this episode, he most certainly has an easy charm about himself, so it's not all that surprising to remember why he became SNL's first breakout star. Though I'm not crazy about watching performers break up laughing during sketches (see Jimmy Fallon), I can excuse the Chevy Chase all knowing grin for some reason.

Other highlights include 'Dangerous But Inept' a one joke vehicle centered around Squeaky Fromme being interviewed while Squeaky tries to fire a gun at her interviewer and from host Rob Reiner's monologue where Rob gets to play out his fantasy of being a Las Vegas lounge singer, something that Bill Murray would later perform on SNL dozens of times.

There's only a couple of moments of tedium, most notably with the comedy stylings of 'Hampton and Dillon' and of course the dreaded Muppet segment. I don't know how interesting it is to note that Denny Dillon of 'Hampton and Dillon' non-fame would end up being a cast member five years later, especially when you consider that she and her future cast mates would be considered to be the worst follow up cast EVER.

Oh, one more thing...It is very interesting to watch cast members and host alike not reading cue cards, not looking away from others in the cast within a scene. You have to give this early cast a lot of credit, they were pretty damn good performers.

Good episode, even with the Rob Reiner microphone mishap...good episode.