Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell (on ABC)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by BEAThoven, Apr 16, 2015.

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  1. BEAThoven

    BEAThoven Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New Jersey
    (Not be confused with NBC's "Saturday Night," which did not become "Saturday Night Live" until 1977.)

    This goes out to all the "mature" folks around this board -- Do you guys/gals have any memory of this show? My age was still in single digits at that time, and my only memory of it is a Bay City Rollers' performance.

    Was it really that bad or did it just have stiff competition?

    Here's a clip:

     
  2. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    I think Bill Murray was on this show
     
  3. jupiter8

    jupiter8 Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ, USA
    I remember it -and it was horrible-it was funny to watch Cosell try to pretend to be Ed Sullivan to the Bay City Rollers' Beatles...
     
    Bill likes this.
  4. Marvin

    Marvin Senior Member

    Yes, that was my recollection. I think he was even trying to copy Ed Sullivan's stiff-shouldered mannerisms as he introduced them, to screaming fans.
     
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  5. chicofishhead

    chicofishhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico, California
    My favorite thing about the show, which is about the only thing I know about the show, is that one episode showed Linda Ronstadt live in San Diego, which is significant to me because it was during the short time that David Lindley was in her band.

     
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  6. hbbfam

    hbbfam Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chandler,AZ
    If I remember it was one of those summer replacements. Howard was, by that time, a caricature of himself. I recently read Al Michael's memoirs. He had very few unkind words for anyone, but he did for Howard. And that show was terrible by even mid 70s summer replacement standards.
     
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  7. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    All I remember from the 1st episode is Billy Crystal.
     
  8. Evan L

    Evan L Beatologist

    Location:
    Vermont
    Very first show IIRC.
     
  9. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    God, is THAT what that show was?! I was thinking it was a sketch show like SNL, just tamer.
     
  10. Commander Lucius Emery

    Commander Lucius Emery Forum Resident

    No, it was a regular fall show, debuting in September 1975 and lasted 18 episodes before being cancelled in January 1976.

    I watched several episodes. What I remember most was Alex Karras (at the time Cosell's colleague broadcasting Monday Night Football) with a wig and bone in his nose playing with the Eagles. Cosell
    hyped every guest as the greatest, most exciting ever, which were the likes of Lola Falana and Charo.
    Producer Roone Arledge shoved some of the blame to ABC Corporate heads. At the time the Patty Hearst trial was going on and Arledge got permission from the judge to have Hearst's attorney F Lee Bailey to talk about the case. Corporate heads said no, so all Cosell could ask was whether Hearst was a nice woman.
    Johnny Carson summed it up best. It was a show where tennis star Jimmy Connors sang and Frank Sinatra didn't.
     
  11. milankey

    milankey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, Ohio, USA
    Lola Falana and Charo? Sorry I missed it.
     
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  12. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    One of those things that could only happen in the '70s. Sort of a real-life prequel to SCTV or the various Krusty The Clown shows on THE SIMPSONS.
     
  13. misko

    misko Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, Pa.
    I remember this show. I guess Howard was at the peak of his fame and was trying to become the new Ed Sullivan. He even attempted to create a "Beatlemania type " buzz around The Bay City Rollers. He also injected Sullivan techniques like introducing famous people in his audience. I think I recall members of "Welcome Back Kotter" in the crowd one show. I was not surprised when the show was cancelled.
     
  14. PHILLYQ

    PHILLYQ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn NY
    few people had kind words for Cosell.
     
  15. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    I was going to post this. I worked this show and when they went live to NYC there was a lot of booing for Howard. Not sure how much of it made it to the broadcast, but I couldn't hear any on this clip.

    Btw, for what it's worth, several weeks later I worked my first show with Seals & Crofts. I ended up watching the 2nd ever SNL on NBC with Jeff Porcaro in his hotel room after the gig. That was Oct 18, 1975.
     
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  16. Commander Lucius Emery

    Commander Lucius Emery Forum Resident

    Cosell said in his book "I never played the game" that to reverse the declining ratings, he tried to get the Beatles to reform and appear on his show. He got to talk with John Lennon who told him they weren't interested in reforming and if they did, it would be a 50,000 seat stadium with closed-circuit tv. Not broadcast for free.
    According to wiki, only three episodes survive. I suppose it wasn't very good although I wonder if Cosell's personality-arrogance fueled by massive insecurity-draws criticism like manure draws flies. By having remote feeds, you had Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles (humorously called the Alex Karras Blues Band) in primetime. Ed Sullivan was a stone faced stiff newspaper columnist who featured jugglers, ventriloquists, and a mouse puppet to go with rock n rollers, Broadway numbers, opera and comedians. Yet Sullivan is held as a pinnacle.
     
  17. doowop365

    doowop365 …and Spaghetti

    Location:
    Central WI
    Funny how the only things about this show I really remember well were already mentioned - Linda Ronstadt singing "Heat Wave" and The Bay City Rollers performing "Saturday Night". It was my introduction to the Bay City Rollers (I'm sure that was the case for many others as well), so I have fond memories of the show; of course, I was about 10 and a huge football fan (and Wide World of Sports fan), so I apparently had an interest in whatever Howard Cosell was up to.
     
  18. Bill

    Bill Senior Member

    Location:
    Eastern Shore
    I remember two things: how lame the Bay City Rollers were after ABC's efforts to hype their appearance as the new Beatles, and how the stiffly egotistical Cosell was an absolute trainwreck as the host.
     
  19. jojopuppyfish

    jojopuppyfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    So no bill murray footage?
     
  20. Avenging Robot

    Avenging Robot Senior Member

    One of the good things about NBC's SNL and to an even greater extent, SCTV (and later, Letterman to a certain degree) was to highlight how TV was brimming at the seams with cornball s**t like the clip on the first post and to skewer it accordingly.
     
    Bill likes this.
  21. tim_neely

    tim_neely Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Central VA
    I remember watching it almost every week. Other than the U.S. debut of the Bay City Rollers, my other memory is of a truly awful moment: when Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali did a half-sung, half-spoken duet on the Broadway tune "Friendship" (from Anything Goes).
     
  22. dewey02

    dewey02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    The mid-South.
    I remember this only in respect to how totally terrible it was.
    Anyone who knows Howard Cosell from his sports broadcasts and his interviews should easily be able to figure out how very bad he would be in a variety show like this.
     
  23. kch27

    kch27 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, Texas, USA
    The regular comedy performers, Bill Murray, his brother Brian Doyle-Murray, and Christopher Guest, were billed as the Prime Time Players, which was the inspiration for NBC's "Not Ready for Prime Time Players.". All three were on SNL eventually.
     
  24. pdenny

    pdenny 22-Year SHTV Participation Trophy Recipient

    Location:
    Hawthorne CA
    I picked the right time to be out of the country.
     
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