Land of Gorch skits on a Canadian Network

I just wanted to give my fellow Canadians a heads up:

Beginning Monday August 2nd, Prime Network will be airing "classic" Saturday Night Live shows. I just caught a promo for it last night, and I saw brief clips of Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Dan Akroyd in it so that means it looks like they will be showing the first (1975-76) season which means we can see the "Land Of Gorch" Muppet skits. For some time now, I have wanted to see these but didn't think I would ever have the opportunity. AFAIK, this will be the first time since the original broadcasts that these will be seen in Canada. Though we have a 24 hr comedy network here, it's nowhere near as good as the one in the U.S, and I don't think it (the Canadian comedy network) has ever aired reruns of SNL.

Here in the Vancouver area, the channel # for Prime is 48, but I don't know what it is in other parts of the country. Though you can probably find out by visiting their website:

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Well, suddenly I'm feeling a little less optimistic about this. As it turns out, I was unaware that Global has already been airing reruns of classic SNL for a couple of months now. (Currently they seem to be showing episodes from the fourth season.) They're on every weeknight at 12:05 and unfortunately they're doing the same thing that Comedy Central in the U.S has done with them -- edited them down to an hour from their original length of 90 minutes. And according to the Gorch Anthology on the Tough Pigs site, in these edited shows, the Gorch skit is among the stuff that gets cut. The only exception is the one that features the duet with Scred and Lily Tomlin. But I think I may have read elsewhere that in these edited shows, the Gorch skit doesn't always get cut.

Prime hasn't updated their schedule yet, so I don't know as of yet wether they'll be showing the full 90 minute shows, or shows edited down to an hour. But given what I know so far, I'm going avoid disappointment by assuming that Prime will be showing these edited shows.

But maybe some of you in the U.S who have seen these edited shows can enlighten me: does the Gorch skit always get cut out?

I've only seen 2 Gorchless edited episodes on E!: the Madeline Kahn one and the Buck Henry one. I REEEEEALLY wanted to see the sketch in the Buck Henry one.

Hopefully that sketch will air again in Canada, and if anyone has the chance to tape it (and the Gorches in the Paul Simon and Rob Reiner episodes), PLEASE let me know. I'll make it worth your time.

I've only seen one or two Gorch skits. The one I that have on tape is the first one from the first SNL with George Carlin (he was not in the skit). I presume that the Buck Henry ep. you're referring to is from the first one he hosted in 1976? He hosted SNL 10 times between 1976-80, and occasionally made an unannounced cameo.

OI MuppetFan

Henson and the Muppets were acrimoniously dropped from SNL towards the end of the 1975-76 season due to apparent tensions between him and Lorne Michaels. Perhaps Lorne decided to cut most of those Gorch sketches for that very reason.

OI MuppetFan

I beg to differ. I've seen some of them in hour-long syndicated episodes on E!, and even on uncut late-night NBC reruns (the one in the Richard Pryor ep was the first Gorch I ever saw, back in late '98).

I think that the classic episodes of SNL have been airing on both Global and the Comedy Network here for the past few years off and on. They are edited down to an hour and I have never seen any of the Muppet sketches. Much as I'd love for them to be included I can understand why they were cut out. Many of the short films that were part of SNL's early days have been cut too as well as sketches with drug references that aren't consider PC any more.

The Muppets were originally added to SNL simply because Bernie Brillstein represented both Michaels and Henson and sort of packaged the show for NBC. I've never read anything about tensions between Henson and Michaels; most accounts suggest that it was more a case of the SNL writers hating the puppets (to protest they reportedly kept a Big Bird doll hanging in the writer's room in a noose!) and as SNL developed in to more of a sketch comedy show than a standard variety program (which is what NBC thought SNL would be initially) after it's first few episodes the Muppets didn't really fit the format or the anti-esthablishment culture of the show anymore.

What about in America? Will any of the Gorch skits be aired here?

Buck Beaver is right. But it wasn't only the writers who hated them. Most of the cast also didn't like them (with the possible exceptions of Gilda Radner and Chevy Chase) particularly John Belushi, who is said to have called them "the mucking fuppets" I read an online interview with Frank Oz where he said that Belushi "hated them with a passion."

According to the book Jim Henson:The Works the writers disliked writing for them because Henson was so protective and that made it difficult to write for them. Though technically the Muppets were dropped from the show because The Muppet Show began production in England, they say it would have happened anyway.

NBC is your best bet, if they decide to show the first-season episodes late at night again after the 11:30 PM episode. Some NBC stations rerun complete 1.5-hour episodes at 1 AM every Saturday night / Sunday morning (that's how I first saw Gorch as stated above).

I would have thought Comedy Central would do stuff like that. Thanks though!

Well, there's good news and there's bad news:

The bad news is that, Prime is showing edited hour long episodes of SNL.

Now for the good news...I got the first of the Gorch skits on tape!! It looks like they're showing them in chronological order -- they showed the first episode with George Carlin as host. For those that don't know or haven't seen the transcripts on Tough Pigs, it's the one where King Ploobis and Scred ask the Mighty Favog for advice about Peuta's health problems.

My thoughts so far? I thought it was pretty funny, and judging from the laughter, so did the studio audience at the time. I had read the transcripts on TP, but it just doesn't compare to actually watching them. You would never know just from watching that it was originally performed live. Even the blooper where King Ploobis has trouble getting the food from Vazh wasn't that noticable IMO. Nor did her performance seem "stiff" or did her performer seem to read her lines too loud like they said at TP.

But as much as I liked it, I can see what people mean when they say that the Muppets didn't really fit in with the rest of the show and why they were dropped.

Well I hope this is the first of the twelve skits they'll be showing and I'll be keeping my VCR set for the next two weeks!

ETA:Btw: those two chickens that Scred sacrificed to the Mighty Favog -- they didn't look like chickens at all!

I saw the second episode last night with Paul Simon as host, and it had a good Gorch sketch there too. The Muppets only made 12 appearances on SNL during that first season. Their final SNL appearance was made in the show that Raquel Welch hosted. It will probably air on PRIME before this month is over. Watch for it.

OI MuppetFan

Here is a quick overview of the Gorch Skits. I've listed the host and the original date aired. For more information on Gorch and for transcripts of the skits check out this site. I really wished NBC put out a DVD with them all.

George Carlin (October 11, 1975)
Ploobis & Scred visit the Mighty Favog.

Paul Simon (October 18, 1975)
Ploobis & Scred seek financial help from the Mighty Favog.

Rob Reiner (October 25, 1975)
Ploobis discovers his son Wisss has been smoking craters.

Candice Bergen (November 8th, 1975)
Scred & Ploobis consult Mighty Favog about dwindling Glig population.

Robert Klein (November 15, 1975)
Scred tries to cure Ploobis' migraine headache.

Lily Tomlin (November 22, 1975)
Scred falls in love with Tomlin.

Richard Pryor (December 13, 1975)
Ploobis & Scred visit The Mighty Favog while drunk.

Candice Bergen (December 20, 1975)
Bergen, Ploobis & Scred sing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".

Elliot Gould (January 10, 1976)
Scred & Peuta hide their affair from Ploobis.

Buck Henry (January 17, 1976)
Scred and Peuta concemate their relatonship and become "satisfied customers".

Peter Cook (January 24, 1976)
Scred dresses in a bee costume to be in a skit that gets canceled.

Jill Clayburgh (February 28, 1976)
When the Muppet preformers could not appear Chevy Chase volunteers to go on in their place, and perform a puppetshow barehanded a little play called "Paying The Milkman" on the regular Land of Gorch set.

Anthony Perkins (March 13, 1976)
Scred and Ploobis ask Perkins to help get them back on SNL after a long absent.

Raquel Welch (April 24, 1976)
The Mighty Favog convinces Scred and Ploobis to pack it in and quit SNL.

Madeline Kahn (May 8, 1976)
The Mighty Favog tries to get they Muppets back on SNL, ending in puppets being packed into a trunk.

Lily Tomlin (September 18, 1976)
Tomlin finds the Muppets from last season in the morgue.

OK, today I'm angry. It had to happen eventually and today it did:they showed the Rob Reiner episode with the "Crater Head" skit cut out. But that's not why I'm mad. I'm mad because the opening credits mentioned "Jim Henson's Muppets", just like they did yesterday and the day before AND I WASTED A WHOLE HOUR WATCHING THE SHOW ONLY TO REALIZE IT HAD BEEN CUT! !

If they had to cut it, fine that's one thing. But at least they should have edited the opening credits so as not to mislead people like that!

Last night I saw the episode with Lily Tomlin, and it had the Gorch sketch. It's the one where Scred has a crush on Tomlin, and prompts her to sing a duet of "I've Got You Babe." (Talk about irony!)

OI MuppetFan

I got that one too -- and in it's entirety, to boot. The TP site says they usually cut out the intro with Ploobis and Peuta searching Scred's crater hole. It was nice that Prime left that in, even if it's not very funny. A nice little bonus which makes what they did the day before *slightly* forgivable. But only slightly.

Well today (Friday) they showed the Richard Pryor episode and the Gorch skit was the one where Ploobis and Scred get drunk and insult the Mighty Favog. It was the funniest one I've seen yet. Though they skipped over a few episodes. Either that or Prime just isn't showing them in the exact chronological order.

Last night (Tuesday) PRIME aired the first SNL hosted by Buck Henry, with no Muppets in sight. The Muppets were on that episode (Jan. 17, 1976), but their segment was cut. Also cut was musical guest Toni Basil. Bill Withers remained with his one performance ("Ain't No Sunshine").

OI MuppetFan