Saturday Night Live: Charlene Tilton/Todd Rundgren, Prince

Air Date

Saturday February 21, 1981

Production Code

Unknown

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  6.9 Fair

  What could've been a turning point for the season, had NBC not overreacted. hide show

  To those uninitiated to the 1980 season of "Saturday Night Live", this episode is only known as that one where Charlie Rocket slipped up and got fired. Watching the entire episode, however, it appears that NBC made a grave mistake.
  
  This season unfortunately happens to be one of the most uneven in the show's history, with some fantastic episodes (Burstyn, Black) weighed down by some absolutely horrendous episodes (MacDowell, Sharkey). Charlene Tilton's episode is towards the higher end of the spectrum, and a nice change after the previous two weak episodes.
  
  One notable difference from previous weeks is that the audience seems totally into it; whereas the previous episode (hosted by Debbie Harry) was met with almost dead silence, even in the opening titles, the audience is very vocal and active throughout the entire show. A couple sketches like the odd "Women Behind Bars" fall a little flat; but on the whole, this is an enjoyable episode. Even Weekend Update is superior to the last few installments. This definitely deserves a viewing by those who haven't seen it already - you'll notice especially just how insignificant and barely audible Charlie's "act of sabotage" in the goodnights really was. It's just a shame that two great episodes, this one and the Bill Murray show, had to be the last for this struggling cast.

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  TheLazenby Added Apr 1, 2008 All my reviews

• Guest Cast

  • Prince Himself
  • Todd Rundgren Himself
  • Charlene Tilton Herself
  • Marc Weiner Himself
  • Don King Himself

• Stars

  • Charles Rocket Himself
  • Don Pardo Announcer
  • Yvonne Hudson Herself
  • Ann Risley Herself
  • Eddie Murphy Himself
  • Gail Matthius Herself
  • Matthew Laurence Himself
  • Mitchell Kriegman Extra
  • Denny Dillon Herself
  • Joe Piscopo Himself
More Episode Cast and Crew »

• There is currently no trivia. Add trivia!

• This was the first of only two instances that a live broadcast had a running plot. The second one was March 22, 1986 (George Wendt/Philip Glass/Francis Ford Coppola). [edit]
• Prince also utters the F-word in this episode, but it went unnoticed. [edit]
• The producers begged Larry Hagman to host this episode but he refused, forcing them to settle on his Dallas co-star. [edit]

• Ann Risley: No, rea- it's, it's over, Joe. It's over. It's just too selfish. I mean, we have to think about the show. Look, romance and work just don't mix.
  (she gets up and walks away, leaving Piscopo dejected) [edit]
• Gilbert Gottfried: (groans) Charlie Rocket. How come he gets to take out all the hosts? Sally Kellerman, Jamie Lee Curtis, Malcolm MacDowell ... how come nobody wants to go out with me? [edit]
• Charlene Tilton: Charlie, how are you feeling after you've been shot?
  Charles Rocket: Aw man, it's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who the fuck did it. [edit]

• An explantion:
  
  Charlene Tilton, a regular on Dallas, was used as part of a running plot in this program. The suggestion was made that each cast member had a different reason for wanting to kill Charles Rocket, and apparently so did the rest of the Earth's populace. The end of the program, save for the profanity, mirrored the closing scene from Dallas's second season, leaving America to spend six months asking, "Who Shot J.R.?" [edit]