Saturday Night Live

Bill Murray delivers a short monologue about Santa, and introduces "Saint Nick," making his show one of the only episodes this season to feature the traditional opening monologue.

During the goodnights, Bill Murray appears quite emotional as he says "Our hearts should be with, and they are with, the good people of Poland, God bless them." This is in reference to Polish Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruszelski having just declared martial law in the country, even though Novello's rememberence in "Live From New York" attributes this to Ebersol telling Murray to announce that Russia had invaded Poland.

After this broadcast, Dick Ebersol held a meeting with the cast members. Michael O'Donoghue, though uninvited, showed up, and attacked the actors' paltry performances to such an extent that even friend Bob Tischler gave up on him. Tischler and Dick met with O'Donoghue's manager (not Mr. Mike, mind you) to agree on a settlement that relieved O'Donoghue of his duties on January 17, 1982.

This episode featured the sketch "At Home with the Psychos" about a family who lived near a nuclear power plant. One of the characters belived too much radiation would cause humans to develop a "blow hole." The props department had designed a blow hole model, but Standards refused to allow it on because the prop looked like "a [vagina] with ears."