Recent off of the worldwide phenomenon that was E.T. The Further-Terrestrial, that movie’s 7-year-old costar Drew Barrymore turned, and stays, the youngest individual ever to host the stay and decidedly late-night comedy present Saturday Night time Reside. For Barrymore, who has gone on to host SNL a number of extra instances since her preliminary look, Saturday Night time Reside has turn out to be a welcoming place — even when her first foray into the late-night comedy collection was long-established as one thing of a full-on forged revolt.
With the Dick Ebersol years absolutely underway, the chilly open sees forged members Brad Corridor, Gary Kroeger, Robin Duke, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross and Joe Piscopo all gathered resentfully within the host’s empty dressing room, remodeled for the events right into a dolly and stuffed animal-strewn little woman’s playroom. “It’s disgusting! Ebersol’s gotta be loopy to ebook her,” complains Corridor, with Piscopo piling on their boss by noting how, on the episode earlier than, the producer had dumped on comic Andy Kaufman stay on-air.
With everybody (besides the sympathetic Kazurinsky) hurling abuse regarding the absent 7-year-old’s presence on the present, the sketch introduces the still-questionable prospect of a literal baby anchoring a present that doesn’t even start till 11:30 p.m. (Barrymore’s supposed dressing room is kitted out with a comfortable baby’s mattress.) “If I see one other stuffed animal, I’m gonna throw up,” notes Louis-Dreyfus (a fresh-faced 22 on the time), whereas Mary Gross scoffs that Studio 8H is “crawling with social staff and union guys checking baby labor legal guidelines,” and Duke reviews that the NBC censors have determined to chop all intercourse and violence from the episode, in deference to the host’s age. “You imply they reduce the frontier gynecologist sketch?” blurts an outraged Kroeger, peeling off the rubber gloves and cowboy hat he’d worn into the room. Murphy complains that he’d tried to get Ebersol to ebook Michael Jackson moderately than “this white-bread child,” whereas Gross explodes, “This present’s gonna be a nightmare!”
It’s then {that a} sheepish and startlingly tiny Barrymore makes her entrance and plunks down on the mattress subsequent to Louis-Dreyfus, ready patiently for the group applause to die down earlier than apologizing. “I’m sorry guys,” the younger Barrymore explains via her still-snaggly child tooth. “I simply received the phrase. No dangerous stuff or violence on this present.” The forged, switching into protecting trouper mode, all guarantee Barrymore that it’s no drawback in any respect, with Barrymore brushing them off by saying, “Ebersol’s gotta be nuts to ebook a 7-year-old to host this present!” (She additionally mocks the Andy Kaufman factor.) After expressing her distaste for all of the toys festooning her dressing room, Barrymore lastly rebuffs the solicitous Kazurinsky’s supply of a glass of milk, touchdown the sketch with an enthusiastic, “Milk? I’m a Barrymore! Get me a drink, and make it a double.”
Lots is happening right here. Barrymore, after charming audiences as E.T.’s precocious Gertie, was, certainly, a 7-year-old internet hosting Saturday Night time Reside. Gross’ joke about social staff being on guard to guard the pursuits of the kid star has a unique echo after Barrymore, in her first autobiography, the aptly titled Little Lady Misplaced (written with Todd Gold when the actress was simply 14), detailed how she started abusing medicine and alcohol just some quick years after internet hosting SNL. As for her line in regards to the Barrymores and onerous consuming, a peek again via the illustrious names of her performing dynasty household is to look at a complete clan’s legacy of alcoholism and psychological sickness, each of which might plague Barrymore herself till she emerged as a bankable grownup star and movie govt. However not earlier than a number of stints in rehab and a suicide try earlier than the age of 18.
Watch Drew Barrymore’s ‘SNL’ Monologue From 1982
However watching the 1982 SNL episode in the present day is to see the refreshingly pure and nonetheless harmless Barrymore within the fingers of a forged much more delighted to have her in the home than the chilly open steered. All through the episode (which, to be truthful, is lighter on Barrymore than on the show-long call-in stunt that ultimately noticed Kaufman banned from the present), Barrymore is continually being held, cuddled, and protectively roughhoused with by a lot of the forged. Kazurinsky seems to have been the designated enjoyable uncle of the bunch, popping out to lob softball viewers questions for Barrymore to reply within the monologue, the pair bantering playfully via Barrymore’s halting and authentically childlike solutions. (Barrymore notes that she initially discovered the E.T. creature “gooshy,” however that he’s now a pal, and that she’d marry godfather Steven Spielberg if she had to decide on somebody.)
Earlier, Murphy had mocked Kazurinsky’s softheartedness towards the night time’s host, noting how he preferred working with “youngsters and animals,” and Kazurinksy capped off the monologue by shocking the delighted Barrymore with certainly one of the child chimp costars from his well-liked “I Married a Monkey” sketches. (As with every part in regards to the Barrymore Saturday Night time Reside experiment, there’s a much less rosy tint to the gesture, contemplating how Kazurinsky has associated his fraught and infrequently harmful time sharing a stage with supposedly skilled primates.)
In her restricted collection of subsequent sketches, Barrymore’s bratty orphan is fortunately adopted by Piscopo and Duke’s recurring Doug and Wendy Whiner; she additionally finds herself sharing the stage with Kazurinsky as soon as extra (dressing the obliging forged member in E.T.’s old-lady disguise and make-up) and telling Duke that she’d moderately be watching Eddie Murphy.
Within the goodnights (through which Kaufman’s viewer-mandated banishment is dutifully learn out), Barrymore is as soon as extra crowded by the forged, exclaiming, “I had a completely great time, and I like you all! Goodbye!” whereas Kroeger and Kazurinsky decide her up and rock her to the sounds of the closing theme.
