Bill Murray mentions that the members of the Polish pro-democracy group Solidarity have been arrested, and (erroneously) that the country has been taken over by the Soviets; he jokes that the Whiffenpoofs have to join the army, before reminding the audience it's Christmas, "there's still a bargain to be had in Fort Lee, New Jersey", and solemnly closes: "Our hearts should be with, and are with, the good people of Poland. God bless them." Christine Ebersole and Robin Duke are visibly in tears.

This segment was joined in progress for the rerun, which added "Fracas" to fill time and as far as I'm aware did not have any other material cut;

A remembrance by Don Novello in Live From New York tells how Dick Ebersol told Murray to break the news that Russia invaded Poland on the air during the goodnights.

Jim Downey is listed as an additional writer for this episode.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

A decent, if underwhelming episode. Nothing was especially bad tonight, although it wasn't really a standout show as one would expect from a host like Bill Murray. I don't recall any particularly bad segments; even the difficult to watch At Home With The Psychos was actually a well done sketch. It's just that most of the material was slightly above-average at best.

This is also the end of the first portion of the season. O'Donoghue would be fired before the next live show, the catalyst being when he crashed a meeting where he berated everyone's performance (one account I've read was that he told Mary Gross she was so untalented she should be selling shoes), leaving Bob Tischler as the sole producer under Ebersol. O'Donoghue may have done a lot more daring and potentially alienating material in these shows, but this period of SNL also seemed to demonstrate a forward momentum, and the first few shows after O'Donoghue's firing really feel like it was derailed a bit. I really look forward to seeing those episodes again because there were some interesting moments in each of them, but I also recall some of the material being just bad. I'll get to the good and bad in the specific episode reviews.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

Monologue

Michael Davis

Tales Of The Unlikely

Supply Side Christmas

Sarducci's Predictions

EPISODE LOWLIGHTS:

None

MVP:

Bill Murray

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:

cast

Robin Duke : 4 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, MX-5 Tampons [voice only], Fairytale, "Jingle Bells"]

: 4 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, MX-5 Tampons [voice only], Fairytale, "Jingle Bells"] Christine Ebersole : 5 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"]

: 5 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"] Mary Gross : 5 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"]

: 5 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"] Tim Kazurinsky : 4 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, Fairytale, "Jingle Bells"]

: 4 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, Fairytale, "Jingle Bells"] Eddie Murphy : 6 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"]

: 6 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"] Joe Piscopo : 6 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, "Jingle Bells"]

: 6 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, "Jingle Bells"] Tony Rosato: 4 appearances [Tales Of The Unlikely, No Tomorrow, Fairytale, "Jingle Bells"]

featured players:

Brian Doyle-Murray: 4 appearances [SNL Newsbreak, Fairytale, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"]

crew and extras:

Andy Murphy : 1 appearance [Monologue]

: 1 appearance [Monologue] Mark O'Donnell : 1 appearance [Tales Of The Unlikely]

: 1 appearance [Tales Of The Unlikely] Fred Stoller: 1 appearance [Tales Of The Unlikely]

guests:

Bill Murray : 7 appearances [Monologue, Tales Of The Unlikely, Sarducci's Predictions, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"]

: 7 appearances [Monologue, Tales Of The Unlikely, Sarducci's Predictions, Fairytale, Supply Side Christmas, At Home With The Psychos, "Jingle Bells"] The Spinners : 1 appearance [Medley]

: 1 appearance [Medley] Father Guido Sarducci : 2 appearances [MX-5 Tampons, Sarducci's Predictions]

: 2 appearances [MX-5 Tampons, Sarducci's Predictions] Yale Whiffenpoofs of 1982: 1 appearance [Medley]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:

March 13, 1982

December 25, 1982

September 14, 1985

July 5, 1986

At the time this review was written, this episode was tied with Eddie Murphy / Lionel Richie (12/11/82) and Jack Black / Neil Young (12/17/05) as the most-repeated episode in SNL history, with four network rebroadcasts each; as of 2013, that record has been surpassed by the Peyton Manning / Carrie Underwood episode (03/24/07).

Known alterations:

"Fracas" (from 02/20/82) is added.

The goodnights were edited to remove some of Murray's comments on the Polish situation.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.