Over the last couple years I have made a careful study of the first few seasons of Saturday Night Live, by which I mean watched them on DVD late at night, sometimes while drunk. For the most part, they haven’t quite lived up to my fond memories; the writing is occasionally brilliant but uneven, and the musical guests in this early period are often questionable. One night recently, out of sheer stubbornness I sat through two long segments of Keith Jarrett playing tedious solo piano and making hideous, orgasmic moustache-faces — but I did not enjoy it, I can tell you that.

Last, night, though, I think I reached the turning point: the broadcast of April 22, 1978, with Steve Martin hosting and the Blues Brothers as musical guest. This episode had pretty much everything you could ask for: a lengthy Steve monologue of material not from one of his albums; “Theodoric of York”; Dan Aykroyd calling Jane Curtin an ignorant slut; a charming dance number by Steve and Gilda; Bill Murray giving Gilda noogies; a high-quality appearance by the Festrunk Brothers, the Brothers Blues doing “Hey Bartender” and “I Don’t Know”…….. and this: