Saturday Night News with Brad Hall

Weak night for Brad Hall, but he hardly had any jokes to tell. The only one that really seemed to work was the one about the 50th anniversary of the Third Reich, with the punchline "It was the one and only ball Hitler had in his life" getting a laugh. The (Klaus) Barbie joke (playing on the doll) was too obvious and did not warrant the video segment. Joe Piscopo gets his second Saturday Night Sports this month to promote the Superbowl ("Football! Gambling! Hookers! Paaaar-ty!"); he does a Spanish translation before predicting the Miami will win by 9 points (Washington actually won by 10). Not really much to it. Mary Gross makes her first appearance as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and seems to struggle with her first few lines in the accent. The only thing that really stands out is Brad Hall interrupting her suggestive finger gestures at the end (which would be repeated for the other Dr. Ruth appearances). Eddie Murphy appears to protest Ronald Reagan's opposition to creating a federal holiday marking the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. Murphy stumbles on his lines throughout but makes up for it with some of the most pointed and direct criticism of Reagan of the entire Ebersol era, at one point calling him a "sleazeball" following a brief mention of some of his nastier policies. Murphy then asks viewers to send him letters in support of the holiday so he can drive them by truck to the White House and the show can televise it. This is probably the most memorable and successful segment of the whole SNN; interestingly enough, this whole segment and the following joke (a Chevy Chase-esque line about Zbigniew Brzezinski changing his name to "Ralph Malph") are cut from reruns. Reagan actually did relent and signed the holiday into law late that year. Walter Cronkite (Dave Thomas) appears to correct Brad Hall's attempts at closing the newscast. Good impression, but it felt like it could have been put into a better-developed segment (they hint at him taking up pranks after retirement).

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