There are many infamous stories from Saturday Night Live’s fifty-year history, but one of the most infamous took place forty-four years ago tonight. On October 31st, 1981, Donald Pleasence, famous for playing Dr. Sam Loomis in the Halloween movies, was booked to host an episode of SNL. This was during a notoriously problematic period for SNL, where the original cast had all departed. While not as terrible as the 1980-81 season (at least Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo were starting to break out), SNL was still a fraught place, and perhaps wanting to recapture some of the old magic, the new producers reached out to John Belushi to make a cameo. He agreed – but there was a catch. He wanted the punk band, Fear, to be the episode’s music guest.
Desperate, they agreed, and suffice to say, all hell broke loose. Fear, who brought their own slam dancers along, played two songs, “Beef Bologna” and “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones”, and tried to play a third, “Let’s Have a War,” before being cut of live on air. Why were they cut off? Because their slam dancers (one of whom was Belushi himself) were destroying the stage and studio. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:
In the years since, the episode has been somewhat downplayed and has become a classic SNL tale, even highlighted in a recent 50th anniversary special. However, for many years, this episode was impossible to see, as NBC did not offer it as part of its rerun package. The versions that circulated are ones that were recorded off TV back in ’81.
Tragically, Belushi overdosed several months later, in March of 1982. Fear would continue as a band, and frontman Lee Ving would actually have a pretty successful career as a character actor throughout the eighties, with him playing Willem Dafoe’s sidekick in Streets of Fire, as well as the murder victim in 1985’s Clue.
What do you think of this little Halloween related piece of SNL trivia? Let us know in the comments.
