“Hymietown Revisited,” starring Eddie Murphy as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, recalled other sketches from a time when Saturday Night Live was fearless, funny and non-partisan. Favorites included, “White Like Me” and “Dukakis After Dark,” and another classic.
“The Beverly Hillbillies,” with Buddy Ebsen, Max Baer Jr., Donna Douglas and Irene Ryan, ran from 1962 to 1971. The show was hard to satirize but on December 8, 1979, SNL answered the call with “The Bel-Airabs,” complete with matching theme song:
Now listen to a story ’bout a man named Abdul –
The poor Bedouin barely kept his family full,
And then one day he was shootin’ at some Jews,
And up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.
Oil that is, Virgin Perrier, Kuwait Kool-aid, Saudi Soda.
Well the first thing you know, Abdul’s a billionaire.
The kinfolks said, Abdul, move away from there!
They said, “Californy is the place without a care!
So they loaded up the Rolls and they moved to Bel Air –
Next to Beverly Hills, that is – swimmin’ pools, movie stars, Jews…
Muhmad Asad (Bill Murray) touches up one of the statues in the family’s Bel-Air digs. A scantily clad Fatima Asad (Laraine Newman) wants to attend the football game between Bel-Air and Beverly Hills high schools, but Abdul Asad (Don Novello) won’t allow it. Gilda Radner plays Granny, cavorting about the mansion in a black chador.
Episode host Howard Hesseman (“WKRP in Cincinnati”) and SNL’s Garrett Morris try to con Abdul out of his millions in Mr. Drysdale’s bank. Miss Hathaway (Jane Curtin) is on to them, and Abdul and Muhad must deal with the thieves. Fatima dons appropriate apparel and Abdul lets her make the scene at the football game. It’s all great fun and the Bel-Airabs live on in peace and happiness.
Add that classic to the list of skits, shows, and movies that couldn’t be made today. Count it as proof that, as Eric Burdon said, we laughed louder then. “The Beverly Hillbillies,” meanwhile, still turns up in unexpected ways.
When you think you are alone, Jay Leno once observed, your mind reverts to the lowest common denominator song. Leno is in an elevator, fails to see the person in the corner, and immediately starts singing: Oh, let me tell you a story about a man named Jed. . .
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