You're going...skiing!

January 11, 2008 4:56 PM

Many years ago, Saturday Night Live used to showcase short films as interstitial material between skits. One of these was a take off of In Cold Blood, done in black-and-white, and depicted two men waiting outside a house in the dark, smoking, then donning ski masks and going up to the house, ringing the doorbell, and when the startled home owner opened the door announced "You're going...skiing!". At this point the film cut to stock footage of skiiers at a ski resort, uh, skiing. Does anyone remember this short film? What was it called, who made it, and most importantly, where can I get a copy, preferably on DVD?
posted by motown missile to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

Albert Brooks made a few short films for SNL's first season, but I don't believe they were along these comedic lines.

If you have an era in mind, you might want to try this SNL Transcripts site. It doesn't actually have transcripts for everything, but it does have rundowns of shows.

If you eventually find it, SNL does seem to be finally releasing season DVD compilations starting from the first. There are, however, parts of many shows missing (despite the word "complete" all over packaging).
posted by aswego at 5:57 PM on January 11, 2008

Sounds like the work of Tom Schiller to me, though I don't remember this particular film. He's an interesting cat -- look him up. (Or, it could be Gary Weis.)
posted by turducken at 7:18 PM on January 11, 2008

Best answer: I remember it well, but damn! it's hard to track down. turducken pointed me on the right track.

"Mask of Fear" - Tom Schiller film forces break-invictims to go skiing.

(Sorry, the link only goes to the only reference I can find.)
posted by malocchio at 7:34 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

This isn't what you're looking for, but I think its worth mentioning due to sheer weirdness. It's a student short film from 1987 called ScreamSki, which features a robber with a ski mask and the same "You're going skiing!" punchline. It's very poorly done and not at all funny.
posted by burnmp3s at 8:33 PM on January 11, 2008

They've finally started releasing complete seasons of SNL on DVD ... so when they get to the 1979-80 season you'll be able to buy it. I'm sure that's not the answer you were looking for ...
posted by pmurray63 at 8:59 PM on January 11, 2008

Response by poster: Turducken and Malocchio, you're the guys I want on my research team! This has been bothering me for well over 3 years, and no one I've ever asked had a clue what I was talking about. If I ever find it on DVD, I'll let you know...thanks again!
posted by motown missile at 9:53 PM on January 11, 2008

Try to find a copy of "Nothing Lasts Forever" on a bittorrent site.
posted by apetpsychic at 1:04 AM on January 12, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: apetpsychic, I just ordered "Nothing Lost Forever", which you probably already know is about Tom Schiller and apparently contains detailed information about all of his short subjects, as well as Nothing Lasts Forever. Thanks for the tip!
posted by motown missile at 1:40 AM on January 12, 2008

Yeh, my roommate has that book. The documentary he made about Henry Miller is on youtube or google video, I think.
posted by apetpsychic at 11:13 AM on January 14, 2008