Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
MAG & JLD act out a simulated cat fight to turn on the male viewers
— Julia angrily telling Mary “Kiss off!” gave me an unintentional laugh just because it seemed to be such a bad censor-friendly substitute for “piss off”.
— Mary and Julia’s wild catfight is pretty fun.
— Interesting turn with Mary and Julia breaking the fourth wall and explaining to us how this was just a “simulated cat fight” for viewers.
— An overall decent idea for a cold opening, though it felt like the catfight should’ve gone much further.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
host is typecast as George Washington because of his miniseries role
— I liked his line about being tired of hearing “Martha [Washington]’s got splinters in her gums” jokes.
— The George Washington screen effects they’re secretly using on an unsuspecting Barry are fairly funny. Not much else to this monologue, it seems.
STARS: ***
FOLDGERS CRYSTALS
— Rerun
LIE DETECTOR
(JIB)’s extensive criminal record is revealed by a lie detector test
— The ridiculous truths about Jim are really funny, and this sketch is having a nice season 10 feel.
— Ha, now it’s revealed that Jim was a Nazi… “briefly!”
— I like the escalation the humor in this is taking.
— Good ending twist with Joe and Brad happily hiring Jim for the embassy in Nicaragua.
STARS: ****
ICEMAN
unfrozen greaser (host) sings “Waking Up Is Hard To Do”
— Barry’s neanderthal-esque choppy utterances of random 50s gibberish song lyrics are pretty funny.
— I’m liking Brad’s constant eagerness in wanting to cut Barry up. Brad Hall continues to grow on me as a performer.
— Interesting turn this has taken with the “Waking Up is Hard to Do” musical number. Very good performance from Barry here.
— The part with Barry’s character hurting himself trying to do a split made me laugh.
STARS: ***
BUDDWEISER LIGHT
— Another rerun
2 ON THE TOWN
Whiners win a tour of NYC for being 1,000,000th visitors
— Ohh, god, it’s the Whiners out of nowhere. SNL fooled me with the whole pre-taped set-up with Gary and Julia.
— At least this is a different setting for the Whiners, and I see SNL is continuing to get mileage out of their newfound love for doing extensive pre-taped segments.
— I loved Gary’s angry, loud delivery of “TAKE THAT HOT DOG AND SHUT UP, OKAY??!?”
— Good turn this has taken with Gary and Julia “rewarding” the Whiners by shoving them into an alley to be mugged by two criminals.
— Predictable that the Whiners’ whininess would eventually drive away the muggers.
— Randomly, we end with a live shot of the Whiners in SNL’s audience. I almost expected this to lead into a return of the “audience caption” gag from the original era, but I think that returns next season.
— Overall, a little more tolerable than the usual Whiners sketches, and it also helps that I know this is mercifully the last time these characters ever appear. This sketch DID feel like an appropriate way for them to go out.
STARS: **½
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Fernando describes some bogus new programs for the upcoming fall season
Nancy Reagan (MAG) shows slides of the first couple’s trip to China
— A random return of Billy Crystal, playing Fernando as a Saturday Night News guest anchor once again. Between Billy’s hosting stint a few episodes ago, his guest appearance tonight, and his return (co-)hosting stint in the next episode, it looks like Ebersol is phasing Billy Crystal into the SNL mold. It’s so interesting how you can see aspects of season 10 starting to form in the homestretch of this season.
— I do like this segment right now with Fernando recapping canceled TV series and upcoming new fall series.
— I ashamedly admit to chuckling at Fernando’s bad “reporter/re-puerto ricans” pun when talking about a new series starring Menundo.
— Interesting seeing Mary play Nancy Reagan, though I get the feeling she may have already played this role once before and I’m just not remembering what sketch it was.
— Mary’s characterization of Nancy is pretty good here, and a bit of a change from how Mary usually plays roles.
— Not too crazy about Mary’s vacation photos commentary so far.
— I liked Fernando’s comment to Nancy regarding eating a “dalmatian pie”.
— Boy, this Nancy Reagan commentary is going on for a really long time. It’s basically transitioned from a straightforward commentary to a full-fledged interview between her and Fernando. It’s almost like an early precursor to the Fernando’s Hideaway sketches we’ll be seeing next season.
— And Saturday Night News is already over? Surprised by how little this featured.
STARS: **½
SPINAL TAP INTERVIEW
host interviews musical guest (MMK), (CHG), (HAS)
— Love the idea of this segment, and it’s so interesting in hindsight seeing Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, considering they end up joining the cast just next season.
— Like a lot of things that have been popping up in the last quarter of this season, this segment feels like a preview of season 10.
— I cracked up at the sudden jump cut after McKean’s sneeze.
— So many funny random lines between the three of them. This feels largely improvised.
— All the devil talk is hilarious, especially Guest’s “poke poke” line.
— Their defense of the song “Big Bottom” is another really funny part.
— Overall, excellent segment as expected, and a great lead-in to the musical performance.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Christmas With The Devil”
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer on more Unanswered Questions of the Universe
— I like the bit regarding Captain Hook’s name before he lost his hand.
— Funny frustrated reaction from Tim to the tedious Ty-D-Bowl Man question.
— Wow, the “Was anybody having sex on Gilligan’s Island?” question was certainly random.
— “What does a cheese say when taking a picture” was a funny question, but Tim’s answer didn’t do much for me.
— Overall, this was decent for what I’m assuming ends up being the final appearance of this character. Still, I think I preferred his earlier commentaries on Saturday Night News where he would just ask a string of random mysterious questions.
STARS: ***
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES
La Cage Aux Folles Rick Springfield (host) wishes he was “Jessie’s Girl”
— Barry’s Rick Springfield voice is a little weird.
— I’m liking where this is going, but then again, I’m always a sucker for the song “Jessie’s Girl”.
— Pretty funny La Cage Aux Folles twist with the camera revealing Barry’s Rick Springfield in a dress.
STARS: ***
A. WHITNEY BROWN
AWB does stand-up about his driving difficulties
— Hey, it’s future SNL writer/featured player A. Whitney Brown! AND WITH A MUSTACHE!!!
— It’s amazing how many future cast members have been in tonight’s episode. You have Billy Crystal, all three members of Spinal Tap, and now AWB.
— Brown looks so young in this.
— His jokes and delivery are all amusing so far, and I like how laid-back this feels. It’s strange, though, seeing him do regular stand-up that’s not political-related like his future Weekend Update commentaries would always be.
— Pretty solid stand-up segment overall.
STARS: ***½
THE TURKEY LADY
lab mishap turns (JLD) into The Turkey Lady (ROD); Soupy Sales cameo
— Oh, I’m already loving this just from the horror movie-esque opening title sequence alone.
— Haha, oh my god at Robin’s entrance in that insane turkey make-up.
— I like the “leg man” conversation between Gary and another guy, though their timing seemed off at first.
— Wow, it’s great how this sketch is carrying over into a talk show segment.
— Julia’s fly-esque cries of “Help me!” over the phone were funny, as was Jim getting amusement from that.
— Now the sketch is carrying over into another new segment, with Robin’s Turkey Lady doing a tea commercial. This is all great.
— Now we’re back to the science lab.
— I loved how Barry’s pre-procedure statement to the press was simply “I hope this works. I’m a very horny man.”
— A hilarious random cameo from Soupy Sales. I’m ashamed to admit, though, that the only reason I know it’s him is because of comments I had read about this sketch over the years. I wouldn’t have recognized him on my own, which I guess shows my relatively-young age.
— Fantastic sketch overall, and it’s incredible how they went all out for this and gave this an epic feel.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Big Bottom”
DOG DAY P.M.
canine filmmaker (host) recalls being mistreated by humans
— Well, this looks like an… um… interesting sketch.
— One minute later, and boy, this sketch has not working for me so far.
— The “puppy porn” part of the narrated footage is pretty funny, at least.
— Not sure about Barry’s delivery here. It may be a little TOO goofy for my likes.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode. I also like how it had a bit more of an experimental feel than usual, with SNL trying various ambitious things tonight, most of which payed off. Even the Whiners were put in a much different setting than usual. And, of course, it goes without saying how much Spinal Tap added to the show.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George McGovern):
— a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 9 comes to an end, with a stunningly large number of FIVE hosts, all of whom hosted either earlier this season or late last season: Billy Crystal, Mayor Ed Koch, Edwin Newman, Father Guido Sarducci, and Betty Thomas. We also get the last hurrah of cast members Joe Piscopo, Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Brad Hall.
All I remember from this ep is Spinal Tap’s appearance. In fact, now that I think of it, I think I channel switched in between their two sets when this originally aired…
Finally got up with some of the Comedy Central edit of this episode. Unfortunately, it leaves out the Turkey Lady, which intrigues me.
The Lie Detector bit is very solid. Of course Mr. Show would match it best for beat a dozen years later. That one had some heightened absurdity that still makes it a personal favorite, but this version, with Belushi’s perfect timing, does well itself. Definitely a forgotten highlight.
The Spinal Tap piece is as excellent as expected. Man those guys were just ace improvisers. I especially liked when McKean said their fan base consisted of “professionals,” the Illuminati and 14-year-old white boys.
Some classic autocorrect nightmares in there. “Caught” not “got.” “Beat” not “best”
I have to do it. I can’t resist the allure of England’s loudest rock band.
Musical Performance #1: “Christmas With the Devil”
-Even Barry’s introduction is funny, describing how Spinal Tap are playing a Christmas song in May because they couldn’t get studio time in December.
-Right off the bat, I’m loving the visual of the classic Spinal Tap lineup rocking the stage. I believe this is the only time the band ever appeared on TV with Viv Savage (David Kaff, some might call him) on keys.
-Very strong performance from the backing vocalists, who are dressed as an angelic choir.
-Not to mention, of course, the excellent lead from David St. Hubbins. Hard for me to believe sometimes that Michael McKean isn’t a genuine rock singer.
-Now fake snow is falling, adding to the Christmassy effect- although this sure isn’t your typical Christmas song.
-Nice interplay between St. Hubbins and Derek Smalls while Nigel Tufnel is taking a solo.
-This performance has taken a turn for the theatrical on the breakdown, with two little people dressed as elves carrying out a smoldering Christmas tree. What a great visual.
-Some truly epic soloing from Nigel. Again, hard for me to believe that Christopher Guest isn’t a genuine rock guitarist. He’s killing it.
Stars: ****
Musical Performance #2: “Big Bottom”
-The copy of the episode I’m watching cuts into the performance while David St. Hubbins is introducing the band.
-After introducing two other bassists, plus a “bass synthesizer:” “I am David St. Hubbins, lead bass!”
-Despite all three main band members playing bass guitar, I swear I can hear a regular guitar somewhere. Would love to know what models those instruments are, so I can identify their individual tones better.
-Some lines here are slightly censored. “Pink torpedo” is changed to “steel torpedo,” “love gun” to “grease gun,” and “inside her tights” to “every Saturday night” (pandering to the show, are we, Spinal Tap?)
-Richard Shrimpton (otherwise known as Ric Parnell) is tearing up those drums.
-The band genuinely looks like they’re having a lot of fun. Their energy is infectious.
-Funny ending where David and Derek use their guitar necks to spank Nigel to the song’s final three beats.
Stars: *********** (because naturally, it goes to 11. Okay, fine. ****)
I’ll never get over just how committed McKean, Guest, and Shearer are/were to the Spinal Tap roles. When they play live, it genuinely looks and sounds like a bunch of rock musicians having a blast onstage. Sure, it’s all a silly, over the top parody, but there are some nice musical moments there that could only come from truly talented musicians. Which is why the whole thing works as well as it does.
Naturally I found Spinal Tap to be the highlight of this episode (loved the interview, too, which I’m certain was 100% improvised), but that may be because the copy I found of the episode heavily edits it. About half the sketches reviewed here are missing, which is a shame, as the ones that are cut are the ones that sounded the most interesting.
I only know Barry Bostwick as the mayor from the show Spin City, so it was very odd for me to learn that he hosted SNL in the 80’s. I hadn’t ever heard of the George Washington role he apparently was promoting here. From what I’ve seen of Spin City, he’s a funny guy… so I’m hoping that translates in the sketches that I didn’t get to see. In fact, it seems as if everything past the monologue in which he had a significant role (besides the Spinal Tap interview) was cut.
Barry Bostwick as the frozen greaser was definitely a callback to his role as the original Danny Zuko in the stage musical, Grease.
Hey Stooge, where are you watching the complete episodes of the post-1980 seasons with the music guests? SNL is on a streaming service I have, but they are pared down to 35-40 mins without music.
There’s several ways to do this, Billy. One of the ways is to use a technology that rhymes with the phrase “lit abhorrent.” Another way is to go old school and enter the physical VHS tape trading community (I don’t know how to go about this but I’m sure there’s been an active community for years). Another is to use a site that rhymes with knive dot org.
Most of the post-1980 episodes that you will find on a commercial streaming site are heavily edited. I think for most of the folks who would visit this site regularly, that’s unacceptable. I’d rather use the mainstream options (with better a/v quality and nifty features like subtitles, etc) but until NBC decides to make unedited episodes available, grey market tools are what remain.
Thanks, Frederick. That’s very helpful. I was curious if I was missing high quality official releases someplace. At least I know I can seek the full episodes out because, you’re totally right, I just can’t watch the abbreviated versions. I’m not hopeful about future official releases as what’s likely preventing them are the music clearances, which must be sky high now, to the point they would lose money. It was pretty bad when the 1-5 dvds were released, but the DVD market was much different then. And given that they didn’t continue with at least the Murphy/Piscopo seasons right after, makes me wonder if they made much on those initial releases to begin with.
I don’t have it in me to watch all the episodes in this season, at least not yet but had to watch this because Spinal Tap is just such a classic!
Thoughts…
Loved the Spinal Tap interview, haha got a kick out of when HS picked his nose and seemed to eat the booger. The interview was just like something out of the movie, totally funny and much needed in this season!
Both of Spinal Taps performances were great, but cmon, of course I’m going to be a bit biased and say how much more I liked watching them do Big Bottom. I’m pretty sure at one point that was on my Spotify workout mix despite having the opposite, just for laughs. Really loved this!
Musical performance aside, I liked the cold opening with JL & MG cat fighting.
Also thought the 2 on the town was really funny, I got a kick out of all the complaining, it sounded a lot like future SNL member JS when she plays Pat. I really liked this sketch, thought it was great when they complain about the price of broadway shows and they are going to see cats and they continue to complain, and she says “they smell,” etc. so they took them to a xxx theater.
This caught my eye cause it showed the late Shauna Grant who died by suicide less than two months before this episode aired. Since this was also before my time but would later stumble across a lifetime movie about her two and a half decades later and watch a pbs doc on the actual Shauna Grant aka Colleen Applegate, it was just kind of weird to see that SNL showed them attend a screening of “private school girls” which might have been one of her last films before quitting the industry…
The version I saw skimped on one or two sketches but I really didn’t care to see them, the only one would have been the canine film for my teacup poodles sake but not enough to track it down.
All and all not a bad episode!
Side note, after reviewing some of the later seasons (19 or 20, whichever MM joined, it’s kinda weird to see his character on spinal tap and the way he is on SNL. He seems to do a mediocre job in most of what I’ve seen I know the seasons mentioned get rough but it’s like he’s a poor man’s Phil Hartman, or he’s trying to be. And it’s just not working. It’s so weird to me cause I didn’t know the actual actors names in spinal tap but would have never said that those two people are the same man. It’s too bad he doesn’t bring that with him, but maybe season 21 will be better if he’s still on it..).
I wonder why Dana Carvey never mentions that he had a bit part in This is Spinal Tap.
So I’m pretty obsessed with SNL too. I’ve been going through it all and editing down my favorite parts and making like 6 hour best ofs of every season, when I cant find a complete episode and your reviews fill me in, which are amazing by the way! But in this episode, you gave a good review of a sketch that is a parody of The Fly, but instead it’s The Turkey Lady. I can’t find this sketch anywhwere and I would love to watch it, do you know where I could find a complete version of the episode with this sketch in it? Or where in general to find this sketch? Thanks so much!
Along with everyone else, I gotta say it is pretty frustrating not to have the full episodes. I would happily pay to own full episodes, if they ever released them that way, but it seems really unlikely that will happen. Thankfully I have some idea what I’m missing. I always come to Stooge’s reviews as my “official” record of sketches to see if my copy skipped any.