Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
A.D. 13, Part V, A New Beginning- biblical miniseries has all-star cast
— Judging from the font used for the “13” in the title of this sketch (screencap below), I think the overall title is based on “Friday the 13 Part V: A New Beginning” (which came out that same year, though I’m not sure of the exact date). This interests me because, as I said in my last review, I’m an aficionado of the Friday the 13th movie series.
— For some reason, I particularly love Julia’s Joanne Worley sword bit.
— Very funny recurring bit throughout this with Guest’s James Mason slapping his assistant with various things presented to him.
— Jesus, here’s Billy Crystal playing a SUPER-stereotypical Asian role.
— This is a really fun impression showcase, a type of sketch that feels kinda rare in this era.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
while wearing Easter bunny suit, host narrates pictures of his past roles
— Nice entrance from Reeve, dressed in an Easter bunny costume.
— Aw, ANOTHER “career photo montage” monologue this season. These are always dull.
— During the picture of Reeve with Katharine Hepburn, I liked Reeve’s meta line about how Hepburn is “doing her impression of Ed Grimley”.
— Great segue into the next sketch, with Reeve setting up how he got the part of Superman while he’s walking over to the sketch’s set.
— Overall, this monologue was surprisingly a little better than the usual “career photo montage” monologues.
STARS: ***
SUPERMAN AUDITIONS
host, (GAK), (RIH) perform their own stunts at the Superman auditions
— Fast costume change for Reeve.
— I loved Gary’s over-the-top, corny laughter when Jim jokingly says about him “I think we found our Superman”.
— I like how the dangerous bullet-catching stunt is casually treated as a normal, everyday audition practice.
— Rich flawlessly “catching” the bullet with his teeth was great.
— Another great trademark Gary Kroeger pratfall, this time with him crashing back into folding chairs when getting shot.
— Overall, a fantastic sketch, with a lot of funny moments and great performances from everyone involved (especially Gary).
STARS: ****½
STEVEN WRIGHT
Steven Wright [real] does stand-up about many different topics
— Yes!
— Hmm, he already used that “actual-size U.S. map” joke in one of his previous SNL appearances.
— I’m recognizing some of these other jokes too.
— I absolutely loved the bit about him getting a humidifier and de-humidifier for his birthday.
— Overall, I didn’t find myself consistently laughing QUITE as hard as I usually do during Steven Wright’s stand-up pieces, and there were also too many reused jokes, but the stuff that DID make me laugh hard in this were priceless.
STARS: ***½
ESCAPING THE GERMANS
in WWII, a sergeant (JIB) comes up with dumb ways to escape the Germans
— It feels like they do a lot of war/army sketches this season.
— Very funny how Gary immediately got massacred as soon as he stepped outside in his nun disguise.
— This “war soldiers ask each other movie trivia questions” premise is reminding me of another sketch, but I can’t figure out which one.
— The whole part with the Cary Grant/Clark Gable mix-up was hilarious.
— Overall, a good, silly sketch that played well to Jim Belushi’s strengths as a performer.
STARS: ***½
JACKIE ROGERS JR.’S $100,000 JACKPOT WAD
Rajeev Vindaloo spins for money
— Oh, here’s one of my all-time SNL favorites.
— I like Mary’s nervous stare during the introductory shot of her.
— Great opening musical number from Jackie Rogers Jr.
— I’m surprised to see Pamela, as I had no recollection of her role in this sketch as Jackie Rogers Jr.’s wife, despite how many times I’ve seen this sketch in the past. Sadly, me having forgotten that is an accurate representation of how “memorable” Pamela’s SNL tenure was.
— Jim’s gradual aggression during his and Mary’s back-and-forth Q&A is great. “HE IN-TRO-DU-CES THE ACTS!!”
— The immediate “chocolate babies” answer from Guest’s Rajeev Vindaloo was classic.
— I loved the “pass” bit after Billy-as-Sammy-Davis-Jr.’s suggestive description of asparagus to Vindaloo.
— Man, this whole back-and-forth between Vindaloo and Davis Jr. is freakin’ priceless.
— Memorable visual of Vindaloo spinning on the wheel.
— Overall, a masterpiece as I had remembered.
STARS: *****
PALISADES NURSING HOME
old Superman (host) tells fellow nursing home resident (BIC) of past fame
— Interesting premise with Reeve as an elderly Superman in a retirement home.
— Some funny lines from Billy (who’s basically playing a variation of his Lew Goldman character), and I’m liking Reeve’s characterization of elderly Superman.
— Overall, there wasn’t much to say about the sketch, but it was pretty good.
STARS: ***
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
dissatisfied with AT&T’s services, JIB protests with air horn blasts
Paul Harvey (RIH) shows CHG some edible copies of “We Are The World”
Buddy Young, Jr. gripes about the movies; Calvert DeForest cameo
— Christopher Guest’s delivery is particularly bad tonight. I said this back in his first Saturday Night News, but his delivery tonight is so overly dry and dull that you can’t even tell when the punchlines of his news jokes have been delivered. Thank god I only have one more episode to put up with him as an anchorperson.
— Okay, Guest’s unicorn joke was fairly funny.
— A sudden return of Jim’s famous airhorn, this time using it to express his anger at the phone people.
— I like the bit with Jim complaining about getting a check for 25 cents.
— Christopher Guest’s bit showcasing “Francis the Talking Bible” was random but decent. Guest has slowly been overcoming his bad start from earlier in this Saturday Night News.
— The gameshow bit with Don Pardo was pretty funny.
— Yet another Paul Harvey commentary from Rich.
— I like Rich-as-Harvey’s edible “We Are the World” records.
— Rich’s overall commentary was one of his better Paul Harvey appearances.
— Funny complaint from Billy’s Buddy Young Jr. regarding music videos, with his line about how while the lead singer is singing, “somebody else is putting a midget in a blender”.
— Billy’s Buddy Young Jr. makes another sudden visit to the studio audience, though unlike last time, there doesn’t appear to be any celebrities in the crowd.
— Oh, turns out Billy DOES come across a celebrity in the audience tonight: Calvert DeForest, a.k.a. Larry “Bud” Melman from Letterman’s then-current Late Night show.
STARS: ***
TALK BACK
fake Amish men discuss their objections to the movie Witness
— Some good laughs from the whole “building a whorehouse” bit.
— Loved Gary’s claims about how Amish women have hooters “out to here” while holding his hands out far in front of him.
— Funny twist with Gary being exposed as a fake.
— Ha, I like Rich coming on as another “Amish” man to do the same thing Gary did, only for Guest to immediately expose his scheme after Rich’s line about baby-selling.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Right Now”
— This appears to be the second musical performance, judging by how Reeve introduced this by saying “Once again, Santana!” But where the heck was their first performance? Why is my copy of this episode airing Santana’s second number before their first?
— Okay, now that I’m looking at the time length of my copy of this episode, I notice it’s a few minutes shorter than a typical SNL episode. I guess Santana’s first performance is missing from my copy.
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A great episode, and the best one in a while. We got one classic (Jackie Rogers Jr.’s Jackpot Wad), a few near-classics (Superman Auditions, A.D. 13 Part V), and a lot of solid stuff rounding out the rest of the show. Nothing was particularly weak tonight; even Saturday Night News was okay for once, despite a bad start.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mr. T and Hulk Hogan):
— a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
It’s the end of an era, folks. We get the last hurrah of Dick Ebersol and every member of this cast. Howard Cosell is our season finale host.
I had forgotten Pamela and Christopher Reeve had both appeared in Superman III (basically playing Jackie Rogers Jr.’s wife).
The Jackie Rogers Jr. Jackpot Wad is so amazing; I think I had seen the sketch a lot of times, but mostly the versions I’ve seen cut off the very beginning (Jackie singing, Jackie’s wife). The only unfortunate thing I guess is both Billy and Christopher in brownface. “
I agree the white actors in BIPOC roles hasn’t aged well, but Jim Belushi as the irate Captain Kangaroo was a hoot, as well as Rajeev failing to get basic words-“you got the wings, the halo, you go from cloud to cloud–” “I don’t know, what is it?”
I think you’re thinking of Great Moments In War from Chevy Chase’s season 3 show.
That’s it. Thanks, Chris.
There’s an interesting bit in the Jackie Rogers sketch when Jim Belushi as Captain Kangaroo waves to the crowd, and you can see that he didn’t have a chance to wash his hands between bits, since his palm is blackened from the “coal” that Rich Hall squeezed into a diamond in the previous sketch, which got on him when they shook hands.
Definite highlight is Jackie Rogers’ $100,000 Jackpot Wad.
I think the A.D. 13: A New Beginning was also referencing a miniseries that NBC aired at the time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.D._(miniseries)
RIP Christopher Reeve
As a comic book fan, I have to take note that this ep of “SNL” came the same year DC celebrated 50 years of publishing resulting in both a “Who’s Who” series tabulating the various charcters in the roster (similiar to “Marvel’s Universe” series from a few years back) and “Crisis on Infinite Earths’s” which attempted to retcom all the Earths (Earth 1, Earth 2, etc.) to just one as well as have just “one Superman, one Batman” and kill both Supergirl and The Barry Allen Flash. The following year John Byrne would retcon Superman’s origin so that both his parents John and Martha Kent would still be alive while he’s busy saving the world! And that he’d once again be the sole survivor of Krypton after it blew up…
If you look deeper into Captain Kangaroo’s frustration in that sketch, it makes the portrayal funnier as his show was canceled by CBS 4 months earlier, therefore he’s looking for work e.g.; (“You are paying me in cash, right?? No checks! That was the deal!!”)
Mind you, I was 4 when this episode aired. My older brothers and I watched SNL religiously at that time even after Eddie left. I remember my brothers cracking up at the game show sketch.
I’m trying to get a good look at the caricature on Pamela Stephenson’s tee that she slyly revealed standing up front next to her Superman 3 friend Chris Reeve during the goodnights:
https://imgur.com/a/AUONhHp
By my estimation, it’s a drawing of Clark Kent realizing his Superman uniform is draped over a chair as he tears out of his suit and exposes himself, full frontal, his trou fully dropped (may be using that phrase incorrectly…)
Pamela had so little to do this episode I wonder why they even hired her. I guess they wanted a cute blonde on the roster to bring in viewers cuz they sure didn’t appreciate her acting much.