Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Madonna [real] reads a statement from NBC- “last season was all a dream”
— Classic moment here, with the statement Madonna reads about season 11 reading “It was all a dream… a horrible, horrible dream”, which receives a good amount of laughter and audience applause.
— Overall, an interesting and memorable way to kick off the new era. Jokingly writing the previous season off as a dream is a good way for SNL to put the failure of that season behind them.
STARS: N/A (not sure this cold opening warrants a rating)
OPENING MONTAGE
— A pretty fun new montage this season, and unique in how the typical shots of New York scenery are interspersed with silhouette-type shots of various cast members, most of them hurrying to get someplace.
— I really like all the fast cuts and the various close-ups of feet running.
— The new additions to the cast tonight are Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and featured player Kevin Nealon.
— No musical guest is credited tonight. Many SNL episode guides incorrectly list Buster Poindexter as the official musical guest of this episode, but he’s actually credited with the SNL Band in tonight’s opening montage. That makes this one of only three episodes in SNL history that have no official musical guest; the other two episodes being Rob Reiner from season 1 and Walter Matthau from season 4.
— For the first time in SNL history, the host is the last person announced in an opening montage, which would go on to be a tradition that still continues to this day in 2019.
MONOLOGUE
host & Christopher Durang [real] plan to sing tunes from a Brecht musical
— The new home base stage has a very classy “fancy dining hall/ballroom” look, which I love. Anyway, I’d better love it, because we’re going to be seeing this home base stage for a LONG time. SNL would end up keeping it until 1995(!), and even then, they just shift this home base stage to the next section of the studio, using it as the musical guest stage for the next three seasons until 1998. Lorne must’ve developed a REALLY strong attachment to this stage.
— Sigourney’s delivery is coming off strangely… uh, I don’t know what word I’m thinking of, maybe “stilted”? I remember an SNL reviewer once likening this strange delivery of Sigourney’s to that of a patronizing school teacher. I’d say that’s pretty spot-on.
— Kind of a strange monologue so far, but there are some laughs from Sigourney and Christopher Durang talking about Lorne’s alleged enthusiasm for seeing German Expressionist Opera on SNL.
— Pretty funny gag with the control room operators panickedly cutting to a commercial as soon as Sigourney and Christopher are about to start their Brecht musical.
STARS: **½
GENERAL DYNAMICS
young couple’s sexy conversation doesn’t mention sponsor General Dynamics
— Well… this sure was strange overall. The humor was apparently in how the advertisement turned out to be for something completely different than what we saw hinted at throughout the commercial, but I feel like that’s a gag SNL would do better other times over the years. (Can’t think of any specific examples right now, but I know there’s at least a few)
— I can’t really say this particular commercial worked for me, and it felt like a strange and underwhelming choice for the first fake ad of a new season.
STARS: *½
GIRLFRIENDS
Tommy Flanagan tries to explain things to his girlfriends (host) & (NOD)
— Our first cast sighting of the season. Didn’t realize until now how strange it is that the first three segments in this season premiere didn’t feature ANY cast members.
— I remember an SNL reviewer (not the same one mentioned earlier) making an interesting point about how weird it is that after doing a cold opening where SNL basically tells us “Last season sucked”, the post-monologue lead-off sketch of the night stars a character who was all over last season. I know Tommy Flanagan was a huge breakout character and audience favorite in season 11, but you’d figure if SNL wanted to put that season so far behind them and prove to us that “Hey, this new season’s going to be so much better”, we’d be leading off the season with something fresh.
— Some okay lies from Flanagan so far, and Nora and Sigourney’s naiveness in believing them is pretty amusing.
— Overall, this sketch was decent in itself and had some good funny lines, but I’m still burned out on Tommy Flanagan after my coverage of season 11, thus making it a little hard for me to laugh all that much here.
STARS: **½
QUIZ MASTERS
Marge Keister (JAH) loses to psychic Lane Maxwell (DAC)
— Finally, we get our first sighting of some of tonight’s new cast members. A bit odd how none of them have made their debut until after the first commercial break.
— Feels so exciting seeing so many new cast members here.
— Even early on in his very first sketch appearance, Phil Hartman is IMMEDIATELY coming off fantastic, playing this gameshow host role to perfection and adding such a humorous and likable air to the character.
— Good reveal of Dana Carvey’s character being a psychic, and how he’s answering questions before they’re even asked.
— Jan Hooks’ delivery of “I don’t think this is fair; he’s a psychic” got a really good audience reaction.
— I absolutely love Dana’s evil snickering after intentionally feeding Jan the wrong answer.
— Haha, holy hell at the hilarious sudden turn with a meteor crashing down onto Jan. Very funny pratfall from Jan as well.
— During the ending shot, it looked like Jan disappeared from her spot on the floor for some reason, even though her character still should’ve been laying there unconscious.
— A strong sketch overall, and all three newbies involved gave very solid performances and made a great first impression.
STARS: ****
THE AMAZING ALEXANDER
audiences think hypnotist The Amazing Alexander (JOL) is better than Cats
— Very funny how each of the obviously-hypnotized testimonial-givers are blankly staring into the camera while monotone-ly giving the exact same review as each other.
— Nice ending bit with the announcer trying to hypnotize us viewers with repeated orders as the camera slowly zooms into The Amazing Alexander’s eye.
STARS: ****
HEF-TEA TEABAGS
jumbo-sized Hef-Tea tea bags are preferred by the British royal family
— Oh, now I see why Jan disappeared from the ending of the Quiz Masters sketch. She had to hurry up and get in costume for this sketch, as she only had about a minute-and-a-half to change while the pre-taped Amazing Alexander piece was playing.
— Jan’s already proving herself to be a chameleon of a performer, with how drastically different she looks and sounds here compared to how she looked and sounded just a few minutes ago in the Quiz Masters sketch.
— Great entrance from Sigourney, crashing through the wall as a giant Sarah Ferguson. Also, pretty wise casting, as there IS a strong facial resemblance between Sigourney and Fergie. In fact, I wonder if that’s how the writers came up with the idea for this sketch.
— I’m enjoying the nice touch of how Sigourney’s giant Fergie has a booming, echo-ish voice.
— This appears to be a very specific parody of a then-current commercial. Having no familiarity with it, I’m a little lost during this sketch, but I’m still getting some laughs from the general silly humor and Sigourney’s performance.
— I liked the disapproving look Jan gave the camera during the ending freeze-frame close-up of her.
— This sketch (as well as one of Buster Poindexter’s musical performances from later tonight) would later be removed from all reruns and be replaced with a strange mock-foreign short film co-starring Rupert Everett.
STARS: ***
CHURCH CHAT
Church Lady Enid Strict (DAC) tries to interview Zuul (host)
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! Wow, I don’t think I’ve said that since the original era; it used to be a regular thing I’d always declare whenever I would review the first installment of a big recurring sketch. Not sure why I stopped saying it after the original era; it’s not like the 1980-1986 years didn’t have any huge recurring characters.
— Right off the bat, I absolutely love Dana’s characterization here.
— Feels weird hearing Church Lady’s soon-to-be catchphrases just receiving a normal amount of audience laughter instead of the usual wild applause that those catchphrases would later always receive.
— Haha, Jan’s portrayal of Sally Kellerman is absolutely spot-on and funny, and it especially comes off amusing to me after I suffered through Kellerman’s snobbish demeanor while reviewing her season 6 SNL episode several months back.
— Funny Ann Landers impression from Nora, reminding me a lot of the Ann Landers impression Mary Gross did in the Ebersol era.
— Very interesting turn with Sigourney as her possessed Zuul character from Ghostbusters.
— What was with the camera clumsily and shakily panning over to Church Lady signing off while standing on her desk?
— Overall, a fun debut for this sketch, though not as good it would later go on to be. Until the Zuul portion of the sketch, the first few interviews were too short and redundant with how they all ended with Church Lady asking “Could it beeeeee…. SATAN?!?” (which, by the way, was missing the booming echo that would later always be used for the last word in that catchphrase). Church Lady would later go on to have more variety in her put-downs to her guests. That being said, she still had lots of funny one-liners all throughout tonight’s debut installment.
STARS: ***½
BUSTER POINDEXTER
Buster Poindexter performs “Smack Dab in the Middle”
— At the end of this performance, I got an unintentional laugh from the dumbfounded, speechless, almost dazed look of a non-clapping audience member seen during a shot of the audience applauding. (he’s the guy in the white shirt in the screencap below)
WEEKEND UPDATE
in Iceland with daughter Scarlett, VIJ didn’t cover Reykjavik summit
AWB doubts the Reykjavik summit will yield any significant treaties
— We get a slightly different opening intro sequence from the one that was used last season.
— We also get a slightly modified Update set. The most noticeable difference is that all the international clocks in the background are gone.
— Yet another change this season: we have the birth of Dennis’ trademark 80s mullet!
— Loved Dennis making a passing reference to the infamous Dan Rather “Kenneth, what is the frequency?” incident.
— Victoria Jackson makes her very first appearance, and boy, is that high-pitched voice going to take some getting used to this season.
— Decent gag with Victoria’s Reykjavik summit video just turning out to be a hotel room video of her with her baby daughter.
— Heh, a mention of Victoria being a Christian, which is only amusing in hindsight considering Victoria’s reputation in recent years.
— Victoria’s overall commentary was an okay way to introduce her personality to us, even if this particular bit wasn’t anything too noteworthy.
— Interesting-seeming segment now with Dennis acknowledging criticisms of his lack of character work, leading to him introducing a new character of his: a French clown named Koko.
— Ha, Dennis’ brief, low-effort demonstration of his Koko character was randomly funny. Also, when riffing afterwards on his own lack of effort in that characterization, we get what I believe is the very first SNL instance of Dennis’ trademark high-pitched “Ha ha haaaaaa!” laugh.
— Good to see A. Whitney’s The Big Picture returning this season.
— A. Whitney’s overall commentary was fine, though no particular lines of his stood out tonight.
— Dennis ends tonight’s Update with an earnest “Good luck, Chevy; you are in our thoughts.” I’m assuming Chevy must’ve recently entered one of his famous rehab stints. At any rate, we’ll be seeing him (co-)host SNL just two months from now when Three Amigos comes out.
STARS: ***
MR. SUBLIMINAL
Mr. Subliminal Phil Maloney (KEN) uses sneaky cues to get what he wants
— Being familiar with this character’s subsequent appearances, I find this to be a great way for Kevin Nealon to make his SNL debut.
— Love the casual start of Kevin’s subliminal dialogue while he’s mid-conversation. Also funny to hear the studio audience gradually catching onto it.
— I’m especially laughing at the constant “hot sex” lines to Victoria.
— Lots of funny lines during Kevin’s whole interview with Jon.
— Overall, that was great. Wonderful way to introduce Kevin Nealon.
STARS: ****
ALIENSES
Ripley (host) & Marines accidentally waste E.T.
— Lots of amusing impressions of the Aliens characters. The audience especially likes Jon’s take on Burke.
— Interesting how Christopher Durang has been playing character roles in various sketches throughout tonight’s episode. Reminds me of how some of the special guests in the preceding season were used (e.g. Marvin Hagler).
— Funny part with Sigourney getting ready to strip out of her jumpsuit, only for Phil to yell “Come on, Ripley, we’ve all seen your underwear!”
— LOL at the cheap E.T. prop.
— I got a huge laugh from Phil’s character trying to pretend an alien is about to pop out of his chest.
— This sketch started losing steam towards the end, and the ending voice-over from Don Pardo was weak.
STARS: **½
TEN WEEKS IN JAIL
NYC is getting tough on crime- take a life, spend ten weeks in jail
— Ah, our very first instance of Phil Hartman as a commercial spokesman.
— A good laugh from the reveal of the new so-called tough crime law being 10 weeks in prison for committing a murder.
— Overall, a quick but pretty solid bit, and Phil sold it very well.
STARS: ***½
BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE
host & Buster Poindexter sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside”
COMEBACK
Derek Stevens (DAC) sings “The Lady I Know”- she’s choppin’ broccoli
— Love Dana’s British accent in this.
— Dana seemed confused over when he was supposed to sit down, as if somebody missed their cue to tell him “Have a seat”. Not a big deal; it’s just kinda fascinating (and even a bit charming) in hindsight seeing this little flash of greenness from this new cast, knowing what huge pros they would go on to be.
— Oh, here comes a famous song that is one of the most well-loved Dana Carvey bits of all-time.
— I love how Derek Stevens’ absurd lyrics about “the lady I know” are so obviously being made up on the spot.
— And there’s the legendary Choppin’ Broccoli chorus. Freakin’ priceless, especially the different exaggerated ways Dana keeps singing the immortal words.
— Also a nice touch during the Choppin’ Broccoli chorus where the camera shows a close-up of Sigourney and Phil each being so deep into the song. I particularly like Phil looking upwards with such a pleased, thoughtful look
— I kinda wish this sketch had wrapped up while it was still hot after the Choppin’ Broccoli number. The other silly songs that Derek Stevens played samples of afterwards were forgettable. Still a strong overall sketch, though.
STARS: ****½
BUSTER POINDEXTER
Buster Poindexter performs “Oh Me, Oh My”
BRECHT/ROGERS MEDLEY
host & Christopher Durang [real] perform Das Lusitania Songspiel excerpt
— Uh, wow. This is just weird. No idea what to think of this so far.
— Okay, I am kinda enjoying the Mack The Knife number right now.
— Heh, a comedic screen crawl disclaimer has suddenly shown up, basically saying “NBC does not share the same viewpoints as….. etc.”
— This piece has slowly been growing on me, and I’m also liking all the comical energy from Sigourney and Christopher.
— Overall, not bad. I can see why a lot of people wouldn’t like this, and I was expecting not to like it myself at first, but something about this was infectious to me.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow. Needless to say, a VERY different-feeling SNL from the previous season. I feel like I say that every time I review the season premiere of a new era, but hey, when you watch SNL episodes in chronological order on a daily basis like I’ve been doing for this project of mine, it’s VERY striking to enter a new era after you’ve gotten so familiar with the feel of the preceding era, even if the preceding era is a short-lived one like seasons 11 or 6.
— This season premiere wasn’t quite the immediate classic that some might expect from this SNL era, and there were several aspects tonight that feel odd and uncharacteristic for this era in hindsight (e.g. the strange General Dynamics commercial, all the musical interludes in the second half of the show). All that being said, this was still an overall solid episode. After a fairly slow beginning with the monologue, General Dynamics commercial, and Tommy Flanagan sketch, we were officially off and running once the great Quiz Masters sketch showed up. There was a very good number of highlights tonight, and even just from this inaugural episode, you can see so much promise for this new era and new cast.
— Speaking of the new cast, most of them had a very strong first night and are, hands down, leaps and bounds above most of the one-season wonders from the preceding season. Victoria Jackson was the only newbie tonight who didn’t do anything all that impressive, but even she displayed a likability in all her appearances (especially her supporting role in the Mr. Subliminal sketch) that still gives you confidence in her. But if we’re going to talk about which newbie made the best first impression, it has to be by far Dana Carvey, who had an absolutely AMAZING first night. I mean, the man starred in three very memorable showcases of his talents (Quiz Masters, Church Chat, Derek Stevens) tonight alone. Talk about hitting the ground running. I can only imagine how exciting it must’ve been for SNL fans in 1986 to witness this man’s fantastic debut, especially after suffering through season 11. I’d argue that Dana had possibly the best first night a cast member has ever had in SNL history.
— This is a more minor note, but I like how this new season has a certain kind of classy atmosphere, especially with the aforementioned “fancy dining hall/ballroom” look of the new home base stage, the SNL Band’s spiffy formal uniforms, and the old-timey throwback vibe of Buster Poindexter’s various musical performances tonight. In hindsight, being familiar with this SNL era as a whole, this overall classy atmosphere feels so fitting for this new era.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1985-86):
— a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Malcolm-Jamal Warner