Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Frank Bartles (PHH) & Ed Jaymes (AWB) warn about the dangers of crack
— I like Phil’s blunt reveal that the subject of this Bartles & Jaymes message is… CRACK.
— Some funny background gestures from A. Whitney.
— I believe this is the only time A. Whitney would ever get to say “Live from New York…” during his entire SNL tenure.
— Decent cold opening overall, and an amusing way to address the crack epidemic going on at the time.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
DAC gives host the confidence he needs to do his dance
— The beginning of Malcolm’s talk would later be removed in reruns. In the live version I’m watching, Malcolm starts this monologue by asking the audience “How about those Red Sox?”, which receives quite a negative reaction from the crowd, and Malcolm responds by saying his home team, the Angels, aren’t in the World Series this year, so he doesn’t care who wins. The reruns of this monologue cut out that entire part and just begin with Malcolm saying to the camera afterwards “Hi, Mom; hi, dad.” Not sure why the World Series portion was removed; maybe they felt it was too topical? The cold opening also started with a reference to the World Series (Hartman: “We are sorry the Mets lost… but what a slugfest that was.”), but I don’t remember if that was removed from reruns or not.
— Suffering through Anthony Michael Hall’s amateurish performances last season has made me a little wary of seeing another teenage actor on SNL so soon (Malcolm-Jamal Warner is only 16 years old in this episode), but so far, Malcolm’s actually handling himself pretty well for his age and is coming off likable.
— Dana’s odd, stiff dance moves are providing some good laughs.
— Now Dana’s comical facial expressions are adding even more to the humor of his dancing.
— The SNL Band’s music keeps drowning out a lot of what Malcolm and Dana are saying, including Malcolm’s whole “We got a great show for you tonight” spiel at the end.
— Overall, an okay monologue and a decent showcase for last week’s breakout newbie Dana Carvey.
— Interestingly, instead of a fade to black, this monologue ends with a “page turning” screen effect that transitions it into the next segment. Don’t remember that screen effect ever being used again to end a sketch.
STARS: ***
TEAM XYNEX
Team Xynex gives your employees the ability to goof off more efficiently
— Dana once again gets to steal a scene (this time with his phone-down-the-pants bit at the end).
— An overall quick but funny commercial with how this presented typical office tomfoolery in such a professional way. Also a nice way to use what I think was the entire cast (even A. Whitney Brown was in there).
STARS: ***½
DONAHUE
women in exploitive relationships explain their actions
— This sketch is immediately starting off strong with the debut of a very funny and spot-on Donahue impression from Phil Hartman. It’s getting a great reaction from the audience.
— Some really good laughs from Jan’s crying and her pathetic defense of her boyfriend’s terrible actions.
— LOL at Nora’s butch character’s book being titled “Women Good. Men Bad.”
— Good back-and-forth between Nora’s aforementioned character and Donahue, with his desperation to get her to go into details about her personal life.
— Kevin as a brash audience member is hilarious and he’s stealing the sketch.
— I like how when the three female guests are showing interest in Kevin’s character, Nora’s butch character asks “Any sisters at home like you?”
— Overall, a very good sketch and featured strong performances from just about everyone. That being said, there’s another Donahue sketch they do later this season that I’ve always liked even more than this one.
STARS: ****
THE CROSBY SHOW
Theo Huxtable (host) dreams he’s in Bing Crosby’s (PHH) family
— Haha, quite strange seeing Cliff Huxtable being portrayed by the cigar-holding hand of a black extra while an unseen Dana Carvey is doing the Bill Cosby voice-over. Something about that cracks me up to no end. But really, it makes the lack of any black performers in this season’s cast painfully obvious.
— Dana’s vocal impression of Cosby is very funny, especially him constantly ending his sentences with “Ya see?”
— Funny turn with this Cosby Show take-off turning out to star Bing Crosby in the dad role.
— Two great Phil Hartman showcases in a row tonight so far.
— I’m getting a good laugh from the constant off-camera whipping and screaming sounds. Dennis especially had some funny-sounding screaming.
— Hilarious walk-on from Jon as David Crosby, being portrayed as one of Bing’s sons.
— I absolutely love the bizarre visual of a spooky giant superimposed Bill Cosby head suddenly appearing and addressing the Crosby family in a loud, booming voice (done once again by an off-camera Dana Carvey).
— After Cosby says “That was a long, long time ago”, there’s a very long and awkward pause that, for some reason, always makes me laugh whenever I watch this sketch. Jan is amused too, apparently, as the long pause eventually causes her to start cracking up.
— Why is the audience applauding during the end-of-dream scene transition with Malcolm’s pre-taped voice-over repeatedly saying the magic words “I won’t try, I will”?
— The bedroom ending was weak.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) introduces musical guest while they beat up LOM
— Fun Spike Lee appearance here.
— LOL at the priceless visual of Lorne getting manhandled by Run DMC.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walk This Way”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN spouts numerous cliches while discussing the Reykjavik summit
Casey Kasem (DAC) answers viewer mail & declares Queen as top rock group
— Funny commentary from Kevin so far. I like his unfocused constant topic-changing and always saying “THAT’S what I’m really trying to say; forget the other stuff I was talking about.”
— I got a big laugh from Kevin’s line about a friend who was paralyzed from neck up, couldn’t wiggle his ears, and had to be confined to a hat.
— Loved Dennis’ whole “I don’t want to live in this world anymore” bit regarding D-Con Roach Spray and Mary Lou Retton’s appearance at a Statue of Liberty celebration.
— Unless I’m forgetting something, Dana’s Casey Kasem is the very first time a Dennis Miller Weekend Update has had a guest commentator who’s a celebrity instead of just a character or a cast member playing themselves.
— Great Casey Kasem voice from Dana.
— Funny hearing the disturbing story about Eddie Fontaine’s murder attempt being said in that cheerful Casey Kasem delivery. By the way, IIRC, Eddie Fontaine’s name would later be bleeped out in reruns of this, I’m assuming for legal reasons.
STARS: ***½
INSTANT COFFEE
Sweeney sisters Frannie “Candy” (JAH) & Mary Ann “Liz” (NOD) sing medley
— The debut of the Sweeney Sisters. Interesting how their first appearance is as guests in some kind of morning talk show sketch, whereas their subsequent appearances would be in their own standalone sketches.
— Hmm, the Sweeney Sisters have different first names in this one. They introduce themselves here as Franny and Mary-Ann, whereas later installments of this sketch would have them named Liz and Candy.
— I really liked hearing the Sisters’ take on the song “Yesterday”, though I’m always a sucker for that song.
— There’s what’s always my favorite part of these Sweeney Sisters sketches: the energetic “Clang, clang, clang, went the trolley” bit.
— Nora and Jan’s chemistry is so damn strong here. We rarely ever saw this kind of chemistry between any of the cast members in the previous season.
— Fun song medley overall, and I liked the clever ways the Sisters connected the songs to each other with their transitions from one song to the next.
— Some funny little banter during the post-song interview conducted by Kevin.
STARS: ***½
PARENT-TEEN DRUNK DRIVING CONTRACT
host prefers youth-friendly version of parent-teen drunk driving contract
— An initial laugh from the oversized contract Malcolm brings out.
— Overall, a pretty straightforward piece that, while not really memorable, came off decent. Malcolm’s delivery was solid and he, once again tonight, came off likable.
STARS: ***
SAM KINISON
Sam Kinison [real] does stand-up about family life & televangelists
— Another instance of the SNL Band playing badass music during Sam’s entrance.
— LOL at an audience member being heard imitating Sam’s scream right after Sam’s complaints about people on the street imitating his scream when they come up to him.
— Loved the whole “We’ll stop smoking crack if you give us the pot back!” part.
— He does a spot-on imitation of a typical televangelist voice.
— Funny ending with Sam imitating Jesus’ last words, which just turn out to be Sam screaming in pain while imitating the sounds of nails being hammered.
— Overall, one of Sam’s better SNL stand-up performances. Glad to see him stray away from the usual “marriage is hell” topic he usually always relies on in his SNL appearances.
— The more controversial portions of this stand-up performance (the parts about the crack epidemic and Jesus’ last words) would later get censored in reruns. Some reruns simply cut those portions out, but there are some old syndicated reruns that would censor those portions in a very odd way: instead of removing those portions entirely, they’d keep them in but mute out Sam’s dialogue while still leaving in the studio audience’s sounds (laughter, coughing, etc.). So, we see very long stretches of Sam speaking and screaming while no audio comes out of his mouth, all the while the audience is heard laughing hysterically at what he’s “saying” and “screaming”. It’s quite a bizarre sight. My guess is that edited syndicated version is taken from the original West Coast airing. Tape-delayed West Coast airings of live SNL episodes usually mute out any particularly offensive dialogue.
STARS: ***½
OLD HOLLYWOOD
(JOL) breaks it to war movie star Johnny O’Connor (PHH)- he’s finished
— Here comes a very well-known sketch.
— Hell, even just the beginning with Jon by himself, talking to various people over the phone has some really good laughs, and I love his old-timey delivery.
— Great characterization from Phil here.
— There’s the most well-remembered part of the sketch: the fantastic fast-paced back-and-forth with Jon bluntily telling Phil he’s fired and a terrible actor while Phil is completely oblivious and desperately keeps asking Jon to give him the news straight. I absolutely love this portion.
— Another really big laugh, this time from Phil’s fast-paced “Is it the booze? The dames? The pills? The sheep? The ducks? Your wife?” The latter gets a great reaction from Jon.
— Wonderful sketch overall, and a quintessential display of Phil and Jon’s always-great chemistry.
STARS: *****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hit It, Run”
CHALK FACTORY
(host) doesn’t want to follow in dad’s (DAC) footsteps at chalk factory
— Wow, what an initial visual of the whole chalk-covered set & characters.
— Pretty funny hearing a whiteface (or chalk-face) Malcolm-Jamal Warner speaking in the same English accent as Dana and Nora.
— This sketch is slow so far, but I liked the part with Dana’s character mistaking a stick of chalk for a cigarette, and the part with a chalk-covered Nora saying “I’ll go powder my nose.”
— I also kinda like the part right now with Malcolm revealing he’s interested in working at an eraser factory, which offends Dana.
— The billiard chalk bit with Jon was a fairly funny idea, but for some reason, it kinda ended this sketch on a flat note.
— Overall, a strange sketch. The audience barely laughed and, despite some okay lines, I can’t really say the sketch worked as a whole.
— This would later get removed from all reruns and be replaced with a dramatic short film about a black street performer. I think I recall hearing that film was directed by tonight’s special guest Spike Lee.
— With the removal of this sketch in reruns, Malcolm only appears in two sketches all night (The Crosby Show and Parent-Teen Contract), which is very unusual for an SNL host.
STARS: **
BUSTER POINDEXTER
Buster Poindexter [real] sings “Hit The Road Jack”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very good episode. Felt a lot more consistent than the season premiere, which had a slow first 15 minutes as well as too many musical interludes in the second half that threw off the flow. Tonight offered a lot of good comedy and had only one sketch I didn’t care for (Chalk Factory). This episode felt a little more like what’s now considered a typical episode from this era. It’s also nice to see this cast continue to grow and start showing some really strong chemistry with each other (e.g. Jan and Nora in Sweeney Sisters, Phil and Jon in Old Hollywood).
— This was really Phil Hartman’s breakout night. This episode was to him what the season premiere was to Dana Carvey. Much like how Dana was given three strong showcases in that episode (Quiz Masters, Church Chat, Derek Stevens), Phil was given three strong showcases in tonight’s episode (Donahue, The Crosby Show, Old Hollywood), all of which featured a fantastic performance from him and perfectly showed us the type of great and versatile performer he’s going to be these next 8 seasons. I love the format so far this season, where each week has special focus on one particular new cast member. Unfortunately, I don’t recall this format carrying over into this season’s third episode or beyond. Too bad; the next episode should’ve been Jan Hooks’ turn in the spotlight.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sigourney Weaver):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Rosanna Arquette hosts the first and (as of 2019) only live SNL episode to be taped and aired at a later date, caused in this particular case by a World Series game that ran very late and pre-empted the originally-scheduled live broadcast
I wonder, was Johnny O’Connor a carryover from The Groundlings? It feels like it could be.
That Chalk Factory sketch is curious to me. How in world did something like that work in dress and air? They completely covered in dust as is the set. Fascinating.
Also, that Spike Lee short film with Branford Marsalis seemed far too serious for SNL. No shock that was cut after dress originally.
The joke about the Mets game being a slug fest was probably written between dress and air. They lost Game 1 a little earlier that night (on NBC) 1-0 on a ball that went through the second baseman’s legs. Next weeks episode will be preempted by Game 6 (the famous Buckner game)
Phil’s Donahue is so great. Love the old timey Hollywood sketch as well. Lovitz played a very similar character in Three Amigos movie.
Phil’s Donahue > Darrell’s Donahue > Piscopo’s Donahue
(all three were good, but Phil’s is on a different level – this may actually be one of Phil’s best episodes ever, if not the very best)
SNL had a lot of fun with Donahue in the 80s and 90s – in fact, through most of this period, Donahue taped in Studio 8G, right next door at 30 Rock! That studio is currently occupied by “Late Night with Seth Meyers”.
I admit, I hardly remember Darrell’s Donohue…
I have had this one on tape of E! for years; it was a week showing teen heros hosting and they showed some of the 90210 hosted shows earlier that week and this came on on a Wendsday. I was so thrilled to see an ’86 era show so I put the tape in and recorded it as fast as I could. I missed a little bit of the intro but yeah I got the rest.
Kinison’s bit I remember being edited weird and it shows it was butchered. It came back from a commercial break and it randomly starts with him walking on the stage, quite weird. Need to pull that tape out and put my dvd in and see the exact differences. You’re right about the monologue I don’t recall any baseball talk in it.
Solid show. MJW was a weird pick to host but he did fine considering. Run DMC was fine, coulda done without Spike honestly though. Phil’s Donahue is an all time great impression on SNL in my opinion. Shame he didn’t do it that much, he did it 2 or 3 times and had 2 fake ads and that was it. The Ad’s he did on the 1989 premiere are still some of my favorite random bits, I actually had them pop up in my head the other day and just sat at work lmao. Phil got both Donnahue’s arrogance and that voice down perfect he’s a dead ringer for him.
Not that big of a fan of Arquette’s show but Kinison’s I’m excited to see. One of my all time favorite shows.
Funny, the Arquette episode has one certain classic, but to me the Kinison episode is one of the few duds of the era. I think Kinison had already jumped the shark by late 86. He had a high peak, but it was short lived.
Here’s the original NBC promo for this episode, complete with more of Dana’s Cosby impression (starts around :15)
I seem to remember Chris Rock in an interview saying this was the first time he met Lorne/attended the show live – he was a guest of Sam Kinison’s.
Spike Lee’s Branford Marsalis short film (which replaced the chalk factory sketch in reruns) was good, but the kind of thing you would never see on the show these days – it’s more like something you would see on CBS Sunday Morning or the PBS News Hour
Here’s my review of the musical performances.
Walk this Way
— I can’t believe Spike Lee even needed to make this speech in defense of hip hop. This is a few years before gangsta rap started, and most hip hop was relatively tame in comparison to what was about to come. Spike is absolutely right about the unfair double standard that rap was judged by at that time.
— Fun to see Jam Master Jay pumping the crowd up, and the enthusiasm by all parties.
— LOL at the audience VERY stiffly waving their hands back and forth along with Jay.
— Uhhh, I hate to be that guy, but it seems like Rev Run and DMC are lip syncing here. Their vocals sound identical to the studio version, and I think I saw a few parts where there was a vocal line before one of them put the mic up to their mouth. Does anyone know if this is true or not, definitively? I’m not going to hold it against them because for all I know it could have been SNL that insisted on it. Also, this was only the second hip hop group (IIRC) to appear on SNL and they could have wanted to just introduce the audience to their style of music.
— Even if this is lip syncing, it’s still really good lip syncing and a great job of dancing and engaging with the audience.
STARS: ***1/2
Hit it, Run
— Not much more to say about this one — still not entirely sure whether there is lip syncing or not, but I do suspect it.
— I do like the graffiti painted on the garage door in the background. Nice touch.
— Once again, lip sync or no, an energetic and engaging performance by Run DMC and their posse.
— Glad SNL featured a vital rap group in the burgeoning stages of hip hop, but also disappointing that there would only be 2 other rap artists between this performance and the 91/92 season: LL Cool J (for one song), and Vanilla Ice. No Beastie Boys (until they went alt rock in the 90s), Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, BDP, EPMD, D.O.C., or Erik B. and Rakim…and it took until that 91/92 season to book Public Enemy. Missed opportunity by the show.
STARS: ***1/2
Phil commenting on the Mets losing Game 1 of the World Series is one of those times that proves the show is indeed live. That’s always cool to see. I remember the same thing happened in at least 1993 and 1996; both times they announced the team who had just won the World Series moments before.
They did it in 1992 as well. During the good nights, they announced that Toronto had just defeated Atlanta in the World Series. Canadian Phil Hartman looks elated and proud, and Georgian Jan Hooks, who was making a guest appearance that night, makes a frown and boos the news.
Malcolm made a few mistakes but was basically good. My version has a lot of editing errors. Clipped off parts of the show but also includes some of the original commercial spots, like Joe Piscopo playing a wrestler shilling for Miller Lite. Overall the writing is much improved from the previous season. And the acting is much better too. Not nearly as many hiccups or awkward pauses. Jokes come faster and with less fluff in between them. Victoria is really the weakest link here. She comes across as bland or annoying in each character, especially when compared to the other stars who clearly give a better performance. I’m glad they chose to not put Dana in blackface but at the same time it shows how much they needed at least one black actor. Great show. The only trouble was a 16 year old apparently forgetting his lines once in a while. Not terrible. Jan and Nora were awesome as the Sweeny sisters. We’ve come a long way since season 11. Lorne and the producers must have done a lot of work during the summer hiatus.
What a great comeback for SNL from the awful season 11, I laughed at most of season 12’s sketches and found season 11’s too bad to watch.
Nora Dunn has said that people were initially skeptical about the Sweeney Sisters, since they thought it was too similar to Nick the Lounge Singer. I wonder if they originally planned to give them different first names in every installment, just as Nick had a different last name in each installment.