February 21, 1987 – Willie Nelson (S12 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Afterlife Styles of the Rich & Famous- an interview with Liberace (PHH)

— I like this concept of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous interviewing dead celebrities.
— Hilarious Robin Leach impression from Dana, and I like the way he says “I don’t know whhyyyyyy”.
— Another Liberace in heaven cold opening for the second episode in a row???
— Wow, a sudden appearance from Jon’s Mephistopheles.
— A decent opening overall, though I still find it strange that they’ve done two cold openings in a row starring Phil’s Liberace in heaven.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
host plays guitar & sings “Nightlife”

— Judging from how the home base stage is laid out upon Willie Nelson’s entrance, with his band members and their instruments already occupying the stage (and the SNL Band being nowhere in sight), you can tell this will be a musical monologue.
— I was right. After a quick intro, Willie has immediately thrown to a straightforward, non-comedic musical performance.

GENERAL DYNAMICS
— Rerun

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH
wed cousins (Danny DeVito) & (NOD)

— Our first of several appearances tonight from credited special guest Danny DeVito.
— I liked Nora’s line about Danny getting better-looking with every drink she takes.
— Funny ending reveal of Danny and Nora turning out to be first cousins.
STARS: ***

POLICE WIRE
(Danny DeVito) winds up incriminating himself while wearing a police wire

— Some really good laughs from the mobsters talking about the huge crimes a police wire-wearing Danny has committed in the past, all the while Kevin and A. Whitney’s police officers are listening on in shock.
— I’m liking Danny’s various nervous reactions.
— Funny twist with mob boss Jon Lovitz’s “dark plan” turning out to simply be raising funds for an outdoor basketball court.
— I was kinda expecting more from the ending.
STARS: ***½

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH
a party girl (JAH)

— I liked Jan’s “What kind of car you got?” when Phil’s trying to flirt with her.
— Overall, this didn’t work as well as the last one did. There weren’t any big jokes here.
STARS: **½

CHURCH CHAT
host & Church Lady sing “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers Anymore”

— Danny DeVito front and center in yet another sketch tonight. They might as well have credited him as a co-host instead of a special guest.
— Great line from Danny about Church Lady not “having her ticket punched” in a long time.
— Love the superior dance-off between Danny and Church Lady.
— First time they’ve ever used the echo at the end of Church Lady’s “Could it be… SATAN?!?” catchphrase.
— I liked Church Lady’s over-eagerness in opening her present.
— Good ending with Church Lady and Willie singing a romantic duet together
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
upside-down VIJ shows her stars & stripes panties while reviewing Amerika
AWB has some thoughts about Glasnost & China’s billion-plus population

 

— Dennis starts this off with a monotone “Isn’t that special?”
— I didn’t get the Martha Raye, denture-wearer joke.  Commercial reference?
— I liked Dennis’ bit about an AIDS-ridden Garfield being given his own separate page in the newspaper.
— Our very first instance of a Victoria Jackson Weekend Update handstand.
— I like how Victoria is giving a review of a miniseries while still doing her handstand.
— Second episode in a row with an A. Whitney Brown commentary. After how surprisingly weak his last one was, I’m not sure I’m too happy to see another one so soon.
— A. Whitney’s overall commentary tonight was thankfully a return to form for him. He had the usual amount of funny lines, and the audience was also more into it than they were last time.
STARS: ***

REDNECK TANNING PARLOR
modern Southerners get their red necks at (host)’s tanning parlor

— Great southern voice from Jan.
— Very funny visual of Kevin’s insane tan.
— I enjoyed Willie’s mock-dramatic speech at the end.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Partners After All”

GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH
a welfare cheat (KEN)

— An overall okay installment that was a little better than the second one.
STARS: ***

BAR
Tommy Flanagan tells host that he also has a new movie & album coming out

— Wow, from my past viewings, I had no memory of Tommy Flanagan appearing in this episode. According to a commenter on this site, there’s also one more Flanagan appearance remaining this season, but I have no memory of that one either. I had always remembered the Walter Payton one being the last appearance Flanagan makes before the show puts him on a very long hiatus.
— Strange how the last two Flanagan sketches have taken place in a bar.
— When Willie plugs his new movie, Flanagan responds “Oh, yeah, I heard about that on Church Chat.” Great little meta moment there. I always love the rare times an SNL episode has sketches overlap with each other.
— I got a chuckle from Flanagan saying he’s starring in a movie titled “The Hook-Nosed & Balding Stranger”.
— I like how “And yet it happened” has become a new catchphrase in the last two installments of this sketch.
— Overall, a lot of this was the same old tired Flanagan stuff, but this had a few moments and I liked the interplay between Flanagan and Willie.
STARS: **½

THE BOYFRIEND SONG
host & VIJ play guitar & sing “The Boyfriend Song”

— Wow, Victoria gets to debut TWO of her trademarks tonight. First a handstand on Update, and now a ukulele song.
— I liked Victoria having to clear the air about her quaalude lyric.
— Cute song from Victoria so far, and I love the chemistry between her and Willie.
— Overall, a nice piece, and considering how much trouble she’s been having standing out among this season’s new cast, it’s good to see Victoria having a breakout night in tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***

TRUCK STOP CAFÉ
(host) uses Patsy Cline music to woo truck stop waitress Anita (JAH)

— Jan gets to play yet another white trash waitress tonight.
— I got a good laugh from Jan’s “Comin’ in once a month, like cramps” complaint about Willie.
— I loved how Jan briefly stopped in the middle of her heated rant to happily greet a customer and then immediately continued her rant without missing a beat.
— I like Jan’s adamant “You get away from that jukebox right now” warning to Willie, only to easily melt when the romantic music starts playing from the jukebox.
— Overall, I really liked this. A very charming, softer, slice-of-life sketch and, while Willie was fine in his role, you can probably tell from my review that this sketch was all about Jan. It really showed off her excellent performance skills. While not quite on the same level as her memorable performance in the later Sexual Tensions Diner sketch with Alec Baldwin, this felt like an early precursor to it, only with a more sentimental touch.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Blue Eyes”

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A better episode than I had remembered it being. I said in my last review that if this Willie Nelson episode was as weak as I remember, it would continue the recent consecutive string of underwhelming episodes, making it official that we’re in a mid-season slump. However, I was pleased to find myself enjoying this episode. While this was far from a particularly great episode, it had a nice flow and consistency to it, and there weren’t any segments that were particularly bad. And although there was a bit too much of a same-y feel to quite a number of the sketches, having a redneck/white trash theme (which I guess is to be expected in a Willie Nelson-hosted episode), I can appreciate how it gave this episode a strangely likable, down-home feel.
— As a host, Willie Nelson didn’t stretch himself at all, just playing himself or characters like himself all night. However, he didn’t bring down any sketches either. On a scale of country singer hosts (off the top of my head) with Kris Kristofferson being the lowest level and Garth Brooks being the highest, I’d say Willie was above the Kristofferson level, but below the level of Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bronson Pinchot):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Valerie Bertinelli