April 18, 1987 – John Larroquette / Timbuk 3 (S12 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Pagan Easter Special- Casey Kasem (DAC) offers wife Jean (JAH) to Moloch

— Boy, this is a weird cold opening so far.
— Some good lines from Dana’s Casey Kasem, who has provided my only laughs so far.
— What is the point of this long, unfunny dance sequence with Dana and Jan?
— Overall, I was not crazy about this cold opening at all. Easily my least favorite opening of the season so far.
STARS: **

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Some pretty good laughs from his claims of how much SNL begged him to host.
— Okay, I know the constant “two Emmies” mentions are an intentional joke, but it’s starting to be done TOO much.
— The overall monologue was mostly decent.
STARS: ***

SOLD-OUT GOLD
album contains classic hits made into commercials

— Second episode in a row with Jon’s David Crosby impression.
— Funny concept with an album of commercial jingle-ized 60s hits. Reminds me a bit of those record ads SNL used to do a lot in the Ebersol era (e.g. Heil Hits).
— The voices performing the commercial jingles are doing pretty funny impressions of the various 60s singers.
STARS: ***

MOTHER-IN-LAW
bad-ass mother-in-law (PHH) brawls with son-in-law (host)

— I like the hint of a barbecue incident that happened to Larroquette’s character as we’re shown a gruesome grill burn on his shoulder.
— The debut of what is probably Phil Hartman’s most forgotten recurring character: a woman who always gets into a huge physical fight with her daughter’s husband/boyfriend.
— Feels unusual to see Phil playing a character like this, but is also strangely refreshing in a way. He’s pulling this role off really well.
— Man, Larroquette’s punches to Phil’s face actually look real, made even more convincing by the fact that there aren’t any comically-fake punch sound effects being played; we’re instead hearing what sound like real-life punching sounds.
— Wow, the escalation of this brutal fight is getting INSANE. I love it.
— Entertaining sketch overall. That being said, I recall this character’s second (and final) sketch having an even crazier fight that, at one point, involves guns.
STARS: ***½

COLLECTING EVIDENCE
homicide detective (host) shows skill at handling evidence with a pencil

— Geez, A. Whitney Brown plays his SECOND dead body of the season. Really makes you wonder why they bother crediting him as a featured player in every single episode this season, when you can see how much they’re struggling to work him into sketches. I can see why in A. Whitney’s subsequent seasons, they only credit him as a featured player on occasional weeks, whenever he does a Big Picture commentary on Weekend Update.
— A pretty good laugh early on from a minor bit with Kevin’s various ways of saying the murder victim was a loner.
— I really like Larroquette picking up increasingly difficult evidence with a pencil, and the joy the other cops are getting in seeing this.
— LOL at Larroquette actually sharpening his pencil in preparation of picking up an eyelash.
— I liked the part with Larroquette tumbling over onto the floor while managing to still keep the eyelash-carrying pencil upright.
— Funny turn with Larroquette accidentally killing the not-actually-dead-yet “corpse” with his pencil.
— Overall, a very good sketch with a nice escalation and a strong performance from Larroquette.
STARS: ****

WEEKEND UPDATE
Robin Leach (DAC) talks about Fernando Valenzuela’s lucrative contract
Babette imagines she’s being seduced by a tax auditor

— Good to see Dana’s Robin Leach in his own Update commentary.
— Funny line from Dana’s Leach about tacos only filled with caviar.
— Wow, I’m surprised the Robin Leach commentary ended up being so short.
— I didn’t get Dennis’ joke about Reagan having five national security advisors. Must be an overly-topical bit that hasn’t aged well.
— I particularly liked Dennis’ Handcuffs Across America joke.
— Wow, Dennis is speeding though the last few jokes. I like that for some reason.
— Not excited to see Babette once again.
— Ehh, as expected, I ended up not caring for this overall Babette commentary at all, and this ended the exact same way her last few appearances did. I am SO tired of this character.
STARS: ***

HEAVEN
recently-deceased (host) finds that Heaven’s database has all the answers

— Oh, this is a sketch I’d always had a fondness for, but had completely forgotten about until now.
— I liked Larroquette’s reaction to hearing he once unknowingly walked over a buried treasure chest at a beach.
— I love the escalation of the type of questions Larroquette is eagerly asking Dana about his own life. I’d love to find out the same kind of info about myself.
— Very funny bit with Dana revealing Hitler is still alive, but “don’t worry, we’re really gonna nail him.”
— Hilarious reveal that Bruce Willis made a deal with the devil.
— Overall, a very solid sketch with low-key, relatable humor. This was just as good as I had remembered it being.
STARS: ****

THE AMAZING ALEXANDER
— Rerun

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Just Another Movie”

INSTANT COFFEE WITH BILL SMITH
married actors (host) & (JAH) in a musical about Kennedys

— The return of a forgotten talk show sketch that launched the Sweeney Sisters.
— Some good subtle laughs from how some of the (fictional) theaters being mentioned are named after random famous actors.
— Larroquette’s Jews in New York comment was funny.
— Interestingly, the format of this is the reverse of the previous Instant Coffee sketch. In that one, the talk show guests (the Sweeney Sisters) performed their act on stage first and then did an interview with Kevin’s character afterwards, whereas tonight’s installment is doing it in the opposite order with the interview first and performance second.
— Some good laughs from Jan and Larroquette’s odd way of “finding their characters”.
— What was with the abrupt ending? Why didn’t Kevin wrap up the show, or why wasn’t there at least an on-screen graphic of the “Instant Coffee with Bill Smith” title before the sketch faded to black?
— Overall, a pretty good sketch. While the whole musical/performance art-type thing Jan and Larroquette performed onstage isn’t really my type of humor, I can appreciate Jan and Larroquette’s comical performances, and I did get some laughs there.
STARS: ***

ICM
showbiz agents in NYC struggle to cope with a massive Los Angeles quake

— Very interesting set-up.
— Funny seeing (or hearing, in this case) Phil’s Charlton Heston impression so soon after Heston himself hosted the show.
— Good part with Jan’s rapid-fire rundown of which actors are alive or dead.
— A pretty well-done sketch overall.
STARS: ***½

CRACK
— Another rerun

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hairstyles & Attitudes”

UNDER THE THINKING CAP
(no synopsis available)

 

— Uh, wow. What the heck is THIS???
— I don’t hear any audience laughter at all during this. Is the audience not miked during this, or are they just silent because they’re as weirded-out as I am?
— Overall, this strange film started growing on me a little towards the end, though that’s not saying much. I can kinda appreciate the creative oddball inventions that were presented throughout this, and something about the overall look and vibe of this film strangely had the feel of some of the Nickelodeon shows from my childhood in the early 90s, but I can’t say I laughed a single time during this entire film.
STARS: **

GOODNIGHTS / AL CAMOIN TRIBUTE
career retrospective marks cameraman Al Camoin’s [real] retirement

   

— Interestingly, the usual goodnights proceedings are interrupted with a special send-off for retiring SNL cameraman Al Camoin, who’s been with the show since the very beginning in season 1.
— Ha, when Victoria is giving a speech to Camoin, you can hear a male audience member wolf-whistling at her.
— Pretty funny video package of Camoin’s work over the decades, and they managed to get in yet another mention of the show “Hullabaloo”, which was also mentioned during the Francis Ford Coppola episode’s Grand Finale where Master Thespian was detailing the history of Studio 8H.
— Oh, wow. At the end of these goodnights, the camera actually slowly pulls away from the home base stage until it reaches all the way to SNL’s backstage, where two NBC pages then proceed to close the studio doors in front of the camera (last screencap above) as a reverse of how NBC pages are usually always shown opening the studio doors whenever this season’s opening montage ends. A very nice touch, and I believe this is the only goodnights in SNL history that ended this way.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Fairly solid episode. I hadn’t remembered much about this episode from my past viewings, which had me going into tonight’s viewing not expecting too great a show, a feeling that only got worse during that really weak, baffling cold opening. However, afterwards, I was pleased to see a consistently enjoyable episode. I also like how there were creative, interesting premises in quite a lot of the sketches. And I felt that John Larroquette added a likable air to the episode with the way he handled his roles.
— My copy of this episode is missing a sketch called Enigma. Apparently, the Under The Thinking Cap short film (as well as the two repeated fake ads) was added in reruns to replace the Enigma sketch, which may explain why there were no audience sounds heard during the film.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Lithgow):
— about the same

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Mark Harmon