Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
The New Charlie’s Angels- they eliminate presidential front-runners
— Clever topical concept.
— Great reveal of “Charlie” being a face-hidden Ted Kennedy.
— Loved Phil-as-Kennedy’s line about women being “harder to open than a liquor store in Nebraska”.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Certainly one of the more unique attire a host has ever made their monologue entrance in.
— The Mother’s Day/towel story was pretty funny.
— Is it an intentional joke that the audience keeps applauding at every mention of him winning Sexiest Man Alive?
— Ah, this has segued into a related sketch, much like William Shatner’s monologue earlier this season.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)
THE SEXIEST MAN ALIVE 1986
Peter Graves (PHH) & Pat Stevens crown host People’s Sexiest Man Alive
— Interesting use of Phil’s Peter Graves impression outside of the Discover sketches.
— Similarly, this is a rare instance of seeing Pat Stevens outside of her talk show setting. At least she fits more in this sketch than in the Cabrini Green school assembly sketch she randomly appeared in the previous season.
— What’s with Nora’s dress occasionally fading transparently into the background behind her, as if she’s a hologram? I guess she’s being greenscreened into the shot.
— Dana is hilarious in this. This is my first time reviewing his John Travolta impression, though this isn’t its debut. According to the SNL Archives site, Dana actually debuted this impression in the last episode, but it was in a sketch that was removed from my rerun copy.
— Good line about intelligence costing the contestants points with the judges.
— Funny performance from Jon as F. Murray Abraham.
— I like the amusing touch with Mark and Jon holding hands in suspense when the winner’s going to be announced.
— The closing winner’s song performed by Phil’s Graves is making me laugh.
STARS: ***½
VERY SMART THEATER
young Attila The Hun (host) wants to make mobiles
— An initial laugh from the obviously fake library background behind Jon.
— Heh, and now they’ve jokingly acknowledged what I pointed out above, by having Jon slip a book into a book-shaped hole in the obviously fake library background.
— Phil angrily throwing an axe into Tom Davis’ back was hilarious, as was Tom’s reaction.
— Oh, god. Where is this going now with Mark’s Atilla the Hun breaking out into a sudden musical number?
— The studio audience is more amused by this sketch than I am so far.
— Man, that “preview of next week’s episode” scene at the end was just as weak as the rest of the sketch.
— Okay, Jon got me laughing at the end by lighting his cigarette with a bust.
— Overall, this sketch started out okay, but ended up really boring me, and the unnecessary mid-sketch musical number didn’t help. It’s way too early in the episode for a sketch this dull and slow.
STARS: *½
IRAN-CONTRA HEARINGS
senators change focus of Iran-Contra hearings to the Hart-Rice affair
— A sketch like this feels weird seeing in the middle of an episode. Feels more like I’m watching a cold opening that was moved to later in the episode. Adding to the confusion is that the following week’s episode actually DOES have a cold opening that’s similarly set at the Iran-Contra hearings.
— Another issue I have with this sketch is that it’s TOO topical and vague. The people in the sketch keep going on and on about “the senator” and “her”, without ever mentioning the names of the senator and woman in question. The only reason I know that they’re Gary Hart and Donna Rice is because of my familiarity with the Gary Hart scandal.
— I liked Dennis’ blunt comment about how Donna Rice’s face is “kinda goofy”.
— Another Akira Yoshimura sighting, and with some dialogue too.
— Proving my earlier point that this sketch is probably a rejected cold opening, this ends with Jon asking Phil “Are there any other statements you’d like to make?”, as if he was setting Phil up to say “Live from New York…” But of course, Phil’s response ended up being something completely different, which was probably a last-minute change if I’m correct that this was moved from the cold opening spot.
STARS: **½
EINSTEIN EXPRESS
when it has to be there the day before yesterday
— I love Phil’s intentionally exaggerated, cartoonish portrayal of Jon’s angry boss.
— Fantastic concept.
— A particularly funny part with Kevin’s panicked request to give birth control pills to his girlfriend 4 months in the past.
— Strong commercial overall. I’ve always considered this and the Jiffy Express commercial from the early 90s (a commercial about a delivery service that specializes in taking the blame for packages you send late) to be counterparts to each other. Wonder if they were both written by the same person.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Luka”
WEEKEND UPDATE
DEM reads the Montgomery Clift Notes for Moby Dick
for new Americans, AWB clarifies what the American dream is really about
— Love the long string of Gary Hart jokes.
— Dennis is on fire with the speed he’s going through the jokes.
— A. Whitney’s overall Big Picture commentary had some good comments as usual, especially the bits about the Columbia Record Club, the meek inheriting the earth, and the Elvis Presley fake-out. I also liked how he signed off with an oddly long-winded, verbose way of saying “The Big Picture”.
STARS: ***½
SALMON SPAWNING
after swimming upstream, salmons (host) & (VIJ) meet & decide to spawn
— Interesting concept.
— The salmonella STD joke was a groaner but a pretty funny one.
— Mark and Victoria did a good job playing off of a real flub where Mark mistakenly jumped ahead of the script while Victoria was speaking.
— Cute sketch overall, even if I wasn’t laughing all that hard.
STARS: ***
DAVE’S PARTY
by Richard Goldstone- adult concerns fill kids’ minds
— A unique short film for SNL. Something about this feels like a bit of a precursor to the Look Who’s Talking movies.
— I like the part with the foreign-accented sunglasses-wearing girl.
— Overall, this was well-made, but was another piece that was more cute than funny. This started losing its novelty for me after a while.
STARS: **½
AD COUNCIL
— A rerun… from LAST season. This feels really out of place in this season.
PET CHICKEN SHOP
Ching Change fights gang leader boyfriend (host) of sister Loose (NOD)
— Oh, dear god.
— Now Ching and his sister Loose are doing a bad Who’s On First parody using stereotypical Asian names. Groanworthy as hell.
— Okay, I actually got a laugh just now, from the gangsters briefly breaking out into a choreographed swan-type little dance when making their entrance.
— Wow, I’m actually enjoying this fight scene, especially the blatantly fake hits.
— LOL at the part with Ching pulling out Kevin’s heart.
— Unfortunately, they lost me at the end with Ching breaking out into song. Why do these sketches always have to end with Ching singing?
— Overall, probably the best Ching Change sketch ever, by default. I’m sure this recurring sketch will go right back to its usual unwatchable quality in the next installment.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Marlene on the Wall”
MYOWLING BIBLE
now you can share the religious experience with your cat
— Yet another piece tonight that’s more cute than funny. However, as a cat person, I can’t help but get a bit of a kick out of watching this.
— Overall, just an okay-at-best piece, but didn’t really feel necessary.
— In more recent years, SNL once did a fake ad titled The Bird Bible, starring Kate McKinnon and Mike O’Brien. In the review I did of that episode back when it originally aired (this was during my years as a reviewer of newly-aired SNL episodes), I dismissed the Bird Bible piece as a poor rip-off of this Myowling Bible sketch. Sometime later on, I came around on the Bird Bible piece and began appreciating the humor in it, whether it was intended as a Myowling Bible copy or not. In fact, I’d now say Bird Bible is the better of the two pieces, as it at least had actual jokes.
STARS: **½
PORTRAIT ARTIST
a novice sketch artist (KEN) makes countless mistakes on (VIJ)’s portrait
— I like Kevin explaining that even though he’s new at doing portraits, there’s no need to worry because he’s seen it done a lot.
— A good laugh from Kevin immediately drawing Victoria with a bulbous nose when saying he’s good at drawing noses.
— Nice touch with Kevin adding missing teeth to Victoria’s portrait when being told hockey is her favorite sport.
— I love the increasing amount of black smudges on Victoria’s face each time Kevin turns her head a certain way.
— I’ve always considered this overall sketch a sister sketch to Kevin’s Police Sketch Artist piece from earlier this season in the Bronson Pinchot episode.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Pretty underwhelming. There were some good things, but the overall episode felt forgettable and below standards for this season. The second half of the episode also had too many sketches lacking in intentional big laughs (I started losing count of the number of pieces I described as “more cute than funny”); one or two sketches like that in an episode is fine, but half of an episode filled with sketches not going for hard laughs is a bit much.
— The copy I reviewed of this episode is missing a sketch called He’s The One. Turns out the repeated Ad Council fake ad was added in reruns to replace it.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Larroquette):
— a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Garry Shandling
I think “Very Smart Theater” and “Salmon Spawning” were two of Jack Handey’s “return” pieces to the show after being invited back as a guest writer (he had been let go after the previous season). He was officially re-hired for the next season.
I’ve been going through the whole 86-87 season and just finished watching this one, probably last saw it about 25 years ago. I remember thinking it was the worst show of the season. It’s a little better than I remember it, but this was an odd episode, definitely not one of the highlights of the season. The Attila the Hun sketch was so bad, I’d say one of the top 5 worst sketches from the 86-90 group, and for it to be put near the top of the show is all the more baffling. Meowing Bible was pretty bad too.
I thought Kevin’s sketch artist sketch was the best of the night. That should not have been buried all the way at the end of the show.
IIRC, I think Kevin would do the Portrait Artist sketch again on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, but as a spur-of-the-moment thing in the conversation.
FYI, the 2nd song is “Marlene On the Wall” (not “Water”; I have her 1st album)
I notice they’re still using live animals for the animal sketches. Thats gonna end in a little while. Too messy and complicated. Also I recall seeing in the newspaper once that the ASPCA and a few other groups complained.
Episode was OK but they needed better jokes for some of these good premises.
-“Dave’s Party” was a production involving most of Phil Hartman’s friends from the Groundlings. One of the participants Tracy Newman, Laraine’s older sister and later a writer/producer for sitcoms like Ellen and According to Jim (which she co-created) commented on it on Facebook:
“Phil Hartmann voices Dave (Colin Wells is the little boy)… it’s his party (shot at our house). Richard Goldstone (director) plays Stan (the wheeler-dealer stock market guy) and Jonathan Stark plays the lovesick (Bob). Robin Schiff is the French girl, and had a lot to do with the (writing/)forming of the script. (It was done in the editing room.) Jim Dean is the boy in the bathroom combing his hair. I’m in there in various parts, my daughter Charlotte Dean is an extra. Most of the kids were from Wagon Wheel school where Charlotte was going at the time. I’m sorry I’ve forgotten names of so many and there are no credits on this… We all loved this project. It was very exciting and I remember when we were done with it, we were so proud, and we all agreed that if we never did anything else in show biz, we were fine with having done this.”
-I believe the lady who hands off the judge’s choice to Phil in The Sexiest Man Alive Pageant is Laurie Guthrie-Sykes; at the time Guthrie was a researcher for Late Night with David Letterman and would often (as all Dave’s stuff would) do on-air appearances as an extra in a bit or as herself as seen in this segment involving the film Ishtar:
*correction: “as all Dave’s staff would do…”
Colin Wells is the son of Deanna Oliver (The Brave Little Toaster) and voiced Randy Beaman’s friend on Animaniacs.
… Okay, bye.