Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
after Easy Rider, Billy (host) & Captain America (DAC) regroup
— Good premise so far, showing the two main Easy Riders characters exiting a clinic after a clip is shown of what happened to them at the end of the movie.
— The debut of Phil’s great Jack Nicholson impression.
— Loved Phil-as-Nicholson’s delivery of the line “Maybe we should vacate these environs and motor north to Gotham.”
— Hopper’s motorcycle tricks in front of an obvious greenscreened background are fairly funny to watch.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Much like in Robin Williams’ monologue earlier this season, the regular home base stage is blocked by the brick wall that’s usually only reserved for this season’s musical guests. Still don’t understand why.
— Some funny drug jokes at the beginning.
— Wow, this is over already? This was extremely short and had very little focus on humor. It was basically just him mentioning how he’s clean and sober.
STARS: **½
CHURCH CHAT
Jenny Baker is defensive; host talks about his wilder days
— Funny line flub with Church Lady mistakenly pronouncing “Jessica” as “Jessikey” and then excusing herself for having “a little Satan” in her mouth.
— Didn’t care at all for the way Victoria’s interview ended.
— Some good laughs from Church Lady’s description of an orgy.
— The insane clip shown from Blue Velvet cracked me up.
— Overall, not one of the best Church Chat sketches and felt slower-paced than most installments, but this was still enjoyable, and the Hopper interview had a likable, fairly fun vibe.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Crying” & “Pretty Woman”
FRANK BOOTH’S “WHAT’S THAT SMELL?”
Judd Nelson (JOL) is the champ
— Very funny concept for a gameshow sketch, and a nice use of Hopper’s Blue Velvet character.
— I’m already laughing at Jon’s Judd Nelson impression just from his look.
— Jan’s Tammy Faye Bakker detailing a hallucination of hers, culminating in her declaring “Demonic sweaters, I rebuke you!” is a blatant and inferior re-write of her classic rant about demonic raisins in the Church Chat sketch she appeared in. As I said in a recent review, I always hate when SNL takes something that got a big laugh the first time and then basically re-do the exact same material, beat-for-beat, hoping lightning will strike twice.
— I’m getting a kick out of all of Hopper’s angry outbursts throughout the sketch.
— What an insane ending. I love it.
STARS: ***½
WEEKEND UPDATE
Oliver North’s lawyer Tommy Flanagan says his client is innocent
AWB shows the class of ’87 how to juggle all their concerns & commitments
— Nice callback to the Nancy Reagan/Riddler joke from the previous episode, by showing an actual picture of Nancy as The Riddler this time.
— I guess I can’t complain about the appearance of Tommy Flanagan, as this IS the first time we’ve seen him in a while, compared to how frequently he was used last season. Also, from what I was told by a commenter on this site, this ends up being Flanagan’s last appearance for TWO years.
— Interestingly, Flanagan starts to say his usual “That’s the ticket”, but cuts it off and instead says “Isn’t that special?” A sign that Church Lady had eclipsed Tommy Flanagan in popularity this year.
— Flanagan’s overall commentary had some laughs, but yeah, the routine is still coming off fairly tired. I’m looking forward to that two-year break from him.
— I like how it’s becoming a yearly tradition for A. Whitney Brown’s season finale Big Picture commentaries to focus on that year’s graduates.
— Interesting change of pace with A. Whitney using several balls as a visual to make his point.
— Wow, it’s impressive to see A. Whitney successfully juggling several balls.
— At the end of this Update, during his end-of-season sign-off, Miller takes a picture of us viewers by snapping a flash photo at the camera. Didn’t Bill Murray get in trouble for doing the same thing in the final Weekend Update of the original era? Unlike in his case, however, Miller’s photo flash doesn’t leave a burn mark in the middle of the screen.
STARS: ***
PROBLEM DRINKERS FROM OUTER SPACE
alcoholic aliens land in Washington
— Some amusing stock footage of a flying saucer drunk-driving.
— I remember once reading a review that pointed out Hopper’s drunk voice in this sketch sounds like a bad Bill Cosby impression. I can’t unhear that while watching this now.
— Good reveal that the alcohol-loving aliens have two livers.
— Overall, ehh. While there were some highlights as pointed out above, and Phil’s delivery was funny, this overall sketch was too slow for my likes and it dragged.
STARS: **
THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
Sam Donaldson (KEN) leans in chair
— Funny seeing this open with a shot of the Capital Building, considering the preceding sketch (Problem Drinkers From Outer Space) ended with stock footage of a flying saucer crashing into the roof of the Capital Building.
— Phil’s David Brinkley voice is making me laugh.
— In the live version I’m watching of this episode, the first instance of Kevin leaning back and almost falling out of his chair was marred by a camera delay where they cut to Kevin too late. I’m assuming this is fixed in the rerun version.
— This is a really silly, one-note sketch, but it’s making me laugh.
— I like how when asked if he’d be willing to switch chairs with Sam Donaldson, Dana’s George Will sternly responds in that stiff George Will delivery “No. This is my chair, I’ll sit here.”
— How are they pulling off this effect with Kevin’s chair repeatedly bouncing on the edge without actually falling over?
— I liked Jon’s “You gotta admit, that was amazing” in response to one of Donaldson’s near-falling-overs.
— Overall, a decent sketch despite the very thin and dumb premise. This had the type of Kevin Nealon silliness that I always like; the type of humor that very few people other than him can sell. I’m sure he wrote this sketch himself, as it felt like his style.
STARS: ***
CANNIBALISM INTERVIEW
questions posed during job interview check whether (host) is a cannibal
— A good laugh from Kevin’s first sudden cannibalism question to Hopper, as well as Hopper’s speechless reaction.
— I like how the cannibalism questions are hinting at sinister plans the execs seem to have.
— An overall okay sketch, though I felt it had potential to be even funnier. This feels like the type of sketch that, if it were done a year or so later when this SNL era fully hit its stride, would’ve been a brilliant absurd sketch that would be a cult favorite among comedy nerds like me. As the sketch stands, it was merely adequate and felt like something was missing.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Dreams”
LAST CHANCE
mechanics (host) & (JAH) beat investment broker (PHH) at his own game
— I got a laugh from Hopper’s bad “investment broker/broken car” joke.
— Hopper’s “If you see us gettin’ smaller, it’s because you’re leavin’” line got a good audience reaction.
— Overall, another sketch tonight that was merely okay. Not particularly hilarious or memorable, but had a nice charm to it.
STARS: ***
SWEENEY SISTERS
Liz & Candy Sweeney sing a medley to say “goodbye” for the summer
— Who was that doing the opening voice-over introducing the Sweeney Sisters? The voice didn’t sound familiar at all. Strange that they didn’t use Don Pardo for that.
— A different set up for the Sweeney Sisters, and I like this meta premise with them saying goodbye to this season of SNL.
— During the medley, I especially liked how they segued from The Trolley Song to So Long Farewell.
— Great screechy long note from Jan at the end.
— Overall, an entertaining and fitting way to end a season. I always appreciate any time SNL ends a season with something special and meta like this, instead of just ending a season with a normal generic sketch.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An average season-ender, and it actually felt kinda underwhelming. While there’s not much in the episode to really complain about, this wasn’t the most exciting way for a solid season like this to end. Most of the sketches tonight were merely okay and rarely rose above that level. Even Church Chat was just average. Almost nothing tonight stood out as really strong, and there’s not much about this episode that I’ll remember in the future. Considering this was both a season finale and a third-consecutive-live-week episode, maybe the people at SNL were understandably a little burned out and eager for their summer vacation.
— Season 12 as a whole was a very good inaugural year for this SNL era. This season did a fantastic 180 from the poor quality of the season 11; in fact, I’d call this the best rebound year in SNL history. This season also provided a good amount of classic moments, and we got an excellent new cast that puts a lot of other SNL casts to shame. All that being said, this season was not quite as strong as this era would later get. There were some things about this season that come off a bit odd and maybe even a little questionable compared to later seasons in this era. That’s understandable, as the tone of this era wasn’t set in stone yet; they were finding their voice this season.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Garry Shandling):
— a step down
HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1985-86):
— a huge step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 13 begins, with host Steve Martin
What I always liked about this cast was that, for the most part, they were all consistently in sketches throughout episodes. Obviously folks like Dana and Phil emerged as the top players, but everyone seemingly always has something to do in an episode. This is a smaller cast, so that helps, but in some previous (and future) seasons, I’m always just surprised to read stuff like “this is the only time ____ appears on the show.” When I was younger, this gave me the (erroneous) impression that this was a stable, drama-free cast that enjoyed working together.
Yes, the episode was a bit underwhelming, but it wraps up a fantastic season. Easily the best one since Season 4 (and arguably maybe even since Season 3). And, like you said, it only got better as the cast continued to gel and grow.
Jon Lovitz – continued with his popular characters: pathological liar, Master Thespian, and Mephistopheles. Also shined in the black-and-white sketches (Lovitz is perfect at doing the old-timey voice). I can’t help but feel that Jon was overshadowed by the new cast (after all he was essentially the breakout star last season). But I don’t think he minded too much, he was good friends with Dana and Phil. And, this cast was truly an ensemble that worked and blended well together. I agree with Michael Cheyne, that each cast’s appearance in each show was very balanced (probably only Victoria getting short shrift, but she worked better in small doses anyway).
Nora Dunn – love her Liza Minelli, and her Pat Stevens Show was still pretty entertaining (at least for me anyway).
Dennis Miller – continues to dominate the desk, at this point he’s already the second longest tenured anchor (behind Jane Curtin), and made Weekend Update a highlight again (after the dismal Ebersol Saturday Night News era). Dennis also solidifies his role on the show of pretty much only doing Update (a tradition for anchors that largely continues to this day). Regardless, it’s always interesting when Miller appears elsewhere in the show.
Dana Carvey – If this season had a breakout star…it would be him. Dana hit it out of the park with Church Lady (the studio audience’s screams of delight and laughter after her “Isn’t that special” from the Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker sketch evidence just how popular she had become by season’s end). Dana also shined with Choppin’ Broccoli, Jimmy Stewart, Robin Leach. My favorite one-time character for Dana this season has got to be the foppish dancing Lord. As for Ching Chang…thank goodness he only makes a couple more appearances.
Phil Hartman – Phil quickly established himself as “the glue” Consistently solid and always funny in no matter what role he did. Donahue was great, Peter Graves was great, Reagan was great. Phil had such an incredible talent for comedic timing and delivery.
Jan Hooks – Jan had a very strong debut season with Sweeney Sisters, Tammy Faye Bakker, Nancy Reagan, and her underrated Marge Keister character.
Victoria Jackson – her Weekend Update pieces were pretty funny, but, I don’t know, she doesn’t really fit in too well. The roles she could play convincingly were very limited. I have to ask, is she the “one girl who is kind of cute” in Paul Shaffer’s SNL Memories song?
Kevin Nealon – although billed as a featured player, Kevin played a big part of this season and SNL’s renaissance. His comedic bits on Update were great, his map/atlas bit was hilarious, and Mr. Subliminal was also funny (kind of surprised he only appeared once this season). Also excelled as a utility player (like his Donahue audience member).
A. Whitney Brown – don’t want to forget about Whitney. Nice to see him in other sketches from time to time, but “Big Picture” was still a big hit this season. Sad to see it appear less and less as the era continues.
Thanks for these reviews! Can’t wait for next season. It’s so terrible that it gets shortened by the writers strike (which tragically deprives us of the opportunity to see Gilda return to Studio 8H…so sad).
I disagree about the show being underwhelming in fact I’d rate it one of the better season finales. It’s a fun feel good show. Lorne admitted in the 80’s doc that by the end of this season they all felt good and relaxed for the first time in ages and had the power to book who they wanted hence why Dennis and Roy was there.
The Church Lady skit was fun as Dennis made for an awesome foil to her and she couldn’t stand up to him like every one else; nice change of pace. The Blue Velvet skit was gold as much for the impressions as it was Hopper. All the skits in the 2nd half especially This Week were fun. Nealon makes the TW skit work as it gives him a chance to show off his Sam Donaldson character which was always hilarious. A lot of people whine that Dennis’s monologue wasn’t funny but that’s the point; he didn’t need to be funny as it’s a nice feel good monologue.
I love how they gave Roy the main stage; very deserving of it.
Paul you’re right about Lovitz he just wasn’t much of the headliner that year. In 1985 he pretty much carried the show with Quaid and he was what people tuned in for.. next year it’s more for Dana but I think Jon liked it that way. Everyone had their time to shine in 1986 it wasn’t a one or two trick pony year.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Problem Drinkers From Outer Space sketch, but I would bet that stock footage comes from the hilariously campy Earth vs. The Flying Saucers.
When you get to Season 16 – 19, are you going to post your old reviews from the forum days or will you be doing brand-new reviews?
I’ll be doing new reviews for those seasons.
Here are the five star sketches from the 86-87 season:
Old Hollywood (Malcom Jamal-Warner)
The People’s Court (Rosanna Arquette)
Mastermind (Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Martin Short)
A Holiday Wish (Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Martin Short)
16th Annual Star Trek Convention (William Shatner)
It’s A Wonderful Life (William Shatner)
Church Chat (Charlton Heston)
Seven sketches, matching the 82-83 and 83-84. Listen, I’m not saying that the Honest Man sketch from the Joe Montana episode is better than Needleman, but…OK, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say. This crew would more fully come into their own a couple seasons later, but this season definitely has its share a major highlights, even if it isn’t quite as consistent as the show will soon become.
As a companion piece to Carson’s list, here’s an Honorable Mentions list compiled of all the sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars this season:
Choppin’ Broccoli (Sigourney Weaver)
Monologue (Robin Williams)
Monologue (Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short)
Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise (William Shatner)
The Honest Man (Joe Montana and Walter Payton)
SNL Memories (Paul Shaffer)
Amerida (Bronson Pinchot)
Nightline (Bronson Pinchot)
Discover (Valerie Bertinelli)
Donahue (Bill Murray)
It’s A Girl (Bill Murray)
Cross Country Cab Ride (John Lithgow)
Returning A Sweater (Garry Shandling)
Support Group (Garry Shandling)
I believe this is the largest number of four-and-a-half-star sketches since the original era, which says something about this season.
Sounds about right…but I would definitely add Choppin Brocoli, and I like Church Chat w/ Walter Payton and Joe Montana. Probably would add “We Are Kickers” as well.
Here are the average ratings for Season 12:
*may not represent review’s perception*
1201: 6.4 (Sigourney Weaver)
1202: 6.8 (Malcolm-Jamar Warner)
1203: 5.8 (Rosanna Arquette)
1204: 5.9 (Sam Kinison)
1205: 7.7 (Robin Williams)
1206: 6.8 (Three Amigos)
1207: 6.5 (Steve Guttenberg)
1208: 7.7 (William Shatner)
1209: 6.8 (Joe Montana and Walter Payton)
1210: 6.5 (Paul Shaffer)
1211: 5.6 (Bronson Pinchot)
1212: 6.3 (Willie Nelson)
1213: 6.2 (Valerie Bertinelli)
1214: 7.6 (Bill Murray)
1215: 6.6 (Charlton Heston)
1216: 6.8 (John Lithgow)
1217: 6.2 (John Larroquette)
1218: 6.0 (Mark Harmon)
1219: 6.8 (Gary Shandling)
1220: 5.9 (Dennis Hopper)
Best Episode: 1205 (Robin Williams) + 1208 (William Shatner)- 7.7 (tie)
Worst Episode: 1211 (Bronson Pinchot)- 5.6
Season Average: 6.5
I’m curious what Vax Novier’s list of average ratings would look like if it was ranked from best episode to worst, so I’ll do it below:
1205: 7.7 (Robin Williams)
1208: 7.7 (William Shatner)
1214: 7.6 (Bill Murray)
1202: 6.8 (Malcolm-Jamal Warner)
1206: 6.8 (Three Amigos)
1209: 6.8 (Joe Montana and Walter Payton)
1216: 6.8 (John Lithgow)
1219: 6.8 (Garry Shandling)
1215: 6.6 (Charlton Heston)
1207: 6.5 (Steve Guttenberg)
1210: 6.5 (Paul Shaffer)
1201: 6.4 (Sigourney Weaver)
1212: 6.3 (Willie Nelson)
1213: 6.2 (Valerie Bertinelli)
1217: 6.2 (John Larroquette)
1218: 6.0 (Mark Harmon)
1204: 5.9 (Sam Kinison)
1220: 5.9 (Dennis Hopper)
1203: 5.8 (Rosanna Arquette)
1211: 5.6 (Bronson Pinchot)
Biggest surprises:
— The Robin Williams episode getting the same rating average as the universally-loved William Shatner episode, though I’m glad, as the Robin Williams episode is one of my personal all-time favorites.
— The Three Amigos episode being in the top 5.
— The very average Steve Guttenberg, Paul Shaffer, and Charlton Heston episodes being ranked fairly high.
— The pretty solid John Larroquette episode being ranked fairly low.
— The Sam Kinison and Dennis Hopper episodes are also a little lower than I feel they deserve to be, though in such a good season like this, I suppose SOMETHING’S gotta make up the bottom 5.
Stooge, you and I must have been on parallel tracks or something because it seems like we gravitate toward the same episodes as personal favorites (Robert Klein in season 3, Rickles, Robin Williams season 12, Hanks/Keith Richards, Alec Baldwin/McCartney). So I’m NOT surprised about Three Amigos… but I am surprised Garry Shandling isn’t higher. I went back to check and I think I would have ranked the cold open and the 10-to-1 (arguing couple) sketch a little higher… but I supposed these kinds of small adjustments could be considered for every episode ever. Just a random observation.
For fun, here are season 12’s episodes ranked from best to worst based on the “Immediate Post-Show Thoughts” that I wrote in my reviews.
Robin Williams
William Shatner
Bill Murray
Garry Shandling
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Joe Montana and Walter Payton
John Lithgow
Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short
John Larroquette
Sigourney Weaver
Valerie Bertinelli
Willie Nelson
Charlton Heston
Sam Kinison
Dennis Hopper
Paul Shaffer
Steve Guttenberg
Mark Harmon
Rosanna Arquette
Bronson Pinchot
Combine “Graceland” era Paul Simon with Reagan’s biggest court jester Robin Williams and that’s a grand slam.
That would have to be the best ep this season.
Over the summer months after this episode, Carvey, Nealon, and Dennis all toured doing stand-up together – on Dennis’ podcast recently, he and Carvey had fun reminiscing about this time
They gave Paul Simon and Roy Orbison the main stage and had a lot to conceal until the musical performances, which is why the brick wall was used for the monologue. Also Suzanne Vega got the main stage.
Amusing that Roy Orbison performs “In Dreams,” which was used to great effect in Blue Velvet.
RIP Phil,Jan and Dennis
Almost thought you meant Dennis Miller. Roy passed away a year after this episode.
Here’s a predecessor to the “Last Chance” sketch from the early ’80s show “Tush” (rhymes with “brush”); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGBCNPUu3yo
Same basic character for Jan, same basic idea for the sketch. Personally, I prefer the “Tush” sketch, primarily because it’s more focused on Jan. I’d guess that both sketches were written by Bonnie and Terry Turner, who were the main writers for “Tush.”