Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) announces to nation “I’m no wimp, I’ve staged a coup”
— First instance of Dana’s George Bush impression being front-and-center in his own sketch. This is often mistaken as the debut of his Bush impression; it actually debuted in a small role during the first cold opening of this season.
— This is odd to watch in hindsight. Dana’s Bush is almost NOTHING like how it would go on to be. There are mildly exaggerated hand movements here, but that’s it.
— A decent opening overall, with some humor from Bush’s ways of proving he’s not a wimp.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
while holding a turkey, host talks about her childhood walking bird
— A unique monologue entrance, coming out holding a live turkey.
— Very good story from Candice about her childhood pet turkey, especially the funny ending regarding the turkey’s inability to fly off a roof.
STARS: ***½
PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
a look at flabby man Helmut’s (PHH) faults
— This sketch officially becomes recurring. Strange how these characters went from being the final sketch of the night in their first appearance to being the lead-off sketch in their second appearance, especially considering their first appearance didn’t kill with the audience.
— The audience is now starting to slowly latch on to the “We want to pump… (*clap*)… you up” catchphrase, giving recognition laughter as soon as the line starts to come up, and doing the “(*clap*)” in unison with Hans and Franz.
— Love Phil’s walk-on as Helmut.
— Some good laughs from Hans and Franz doing a breakdown of Phil’s flabbiness.
— Funny line from Kevin threatening to wring his sweaty sweatshirt into a glass so he can make us drink it.
— Overall, an improvement over these characters’ debut.
STARS: ***½
ANNE BOLEYN
after considering execution options, Anne Boleyn (host) is decapitated
— A lot of laughs from Candice’s overly specific questions about what happens to her head after she’s beheaded.
— Great part with Phil’s details on the process of being drawn and quartered.
— Very funny absurd question with Candice asking if her severed head will be shot through a cannon at her body.
— This sketch’s dialogue in general is absolutely hilarious.
— The beheading sequence is priceless, with the blood squirting onto the spectators while Candice is heard giving exaggerated screams and groans off-camera.
— Even the screen crawl epilogue at the end has some really funny lines.
— Overall, I absolutely loved this entire sketch.
— I’m aware that this sketch’s inclusion on Phil’s “Best Of” has baffled some people, who feel this sketch comes off out of place in a Phil Hartman highlights compilation because this is centered more on Candice Bergen than on Phil. I disagree. I understand EXACTLY why this sketch was put in Phil’s “Best Of”: it’s a perfect display of his very funny knack for delivering absurd dialogue in such a straight manner.
STARS: ****½
MANUFACTURERS OF MACHINE PART COMPONENTS UNITED TO SAVE OUR COURTS
Judge Anthony Kennedy’s stance on machine part tax has dire implications
— The overly complicated wordiness in this ad is providing some good laughs, as is the seriousness that such a minor subject is being treated with.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We All Sleep Alone”
MAYFLOWER MADAM
prostitution at the first Thanksgiving; Sydney Biddle Barrows cameo
— A fairly interesting intro.
— Funny touch with Candice’s dramatic hand-biting gesture at end of one scene.
— Good part with Phil’s Miles Standish unconvincingly posing as an Indian.
— Jon being found dead with a big smile on his face (because he died while having sex) was pretty funny.
STARS: ***
CHING CHANGE
Ching Change dislikes Loose’s positive-stereotype boyfriend (PHH)
— Please, no.
— Hmm, interesting how tonight’s installment of this sketch is actually openly addressing how Ching Change is, as this installment calls, an insulting caricature and a damaging stereotype.
— And now we get Phil as “Matthew Chen, Positive Ethnic Role Model”. Yep, it’s official: tonight’s Ching Change installment is definitely intended to address criticisms that I’m assuming the show had been receiving back then for Dana’s offensive portrayal.
— I really like Phil’s portrayal of his comically-PC character.
— Some laughs from Ching Change awkwardly trying to speak normal like Phil’s character.
— Candice to Ching Change: “You ARE a fairly broad caricature, but nothing beyond the realm of possibility.” A lot of meta commentary in this sketch.
— Overall, one of the better Ching Change sketches by default, for being fully self-aware and, in a way, apologetic. I doubt it’ll last, though.
STARS: **½
WEEKEND UPDATE
lack of counterpoint hampers DEM’s attempt to debate Gorbachev address
— The bit with a sperm-blocking procedure being represented by a clip from a football game fell flat.
— Very odd moment just now. During his Gorbachev rant, Dennis throws to a guest correspondent to do a counterpoint, but looks to his left and sees that nobody has shown up (last screencap above). Dennis is then told something by someone who’s off-camera. Dennis then amusedly ad-libs to the camera “I’ve always waited for this to happen. Three years and a sketch blew up on live TV”, and then he moves on with the remaining news jokes. I recall once reading an explanation of what happened: there was supposed to be a point/counterpoint segment with Dennis debating himself, played by Dana (which would’ve been the debut of Dana’s impression of Dennis), but Dana didn’t show up because he erroneously thought the segment got cut. I honestly don’t understand how that kind of mistake can happen. Aren’t there stage managers at SNL who inform performers when they need to get ready for a segment? How’d they let THIS one slip through?
STARS: ***
THOUGHT BUBBLE
visible thought balloons reveal what (PHH) & (host) are really thinking
— I like how Phil and Candice’s respective thought bubbles are becoming more and more random, especially Candice visualizing Hitler and footage of a baboon.
— I’ve always considered this a companion piece to the Slide Whistles sketch from this season’s Steve Martin episode. In fact, before doing these reviews, I used to sometimes get both sketches confused for each other, thinking the Steve Martin sketch had the thought bubbles and the Candice Bergen sketch had the slide whistles. I wonder if both sketches were written by the same person.
— Very funny thought bubble from Kevin as the waiter.
— Good ending with Candice’s earlier visual of a man crashing through a window turning out to happen for real as she pushes Phil out the window.
STARS: ***½
PEEPING TOM
peeping tom (KEN) interrupts Mace’s attempts to do it with hooker (JAH)
— I loved the first Mace sketch from the previous season, so I’m looking forward to this follow-up.
— I like Jan as the uninterested hooker (her second prostitute role of the night, by the way).
— Phil’s various intense outbursts at Kevin are hilarious.
— Some good laughs from Phil’s forced ways of segueing back into his foreplay with Jan.
— Funny visual of an upside-down Kevin peeking in through the window. I wonder how they pulled that off.
— Not sure if I liked the ending or not.
— Overall, while I didn’t like this sketch as much as Mace’s first sketch, I still enjoyed this, despite a somewhat dead audience.
STARS: ***
COUNTRY THROUGH AND THROUGH
singer Lonnie Braddox (DAC) is ashamed to be “Country Through & Through”
— Funny disturbing details about Dana’s father, especially the surprising line about a molestation attempt.
— I like how this has eventually turned into a blatant anti-country song.
STARS: ***
EINSTEIN EXPRESS
— Rerun from last season.
— I forgot to point this out the first time I reviewed this, but the nameplate on Phil’s desk says Harry Butterworth (screencap below, though the nameplate is hard to read in it), which is a giveaway that Andy Breckman wrote this commercial. But why “Harry Butterworth” instead of the usual “Dale Butterworth”?
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Found Someone”
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, even if nothing stood out as particularly strong besides the Anne Boleyn sketch. Couldn’t help but feel, though, that Candice Bergen was a little underutilized as the host, especially in the last quarter of the show where I don’t think she was in ANY sketches. Still, it was nice to see her on the show again after such a long hiatus, and to see how she worked with a completely different cast than the one she’s worked with before.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Mitchum)
— a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Danny DeVito
The Anne Boleyn sketch is near perfect. Dana’s Bush in this episode is…interesting. It sounds a lot like his Casey Kasem impression. ?
Note that Paul Shaffer and his band from Late Night back up Cher. This came just a week after the Sonny and Cher reunion on Letterman.
Random note…. in a previous Hartman episode, you mentioned a sketch that ended awkwardly where it seemed they were setting up a LFNY (but it wasn’t the cold opening).
It seems like that might’ve been Conan O’Brien’s sketch that got bumped to later in the episode, and he realized ON AIR that the cue cards ended with LFNY so he scribbled down a new ending at the last minute.
I don’t think Conan would join until midway through this season (’87-88).
An original broadcast of this popped up recently – the lack of response to Peeping Tom makes more sense now, seeing that it was the last piece of the night. Phil is just so good at sustaining his performance from start to finish, in such a high-wire character. A great showcase for him.
I was shocked at how hard-edged Dana’s country song was – a parody of the “proud to be country” singer actually hating himself and his background is certainly something that they would have been more reluctant to do in later years. I generally remember Dana’s comedy as being a bit cornier, so the song, the Ching Change sketch making fun of, I guess, PC backlash before it was cool, and the cold open that takes the parody of Bush as wimpy to the ultimate extreme – all real surprises. I guess this is the type of comedy Dana was hoping to have on his own show.
In the old show Candice felt more like ‘one of the gang’ in her episodes, rather than a host. That’s never the case here – she feels a bit distanced from the cast – but the show knew how to write for her range, leading to some very good sketches. The thought bubbles is the type I’d enjoy seeing more of on the show. Anne Boleyn is a real gem.
The Mayflower Madam sketch is one of those which would have fallen flat with almost any other cast. It’s just product placement, with a vaguely irritating cameo from Barrows (who seems to pause to get more applause, although that may be uncharitable on my part), but they make it work anyway. Highlights include the funny bit with Victoria Jackson as “Chastity” and Jan Hooks being extremely sexy in lieu of much of a script.
The bumpers for this episode are absolutely gorgeous.
As the years have passed I’ve found Dennis Miller’s Update harder and harder to sit through, but the shot in the goodnights where he and Nora Dunn seem to be lost in a melancholy moment is oddly touching.
When Conan was on Dana and Spade’s podcast earlier this year, Dana mentioned that Candice Bergen pushed back hard on one of the sketches they were doing, saying it was offensive. It’s got to be Ching Change, right?
As a person who has stage managed live theatre I can tell you how things like that happen. 1. We are human
2. It’s live
3. Again we are human.
During the Dana Carvey Show documentary (Too Funny To Fail) he talks about his impressions, and how they had to evolve and get more wacky in order to amuse the audience and keep the writers happy. He specifically mentions George Bush and Hans as those which got really overblown.
Oh, and I thought it was cool Cher used both Paul Shaffer and G.E. Smith in her performance.
Is weird seeing a more restrained Bush from Dana.
“Thought Bubble” also feels like a connected piece to the s1 sketch “Restaurant” with Jill Clayburgh and Chevy Chase (“…warthogs!”)
Both sketches written by Tom Davis.