Month: May 2019

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October 28, 1989 – James Woods / Don Henley (S15 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The Tonight Show- Johnny Carson (DAC) interviews VIJ & Nancy Reagan (JAH)

— The first of what will be several Johnny Carson Tonight Show sketches in this late 80s/early 90s era. This is also the debut of Dana and Phil’s Carson and Ed McMahon impressions.
— Already, Dana and Phil’s impressions are coming off memorable, and I like the part with them going on and on about Victoria’s weirdness.
— I got a laugh from the bit with Jan’s Nancy Reagan refusing to shake McMahon’s hand, even if I don’t get why that happened.
— Carson’s reaction to Nancy’s “She was just a bitch!” outburst was really funny.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
police surround the stage after a home viewer identifies criminal host

— I like how after James claims that the psychos and weirdos he’s known for playing in movies are not really him, we immediately cut to home viewers and cops watching the show on TV and recognizing James from crimes he’s committed.
— Great touch with a police report ticker showing up on the bottom of the screen.
— Love how further and further this is escalating, with us now seeing Lorne in the control room sending a SWAT team out to the studio, but not before worried telling them “I just can’t take the chance you might shoot Dana Carvey.”
— Funny how James is now bringing a very reluctant Nora Dunn up to the stage.
— An overall fantastic monologue. Great use of James’ creepy onscreen persona and I love how they went all-out for this.
STARS: ****½


YARD-A-PULT
get rid of garbage by flinging it into someone else’s yard

— Hilarious concept. I’ve always found this commercial to be a quintessential example of how great SNL’s fake ads in this late 80s era were.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from the visual of the Yard-a-Pult flinging dog droppings, car batteries, air conditioners, and the like into the neighbor’s yard.
— An absolutely priceless ending with the family’s dead dog being the next thing that’s flung into the neighbor’s yard.
STARS: *****


DRACULA ’89
Dracula (host) screens (JAH), (VIJ), (NOD) for AIDS risk factors

— A very good gradual, subtle reveal that Dracula is worried about contracting AIDS from his victims’ blood. Only in the 80s could a sketch like this exist.
— Dracula’s reaction to finding out that Victoria lived in Greenwich Village was really funny.
— The Keith Richards reveal was hilarious.
— I love the sequence with Dracula going through the extensive trouble of bringing Nora’s blood to a doctor to have it tested.
STARS: ****


PRIMETIME LIVE
Sam Donaldson (KEN) & Diane Sawyer (JAH) banter awkwardly

— I always love Kevin and Jan’s Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer impressions.
— Some good laughs from the bad banter between Donaldson and Saywer at the beginning.
— I like how they keep cutting to live footage of empty places where nothing interesting is going on.
— Funny repeated bit with Donaldson overemphasizing that the show is indeed live.
— Good part with Donaldson’s interview with Dana’s Kirk Cameron just turning into Donaldson complaining about the quality of this season of Growing Pains.
— Hmm, Dana’s Kirk Cameron brings out a little girl who he says will be a new Growing Pains cast member, which Donaldson replies to with a cynical “Oh, sure, let’s just wheel in another cute kid every time we can’t think of a good plot.” SNL predicted the future with that, as just a year later, Growing Pains really DOES end up trying to spice up the show’s declining quality by adding a new child actress to the cast.
— I love the “Are you coming on to me, Ms. Sawyer?!?” bit with James.
— Hilarious part with Donaldson randomly blurting out “Diane, you’re a stinky whore!” as yet another attempt to prove the show is live.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Last Worthless Evening”


WEEKEND UPDATE
VIJ reports from Costa Rica after practicing her Spanish pronunciation
AWB offers views on Ronald Reagan accepting money from Japan for speaking
DEM & Dennis Miller (DAC) recite the Weekend Update oath

— Victoria’s commentary was okay. The premise of overemphasizing the Spanish pronunciation of words like Nicaragua and Costa Rica would later be turned into a full-fledged sketch when Jimmy Smits hosts next season.
— I loved Dennis just screaming in horror in response to an announcement that Corey Haim is releasing an “A Day in the Life Of”-type video of himself.
— A. Whitney seems to be doing an Update commentary in almost every single episode this season so far. Usually, he appears more sporadically than that.
— I really liked A. Whitney’s description of what he imagines the Ronald Reagan Library will be like.
— Great ad-libs from Dennis while reapplying his fallen clip-on mic after angrily spitting on the news screen during his negative review of a bear movie. After taking a long time reapplying his mic, Dennis adds “All that for the bear joke?”
— Interesting bit with Dana as Dennis Miller helping the real Dennis reaffirm his Weekend Update oath. Dana’s “repeating” of the oath is a riot, especially his comments about Zsa Zsa Gabor.
STARS: ***½


FALLING IN LOVE
by TOS- reunited (JOL) & (VIJ) sing & plummet

— Hmm, here’s a Schiller’s Reel I’m not familiar with.
— Oh, wait, I do kinda remember this. The visual look of this film seems vaguely familiar to me.
— Is Schiller going for a “Love Is A Dream” knock-off with this? Hmm.
— After playing out like a serious film for the first minute-and-a-half, this suddenly takes a comedic turn with the wind blowing Jon’s tie into his face while he’s in the middle of singing romantically. That was pretty funny.
— Another comedic turn with Jon and Victoria falling off the balcony, which wasn’t all that funny to me. I did get a laugh from the shot of the piano player quickly chugging down two glasses of wine while Jon and Victoria were falling.
— Overall, not one of Schiller’s best or most memorable films.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Boys of Summer”


THE RAVEN
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein recite “The Raven”

— I always love these, and this particular one is coming off even funnier than these usually do.
STARS: ****½


VENTRILOQUIST
club owner (PHH) suggests changes to (host)’s inane ventriloquist act

— Funny opening bit with Jan’s bad singing.
— I like how an upset audience is beginning to walk out on James’ non-stop repetitions of “No, you’re the dummy!” with his ventriloquist doll.
— I love Phil’s characterization here. I can’t think of any other time I’ve seen him do a voice or character like this.
— Hilarious how the “big change” James makes to his act just turns out to be merely adding a monocle to his dummy while still endlessly repeating the same “No, you’re the dummy!” shtick.
— Decent ending.
— Last time I saw this sketch years ago, I remember finding it absolutely TERRIBLE. I dismissed it as a surprisingly horrid one-joke sketch from this otherwise great era of SNL. After watching this sketch again just now, I found it to be a lot better than I previously did. I can appreciate what they were going for with this, and James and Phil both gave fantastic performances that made the material even better.
STARS: ***½


HELMSLEY SPOOK HOUSE
— Rerun… from three seasons ago, oddly enough. Guess they’re just repeating this particular commercial because it’s around Halloween again. Or maybe also because Leona Helmsley was in the news for being in jail at this time (as spoofed in the great “The Big Bitch BullDyke Bustout of ’89” sketch a few episodes ago).


THREE DUDES HOLISTIC AUTOMOTIVE
Three Dudes Holistic Automotive gives a New Age approach to car care

— Pretty funny premise, and funny performances from Dana, Jon, and James as idiot surfer-type guys.
— For some reason, this kinda reminds me of the Two Guys Who Are Lawyers sketch with Dan Aykroyd and Fred Willard, from back in season 4.
— I like the listed-off car enhancements that the Three Dudes’ service offers.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, particularly the first half of the show. I also loved James Woods as the host. Though he seemed kinda underused, he delivered greatly with every performance and had a vibe that reminded me of other great oddball hosts SNL has had over the years (particularly Steve Buscemi). James is definitely on my list of one-timers who should’ve hosted much more.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kathleen Turner)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chris Evert

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October 21, 1989 – Kathleen Turner / Billy Joel (S15 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The Miracle Of Fatima ’89- American flag tells (host) “don’t burn me”

— I liked the random “Art Squad” opening credits featuring Jesse Helms (played by an extra) shooting the genitalia off a David statue. No idea what news story that was based on, though.
— Kind of a strange cold opening so far. Not too crazy about what I’ve been seeing here.
— Yeah, this hasn’t been working for me at all. It’s being well-performed, but hasn’t been funny nor interesting to me. Easily one of my least favorite cold openings from this entire era.
STARS: *½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Mike Myers’ pic has been changed from a fairly plain-looking one to a more professional, mature-looking one.


MONOLOGUE
host actually talks like VIJ- the sexy voice is just for movies

— Hilarious bit with Kathleen revealing her “real” voice, which is just her miming to Victoria Jackson’s naturally high-pitched voice-over.
— Kathleen is displaying great timing with her lip-syncing of Victoria’s voice-over and the way she’s able to seamlessly go back-and-forth between miming the voice-over and speaking in her own famously husky voice.
— I wonder if the rerun version I’m watching uses the dress rehearsal version of this monologue. I ask because at the end of this, I noticed an abrupt cut in Kathleen’s positioning when the camera switched from a close shot of her to a wide shot of the stage as the SNL Band plays the show to commercial. Perhaps in the original live version of this monologue, Kathleen’s lip-syncing was a bit too sloppy.
STARS: ****


PLUG AWAY WITH HARVEY FIERSTEIN
John Travolta (DAC), host, Lee Iacocca (PHH) promote selves

— I loved Dana-as-Travolta’s way of pronouncing “Look Who’s TAAAAHLKIN’”.
— Very interesting part with Kathleen trying to seduce Jon’s Fierstein.
— I always like Phil’s Lee Iaccoca voice.
— Funny part where, as soon as Merv Griffin is mentioned, Jon’s Fierstein looks dreamily into space while longingly saying “Merv….”
— The “gay bee” back-and-forth between Fierstein and a confused Iaccoca is a really funny part that I’ve always remembered fondly about this sketch.
STARS: ***½


DIE SQUAREN OST BERLINER
celebrity defections make game difficult
Donheiser (DAC)- German Donahue’s audience has defected to the west

— Funny concept of a foreign Hollywood Squares, with all the dialogue being delivered in German.
— A good laugh from how most of the celebrity guests are missing because they’ve defected.
— Nice use of Billy Joel.
— We even get to hear Don Pardo speaking in German.
— I’m enjoying Mike’s voice in this.
— It’s pretty amusing trying to figure out what everybody in the sketch is saying.
— Good bit with Jan being caught on her way out, complete with a suitcase.
— I love the mid-sketch commercial with Dana as an angry German version of Donahue.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We Didn’t Start The Fire”


WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF gives drug war report from NYC crackhouse
PHH gives George Steinbrenner Health Watch update for hopeful Yankee fans
AWB says that the San Francisco earthquake is not the end of the world

 

— First time we’ve seen One Man Mobile Uplink Unit Al Franken in a long time. He completely skipped season 14, for some reason. I like how he’s reporting from a crackhouse tonight.
— Hmm, Uplink Unit Al even addresses the fact that we haven’t seen him in a while, and explains that the reason for his long absence is because he was addicted to pain pills (due to the strain of carrying all of that heavy mobile equipment).
— It might just be me, but the picture they showed of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (screencap below) kinda resembles future cast member Rob Schneider in Arab make-up.

Speaking of Rob Schneider, he joins the writing staff later this season and we’ll be seeing him (as well as his fellow added-to-the-writing-staff-later-this-season writer David Spade) appearing in lots of uncredited bit roles in the homestretch of this season, before eventually being added to the cast at some point next season.
— After just one episode, we already get a follow-up to the George Steinbrenner Health Watch segment.
— Despite the fact that Phil’s still playing himself like he did in the last Steinbrenner Health Watch installment, he’s wearing a rather strange wig this time for some reason.
— Some good laughs from Phil’s detailing of Steinbrenner’s mundane health issues, especially him saying “Sadly, the blood did clot” regarding Steinbrenner cutting himself shaving.
— Dennis’ stern “Beauty And The Beast is not real; it’s just a TV show” rant to Beauty And The Beast fans was decent. I half-expected him to deliver a William Shatner-esque “Get a life!” at one point.
— Loved Dennis’ joke about a Tone Loc-ness Monster.
— A mention of the notorious then-recent massive San Francisco earthquake that infamously interrupted that year’s World Series.
— A. Whitney, on how the Cubs’ failure to win the pennant means the world is not ending: “It’s in the bible: when the small bears from the Windy Place take the flag, THEN you shall know the end is nigh.”
— An overall short and sweet commentary from A. Whitney.
STARS: ***½


EGG MAN
an ovum confidant (PHH) counsels (host) about her wild son (DAC)

— I like the bizarre concept of this, and we get a very funny visual of Phil as a glasses-wearing talking egg.
— A good laugh from Egg Man’s panicky reaction to being manhandled by Kathleen during her angry rant.
— Egg Man giving noble advice is pretty funny.
— Dana’s giving an amusing performance as the wild punk-ish son.
— A few seasons later, SNL would do a sketch with Chris Farley as an advice-giving bee named Shmee, which I’ve always considered to be a sister sketch to Egg Man. I wonder if both sketches were written by the same person. Jack Handey, perhaps?
STARS: ***½


REALLY ORDINARY PEOPLE
average-seekers (host) & (KEN) enjoy their run-of-the-mill blind date

— Took me a while to see where this is going. I’m not too crazy about this premise of Kevin and Kathleen’s friendly pointing-out of the other’s averageness.
— Okay, I did get a good laugh from Kevin’s line about how he likes to crank his radio up to about 5.
— This ended on kind of a weird, empty note.
— This sketch as a whole didn’t work much for me. A rare misfire for Kevin Nealon.
STARS: **


ALL ABOUT DEBORAH NORVILLE
Jane Pauley (JAH) faces competition

— I got a good laugh from how Kathleen-as-Deborah-Norville’s increasingly nervous speaking to Jan’s Jane Pauley eventually devolved to her saying “You good, me bad.”
— Love Jon’s hilarious look as Gene Shalit.
— Could SNL have found a black extra who looks any LESS like Bryant Gumbel? (fourth screencap above) At least this serves as a happy reminder that this is thankfully the final season where SNL doesn’t have any black cast members.
— I feel kinda lost on the topicality of this sketch, but I’m getting a lot of enjoyment anyway, for the solid writing and very committed performances from Kathleen and Jan.
STARS: ****


LANK THOMPSON: I’M A HANDSOME MAN
Lank Thompson (MIM) plugs his “I’m A Handsome Man” course

— Good characterization from Mike here, and I love that cheesy smile he does at the end of every mini-scene.
— An overall pretty good debut of this soon-to-be-recurring sketch, though I like some of its later installments better (e.g. the ones with Alec Baldwin and Tim Meadows, respectively).
STARS: ***


555-TOON
phone sex from Jessica Rabbit (host) & other animated babes

— An amusingly clever naughty use of Kathleen’s Jessica Rabbit voice.
— The Flintstones ending was funny.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Downeaster Alexa”


MAXWELL HOUSE
Linda Ellerbee (NOD) & Willard Scott (JOL) do final ad for Maxwell House

— Hearing the opening Maxwell House sound effect jingle (those rhythmic boink-type sounds) was a blast from the past for me, reminding me of frequently seeing those Maxwell House commercials during my childhood.
— Hmm, I have no memory of Linda Ellerbee ever being a Maxwell House spokesperson.
— Jon is absolutely PRICELESS as a goofy, bare-bellied, Hawaiian outfit-wearing, hula-dancing Willard Scott.
— This is another sketch tonight that seems to be based on a topical story that I have no familiarity with, but Jon’s performance alone is making this sketch for me.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. There were a few misfires, but not enough to drag down the quality of the show too badly or anything.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rick Moranis)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
James Woods

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October 7, 1989 – Rick Moranis / Rickie Lee Jones (S15 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Jackie Mason (host) apologizes & endorses Ronald Lauder for NYC mayor

— Hilarious Jackie Mason impression from Rick Moranis.
— Lots of rapid-fire funny lines.
— Strange how both cold openings this season so far have a meta segue into “Live from New York” with the speaker (George Bush, Jackie Mason) having an exchange with someone off-camera who keeps urging him to say “Live from New York”, which he initially refuses to do.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host plays with SNL Band, works around the studio, delivers a baby

— Love the immediate deviation from a normal monologue, with Rick excitedly rushing over to the SNL Band to play with them. This is only the beginning, folks.
— Yes! Now he’s gone completely wild, going from playing with the SNL Band to riding around on a camera crane seat, dancing his way backstage, ironing Jon Lovitz’s pants, displaying special camera effects from the control room, applying Nora Dunn’s make-up, and even helping a woman give birth! And all of this occurs while the SNL Band plays a very extended version of SNL’s theme music. This is easily the longest the theme music has ever been continuously played in an SNL episode, clocking in at around 4½ minutes.
— Words cannot express how much I’ve always loved this overall monologue. Extremely fun, out of the ordinary, and easily one of my absolute all-time favorite monologues ever.
— For some reason, later airings of this episode would remove a portion of the scene where Rick is riding around on the camera crane seat (the fourth screencap above with Rick high in the air on the crane isn’t shown in reruns). The reruns would also replace the applying-Nora’s-make-up and delivering-a-woman’s-baby scenes with the dress rehearsal version. The most noticeable difference is that the dress version of the Nora scene has a smaller and completely different group of people standing in the background (which humorously includes a still-pantsless Jon Lovitz) than the live version has. (side-by-side comparison between dress and live below)

STARS: *****


THE BIG BITCH BULLDYKE BUSTOUT OF ’89
Leona Helmsley (NOD), Zsa Zsa Gabor (VIJ), Bakkers (JAH) & (host) go nuts

— Wild beginning with the prison fight involving Nora’s Leona Helmsley, Victoria’s Zsa Zsa Gabor, and a heavyset black woman.
— Excellent Zsa Zsa make-up on Victoria.
— From what I remember of my old viewings of Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode back in the day, I swear they cut the part showing the “The Big Bitch BullDyke Bustout of ’89” title. I had no idea that off-color title for this sketch even existed until I was surprised to later see it during NBC’s airing of this episode on “Classic SNL” in 2002. I’m guessing Comedy Central removed the title of this sketch for censorship reasons, due to the combo of the words “bitch” and “bulldyke” (which probably seems fairly tame for Comedy Central standards today in 2019, but remember, their edited version of this sketch was made sometime back in the 90s).
— I love the sudden entrance from Rick as Jim Bakker. Also, if you’ve ever seen a picture of the real Jim Bakker, you’d agree that casting Rick Moranis as him was a no-brainer.
— Great to see the return of Jan’s Tammy Faye Bakker.
— Love the banjo music playing during the map footage screen transition.
— The beginning of the convenience store scene has a funny little part with Jon’s purchases: a Playboy, a Penthouse, a large coffee, and a No-Doz.
— Always a very funny visual of Jan’s Tammy Faye having mascara running down her face whenever she cries.
— I’m loving all the insane intensity of this sketch.
— Ha, the car-driving-off-a-cliff stock footage is the same one that was used in the Toonces sketch that debuted in the previous season’s finale and would famously go on to be used in future Toonces sketches.
— A very strong overall sketch and featured great performances from all involved.
STARS: ****½


HONEY, I SHRUNK HANS & FRANZ
the tiny musclemen deal with a mouse

— I really like this idea of a crossover between Honey I Shrunk The Kids and Hans & Franz.
— Funny visual of Hans and Franz lifting a lemon and pistachio nuts.
— I like how their guest is an obviously-greenscreened mouse.
— An unintentionally amusing blooper when Hans and Franz say that their mouse guest has left even though the greenscreen is still showing the mouse behind them, which they then kinda acknowledge with an ad-lib.
— Hans, to a sucking-up Rick Moranis: “Don’t be kissing our tiny buttocks now.”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Satellites”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mr. Subliminal comments on Manuel Noriega & the situation in Panama
PHH gives George Steinbrenner Health Watch update for hopeful Yankee fans
detestable stereotype Frenchy (JOL) offends & disgusts during commentary

— I really liked Dennis’ opening bandaged middle finger bit regarding a picture of Bush.
— After sounding fairly low-energy in the previous week’s season premiere, Dennis’ delivery is back to its usual self.
— Kevin’s Mr. Subliminal makes his very first Weekend Update appearance.
— An unintentional laugh from Kevin’s accidental Noriega/Norwegian line flub.
— Another overall great subliminal routine from Kevin.
— Loved the rowdy audience response to Dennis’ Ben Johnson/horse joke.
— Great idea of a segment called the George Steinbrenner Health Watch, featuring a rare Update appearance from Phil Hartman.
— A funny new Jon Lovitz character: Frenchy, “the man you love to hate”.
— I love Jon’s constant “I’m Frenchy!” and “Didn’t mean to offend anybody”.
— Kinda feels like they’re setting up Frenchy to become a recurring character, but we end up never seeing him again.
— Loved Dennis’ Jim Bakker joke at the end.
STARS: ****


RESORTS INTERNATIONAL HOTEL
Merv Griffin (host) does all the work at his money-losing hotel

— Can’t judge the accuracy of Rick’s Merv Griffin impression, but he’s coming off very funny, especially the laugh he keeps doing.
— I like how it’s gradually being revealed that Merv Griffin is doing all the work in his casino, even being the parking valet.
— The laundry bit is really funny.
— An appearance from Phil’s Donald Trump impression.
— Much like the first time he played him, Phil’s Trump doesn’t sound as good as it would sound in later appearances his Trump makes. In these early Trump appearances, Phil’s just doing a generic fast-talking, somewhat-high-pitched New York accent, not really capturing Trump’s voice or cadence.
STARS: ***½


WILD HORSE
(PHH), (host), (MIM), (NOD) unsuccessfully try to ride a wild horse

— This sketch has a goofiness that I’ve always really liked. Despite this being a very repetitive, thin sketch that mainly consists of a close-up of each character bouncing out-of-control on the back of a wild horse and then a dummy of that character being thrown to the ranch fence, I’ve always found this sketch funny. This cast is just always good at pulling off silly sketches like this.
— I wonder why Mike was the only performer who didn’t get a dummy of himself thrown into the scene. Mike did his own stunt instead.
— Good ending gag with a male horse being thrown to the ranch fence like the humans were.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ghetto Of My Mind”


NEW COMMISSIONER
new commissioner (PHH) alters baseball rules in memory of Bart Giamatti

— I’m getting a lot of laughs from the increasingly ridiculous and over-the-top new baseball rules created as a dedication to the recently-deceased Bart Giamatti. I also like how the people at the conference are giving increasingly more hesitant applause at each insane new rule that’s announced.
— The already-funny dialogue is being made that much funnier by Phil’s fantastic low-key, mock-serious delivery here, which is tickling the hell out of me. This is one of the best displays of Phil’s ability to make absurd dialogue sound hilarious by delivering it completely straight.
— Phil: “From now on, everyone in this room, including myself, will be known as A. Bartlett Giamatti.”
— Love Phil’s angry response to Kevin’s reasonable objection to the new baseball rules.
— Great ending with everybody singing the new “Bartball” anthem.
STARS: ****½


BABY TALK
in a bar, (JAH), (NOD), (VIJ) bother a cute guy (host) with baby talk

— Some pretty good laughs from the ladies’ increasingly baby-ish gushing over Rick’s cuteness. Jan is especially funny at doing the baby voice.
— Reminds me a little of a bar sketch they would later do the following season with Jeremy Irons.
STARS: ***


WORD BUSTERS
contestants have to come up with the correct pain response

— Mike’s cheesy facial expression as Mark Linn-Baker (from Perfect Strangers) is dead-on.
— Love the format of this gameshow sketch, with contestants getting hit until they utter the correct pained response they’re supposed to.
— Mark Linn-Baker, during a long-winded answer to the question of how he’s so good at this game: “…a vast medical knowledge, nerve endings, pressure points and the like. I could go on.” Phil (deadpan, but with a fake smile): “Please don’t. I was asking out of politeness.”
— I particularly like the segment with Jan and Kevin, culminating in Jan’s collapse to the ground producing a “crash” sound instead of the correct “thud” sound.
— Kevin’s silent cocky facial expression throughout this sketch always makes me laugh.
— The speed round with Jon and Mike is hilarious.
— Nice touch with Jon’s bleeding lip at the end.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and a nice bounce back after the a-little-too-average season premiere. The quality was very consistent tonight, nothing was weak, a lot of the sketches were exceptionally solid, and we got one of my personal favorite monologues of all-time.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bruce Willis)
a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kathleen Turner. Random thought: the musical guest in the episode I just reviewed, Rickie Lee Jones, strongly resembles Kathleen Turner. They should’ve had Jones as the musical guest for Turner’s episode, just so we could be treated to the freaky sight of them standing side-by-side during the goodnights.

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September 30, 1989 – Bruce Willis / Neil Young (S15 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
crack-holding George Bush (DAC) dares Medellin cartel to attack his clan

— Hmm, they’re starting the season with another Bush address, which is exactly how the previous season’s finale started.
— I liked the part about how Hurricane Hugo is a natural disaster, and thus, “not my fault.”
— Very memorable visual of him holding up a bag of crack that we’re told was purchased right there in the White House.
— A lot of great laughs from him detailing how tough his family is, especially the part with him talking about how his son Jeb is “packin’ heat” and can pull out a man’s heart and show it to the victim.
— Not too crazy about how the special segue to “Live from New York…” was just a carbon-copy of the one they used in the season 14 finale, with Bush saying “People up there are trying to drag me into that ‘Live from New York’ thing, but that’s something I’m not gonna do…. etc.” However, I would like to point out that when saying “not gonna do it” during that spiel tonight, he used the now-famous “nah gah dah” pronunciation for the first time ever.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same as the one from last season. No noteworthy changes here.


MONOLOGUE
host plays the harmonica with SNL Band & sings “Pep Talk”

— This is the first regular episode where the upper part of the home base stage has a triangular rooftop with a big neon version of SNL’s 15th anniversary logo (screencap below).

They actually first used this rooftop in the 15th Anniversary Special the previous week. Despite this, tonight’s opening montage still used the regular SNL logo from the previous season. The montage doesn’t begin using the 15th anniversary logo until some point in the 1990 half of this season (which I guess makes sense, as 1990 is technically the year SNL turns 15), though I think it would later be added into some of the reruns from the 1989 half.
— Great energetic entrance from Bruce, dancing to the theme music.
— Pretty funny story from Bruce regarding being an SNL caterer.
— We get a full-out blues musical number. There’s no comedy at all here, but it’s high-energy and fairly fun.
— They would later replace the first half of this monologue (as well as the theme music during the opening montage) with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most noticeable difference to me is Bruce’s entrance. Instead of entering with a lot of energetic bopping to the theme music as mentioned earlier, the rerun version has Bruce making a straightforward, dull, just-walk-out-onto-the-front-of-the-stage-and-stand-there-stiffly entrance.
STARS: ***


THIRTYSOMETHING
avoid nutritional angst by starting your day with thirtysomething cereal

— Pretty funny reveal of a breakfast cereal based on the show Thirtysomething.
— Even though I was only 5 years old at this time in 1989, I do remember Thirtysomething being a popular show back then, and I even have memories of watching it. Hell, I can even remember what the show’s logo looked like in the opening credits. I know it probably seems baffling that a 5 year old would be watching that show, but the more I think about it, I vaguely recall 5-year-old me just playing with my toys and stuff in the living room while my mom and/or dad was watching the show in the same room. That’s most likely where my childhood memories of the show come from.
— This commercial is an accurate parody of Thirtysomething’s acting style. Jan is especially giving a good mock-dramatic performance.
— Amusing how the cereal comes in the shape of Thirtysomething characters. I liked Jan’s delighted “I got an oat bran Elliott.”
— Kinda funny how at the end, they spelled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (now THERE’S something that 5-year-old me was interested in) as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Tertles” (screencap below), though I assume that’s for copyright reasons.

STARS: ***


WAYNE’S WORLD
coolest senior (host) makes “sphincter” the new hip word

— Wow, in just half a year, this sketch has gone from always being stuck in the 10-to-1 slot at the end of the show to now being the lead-off sketch in a season premiere. Let me remind you readers, Mike Myers is still just a featured player at this point and has only been on the show for half a season so far, and they’re letting him star in the lead-off sketch of the big season 15 premiere. That is INCREDIBLE.
— Loved the random Extreme Close-Up segment.
— Bruce’s too-cool-for-school character is okay, though it’s a somewhat dull role involving no effort.
— More and more, these early Wayne’s World sketches have been gradually growing into what everyone now remembers them as.
— Pretty funny reveal of “sphincter” being the cool word for the new school year.
— Another great random segment, this time with the Unnecessary Zoom.
— For the first time ever, we get an utterance of the soon-to-be catchphrase “Schwing!”, though it’s not used in the sexual context that we would typically hear it in during future Wayne’s World sketches. Tonight, Wayne says it as he mimes pulling out a proverbial knife that Garth stabbed him in the back with.
— Very funny part with the “sphincter” prank the guys pull on Wayne’s mom.
STARS: ***½


DONAHUE
topic-starved Phil Donahue (PHH) previews show about breast-naming women

— Short and sweet with the sudden hilarious reveal of “Women who name their breasts” being the next topic on Donahue’s show.
STARS: ****


HOME IMPROVEMENT
anal-retentive Gene shows how to saw a board & dispose of the refuse

— Nice to see them continuing to give this character new occupations.
— Good part with him detailing his method of using initials to help him remember the tools in his toolbelt.
— Very funny how he has a handy mini-vacuum for instantly cleaning up sawdust while he’s sawing wood.
— More funny details with how he prepares a scrapbag for throwing unused wood away in.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rockin’ In The Free World”


WEEKEND UPDATE
recent widow Imelda Marcos (NOD) wants to get rid of Ferdinand’s body
VIJ reports from Times Square about lack of activity during Rosh Hashanah
a retrospective of SNL’s second 15 years uses clips from tonight’s show
to AWB, legislation to outlaw flag-burning is simple idolatry

   

— Dennis’ delivery seems slightly lower-energy tonight.
— Hmm, we’re starting off Update with an awful lot of corny picture-based gags.
— Nora’s Imelda Marcos impression makes me laugh, and her overall commentary was decent.
— Dennis’ abortion joke receiving groans from the audience was pretty funny.
— Dennis’ whole “Depp! Grieco!” bit was priceless. Probably one of my favorite random bits that Dennis has ever done on Update.
— I mentioned this in two earlier Weekend Update reviews from the original era (read this one), but Victoria’s Times Square/Rosh Hashanah commentary tonight is a complete rip-off of something that Laraine Newman once did in a season 2 Weekend Update. Victoria’s version would later be completely removed from reruns. In the old review linked above, I had a theory that the reason Victoria’s commentary is removed from reruns is because the writer of the original Laraine commentary probably called in and complained to the show about stealing his or her bit. However, I now have another theory: they may have removed Victoria’s commentary from reruns to make extra room for a cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch that’s added in reruns to replace a Johnny O’Connor sketch from later tonight.
— In response to SNL’s recent 15th Anniversary Special, Dennis makes a tongue-in-cheek announcement that later tonight, NBC will present a retrospective celebration of SNL’s second 15 years. We’re then shown highlights from that celebration, which is just clips of sketches from earlier in tonight’s episode. Funny bit. SNL would later do a gag in a similar vein during the season 24 premiere, where they show a fake ad for “The Best of the First 20 Minutes of Saturday Night Live”, a compilation special consisting only of clips from the first 20 minutes of that night’s episode.
— A. Whitney: “To me [as a teenager], a Playboy centerfold picture was a symbol of sex in the same way a photo opportunity in a flag factory is a symbol of freedom. In other words, they’re both just jerking off.”
STARS: ***


NEW LEADING MAN
Johnny O’Connor takes a backseat to new leading man (host)

— Here’s the aforementioned sketch that’s removed from reruns. The cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch that replaces it is about terrorists hijacking a plane and killing innocent passengers whenever one passenger (Bruce Willis) keeps making wisecracks in response to everything the terrorists say.
— The return of Phil and Jon’s characters from the famous Johnny O’Connor sketch from way back in Phil’s second episode as a cast member. Weird how it took the show THREE YEARS to make this sketch recurring.
— Great interplay between Phil and Jon as usual.
— I love Phil’s manic “RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT!” delivery.
— A good laugh from the casual mention of a movie titled “Water Baby Virgins of Krakatoa”.
— What’s with Bruce’s exaggerated double-takes throughout this?
— I found this overall sketch fine in its own right, though it pales badly in comparison to the classic first Johnny O’Connor sketch.
STARS: ***


SPROCKETS
Jimmy Stewart’s (DAC) cute poems have nihilistic undercurrents

— Proving even further that Mike is continuing to move up in importance on the show, we now get our second big Mike Myers recurring sketch tonight alone. Really makes you wonder why they haven’t promoted Mike from a featured player to a regular cast member yet. (He does eventually get promoted later this season)
— I like Dieter’s dark intro to Jimmy Stewart, and then adding as almost an afterthought, “He has also appeared in films.”
— Dieter mentions a fictional critic named Graus Grek, which is a name that would later be used for Woody Harrelson’s character in a future Sprockets sketch (not the one from Harrelson’s episode this season, but from Harrelson’s season 17 episode; he plays a different character in both Sprockets sketches).
— I like how they’re having Dana’s Jimmy Stewart as a Sprockets guest.
— Dieter: “That poem pulls down my pants and taunts me.”
— Jimmy Stewart: “I wrote that poem on a piece of toilet paper after waking up in a puddle of my own sick.”
— Jimmy Stewart’s fight with Dieter’s monkey is hilarious.
— An overall big improvement over the underwhelming Sprockets sketch from the previous season’s finale.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Needle & The Damage Done” & “No More”


BRUCE WILLIS: THE MAN AND HIS MUSIC
album of host’s bluesy commercial jingles pays for all his possessions

— Bruce missed his cue to start singing the Depends jingle, which threw him off when he finally did start singing it. Because of this, SNL would later use the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns.
— Catchy jingle, but pretty much a one-joke sketch, and not a particularly hilarious one.
STARS: **½


DONAHUE
another topic for desperate Phil Donahue (PHH)- shoelaces caught in shoes

— Ehh, nowhere near as funny as the one from earlier tonight, though I do like the idea of it being a runner tonight that Donahue is increasingly desperate for show topics.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent season premiere, though felt a little too average for this era’s standards. Compared to the phenomenal season premiere from the year before (Tom Hanks/Keith Richards), this one doesn’t measure up. However, judging this episode on its own merits, I was fine with a lot of the show and there were some really solid pieces in the first half.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1988-89)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Rick Moranis

Posted on

May 20, 1989 – Steve Martin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S14 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives status report on good & bad of his term so far

— Dana-as-Bush’s constant “Not enough in-for-ma-tion” are really funny.
— A good laugh from his example of the “work” he’s done during his days in office so far being repainting, floor-sanding, etc.
— We get our very first Dana-as-Bush utterance of “Not gonna do it”, though he delivers those words in a straight manner tonight. Over time, he famously exaggerates it to “Nah gah dah”.
— Another overall solid Bush cold opening, with another early display of soon-to-be-famous Bush-isms.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
time stands still while (host) & (GIR) go “Dancing In The Dark” {rerun}

— Oh, boy, this is gonna be a bit tough to get through…
— You can tell by Steve’s voice that he’s fighting back tears as he speaks, which is really getting to me.
— Steve mentions how the people you get to work with at the show is what always brings you back to SNL, which is a classy set-up to an encore presentation that’s now being played as a tribute to the beloved Gilda Radner, who passed away earlier this same day.
— Great to see this incredible Dancing In The Dark sketch again, and it’s coming off poignant in the context it’s being shown in tonight.
— Since I already reviewed Dancing In The Dark when covering the episode it originally aired in (the legendary Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode from season 3), I’m not going to say anything else here for the remainder of the encore presentation. I just want to sit back and enjoy the sketch while reminiscing emotionally about how it was practically yesterday when I was reviewing the original era and got to enjoy regularly covering various great Gilda Radner performances.
— A very nice extended applause break after the encore presentation has finished playing.
— Steve: “You know, when I look at that tape, I can’t help but think how great she was and how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you.”
STARS: not sure if I should rate this, but I’ll give it a ***** for its classiness


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
world’s most perfectly pumped-up man (host)

— Hmm, a change of pace with the smoky intro at the beginning of this.
— A priceless visual of Steve in that insane muscle costume.
— Funny hearing Steve doing the Hans and Franz accent. Hearing him do that reminds me of a little of his Festrunk Brothers voice from back in the day.
— Good ending bit with Steve’s struggle to clap his hands in unison with Hans and Franz.
— At the end of the previous season, I stated that I was already getting tired of Hans and Franz after only one season, and that I don’t find their act all that funny anymore. Thankfully, THIS season made me come around on them. They had a fairly strong year, and it also helps that they weren’t overused like they were the previous season.
STARS: ***½


TAMMY WYNETTE SINGS THE CLASSICS
with “Stand By Your Man” lyrics

— Hilarious how Jan’s singing the same lyric, “Stand by your man”, to the melody of various classical songs. The part with her doing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is particularly funny.
— Excellent performance from Jan here.
STARS: ****½


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
he can drive, just not very well

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Very funny visual of the obvious cat puppet steering the wheel.
— There’s the very first instance of what would go on to define these sketches: “Toonces, look out!” (*cut to stock footage of a car driving off a cliff*)
— Wow, the sketch is over already? I’m surprised how short and simplistic this first Toonces installment was.
— Oh, never mind, there’s an extra scene now, with a “preview” of next week’s Driving Test episode.
— An overall solid first installment.
STARS: ****


TO MY LOVE
host recites an ode that details what he needs from his woman

— Plenty of great one-liners so far, especially the random “To walk beside me when I want to look like I’m not gay.”
— Another particularly good one-liner with “To make me horny when I’m not horny, and to watch me fall asleep.”
— This is in a similar vein to his classic A Holiday Wish sketch. This even has a similar darkly-lit fancy setting.
— Great ending with his missing wedding ring.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Runnin’ Down a Dream”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB tells the class of ’89 to stick it to Noriega with crack boycott

— As always, I love that they’re continuing the tradition of every season finale having an A. Whitney Brown commentary where he addresses that year’s graduating class. We never got to see him do one for the class of 1988, though, since that season got cut short by a writers’ strike.
— A. Whitney, to the class of ’89: “You can be sure ‘the education president’ feels bad that so many of you are functionally illiterate. Not as bad as he’d feel if you had an abortion, but still…”
— Good ending to A. Whitney’s commentary with him calling for a nationwide crack boycott in every high school and junior high to get Manuel Noriega out of office.
— Dennis: “Do you know how personally ungrounded I feel living in a world where Ricky Schroeder has changed his name to Rick?”
— Oh, so THIS is when news started getting out about Rob Lowe’s now-infamous sex tape with a minor, which Dennis says Lowe probably only did “to divert our attention away from that Oscar thing”, which is now the third dig SNL has got in at Lowe’s horrific Snow White opening number at that year’s Oscars.
— After the last two Updates in which Dennis’ jokes weren’t as strong as usual, he had a nice return to form tonight with plenty of great jokes.
STARS: ****


THE NEW CONEHEADS
LOM previews new issue-oriented Coneheads skits; Timothy Busfield cameo

   

— Though they haven’t made it clear yet why they’re doing this, seeing this sketch brings back great memories of how much I enjoyed reviewing the original Coneheads sketches back when I covered that era. That was one of my favorite recurring sketches from those years.
— The casting of Phil and Nora as the new Beldar and Prymaat makes sense, because in several ways, Phil and Nora are this cast’s version of Dan and Jane.
— Nice touch with Victoria having a trendy clock hanging on her head.
— All Coneheads in unison, when asked where they’re from: “France. Yeah that’s the ticket. We’re from France.”
— Good mock-serious segment with Lorne announcing the New Coneheads are coming to SNL next season, tackling serious issues of our time.
— Funny detail of a cone-shaped mirror that Phil’s Beldar looks into.
— The Thirtysomething parody scene was okay, though incredibly dated nowadays. (Speaking of which, we’ll be coming to another possibly-now-dated Thirtysomething parody in the following season’s premiere that I’ll be covering tomorrow) The camera angle and positioning of the actors was strange (last screencap above), but I’m guessing that’s just spoofing the staging in the real Thirtysomething.
— Amusing ending to the letter of approval from Dan Aykroyd, plugging the upcoming Ghostbusters 2.
STARS: ****


GET TO KNOW ME
JOL says “Get to know me!” like DOP & host did; Paulina Poriskova cameo

— Good to see a more fleshed-out, sketch version of Jon’s famous Weekend Update routine.
— A rare on-camera Don Pardo appearance!
— Phil’s Lee Iaccoca impression is very funny.
— I love Steve’s manic delivery in this, as well as his line about how he used to be a two-bit comic with an arrow stuck through his head, “and now I’m starring in Parenthood directed by Opie!”
— Pardo leaning into the shot while gleefully exclaiming “I’m on TV!” is priceless.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Fallin'”


SPROCKETS
Dieter’s lover Heike (NOD) reviews the performance of a clown

— Hmm, the monkey on a pedestal is front-and-center next to Dieter right at the start of the sketch. The monkey is usually farther away from Dieter, and is usually not revealed until about halfway through the sketch.
— This is the first time where Dieter’s guest is an equally-weird German instead of an American being weirded out by Dieter.
— “Your story has become tiresome.” Never have I been more happy to hear those words, as Nora’s long-winded story was honestly starting to kinda get on my nerves before Dieter cut it off with the aforementioned catchphrase.
— Dieter’s “Touch my monkey” pleas are now starting to have the over-the-top delivery people now remember, rather than the deadpan low-key delivery he used for it in the first installment.
— I found tonight’s overall installment surprisingly underwhelming. Nora’s character didn’t work for me, and this sketch didn’t have much else going for it. Felt empty for a Sprockets sketch. I’ll just chalk this up to a case of Early Installment Weirdness and assume this is the result of these Sprockets sketches still trying to find their voice.
STARS: **


SIDES
host demonstrates his good & bad sides, photographically speaking

— Hmm, from my past viewings of the rerun version of this episode, I swear I recall Steve performing this sketch on the home base stage. However, in the live version I’m currently watching, he’s performing it on the New Coneheads set. They must’ve later replaced this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Out of this and the Ode To My Love piece from earlier tonight, I wonder which one was originally slated for the monologue slot before Gilda passed.
— I love how he names each side of his face after famous Mels.
— Nice touch with him exiting the scene with his good side facing the camera.
STARS: ****


SMOKERS CABLE NETWORK
Smokers Cable Network news anchors present items related to tobacco

— The sunrise stock footage played during the Smokers Cable Network opening title (screencap below) looks like the same sunrise footage they’d later use in the opening titles of the Stuart Smalley sketches.

— I like Nora’s rating system.
— Al’s brief segment was hilarious.
— Steve’s entire commentary just being him horribly coughing his way through his unintelligible speech was pretty funny.
— I wasn’t expecting much from this overall sketch at first, thinking it would be a pretty flimsy bit, but it ended up being executed well.
STARS: ***


HAVE A BITCHIN’ SUMMER
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein say goodbye for the summer

— Good intro from Steve announcing that, to commemorate the last show of the season, Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein will sing a goodbye song.
— Haha, “Have A Bitchin’ Summer”.
— Good touch with Tonto blowing a whistle mid-song.
— I recall someone on an SNL messageboard once pointing out that during the close-up of each of the three performers as they’re singing, they all look as if they had been crying shortly before this sketch started (because of Gilda’s passing, maybe?). However, watching the sketch now, I’m not noticing that at all. There’s no visible moistness under any of the guys’ eyes or anything like that.
— Funny and oddly charming as always. Nice way to end the season.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Steve: “I wanna thank all my guests, the most beautiful woman in the world: Jon Lovitz…”
— We get a nice mention from Don Pardo’s voice-over that the show’s next live broadcast will be SNL’s 15th anniversary special in late September (a week before season 15 begins), the beginning of a tradition of SNL holding a big anniversary special during some of their milestone years.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong finish to the season, completing a perfect streak of no episodes that I found supbar this season. We got plenty of great sketches tonight, some really memorable moments, and a heartfelt Gilda Radner tribute in the monologue.
— Season 14 as a whole was PHENOMENAL. The quality of most the episodes was very high, the consistency was very impressive, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no episodes at all that I wasn’t satisfied with. Every single episode worked for me, which is pretty much unheard of for an SNL season. Even my favorite seasons that I’ve reviewed earlier in this SNL project of mine (seasons 3, 4, and 10) each had at least one or two episodes I was disappointed by, and the same goes for my favorite seasons from later on that I haven’t covered yet. In addition to the high quality of season 14’s episodes, this fantastic cast was also firing on all cylinders and performing some of their greatest work, and the show also benefited from the mid-season addition of Mike Myers, who quickly began to make his mark with his stable of distinct and funny characters. All-in-all, I would argue that this is SNL’s greatest season of all-time.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Wayne Gretzky)
a slight step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1987-88)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 15 begins, with host Bruce Willis

Posted on

May 13, 1989 – Wayne Gretzky / Fine Young Cannibals (S14 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Panama election impropriety monitor Jimmy Carter (DAC) is bullied

— Funny reveal of Mike under the table using the ballots to cook a roasting chicken.
— I always like Dana’s Jimmy Carter impression.
— An amusing childish turn with the soldiers bullying Carter, leading to them eventually tossing around around an obvious dummy of him.
— I like Dana-as-Carter’s voice-over saying “Live from New York” as his dummy is being spun around.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Never realized before how very Canadian his accent is.
— Some laughs from him talking about his reaction to finding out the writers think he has no talent as a comic actor.
STARS: ***


SLEEPYTIME RAT CONTROL
— Rerun


FISHING WITH THE ANAL RETENTIVE SPORTSMAN
host hooks a big one while fishing with anal-retentive Gene

— Nice that they’ve changed this character’s occupation to keep things fresh in these sketches (though I’m aware he goes back to being a chef in some future installments).
— As usual, some very funny details from Phil’s anal-retentive tendencies, especially the moist towelette attached to the bait bag.
— A good laugh from the giant fish that Wayne has snagged, eventually pulling him into the water (which Phil’s character is completely unaware of as he continues addressing the camera).
STARS: ***½


WAYNE’S WORLD
a hockey fantasy with host & wife Janet Jones [real]

— For the first time, Wayne’s World finally makes it out of the 10-to-1 slot and is placed in a nice early spot in the show. I’m watching an old Comedy Central rerun, however, which is notorious for wildly reshuffling the original sketch order within episodes. So I’m not sure if this sketch originally aired this early in tonight’s episode or not. [ADDENDUM: Looking at a rundown of the original running order of this episode, this sketch indeed aired in this early in the live show.]
— The Switcher Solo segment with the cameras was pretty fun.
— I’m enjoying Wayne and Garth’s various extended “babe” puns regarding Gretzky’s wife.
— The character of Wayne Campbell is continuing to grow, as tonight’s sketch has some of his now-famous traits that weren’t around in the first two Wayne’s World sketches.
— Our very first instance of Wayne and Garth doing the “dldldldldl” sound and wiggly hand gestures when transitioning into a dream sequence.
— Fun pre-taped hockey sequence.
— I like how after the dream sequence ends, Gretzky is now the host of Wayne’s World, and we get our very first instance of Wayne Campbell going “I guess it was all a dream… (*sees something from his dream appearing in reality*) or was it?!?!”, a gag that would be repeated in other Wayne’s World installments that involve a dream sequence.
— Overall, easily the best and most fun Wayne’s World installment so far.
STARS: ****


LOCKER ROOM
after Kings lose Stanley Cup, celebrities join host in the locker room

 

— Dana’s Travolta impression is coming off particularly funny here.
— Now we get Phil’s great Nicholson. We seem to be getting some of the cast’s funniest impressions in this sketch.
— Not sure what Tom Davis is going for with the voice he’s doing as Ed Begley Jr.
— I’m getting good laughs from all the ridiculous suggestions the celebrities are making regarding how hockey should be played.
— Jan’s Bette Davis is absolutely hilarious.
— I like the brief cutaway to Mike as a constantly “What!”-saying Howie Mandel (which I previously brought up when reviewing Lovitz’s Howie Mandel impression in the Rosanna Arquette episode from two seasons earlier).
— Funny ending with the celebrities and Wayne all moving into the shower, much to Wayne’s grief.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “She Drives Me Crazy”


WEEKEND UPDATE
a mysterious voice (PHH) summons DEM to build his Field Of Dreams
ALF suggests saving money by combining euthanasia & the space program
the Field Of Dreams summons original SNLer “Moonlight” Graham (DAC)

— I like the random “If you build it, he will come” voice-over, a reference to the recently-released Field Of Dreams.
— Humorously, the “If you build it, he will come” voice-over intermittently keeps repeating throughout Update, eventually leading Dennis to rethink his goals in life and declare “I gotta build that damn field.”
— Great sequence with Dennis building a tiny baseball field on the Update desk.
— I like how the tiny field still remains on the desk when Al Franken shows up to do a commentary. When Dennis points out the field to Al, Al looks in the direction of the field in front of him and responds “What field?”
— We get the return of the classic “me – Al Franken” gag where every utterance of that line results in a graphic of Al’s name being displayed on the bottom of the screen.
— Al’s insane ideas for space exploration are really funny, especially his suggestions to hurl volunteers into space and having man propel himself into space with a fire extinguisher.
— Dennis’ jokes are pretty average tonight, but that’s still a step-up from his subpar Update in the preceding episode.
— They’re now fully going all-out on the Field Of Dreams runner by having Dana show up as Moonlight Graham. The laugh he keeps doing is very funny.
— The ending with Moonlight taking Dennis out into the cornfield was a nice change of pace for Update.
— Some versions of this episode (including, I think, NBC’s airing of this episode on “SNL Vintage” about three years ago) cut out the entire Moonlight Graham segment. And since Dennis says his sign-off when he and Moonlight are in the cornfield, the edited versions cover for that by splicing in Dennis’ sign-off from the following week’s episode, where he signs off at the desk by saying “Guess what, folks? That’s the season, and I… am… outta here.” Now, Dennis saying “That’s the season” instead of “That’s the news” makes sense in the following week’s episode because it’s the season finale. However, it makes absolutely NO sense for us to see him saying it in tonight’s episode, which is the penultimate episode, not the season finale.
STARS: ***½


WAIKIKI HOCKEY
a Hawaiian busboy (host) has Elvis-like experiences

— I really like Jan’s Ann-Margret.
— Dana’s snobbish, preppy characterization is hilarious.
— Very funny sequence with Wayne blatantly lip-syncing to the Waikiki Hockey song.
— An overall great, memorable, and very charming sketch.
— I think this originally aired as the final sketch of the night during the live show. I wish they kept it like that in the rerun version I’m watching, because this sketch would’ve been a fun, upbeat way to end the show.
STARS: ****½


POINT BLANK
neither host nor (VIJ) has much advice for callers-in

— Wayne’s simple “Hockey is different from marketing; it’s more of a sport” statement made me laugh.
— I was ready to dismiss this as a subpar, one-joke display of Victoria’s ditz shtick, but it’s being executed decently and there’s a strange charm to it.
— I like how the callers keep asking Wayne increasingly complicated questions unrelated to hockey.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Good Thing”


THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
pundits take discussion outdoors

— I got a big laugh from Dana’s uptight George Will stiffly saying “I’m on record as being pro-sunshine, bluebirds, and cherry blossoms.”
— Interesting deviation with them all going outdoors for their discussion, complete with a short pre-taped sequence of them strolling through a real park.
— I liked Kevin’s Sam Donaldson telling Dana’s uptight Will “Why don’t you take the pine cone out of your butt?”
— Funny cutaway to Kevin’s Donaldson feeding an obvious squirrel puppet.
— Good part with Dana’s Will getting hit out of nowhere with a frisbee, prompting him to lose his cool and yell “DAMMIT!”
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Solid episode, keeping season 14’s perfect streak alive as we’re now in the homestretch of the season. Probably one of the better athlete-hosted episodes SNL has ever done, and despite pretty much playing himself in every single sketch and not stretching himself all that much, Wayne Gretzky did fine as a host, came off likable, and didn’t have any noticeable stumbles that athlete hosts are usually prone to.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Geena Davis)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The amazing season 14 comes to an end, with host Steve Martin. We also get a sad goodbye to a beloved former cast member who passes away earlier the same day.

Posted on

April 22, 1989 – Geena Davis / John Mellencamp (S14 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives status report after his first 100 days in office

— Surprisingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Dana’s Bush impression in months. I think his last appearance was in January right after Bush’s inauguration.
— Hmm, the long break seems to have done Dana’s Bush a lot of good, as it’s come back as a fully-formed version of the characterization that everyone today remembers his Bush as. After witnessing his characterization slowly begin to take shape over the past two seasons, I find it great to finally arrive at the official version of his Bush impression.
— We even get our very first “It’s baaad, it’s baaaad!” and “Dan Quayle, still gaining acceptance”.
— Lots of pretty solid Bush lines all throughout this.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
in style of a French chanteuse, host sings a song about being miserable

— An okay set-up to the song she’s about to perform.
— The French accent she’s singing with is pretty amusing, even if I’m not sure if the song itself is supposed to be comedic.
STARS: ***


THE BOB WALTMAN SPECIAL
celebrity tears make interviews successful

— Great to see the debut of one of my favorite semi-recurring pieces from this era.
— Also great to see Victoria’s dead-on Roseanne make its first return.
— Love the ways Kevin keeps pushing to find ways to make his interview subjects cry.
— Kevin’s bizarre, sleazy smile into the camera at the end of every interview is hilarious.
— Very funny reveal of Kevin cutting onions to make Phil’s Burt Reynolds cry.
STARS: ****


FROST WHITE AND THE SEVEN L’IL MEN
alterations to Snow White story were made to avoid lawsuit from Disney

— The blatant knock-off version of Snow White is getting some good laughs.
— I like how they keep overemphasizing the few differences from the original Snow White (e.g. “It’s not a mirror, it’s a plate!”).
— Very funny turn with an angry Jon yelling on the phone, especially the part with him picking back up the hanged-up phone to add “Disney! We’re talking Disneeeeyyy!”
— I love the part with Jon waving off the “Someday My Prince Will Come” similarity by saying the song was using the word “prints”, not “prince”.
STARS: ****


ATTITUDES
an interview with the owner of a vintage clothes shop (host)

— The opening joke-telling bit with Nora and Jan had some good laughs.
— Again, a lot of funny little details in Nora and Jan’s characterizations here.
— Geena’s “I look for things without stains” explanation was funny.
— I like them exaggerating how long ago the late 70s were (at the time).
— This isn’t quite as strong as the previous Attitudes sketch with John Malkovich, but I’m still getting a lot of enjoyment.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pop Singer”


THE PALMER BUNCH
Robert Palmer (PHH) with his “Addicted To Love” models

— I like the opening Brady Bunch theme song parody.
— Some pretty good laughs from the details in how the back-up dancers do every little thing while moving exactly like they do in Robert Palmer’s music videos. The part with them all exiting the kitchen in unison especially got a good response.
— Something about the way the sketch ended felt kinda empty.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
during review of Rain Man, MIM & BES help form each other’s opinions
DEM attempts to explain nuclear fusion using the Mouse Trap board game

— We get a Tommy Flanagan “Yeah, that’s the ticket” reference during a joke from Dennis about Oliver North lying.
— Boy, a lot of Dennis’ jokes are surprisingly getting a very tepid audience reaction. I guess I can’t blame the audience, as the jokes honestly aren’t too hot.
— I did like Dennis’ joke just now about Donald Trump’s plan to build better genitalia, called “Trump’s Little Tower”.
— An awkward, stumbly intro from Dennis to Mike and Ben’s commentary.
— I love the fact that we’re seeing a commentary from the two new guys. It’s absolutely fascinating as a future viewer to see a young Mike Myers and a young Ben Stiller paired together as themselves.
— Just now, Mike said “Here’s a quarter, buy a clue”, which is a joke he’d later go on to use quite a bit in the Wayne’s World sketches.
— Ehh, I’m not getting too many laughs from Mike and Ben’s commentary. I did like the “Greenland” mix-up, though. And this commentary is still preferable to the last time two new young guys appeared together as themselves on a Dennis Miller Weekend Update to review a book or movie (*coughAnthonyMichaelHallRobertDowneyJr.cough*).
— Loved Dennis’ meta comment right after Mike and Ben left: “Nice to have the new guys aboard to infuse the cast with a newfound energy in the form of job paranoia.” Though in Ben’s case, the cast doesn’t have much longer to suffer from job paranoia.
— I loved the audience disappointedly groaning in unison when Dennis’ Mouse Trap/fusion bit fails to work on cue. Dennis ad-libs “Now this is a two-part process….” and then tries it a second time, where it fails even EARLIER. This is hilarious.
— Great conclusion to the Mouse Trap bit, with Dennis just going ahead and finishing the trick by hand when he can’t get the mechanism to work properly after multiple tries.
— Dennis’ very random Sununu/hunting bit cracked me up.
— After a string of jokes that received very little reaction from the audience, Dennis finally got one that landed, with a joke about Bryant Gumbel’s ego.
— An overall surprisingly underwhelming Dennis Miller Weekend Update. If it weren’t for the Mouse Trap bit, this Update would’ve been completely forgettable.
STARS: **½


SUSPENDED ANIMATION CHAMBERS
despite explicit warnings, idiots “rescue” people in suspended animation

— The group always immediately finding signs that answer a question they had just asked is kinda funny.
— What… the… hell?!? The sketch is over already? I have no idea what I just watched. Most of the humor in this didn’t work for me, and it had no real ending.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jackie Brown”


SPOKESMODELS
potential game show models learn the essential gestures from (host)

— A funny sudden turn with the use of Don Pardo’s gameshow voice-over and it being revealed that the dance class students are taking lessons on how to be a gameshow spokesmodel.
— A pretty accurate take-off of gameshow models’ various cliched moves, especially the “consolation head tilt” for whenever a contestant loses.
STARS: ***


LAST MAN ON EARTH
after the apocalypse, last woman (host) still won’t date last guy (JOL)

— Interesting set-up.
— A lot of good low-key, realistic humor out of the the conversation between Jon and Geena. I’m enjoying the slice-of-life feel of this sketch.
— A pretty heartwarming turn with Jon trying to win Geena over by playing romantic music on the radio.
— A good laugh from Jon finally flat-out admitting he thought that since he’s the only guy left on Earth, he’d finally have a chance with someone like Geena.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— We get a nice mention of it being Jan’s birthday tonight.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I came into this episode kinda cautiously because I recall hearing that it’s subpar for this season’s high standards (I’ve seen the episode myself a few times in the past, but remembered very little from it), and if that turned out to be true, then it would sadly ruin the season’s flawless streak of no subpar episodes (in my eyes, at least). I ended up finding tonight’s episode surprisingly decent as a whole. In fact, the first half was actually pretty strong, with 3 four-star sketches in a row (Bob Waltman, Frost White, and Attitudes). The show hit a rough patch in the middle with Weekend Update (surprisingly) and Suspended Animation Chambers, but things slowly got better afterwards. The overall episode was fine, which keeps this season’s perfect streak alive.
— After being in the cast for only four episodes, this ends up being the final night for featured player Ben Stiller. I don’t know the exact story, but I believe he left by his own choice because he was frustrated by his lack of noteworthy roles and felt his talents were being wasted. He DID seem to get stuck playing straight man most of the time and I’m sure it didn’t help when he saw all the great opportunities that fellow newbie Mike Myers was getting. However, Ben should’ve understood that it takes time for some cast members to break out. When you’re a new featured player in an already-established, close-knit cast, you can’t always expect to immediately break out within a mere FOUR EPISODES. And it’s strange that Ben didn’t at least finish out the season; after all, there’s only two episodes remaining. The fact that he couldn’t even be bothered to stay two episodes longer proves that he must’ve REALLY hated working at SNL. At least he doesn’t end up holding a grudge against SNL for TOO long, considering his first hosting stint is just 10 seasons later, and he would then host again a decade-and-a-half later, not to mention the countless cameos he’s made and continues to make to this day.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dolly Parton)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Wayne Gretzky

Posted on

April 15, 1989 – Dolly Parton (S14 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Joseph Hazelwood (KEN) & other Exxon workers remove oil from Alaska rocks

— Loved Jon’s high-pitched gloating sound when Ben turns out to be wrong. That sound of Jon’s reminds me of a political panel show sketch that he and Dana later do in the following season’s Robert Wagner episode.
— Great bit with Phil specifying which type of otter goes into which pile.
— Some good, funny little things throughout this sketch.
— I love the casual reveal of Kevin as Capt. Joseph Hazelwood being part of the clean-up crew. There’s a particularly funny bit with Phil sternly telling him “You’re on pretty thin ice already!”, as well as the ending bit with Hazelwood drinking from the flask of alcohol.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— After being audibly sick for the last two episodes, Don Pardo finally sounds like his old self again.


MONOLOGUE
a cameraman hangs from a rope to get a good shot of host’s cleavage

— She’s immediately coming off very charming and engaging.
— Hilarious part with the camera slowly zooming into her cleavage as she’s going on about how great the people at the show are.
— A particularly classic part right now with an overhead cameraman zooming down into Dolly’s cleavage from above.
— She’s a very good sport to do a monologue like this.
STARS: ****


LOTHAR OF THE HILL PEOPLE
Lothar (MIM) and primitive guys on “walking with women”

— The debut of a staple from Mike Myers’ first two seasons.
— By the way, it’s very interesting that they’re letting a new featured player star in the lead-off sketch of the night.
— A funny little touch with Lothar’s order to “Fetch us each a flagon of mead!”
— Some pretty good laughs from the guys’ talk about “walking with women”.
— This sketch’s Middle Ages setting and characterizations are pretty enjoyable to me.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That”


MOUNTAIN STORIES
host tells cast about TV-based stories her mother used to tell the family

 

— I love the set-up of this with the entire cast (minus the featured players) gathered around the host on the home base stage, as if they’re at a campfire. This is also a great way to showcase the entire cast as themselves.
— There’s something I found amusing about Victoria’s delivery of her line about how Dolly’s family didn’t have “any of the modern conveniences that we all take for granted”.
— I liked Dennis’ comically impressed facial reaction to Dolly telling him that her family made their own fun.
— Speaking of facial reactions, Phil has a classic one in response to being told by Dolly “You don’t have to patronize me, Phil.” (second screencap above)
— I love the cast’s silent realizations that Dolly’s “original” stories are just from TV shows.
— Hilarious bit about how the Dragnet stories that Dolly were told are “based on truth, but the names were changed to protect the innocent.”
— Good part during the Bewitched story when Jon blurts out “Oh, Mrs. Kravitz!” and then covers his mouth in shame.
STARS: ****½


WEEKEND UPDATE
accurate item about host proves National Enquirer is reliable news source
Jeane Dixon (NOD) makes some qualified predictions regarding oil spills

— I liked Dennis’ opening line: “I’m gonna make this quick tonight; there’s a really good Baretta on cable.”
— The brief Dolly Parton segment was a little odd and random (not to mention a rare instance of a host getting their own Update commentary as themselves), but it worked enough.
— Dennis’ joke about how the French “never miss a piece of tail” was great.
— Ehh, Nora’s Jeane Dixon commentary is pretty dire so far, and is leaning too heavily on her mixing up Dennis’ name.
— The payoff to the Jeane Dixon commentary with her “predicting” an Exxon oil spill didn’t work for me at all. Weak commentary overall.
STARS: ***


PLANET OF THE ENORMOUS HOOTERS
small-breasted (host) is exiled from the Planet of the Enormous Hooters

— Here’s a sketch that was famously intended for the Raquel Welch episode way back in season 1, but was turned down by Welch. Amazing that the writers kept it in their back pocket for THIRTEEN YEARS.
— An overall pretty straightforward sketch, almost too much so. While the concept and resulting sketch was certainly amusing enough, they didn’t do anything special with it. I wanted this to go further.
STARS: ***


SPROCKETS
Dieter (MIM) interviews Butch Patrick (BES), aka Eddie Munster

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut! Amazing that this is the second future recurring sketch that newbie Mike Myers is debuting tonight. Mike has only been on the show for four months so far, and is ALREADY taking charge and establishing himself faster than most newbies who join a veteran cast.
— I like that Mike’s fellow newbie Ben is the only other performer in this. Attack of the featured players!
— Funny visual of Ben dressed as a grown-up Eddie Munster.
— Funny line from Ben’s Butch Patrick about Marilyn Munster being “under” the show’s sound crew.
— Love Dieter’s request to touch Butch’s “most bizarre” widow’s peak.
— Some of the soon-to-become catchphrases like “Your story has become tiresome!” and “Touch my monkey. TOUCH HIM! LOVE HIM! (*says German phrase*)!” have been surprisingly delivered very low-key and deadpan tonight compared to how Dieter usually yells them in later installments.
— Dieter, to Butch Patrick: “I would’ve liked to see you play Eddie covered completely in sores.”
— Like the very first Wayne’s World sketch, it’s fascinating to witness the debut of this sketch and see how low-key and primitive it feels compared to later installments. Mike’s characterization of Dieter would become more animated than he is tonight. He’s still bringing the bizarreness and foreign creepiness tonight, though, which is something I always want to see from these Sprockets sketches.
STARS: ***½


THE RUSTY BONE
patrons of The Rusty Bone bar have traits similar to those of dogs & cats

 

— Nice touch with the movement of the tails corresponding with the tail-owner’s mood, especially during Phil’s conversation.
— Uh, interesting ending. I’m very surprised by how short this overall sketch was, though.
STARS: ***


CELEBRITY RESTAURANT
Buddy Precisely tells more unimportant people where to bide their time

— Second restaurant sketch in a row tonight. In fact, I’m pretty sure both of them are using the exact same set, only decorated differently.
— I like Buddy Precisely delightedly pointing out “Corbin Bernsen’s eating a biscuit!”
— Phil’s Jack Nicholson voice is even funnier than usual tonight.
— Jan’s Tracey Ullman impression is hilarious.
— Jan-as-Ullman: “I can get awards, but I can’t get ratings!” Buddy Precisely: “And you can’t get a table here! Take it outsiiiide, take it outsiiiide…”
— Loved Precisely telling Rob Lowe (played by an extra) the usual “Take it outsiiiide” IMMEDIATELY after happily greeting him. As Lowe leaves, Precisely tells him “Don’t you ever sing in public again!” This is the second SNL episode in a row making a dig at a Snow White(?) production number that Lowe had recently performed at that year’s Oscars. I’ve never seen a video of it, but it must’ve been TERRIBLE, judging by how relentless SNL is in bashing it.
— I like Precisely doing his usual “What are you known for?” showbiz questioning to the firemen who are here to put out a fire in the restaurant.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “White Limozeen”


BROADWAY STORY, PART 2
by TOS- Daisy (VIJ) gets her big break

— A continuation of a Schiller’s Reel from two episodes ago.
— Once again, I’m very impressed by how this looks and sounds so much like an authentic 1930s film.
— I love Jon’s surprised reaction shot, where cigarettes fly into his mouth, ears, and nostrils.
— Phil’s “She is d-o-doggone ‘licious!” line absolutely slayed me.
— Funny little part with Phil’s exaggerated double-take in reaction to the police raid.
— Aw, this gets cut off with another “To be continued” ending just when it started getting really exciting. This is especially disappointing considering I’ve heard that Part 3 of this series never ended up airing in a live episode. Part 3 was supposedly added in reruns of this season’s earlier Demi Moore episode (which I guess answers my question from that review, where I said I’m not sure what the Travel Agency sketch is replaced with in reruns).
STARS: ****


SMILER’S
cashier’s (host) ice-breaking turns NYC residents from sour to friendly

— Good premise with Dolly’s down-home charm winning over the impatient customers.
— Wow, considering how new they are, Ben Stiller and Mike Myers have been getting tons of airtime tonight. I’m noticing that Ben usually always gets stuck in straight roles, though. I’m slowly starting to understand his alleged frustration that I believe is what leads to his upcoming early exit from the cast. More about that in tomorrow’s review.
— Funny touch with Jon’s smile after he gets called good-looking by Dolly.
— The ridiculous gator game that Dolly’s making the customers do is very funny.
— Good epilogue ending detailing how Dolly’s spirit drastically changed Manhattan, with the biggest laugh coming from the Trump Tower’s transformation (last screencap above).
STARS: ***½


10 BEATLES CLASSICS YOU KIND OF KNOW THE WORDS TO
hum along with album

— Decent premise and visual of the performers energetically singing the few lyrics they know after quietly mumbling the other lyrics.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The impressive long streak of solid season 14 episodes continues. While I honestly didn’t find tonight’s episode QUITE as strong as the last few before it, it was definitely still a good episode and also had a particularly fun vibe, no doubt helped by Dolly Parton’s charm and energy.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mel Gibson)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Geena Davis

Posted on

April 1, 1989 – Mel Gibson / Living Colour (S14 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Pete Rose’s (PHH) gambling info source Rain Man (DAC) has informed on him

— Rain Man is one of my favorite movies of all-time, so I’m already loving the idea of this parody.
— Solid Rain Man impression from Dana.
— Clever idea to do a Rain Man crossover with the Pete Rose scandal, by having Rose use Rain Man’s skills to help gamble.
— A good laugh from Rain Man’s “Don’t wuss out” line.
— Love the “1 minute to Wapner” reference.
— Very funny turn with Rain Man revealing all the people he told Pete Rose’s gambling secrets to.
— Great use of Ben Stiller’s dead-on Tom Cruise impression.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo certainly sounds better than the ghoulish, deathly way he sounded when he was sick in the previous episode, but you can tell he hasn’t fully recovered from his illness yet because he still sounds very subdued tonight compared to how energetic and booming his voice usually sounds in this era. Again, like the last episode, this would later be fixed in reruns by replacing his voice-over with one where he sounds like his usual self.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— This doesn’t seem to be offering anything other than unfunny repetitions of how he’s paid lots of money while he doesn’t have to work hard.
— Okay, this is finally starting to go into different territory, but it’s still nothing great to me. He’s handling himself well, though.
STARS: **


TALES OF RIBALDRY
suggestive story of a woodsman (host) & a lady (NOD)

— Jon is absolutely PRICELESS in this role.
— I love the pure delight that Jon is taking over how increasingly raunchy the story with Nora and Mel is getting.
— Good turn with Jon getting upset over Nora and Mel’s sudden decision to just go straight into the sex.
— During the brief cutaway to Mel and Nora getting ready for sex, Mel looked absolutely hilarious. It’s a little hard to describe, but he had his shirt pulled over head and was doing a strange hopping dance while having his leg high up in the air as he tried to pull off his boot (screencap below). He looked like an old-timey hunchback doing a weird dance routine.

STARS: ****


EXXON SCHOOL OF SUPERTANKER STEERING
incompetents can get good jobs via Exxon School of Supertanker Steering

— Some laughs from the overly-specific, complicated Exxon job that’s casually suggested.
— A decent topical reference to the then-recent infamous Exxon oil spill.
STARS: ***


COOKING WITH THE ANAL RETENTIVE CHEF
anal-retentive Gene (PHH) gets sidetracked before showing how to cook

— Phil’s anal-retentive character makes his debut.
— So many laughs from Phil’s overly-neat tendencies and nitpickishness over every little thing, even on how to wrap up food that he’s about to throw into the trash.
— Very amusing how this ended before he even got to start cooking the meal he was supposed to.
STARS: ****


JOSH ACID
sheriff Josh Acid’s (host) name binds him to use an unconventional weapon

 

— I wonder if this is a Jack Handey-written sketch. Something about the title of this has always reminded me of Handey’s Johnny Canal sketch from earlier this season. Plus, the absurd concept of this Josh Acid sketch seems right in Handey’s wheelhouse.
— Mel: “Acid is like a woman: a good one will eat right through your pants.”
— I got a good laugh from Mel’s simple explanation that he uses acid because that’s his name.
— Nora’s overly-specific descriptions of ways to die are pretty funny.
— Jon’s “fewer acid trips” pun and his knowing look into the camera afterwards was great.
— Hilarious how Mel’s watered-down acid merely stings Phil instead of seriously harming him.
— I love Phil’s intense screaming after getting a whole bunch of acid dumped on him by Nora.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cult of Personality”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ALF asks television viewers if they found a wallet he left in a cab
Tommy Flanagan tells what he’s been up to lately
ALF found his wallet- it was actually in his other coat pocket

 

— Uh… what exactly was the point of Al Franken’s commentary? Just him asking viewers to find and return his lost wallet? I’m left wondering if this was a genuine plea, because it otherwise seemed completely pointless.
— I loved the very random bit with Dennis suddenly suffering an extended case of night sweats when remembering an apparently terrible production number that Rob Lowe performed at that year’s then-recent Oscars.
— Very strong joke from Dennis about (recent SNL host) Glenn Close boiling Roger Rabbit backstage at the Oscars after losing her fifth chance at a Best Actress award.
— Wow, Tommy Flanagan. We haven’t seen him in two whole years.
— Flanagan even addresses how this is his first appearance in a long time, by saying he’s gotten letters asking where he’s been.
— Quite striking in hindsight seeing Flanagan immediately go from talking about the president to talking about then-real estate mogul Donald Trump.
— An overall okay Tommy Flanagan commentary, though there were some groaners in there. I was expecting to enjoy this commentary more considering how long of a much-needed break we got from the formerly-overused Flanagan.
— At the end of Flanagan’s commentary, Dennis tells him a friendly “Don’t make it so long between visits.” I wonder if we ever see Flanagan again for the remainder of Jon’s SNL tenure (not counting Jon’s hosting stint in 1997), or if this ends up being his final appearance.
— Ah, we get a follow-up to Al’s baffling wallet bit from earlier, which gives it more context and is fairly funny if still kinda pointless.
STARS: ***½


MEL GIBSON, DREAM GYNECOLOGIST
ladies line up for an appointment with dream gynecologist host

 

— Classic reveal of the gynecologist being Mel as himself, which explains the waiting room full of eager women.
— Strong ending with Jon as the replacement gynecologist generating no interest from the ladies.
STARS: ****


LETHAL WEAPON VI
Riggs (host) & Murtaugh (Danny Glover) make a drug bust

— Danny Glover cameo!
— Some good laughs from Mel’s character always using his suicidal tendencies to get his way.
— Lots of technical glitches with the chroma-key screen in the background of the car scene. (second screencap above)
— Dana usually seems to play Scarface-type characters in settings like this. Another example is the Very Pregnant Cop sketch with Mary Stuart Masterson a few seasons later.
— Dana and Mel trying to out-crazy each other is pretty funny.
STARS: ***


AS WORLD TURN
Frankenstein’s well-spoken evil twin (host) replaces him

— Nice to see this back.
— Funny visual of Tarzan wearing intelligent glasses.
— Good characterization with Mel playing his evil Frankenstein twin in a dignified, articulate manner.
— When Mel whacks Phil on the head with a bat, he nearly knocks off Phil’s Frankenstein wig by accident. (screencap below)

— I like the bit with a bound-and-gagged Frankenstein saying an unintelligible statement, and then after the cloth is removed from his mouth, he repeats the statement in the same unintelligible manner.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Open Letter to a Landlord”


BELATED EASTER GREETINGS
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein & evil twin sing “Peter Cottontail”

— These are always funny, and I love the change of pace with Mel’s out-of-place dignified speaking of the lyrics.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Surprise, surprise – yet another solid season 14 episode. Again, there were little-to-no lowlights tonight, and there was a high number of strong material. This season has gotten so consistently great, that at this point, I really have run out of things to say in my post-show summaries.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mary Tyler Moore)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Dolly Parton

Posted on

March 25, 1989 – Mary Tyler Moore / Elvis Costello (S14 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
(JOL) calls out names of “best frightened crowd” Academy Award winners

— Phil’s Michael Caine impression is very funny.
— Fairly funny how they keep throwing to clips of lesser and lesser award show categories, especially the cheap location that the awards for movie extras is being held at.
— Jon going through the names of each crowd member is pretty amusing.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Wow, Don Pardo is clearly sick tonight, because his voice sounds TERRIBLE. Not to be grim or tasteless, but he sounds like he’s literally doing these announcements from his death bed. His ill voice tonight sounds almost SCARY, especially the ghoulish way he sounded when announcing Jon Lovitz’s name. Over the years, there have been other episodes where Pardo sounded sick (e.g. Tom Arnold episode from 1996, Freddie Prinze Jr. episode from 2000), but those are NOTHING compared to how scarily unhealthy his voice sounds in tonight’s episode. You really have to wonder why they didn’t just get someone like Carvey to fill in for him.
— In reruns, SNL replaces Pardo’s voice-over with a much-healthier sounding one from him that must’ve been taped sometime after he recovered from whatever was ailing him.
— Ben Stiller has been added to the cast as a featured player.

After having such a stable cast for two-and-a-half seasons, it’s interesting how SNL has suddenly been adding all these new young guys mid-season, especially since it’s not like any members of the regular cast are on their way out yet.


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— For the first time ever, there’s an SNL logo on top of the home base stage (screencap below), which the camera shows a close-up of right after the opening montage ends. This would go on to be a tradition until 1995.

— I like how Mary’s bringing up the controversy from this season’s earlier Nude Beach sketch where the word “penis” was uttered 28 times, according to her (though I swear I recall hearing it was a higher number than that, somewhere in the 40s).
— Funny line with her writing off the Nude Beach sketch as “political satire”.
— Love her example of the right time to use the word “penis”.
— An all-time classic line at the very end with her announcing “Elvis Costello’s penis is here tonight, so stick around, we’ll be right back!”
STARS: ****


THE DAN QUAYLE SHOW
Dan Quayle (DAC) with wife Marilyn (host) in Van Dyke-like show

— Strong concept, and obviously inspired by Marilyn Quayle having the same hairstyle as a young Mary Tyler Moore (which SNL made jokes about on some earlier Weekend Updates from this season).
— The son is played by the same child actor (Jeff Renaudo) who’s usually cast as Dan Quayle whenever SNL portrays Quayle as a child (which has yet to become a recurring gag by this point; it’s only appeared once so far). Until now, I had always thought that Jeff Renaudo’s only non-Quayle appearance on SNL was in the Nude House Of Wacky People sketch from the following season.
— Great moment with Mary parodying her own trademark delivery by saying a quivery-voiced “Ohhhh, Daaaaan!”
— This already-strong sketch has now gotten even better with the inclusion of Jon and Nora’s funny portrayals of Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie.
STARS: ****


CUSTOMS
smugglers voluntarily tell a customs officer (host) what they’re carrying

— I got a pretty good laugh from Mary jovially telling Dana’s Scarface-esque character “You’ll be going to prison now.”
— I’m enjoying Mary’s charming ways of getting customers to reveal secrets about what they’re carrying. This is the perfect role for her.
— Boy, it sure feels weird to see young Ben Stiller on the show. Maybe part of that weird feeling is because I have the benefit of hindsight and know his SNL tenure ends up being insanely short.
— Good part with Jon hesitantly revealing that he’s smuggling diamonds inside a certain bodypart.
— Solid ending with Mary happily taking Jon out for ice cream before he goes to jail.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Veronica”


WEEKEND UPDATE

— Man, even Don Pardo’s voice-over intro to tonight’s Update sounds awful. There’s absolutely no energy left in his ill voice by this point of the episode.
— Some big screw-ups with the news screen graphics just now, which Dennis saves with some good ad-libs.
— I didn’t get the “Margo (sp?) Adams trying stuff on that doesn’t belong to her” joke at all, though it got an “Ohhhh!” from someone in the audience.
— I like Dennis’ “Pete Rose’s Best Bets For The Oscars” segment.
— Wow, this overall Update surprisingly had no guest commentaries at all.
STARS: ***½


SWEENEY SISTERS
third Sweeney sister Audrey (host) joins Liz & Candy for a medley

— This ends up being the final Sweeney Sisters sketch, despite the fact that Nora and Jan both remain in the SNL cast for a good while after this (Nora doesn’t leave until the end of next season, and Jan leaves at the end of the season after that). Were they just tired of playing the Sweeneys? Then again, Nora’s recurring characters in general strangely seem to be getting phased out by this point, as Pat Stevens has only one remaining appearance, which surprisingly doesn’t appear until halfway through next season.
— Nice inclusion of Mary as a Sweeney Sister.
— Mary is fitting PERFECTLY into the Sweeney’s medley.
— I loved Jan’s overly-serious delivery of “I’m gonna bring the room down for a minute” and then launching into a softly-spoken rendition of “Hit The Road, Jack”.
— An overall strong way for the Sweeney Sisters to go out. If Nora and Jan really HAVE gotten tired of playing these characters, they sure don’t let it show, because they both appeared to be having a lot of fun during this installment.
STARS: ****


ROBOT REPAIR
robotic repairman (PHH) grows agitated over his show’s misleading titles

— Great make-up on Phil.
— I’m getting so many laughs over the constantly “fixed” titles and how the wording in them is still confusing. Phil’s straight-laced, slow, monotone robot delivery is making the already-funny dialogue that much better.
— A particularly hilarious part with Phil’s character calling out the producers for being intentionally deceptive with their new title “Let’s Fix, Robots”.
— Love the sudden Fugitive Robots turn.
— I’m always a sucker for absurd Jack Handey pieces, and this particular sketch is one of the most wonderfully-written and executed examples. An absolutely perfect sketch.
STARS: *****


LADY RHEMINGTON
host uses the Lady Rhemington shaver to plow through her thick leg hair

— A very short-but-sweet commercial with the sudden cutaway to Mary’s exaggerated leg hair. This commercial was the right length for a sight gag like this.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Let Him Dangle”


REQUIEM FOR DEATH
while portraying gangster in attempt to defy typecasting, host relapses

— “Introducing The New Guy as the boxer”. A nice meta mention of Ben Stiller being a new cast member.
— Is that Conan O’Brien as “Spooneye” O’McCallahan in the promotional boxing poster? (screencap below)

— I like Phil’s slow-witted old man character.
— Very funny use of Mary as an old-timey gangster.
— I’m loving Mary’s performance.
— Mary regressing in her performance by whining out of character is a funny turn. I incorrectly assumed that would lead to a fourth-wall break with the other performers dropping character and calling out Mary for not fully committing to her against-type role, similar to how that “And now, a sketch where Bruce Dern doesn’t play a psycho” piece from season 8 eventually led to Dern having an “unscripted” psychotic angry outburst, upsetting the cast members in the sketch.
STARS: ***½


BROADWAY STORY, PART 1
by TOS- rival producer (DEM) schemes against (JOL)

— Wow, I wonder if this is a record for highest number of black-and-white segments in a single episode. There’s the Dan Quayle Show sketch, the Requiem For Death sketch, and now this.
— We have the birth of the name “SchilllerVision”, which goes on to be used in quite a number of Tom Schiller’s remaining Schiller’s Reels.
— Wow, where has Victoria been tonight? This is the first (and ONLY) time we’re seeing her all night, and it’s not even a live appearance.
— This is an absolutely DEAD-ON recreation of a typical 1930s film. The overly-bright visual quality, the muffled audio, the authentic old-timey performances… I’m loving all the attention to detail throughout this, which they’re pulling off in a very comedic way.
— Funny touches with the blatantly-fake things being superimposed into some stock footage shots.
— Heh, is Dennis miming to somebody else’s voice, or is that all him? Doesn’t sound a thing like his normal voice. He looks very different in this, too. I didn’t even recognize him at first.
— We get a “To be continued…”-esque ending, telling us that a Chapter Two will appear in a later episode. A rarity for SNL to break up a segment into various parts that are continued in subsequent episodes. I’m sure there’s been one or two other times this has happened, but nothing is coming to mind right now.
STARS: ****


WAYNE’S WORLD
an apology to Beev; math teacher (host) tries to be cool

— It sure didn’t take them long to make this sketch recurring. I see it’s still stuck in the 10-to-1 slot, though.
— Interesting how Jan’s Nancy Simmons character is actually a co-host in tonight’s installment.
— Feels weird not hearing the audience go wild in these early Wayne’s World installments whenever Wayne and Garth yell “Paaaartyyyyy!”
— Needless to say, Wayne’s immature prank on Beev after Wayne’s “apology” is very un-PC nowadays (second screencap above).
— I’m enjoying the whole “gimp” back-and-forth between Wayne, Garth, and Nancy.
— Some good laughs from Mary’s character trying too hard to seem cool.
— Despite the laughs, I actually found tonight’s overall Wayne’s World installment more charming than funny. These sketches definitely get funnier later on after they fully find their voice. Nonetheless, these early installments are still fun to watch, not to mention an interesting time capsule of late 80s teen culture.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— Boy, sick Pardo sounds even MORE depressing during his voice-over in these goodnights. Poor guy sounds like he’s half-asleep by this point, and it’s hard to understand what he’s saying.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Season 14 does it once again with yet ANOTHER consistently very solid episode. A lot of strong things tonight, and there weren’t any segments that I disliked. Also, Mary Tyler Moore was a very game and fun host, and you can tell she was having a blast.
— I don’t want to jinx myself, but this is shaping up to be the first (and maybe only?) SNL season that has no episodes that I feel are subpar (though I think I recall hearing that the soon-to-come Geena Davis episode isn’t up to snuff; I myself remember very little about that episode, so I can’t say).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Glenn Close)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Mel Gibson, the only live SNL episode to air on April Fools Day