Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Bob Dole (DAA) dominates the Republican presidential candidates’ debate
— I like that they’re doing a republican version of the debate sketch from the last episode.
— Hmm, there’s not as many candidates in this one as the previous episode’s democratic debate sketch had.
— Love the smile on Al Franken’s Pat Robertson.
— Dan Aykroyd! Surprisingly, this is the first time he’s appeared on SNL since leaving the cast a decade earlier. This is also the debut of his Bob Dole impression.
— Dana’s Bush impression continues to grow, with him further developing the exaggerated hand movements, though they’re still fairly tame compared to what would later come.
— Dead-on Dole voice from Dan. While I’ve always preferred Norm Macdonald’s later take on Dole, I can still appreciate Dan’s.
— Funny part with Nora’s Pat Schroeder telling Al’s Pat Robertson “It’s easy to remember your name”.
— Hilarious voice and mannerisms from Al’s Robertson impression.
— Robertson’s list of things he’s accomplished is really funny.
— Strange but amusing seeing Bush being portrayed uncharacteristically angry and defensive. Is he still in BushWhacked mode from the previous episode’s cold opening? Or maybe this is how the real Bush acted at the actual debate.
— Great line from Dole sarcastically asking healer Pat Robertson to “heal” Dole’s right arm.
— Assuming Dan’s “Pete/Pierre DuPont” mix-up was a genuine line flub, he saved himself afterwards with an ad-lib.
— Dole to Bush: “George, how would you like this pen stuck right in your neck?”
— Overall, another very funny debate sketch, though I felt the democratic one was a bit funnier. This was still solid, though.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)
— Nothing really to say here. This monologue kinda just came and went fairly quickly with no particular huge laughs.
STARS: **
FAMILY TIES
nested flashbacks document barely-averted Keaton disasters
— Great Michael J. Fox voice from Dana.
— I love Victoria’s crazy wig as Jennifer.
— Hilarious blooper with half of Kevin’s fake beard hanging loose off of his face (third screencap above), which got a great audience reaction.
— I’m loving this format of flashbacks within flashbacks, and I also love how you can tell these flashbacks are being performed live.
— Good running gag with Victoria-as-Jennifer’s only dialogue throughout the sketch being “Yeah”.
— Some good laughs from the family’s casual acceptance of the fact that Jennifer’s dying.
— Mallory: “The doctor said we could do far more good for Jennifer if we just stay here in the kitchen.”
— Freakin’ hilarious with the family throwing to a flashback of a Jeffersons clip, with George and Weezie themselves throwing to a flashback. The insanity of this sketch is getting funnier and funnier.
— I’m enjoying the craziness of how each flashback is now undoing itself back into the preceding flashback.
— Overall, an excellent sketch and one of my all-time favorites.
STARS: *****
LEARNING TO FEEL
Denise Venetti again advises “look at yourself”
— They’re making this recurring ALREADY? They just debuted this sketch two episodes ago, and it’s way too one-note to make recurring.
— Even Jon’s character is basically the same as his character from the first installment of this sketch.
— Okay, I got one laugh so far, from Nora telling Phil “If you looked at yourself, you wouldn’t want to masturbate.”
— Overall, as expected, this hit the same basic beats from the first installment and came off tired. Felt unnecessary.
STARS: *½
WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF reports on New Hampshire primary weather
— Quite a lot of airtime for Al Franken tonight. Wonder why he never receives a featured player credit for any of his appearances this season and last. They don’t begin crediting him as a featured player again until next season.
— Some funny lines from Al about each presidential candidate’s weather preference.
— Nice taped sequence of Al riding on the road in a snowmobile.
— Hmm, a Trump joke.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wishing Well”
TALKING BEHIND HER BACK
(host)’s paranoia is justified- perfect people at a party do laugh at her
— Okay, I wasn’t sure about this premise at first, but I’m now liking the absurdity of all the high-class party guests talking about Justine’s stupidity.
— The ending left me wanting this to go further.
STARS: ***
FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS
host & George F. Will (DAC) chat awkwardly
— The awkwardness of Dana and Justine’s conversation KINDA has some chuckles, but what is the point of this?
— And now, out of nowhere, an SNL bumper picture abruptly cuts this sketch off while it was still in progress. We’re nowhere near the end of tonight’s episode in the copy I’m watching, but I remember when NBC aired this episode on “Classic SNL” back in 2006 (where the ending of this sketch was also cut off), this sketch was at the very end of the episode, which I assume is where it originally aired during the live broadcast. If so, then the show probably ran long, which would explain this sketch’s premature cut-off.
— After the abrupt non-ending, all I can find myself saying about this overall sketch is: what the hell??? Instead of being humorously awkward, this sketch was just… awkward. Not to mention dull as hell.
STARS: *½
INSPIRATION
Derek Stevens’ muse of a girlfriend (host) wants him to move out
— Another Derek Stevens sketch.
— There’s too much of a sameness to all of Justine’s roles so far tonight. She’s basically just playing the same generic character in every sketch, and SNL’s not even ATTEMPTING to give her anything comedic to do.
— This sketch isn’t working for me so far.
— Overall, boy, was this a flop (our second one in a row tonight). Thankfully, I think it’s the last we ever see of Derek Stevens, who never should have been made recurring after his legendary original one-off sketch.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under My Thumb”
ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE
(KEN)’s “foolproof” bank robbery plan is “in & out, nobody gets hurt”
— I’m liking Jon’s overly specific questions.
— Very funny part with Kevin substituting “in and out, nobody gets hurt” with a rhythmic “ba ba ba, ba-ba-ba-ba” to help his henchmen remember it.
— I absolute LOVE Phil’s aggressive outbursts throughout this.
— A good laugh from the mix-up with a revolving door as explained in the epilogue screen crawl ending.
— Overall, I liked this sketch a lot. Also, the premise and writing had a very Kevin Nealon-y feel, where you can tell he wrote this himself. The “ba ba ba, ba-ba-ba-ba” part especially seemed like something out of his playbook.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This episode is hard for me to figure as a whole. What was good in this episode was particularly great, but what was weak was absolutely terrible. Very mixed episode with almost no middle ground, but I’d say the good slightly outweighed the bad.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Carl Weathers)
— a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Tom Hanks. I’m excited to see this as well as the episode after that (Judge Reinhold), because, out of all the episodes from season 11 to early season 44 (up to the Steve Carell episode), this season’s Hanks and Reinhold episodes are the only ones I’ve never seen before starting this SNL project of mine.
Bush’s demeanor is possibly a reference to his recent testy – and live -interview with Dan Rather.
Friday Night Videos was in an interesting position in early 1988. It had been cut from 90 minutes to 60 and was now airing an hour later (Letterman went to five nights a week, even though Monday was reruns). Their hosts at the time tended to be either comedians (Judy Tenuta and Emo Philips hosted a lot), people plugging a movie or Malcolm Jamal-Warner and/or Ahmad Rashad (makes sense, since it was NYC-based). Anyway, they were all expected to do some banter.
This episode has what I would consider nowadays to be perhaps a “vote of no confidence” in having the host be a straight performer in two one-note recurring character sketches.
Anyway, you’re right–what’s good is really good and what’s bad is really bad. The opening sketch is great, and the Family Ties thing still makes me chuckle to this day.
Both Justine and Jason Bateman have hosted–what other sibling duos have hosted the show?
Off the top of my head. Casey and Ben Affeck are only ones who hosted separetely. Beau and Jeff (together), Jake did buy Maggie did not. Surprisingly, Alec is only Baldwin to host. Any others?
Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez have both hosted (as have their dad).
Chris Hemsworth has hosted, but Liam has only appeared in a cameo.
The Olsen Twins have hosted.
That Friday Night Videos piece is one of my favourite blackout bits.
Crazy the remember how much Aykroyd aged. He still pulled off the boyish look when he left the show ten years earlier, and here, at only 35 he looked much much older.
This was a very odd show to say the least. I seen both this one and Reinhold’s show off the late night viewings and needless to say I didn’t enjoy either one, this one was the better of the two. This season didn’t have the best rep for me back then. Funny story but I used to have to record the NBC re-runs as I didn’t stay up late then (I was 12 lol,) but we had a severe thunderstorm come thru and knock the power off and my recording got screwed up. I woke up as soon as it came back on but it was during the FNV skit and I missed 2 skits and half of that one.. needless to say I was quite upset. The show itself before that wasn’t special though so it made up for it.
I think when push came to shove Lorne and everyone had no idea how to use Justine properly. She never had the greatest personality in the world to begin with but it was magnified when she hosted. Shoulda had MJ or Gross host instead. For what it was though she did good on the Family Ties skit and so was so damn beautiful in the monologue (prob the best she ever looked.) Thankfully the Debate skit and the FT parody saved the show.
The real MVP of the show was Darby he just killed it in both his sets, his version of Wishing Well here was as good as the studio version.. It’s a shame his career never took off properly he was a hell of a performer in his prime. I actually enjoyed his performances more than the skits back then.
Hanks’s show tomorrow isn’t that bad; Reinhold’s was a chore to sit thru. I HATED that show.
Pierre DuPont was trying to “every man” himself by calling himself Pete
I can’t get enough of the Republican primary debate from this episode. It is so incredible. One of the best “debate” sketches the show has ever done. And Dan Aykroyd’s Bob Dole entirely steals the whole thing. Aykroyd’s Dole is spot-on and hilarious. His going on about all the things he didn’t have growing up like the Bushes did (the electric steak carver, the automatic garage door opener, etc….so funny!) And his line to Pat Robertson about healing his arm is so fantastic.
Al’s Pat is also great and I love his listing of jobs he’s had to prove he’s not a televangelist (I’ve mowed lawns…), and Carvey’s Bush is really starting to form here (and will be cemented by the time they do debate with Dukakis next season, which is another all-time classic). Just a great sketch. Love it.
Circling back to the hosting siblings for a moment, there was also Peyton (2007) and Eli (2012) Manning.
Solid example of SNL getting a host because they’re popular, not cuz they are good. Justine Bateman got fewer laughs in 60 minutes than Dan Aykroyd got in 5 minutes. And he wasn’t even credited. Episode was just meh except for the cold open. And the writers really needed to give Victoria better material. Her being annoying on Weekend Update is not as funny as they think it is.