January 21, 1989 – John Malkovich / Anita Baker (S14 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (PHH) interrupts George Bush’s (DAC) Super Bowl XXIII call

— We’ve officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline.
— Pretty funny with Bush’s phone call getting interrupted by the now-former President Reagan.
— I like Reagan repeating the same corny “We could use your players on Capitol Hill” joke that Bush already told earlier.
— Reagan’s confused stammering is making me laugh, due to Phil’s delivery.
— Reagan, on why he should be the president to call the Super Bowl winners: “I guess I thought that since I was president during the SEASON and the playoffs, I was supposed to…”
STARS: ***

OPENING MONTAGE
— Mike Myers is added to the cast as a featured player.

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Malkovich: “I’m John Malkovich, and these are my own clothes.”
— I got a big laugh from him randomly mentioning that his hometown of Benton, Illinois is right by a place where there was a big murder in a trailer park a few years earlier.
— Some really good laughs from the recollections of his grandmother’s criticism of his film work. I especially liked the part about her telling him “You need a wig like Pavarotti.”
— I’m absolutely loving Malkovich’s dry delivery in this monologue.
— Another great dryly-delivered line, this time regarding how Empire Of The Sun was directed by “the Jewish boy” Stephen Spielberg.
STARS: ****

FIRST CITIWIDE CHANGE BANK
— Rerun

BARBARA & NANCY
Barbara Bush (PHH) tries to get Nancy Reagan (JAH) out of the White House

— I like this premise of a meeting between the about-to-be-former first lady and about-to-be-current first lady.
— A good laugh from Barbara’s friendly-but-eager delivery of “When does your plane leave?” to Nancy.
— Some great humor out of Nancy’s desperation in staying and Barbara’s desperation in getting Nancy the hell out.
— Classic visual of Nancy having to be literally dragged out of the room as she grabs on to everything she can.
— The first time I ever saw this sketch, in (I think) Phil’s “Best Of” special back when I wasn’t too familiar with this SNL era, it was the first time I started to take notice of Jan. As the sketch ended, I remember wondering who the woman was who gave that great performance as Nancy Reagan. Though as much as I remember liking Jan’s performance in this, that’s not what turned me into a fan of hers. That wouldn’t happen until sometime later on when I saw a Comedy Central airing of the Alec Baldwin episode from season 15. If you’re familiar with that episode, you’ll understand why it turned me into a Jan Hooks fan. I’ll go into a little more detail when we reach that episode.
STARS: ****½

FIRST CITIWIDE CHANGE BANK
— Another rerun.
— After laughing hysterically at Part 1 of this ad earlier tonight, tonight’s audience is oddly dead silent during this one. What’s up with that?

ATTITUDES
an interview with driftwood sculptor Len Tukwilla (host)

— I’m enjoying how late 80s the look and feel of this whole sketch is.
— Great characterizations from Jan and Nora here. Lots of funny little touches in their performances.
— Love the name Len Tukwilla. It’s funny little details like that that help make this sketch so fantastic.
— Malkovich’s explanation of how he sculpts squirrels nests is really funny, as is Jan and Nora’s attempts to make their mundane questions to him seem so exciting.
— Malkovich: “It’s a very, very painstaking process; it doesn’t just happen overnight… unless you work on it all night long.”
— I’m loving how Malkovich is now giving so many blunt “no” answers to most of Jan and Nora’s questions.
STARS: ****½

GARY BUSEY MOTORCYCLE HELMETS
Gary Busey’s (PHH) motorcycle helmets have their own protection devices

— Pretty funny Busey impression from Phil.
— Decent gag with the increasingly oversized helmet protectors.
— Good ending visual of Phil’s Busey riding the motorcycle while trying not to tip over due to his big helmet.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “Giving You The Best That I Got”

YOU MOCK ME
Lord Edmund (host) lets it be known- he will not be mocked

— The close-up of Malkovich silently turning his deadpan face towards Jan and then uttering his first “You mock me” tickled the hell out of me. Maybe it’s because I know what’s coming.
— Love Malkovich running to the door after Jan has exited from it, just to yell at her “AND I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!!!”
— Lovitz and Dana’s foppish mocking gestures behind Malkovich’s back are freakin’ priceless.
— Mike Myers makes his debut! It feels very exciting seeing a new cast member at this point, for the same reason it felt exciting for me to cover Bill Murray and Harry Shearer’s respective debuts when I reviewed the original era: when you watch/review SNL episodes in chronological order on a daily basis and get very used to a steady, unchanging cast, it feels both unusual and refreshing seeing somebody new being added to your familiar cast. That’s one of the many reasons I started this SNL project of mine: I knew it would be exciting to experience SNL’s evolutionary changes while going through their timeline daily.
— Fitting that Mike Myers is doing an English accent in his very first appearance, considering we’re going to be hearing that type of accent (as well as other U.K. accents) a lot from him throughout his SNL tenure.
— On paper, this sketch may come off repetitive, but the performances are selling the hell out of the material, and are elevating it to a hilarious, very memorable piece.
— Lovitz and Dana are particularly hilarious at the end of the sketch with their extended, over-the-top imitations of Malkovich’s character. I also love how that’s accompanied by the camera slowly zooming in on an unamused Malkovich just watching them while having a stone-faced expression.
STARS: *****

WEEKEND UPDATE
Sandra Day O’Connor (JAH) swears in Dan Quayle (DAC) syllable-by-syllable
DEM narrates a retrospective consisting of ho-hum photos of Ronald Reagan
AWB disapproves of the overspending on George Bush’s inauguration

 

— Pretty funny sequence with Dana as Dan Quayle being sworn in, especially when it gets to the point where Jan tries to make it easier on him by having him repeat the oath one word at a time (there’s also some really funny stock footage cutaways accompanying that part).
— While not all that funny, the retrospective of Reagan’s presidency was actually strangely touching in a way.
— I liked the callback to Dennis’ Bucketman joke from the last Update.
— A. Whitney, on Bush’s inauguration: “There were eleven inaugural balls. Now, some people would say that’s a little excessive. But, you know, it TAKES a lot of balls to throw a 30 million dollar celebration before you’ve even done anything.”
— A. Whitney, on the 200th anniversary of the presidency: “We’ve gone from ‘I cannot tell a lie’ to ‘I cannot tell’.”
— Dennis’ jokes have been more hit-and-miss than usual. He’s leaning awfully heavy on corny photo-based jokes tonight.
— If you know me, you’ll know I got a kick out of Dennis’ random Three Stooges Missile joke.
STARS: ***

CALIFORNIA CONDOR
at a cookout, guys try to put a hurt California condor out of its misery

— I like the bizarre visual of a dying mechanical bird puppet.
— Clever ending with the “California Condor Released Today” headline.
— The randomness of this overall sketch and the use of a mechanical animal puppet makes me wonder if this was a Jack Handey piece.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest sings “Just Because”

JOHNNY CANAL
Johnny Canal (host) tries to sell James Monroe (PHH) on waterways

— Wow, I love that theme song.
— Now THIS is undoubtedly a Jack Handey sketch, as this features the very first instance of the “fake sponsors” gag that would go on to be a tradition in some of his sketches. There’s an especially funny sponsor tonight with the Atlantic Puppy Grinding Company (“Maybe it’s evil, but think of the jobs!”).
— Malkovich demonstrating on a map his absurd idea of canals running all over the country is very funny.
— A great, amusing touch with the camera slowly zooming in on Malkovich’s dumbfounded face when Phil is listing off all the flaws in Malkovich’s plan.
— Hilarious repeated gag with Malkovich responding to any question he doesn’t know the answer to by leaping onto the table and lunging at the question-asker with a knife. Part of what makes that so funny is the long pause Malkovich always does before leaping.
— I like Malkovich’s asinine explanation of how he got the name Johnny Canal.
— In the rerun version I’m watching, the audience applauds during the ending bit with Malkovich lunging at Phil with a knife. I’m thinking that must be canned applause, because I swear I remember once seeing a copy of the live version of this sketch where, IIRC, that ending bit with Malkovich lunging at Phil with a knife played to DEAD SILENCE from the audience, which, to be honest, actually made it even funnier to me in an odd way.
— I absolutely loved this overall sketch.
STARS: ****½

TALK RADIO
deejay Tony Trailer (KEN) talks annoyingly over radio station’s music

— Pretty basic premise, but it’s being executed well, is a funny parody of radio announcers annoyingly talking over songs, and is one of the types of roles that’s right in Kevin’s wheelhouse.
— I liked Lovitz as the aggressive caller asking Kevin to shut up while his favorite song (Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”) is playing.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

— Malkovich: “I never thought I’d get to work with Jon Lovitz… and I hope I never will again. The man is a pig… and a menace.”

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Fantastic episode. I loved almost everything in it. So many strong, memorable sketches, and nothing fell flat for me. John Malkovich was excellent tonight (even his goodnights speech was funny, as seen in the above quote) and he would go on to become one of my favorite semi-recurring hosts (his 1993 hosting stint in particular has always been one of my personal favorite episodes of all-time).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Melanie Griffith)
a big step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Tony Danza