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.