Month: June 2019

Posted on

January 19, 1991 – Sting (S16 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- opinions on the best & worst of Gulf War TV coverage

 

— The topical concept is a nice change of pace for Wayne’s World, and is a great way for SNL to address the recently-started Gulf War right out of the gate tonight.
— This is also the first time Wayne’s World has ever been used as a cold opening, which would soon go on to be a regular thing.
— Lots of great lines during Wayne and Garth’s rundown of the best and worst of Gulf War news coverage. Some of my favorites are them pointing out how fake Wolf Blitzer’s name sounds and equating it to if somebody was named “Howitzer Explosion Guy”, and Wayne’s definition of “scud” being a girl who looks good from a distance but looks bad up close.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
musical guest performs “All This Time”

— I liked Sting’s story about the irony of him turning down previously-offered hosting gigs earlier this season because they were during weeks of distracting events, and then the week he DID choose in advance ends up being the same week the Gulf War broke out.
— He segues into a full-fledged musical performance on the musical guest stage.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


HEDLEY AND WYCHE
British people love brushing with sugary Hedley & Wyche toothpaste

— Love the visual of the British citizens’ bad teeth while they’re touting the British toothpaste.
— Funny reveal that the toothpaste has sugar.
— Farley steals the commercial during the cutaway to him happily stating “And it tastes great on a cracker.”
STARS: ****


ELEVATOR
during a long elevator ride, fans (KEN) & (DAC) sing host’s songs to him

— Some good initial laughs from the awkward realism of Kevin and Sting’s conversation while Kevin’s praising Sting as a singer.
— Priceless turn with Kevin slowly breaking out into a high-pitched rendition of “Roxanne”, much to Sting’s discomfort.
— Dana as a second elevator occupant eventually starting a high-pitched singing of “If You Love Somebody” is equally hilarious.
— Haha, this has now become classic with Dana and Kevin dueting, driving Sting crazy.
— I like the pre-taped shot of an out-of-breath Sting walking up a long flight of stairs.
STARS: *****


THE SINATRA GROUP
Sinead O’Connor (JAH) & others discuss issues

— A great and creative idea for a McLaughlin Group parody.
— Sinatra casually addressing Sinead O’Connor as “Sinbad O’Connor” had me HOWLING.
— Love how fast-paced the humor in this is. We’re only a minute into this sketch so far, and it has ALREADY been full of laughs.
— I love Rock’s Luther Campbell declaring “I don’t have any talent!”, while Sinatra absurdly claims Campbell has a Ben Vereen/Dionne Warwick quality.
— Great cutaway to Sinatra sarcastically miming tearful violin-playing during Sinead’s rant about starvation in the world.
— Sinatra: “Forget the head. Put a bag over it and do your business!”
— IIRC, when a clip from the “Milli Vanilli: what is this f**got crap?” portion of this sketch was shown in the “SNL in the 90s” documentary (if not that, then it was some other SNL documentary), they bleeped out Phil’s utterance of the f-word slur and blurred it out of the text displayed on the bottom of the screen.
— Sting is great as Billy Idol.
— As much as Sinatra’s “Sinbad O’Connor” utterance had me dying with laughter earlier, him calling Sinead “Uncle Fester” just now is even funnier.
— Sinatra to Billy Idol: “I got chunks of guys like you in my STOOL!”
— Overall, an undisputed classic and one of the greatest of all time. There was hardly a moment during this masterpiece where I wasn’t laughing.
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on figuring out why clowns seem frightening

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring segment debut! And I could not be any more excited to finally arrive at the coming of this segment. Deep Thoughts has always been a HUGE favorite of mine.
— Hilarious bizarre punchline to this one. I can’t think of a better way for Deep Thoughts to have debuted. A quintessential display of Jack Handey’s brilliantly off-kilter humor.
— I wonder what it was like at the time watching this inaugural Deep Thoughts edition when this episode originally aired, as SNL had never really done anything like this before.


COPY MACHINE
Richard Laymer (ROS) bombards his co-workers with elaborate nicknames

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have ANOTHER major recurring segment debut! Two in a row tonight!
— Kevin’s uptight delivery of “The name is Randy!” when Richmeister gets his name wrong always makes me laugh whenever I see this installment.
— This Richmeister routine is a good spoof of “that guy” who’s commonly found in real-life settings like this.
— I liked Phil’s sour face immediately after playing along with Richmeister and imitating his routine for a second.
— In retrospect, it’s weird how this inaugural installment is literally just Richmeister spouting off endless nicknames for his co-workers, with no real plot twist or conflict. This was probably hilarious at the time it debuted, but comparing it to the character’s subsequent appearances where things actually happen, this one feels empty and unmemorable. I can still laugh, though, when looking at it in the original context it was intended to be looked at in.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the definition of cowardice


WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF reports on the Gulf War from Baghdad
DAS gives his thoughts on what’s in & what’s out
DEM demonstrates the mating habits of the dancing Coke can

— As expected, tons of Gulf War jokes tonight.
— Excellent topical setting for One-Man Mobile Uplink Unit Al Franken. Speaking of which, this ends up being the final appearance this recurring piece makes during Al’s years as a writer.
— Great ending with Al casually detailing the path of a homing missile, until he realizes it’s headed right towards him and he lets out a horrified “OH MY GO–” before an explosion cuts off the satellite feed.
— I love this idea of David Spade’s commentary, with him doing a “what’s in and out in 1991” segment.
— David, after praising the Gulf War American troops and bashing Saddam Hussein: “In: sucking up to popular opinion for applause. Out: integrity.”
— David: “In: people who recognize me from this show, even though I’ve only been on twice. Out: people who think I’m Dana Carvey.” Supposedly, that’s based on truth, as viewers really DID frequently mistake David for Dana Carvey early on in his rookie days on SNL, due to the fact that both he and Dana look similar from a distance.
— David: “In: radar. Out: palindromes.”
— A fantastic commentary from David overall. I loved the format, he came off very engaging and relaxed for a newbie, and he had one great line after another. Unlike the dolls commentary he did on Update earlier this season, THIS commentary is more of an accurate glimpse into the type of Update commentaries he’d regularly do later on.
— Great segment with Dennis demonstrating the mating habits of the dancing Coke can. The ending is especially funny, with a can opening sound effect being played when the can climaxes.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mad About You”


DR. FRANKENSTEIN
Dr. Frankenstein (host) tries to expand his monster’s verbal skills

 

— Interesting use of Phil’s Frankenstein.
— Dana’s making me laugh as Igor.
— Some good laughs from Frankenstein’s various reactions to the baby bunny story.
— This sketch is a little too slow moving for my likes.
— Classic part with Frankenstein’s successful uttering of words while sipping from a tea cup in a dignified manner.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on telling kids where rain comes from


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Paul Baldwin (MIM) takes calls about dogs & daughters

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a third major recurring segment debut tonight!
— The opening Coffee Talk theme music is different from the one we’re now used to hearing, but that’s nothing compared to the most glaring difference: Mike Myers is playing someone other than Linda Richman!
— This Paul Baldwin character isn’t much different from the later Linda Richman character, except Mike is playing him in a more low-key manner and is using a deeper version of the voice he’d later use for Richman.
— I got a laugh from the caller saying we should saw off Saddam Hussein’s privates with a circular saw.
— The big “joke” throughout this sketch just seems to be Paul Baldwin and all the New York-accented callers saying an excessive amount of words that have an “aw” sound. As a heavily-accented New Yorker myself, I can relate, but that doesn’t make this sketch funny.
— They must use the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, because in the live version I’m currently watching, the Boston-accented caller (voiced by writer Conan O’Brien) introduces himself as Arnold Barr, whereas the rerun version has him named Paul Sean.
— Overall, meh. As much as I’m not a fan of the future Linda Richman-hosted installments of Coffee Talk (as you’ll see when we reach that point in SNL’s run), at least those sketches have actual things going on, instead of just New York-accented characters uttering words with “aw” in them for four minutes. It’s similar to how the inaugural Richmeister sketch earlier tonight feels empty compared to subsequent installments where actual things happen instead of just Richmeister spouting off nicknames for four minutes.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the contents of a big shark’s stomach


FIRST IMPRESSION
flashbacks show the first time (VIJ) met husband’s (host) parents

— This sketch would later be replaced in reruns with an autobiographical Jack Handey film about his teenage obsession with a hammer. Between that and the huge amount of Deep Thoughts scattered throughout the night, the rerun version of this episode is absolutely DOMINATED by Jack Handey.
— Boy, this is one weird sketch, but I sure am enjoying it.
— Some good laughs from Victoria randomly embarrassing herself in outlandish ways, such as wearing an upside-down plate of mashed potatoes on her head.
— I like how each time they cut back to Victoria and Sting in the present-day scene, one of them has been replaced by an ugly-looking dummy mouthing the actor’s pre-recorded dialogue. This is a tongue-in-cheek meta joke about how Victoria and Sting don’t have enough time to rush back-and-forth from the flashback set to the present-day set, so SNL has to resort to using dummies in the present-day scenes. There are also some other funny little meta touches, like the “blooper” with Phil “mistakenly” starting to walk off the set too early when the screen was still doing a ripple effect transition into the present-day scene.
— Yeah, this is DEFINITELY one of the strangest sketches SNL has ever done. It actually has almost a creepy undertone to it, which is only adding to my enjoyment. Even the aforementioned screen ripple effect transition is bizarre-looking, unlike the generic wavy screen transition SNL typically uses for flashbacks in sketches.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Purple Haze”


POET
Ernie Hitchens suggests (host)’s bleak poetry could be brighter

— Love Phil’s performance as the British emcee.
— Sting’s delivery of his tragic poem is very good.
— The return of Mike’s Ernie Hitchens character from the Talking Through Touch sketch in the Dennis Quaid episode.
— Speaking of Mike, he has been getting TONS of airtime tonight. Most of the rest of the cast, on the other hand, have barely appeared in anything tonight.
— The turn this sketch has taken with Ernie Hitchens and Sting’s conversation hasn’t been doing much for me.
— Fairly weak ending with Sting telling Hitchens many variations of “get lost”.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very memorable first half of the night, which had lots of strong and well-regarded pieces. Unfortunately, the quality trailed off in the post-Update half, aside from the insanely bizarre First Impression sketch. However, this is a very important episode, as it featured the debuts of several things that would go on to help define the early 90s era of SNL: Deep Thoughts, Richmeister, and Coffee Talk.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Joe Mantegna)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kevin Bacon

Posted on

January 12, 1991 – Joe Mantegna / Vanilla Ice (S16 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) ambushes Saddam Hussein (PHH) a la Michael Corleone

— This Godfather setting is a fun concept for a Bush cold opening.
— Bush doing a long spiel in Italian is very funny, especially him saying an Italian version of “Nah gah dah”.
— Love the bathroom scene with Bush.
— The panicked look on Dana-as-Bush’s face as the camera is slowly zooming in on him during Mantegna’s speech is priceless (second-to-last screencap above).
— For some reason, I always laugh at the confused look on Phil-as-Saddam’s face when Dana’s Bush tries to shoot him (last screencap above). I think it’s the spaghetti hanging out of his mouth that makes Phil’s confused expression funny to me.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— They’ve stopped using the 15th anniversary SNL logo and have gone back to using the regular logo.


MONOLOGUE
host uses intimidation to avert a walkout by a kid expecting Joe Montana

— Very funny reveal that the father and son in the audience are leaving in disappointment because they thought the show was hosted by Joe Montana.
— Joe’s threatening speech to the kid is great. I especially love the line “One phone call from me and Joe Montana don’t play next week… or maybe Joe Montana wakes up with John Madden’s head in his sheets.”
— At the end when the son goes back to his father, Joe mistakenly calls the kid Zach before correcting himself and calling him Tyler. I’m not sure if this flub was later fixed in reruns or not.
STARS: ****


HELLO NEW YORK
on a radio talk show, city employee (host) downplays NYC’s crime problem

— A lot of good laughs from Joe’s ways of trying to downplay the seriousness of New York’s crime to callers.
— Joe’s delivery in this is great.
— Joe: “New York ranks first only in one type of homicide, and that is a stranger walking up another stranger and shooting him.”
— Love the various pamphlets Joe displays (e.g. “So You’ve Been Doused With Gasoline and Set on Fire”).
STARS: ****½


NIGHTLINE
a Desert Storm soldier’s (host) family loves him & is proud

— I love Dana’s delivery of “I’m Ted Koppel and THIIIIIIS………. is Nightline.”
— For a one-joke premise, this is actually funny. All the redundant “We love you and we’re proud of you”s are an accurate parody of the type of message you see soldiers’ family members delivering to them on the air.
— I liked Joe’s worried “You don’t have to do that” when Farley going to hand the phone back to Victoria.
— The “We love you and we’re proud of you” routine is coming off especially funny with Kevin’s Sam Donaldson doing it.
— A big laugh from the camera cutting back to Joe, who has replaced himself with a broom stand-in.
STARS: ***½


OFFICER MILLER
Officer Miller (PHH) shares his wisdom with a 14 year-old smoker (CHF)

— Catchy opening theme song, which is no surprise for this era.
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most noticeable difference is that in the dress rehearsal version, Farley is dressed in a completely different outfit than the one he wears in the live version (side-by-side comparison below).

— I like how when Officer Miller is showing Farley gruesome lung pictures to convince him to stop smoking, there’s an unrelated picture of an enlarged prostate in there, which Officer Miller says “we’ll talk about some other time”.
— Officer Miller: “Every man is free to jump as high as his own penis.”
— When speaking calmly about the raging hormones he gets when looking at a woman, I loved Farley’s sudden outburst “Sometimes I just wanna JUMP ALL OVER HER and– etc.”
— So many great lines from Officer Miller throughout this, especially his description of how a female baboon’s swollen genitalia looks like a big red catcher’s mitt.
— The aforementioned dress rehearsal version of this sketch shown in reruns has a different ending. Instead of throwing Farley’s pack of cigarettes into the trash bin with a proud look on his face, Officer Miller shadily starts smoking from the pack of cigarettes himself. Not sure which ending I would say is better. The “Officer Miller smokes the cigarettes himself” ending was too obvious a joke, but the “Officer Miller throws the cigarettes in the trash” ending felt kinda empty.
— Overall, a quintessential Phil Hartman sketch that’s underrated.
— I’m surprised this never ended up becoming a recurring sketch. This had its own opening credits and theme song, and the character had recurring potential. Subsequent installments of this sketch could’ve had him giving advice to other citizens.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ice Ice Baby”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB shares his thoughts on the final days before the Gulf War

— Freakin’ hilarious how the song played during tonight’s Update intro sequence is “Under Pressure”, immediately after musical guest Vanilla Ice had just performed “Ice Ice Baby”, which infamously samples the beat from “Under Pressure”. Dennis lampshades this even further during his tongue-in-cheek opening statement about how timeless “Under Pressure” is: “The best thing about that song is, it could still be a big hit today.”
— I got a big laugh from Bush’s rude letter to Saddam that Dennis reads.
— I really like how almost every single joke in tonight’s Update is about the pending Gulf War. Watching this in retrospect, this is serving as a fascinating time capsule of the tense climate the nation was in regarding the strong possibility of us about to enter a war.
— Loved A. Whitney’s dig at USA Today.
— A. Whitney: “We’ve got 60,000 Egyptian troops. I don’t wanna be picky about this, but… when was the last time Egypt won a war? I know they fought the Nubians to a draw in 2300 B.C., but I mean since gunpowder.”
— Tonight’s Update ends on a rare serious note, with Dennis showing a series of out-of-context pictures of the Secretary of State supposedly doing a countdown to war with his fingers, which Dennis follows by saying an earnest “We can only hope this countdown stops at 2 and we have peace for all.” Sadly, as we know now, Dennis’ wish doesn’t come true, as the Gulf War would officially start just a few days after this episode.
STARS: ***½


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski (CSR) & B Fats (CHF) broadcast from the projects

— This sketch makes its debut. I think Rock later said that this sketch was basically his attempt at creating a black version of Wayne’s World.
— Love the pairing of the two Chrises (Rock and Farley) as the hosts.
— Rock’s intro to Farley isn’t as comically long-winded in this one as it would be in future installments.
— Rock’s promo for “F’d Up Malt Liquor” is great.
— Much like the debut of “The Dark Side with Nat X” earlier this season, the urban, streetwise humor in this sketch is providing a refreshing change of pace from the long absence of black representation during SNL’s late 80s era.
— I liked the “Mother Joke of the Day” segment.
— The bit about the “Mother Joke of the Day” winner receiving a Raiders cap “just like the one worn by EVERY black teen in the city” is funny and, in retrospect, provides a reminder of the days when Raiders caps and jackets were indeed very common in urban communities.
— An overall short-but-sweet sketch.
STARS: ***½


LUKENS PIPE INC.
pipe factory owner (host) & secretary (JAH) mull verbose complaint letter

— This was originally performed in the dress rehearsal of the previous episode with Dennis Quaid. A video of it used to be available at Yahoo Screen’s site.
— I’m getting some pretty good amusement from Joe’s increasingly ridiculous verbosity and use of unnatural synonyms.
— I used to dismiss this sketch as dull, but I can appreciate it more now. Joe’s solid delivery is also helping a lot.
STARS: ***


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Bill Swerski (host) & the other Super Fans talk about the Chicago Bears

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring sketch debut!
— Feels odd in retrospect seeing the host of this sketch being played by someone other than George Wendt. Wendt would take over the host role in all subsequent installments of this sketch.
— Funny reveal of Mike, Farley, and Robert Smigel all looking the same with the sunglasses and walrus mustaches.
— Speaking of Smigel, though he had previously appeared in some bit roles here and there, this is the very first time he’s ever had a major onscreen role. Considering he was only a writer at this time (he gets added to the cast as an occasional featured player next season), I’m aware that there used to be lots of confusion and speculation among SNL fans at the time over which performer that was playing his character in these Super Fans sketches. One SNL fan even speculated that it was Don Novello playing the role, because Smigel’s sunglasses and mustache combo made him kinda resemble Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci.
— “Daaa Bearsss!”
— Farley’s performance here is fairly low-key compared to how he would later play this character. Tonight’s installment also doesn’t have any heart attack mentions regarding Farley’s character, unlike subsequent installments where it would be a running joke.
— Smigel’s delivery of “I had the polish saaaaasage” was hilarious. So hilarious, that someone even made a YouTube video of that line being looped over and over. I don’t have time to dig up that video, though.
— I’m loving the ridiculous Bears game score predictions and outlandish “What if?” scenarios, such as Mike Ditka playing against the Giants by himself.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Play That Funky Music”


INSANE INVENTORS
Thomas Edison (DAC) & The Wolfman (host) collaborate

— The ridiculous inventions Phil’s host character is displaying are providing good laughs.
— I like the randomness of the Wolfman being an inventor. I also like the odd casting of Joe Mantegna, of all people, in that role.
— The wild fight between Dana’s Thomas Edison and Joe’s Wolfman is priceless.
STARS: ***½


O’HANLON MEMORIAL
wound closings recalled at funeral of cut-man Eddie “The Clot” O’Hanlon

— Joe’s goofy voice in this is freakin’ hilarious.
— All the stories about gruesome boxing wounds and O’Hanlon’s impressive ability to close them are cracking me the hell up.
— Rock’s incoherent rambling is very funny.
— Another early role for writer/pre-castmember Adam Sandler, who briefly steals the sketch as a hilarious goofy-accented Hector “Macho Man” Camacho (third screencap above).
— Heh, what’s with Jan’s wig? Something about the way it was applied looks bizarre.
— Good ending with Rock leading the whole room in an incoherent prayer.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. Considering I used to think this episode was merely pretty good, I was surprised at how strong I found most of the show during tonight’s viewing. The quality was consistent, none of the sketches were weak, and the show provided lots of good laughs. I was also pleasantly surprised by how solid a host Joe Mantegna was. He was very good in the sketches and had great delivery that really added to some of the material. My praising of him as the host is now reminding me of a great cut dress rehearsal sketch that used to be available on Yahoo Screen, in which Joe plays the owner of a one-man restaurant. That definitely should’ve made it on the air in this episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dennis Quaid)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sting

Posted on

December 15, 1990 – Dennis Quaid / The Neville Brothers (S16 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives Saddam Hussein a preview of the sounds of war

— Dana’s adding a lot of funny new little touches to his usual hand gestures as Bush.
— Great line about the simple lesson America learned from Vietnam: “STAY OUT OF VIETNAM.”
— Love the part with him doing imitations of various types of falling bombs.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— SNL would later replace both the theme music and monologue with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— A good laugh from Quaid demonstrating how his uncontrollable smile cost him a part in the movie “The Last Temptation of Christ”.
— Didn’t care for the ending, with his “I know what’s in tonight’s show, and frankly, we’re in trouble” joke. His iffy delivery of it didn’t help either. I wonder if that’s the reason why reruns of this episode show the dress version of this monologue. IIRC, he delivers that line a little better there.
STARS: **½


A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY CHRISTMAS
album of holiday songs for troubled clans

 

— Here’s an absolute classic that’s deservedly been aired in many SNL Christmas compilation specials.
— So many laughs from the dysfunctional song lyrics, especially how they’re being delivered so cheerfully. I also like the various song titles that are scrolled by.
— And there goes my favorite part of this classic sketch, with Dana repeatedly singing the lyrics “Leave me alone, please go away, I’m doing fine, just go away” to the tune of “Carol of the Bells”.
— According to GettyImages, Jan didn’t wear a wig during the dress rehearsal version of this sketch (pic here). I can see why they ended up giving her a wig for the live show, as it makes her look much more convincing as a mother to Julia, Victoria, Mike, and Dana than how she looked with her real hair.
STARS: *****


SALLY
narcoleptic hunks (host), (PHH), (MIM)

— Despite the fact that she’s supposed to be playing one of the cheering ladies in the audience, Julia has a strangely unenthusiastic look on her face throughout this sketch, as if something was bothering her. She also keeps looking up at herself in the monitor for some reason.
— Not too great of a premise, but I did laugh at Phil falling out of his chair as he dozed off.
— The audience member in the black dress who asks a question (last screencap above) is Mike Myers’ then-girlfriend and future (ex-)wife.
— I liked Jan’s Sally Jesse Raphael getting overemotional when mentioning Mike’s character never having finished school.
— Jan as Sally: “I gotta admit, this is getting a little tiresome.” Is that meta commentary there? Because that line sums up this tepid sketch pretty well.
— I think the scene with Kevin as a narcoleptic exotic dancer is going on slightly longer in the live version I’m watching than it does in the rerun version.
STARS: **


EX-BOYFRIEND
members of (VIJ)’s family still adore her ex-boyfriend (host)

— Looks like the same kitchen set from the previous week’s Gross-Out Family sketch.
— Very good reveal of Kevin and Jan being the parents of Quaid’s ex-girlfriend, after the set-up of this sketch made you think they were HIS parents.
— Writer/pre-castmember Adam Sandler gets another early onscreen role, and almost steals the whole sketch as the little brother.
— Loved Quaid’s blunt “No” answer to Victoria after she pours her heart out to him (complete with background music) when asking if they can get back together.
— Victoria’s comical crying outburst (last screencap above) right before running out of the kitchen cracked me up.
— Great ending with the parents’ love for Quaid getting to the ridiculous point where they now decide to let him run the family business.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Brother Jake”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Annoying Man shows DEM how to make a coffee cake
Grumpy Old Man rails against shopping malls, Christmas carols, safe toys

— The photos of an angry George Bush (first two screencaps above) shown during Miller’s opening joke were a riot.
— Ha, Jon Lovitz making a cameo for the second episode in a row!
— Miller, when complaining to Annoying Man about his various habits: “The most annoying thing of all: you and Lovitz quit the show and then you’re back every damn week!”
— Great ending to the Annoying Man commentary, where Miller asking him how he’s able to sometimes use a dignified deep voice is answered by him exclaiming a Master Thespian-esque “ACTING!” I also noticed that right afterwards, Jon says “Goodbye, everybody, goodbye!” in his Evelyn Quince voice (his character in the “Tales of Ribaldry” sketches).
— Dana seems PARTICULARLY animated in tonight’s Grumpy Old Man commentary.
— Some truly great stories from Grumpy Old Man tonight, particularly how Christmas carols in his day only consisted of people screaming gibberish at the top of their lungs until they coughed up blood, and how children opening up Christmas presents in his day would immediately result in them either bursting into flames or losing a limb.
STARS: ***½


TALKING THROUGH TOUCH
Ernie Hitchens (MIM) & other massage students have personal problems

— Good characterization from Mike, even if he’s not particularly making me laugh here.
— Kevin’s eagerness to “touch” other couples is providing some good laughs.
— Loved Phil’s teeth-gritted delivery of “Let’s be careful not to piss around.”
— I like Farley’s pained groaning during his massage.
STARS: ***


MUSTANG CALHOUN
renegade pilot’s (host) reckless stunts aren’t limited to airplane tricks

— I love the cutaways to Quaid whooping like a maniac in the cockpit.
— Absolutely hilarious how the reckless actions Quaid is doing in the cockpit now involve him investing in shares, putting tin foil in the microwave, etc.
— More and more as it progresses, this sketch is getting freakin’ priceless. Phil’s angry outbursts in reaction to hearing what crazy stunt Quaid is now doing are killing me as well.
— This sketch would later be moved to the first half of this episode in reruns, which I definitely understand. One of my personal favorite sketches, even if it’s probably not widely considered a classic.
STARS: *****


SPROCKETS
Dieter sings Silent Night; Bavarian TV stars (host) & (CSR)

— Dieter: “I have become so jaded that someone should strike at my genitals with a toffee hammer.”
— I like the picture shown of each guest’s TV show, such as “Black American With a Gun”.
— After getting many big opportunities to shine in his first few months on the show, this is clearly around the time where Chris Rock’s airtime has taken a turn for the worse. He hasn’t had a lead role in weeks by this point and it’s starting to feel kinda rare to see him in any sketches (in fact, he didn’t appear AT ALL in the previous week’s Tom Hanks episode).
— I loved Rock’s angry delivery of “I’d whip that ASS!”, as well as his line about being the only black man in Germany.
— An overall disappointingly average Sprockets installment.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “River of Life”


SCHILLERVISION THEATRE
1952 holiday special is full of ads

 

— The human hair yarmulke ad was worth a good laugh.
— The mall Santa whiskey ad was okay.
— I usually can appreciate Schiller’s knack for recreating 1950s TV, but this overall film was a little meh. Kinda uninteresting and forgettable. A weaker version of the Schiller film from the Dennis Hopper episode a few weeks earlier, and I wasn’t even crazy about THAT one.
STARS: **½


THE SPECIALTY SONGS OF CAL MCLANE JR.
a jingoistic country album

— The idea was initially fairly funny, but this has gotten old fast and the redundancy of it isn’t working.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode. There were a few fantastic pieces, but a lot of the show was merely okay, and a few parts were pretty disappointing. I can’t complain too much overall, but this was unmemorable for a Christmas show. One can’t help but wish that the previous week’s far superior Tom Hanks episode was the Christmas episode of this season.
— With this being the one-year anniversary of me starting this ‘One SNL a Day’ Project, I just want to say that it’s been an amazing journey so far. It’s been such a fascinating experience chronologically going through SNL’s timeline episode-by-episode on a daily basis. This was a HUGE task to take on; in fact, when I first started this project, I had an undisclosed slight feeling of uncertainty and worry, not knowing if I would be able to commit to the project like I wanted to. Cut to a year later, and I’m now so proud to see how successful the project has been. It’s hard for me to believe the fact that it’s already been a full year since I’ve started this project, and the fact that I’ve gone through so many SNL episodes and eras in such a short amount of time. I’m also very proud and appreciative of the large number of followers and regular commenters that this project has gained. I look forward to continuing this incredible ‘One SNL a Day’ journey.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 1991, with host Joe Mantegna

Posted on

December 8, 1990 – Tom Hanks / Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (S16 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Mr. Subliminal gives an editorial reply about America’s Iraq policy

— Kevin’s Mr. Subliminal routine is a very promising way to start the show.
— Lots of hilarious subliminal dialogue so far, particularly “Nobody wants war (republicans).” and “We need to give Hussein a face-saving way to leave Kuwait (bodybag).”
— A particularly great subliminal line right now, with “What’s the best weapon to use to topple a power-hungry megalomaniac like Hussein? (Marla Maples)”
— Nice touch how he even delivered “Live from New York…” subliminally.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
Paul Simon, Steve Martin, Elliott Gould [real] welcome host to 5ers club

— I love Tom breaking down the meaning behind each hosting stint.
— Very exciting and classic turn with Tom taking us into the Five-Timers Club.
— Ha, Paul Simon, after we just saw him as a musical guest two episodes ago.
— Speaking of Paul, there’s been confusion among some SNL fans over why Paul is considered a five-timer, as it’s widely thought that he only hosted four times: seasons 1, 2, 11, and 13. I made an argument in my review of SNL’s supposedly-hostless 100th episode that both Paul Simon and James Taylor were actually billed as that night’s official hosts (an argument I still stand by), which would explain the inclusion of Paul in this Five-Timers monologue.
— I liked the knock on “Joe Versus the Volcano”, with Paul saying there was a worry that movie would keep Tom from reaching his fifth hosting stint.
— HUGE audience reaction to the reveal of Steve Martin.
— Tom: “Thanks, Mr. Martin.” Steve: “Please, call me Mr. Steve Martin.”
— Love the Five-Timers handshake.
— Elliott Gould, making his first SNL appearance since his ill-fated season 6 hosting stint!
— Even though I’ve seen this monologue about 100 times before, it feels more special during this particular viewing to see all these cameos from five-timers, as someone who has reviewed every single SNL episode up to this point during this SNL project of mine.
— Elliott’s complaint about how “it really is easier to get to number 5 these days” is actually more of a valid point now than it was in 1990, with undeserving people like Jonah Hill and Scarlett Johansson somehow reaching their fifth hosting stint in recent years.
— Hilarious sudden appearance from Jon Lovitz as the waiter, in his first of what will turn out to be many SNL appearances since leaving the cast.
— Tom: “Jon Lovitz?!? You work here???” Jon: “Hey, work is work.”
— Great touch with the items on the menu being named after cast members.
— In reruns of this episode, when Paul orders the “Joe Piscopo” off the menu, Steve looks at him and asks a disapproving “REALLY?” However, in the live version I’m watching, right when Steve was about to say his “REALLY?” line, Jon unintentionally cut him off and went on with the sketch.
— Hilarious part with Ralph Nader trying to get into the club despite only being a one-time host.
— Excellent ending with the other Five-Timers advising Tom to literally “phone in” the end of his monologue.
— An overall phenomenal and legendary monologue. The only flaw was the glaring absence of Buck Henry. I know he wanted to show loyalty to the original cast by not appearing in any regular episodes after the original era ended, but couldn’t he have made an exception for this very special monologue?
— Come to think of it, Candice Bergen was also absent, though she’d later make up for it in the more recent Five-Timers Club monologues with Justin Timberlake and Jonah Hill.
STARS: *****


GROSS-OUT FAMILY
family doesn’t take each other’s word when it comes to unpleasant stimuli

— Tom’s reaction to drinking from the carton of spoiled milk cracked me up.
— Funny blooper: when Farley slams the door after entering, a knick-knack shelf falls off the wall and crashes on the floor, which everyone in the sketch diverts their attention to for a few seconds.
— I loved Farley’s reaction to drinking the spoiled milk: “Stop the music, that is BAD!”
— The “Later that night” title screen being shown during the extended stair-falling sequence was really funny.
— A perfect silly premise for this SNL era, and also for Tom Hanks, who is always a pro at selling stuff like this. He was particularly good during the ending of this sketch, with him alternating back-and-forth between drinking spoiled milk and sitting on a nail sticking out of a chair.
STARS: ****


GAME BEATERS
Mr. Short-Term Memory is a contestant; Tony Randall cameo

— Tom’s insanely excited reaction to being on the gameshow are priceless.
— The short-term memory routine is coming off particularly great in this setting.
— Very funny how Phil constantly makes on-the-spot changes to the gameshow rules to work around Tom’s forgetfulness.
— Classic interactions between Tom and Tony Randall. I especially liked Tom’s reaction to Randall giving him an autograph that he had just asked for: “So you just hand these out to people you meet?”
— The cutaways to Phil’s fuming glares into the camera throughout this are perfect.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Woyaho”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DEM & Dennis Millers (DAC) & (host) sing “Jingle Bells”

— Loved Dennis joke about the Pope turning and running away when being greeted by a crowd of people doing the Arsenio whooping sounds.
— Great to see the return of Dana’s Dennis Miller impression, and the addition of Tom as a third Dennis Miller.
— I love how Tom’s Dennis impression is an even more exaggerated version of Dana’s impression.
— Classic sequence with the three Dennis Millers performing a “Jingle Bells” number with some Dennis Miller-isms replacing some of the original lyrics.
STARS: ****


THE GLOBAL WARMING CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
excess carbon dioxide effects felt

— Ah, a very well-regarded sketch that I always enjoy.
— Funny Carl Sagan voice from Mike.
— I absolutely love Tom’s Dean Martin voice.
— The segment with Victoria as an emotional Sally Struthers is a very funny spoof of Struthers’ real-life tear-filled PSAs.
— Loved Jan’s reaction to getting paint thrown on her fur coat.
— Dana’s Paul McCartney voice is uncanny and hilarious.
— Great scene with Kevin as the ridiculously tanned George Hamilton.
STARS: *****


P. WHIPPED
panelists’ female-dominated relationships complicate show

— Love how the “P. Whipped” title graphic is accompanied by a sound effect of a cat and a whip.
— Dana: “When I first met Linda, I knew it was whipped at first sight.”
— A good laugh from the sponsors (last two screencaps above).
— The guys’ ways of showing how pussy-whipped they are are providing some good amusement.
STARS: ***½


SABRA SHOPPING NETWORK
(host) & callers argue over overpriced duds

— Here comes the lesser-known predecessor to the famous Sabra Price is Right sketch from the following season.
— Very funny accent from Tom.
— Love Tom’s claim that the VCR has “Sony guts”, because the inside of it is supposedly the same as Sony.
— Dana’s stealing the sketch with his hilarious fast, high-pitched foreign speaking.
— A big laugh from Tom trying to pass off the little walkman as a CD player.
— Tom’s excessive amount of “look look look”s when showing off the aforementioned alleged CD player cracked me up.
— Adam Sandler makes his very first SNL appearance. He had been hired as a writer the previous week, and the show is starting to do with him what they had recently done with Rob Schneider and David Spade, having him make lots of uncredited appearances in sketches to test him out before eventually adding him to the cast as a featured player.
— Overall, this undeniably pales in comparison to the classic Sabra Price is Right follow-up (it doesn’t help that during my early SNL fandom days, I had been exposed to Sabra Price is Right many times before I first saw Sabra Shopping Network), but it’s still funny in its own right.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “He Said”


REPEATING GUY
(host) seeks psychiatrist’s (PHH) help regarding double-take reactions

— Yet another example of a silly sketch that Tom Hanks was born to pull off. Not many other hosts could sell a goofy, somewhat thin premise like this as well as he can.
— The scene with Tom making an exaggerated goofy face whenever he holds himself back from doing a double-take is very funny, though the dress rehearsal version shown in reruns is funnier, as it features a blooper with Victoria helplessly cracking up at Tom’s exaggerated facial expressions.
— Loved the sudden house explosion at the end, as a callback to the earlier throwaway mention of the house being made of exploding wood.
STARS: ***½


CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
AWB’s tree-hunting tale has parallels to stalking & murdering a human

— Interesting change of pace for A. Whitney Brown.
— Some really good laughs from his disturbing story about hunting a tree, made even funnier by his bizarre cracking-voiced delivery.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An outstanding episode and has always been one of my personal favorites from this era. From beginning to end, this was a very solid show, and there were so many classic and near-classic pieces in the first 2/3rds of the episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
It’s the one-year anniversary of me starting this ‘One SNL a Day’ Project! Dennis Quaid hosts the Christmas episode of the season.

Posted on

December 1, 1990 – John Goodman / Faith No More (S16 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Church Lady & mother (host) gang up on Saddam Hussein (PHH)

 

— This ends up being the final Church Chat sketch during Dana’s tenure as a cast member.
— Funny advertisement at the beginning with Church Lady’s Canned Ham.
— Funny “I’m going to keep it” bit regarding Saddam’s hat, as Church Lady’s way of imitating Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.
— Great inclusion of John Goodman as Church Lady’s mother.
— A lot of laughs from Church Lady and her mother’s detailing of marines’ “bulbous buttocks” alternating back-and forth between aligned and askew during their desert training.
— Excellent sequence with Church Lady and her mother ganging up on Saddam and beating the hell out him, complete with cartoonish sound effects.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host does an impression of his newborn daughter Molly

— When talking about how much his life has changed since hosting SNL just a year ago, he mentions Tom Arnold constantly firing and rehiring him from the show “Roseanne”. Is that true?
— I liked his bit about still having the pregnancy weight after the birth of his baby.
— His impression of his baby is very funny.
STARS: ***½


BAD IDEA JEANS
— Rerun


MISTER
people in (host)’s store are referred to by their annoying traits

— Funny reveal of John and Julia’s trait-based insulting names towards each other turning out to be their actual names.
— I like how the names are carrying over into other people at the store, particularly Farley’s substitute repairman character being named “Mr. I-Don’t-Have-To-Do-a-Good-Job-Because-I’m-Just-Filling-In”.
— Phil’s outlandish police report at the end was funny.
STARS: ***½


WEDDING DAY
Keith Richards (DAC) helps ease Mick Jagger’s (MIM) wedding day jitters

— Mike’s Mick Jagger impression is very funny and spot-on. Great Keith Richards from Dana too.
— It’s always interesting seeing Mike and Dana paired up in non-Wayne’s World sketches.
— Some really funny lines.
— Great touch with Keith’s tears at the end.
STARS: ****


PLAYER-WITH-YOURSELVES CLUB
Telly Savalas (PHH) touts Player-With-Yourselves-Club wanking privileges

— Hilarious reveal of the concept.
— Phil is priceless in this as Telly Savalas.
— Savalas: “Unlimited Kleenex. I’m talking two-ply, baby!”
— Savalas: “All the latest videotapes cued up to the good parts, baby, ‘cuz players don’t have time to fast-forward!”
— Loved Phil’s delivery of “Ohhh, yeah!” at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Epic”


THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP
controlling moderator McLaughlin (DAC) has all the answers

— I believe this ends up being the final occurrence of a sketch appearing in between the first musical performance and Weekend Update slot.
— The debut of a sketch that I’ve always loved from this era.
— I’m enjoying the hell out of how fast-moving this is, made even funnier with Dana’s McLaughlin frequently cutting off the panelists’ answers, and occasionally telling them “Wrong!” (though he’s not doing the latter as much as he would in future installments).
— Haha, this is killing me, especially the increasingly insane questions. This is a riot.
— Yet another aspect I love about this sketch is the nicknames McLaughlin gives to the panelists, especially the one long-winded name he gives to Jack Germond.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS likens Iraq attacking Kuwait to his older brother picking on him

 

— David Spade in his very first Update commentary as himself.
— David’s overall dolls commentary was decent, though nothing memorable and very different from the type of Update commentaries that he would typically do later on.
— I loved Dennis’ friendly noogey-ing of David after his commentary ended. It’s interesting seeing how Dennis interacts with all the new kids in this season’s cast whenever any of them do an Update commentary, especially considering this ends up being the only season Dennis works with them.
STARS: ***


CHEW
flow of dinner table conversation is interrupted by the need to chew food

— Funny realistic premise with the timing of dinner table conversations constantly getting delayed as the people at the table take the time to chew their food before answering a question they were asked.
— A good laugh from John hesitating to insert food in his mouth while making sure nobody is about to ask him a question, only for him to immediately be asked a question by Kevin when finally inserting the food in his mouth.
— Loved John vengefully turning the tables on Kevin by asking HIM a question as HE’S eating.
— The look on Rock’s face while doing the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing is particularly funny.
— Hilarious when Farley does the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing even when recovering from the Heimlich Maneuver.
— It’s amazing how they’re able to mine this many laughs out of a simple premise like this.
STARS: ****


WAYNE’S WORLD
Madonna’s Justify My Love video is on at Garth’s house

— Surprisingly, this is the first time Wayne’s World has appeared all season. Wonder why they waited this long, considering the huge popularity of this recurring sketch.
— Also strange that this is buried so late in the show, though the reason for that is because they’re going to air a racy Madonna music video that MTV refused to play.
— Wayne: “Madonna is such a babe… she’d give a dog a bone.”
— Love Wayne and Garth’s commentary during the Madonna music video. Some of the funniest lines include “There’s Prince!”, the reference to the famous “Three Men and a Baby” urban legend of a ghost appearing in the background, and “Look at the unit on that guy!”
— Nice to see John reprising his cop character from a previous Wayne’s World sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “From Out of Nowhere”


DAVY CROCKETT
Davy Crockett (host) doesn’t know what to make of his bookish son (MIM)

— Pretty funny nerd characterization from Mike.
— I laughed at the cutaway to Phil’s puzzled face during Mike’s long-winded intelligent spiel (second screencap above).
— The result of the overall sketch wasn’t particularly interesting, though not particularly terrible either. The sketch had a strange charm that made it a little more likable than it normally would be.
STARS: **½


PAT
(KEN) tries to figure out the sex of androgynous co-worker Pat (JUS)

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Viewers at the time probably had a hard time telling who that was playing Pat in this sketch, especially considering how new Julia Sweeney is at this point. The mystery is answered during the goodnights that follow this sketch,  where Julia still appears in her Pat costume, but sans the wig, glasses, and eyebrows.
— Feels a little odd in hindsight seeing a Pat sketch without the opening credits and theme song. That wouldn’t be introduced until the third installment.
— This being the first time Pat has ever appeared, Julia’s characterization is coming off funny and fresh. I also like how the voice is a lot less high-pitched and whiny than it would be in later installments.
— Some really funny fake-outs with it seeming like Pat’s going to answer a question that will reveal Pat’s gender, only for Pat’s answer to be something gender-unspecific.
— A good laugh from the reveal of Pat’s ex-fiancee having the unisex name Chris, as well as Chris being involved with someone with the equally-unisex name Terry.
— Pat: “I guess it’s that time of the month.” Kevin (thinking THAT reveals Pat’s gender): “Oh, okay.” Pat: “Bills.”
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— This is Adam Sandler’s first episode as a writer. He will begin making uncredited appearances in bit roles very soon.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. Aside from the Davy Crockett sketch, everything worked for me, and several of the sketches were particularly strong. We also got a memorable debut of two sketches that would go on to become recurring (McLaughlin Group and Pat). Much like his first time hosting, John Goodman did another great job as host, though he seemed a little underutilized at times tonight.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dennis Hopper)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tom Hanks joins the Five-Timers Club

Posted on

November 17, 1990 – Dennis Hopper / Paul Simon (S16 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Live With Regis (DAC) & Kathie Lee (JAH)- morning talk in Saudi Arabia

— Pretty funny visual of Kathie Lee’s overly sunscreened baby, as well as Dana’s Regis pointing out he looks like Al Jolson.
— I like the occasional cutaways to the soldiers’ stone-faced reactions to Regis and Katie Lee doing their usual shtick in this out-of-place setting.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host can’t remember anyone during “This Is Your Life”; Bert Parks cameo

— I like the sudden “This Is Your Life” turn. Nice change of pace for a monologue.
— An okay joke with Hopper not remembering anything from earlier in his life for obvious reasons.
— A good laugh from Hopper acting like he’s just now meeting Jack Nicholson for the first time.
STARS: ***


NIKEY TURKEY
the inflatable bird is perfect for large holiday gatherings

 

— I love how early 90s everything about this is. Brings back nice memories of rap music videos from this time period.
— Very amusing concept and fun song.
STARS: ****


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
even in his dreams, Toonces manages to drive over a cliff

— An interesting change of pace, with us seeing Toonces’ dream.
— Toonces showing up in his underwear is a funny visual.
— Toonces shockingly speaking like a human is a riot. Is that Don Pardo doing his voice?
— Funny brief appearance from Farley as a firecracker-holding bad little boy chasing the car. This bit role unfortunately ends up being Farley’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode.
— Good deviation during the usual car-falling-off-a-cliff bit, with the car actually stopping mid-air, only to continue falling and eventually crash as usual.
STARS: ***½


INFLATABLE DOLL PARTY
(host) & his friends treat inflatable dolls as if they were real women

— Pretty funny reveal of the blow-up dolls at the party.
— Hopper, regarding if he’s seeing anybody other than his blow-up doll girlfriend: “When you got steak at home, huh, why go out for hamburger?”
— Funny cutaway to Rob making out with one of the dolls.
— The somewhat thin premise is starting to lose its novelty a bit towards the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Obvious Child”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR dislikes the government taxing him to make prisons more comfortable
DEM lip-syncs a story on Milli Vanilli

— So many good jokes from Rock about taxes, checks, and prison overcrowding.
— Rock, on how criminals in prison should be fed: “If you miss a meal, go to death row and get the extra meat off the electric chair.”
— It’s amazing in hindsight how strongly Chris Rock has been doing in his SNL tenure so far and how he’s been getting so many opportunities to shine, considering how notoriously bad his airtime soon ends up getting for the remainder of his SNL tenure. What went wrong?
— Pretty strong overall Update for Miller tonight.
STARS: ****


BOWMAN’S RETIREMENT PARTY
co-workers silently mock (JUS) & (musical guest) upon learning of liaison

— The co-workers mocking sexual gestures in the background are funny, especially Dana’s gestures.
— Strange way for the sketch to end.
— Surprised by how short this overall sketch was.
STARS: ***


THE CIVIL WAR
Confederate soldiers prepare to have group photo taken

— Phil’s amusing aggression throughout this is the only entertainment I’ve been getting so far.
— Overall, a very dull sketch. I understand what they were going for, but for a realistic slice-of-life piece, this missed the mark.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Proof”


WHAT ANIMAL WERE YOU RAISED BY?
(host) recalls his non-human guardians

— Looks like the same set from the Slapped By Beaver Tails sketch earlier this season.
— I liked Hopper’s imitation of a faulty plane.
— Funny reveal that Hopper shot his own flamingo parents.
— Hopper’s delivery of “If you got hungry enough… you would EAT DUNG!” made me laugh out loud.
— I recall some people saying that this sketch would’ve been perfect for Christopher Walken. While I thought Hopper was fine in this overall sketch, it’s undeniable that Walken indeed would’ve killed in this. For example, that whole “eat dung” quote from above would’ve come off freakin’ priceless had it been delivered by Walken.
STARS: ***


SUDDEN PRESSURE
Schillervision- 1950s-style program features Man-Bra ad & bathroom run

— As usual for Tom Schiller’s period pieces, this is an accurate recreation of 1950s TV.
— The Man-Bra commercial is priceless.
— The rest of the film is just average, though I like the “Gandhi With the Windy” scene.
STARS: ***


STAN DUFFY’S GAMBLING TO WIN
Stan Duffy (KEN) fails to heed his own advice

— This is the type of thing that Kevin is always great at selling.
— Very funny progression with Kevn’s downward spiral as each of his advertised gambling rules fail him, eventually leading to him advertising a gambling tape called “Hiding and Creating an Alias” while he still tries to keep an upbeat mood.
— The twist at the end with the alcoholism tape was good.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Late in the Evening”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Much like the last episode, this was a forgettably average episode. Not much was weak, but not much was great either. The overall show just had an unexciting, unmemorable feel.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Smits)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman

Posted on

November 10, 1990 – Jimmy Smits / World Party (S16 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) emphasizes that Mario Cuomo has a foreign-sounding name

— Love Dana-as-Bush’s ways of demonstrating how down his approval rating has gone.
— Some good laughs from him emphasizing how un-American Mario Cuomo’s first name is.
— Memorable part with him using infrared night vision goggles, especially him getting scared by Little Dan Quayle sneaking up on him with night goggles of his own.
— Interesting how they let the child actor playing Quayle (Jeff Renaudo) deliver “Live from New York…” this time.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Season 16’s growing cast continues to increase in size, as Julia Sweeney and David Spade are added to the cast tonight as featured players, the former of whom is a new SNL hire and the latter of whom was already working on SNL as a writer and had made many uncredited onscreen appearances.


MONOLOGUE
DOP provides a Spanish translation of host’s story

— Nice energetic entrance from Jimmy Smits.
— Pretty fun idea of Don Pardo translating Jimmy’s dialogue into Spanish.
— Boy, this bit ended up running out of steam and dying off pretty fast. At least they seemed to be fully aware of that.
STARS: **


CHIA HEAD
an organic alternative to traditional baldness countermeasures

 

— Priceless and very memorable concept.
— I love them showing the process of Kevin planting his about-to-grow hair, as if it’s perfectly normal.
— The testimonials are all very funny, especially Rock’s.
STARS: *****


GAME CHALLENGERS
(host) competes to reclaim Native American artifacts

 

— Pretty funny how one of the contestants is a Native American coming to reclaim the Indian artifacts that are being presented as gameshow prizes.
— Funny reveal of the skeleton on display being Jimmy’s great-grandfather.
— As usual in his portrayal of gameshow hosts, I love Phil’s overly-cheerful demeanor in this.
— Heavy reliance on Don Pardo tonight, between the monologue and now him being held hostage from off-camera in his announcer’s booth at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***


SPANISH PRONUNCIATION
NBC News employees overdo their Spanish pronunciations; Bob Costas cameo

 

— This is a fleshed-out, sketch version of a commentary that Victoria did on Weekend Update a year earlier, where she kept using a heavy accent when pronouncing the names of Spanish nations.
— Dana is particularly funny at doing the Spanish pronunciations here.
— Decent Bob Costas cameo.
— Jimmy’s angry outburst at the end was good.
STARS: ***


SIMON
while in the tub, neglected English boy Simon (MIM) shows his drawings

— This Mike Myers character makes its debut.
— I like the opening announcer’s passing mention of the show having been preceded by 5 hours of The All-England Sheepdog Trials from Bridlington.
— Good theme song.
— I’m enjoying Mike’s characterization and unique pronunciation of certain words (particularly “draw-rings”).
— I like the New York hotel window drawing with the window washer blocking the view.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Way Down Now”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in Central Park, JAH interviews New York Marathon last-place runner (CHF)

— A very rare Update appearance from Jan, though as usual, it’s not behind the Update desk.
— The marathon runner commentary is featuring a very early display of Farley’s extreme energy. Unfortunately, there’s not much for him to work with here in terms of material. A fairly tepid Update commentary.
— Dennis, in a meta comment about Farley after the marathon runner commentary has ended: “At least we didn’t see his ass this week.”
— Dennis goes on a jokingly xenophobic-esque rant, but it fell flat for me.
— I’ve been noticing lately that Dennis’ trademark arm-swipe when scribbling off the sheet of paper after his “I… am… outta here” tagline hasn’t been as energetic as usual this season. A sign that he’s starting to get burned out as an Update anchor, which unfortunately ends up only getting worse as this season progresses.
STARS: ***


FIRST DATE
(host) is frustrated by ditzy (JUS)’s short attention span & bad stories

— Julia Sweeney gets her very first big showcase, right in her first episode.
— Feels strange in hindsight seeing Julia playing such a ditzy character like this, considering this is VERY different from the roles she’d end up typically being cast in for most of her tenure.
— Not caring for where this sketch has been going so far.
— Okay, I did chuckle at the part just now with Jimmy demonstrating to Julia the proper way to tell a story, after all of her bad attempts.
— Ha, I loved Julia’s abrupt “I gotta go” immediately after hinting to Jimmy that she wants to sleep with him.
— For a sketch that dragged and didn’t make me laugh much, this had an actual funny ending. Not sure it was worth sitting through this entire sketch to get there, though. Not the greatest way for Julia Sweeney to make a first impression, which I hate to say, as I like Julia as a performer and have the benefit of hindsight to know that she goes on to do some good things on the show.
STARS: **


THE DARK SIDE
Nat X (CSR) discusses race with host & Gerry Cooney (KEN)

— Two sketches in a row starring a new cast member. Cool.
— Loved the opening line from Phil’s voice-over: “A man so black, he goes to funerals naked.”
— The set is a bit different from how it would look in subsequent installments of this sketch. There’s no window behind Nat X in this one.
— I love the idea of this character for Chris Rock, and he’s giving a strong performance. This sketch comes off so refreshing to see on SNL after the lack of urban humor during the late 80s era.
— Great line about how “the man” made the black jellybean the worst tasting candy on earth.
— I liked the Top 5 list, even if this one kinda pales in comparison to some of the later ones.
— Nat X to Gerry Cooney: “This the only time you can get THIS close to a black man without gettin’ ya ass kicked!”
— I liked the number total shown of how much money white people lost betting on Cooney.
— Something seemed to go wrong at the end of the Gerry Cooney interview. There was a long awkward pause, and then the ending Nat X theme music was cued up, but played way too loud, causing Rock to have to practically SHOUT his lines over it as he wraps up the show.
STARS: ***½


DOORMEN
doormen (ROS) & (KEN) discuss building tenants behind their backs

— Wow, THREE sketches in a row with a new cast member in a lead role. I love it!
— This would go on to be a semi-recurring sketch. Rob Schneider and Kevin’s characterizations and interplay in these sketches are fun, and have always kinda reminded me of the characterizations and interplay between Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest in those Willie and Frankie (the “I hate when that happens” characters) sketches from season 10.
— After the initial reveal of the comedic hook, this overall sketch didn’t go anywhere too interesting and ended with kind of a flat feeling. I liked this sketch more for Rob and Kevin’s chemistry and delivery than for the material itself.
STARS: **½


MANHATTAN MOBILE HOME PARK
(host), (VIJ), (CHF) live in a mobile home in NYC, with some difficulty

— I absolutely LOVE the setting of this with everything in the home being sideways. Something tells me Conan O’Brien is the writer behind this, and not just because he ends up making a brief appearance at the end (though that DOES kinda help my theory).
— Odd technical error just now, where they accidentally cut back to the establishing shot of the mobile park while Jimmy was in the middle of speaking.
— Another blooper, this time a funny one: Victoria’s release of the vacuum she was holding causes its handle to lightly bump onto Jimmy’s crotch.
— What the…? Is that freakin’ CHING CHANGE as the delivery boy?!? Oh, god.
— The overall sketch ended up being kinda average, which is a little disappointing considering how great it could’ve been with its creative setting. This fizzled out a little towards the end, especially with Dana’s god-awful Ching Change character hijacking the sketch.
— This sketch would later be removed from reruns and be replaced with a Schiller’s Reel.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ship of Fools”


DETECTIVES
(host)’s clever-sounding verbal reversals irritate fellow policeman (DAC)

— Jimmy’s habit of reversing verbs in Dana’s statements to sound “deep” and philosophical are increasingly funny.
— I like the sudden “I’m going to have to kill you” turn.
— Funny casual delivery from Farley with his “Killed your partner, huh?” line.
— I love the ending with Farley’s “Let’s let a bite get us something to eat” and the enlightened “Ah!” face that he and Dana make in unison afterwards.
— A short and sweet sketch. I don’t think this is a well-liked sketch among SNL fans (every review I’ve ever read of this episode gave this sketch a low rating), but I personally have always dug this sketch.
— SNL would later use a similar premise in a 1998 sketch with Jimmy Fallon as the ghost of John Lennon speaking to fans at a Lennon Memorial.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very, very average episode. So average, that it was forgettable. Almost nothing stood out as great, and most of the show just hovered around the “okay” range. Barely anything to remember in this. I will say I did like the fact that the newer cast members got a lot of focus tonight, especially in the post-Update half of the show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Patrick Swayze)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Dennis Hopper

Posted on

October 27, 1990 – Patrick Swayze / Mariah Carey (S16 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Dirty Square Dancing- at a hoe-down, (host) & (JAH) do all but go down

— Great sudden reveal of the “Dirty Square Dancing” title.
— Hilarious dirty lyrics from Phil and dirty moves from the dancers, especially the “lift your dress up over your head” and “stick your face in your partner’s crotch” ones.
— I like how they kept this overall cold opening short and sweet.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— After appearing in lots of uncredited bit roles since the homestretch of the preceding season, writer Rob Schneider joins the cast as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “All I Need Is A Girl” & dances with wife Lisa Niemi [real]

— Nothing much at all to say about this overall monologue. It was very light on humor and mostly focused on the dancing between Patrick and his wife, but it was at least charming.
STARS: **½


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Franz has unexplained feelings for host

— We haven’t seen these characters in a while.
— Excellent turn with Franz developing feelings he doesn’t understand for Patrick Swayze.
— Hans’ high-pitched deliveries of his various “What do you mean you didn’t notice–” questions are making me laugh.
— Classic part with Franz’s fantasy sequence of Patrick horseback riding and eventually being joined by Franz.
— Hans sneaks in a “Ja, that’s the ticket” while wrapping up the sketch.
STARS: *****


GHOST
Ghost romance sours when Sam (host) sees Molly’s (VIJ) disgusting habits

  

— Victoria doing increasingly disgusting things is very funny.
— Patrick is also helping sell the material with his funny grossed-out reactions.
— I love the casting of Rock as Whoopi Goldberg’s character from Ghost, especially how Rock barely has to change his voice to sound like Whoopi, as his natural voice is already close enough. In fact, I’d say Whoopi actually has the deeper voice of the two.
— One of Victoria’s overall best performances during her SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
Sam Walton (PHH) offers $100,000 to anyone who opposes a tax hike

— Meh, a forgettable and bland message that not even Phil could make all that interesting.
STARS: **


SUPER FEUD
Latino crooners (host) & (DAC) one-up each other on album

— I love the melody the songs are being sung in.
— Dana’s accent is hilarious.
— Dana and Patrick’s increasingly blasphemous accusations of each other through song are hilarious, especially Dana claiming Patrick stuffs his trousers “with a plastic peeeeniiiiss” and how it “fell out in Liiiiiimaaaa”.
— Very fun sketch.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
rescinding previous deal, Sam Walton (PHH) now offers chance to win a hat

— Unlike the first one, this one has an actual funny message with Phil’s Walton realizing he couldn’t possibly pay out the insane amount of money he offered in the first ad.
— His new offer being a raffle where the winner receives Walton’s hat is pretty funny.
— Classic unscripted moment right now: when Phil’s Walton is concluding his message and telling us to let him worry about things, a VERY loud off-camera crash is suddenly heard from somewhere in the studio. Phil looks towards the direction of the crash with a hilarious frozen open-mouthed smile (second screencap above) and says “Thank you”, and then tells us “Well, you just let me worry about THAT too!” An excellent save from Phil that receives huge applause.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vision of Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB warns that not voting in elections can only make things worse

 

— Loved the soundbyte of a knocked-out-by-Evander-Holyfield Buster Douglas saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”, made even funnier by the fact that it’s then-writer David Spade doing the voice in that soundbyte.
— A. Whitney, on what the future generation will inherit: “If voter turnout is no better than it usually is, there’s a good chance they’ll also inherit our congress… or should I say, inherit the wind.”
— I love Dennis doing multiple jokes about a suggestive-looking photo of Dan Quayle taking the snap from a football player.
— Speaking of David Spade earlier, according to GettyImages, he had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he apparently played some kind of Russian (pic here).
STARS: ***½


CHIPPENDALES
sexy (host) & flabby (CHF) compete for a job as a Chippendale dancer

 

— Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to witness a star being born. Not only is this a very popular and legendary sketch, it’s also a very important sketch, as it’s Chris Farley’s official breakout moment as an unproven featured player who’s only in his fourth episode.
— I’ve always liked the little detail with Patrick and Farley’s characters being named Adrien and Barney, respectively.
— Farley is incredible to watch during his hilarious dancing here, especially when you’re aware of this being a groundbreaking moment for the then-newbie. His comical physicality, his fearlessness, etc. are all on FULL display for the very first time. I can only imagine what it was like in 1990 to watch this sketch live and witness this new kid completely and unexpectedly steal the entire show in this manner.
— All that stuff about Farley’s dancing being said, they would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns (which is the version of this sketch that everyone today is familiar with), where Farley’s dancing is even funnier. As awesome as the live version of this sketch is, Farley’s not QUITE as unleashed in his dance moves as he is in the dress rehearsal version (I wonder if he was suffering from live TV jitters, considering how new he is at this point).
— Besides the main joke, one aspect that helps make this sketch work so well is how the judges are treating this competition so ridiculously seriously, as if it’s truly a difficult decision to choose between Swayze and Farley.
— I love the camaraderie between Farley and Patrick throughout this sketch, especially during the backstage scene.
— Funny touch with Farley unsuccessfully trying to change the judges’ minds by starting to open up his robe while slowly beginning to break out into another dance.
— Sweet, charming ending with Patrick’s voice-over epilogue.
STARS: *****


THE TONIGHT SHOW
guests are Susan Dey (JAH) & Arsenio Hall (CSR)

— Good to see the return of Jan’s Susan Dey. So many dead-on and funny details in her vocal imitation.
— Rock’s Arsenio is a riot right from his entrance.
— So strange to think there was a time when Arsenio’s show was predicted to eventually overtake the Tonight Show in popularity. All I can say in hindsight is: Ha!
— I really like Dana-as-Johnny-Carson’s reactions to hearing how out-of-touch and unhip The Tonight Show has become lately.
— A good laugh from Phil’s Ed McMahon having no problem admitting he would stay on if Jay Leno took over.
STARS: ***½


WHITE TRASH BED AND BREAKFAST
reviewer (DAC) visits the trailer park clan

   

— Catchy opening theme song. This late 80s/early 90s era is so damn good at creating jingles, even for one-off sketches like this.
— Jan, on her bedroom: “I shared it with four husbands.” Patrick: “Mama, give it a rest.” Jan: “Oh, you’re just mad cuz none of ’em was your daddy!”
— Great redneck performances from the cast and Patrick.
— I like Kevin and Rob Schneider’s entrance as strange twins.
— Very funny part with Mike coming in with a dead dog and putting it on the table (where Dana’s character is trying to eat), only for Patrick to sternly order Mike to “put him in the sink!”
— Wild ending with the Phil/Patrick fight on the table.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vanishing”


MOUSE TRAP SEMINAR
seminar helps people who don’t quite grasp the concept of a mouse trap

— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing the entire first half of this fantastic sketch that I’ve always loved.
— Very funny little bit with Farley sheepishly and slowly lowering his raised hand in reaction to Kevin indirectly answering his dumb question before he’s even asked it (a gag that Farley would later reprise the following season in a famous sketch with Jerry Seinfeld as a history teacher).
— I’ve always found Dana’s look in this sketch to be odd and random. Why the dark skin and wig combo? Why give him such an oddly specific, detailed, almost-ethnic look for a generic, supporting, Caucasian role like this?
— Writer Bob Odenkirk’s brief walk-on gets ruined when the crab hanging on his nose IMMEDIATELY falls off by accident (third and fourth screencaps above). If you watch Odenkirk as he exits the scene, he can be seen shaking his head in disappointment. Reruns would replace his portion of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version where the crab stays on his nose during his entire walk-on.
— I love Dana trying to grab at the image of cheese shown on the screen projector, and Kevin having to inform him “This is only MOVIE cheese”.
STARS: ***** (And that’s only based on my memory of this sketch as a whole. The incomplete version I watched just now is too short to rate accurately.  With its first half missing, this sketch sadly loses some of the context that makes it a masterpiece.)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An incredible episode. The legendary Chippendales sketch was, of course, this episode’s centerpiece, but it was surrounded by plenty of sketches that were very memorable and strong in their own right. An overall almost flawless, very impressive, and incredibly fun episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Steinbrenner)
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Smits hosts. We also finally get the addition of a third female cast member.

Posted on

October 20, 1990 – George Steinbrenner / The Time (S16 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
in a dream, host manages the Yankees & plays every position on the field

— I like Victoria and Kevin’s little comments about how peaceful George Steinbrenner looks when sleeping.
— Very funny concept with George being every position on the Yankees.
— A lot of fun visuals throughout this, especially the convincing shot of an entire dugout of players with Steinbrenner faces (which used to kinda creep me out the first few times I saw this episode in Comedy Central reruns).
— The dress rehearsal version of this cold opening had George dreaming a completely different scenario; something to do with him giving a speech at Yankee Stadium. A video of this dress rehearsal cold opening (along with various other cut dress rehearsal sketches from this season) is/was available online at, I think, NBC.com, but I’ve been having trouble finding it lately. If anyone can find it and give me a link, I’d be very thankful.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Funny opening announcement from George: “I bought the Cincinnati Reds.”
— Him listing off things he won’t do since he’s not an entertainer isn’t that funny, though I did like his line “I’m not gonna catch a bullet in my teeth… I hope.”
STARS: **


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Middle-Aged Man counsels (JAH) on whether her husband is having an affair

— Good to see this back.
— Love the addition of Chris Farley as Middle-Aged Man’s sidekick Drinkin’ Buddy, as well as the explanation that Middle-Aged Man gives as to what the difference between him and Drinkin’ Buddy is: “I have a life.”
— A good laugh from Middle-Aged Man’s response to Jan telling him she’s had the same hairstyle for years: “What are you, Betty Rubble? Change it!”
STARS: ***½


CARL’S QUIK-STOP
convenience store owner (host) can’t bring himself to fire any employees

— Very memorable sketch with George playing a boss with an aversion to firing people because “it’s not in my nature”. A great self-deprecating way of George satirizing his infamous reputation.
— I’m loving how George is going on and on about how asinine it would be to fire people at the drop of a hat (“Only a JACKASS would run his business that way”, etc.)
— Great ending line from Phil: “There goes the opposite of a horrible man.”
— One of the best “host plays a character who’s the exact opposite of themself” sketches SNL has ever done.
STARS: *****


SLAPPED BY BEAVER TAILS
guests relate run-ins with angry dam dwellers

 

— Funny opening animated title graphic.
— The video of Victoria getting slapped on the face with a beaver tail provided a pretty good laugh.
— I didn’t get the whole bit with Phil’s cowboy character misunderstanding the show’s title.
— The sketch is over already? Not sure where else they could’ve taken this, but this felt underwritten.
STARS: **½


WINSTON-MCCAULEY FUNERAL HOME
Winston-McCauley Funeral Home has a no-necrophilia guarantee

 

— Hilarious concept of a spokesman guaranteeing their employees will never have sex with the dead body of your loved one, made even funnier by the soft, professional presentation of this ad.
— Great scene with Mike getting busted when he’s about to have sex with a dead woman.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jerk Out”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR believes boxing prowess is proportional to discrimination from whites
Roseanne (VIJ) & Tom Arnold (CHF) explain National Enquirer lawsuit

— Starting off tonight’s Update with an awful lot of corny “misinterpreting a picture” jokes.
— Second episode in a row with a Chris Rock Weekend Update commentary.
— Loved Rock pointing out how “the lower you go on the social ladder, the better you fight.”
— Chris Rock: “I feel so sorry for the Indians, because we took… well, we didn’t take, YOU people took their land.”
— Rock’s overall commentary was fantastic, even better than his one from the preceding episode. He’s carving out a great niche for himself with these stand-up commentaries he’s been doing on Update.
— The Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary is funny so far, and Farley’s Tom Arnold impression is a riot.
— There’s the famous moment of this commentary with Farley flashing his asscrack, the very first display of his fearlessness as a performer.
— Dennis, addressing the aforementioned asscrack flash after the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary has ended: “Did I just see what I think I saw? It was like I was above the Grand Canyon in a helicopter.” In the “dress rehearsal bloopers” section of Chris Farley’s “Best Of” DVD, they show a portion of the dress rehearsal version of this commentary (which includes Farley’s wig falling off at one point) where Dennis has a different comment about the asscrack flash: “Did I just see the new guy’s asshole?”
— Something seems to have gone wrong with the news screen after the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary has ended. The pictures that’s been shown on the screen since then look strangely enlarged (it’s noticeable during the last two above screencaps of Donald Trump and the New Kids on the Block, respectively).
— Dennis’ deconstruction of the “brooding” member of New Kids on the Block was fantastic.
— Dennis: “In a ceremony at City Hall this week, the stench of urine was named New York’s official smell.”
— After a bad start, tonight’s Update ended up being a strong one for Dennis;  his best in a while.
STARS: ****


ATTACK OF THE COLOSSAL KILLER LINCOLN
budget impass unleashes evil statue (PHH)

— Very funny sudden turn with the Lincoln statue biting off Dana’s head.
— Jan’s exaggerated “Eeeew!” in reaction to the aforementioned head-biting incident makes me think that she and Dana are supposed to be playing the same teen couple they played in the similarly-titled Attack Of The Masturbating Zombies sketch from the preceding season. In that one, Jan kept saying “Eeeew!” throughout the sketch in the same manner as she did here, and Dana wore the same wig he wears here.
— Excellent premise.
— Entertaining footage of Killer Lincoln destroying the city.
— Phil’s grunts as Killer Lincoln are reminding me of his Frankenstein.
— I really like how we’ve been seeing plenty of the new guys Rock and Farley throughout tonight’s episode.
— Killer Lincoln’s whimper during Rock’s sad story was really funny.
— Good turn with Tom Davis entering as a giant Thomas Jefferson.
— I like the random “Oh my god, there’s busload of Japanese tourists out there!” turn with obvious stock footage from a Godzilla movie.
— Hilarious death scene with Killer Lincoln getting impaled by the Washington Monument.
STARS: ****½


ULTRA SLIM-FAST
LOM & ALF explain to host why he’s among dictators in a fake Slim-Fast ad

— Wow, Chris Rock continues to get more and more airtime tonight. His accent as Idi Amin is very funny.
— Great turn with George stopping the sketch to question why he’s paired with ruthless dictators.
— Lorne: “Most people don’t know Jerry Reinsdorf. They know Pol Pol.” George: “Sure they know Pol Pot – he killed a million people!”
— George: “Idi Amin – he ATE people!” Lorne: “Actually, I think that was Bokassa.” So many lines in this sketch are tickling the hell out of me.
— Good part with Al Franken and Lorne coming up with an obviously false explanation of why George is paired with evil dictators.
— Very funny touch with George being given a pointy dictator hat.
— According to GettyImages’ dress rehearsal pictures from this episode (you can view the whole collection here), Saddam Hussein was played by Phil in dress rehearsal (pic here). I wonder if the reason they had Kevin play him during the live show is because it took quite a while for Phil to remove his Lincoln statue make-up from the preceding sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chocolate”

— At one point during a restaurant act that’s performed during the song, Morris Day removes the platter covering his dinner, sees a plate of chicken, and says an uncensored-but-hilarious “Where the fuck this chicken come from? I thought I ordered ribs!” The expletive would later be muted out in reruns.


WHAT WAS I THINKING?
Shelley Long (JAH), Walter Mondale (DAC), host

— A lot of laughs from Phil grilling Jan’s Shelley Long over her decision to leave “Cheers”.
— I liked Jan’s Long timidly answering “yes” to the question of if she ever asked the “Cheers” producers if her Diane character can come back.
— Funny Walter Mondale voice from Dana, especially how he keeps pronouncing “I know” as “I knoo”.
— Great part with Phil going into excessive detail of how Mondale is the only candidate in history to run on a platform of higher taxes.
— For some reason, I always laugh at the little touch with a graphic of Mondale’s name randomly showing up on the bottom of screen during one long pause he makes before saying his usual “I knoo”.
— Love the casual reveal of George having women’s breasts, as well as Phil’s response to that being “I’ll get right to the obvious question……. why breast implants?”
STARS: ****


PAYING FOR DINNER
(host) insists on paying for fancy meals- it makes the others look bad

— Victoria’s ditzy lines are not really working for me here.
— This sketch is pretty dead so far and isn’t going anywhere interesting.
— You can tell Jan tried to save the sketch just now, with her comical emotional outburst, which was the first real laugh I got here.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? This felt kinda pointless.
STARS: *½


COMPLAINT
host hits on female reporter (JAH) complaining about a sexist ballplayer

— Funny reveal of George in his underwear.
— Some of George’s flirtatious comments to Jan are kinda funny.
— Another overall sketch that ended up being unusually short, didn’t go anywhere too interesting, and felt fairly pointless.
STARS: **


THE VISION OF VAN GOGH
by TOS- astigmatism yielded most famous art

— The montage of appalled reactions to the painting made me laugh.
— Decent payoff with the result of Van Gogh getting glasses leading to him painting bizarre, goofy animal art.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An enjoyable episode. While there were a few misfires and underwritten material (especially towards the end), most of what was good in this episode was great, including some particularly memorable instances of George Steinbrenner poking fun at himself. Speaking of which, George was a very good sport as a host and didn’t do too badly for a non-actor.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Susan Lucci)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Patrick Swayze

Posted on

October 6, 1990 – Susan Lucci / Hothouse Flowers (S16 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Victor Kiam (PHH) introduces Classic Bitch & Lezbo electric shavers

— A freaking hilarious reveal of Phil’s Victor Kiam advertising a Classic Bitch Shaver.
— I also like how he’s making a passing mention of the controversy he was in the news for (offensive remarks he made about a female reporter who was sexually harassed in the New England Patriots locker room), which gives context to viewers like me watching this very topical cold opening decades later. Though I feel that this cold opening is funny even if you have no knowledge of what it’s parodying.
— Phil’s delivery in this is priceless.
— Another funny advertised product, with the Lezbo Electric Shaver.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Emmy-less host sees the statuettes everywhere in a nightmarish flashback

 

— I liked the bit with Susan talking about All My Children’s unsuccessful attempt at a live audience.
— Very funny casual reveals of various cast and crew members at SNL having an Emmy. A great way to parody Susan’s famous long Emmy-less streak at the time.
— I’m loving the increasingly-inappropriate uses of Emmys, especially the one handyman having a toolbelt full of them, writer/pre-castmember David Spade using them to eat corn on the cob, and various people partaking in an “Emmy Fight”.
STARS: ****½


LIVE WITH REGIS & KATHIE LEE
host & martial artist (MIM)

— Dana and Jan are fun and dead-on in their imitation of Regis and Kathie Lee’s chemistry and banter.
— Funny clip of Regis’ cameo on All My Children.
— Amusing how Susan’s interview ends with her barely having said a word while Regis did all of the talking.
— Dana as Regis: “I’m outta CONTROL!”
— I like the little touch with Phil-as-Frank-Gifford’s smiley stare into the camera during his entire appearance at the end.
STARS: ***


ALL MY LUGGAGE
at the airport, (host) gets bad news about her baggage

 

— Hilarious idea for an All My Children parody.
— I’m loving the soap opera-esque overdramatic treatment of lost luggage.
— Susan is selling this PERFECTLY. Excellent supporting work from Kevin and Phil as well.
— This sketch has one of the biggest audience reactions I’ve ever heard on SNL. The audience is practically SCREAMING throughout this, especially during the sudden reveal of Susan now being in a church.
STARS: *****


GREAT LOVE STORIES
unconventional couples describe how they met

— Jan’s battery acid-burned face is a funny visual.
— Interesting structure to this sketch.
— Chris Farley’s facial expressions in this are hilarious.
— Chris Rock: “I dropped my towel and said ‘Step up to the mike’.”
— I’ve always found Rock’s oversized suit in this to be odd. My guess is that since he’s supposed to be a football player in this, they put him into such a big suit to make him look buff, considering his natural build is way too skinny to be convincing as a football player.
— Mike’s jovial delivery of “They murdered my girlfriend in her sleeping bag and abducted me!” is funny.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Give It Up”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mr. Subliminal explains the MPAA’s new NC-17 rating
CSR explains the differences between crimes committed by blacks & whites
Grumpy Old Man complains about hair dryers, Minoxidil, condoms

     

— Strange moment where Dennis pauses for a while in between jokes and then says to the off-camera cue card guy “That joke’s odd” and then says to the camera “A little behind-the-scenes editing there.” I wonder what the “odd” joke was that we apparently never got to hear.
— Mr. Subliminal’s commentary explaining movie ratings was short and sweet.
— Ah, our very first Chris Rock Weekend Update commentary, something that will end up becoming a nice go-to for him throughout his SNL tenure.
— I’m loving Rock’s various examples of how the crazy, outlandish murders you see on the news is always committed a white guy, while blacks commit more generic crimes.
— Rock’s overall segment was another short and sweet commentary in tonight’s Update.
— I loved the meta joke with Dennis comparing a hood-wearing Ku Klux Klan member to Beldar Conehead.
— A rare Dennis Miller Update with THREE guest commentaries. Maybe that’s why Mr. Subliminal and Chris Rock’s commentaries were each fairly short.
— A particularly classic Grumpy Old Man story about how condoms in his days were just rabbit’s skin wrapped around privates, tied off with a bungee cord. Probably my favorite Grumpy Old Man “In my day…” story ever.
STARS: ***½


GAME BREAKERS
manipulative Erica Kane (host) wins; Gene Rayburn cameo

 

— Jan is basically playing her Marge Keister character (who we haven’t seen in a long time), but she has different hair and was introduced under the suspiciously-similar name Margaret Fletcher.
— Some good laughs from Phil’s various ways of helping Susan cheat, much to Jan’s frustration.
— Great escalation to this out-of-the-ordinary gameshow sketch, with Phil and Susan’s rapidly growing relationship getting to the point where they’re now naked under bed covers with each other on the gameshow set.
— The fake gameshow sponsors are KINDA funny, but nothing special. This is where Jack Handey’s skills for creating memorably bizarre fake sponsors would’ve been welcome.
— A rare onscreen Don Pardo appearance!
— Good sudden cameo from Gene Rayburn, and his angry delivery here is making me laugh.
— The last two minutes of this come off a bit sloppy, including an accidental early camera-switch to Siegfried & Roy (played by Dana and writer/pre-castmember David Spade) before they’ve even been introduced. All of this would later be fixed in reruns, by using tighter editing.
STARS: ****½


WOMANHOOD
(host) is proud when her 12 year-old daughter (VIJ) gets her first period

— Writer/pre-castmember Rob Schneider makes his first appearance of the season, after appearing in lots of bit roles in the homestretch of the previous season. Both he and fellow writer/pre-castmember David Spade’s promotion to featured player is coming VERY soon.
— I used to think the lack of eye contact between Jan and Victoria during their conversation in this sketch was a sign of the infamous real-life negative tension between them, but after having just reviewed all of the preceding seasons of Jan and Victoria’s SNL tenure, I now realize that their “tension” in this sketch is just part of their characters. I’ve come across a good number of sketches in the past few seasons where Jan and Victoria (and for that matter, Nora Dunn and Victoria) have no problem having friendly interactions with each other while in character. They’re very professional at hiding their behind-the-scenes clashes. I’ve even seen some instances during the goodnights where Victoria and Jan/Nora happily hug each other.
— Susan inappropriately telling everyone that Victoria is currently having her period is providing some good laughs.
— Susan’s supposedly touching speech to Victoria at the end had some very funny subtly cruel lines.
— Well-done piece overall.
STARS: ***½


I WILL NOT CRY
(MIM) vows not to cry when his office holds a going-away party for him

— Mike’s about-to-cry voice sounds like his future Linda Richman character’s voice whenever she gets “verklempt”.
— Mike’s character has an Eisenhower mug? Did Conan O’Brien write this sketch?
— The sudden gunshot off-camera was funny, and further makes me think Conan wrote this. The “a character walks off-camera into another room and then a gunshot is suddenly heard, implying that they’ve committed suicide” gag would later be used in a “Nanny Greenwood” sketch that Conan would co-write as a guest writer in the Catherine O’Hara episode from season 18 (this was two seasons after Conan left the writing staff). The gag was also later used regularly in those recurring “Cloppy”(?) sketches (starring a talking horse) that used to appear on Conan’s Late Night show on NBC.
— I liked Mike telling Phil’s Jesus “As, well, YOU are my witness, I will not cry.”
— Not sure how to feel about this overall sketch. I used to kinda hate this sketch, but I found myself being more tolerant of it during tonight’s viewing. However, I still didn’t laugh all that much and the sketch had a very oddly-quiet feel (the unresponsive audience didn’t help).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can See Clearly Now”


THE SOUND OF MUSIC
M.C. Hammer’s (CSR) version of The Sound of Music is Broadway-bound

— Very funny concept.
— Of the critic reviews, I loved the one saying “So bad, I walked out twice”. I also like how Ebony Magazine provided the only positive review.
— Hmm, something seemed to go wrong. After the critic reviews are shown, we strangely get half a minute of Chris Rock just silently continuing to dance onstage to the same repetitive “Can’t Touch This” beat, and then he eventually walks offstage and the sketch just… ends. Very awkward. I wonder what went wrong.
— This sketch would later be removed from reruns (further proving that something DEFINITELY went awry during this sketch), though I forget what it’s replaced with. Perhaps a “Deep Thoughts”, a segment that actually doesn’t debut until the second half of this season, but gets added into some of the reruns from the first half of this season.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

— Susan points out the amazing crowd we had tonight by saying “What an audience!”
— We’re only two episodes into this season so far, and Chris Rock has already gotten a lead role in two sketches (2 Live Crew Party and The Sound Of Music), has gotten his own Update commentary, AND gets to stand front-and-center next to the host during both goodnights. Meanwhile, the other new guy, Chris Farley, has only been in two sketches total so far (Twin Peaks and Great Love Stories) – both of them only being supporting roles, and spends both goodnights being hidden somewhere in the back of the stage where you could barely see him. All of this probably made SNL fans back in 1990 think that out of Rock and Farley, Rock was going to be the breakout SNL star and the far more successful cast member. As we know now, the EXACT OPPOSITE ended up happening.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Solid episode. While the quality trailed off towards the end with the last two sketches, everything before that worked, and there were some particularly strong and memorable segments, especially the monologue and All My Luggage. Things were also helped by the audience’s wild energy throughout the show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kyle MacLachlan)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
George Steinbrenner