December 2, 1989 – John Goodman / K.D. Lang & The Reclines (S15 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
committee questions George Bailey (DAC) about his failed savings & loan

 

— Clever premise for an It’s a Wonderful Life parody, even if this pales in comparison to a certain other parody of this movie that this SNL era did before.
— Feels kinda weird seeing Lovitz in this role again, after what happened to him in the previous It’s a Wonderful Life sketch.
— Funny bit with Clarence the angel having beetle wings, as part of a cruel joke that was played on him.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
audience abandons host & instead flocks to Roseanne Barr (VIJ)

— Much like how it felt when I covered Steve Martin and Tom Hanks’ respective first hosting stint, it’s going to feel both weird and interesting covering an episode where John Goodman had never hosted prior. That’s a feeling I’m going to have to get used to this season, as we’re going to be seeing quite a number of soon-to-be-frequent hosts making their debut this year.
— Immediately, Goodman’s coming off very likable and relatable to the audience.
— Pretty funny comment about his honeymoon.
— We get to see Victoria’s Roseanne impression, for the second episode in a row.
— Just now, the ending of this monologue went terribly wrong. As Goodman was addressing his wife in the audience, the camera was supposed to cut to a pre-taped shot of his wife being the only remaining person in an empty studio audience. During that pre-taped shot, she was also going to ask Goodman who tonight’s musical guest is. However, due to a huge technical error, the pre-taped shot never played, resulting in painfully awkward silence as Goodman just stands there waiting for the tape to play. Goodman then abruptly wraps up the monologue prematurely with the usual “We got a great show for you tonight, etc.”, and then we’re out.
— SNL would later correct the technical blunder by airing the dress rehearsal version of most of this monologue in reruns. That version also includes something that never happened in the live monologue, where Goodman starts singing onstage while the studio audience, cameraman, and cue card guy can all be seen leaving in droves. IIRC, the old Netflix version of this episode interestingly used the botched live version of this monologue (as well as the goodnights, where Goodman addresses this monologue’s technical error).
STARS: ***

BEAUTYBATH
— Rerun, from two seasons ago

WAYNE’S WORLD
movie reviews; re-enactments for Aurora’s Most Wanted

— This sketch continues to grow in popularity, as this is the very first time where the opening of this sketch receives enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
— We get the very first Wayne’s World utterance of the immortal expression “it sucked donkeys”.
— Not sure what the point is of showing the board recap of their movie reviews, but I like the visual of the board anyway.
— Wayne and Garth’s re-enactment of crimes that Goodman announces is very fun, especially the bit with Wayne miming walking down the stairs and an escalator.
STARS: ****½

COOKING WITH THE ANAL RETENTIVE CHEF
Cajun chef’s (host) cooking style is hampered by anal-retentive Gene

— This character returns to his chef occupation that we saw him in during his debut.
— Nice little touch with him casually pronouncing tomatoes as “to-MAH-toes”.
— Great bit with him actually washing off the camera lens just because of a thumbprint he saw on it.
— Goodman’s already getting a lot of laughs here, and his accent is great.
— I’m enjoying all the clashing between the two characters.
— Excellent part with Goodman “cleaning” off the table by simply pushing all the contents off the table with one hard swipe of the arm.
STARS: ****

TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
Toonces gets help when Martians (ALF) & (TOD) land on Earth

— This character recurs for the first time since debuting in the previous season’s finale.
— Haha, holy hell at the result of Toonces’ repair work causing the car to explode when Dana and Victoria try to re-start it.
— Are Franken and Davis’ alien characters supposed to be Zacdu and Mondo?
— Funny shot of Toonces frantically driving in a hurry to get to the police station.
— A classic part with Toonces crashing his car right through the wall of the sheriff’s office.
— Very funny part with Toonces using white-out to correct a typo while using the typewriter.
— Great ending with the stock footage of an alien ship crashing into the Washington Monument.
— Outstanding sketch overall. Loved how this had so many things going on.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pullin’ Back The Reins”

WEEKEND UPDATE
movie clip shows George Bush & Mikhail Gorbachev weathering stormy Malta
Annoying Man unexpectedly pesters DEM during a news item

— Loved Dennis’ whole Bush/Gilligan’s Island comparison.
— Annoying Man makes his return after debuting just two episodes ago.
— Dennis’ “You licked me, you freak!” reaction during to Annoying Man randomly licking his face was hilarious.
— Wow, that Annoying Man commentary ended up being short as HELL. It doesn’t even qualify as a desk commentary; just a brief cameo. Can’t complain, though.
— An overall exceptionally strong Update tonight. Dennis was particularly ON.
STARS: ****

THE MIKE DITKA TYPE-A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
holiday perfectionism

— I’m really liking Phil’s Ditka impression, even if it has shades of his Burt Reynolds.
— Ditka’s extremely stern, coach-like treatment of his family are providing some good laughs.
— Goodman as Santa advising Ditka to “mellow out” and to use a big pair of pliers to pull the bug out of his behind was very funny.
— I love the brief wild physical fight between Ditka and Santa, especially how Goodman can be heard yelling what sounded like “I’ll brain ya!” at one point.
— Hilarious part with Santa punishing Ditka by giving him what Santa calls a “turd-sized lump of coal”.
STARS: ***½

THE REFEREE PITMAN SHOW
audience members politely criticize Pitman (host)

— Two football-related sketches in a row tonight? And it’s interesting how they both center on a coach or referee.
— I like how this sketch is starting out by giving us the whole backstory on the Referee Pitman controversy. In retrospect, that causes this very topical sketch to age much better than other very topical sketches that are similarly based on somebody who, like Referee Pitman, was only big in the news for a short while and has long since been forgotten, thus causing future viewers to be lost. [ADDENDUM: Haha, according to some of the comments I received, Referee Pitman isn’t even a real person.  My mistake.]
— Huge laughs from everybody’s kindly ways of asking Pitman rude questions about his referee skills, especially Phil’s “Do you find it helpful to keep your head up your rear end?”
— Loved Jim Downey’s question of if Pitman’s head is empty or filled with human excrement.
— Pitman’s genial attitude and ways of genuinely answering the rude questions are also adding to the humor.
— Another fantastic line from Phil, with him affably advising Pitman to have sex with himself.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Johnny Get Angry”

CRIPS
suburban gang member’s (MIM) parents (host) & (NOD) are proud
TV Guide “jeers” SNL for misrepresenting the street gang problem

— Pretty funny premise of the family happily discussing Mike joining the Crips.
— Mike mentions a friend named Dale Butterworth, making it obvious who wrote this. This sketch doesn’t feel like Andy Breckman’s usual style, though.
— Here we have the very first of what will be several “TV Guide Cheers and Jeers” sketch endings, both this season and next. The one tonight fell flat.
STARS: ***

THIRTYSOMETHING
— Another rerun tonight.
— The fact that they’re re-airing this rather lengthy commercial at the end of the show is probably a sign that the show ran long and had to cut a scheduled live sketch at the last minute, so they threw on this fake ad to fill in the remaining time.

GOODNIGHTS
host hypnotizes audience to kill memory of botched monologue

— Goodman addresses the confusing botched ending of the monologue from earlier tonight, and hilariously tries to hypnotize us into believing there was no technical screw-up. This is cleverly accompanied by the Twilight Zone theme being played on the piano by the SNL Band.
— Unfortunately, in the live version I’m watching of this episode, the goodnights get cut off when Goodman is still in the middle of doing his hypnotic speak. (Maybe if they hadn’t rerun that long-ass Thirtysomething commercial, the goodnights wouldn’t have gotten cut off so prematurely) In the full version of these goodnights that I recall seeing on Netflix, there’s something that I find kinda cool: when Goodman finishes his hypnotic speak and transitions into the usual goodnights speech (“I wanna thank the cast, the crew, etc.”), the aforementioned Twilight Zone theme that had been playing on the piano seamlessly transitions into the traditional goodnights piano music. I thought that was a good touch.
— Some sites claim that most reruns of this episode replace these goodnights with the dress rehearsal version. However, I’m pretty sure those reruns actually show the live goodnights, only they remove the whole hypnotism part at the beginning and just start when Goodman begins his normal goodnights speech.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong and fun episode. Some pretty wild and memorable moments, and the show had a fairly consistent quality all throughout. For his first time hosting, John Goodman was excellent, instantly fit into the show seamlessly, and handled his hosting job with total ease. It’s no surprise how quickly and frequently they end up bringing him back, as he would go on to host in every single season after this, until we reach season 26(!).

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Woody Harrelson)
a mild step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Robert Wagner