Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Church Chat- Church Lady & niece (host) criticize Marla Maples (JAH) & Donald Trump (PHH)
— Fred Savage is already off to a strong start here with his great performance and dead-on Church Lady imitation as her niece (named Enid, like Church Lady herself). I remember I first saw this episode in a Comedy Central rerun and, not knowing in advance who was hosting this episode, I spent this entire cold opening thinking that was an actual little girl playing Church Lady’s niece, until the opening montage came on afterwards and I saw that Fred Savage was billed as the night’s host.
— Funny demeanor and posture on the couch from Jan’s Marla Maples.
— Marla Maples: “Donald [Trump] and I are just good friends.” Church Lady (sarcastically): “And Enid is just a little boy in a dress.”
— Phil’s Trump wig is even funnier-looking than usual tonight.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Wonder Years narrative documents host hitting puberty while on-stage
— Very funny use of Fred’s Wonder Years adult voice-over, though it’s clearly not Daniel Stern doing the voice here.
— Fred’s adult voice-over, regarding SNL: “It was February 1990, just a few months before the show was finally canceled.”
— Great concept of Fred panickedly going through puberty mid-monologue.
— Hilarious reveal of him having very thick chest hair. With that, he could’ve been a guest on the Eye On Chest Hair sketch from the last episode.
STARS: ****
GUN SAFETY
results of leaving (host) home with gun demonstrate firearm safety don’ts
— Just getting this out of the way right now: I really don’t want to address the elephant in the room, regarding how uncomfortable it is in hindsight to see Phil starring in a sketch like this. I’d rather just watch and enjoy the sketch as best as I can, the way it was originally intended to.
— Some good laughs from all the supposedly child-proof places the father says he has the gun and bullets hidden.
— Funny turn with Fred using the gun to threaten his father after his father tells him he’s grounded.
— Another funny sudden turn with the mother also having a gun, and using it to stop Fred from controlling his father with his gun.
— Hilarious part with the father hiding the gun in the box of cereal.
— Great fourth wall-breaking bit with Kevin at the end.
STARS: ***½
THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
guests are neglected daughter Missy (VIJ) & host
— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in an entire year, and this also ends up being the last time this sketch ever appears.
— Interesting seeing Pat Stevens’ daughter.
— Pat’s dismissive attitude towards her daughter is pretty funny.
— A good laugh from the daughter’s whiny “I wanna go live with my dad” answer to Pat’s question.
— This overall sketch was a decent way for Pat Stevens to go out.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pump Up The Jam”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN reports audience’s displeasure with News From 10 Feet Away bit
Annoying Man’s magic tricks include chewing foil & scraping a chalkboard
irate audience member (RBS) concludes KEN’s News From 10 Feet Away
Grumpy Old Man dislikes bottled water, athletic footwear, amusement parks
— I love the concept of Kevin’s “News From 10 Feet Away” segment.
— A lot of good laughs from Kevin’s comments about the audience’s reactions to his segment, detailing their growing frustration over this bit going on “far too long”.
— Annoying Man chewing a ball of aluminum foil was really funny.
— I liked the audience groaning loudly as soon as Annoying Man brings out the ol’ chalkboard & fork once again.
— Loved Dennis’ meta comment to us about Jon Lovitz after the Annoying Man magic trick commentary ended: “I’ll tell ya what the best trick is: that he’s gotten that on three times.” Though to nitpick, this is actually the FOURTH time Annoying Man has appeared (believe it or not).
— Some unintentional laughs from Dennis badly stumbling through his intro to Kevin’s “News From 10 Feet Away” follow-up.
— Good ending to Kevin’s commentary with him suddenly getting knocked out with a bat by an irate audience member. I’m surprised the audience didn’t respond all that much to that part.
— Lately, it feels like Grumpy Old Man and Annoying Man are the only two recurring Update guests we’ve been seeing these last few months.
— The usual hilarious griping from Grumpy Old Man, especially his story about drinking dirty water that contains chunks of hairy crud.
— Tonight’s overall Update was a good comeback for Dennis, after the surprisingly subpar quality of his last two Updates.
STARS: ***½
IMAGINARY FRIEND
(host)’s parents pressure him to develop a more creative imaginary friend
— Love the cutaway to Phil’s angry stone-faced facial reaction (second screencap above) during the young girl’s bragging about her imaginary friend.
— A big laugh from how Fred’s made-up descriptions of his new imaginary friend turn out to just be Beethoven’s life story.
— I like the inane seriousness that Phil and Nora are taking Fred’s inability to come up with a creative imaginary friend. Phil is particularly great in his overly-intense sternness.
— Good ending with Fred badly making up an imaginary friend by looking around the gym for details.
STARS: ***
SHUTTLE LAUNCH
Space Shuttle countdown is repeatedly stopped due to launch pad wanderers
— Already starting off hilarious with Lassie randomly being under the about-to-launch rocket, and Dana & Kevin panicking over that.
— When seeing Hitler under the rocket, I love Dana’s cheesy delivery of “I’d like to fry him!”
— I’m loving the increasing silliness of the people who show up under the rocket. This type of silly sketch epitomizes what I love about this era of SNL.
— Funny part with Dana and Kevin being torn on whether or not to launch the rocket when Dan Quayle and Mikhail Gorbachev are under it.
— Loved the fake-out with the Invisible Man supposedly being spotted under the rocket but it just turning out to be a prank.
— Haha, Dana and Kevin eagerly pressing the launch button as soon as they spot Donald and Ivana Trump under the rocket comes off even funnier in hindsight nowadays… at least in Donald’s case.
STARS: ****½
LOTHAR OF THE HILL PEOPLE
on a hunt, Lothar Of The Hill People prepares son (host) for manhood rite
— Much like Pat Stevens, this is another recurring sketch tonight that’s making what would end up being its final appearance.
— The men rejecting Fred’s clever idea just because it’s new and unfamiliar was pretty funny.
— A lot of good lines all throughout this sketch.
— Nice sudden return of Fred’s Wonder Years adult voice-over from the monologue.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get Up!”
HOOKED ON SUSHI
by TOS- Japanese restaurant literally lures (KEN)
— Interesting seeing Kevin starring in a Tom Schiller-made film noir spoof, though I can’t help but be reminded of another Tom Schiller-made film noir spoof: the great Java Junkie film from season 5. I’m sure this will be going in its own direction, though.
— Great turn with the restaurant waiters reeling in Kevin like a fish.
— Hilarious dark ending with a dead, chopped-up Kevin being on display as a meal.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, with nothing I disliked. Unlike some other episodes with a child host, I didn’t feel that the restraints on the type of humor SNL can do hurt the show too much tonight. Even the most “kiddie” sketch of the night, the imaginary friend sketch, was enjoyable. And for a 13-year-old host, Fred Savage did a great job tonight and handled himself incredibly well, coming off much more at ease than some adult hosts that SNL has had over the years.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Rob Lowe