February 23, 1991 – Alec Baldwin / Whitney Houston (S16 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The McLaughlin (DAC) Group- panelists don’t get a chance to give answers

 

— Farley’s playing the same panelist (Jack Germond) that John Goodman played in the first installment of this sketch, yet Farley’s wearing a bald cap with gray hair on the sides while Goodman kept his normal head full of dark hair.
— Unlike the first installment, Dana’s McLaughlin is saying “Wrong!” a lot more often this time.
— I love how the correct answer to the ink blot test turned out to be “It’s my mother stealing my penis.”
— Dana’s McLaughlin singing the name Jack Germond in a “Blue Moon”-esque manner was hilarious.
— For some reason, the entire portion right now with McLaughlin asking the panelists “How large is the tumor growing in my brain?” would later be removed from all reruns. The reruns try to hide the edit by splicing in a brief random shot of Farley just sitting there, not saying or doing anything. Does anyone know why the brain tumor portion is cut from reruns? Was the real John McLaughlin diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly after this episode aired or something?
— Great variation of “Live from New York…” by having Dana’s McLaughlin say “Show show show, here we go.”
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
audible thoughts of host, musical guest, others reveal moments of doubt

 

— Alec mentions that his first episode was so well-received that it was nominated for an Emmy.
— Some good laughs from Alec’s inner thoughts when he’s digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole during the spoken portions of the monologue.
— I disagree about the Dennis Hopper episode being great, though I think that line was just an excuse for Alec to comically make a dig at Hopper.
— Loved Alec’s inner thought worriedly saying “This is ALREADY not as good as last year.”
— Funny line from the boom operator (played by stage manager Joe Dicso for some reason) saying the show should only hire qualified boom operators and not just relatives.
— Ha, yet ANOTHER Jon Lovitz cameo this season, and in true Lovitz fashion, he makes a self-deprecating dig at that: “Maybe it was a mistake to leave the show. Six months later, I’m still hangin’ around. I gotta get a LIFE!”
— Alec referring to his inner thoughts as a “moment of doubt” reminds me of the season 11 sketch of the same name, which makes me wonder if the writer behind that sketch also wrote this monologue.
— This monologue ends on a serious note with Alec saying all of their thoughts are with our troops in the Persian Gulf. Which reminds me, this would turn out to be the final live SNL episode before the Gulf War comes to an end.
STARS: ****

THE DANCER
home exercise unit lets you boogie; Evander Holyfield cameo

— The shot of Dana dancing wildly in a club cracked me up.
— A decent though not hilarious idea of an exercise-type dancing machine. Some good physical work from Dana here.
— This overall commercial was too average for its own good. Not even the Evander Holyfield cameo did much for this.
STARS: ***

THE HONEST PLANET
on The Honest Planet, office workers dispense with tact

— Already a big laugh from the establishing shot of the building having the name Greedy Industries.
— Phil is great at openly admitting cruel facts about himself.
— What the hell just happened? When an excited Dana enters and announces he got the promotion, the camera suddenly briefly cuts to a darkened shot where only a tiny red light is visible (screencap below).

Odd blooper there. SNL would later replace about half of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, possibly to cover for that blooper.
STARS: ***

THE SINEAD O’CONNOR AWARDS
materialism in music industry is marked

— Good concept for an awards show sketch, as a reference to Sinead O’Connor boycotting that years Grammys (as mentioned in a then-recent Weekend Update).
— Dana’s bizarre rambling as Paul McCartney is priceless.
— Classic cutaway to Farley in the audience as a gleefully smiling Carnie Wilson.
— I loved Alec’s scene as Bono.
— Very funny twist in the Tim-as-Tracy-Chapman scene, with her somber song suddenly turning into a materialistic, upbeat “Everybody do the funky wa-wa” number, which of course upsets Sinead.
— For some reason, in my early SNL fandom days, I strangely used to think that was A. Whitney Brown playing the other Nelson brother besides Spade (third-to-last screencap above).  Turns out that’s actually Spike Feresten, who was supposedly an uncredited writer at the time. Some SNL fans probably think it’s Adam Sandler, as there is a resemblance there.
— Yikes, a big blooper just now. When Jan hands Phil the award, she does it in such a sloppy, careless manner that it causes Phil to accidentally drop the award on the floor (second-to-last screencap above), where it then falls off the stage. He has to wait for somebody offstage to pick the award up and hand it to him before he can continue with the sketch. Poor Jan embarrassedly smirks out of character, which she tries to hide with her hand. You don’t see any of this in reruns, because they replace most of the Sinatra portion of this sketch with the flub-less dress rehearsal version.
— I absolutely love Sinatra’s harsh rant to Sinead, especially him talking about the days when “you were just a gleam in some dumb mick’s bloodshot eyes!”
— SNL usually has a poor track record with long award show sketches, but this has been one of the rare times they got it right.
STARS: ****½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Your Baby Tonight”

LANK THOMPSON: I’M A HANDSOME ACTOR
host is a product of Lank Thompson’s “I’m A Handsome Actor” course

— Hmm, I see I was wrong when I said earlier this season that the John Goodman episode was the final occurrence of a sketch airing in between the first musical performance and Weekend Update.
— Alec demonstrating various dramatic acting techniques is very fun and spot-on.
— For some reason, Alec keeps loudly clearing his throat all throughout this sketch.
STARS: ****

PAN AM
Pan Am will let anyone who flies to Europe during Gulf War keep the plane

— Phil’s announcement that passengers can now keep the Pan Am plane they rode on is quite funny.
— As always, very amusing spokesman delivery from Phil.
— An overall very short and very topical piece that, while still fairly funny in its own right, doesn’t hit quite as hard in 2019, long after whatever Pan Am controversy this sketch was based on has been forgotten.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
DEM translates for unintelligible Bob Dylan (DAC) & Tom Petty (DAS)

 

— I didn’t get Dennis’ joke about how an Andy Warhol movie is currently doing poorly at box office “but the first 15 minutes of it were great”.
— Dana’s Bob Dylan is freakin’ hilarious! I also love how Dennis is providing translations of Dylan’s gibberish for the “Dylan impaired”.
— Now this has gotten even better with David entering as Tom Petty. Great impression from David, and a lot of laughs from him and Dana’s Dylan holding an unintelligible conversation with each other, before breaking out into an intelligible duet of “Free Fallin’”. Classic.
— When mentioning a former “Dance Fever” performer, Dennis quips “I don’t think I’ve seen choreography that stiff since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.” I’m pretty sure I remember Dennis using that EXACT same analogy before. I think it was when he was critiquing the Super Bowl Shuffle video during season 11.
STARS: ***

THE GODFATHER PART IV
Michael Corleone (host) is the don of the future

— Nice concept of a futuristic Godfather. I think this is supposed to be a mash-up of Godfather and a Star Trek movie that came out around this time.
— No idea what to say about Alec’s Pacino impression.
— For some reason, I love the very dark, bitter look on Phil’s face during the close-up of him reacting to Corleone telling him he can’t grant his favor.
— Alec’s delivery of “They keep pulling me back IN!” cracked me up.
— We get an appearance from Kevin as Spock. Yep, I guess this IS a partial Star Trek mash-up.
— Didn’t like Corleone’s flashback sequence. It went on too long and wasn’t all that funny.
— Okay, ENOUGH with Alec’s “They keep pulling me back IN!”s. It’s not funny anymore after the 30th time.
— Man, a lot of this sketch is dragging.
— Phil’s comical delivery of “50 bullets in him and they saved his BRAIIIIN!” was great.
— Ugh, they’re STILL having Alec say “They keep pulling me back IN!” over and over. STOP.
— Weak ending.
— Overall, oof. A big disappointment, considering what a promising idea this had. You can tell SNL themselves realized what a flop this sketch turned out to be, considering they would later bury this at the end of the show in reruns, as the second-to-last sketch of the night.
STARS: *½

RECONCILIATION
(JUS) is flustered by face-to-face confession to handsome priest (host)

— A strong Julia Sweeney showcase. There’s a lot of great realism and likability in how she’s acting towards Alec.
— A very funny part just now with Julia’s almost orgasmic reaction to Alec’s unintentionally suggestive description of how he prefers to eat Oreos (“I like to spread the cookie open and eat the creamy center”).
STARS: ****

CYRANO DE BERGERAC
wide-nosed Cyrano de Bergerac (TIM) helps (host) get with Roxanne (JAH)

— Hilarious visual of Tim with a ridiculously wide nose.
— I’m glad we’re seeing Tim in his very first big role. This is a good showcase for him (which is something that will unfortunately go on to be rare for him in this era).
— Great turn with Alec mouthing Tim’s smooth talk while funky music plays.
— Good ending scene in the bedroom. Speaking of which, was that scene pre-taped? The camera cuts from the main characters being outside by the balcony to them suddenly being in the bedroom.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All The Man I Need”

I’M CHILLIN’
Onski sends F’ed Up malt liquor to the Gulf War troops

— Standard stuff so far. I’m still chuckling throughout this, but it’s not a good sign that in its second installment, this recurring sketch is ALREADY starting to feel too routine and by-the-numbers.
— Loved the picture of Don Pardo sporting a solid gold four-finger ring. I think this episode aired on Don’s birthday, so perhaps showing a picture of him in a sketch was some kind of birthday present from SNL.
— Tim’s Flavor Flav is funny, though almost for the wrong reason. I’m laughing more at how out-of-place and stiff Tim is coming off in this performance. This is our very first glimpse of how unnatural Tim is in homeboy roles, which we’ll be seeing other occurrences of throughout his SNL tenure.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

— The SNL Band cuts Alec off before he was even finished speaking.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, though it doesn’t measure up to Alec’s phenomenal first episode. However, there were some really strong pieces tonight. Alec further solidified himself as a reliable host after his strong debut the previous season.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Roseanne Barr)
a mild step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Michael J. Fox