October 26, 1991 – Christian Slater / Bonnie Raitt (S17 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
John McLaughlin [real] takes over a Halloween parody of his Group

— Nice change of pace from other McLaughlin Group sketches, with this one having a Halloween theme.
— Good sudden turn with Dana’s McLaughlin being mysteriously dead and the real McLaughlin showing up and taking his place.
— McLaughlin doing Dana’s routine is entertaining, especially him singing Jack Germond’s name.
STARS: ****

MONOLOGUE
host discovers mesmerized control room & audience doing the Tomahawk Chop

— Funny cutaway to the crew in the control room doing the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop while watching the World Series.
— John McLaughlin makes another funny appearance tonight.
— Fun turn with everybody in the studio, including the audience and the SNL Band, doing the Tomahawk Chop when Christian returns from backstage.
— There’s a technical error at the end, where instead of fading to black as this monologue concludes, the screen crossfades to a strange orange title card that just has the word “Coldcock” (the title of a fake ad that follows this), before the screen suddenly cuts to black. Heh, maybe the crew in the control room really WERE too busy watching the World Series. This technical error would later be removed from reruns.
STARS: ***½

COLDCOCK
you’ll never expect it when Coldcock Malt Liquor hits you

— Great use of Tim. This features some of his best work from his early seasons.
— Funny visuals of an animated fist punching people who drink from the liquor can.
— After getting punched by the animated fist, Tim delivers the line “Faaaannn-tastic” in the same way he would later regularly do as his Lionel Osborne character from the future recurring sketch Perspectives.
— Solid ending with a swollen-eyed Tim concluding the commercial while laying on the floor.
STARS: ****

RON’S WINGS ‘N’ THINGS
despite repeated warnings, (host) orders the Super Fire Hot chicken wings

 

— I like Phil entering as the manager to try to persuade Christian to re-think his order of super fire hot wings.
— As no surprise, I’m really liking the way Phil is selling this, especially his repeated revelations that he keeps giving Christian medium hot wings instead of super fire hot wings.
— I’m enjoying this sketch, but it feels a little odd as the lead-off sketch of the night. The pacing of this is slower than a typical lead-off sketch.
— Ha, I love how the restaurant is now having Christian sign release forms before finally serving him the super fire hot wings.
— Good epilogue ending with a narrator (Phil) describing the many cartoonish reactions Christian had when eating the super fire hot wings. I especially laughed at Phil’s monotone way of saying “he ran around shouting ‘woo woo’”.
STARS: ***

DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY FEUD
troubled clan wins against well-adjusted group

 

— Good premise for a Family Feud parody.
— I’m loving the tension between Phil’s family.
— A good laugh during the “Name something families say to recent college graduates” question, where Siobhan’s upbeat answer “Get out there and do your best” turns out to be correct, as it comes close to matching the negative “Get out!” answer on the board.
— David Spade finally makes an appearance in a sketch, after getting completely shut out of the last two episodes. Also, believe it or not, this is his first speaking role all season. Geez, the fact that it took him FOUR EPISODES into this season to get a speaking role shows how bad his airtime has been lately.
— Farley is filled with tons of energy here.
— Very funny annoyed delivery from Phil telling Farley “How about clothes you’ve gotten too fat for?”
— Good dark humor with the whole loaded-gun-in-the-closet/“You don’t have the guts!” exchange.
— Hilarious part with Victoria’s disturbing answer to the question “Something you find in your bedroom closet” (“My father?”).
STARS: *****

CLUB BANANA
every male at Club Banana unilaterally engages (JUS) in dance

— I like the first-person perspective format of this.
— Dana’s sleazy facial expressions while dancing are priceless.
— Funny twist with the lady in the bathroom turning out to be Adam in disguise, who whips off his wig and dances in front of the woman who we’re seeing the perspective of.
— Creative approach to this whole sketch. Also, I love how this is utilizing just about every male cast member, and it’s fun seeing how each of them are being incorporated into this.
— When the woman who’s perspective we’re seeing blacks out as she faints, the screen stays black and silent for an abnormally long time. I almost thought something went wrong, technical-wise.
— The look on Phil’s face when he and Tim as the paramedics begin dancing is cracking me up.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Something To Talk About”

WEEKEND UPDATE
Queen Shenequa (ELC) is upset about the lack of available black men
ADS shows how to use everyday items to make crazy Halloween costumes

— Kevin gets his very first “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke, carrying on a tradition from Dennis Miller’s Updates.
— The debut of Ellen’s Queen Shenequa character. She’s wearing a different outfit than the one she would regularly wear in subsequent appearances.
— I’m enjoying Ellen’s delivery here, and she’s getting some good laughs. I especially like her declaring “Julia Roberts was a ho!”
— Didn’t care for the ending of the Queen Shenequa commentary with her saying everything should be titled “Man in My House”.
— The words “Subliminal editorial” have shown up on the news screen. Hmm, I thought Kevin didn’t start incorporating his Mr. Subliminal routine into his anchorman persona until later in the season.
— Oh, never mind. Tonight’s subliminal editorial turned out to have nothing to do with Mr. Subliminal; the joke here was Kevin not saying anything at all for his “editorial”.
— Kevin’s joke portions of this Update are fast-paced, though not every joke is working. Pretty hit-and-miss, but the hits are very strong.
— Kevin is quite stumbly throughout this Update, as I also observed in an earlier Update of his.
— Funny bit with Kevin avoiding offending blind viewers by silently displaying a graphic on the bottom of the screen that states “I thought it was funny” when talking about a recently-canceled and much-complained-about TV series that made light of blindness. This reminds me of an Update joke Norm Macdonald would later do, where he criticizes the looks of a deaf Miss America contest winner while holding a sheet of paper over his mouth so she can’t read his lips.
— The debut of Adam Sandler’s annual Halloween costume suggestions.
— This commentary of Adam’s would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. In that version, he wears a blue/green-ish shirt instead of the Halloween-themed orange shirt he wears in this live version (side-by-side comparison below).

— Adam’s commentary is a good early display of his simplistic childlike silliness as himself. Hard to explain why this commentary is working so well; it just is.
— I especially got a laugh from Adam’s Crazy No-Armed Woman costume.
— Just now, when Adam delivered a goofy-voiced “Fork it over!”, it honestly came out unintentionally sounding like “Fuck it over!” I wonder if THIS is the reason they replace this commentary with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Adam’s commentary ends differently in the live and dress rehearsal versions. The live version has him responding to Kevin’s Cup Head costume by saying a disappointed “That was… better than all of mine” and sadly walking away in defeat (this would later get turned into a running gag in his future Halloween costume Update commentaries, where he would always end it by saying a humbled “You have topped me again, Kevin Nealon”). The dress rehearsal version, on the other hand, ends awkwardly with him kinda just laughing at Kevin’s Cup Head costume and not saying anything in response.
STARS: ***½

THE CURSE OF THE WOLF MAN
(host)’s metamorphoses described step-by-step

— A silly sketch, but the intentional dumbness and cheesiness of Christian constantly ducking below the camera view as he “transforms” into a wolf man bit-by-bit is coming off funny. His intentionally stilted delivery is also helping.
— Funny detail of exaggeratedly loud zipper sounds being heard off-camera before Christian returns to the camera view wearing an obviously fake wolf suit over his body.
— Some more laughs from the two cops detailing Christian’s reverse transformation back into a human. I especially like the camera catching Christian removing the fake wolf teeth from his mouth.
STARS: ***

YOUNG ACTORS FORUM
host & others have slept with most actresses

— Ha, what is with the random casting of Victoria as Rob Lowe?
— Really bad Charlie Sheen voice from Mike.
— Dana is hilarious as Keanu Reeves.
— I like each actor saying variations of “Did her” in succession whenever an actress’ name is mentioned.
— Good to see David Spade getting decent airtime and dialogue tonight. Great Matthew Broderick voice from him as well. He’s also a dead ringer for him in that wig.
— Great turn with Rob’s Emilio Estevez immediately blurting out “Did him” when the name Clint Eastwood gets brought up, only to immediately regret saying that.
— Strong ending with all the guys running off in unison when hearing about an up-and-coming new actress, and then returning seconds later while saying their usual variations of “Did her”.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Arnold Schwarzenegger [real] trains kids

— The phasing-out of these characters continues, as evidenced by how late they’re appearing in tonight’s episode. Not too long ago, these two characters were routinely headlining cold openings, and now they’re being buried in the 12:45 timeslot. This ends up being their second-to-last sketch ever (not counting the times they were brought back after Dana’s departure), and their final sketch doesn’t even occur until a whole year later in October ’92.
— Ha, just now, Hans and Franz have even openly addressed how scarce their appearances are getting, by saying “Many of you have been wondering, where have we been?”
— Interesting cutaway to a pre-tape with Hans and Franz giving lessons to a group of children. We also get another cameo from Hans and Franz’s cousin Arnold Schwarzenegger.
— Hmm… this pre-taped setting may be a change of pace for Hans and Franz, but it’s not turning out all that funny. I haven’t been getting many laughs at all during this. It’s a little sad witnessing the gradual death of these once-popular characters. It’s painfully obvious by this point that their time is officially up. I guess not every recurring character from this era can go out gracefully like, say, Church Lady.
— Even the ending of the pre-tape was just a rehash of previous times Hans and Franz made their chest muscles move in unison.
— Okay, I did like the live bit right after the aforementioned chest muscles bit, where Hans and Franz do a P.S.A.-esque “These are your muscles on steroids” demonstration with eggs.
STARS: **

NICH-AID
host touts Nich-Aid hair dryers for hands-free Jack Nicholson mimicry

— A pretty good laugh from Phil’s awesome Nicholson impression being undermined by his holding his hair back with his hand, which takes his friends right out of his impression (“What’s he doing? Jack Nicholson never holds his hand on his head!”).
— Good concept of a device with tiny hair dryers automatically blowing your hair back so you can do a hands-free Nicholson impression.
— A fitting use of Christian as the spokesman for this particular product.
— I like the ending visual of Phil in that silly Nich-Aid device as he wows his friends with his now-hands-free Nicholson impression.
STARS: ***

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, minus a supbar late-era Hans and Franz installment. The overall show, while not outstanding, had a very nice flow to it and there were a lot of things to like, especially the classic Dysfunctional Family Feud and the creative & fun Club Banana.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kirstie Alley)
a slight step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Kiefer Sutherland