Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
The McLaughlin (DAC) Group- Pat Buchanan (PHH) returns to the panel
— Here’s what ends up being the final McLaughlin Group sketch.
— I’m liking all of McLaughlin’s questions being about Pat Buchanan’s failing presidential campaign.
— Buchanan: “The campaign isn’t actually over.” McLaughlin: “WRONG! It was over weeks ago, you just haven’t been notified.”
— All of McLaughlin’s mockery towards Buchanan’s campaign is really funny.
— Here’s an epic moment that I’ve never been 100% sure is a genuine blooper or a scripted part of the sketch: when Dana’s McLaughlin asks how to start the show, Mike answers with the usual “Live from New York…”. As Dana’s McLaughlin tells Mike “WRONG!”, the drummer in the off-camera SNL Band is heard beginning to play the SNL theme music when it isn’t time yet. After the drummer cuts himself off when realizing his mistake, Dana looks in the SNL Band’s general direction (last screencap above) and yells a particularly loud “WRONG!!!”, which gets a huge audience response. A priceless moment that does seem like a real blooper, but I’ve never seen it confirmed if it actually is real or not.
— As usual, Dana’s McLaughlin starts the show with something other than “Live from New York…”, this time with a simple “Start the shoooowww.”
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
to prevent typecasting, host briefly shows her vulgar & stupid side
— Her doing a “vulgar yet stupid” dance, then immediately regretting it was only okay, but nothing particularly great.
STARS: **½
ACTION CATS
feline accessories give kids a new way to play with pets
— Not exactly sure where the hilarity is supposed to be coming from, as this is coming off more cute than funny. Though as a cat lover, I can kinda appreciate the cuteness.
STARS: **
LISA PONGRASIC, VERY PREGNANT UNDERCOVER COP
(CHF) & very pregnant undercover cop (host) execute a drug bust
— The beginning of this, with Phil as a police chief chewing out Mary’s cop for her renegade actions, reminds me of the beginning of the Tenelli: One Man Army sketch with Steven Seagal, which began the exact same way and with Phil in the police chief role.
— Good reveal of Mary being pregnant.
— Pretty fun opening credits sequence.
— Dana plays yet another Scarface-sounding criminal.
— This is the second episode in a row where Rock plays a character named G-Love. In the last episode, it was the name of his character in John Goodman’s Teen Dermatologist sketch.
— Great shocked look on Farley’s face during the freeze-frame ending after Mary reveals “My water just broke.”
STARS: ***½
LYLE, THE EFFEMINATE HETEROSEXUAL
even Lyle Billup’s wife (JUS) & daughter (host) think he’s a homosexual
— Surprisingly, this is the first time they’ve brought this sketch back since its debut three years earlier in a Chris Evert-hosted episode from 1989. This has got to be one of the longest a sketch took to become recurring.
— They’ve altered the opening title sequence to insert Julia in Chris Evert’s place as Lyle’s wife and to add Mary in as an additional daughter.
— Like last time, Dana’s giving me a lot of laughs as this character.
— Very funny part with Lyle receiving an unwanted raunchy stripping telegram from Tim.
— A great lengthy “Whaaaaaaaaaaaa???” from Lyle at the end when even his wife asks him “Aren’t you gay?”
STARS: ****
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on dealing with unwanted Thanksgiving food
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” & “Hold On”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Denise Swerski gives beauty tips for brides-to-be
Cajunman gives his predictions for the NCAA basketball tournament
— Here comes what ends up being the biggest showcase Beth will get during her short-lived SNL tenure.
— Beth’s bad makeup tips and accompanying pictures are pretty funny. Nothing particularly hilarious, but decent.
— Surprisingly, Cajunman does an Update commentary for the second episode in a row.
— Adam has really found his groove as Cajunman by this point, and there’s a lot of funny lines with him here, especially when he realizes he lost all his money betting on NCAA games. I especially like him saying the punishment he’ll receive for not paying a loan shark will be “castra-shown”.
— Kevin mentions gay activist groups protesting the homophobic portrayal of lesbians in the then-new movie Basic Instinct. Little does SNL know at this time that they’ll soon be dealing with some members of those gay activist groups in person, heckling the monologue when a certain Basic Instinct star hosts the very next episode.
STARS: ***½
DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg don’t like how the real world has changed alumna (host)
— (*groan*) Didn’t they just do a Delta Delta Delta sketch two episodes ago? I guess I wouldn’t complain if I actually liked this recurring sketch. After all, I had no complaints about Cajunman appearing two episodes in a row.
— I noticed something very odd: Mary has played a character named Lisa in every single sketch so far tonight (Very Pregnant Undercover Cop, Lyle The Effeminate Heterosexual, and now this). What in the world??? Is this intentional? An inside joke?
— I begrudgingly admit to getting a laugh from Melanie’s delivery of “The real world…. is sooo… scary” in that valley girl-type voice.
— For some reason, when Mary answers the phone, she quickly whips off her left earring and tries to hide it from the camera before holding the phone up to her left ear. Why did she do this?
— Interesting moment with the now-speechless Delta Delta Delta girls not joining Mary in the cheer they all did together earlier, due to being disturbed by hearing her use her “work voice” while speaking on the phone. That added a kinda-deep, slice-of-life factor to this.
— Overall, I found this slightly more entertaining than the usual Delta Delta Delta sketches, even if that’s still not saying much.
STARS: **½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on helping children develop a lucky feeling
MONSTER SPRAY
the makers of Monster Spray prey on kids’ irrational nighttime fears
— The usual great utilization of Phil’s comedic pitchman skills.
— During a close-up of Phil, the actor playing the little boy can be seen sneaking off the bedroom set behind Phil when stagehands have replaced him off-camera with a dummy.
— Another blooper during another close-up of Phil, where a crew member’s head can be seen accidentally entering the shot (screencap below).
— I love the turn this took with the demonstration of what will happen to a kid without Monster Spray, where we’re shown a monster tearing the kid’s head off and sucking the blood that spurts out from the kid’s now-headless neck. Hilariously gruesome and tasteless.
STARS: ****
WHO SHOT ME?
inner-city school teacher (KEN) tries to figure out who’s shooting him
— I loved Tim’s “Every time you get shot, you blame me!”
— This sketch has a certain silliness that’s working for me, especially with the casual treatment of Kevin’s back repeatedly getting shot by the students, which is being treated as if the students are merely throwing something at him.
— It’s hard to tell what exactly went wrong, but there’s a weird gaffe during the part where Rock’s character apologizes for reloading his gun. This would later be fixed in reruns by replacing that small portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version.
— When Mary’s character arrived, Kevin called her Ms. M, but after she has now left, Kevin refers to her as Ms. Ketchum. What’s up with that? At least he didn’t call her Lisa.
— Fairly weak ending with a whole bunch of gunshots being heard going off at Kevin during an exterior shot of the school. Reruns of this sketch actually alter this ending a bit: after the sound of a whole bunch of gunshots, audio is added in of Kevin asking a mildly irritated “Okay, who did that?”
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Your Mind”
COLOSSEUM EVENTS COMMITTEE
Colosseum events committee brainstorms ideas for gladiator contests
— Second episode in a row with a sketch taking place in Roman times, after the sketch about plotting Caesar’s death in the John Goodman episode.
— I’m loving the very absurd proposed ideas for Colosseum events (e.g. a battle of amputees fighting each other with their own amputated limbs).
— I like them unknowingly coming up with the idea of what we know today as baseball, but with a twist that the batter gets beaten as he runs around the bases, and when he gets to home base, he gets crucified.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****
MILLION DOLLAR ZOMBIE
by TOS- (VIJ) uncovers Ed McMahon’s (PHH) dungeon
— Victoria “Oh, that’s right, she’s still in the cast” Jackson’s diminishing presence this season continues, as this pre-taped film ends up being her only appearance all night, meaning she doesn’t make any live appearances in this episode. At least her part in this film is a lead role, though.
— A great and creative use of Phil’s Ed McMahon impression.
— Fantastic part with McMahon being taken down by seeing a cross with Jay Leno’s picture (second-to-last screencap above).
— Great use of Phil-as-McMahon’s “Hey-ooooo!” catchphrase after he gets stabbed to death.
— Overall, the usual solid and creative Schiller film.
STARS: ****
MONEY FOR BOOZE
(PHH) thinks that money given to panhandler (CHF) might be spent on booze
— I’m always a sucker for sketches with an interesting, unique format, such as this one with the heavy use of thought bubbles and pre-taped voice overs to carry along the storyline.
— I only have the rerun version of this sketch available, and it appears to be a mixture of live and dress rehearsal, as halfway through this sketch, there’s suddenly some subtle changes in both Farley’s appearance and the lighting of the scene (side-by-side comparison below).
My guess as to why they inserted portions of the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns is because there were probably some timing issues with the displaying of the thought bubbles during the live airing.
— Funny turn with the thought bubble of Phil drinking a giant glass of wine when he’s contemplating keeping his money for himself.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
— Future regular writer Fred Wolf receives what I believe is his very first “Additional Sketch By” credit tonight. No idea what it was that he guest wrote in this episode. Maybe it was the Monster Spray sketch, since it involved spurting blood at one point, which would go on to be one of the trademarks of typical Fred Wolf sketches.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, if not particularly memorable. There were a few weak spots, but we got some solid stuff as usual, and good creative ideas in the post-Weekend Update half. Mary Stuart Masterson has to be one of the most underutilized hosts in this era. She only appeared in four sketches (and, as pointed out earlier, three of those four sketches had her playing a character named Lisa) and of those four sketches, only two of them were significant roles (the Very Pregnant Cop and Delta Delta Delta sketches). She was also nowhere to be seen during the last 15 minutes of the show (not counting the goodnights, of course). You’d think Phil Hartman was the host tonight with how heavily he was utilized throughout the episode, especially with how he carried a majority of the post-Weekend Update half.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sharon Stone
Haha, no mention of the first appearance of “Laser Cats”????
This is one of the episodes that really does interest me, especially contrasted with various other female hosts around this time.
Both Masterson and Susan Dey have a monologue where they show some skin to get an audience reaction, while Sharon Stone strips down to her bra in a sketch. Stone was just starting out in terms of pop culture notoriety (she’d had a long career before that of course), while Dey was at the tail end of her career, and Masterson was sort of just chugging along, known more for being a familiar name and face people liked than huge stardom (I didn’t even realize until now that she really had nothing to promote at this point – her last film, Married To It, had come and gone some months earlier). Of the three, Dey got the best episode, but Masterson probably got two of my favorite parts for a female host in this era – Lisa the pregnant cop and the alum of Delta Delta Delta were very solid roles that an actor could sink their teeth into. The pregnant cop sketch reminded me of something from the late ’80s, as it was entertaining throughout and made a great deal out of what could have been a very one-note concept, while the DDD sketch reminded me of how recurring characters were used in the ’70s, as it really did have layers and some poignancy (thanks in large part to her performance).
I always thought there were a few more Maclaughlin Group sketches for some reason, but it was good that this one went out on a fairly high note. This was also about the funniest they were likely to get the Lyle sketches (and also, I think, the first of several times in this period when Tim Meadows would be crammed into the skimpiest possible outfits). This episode is such a mix of recurring bits, gore gross out laughs (knowing that Fred Wolf, who later did tedious garbage like the endless vomit sketch in Alec Baldwin’s 94-95 episode, wrote this makes me enjoy it a little less, although it’s still pretty good), and more high-concept pieces like the Romans sketch and the homeless sketch, but it all somehow works.
This is the episode that has the WU piece Beth Cahill says they wanted her to do again, but she declined. I think she was right – it was very sweet and charming in a low-key way and would have been ruined with repetition – but SNL is all about repetition, so I guess I can see why it likely helped lead to her exit (I wouldn’t have fired her though).
A part of me wonders if the Tom Schiller film was written partly in mind as a goodbye to Victoria. She gets more focus than she had in her last few years, and her last moments with Farley are actually oddly touching. In some ways the whole thing reminds me of her first season (86-87), which was also a bit loose before the show really tightened up the next year or two. I didn’t realize until looking all over the goodnights for this episode that you can see her on the sidelines, looking a bit forlorn…
It’s also a bit interesting seeing Fallon/Hutsell/Cahill as the three enslaved women in that film, with Jackson as the one who is never quite captured. In the end all are ‘freed.’ I’m probably reading too much into it but what are blog posts for, really.
Also, you have to love that in a period trying to move more and more toward a younger audience (with a host and musical guest who fit that vein), Phil Hartman dominates.
Here’s the promo for this episode.
Oh, and the helper in the Schiller film is played by Michael J Anderson, thus (unless there’s something I’ve missed in 92-93), concluding SNL’s three-season association with Twin Peaks (Julee Cruise in the Andrew Dice Clay episode, Kyle MacLachlan hosting, and then this). Just like SNL, you never really can say goodbye to Twin Peaks – it won’t let you.
I think I remember hearing Wolf wrote the “money for booze” sketch. I remember him saying his father was an alcoholic on some podcast
Wolf wrote some wretched stuff for sure but he did write “Mr. Belvedere” later this season which is an all time favorite of mine
Also think Masterson was hosting due to the success of “Fried Green Tomatoes” even though it had been released a few months earlier. It was a surprise hit and had some decent buzz around it
For some reason I thought that had been released in early 1991, but you’re right, it was closer to the end of the year.
I do think that was a legitimate mistake by the drummer, Matt Chamberlain. I don’t know if this led to his departure from the show at the end of the season or not.
I remember reading an interview in which Chamberlain said that he didn’t enjoy living in NYC as much as he hoped and wanted to rejoin the west coast music scene.
(I feel so old.) 🙂
I can explain the earring removal. Back in the day when women wore power suits with big shoulders and even bigger earrings, our was almost impossible to talk on a regular landline phone receiver without removing that clunky earring. Easier to take off, of course, if it was a clip on!
Regarding Lisa Pongrasic, the Very Pregnant Undercover Cop: A character named Judge Lisa Pongracic (last name pronounced the same as Pongrasic) appeared in 14 episodes of “Law & Order” and 1 episode of “Law & Order: SVU.” Her first L&O appearance was on December 9, 1992, not very long after this SNL episode.
There is also a real-life Lisa Pongracic who has been an executive at HBO for years, and is currently HBO’s Senior VP of Business Affairs. I couldn’t find out what Pongracic was doing in 1992 (possibly working for NBC?), but I assume both characters were named after her.
I always thought the false start in the cold open was scripted just so Dana could yell that loud WRONG! at the band.
Oh and the joke with the action cats is that it’s a parody of those old action figure commercials from the 80s and early 90s. Think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The line “batteries and cat sold separately” at the end is rather funny.
Since the McLaughlin Group sketch is one of my top favs, (I could watch 100 of these and they’d never get old), this episode is instantly off to a good start. I didn’t really care for a lot of the sketches, nothing against MSM, but found the material eh. I like the LYLE, THE EFFEMINATE HETEROSEXUAL sketches, I think these are so much better than the redundant PAT skits.
Aside from those two sketches, I found Money for Booze to be catchy and cleaver, highlighting both two SNL stars gone too soon, and liked the concept of the bubble picture thought 💭
I also in general find a lot of the sketches from the mid late 80s period with the prime cast (Hartman, Carvey, Hooks, Miller) and even with the newer cast members like Farley and Sandler, I still enjoyed a lot of sketches that were kept short but sweet.
I’m sure we can all agree to disagree that some of the sketches we personally love/d that others can’t stand /vice versa, but at least it wouldn’t be the entire SNL experience.
Even in later seasons after the OGS left & SNL got a solid group of players for a few seasons, I can’t watch a cold opening because they are 99% of the time political and it can be 2022 or 2006, they drag on and lose my interest..
Something that def lost its way and shorter formula on SNL a while ago, not just with the openings, but some sketches and even with weekend update..
I rather have 3 musical performances or an SNL digital short or commercial parody over 3 more minutes of nonsense. (The Carvey political sketches never got to me because they didn’t drag, nor did Hartmans Reagan or Clinton).
Also I think this is a stellar episode for the musical act picked, I remember en vogue, to this day I got them on my Spotify and those are killer jams to run or dance to. I loved seeing them perform both hits, so it kinda cancels out the stuff I found mediocre at best.
I just watched a VHS copy of the live broadcast of this ep.
The reason for the flop between dress and air in the last Hartman / Farley sketch: the first half of the live version is a mess of technical errors.
At the beginning, Phil’s first voice over doesn’t play, so it’s just silence while he looks around. Phil realizes the problem and speaks the missing lines, but his mic isn’t on, so he’s inaudible until “How do I know you’re gonna spend it on food?”
When the camera switches to Farley for the first thought bubble, his face is center-of-camera, so the thought bubble covers half of his face. The camera quickly moves over, but it’s messy.
Most of the rest of the rerun version seems to be the live take, save for Farley’s response where the alcohol flies away. (I think I might actually like his reaction in the live airing a bit better – he’s more desperate.)
Great Phil episode.
Action Cats walked so that Laser Cats could run.
And like most episodes the last year or so, the men got female characters and lots of laughs, and the women got, well nothing. And Victoria had very little.