Month: July 2019

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December 7, 1991 – Hammer (S17 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
to help the economy, George Bush (DAC) suggests items for consumers

— Surprisingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Dana’s Bush impression all season. Odd how they waited this long.
— Some pretty good laughs from Bush going on about how great malls are.
— Good turn with Bush hawking various random products, especially the beaded seat cushion and the voice-activated frog band toy (the latter of which brings back SO MANY childhood memories of often seeing it displayed on a table outside of stores on the street in New York when walking past those stores with my mom or dad).
— Very funny part with the voice-activated frog band dancing around while an unaware Bush is somberly addressing recently-released hostages.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Michael Jackson (CSR) wants to go head-to-head with host
host performs “Too Legit To Quit”

— The beginning of this, with Hammer talking about himself in third-person while bragging about how great his career is going, is pretty much a chore for me to sit through.
— Thank god Rock has shown up as Michael Jackson to save the day.
— When Rock’s Michael Jackson enters, he tells Hammer “I’m ready to accept your challenge”, with absolutely no context given for what he’s referring to. What “challenge”? Does anyone know what this is all about? Did Hammer recently publicly challenge the real Michael Jackson to a dance-off or something?
— Very good MJ voice from Rock, and he’s getting good laughs with his over-eagerness to “throw down”.
— Much like Sting’s monologue from the preceding season, this monologue transitions into a full-fledged musical performance on the musical guest stage.
— Speaking of the musical guest stage, it has noticeably been expanded to a much bigger size than usual tonight, presumably so they can fit in Hammer’s insanely large number of backup dancers.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


BAD HAIRCUT SUPPORT GROUP
(SIF) moderates meeting of a support group for people with bad haircuts

— Funny gradual reveal of what exactly this is a support group for.
— I like Rob’s stand up comedian character using the group meeting to try out his comedy material.
— Julia’s wig reminds me of the one she wore in the Tough Girls sketch from the recent Linda Hamilton episode, only less curly and without the white streak in the middle (side-by-side comparison below).

— Julia’s uptight rant about how there’s nothing wrong with her hairstyle is providing good laughs, especially her mention that she’s had the same hairstyle since the 60s.
— Great turn with the group calling Hammer out on his own bad haircut, when he’s not even a group member and is only there to support his wife. Hammer’s a good sport to allow these jokes, and he’s getting good laughs with his constant denial that he has a bad haircut.
— An overall strong ensemble piece where everybody was given their individual chance to shine.
STARS: ****


TURRELL DAILY STAR
newspaper editor (KEN) doesn’t think Pearl Harbor is front-page material

— I like that they’re doing a sketch about the Pearl Harbor bombing, since the original airdate of this episode (December 7, 1991) is the 50th anniversary of the incident.
— Some pretty good laughs from Kevin seriously considering mundane local stories as potential front page headline material over the Pearl Harbor bombing.
— I love Phil standing up and declaring “Gentlemen: WE. ARE. AT. WAR!”, and then sheepishly sitting back down when his declaration fails to elicit a reaction from the other guys.
— I’m really enjoying Phil’s increasing antsiness throughout this.
— There goes what’s always been my absolute favorite moment of this sketch: Phil’s priceless delivery of the great line “I’ll tell ya what’s happening in the weather: it’s raining BOMBS in Hawaii!”
— Strong ending with the newspaper story “Local Reporter Shoots Self” accompanied by a picture of Phil, followed by “Asians Attack Base” being a small story buried within pages of the newspaper.
— Overall, one of Phil’s lesser-known great performances.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Wednesday (Christina Ricci) & Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) Addams present host


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Addams Groove”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Queen Shenequa delineates her Kwanzaa prayer agenda

 

— Queen Shenequa officially becomes recurring. They’ve also changed her outfit into the one that she would go on to regularly wear in all of her subsequent appearances.
— We get the debut of what would go on to be a running gag in Queen Shenequa’s Update commentaries, where Kevin attempts to state something in Swahili to Shenequa.
— Queen Shenequa’s rant about a recently-lost-his-mind Michael Jackson has some funny lines, and a good point about his then-recent song Black Or White: “If it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, then why are you so white?”
— An actual pretty good Queen Shenequa commentary overall tonight. I’m already predicting this will probably end up being her best commentary ever by default.
— According to GettyImages, Chris Rock had an Update commentary as himself that was cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here). In the pic, he’s noticeably holding a stuffed doll of Babar the Elephant (though it’s a bit obscured by the GettyImages watermark). I’d love to know how in the world a Chris Rock stand-up comedy routine on Weekend Update managed to involve Babar the Elephant.
STARS: ***


TALES FROM THE BARBECUE
how shortribs of a flying cow saved Santa (host)

— An unexpected return of this sketch from the season premiere.
— For once, Chris Rock is actually getting pretty good airtime tonight, though it’s obvious why, considering who’s hosting. Just to show you how bad Rock’s airtime had been lately: in the last episode, his only appearance was standing silently in the background with the rest of the cast in the pizza party/Home Alone cold opening. In the episode before that, his only appearance was a silent role in the pre-taped 3 Legged Jeans commercial. And in the episode before that, his only appearance was in the final sketch of the night.
— I like how Tim’s story now has a random addition of a flying cow named Bossy.
— I got a laugh from Tim’s hastily made-up ending of the story, where we’re told that the characters end up eating each other.
— Despite the charm, this overall sketch was a step down from the first Tales From The Barbecue sketch.
STARS: **½


JOHNNY LETTER
Johnny Letter (MIM) uses strong writing skills to exact revenge on others

 

— Yet another character in this era with his own opening title sequence and theme song. This is one character that never ends up becoming recurring, though.
— Feels weird that this is the first time we’re seeing Farley all night
— I liked Farley’s comically exaggerated delivery of “Par-dez moi!”
— I can kinda see where the comedic potential is in this concept, but it’s not coming off all that well in the execution. Pretty dull.
— Okay, Phil is getting some laughs from me right now, with his listing off of odd names.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how kids like to be tricked {rerun}
— Our first-ever instance of a repeated Deep Thought. This one (the famous “Oh, no, Disneyland burned down” one) originally aired in an episode from the preceding season.


REMEMBRANCES OF LOVE WITH WILT CHAMBERLAIN
(ELC) & Wilt Chamberlain (host) have a brief fling

— Something about Phil’s soft voice-over reading of the sketch’s title cracks me up, especially his slow delivery of “Wilt Chaaaaaam-ber-lain”.
— A hilarious initial visual of Hammer’s Wilt Chamberlain casually seated with those insanely long legs.
— A good parody of Chamberlain’s then-recent famous claim that he’s slept with over 20,000 women.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Hammer-as-Chamberlain’s line about being on a rebound from a previous relationship with a girl who’s still in the bathroom.
— Very funny visual of Hammer’s comically awkward attempt to drag the long Chamberlain legs with him into bed.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what it takes a big man to do


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “This Is The Way We Roll”


DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
Dick Clark’s receptionist (DAS) won’t let anyone in to see the boss

 

— David Spade finally gets a lead role! After struggling very badly this season, usually always being stuck in Luke Null-type bit roles, David gets a much-needed big showcase with the debut of what would go on to be a memorable character of his.
— David is great as this character, and is doing a spot-on imitation of this type of snippy receptionist. I’m especially getting laughs from his obliviousness to any kind of pop culture.
— Ellen has been getting TONS of airtime tonight.
— The Spanish conversation between David and Ellen is very funny, especially David saying a Spanish version of his catchphrases.
— Hilarious random turn with Dana as an alien just casually walking into the office. I also like how Ellen can be seen in the background staring at him with a frozen shocked look on her face.
— Classic part with Phil pleading “Please, Hammer, don’t hurt ’em!”
— I like Dana’s alien returning in a very flimsy fast-food worker disguise, referring to himself as “Jeff” from Wiener Hut. Wiener Hut was actually a cut dress rehearsal sketch from the preceding season’s Jeremy Irons episode.
— Reruns of tonight’s episode move this Dick Clark Productions sketch from the 10-to-1 spot to somewhere in the first half of the show (while also moving the Turrell Daily Star sketch from the first half of the show to the 10-to-1 spot), proving how well-received this sketch’s debut was.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, and certainly better than one might expect an M.C. Hammer-hosted episode to be. While there was a slump right after Weekend Update, the show eventually recovered nicely, and the overall episode had some strong sketches, particularly Bad Haircut Support Group, Turrell Daily Star, and Dick Clark Productions. Despite a bad start in the first half of his monologue, Hammer ended up being passable for a non-actor host. None of his performances hurt any of the sketches, he got some laughs, was a good sport, and did a good job leading the Wilt Chamberlain sketch.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Macaulay Culkin)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
After taking a big risk with two unconventional hosts in a row, SNL goes the tried-and-true route by getting SNL hosting legend Steve Martin to host the Christmas episode

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November 23, 1991 – Macaulay Culkin / Tin Machine (S17 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host wants to do show by himself after LOM sends him to his dressing room

 

— Regarding the cast’s pizza party, when Lorne is surprised by how high the pizza bill is, Dana explains “Lorne, we’ve got 17 people in the cast!” I like that little acknowledgment of the insanely large number of cast members this season. However, there are actually EIGHTEEN members of the cast at this point. I’ve always wondered who they were excluding in Dana’s line and, though I’m giving this too much thought, I have a few theories: 1) it could be either Al Franken or Robert Smigel, since they were more “writers who are only occasionally credited as featured players when they appear in a noteworthy role”. But why exclude only one of them in Dana’s line, especially since both of them are credited in tonight’s opening montage. 2) It could be Beth Cahill, since she doesn’t appear with the cast in this cold opening, presumably because she later appears in character as a stewardess during the connected monologue. And finally, 3) it could be Melanie Hutsell, who isn’t credited in tonight’s opening montage, despite being seen standing silently in the background of this cold opening with the rest of the cast.
— Speaking of which, standing silently in the background of this cold opening ends up being the only thing Tim, Ellen, and Rock get to do in this entire episode. Odd how ALL THREE of the only black members of this cast basically had to sit this episode out.
— I love Farley’s delivery of the immortal “Home Alone” line “Somebody’s gonna have to barf it up because it’s all gone!”
— One of the more memorable occurrences of Farley’s trademark furniture-breaking pratfalls.
— I liked David’s delivery of another immortal “Home Alone” line, “You’re such a disease!”
— Macaulay: “Why do I get treated like scum?” Lorne: “You’re a host.”
— An overall fairly short but fantastic cold opening, as both a spot-on “Home Alone” parody and a set-up to the monologue. It was fun seeing the ways famous “Home Alone” scenes were re-written to fit this particular situation.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
with LOM & the cast on a plane to Paris, host is Home Alone in the studio

— Great deviation from a usual monologue, with Macaulay entering to a completely empty studio, as a continuation of the “Home Alone”-themed cold opening.
— Rob being the cast member who gets the honors of riding in first class with Lorne while the rest of the cast is in second class is kinda odd, considering Rob is only a featured player at this point. I guess the Richmeister sketches really were THAT popular.
— Pretty fascinating seeing what SNL’s studio and backstage looks like when it’s completely empty.
— Very fun montage of Macaulay going wild in the empty studio, especially him wearing the vintage Coneheads prosthetic and him playing G.E. Smith’s guitar.
— Great use of Macaulay’s famous “Home Alone” hands-on-face scream.
— I love seeing Macaulay playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on the control room TV screens (fifth and sixth screencaps above). That was one of my absolute favorite video games when I was growing up.
— Lorne’s monotone repeated yelling of “Macaulay” as he’s racing down the hallway is very amusing.
— During everyone’s individual apologies to Macaulay, I liked Mike’s “I’m sorry I haven’t been in this sketch until now.”
— Second time this season where the end of the opening montage is replayed and the host makes a second entrance onstage, after Jeff Daniels’ monologue earlier this season.
— During the actual monologue, Macaulay keeps noticeably fidgeting with the zipper on his jacket, randomly moving it up and down repeatedly. Possibly a sign of how nervous the kid understandably is, standing alone in front of a live audience on live TV.
STARS: *****


THE LOVE TOILET
for couples who want to be together at all times

 

— Excellent reveal of the Love Toilet, after such a dead-serious set-up.
— The romantic, sentimental presentation of this product is making it that much funnier.
— Overall, short but perfect.
STARS: *****


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Bob Swerski brings daughter Denise (BEC) to Super Fan Thanksgiving meal

— For some reason, George Wendt’s Bob Swerski doesn’t do his usual intro to each character at the table.
— The school presentation scene with the kids wasn’t that funny or interesting, and understandably came off a little stiff.
— When Farley’s character is choking, he screams “I’M NOKING! NOKING!!” Haha, I never understood why he pronounced “choking” as “noking” (unless it was an attempt to make his voice sound muffled due to food being stuck in his throat), but that’s a line in this sketch that has always cracked me up and stuck with me over the years.
— Hilarious bit during the “noking” sequence where, while receiving the Heimlich Maneuver, Farley coughs up an entire uneaten pork chop.
— The debut of Beth Cahill’s Denise Swerski character.
— Each Super Fan pulling up their shirt to show a nasty scar would later have a dramatic music sting added to each scar reveal in reruns of this episode.
— The sequence with Farley as his character’s own wife is very funny.
— Overall, despite some great moments from Farley, this Super Fans installment wasn’t as strong as these sketches usually are. SNL themselves apparently share my opinion, as evidenced by the fact that reruns of this episode bury this sketch after Weekend Update.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on a Mafioso’s embarrassing first date


FLASHBACK
Richard Laymer has a flashback of himself (host) in Catholic school

 

— As usual, I wasn’t laughing much during the first minute or so when it was just Richmeister doing his typical naming shtick, but as usual, we eventually get a nice turn that takes the sketch in a new and entertaining direction.
— Funny seeing Macaulay doing a dead-on Richmeister impression while playing a child version of him.
— Not much to say about the overall sketch, but it was fine.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on laughing at old ladies falling down


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby Universal”


WEEKEND UPDATE
VIJ does an important-sounding editorial so people will think she’s smart
in absentia, ADS takes part in a tense Thanksgiving meal with the family

— The opening dirty conversation between Kevin and two crew members was a funny and different way to start Update. It reminded me of the phone intros that Chevy Chase would always start his Updates with.
— The Update set has been changed a bit. The big “Weekend Update” logo that used to be on the back wall behind Kevin has now been removed. Not sure why.
— Victoria’s commentary is a complete carbon-copy of her last Update commentary, where she gives an intelligent editorial and then it’s eventually revealed that somebody else wrote it for her. I didn’t care for this the first time, so why would I want to sit through it a second time?
— When Victoria asks the audience if they think she’s smart, which is supposed to elicit cheers from them, there’s a long stretch of no response from them at first, then they hesitantly start applauding. Victoria then laughs embarrassedly and mutters to Kevin “They don’t think I am.” Reruns of this episode cut out the awkward silence after Victoria asks the audience if they think she’s smart, making it seem like her question immediately receives applause.
— The basic premise of Adam’s commentary is ALSO a rehash of something he’s already done on Update before, but unlike Victoria’s bit, 1) I actually liked this commentary the first time, and 2) tonight’s version of it is actually being performed even funnier than the first version.
— Adam’s dinner conversation has a nice escalation, getting to the point where he threatens his dad with a knife, has a breakdown, and flips his dinner plate off the desk.
— Just when I thought Kevin had found his niche as an anchorperson with his last two Updates, tonight’s overall Update ended up being his weakest so far. The jokes weren’t too great. The poor commentary from Victoria didn’t help. Adam was the biggest highlight of tonight’s Update.
STARS: **½


UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc (PHH) pretends to be unsophisticated

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Great opening title sequence, as usual for this era.
— Yet another set of great fake sponsors from Jack Handey. I especially liked the one for National Escort Service (“If we don’t get a prostitute to your door in 15 minutes, you don’t pay!”). We also get a Happy Fun Ball callback as one of the sponsors!
— Phil’s characterization here is brilliant. I can’t picture anyone else ever doing justice to this character the way Phil is.
— The execution of this sketch isn’t even particularly laugh-out-loud hilarious in itself, as it’s mostly just straight dialogue, but the combo of the ridiculous caveman lawyer concept and Phil’s masterful characterization is making this a quietly hilarious gem.
STARS: ****½


SIMON
fellow neglectee Trevor (host) shows some of his work

— This is the first time a Simon sketch has had a guest.
— Particularly energetic call-and-responses from audience throughout this sketch.
— When being asked if he’s ever shown his disturbing drawings to a psychiatrist, I liked Macaulay’s response “I did, and he wept openly.”
— This overall Simon installment wasn’t too great and was marred by the excessive childish fart jokes, even if it makes sense in an SNL episode hosted by an 11-year-old.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on good Earth-ruling dog breeds


YOUNG SUPERBOY
Lex Luthor (PHH) & Superman (KEN) think Young Superboy (host) is adorable

— This sketch was originally intended for Fred Savage two seasons earlier, but it got cut after his episode’s dress rehearsal. You can tell that the pre-taped intro sequence with Mike, Victoria, and Tom Davis (first screencap above) was originally filmed for that episode, because it has an older look compared to the rest of tonight’s episode. Mike’s hair also looks different from how it typically looks this season.
— Young Superboy’s theme music was previously used as the theme music for another superhero sketch: Drunk Man from season 13’s Angie Dickinson episode. That music would later famously go on to be Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update theme from seasons 21-23.
— I’m guessing Farley’s role was originally played by Jon Lovitz in the Fred Savage dress rehearsal.
— This sketch has been going NOWHERE interesting. It’s just villains going “Aww” over Young Superboy saying cute things.
— Okay, I finally got a good laugh, from Kevin’s Superman saying he “had a rather large ass” as a kid.
— Very weak sketch overall. It says something about the difference in quality between the Fred Savage episode and tonight’s episode that a poor sketch like this was rightfully deemed not good enough to air when Savage hosted, yet it makes it on the air in tonight’s episode, where they seem to be kinda struggling to come up with kid-friendly material.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If There Is Something”


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
visiting nephew (host) bugs serious Stuart with joke

— Didn’t we just see this sketch two episodes ago? More signs that the writers were struggling to come up with material this week.
— After an okay set-up during the first minute or so, it appears that the repeated “You know what? Chicken butt” joke is going to be the ONLY joke for the remainder of the sketch.
— Stuart’s “You know why? Chicken thigh” twist was kinda cute, at least.
— Okay, I did like the ending with Stuart showing he’s a good sport by incorporating the “You know what? Chicken butt” joke into his usual “I”m good enough, I’m smart enough, etc.” tagline. This is still easily the weakest Daily Affirmation sketch so far, though.
STARS: **


U.S. FON
U.S. Fon doesn’t offer caller ID- too much information can be a bad thing

— The shocked, speechless look on Phil’s face when Julia reveals she knows his phone number is cracking me up.
— Good ending line from Phil: “She’s got my number…….. Now I’m gonna have to kill her.”
STARS: ***


MEDIEVAL SCALDERS
medieval scalder (CHF) bonds with his son (host) & abuses peasants

— Nice to see the usually energetic Farley starring in such a serious, calm, and low-key role. He’s doing a good job here.
— I loved the brief bit with Adam getting shot through the neck with an arrow. His reaction was very funny.
— When telling Macaulay a story of accidentally spilling molten lead all over Macaulay’s grandfather’s leg, I got a laugh from Farley responding to Macaulay’s “What happened to him?” question by chuckling and casually revealing “He died”.
— Despite some laughs, the overall sketch ended up being kinda forgettable. Not even the ending with Dana did much for me.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what to do if your parachute won’t open


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As usual with episodes hosted by children, there was a fun novelty feel to this show. However, judging this like a normal episode, this was actually below par for this season. Tonight had a higher number of weak sketches than usual for this season. And considering a child was hosting, the show seemed to try to take the safe route by relying on more recurring sketches than usual, but unfortunately, aside from Richmeister, each of those recurring sketches had their weakest installment by this point of their respective runs (Super Fans, Simon, Daily Affirmation). Also, most of the second half of the show was a sea of forgettable material. It doesn’t help that even Weekend Update was fairly off. Still, there were a few strong highlights, mainly the epic cold opening/monologue combo and the Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer debut. Macaulay Culkin did fine for a host his age.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Linda Hamilton)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The unconventional hosts keep on comin’, as M.C. Hammer helms our next episode

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New feature

I’ve added a new feature to the site, called Random Review, which you’ll see in the menu on top of the page. You’ll be taken to a different random review of mine each time you click it.

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November 16, 1991 – Linda Hamilton / Mariah Carey (S17 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Louisiana governor’s race loser David Duke (DAC) gives concession speech

— Interesting how this is starting off with a Kevin Nealon Weekend Update report.
— Kevin breaking down various voting patterns has some pretty good laughs.
— Funny little bit that Kevin does with his finger after holding it up to his “earpiece” like news anchors typically do when receiving breaking news.
— After a promising start, this cold opening has unfortunately gone downhill with the David Duke speech. There’s not many laughs in that portion of the sketch, and it’s coming off too dull.
— Melanie Hutsell makes her SNL debut (last screencap above).
— Overall, the first subpar cold opening of this season.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— Beth Cahill and the aforementioned Melanie Hutsell have been added to the cast tonight as featured players.

That raises the already-large number of cast members this season to EIGHTEEN, officially making this the all-time largest number of people who were in the cast at the same time. Season 39 also has 18 cast members total, but they weren’t all on at the same time. Colin Jost joined right after Seth Meyers’ mid-season departure.


MONOLOGUE
film clips tell the story of host’s explosion-filled life

— A one-joke bit, but a funny one-joke bit. The stock footage explosions representing Linda’s “average American life” are entertaining, especially the clip of her high school sweetheart running while being on fire and the “Scanners” clip of a man’s head exploding.
— It’s also fun recognizing some of these stock footage explosions from other sketches. The first shot of an exploding house was used at the end of the Tom Hanks sketch where he has a habit of repeating things as a double take, and I think the exploding car footage was used in both Shannen Doherty’s wedding monologue and the end of season 20’s Sparklebrite sketch.
STARS: ***½


LEEVI’S 3 LEGGED JEANS
the latest in strange denim legwear

— I’m loving the very early 90s aesthetic to this commercial. I also like how this is utilizing the large group of newer cast members (oh, and Victoria).
— The three-legged jeans reveal is priceless, as is the various displays of people doing physical actions in the jeans.
— Very catchy jingle.
— Tim’s one-liner “It’s not any dumber than acid wash” was perfect.
STARS: *****


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
Sarah (host) & John (Edward Furlong) Connor try to escape The Tooncinator

— I like the “Bad joke” bit shown from Terminator’s perspective.
— Surprisingly, this is the first Toonces sketch in an entire year.
— Very creative use of Toonces and a great twist with him as a Terminator-type character.
— Awkward long delay before the first cutaway to Toonces crashing his car off a cliff. This would later be fixed in reruns.
— I’m really liking how Toonces keeps forming into different versions of Terminator each time he gets destroyed.
— I got a good laugh from Phil’s Terminator saying “I’m scared!” in that Arnold accent.
STARS: ****


IT’S PAT
health club employee (host) tries to tailor a workout for androgynous Pat

 

— Good set-up to Pat’s appearance here.
— Starting with this installment, the “It’s Pat” opening title sequence and theme song would be shortened.
— Funny scene with Linda using a tool to try to pinch Pat’s body fat.
— Didn’t care for the exercise bike scene. That could have easily been removed from this sketch.
— I enjoyed Pat’s line “This place is so kinky!”
— An absolutely classic and famous part with the men and women’s locker rooms, where Pat’s decision on which locker room to go to gets interrupted by a brief special report from Weekend Update anchorman Kevin Nealon. When they return to the sketch, we find out we missed Pat’s big gender reveal.
STARS: ****


MASSIVE HEADWOUND HARRY
Massive Headwound Harry’s (DAC) scalp gore ruins (host)’s cocktail party

— Oh, as if this episode weren’t already strong enough, now here comes one of my favorite sketches of all time.
— Third sketch in a row tonight starring a character with their own opening title sequence.
— A freakin’ priceless and outrageous visual of Dana casually entering the party with that gruesome huge head wound.
— I loved Farley’s reaction to the head wound, screaming “OH MY GOD!” while spitting out his food.
— Hilarious part with Dana unknowingly rubbing his head wound all over the bowl full of shrimp, sending a disgusted Phil running towards the bathroom while trying to hold in his vomit.
— There’s the legendary moment that puts this sketch over the top, where a dog begins licking Dana’s wound and then pulls at the wound with his teeth, nearly yanking off Dana’s wig in the process. After an uproarious response from the audience, Dana memorably says “He probably smells my dog!”
— Here’s something I never understood: what’s with the huge red stain on Siobhan’s shirt before she makes her exit (last screencap above)? It’s never explained. Did she or one of the other performers accidentally spill punch on her shirt off-camera while reacting to the dog incident? I recall one SNL fan having a theory that a portion of this sketch was removed from reruns in which Dana’s head wound comes into contact with Siobhan’s shirt, leaving blood stains on it. However, I’m watching the live version of this episode, and that never happened.
— Very funny ending regarding Dana putting on Kevin’s hat.
— And thus ends an all-time SNL masterpiece.
— They made the right decision to never turn this into a recurring sketch. Though I swear I remember reading a false claim at one time, back in my early SNL fandom days, that SNL supposedly did end up doing a follow-up to this sketch a season or two later, only with DAVID SPADE(!) in the Massive Headwound Harry role (because Dana Carvey was no longer in the cast by that point).
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the sky as a metaphor for a salmon


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida bothers host by confusing her past roles with real life

— This character officially becomes recurring.
— I’m getting some laughs from Zoraida comparing the beast from the “Beauty and the Beast” TV series to her boyfriend Enrique.
— The quality of this has fallen off a bit after the first minute.
— Yeah, I can tell it won’t be too long until I officially get sick of seeing these sketches.
— We get the very first utterance of Zoraida’s “What makes you think I won’t cut you?” soon-to-be catchphrase, but it was drowned out by the sketch-ending audience applause here.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Can’t Let Go”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Roman (DAC) jokes about Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” video

— Fun segment with Kevin providing a “Louisiana Sports Update” for racist David Duke supporters.
— An amusing “metamorphosis” sequence, showing a montage of Michael Jackson’s physical changes over the years, ending with a future picture of him having a missing face.
— Interesting use of Larry Roman, an obscure recurring character of Dana’s.
— Loved Larry Roman’s description of the controversial ending of the “Black or White” music video, where Michael Jackson smashes a car and, as Roman says it, “proceeds to masturbate”.
— I like Dana’s ad-lib “I never know which ones you’re gonna go for!” when a joke of his gets a bigger reaction than he expected.
— Starting with the last episode’s Update, Kevin seems to have finally developed a niche. His Updates lately have had a nice consistent flow.
STARS: ***½


TOUGH GIRLS
(VIJ), (SIF), (BEC), (ELC), (JUS) challenge “buff” host to barroom brawls

— Surprisingly, this is the only appearance Mike makes in this entire episode, and it’s just a thankless small straight role.
— I’m really liking seeing Victoria playing this type of hard-ass, aggressive character. Very rare for her to be cast in a role like this. She’s giving a very good performance.
— Only one episode in, and Melanie Hutsell is ALREADY showing unfortunate signs of overacting tendencies.
— Good use of Beth Cahill in her very first SNL appearance.
— I like the increasing number of appearances from old-timey tough women challenging Linda to a fight.
— Ellen: “This Hamilton bitch is mine!”
— Weak ending.
STARS: ***


THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
CHF amateurishly interviews Martin Scorsese [real]

— This great sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Random Martin Scorsese cameo.
— Even though I know what’s coming, the set-up to Farley’s first “You remembeeerrrrr when…” in this installment is already making me laugh right before he’s even said it.
— Great part with Farley making Scorsese re-enact DeNiro’s famous “You talkin’ to me?” scene. I also love Farley excitedly mouthing things to the camera during that.
— A good laugh from how the caller (Melanie Hutsell) is doing Farley’s shtick.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If It’s Over”


BABY TALK
at a restaurant, baby talk of (DAC) & (host) makes (JUS) & (PHH) uneasy

 

— Some good laughs from Dana and Linda’s exaggerated baby-ish, lovey-dovey treatment of each other.
— I liked Phil’s blunt “No we shouldn’t” response when Julia tells him maybe they should go to the same relationship seminar Dana and Linda went to.
— For once this season, David Spade has actually been in quite a lot of sketches tonight, though his roles have just been the usual forgettable bit parts that he’s usually stuck in this season. Just to show you how bad his airtime has been lately, this is only the sixth episode of this season and he’s already spent THREE episodes not being in any sketches at all (Jeff Daniels, Kirstie Alley, and Kiefer Sutherland). He’s also only had about three speaking roles all season so far, and only one of those speaking roles was noteworthy (his Matthew Broderick impression in the Christian Slater episode). This is Luke Null/Dean Edwards/John Milhiser levels of underusage.
— Another funny exchange between Phil and Julia, with a confused Phil explaining “We’re having the same thing!” when Julia tries to romantically offer him a bite of her meal just like Dana and Linda have been doing with each other.
— Dana’s increasingly baby-ish speaking and actions (e.g. “Baby want sauce”) are funny.
— Very amusing visual of Linda sincerely apologizing for her and Dana’s actions while still casually having her finger in Dana’s mouth.
STARS: ***½


HIDDEN CAMERA COMMERCIALS
(TOS) interviews angry victim of hidden camera ad (CHF)

 

— For some reason, I like the odd name of Tom Schiller’s character, Knorben Knussen.
— I love the sudden dark turn with Farley’s great slowburn after hearing his coffee has been switched.
— So many laughs from the insane, chaotic turn with Farley going completely berserk over such a minor thing, and doing things like throwing pies at customers and smashing everything in sight. He is killing me in this, and this is a perfect use of his knack for yelling, long before it became a tired weekly crutch.
— Great ending with a bruised and bandaged Farley explaining in a satellite interview that he’s “Aaaaannnnngrryyy…”
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and also a very memorable one that I’ve always felt is a good microcosm of this season as a whole. You have well-remembered installments of recurring sketches like Pat, Toonces, and The Chris Farley Show, you have beloved one-off pieces like 3 Legged Jeans and Massive Headwound Harry, and you finish the show with a great Schiller’s Reel that features one of Chris Farley’s greatest performances.
— Aside from the mixed Jeff Daniels episode, this season has been on an absolute roll so far. This is one of the hottest starts that I’ve witnessed a season have during this SNL project of mine so far.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kiefer Sutherland)
a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
An 11-year-old Macaulay Culkin

Posted on

November 2, 1991 – Kiefer Sutherland / Skid Row (S17 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
defense attorney (KEN) selects jurors for the William Kennedy Smith trial

— Ellen’s whole long-winded “Big ol’ boozehead” rant about Ted Kennedy is hilarious.
— I love Kevin’s uncomfortable-but-calm “Okay… that’s okay…”s when trying to move on to a different subject whenever a potential juror mentions a succession of negative things about the Kennedy family.
— Farley’s walk-on immediately gets some chuckles from the audience.
— Farley going on about how Ted Kennedy is “a good guy” is very funny, especially Farley eagerly asking “Is he here???”
— Farley gets to deliver his very first “Live from New York”.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
recently-jilted, tuxedo-clad host sings “How To Handle A Woman”

— For years, I didn’t understand the joke where Kiefer calls attention to his formal tuxedo and bitterly says “I’ve been having a rather difficult time finding somewhere to wear it”, until I was told at some point that it was a reference to Julia Roberts calling off their wedding earlier that year.
— Very short overall monologue in which he mostly just sings a serious song, but the song thankfully was brief enough and had a fairly chuckleworthy ending.
STARS: **½


LUNG BRUSH
Lung Brush manually cleans gunk from smokers’ airways; Ken Stabler cameo

— Interesting change of pace having Mike as a commercial spokesperson for once. He’s doing a good job here.
— Very funny disgusting visual gag of Farley entering the long brush all the way down into his throat, an animated graphic then being shown of the brush cleaning one of the tar-filled lungs, and then Farley pulling out the now-gunk-covered brush.
STARS: ***½


CAMPAIGN ’92
debating Democrats deprecate themselves to avoid George Bush matchup

— I love the title “The Race to Avoid Being the Guy Who Loses to Bush”.
— Funny visual gag of Kevin’s Bill Bradley impression only consisting of him initially imitating Bradley’s double chin when he’s first shown. That reminds me of how Kevin’s Brent Musberger impression would only consist of him initially holding down the sides of his eyes when he was first shown.
— Another funny visual, this time with Phil’s Cuomo make-up.
— The premise of this sketch comes off ironic in retrospect, considering the “impossible to beat” George Bush ends up losing this election.
— I love Phil’s Cuomo voice.
— I’ve always wondered why they had Victoria as Tipper Gore filling in for Al Gore in this. The only reason I can think of is SNL felt none of the remaining male cast members who weren’t already in this sketch were suitable for a convincing Gore impression. Or maybe they just really wanted to use that “My husband is with our kids at a gay porno theater” joke.
— A lot of laughs from how the candidates’ “cheap shots” are them complimenting each other or putting themselves down.
— Dana as Richard Gephart: “I couldn’t beat David Duke in Harlem.”
— Kiefer-as-Lloyd-Bentsen’s final statement is priceless, especially him explaining “Hell, I can’t even tell you the names of the people standing on this stage with me.”
— Phil-as-Cuomo’s “The real issue is this: I. Have. Mob. Ties.” statement is classic.
— A phenomenal sketch overall. Well-written, perfectly executed, and had an endless number of funny lines.
STARS: *****


WHOSE ASS SHOULD I KISS?
contestants try to climb the corporate ladder

— Already a big laugh from the initial reveal of the title.
— Rob is hilarious in this, especially with his shamelessness regarding his excessive ass-kissing.
— Phil’s “That’s just blatant brown-nosing” line to Rob was very funny.
— I liked Kevin’s half-humble/half-cocky line “I get my fair share” when being complimented on his sexual prowess.
— Great part with Rob’s overly ass-kissing tendencies getting to the point where he just flat-out asks Kevin what sexual favor he would like.
— The list of prizes that the winner will receive could’ve been funnier.
— I like Julia’s kinda-snooty facial expressions throughout this.
— Very funny reveal at the end that the show is “An Arsenio Hall Production”.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on laughing at Grandpa


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Piece of Me”


WEEKEND UPDATE

— I liked Kevin’s opening line “I’m Nealon Kevin, and I’m a recovering dyslexic.”
— Kevin: “For Halloween, Ted Kennedy wore pants and went as a commoner.”
— Great Trump joke regarding who mugged his mother.
— Despite some of the usual stumbliness in his delivery, Kevin is on a roll with a lot of these jokes.
— Tonight’s overall Update had no guest commentaries at all, but it didn’t need any. Kevin did a very good job carrying this by himself, and this is his very first above-average Update.
STARS: ****


ALL THINGS SCOTTISH
Stuart Rankin & brother (host) at the former’s All Things Scottish store

— This sketch officially becomes recurring. Unlike this character’s previous appearances, Stuart Rankin now has the look that people today remember him as having.
— Tim seems a little miscast as this streetwise young black character (constantly saying things like “Why don’choo chill, man?”) when Chris Rock is RIGHT THERE and has yet to appear in any sketches tonight. That being said, I’m still kinda liking Tim in this role.
— I got a good laugh from Phil’s subtle put-off facial reaction to Rankin jokingly telling him, regarding Scotch and Scots, “We’re both quite tasty.”
— Phil spouting off stereotypical Irish phrases in a goofy Irish accent is hilarious.
— I remember the first time I saw this episode, which was in a Comedy Central rerun, I found Kiefer barely recognizable in that wig and large mustache. I recall thinking he looked a lot like Jeff Foxworthy in this.
— The whole “Rankin and his brother keep getting ready to fight each other but end up always reconciling with an emotional hug whenever something sentimental gets brought up” thing was already done in the prior installment of this sketch with Kyle MacLachlan, but I feel it’s coming off a little funnier here.
— Kiefer: “(in a Scottish accent) I’ll be kickin’ ya so hard in the goonies, you’ll be peein’ out your mouth.”
STARS: ***½


KIDDIE METAL
Axl Rose (ADS) & musical guest perform songs from the album

— The child actor used in this sketch would go on to appear quite a lot in this era, with his two most noteworthy roles probably being Rob Schneider’s son in one of the Sensitive Naked Man sketches and the “You killed Kennedy? The MTV VJ?” kid from an “In the Line of Fire” parody with John Malkovich.
— Awkward long delay with the music after the kid presses the play button on his radio. This would later be fixed in reruns.
— An absolutely perfect use of Adam’s fantastic Axl Rose impression, with him singing heavy metal versions of classic nursery rhymes.
— Second sketch in a row where I used to have a hard time recognizing Kiefer. The only reason I can tell that’s him playing Slash is by the voice. I think in my aforementioned first Comedy Central viewing, I assumed that was Al Franken playing Slash, for some reason.
— The A-B-C’s duet between Axl Rose and Sebastian Bach is fantastic.
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the benefits of having a robot president


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
a visit from Stuart’s idea-stealing cousin Leon (host)

— Weird how this is the second sketch tonight with Kiefer playing a recurring character’s relative. And interestingly, both recurring characters are ones named Stuart (Rankin and Smalley).
— Great look on Kiefer’s character.
— I love the clip of Kiefer’s show and how it’s suspiciously similar to Stuart’s show, right down to Kiefer’s motto being a knock-off of “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough… etc.”.
— Some really funny tension between both characters.
— I like both characters’ passive-aggressive comment to each other during their “sentimental” wrap-up of the show.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Monkey Business”


PHONE ILLITERACY
(host) serves as conversation middleman for phone-illiterate (KEN)

— Some good laughs from Kiefer constantly being forced by Kevin to relay messages to the friend on the phone, only for Kevin to back down whenever Kiefer offers him the phone.
— Kevin’s tearful “I don’t know how to use a telephone!” reveal and the subsequent disclaimer raising awareness of phone illiteracy were solid. However, Kevin delivers his “I don’t know how to use a telephone!” line a lot funner in reruns, which replace the second half of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version (you can tell when the dress rehearsal substitution comes in, as Kevin’s hair suddenly changes to a noticeable wig and Kiefer’s sleeves suddenly change from rolled-up to fully down).
STARS: ***½ for the live version, **** for the rerun version


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski plugs 168th Street Spring Water; mother joke prizes

— Chris Rock is JUST NOW making his first appearance of the night, in the final sketch of the show. At least he gets a lead role here, though.
— I loved Rock’s impressively long-winded, wordy intro to Farley.
— The sponsored water drink being from a fire hydrant is pretty funny, as is the hydrant-shaped water bottle.
— I love how the picture they showed of a child support check had the words “Here, Bitch!” signed in the name portion (second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode with a good number of really memorable pieces, especially classics like Campaign ’92 and Kiddie Metal.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christian Slater)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Linda Hamilton

Posted on

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

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

Posted on

October 12, 1991 – Kirstie Alley / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S17 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
senators question Clarence Thomas (TIM) & give him some harassing tips

— Some good opening laughs from Kevin doing a rundown to Ellen’s Anita Hill of all the unpleasant topics they discussed during her part of the hearings.
— Boy, that is some awful-looking hair on Kevin’s Joe Biden. But I suppose the same can be said about the real Biden’s hair at the time.

— I love the cutaways to the senators all murmuring to each other in an impressed manner whenever Tim’s Clarence Thomas unintentionally gives them advice on how to pick up women.
— Very big audience reaction to the hilarious reveal of Phil playing Ted Kennedy. I also loved his question “Were you, ah, drunk at the time?”
— Dana is PRICELESS as Strom Thurmond.
— Oh, god, please don’t make me address the elephant in the room regarding what an uncomfortable coincidence it now is that Al Franken was cast in a sketch about senators giving sexual harassment tips.
— I like Al’s Senator Paul Simon harping on how his bowtie hurts his chances with women.
— Great walk-on from Rock as Long Dong Silver.
— Nice to see Rock deliver his very first “Live from New York…”.
— A classic cold opening overall.
STARS: *****


OPENING MONTAGE
— In the original live East Coast broadcast of this episode, Don Pardo’s timing is wildly off throughout the entire opening montage. He announces everybody’s names either way too late or way too early. He especially has a rough time during the long list of featured players. When the shot of Tim Meadows comes up, Pardo completely blanks and just stays silent during the shots of the next few featured players (Sandler, Schneider, Spade). Then after the shot of David Spade, Pardo tries to catch up by quickly spitting out “Adamsandlerrobschneiderdavidspade” in rapid succession without taking a breath, leaving out poor Tim. The version I’m reviewing of this episode is the West Coast tape-delayed “live” airing from that night, in which they replace Pardo’s botched announcing with his flawless announcing from dress rehearsal.


MONOLOGUE
host & Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Kelsey Grammer [real]

 

— Huge, and I mean HUGE audience reactions to the succession of cameos from Kirstie’s “Cheers” co-stars, who each pop out from a random place in the studio and join in on Kirstie’s singing of the “Cheers” theme song. Very infectious energy here.
— With George Wendt’s cameo here, his cameo two weeks earlier in the Super Fans sketch from the season premiere, and his hosting the preceding season’s finale, he has been appearing on SNL a LOT around this time, more than some of the actual cast members (especially David Spade, who’s been almost completely invisible so far this season).
— I like Ted Danson’s callback to the memorable sketch he got to do with live pigs when he hosted.
— I love the running bit with Kelsey Grammer constantly being ignored when explaining to his co-stars that, unlike them, he’s never hosted SNL.
— A lot of good laughs from Kirstie’s irritation over her co-stars taking over her monologue duties by reading off her concluding lines.
— Great ending with Kelsey taking pleasure in standing alone onstage and concluding the singing of the “Cheers” theme song.
STARS: *****


LONELY CHOICE
Lonely Choice Dinners are frozen entrees for women without relationships

— Siobhan Fallon finally gets her first big showcase.
— This is a lesser-known fake ad from this era (especially since it was cut from the 60-minute version that Comedy Central used to always air of this episode), but this is being executed nicely with a good subtle approach and a solid spokesperson performance from Siobhan.
— Some funny details in the visual of the TV dinners, especially the two big sleeping pills on top of one of the meals, and the giant Oreo cookie.
— I like the meal titles shown on the pile of dinner boxes (last screencap above).
— Funny ending slogan from Phil’s voice-over: “We’ve taken the ‘difficult’ out of ‘difficult and sad’.”
STARS: ***½


IL CANTORE
overamorous Italians serve the Kirpatricks (host) & (KEN) at a restaurant

— The restaurant set being used in this sketch would go on to be familiar, as it would be frequently used in a number of sketches from later this era, including the season 18 sketch with Kevin Kline as an uncontrollably farting Italian celebrity and the Pepper Boy sketch from Dana Carvey’s season 20 episode.
— The Italians’ overly-affectionate actions towards Kirstie are hilarious.
— Dana’s actions towards Kirstie are getting particularly funny, especially him licking all over her face.
— This sketch has now become an absolute riot, with Dana being seen humping Victoria on a restaurant table in the background while Kirstie remains completely oblivious to it. This is the other sketch I was talking about in my review of the preceding season’s Roseanne Barr episode, where I said that episode contained the first of two times in 1991 where Victoria Jackson gets humped on a restaurant table during a sketch.
— This sketch is getting more and more outrageous as it goes along. I love it.
— Strong ending with Kevin and Kirstie thinking they’ll experience more civility at a nearby Greek restaurant.
STARS: *****


IT’S PAT
androgynous Pat receives birthday greetings from parent Francys (host)

— Julia Sweeney’s birthday was earlier that week (October 10), which is probably what inspired the idea of this sketch.
— Julia’s Pat voice seems to get increasingly higher pitched and whinier with each passing sketch this character appears in. I personally prefer the low-pitched voice Julia used in the first two Pat sketches.
— I like a confused Chris Rock entering the scene while dumbfoundedly saying “Your mothe– your fath–” over and over when trying to tell Pat that a parent of Pat’s has arrived.
— Speaking of Rock, something about the way he’s dressed in this sketch really emphasizes his extreme skinniness.
— Great turn with Kirstie entering as Pat’s equally-androgynous parent.
— Kirstie’s really good at imitating the Pat giggle.
— Despite my earlier mention of not liking Pat’s whinier voice as much as Pat’s lower pitched voice from earlier installments, I got a good laugh just now from Julia’s over-the-top delivery of the line “I want you to hear the MADNESS!”
— Good ending with Pat’s co-workers singing a variation of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, with the lyrics awkwardly altered to be gender unspecific.
— I’m surprised this didn’t end with them cutting to the usual closing credits sequence with the Pat theme song. Wonder why they didn’t do that here.
— One of the more memorable Pat sketches overall.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on saying “puke” at the dinner table


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Into the Great Wide Open”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR says Clarence Thomas is guilty of nothing more than bad pick-up lines
VIJ’s erudite term limits commentary turns out to have been ghost-written
Phil Perry (ROS) voices athletes’ thoughts during baseball highlights

— When talking about Anita Hill, I liked Rock asking “Isn’t that the same woman who was caught smoking crack with Marion Barry? Someone should do a check.”
— Some okay lines from Rock, but his delivery here is stumbly and this commentary isn’t as good as his Update commentaries usually are.
— Surprisingly, this is Victoria’s first Update commentary as herself in over a year. She didn’t do any in season 16.
— A weak and obvious punchline to Victoria’s commentary, with her admitting she didn’t write the intelligent speech she just delivered.
— Some good laughs from Rob’s sportscaster getting out of hand with his voicing athletes’ thoughts during sports clips, especially when he starts resorting to bad stereotypical ethnic voices.
STARS: ***


THEIR EYES WERE ON THEIR BREASTS!
female aliens distract male earthlings

— The spaceship the aliens are standing in front of is the same spaceship that would later be used in a notorious season 20 sketch involving Deion Sanders and an accidental mooning from Farley. The scenery behind the spaceship appears to be the same in both sketches too.
— Solid concept.
— Kevin has been in tons of sketches tonight.
— Funny brief walk-on from Farley.
— I love the cutaways to each of the three scientists staring intensely at the aliens’ eye breasts.
— The questions the scientists ask the aliens are really funny. I especially like “When you get older, does your vision sag?” and “Can you see better when it’s cold outside?”
STARS: ***½


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Linda Richman (MIM) & (host) are big Barbra Streisand fans

— Though they’re still using the “Coffee Talk with Paul Baldwin” title, we get the debut of Linda Richman, filling in for an ill Baldwin. Very rare for SNL to suddenly revamp an already somewhat-established recurring sketch in this drastic manner. I can’t think of any other time in SNL history that this has happened, but perhaps I’m forgetting some examples.
— Phil’s performance as Kirstie’s husband is funny and is adding good realism to the scene.
— Linda Richman is certainly a more fleshed-out character than Paul Baldwin, and we’re immediately seeing all of what would go on to be Linda Richman’s trademarks, including her Barbra Streisand obsession, her describing something as being “like buttah”, her speaking Yiddish, her getting verklempt and instructing us “Tawk amongst yuhselves… I’ll give you a tawpic…”, etc.
— Overall, while I didn’t laugh all that much aside from Phil’s lines, I didn’t hate this sketch. After recently sitting through the one-note Paul Baldwin-hosted Coffee Talk installments, in which New York accents was literally the only “joke”, this Linda Richman debut came off oddly kinda refreshing to me. However, I know my lenience towards Richman will not last much longer the more I’ll have to sit through these sketches, especially when we arrive at season 19 where the character appeared ad nauseam.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Kings Highway”


PSYCHO DIVORCED MOTHER
(host) damns phone company & cable company to Hell

— Great reveal of the title “Psycho Divorced Mother” after the opening scene where Kirstie snapped at her two kids.
— Kirstie going off on an insane rant to nobody about the phone company is providing some good laughs.
— I absolutely loved Kirstie’s raspy-voiced delivery of “Damn you to HELL, cable company!”
— Kirstie has gotten so into her psychotic characterization that it sounds like she almost dropped an MF-bomb just now, during her cable company rant. She begins to say “Die, mother–” but then immediately cuts herself off.
— Wow, this sketch was quick.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on cutting down screaming trees


LOOK WHO ELSE IS TALKING ALSO
possessions of James (DAC) & Mollie (host)

— I loved the line from the Tom Davis-voiced dog, saying “I get lucky every night… because I can lick myself.”
— The usual very funny John Travolta impression from Dana.
— I liked the ending with the talking condom and diaphragm.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how a child can look like a deer


GOODNIGHTS
MIM kills time by leading a round of “O Canada”

— These particular goodnighs are very unique. There’s A LOT of extra time to fill before the ending credits scroll by, so we’ll be seeing lots of comical vamping for time. According to what I once heard, the reason the show has so much time to fill here is because a sketch was removed at the last minute, with nothing scheduled to replace it. Supposedly, the removed sketch was a parody of the then-current William Kennedy Smith rape trial, and SNL apparently was worried that sketch would be too much in an episode that already had a parody of the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment hearings as the cold opening.
— Speaking of sexual harassment and rape trials, during part of her goodnights speech, Kirstie brings up how there’s so much in the news lately about sexual harassment allegations going on and then thanks the people at SNL for not sexually harassing her, at which point several of the guys onstage jokingly lunge at her and grab her breasts (and no, Al Franken was not among the guys who did that, for anyone wondering).
— Mike Myers has now been brought to the front of the stage and tries to lead everyone in a round of “O Canada”, only nobody else onstage seems to know the words, so they just laugh and try to clown around with Mike while he’s doing his best to continue the song.
— This is so fun seeing the natural goofy, loose antics of the cast as themselves, which feels so rare to see in this period of the show. It was much more common during the original era and even the early 80s.
— About halfway through the scrolling ending credits, everybody walks off the stage one-by-one, leaving only the SNL Band, who continue to play the goodnights theme music on a now-empty stage.
— It’s amazing how long these goodnights are STILL going on, long after the scrolling credits have finished. This is beautiful, and really makes you appreciate the goodnights theme music.
— It sounds like the band was starting to play the rarely-heard official ending notes of the goodnights theme right as the Broadway Video and NBC Productions vanity cards started showing up, but unfortunately, in the recording I’m watching of this episode, the tape seems to cut off right at that moment and goes to another recording. Too bad; I started getting goosebumps at hearing those ending notes. I believe the only two other times in SNL history where we get to hear the official ending notes of the goodnights theme are the ice-skating goodnights of two episodes: Candice Bergen from 1976 and Kevin Hart from 2017.
— Reruns of this episode shorten these goodnights extremely. All the vamping for time before the ending credits roll are removed, as is the SNL Band’s extended playing after the credits finish rolling. To fill in the extra time left by the removal of those moments, reruns add in a cut dress rehearsal sketch called “I Love Lucy: The Lost Tapes”. It’s obvious that sketch was made sometime later in the season, because future cast member Melanie Hutsell is in it playing Ethel.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode. The first half in particular was absolutely amazing, being dominated by all-time memorable pieces. There was also a high energy in the air throughout the episode to go along with the fine quality. The cast’s unique time-killing antics during the very extended goodnights only added to this episode’s special feel.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Daniels)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christian Slater

Posted on

October 5, 1991 – Jeff Daniels / Color Me Badd (S17 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Tonight Show- Johnny Carson (DAC) decides to cancel his retirement

— A mean but very funny part with Dana’s Johnny Carson bluntly telling Victoria, who’s playing herself, to get the hell out because she does the same thing on his show every time. Victoria’s a good sport to allow this joke, but I can’t help but think that SNL was trying to tell her something there, nor can I help but see this whole bit as an early sign of how unnecessary Victoria’s going to come off during this final season of hers. I like Victoria as a cast member a little more than some people do, but I’ve always been of the opinion that she stayed one season too long.
— Very funny part with the animal peeing on Carson’s shoulder, made even funnier by Dana’s deadpan facial reaction into the camera.
— Great comments with Phil’s Ed McMahon calling “lantern-jawed freak” Jay Leno a Dick Tracy villain.
— The Dom DeLuise clip was freakin’ HILARIOUS and has always been one of the hardest I’ve ever laughed at SNL. So many funny things going on in such a short clip. You have Phil as Burt Reynolds being in his underwear for no explained reason, Farley’s Dom DeLuise randomly shoving a pie into both Reynolds’ and Carson’s crotches, Farley’s hysterical wheezing laughter, Farley visibly wetting his pants while laughing non-stop, Phil’s hysterical loud cackling…
— Jeff Daniels’ impression of Jay Leno is priceless.
— Great angry rant from a suddenly shrunken Leno after Carson announces he’s postponing his retirement and is going to stay on the air for five more years.
— In the live version of this episode, the superimposed special effect they used to make Leno appear shrunken accidentally stays on the screen too long after Jeff Daniels exits, causing us to unintentionally see a shrunken Jeff and stage manager Joe Dicso both running past the screen to go backstage (as seen on the lower half of the screencap below).

That blooper is hilarious and gets some laughs from the audience. SNL would later remove the blooper from reruns, but they still leave in the audience’s laughter at it.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
DAC quickly teaches host the eight standard SNL monologue moves

— A nice diversion from usual monologues, with a miserable-looking Jeff immediately retreating backstage during the audience’s opening applause.
— Fun bit with Dana teaching Jeff the monologue moves (The Pigeon Neck, There You Are, Trained Seal, etc.).
— Now this has gotten even more fun with the ending of the opening montage restarting, the SNL Band replaying the theme music, and Jeff re-entering onstage and going through each of the moves that Dana taught him.
STARS: ****


EARTHIES
seed-containing Earthies diapers are environmentally responsible

— Good to see a fake ad starring Julia for a change.
— An okay concept with diapers being planted into the ground to make stalks of corn.
— Overall, not too bad, but wasn’t anything noteworthy or memorable either,  especially considering how great and memorable the fake ads from this era typically are.
STARS: **½


COPY MACHINE
Richard Laymer faces name-manipulation competition from (host)

— Our first Richmeiser appearance of the season, after being heavily featured in the second half of the preceding season.
— Lately, I’m starting to question why Richmeister’s naming routine is supposed to be funny. His routine has been coming off as overly simplistic, kid-level humor to me recently.  I used to be more tolerant of him, but maybe doing these daily reviews has gotten me burned-out on him fast, considering how frequently he’s appeared so far. That same type of quick burnout has certainly happened to me with other overused recurring characters I’ve encountered during this SNL project so far, especially Emily Litella and Tommy Flanagan.
— Okay, this installment has taken a fun and interesting turn with Jeff’s character having a naming habit of his own, and Richmeister feeling threatened by him.
— I really like the part with Jeff and Richmeister competing against each other to give nicknames to Kevin.
— Nice ending with Jeff and Richmeister developing a camaraderie by doing each other’s routine when trying to strike up a conversation with each other.
— One of the better Richmeister sketches overall.
STARS: ***½


COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOWL
students are unable to answer easy questions

— I mentioned in my review of Chevy Chase’s season 11 episode that the Jose Cuervo Party School Bowl sketch in that episode shares similarities with the later Community College Bowl sketch SNL would do in this Jeff Daniels episode, right down to one of the contestants in both sketches having the last name Hygaard/Hoigaard, and both sketches airing a video package showcasing one of the colleges. Both sketches were likely written by the same person, but I have no idea who.
— Am I crazy, or is Chris Rock wearing the same shirt that Andy Samberg would later wear as his recurring character Blizzard Man?
— I love the frozen sheepish smile on Mike’s face throughout this.
— A pretty good laugh from Adam’s only description of his major being a deadpan-delivered “Scalp care”.
— The repeated joke with the contestants sitting in drawn-out silence when not knowing the answer to the questions Jeff asks is getting reeeaaaaallllly tired.
— Overall, an inferior version of the Jose Cuervo Party School Bowl sketch, which itself was only average.
STARS: **


THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
CHF recalls scenes during an interview with host

— The debut of this recurring sketch that’s always very enjoyable and charming, especially now that it’s become widely known in recent years that this sketch is just Farley being how he was in real-life behind the scenes.
— A lot of laughs from Farley’s various “Remember when…” and “That was awesome” remembrances, especially when starting to bring up things that have nothing to do with Jeff Daniels.
— Jeff’s subtly annoyed reactions throughout this are solid.
— I like how Farley’s now doing his “Remember when…”s to the caller and to the stage manager.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Wanna Sex You Up”


WEEKEND UPDATE
embarrassingly rich ALF reconciles his wealth with his political leanings
announcer’s call of Bobby Thompson’s pennant-winning homer is low-key

— Kevin has ditched his intro statement, “Morning”, from his inaugural Weekend Update and has replaced it tonight with “I’m Kevin Nealon, and I’m an alcoholic”, the beginning of a weekly running gag where he introduces himself in a comical manner.
— Tonight’s Update has even more of an authentic newscast feel than Kevin’s inaugural Update did, with a lot more mock-serious imitations of things you typically see on the real news.
— Kevin’s straitlaced delivery is making some of the absurd lines he’s reading come off funnier than they normally would.
— Hmm, we’re getting an awful lot of corny “misinterpreting a picture” type of jokes tonight, something that plagued the Updates from Dennis Miller’s last half-season.
— Some laughs from Al Franken’s bragging over how overpaid he is.
— Al’s overall commentary had some good dry humor that he’s always good at pulling off.
— I’m not 100% sure, but I think Al’s commentary would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version.
— SNL takes another funny swipe at Latoya Jackson, after the previous week’s Nat X sketch.
— Kevin’s stumbliness when reading some of the jokes is unfortunately starting to rear its ugly head tonight, which would go on to be one of the more unfavorable things Kevin’s Update tenure is remembered for.
— Funny bit with the clip of a baseball commentator’s (Rob Schneider) monotone, unexcited announcing of Bobby Thompson’s legendary “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” home run. It kinda reminds me of a sketch the show would later do in season 20, in which Bob Newhart plays a manic-depressive sports commentator who’s mood would always be the exact opposite of the tone of the play he was announcing.
— After a shaky first half, Kevin’s been having some strong jokes in the second half.
— For the first time ever, Kevin concludes Update with “I’m Kevin Nealon and that’s news to me”, which would go on to be his official tagline.
STARS: ***


APEX NOVELTY
boss (PHH) asks novelty item creator (host) about his unconventional gags

— Most of this sketch (except for the skeleton ending) would later be replaced with dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most visible difference between both versions is the wig that Phil wears (side-by-side comparison below).

— A big laugh from the ridiculously oversized fake rubber vomit that Phil displays.
— The fake rubber vomit bit has now gotten even funnier, with the reveal of an uneaten sandwich inexplicably being in the vomit.
— As Phil displays Jeff’s log-through-the-head item, I’m cracking up at Phil’s questioning of “How would you even GET a log through the head?” and then responding to Jeff a little later “Yeah, but the log wouldn’t go THROUGH your head.”
— I think I can see why this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. This feels a little quiet and slower-paced compared to how I remember the rerun version being.
— The tiny shrunken head inside an ice cube is hilarious. Also, every time I watch this sketch, I can’t help but think that the shrunken head looks like Alfred E. Neuman (Mad Magazine’s mascot)… with a Hitler mustache, of all things. I’m sure I’m seeing incorrectly, but it makes the shrunken head bit even funnier to me.
— This sketch is a perfect example of Phil’s excellent straight man skills. His straitlaced displaying of Jeff’s ridiculous novelty items, and his questionings throughout this are all killing me.
— I think something goes wrong with Phil’s mic towards the end of the sketch (shortly before the skeleton gag), as his voice is barely audible all of a sudden.
— Great gag with the explosion of an extra-powerful exploding cigar resulting in Phil being reduced to a talking skeleton. I also absolutely love his and Jeff’s goofy, over-the-top laughter as the sketch ends.
STARS: **** for the live version, ****½ for the rerun version


SIMON
drawings document summer camp infirmary stay & barbecue fire

— This Mike Myers character officially becomes recurring.
— A pretty amusing part with Simon displaying a drawing of a simple curved line, which he explains is “my li’l white English bum”.
— Overall, this sketch was fine, but nothing special. Nothing in the Simon sketches the show has done by this point have stood out.
STARS: ***


REAL LIFE WITH JANE PAULEY
(host) is much dumber than wife (SIF)

— Awkward beginning, as Julia is way too early on her cue and begins saying her introductory line long before the “Real Life With Jane Pauley” opening credits sequence finishes playing. Then when realizing her mistake, Julia abruptly stops mid-sentence and doesn’t continue until a good while after the credits have stopped running. All of this would be fixed in reruns.
— Siobhan Fallon finally gets her first big role, but it’s still a fairly thankless straight part. SNL has yet to give her anything really noteworthy by this point.
— Siobhan’s coming off well in her performance.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Jeff’s “A guy asked me to buy drugs; I just said NO and walked away” when describing what he feels is the smartest thing he’s ever done.
— This overall sketch wasn’t terrible, but didn’t amount to much for me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Adore Mi Amor”


DON’T GET ME WRONG
(DAC), (KEN), (host) hypocritically bad-mouth their supposed buddies

— This is yet another sketch tonight that would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most visible difference is that in the dress rehearsal version, the guys are wearing golf caps (side-by-side comparison below).

— The guys’ various defensive claims of the heartfelt things they’d do for the friends they badmouth are hit-and-miss.
— Jeff had a particularly funny extensive and perverted defensive claim just now, regarding being oiled-up and letting his friend “ride me like a big boy”.
— The premise of this is kinda like the recurring Stephen A. Smith commentaries that Jay Pharoah would later do on Weekend Update, where he would give over-the-top descriptions of how much of a dear friend so-and-so is, only to go off on a heated, angry rant about them.
— I think that was Tim Meadows’ voice heard over the loudspeaker just now. I point this out because he made no actual appearances at all in tonight’s episode. Neither did David Spade, who in particular has been invisible so far this season; an early sign of the huge struggle for airtime we’ll be seeing him have throughout this season.
— Weak ending to this sketch.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid first half tonight, but the second half had a ho-hum feel, even if nothing in that half of the show bottomed out or anything. But even the Apex Novelty sketch, which I love, had an oddly quiet and somewhat slow-paced feel compared to the dress rehearsal version shown in reruns, as mentioned earlier. Still, what was strong in this episode was very memorable, such as the Tonight Show cold opening, the monologue, and the Chris Farley Show sketch.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael Jordan)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kirstie Alley

Posted on

September 28, 1991 – Michael Jordan / Public Enemy (S17 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- Wayne & Garth pick the best & worst of the summer of ’91

— A very fun and promising way to kick off the new season, with a Wayne’s World cold opening.
— Great topic for this installment, having Wayne and Garth cover the best and worst of summer 1991.
— Some of the highlights here include Wayne and Garth’s “coo” bit, their whole fragrance commercials bit, their making fun of Demi Moore’s nude pregnant magazine cover, and them trying to one-up each other on large animals that something bad “sucks”.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding season.
— Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and Julia Sweeney have all been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, and David Spade are still featured players, but have gone from being in the second category of featured players who only get credited sporadically and have a still-photo shot in the opening montage to now being in the first category of featured players who are credited every week and have a live-action moving shot in the montage.

— Ellen Cleghorne, Siobhan Fallon, and veteran SNL writer Robert Smigel have joined the cast tonight as featured players.


MONOLOGUE
douche, porno commercials featuring host didn’t make it to air

— Fun premise with Michael showing unaired commercials that he regretted filming.
— Hilarious soft-focus “Feminine Secret” ad with Michael relating to Julia’s “not-so-fresh feeling”.
— The pre-taped “Feminine Secret” ad ends up being Julia’s only appearance tonight, meaning she doesn’t make any live appearances in what’s her first episode as a repertory player.
— Another hilarious ad, with Michael touting hardcore porn and saying you know a porno is good if it has a Michael Jordan label on it.
STARS: ****½


SCHMITTS GAY
homosexual guys (CHF) & (ADS) live a pool fantasy

 

— Here comes an all-time classic.
— I like how the first fake ad of the season is starring two of the newer guys in the cast.
— I believe this is our very first on-camera display of the chemistry and real-life close camaraderie between Adam and Chris.
— This is priceless and the montage is excellent, especially the shots of Adam and Chris’ various excited reactions to the men in the pool.
— Great use of the Van Halen song (I believe) “Beautiful Girls” (which would later be replaced in some reruns with generic guitar music).
STARS: *****


THE FIRST BLACK HARLEM GLOBETROTTER
(host) helps integrate basketball

— Some good laughs from the original white Globetrotters doing a very tame version of the later black Globetrotters’ famous basketball stunts when standing in a circle.
— Phil is very funny listing off examples of derogatory names Michael’s gonna hear, all of which just consist of “blackie”.
— Love the scene with Michael’s clean sweep during his first Globetrotters game, where he shows up everybody on the court.
— Funny cutaway to David looking down in shame when Michael asks him “Pee-Wee, you too?”
— Phil continues to crack me up in this sketch, now listing off many variations of green when saying he doesn’t care what color Michael is.
— Ellen Cleghorne’s overdramatics are getting a good audience reaction.
— Phil once again steals the sketch, this time with his casual reveal that he and Ellen have been having an affair behind Michael’s back.
STARS: ****½


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
host joins Bob Swerski & other Super Fans in a Bulls good luck ritual

 

— Ha, only one episode after hosting the preceding season’s finale, George Wendt makes a cameo in a reprise of his Bob Swerski character. Fun to see Wendt again.
— By this point, Farley has now begun playing his Super Fans character in a more comedic, more stand-out manner than the lower-key manner he played him in the prior installments of this sketch.
— I liked the insane prediction of the Bears winning a game 31 to negative 7.
— To go along with Farley’s characterization being more fleshed-out in this installment, we get our very first mention of him having a heart attack, which would go on to be a running gag with him in these sketches.
— I like the visual of the two-sided caps the Super Fans are wearing, with one side being a Bears cap and the other being a Bulls cap.
— Siobhan Fallon makes an unnoteworthy debut, taking over writer Christine Zander’s recurring bit role as the Super Fans’ waitress.
— Great part with Farley suddenly pounding his fist against his chest repeatedly and then casually announcing he’s “just” having another heart attack.
— The inner thoughts of each Super Fan during Michael’s long speech are very funny, especially Farley’s thoughts being “Polish saaaaasage, Ditka, saaaaasage– etc.” while having a hilarious longing expression on his face. I remember one of the first times I ever saw this sketch (in Farley’s “Best Of”), I almost choked from laughing so hard at that part.
— Farley ONCE AGAIN steals the sketch, this time with his classic hula skirt ritual dance.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Can’t Truss It”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jesse Jackson [real] reads from Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs & Ham

 

— The debut of the Kevin Nealon era of Weekend Update.
— I really like the opening title sequence with Kevin’s head superimposed over a spinning earth.
— As I expected, it feels weird reviewing a new era of Update after getting so used to reviewing Dennis Miller for six straight seasons.
— Kevin’s jokes so far are only okay, but nothing noteworthy or laugh-out-loud.
— Okay, we finally got a strong joke from Kevin, with the one about how people never return a certain suicide book to the library.
— Great bit with Kevin beginning to tell a Pee-Wee Herman joke, only to immediately stop and say “Nah, why beat a dead horse?” This is in reference to Herman’s recent infamous arrest at an adult movie theater, which people joked about relentlessly.
— After a slow start, Kevin’s jokes have gotten better.
— Jesse Jackson reading from “Green Eggs and Ham” in his typical powerful, dramatic preacher delivery is such a brilliant idea, and it’s being executed perfectly. Fantastic that SNL got Jesse to do this. I’m being reminded of how much I liked him as a host back in season 10.
— Kevin’s mock-serious newsman delivery is an interesting change of pace from Dennis Miller’s delivery, and definitely feels like a throwback to the original Update anchor, Chevy Chase.
— Kevin both begins and ends tonight’s Update by simply saying “Morning”. That intro and tagline would not last beyond this episode, and I can definitely see why.
— According to GettyImages, David Spade had an Update commentary that was cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here).
— Also according to GettyImages, the new Update set didn’t have the big “Weekend Update” logo on the back wall during this episode’s dress rehearsal (see the Spade link above and a pic here). Odd. I guess they were making changes to the new Update set right until literally the last minute. Maybe they made the last-minute addition of the Update logo to the back wall because they felt the wall looked “naked” compared to the big map on the back wall of Dennis Miller’s Update set. They would eventually remove the new addition of the Update logo from the wall anyway sometime in November, among several modifications to the set.
STARS: ***


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart unnecessarily instills confidence in host

— I liked Stuart Smalley’s opening talk, apologizing for a recent anti-Pee-Wee Herman episode he did titled  “Here But For the Grace of God Go I”.
— For the first time, Stuart has a guest!
— I’m enjoying all the exchanges between Stuart and Michael.
— Classic part right now with Stuart having Michael do an affirmation into the mirror. I especially love Michael’s hesitance before saying the “Because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough… etc.” catchphrase.
— Great part with Michael giving Stuart a hug to make Stuart feel better after emotionally beating himself up.
— Overall, the first really memorable Daily Affirmation installment, and one of the best.
STARS: *****


BACKSTAGE
NBC page Zoraida (ELC) accosts host- she wants to play “one-on-one”

— Right in her first episode, Ellen Cleghorne gets to debut what would go on to pretty much be known as her signature character.
— No idea what to say about this overall sketch. Ellen immediately had a good handle on her character, but I found the sketch itself nothing special. I didn’t find this too terrible either, but maybe I’m just going somewhat easy on it because it’s Ellen’s first episode.
STARS: **½


THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
LaToya Jackson (VIJ) & Spike Lee [real] visit

— I liked one of the lines from Phil’s opening voice-over: “A man so black, he could be navy.”
— A very funny “What would’ve happened if they were black” segment from Nat (why didn’t that end up becoming a recurring part of this sketch?), saying that if Pee-Wee Herman were black, he would’ve gotten an extra 10 years added to his prison sentence for blocking the movie screen with “his big African-American penis”.
— Odd but strangely fitting casting of Victoria Jackson as Latoya Jackson.
— Nat X to Latoya: “Sit your no-talent ass down!”
— Great part with Nat giving Spike Lee a black version of the Oscar, known as the Buster, complete with an afro.
— All of Nat and Spike’s insults towards Latoya are hilarious.
— When telling a story about someone who had a rough upbringing, I loved Nat’s line about how this person’s mother was a maid for homeless white people.
STARS: ****


TALES FROM THE BARBECUE
how grilling pork helped defeat a Nazi submarine

— A nice rare occurrence of two big Chris Rock showcases back-to-back.
— Lots of airtime for newbie Ellen Cleghorne tonight (which is more than I can say for her fellow newbie Siobhan Fallon), though it’s obviously helped by the fact that we have a black host and there’s lots of black-themed sketches tonight.
— This sketch began slow, but I like the sudden outlandish addition of Nazis to the story.
— Tonight has surprisingly been a light night for Phil, it feels like.
— Phil and especially Mike’s German accents are cracking me up.
— A lot of charm during the scenes with Tim telling his family the obviously made-up story. Very strong performance from Tim as well.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
in memoriam of Miles Davis, three seconds of silence are observed
musical guest performs “Bring Tha Noize”


ELEVATOR
one of Sting’s elevator fans sings “The Star-Spangled Banner” for host

— Unlike the other two Elevator Fans sketches, this one is not well-known at all.. and rightfully so.
— Dana breaking out into an exaggerated version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” isn’t all that funny and pales very badly in comparison to the memorable versions of this sketch with Sting and Michael J. Fox (even though I wasn’t a big fan of the latter’s installment).
— By the way, where is Kevin in this? Odd how this has Dana as the only elevator fan, though I don’t think even the addition of Kevin would’ve helped this particular sketch.
— At the end, the crossfade to the SNL bumper photo of Michael came off rushed, as if the show was running long.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong way to start the season, as this is an all-time memorable episode that’s always been my personal favorite episode hosted by an athlete. The quality of the show was very high up until the last sketch, a good number of segments were classics or near-classics, and most of the recurring sketches that appeared each had one of their best installments ever (Super Fans, Daily Affirmation, Nat X).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1990-91)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeff Daniels

Posted on

May 18, 1991 – George Wendt / Elvis Costello (S16 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
because it’s DEM’s last show, LOM lets him say the opening line

— A good way to announce on the air that this is Dennis’ last episode.
— This is the first time Dennis has appeared outside of Weekend Update since all the way back in season 14.
— I loved Lorne asking Dennis “You’re not gonna come back every week and hang out on the set like Lovitz, are you?”, and then going on and on about how pathetic Lovitz is for doing that. I recall hearing that Lovitz actually got upset by this when watching the show this night. Maybe Lorne should’ve stood on stage during the goodnights while holding up a “LOVITZ- I WAS JUST KIDDING” sign, ala Dennis in the goodnights of the Catherine O’Hara episode.
— Dennis makes a big deal about how he’s always wanted to say “Live from New York…”, as if he’s never gotten the chance to say it before. He must’ve blocked season 11 out of his mind (or took to heart Madonna’s claim that season 11 was a “horrible, horrible dream”), because he actually DID say “Live from New York…” previously, in the Burger King/Herb cold opening from the aforementioned season 11.
— Funny how Dennis’ “Live from New York…” in this cold opening doesn’t start the show, as Lorne just keeps this opening going.
— Very interesting having Lorne be the one who delivers the official “Live from New York”, the only time in SNL history he would ever do so.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host manhandles a lookalike of Queen Elizabeth

— George’s rough handling of the queen is pretty funny so far.
— I like the queen fearfully trying to walk away as soon as George begins talking about wrestling.
— Great camera perspective of the queen being spun around.
STARS: ***½


LIL’ GENERAL FIREWORKS
kids love to have harmless fun with explosives

— Good idea for a summer commercial.
— Pretty funny treatment of huge explosives as family-friendly fun. The explosions of casual things are providing some laughs.
STARS: ***


MR. NO-DEPTH PERCEPTION
two-dimensional guy (KEN) throws a dinner party

— This can be considered a sister sketch to Tom Hanks’ Mr. Short-Term Memory, as the name, opening credits sequence/theme song, and concept are in a similar vein. Wonder if both characters are from the same writer.
— Kevin is perfect for this character and is pulling off this humor really well.
— I particularly like the part with Kevin casually sticking his head straight through the glass window (and not even reacting to it) when checking to see if their friends are outside the house.
— Kinda surprised this overall sketch remained a one-off and never became recurring.
STARS: ****


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Bob Swerski (host) & other Super Fans talk about the Bulls & the Bears

— George Wendt takes over as the new host of this sketch, Bob Swerski, replacing Joe Mantegna’s Bill Swerski, who the show writes off as recovering from a heart attack.
— Much like the last time they did this sketch, we get some funny outlandish Bears scenarios from the guys.
— An overall enjoyable installment, though I didn’t find this quite as strong as the first installment. There would be better ones to come later on.
STARS: ***½


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Retired Man (host) helps Middle-Aged Man battle Independent Widow (JAH)

— This ends up being this character’s final appearance.
— Love the addition of Jan as Independent Widow.
— A funny turn with cookies being Middle-Aged Man’s kryptonite.
— I like how we meet Retired Man, who was mentioned in an earlier installment of this sketch.
— Jan’s screaming reaction to the giant roach was really funny.
— A big laugh from the gruesome blood that results from Middle-Aged Man crushing the giant roach.
— Nice little touch with the roach crawling over the text in the disclaimer shown at the end.
— I like how this overall installment had a more epic feel than the first two Middle-Aged Man installments, involving more characters, more action, and more scenery changes. In retrospect, a nice way for this character to go out.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Other Side of Summer”


WEEKEND UPDATE
General Norman Schwarzkopf (CHF) challenges Evander Holyfield to a match
CSR tells why there won’t be a black vice president

— (*sigh*) Hard to believe we’ve officially arrived at Dennis Miller’s final Weekend Update.
— Farley makes his very first visit to the Update desk, though he appeared in two previous Updates “via satellite” (the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary and the marathon runner commentary).
— A classic turn in the middle of Farley’s commentary, with him suddenly getting up, declaring “I WANT HOLYFIELD! I WANT HOLYFIELD!”, and hyping up a huge match between him and Holyfield. A great early display of Farley’s Belushi-esque knack for playing roles where he slowly goes from calm and professional to worked-up and loud. I’m also loving watching Dennis’ reactions to him. Over the course of this season, it’s been fun seeing Dennis’ interactions with the new kids in the cast.
— Lots of very funny comments from Rock about how we’ll never see a black vice president, because some black guy will just kill the white president so the black VP can become president. I especially love Rock saying how he would have nothing to worry about if he got arrested for killing the white president, because every black guy in prison would treat him like a hero.
— Dennis’ final Update joke is unfortunately a lame “misinterpreting a photo” type of joke, something that he’s been relying on way too much this season.
— A very nice, sentimental, and classy goodbye speech from Dennis at the end, with him thanking everyone he’s worked with at the show and saying he’s gonna miss working here. You can tell by his voice that he was on the verge of tears.
— After getting so used to reviewing Dennis Miller Weekend Updates for the past six seasons (the longest-tenured Update stint at this point in the show’s history), it sure is going to feel weird reviewing a brand-new version of Update next season.
STARS: ***


THE CARSENIO SHOW
Johnny Carson (DAC) borrows from Arsenio’s program

— An absolutely hilarious concept. I love this hybrid of Arsenio and Johnny Carson.
— I like how this is bringing back memories of another fantastic Arsenio parody the show did previously with Rob Lowe.
— Carsenio: “Buddy Hackett is in my house!”
— Good segment with Carsenio breaking down the street lingo he’s been using.
— Phil as Ed McMahon: “That is the straight stuff, o funkmaster!”
— I love Carsenio demonstrating how to do “the wild thing”, while asking “Is this dope? Is this dope stuff?”
— When asked about the whooping audience, I got a big laugh from George’s response being a blunt “The truth is, Johnny, they’re morons.”
STARS: *****


BURGER BARN DRIVE THRU
a family’s order at Burger Barn’s drive-through gets very complicated

— A lot of laughs from George being forced by his family to make increasingly confusing and complicated changes to their fast-food order.
— I especially love Jan as the grandmother, and she has some really funny lines.
— Good growing frustration from George.
— Excellent angry loud outburst from George at the end when putting an end to the madness and starting over with a simple fast-food order.
— An overall very solid and relatable slice-of-life sketch.
STARS: ****½


THE SHINDELLS
lyrics of doo-wop group stray into members’ personal lives

— Pretty funny doo-wop performance from the guys.
— I like Dana awkwardly trying to keep the song going by sporadically adding in melodic “shwop-shwop”s into the middle of his argument with George.
— George to Farley: “Why didn’t you tell me, you fat pig?” Farley: “Hey, you’re just as fat as I am, man!” Other guys: “(singing) Maaaaaybe fatter!”
— Nice conclusion.
STARS: ***½


IT’S PAT
barber’s (host) small talk doesn’t reveal the sex of androgynous Pat

— A lot of characters tonight with their own opening credits sequence and theme song, between Mr. No-Depth Perception, Middle-Aged Man, and now Pat.
— The usual laughs from Pat responding to potentially-gender-revealing questions with gender-unspecific answers.
— I like the mention of Pat having a group of friends named Terry, Frances (or Francis), and Robin.
— A priceless part with George’s very focused brushing around Pat’s chest and crotch.
— This sketch ended a little awkwardly.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on memories of family outings


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski plugs Long Leak malt liquor & You’re That Guy credit

— Quite a lot of airtime for Rock tonight, which is refreshing.
— On a similar note, Farley’s been in tons of sketches tonight; far more than a featured player typically gets. A nice way to end what has been a fantastic rookie year for Farley, by far the standout newbie of the season.
— Great “Mother joke of the day” delivered by Rock: “Your mother’s so old, I told her to act her age and the bitch dropped dead.”
— Very funny photo of a grimacing Don Pardo wearing a trendy 8-ball jacket.
— Rock’s description of the “You’re That Guy” credit is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Like Candy”


THE SUNRISE SHOW
singer of kids’ songs (host) switches to raunchy lyrics

— (*sigh*) Jan Hooks’ final sketch as a cast member. I’m glad they gave her the 10-to-1 spot of the season finale, even if they (I assume) weren’t aware at the time that she’s leaving.
— Ha, is George wearing Elvis Costello’s beard?
— I like Jan’s gleeful singing of George’s kid-friendly songs, as a sample of his work.
— George suddenly breaking out into a raunchy sexual song is very funny, made even more priceless by the way his thick fake beard makes his raunchy facial expressions look.
— Another great turn with the tone of George’s raunchy song suddenly changing to a jolly, kid-friendly melody as he sings about wanting to get a woman to make various animal sounds during sex.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently very solid and fun episode, with no real lowlights. A great way to end the season. George Wendt was a strong host, and was allowed to give even funnier performances than the unique previous episode he hosted.

— This was the final episode for both Jan Hooks and, of course, Dennis Miller. Dennis’ tenure ended with a bit of a whimper, as he was clearly burned-out during the last three months and began using a more monotone and low-energy delivery, looked fairly tired, and half-assed his trademark scribble-wildly-on-a-sheet-of-paper move during his tagline. It didn’t help that the quality of his jokes went downhill as well, often relying too heavily on corny “misinterpreting a photo” type of jokes. However, none of this takes away from the amazing tenure he had as a whole. Right from the start, he completely reinvented Update at a time where the segment desperately needed a boost after the dire quality of it during the non-Lorne years in 1980-1985. Dennis made Update important, hip, laid-back, and most importantly, very funny. And as much as I kept harping on the lethargy of his performances during his last three months, he still was reliable for laughs, especially with his usual knack for funny ad-libs. All-in-all, Dennis is easily my favorite Update anchor of all-time (tied with Norm Macdonald). And as for Jan Hooks, I cannot find enough great things to say about her. She ended a fantastic tenure that was consistently strong from beginning to end. She was an incredibly valuable cast member who could do pretty much no wrong and could handle ANYTHING the writers threw at her. Much like how Dennis is my favorite Update anchor of all-time, Jan is my favorite female cast member of all-time and one of my all-time favorite cast members in general. She will be sorely missed in the cast, especially when you’re aware of how badly the female cast ends up struggling during the next few seasons. However, at least we eventually get frequent special guest appearances from Jan during seasons 18 and 19.

— Season 16 as a whole was another in a long line of very good seasons, even if this one wasn’t QUITE as strong as the season that preceded it. Aside from the notorious Steven Seagal flop, this was a season impressively filled with episodes that ranged from okay to excellent. This was also a very exciting year with a lot of freshness, as we got a huge influx of new featured players over the course of the season, as well as lots of debuts of big recurring segments (including Deep Thoughts). This combo of new featured players and important new recurring segments have kicked off the gradual start of an era of its own, even as this season held on to many important aspects of the preceding 1986-1990 era.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Delta Burke)
a step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1989-90)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 17 begins, with host Michael Jordan. We start off the season with three new featured players and a new Weekend Update anchor.