Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Woody Allen (DAC) runs into Mia Farrow (JAH) outside a movie theater
— Decent idea to start the season, addressing Woody Allen’s scandal from the summer.
— Fantastic Woody Allen impression from Dana.
— Farley’s hilarious “scumbag” comment was apparently too much for the NBC censors, as SNL would later redub the line to “sleazebag”.
— Oh, Jan Hooks, how refreshing it feels to see you again after a season.
— All of Dana’s neurotic rambling as Woody is cracking me up.
— Interesting casting of Adam as Tony Roberts. I like the detail of his odd-looking ears.
— Now this has gotten even better with Phil’s Frank Sinatra showing up.
— Loved Sinatra’s line about Mia Farrow playing “musical Jews”.
— Another great Sinatra line, this time saying about masturbation “When you’re a one-man band, nobody gets hurt.”
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage as the last two seasons.
— Mike Myers has been removed from the montage, despite still being a cast member. He’s been given a significant amount of time off from the show to film the movie “So I Married an Axe Murderer”. We won’t be seeing him return until December.
— Rob Schneider has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— Melanie Hutsell, while still a featured player, has 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.
— No new cast members this season.
— When announcing G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band, Don Pardo messes up and says “G.E. and the……Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band”.
— Former cast member Jan Hooks receives her first of many “Special guest appearance by” credits within these next two seasons.
— Starting tonight, hosts are announced in the montage with the billing “And your host”, which would go on to be a tradition that continues to this day in 2019. (Before this episode, hosts were announced with the billing “And starring” from 1986-1992, and before that, hosts were usually announced with the billing “With host”, “With”, or “Starring”).
MONOLOGUE
LOM asks host to stop talking about his female co-stars’ body parts
— Funny cutaways to the disturbed reactions of “audience members” while Nicolas is going on about his female co-stars’ body parts.
— I loved Nicolas’ sudden “HEY, THAT’S MY COUSIN!” outburst and threateningly grabbing Lorne by the collar when Lorne mentions Sofia Coppola’s “killer bod” to prove a point.
— Nicolas: “They probably think I’m the biggest jerk who’s ever been on the show.” Lorne: “No, that would be Steven Seagal.”
— Funny little moment with Farley’s “Hey, the monologue’s going GREAT, man!” to Nicolas as he’s heading back to the home base stage.
STARS: ***½
CANIS
a poolside rendezvous captures the spirit of Canis cologne for dogs
— Very funny how this authentic and spot-on parody of typical Calvin Klein ads has a sudden turn with the guy making out with the dog.
— Good “Cologne for dogs” reveal at the very end of the commercial.
STARS: ****
TINY ELVIS
Tiny Elvis (host) dislikes buddies calling him “cute”
— A goofy charm to this simplistic sketch.
— I like the stock footage shown during the scene transition, where the camera shows a sideways-tilted tracking shot of a city.
— The scene that takes place inside a car has some technical gaffes, where the entire screen suddenly gets this weird green tint (the fourth above screencap for this sketch). This would later be fixed in reruns by replacing the second half of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version.
— I remember the first time I saw this episode, I for some reason thought that was Louie Anderson playing Farley’s role. It was something about the girth and the way Farley’s face looked from what little we saw of it here (since he had his back to the camera the whole time). I remember thinking to myself “Why is Louie Anderson randomly appearing in the middle of this sketch, and why didn’t the audience give him any applause when he was first shown?”
— Some more technical issues, this time with some kind of chyron accidentally showing up on the chroma-key screen in front of the car (in the lower left corner of the chroma-key screen in fifth above screencap for this sketch).
— Overall, while the sketch had a silly charm, was this REALLY the best choice as the lead-off sketch for a season premiere? This is not the way to kick off a season. This is a sketch best left after Weekend Update.
STARS: ***
POWERFUL PEROT
Ross Perot (DAC) uses money to demonstrate his influence over others
— Dana’s Ross Perot impression officially becomes recurring, and is more developed here than it was in its debut late last season.
— Pretty funny premise with Perot giving citizens an insane amount of money for doing random things he requests.
— I’m liking Perot’s various country-style analogies (e.g. “As serious as a bedbug in a whorehouse”).
— Good ending bit with Perot making Farley get down on all fours and act like an angry spitting pig while Perot rides him out of the scene.
— A pretty fun overall sketch, but this still doesn’t feel right as the post-lead-off sketch in a big season premiere. Both this and the Tiny Elvis sketch are giving this season premiere the feel of an average, kinda-slow, and quiet start. Compare this to the last two season premieres, where the first two lead-off sketches in both episodes were phenomenal (the First Black Harlem Globetrotter and Super Fans sketches from the Michael Jordan episode, and the Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos and Twin Peaks sketches from the Kyle MacLachlan episode).
— According to GettyImages, Nicolas had a role cut from the live version of this sketch where he played some kind of shady-looking character (pic here).
STARS: ***½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the truth about Uncle Caveman {rerun}
— Apparently, this is a rerun from the preceding season’s Susan Dey episode, but it wasn’t included in my copy of that episode.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Humpin’ Around”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN endorses Bill Clinton during a subliminal editorial on the election
CSR gets worked up while discussing Peanuts’ Franklin’s lack of depth
Operaman sings recent headlines & gets a standing ovation
— Kevin’s Subliminal Editorial on the presidential election ended up being briefer than the usual Mr. Subliminal bits, and was only decent. No particular lines stood out in this one, surprisingly.
— Good to see another Chris Rock commentary on Update. Surprisingly, it feels like he didn’t do much of these last season.
— Very strong overall commentary from Rock tonight; one of his best. A lot of fantastic irate comments from him about being bused to a predominately white school during his childhood and especially about the character Franklin from Peanuts being unfairly neglected.
— Nice to see Operaman once again, even if he did appear in just the last episode (granted, there was a whole summer break between these last two episodes, though it’s easy to forget that when watching these episodes chronologically on a daily basis).
— I didn’t get Operaman’s bit about Jay Leno blowing off a female producer. I’m a little curious about that story.
— A classic Operaman bit right now, with him singing about Sarah Ferguson’s “nippolas” and announcing he has a “grande stiffo”.
— At the end of Operaman’s commentary, we get a random cutaway to Nicolas and Cher(!) in the studio audience, giving Operaman a standing ovation. Is this a Moonstruck reference?
STARS: ***½
BABY NAMES
expectant father (host) rejects baby names that have taunting potential
— Lots of laughs from Nicolas’ ways of finding potential teases for EVERY SINGLE innocent name Julia suggests. I love how over-the-top Nicolas is getting with his hypothetical insults.
— I like how towards the end, Nicolas begins really reaching to find insults for the names, and I also like how Julia is now starting to call him out on how unlikely those insults are.
— An absolutely priceless reveal from Rob of Nicolas’ name being Asswipe Johnson, and Nicolas then explaining to Rob that his first name is pronounced “oz-WEE-pay”.
— Overall, a fairly simple but excellent sketch. This was perfect for Nicolas Cage’s acting style, and featured a fantastic punchline at the end.
STARS: *****
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the top thing an Indian can do
NIGHTLINE
stupid undecided voters question patient Bill Clinton (PHH)
— I always love Dana-as-Ted-Koppel’s way of saying “THIIIIIIS………. is Nightline.”
— The debut of a Hillary Clinton impression on SNL.
— So many of the things that Dana’s Koppel is saying are coming off very funny due to his comically stiff, slow, monotone delivery, especially him telling Farley an annoyed “Then sit… down…. NOW.” and his whole back-and-forth with Rob, culminating in him telling Rob “Don’t make me come down there and slap you around.”
— I like Melanie’s stoner-type characterization and her deliveries of “Where’s my stuff, man?”, even if her scene is going on a little too long.
— Lots of random cutaways to Jan’s Hillary just silently nodding with a smile while someone else is speaking (the fifth screencap above for this sketch). I guess those cutaways are intentional, probably parodying Hillary’s real-life supportive demeanor during her husband’s campaign speeches and TV appearances throughout this election, but they’re kinda coming off as awkward technical gaffes.
— After sitting silently for most of the sketch, Jan’s Hillary finally speaks!
— Jan’s portrayal of Hillary is coming off great right in her very first sketch.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Good Enough”
THE QUEEN SHENEQUA SHOW
musical guest; no blacks in Woody Allen movies
— Ellen’s recurring Weekend Update character gets spun-off into her own sketch. It doesn’t stick, though, as this potentially-recurring talk show sketch ends up being a one-off.
— I like the style of this sketch’s opening title sequence. Very early 90s, and I’m enjoying the use of Arrested Development’s song “Tennessee”.
— All the playful banter between Shenequa and Bobby Brown is cute, but I’m not finding much to laugh at here.
— The conversation right now about Woody Allen has one or two okay lines.
STARS: **
MR. CASUAL SEX
Mr. Casual Sex (ROS) responds to Dan Quayle a la Murphy Brown
— I’m aware that some SNL fans at the time (and even some newer fans today) were confused by Lorne explaining that SNL’s recurring character Mr. Casual Sex received public complaints from vice president Dan Quayle. Those fans don’t realize that this is all tongue-in-cheek. The character Mr. Casual Sex was never a thing before tonight. This is all made-up as a spoof of the Murphy Brown/Dan Quayle controversy from this time, where Quayle infamously criticized the show Murphy Brown for its decision to have Murphy have a baby out of wedlock.
— Another sketch tonight with a good opening title sequence, with this one being done in the familiar style of other sketches from the late 80s/early 90s years like Mr. Short-Term Memory.
— I’ve been noticing throughout tonight’s episode that Rob’s hair has changed over the summer. He ditched his trademark Elvis style and now has the top half of his hair dyed a dark blond/light brown-ish color. This ends up only being temporary, though.
— Some decent laughs from all of the party guests’ bad, corny riffing on Dan Quayle’s inability to spell “potato”.
— Nice turn with Rob breaking the fourth wall and walking off the set to introduce a group of men who have illegitimate children, parodying what Murphy Brown famously did as a rebuttal to Quayle’s criticisms.
STARS: ***
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on being temporarily insane {rerun}
— Another rerun tonight.
GOODNIGHTS
— The size of the cast seems fairly small here (for early 90s SNL standards), but there’s a reason for that. It’s not just because of the lack of Victoria Jackson, Siobhan Fallon, Beth Cahill, and the temporary lack of Mike Myers. David Spade and Tim Meadows are both also missing from the stage in these goodnights, despite the fact that they’re still in the cast. Turns out, neither of them appeared in ANY sketches tonight. Damn, completely shut out of the season premiere? Ouch! Odd how they’re absent from these goodnights, though. Usually in this era, even if a cast member has nothing to do during a particular episode, you’d still see him or her onstage at that episode’s goodnights. What, were David and Tim both so pissed off about getting shut out of this season premiere that they refused to show up onstage for the goodnights? Just judging from tonight’s premiere, you’d think this is going to be another rough season for the perpetually neglected David and Tim, but a huge turning point for David occurs in the very next episode. Tim, on the other hand, will sadly have to wait a few more years before he gets his turning point.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A surprisingly fairly average season opener. Aside from Baby Names and the cold opening, there weren’t any sketches that stood out to me as particularly strong. Most of the show was just pretty good, which is still fine; just kinda underwhelming for a season premiere in this era, especially considering how strong the last two season premieres were.
Before finishing the review, I now introduce what will be a regular feature in my post-episode wrap-ups:
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1991-92)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Tim Robbins, featuring a well-known controversial moment from musical guest Sinead O’Connor
The Leno story:
https://ew.com/article/1992/10/02/goodbye-helen-kushnick/
Thanks, Greg.
Yes indeed, it was a reference to Moonstruck…particularly This scene:
Thanks, Doc.
Thank you so much for spotlighting the screencap of Jan looking so happy to be back in the goodnights. Just a beautiful image and moment. Made me smile.
On the one hand, Jan returning for ‘special guest appearances’ essentially tells viewers – and the women in the cast – that Lorne has no real faith in the current female cast to play a prized, difficult role. He was right about that – I don’t think Melanie or Julia could have ever been Hillary, and clearly they weren’t going to spend money on hiring a new woman for an entire season – but I can’t imagine that made them feel too thrilled. This is also a very big sign of the show’s problems with female cast representation and usage that is going to get more and more blatant over the next 3 seasons.
On the other hand, Jan was just phenomenal as Hillary. She was certainly not a fleshed-out characterization – at times this was the power-grasping, aggressive, violent Hillary caricature of the peak Clinton hatred years – but Jan made her seem real and she was able to use her full talents in the role. There were many, many, many Hillary Clintons on SNL over the next 25 years, but for me, talented as Kate McKinnon is, and even as much as I enjoyed Amy Poehler (who seemed to strongly identify with Hillary rather than seeing it as a character piece) in the role, no one comes close to Jan.
I remember the first time I saw this episode, I was surprised she popped up as Mia Farrow. Again, a great performance. I think Julia could have done a decent job in that role, but that magic with Phil is always pleasing to see. Carvey’s Allen is perfectly fine, but probably the least interesting part for me. Between the later revelations about Mia and Frank and the never-ending news cycles Alan Dershowitz has been involved with in recent years, the sketch as a whole is a bit more in time with today than many news-of-the-day pieces of this era.
The “Asswipe” sketch is indeed a classic. The buildup is perfect and the end is a real kicker. And it was one of those bits written just right for the host in the role – Cage nailed it.
Has the bit where Rob sings a little of “It’s Now Or Never” (I think it was INoN) with the band happened yet?
I don’t know if Schneider did that more than once or how many times if so, but I watched the Sally Field Christmas episode from 1993 a few nights ago, and he did “It’s Now or Never” (and also “Blue Christmas”) with the band in that one.
Thank you so much. That may be the one I’m thinking of then.
Interesting that Jan did Hilary while still on Designing Women at this point until it ended the following year. Glad she was able to come back, but I do wonder if they tried to audition new women, especially to do Hilary, but no one was cutting it. It was sad to see the female cast get neglected for the next three seasons. So much so that none of the three who left after the previous season were even replaced.
Odenkirk wrote the “asswipe” sketch I believe. Even though he had been gone since 90-91
They did a whole movie about the Helen Kushnick situation when Leno took over the Tonight Show instead of David Letterman.
Between the cold open, the monologue, tiny Elvis, Update and especially Mr. Casual Sex, I’d probably give them all about a half star to whole star boost in the ratings. I particularly find the Mr. Casual Sex to be a good example of why Rob Schneider is maybe a bit underrated as a cast member. The sketch seems very stupid but is actually a pretty hefty satire.
Anyways, great episode for me and a sign of the strength that is to come this year.
Gonna go out on a limb and say Rob’s hair looks like that because maybe he was filming Surf Ninjas over the summer? Great hilariously bad movie if you havent seen it.
Also wish Nic Cage would’ve hosted more than once, I think his weird energy think he had the potential to be a more regular host, the baby names was probably the best use of that crazy Cage energy. He’s become such a “meme actor” at this point I think it would still be hilarious to see him host a modern episode.
he was fantastic the time he cameoed when Samberg was playing himself!
Anyone know who is standing next to Julia as Nicolas walks backstage? Looks a little like Beth Cahill (which it’s obviously not)
Only one change in band land, and a major one with lasting impact. Drummer Matt Chamberlain replaced by Shawn Pelton. This fall he begins his 28th year behind the kit for SNL, by far the most durable drummer on the show.
It’s kind of surprising in retrospect that Lorne allowed Myers to miss most of the first half of the season to film “So I Married an Axe Murderer,”, a movie he was not producing. Then again, at the same time, he was completing the screenplay for Wayne’s World 2 (a film he did not want to make, but was basically forced to do by Paramount.)
A good metric for the role of female cast members in the show – at this point in SNL history, no female cast member has gotten to say “Live From New York,” *since season 11* with the exception of Jan Hooks, who got to say it a grand total of four times.
To be fair, Dana Carvey tended to say that phrase literally more than twice as much as even his male co-stars, but it still shows the bias that would continue to increase going forward.
Shawn Pelton’s first episode
Baby Names has to be one of the biggest gaps in opinion I have with Stooge. Generally we’re on the same page, and I never really differ with his rating by more than a full star. The only ones I can think of are “Handmaids Tale” from Chris Pine’s episode (which Stooge gave * and I’d give **1/2 – ***), “Airport Security” from Sharon Stone (which Stooge gave *** and I’ve give * – *1/2) and Baby Names from this episode, which Stooge gave the full ***** and I’d probably give a ***1/2. Cage is great, but I can’t say I laughed much at all. And I saw the final reveal coming from a mile away.
Wait, the biggest gap would actually be Bob Newhart’s monologue from S20, which Stooge also gave a ***** and I would give… I don’t even know how to rate that, but no more than *** for sure. I agree with Carson’s take that it’s basically Newhart’s version of the Python guys reenacting “Dead Parrot”.
I agree that Baby Names is overrated, or at least not a ***** classic. Cage is great and gives the sketch his all, but the material is thin and you could totally see the twist coming.
If anything this episode deserves *****, it’s the cold open, a deft skewering of both Allen and Sinatra, two figured whose art I deeply cherish but whose personal transgressions are absolutely made for such a biting takedown. Plus seeing Carvey, Hartman and Hooks front and center again is a great way to kick off this season.
Did you also see the Cold Open of the Dave Thomas/Rick Moranis ep in which Moranis’ Allen asked what he and Frank had in common and Piscopo’s Sinatra mentioned Mia Farrow? (“How does it feel to have seconds?” with Thomas’ Bob Hope quipping, “Actually, it’s thirds. Wasn’t she done in by the devil?”)
Yes, Cher and Cage standing and applauding Opera Man was a reference to “Moonstruck.” Their character’s saw an opera shortly after they met near the beginning of the movie.
If you haven’t seen it check it out. It’s q classic.
The Jan Hooks cameo was unexpected and fun. I like when Lorne has little bit roles. Once again we see Cage’s Elvis obsession. Wish I could have seen him in the Ross Perot sketch. Again Nealon is not funny, he has bad jokes and poor delivery. But I did like the Cage/Cher response to opera man. The Baby Names sketch was wonderful because they had a fun premise and let it breathe. Enough jokes to make it worthwhile.
Danas Koppel impression is excellent, he’ll be taking that to his new show when he leaves SNL. Phil is perfect as Clinton, and Jan made an awesome Hilary. All of the stupid voters were wonderful. Great sketch overall. I like when they let the musical guest jump in a sketch, but the Shenequa bit just isn’t funny. The casual sex guy just wasn’t a funny sketch. They were so obsessed with picking on Quayle they forgot to write quality jokes. I like that the camera man gave attention to Jan during the good nights and end credits. She’s wonderful and I love her. But it also highlights how many regulars did not show up for this one episode. Overall, just OK. Not terrible, but with the phasing out of Mike Meyers and the dropped cast members its clear the Golden Era is closing.