November 14, 1992 – Michael Keaton / Morrissey (S18 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) calls campaign contributors to apologize for losing

— A fairly mundane premise, but is coming off pretty funny due to some amusing lines and Dana’s always-reliable Bush, who’s making one of his final appearances after the real Bush had just lost the election. Speaking of which, I wonder what SNL’s plan was for if Bush had won. Considering Dana already has one foot out the door at this time, what would SNL have done for Bush’s hypothetical second term?
— The bit with one particular caller using a call-waiting excuse is good.
— I recall once reading an interview with Julia years ago where, at one point, she was asked about her most embarrassing moment on SNL, and she brought up an incident from this particular cold opening where she mistakenly was about to make her exit much earlier than she was supposed to, until Dana, in character, asked her to stay a while longer. Dana and Julia both did a good job making that seem like it was part of the sketch, as I’m sure viewers didn’t even notice it was a blooper (I know *I* didn’t until I read that interview… and funny enough, the exact same thing could be said about the botched ending of that Marilyn Monroe/JFK sketch with Catherine O’Hara in the last episode).
— Great twist after the “Live from New York…” delivered by Phil as the newly-elected Bill Clinton where, instead of immediately cutting to the opening montage, we go back to Dana’s Bush who, after letting the audience’s premature applause die down, says in a sorrowful tone “*I* used to say that.”
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
Audience McGee lectures host after fellow audience member (TOD) is tossed

— I love Michael constantly breaking from his monologue to call out an audience member (Tom Davis) on his refusal to applaud with everyone else.
— Michael’s getting good laughs trying to convince the audience member to watch the show at home, eventually getting security to remove him from the studio.
— Audience McGee officially becomes recurring.
— Funny turn after McGee convinces Michael to bring back the kicked-out audience member, where Michael suddenly gets security to remove McGee instead.
STARS: ***½

CHAMELEON XLE
nice interior & trashy exterior make Chameleon XLE a practical luxury car

— Here comes one of my personal favorite fake ads of this entire era.
— Great concept of a thief-proof car that looks very shoddy on the outside but is very luxurious on the inside.
— So many funny details in all of the unflattering features of the car that Phil as the spokesman (brilliant in that role as always) displays.
— Nice bit with the marble rolling on the car, parodying a real car commercial from this era.
— Great tagline at the end: “They might tow it away… but they’ll never steal it.”
STARS: *****

ELEVATOR
elevator operator (ROS) gives nervous trainee (host) tips on small talk

— A pretty simple premise for a lead-off sketch, but Michael is getting really good laughs out of it with this awkward, slow-witted character, and I’m also really enjoying Rob’s performance as his boss.
— I loved Rob’s “Now you’re scaring the people” to Michael, telling him he’s coming off too “homeless-y”.
— Good panicked reaction from Michael when various people unexpectedly enter the elevator simultaneously.
STARS: ****

THE FIRST ANNUAL GUTENBERG AWARDS
Billy Crystal (ROS) emcees publishing industry honors

— Rob has been having a strong showing throughout tonight’s episode so far, continuing the great season he’s been having in general. His impression of Billy Crystal is nailing Billy’s hamminess and penchant for corny ad-libs.
— The song medley was too long and uninteresting for my likes and could’ve been shortened.
— I like Julia-as-Susan-Sontag’s way of saying the book title “Meat: The World of Meat”.
— I love that Rob’s now imitating Billy’s annoying penchant for breaking into an imitation of an old Jewish man’s voice. (Too bad Rob didn’t also lampoon Billy’s even-worse penchant for breaking into a stereotypical black voice)
— Nice to see Farley for the first time in a while, after being absent in the last two episodes due to being in rehab. Unfortunately, he ends up back in rehab only a little over a month later.
— I like Phil’s anger over having to go through with the corny award show banter.
— Not a particularly good sketch overall. A lot of this kinda dragged, and some of the imitations of typical award show segments came off almost as dull as the real thing. That’s unfortunately a common flaw with SNL’s award show parodies in general. Rob’s lampooning of Billy Crystal kept me entertained throughout this, though.
STARS: **

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Glamorous Glue”

WEEKEND UPDATE
moron Hank Fielding (RBS) gets his facts wrong during election analysis

— Interesting concept of Robert Smigel as a character giving a moron’s perspective on the election. This soon-to-be-recurring character ends up being easily the biggest onscreen role Smigel would ever get during his SNL tenure.
— Funny detail of Hank Fielding’s name being very slowly spelled out in cursive in a graphic displayed on the bottom of the screen during his commentary.
— Fielding’s ignorant statement about how the Ayatollah is “once again rearing its ugly head in Iraq” supports my theory that Smigel wrote (or at least co-wrote) that rarely-seen Dance Party U.S.A. sketch from the season 16 Kevin Bacon-hosted episode, as Farley’s character in that sketch makes a similar ignorant statement linking the Ayatollah and Iraq. In my review of that sketch, I explained that my theory of Smigel writing that sketch is based on the similarity it shares to a bit I saw in the early 2000s on Conan O’Brien’s NBC “Late Night” show.
— Lots of funny idiotic comments from Hank Fielding throughout his commentary, made even funnier by his smug obliviousness to how wrong all of his facts are. I especially liked the Spider Man bit at the end.
STARS: ***

FIRST DAY
(host)’s attempts to join new co-workers’ jokes come off as mean-spirited

— Phil’s such a great performer that he even has the ability to get laughs out of the corny light-hearted banter his character has with the employees.
— When Michael insults the picture of Rob’s wife, something about the way Rob stares at Michael and says an offended, taken-aback response of “……..That’s my wife” made me laugh a lot.
— Some good laughs from Michael’s mean, offensive attempts at playful banter with everyone.
— Michael’s line at the end fell a little flat, but for some reason, I like how as the camera slowly zoomed out during the sketch-ending audience applause, Phil just stood there in the middle of the office set with a deadpan look on his face, his hands in his pockets, and standing perfectly still.
STARS: ***

FIRST DATE
on a first date, (host) finds out that (JUS) is no longer a nymphomaniac

— I’m laughing at Michael’s excitement early on over what he thinks is going to happen between him and Julia later that night.
— A lot of laughs from Julia’s various revelations of what a wild horndog she used to be before reforming herself, and I’m loving Michael’s subtly frustrated reactions.
— Great ending with Michael’s dad (Phil) being ANOTHER guy who recognizes Julia, and then saying “Hey, our table!”, as a callback to a story Julia told earlier in the sketch about a certain something she once did to a date under a restaurant table.
STARS: ****

LOOKING AFTER GRANDMA
to facilitate makeout session, (host) asks (CHF) to occupy grandma (ADS)

— Funny seeing Michael and Julia playing a couple getting ready for sex, considering the sketch that preceded this.
— Michael’s increasingly brutal roughhousing of Farley is cracking me up.
— Michael angrily returning to the scene in his leopard-skin underwear is hilarious.
— When Adam says to a lying-down-on-the-floor Farley “I’m sorry, but you brought this onto yourself”, Adam is stifling laughter. This is probably because of what happened during the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, of which portions are shown in Farley’s “Best Of” DVD. In that version of this sketch, Farley wore a wig and it kept falling off throughout the sketch whenever Michael would rough him up. As the sketch progressed, it became harder and harder for the performers to keep a straight face, culminating in an ending scene where Farley, Adam, and Michael are laughing especially hard while gathered together on the couch.
— Heh, what was with the weird hint that Adam’s character is actually Farley’s mother instead of his grandmother?
— Overall, probably not a particularly strong sketch, but I’ve always found several aspects of it to be fun. The blooper-filled dress rehearsal version is probably preferable, though.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Suedehead”

OUTWEEK
(host) & (DAC) don’t limit celebrity exposes to homosexuality

— Dana makes his first appearance since way back in the cold opening. His diminishing presence this season sometimes makes me kinda forget that he’s still in the cast (which I’m aware I also said about Victoria Jackson a few times in my reviews of the preceding season).
— Michael and Dana’s performances are getting good laughs, and this sketch has a fun format, especially with the fast pacing of it.
— This is getting hilarious as the subject matter of the celebrity outings becomes more and more outlandish, such as Roger Moore being outed for wearing adult diapers and Bonnie Franklin being outed as a lousy lay. A lot of this has me howling.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, and there was only one sketch I was underwhelmed by (Gutenberg Awards). I’m glad Michael Keaton was given a second chance after his flawed hosting stint from 10 years earlier, as he was FAR better tonight. He was a strong host, consistently made me laugh throughout the episode, and seemed much more at ease than he did last time.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Catherine O’Hara)
a mild step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Sinbad