Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton deal with Bob Dole (DAA) differently
— Nice to see Dan Aykroyd returning as Bob Dole. Between him and Jan Hooks, I love that we’re getting a cameo from two SNL greats (and two of my personal favorite cast members of all time) from two completely different eras.
— Hillary claiming that she’s the co-president of the United States is hilarious.
— Dan’s delivery of his lengthy dialogue throughout this is freakin’ fantastic. Since it’s been quite a while since I last reviewed his SNL era, I had kinda forgotten how brilliant he is at delivering fast-paced dialogue.
— I’m enjoying the way Jan and Dan are playing off of each other.
— The negative tension between Hillary and Dole is really funny, eventually building up into a big fight between them. During that fight, I love Dole telling Bill “I’m doing something you should’ve done a long time ago.”
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— When announcing special guest Jan Hooks, Don Pardo mistakenly says “Special musical guest……….(long pause as he realizes his screw-up)……….Jan Hooks!”
MONOLOGUE
Audience McGee figures out that KEN is impersonating host on-stage
— An interesting approach here, with Nealon entering as Kevin Kline, which is a nice change of pace for a monologue.
— Good reveal that Kline got the idea of having Nealon impersonate him from his new movie Dave.
— I love a confused Audience McGee standing up and going “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here!”
— The back-and-forth bickering between Nealon and Audience McGee is giving me good laughs.
— Great ending with Rob and Rock entering as musical guests Paul Simon and Willie Nelson. I especially love the double-take Kline does when seeing Rock.
STARS: ****
MMMPH?
board game lets players give semi-verbal hot & cold signals
— I’m kinda conflicted, as there’s a charm to this, but at the same time, I’ve always felt this is a fairly bland and unmemorable commercial, especially when compared to SNL’s many memorable fake ads from this era.
STARS: **
ROME
otherwise-suave Italian’s (host) flatulence ruins encounter with (JUS)
— This sketch has always held a special place in my heart for reasons mentioned at the end of my review of the Sabra Price is Right sketch here.
— The look Farley gives Kline and Julia after the first fart sound is heard is great.
— A priceless casual look on Nealon’s face as he stands behind Kline while Kline lets out a very long fart outside the car.
— I love the subtly displeased look on Phil’s face after greeting Kline.
— The flambé bit was hilarious.
— Interesting how some of the veteran writers who’s last episode is tonight (Christine Zander, Bonnie & Terry Turner) are all appearing in this sketch, most of them in speaking roles. Speaking of which, I recall once hearing years ago that the reason Christine Zander and the Turners left SNL is because they were fed up with how Adam Sandler was getting more and more airtime with his brand of goofy comedy. I can’t remember where I heard that and I have no idea if it’s true, so please take it with a grain of salt.
— I love Kline’s line about how he’s already done his time in hell, and that statement immediately being followed by a particularly loud fart from him.
— Excellent touch at the end of the sketch with Kline wiping a tear off his face.
— Overall, it’s amazing how what was essentially a fart-joke sketch turned out to be so strong. The fart humor was pulled off surprisingly well, featured an excellent performance from Kline, and contained many genuinely funny moments and gags. And as I hinted in my recent positive comments about the much-hated Rookie Cop sketch, I usually have an affinity for sketches that involve multiple scenes and sets. It gives sketches that epic, movie-like feel that I personally love.
— I recall hearing that the reason for the epic, movie-like feel of this particular sketch is because it was originally written for an SNL sketch movie that never ended up getting made. I don’t know most of the details about it, though.
STARS: ****½
HOW TO FIND FINANCIAL FREEDOM WITH DON LAPRE
Don Lapre (DAS) tells How To Find Financial Freedom with a 900 number
— Very funny Don Lapre impression from David, and he’s giving a solid performance.
— A lot of funny lines from David’s Lapre, made even more amusing by his delivery.
— A good laugh from the random reveal of a broken-off lawn dart stuck in the back of Tim’s head.
— A funny overall sketch, though I feel it pales a little in comparison to a later Don Lapre sketch the show does in next season’s Jason Patric episode.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Graceland”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Bennett Brauer delineates the reasons why he’s ill-suited for TV
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about the royal family scandal
Hollywood Minute- DAS dishes celebrity dirt during end-of-season wrap-up
— Bennett Brauer becomes recurring, which I’m sure most SNL fans at the time never would’ve predicted would happen.
— Some of Bennett Brauer’s air-quoted unpleasant revelations of himself are even funnier than last time. The one about how he “pops his whiteheads with a compass used in high school” especially had me howling.
— Kevin’s subliminal editorial tonight was pretty forgettable. I really hate to say it, but I think I’ve officially gotten tired of Nealon’s subliminal routine. He’s relied on it awfully heavily this season, and there were times it suffered from diminishing returns.
— Boy, a lot of tonight’s Update jokes are falling flat. You can tell Nealon’s aware of that, because he keeps ad-libbing little addendum one-liners (e.g. “Something to think about”) whenever a joke receives a tepid audience reaction.
— This Hollywood Minute commentary that David is currently doing was cut after dress rehearsal from some of the last few episodes.
— David does a joke about former SNL writer Conan O’Brien, jokingly quoting him as saying “When I sent in the sweepstakes envelope, I had no idea I could win!”, referring to how unknown Conan was to the general public at this time when he was announced as David Letterman’s replacement as host of Late Night. After mentioning having worked with Conan in the past, David says a tongue-in-cheek “It’s good to see someone from Saturday Night Live finally make it!”
— David’s overall Hollywood Minute commentary tonight was solid as usual. My favorite comments were about Latoya Jackson and the particularly mean-spirited but funny crack about Whoopi Goldberg.
— A weak Update for Nealon overall tonight, and an underwhelming way for him to end the season. The two guest commentaries at least salvaged this somewhat. I can’t help but see Nealon’s rough night as an unfortunate precursor to how burned out he will often be on Update next season, IIRC.
— Believe it or not, there was an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which Rob played his Orgasm Guy character giving a sports commentary.
STARS: **½
THE JUICE
Hub’s Gyros workers travel to Mount Olympus to get more juice
— Speaking of things that SNL fans at the time never could’ve predicted would become recurring…
— As utterly ridiculous as the idea of bringing back this meta, intentionally repetitive one-off sketch seems, there’s something so silly about the idea of this becoming recurring that it’s hilarious to me.
— Something I always notice in this sketch: at the beginning as Melanie plays a customer receiving a tray of food, she almost slips on the floor as she exits the shot. If she had slipped and fell down, that would’ve been so embarrassing, not to mention a huge mess, considering she was carrying a full tray of food and a drink. By the way, why was she cast in such a tiny, useless role anyway? That’s the type of role that, in this era, would normally go to an extra or writer. I have to wonder if this particular role originally was given to an extra or writer, but then SNL re-cast Melanie in the role after dress rehearsal when realizing all her non-pre-taped appearances were cut after dress (including another “Tori” sketch, in which Melanie’s Tori Spelling talks about graduation), and they didn’t want her to get shut out of this season finale.
— Rob’s reaction after tasting the bad juice is really funny with him saying, among several things, “Juice is rancid” and “I throw up”.
— I like how this is now going in a completely different direction, with the employees traveling to Greece for better juice.
— Phil sounds like he’s doing a Greek version of his Ed McMahon impression. He even enters saying “Ha ha ha ha! YES!”, which is one of his catchphrases as Ed McMahon.
— Great meta turn with Mike complaining about being in a really idiotic sketch, Adam asking him “You can’t believe characters were brought back, eh?” (the latter of which probably echoes how the audience felt), and Rob promising never to do this sketch again.
— Now this has gotten even better with Lorne entering, doing the “You like-a da (insert thing here)” routine, and pointing to a sleeping Tim and saying “Shh, don’t wake Timmy.”
STARS: ****
SHMEE
youngster’s (CSR) magical bee (CHF) thwarts a burglary attempt
— This was cut after dress rehearsal in the Kirstie Alley episode from earlier this season.
— Funny theme song and title sequence.
— I love Rock’s little kid voice in this.
— I’ve always considered this to be a sister sketch to Phil’s Egg Man sketch from the Kathleen Turner-hosted episode in season 15, but apparently that sketch wasn’t written by the same person who wrote this one. Egg Man is admittedly better-written than this Shmee one, but I’m enjoying the intentionally low-budget silliness of this Shmee sketch anyway. There’s kind of a “So bad, it’s good” quality to this.
— Ellen’s line about how “I’m-a cook that bee; we gonna have us some bee puddin’!” cracked me up.
— Adam’s delivery of “Dat bee is bad news!” before bolting always cracks me up whenever I watch this sketch, and is my favorite part of this. It sounds like he was using the same voice he’d later use in the Captain Jim & Pedro sketches from next season.
— This overall sketch ends up being Rock’s final sketch as a cast member. At least it had him in a lead role, which he should be happy about, considering how often SNL has wasted him in forgettable small roles.
STARS: ***
DR. FRANKENSTEIN
(host) doesn’t get gist of Dr. Frankenstein’s (PHH) reanimation theory
— Boy, this is going NOWHERE once you realize the only joke of the sketch is Kline constantly saying he doesn’t follow what Phil is saying. That wasn’t even funny to me the first time Kline said it, yet they’re repeating it ad nauseam.
— Phil is giving it his all as always, but this sketch is D.O.A.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Still Is Still Moving To Me”
CRIMINAL ENCOUNTER
by TOS- con (CHF) & victim (ROS) undergo mediation
— I love the tone and atmosphere of this.
— Farley’s listed-off bad excuses for committing his crime are making me laugh (e.g. “I had a lot of laundry to do that night”, “The cable was out”). I also like Tom Schiller’s host character calling out Farley on an inconsistency in his bad excuses (Schiller: “You told me you were an orphan!” Farley: “Well, there’s another reason.”)
— Rob is cracking me up with his detailing of how he’d love to stick an iron bar into Farley’s head and then twist it until his head pops off “like a champagne cork”.
— Strong performances from both Rob and Farley. I like how we’re seeing a much more serious, low-key side of Farley in this.
— The turn with Farley unexpectedly asking Rob for a dance is both hilarious and touching.
— Funny epilogue screen crawl at the end.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
colleague (RBS) convinces Audience McGee that reruns are OK
— Oh, I love this. A unique deviation from the usual goodnights, with Audience McGee interrupting to ask what are SNL fans to do during SNL’s summer break.
— Great turn with Robert Smigel interjecting as another Audience McGee-like audience member. Considering this is Smigel’s final episode (and I believe he’s the writer of all of Audience McGee’s appearances), this is a great subtle sendoff to him.
— An overall inspired and very fun way to end the season. Anytime SNL does something special and meta for the final sketch of a season (or final goodnights of a season, in tonight’s case), I’m happy.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid season finale, though not quite as strong as I’d expect the finale of a big season like this to be. Still, we got some very good pieces tonight, including an epic lead-off sketch and a fun deviation during the goodnights. Kevin Kline was oddly invisible for a host, only appearing in three sketches all night (not including the monologue), one of them just being a small supporting role, and even in his own monologue, he barely did anything (which was the premise, I know, but still…). Makes me wonder if perhaps he had to do so much press for his movie Dave throughout this week that it left him little time for rehearsals, so SNL had to work around that by writing a lot of sketches that didn’t include him.
— As mentioned earlier, this ended up being the final episode for Chris Rock and occasional featured player (and regular writer) Robert Smigel, the latter obviously jumping ship to join his former SNL writing mate Conan O’Brien’s soon-to-start Late Night show. It’s a shame Chris Rock’s tenure wasn’t very successful, especially knowing the big fame he’d achieve post-SNL. His SNL tenure actually started off fairly hot early in his first season, and the urban humor he immediately brought to the show was a nice breath of fresh air from the complete absence of black representation during SNL’s late 80s era. Unfortunately, a few months into his first season, it started becoming obvious that the show was beginning to struggle to find ways to use him, a struggle that would sadly continue for the rest of his tenure. Despite that, he did have occasional hits, especially his Weekend Update commentaries as himself, in which we got to see early glimpses of the type of brilliant stand-up comedy that would go on to define his post-SNL career. There’s not much to say about Robert Smigel as a featured player, as he was only an occasional performer who didn’t make too big an impact onscreen. Despite that, he did display solid voice skills in his character work, and his short-lived recurring Hank Fielding “The Moron’s Perspective” commentaries on Weekend Update this season were always good. Smigel’s departure leaves far more of an impact in the writers’ room, where he was a very important part of the show for years. As a writer, he contributed greatly to the show and deserves credit for being partly responsible for the high quality of SNL’s writing in the late 80s and early 90s. His departure (as well as a few other solid veteran writers like Christine Zander and Bonnie & Terry Turner) hurts when you’re aware of how downhill SNL’s quality will go in the upcoming season 19.
— Season 18 as a whole was fantastic. In fact, in my early years as an SNL fan, this used to be my absolute favorite season. Some years later, that went away as I took on a more neutral standpoint by considering all of the 1986-1993 years to be equally my favorite. Then in more recent years, season 14 became my definitive favorite season (especially after covering it fairly recently in this SNL project). However, having now just reviewed the entire season 18, I’m reminded of why I used to be so big on it. While it still doesn’t dethrone season 14 as my definitive favorite, I have so much love for it. The many highs of this season were spectacular and very memorable, and there’s a good number of standout phenomenal episodes. It says something that in the first half of this season, the occasional absences of THREE of the most popular members of the repertory cast (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, and Chris Farley) still didn’t hurt the season’s quality, nor did the mid-season full-out departure of Dana Carvey. And despite the fact that you can definitely see early glimpses of the type of juvenile humor that would unfortunately plague the next two seasons, the difference is that the writing of them was usually solid here. All-in-all, to me, this season is the peak of the early 90s era.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS (Note: These picks were hastily made off the top of my head and will naturally be missing some deserving sketches. I don’t have enough time to do full, thought-out “Best Of” picks for this whole season)
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christina Applegate)
a mild step down
HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1991-92)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 19 begins, with host Charles Barkley. After being spoiled by the long stretch of great seasons from 1986-1993 (probably the longest consecutive run SNL has ever had without a subpar season, though I would also make an argument for 1995-2002, which also happens to be the same amount of years as 86-93), I’m sure it will feel a little weird for me to enter the downhill slide that is season 19.