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.
Fantastic season. You pretty much nailed it in every review why it was so great.
Nice to see Smigel, Turners and Zander get a happy send off with their appearances.
In the Farley book a lot of the old guard writers did say they didn’t like the direction the show was going with the Sandler, Farley, Spade humor. Marilyn Suzanne Miller and Bonnie Turner I believe specifically mentioned this. Downey I believe as well.
And finally sad to see Rock leave. He had a solid first season but was way underutilized his final two
While I can kind of get why some old guard writers were aghast at the new direction, it was probably good (short term) to shake things up somewhat. The new performers were funny and they really did great work in their performances here (and, really, the old guard cast was no more either–Dana left, Mike was rather invisible this year, etc.). Furthermore, it was interesting seeing a more youth-oriented, broader, less conceptually driven feel to the show (I’m not saying I LIKE that, but it’s sometimes neat seeing a shake-up in styles, especially for a show that’s supposedly innovative like SNL). I can’t necessarily Lorne for putting his eggs in the “Bad Boys” basket. The issue, of course, was that as the quality of writing declined and the lack of any other style of humor emerged, everything went downhill.
Julia Sweeney mentioned one of the struggles of this period being that she and Christine Zander just couldn’t get material on, while Sandler’s group could. She also felt that they just had no interest in her as a collaborator. She said she realized later in life that she should have fought harder to get her sketches on, the way they did, but I think it sums up some of the lack of balance their dynamic brought to the show. In this episode, for instance, the monologue and the goodnights just get dragged down for me with Sandler doing his funny voice routine, The show had such a large cast at this time yet most of them had small roles at best in the finale because of so much focus on one overextended bit that reduces everyone else to extra status. The problem when you have three people who increasingly take up so much time is there’s no oxygen left even when there are decent writers waiting for a shot.
But (at least in this season) Sandler killed with all those bits. The show and he were beloved. He was on his way to becoming one of the biggest movie stars in the world and good that snl identified that. Julia might have had some interesting pieces that didn’t get on but she wasn’t also very frequently used and barely made a dent. No one was waking up Sunday talking about Julia- as they did with adam and Farley. You can say that Julia and even rock had an unfair stint on the show- but at some point the producers job is to put the best show and best sketched on the air, and they clearly succeeded (as this is widely thought of as one of- if not the- best season of all time). You will have the next 40 or so days to talk about how the show went downhill and why- but season 18 wasn’t it,
For those , like me, who don’t like Sandler or Farley, the decline started in season 16.
I’d also dispute that this is widely regarded as one of the best seasons.
I’ve mentioned several times I love this era so this is prob. a top 5 all time season for me. I can’t blame Lorne for trying something new even if it did get out of hand from 93-95.
I guess I can compare it to the show today. I haven’t really enjoyed the show that much since like 2012/13 but I realize that comedy has changed and the current show is reflecting that. I don’t really like it but I understand why they went in that direction.
I don’t think anyone is saying that the show was bad in season 18 (I’ve praised almost every episode this season), but we can say that one moment or another moment leads to problems down the line. For instance, I think having Andrew Dice Clay on the show set a terrible precedent for lazy attempts at cheap pop culture hosts and also casts a pall over the 86-90 era that shouldn’t have been – that doesn’t mean I think 89-90 was a bad season.
I won’t disagree that Sandler and Farley were more popular with a young audience than Julia Sweeney, but no matter how popular they were, the ratings still fell in the two seasons where they were in the biggest spotlight. To me that is because there was little to no effort at balance. Whether it be people who may not have been that broadly known, like Sweeney, or respected names like Michael McKean or Chris Elliott, or rising talent like Janeane Garofalo, they all ended up being frozen out or demoralized by the culture of this era. Ultimately it’s not on Sandler or Farley, it’s on Lorne for not doing anything to get back on track until he had no real choice in the matter.
I just watched this one a few weeks ago. Not a bad episode, but to me, a little underwhelming as a season finale. The flambé bit in the fart sketch cracked me up, and I strangely liked “Shmee.” (“So bad it’s good” summarizes it pretty nicely.) Enjoyed seeing Audience McGee as well, and the Conan crack during WU was good.
As a classic horror film fan, I so wanted to like the “Dr. Frankenstein” sketch, but MAN did it go nowhere, as did IMO “Mmmph?”
So yeah, a good-not-great season finale for me.
There are a lot of positives to the finale. I love the cold open – it’s one of my favorite political sketches of all time, and it’s just phenomenal to get to see Jan Hooks and Dan Aykroyd in “the arena” this way. The fart sketch is pretty good throughout, never seeming to flag (and is one of the reasons why I don’t automatically see fart sketches as cheap humor). Shmee reminds me of something they would have done in the early Ebersol period, and has good performances by all the cast. Farley had a strong night – the bee, Bennett, and a good Schiller’s Reel. I notice Schiller zeroes in on Farley for many of his pieces in this era – I guess he thought highly of him. The gyro sketch manages to be inventive and funny, if a little too long. The Spade infomercial piece is fine, if, again, overlong.
One of the reasons I didn’t end up enjoying this finale is because it has so many dead spots that remind me of what’s on the way. The dead spots are the toughest part of 93-95 – where you just feel nothing, the audience gives nothing, and you want to crawl away from the screen. The monologue/goodnights, and the Frankenstein sketch are all suffering from this but the worst is probably WU. Nealon’s seeming lack of confidence in himself and/or the material is just such a glaring hole in the middle of the show. The episode never fully recovers from that WU.
As for 92-93 as a whole, I’d say it’s a strong season. Stronger than I’d remembered, and better than 91-92 overall. The hosts are almost uniformly excellent and most of the writing has the right balance between pop culture, politics, and concept pieces. The cast utilization could have been better, but isn’t as bad as what is on the way.
In terms of individual cast, I think Myers being off half the season was a real shot in the arm and seeing others like Rob Schneider step up to fill the void added a different voice to this year. Farley has a better year than I had remembered (most of my worst memories of him seem to be from the last two seasons). Sandler started off well but veered into the bad self-parody toward the end. Spade is still pretty balanced, although the Hollywood Minute in the finale has that pointless callousness to it that would overshadow some of his better work down the line. Cleghorne was solid in her own bubble. Meadows seemed to take on more and more of a role, which was nice. Rock had more to do than I’d expected, and I do think his absence will hurt the show. Robert Smigel was a pleasant surprise – while leaving SNL this season certainly didn’t hurt his career, I’m sorry we never got to see more of him oncamera. Sweeney essentially became the lead female – with an asterisk as the meatiest female role of these two seasons went to Jan Hooks – but we’re getting to the point where that’s like saying you’re the champion of diving into quicksand. Still, Sweeney had some good roles this season, with Pat coming to a merciful conclusion and many interesting female roles going her way. Nealon had some great moments outside of WU, but that role is getting worse and worse. Of everyone I’d say Melanie Hutsell had the worst season – she’s very talented (best shown in the leaving home sketch in the Luke Perry episode) but they struggle to write for her range, and her two recurring characters already feel completely played out.
Of the newcomers I’m mostly looking forward to seeing Norm Macdonald again. So very much of the mid/late ’90s of SNL – the best and the worst – were defined through him.
Here’s a promo from the episode. There’s another which I can’t find now where Kevin Kline jokes about not blaming him for the season being bad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drwjKpWlK_Y
Here’s an interview with Christine Zander about her time at SNL.
https://www.salon.com/2015/09/29/secrets_of_saturday_night_lives_writers_room_the_pressure_was_intense_but_it_was_incredible/
I’m kind of sad that we’ve reached this point because this is just about where I fall out of love with SNL for good. Why? I don’t know. Am I even a fan? Despite my college age by then, I certainly didn’t latch on to the 1995- era at all. Something changed with the approach to the show or the writing that someone else may be able to pinpoint better than I can. And by the turn of the century I was probably getting too old and out of sync with all the pop culture references. Anyway, thanks for all the hard work you’ve put into this. I’ve really enjoyed the last seven seasons in particular.
I’ve never quite felt the same way about the show past 1992 or 1993 either – I think the main loss was the overall respect for the intelligence of the audience, and a certain fearlessness. You can usually see from 1995 on how much more they are hesitant to not dumb down material.
I’m still a fan of the show and I’ve still enjoyed many years of the show and many cast members over the last 25 years, so I’m glad this blog is going to keep going. It’s just that there is a certain dividing line. I hope you may stay and keep reading, but if you don’t, then I just wanted to say I’m glad I got to read your comments about these golden years.
Thanks, John. I’ve enjoyed your posts too. Having lived through the Cheerleaders/Mango era in real time, I’m not sure if if I’m quite prepared to go the distance again virtually. We’ll see.
My biggest takeaway from this revisitation is perhaps how much I overrated Mike Myers at the time. I still think he’s ultra-talented, but rather than thinking of him as an honorary addition to the 1986 cast, his work almost from the word ‘go’ is distinctly self-directed and marking the beginning of the end of the great repertory feel of that era.
Oh I was the same way back then – after they got rid of most of the people I enjoyed in 95-96, I don’t think I’d have kept on for the decade if not for Ana Gasteyer and Tim Meadows. I’m not as hard on that period now as I was then but I still can’t take those recurring characters.
I was the same way with Myers. I think what really soured me was when I saw some of his 94-95 work for the first time recently (I skipped a lot of that season originally) – it is just absolutely rotgut. I can appreciate how he knew to play the game with SNL and he still had some characters I can enjoy (like Dieter, and sometimes Linda Richman), but he was the start of the catchphrase catchphrase mug mug era.
I can’t add much to what’s already been said. I too am now realizing what a good season this was and how it was overall an improvement on 91-92. Much stronger hosts and musical guests and the bad boys hadn’t reached their tipping point. But little did we know what was to come…
Originally, Letterman was supposed to host but he backed out a week before. It was to be his ultimate FU to NBC for not getting the Tonight Show but he still had that aversion to sketch comedy after the “Mary” debacle in 1978
That would explain why Kline felt so patched in. It’s too bad he didn’t get an episode more of his own.
I’m pretty sure Letterman was listed as hosting in tv Guide. That’s how last minute it was. Yes I read TV guide as a kid. It’s all we had!
Yeah, I loved Sprockets and still do. But in ’89 when Myers comes in, it almost feels like we’ve been watching a cohesive comedic team for the last three years (yes, I know that behind the scenes a lot of the castmembers, particularly the women, hated each other, but that’s a separate topic), then there’s this hyper kid shouting “Look at me, look at me, I’m funny!!!” to the point where he’s even doing his schtick during goodnights.
Not sure where you’re getting the “women hated each other” stuff from. I’ve NEVER seen anything in print, or otherwise, that would lead to that conclusion. If you DO have some good evidence, please enlighten us.
First, there were only THREE women on the show for that ENTIRE period – and as GOOD a group as they ever had since the initial NRFPTPs…and wouldn’t have again until 1996 or so…
Nora Dunn may have ruffled some feathers by making such a dramatic statement about Andrew Dice Clay, but it would seem that she, Jan Hooks, and Victoria Jackson got along as well as any SNL CMs ever have…they work together in NUMEROUS sketches. (Dunn and Hooks had AMAZING chemistry as The Sweeney Sisters, in “Diner” with Alec Baldwin, and in many other sketches.)
I ain’t buyin it, chickie.
“Hated each other” is probably a bit strong, but it’s pretty well known that Nora, Jan, and Victoria weren’t exactly the best of friends.
In LFNY, Victoria said that Jan “hates my guts” and that Nora was meaner to her than anyone else she’d ever met. Of course, there are also some episodes where Victoria’s hugging them during the goodnights, so I dunno. Apparently there were at least times when she got along all right with them.
From Victoria’s account, it sounds like she tried to be friendly toward them, but they didn’t reciprocate. I also recall seeing an episode where during the goodnights, Victoria goes up to Jan looking like she wants a hug, and Jan just gives her an icy stare, and then Victoria ends up giving her an awkward side hug. I don’t get the sense that Victoria “hated” either of them, but it seems like she eventually resigned herself to the fact that they were never going to be her friends. After Jan died, Victoria wrote a blog post talking about Jan, and she said in it that she prayed for both Jan and Nora a lot over the years. It sounds like she cared about them, even when they weren’t a part of her life.
Neither Nora nor Jan has ever spoken fondly of Victoria, at least that I’ve seen. The only quote I know of from Jan was in LFNY, where she said that Victoria’s voice was a turnoff to her. Nora has made some unkind comments about Victoria too, but frankly, Nora doesn’t strike me as a very self-aware person, so she probably doesn’t even realize how badly her statements come across. I doubt Nora “hates” Victoria, but I don’t think she likes her either.
I think Nora and Jan were closer, but I do remember seeing a magazine article about the plight of women on SNL which quoted an unnamed source saying “Jan and Nora fought like cats and dogs when they weren’t ganging up on Victoria.” So even the two of them didn’t always get along.
In LFNY, Jan said that after the Andrew Dice Clay incident, they were all upset with Nora and wanted her gone. However, the week right after Dice Clay was the season finale, as well as Nora’s final episode. Who are the only people acknowledging her during the goodnights? Jan is right there with her the whole time, and Dennis Miller later walks across the stage to give her a hug too. However much they may have fought, it seems like Jan and Nora were friends at the end of the day. What their relationship was like after SNL, I have no idea.
So yeah, I don’t think they were a super close trio, but “hated each other” is probably a slight overstatement. I think they at least respected each other enough to have a decent professional relationship, so give ‘em credit for that.
Farewell to Chris Rock. It’s kind of lame that Shmee the Bee ended up being his swansong. It has a goofy charm, but it’s really not all that good of a sketch. They couldn’t at least given Chris a WU spot for his last show? 🙂
Chris Rock’s tenure at SNL is kind of weird one. He exploded out of the gate and looked like he was going to be big on the show…but it never really panned out that way. He was sorely underused on the show. And I agree that he shined the most with his Weekend Update bits. But he still had memorable characters (Nat X and I’m Chillin’). Impressions weren’t really his strong spot, but he had a couple memorable ones as well. Obviously, Rock went on to have an amazing career, so much so that his tenure as an SNL cast member is kind of an afterthought. As talented as he was, I just don’t know if sketch comedy was his forte. He was all about stand-up, that’s why his WU bits were so good.
I wonder what would have happened if Chris Rock would have replaced Dennis Miller as anchor…now, I think that would have been a bold move that might have worked for him. I think he would have been great as the anchor, certainly unique. As much as I love Kevin Nealon and his approach to the Update anchor (essentially parodying a real news anchor)…he always seemed to struggle with the role.
Anyway, even though this was not an outstanding episode, it does wrap up a fantastic year…now, let’s all enjoy the down-slide in quality that is Season 19. 🙂 As Phil (in)famously described, when he left the show, he got off a “sinking ship”
I think everybody’s points are well taken, despite how popular and funny the Bad Boys were (Farley, Sandler, Spade, etc.) they excelled much more as a “supporting cast” to the anchored, experienced vets like Phil and Dana. As the main attraction, the show suffered, the balance wasn’t there, the ensemble vibe wasn’t there, etc. There were vets around, like Myers (but let’s face it, he had senor-itis his last year, and he wasn’t part of the “ensemble” vibe either), Kevin Nealon also suffered some senor-itis as well (it’s still baffling to me that he stuck around for one more season after losing the anchor spot to Norm). Perhaps Season 20 would have been better if Rob Schneider stuck around (his SNL tenure and abilities are underrated)…but perhaps not. Season 20 was simply doomed to fail.
Jim Downey in the Farley book describes the “bad boys” as a “special teams threat”‘in football. They can get you a quick td on a kick or punt return but they aren’t every down players that hold a team together every game. I thought that was pretty clever and accurate
Yes, a very apt description.
Here are the five star sketches from 92-93:
Baby Names (Nicolas Cage)
Cold Opening (Joe Pesci)
Pinky Ringery (Joe Pesci)
Cold Opening (Christopher Walken)
The Continental (Christopher Walken)
Ed Glosser, Trivial Psychic (Christopher Walken)
The Boulevard of Broken Balls (Christopher Walken)
Chameleon XLE (Michael Keaton)
The Cluckin’ Chicken (Sinbad)
Superman’s Funeral (Sinbad)
McDonalds (Tom Arnold)
An Insane Idiot and His Collection of Descending-Size Deer Heads (Harvey Keitel)
The Mimic (Alec Baldwin)
The Chris Farley Show (Alec Baldwin)
Soap Opera Digest (Alec Baldwin)
The Rain People (Miranda Richardson)
Dieter’s Dream (Miranda Richardson)
Cold Opening (Kirstie Alley)
Monologue (Kirstie Alley)
Il Cantoria (Kirstie Alley)
While the City Sweeps (Kirstie Alley)
Motivational Speaker (Christina Applegate)
22 sketches. A little less than 91-92, but I feel like these sketches hold more weight. Some of the singular episodes stand as among the best the show ever did. I stump for Transit Workers and Francais as upper level sketches too.
As a companion piece to Carson’s list, here’s an Honorable Mentions list compiled of all the sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars this season:
The Bensonhurst Dating Game (Joe Pesci)
Single White Person (Joe Pesci)
Monologue (Christopher Walken)
Jiffy Express (Christopher Walken)
Stalk Talk (Christopher Walken)
It’s Pat (Christopher Walken)
Bush/Clinton White House Tour (Sinbad)
Dogs (Tom Arnold)
Drummer Boys (Glenn Close)
Books On Tape (Danny DeVito)
Clinton’s Inauguration (Harvey Keitel)
Bathroom Attendant (Harvey Keitel)
Transit Workers (Harvey Keitel)
Magic Fish Town Meeting (Luke Perry)
SNL Halftime Spectacular (Luke Perry)
Saying Goodbye (Luke Perry)
Francais (Alec Baldwin)
Hibernol (Bill Murray)
Bad News (Miranda Richardson)
Hub’s Gyros (Jason Alexander)
Nerf Crotch Bat (Christina Applegate)
Hangin’ With MTV (Christina Applegate)
Casting Agency (Christina Applegate)
Rome (Kevin Kline)
Agree on Francais… also would add Keitel/bathroom attendant, and also Bensonhurst Dating Game
Agree 100%
Here are the average ratings for Season 18:
*may not represent review’s perception*
Great to hear from you Stooge!
1801: 7.0 (Nicholas Cage)
1802: 6.2 (Tim Robbins)
1803: 7.7 (Joe Pesci)
1804: 8.8 (Christopher Walken)
1805: 6.5 (Catherine O’Hara)
1806: 6.9 (Michael Keaton)
1807: 7.9 (Sinbad)
1808: 6.9 (Tom Arnold)
1809: 6.5 (Glenn Close)
1810: 6.8 (Danny DeVito)
1811: 7.7 (Harvey Keitel)
1812: 6.8 (Luke Perry)
1813: 7.7 (Alec Baldwin)
1814: 6.9 (Bill Murray)
1815: 6.3 (John Goodman)
1816: 7.8 (Miranda Richardson)
1817: 6.8 (Jason Alexander)
1818: 7.2 (Kirstie Alley)
1819: 7.4 (Christina Applegate)
1820: 6.5 (Kevin Kline)
Best Episode: 1804 (Christopher Walken)- 8.8
Worst Episode: 1802 (Tim Robbins)- 6.2
Season Average: 7.1
I’m curious what Vax Novier’s list of average ratings would look like if it was ranked from best episode to worst, so I’ll do it below:
1804: 8.8 (Christopher Walken)
1807: 7.9 (Sinbad)
1816: 7.8 (Miranda Richardson)
1803: 7.7 (Joe Pesci)
1811: 7.7 (Harvey Keitel)
1813: 7.7 (Alec Baldwin)
1819: 7.4 (Christina Applegate)
1818: 7.2 (Kirstie Alley)
1801: 7.0 (Nicolas Cage)
1806: 6.9 (Michael Keaton)
1808: 6.9 (Tom Arnold)
1814: 6.9 (Bill Murray)
1810: 6.8 (Danny DeVito)
1812: 6.8 (Luke Perry)
1817: 6.8 (Jason Alexander)
1805: 6.5 (Catherine O’Hara)
1809: 6.5 (Glenn Close)
1820: 6.5 (Kevin Kline)
1815: 6.3 (John Goodman)
1802: 6.2 (Tim Robbins)
For fun, here are this season’s episodes ranked from best to worst based on the “Immediate Post-Show Thoughts” that I wrote in my reviews:
Christopher Walken
Alec Baldwin
Miranda Richardson
Joe Pesci
Harvey Keitel
Kirstie Alley
Christina Applegate
Sinbad
Jason Alexander
Michael Keaton
Kevin Kline
Bill Murray
Danny DeVito
Tom Arnold
Luke Perry
Glenn Close
Catherine O’Hara
Nicolas Cage
Tim Robbins
John Goodman
Here are the 30 highest-rated episodes from SNL’s Platinum Age – from reinvention to new heights (1986-1993):
30. 12/2/89: John Goodman / K.D. Lang & The Reclines (7.6)
29. 10/28/89: James Woods / Don Henley (7.6)
28. 1/21/89: John Malkovich / Anita Baker (7.6)
27. 11/5/88: Matthew Modine / Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (7.6)
26. 3/21/87: Bill Murray / Percy Sledge (7.6)
25. 2/13/93: Alec Baldwin / Paul McCartney (7.7)
24. 1/16/93: Harvey Keitel / Madonna (7.7)
23. 10/10/92: Joe Pesci / Spin Doctors (7.7)
22. 11/2/91: Kiefer Sutherland / Skid Row (7.7)
21. 10/12/91: Kirstie Alley / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (7.7)
20. 9/28/91: Michael Jordan / Public Enemy (7.7)
19. 5/20/89: Steve Martin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (7.7)
18. 12/20/86: William Shatner / Lone Justice (7.7)
17. 11/22/86: Robin Williams / Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo (7.7)
16. 3/20/93: Miranda Richardson / Soul Asylum (7.8)
15. 10/27/90: Patrick Swayze / Mariah Carey (7.8)
14. 10/7/89: Rick Moranis / Rickie Lee Jones (7.8)
13. 10/22/88: John Larroquette / Randy Newman with Mark Knopfler (7.8)
12. 12/19/87: Paul Simon / Linda Ronstadt with The Mariachi Vargas (7.8)
11. 11/21/92: Sinbad / Sade (7.9)
10. 5/9/92: Tom Hanks / Bruce Springsteen (7.9)
9. 9/29/90: Kyle MacLachlan / Sinead O’Connor (8.0)
8. 12/9/89: Robert Wagner / Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville (8.0)
7. 11/11/89: Chris Evert / Eurythmics (8.0)
6. 1/20/90: Christopher Walken / Bonnie Raitt (8.3)
5. 12/8/90: Tom Hanks / Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (8.4)
4. 3. 10/8/88: Tom Hanks / Keith Richards (8.5)
3. 10/24/92: Christopher Walken / Arrested Development (8.8)
2. 4/21/90: Alec Baldwin / The B-52’s (8.8)
1. 4/18/92: Jerry Seinfeld / Annie Lennox (8.9)
I changed my mind and merged my last list with this one. It’s a longer period, yet still the toughest competition for tops. Yes, I considered seasons 19 and 20, but they’re not in this league.
I count 6 from season 18; 5 from season 17; 3 from season 16; 7 from season 15; 5 from season 14; 1 from season 13; 3 from season 12.
Rock was done dirty. I would have loved to see him take over for Dennis instead of Kevin; it would have breathed fresh life into Update and, for the time, been a revolutionary choice by Lorne. It shouldn’t have been so that Che had to become Update’s first black anchor years later. No dig against Che; SNL just had the opportunity to go the distance years ago, and they didn’t.
It’d be interesting to do a review of SNL cast members who were sorely underutilized during their time, but got wildly famous afterwards. (Silverman, Rock, Slate among them.)
“Wildly” might be a bit of an exaggeration. The average person (even TV viewer) has STILL never heard of Silverman and Slate…but they all know who Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, and Tina Fey are…
Good call — it’s funny how many people are on that list, and all for different reasons… Paul Shaffer, Gilbert Gottfried, Laurie Metcalf, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller… I could even make a case for Harry Shearer, given his 30+ years on one of the greatest shows ever. Interesting that almost everyone found fame in sitcoms or as stand-ups. No dramatic actors on this list, no film stars (except Stiller and Downey), not even anyone on radio, the stage, or in print (unless we add Christine Ebersole… I don’t know enough about Broadway to know if she’s wildly famous; I hope she is!).
I know that I’m supremely late to the discussion, but, my goodness, what a discussion! Chris Rock taking over after Dennis Miller is such a delicious, intriguing idea! And yet, the more and more I think about it, I honestly don’t see it working. His style and delivery are too overpowering to be an anchor. But, just for kicks….what if they’d replaced Dennis with Tim Meadows as anchor? Tim had been largely unproven and underused on SNL to that point, but he’s more of a sketch actor to Rock’s stand-up style and I feel that’s what WU could have used at that point. I know Miller and Nealon were both stand-ups (Nealon is easily the better actor between the two) but I think that’s the true missed opportunity.
Meadows had ALMOST no personality on SNL. His complete lack of popular recurring (or even one-offs) belie his supposed talent. Lionel Osbourne was, quite possibly, the most boring series of sketches ever…and The Ladies’ Man was a one-joke sketch stretched into 13 or 14 at a time when they relied WAY too heavily on RCs.
Admittedly, Meadows has made a nice little TV career out of playing a befuddled everyman administarator/teacher/principal, etc., but his SNL work is subpar at best…especially in light of how many seasons he was a CM. (Always wondered WHAT he had on Lorne…_
I wonder if the Coneheads film had come out not in the summer of 1993, SNL would have have had Dan host or at least had Dan/Jane on to do a Coneheads sketch or something. I just rewatched the film, and had forgotten how virtually every part is played by a SNL cast member of the past or present (or future, I guess, since Michael McKean is in the movie). It’s not a great movie (although not horrible), but SNL fans will certainly be interested to see so many cast members (and the non SNL people in the cast are almost all well known comedy folks, like Jason Alexander, Drew Carey, Ellen DeGeneres, Michael Richards, etc.).