Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
Bill Clinton (PHH) announces that Hillary’s to blame for Whitewater mess
— A fairly obvious but pretty funny premise of Bill Clinton blaming his wife Hillary for the Whitewater scandal. There’s also some laughs from him constantly trying to act casual about downplaying Hillary being a killer.
— This is the second consecutive episode in which Julia’s only appearance all night is in a very brief cutaway in which she just plays a straight role. Going through this season, I can really understand her well-documented frustration and misery working on the show this season. Her airtime seems to be getting worse and worse as this season heads towards the finish line.
— Towards the end of this cold opening, there’s an awkward gaffe during the interaction between Phil and Ellen, where Phil appears to mistakenly jump ahead of the script before stopping and letting Ellen say her line. This rare flub from Phil would later be fixed in reruns by replacing it and the remainder of the cold opening (including Phil’s “Live from New York…”) with the dress rehearsal version.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Michael McKean has been added to the cast.
Several unconventional things about the addition of him to the cast: he’s much older than new cast members typically are, he’s already famous and very experienced by this point of his career (signaling the type of cast members Lorne would hire the following season), he’s the first cast member since 1986 to immediately join as a repertory player without doing a featured player stint first, and he’s a very rare instance of someone joining the cast AFTER having already hosted the show, not to mention also having already been a musical guest (in character as Spinal Tap).
MONOLOGUE
host answers some softball questions posed by fake audience members
— Nancy’s opening “This is the horniest thing I’ve ever done” joke (referencing her notorious “corniest thing I’ve ever done” comment about a Disneyland gig of hers) was terrible, groanworthy, and sets the tone for tonight’s episode, which isn’t a good thing…
— As expected, Nancy is coming off very wooden and bland.
— After a nice long break, we get an unfortunate return of the overused questions-from-the-audience monologue trope from the first half of this season. It also feels kinda redundant tonight, coming right after a cold opening that also had a questions-from-the-audience format.
— Not caring for most of the audience’s questions so far, though I like Jim Downey’s constant Tonya Harding/Bonnie Blair mix-ups.
— The exchange between Jay and Sarah was pretty funny.
— We get a very meta bit with one audience member (former SNL writer Christine Zander, returning as a guest writer tonight) asking if it’s true that due to the Martin Lawrence monologue, hosts are now only allowed to take questions from the audience. I appreciate how that’s SNL both referencing the Martin Lawrence controversy from the preceding episode and making a self-deprecating jab at their own overreliance on questions-from-the-audience monologues.
STARS: **½
CRYSTAL GRAVY
Rerun from 10/2/93
SPORTS BEAT
host, luger (NOM), biathlete (ROS) discuss post-Olympic life
— Michael McKean gets his first meaty role, and right out of the gate, he’s oddly making corny, exaggerated facial expressions during his opening intro. I’m not too crazy about that.
— Very funny bit with Rob revealing he had been shot in the face. Good facial make-up on him to accompany that.
— Yet another sketch this season that’s perfectly utilizing Norm’s great deadpan style. He’s having so many hilarious lines throughout this sketch.
— Rob’s been having lots of hilarious lines himself here.
— Great ending with Norm’s “At least I’ve got my gold medal” line immediately being followed by Nancy easily convincing him to sell it to her for $500.
STARS: ****
ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARADE
host is grand marshal of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in a depressed town
— A big laugh from Phil using a cane to beat the hell out of Chris’ screaming drunk character.
— Okay, it wasn’t necessary to repeat the Farley beatdown.
— This sketch has been pretty dead after the first Farley beatdown. Nothing is working much for me here.
— The mayor’s expressed contempt for his town, while probably not a bad premise in itself, didn’t provide any laughs, and the ending fell flat.
STARS: *½
THE DENISE SHOW
Brian’s old flame Linda (host) returns to see him
— SNL was already stretching things by doing a second installment of this initially-solid sketch that made little sense as a recurring piece. Now we get a freakin’ THIRD installment?!?
— Adam’s character at least gives an explanation for why he’s still doing this show after hooking up with Nicole Kidman’s character from the preceding installment, but this just feels like the writers hand-waving their decision to unnecessarily bring this sketch back again.
— They’re still using Shannen Doherty’s picture as Denise, on Adam’s table. I still can’t help but laugh imagining viewers who weren’t aware that Doherty hosted earlier this season being confused when watching these Denise Show follow-ups and wondering why the hell SNL is using a famous actress’ photo for an unseen character.
— Some of the segments within this sketch feel like an inferior copy of the segments from the first two Denise Show sketches.
— The 70s clip from The Linda Show made me laugh.
— Oh, now they’re making Nancy Kerrigan sing. God, make it stop.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Deeper Love”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Frank Sinatra (PHH) finishes his truncated Grammy Awards speech
Bono (ADS) sings a song to encourage alcohol-free St. Patrick’s Day fun
— This is the only time during Phil’s entire SNL tenure that he appears on the Weekend Update set (his previous Update appearances were all via-satellite bits), and even here, he’s not actually doing a typical sitting-behind-the-desk commentary; he’s standing up.
— I got a pretty good laugh from Phil-as-Sinatra’s “Thanks, Chevy” towards Kevin, but the premise of his acceptance speech being pointlessly brief didn’t do much for me.
— Hearing Kevin quote the words “Shut up, ho” in his typical deadpan news anchor manner gave me a big laugh.
— Eerie how two famous figures joked about in tonight’s Update, Richard Nixon and Kurt Cobain, would both die just a month later.
— Weird how Adam’s only Update guitar songs so far this season have been as famous singers (Bruce Springsteen, Bono) instead of as himself.
— Not too crazy about Adam’s Bono song. The lyrics are okay, but this pales in comparison to most of Adam’s Update songs as himself and even his Bruce Springsteen song.
— Why none of the usual participation from Kevin during Adam’s song?
— For the second episode in a row, Rob’s Sports Bloopers commentary got cut after dress rehearsal (pic here).
STARS: ***
DON MATEO
for some reason, Don Mateo (PHH) thinks a waitress (host) is hot-blooded
— Interesting how all three of the cast members seated at the table (Phil, Mike, and Norm) are Canadians in real life.
— Phil’s delivery is very good in this, especially when saying the line “Seared in the ANGER of your fiery ANGER!” The sketch’s premise isn’t working for me, though, even despite Phil’s best efforts.
— They seem to have given Nancy the simplest of dialogue here, yet she’s still struggling with it.
— An okay ending.
STARS: **
LILLEHAMMER 94
skater (host) tries to cope with partner’s (CHF) recent weight gain
— An initial laugh from Tim’s doughy Greg Gumbel facial prosthetics.
— And here comes the skating footage, which would go on to become a well-known Chris Farley piece, as well as the most memorable part of tonight’s troubled episode. I’ve never found this sketch to be quite a five-star classic like some other well-known Farley sketches, but I always find this to be a very funny and enjoyable piece.
— Pretty impressive skating from Chris.
— A lot of good laughs from the skating footage, especially Chris throwing an obvious dummy of Nancy in the air. Phil and David’s color commentary throughout the skating footage is also adding to the humor.
— According to GettyImages, a live post-skating segment with Chris and Nancy’s characters being interviewed by a reporter (played by Melanie) was cut after dress rehearsal (pic here and here).
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Willing to Forgive”
DISNEY
while wearing a Snow White costume, host greets guests at Disneyland
— Wow, that’s it? This overall bit was awful and pretty much pointless.
— According to GettyImages, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch had Ellen playing Tim’s role as a parent with a child (pic here and here), which makes sense, considering the child is played by Ellen’s real-life daughter Akeyla. I guess they had to recast Ellen’s role in the live show since she’s front-and-center in the sketch that immediately follows this.
STARS: *
BLACK RHYTHM & BLUES SINGERS TODAY
excitable (ELC) interviews musical guest
— Lately, it’s been feeling increasingly rare to see Ellen in a lead role. This has been a rough season for her (then again, the same can be said for ALL of the female cast members this season), and I recall hearing that she desperately wanted to leave after this season, but Lorne begged her to stay another season (maybe because he knew he was losing all the other female cast members – Julia, Melanie, and Sarah – and didn’t want the following season to start with an entirely new female cast), where she ended up having an even more miserable time.
— This sketch seems under-rehearsed, as Aretha and Ellen sometimes keep accidentally stepping on each other’s lines. (I’m not referring to Ellen’s sassy one-liners while Aretha’s speaking, as that’s clearly an intentional part of the sketch.)
— Nice ad-lib with Aretha reaching over and fixing Ellen’s frazzled hair after Ellen’s excitable head-bobbing.
— Well… Ellen certainly has lots of energy in this. That’s about the only positive thing I can say, as I haven’t gotten a single laugh so far, aside from Aretha’s aforementioned ad-lib. I’m not finding it too exciting seeing Ellen just going through a whole bunch of stereotypical black women cliches.
STARS: *½
DISNEY
while wearing a Tinkerbell costume, host throws toys from Tea Cups ride
— Oh, no, this is a runner…
— Mickey Mouse dumping a whole bunch of toys out of a garbage bin into the Tea Cup ride is the only time I’ve come remotely close to cracking a smile in these Disney sketches so far.
— I hate how these Disney sketches keep ending with a close-up of Nancy saying an unfunny straight-to-camera variation of “This is really corny”. Cringeworthy.
STARS: *
DISNEY
Abraham Lincoln animatron (MMK) joins host for her final corny Disney gig
— I say for the second time in this review: God, make it stop.
— While I would normally say it’s nice to see Phil starring in so many sketches tonight after how much he’s been phased out this season, it’s so sad that THIS is the episode that had to happen in. Tonight, he’s been performing some of the weakest material he’s ever been given in his entire SNL tenure.
— This overall third Disney sketch was completely dead. Even less laugh-worthy than the first two, if that’s possible.
STARS: *
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chain of Fools”
GOODNIGHTS
— Even the goodnights of this episode are awkward. Nancy misses her cue at the beginning, then starts saying her goodnights speech very hesitantly with occasional pauses.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Things continue to be rough for the second half of this season. Tonight’s episode was mostly a complete bore, especially the string of really bad, laughless sketches in the last 20 minutes. While I don’t think I agree with claims made in the past about this being one of the worst episodes ever, this episode is a clear sign of the continued decline of this season’s quality. Having an awkward, wooden athlete host didn’t make matters any better, as Nancy Kerrigan was the last type of host SNL needed during a struggling period like this. We at least got two strong sketches tonight (Sports Beat, Lillehammer 94), but they were far outnumbered by the show’s lowlights. Like I said in the last review, it’s getting almost depressing to witness this formerly strong era gradually sink like this, especially seeing an all-time great like Phil Hartman get dragged down with it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Martin Lawrence)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Helen Hunt
Charlie Musselwhite hanging out with the band tonight.
Things don’t seem to *truly* go down hill until the last 20 minutes with the Aretha sketch and the terrible Disney runners. Up until then, you don’t have a great episode, but you have some funny sketches, a decent opener, a decent Update, and a couple okay to bad stuff (Don Mateo, Mayor of Town, Denise Show). If the ending stuff was replaced with maybe a quirky, funny sketch, the episode would be much better.
I’ve heard NBC really pushed to have Kerrigan host, and I can only assume that’s why she’s all over the episode. There are episodes featuring truly funny and great performers where the host still takes a sketch off or only plays a lame token role. Here, Kerrigan has like the lead in every sketch! And the one sketch she’s not in, Aretha has the lead role (granted, Aretha’s not the problem in that sketch)!
The show would have made a smarter decision to downplay Kerrigan’s role in the show or get a different host and have Kerrigan appear in a couple sketches as a guest.
The monologue is stupid, but I can’t blame SNL for that too much–Kerrigan IS the kind of host where this simplistic premise is the best.
I think the episode starts strong with the cold open (a meaty and entertaining Phil Clinton showpiece), a watchable enough monologue (helped by some laughs like Tom Davis talking about Tanya Tucker), and a decent talk show sketch. The parade sketch is, for me, really terrible, and has that 94-95 death rattle feel to it, especially the long strengths of audience silence. After that, and a mediocre WU, things pick up again with the ice skating sketch and the (watchable thanks to Phil) restaurant sketch, then the Disney stuff just brings everything way down. (I don’t think Ellen’s sketch is horrible, but mostly isn’t funny, not helped by the audience stone cold through what were clearly meant to be big laugh moments).
Still, I’d say it was better than the Basinger/Baldwin and Lawrence episodes. Lawrence was just wretched, and Basinger actively killed several sketches (admittedly nothing that was brilliantly written in the first place), whereas Kerrigan didn’t hurt the two good sketches she had (talk show, skating).
I love Phil’s new england accent in that St Paddy’s Day sketch.
This was writer Tim Herlihy’s first episode, and I remember him mentioning on a podcast that the parade sketch was his first piece.
Kind of amazing Herlihy would last till the end of the decade on the show despite initially being hired as a favor to Sandler
To me, this episode is actually worse than the Lawrence one; it might be my least favorite of the season. Sports Beat is fun and I like Ellen’s enthusiasm in the Aretha sketch, but…everything else is so, so dead. The Disneyland runner is just sad.
It’s weird how much Kerrigan is in this episode, especially for being a non-actress. Later seasons of the show would do better at hiding hosts’ nervousness or inexperience with the medium; they either just plug them into recurring sketches where they don’t have to do as much heavy lifting, film a lot of pretapes, or write them into straightman roles.
Also, it might’ve been Mike Myers who once said in an interview that he was unhappy she was hosting. I guess that’s why he’s barely in this episode.
I’ve wondered at times if the writers wanted to embarrass her for being foisted on them. Not only was she all over the show, but she even had to sing, which was just uncomfortable to watch.
I love how the Kerrigan dummy doesn’t even have the same hairstyle as the real thing! Although, to be honest, a dummy would give a better performance than Kerrigan.
Watching the back half of this season, it’s real easy to see why Norm became WU anchor. Whenever he’s onscreen the episode just lights up, even if it dies with the crowd (like in that 60 Minutes sketch coming up in the season finale.)
Here’s the promo for the episode. I smiled when Aretha said “we” are hosting. I suppose she wasn’t entirely wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgwJpzZMGzI
As this was Aretha’s last appearance on the show, we may as well take the time to mention that her ties to SNL never get quite as much attention as they may deserve. She was a musical guest multiple times (all of them in good form – her 1980 MG stint is especially memorable), and her cameo in an SNL-related film, Blues Brothers, got her rave reviews and helped reignite her career. Sadly, even her funeral had some kind of SNL connection, thanks to Pete Davidson.
Anyway, back to this episode, I’ve found myself not minding the Q&A monologues this season as much as I thought I would. I suppose it helps that other than Fred Wolf, who just kind of puts me off, everyone given this role is very easy to watch and enjoy. Knowing these are the only times we will get to see most of these writers just makes the material more bearable, especially with Jim Downey no longer a part of the show and Tom Davis no longer with us. Sarah Silverman is also very endearing in these moments.
I guess I should save this for when the season is over, but I actually think the women in the cast have an even rougher ride oncamera than they do in season 20. The material for women in that season is absolute crap, but I wonder if knowing just how badly they were treated backstage makes what we see onscreen even worse. In this season, four women have little to do for lengthy stretches of time, weeks, months on end. When they do appear, they are often extras, or close enough. I mean Morwenna Banks ends up having more to do than Julia, Melanie, Ellen and Sarah, and she was on the show for about 4 episodes!
I have a copy of the rerun of this show; don’t know what else was replaced, but the goodnights are definitely from dress rehearsal in that version.
I think I read somewhere that this was the most watched episode of SNL until Josh Brolin/Adele in October 2008.
Love watching Chris skate…he’s so surprisingly agile and nimble for a big man…it’s really fun to watch.
To me, Michael McKean is one of the more baffling hires in the history of the show. I get that they were prepping for Phil’s departure and adding someone to do the “straight” roles and play older folks, etc. And no doubt McKean is a great comic actor…but SNL was just a bad fit for him. It didn’t work at all. He never really gelled with the cast and stuck out like a sore thumb. If he was going to be a cast member…it should have been 10 years prior along with Harry Shearer, Guest, Martin Short, etc.
One note about the figure skating sketch. The original live version used (and was mentioned by Phil) Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic. The reruns during SNL’s Sports compilation would still mention Pump Up The Jam, but would play something completely different.
Marci Klein on Fly on the Wall said Kerrigan hosting was her idea and that Mike Myers was not happy about it.
As echoed above, I have so many questions about the casting of Michael McKean. McKean admits in the LFNY book he was brought on specifically to assume Hartman’s ‘utility’ role. I guess I get it on paper, but still…why specifically McKean? Was he recommended? Did they audition or consider anyone else for such an important role? And just why was McKean so bafflingly mediocre on the show? He’s clearly talented, I mean he’s Michael McKean! Squiggy! Spinal Tap! Guy’s legacy speaks for itself. Just so odd to me.
That said, his Elvis Costello is scarily accurate, probably the best impression of that whole cold opening (Myers is awful, and there’s something cringe-y about Silverman’s Cher).
Scratch that second paragraph, that’s the next episode.
McKean having just co-starred in the Coneheads movie might’ve been when Lorne first thought of him and I think might’ve been when Lorne first offered it to him. I assume he knew Hartman was jumping ship soon as was worried about losing a guy like that in the cast in a cast of mostly younger guys. Obviously nobody was buying guys like Sandler and Spade in those political figure or dad roles.