Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ROCKERS TO HELP EXPLAIN WHITEWATER
Cindy Crawford [real] introduces Rockers To Help Explain Whitewater video
— We get yet another very fun “We Are the World”-esque sketch in this era.
— Interesting how, unlike this era’s other “We Are the World”-esque sketches, this one has the lyrics captioned on the bottom of the screen, I guess because of the educational factor of the song.
— As always, it’s fun to guess which singer each cast member is playing.
— Boy, Mike’s Garth Brooks impression is almost laughably bad.
— I remember when I first saw this cold opening early in my SNL fandom, during a Comedy Central rerun, I couldn’t tell that was Michael McKean playing Elvis Costello (dead-on impression, by the way), probably because I was under the common misconception that McKean was only a cast member in season 20. I assumed that was either Al Franken or Phil Hartman playing Costello, until noticing that Phil was in this as Elton John.
— David is playing Kurt Cobain in what ends up being the last live episode before Cobain’s suicide a few weeks later.
— Interesting how all of this season’s non-Al Franken featured players (Norm, Jay, and Sarah) are paired together here. And Norm looks hilarious as Flea from The Red Hot Chili Peppers, because he’s so insanely miscast in the role that it becomes funny in itself.
— I like the various singers’ rapid singing of lengthy lyrics, reaching a pinnacle during Adam-as-Axl-Rose’s unintelligibly rapid solo.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
host shows clips of her roles in Swiss Family Robinson & The Bionic Woman
— I know some people find this monologue dull, but I’ve always found this pretty cute and charming, seeing childhood clips of Helen Hunt from her early TV career.
— Some good laughs from the Bionic Woman clip of Helen explaining she’s from outer space.
— A huge laugh from the outrageous After-School Special clip of her jumping through a window after taking angel dust.
STARS: ***
TOTAL BASTARD AIRLINES
Total Bastard Airlines employees say their “buh-byes” to passengers
— A very famous sketch, and a quintessential use of David Spade’s persona.
— A great opening start with Jim Downey’s dry, blunt voice-over.
— While a one-note sketch in theory, it’s being executed perfectly.
— I love the exchange between Adam and David.
— Another part I particularly love is David’s whole run-on rant to Tim.
— Solid ending with David requesting an escort through the terminal.
STARS: *****
COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda & host discuss which Oscar nominees they like
— This overused recurring sketch makes yet ANOTHER appearance this season. At this point, I honestly lost count.
— An audio glitch when the first caller is speaking, causing her to barely be audible.
— No idea what to say about this overall installment, except I wasn’t laughing, as usual. I could’ve used Richard Simmons again to add some much-needed energy, or Charlton Heston again to add an awkward charm.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gin & Juice”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Dick Vitale (JAM) gives his March Madness-flavored Oscar predictions
Bennett Brauer lists reasons why he doesn’t belong on TV, then flies
— My god, Kevin has been having an AWFUL start in tonight’s Update. He’s been stumbling over his words left and right, even moreso than usual, and some of his jokes are being met with painful silence from the audience. (*sigh*) Only four episodes left until Norm takes over……..
— I love the clip they just showed of President Clinton saying “No!” over and over while simultaneously banging his fist on a podium repeatedly.
— Ha, the use of the aforementioned Clinton fist-banging clip has become a running gag throughout this Update.
— Jay debuts yet another strong celebrity impression. His Dick Vitale is spot-on, and this is a fun segment, with him giving his Oscar picks in a March Madness style.
— Man, Kevin’s stumbliness tonight is so bad, he ironically flubbed a joke about the Flubby Awards. You can tell he was particularly embarrassed about messing up that joke. That portion of this Update would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version.
— This is the first time we’ve seen Chris’ Bennett Brauer character all season. And what an appearance this turns out to be, as we’ll soon see…
— And there goes the absolutely classic turn in this Bennett Brauer commentary, with a blooper involving cables that are supposed to lift Chris in the air getting caught on the Update set’s lights, leaving Chris hanging only a few inches off the ground. As a giggling Kevin and a crew member enter the shot to fix the problem, Chris starts making fantastic ad-libs, such as “I have a weight problem; can’t they lift me?” in a mock-depressed manner. This is all truly hilarious, and is deservedly known as one of the most legendary SNL bloopers of all time. Stuff like this makes you really appreciate the live aspect of SNL.
— Also, thank god that blooper happened, because the gag itself of Bennett Brauer’s frequent airquote gestures causing him to fly is lame as hell.
— As if the blooper wasn’t great enough, it’s immediately followed by the very memorable image of an excited Chris successfully flying over the cheering studio audience.
— After the Bennett Brauer commentary is over, Kevin has a great line of his own about the blooper: “Maybe the cables ‘didn’t clear the lights’, ladies and gentlemen!”, using Brauer’s famous airquote gesture. That brilliant ad-lib alone redeems Kevin from his rough first half of tonight’s Update.
— Great touch at the very end of this Update, with a dummy of Bennett Brauer falling from above and crashing through the breakaway Update desk. On the right corner of the screen immediately after the dummy falls, you can see a glimpse of Chris himself sneaking under the desk before “popping up” behind the desk as if it was him who had just fallen from above. That accidental glimpse of him sneaking under the desk isn’t seen in reruns, though I’m not sure if they replace that shot with the dress rehearsal version or just enlarge the shot so we can’t see Chris sneaking under the desk.
STARS: ***
PROFILES IN COWARDICE
fraidy-cats describe their unheroic acts
— Pretty promising format. Kinds brings back memories of the Ruining It For Everyone sketch from the John Malkovich episode earlier this season.
— I’m enjoying Rob’s story of cowardice, especially him proudly recalling how Barbara Bush “spat at me” and President Bush referred to him as “garbage wrapped in skin”.
— Chris’ face is noticeably sweaty. I wonder if the famous Update blooper that had occurred minutes ago has something to do with that. Also, I’ve been noticing throughout tonight’s episode that his sideburns are longer than usual.
— I cracked up at Chris’ line “I was so G.D. terrified of that thing.”
— I loved Helen’s “I can have other daughters” line when defending her refusal to save her kidnapped daughter in Iran.
— Good part with a blurred-face witness-protected Norm, especially his very Norm-esque delivery of “Aw, geez!” after accidentally giving away where he lives.
— Speaking of Norm’s blurred face, it’s not blurred during the camera angles that show the whole group. Haha, I guess we’re supposed to ignore that? At the end, Michael McKean humorously points out this gaffe by waving his hand in front of Norm’s face. I love that.
STARS: ***½
SEXIST DIRECTOR
a director (MMK) elicits an emotional performance from (host) via sexism
— Michael McKean gets his very first showcase sketch since joining the cast a week earlier.
— A fart gag in a Michael McKean-written (I’m assuming) sketch? Really?
— Michael’s performance is committed, and he’s good at making his character an unlikeable bastard, but I’m iffy on whether this sketch is working for me or not. I’m also not sure how to feel about the intentional sexism in the premise, considering the well-documented real-life misogyny behind the scenes at SNL during both this and the following season.
— Interesting twist with it being revealed that Michael’s character making his actresses genuinely angry is how he gets great performances out of them.
— Didn’t care for the ending revealing Michael’s character being asleep. It also didn’t help that the camera accidentally gave away that reveal much earlier than it was supposed to. I can’t remember if that gaffe would later be fixed in reruns or not.
STARS: **½
THE WASHING MACHINE
a movie from the director of The Piano stars (ELC)
— I love this premise for a The Piano parody. This is also a much-needed solid showcase for Ellen.
— Tim is cracking me up as the daughter, and I’m loving the slow-motion pre-taped shots of him dancing around the beach and doing cartwheels.
— Some good laughs from the critic reviews.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lodi Dodi”
ASTOUNDING INFORMATION
(KEN) shows (host) how to use Miracle Egg Fryer
— This feels like a very Kevin Nealon-y premise.
— I’m getting some good laughs from how they’re overcomplicating the simple process of frying an egg on a frying pan. This sketch is a spot-on imitation of this type of infomercial, especially all of Kevin and Helen’s unnecessary frantic running around the set throughout the sketch.
STARS: ***½
OFFICE SPACE
by Mike Judge- storage of old boxes cramps Milton
— Nice to see this continue.
— As always, Milton’s monotone ranting to the camera is cracking me the hell up.
— Milton’s boss says “Buh-bye” before exiting, a funny coincidence in tonight’s episode.
— Overall, this was pretty solid, though I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as the first Milton cartoon from earlier this season.
STARS: ***½
ROB SCHNEIDER’S GIRLFRIEND THEATER
(KEN) & (host) prove she’s still evil
— Here’s our latest victim of season 19’s bad habit of making recurring sketches out of stuff that have no legs as a recurring sketch and clearly should’ve remained a one-off.
— Bringing this particular sketch back is especially a stretch, considering the last time this sketch appeared, Rob followed it up later that same night with a comical address towards his girlfriend, in which he apologized to her and took the sketch back. I guess we’re supposed to forget that?
— In the brief close-up of Helen saying to a side camera “He’s fallen for my trap”, she looks into the wrong camera by mistake.
— So far, tonight’s installment is working even less for me than the first one did, which is saying something.
— Hmm, a musical all of a sudden?
— The musical’s actually not too bad. I love the involvement of Jeffrey Dahmer (played very humorously by Michael McKean), as well as the dancing Nazis/Darth Vaders/devils in the background.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A refreshingly pretty solid episode, making this the first enjoyable episode in what feels like forever. The sketches tonight were mostly good, two were strong and very memorable (Total Bastard Airlines, Rockers To Help Explain Whitewater), and we got a legendary Chris Farley blooper on Weekend Update. A lot of things to like tonight overall. An episode like this is a breath of fresh air in the declining quality of this season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Nancy Kerrigan)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Kelsey Grammer
Kevin just did an interview this week where he confessed that at this point (and going into season 20) he was so checked out of the show that he would often do sketches live with food from craft services in his mouth.
Always sad to see the mighty stick around a little too long, which seems to happen to most great SNL cast members. Definitely a lot of that in the current cast.
Shayne – Yeah, there seems to be one person each year who either gradually burns out or is gracelessly faded out by the writers:
Kevin Nealon in s20,
Phil Hartman in s19,
Dana Carvey in s18,
Victoria Jackson in s17,
Dennis Miller in s16, and
Nora Dunn in s15.
Nora wasn’t burned out in S15 at all.
The Carvey one is debatable and the Dunn one is false.
Carvey was certainly watching the clock, that can’t be denied.
He did stay too long what I find weird though is when SNL talks about people who did long tenures he is never mentioned for doing a at the time 9 year run which was the longest at this point.
I learned very recently that David Spade wrote a book and it’s as funny and engaging as you would expect. Some great anecdotes about his time at SNL and working with Farley. His background growing up in AZ and becoming a comedian is also interesting. It’s pretty breezy and you can listen to it while you’re at work.
Helen Hunt does a fine job, although I kinda wish she hosted in a better season of this era.
What are your thoughts on McKean? I honestly had no idea he started in season 19. I can kind of see the intent in signing him, especially if they knew Phil was leaving–bring in a veteran performer, one who could presumably play Phil’s roles and had experience in sketch comedy.
Was the only other cast member who joined the show after already hosting Billy Crystal?
Helen also hosted the Christmas episode of S23.
Michael Cheyne, as I’ve entered McKean’s SNL tenure, I’ve been trying to keep a blank slate on my thoughts on him. In the past, I’ve always had a negative viewpoint of his SNL tenure, basically just considering him a poor man’s Hartman. Even if the “poor man’s Hartman” thing about him is true to an extent, I get the feeling I’ll now have a little more appreciation for what he brought to the show. During this SNL project, I’ve been using that “blank slate” way of thinking towards cast members who I’ve always disliked in the past. It’s been helping me appreciate some of those cast members more. Melanie Hutsell and Randy Quaid are two examples.
And yes, Billy Crystal was the only other cast member to join the cast after having already hosted.
I have to admit I rarely saw him as being similar to Hartman, even if that was a factor in his casting. I don’t think Hartman did a lot of his own writing, whereas McKean seemed to try to get concept pieces on the air. The problem for him is, even if these may have worked in another era, they didn’t at this point in time. The guitar songs. Or the misogynist sketch in this episode, which plays out to a dead audience and is a forerunner to the Robert Evans sketch in the dismal SJP episode – a sketch that just feels like a very long funeral.
Behind-the-scenes of this episode, and the cold open in particular:
Norm as Flea was probably the biggest unintentional laugh of the episode for me. I think in the Will Ferrell era it starts becoming more noticeable that he does good impressions though, as long as they’re not ridiculously miscast.
With your mention of trying to guess which 90s singers the cast was playing. All these years for some reason I thought Spade was playing the lead singer from Soul Asylum in this, no idea why. Never even occurred to me he was supposed to be Cobain, but that definitely makes more sense than Soul Asylum guy!
Spade did play Soul Asylum lead singer David Pirner in the Rock For Michael Jordan cold opening earlier in Season 19. The portrayals were both pretty similar
Ah that must be it, haha I must’ve blended the two together in my mind.
This episode kind of strengthens my theory that this period of SNL was only as good as its hosts. Decent hosts (Hunt, Stewart) mean good episodes. Trash hosts (Kerrigan, Lawrence, Patric) mean trash episodes. Middling hosts (Gilbert) result in a so-so episode. The Baldwin/Basinger one kind of splits the difference.
The one major catch in this is the finale, where the host is terrible, but the episode is quite good.
I thought Heather Locklear had her moments – she was perfect for the Holocaust denial sketch as she nailed that whole vapid-yet-insane persona, and the bar sketch with Kevin Nealon was also fun. The worst for me was all the Melrose Place material.
I think Locklear did well when a) completely silent or b) directly addressing the camera, but I think the Wayne’s World sketch is more indicative of where she was as a host.
Hiking with Kevin Nealon, this episode he goes on a hike with Helen Hunt:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oC2_RBhjq5s
Helen Hunt was very charming and affable in these years and that is seen to good effect in this episode – even when her performances aren’t the best, or she just has to sit there (like Coffee Tawk), she makes the material better with her presence. I really really like this monologue – it’s one of my favorite monologues, actually, because it so effectively uses her past career alongside her very dry delivery. Beyond that I think her highlight is the ‘buh-bye’ sketch – I actually think she’s the reason the sketch works. It sure doesn’t when they bring it back in the next season. The infomercial sketch is also good, especially the bit at the end where Nealon’s character is visibly annoyed that she is underguessing the price of his ridiculously expensive gadget.
It’s always weird seeing Sarah/Norm/Jay paired up this season since while they may have had the same label (featured players), the treatment the show gave them individually was very, very different. That Whitewater cold open is like a fever dream for Clinton haters. It’s fascinating to look back at, if not very funny.
I forgot to say that other than the overly long running time, the Piano spoof was fun. Nice to see Ellen in a starring role that was very different for her. I’m surprised they got that washing machine joke on the air.
A nice, solid episode for the back half of this season. Rockers explain Whitewater is great, and I love buh-bye Bastard Airlines. Classic sketch.
Helen Hunt makes my heart do acrobatic stunts, she’s great.
The Whitewater sketch is so hilarious. I think the lyrics are shown because some of the words are spoken fast and some are intentionally garbled, like Cobain’s. The idea of doing a We Are the World parody for Whitewater was so funny because usually they did these songs for things that resembled political causes. So doing it for this implies that explaining Whitewater to people is just as hopeless a situation as famine or riots. The fact that the refrain keeps going back to how complicated it is is the funniest part, along with the fact that their continuing explanations do almost nothing to make it any clearly even though it seems like they’re trying hard.
Fitting for this episode to have an Office Space cartoon, considering the musical guest and a Michael Bolton impression in the cold open