Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda & friend (host) have tickets to see Barbra in concert
— The final gasp of Season 19’s extreme oversaturation of Coffee Talk sketches.
— How many times in these Coffee Talk sketches are we supposed to be surprised at an announcement that Linda Richman got tickets to see Barbra in concert, as if that didn’t already happen before?
— Heather Locklear looks almost unrecognizable in that get-up, and is surprisingly pulling off this role well.
— I did at least get a laugh from Richman angrily referring to a caller as a “Nazi pig”.
STARS: *½
MONOLOGUE
host & PHH, KEN, CHF, Canteen Boy, Jay Leno [real] talk soap opera-style
— A predictable premise for a monologue spoofing Melrose Place, but there could be potential here.
— I like the rivalry being portrayed between Phil and Kevin.
— A big laugh from Heather suddenly slapping Melanie after kindly greeting her.
— Heather seems awfully fixated on those cue cards.
— Random Jay Leno cameo. At least I got to hear Heather call him an idiot, which was satisfying.
— Heather’s dramatic Melrose Place-esqe encounters with various performers, while kinda fun, are starting to get a little old.
— Random Canteen Boy appearance, showing up for the first time since his infamous encounter with Alec Baldwin’s scoutmaster.
— According to GettyImages, Julia had a part cut out of this monologue after dress rehearsal (pic here). I wonder if she played the part that Melanie ended up doing in the live version.
STARS: **½
EYCH
the hairball remover cats ask for by name
— A huge laugh from Ellen’s cat initially going “eych”.
— Hilarious visual of the cats “singing” the jingle, which really makes this commercial.
— The monkey ending almost feels like a precursor to the Bathroom Monkey fake ad that’s coming up early in the following season.
STARS: ****½
MELROSE PLACE
Wayne dreams that he’s with Amanda (host) in Melrose Place
— The audience initially seems confused as to why SNL is even attempting a Wayne Campbell sketch without Garth. I’m with you, audience.
— Do we really need two Melrose Place parodies so close to each other tonight?
— Wayne is just recycling a whole bunch of old jokes from earlier Wayne’s World sketches (e.g. “Here’s a quarter, buy a clue”, “She’d give a dog a bone”, comparing Vagina dentata to the title of a Police album, etc.), giving this Garth-less Wayne sketch even more of a sad, lazy feel.
— Okay, Wayne finally got a laugh out of me, with his “I seem to be allergic to emasculation” bit.
— The cast’s impressions of Melrose Place characters are going right over my head, as I’m not familiar enough with the show. Chris’ impression made me laugh, though.
— The running gag of Heather entering in different outfits and Wayne addressing it before saying “Never mind” is falling completely flat.
— Again tonight, Heather is fixated on the cue cards. Her delivery of some of her lines is AWFUL.
STARS: **
HOT BUTTON
Clarence Thomas (TIM) & Ted Kennedy (PHH) sexually harass
— Technically, this is the only actual sketch Phil ends up appearing in all night. I know they’ve been phasing Phil out this season, but how the hell do you use someone like him in only one sketch in his final episode?
— A one-note premise that’s already starting to get a little tired only a minute-and-a-half into the sketch.
— Okay, this has now been getting a little better, especially with the reveal of Phil’s Ted Kennedy posing as a caller.
— I love the running gag with Tim’s Clarence Thomas equating everything to porn titles.
— Kinda surprised by how short this overall sketch was.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Throb”
WEEKEND UPDATE
while giving a Whitewater editorial, homophobic NOM tells KEN to back off
ADS plays guitar & sings about his inappropriate “Summer Love” targets
— Here comes the final Kevin Nealon-anchored Weekend Update.
— Pretty tepid jokes from Kevin so far tonight, and the audience apparently agrees with me.
— Interesting how Norm is doing a commentary in Kevin’s final Update, considering who ends up taking over Kevin’s spot at the Update desk the following season. This is a nice unintentional passing of the torch.
— Norm doing a “homophobic perspective” is a funny meta, tongue-in-cheek spoof of Norm’s real-life views, though considering this is his first season, I’m assuming audiences at the time wouldn’t have gotten the meta-ness of this commentary.
— Noteworthy that Norm says to Kevin at one point “Go over some of your fake news and I’ll finish up here”, as Norm would famously introduce a lot of his own future Weekend Updates with “And now, the fake news”.
— Kevin’s jokes have been getting better, and I loved his random “Lord and Taylor” bit.
— Surprisingly, this is Adam’s first Update guitar song as himself this season.
— The mother reveal in Adam’s song is pretty funny.
— Ehh, the humor in Adam’s song is now dying off, and is paling badly in comparison to his previous Update songs as himself.
— During Adam’s song, we get a brief cutaway to Tim in the studio audience as his character from the Captain Jim & Pedro sketches, singing the words “Summer Love” while giving a thumbs-up. All I have to say about that is, SNL has really been trying to push these Captain Jim and Pedro sketches in the homestretch of this season.
— And thus ends Kevin’s final Weekend Update. I’m not clear on what the story is behind his departure from the Update desk. For years, I had always heard that he stepped down from Update voluntarily, because he felt Update was holding him back from appearing in more sketches (which is even sadder in hindsight, considering he would end up appearing in a significantly LESS amount of sketches the following season). But in more recent years, I’ve heard that he was actually fired from Update. Does anyone know the real story?
— According to GettyImages, this episode had a cut Chris Farley Weekend Update commentary that would later resurface as a bonus feature on his “Best Of” DVD, in which he plays a cigarette-smoking character named Jerry Sozio, who tells a rambling story that mostly just consists of him repeatedly going “So I says to the guy, I says, I says, I says…” (pic here), which would be reworked in the upcoming season 20 as a Point/Counterpoint Weekend Update commentary.
— Kevin’s overall tenure as a Weekend Update anchor was a letdown from how I had remembered it being in past viewings. Before doing these reviews, I had considered Kevin a not-great-but-still-fine Update anchor, I had really appreciated the Chevy Chase style he tried to bring back to the desk, and I had never really understood the criticisms many people seem to have of him as an anchorperson. But when covering his Updates in this SNL project, I’ve become quite disillusioned on his Update tenure. I was fine with his Updates for most of his first season, but towards the end of that season, I started feeling his Updates took on a disappointing blandly average quality, which is where it would stay for the following season 18, before getting even worse in season 19, where he seemed to really struggle at times and the studio audiences seemed to be over him. I’ve now come to fully understand the criticisms people have of him, even if I’m still not as down on his Update tenure as those people are. After getting through this pretty rough season of Update, all I have to say is, I welcome the upcoming new Update anchor with open arms, especially since he’s always been tied with Dennis Miller as my personal favorite Update anchor of all time.
STARS: ***
ACROSS THE BAR
in a bar, (KEN) tries to match (host)’s silent nontraditional flirtations
— I love Kevin’s dopey smile when Heather starts flirting with him.
— Very catchy 90s background music, and it’s adding a great touch to this sketch.
— A huge laugh from Heather randomly pulling her nose up and snorting.
— I love Kevin imitating everything Heather does, especially when does the same drawing of himself that Heather just did.
— Ha, I love the fact that Kevin kisses Norm on the lips, considering this is coming right after a Weekend Update in which Norm kept adamantly accusing Kevin of being gay and having the hots for him. Now THIS is a passing of the torch.
— Hilarious how after Heather’s bra-removal trick, Kevin just sits there frozen and stumped, not knowing how he can imitate that, then he just grabs Norm and kisses him once again. Norm noticeably starts cracking up this time.
— Great turn with the drinking of poison.
— Overall, a masterpiece. Why, oh, why couldn’t tonight be Kevin’s final episode? This sketch would’ve been a fantastic way to conclude his SNL tenure.
STARS: *****
60 MINUTES
Andy Rooney (NOM) reads addresses off letters he’s received
— Our third of season 19’s trilogy of solo Norm sketches with him impersonating a famous figure.
— Yet another solid celebrity impression from Norm.
— I love the brave anti-comedy of this, with Norm just slowly showing a long string of envelopes and saying where each is from, all the while the audience reacts almost uncomfortably. I recall seeing an old SNL newsgroup post from 1994 in which someone compared this sketch to the famous Sideshow Bob rake scene in The Simpsons, in that it’s funny at first, then stops being funny for a while when it keeps going on and on, then becomes funny again because it keeps going on and on. There’s also a very Andy Kaufman-esque quality to this sketch, and as someone who considers Andy Kaufman one of my comedy idols, it’s no wonder I love this sketch so much.
— Good ending with Norm’s Rooney detailing how he always sets fire to letters he receives and dumps it out of a window.
— A perfect sketch in my eyes, and it symbolizes so much of what I love about Norm’s divisive sense of humor.
STARS: *****
AMAZING TIME SAVERS
bigoted (host) sells pasta makers to home shoppers
— The name of Mike’s character, Richard Hayden, is also the name of David Spade’s character in the movie Tommy Boy, which I believe was filming at this time.
— Speaking of Mike’s name being Richard Hayden, Heather oddly called him “John” just now, for some reason. Cue card error?
— Hilarious turn with Heather’s character, as part of an analogy, casually mentioning the Holocaust being a lie, and then acting nonchalant about that statement while many phones ring off the hook.
— Very funny how Heather’s character keeps downplaying the Holocaust statement during calls she takes, and keeps trying to tie it back into the Pasta Maker machine.
— More laughs from Heather’s character now casually making racist comments about minorities.
— Heather’s performance in this sketch is fantastic.
— David playing a stoned caller discussing the different ways “rural” can be pronounced reminds me of a scene he would later do in the movie Black Sheep where he involuntarily gets stoned and finds various ways that “roads” can be pronounced. I believe both this sketch and Black Sheep are written by Fred Wolf, but I’m not sure.
— I love Mike’s very uncomfortable reactions throughout this. When something similar would later happen to him in real life in a certain Hurricane Katrina benefit incident with Kanye West, I bet Mike wished he had a table to hide under like he did in this sketch.
— A great touch at the end with a whole bunch of phones being heard ringing immediately after the un-PC ending disclaimer.
STARS: *****
L’HOMME D’ORGASME
Orgasm Guy visits his French cousin (Rafael Fuchs)
— I liked Rob’s tongue-in-cheek mention of Orgasm Guy being his most famous character.
— Who the heck is this Rob Schneider lookalike playing French Orgasm Guy? Odd how they’re letting a completely unknown person star in a sketch.
— A minute into this French scene, and Norm’s half-assed French accent has been the only laugh so far.
— Yeah, this sketch is falling terribly flat, especially when compared to the great first Orgasm Guy sketch.
— Overall, the only thing this sketch really succeeded in was breaking the streak of perfect post-Weekend Update sketches. Gee, thanks for that. If this was intended as Rob’s swan song, oof.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Any Time, Any Place”
SO LONG, FAREWELL
cast & recurring characters sing “So Long, Farewell” to end the season
— I absolutely LOVE this idea. An extremely fun and fitting way to close a season, and a very sweet idea for a sendoff for such an invaluable and irreplaceable cast member like Phil Hartman.
— David’s only two appearances of the whole night have been in drag.
— Interesting how the featured players are singing about their lack of airtime, which doesn’t really make sense in Norm’s case, especially given how much he dominated tonight’s episode.
— Speaking of Norm, you can tell by the awkward smile on his face that he feels silly about participating in this musical piece. The following season, he’s completely absent from the big Grease number in the John Travolta episode’s goodnights, so I’m guessing he had an aversion to doing musical pieces.
— I love that Richmeister and Pat sang the lyric “We skipped this year, and that’s why it was bad”. Nice way of acknowledging both the year-long absence of those two characters and the lack of quality of this season.
— Michael’s (in his ONLY appearance of the whole night) Laverne and Shirley bit is great.
— Ah, now Matt Foley is the only person remaining onstage, as the song slows down.
— When Phil says “I can’t think of a more dignified way… to end my 8 years on this program”, his voice is trembling in a way you can tell he’s holding back tears. I’m starting to feel emotional right now.
— And now I’m feeling even more emotional as we see the now-legendary visual of Phil singing goodbye to the slowly-zooming-away overhead camera as Matt Foley falls asleep in his arms. That’s something that, while probably touching even when it originally aired, would later take on a VERY touching, emotional meaning in retrospect after the untimely deaths of both Phil and Chris mere months apart.
STARS: *****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A bit of an oddly structured season finale, in that the first half was shaky and iffy, but the second half was amazing. There were no less than FOUR sketches in the second half of this episode that got a five-star rating. Very, very impressive, and it more than makes up for the shaky first half. Not a bad way to end a season. Heather Locklear was a wildly inconsistent host, coming off terrible in some pieces (mainly the Wayne Campbell sketch), pretty good in one (Coffee Talk), and perfect in two (Across The Bar, Amazing Time Savers). She was also strangely absent from most of the post-Weekend Update half of the show, but considering her inconsistency and the fact that most of the post-Update half was on an absolute roll, that’s probably a good thing.
— This would end up being the final episode for Phil Hartman, of course, as well as Rob Schneider, Julia Sweeney, Melanie Hutsell, and Sarah Silverman, making this the largest number of cast departures in years. As for the legendary Phil Hartman, a.k.a. “The Glue”, just…. what is there to say? There are no words I can come up with that I feel can do justice to his greatness and importance to SNL, a greatness and importance that, in my opinion, has yet to be matched since then, and possibly never will. I just want to add that back when I first started this SNL project, Phil was one of the cast members who’s tenure I was most excited to cover, and now that I’ve completed it, I feel very honored. Rob Schneider, I’ve always felt had an underrated tenure, and I still feel that way, especially when covering season 18, which was a fantastic year for him. Unfortunately, his tenure didn’t end on the best note, as he took a step down his final season and became more hit-and-miss than usual. Julia Sweeney was a cast member who I’ve always felt was on the show at the wrong time. During these early 90s seasons, she struggled more and more as her tenure progressed and the Boys Club atmosphere of the show increased, culminating in a terrible final season in which her airtime was basically reduced to that of a typical featured player. If she were on during a better era for female cast members, I have no doubt she would’ve had a successful run and could’ve produced more recurring characters than just Pat. While I highly doubt she would’ve been a breakout star performer, she most likely would’ve been a solid Ana Gasteyer-type utility female. As I mentioned several times in earlier reviews, Melanie Hutsell is a performer I had always had disdain for in the past, but came into her tenure with an open mind during this SNL project. That ended up working to an extent, as I found myself being a lot less annoyed by her and starting to appreciate some of her comical supporting performances. I even developed an immunity to her mugging tendencies. However, I still don’t find her anything particularly great, and the sketches she starred in were usually more miss than hit. Sarah Silverman, I have almost nothing to say about, because she did next to nothing during her one-season tenure. Knowing what a big star she’d go on to become later in her career, her underusage on SNL feels like a huge missed opportunity on the show’s part, but I also wonder if Sarah’s young age at the time played a big part in that. Maybe she was just too green for the show back then.
— Season 19 as a whole was certainly a disappointing one, especially coming after the amazing long run of successful seasons from 1986-1993. The first half of this season, while still a big step down from what came before, actually wasn’t TOO bad, aside from the very rough Christian Slater episode. We even got a string of episodes ranging from okay to great in November and December. But as soon as the second half of the season arrived, the troubles for this season kicked into full gear. A lot of episodes were rough, certain sketches started having a low-energy feel and dead atmosphere, and strong episodes were much fewer and farther in between. Many unfortunate characteristics from the doomed upcoming season 20 also started arising during the last few months of this season. Even though I came into this season being prepared for all of those things, I wasn’t expecting to be depressed by the string of bad episodes from around February and March. I’m guessing the reason it was depressing to me this time, unlike in my previous viewings of this season, is because, due to the nature of this SNL project, I was now watching this season in the context of SNL’s entire timeline up to this point. I guess reviewing this season after having just reviewed the high-quality 1986-1993 years made the decline in the second half of this season harder to take. One consistently strong asset to this season was new featured player Norm Macdonald, who’s distinctive style was a welcome new addition to the show and he would often be the biggest or sole highlight of a sketch, especially during the particularly rough second half of the season.
— As a bonus, here’s a famous EW article from towards the end of this season, giving suggestions of how to fix SNL for season 20. I’m sure a lot of you have already read this article before, but I figured it would be a bit of a different experience to read it now, as we’re currently in the context of this period of the show.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a step up
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 OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1992-93)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
The notorious season 20 begins, the last of the three most infamous seasons in SNL history. Steve Martin hosts the premiere, and we get a few new cast members, as well as a new Weekend Update anchor.
Oh great. One day until “Nutriffic”. XD
It’s weird that Locklear seemingly did better in the more “character” type stuff (Coffee Talk, playing the racist nut in the infomercial sketch) than in what should have been an easy part (her Melrose Place character).
For my money, Phil was the greatest “glue” guy during the greatest era of the show (with apologies to Dan Aykroyd). The sign of a great glue guy is that you can get great laughs out of simple, straight dialogue (without like sabotaging the material).
The Melrose Place sketch is awful, and doesn’t really give her anything to do beyond vamp a few repeat lines for Myers to react to. This sketch is an example of how much SNL had lost touch with pop culture by 1994 – the Real World sketch from early in the season is another example. They did nothing to capture the style or voice of Melrose, instead just going on what seems like somebody reading the plotlines and putting them into a script. I think I probably get most annoyed by Mohr’s take on Matt Fielding, a character who was routinely criticized at the time for being extremely generic and “straight-acting,” yet here is played as the cheapest stereotype they could find. I also felt like the structure of the later sketches, where she was mostly sitting/standing in place, made her more comfortable in being able to read the cards.
There’s something sad, and yet very typical of the insecurities of comedians, that Phil’s longstanding regret at SNL was never hitting it big with a recurring character, as he was so wonderful at so many aspects of the show even without an easy hook. He had enough strong character pieces and and impressions that I sometimes lean toward praising other utility players who were not as fortunate (like Chris Parnell or, to a lesser degree, Jason Sudeikis), but Phil was there at the best time in the show’s history, and he was one of the biggest reasons it was the best time in the show’s history.
Yes, Fred Wolf wrote Black Sheep and the “Time Savers” sketch. He also wrote the final draft of
Tommy Boy
Norm wrote the cut “Jerry Sozio” bit for Farley
Do you sell any of these uncut episodes?
I actually got a kick out of the Wayne segment, though I’m ashamed to admit it.
Iirc the crowd is very lively for the .Wayne sketch. Especially for Sandler’s character and the reveal of Spade in drag
Phil probably was the best cast member the show ever had and will ever have. That sendoff they gave him is really fantastic, probably the best one they’ve done for a cast member. From the very first second of the Steve Martin episode next season, you can really feel his absence, unfortunately.
I can’t wait to read your reviews of this upcoming season, especially when you reach the Sarah Jessica Parker episode…big oof.
Got upset reading this review at the end great reviews btw still miss Phil to this day a great talent taken from us too soon.
Well here we are, Season 20. In all honesty I think Season 6 is worse but I’m most certainly in the minority there.
I would go:
Season 11
Season 20
Season 6
Good luck Stooge! Ahh the SJP, Foreman, Sanders, Reiser episodes. You are a brave man!
While Season 11 has its noble failures, and I could probably cobble together a reasonable 12-sketch best of from it, I’d be hard-pressed to think of any truly outstanding sketches from that season. By my count, season 20 has three sketches that I would consider five star worthy.
I would agree that the best of S20 is better than the best of S10, but I think S10 is more consistently okay. It’s hard to compare the two–S10 is the first season for all of these cast members, many of whom are green as grass, while S20 is perhaps many cast members overextending their welcome. I suppose that leads to different perceptions–I found when watching a lot of the Comedy Central repeats, I was pleasantly surprised by S10 and annoyed/bored by S20, but again that’s just perception.
From season 20 I would have following as 5 stars:
QT’s Welcome Back Kotter from Travolta
Japanese Game Show from Baldwin
Pepper Boy from Carvey
You’ve got two of my three. I love Pepper Boy, but my third is one of those great lost sketches.
Why am I being coy? It’s the Penis Measuring Device sketch.
I will not remember most of them until I rewatch the season, but there are at least 3 I’d put near or at 5 stars:
– the school dance sketch with Sandler, Meadows, and Marisa Tomei
– Stop That! with John Turturro, Chris Elliott and Kevin Nealon
– Bob Newhart as the sports commentator who struggled with depression
Season 30 is a bad season too.
A few years ago, someone on twitter posted a clip of a lesser known Norm skit (I believe it was the Bible Challenge one – a classic) and I commented that the 60 Minutes piece is one of my favourites. Norm, to my amazement, responded and said it was one of his too. So I responded back:
“ @normmacdonald I felt it was a good combo of you being an underrated impressionist and fearless in the face of an unresponsive audience”
To which he responded:
“It was pure fun, a vacuum of bliss.”
True story. Anyways, I think this might be the strongest back half of a show of all time.
Nice anecdote about crazy Norm… And last time I checked, he was actually following this account on Twitter which I thought was pretty cool
I know this episode officially ends the show’s second golden age, but I think everyone is being too hard on the second half of this season. No question it was weaker than the seven-and-a-half years before, but it seems to be more a case of unevenness. Just look at this episode, for example: several 5-star sketches interwoven with the Melrose Place BS. I think this proves what a lot of us were saying in the discussion on the John Goodman episode: SNL spent this season shifting its target audience younger. Why else make such an extended bit around a show that much of America didn’t care about? (And it’s mostly forgotten today, to boot… SNL usually has a better track record of knowing which pop culture parodies will stand the test of time).
Anyhow, season 19 was still better than season 20… and even season 11, as well as a lot of the blah, endless-Lewinskygate shows of the late 90s. I would even put season 19 above some of the garbage of the mid-2000s — those seasons deserve to be right down there with years 6, 11 and 20.
Looking at the sketches in this particular episode, I wish they had somehow combined the monologue and MP parody, with Wayne just a “special guest star” within the larger sketch.
I always wondered why Leno was even there. More NBC meddling and insisting he be part of the “late night family” to make him look hipper?
Did Kevin know at this time that it was his last WU? And did Norm know he would be taking over? I’ve seen differing accounts of whether the decision was made during the season, or after. And isn’t this when Al Franken (and also Marc Maron) both tried out? I know Norm often gets the nod as the best anchor alongside Dennis Miller, but I give Norm the edge since he redefined the segment and did fewer topical jokes. Show a Dennis WU to someone today, and they’ll be hard-pressed to remember Tip O’Neill. But show one of Norm’s, and 95% of the jokes and references are still funny. Even OJ, which everyone remembers.
The version of “Across the Bar” that’s on NBC.com sounds like it MIGHT have the music replaced. Just based on the weird audio quality. Does anyone know? I remember watching this live and for some reason thinking — as Kevin pulled his label off — it was going to just come off, revealing that it was the only label on the bottle.
60 Minutes is a masterpiece and I swear if you listen closely, you can hear a single person laughing, who sounds like they’re backstage (as opposed to in the audience). Spade?
My reactions to “So Long, Farewell” were the same as yours — I loved it, and it’s poignant — BUT doesn’t it seem under-rehearsed? Watch Kevin — he seems very nervous that he’s going to mess up. Tim and Ellen both sound like they’re being very deliberate in their phrasing. Melanie is barely understandable. Spade seems annoyed. I do love Norm’s clearly disinterested half-run off-stage. (Reminds me of the clip of David Letterman on the “Mary” variety show, clearly embarrassed to sing “With a Little Luck” in a big production number.) I still love the sketch, but it reminds of something else you’ve pointed out this season, Stooge: there’s been a lot of weird dead air incidents, missed cues, strange camerawork; perhaps Dave Wilson was getting less interested in the show at this time? I know he has only one season left, so it will be interesting to see if this issue gets worse.
Speaking of which — the first episode of season 5 had a definite “off” feel with the absences of Dan and John, and the addition of a bunch of new faces. The first show of season 20 has a similar “off” feel for me, and for the same reasons — just sub Phil for Dan/John. (And both shows have the same host!).
Leno hosted a week of Tonight Shows from 8H the following week, so his appearance was likely to promote that.
NBC reran this episode on New Year’s Eve (12/31/94) – the bar sketch was moved to right after the first commercial break, with Wayne’s World moved to the post-Update position.
It could never air today, but Norm’s Update bit is hilarious!
I’ve always loved this episode. Across the Bar, 60 Minutes, and Amazing Time Savers is easily one of my favorite back to back to back sketch combos of all time. Such a great way to end a pretty lackluster season.
And to think that, oof, the next episode is that terrible Steve Martin premiere. I just remember being stunned how bad that episode was the night that it aired. And a Steve Martin hosted episode, too. How the mighty eventually fall.
Well, now you’ve done it. You’ve reached the Chris Elliott year. Hope you’re ready for it. In the immortal words of the little boy from Three Amigos. “Can I have your watch when you are dead?”
PS Thank god for Norm. His contributions to next season make him one of the most valuable cast members of all time, IMO. I mean, you think next season is bad. Now imagine it WITHOUT Norm on Update. Imagine it if Nealon had continued for one more year. My god.
So true — Norm was one of the few bright spots on the show for quite some time.
I do think Chris Elliott — who was amazing on Letterman and Get a Life — had his moments, even if he didn’t gel with the SNL machine. Same situation as Harry Shearer, Julie Louis-Dreyfus, Sarah Silverman and even Michael McKean. And most of the season 11 cast. But back to Elliott — the Denver airport sketch is one of my favorites of all time (and somehow not online!).
I think Chris Elliott’s run gets much better in the back half when he clearly stops caring. Of the first half I enjoy the election concession speech cold open – one of the very, very, very few positive moments of that episode.
The Wayne character predates Wayne’s World, debuting on Citytv’s City Limits around 1983-84, and appearing on CBC 1987 summer series It’s Only Rock & Roll. Myers CAN make the character work without Dana Carvey, but at this point in Myers’ SNL tenure, he leans on his recurring characters to diminishing returns. I still find that preferable to 1994-95’s tic of Myers filling the occasional Asian role, and generally marking time before he leaves SNL. The string of Coffee Talk sketches don’t even run out until October.
I’m surprised this season finale is as strong as it is. I still remember lines like the Amazing Time Savers sketch clearly, and Hartman deserves his grand sendoff. With Locklear, she might checked out at the obligatory “soap opera” sketches, as she’d been doing them regularly since the mid-1980s and wouldn’t fully break out of that mold until Spin City. I understand why this episode leans on Melrose Place, yet it’s too obvious and I can see why she’s more into playing other characters.
*lines FROM; doing SOAP OPERAS regularly
That Entertainment Weekly suggestions list is fascinating in light of what would happen soon after, a bit later and from our vantage point of 25 years later.
Jumping out at me …
— The idea of Spade as the new Update anchor; less because I like this idea and more because it was so obvious Nealon wasn’t working out
— Having a new commercial parody with each episode; this season did seem to have a lot of repeats
— Book hipper musical guests; we’re a couple seasons away from when the songs would be demoted — wasn’t there talk about phasing them out?
— Make cracking up on the air a fireable offense; yeah, that would never fly
— Sign up the brilliant cast of The Ben Stiller Show; “… it’s not too late to snag Janeane Garofalo.” BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
— Use more politicians; funny that EW already saw the humor possibilities from Bob Dole
— Hire efficient writers; some things never change.
I’m not sure how familiar the author of that EW article (Bruce Fretts, now with NYT) is/was with SNL, but some of his list was downright impossible. I have to comment…
-Give WU to David Spade: he was an amazing commentator. Making him an anchor would have either worn out the audience on his delivery, or forced him to “go straight” and be boring.
-Enforce a moratorium on SNL-based films: Lorne eventually did this, it seems. Semi-related, I still don’t understand the hate for Wayne’s World 2. It was decent.
-Produce a new TV commercial parody for every new episode/Show more short films: easier said than done! The show is a pressure cooker, and mid-90s technology wasn’t fast enough to let them do all of this every week and maintain quality. See: Gary Weis
-Book hipper musical guests: Fretts says “Quasi-alternative bands like Counting Crows and Crash Test Dummies belong on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, not SNL.” WHAT?!?!?!?!?! This is the single most ridiculous statement in the article. How were those bands — who had, or were about to have, major chart success — unhip? Also, looking at the first half of the 90s, the musical selection is an amazing mix of mainstream pop, rock legends, R&B/hip-hop and cutting-edge alternative. Far more balanced than any other era.
-Ban cue cards for cast members: can’t be done.
-Ask Adam Sandler to perform a new song every week: to maintain quality, he’d have had to ONLY do a song each week.
-Send guitarist G.E. Smith to Sinead O’Connor’s barber: Fretts said, “We’re sick of his constant, pre-commercial mane-tossing.” Who cares? What a bizarre thing to be annoyed about
-Sign up the brilliant cast of Fox’s failed Ben Stiller Show: except Janeane WAS ALREADY ON THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW at this time, and never should have left. Also, Andy Dick had two pilots: both Get Smart AND the classic NewsRadio… how does EW not know this?
-Raise the standards for new cast members: Fretts singles out Jay Mohr, which is ironic, since almost all of the OTHER new hires for seasons 19 and 20 are pretty much acknowledged as comedy legends (Sarah Silverman, Norm, Michael McKean, Janeane, Chris Elliott, Molly Shannon, Mark McKinney).
-Hire efficient writers: Fretts says, “With up to three weeks between shows, SNL‘s 17 full-timers can’t turn out quality material. David Letterman’s 12 writers deliver the goods five nights a week.” I love Letterman, so this is technically true, but Fretts forgets that Letterman’s show had the same comedy genius for a host every time. SNL doesn’t have that luxury. Dave’s show was 60 minutes, versus 90. Dave’s show needed a monologue, Top 10 list and one or possibly two comedy pieces — at least one of which was often at the desk. I’m not trying to take anything away from Letterman, but the two shows were completely different animals with vastly different requirements for the amount of material that they’d need. They also had very different production standards.
Apparently Rafael Fuchs was a New York artist who happened to look a lot like Rob Schneider at the time.
Familiarity with Melrose Place definitely helps the parody sketch, Wayne’s description of Billy and Allison along Sandler and Melanie’s performance was great. 3 stars from me.
Rob Schneider performed at my college and one of the parts of his show was you could shout out a favorite movie or SNL character of his and he would tell you an anecdote about it. I asked about Orgasm Guy and Rob told a story about going on trips to upstate NY with a writer from SNL (who wasn’t personally named) and a mutual friend who made the Orgasm Guy sound when he found something he liked at a farmer’s market or antique store.
The high points and the watchability from season 19 & 20 (cue snarky “season 20 has high points?” comment) are higher than the highs from season 29 & 30 and that’s not even that much of a hot take.
Finally, reading that EW article, it’s interesting to see what they got right (Hire Janeane Garofalo, Have Bob Dole Cameo, Give Tim Meadows more to do) and what they didn’t (No athlete hosts, moratorium on SNL movies, Quit wasting Ellen Cleghorne)
Need to re-watch this one.. never really cared for it due to Locklear, not the biggest fan of her overall. Why they picked her for the last show instead of someone to work with the cast more I don’t know.. SNL randomness I guess.
This episode’s Waynes World skit was no lie the first one I watched as a kid.. somehow it didn’t tarnish me on the series lol. The Farwell skit at the end bums me the hell out because of what happened to Phil and Chris.. I watched it on my dvd and about broke down in tears. It’s a beautiful end but so sad in hindsight for Phil.. at least he got a classy send off.
As for season 20 it’s up with 6 in terms of re-watchablity, 11’s the least re-watchable for me, I just find it very bland. 20 has it’s bad shows (SJP, Sanders, Newhart,) but it manged to be better than I expected when I got all the shows on DVD. The Clooney show is one of my all time favorite episodes. I look forward to your critiques, I may disagree with you but hey I’m excited none the less.
Locklear was supposed to host the Goodman episode and vice versa. Changes in scheduling caused SNL to flip the two.
You are dead wrong about the Newhart episode, it was great.
Looking forward to Janeane!
This is one of those episodes I had half-formed memories of for many years. One was that Kevin turned over Update to Norm and gave him a kiss on the mouth to seal the deal. That clearly did not happen, although I wish it had, as it’s one hell of a way to pass the torch. Then there was my confusion when I finally did watch the episode again earlier this year and there were moments I didn’t understand until the rewatch here – I thought Tim’s Ike was saying “I’m sorry, Kevin Nealon” because Kevin was losing WU, not realizing it was part of his act. I thought “orgasm guy” was a character made up as a past recurring bit (like the deadbeat dad character in the Murphy Brown spoof in the ’92 premiere), not realizing it was an actual recurring piece. Anyway, I enjoyed this return a bit more than you did, mainly for having the quasi-lookalike and the overly literal subtitles to add to the experience.
Someone told me this season has the most female hosts of the entire decade. While I can’t say all the women who hosted this season were worth praising (Basinger was one of the worst hosts of the season for me, right behind Patric and Lawrence, and Kerrigan was…flat), most of them added to what they were given, and allowed for an alternative to the suffocating machismo.
I can’t find the link again (I may have posted it here once a few seasons ago) but in fall 1994 Entertainment Weekly had a piece on the show’s longstanding issues regarding female cast members. Nothing new, but insightful nonetheless. Melanie and Julia were in a number of these pieces in 1994 and 1995 – I think the infamous New York Magazine piece, where Julia goes off about “the Lornettes” and Melanie says just not to let the show take away your soul (paraphrasing) stand out most. Here’s a more recent interview with Julia:
https://www.salon.com/2015/05/05/julia_sweeneys_snl_backstage_stories_you_could_just_watch_how_many_more_adam_sandler_and_david_spade_and_chris_farley_sketches_there_are_that_white_male_energy_that_i_wasnt_part_of/
In even more recent news, earlier this year Sweeney said that Lorne suggested her as Aidy Bryant’s mother on “Shrill,” so at least the circle is now complete.
I feel like any comments about the cast changes this season have probably been driven into the ground, but I do genuinely feel bad for Melanie whenever I see her this year. In the last third I actually forgot she was a cast member – more than once. Julia is probably used less than she is, but there’s still a bit of a spark, in spite of everything backstage. Melanie just feels spent and, talented as she is, I think they ran out of material for her at the end of 92-93. Sarah never really even got started, and it’s probably best to just view this season as material for her monologue 19 years later.
When I watched this era (some of it, anyway) live, I was perpetually disappointed in Kevin’s Update tenure. I thought he was stumbly, lacked personality, and just wasn’t funny. I’ve actually reassessed my opinion somewhat on rewatch – it gets pretty rough there, especially in early-to-mid parts of this season, but he’s stronger than I gave him credit for at the time, when I was still hung up on Dennis Miller. What I appreciate most about Kevin is his rapport with the correspondents, especially Adam Sandler. This is something which would not be duplicated until Seth Meyers.
Another more unheralded goodbye for this season is the blunt, at times outright brutal political commentary. The sheer amount of hog wild hatred for the Clintons (especially in the Update jokes) can sometimes take you aback, but the commitment and confidence of many of the pieces from (presumably) Jim Downey and Al Franken make this a ruthless and utterly fascinating time capsule. It’s the last hurrah, as the show was completely unable to find a proper impersonator for Bill or Hillary in 94-95 (and Farley’s Gingrich was…very Farley), and Darrell Hammond was, to me anyway, generally more focused on audience applause than the sharpness of the sketch. Phil Hartman was always more than willing to play extremely ugly character moments, which is something that has become more and more of a distant memory in the years where more focus goes on trying to get a politician to appear on the show than on writing something with an actual point of view.
The Time Wasters is a very timely sketch with the recent casting controversy. The sketch is the opposite of so-called “PC” comedy, yet it is not just the lazy dive into racism that many pieces in these years (and for many more years after this) would take. It’s also the opposite of the easy trucking into bigotry that many now see as great because it “owns the libs” or whatever. It’s a shocking and funny piece of insanity that fits 2019 just as well as it fit 1994. The sad thing is if it did air today, unlikely as that is, many people would not even know it was not meant to be taken seriously.
Anyway…goodbye, Phil. We still miss you. We always will.
Uh…John? Should we even be telling Stooge about the “recent casting controversy” right now? I mean, I know he hasn’t been keeping up with current SNL for the sake of chronological verisimilitude so I don’t know if he’s heard but…ah, what the hell. Why not?
I mean, it’s obviously not gonna affect the project or his enjoyment of it when he ends up watching season 45 and reviewing it two summers from now but uh…do you really want to break it to him or do you want me to do it?
I actually thought about bringing it up in light of Sarah Silverman’s own history with the naughty term.
I didn’t mention the person’s name as I didn’t want this place to come up in search results and lead to a troll war or what have you, but I just couldn’t help thinking how on the nose this sketch was to recent controversies. I didn’t realize about Stooge not wanting talk of recent material, so I apologize.
John, you don’t have to apologize. Casey is correct that I’ve been on hiatus from watching new episodes until I reach the current era in my SNL project, but I’m well-aware of SNL’s recent casting controversy. I still regularly check out online SNL forums to see what’s going on and to read comments/reviews of latest episodes. (As a personal note to Casey and anyone else here who used to be regulars on the Voy SNL board, it sucks that we don’t have that Voy board anymore.)
John, are you thinking of the December 1994 issue of Us Magazine, which had an article detailing the struggles of women at SNL? There’s a PDF version of it online:
https://trmoblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/snl.pdf
Farewell to Phil. I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to call him the greatest cast member in the show’s history. Phil was a comic genius. I feel like praising him like Lionel Hutz once said “I don’t use the word hero lightly, but you are the greatest hero in American history.” 🙂
The man could make the most seemingly throw-away line funny, thanks to his delivery and facial expressions. He could make “straight-man” roles hilarious. Brilliant impressionist (Clinton, Heston, Sinatra, dozens and dozens of others) and although none of his recurring characters every reached the top echelon of SNL’s characters, he had many memorable and solid ones (Frankenstein, Anal Retentive Chef, Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer), and also some underrated gems (Chick Hazard, Mace the Felon). I can’t give him enough accolades.
RIP Phil Hartman
Also farewell to Rob Schenider – his career is kind of considered a joke now (and perhaps deservedly so), but he had a solid run on SNL. This last season of his wasn’t so great for him, it’s a shame they didn’t do copy guy this last season (although it’s likely they mined all the comedy they could from him…of course that didn’t stop the show from bringing back lots of sketches this season that didn’t have staying power…Herlihy boy…*ahem*) anyway, Rob was a big part of the “Bad Boys” of SNL, and frankly I feel that Season 20 might not have been so bad if he would have stuck around.
Farewell to Julia Sweeney. I agree with you Stooge, that in a different era, Julia probably would have had a lot more success on the show, like Ana Gasteyer. She was very talented, and a solid performer, but she never really got anything going outside of Pat. As she said, she didn’t fight for her sketches, and got pushed out by the “Bad Boys” You can tell she was not happy on the show, it just really comes out in her performances. And this last season for her was pretty terrible. She was hardly in the show, and if she did appear in an episode it was usually just in a bit part or something. Not a good final year for her.
Melanie Hutsell…ooh boy…she had a rough final year as well. Although I feel she did really well in both Melrose Place sketches this episode. Her schtick was a little too much for me, and the roles she could play were limited. I’m not too sorry to see her leave.
And as for Sarah Silverman, I knew she was little-used this year, but I didn’t realize just how infrequent it was until going through your reviews this season. She was hardly in anything. I’m surprised she was credited as a featured player (Lorne wanted to have more women in the official cast?…I don’t know). She had little to no impact on the show, I feel kind of sorry for her, but of course she would go on to have a very successful career.
As for this episode, it’s pretty good. But Wayne’s World in Melrose Place was incredibly unnecessary after that Monologue, which pretty much took care of business for lampooning Melrose Place. Why did they do this? Oh well, the rest of the episode is great.
In defense of Hutsell’s season, she had the Blossom sketch, which may not be widely beloved, but definitely worked for me.
I seem to remember the John Goodman show from season 20 not being too bad. And the Stuart Smalley rant about the failure of Stuart Saves His Family. And the Film Beat sketch in the Jeff Daniels show. And the piece that Jay Mohr plagiarized. (Just threw that last one in to see if you were still paying attention.)
True story, I think the Season 20 John Goodman episode might be the best John Goodman episode. Tough to say, his run from 95-98 is very good.
Goodman’s season 20 is a decent one, although I prefer to see it as Dan Aykroyd hosting and John being a guest star.
In defense of Hutsell’s season, she had the Blossom sketch, which may not be widely beloved, but definitely worked for me.
Agree with others that the Melrose Place skit works if you knew the show and if you didn’t, it would come across as flat. (Heather Locklear’s character was brought in to “save” the show after the first season, which was originally meant to be more of a drama and less of a nighttime soap. And she was billed as a special guest star EVERY episode!)
I know we don’t comment about the musics guests very much, but I saw Janet Jackson in concert this weekend and she can still move like 30 years ago. Anxiously awaiting her double episode, which I think is an all-time best.
Janet Jackson is amazing. But I can’t remember much good about her 04 episode.
Maybe it hasn’t aged well! I just remember the Good Times parody and the Starkeesha sketch (and she was pretty much blacklisted and SNL were the only folks that promoted her)
That episode had the great Cork Soakers sketch.
“Great”
I recall years ago reading an interview with Hutsell talking about her time on SNL, saying a lot of her comedy has always been rooted in more Southern/Midwest humor and she tried to push a lot of her characters she’s been doing on stage based on people she grew up with in the South but producers were against it because they didn’t think it would play well to the New York crowds. I recall David Koechner also saying similar stuff in more recent on his SNL tenure, that “some of those NY folks didn’t cotton to Midwest guys like me” or something to that effect.
ABC just ran a 2-hour (1.5 w/o commercials) special about Phil Hartman last night. XFINITY has it available for streaming.
Phil was brilliant and it’s good to see him getting recognition for his work now. It would have been interesting to see where his career went if it weren’t for the tragedy he suffered. Pretty sure season 20 would have been more watchable if he’d stayed at SNL, because he’s one of those actors who can elevate the material. But of course by this point he’d done more than enough for the show.
Julia is an interesting case. I see a lot of parallels between her and Jane Curtin, but unfortunately the show didn’t utilize her talents as well as they used Jane’s. I would have liked to have seen Julia on Weekend Update (I can’t recall even a guest spot for her there), where I think her strong monologue skills could have really stood out. She could have done very well as a co-anchor with Kevin in my opinion. She’s an amazing storyteller and solo performer, just the show and maybe even Julia herself didn’t recognize those abilities yet.
Rob is one of those folks who was brilliant on SNL but hasn’t done a ton of great stuff since. That’s not a dig — show business is tough — and his stint on SNL deserves evaluation on its own merits, not colored by his opinions of post-SNL work. He was a very professional and crisp live performer, and well suited to the sketch comedy niche.
Here are the five star sketches from 93-94:
Crystal Gravy (Shannon Doherty)
Of Mice and Men (John Malkovich)
Planet of the Apes (Charlton Heston)
Bag Boy (Charlton Heston)
Lunchlady Land (Sara Gilbert)
Sexy Cakes (Patrick Stewart)
Total Bastard Airlines (Helen Hunt)
Across the Bar (Heather Locklear)
60 Minutes (Heather Locklear)
Amazing Time Savers (Heather Locklear)
So Long, Farewell (Heather Locklear)
11 sketches thanks to a strong last episode push. That’s half of the previous season, but more than every season from 1978 to 1988. Interesting. I’ve got Charles Kuralt, the Gap Girls and Stories of the Arkansas Highway Patrol in the five star slot too. Like has been discussed a lot here, the bad habits were getting worse, but this cast still knows how to kill.
Pretty good…but I think this season is a little skewed from Stooge’s generous rankings for the final episode. To me the only 5-star sketch from this episode is “Across the Bar.” But anyway, good list. I was waiting for this Carson. Thank you! 🙂
You’re probably way too busy but it might be fun to go through and note the 1-star (or 1 and a half star) sketches from each season as well. 🙂 kidding…(but not really)
I think you should go a lot easier on Heather as far as the Melrose Place sketch. She told David Letterman two nights later on May 16, 1994 that the guy holding the cue cards dropped them during a lengthy monologue she was supposed to give. He picked them up in the wrong order and cut out the majority of it. That would have made anyone panic. Plus they had her running on and off stage and changing outfits very quickly, which must have been pretty stressful. I think that should be taken into account when judging her performance.
I think Kevin deserves a bit of a pass about his WU flubs. I didn’t realize it until reading this blog, but the man had a full workload in the sketches during his time as Update anchor. I’d always assumed he was just an occasional sketch player, but no, he continued routinely appearing in 3 or 4 (or more) sketches per night, PLUS doing the Update newscast by himself. I don’t think many have had that full of a plate on SNL besides Chevy and maybe Eddie for a while, but Kevin had to do this for three years! Chevy got burned out after just one.
Not sure this Coffee Talk deserves 1.5 stars especially with Locklear’s good performance. To me, Coffee Talk is usually no better or worse than 3 stars. Is it samey and overused? Of course, but it’s always solidly performed by Mike and very watchable in my opinion. Seldom laugh out loud funny but not every sketch needs to (or should) be that way on SNL.
Here are the average ratings for Season 19:
*may not represent review’s perception*
1901: 6.0 (Charles Barkley)
1902: 6.7 (Shannen Doherty)
1903: 6.4 (Jeff Goldblum)
1904: 7.5 (John Malkovich)
1905: 4.8 (Christian Slater)
1906: 6.5 (Rosie O’Donnell)
1907: 6.3 (Nicole Kidman)
1908: 6.8 (Charlton Heston)
1909: 6.5 (Sally Field)
1910: 5.0 (Jason Patric)
1911: 5.1 (Sara Gilbert)
1912: 7.5 (Patrick Stewart)
1913: 5.3 (Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger)
1914: 5.7 (Martin Lawrence)
1915: 4.5 (Nancy Kerrigan)
1916: 6.5 (Helen Hunt)
1917: 5.5 (Kelsey Grammer)
1918: 5.2 (Emilio Estevez)
1919: 6.0 (John Goodman)
1920: 6.9 (Heather Locklear)
Best Episode: 1904 (John Malkovich) + 1912 (Patrick Stewart)- 7.5 (tie)
Worst Episode: 1915 (Nancy Kerrigan)- 4.5
Season Average: 6.0
Correct me if I’m missing something, but that makes Nancy Kerrigan the worst episode since Debbie Harry.
As Phil Hartman said in Long White Beard, “ooouuuch.”
‘Cause I hadn’t looked at season 20, yet.
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:
1904: 7.5 (John Malkovich)
1912: 7.5 (Patrick Stewart)
1920: 6.9 (Heather Locklear)
1908: 6.8 (Charlton Heston)
1902: 6.7 (Shannen Doherty)
1906: 6.5 (Rosie O’Donnell)
1909: 6.5 (Sally Field)
1916: 6.5 (Helen Hunt)
1903: 6.4 (Jeff Goldblum)
1907: 6.3 (Nicole Kidman)
1901: 6.0 (Charles Barkley)
1919: 6.0 (John Goodman)
1914: 5.7 (Martin Lawrence)
1917: 5.5 (Kelsey Grammer)
1913: 5.3 (Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger)
1918: 5.2 (Emilio Estevez)
1911: 5.1 (Sara Gilbert)
1910: 5.0 (Jason Patric)
1905: 4.8 (Christian Slater)
1915: 4.5 (Nancy Kerrigan)
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:
John Malkovich
Patrick Stewart
Charlton Heston
Helen Hunt
Heather Locklear
Rosie O’Donnell
Shannen Doherty
Jeff Goldblum
Nicole Kidman
Sally Field
John Goodman
Charles Barkley
Emilio Estevez
Sara Gilbert
Kelsey Grammer
Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger
Martin Lawrence
Christian Slater
Jason Patric
Nancy Kerrigan
I never got around to doing a tally of sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars this season, as a companion piece to Carson’s list, so here they are:
Monologue (Charles Barkley)
Rock On Michael (Jeff Goldblum)
Christopher Walken’s Celebrity Psychic Friends Network (Jeff Goldblum)
The Menendez Trial (John Malkovich)
In the Line of Fire (John Malkovich)
Headgames (Sally Field)
Praying (Sally Field)
Philadelphia Action Figures (Patrick Stewart)
The Love Boat: The Next Generation (Patrick Stewart)
Hell (Patrick Stewart)
Bike Messenger (Martin Lawrence)
Lillehammer 94 (Nancy Kerrigan)
Rockers To Help Explain Whitewater (Helen Hunt)
Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt (Kelsey Grammer)
Eych (Heather Locklear)
Promo:
This a promo for a “President’s Favorite Moments” special that aired three days after this season finale. Does anyone know why this had that title? Did the show have any new material to interweave the clips together? It sounds like a set-up for Phil as Bill Clinton to introduce clips, but the commercial doesn’t show anything to explain the title.
I remember this special. It had interweaved segments of Clinton play with most the rest of the cast playing their popular recurring characters (Opera Man, Matt Foley, Pat, Hollywood Minute…) and Mike Myers played George Stephanopoulos (as a naive young man who was up past his bedtime). I found it cheesy (not incredibly fond of this season).
I recall this as the first SNL special to acknowledge Julia Louis Dreyfus as a successful SNL alumnus at the height of Seinfeld’s NBC reign and aired the Spit-take Talk Show.
Other sketches I recall from this special are Sportsbeat with Nancy Kerrigan and Norm MacDonald and Nick the Lounge Singer at a VIP airport bar (from Maureen Stapelton 1979)
That’s exactly what it was. Phil as Clinton only showed up to do a monologue and the rest were clips from over the years. The ones I remember best were Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute and Jsckie Rodgers Jr.’s $100,000 Jackpot Wad.
Ah, that makes sense. That special seems lost at this point, and I doubt it got a home video release.
YouTube does have two clips of Phil doing Clinton on Leno. One is apparently from February 5, 1988. These are great. He plays him in full party animal mode here. And the whole tone of them is burlesque, with a babe on each arm and lots of double entendres, which Phil hilariously apologizes for when the audience groans. I wonder if these two Leno clips are it or if there’s more out there to be discovered. It feels like this was something they did more than twice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlXVrhA157c
Using Getty Images, I compiled all the appearances Phil made in character on The Tonight Show that they have records of. They don’t have them all, because they had nothing for the safari-themed sketch on YouTube. It looks like even when Leno was just guest hosting The Tonight Show, he often had Phil on to play different characters. The first time Phil played Bill Clinton on The Tonight Show appears to have been in 1994 after he left SNL. After that, that’s the only character he played on The Tonight Show. He played Clinton there at least a dozen times over the next three and a half years.
June 20, 1990 (guest host Jay Leno) [as Phil Donahue]
July 5, 1990 (guest host Jay Leno) [as Donald Trump]
August 9, 1990 (guest host Jay Leno) [as Mikhail Gorbachev] “Jay Meets Gorby”
December 31, 1990 (guest host Jay Leno) [as Phil Donahue]
July 4, 1991 (guest host Jay Leno) [as Zachary Taylor]
July 30, 1991 (guest host Jay Leno) [as unnamed older character]
December 31, 1992 [as a cat]
November 16, 1994 (episode 573) [as Bill Clinton]
May 22, 1995 (episode 696) [as Bill Clinton] “Town Meeting”
December 6, 1995 (episode 820) [as Bill Clinton] “Presidential Do’s & Don’ts”
January 18, 1996 (episode 844) [as Bill Clinton] “Presidential Pyramid”
September 3, 1996 (episode 985) [as Bill Clinton] “Clinton Town Meeting II”
November 6, 1996 (episode 1025) [as Bill Clinton]
January 10, 1997 (episode 1070) [as Bill Clinton]
March 20, 1997 (episode 1114) [as Bill Clinton] “Helsinki Bedroom”
August 5, 1997 (episode 1201) [as Bill Clinton] “Presidential Hot Tub”
February 5, 1998 (episode 1314) [as Bill Clinton]
possibly April 3, 1998 for Safari-themed sketch [as Bill Clinton]
May 19, 1998 (episode unknown) [as Bill Clinton] “Clinton Commencement Speech”
It’s been a while since I read LFNY, but I recall Lorne/SNL not being thrilled that Phil was using his Clinton impression on another program. Jim Downey compared it to Disney keeping people from dressing as Mickey Mouse at business openings? Adding an extra wrinkle, I think Phil had said some stuff about SNL’s quality during Seasons 19-20 that Lorne/SNL really didn’t like. Evidently it was resolved and Phil got to keep playing Clinton.
I’ve always been confused about who owns the SNL characters. Does NBC claim them as intellectual property like they did Larry Bud Melman? I heard Lorne was mad at Julia Sweeney for signing on to do an It’s Pat movie without telling him first, and forbade her from doing the character on the show after that. But NBC must not own the character if she was able to make the movie without their involvement (it was a Disney production). And unlike the Church Lady, Pat was invented during her tenure on SNL and specifically for the show.
Yes, Phil slapped the show pretty hard in this March 1994 interview. “Less sophisticated.” “…appeals less to the intellect.” Adam Sandler’s comedy is about acting insane, it’s not his kind of comedy, and it’s time for him [Phil] to go.
https://ew.com/article/1994/03/11/merry-hartman-merry-hartman/
But if you want to read the trashing of all trashings, read this March 13, 1995 piece on SNL. “…watching the current incarnation of the show is like watching late-period Elvis—embarrassing and poignant.” And it gets worse from there, in eloquent detail at excruciating length. It’s the hit piece to end all hit pieces when it comes to SNL.
https://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/
I found another one of the Phil as Bill on Leno sketches on YouTube. At 14:34:
Jon Lovitz said in an interview that the way it works at SNL is that if you create a character before SNL, then you own the rights to that character, but if you create a character while you’re at SNL, then NBC owns the rights to that character. He even said that the reason he used his own name in the “Get to Know Me!” routine was because he figured NBC couldn’t claim the rights to the bit if he was playing “himself” rather than some huckster character.
Of course, Julia Sweeney says in LFNY that Pat was a character she originally did at the Groundlings, but Lorne Michaels says that NBC owned the rights to Pat, so he had the power to veto the It’s Pat movie if he had wanted to. So I don’t know. Maybe they changed it, or maybe there’s some other legal technicality involved.
I completely forgot that Phil’s criticism started (albeit late) during his run. That adds one more wrinkle. And yes, the New York piece never stops being a fascinating read.
Phil Hartman was to SNL what Tom Baker was to Doctor Who. Both actors stuck around way longer than they had to, and elevated the material way higher than it sometimes deserved to be.
The other night, the topic of Phil (and his passing) came up within my family the other night. I’ve always loved him, and I consider him to be in the top five the show has had. But something about talking about him out loud in the past tense hit me like a ton of bricks. I never knew him, nor was I alive the same time as he was. But that connection on both sides of the television screen transcends relation. It never really got to me until that night that someone as wonderful as he was, had his life cut short. What is extremely difficult to comprehend is that sometimes the most beautiful people in our lives can be taken instantly. Even the rare rays of sunshine we take for granted aren’t here forever.
I was 18 when Phil passed away. Farley had just died a few months earlier, and his issues were well known so it was very sad but not entirely unexpected. Phil’s death was an absolute sucker punch to the gut because it came out of nowhere. It seemed very cruel for two great talents who were so relatively young at the time to be taken away so quickly.
It was also quite a reality check — the media had always portrayed violent crime as something that strangers commit against strangers but the sad reality is it’s much more likely for people to commit violence against someone they know or even love.
My biggest takeaway from that horrible tragedy was to think really hard about whether the risk of owning a gun is worth the upside (in most situations it’s not, but unfortunately for Phil he was dealing with a stalker who had threatened him at the time so I understand why he felt the need to own one).
Just so this story is on the record here, Downey was on Carvey and Spade’s podcast last year and he talked about Norm and Kevin and update and apparently, before Norm took over, Kevin wasn’t working out with Ohlmeyer (lol) and apparently Herb Sargent, longtime SNL tech director’s cues were fucking up Kevin’s delivery. So it seems apparent that it wasn’t Kevin’s choice to go, but thank god they did push out from the Update chair, we woulda lost a year of Norm otherwise….
After a very mediocre season, I think this was maybe my favorite of the season, or at least top 3. Unlike many here, I got huge into melrose place and Beverly Hills 90210 for that matter later in hs when it aired on soapnet. As a fan of both, and also a supporter of Locklear as the host for this season finale, I think she did a great job, with the only issue being her reliance on the cue cards as mentioned earlier, mainly seen in the monologue and in the melrose place sketch which is a bit strange since her lines were pretty repetitive and not much different from the actual role she played on the show “I’m an ad executive at D & D…” she’d say that fairly often after sleeping with Jake, Billy, Peter etc..
That’s veering of topic but I guess I’m the only one that found every sketch worthy of 5 stars, the exceptions being coffee talk (strong start as Locklear was almost unrecognizable and loved how saggy they made her boobs, it was hilarious. If Locklear had stayed fully it would have been better, sick of Barbara Streisand at this point, esp since they already used that card so long ago with Madonna as a cameo, so this is getting old and thus 3.5-4 stars).
Other sketch I’d give under 5 stars is the one that everyone loves, Time Savers. I thought it ran a bit long, but thought it was funny and actually pretty relevant at the time as I look at old school talk shows during that time period with skinheads & Ferrikan saying the Holocaust never happened etc. I did find it hilarious with Myers crouching at the end, and also thought HL did an amazing job as her character. So I give it 4.5 stars.
Still I enjoyed the Melrose sketch more, with the Bar sketch being my favorite of them all. She was great in that, love the various things happening there and had no idea where it was going, loved the ending and also her smooching Farley only to have Nealon kiss McDonald Twice, esp after his homophobic rant that occurred right before on WU…
I watched this alongside my teacup poodle and when the kitten commercial came on, she woke up from her nap and was watching, I thought that was a cute commercial parody and liked seeing EC in it.
I always thought of Nealon being so bad from his first day transitioning from Miller to him on the next season, you can even see how shiny his face is in contrast to other guests that sit there (bad lighting perhaps, but definite nervous vibes for a handful of his first 6 episodes at least, maybe more). I do think he settles in eventually and thought I still long for Miller, I learn to get used to him because other talent that is new and fun comes to WU, like spades hollywood minute and Sandler as Operaman or the occasional song. I also loved anytime he did Mr, Subliminal but feel like when he did it on WU it was nothing like the sketch of him and Leslie Nielsen at a bar seasons before.
Frederick mentions that unlike other (most) anchors in the past, Nealon was doing multiple sketches along weekend update, it must have been a juggling act to do all that and in so many seasons, so I give him props for that, despite his slubbing of lines and flat delivery at times throughout his tenure on WU. So He def deserves credit.
Someone mentioned Norm in a previous episode how they liked him a lot but kind of wished he wasn’t going to be weekend update anchor, as they preferred him as remaining in sketches, and when he shifted to update, he did less and less skits, & I agree there. I find NM to be great in the sketches I’ve seen thus far, 60 minutes as Rooney was so funny, and he definitely has strong SNL presence which SNL is severely lacking.I would say I’d wish he continue doing both but to my memory I think his roles in sketches fade, and he just remains very married to WU.
I know that many like him as WU anchor and have def seen reruns of him doing it, but after just watching the first episode of season 20 I can recall why I am not the biggest fan of his, suddenly the news becomes much longer than it has been in previous seasons with any other anchors. I prefer the short and sweet news, unless guests and other things are happening, but with him it seems to drag, which loses my attention, but in quality of delivery yes, he’s better than Nealon, but Miller he is not, at least with Miller you got the infamous laugh, and a bit of warmth which McDonald lacks as he is too serious for my taste but better quality news wise than KN.
I know I raved a lot about Locklear in the MP sketch, but I also thought the cast was great in their roles, loved Farley As Jake, he actually did a spot on impression of him, as Jake was known for his infamous hair flipping, and there were even articles and at least one spread and phot shoot of the men of melrose and if they were just eye candy and dumb or if they had depth. It was pretty funny to see the gender roles change for a moment, not discounting that the ladies of melrose were stunning (Loclear, Leighton who hosts later, and Jane (forgetting her real name).
Thought Sandler’s impression of Billy was spot on and Melanie did a great job as Allison. I also loved MM saying, oh look, now the most boring couple on tv…before their dialogue.
Silverman had little to no parts which was sad as I mentioned in a previous post they could have used an attractive female to play some roles, and I don’t find any of the 3 females they had remotely attractive, and Silverman was pretty & had talent, so it was sad that she was so underused, but liked her Sydney impression as much as Spade in drag as Jane. Would have reversed Mohr as Michael and Rob Schneider as Matt, but both had little screen time.
I’ve always gotten RS mixed with the latter Chris Kattan for some reason, maybe cause they are both short guys with brown hair & typecast, but I do think he was solid and would have thrived better instead of Kattan during that period of SNL..
Wasn’t sad to see the rest to go, they served their time, was surprised MH was on as long as she was, and JS wasn’t bad, but not that memorable, maybe at best a much more mellow Cherri Otteri.
Hartmans farewell was lovely, especially with Farley alongside him.
I do think that gun or no gun, he was living with someone that was lethal and only wished he had left her.
Ever since watching these older episodes, I’ve noticed how much chemistry he had with Jan Hooks, and so much of that seemed natural and like they had a real connection. Even some of the kissing scenes looked like real full on make out sessions, but maybe I just wanted to believe that…to me it always seemed like they could have been a magical couple in real life and maybe he’d still be alive today if that happened..
I know they both spoke highly of each other and Hartmans wife was a jealous woman (I watched the ABC special on him that aired a couple years ago. It showed his ex girlfriend who wrote a holiday or baby welcoming card and how upset Brynn Hartman was she basically sent a death threat back to her, and a few months later she spoke w Hartman, and he replied, “you should have seen the original card she wrote you..” so I feel really sad that such a wonderfully talented person who brought so many smiles to faces of all ages, was taken away way too soon. In the history of SNL there was no one like Hartman, his ability to fill so many wonderful roles and ability to hardly ever break character, it was a gift. He was incredibly captivating, definitely see how he could be the glue, but don’t think him sticking for another season would have made any difference, as they really diminished his screen time this season, so I think it would have been a time waster, and he really was meant for bigger and better things. He was a trooper for staying as long as he did with this lackluster season…
All and all, I think this truly was a wonderful season finale to end on, and enjoyed it but now fear the dreaded 20th season I’ve just started watching and yikes…
25 years ago today since we lost Phil a funny and talented man who was taken from us too soon.
Eych was written by Cheryl Hardwick and Steve Koren.
Fly on the Wall podcast (Dana Carvey and David Spade) just did a tribute to Phil Hartman with guests Julia Sweeney and Kevin Nealon among others.
I listened to the whole thing. The first hour is a live panel discussion, that became kind of a mess of everyone talking at once. The 2nd video is over 3 hours, with individual, new discussions about Phil with various cast members. The Mike Myers and Jon Lovitz segments were the best ones. Alec Baldwin’s was good too. Bill Hader’s is entirely pointless and skippable. I think he’s the only one spoken to here who never actually met Phil.
I’m not sure if I learned a ton of new facts here, but one of the writers claimed that Phil never appeared on Weekend Update. I was reminded that he did appear as a weightlifter who ripped off his arms in a video screen segment, but maybe they meant appearing at the desk. There was a lot of talk about Phil being extremely relaxed, and having a million hobbies which he worked on in his office and talked about on the job more than he talked about SNL sketches. The most vivid description was of him building a miniature ship in a bottle in his office. Supposedly he felt completely secure with doing SNL, possibly because he was guaranteed to have a part in most of the sketches every week. And this was probably why he was rarely on Weekend Update. That was the only break he got during the program.
They said he would coach the hosts on how to read the cue cards subtly without revealing that they were doing it. Someone said he was offered $10 million to stay on SNL for a few more years, which he declined. They said Phil was one of the few SNL actors that was also paid as a writer at the same time that he was performing, even though a lot of the others both wrote and performed. I’m guessing that was just a backdoor way to pay Phil more and keep him happy.
There were a lot of remarks that he was great as an actor, and not just a comedian, and that he played his parts realistically and not exaggerated for comedic effect. Phil had backed this up in his own interviews when talking about how he tried to make his impressions sound exactly like the person. Alec Baldwin said he felt like he was working with a real actor when he worked with Phil.
They did confirm that Phil turned down the SNL offer at first, because he said he was happy with his life the way it was and didn’t want to be famous. But they said someone he worked with on a movie, I forget who, told him he was crazy to turn it down and convinced him to take the job. Maybe it was Jonathan Pryce from Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
A few people like Conan remarked that they never felt like they got to know the “real Phil,” and he just always seemed to be putting on a front rather than revealing his true self. Which oddly enough parallels the lyrics Phil had in the Steve Martin cold opening musical number, where Phil says he hides behind his makeup and is going to reveal his real self tonight, to which Steve tells him not to do it. Surprisingly, Carvey and Spade seemed unfamiliar with Phil’s work on The Simpsons, other than knowing that he was on it, and didn’t even recognize the name Troy McClure.
One of the later cast members, maybe Hader, confirmed that the SNL offices have a server complete with every live and dress rehearsal episode of SNL, complete with all cut sketches, which they are able to watch when they’re there.
I’ve been watching SNL in order on archives.org for the past couple of years, and got to this episode yesterday. Watching Phil say good-bye while embracing Chris Farley gave me chills…and lots of tears.
RIP Phil.
Norm would do another Andy Rooney sketch in 2005 for the Back To Norm pilot he created for Comedy Central. His impression of Rooney here is “pretty good”, his impression 11 years later is superb. IMO in the Top 3 impersonations he ever did.