Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CLINTON AUDITIONS
CHF, DAS, CSE, ADS, TIM audition to replace Phil Hartman as SNL’s Clinton
— As this starts in a straightforward manner with Farley doing an actual impression of Clinton, I’m sure the audience is thinking to themselves “Wait, what? Farley is SNL’s new Clinton?!?”
— Ha, Farley quickly puts an end to the aforementioned audience thoughts by transitioning his Clinton impression into his Matt Foley shtick.
— I love the eventual reveal that we’re watching auditions for SNL’s new Clinton. Very fun.
— Nice way to introduce Chris Elliott to SNL. I like the Letterman mix-up with Elliott incorrectly addressing Dave Wilson as “Hal”, then explaining “Sorry, I’m new here.”
— Funny W.C. Fields bit from Elliott, even if the audience doesn’t seem sure what to make of it (which is a reception that Elliott will probably have to get used to during his SNL tenure).
— Farley, David, and Adam’s respective Clinton impressions just being them doing their familiar shtick is a clever way for them to poke fun at themselves for how one-note they had gotten by this point in their SNL tenures. I’d also like to think this is SNL’s way of addressing the fact that without Phil Hartman, the remaining cast is made up of too many people who are personalities instead of natural-born sketch comedy show leaders. This self-deprecation still doesn’t make up for the fact that the tired Farley/Spade/Sandler shtick and the oversaturation of personalities in the cast is going to be a huge problem this season. This cold opening, as great as it is, feels like unfortunate foreshadowing of that.
— Adam’s guitar-playing seems sloppy, for some reason.
— Even though it was stupid as hell, I admit to cracking up at Adam’s imitation of Clinton’s walk.
— Hilarious ending bit with Tim cutting off his attempt at a Clinton impression to dejectedly ask “I’m not gonna get this, am I?”
— Reruns of this episode would use the dress rehearsal version of most of this cold opening, up until Tim’s part.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— After four long seasons of the same opening montage, we FINALLY get a new one.
— The theme music has also been changed, making this the first time since way back in 1985 where new theme music was introduced.
— SNL’s 20th anniversary is commemorated in the logo in a similar style to the 15th anniversary logo from seasons 15 and 16.
— Norm Macdonald has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— The new additions to the cast tonight are repertory players Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo, and featured player Laura Kightlinger. The fact that Lorne is resorting to already-known names like Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo, in addition to the preceding season’s late addition of Michael McKean and this season’s later-to-come addition of Mark McKinney, shows that Lorne must be trying to spice up an ailing SNL by taking a page out of Dick Ebersol’s season 10 playbook.
— When newbie Laura Kightlinger’s picture comes up, Don Pardo seems confused, pausing for a bit, then starting to say “L–” before immediately cutting himself off, pausing once again for a good while, and then finally saying her name after her picture isn’t even onscreen anymore. I wonder if the reason for all of that awkwardness and hesitation is because Don wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce the unconventional last name “Kightlinger”. Years earlier, he had a similar issue when trying to pronounce new cast member Danitra Vance’s name in the first episode of season 11.
MONOLOGUE
while bombing on-stage, host steps outside himself to see what went wrong
— Funny line from Steve about how the only reason he was asked to host the premiere is because Tom Hanks and the then-new young movie star Jim Carrey passed.
— During Steve’s story about trying to get to first base with a 17-year-old girl while watching a movie, a story that you assume is from Steve’s youth, I like the reveal that the movie he and the girl were watching was the then-recently released Lion King.
— Funny and unique turn with Steve stepping outside of his own body to question what’s going wrong with his monologue.
— The whole pre-taped sequence with Steve coming up with his monologue idea and pitching it to various people at SNL is pretty fun. I like Lorne’s dryness when advising Steve on which kind of soup to go with.
STARS: ***½
HHT
brain pains can be detected with the H.H.T. home headache test
— Michael in his first of several Phil Hartman-esque commercial spokesperson roles this season.
— A pretty funny ad, overdramatizing headaches and treating the detection of them like an extensive pregnancy test.
— Michael isn’t bringing the straitlaced humor to his spokesperson role that Phil would’ve. For example, Michael’s ending line “Because what’s worse: having a bad headache, or not knowing if you have a bad headache?” was delivered so blandly straight that it got no absolutely reaction from the audience, leading to an awkward silent pause from them before applauding, whereas I know Phil would’ve delivered that same line in a more humorously straight manner that would’ve elicited some laughs.
STARS: ***
THE SIMPSON TRIAL
Court TV covers the trial of O.J. Simpson (TIM); Brian Austin Green cameo
— Our first of MANY sketches this season based on the epic O.J. Simpson trial.
— Some awfully long pauses from Laura Kightlinger before she says some of her lines.
— The bit with Tim-as-O.J.’s facial expressions alternating between grimacing and smiling, based on various things he’s hearing, started out funny but is going on too long.
— Michael-as-Robert Shapiro’s whole O.J./Rodney King analogy was worth a good laugh.
— Ha, Kato Kaelin. The audience loves the visual of David as him.
— Brian Austin Green’s absolutely pointless cameo is laughably terrible. And I love how there’s absolutely no audience reaction to him until the very end of his scene, where the audience applauds as he makes his exit.
— Something else I find laughably bad: the non-attempt to make Tim’s Al Cowlings look any different from his O.J., both of whom end up just looking exactly like Tim Meadows in different clothes. They couldn’t have been bothered to at least put a wig on either of Tim’s impressions?
— And here’s yet ANOTHER thing I find laughably bad, though this is a much more minor point: during the Tim-as-Al-Cowlings testimony, when the camera is on Michael’s Robert Shapiro, a Tim Meadows stand-in who looks NOTHING like Tim can be seen sitting where Tim had been sitting as O.J. earlier in the sketch. (the stand-in is on the lower right corner of the screencap below)
I love how they went through the pointless trouble of hiring a Tim Meadows stand-in who ends up not even being in most of the camera angles. They might as well have just had nobody occupying the O.J. seat during Tim’s Al Cowlings bit.
— Like so many things in this sketch, the whole Al Cowlings “dammit” bit is going on way too long. And why in the world do we need TWO scenes with him, both consisting of the exact same joke?
— Needless to say, this overall sketch did not work much for me. When I’m getting more laughs from unintentionally laughable bad things than from the actual intended comedy, there’s a problem. Not a promising sign for the season when the lead-off sketch turns out like THIS.
STARS: **
STEVE MARTIN’S PENIS BEAUTY CREME
host lists some of the uses of his all-natural penis beauty cream
— Very funny reveal of what the product is.
— Steve is perfect for this, and his delivery is really selling this material.
— Great line from Steve, giving directions to rub the penis cream “for several minutes up to a half-hour”.
— The visual alone of Chris Elliott in that wig is worth a good laugh.
— Elliott’s testimonial is very funny, especially his line about cans of turtle wax.
— I liked Kevin’s straitlaced delivery of the line “made especially for the johnson”.
— Yet another great line, this time about how the cream will be shipped to you in a plain brown wrapper with the words “NOT PENIS BEAUTY CREAM” stamped on it.
STARS: ****½
TOTAL BASTARD AIRLINES
Total Bastard Airlines employees demonstrate more of their rude behavior
— Oh, no, looks like season 19’s bad habit of bringing back solid one-off sketches that have no business being a recurring sketch has carried over into the beginning of this season.
— Jim Downey’s opening voice-over is just a knock-off of the one he did at the beginning of the first installment of this sketch.
— Seeing Ellen in that wig and uniform makes me think of her Zoraida character.
— This sequel is TERRIBLE so far, and a gigantic step down from the classic first installment. Absolutely none of the “buh-bye” jokes are working, and the audience clearly shares my opinion, as they are absolutely dead during this.
— Is the “Nancy” character who David brags about having worked with supposed to be the character who Helen Hunt played in the first installment?
— Even Adam and David’s exchange is a poor knock-off of their exchange in the first installment. The “I want you to tell me you’re a woman” bit between them tonight is DREADFUL.
— Very poor utilization of Steve Martin.
— I’m noticing now that you can hear only one audience member laughing throughout this, and it’s a wiseass-sounding, almost Burt Reynolds-esque “Naa-haa” type of quick laugh.
— The armpit hair bit with Janeane Garofalo and Steve was just dumb, but I’m ashamed to admit to kinda laughing at Steve’s snarky delivery of “Whatever happened to your Lady Schick?”
— Jesus Christ, the song-and-dance ending was freaking AWFUL. And what was the point of Adam and Farley returning to the scene just to dance like idiots? Are you kidding me, SNL?
— Overall, one of the worst follow-ups to a classic sketch in SNL history.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Tore Down”
WEEKEND UPDATE
LAK shares some life lessons she’s recently learned
Gil Graham (ADS) reviews concerts that he wasn’t able to get in to see
— I’m very excited to enter the Norm Macdonald era of Update.
— One thing I don’t care much for is how the new Update set is using a gray color scheme. It makes it look too much like the Kevin Nealon-era Update set.
— Norm, during his intro: “And now, the fake news.”
— Wow, Norm’s anchorperson delivery is quite different here from how it’s remembered nowadays. It sounds much more professional in this first outing, like you can tell he’s trying to sound like an actual anchorperson. It’ll be interesting to see over the course of this season how his delivery gradually goes from “faux anchorman” to “just Norm being Norm”.
— Laura Kightlinger doing some stand-up on her first episode.
— Laura’s overall commentary wasn’t all that great, but I did get a few laughs, especially the story involving the Big Boy Restaurant icon. Her delivery in this overall commentary wasn’t bad, but the commentary had some flashes of dark humor that I wanted her to go further with.
— I loved Norm’s “King enjoyin’ a hoagie!” ad-lib in response to the “Elvis/sandwich stamp” photo.
— The joke about a lady who spilled McDonalds coffee on her lap is one of the very first jokes tonight that has the type of Norm edge that would later go on to define his Updates.
— Here comes the debut of a short-lived Adam Sandler character that I’ve always hated.
— Two minutes into Adam’s Gil Graham commentary so far, and I surprisingly haven’t been hating it as much as I did in the past. It’s still kinda weak and is going heavy on Adam’s tired goofy voice shtick, but I’ve been getting a few chuckles from some of his stories.
— Okay, the Gil Graham commentary is now starting to go on a little too long.
— Pretty funny flub after the Gil Graham commentary has ended, where Norm mistakenly addresses him as “Adam Sandler” before correcting himself and making some humorous ad-libs.
— Our very first utterance of Norm’s soon-to-be-famous theory: “Germans love David Hasselhoff”.
— And thus ends Norm’s very first Update. A pretty good debut, but understandably felt kinda empty compared to what would later go on to be considered a typical Norm Macdonald Update. There will definitely be lots of growth and improvement from him over the course of this season.
STARS: ***
THE RON WOOD SHOW
the interviews consist of incoherent mumbling
— I liked Mike’s Ron Wood impression as a supporting role in the American Sportsman Today sketch from the preceding season. But with him now being placed front and center in his own sketch, the mumbling joke with him has gotten old very fast. Him interacting with equally-unintelligible celebrities isn’t make this any better.
— Steve looks pretty unrecognizable as Leon Redbone.
— A laugh from how Farley looks as Gerard Depardieu.
STARS: *½
BUCK DANIELS
(MMK) sings song about country musician Buck Daniels’ (host) tragic life
— A fairly interesting-seeming format.
— Over a minute into this sketch, and I ask: where is the entertainment supposed to be coming from? There has been no intentional comedy so far, from what I can tell, nor does the sketch have anything else interesting going for it.
— Okay, now there have been a few scattered attempts at humor, like Ellen punching out Steve, but it’s not working.
— Poor Michael McKean. His guitar-playing and musical narration skills are fine, but between the preceding season’s god-awful Poker Billy sketch and this weak Buck Daniels sketch, those skills have not been utilized well so far during Michael’s SNL tenure.
— I got a laugh from the random appearance of Adam as Jackie Mason in bed with Steve. Adam does a better Jackie Mason impression than some might expect.
STARS: **
NUT-RIFIC
an ad agency comes up with confusing jingles for the Nut-Rific candy bar
— I like Elliott’s cheesy delivery while eagerly pitching his commercial idea.
— My god, the overly simplistic premise of “nut” sounding like “not” is lame as hell. Are you kidding me, SNL? This feels like something out of a kiddie show.
— Farley’s somewhat goofy performance doesn’t fit his straight man role in this sketch at all. He also seemed to crack himself up after one of his lines.
— Not even Elliott’s emotional outburst off-camera is making me laugh.
— And the sketch goes on and on and on and on…
— Okay, I finally got a big laugh, from how the good-sounding “It’s just got more nuts” jingle turns out to be for a psychiatric institute. It only took about FOUR MINUTES for this sketch to get there.
— Didn’t care for the “nutsies” ending.
— Speaking of the “nutsies” ending, when the singers all hold out their hand in a Nazi salute, Jay Mohr can be seen staring ahead at something in an oddly fixated manner. In Jay’s SNL book, there’s a backstory about that: he had heard a rumor earlier that week (from Chris Elliott, I think) that Steve Martin wears a toupee, so Jay spent the end of the sketch staring at Steve’s hair in an attempt to tell if it’s a toupee or not.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Five Long Years”
SUPER SPORTS TOURS
join a bunch of striking baseball players on a cruise
— Oh, god, I thought some of the previous sketches tonight were too one-joke, but this puts those to shame.
— I want to like this in a “Sideshow Bob rake scene”-type of manner, but this is completely lacking that kind of funny.
STARS: *
BABIES
(CHF) & (JAG) get defensive because they feel their baby is inferior
— (*groan*) Tonight’s theme of repetition continues, as Farley keeps saying “I blame myself” over and over and over, which is doing nothing to make me laugh.
— I will say that I do kinda like Farley’s mock-dramatic performance in this sketch.
— The premise isn’t bad, but the execution is not working all that well.
— Aaaaand there goes Farley’s obligatory unnecessary screaming outburst. Dammit, he almost made it through a sketch tonight without resorting to his tired typical antics.
— Pretty lame ending.
STARS: **
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— (*sigh*) Yep, the signs for trouble are already there. Actually, this season premiere had a promising start in the first 20 or so minutes. Ignoring the overlong and tepid O.J. Trial sketch, we got a very fun and meta cold opening, a pretty solid monologue, an okay fake ad, and a great Penis Beauty Creme sketch. The horrid Total Bastard Airlines reprise seemed to be the turning point where this episode fell apart and never recovered. Aside from Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update debut, there wasn’t a single thing I liked tonight after the Total Bastard Airlines sketch showed up. And the post-Update half of the episode was pretty much a wasteland of one-note sketches that were either D.O.A. or had a somewhat promising idea but came off half-formed. Overall, definitely a sign of what to expect this season.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1993-94)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Marisa Tomei
I can’t believe all this time I’ve never noticed Janeane’s arm hair in the Total Bastard Airlines sketch. Steve’s “Lady Schick” comment makes a lot more sense now. No wonder she wanted to quit after this show.
And of course Steve gives the kiss of death at the goodnights with his “They’ll be around forever”.
One thing to watch this season: The cast interactions during the goodnights, especially Janeane.
“And of course Steve gives the kiss of death at the goodnights with his “They’ll be around forever”.”
I heard another reviewer claim Steve says that, and I even mentioned it in my review of the season 6 premiere’s goodnights when Elliott Gould made a similar statement, but I listened closely to Steve’s statement while reviewing this episode, and it didn’t sound like “They’ll be around forever”. It’s very hard to tell what exactly he said, but it sounded like “(something something something) probably won’t be around for a long, long time”.
I think he says, “I’m ad-libbing. I’m ad-libbing for a long, long time.”
It really is incredible how awful McKean was on the show. I know he picked the wrong seasons to be on but he’s super talented, I mean he’s Michael McKean. Doesn’t make any sense.
Spade and Farley were shooting Tommy Boy at this time and flying back and forth from Toronto and New York. I think that lasts until around late
October/early November. They’re still shooting the movie during the .Carvey episode
Also, watching this show live at the time it had a very weird vibe to it. It didn’t really feel like snl. It probably was the lack of Phil that made me feel that way. I was so used to his presence
Yay, we’re in hell!
This is my least favorite opening credits sequence. The photos themselves are alright (although the mean/sweet Tim Meadows photo sequence is sort of jarring), but having them broadcast against the pole just feels oddly cheap and depressing. Then there’s the dancing lady, who gets more consistent airtime than any of the female cast members this season.
There’s some talk that this episode is better than many which follow, but I don’t feel that way – Martin is certainly a rock-solid host, but many of the sketches do nothing for me. I’d put at least 5 or 6 other episodes this season above this one. There are sketches I COULD have enjoyed in another era, like the ugly baby sketch (which I assume was a Marilyn Suzanne Miller piece), but which is badly cast all around, and hampered further by Farley’s overacting.
The best part is probably the monologue, which is, intentionally or not, a breakdown of the way the writers at this time picked the material to death without seeing how little of it was actually funny.
I will say that I do tend to enjoy the fake commercials this season. They are so very serious to the point where at times you can’t find the joke, but this tends to double around to working, somehow. Janeane’s deadpan persona was perfect for this type of presentation.
I like most of Adam’s Update characters (more than Adam’s singalongs, generally). Gil should have annoyed me, but there was something about the way Adam doubled down on the absurdity of this man who went around getting beaten up all the time and finding some kind of pleasure out of it. Laura’s Update piece here is probably the type of dark material that got her hired, but which we would rarely get to see. Her delivery is not quite confident enough to match the humor, but she has a lot of potential. It’s sad to know how her story with the show ends.
I will just say I hate the “hot coffee” jokes of this era, knowing what that woman actually went through.
The only thing I ever take from the country artist song is how much it sums up the views of various women from that era, like Ellen Cleghorne, who complained of how often they just had to play prostitutes.
Tim’s enthusiasm at saying LFNY is another moment where he salvages whatever he’s given, making him one of the backbones of this season (hard to believe he was almost fired at the end of it).
The buh-bye sketch is a great example of just how incredibly smug and out of touch the show had become – not only repeating this piece, but having various cast members return at the end of the sketch to dance around like they’d all just scored a touchdown.
I’ll probably be quoting this article a lot this season, but here goes:
http://nymag.com/arts/tv/features/47548/
“Movie politics led to one of SNL’s biggest blunders this season. David Spade spent his summer co-starring in a Michaels-produced movie (Tommy Boy, which also stars Chris Farley and opens at the end of this month). To reward Spade in SNL’s season premiere, Michaels gave a sketch called “Buh-bye” a prime spot in the lineup. In “Buh-bye,” Spade and Ellen Cleghorne play airline flight attendants who insult departing passengers. Not only did the sketch flop on the air, but because another “Buh-bye” sketch ran last spring, TV critics had a chance to bludgeon SNL. Here they go again, columnists wrote, trying to flog another marketable catchphrase. (Michaels, insisting the sketch was funny, pushed for another “Buh-bye” piece several shows later. Only when he learned that Internet chatters judged “Buh-bye” their “most hated” sketch in memory did Michaels take it off the schedule.)”
I like Gil Graham a lot too though it’s too bad he changed the character for the bland Little Nicky film
Just a correction from that article. Tommy Boy was not filmed over that summer. Shooting was delayed because the script was incomplete and director Pete Segal tried to drop out and only returned after a threat of a lawsuit against him.
All from the Farley book.
All that said. Buh bye sketch was horrible
Also , Jennifer Aniston revealed in an interview on Oprah around 2011 that she auditioned for this season. I believe .Lorne was going to hire her but .Aniston chose to do a little show called Friends instead.
I’d assume her spot was given to Kightlinger
Aniston almost didn’t get FRIENDS because she was also cast on a CBS sitcom called MUDDLING THROUGH (?) and they had first dibs on her. NBC rolled the dice and the CBS sitcom only lasted six episodes. (This just came out in Entertainment Weekly in an excerpt of an upcoming book)
You might be thinking of Lisa Kudrow, who auditioned with Julia Sweeney and Kathy Griffin by way of Lorne Michaels seeing a Groundlings show.
It was Aniston. She auditioned for the show in case those sitcoms weren’t picked up. When Friends was picked up she turned down the offer from snl.
Those episodes of “Muddling Through” were in the can already and aired over summer of 94
She discussed this on Oprah when promoting “Just Go With It” with Sandler
Kudrow auditioned for the spot Julia Sweeney got in 1990.
This season had the potential to be good. It could’ve been funnier and better if the show maybe made an effort to focus more on the new hires, particularly Janeane and Elliott. I know a big part of those two’s downward slide on the show was how they weren’t really willing to “play the game” of the show’s competitive and weird backstage environment. I think cast members who already have an established comedy career aren’t as fond of it; Harry Shearer and Martin Short have talked about some of their difficulties with it as well.
The Bad Boys should’ve tried to stretch their wings a bit more, to get more comedic range playing against type, instead of relying on their singular shtick. In this episode you can see traces of the growing lack of commitment that started sprouting in ‘93-‘94. I guess it would be more trouble than it’s worth though, considering a lot of people loved them for it.
Also, there’s a lot of really good stuff that Chris Elliott does this season, but like in that cold opening, he seems to confuse the studio audience more than amuse them. It becomes gradually noticeable how much he hates being on the show, too.
I find it interesting that Kightlinger and Silverman were hired as both writers and featured performers and barely get things to do.
I only know this era from the Comedy Central reruns as a kid, but from my memory, Kightlinger only gets screen time as Marcia Clark in the OJ sketches (which will dominate the season the way Monica Lewinsky and Donald Trump later do).
Kightlinger’s only real episode outside of OJ appearances is the Roseanne episode, where she has large roles in two sketches (not sure if she wrote them although I assume she may have). I assume her being a writer for Roseanne the year before played a part.
The Roseanne episode also features one of Norm’s only sketches of the year; he wrote for Roseanne the year before Kightlinger did
@ Ruby Small correction. Harry Shearer was also a cast member during season 5, before he was on the show again with Martin Short and the others, so his disdain of the show, seems to be GENUINE, honestly. That’s all I have to say on that..
Gil Graham is really similar in format to Tony Vallencourt’s appearance in the beautiful Bob Saget episode. They’re both just Sandler with a goofy voice delivering a long-winded monologue about a bad experience he had. I guess the joke in both of them is now nonchalant or positive he remains despite describing something terrible, which does work a lot more than it should.
Spin (?) magazine once did a feature around this time where the SNL cast each reviewed rock albums. Sandler’s contribution unintentionally reads almost exactly like a Gil Graham piece.
I forgot to say my favorite part of the Nut-rific sketch – when everyone awkwardly stands there at the end because the audience didn’t find anything especially clever or funny about saying “Nutsies” and doing a Nazi salute.
Janeane Garofalo is maybe my biggest crush of the 90s and it saddens me how terrible she was on SNL because I loved in her pretty much everything else around this time.
Same here. And if you’re not following me on Twitter, you should. I’m The Garofaholic.
S19 left me with a bad taste in my mouth. In S20 I was a senior in high school and really REALLY wanted to like the show that year.
I was just as underwhelmed with this episode as everyone else, but I was interested in how all the changes would unfold.
I remember people giving me crap on an SNL board (it might have been the early VOY board) back around 2001 for suggesting Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update is too much like Nealon’s at this point. It doesn’t just go from zero to peak Norm. I like Macdonald’s WU – it’s still my favourite run – but he doesn’t start running with the fake news until later in the season.
I caught a large chunk of 1994-95 when it aired on Canada’s Comedy Network (now CTV Comedy Channel) in 2001, just to see how bad the season is. Since then, I’ve never been able to forget “Nut-rific”, especially when SNL did a variation in 2004 with “Bubba Sparxxx’ Nut Jingles”. SNL has worse sketches and flimsier premises this season – hell, this EPISODE – but “Nut-rific” portends just how frequent SNL this season relies on stretching weak premises to the point where it ACTUALLY resembles how people commonly parody it.
I think Herb Sargent is still in charge of Update at this point. Yes, Norm’s Update develops over the course of this season, but it really starts going next year when it’s him and Downey.
Yes, Sargent was still in charge of update at this point. Norm told Lorne it wasn’t working out as he was at odds over the direction of Update with Herb. So Lorne basically fired Sargent and replaced him with Downey
I wouldn’t say this episode is “terrible”…but it’s pretty dang close 🙂 …faint praise I know.
You see the omens of disaster in the cold opening (which ends up being the best sketch of the episode). Chris Elliott gets a big applause from the audience when he shows up on screen…and then the audience is totally befuddled by his Bill Clinton as WC Fields (which I found funny), but I think you can see the wind going out of Chris’s sails due to the silence from the audience to the bit. Also, Adam’s “walk” is one of those “WTF?” moments that wasn’t funny and baffling and showcases the somewhat reckless abandon the Bad Boys of SNL approached this season.
As for the rest of the episode…Monologue, the headache ad, and Steve Martin’s Penis Cream are all OK to pretty good…everything else is pretty dismal. The “Nut-rific” sketch…oy! Plays like something from season 6…a sketch based entirely on a stupid pun. And the “Nut-zi” joke was really lame. And your daily reviews have really opened my eyes on how many times the late years of this era brought back characters/sketches that had no business coming back. The “buh-bye” sketch is just awful. Which is sad, because the first one was such a great sketch. But again, only great as a stand-alone sketch.
And the Buck Daniels sketch is baffling. The song is kind of a cool, but there’s really nothing funny at all about the whole thing…and it’s like the writers thought “we need a laugh here” so they had him end up in bed with Jackie Mason…? ummmm…ok. It’s sad to see how wasted Michael McKean’s talents are in this season. It’s also sad to see how energetic Garofalo and Elliott are in this first episode, and how quickly they sour on this whole experience.
And I agree with John, this opening credits montage is just not good.
Man, what a rough start for this dismal season. Yikes.
This episode and the Madonna show in 1985 remind me a ton of each other: both had big name hosts that were ultimately the wrong person to host the show. Steve I think was just too old for this group and didn’t fit with them, they needed someone younger. Jim Carrey woulda been really interesting, but I also see it being a trainwreck due to how Jim loved to take attention from people.
JG getting put on the show I think was one of the defining errors of this year.. I’ll give Lorne credit as he was open minded and tried to give her a shot but she ultimately turned into nuclear type of cancer and she helped to kill the year with her whining and complaining to the press. She’s easily one of SNL’s biggest wastes of talent, granted it was hard for women in those days, but she managed to make it worse for herself by being dumb. If she had shut up and worked she could got something done. Thankfully Molly Shannon came on and did really good.. Lorne shoulda just picked her instead and got Andy Dick and cut Mohr, that woulda been fun.
Elliot meanwhile I really enjoy on this season, he’s one of the highlights of season 20. He passed McKean very early and started stealing skits, he’s always fun when he shows up. Shame he hated it there, he was a natural for the show, as was his daughter.
The opening montage is my all time favorite.. it’s like a definitive version of how an SNL montage should be. It shows NYC’s landscape off perfectly and how fun the nightlife was then. The next two years’s intro is the complete opposite it shows how boring and overdramatic it could be. The new theme song’s very fresh but not as iconic, but props to Smith for changing it up. I always laugh at Pardo getting lost.. so silly.
Much like 1985 it takes a few shows for this year to find it’s way but by the Travolta/Carvey shows it’s a lot more watchable. The first two shows are just so rough.
-Clinton Auditions: pretty good, and my favorite part of this whole episode was Chris’ “Hal” mix-up.
-Home Headache Test: this is something that could have worked in season 10; it seemed lame by this point
-Simpson Trial: why was Brian Austin Green even a cameo? Even among the stars of 90210 who hadn’t hosted, Green was low man on the totem pole
-you can tell the audience is enjoying WU but doesn’t quite know what to make of Norm, since his style is so different from anyone else who’d ever anchored
-Ron Wood: in the screen grab, Steve/Leon Redbone looks like the photos I’ve seen of a stylish, late 70s Phil Hartman (sigh)
-Buck Daniels: I just saw this for the first time on NBC.com the other day, and at first I thought Michael was doing a straight-but-wry musical spot. Then as I heard the lyrics, I thought it was going to be a Folksmen/Old Joe’s Place vibe… until the terrible cutaways started. The only decent part was Adam as Jackie Mason, which was hilarious.
-Nut-rific: I explained this entire sketch in 40 seconds to a couple middle schoolers the other day, and they laughed. Then when I told them it was a 7 minute sketch, they couldn’t understand why. Michael’s blunders while singing/playing don’t help. However, I did like Farley’s characterization of a goofy, over-confident businessman. Steve and Mike just seem bored. And I will admit that the jingle is incredibly catchy
-Sports cruise: interesting that the strike-shortened seasons’ two worst-to-first teams (White Sox and Indians) are barely represented. Agree, it’s overlong and seems to exist only for the ending cameo
I have to be in the slimmest of minorities to think this, but I actually LIKED the S20 Montage–Then again, I’ve always had an affinity for montages that only lasted one season, Makes it feel “Rare” in a way (Incidentally, so were Seasons 6 & 11’s). Maybe because it was so jarring to see something new after 4 years of the same one over and over at first, that seeing something of a different style might’ve been off-putting–I happen to be a fan of Rapid Fire imagery, so to each our own.
In a morbidly fascinated sort of way, I’ve been waiting for this season to come around in your reviews, Stooge. Reading these reviews and comments the next three weeks or so will surely be more entertaining than watching this unfold in real time was back in ‘94-95.
I also always liked this montage, Doc, btw.
The most baffling part of Nut-rific is when the jingle is suddenly repeated for no good reason. Twice!
Any idea who wrote Nut-rific? Just a guess but maybe Franken? He wrote the horrible “Sparkle Brite” from Reiser later this season and they are similar in tone I guess
According to ASCAP, new ’94-95 writer Brian Kelley wrote “Nut-rific.”
https://www.ascap.com/repertory#ace/search/workID/440220173
Just curious: where did you hear Franken wrote “Sparklebrite?”
I think at the old s-n-l board. I can remember people saying Franken was stuck in the 70s with an inter racial kiss being “shocking”
I remember it being Franken but maybe I’m wrong
I have a fondness for simplistic, one-joke sketches, so I want to like Nut-rific, but there’s an art to the proceedings that the sketch doesn’t capture. For one, you can really see they’re missing a straight man par excellence in Phil Hartman (or Jan Hooks, or, hell, even Kevin Nealon, who’s already in the sketch in a redundant role), as someone who would calmly respond to the idiocy with penetrating analysis (and perhaps eventually explode).
The sketch also has pacing issues. There’s way too many executives with speaking roles, having two jingle writers is redundant, and if you’re playing on the one joke idea of bad jingles, you’ve got to have more of them. I think simply going more fast-paced, like Elliott throwing out countless, ever more stupid jingles that play on the word “nut,” would be far more entertaining.
I actually think the “nutsi” joke is kind of funny, but the pacing has already killed the sketch dead. I want to like this sketch, it’s trying to do something more conceptual than the typical sketches this year, but it’s a poor man’s conceptual–it also throws in a fair share of yelling. But I could see a reasonably funny version of this sketch with like…Baldwin as the jingle writer and Phil as the straight man executive, or in more recent times, someone like Forte/Tim Robinson as the jingle writer, with Sudeikis/Hader as the straight man.
I agree with you the Nut-rific is more of a noble failure than an outright disaster. There’s a kernel of a funny idea here, but the scene is way too muddled.
I’ve always liked this opening montage as well. Come back in about 59 days from now and talk to us about forgettable opening montages!
seriously, the late 90s opening credits montages are the WORST! Especially that one (97-98) that is just still photos of the cast and a bunch of colorful lines…no live shots…no shots of New York…terrible. Just terrible…
Damn shame that after the Heather Locklear episode, the next show with a live action cast montage that Stooge reviews will be in January.
And to add on to Kubelsky’s thought, MadTV season 3 montage is way too bright and busy
Oh, I’m WAY ahead of you there (see #2)
https://usefullyuselessinfo.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/snl-season23/
I always thought that MADtv’s Season 3 opening was cool. A lot better than its later seasons, especially when they were trying to be like SNL, complete with an announcer.
I always thought this montage looked way too bright, like a product of LA/Fox/MadTV (still a year away). FWIW my favorite montages were season 1-2 and 7-9.
Notice Janeane is wearing the same wig in the HHT ad that she wore in the Bathroom Monkey ad, they were obviously filmed on the same day.
I wonder what this cut sketch with her and Chris Elliott was about. She would wear the same hat and wig in next week’s “Piercing Today” sketch.
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/episode-1-aired-pictured-chris-elliott-janeane-garofalo-news-photo/138228221
Laura should’ve gotten to keep her Marcia Clark wig and outfit for the amount of times she wears it this season.
I think I remember reading somewhere (wiki?) that Will Ferrell was actually in the audience for this episode – apparently he was sorta visible during the baseball strike sketch. I imagine he was already on SNL’s radar then from Groundlings – I wonder what it would have been like had he debuted as a featured player this season in place of Jay Mohr?
Here’s the list of Steve Martin episodes, ranked – according to the reviews and calculations given in these comments sections – least to best:
At 4.9 – Season 20 premier
At 5.8 – (Tie) December 1991 and May 1980
At 6.1 – January 1978
At 6.4 – February 1977
At 6.5 – Season 5 premier
At 6.8 – December 1986 (3 Amigos)
At 7.0 – (Tie) Season 13 premier and October 1976
At 7.1 – November 1978
At 7.3 – Season 3 premier
At 7.7 – Season 14 finale
At 8.0 – April 1978
Did they give any kind of recognition to Danitra Vance who passed away a couple months before this premiere?
No which is a shame as she was a cast member in a bad season like Charles Rocket.
You serious, Clark?
Yeah, “Total Bastard Airlines” was definitely NOT worth repeating!
An article that ran on Saturday, Sept. 24 turned up two interesting notes about hosts:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=19940924&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Paul Reiser was already among the planned guests (I know that we had some discussion about the late-season influx of hosts from NBC shows possibly being a response the ratings/negativity) , as was … Jean-Claude Van Damme?! (Timecop was in theaters around this time.)
I have been thinking about re-watching Season 20 for quite some time now and trying to assess if it:
A) As disappointing as I remember
B) As bad as it is rated by the general public
and try to pinpoint what it was that I personally didn’t care for. I didn’t stop watching SNL for another decade, so it clearly didn’t end my interest in the series.
A few things about me:
– I can find conservative/liberal humor funny. I don’t have to pick a side. That being said, the political satire is probably the stuff I am looking forward to the least–although I always did love that Carvey as Ross Perot impression!
– I don’t mind if comedians break during the sketch provided what is happening is actually funny. I hate when comedians are laughing harder than the audience, or more than the joke deserves. I call this the Dane Cook Conundrum. I guess he is funny, but I am not having near as much fun with his material as he is.
– I went into this season really liking the idea that Norm McDonald was taking anchor. I liked Kevin Nealon more than I liked Dennis Miller but that’s like baked chicken over boiled chicken–it still isn’t delicious. I really liked Norm’s delivery and I always loved when he showed up in sketches prior to this year.
– I was a big David Spade fun, particularly when he was fresh. This season is where I believe the tide starts to turn a bit. He is definitely as mean but not quite as fun. A good example is the difference between the Total Bastard Airlines sketches from the one he did with Hunt vs. the one in this opening episode.
– I would go on to see Billy Madison 3 times in the movie theater in ’95 when it came out so I must have liked Adam Sandler, or really liked the movie. However, I don’t recall him being one of my favorite performers during this season–let’s see how that memory holds up.
– Chris Farley was brilliant in Tommy Boy and gets a lot of historical love as one of the all-time greats. Tommy Boy hadn’t come out yet and for me he was more Dave Kingman than Babe Ruth during his SNL period. I think the fact he is in so my highlight reels because he definitely hit some big home runs and part of the reason he ranks so high by people. In my opinion, he literally could ruin most sketches by his combination of overacting, random anger, mis-timed deliveries, and odd mannerisms. THAT BEING SAID, he could literally bring down the house when he was on and when the writing was crisp–yeah, he was worth the price of admission for sure on those nights!
– I knew who Chris Elliott was and I was very intrigued at his inclusion in this year, it seemed very odd that someone with his background would be added. I don’t recall enjoying him much during this year, but I am going to be open minded.
– I knew who McKean was but only as Lenny. Didn’t get why he was here–didn’t really see him as a comedian. I don’t have a positive memory of him on this show. Again, fresh lens, I promise.
– I didn’t really know who Garofalo was but I remembered initially liking her energy and also liking her in some movie later called the Truth about Cats and Dogs.
– Kightlinger, didn’t know and didn’t like. I think I know why based off of watching the first few episodes. I will unpack that later.
– Jay Mohr. I always liked him. Wait, don’t go anywhere, let me explain…OK, I can’t I just did, ok?
– Fans of both Mike Myers (everyone was) and Tim Meadows, and I nothinged Ellen Cleghorne. She was certainly better than Melanie Hutsell so through that lens I didn’t mind her.
Finally, it was difficult to find the full epsiode, and the Peacock version is missing quite a bit. So, in some cases I will need to cobble together finding the entire episode. Alright, the opening formalities are over. Let me capture my notes and talk about the Season Opener!
– The Cold Open featured the Clinton auditions. With Hartman leaving, we needed a new Clinton, and this was a fun idea to start the show with. Farley doing Clinton as Matt Foley, Spade as pretty much every Spade character, Elliott (big ovation from crowd) doing W.C Fields (applause quickly evaporated), Sandler doing his guitar/song thing, but the gem in my opinion was Meadows as the Clinton that wasn’t going to get the job…and he gets the first “Live from New York” honor of the season. Good start in my opinion if not exactly funny.
– Steve Martin monologue. Fresh off of…well nothing but still historically famous to all of us SNL dorks and in 2 of my favorite movies of all time when he appeared here (The Jerk and PT&A) but at that time only recently relevant for Father of the Bride. The sequel must have been close to that time if memory serves. So…a safe choice for sure. And a safe monologue. It must have been on his mind when he wrote his monologue because he was very self-deprecating throughout. The out of body thing was fine, everything was fine, it was…fine.
– HHT sketch. Not bad. I didn’t even dislike McKean–who yes, Hartman would be better, but Hartman is better than pretty much anyone.
– Total Court TV. The OJ Simpson trial was going through jury selection and a lot of the early things we found amusing in terms of OJ reactions, AC’s insolence, Kato, Ito, etc. are going to bludgeon us throughout this year. Some funny, some not. However, I think the reason Kightlinger is remembered so poorly by me is how bad she was at playing a bad attorney. I think I really only remember her as Marcia Clarke and that, turns out, isn’t a good thing. BAG getting no love from the audience, but his inclusion wasn’t funny either. Just random, which is ok too. I do love Tim Meadows in this sketch even if he beat both jokes into the ground.
– Total Bastard Airlines II (Spade/Cleghorne/Martin) This sketch is missing from the Peacock version and it pretty much changes the whole tone of this episode. Watch it without it? Not bad, not great, but there is promise. Watching it with it changes everything. I know it’s been talked about, all of the unfunny pieces of this sketch (minor shout out to the last one with Spade weaving in the Beatles song which is why it probably isn’t on Peacock) but we took a sketch that really only worked because Spade was so good the first time and Helen Hunt was a great partner. It was fresh and mean and fun…and succinct. This unnecessary sequel decided that it must have been funny only because the word “buh-bye” is funny. It doesn’t matter the joke, the reactions, just say it and everything should work out. It, of course, does not. Tough to watch.
– In between Court TV and TBA II was the Steve Martin Penis creme sketch–pretty good. Something for Steve Martin to do finally and it works.
– First McDonald update. Slow start and then he turns it over to LK who delivers a dark-ish narrative about confidence. She starts off with some early flubs but recovers and does what she came to do. It was probably someone’s cup of tea, but it wasn’t mine. NOW, when it goes back to Norm he rattles off 3-4 straight good jokes…I personally think he started getting comfortable during the deaf joke where he covers his mouth followed by the “King with a Hoagie”, exactly how I remember Norm and exactly why I liked him then. Sandler’s Graham Green or whoever was bad. I didn’t like this at all although in fairness if Al Franken or really ANYONE else had delivered this it probably might have worked.
-Ron Wood is a member of the Rolling Stones. I didn’t know that then. I guess he is hard to understand. Mike Myers is brilliant at the unintelligible British gibbering, but I didn’t like the sketch. I didn’t like the Whoopi (EC) part, I REALLY didn’t like the Leon Redbone (Martin under there?), but Chris Farley’s “WTF” look as Gerard D was pretty funny.
– The McKean song Buck Daniels was not fun. McKean seems to play guitar pretty well–I imagine he is talented in his household.
– Nutariffic! I remember this sketch pretty well. I remembered how engaged and game Garofalo appears in this sketch and wondered what was happening as the season progressed becaue I don’t remember that energy every again. As stated, too long, Farley annoying, and much more miss than hit. However, I sometimes like the ‘ol Luis Tiant long windup sketches even if the result is a Hit by Pitch. I am guessing Chris Elliott wrote this?
– MINOR CONTROVERSY: I really enjoyed the baseball sketch. I think you have to like baseball first and foremost. I don’t need to explain myself to you all, but if we were watching it together, I would point out why.
– Baby Comparison Sketch–Martin and Kightlinger were good, but the sketch was just ok. Not horrible for the final of the night.
– Curtain Call: Garofalo throwing herself at McDowell, she looks so happy! The vibe seems really strong although what was my boy Mohr doing just blankly staring and clapping?
– Worst sketch of the night: Total Bastard Airlines II and Buck Daniels song
– Best sketch of the night: I think it was Weekend Update (Norm only) or the Penis Creme sketch. However, let’s be honest, nothing to write home about.
– Best performer of the night: Tim Meadows. Cold open, OJ, AC, no bad performances in his sketches, easy choice.
– Worst performer of the night: Also easy, Adam Sandler. The 2nd worst of the Clinton performers, wretched on Weekend Update, bad on TBA II, and only the Jackie Mason few seconds was decent.
Nuttrific was written by Brian Kelley (Simpsons) and was in his sample packet. Norm Hiscock wrote the Baby Comparison sketch.
Ok so I made it through the much talked about doomed first season episode. Very unmemorable but I don’t think the worst I’ve seen yet. I know many complained about the new opening credits, I didn’t think they were awful, but they seemed outdated, like something that might have been more relevant in the 80s. I obviously prefer the cast in motion vs still photos, but thought that all the diff ways in spotlighting the cast were creative, I want to say David Spade sticks out but it might be a diff person, the one where a coffee mug of plate is over it only to reveal the person after picking up the cup/plate?
Didn’t think Steve Martin was as lazy as some of the other hosting he had done after hosting so many times, and it had potential as I liked him doing semi standup about the various soups in the supermarket and making that the monologue, and then him being frozen and told by second SM saying to stop and he should have done something else, etc. would give the monologue 3.5-4 stars.
Oh cold opening premise wasn’t a bad idea, I actually thought they were going with Farley for a moment as the new Clinton, and I’m not a hater of his but could not have dealt with the over exaggerating and super loud Farley as Clinton, phew…it was just part of the sketch. I only know of Chris Elliot from seeing those chip commercials he did when I was a kid, I never got the hype. If it had been me I would have moved Mohr to a main cast member but get that since he has done hardly anything it wouldn’t have been fair.
I remember Janeane Garafolo as a kid as well and my dad finding her very funny and though I’m yet to see what comes during this season, I think that was a very solid move in casting her. I love the Larry Sanders show and thought she was great on that, and it appears she would have still been on that show as well at the same time as doing SNL, as she didn’t leave until the end of the 5th season of that show (her last episode was aired in February of 97’ and though I can’t recall every episode, I know she was in many from early on season one, and that was in 92.’ But seeing that that show wasn’t live, I suppose that allowed the flexibility in filming and starring as the female lead cast member of SNL this season). I like what I’ve seen from her appearance on SNL this episode and the following two I watched as well. I Think she brings a strong presence to the show.
Anyways back to my thoughts of the show, I think the headache commercial was refreshing to see as I enjoy SNL spoof commercials, but this one along with next weeks are too similar, by way of someone mentioning she is wearing the same wig as well, it’s just trying too hard, it’s not working as well as it could, lacks humor. Though I prefer this over next weeks.
I was so young when the OJ incident happened, so only until the past few years when it became brought back in the media with American Crime Story, (ironically with John Travolta as Al Shapiro who hosts the third episode of this season), I didn’t mind it.
I thought Laura Kightlinger looked like a spot on Marcia Clark, but found spade as Kato kinda half ass, perhaps Mohr could have done a better job, I just think Spade could have played a bit more dumb & put a bit more effort into the character. Hartman would have been great to watch as Shapiro, Mckean isn’t doing it for me. Mike Myers does a very good job in looking and portraying Judge Eto. I think it’s sad that there was only one black dude at this point, which is Medows, and not knocking his talent, but I think what would have really helped this sketch was instead of the random Brian Austin Green appearance which, as a later 90210 fan, serves no point being there & just random, It would have been better had they hired a popular rapper or actor instead, I know Eddie Murphy would have been a great cameo but also feel like Snoop Dogg or Dr Dre would have made it more catchy. The fact as someone else mentions, Medows plays Al Cowings with no distinctness from him playing OJ (a wig could have at least helped display a difference of appearance. This isn’t Medows fault, but it just seems like it was thrown together in 5 minutes without much thought). I think the funniest part was the contemplating on pizza toppings.
Buh bye, I don’t think is as awful as some other reacurring stuff, but would have utilized Martin from the beginning, as EC just seemed like she was doing her same backstage security shtick. I found it funny when Sandler threatens Spade, but all and all weak.
Penis Cream wasn’t bad but it also felt like it was missing something.
The rest of the show really doesn’t stand out at all, so all that I mentioned I suppose was that caught my attention.
Was looking forward to seeing Norm host as new WU, but as I mentioned in the season finale of 19 post, I realized why i was not a fan of him doing the news, and that’s mainly because I found it to drag way to long, also don’t understand the running thing about Hasselhoff being so popular with Germans, as he says the same exact line next week. He’s a talented guy, but this doesn’t impress me at all. I know many are fans of him as WU anchor, hopefully that will change as I continue to watch, but don’t have high expectations based on reruns I’ve seen in past, and feel that as he ages he gets more snarky and the little charm he once had fades with time.
Chris liked wearing that stripey top didnt he
I kind of wondered what it would have been like if Farley stayed on as Clinton. It might have worked as long as he didn’t do his screaming shtick. Not that I’d think he’d be the next Phil Hartman, but he couldn’t have done any worse than McKean
This season fascinates just how bad it is like people have said it was roughly the same cast yet with the toxic writing staff and bad boys club they created let’s say 5 of the worst episodes I always come back to this season and watch the sketches and wonder how they get on and what was the mindset.