February 11, 1995 – Bob Newhart / Des’ree (S20 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLIN FERGUSON TRIAL
Colin Ferguson (TIM) tries to defend himself against murder charges

— Boy, they sure are getting a lot of mileage out of Court TV sketches lately. Weird seeing one that’s NOT about the O.J. Trial for once this season.
— A big laugh from Tim’s Colin Ferguson claiming he didn’t shoot the passengers, they shot him.
— This is a solid Tim Meadows showcase. I love his performance here. These last few episodes, SNL has finally been giving him more to do.
— Man, David seems so checked out in his performances this season. I find his aloof, half-assed performances this season to be very off-putting.
— Ferguson ducking out of the way when asking David to point out who shot him was very funny.
— Interesting inclusion of Bob Newhart. His deadpan style is absolutely perfect for this, especially his delivery of the line “Well, it was a normal day until you started shooting people.”
— A lot of funny turns throughout this cold opening.
— A delayed camera switch causes us to miss a gag where a bored Mark is shown building a model ship inside a bottle. The gag would later be shown in reruns.
— I love Mark’s constant “No more questions, your honor.”
— Kevin “Oh, He’s Still On The Show?” Nealon (who gets thrown a bone in this cold opening by getting to say his first “Live from New York…” of the season) keeps pausing in between lines to jut out his lips as Terry Moran. I’m guessing that’s part of the impression (I can’t say for sure, since I don’t know what Terry Moran looks like), kinda similar to how he used to hold down the sides of his eyes when playing Brent Musberger or how he imitated Bill Bradley’s double chin when playing him in a debate sketch.
STARS: ****

OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo stumbles when saying “It’s Saturday Night Live”. This would later be fixed in reruns.

MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about a new security guard’s King Kong phone call

— There goes what’s sometimes known as The Carlin Line (named after host George Carlin), when someone who’s hosting for a second time many years after their first hosting gig (15 years in Bob Newhart’s case) says a sarcastic variation of “I did such a good job hosting (insert large number here) years ago that they couldn’t wait to have me back.”
— This King Kong phone call bit is an absolutely classic Bob Newhart routine that’s fun to watch. A quintessential display of his brilliant stand-up style.
— I particularly love the line “My jurisdiction only extends to his navel.”
STARS: *****

RICKI LAKE
Bob Hartley (host) gives advice about odd love triangle

— As I mentioned in my review of the Montel Williams Show sketch from the season 18 Kirstie Alley episode, not only does that sketch remind me of this Ricki Lake sketch and not only does Farley play a guest in both sketches, but he even wears the same shirt in both sketches (though with a blazer over it in the Montel sketch) (side-by-side comparison below).

— Speaking of recycled costumes, is Ellen’s first outfit and wig the same one she wore in the Geek Dweeb Or Spazz sketch (side-by-side comparison below)?

— A nice way to have Bob reprise his character from The Bob Newhart Show.
— I like the running gag with Ellen playing various audience members.
— I also like how you can see Ellen changing outfits in the background, though I’m not sure if that sighting is intentional.
— Lots of funny lines from Bob throughout this, again perfectly utilizing his deadpan style. Nobody else can make the line “These sick puppies just gotta stop doing the nasty” as funny as him.
STARS: ***

BOOK BUZZ
(CHF)’s world record book has only personally verifiable feats

— Speaking of the season 18 Kirstie Alley episode, this Book Buzz sketch was originally cut after dress rehearsal from that episode. In that version, Mike Myers played the role that Bob Newhart is playing here.
— The premise of this sketch is reminiscent of a season 10 sketch with George Carlin (I’ve been mentioning him a lot tonight). I guess tonight’s sketch has a slightly different spin on it, but I definitely prefer the Carlin sketch.
— At least Farley is playing a subdued role for once this season.
— Kind of a slow-moving, quiet sketch that would’ve felt more fitting later in the show.
— Farley’s getting some laughs, especially his bit about the mammal with the largest sex organ.
STARS: **½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Gotta Be”

WEEKEND UPDATE
while on the witness stand at the O.J. trial, (CSE) mugs for the camera
DAS evaluates potential suitors for Cindy Crawford
for Valentine’s Day, ADS plays guitar & sings about the “Sex Phone Lady”

— I love how it’s become a running gag these last few Updates for Norm to do an exaggeration of the final score of that year’s Super Bowl.
— I got an unintended laugh from Norm’s odd way of pronouncing “juror”, putting very heavy emphasis on the “or” part of the word.
— Poor Laura. Is 70% of her appearances this season just playing Marcia Clark? She’s not even on camera in this one.
— Elliott’s bit is freakin’ hilarious, especially when he starts making “boop” type sounds into the camera.
— Can it be any more obvious that David is beyond done with Hollywood Minute? It’s been an entire year since he last did a Hollywood Minute, and his commentary tonight is some weird thinly-veiled variation of it.
— Oof, some really dead spots in David’s commentary, not helped by him ONCE AGAIN giving a lethargic, aloof, half-assed performance. However, I did get a big laugh from his crack about Bud Bundy (David Faustino): “This guy couldn’t get laid in a monkey whorehouse with a bag of bananas.”
— Another amusingly odd Norm Macdonald pronunciation tonight, with him pronouncing “taco” as “tack-o”. Is that pronunciation a Canadian thing?
— HUGE audience reaction to Adam showing up to do a guitar song.
— This is one of Adam’s lesser-known Update guitar songs, but I recall this one being decent. Let’s see if it still holds up.
— Interesting deep voice Adam’s singing with here.
— An overall okay-if-not-memorable song from Adam, with my favorite part being how he tells the sex phone lady that his name is Chris Farley.
STARS: ***½

BAYWATCH
the lifeguards are slow to react to a drowning man (CHF)

— During the recreation of the Baywatch opening credits, the audience initially laughs out loud at the group shot of the SNL cast as Baywatch actors, and at the individual intro shots of Michael as David Hasselhoff and Janeane as Pamela Anderson, but then the audience is dead silent for the rest of the cast intros. There’s no real joke in this overly straightfoward recreation of the Baywatch opening credits, other than Janeane’s fake chest. This reminds me of a gripe I had with how the Blossom parody from the preceding season’s Sara Gilbert episode did a straight recreation of the Blossom opening credits with no joke. But hell, even THAT recreation had a goofy charm that I now can see kinda worked, whereas this Baywatch credits recreation is just dull.
— I’m kinda ashamed to admit this, but that Baywatch theme song is damn catchy.
— Two episodes in a row with a sketch involving Farley screaming for help while drowning in water?
— I bet Janeane particularly hates playing this role.
— Where is this sketch going?
— Wow, that twist ending was awful.
— The sketch is over, and I’m left just scratching my head over what the hell this was supposed to be.
— Overall, our first bomb of the night. I hadn’t realized until now how consistently I had been enjoying tonight’s episode before this sketch showed up.
STARS: *

POST OFFICE HR
employee relations officer (host) talks with a disgruntled postal worker

— Very interesting first-person perspective format of this, feeling like a sister sketch to The Continental sketches with Christopher Walken. And with Bob Newhart in the lead role, this feels like a creative way to build a sketch around a possible stand-up routine of his. (I doubt this actually is a stand-up routine of his, I’m just saying it seems like it could be.)
— I love the part with Bob saying the postal worker being interviewed wrote “What’s it to you?” when answering what his social security number is.
— Yet another sketch tonight that Bob’s delivery is perfect for. He’s especially hilarious delivering the line “I find it hard to believe that the devil would have spent the past 45 years sorting mail.”
— The lack of audible speaking or head-nodding responses from the postal worker being interviewed (who’s perspective the camera is showing) and the fact that we can’t see this disturbed character actually helps the sketch, as it adds to the character’s unsettling vibe.
STARS: ****½

HI BOB
host tries to discourage CHF & CSE from playing “Hi Bob” drinking game

— Feels very rare this season to see SNL’s backstage.
— An odd but interesting pairing of Farley and Elliott.
— Fun sketch, and a good way to get pretty much the whole cast involved, even if most of them are just briefly passing by the camera while saying “Hi, Bob”.
— Some funny twists and variations to the “Hi Bob” bit, such as David saying “Bob, hi”, and a confused Farley & Elliott pulling out a “Hi Bob” rule book when there’s a back-to-back instance of Adam saying “Hi” and Jay saying “Bob”.
— I like Farley and Elliott’s drunkenness now getting to the point where they’re seen in the background being unable to stand.
STARS: ****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Feels So High”

SPORTS BEAT
ups & downs of a manic-depressive announcer’s (host) career

— Right out of the gate, Kevin flubs his opening line, but saves himself with a decent ad-lib afterwards.
— Funny reveal of Bob’s manic depression as we see his stone-faced demeanor, right after we hear soundbytes of his excitable sports announcing.
— A very slow-moving, dry sketch, but it’s absolutely PERFECT for Bob, especially given the subject matter. This is another sketch that I can’t picture anyone but him selling.
— I love the soundbyte of Bob’s out-of-place depressed-sounding announcement of Hank Aaron’s record-breaking home run, as well as a soundbyte of his out-of-place excited announcement of an out during a Phillies game.
STARS: ****½

DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY

GOODNIGHTS / THE VERY END OF THE SHOW
Bob Hartley tells wife Emily (Suzanne Pleshette) about his bad SNL dream

— Very charming out-of-the-ordinary goodnights moment with a smiling Norm (making a rare goodnights appearance) getting his Bob Newhart comedy albums signed by the man himself.
— And now we get something even more out of the ordinary in these goodnights, with an excellent sudden turn after the goodnights end, where we get a parody of the series finale of the sitcom Newhart, with Bob waking up in bed with his TV wife and revealing the SNL episode we saw was just a dream. A classic move on SNL’s part.

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Season 20 continues to not completely suck, much to my pleasant surprise. The show’s been on a nice streak lately of episodes ranging from okay to great, and tonight’s episode was particularly strong. It was even better than I had remembered it being from past viewings. Some really high-quality sketches tonight, especially in the post-Update half, and the episode was capped off by a classic post-goodnights bit. There was only one thing all night that I flat-out disliked (Baywatch). Bob Newhart was a wonderful host, and the writers accommodated his comedic style perfectly by writing him into sketches where his trademark delivery fit like a glove. His style of humor dominating the night probably explains why this was such a strong season 20 episode.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (David Hyde Pierce)
a mild step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
OH NO. I spoke too soon about my pleasure in how season 20’s not completely sucking lately. Our next episode is DEION FUCKING SANDERS. Get ready for the mother of all trainwrecks, folks.