Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
DEBATE PREP
Bob Dole (NOM) prepares to debate Bill Clinton; David L. Lander cameo
— I love Norm’s Dole inexplicably responding “No!” to the question about what programs he will institute to reach out to minorities.
— A good laugh from Norm’s Dole forcing Will to do a Ross Perot impression for his amusement.
— I like how Norm’s Dole is now forcing Will and Mark to do other celebrity impressions.
— A funny casual reveal of “Squiggy” being one of the panelists at the Clinton/Dole debate.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Mark McKinney’s new photo from the opening montage of the preceding week’s season premiere (first screencap below) has ALREADY been changed to a different photo (second screencap below).
MONOLOGUE
host describes her fantasy one-night stand with SNL
— An okay premise with Lisa’s teenage fantasy about having a one-night stand with a personified SNL. A few laughs here.
STARS: ***
CARIBBEAN ESSENCE BATH OIL
Caribbean Essence Bath Oil literally lifts you up & takes you away
— A big laugh from a dreadlocked, soap suds-covered Tracy Morgan rising from Molly’s bathtub out of nowhere.
— I love Tracy’s delivery of “Come, bathe with me.”
— Overall, a pretty funny commercial for what was Tracy’s very first big role.
STARS: ***½
SINGLED OUT
Mary Katherine Gallagher looks for love amongst Generation X
— Of all the Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, I think this is the only one I’ve never seen before.
— An interesting topical setting for Mary Katherine Gallagher.
— The various statements that Tim cheers into the camera are hilarious, and are giving me more laughs than anything else in this sketch. I think I’d enjoy this sketch more if I was familiar with the show “Singled Out”.
— For once, the monologue that MKG performs is actually a song.
— The obligatory MKG pratfall felt odd and really forced this time.
— I like Will telling MKG “I just saw your underwear, I think I’m in love.”
STARS: **½
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
air traffic controller Suel Forrester “helps” stewardess (host) land
— As I said in an earlier review, I’m always a sucker for Suel Forrester. I also like how he has a different occupation in each installment.
— Funny little touch with Forrester erasing one small specific part of his unreadable chalkboard scribbling and correcting it.
— Amusing ending, and one of the rare times a newspaper headline ending worked for me.
STARS: ***½
TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Ross Perot & Larry King ramble
— Our very first “Fun With Real Audio” edition of TV Funhouse.
— The caricature drawings of Ross Perot and especially Larry King are amusing.
— I love the increasingly odd situations that Perot and King are shown in while serious real-life audio of them having a normal conversation is being played. The whole bit with the giant bug in particular is what would go on to be trademark Smigel humor in these TV Funhouse cartoons.
— During the TV Funhouse closing credits tonight, Lorne says to the dog he’s fighting with “Give… me… back… my… show!” instead of what we would later become familiar with hearing him say in the TV Funhouse closing credits: “Leggo my show! Leggo… my… show!”
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Bill Clinton (DAH) likes Independence Day’s “dead First Lady” plot
— You can ALREADY tell that Darrell-as-Clinton’s “Independence Day” review is going to go in the exact same direction as his “The American President” review from the preceding season, as soon as he’s mentioned the president’s wife in “Independence Day” getting killed.
— Yep, I was right about the direction of the Clinton commentary. (*yawn*) Predictable. Not caring for this lazy reprise.
— Darrell’s Clinton continues to gradually develop into the version that everyone today is familiar with, with Darrell now debuting the “laughs out loud then suddenly puts on a straight face” mannerism.
STARS: **** (mostly just for Norm)
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If It Makes You Happy”
SINGLE AND LOVING IT
joyologist Helen (MOS) claims to enjoy manlessness
— Uh-oh. The debut of Molly’s joyologist character, Helen “I love it, I love it, I love it!” Madden, a character I’ve always found INSUFFERABLE. Interestingly, though, she has a different last name in this installment.
— Feels odd seeing Helen Madden in a non-Pretty Living sketch (Pretty Living is the recurring sketch that she would go on to regularly appear in). I believe she also makes one other non-Pretty Living appearance, in the following season’s Samuel L. Jackson episode, before the Pretty Living sketches make their debut.
— A few minutes into this sketch, and I haven’t found much to laugh at here.
— Okay, I did get a laugh just now from Lisa being called out on how sad it is that she gets joy out of drawing herself into her favorite Cathy cartoon.
— Surprisingly, Molly’s characterization of Helen Madden is much lower-key here than it would later go on to be. There’s no endless repetition of “I love it!”, nor is there an excessive amount of exaggerated leg-kicking or leg gyrations. Why couldn’t her characterization always stay this low-key?
STARS: **
RANDOLPH HOTEL
five-star hotel bellmen (JMB), (CHK), (WIF) destroy guests’ luggage
— A simplistic premise, but I’m finding it pretty funny so far.
— Heh, when Chris throws a suitcase behind him without looking, he unknowingly smashes a light fixture in the background (the third above screencap for this sketch).
— When Ana walked on in that wig and started speaking, I actually mistook her for the recently-fired Nancy Walls until I saw her face. I guess I haven’t gotten used to not seeing Nancy on the show anymore.
— Okay, this sketch is starting to get kinda old and one-note.
— Okay, now they’re winning me back over with the sequence with all three bellhops simultaneously throwing and swinging around the luggage while standing in a circle. It’s just a very funny visual.
— Has Mark McKinney played a single comedic role this season so far? I’m pretty sure he’s only been used in dull straight man roles in the two episodes of this season so far, which is sadly an accurate sign of the direction his SNL tenure ends up going during this season in general.
STARS: ***
WYMINS POETRY NIGHT
Mickey The Dyke (CHO) emcees Wymins Poetry Night at a lesbian bar
— Another female-oriented sketch tonight featuring only the female cast? I sure hope this is better than that Single And Loving It sketch.
— Ana’s poem with various “men” puns is making me laugh.
— Cheri’s Mickey The Dyke is great as the emcee in this.
— Interesting husky, whispery voice on Molly.
— Strange how this is the second sketch tonight with a character doing a voice impression of Jack Nicholson, hand over forehead and all.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Is A Good Thing”
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode)
EX-CONVICT WAITER
ex-con waiter Gene (COQ) harasses a dining couple (host) & (MAM)
— Colin attempts a new character, which does end up becoming recurring, though he only comes back one time, in the following season’s Nathan Lane episode.
— Colin is funny in this sketch, especially him trying to make amends to Mark by offering him to go outside and smoke a joint with him.
— I like Jim’s exasperated reactions at the end of the sketch.
STARS: ***½
BRIEF HISTORIES
explosives ensured the success of George Ferris’ Wheel
— Brief Histories from the the preceding week’s season premiere officially becomes a recurring segment, though it ends up being VERY short-lived. In fact, I think tonight’s edition is the final one.
— This is a bit different from the first one, as we now get to hear interview voice-overs from other people besides the narrator.
— This edition of Brief Histories is even funnier than the first one. I’m getting a lot of laughs from all the absurdist humor here.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very average and unexciting episode. Not terrible or anything, but there was barely anything in it that I’ll remember in the future. Hell, even now, right after I just watched and reviewed the episode, I’m having a hard time remembering half the sketches. I do appreciate that they heavily scaled back the number of recurring sketches after the excessive amount of them in the preceding week’s season premiere, but there still isn’t much to brag about tonight. Between the not-too-great season premiere and tonight’s overly average episode, this season hasn’t exactly been off to a thrilling start.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Hoo, boy. Things aren’t looking up for the unexciting start to this season, as Bill Pullman is the next episode. I recall that being a somewhat rough episode for this era’s standards.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that Kudrow’s monologue draws some sort of parallel/inspiration to the time she dated (then SNL Writer) Conan O’Brien. Not 100% mind you; but I mean, if ever there was an apt metaphor for “Dating” a personification of the show, that’s about as close as you could get, right?
Nteresting that each of the Friend cast hosts in 4 consecutive seasons.
Cox in s 20
Schwimmer in s 21
Kudrow in s 22
Perry in s 23
Streak is then broken because Aniston doesn’t host until s 25
I’m still a little surprised they never fit LeBlanc in.
SNL has a weird “all but one” rule. Everyone on “Seinfeld” has hosted except Michael Richards. Everyone on “Friends” except Matt Leblanc. Everyone on “Party of Five” except Lacey Chabert. Everyone on “Will & Grace” except Debra Messing. It even applies to musical guests (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc.)
I liked Matthew Fox lampshading the “all but one” thing when he finally hosted for Lost instead of Party of Five.
Cheers as well. Cliff never hosted while pretty much everyone else did (during the Rebecca era) Rhea Perlman never hosted, but I’m pretty sure she at least appeared when Danny DeVito hosted.
Perlman co-hosted with DeVito in ’83-84.
The all but one rule is something I’ve talked about for a while for MTM Show, too: I was (until the late 90s, when internet episode guides piped up) convinced that Valerie Harper had hosted in season 11-12 or so. Obviously not the case… but that would have left Murray, who is also the only one not to win an Emmy for the show. But he had the most successful post-MTM series, so it worked out. But then what about Phyllis and Georgette (who only technically made recurring appearances)? For Cheers, I thought I read that Shelley Long was slated for season 9-10 but backed out due to being pregnant? She started at Second City, so that might have been a really fun episode. But then there’s Coach (who I can’t see hosting even if he’d lived).
If we’re just counting appearances (as opposed to hosting), All in the Family (Gloria) and Taxi (Bobby) also make the cut.
Given that Kudrow auditioned for SNL in 1990 and narrowly missed nabbing a cast slot, I’d’ve been interested to see her get a chance to carry at least one sketch as the comic lead. She must’ve had her own characters and impressions (or been capable to do some equivalent on SNL) from her days in the Groundlings.
Compared to Schwimmer, Perry, and Cox (I haven’t seen Aniston’s episodes or if I did I just zoned out of them), I think Kudrow managed to add her own comic voice onto a few sketches, as well as the monologue. I do wish we’d gotten more of a showcase, as well as a chance to see her more acidic humor that worked so well in Web Therapy and The Comeback. We did get a little glimpse of what might have been if she’d been a cast members. I’ve wondered a few times about how she might have fared compared to Julia Sweeney, who was so worn down by the culture. Probably not any better, but still…
They do let Perry do the sarcasm sketch with Norm though which fits his humor to a tee
That’s true. I suppose that type of sarcastic stuff is so SNL cookie cutter to me (mostly as leftovers from Spade and the early ’90s) it took a while to realize it was probably meant more specifically for Perry.
Kudrow actually said that most likely the reason she didn’t get picked for the SNL cast back then was that she really didn’t have many characters or impressions from her Groundlings days that could easily transfer to SNL-style sketches, whereas Julia Sweeney already had characters like Pat ready to go
This is the first Saturday TV Funhouse produced specifically for SNL. Barry Blitt previously designed a Christmas card for J.J. Sedelmaier, and it’s the first project the two work on together:
https://www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/a-grab-bag-of-happy-holidays-from-j-j-sedelmaier-productions/
Saturday TV Funhouse hardly ever works with a specific cartoonist to animate said cartoonist’s style. I think it remains just Blitt and Michael Kupperman, while SNL’s adaptation of Tony Millionaire’s Maakies is outside TV Funhouse’s umbrella. I admit I HATED this cartoon’s art style when I watched this episode in the 1990s. After ten-years-plus of largely “here’s a parody of what you/your kids watch, mostly in the Hanna-Barbera/Filmation/Ruby-Spears style”, I appreciate this more.
Thanks for the extra detail. I loved the animation style here – it reminded me of newspaper cartoons from a hundred years earlier.
The first two episodes of this season appeal to a more general audience instead of people like us who are comedy nerds (for lack of a better term). Both shows are filled with empty calories in the form of an almost endless stream of recurring characters in slightly different scenarios.
Regrettably, this is the worst of the six Friends hosted episodes.
1. Jennifer Aniston / Sting
2. Matthew Perry / Oasis
3. David Schwimmer / Natalie Merchant
T4 Courtney Cox / DMB
T4 Jennifer Aniston / Black Eyed Peas
6. Lisa Kudrow / Sheryl Crow
I always get a weird kick out seeing Mark’s Chris Hardwick impression because it makes him look like Scott Thompson from the KITH season 4 intro.
My main reaction to this era would probably be summed up at the Singled Out sketch – I went from sort of looking forward to a parody of a show that greatly annoyed me at the time (and was also pretty huge at this point) and seeing Kudrow get to jab at the ever-annoying Jenny McCarthy, to groaning when I realized it was going to be an MKG piece. I just couldn’t do it. Couldn’t watch. I probably would have skipped the Suel Forrester shout sketch as well if not for wanting to see Kudrow spoof the old routine about the flight attendant landing the plane. This one wasn’t too bad, fortunately.
I had no idea David Lander had two cameos on SNL. I guess he must have been well-liked backstage when he guested in Travolta’s episode. This was one of the more fun cold opens in a while, even if it felt very loose.
The monologue made me cringe (I suppose that was intentional) but at least was another glimpse into Lisa’s style of humor instead of a generic routine.
The fake ad would have been a little funnier 5-10 years earlier, during the “Calgon take me away” era, but Tracy shows his charisma in an early role.
Most of my entertainment came post-Update. The talk show and poetry house sketches weren’t particularly funny, but were a rare chance to see the very different comic stylings of Ana, Lisa, Cheri and Molly on display. We didn’t get this when Nancy Walls was in the cast – the closest was the Gail Lafferty sketches where Molly and Cheri were in supporting roles. I wish we had. The poetry house sketches also have one of my very favorite Molly characters. To this day I still say “Nataliewoodnataliewoodnataliewoodnataliewood” to myself sometimes.
The bellboy sketch was good mindless physical fun, helped by how much everyone committed to throwing around those bags. No breaking up here, even though it would have been very easy to do so.
I always like seeing Colin in sketches – this one was fine but not one we haven’t seen a million times before and after.
The Brief Encounter was very good – much better and more thought out than the one in the premiere. Everything worked, from the subject matter to the different voices to the photos chosen. I’m sorry they never did anymore – too much effort, I suppose.
I forgot to say how much I love that Norm did a joke about godawful “claptor” about 20 years before that really became a thing. Someone needs to get that circulating.
Oddly this was the first of two episodes this season where the host impersonates Jenny McCarthy. Kudrow here and then Pam Anderson later in the season. You really don’t see that too often
The David L. Lander cameo here is so random! Does anyone know why this happened? Was he a friend of Kudrow or someone on the show? Was there a Laverne & Shirley reunion/revitalization I was unaware of? He didn’t seem to be promoting anything at the time and he hadn’t gone public with his MS yet. Given that his buddy McKean had been let go after a poor experience, it makes it even more confusing why he’d want to appear. That said, it was good to see him and I’ve heard nothing but good things about him behind the scenes, so perhaps it was just a case of his being in town and available?
McKean has said over the years that he didn’t have a bad time at SNL, so I guess that wouldn’t have factored in Lander’s decision.
Here’s a clean upload of the TV Funhouse sketch:
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