Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NEW RATING SYSTEM
John Cleese & Michael Palin [real] explain SNL’s sketch ratings system
— Palin and Cleese!
— Already starting off funny with the applause bit.
— Ah, that’s right, this was back when the TV ratings system was a new thing.
— I love Lorne saying about SNL, in regards to his children, “I don’t want them watching this crap.”
— I love this concept, and there’s a lot of laughs from the content rating for sketches, complete with a clip demonstrating each type of sketch.
— Considering how quickly tired I’ve gotten of Goat Boy’s one-note childish shtick while doing these reviews, I particularly enjoyed the dig about Goat Boy not being suitable for anyone over the age of 14.
— Another particularly good laugh, with the “gratuitous, unnecessary, mild vomiting” bit.
— I love the rating for if Chris Farley ever returns to host: “May contain portions of fat man’s ass”, demonstrated with a clip of Farley’s infamous accidental mooning from a notorious UFO sketch.
STARS: ****½
MONOLOGUE
while host sings, on-screen text says that he really is a psycho
— Ah, they’re doing the old “Buck Henry onscreen text monologue” gimmick. I always find this type of monologue to be a fun throwback.
— The onscreen text in tonight’s monologue is like a more violent, psychotic version of the monologue they did when Bill Murray hosted in season 18.
— Some particularly funny lines from the onscreen text so far, especially the mention of Kevin’s demand for a separate dressing room for his split personality “The Bad Kevin”, and the mention of an incident in which Kevin stuck a gun in Norm’s mouth.
— Needless to say, Kevin’s real-life ruined reputation in more modern days puts this monologue into a bit of a different light in retrospect, but I’m still enjoying it.
STARS: ***½
THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
repetition dominates the program
— Hell yeah! The debut of Norm’s David Letterman impression!
— “Uh… y-ya got any gum???”
— Such a hilarious Letterman impression from Norm.
— I love the spoof of the typical banter Letterman always has with Paul Shaffer, the latter being played perfectly by Mark.
— The violent coughing fit that Norm’s Letterman has laughed himself into is absolutely slaying me.
— The first of MANY funny and spot-on celebrity impressions from Kevin Spacey tonight.
— A pricelessly random and pointless “Can You Sell Me a Hot Dog” segment.
— Every single thing about this overall sketch was absolutely perfect to me. A goofy little masterpiece.
STARS: *****
MARIJUANA DOCTOR
easy-to-get prescriptions show potential danger of medical marijuana laws
— Hilarious turn with Kevin casually prescribing Will “two huge bags of weed”. I also love Will’s confused reaction to that.
— Another great line, with Kevin recommending Darrell take “two huge bong hits”, a line made even funnier by Kevin’s fantastic delivery.
— I absolutely love Tracy’s performance as Kevin’s shady weed guy, a precursor to a running joke in Tracy’s later seasons about Tracy loving weed.
— Kevin is so perfect for this sketch. I love his execution of this material.
— Very funny walk-on from Michael Palin.
— During the direct-to-camera PSA turn at the end, I got a big laugh from Palin introducing himself as “Home Improvement star Tim Allen”.
— Funny PSA at the end about keeping pot on the streets “where it belongs”.
STARS: ****
STAR WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY HOME VIDEO
Star Wars 20th anniversary re-release contains unsuccessful screen tests
— Yes! Here comes a now-legendary SNL piece.
— The first of many pre-taped movie screen test sketches that SNL has done over the years, and to this day, the best one. No matter how many of these screen tests pieces SNL will continue to do, they’ll probably never top these Star Wars ones.
— Darrell never fails to crack me up as an angrily-ranting Richard Dreyfuss.
— I love that they’re letting Kevin do various impressions in this. He is simply incredible here with this great Christopher Walken and Walter Matthau.
— Looking forward to seeing Part 2 of this later in tonight’s episode.
STARS: *****
JANET RENO’S DANCE PARTY
Janet Reno (WIF) insists on hoofing to “My Sharona”
— Tonight’s episode is on a freakin’ roll.
— I absolutely love the very random concept of this sketch. This sketch is killer right from the opening visual of Will’s Janet Reno dancing wildly to “My Sharona” among a huge group of teens in a basement.
— I’m always down for an appearance from SNL writer Frank Sebastiano (the second above screencap for this sketch). Dude looks hilarious.
— I love Kevin as Donna Shalala.
— A great running bit with Will’s Reno refusing to dance to any song that’s not “My Sharona”.
STARS: *****
STAR WARS 20TH ANNIVERSARY HOME VIDEO
more Star Wars screen tests by celebrities who didn’t appear in the film
— Norm’s Burt Reynolds is always a riot.
— Kevin is absolutely priceless as a foul-mouthed, uncooperative Jack Lemmon.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM asks Courtney Love (MOS) about her role in The People vs. Larry Flynt
— Did Norm blow his voice out during the Letterman sketch earlier tonight? He sounds hoarse during this Update.
— I definitely like Molly’s Courtney Love impression better as an Update correspondent than as the host of her own talk show. She’s really cracking me up here.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Where It’s At”
MONKEY LAB
Mr. Peepers refuses to behave for laboratory assistant (WIF)
— The streak of greatness tonight comes to a bit of a halt, as we get the return of a one-time funny Chris Kattan bit that won’t work as a recurring sketch.
— I will say that Kevin is a fantastic straight man to Mr. Peepers; better than Tom Hanks was in the first installment of this sketch. Kevin is making this installment fun.
— An amusing and disgusting visual of Mr. Peepers sucking on Will’s face.
— Wow, the sketch is already over. They were wise to keep this sketch short, and this ended up being better than I thought it would be.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- superheroes Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush foil a plot
— The debut of The X-Presidents.
— I love each president’s one-liner before hitting a villain, especially Jimmy Carter saying “I have lusted in my heart… to kick your ass.”
— Between the Ambiguously Gay Duo and now this, Robert Smigel has a knack for making entertaining parodies of animated superhero cartoons.
— I love the jolly 1970s-esque musical at the end.
STARS: ***½
THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Al Pacino (host) & Rodney Dangerfield (DAH)
— Another very funny impression from Kevin, as his Al Pacino is cracking me up and he’s giving a strong performance.
— Very funny delivery from Kevin of the line “What am I, cock-a-roach?”
— I absolutely love Darrell’s Rodney Dangerfield impression. It’s especially funny seeing it a few episodes after the real Rodney appeared on SNL.
STARS: ***½
DEAD PARROT
Mr. Praline (John Cleese) returns dead parrot to (Michael Palin)’s shop
— A re-enactment of a legendary Monty Python sketch. This re-enactment is notorious for inexplicably receiving complete silence from the audience, from what I’ve been told.
— Well, we at least get recognition applause early on when the audience realizes what sketch they’re in for.
— Hmm, am I watching a different show than the one that people claimed the audience was dead in? The audience has been laughing just fine during this sketch so far. Not quite as hard as they should be laughing, but they’re not dead at all.
— Okay, I’m noticing that the audience’s laughter is getting more and more mild as the sketch goes on. Still not quite as bad as I had heard their reaction to this sketch was.
— I do have to wonder, why are Palin and Cleese re-enacting this Dead Parrot script anyway? This re-enactment is kinda fun, but also feels kinda unnecessary. I’d rather have seen Palin and Cleese perform a new Python-esque piece.
STARS: Not quite sure what to give this. The original Monty Python version would get an undisputed *****, and while I enjoyed this re-enactment, it didn’t come remotely close to measuring up to the original, so I’m afraid I’ll have to give it ***.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Devil’s Haircut”
HOME SECURITY
home security technician (host) tires of Mrs. Attebury’s (ANG) stories
— The debut of what would go on to be a now-obscure Ana Gasteyer recurring sketch that I had completely forgotten about until now. Thinking back on it, I remember never caring much for this character of Ana’s. We’ll see how I react to her now.
— I’m now a minute-and-a-half into this sketch, and yeah, this is as weak as I had remembered. Ana’s character is doing nothing for me. Mark’s deadpan interjections as her disinterested husband are providing some amusement, though.
— My slowburn towards this sketch is starting to mirror Kevin’s impatient facial expressions in this.
— Wow, a sudden turn with Kevin going on an insane violent rant.
— I love Kevin’s angry threat to “shoot crystal meth into my thigh and go caveman on you! (*thrusts hips*)”, only to playfully reveal he was only kidding around just to get a word in edgewise.
STARS: **½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— This is a highly-regarded episode among SNL fans, and it’s easy to see why. This was a very strong episode, mainly the first half, which was PHENOMENAL. One classic segment after another, pretty much. Things slowed down in the second half, but it was still good, and the overall show is a keeper. Kevin Spacey was an outstanding host, working well in every single sketch, having great comic timing, and displaying a countless number of hilarious celebrity impressions. He even managed to make an unnecessary sequel to Mr. Peepers work, and managed to almost singlehandedly save the Home Security sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rosie O’Donnell)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
David Alan Grier
Man I love this episode. I must have rewatched those Star Wars Auditions over 500 times over the years. This episode is so good that I didn’t even remember the dumb Dead Parrot reenactment was in it. I always wish they would have had Spacey host again, he really was perfect for the show during that era.
An absolute gem of an episode. Letterman was one of the most perfectly executed sketches I’ve ever seen. Norm’s mannerisms were spot on while he and Mark absolutely nailed the banter between Letterman and Shaffer. Of course, they’d bring it back with Alec Baldwin later in the season (decent, but not nearly as good as the original) and with Jon Lovitz in Season 23 (the less said about that one, the better).
And if that wasn’t classic enough, we got the Star Wars auditions. I’ve never got into Star Wars, but you don’t need to be a fan to find them hysterical
I was a compulsive nightly Letterman watcher from roughly 1993-96 and a big Norm fan, so these sketches for me – even the Baldwin and Lovitz ones were an oasis in the screechy recurring-character desert of S22-23.
To this day, I can’t hear the name Marv Albert and not think of Lovitz announcing to Norm’s Letterman, “My appetite for unconventional sex knows no bounds! YES!!”
Maybe the “Live” Version of the Dead Parrot sketch got all the laughs, but any/all subsequent reruns of it (including online) has a noticeable difference in reaction:
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/dead-parrot/n10933
I also loved the Letterman sketches… Norm wanted to do a bit where he ran outside of the studio and then ran around the block for no reason before re-entering the studio out of breath. I heard this on his podcast or perhaps another podcast he was on… It seems like late night talk shows would still be a goldmine of satire for the show. Are they really afraid of offending Fallon and Myers? Btw McKinney was a much better Schaffer than Kattan; he seemed more committed or believable in the role somehow or perhaps the writing was better…
I’m gonna give an unpopular opinion and say the audience wasn’t in the wrong for not laughing during Dead Parrot. Those two guys were long past their primes and this live version just wasn’t very good. Lorne never should have tried to recreate something like that on live TV. It was a mistake.
Yeah, this seemed like a very phoned-in take on the Dead Parrot sketch. The audience reacts in the way that one might react to a well-liked but still unhip relative cracking some jokes at a family party. I also wonder if the audience wondered if another shoe might drop, like if another recurring character might enter.
I would have liked to see Palin and Cleese co-host together during this era, rather than just reenact Dead Parrot here.
Kevin Spacey may be a creep, but he sure is a talented impressionist!
I normally separate performer from whatever but for some reason maybe because ai am such a fan of Anthany Rapp but I can’t do it and I found watching this episode hard to enjoy. But I didn’t hate it either. Just not a favorite it was ok.
The availability of Cleese and Palin is explained by the then-upcoming release of “Fierce Creatures,” the follow-on to “A Fish Called Wanda,” in which the two appeared. Among other appearances, Cleese had appeared on Conan O’Brien’s show (then done in 30 Rock’s Studio 6A) earlier in the week to promote the film.
I kinda liked the Home Security sketch as a one-off, not unlike Ana’s “Wo-not” character she would do a few shows later and also needlessly make recurring.
Wanted to add to the chorus that the Late Show sketch is probably SNL’s most nuanced and pointed TV satire and a testament to Norm’s oft-overlooked skill as an impressionist. No one has quite captured Letterman’s essence the way Norm does here. In fact, I can’t think of too many SNL impressions that capture their subjects on an almost spiritual level like this one. Big talk, but I mean it.
Also, big disagree on the home security sketch. It’s a small piece in a big episode, but it’s probably one of Ana’s finest characterizations and a big reason why I hold her in such high esteem. She also does a singer character where she passive aggressively berates her band that I think is similarly fabulous in its low-key sharpness. Mark gives a terrific performance as well as the checked out husband. Not a big laffer, but a fine piece of character work and a welcome edition to a juggernaut episode.
Deandra. Ana has talked about her several times in interviews over the years (she said that she has a painting of herself as Deandra [done for a sketch] in her home, and also that a Deandra Christmas sketch was the worst she bombed on SNL).
Great episode…kinda surprised they never had Kevin Spacey host again in this era (I think his next stint was 2006 or something). Spacey had a great talent for comedy and impressions…his Walter Matthau is absolutely hilarious.
Even though I am a big fan of Ana Gasteyer…I do not like her Ms. Atterbury…it’s very annoying and abrasive. I guess that’s kind of the point with her character, but I just don’t find it funny.
The Joe Pesci iteration in this episode is kind of weird. All of the impressions are top-notch…but no one really seems to be committing to the bit. It has a very routine, by-the-book feel to it. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, maybe Jim Breuer kind of got tired of doing it, I dont know…
There was nothing left of the sketches, as was the cast for many of the recurring characters from 95-96 by this point. They had two very good sketches they could have ended on (Carrey, Hartman). Instead this comes back for a filler.
I also thought Spacey, who did pretty well in most of his impressions, badly overacted this one.
The cold open is probably my favorite part of this episode. Cleese and Palin still have that old chemistry and timing, and it’s fun to see Lorne participating in the comedy rather than just being the straight man.
Spacey was, as a host, very charismatic and commanding (if overly aggressive at times). I think his best performance was the annoying Ana sketch at the end. I agree with those who think it worked this time but shouldn’t have been recurring.
Norm used to tell a story about Cheri not knowing the parrot sketch, which is probably my main thought on this reprisal (no criticism toward Cheri on my part if she didn’t know it – that was 30 years earlier, after all).
The poor recurring segments weigh the episode down but not significantly.
I’ve had Ana’s Streisand bit from that pre-tape in my head for years. So funny.
Mark’s understated performances in the Letterman and annoying Ana sketches make them work as well as they do. He adds a gravitas to this cast that I’m going to miss.
Beck’s performance of “Where It’s At” is an absolute banger, made even better by his presumably unintended decision to do it in a Harry Caray voice…
I forgot to mention this being the first appearance of the X-Presidents. X-Presidents was one of those segments I could watch easily enough but felt was overused. They also became needlessly over-sexual, as TV Funhouse did in general. I think these earlier, tamer ones are probably the best.
Kevin Spacey actually got his start as an aspiring standup/impressionist prior to attending Julliard – sort of the opposite of Robin Williams, who started seriously doing standup after his Julliard graduation!
I was at this dress rehearsal. Cheri Oteri had a character I LOVED (and I’m sure many would just find annoying) – she was in a big puffy pink party dress – totally whacked out – hosting a party in which she acted like hundreds of guests were at – and Kevin & Ana show up and enter the party, all the while Cheri is still bouncing off the walls – yelling at people and trying to keep it all under control. Kevin & Ana were confused by her behavior. If you love(d) Cheri (I do) – this was a great character. Somehow, never made it to air.
Thanks for the details. I wish that had aired. Sounds like fun.
Here’s my review of the musical performances
Where It’s At
–Nice dancing by Beck to get things going, he’s obviously super excited to be here.
–Great outfits by the entire band. love the cowboy look of the drummer and the orange jump suit on the keyboardist
–They’re doing a great job of mimicking some of the studio trickery, and working a bit of it in to the instrumentation.
–The expertly choreographed dancing by the band is reminding me of the David Bowie 1979 performance I reviewed. So nice to have a strong visual component with the music in this setting.
–Love the little shuffle Beck and his bassist and guitarist are doing along with the keyboard solo
–Great job by the keyboardist on the solos, btw, at the end of the song.
–Also an excellent job by the drummer, he’s compensating well for the lack of studio wizardry with some creative fills
–Extremely high degree of difficulty to reproduce a song that is so dependent on samples live, but they really knocked it out of the park here. Love when a band can successfully interpret a studio-heavy song live.
STARS: ****1/2
Devil’s Haircut
–Once again, great coordination between Beck and his guitarist and bassist on their on-stage pivots
–LOL at Beck’s brief dance break which looks like a combination of Jagger and Byrne
–Again the drummer is doing a rock solid job
–Yeah, love the screams he’s doing at the end of the chorus, well done!
–So much energy from Beck and his band, great choice for a late night program.
STARS: ****1/2