Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
PRESS CONFERENCE
Janet Reno (WIF) defends herself in Bill Clinton (DAH) press conference
— I love Will’s Janet Reno suddenly taking over Darrell-as-President-Clinton’s press conference.
— The “straight talk” from Will’s Reno is providing good laughs.
— I like Clinton’s little “I didn’t need ’em anyway” line when Reno takes away his crutches.
— This is the very first instance of Ana playing Helen Thomas in a press conference sketch, which would go on to be a running thing.
— Good ending with Reno making Mark’s Wolf Blitzer sit on her back as she does sit-ups.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
in an attempt to calm her nerves, host takes off some of her clothing
— A fairly thin joke, which isn’t necessarily hilarious, but this isn’t bad.
STARS: ***
DARNETTE DISPOSABLE TOILETS
Rerun from 12/14/96
BAYWATCH
at a beach volleyball tourney, Craig & Arianna cheer & rescue C.J. (host)
— Kinda amusing hearing the Cheerleaders make a Spice Girls reference in the episode right after the Spice Girls were musical guests on the show.
— So far, this feels a little weaker than most Cheerleaders sketches.
— Okay, Craig and Arianna’s pre-taped slow-motion running while the Baywatch theme plays is pretty funny.
STARS: **½
BIOGRAPHY
Tiger Woods (TIM) & controlling father Earl (TRM) are profiled
— I love Darrell’s impression of a buzzed Jack Perkins.
— The contrast between Tracy and Tim’s interviews is really humorous, and both of them are having lots of funny lines all throughout this.
STARS: ****
THE ROXBURY GUYS
Roxbury Guys pursue (host) from the dance club to the health club
— Meh, this sketch once again…
— Feels weird seeing a Roxbury Guys sketch without a third Roxbury Guy, for the first time since these characters’ debut in the season 21 Phil Hartman-hosted episode, before they became hit characters.
— Funny turn with the the power in the dance club suddenly going out, forcing Will and Chris’ characters to speak actual dialogue for the first time ever in a Roxbury Guys sketch.
STARS: **½
MOVIE SHOOT
on host’s movie set, jealous hubby Tommy (NOM) can’t fathom make-believe
Tommy Lee [real] doesn’t understand that skit is make-believe
— Hilarious odd casting of Norm as Tommy Lee. I’m liking him in this role.
— The repetitive premise is getting a little weak.
— An okay turn with the real Tommy Lee crashing the sketch.
STARS: **½
TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo teaches safety tips to kids
— Ah, a change of pace for The Ambiguously Gay Duo, with them giving safety tips.
— Ace and Gary’s various suggestive postures during their helpful tips are very funny, as are the reactions from the kids.
— A particularly funny suggestive posture just now, when it looks like Gary is giving Ace a BJ while Ace is driving.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
— Ha, the Arnold Schwarzenegger heart surgery joke made absolutely no sense to me, but I laughed anyway just because of Norm’s delivery and his response to the audience.
— When flubbing the set-up of a joke, Norm says an exaggerated “Oh, drat”, possibly as a tongue-in-cheek reference to his famous f-bomb in the preceding episode.
— Somebody in the audience boos Norm’s typical prison anal rape joke.
— When doing a “Note to self” just now, Norm makes a direct reference to his f-bomb incident, by starting to say into his tape recorder “If I get fired for cursing on the air last week…”
— Oddly, this is the second Update in a row to have no guest commentaries.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Starve”
HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
Jenny McCarthy (host) & David Lee Roth (CHK)
— (*groan*) Not this again. However, they at least waited a long time since the last installment of this sketch, which was way back in October of this season.
— What the…? Is that Tom Davis as one of the two scientists in the background? (screencap below)
I thought Tom Davis left SNL after season 20. [ADDENDUM: Tom was credited as a guest writer during this episode’s goodnights. No idea what he guest wrote, though.]
— Chris’ David Lee Roth impression is cracking me up.
— Pamela’s Jenny McCarthy impression is much harsher than the tame one Lisa Kudrow did earlier this season.
— Goat Boy continues to do nothing for me, but the out-of-control wildness from McCarthy and Roth is at least taking this installment into a bit of a different direction, even if it’s still not all that funny.
— I did get a laugh from the ending with Pamela’s Jenny McCarthy running face-first into the camera and knocking herself out.
STARS: **½
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB
sycophantic guests say what Oprah (TIM) wants to hear
— The debut of Tim’s Oprah impression.
— Tim’s take on Oprah is basically just a stereotypical, generic black woman impression, but it’s still making me laugh.
— For once tonight, Pamela actually plays against type.
— This feels like the first time all night we’re seeing some of the female cast members, though I just now remembered that some of them had a small role way back in the cold opening.
— This sketch is kinda weird so far. Some parts are making me laugh, but I’m not finding this too great.
— I like Cheri trying to hide the fact that she obviously didn’t read the book.
— So much for Pamela playing against type. This sketch ends with her (along with the other characters) naked in a hot tub.
STARS: **½
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King’s (NOM) News & Views range from the trite to the bizarre
— Another celebrity impression makes its debut tonight: Norm’s Larry King, which I’m always a sucker for, especially in these News & Views sketches.
— When Norm’s Larry King says “Sometimes I wonder if giving women the right to vote wasn’t a huge mistake”, you can hear a male audience member mutter “Yeaahhh” in agreement.
— King’s various one-liners into the different cameras are killing me.
STARS: ****
THE FIRST ANNUAL PAMELA LEE INVITATIONAL NASCAR RALLY
host’s cleavage causes accidents at her Invitational NASCAR Rally
— A thin premise, but the voice-overs from the racers in the crashing cars are kinda funny.
STARS: **½
LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) offers more News & Views
— Yes, a Part 2 of this!
— Overall, this was shorter and not quite as funny as the first one, but still gave me good laughs.
STARS: ***½
THE TWILIGHT ZONE
in the eyes of her pig-faced beholders, (host) is hot
— This sketch has an interesting backstory regarding Norm and Chris, which Jim has talked about on various shows, including Howard Stern’s radio show. The story is too lengthy for me to go into detail about here, and I don’t have enough time to dig up a YouTube link of Jim telling the story, but somebody in the comments section can probably help out.
— Not a very creative or particularly funny twist on the famous pig-faces episode of The Twilight Zone, especially during a night that’s ALREADY been filled with “Pamela Lee is so hot” sketches.
— It is nice to see so much Norm in tonight’s episode, though.
STARS: **
SENSE OF HUMOR
on a first date, (CHK) pretends to like knockout (host)’s sense of humor
— Chris has been in practically every single sketch tonight. Probably a result of his habit of always trying too hard to flirt with hot female guests behind the scenes and write sketches that are just an excuse for him to make out with said guests (a habit of Chris’ which is talked about during Jim’s aforementioned Norm/Chris story regarding the Twilight Zone sketch).
— Did Pamela screw up her “Hey, McDonalds, I’m McOut of here” joke? It sounds like she forgot to add the “Mc” before “Out”, which caused Chris’ reaction to that joke to not make much sense.
— I’ve been complaining about a lot of tonight’s sketch premises, and here’s yet another complaint: this sketch’s premise feels like a thin variation of an earlier blind date sketch with Elle MacPherson. That sketch itself wasn’t too good, but this one is even worse.
— Weak ending.
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A subpar episode. I was underwhelmed by most of the sketches and premises, especially in the post-Update half. Not much in this episode stood out as truly good. Some would say that a weak episode should’ve been expected with Pamela Lee as a host, which may be true, but I personally think that other good eras of SNL could’ve done much more with her or worked around her limitations better. Tonight’s episode, on the other hand, felt like the writers didn’t even try with her.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rob Lowe)
a big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode
This episode isn’t good, but I always thought Pamela seemed like a pretty good sport. Especially for someone who never really did any comedy. She comes off a lot more likable than most hot girl flavors of the month do on SNL.
Here’s Jim telling the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rFu_u71gas
He goes into the backstory with Kattan and lady hosts, too, which is usually cut out on the other videos I’ve seen of this on YT.
As for the episode itself, I agree with both Stooge (it was weak) and Mario Lanza (she seemed like a good sport). But I did enjoy the Tiger Woods sketch, WU (as usual), TV Funhouse … and even the movie shoot sketch had a goofy charm. But my favorite was the News & Views runner. Norm as Larry King is always gold.
If Jim ever started a podcast that was just telling Norm stories, I’d be the first to sign up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q2VhQ8r5Nc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqfPPKD-aV0
I love his Norm impression, really helps sell all the stories.
Here’s the press conference story they mention in the second clip:
I didn’t see any signs of shaking or stifled laughter that Jim mentioned in the video, lol.
My main memories of this episode from the repeats I watched were the cold open and the Tiger Woods sketch. My opinions have shifted over the years. I used to be more critical of the Janet Reno sketches because I felt like they were just making fun of her appearance, but now I realize they were going more for a cartoonish parody rather than outright cruelty (which they seemed to mostly save for Update…) and I can enjoy the physicality and chaos; meanwhile, the Tiger Woods sketch wasn’t as funny to me as it used to be – it just feels a bit obvious.
I thought Pamela was very game, not giving off the incompetent vibe of some ‘stunt’ hosts, or the sneering vibe of others. The show made a calculation that most viewers were only interested in her for two seasons – and they were probably right – but she shows some spark in sketches that she could have easily walked through, like the Roxbury Guys and Goat Boy. This is probably my favorite Goat Boy sketch – Kattan is a lot of fun, and Anderson’s very petty imitation of Jenny McCarthy is a hoot. I wish they’d ended it here.
I also wish they had left Tommy Lee out of the episode, as he just feels shoehorned in, makes it feel like a vanity episode, and his presence just in retrospect distracts from the comedy because you end up thinking about how toxic his relationship with Pam turned out to be.
The Oprah sketch is fun, although Molly could have toned it down (and the closeups of Tim as Oprah here are oddly terrifying).
This Update was one of those somewhat burned into my brain for late era Norm – lots of flat, awkward jokes, peppered with boos.
Have to agree with a lot of you, Pamela was pretty game and surprisingly likeable despite the episode overall not being anywhere near outstanding. I suppose it would be pretty easy to come off a little stuck up if a significant amount of the show was based around the fact you’re hot.
Loved Tracy as Earl Woods, particularly the “…back and forth, to and fro, all the livelong day” line. Tim played Tiger with the same kind of innocence that Tiger himself seemed to have at the time. Of course, we didn’t know about the issues that would arise later…
A few years after this episode, I was working at a music and video retailer. A co-worker and I would sometimes do an impression of Norm’s Larry King while putting out merchandise. On one occasion, the movie “Congo” was on top of a pile of DVDs, so one of us said in that voice “Congo is a great ape movie, but so is…Dunstan Checks In.”
Right around that time, some guy came up and asked for a job application. He ended up getting hired and later said he hadn’t intended on applying, but overheard us doing the impression he figured it was a fun place to work.
One of Henry Rollins’s books has his journal entries about this episode. From what I recall reading, he was pleasantly surprised by Pamela Lee’s attitude and professionalism and said Tommy Lee was cool to them too, and the band had two songs in dress but were cut to one song for the show.
I think this is the only AGD segment where a character says – point-blank – “you’re gay” to Ace and Gary, which only one of them is IIRC. Even there, I’m trying to remember where that’s revealed, and their sexual orientation is only half the joke of AGD segments. The wall-breaking “tip for your parents” was trimmed for the Best of Saturday TV Funhouse episode in 2006 IIRC, which is fine as it’s the weakest of the safety tips, but it’s still noticeable for those who remember the original segment.
I don’t understand the low IMDb rating for this episode. It’s a LAZY episode, and Pamela Anderson later leans into the camp with V.I.P. and Stripperella so she understands her comedic potential even if SNL’s stuck on “…she’s hot”. It’s a bad episode for this season, just not the fifth-worst episode ever.
Pam was promoting her recent Playboy issue here. She had just left Baywatch I believe. Kind of odd they didn’t get her to host when that show was super popular (like 94-96)
Wow Kattan in everything with Pam. The guy is coming of like a complete creep in retrospect
Drunken Jack Perkins was another underrated Hammond impression I had forgotten all about. We see him a couple more times the next season.
Pam was one of the more WTF host picks but she ends up being somewhat decent.. She’s the opposite of Raquel Welch.. imo her show was quite underwhelming on the last re-watch as she was just there for the attention and to look good, she was very boring. Pam to a point was underwhelming but she at least tried hard. She ended up giving a respectable performance most of the night and was far from boring. Also one of the few shows where Henry Rollins would fit in.. lol.
That sketch she did was a nice dig at Jenny McCarthy.. they had a rivalry back then. A lot of folks called Jenny a wanna be Pam and she lived it up and tried to do like she did with TV, Pam had none of it. Joke’s on Pam.. at least Jenny still looks good now lmao.
That Norm bit just kills me.. I’m sure Kattan was despised by a lot of folks but Norm had the nads to call him out lol.
The Nascar skit irritates me though.. they show complete ignorance to it all.. they couldn’t even get Colin close to looking like Dale Jarrett. Just makes the writers look stupid.. thankfully they did the Twilight Zone and King skits to make up for it.
I’m a pro wrestling nerd … Didnt Jenny and Pam also show up at WrestleMania that year?
Two years earlier. Wrestlemania 11 in 1995
They must’ve made up cause was on an episode of her show Stacked.
The crash footage in the NASCAR sketch is from the 1996 DieHard 500. This race was delayed to a Monday after being rained out on Sunday, but a number of large wrecks (specifically the one involving Dale Earnhardt and Sterling Marlin shown here) and approaching darkness forced it to end early.
This will be the Vintage repeat tomorrow night, presumably because it’s been close to 25 years since this episode.
Even if it’s far from this era’s strongest, I’m glad they’re finally showing older episodes for once. I have trouble calling content from 2012 “vintage”.
Just watched the Vintage. SHOCKED the Twilight Zone sketch wasn’t included.
Looking at the Saturday Net synopsis of this episode, I don’t think the TZ sketch appeared in Comedy Central or E’s cuts of this episode either.
Watching the episode in higher quality, I couldn’t help but notice that some of Norm’s Tommy Lee makeup was still visible by the time Update began . There were faint black spots around his eyes that made him look as if had been in a nasty bar fight.
The YouTube version of the “Sense of Humor” sketch seems to have fixed the “McOut of here” line. You can tell Pamela’s mouth doesn’t quite match the line, so she probably did forget the “Mc” part. It had me thinking about whether they clipped the audio from her saying “McDonald’s” earlier, or had her just record the “Mc” part later so they could add it in post.
SNL Vintage:
Cold Open
Monologue
Cheerleaders
Biography
Roxbury Guys
Update
Musical Performance
Hey, Remember the 80s
News & Views 2 ? (He didn’t mention Women Voting so I’m guessing the 2nd one)
Pam and Jenny would end up starring together in the opening of Scary Movie 3.