December 2, 2019 – The 'One SNL a Day' Project

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

NIGHTLINE
Deep Blue’s chess win has made Ted Koppel (DAH) technophobic

— Mark’s Bill Gates voice gets me every time. These are probably the last laughs that Mark will ever get on SNL, considering tonight ends up being his final episode.
— I love Will-as-the-Unabomber’s line about preferring to mail his response to Bill Gates.
— I’m enjoying Darrell-as-Koppel’s paranoid, agitated attitude throughout this sketch, due to his fear of technology taking over mankind. A change of pace from Darrell’s usual portrayal of Koppel.
— A big laugh from the name graphic for Garry Kasparov billing him as “A big ass” as we see a pouting Chris Kattan as Kasparov.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
JMB does dinosaur impressions in hopes that host can get him a job

— Accurate and funny dinosaur sounds from Jim so far.
— Feels rare to see Jim getting the spotlight as himself.
— Heh, Jim is like a little kid in this monologue with his actions. I remember finding him a little annoying in this monologue during past viewings, but I’m more tolerant of it now, even if it’s still nothing particularly great.
STARS: ***

BIG BRAWN
Rerun from 9/28/96

TEACHER’S LAST DAY
Mary Katherine Gallagher finds a soulmate in teacher (host)

— As is inevitable with a lot of recurring characters, we now get Mary Katherine Gallagher doing a “recurring character is paired with a person with similar traits, played by the host” sketch.
— Much like with Steven Tyler in MKG’s last appearance, MKG licks Jeff Goldblum’s body, though it’s only his midsection she licks, whereas she licked Steven Tyler from toe to head. I mentioned in my review of that Steven Tyler sketch that Molly disclosed in, I think, the “Live From New York” book that the NBC censors warned her not to lick Steven Tyler during the sketch, but now I’m thinking that she may have actually been talking about Jeff Goldblum in tonight’s MKG sketch and I probably misremembered it as being Steven Tyler who she talked about. I don’t have my copy of “Live From New York” available, so I can’t check.
— A decent double pratfall from both MKG and Jeff.
— Overall, this MKG installment had its charm, but ehh, I felt a little lukewarm on this sketch (and I’m usually a little more tolerant of Mary Katherine Gallagher than some other SNL fans are). This installment just didn’t interest me all that much.
STARS: **½

SPACE, THE INFINITE FRONTIER WITH HARRY CARAY
Harry Caray (WIF) & astrophysicist (host)

— The debut of a Harry Caray-hosted talk show sketch. Tonight’s installment is by far the most famous installment of this sketch, and I believe is widely considered the definitive appearance of Will’s Harry Caray.
— So far, this is an improvement over the already-funny appearances that Will’s Caray made prior to this. I love how this appearance from Will’s Caray is really doubling-down on the absurd non-sequitur statements and questions.
— A classic part with Caray asking Jeff if he would eat the moon if it was made of barbecue spare ribs.
— Non-stop laughs throughout this. This sketch is an absolute riot and is indeed deserving of its high status among SNL fans.
— Great ending line from Caray, regarding trying to get the dead Albert Einstein to be his next guest.
STARS: *****

TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- talk show trash is taken to the dump

— Interesting format with Sally Jesse Raphael’s show being created from horse defecation and regurgitation.
— A laugh from the overexaggerated size difference between a heavyset female guest and Sally Jesse Raphael.
— This feels weird for a Fun With Real Audio cartoon, but I’m enjoying this biting satire of trashy daytime talk shows from this era.
— I love how SNL’s studio audience can be heard groaning “Ohhh!” when a pile of garbage transforms into Johnnie Cochran. And, boy, did the animators make Cochran’s face look goofy and unflattering in this cartoon.
STARS: ****

GOTH TALK
Circe & Azrael welcome dark musician Count Feedback (host)

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— The phone-ringing bit is pretty funny.
— Jeff surprisingly looks right at home in that goth make-up.

— Jim and his obnoxious friends suddenly crashing Jeff’s dark music video is pretty funny, but this doesn’t hold a candle to the memorable video that Rob Lowe did as “The Beholder” in the preceding installment of this sketch.
— Man, the audience has been pretty dead during this sketch.
— Overall, a step down from the first installment of this sketch, but still okay.
STARS: ***

WEEKEND UPDATE
breaking the chain of violence has aided Lenny The Lion’s personal growth
In Their Own Words- kids’ letters to Bill Clinton have anti-GOP spin

— Surprised to see a third Lenny The Lion commentary on Weekend Update. I thought he only did two Update commentaries, both of which I already covered. This isn’t my favorite Colin Quinn recurring character, but this character has its merits.
— Tonight’s overall Lenny The Lion commentary actually had a solid first half, being better than the usual commentaries from him, but trailed off towards the end and whimpered to a finish.
— Didn’t care for Norm’s “In Their Own Words” segment.
— Boy, this is surprisingly the first in quite a long time that we’ve gotten a “Marion Barry loves crack” joke from Norm.
— Wow, and speaking of Norm bringing back an old running joke, we now get a “Germans love David Hasselhoff” joke for the first time since way back in season 20. Norm’s breakin’ out all the classics for tonight’s season finale. I wonder if this made SNL fans at the time speculate that this is possibly Norm’s final episode.
STARS: ***½

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Let Go”

KENNEDY KAPERS
Ted Kennedy (WIF) & relatives disgrace family name on game show

— I like the sudden gameshow reveal after such a serious beginning about the Kennedy family.
— Jim as William Kennedy Smith is good casting, as I do feel there’s somewhat of a resemblance between the two.
— Will’s Ted Kennedy impression is always worth some laughs.
— Some good tasteless humor with the running gag regarding Michael Kennedy’s preference for underage girls.
— Pretty funny speed round with the Kennedys trying to make JFK spin in his grave.
— An overall pretty fun gameshow sketch, but this didn’t feel as memorable as it should’ve been.
STARS: ***

LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) gives even more News & Views

— Hell yeah! Glad to see this back.
— As always, I’m laughing non-stop at Norm-as-Larry-King’s random opinionated one-liners into the different cameras.
STARS: ****

RANT
Janet Blaum’s ineffective invective dooms her attempt at unionization

— That looks like the same workshop set that was previously used in that awful Pacemaker sketch that David Spade did in the Bob Saget episode from season 20.
— The return of Ana’s Janet Blaum character. I liked the first installment of this sketch, but I can tell that this will not work as a recurring sketch.
— Yeah, Ana’s comically bad insults aren’t as funny this time, though as always, Ana’s pulling it off really well, like a true pro.
— I do like Ana’s clumsy attempt to stand on a chair that has wheels under the legs.
— I also like the bit right now with Ana making a sloppily-written “Unon” sign. Aside from that and the aforementioned chair bit, everything in this sketch is just a copy-and-paste of the script from the first installment of this sketch.
— Like the last time they did the sketch, Ana’s rant is going on too long.
STARS: **

VIC OCASEK’S ROCK & ROLL FANTASY CAMP
Rock & Roll Fantasy Camp of Ric Ocasek’s cousin Vic (host) has has-beens

— I like the photos of campers with has-been rock stars. And in one of the photos, we get a Frank Sebastiano sighting (the heavyset, bearded, long-haired, biker-looking SNL writer), which is always a plus in my book. Speaking of Sebastiano, is tonight his final night in the SNL writing staff, or does he return next season?
— The campers’ excited testimonials are fairly funny.
STARS: ***

INTERVIEW
(host) interviews unduly-confident job applicant Jerry Steve Dave (TIM)

— Wow, where has Tim been tonight? He’s JUST NOW making his first appearance all night, in the final sketch of the season finale. You can hear one lone person in the audience applaud when Tim makes his entrance.
— Early on in this sketch, I can already tell this is going to be really good. Tim always excels at making silly characters like this work. Fantastic name for this particular character too: Jerry Steve Dave, the Magic Man.
— I love Jerry Steve Dave being under the impression that Napoleon conquered Japan.
— Jerry Steve Dave’s confident attitude when spouting his various clueless statements is great.
— When getting the hint that Jeff doesn’t want to hire him, I like Jerry Steve Dave saying “Did I happen to mention I have 101 Dalmatians on laserdisc?”, as if that would persuade Jeff.
STARS: ****

LARRY KING’S NEWS & VIEWS
Larry King (NOM) voices still more News & Views

— And here we have our final segment of the season.
— This is tickling the hell out of me as always. Even when some of the one-liners aren’t inherently funny, they’re sold by Norm-as-Larry-King’s delivery and the tight close-ups of his face during them.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

— Former SNL writer Marilyn Suzanne Miller is credited as a guest writer in this episode, billed as “Marilyn Miller” (as seen in the last screencap above). Whatever she wrote must’ve been cut after dress rehearsal, because none of the sketches that aired in this episode match her recognizable style. Or is Marilyn Miller a different person from Marilyn Suzanne Miller?

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average season finale. Kinda disappointing that the season ended on an unexciting note, but I can’t complain too much, as I still liked a good number of things in this episode and there were a few great high points, mainly Space The Infinite Frontier and Jerry Steve Dave. I feel like I’m not going to remember much from this episode as time passes, though.

— Season 22 as a whole was a little better than what I was expecting. I came into this season with a little bit of dread, as I had remembered this season for being practically “all recurring characters, all the time” and for heavily toning down the number of absurdist, oddball sketches that season 21 wonderfully leaned into. While I still turned out to be right about those two things to an extent, I ended up finding this season more palatable than I was expecting. This was just an average season, but it was a pleasantly average one, where most of the episodes had a comfortable consistency to them. While I didn’t find too many stand-out classic sketches within a lot of the individual episodes, there was a refreshingly low number of truly bad sketches. One thing about this season that was an upgrade from season 21 was the addition of TV Funhouse, which has brought a fresh new aspect to SNL and has been very reliable for the most part, usually being one of the biggest highlights of the individual episodes they’ve appeared in. Another positive asset to this season was the Distinguished Alumni series, which was five consecutive episodes hosted by former cast members, an experiment that was very fun and made me wish that SNL would do more variations of that idea.

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

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a mild step down

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS (Note: These picks were hastily made off the top of my head and will naturally be missing some deserving sketches. I don’t have enough time to do full, thought-out “Best Of” picks for this whole season)