Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
HILLARY’S TIME
Bill (DAH) reluctantly gives Hillary (ANG) Clinton a chance to speak
— I got a big laugh from the fake-out with Darrell-as-Bill-Clinton’s false announcement of America now being at war with Iraq, which he then reveals he only said just to make his approval rating go through the roof.
— A pretty significant moment right now: we get the debut of Ana’s Hillary Clinton impression.
— Amusing how Bill is using a timer to let Hillary speak for 60 seconds.
— A good laugh from Hillary beginning to disclose an incident from 1983 where she caught Bill on all fours wearing an E.T. mask.
— So far, Ana is solid in the Hillary Clinton role; a big improvement over the last cast member who tried to take a stab at a Hillary impression (Janeane Garofalo).
— Yet another Mark McKinney impression gets taken over by another performer, with Will now playing Al Gore and even doing the same random “Hi, I’m Al Gore” bit that Mark used to do. The gag still comes off funny with Will in the role.
— Now we get a random “Hello, I’m Barbara Walters” from Cheri. I like the manner she walked off in afterwards.
— Ana delivers her first-ever “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½
OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. Same goes for the following monologue.
MONOLOGUE
audience members challenge host’s qualifications for admission to Yale
— And there’s the reason why this monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. After mentioning that SNL is five years older then her, Claire Danes is supposed to say “I think I was born in the Tim Kazurinsky years”, but when saying that line, she unintentionally struggles through the pronunciation of Kazurinsky badly, and then ad-libs “I’m sorry, I don’t even know who that is.” Ouch. If Kaz was watching SNL this night, I hope he had a good sense of humor about himself.
— The audience members’ questions are pretty funny so far
— Steve Higgins is stealing this monologue with his great bit.
— Good delivery from Claire during her defensive speech to the doubtful audience members.
STARS: ***½
THE WESTON COLLECTION
“I’m #1” hat & “I’m Hot Stuff” necklace let others know how cool you are
— A simplistic but funny premise for a fake ad, and Will is perfect for this.
STARS: ***½
BARRY SCHECK’S HOME
infamous defendants administer Barry Scheck’s (NOM) courtroom karma
— I love Norm-as-Barry-Scheck’s yell of “DAAH!” when Claire’s Louise Woodward (the British nanny who was in the news at this time for allegedly shaking a baby to death) asks if she can be his nanny.
— A laugh from Woodward’s only references in her resume being Barry Scheck and the country of England.
— Very funny bit with Woodward violently shaking the ketchup bottle to get the ketchup out.
— An even funnier bit right now with Tim’s O.J. Simpson casually using a knife to get the ketchup out, even going so far as to use a glove for his knife.
— Ha, and now we get an appearance from Will as the Unabomber! This sketch is getting funnier and funnier.
— Norm is a solid straight man here.
— Having Jim now show up as the Oklahoma City Bomber is pretty funny in itself, but humor-wise, it feels like a step down having his entrance follow the Unabomber’s entrance. You’re never going to top the Unabomber entering this sketch.
— Great cutaway to O.J. with a now-bloody-looking shirt.
— During his straight-to-camera epilogue speech about the tragic things that his clients ended up doing to him and his family, I like Barry Scheck saying his house got blown up twice.
STARS: ****
THE VIEW
Barbara Walters (CHO) & panelists consider issues superficially
— An important debut of a popular series of Tina Fey-written View parodies that this era would do.
— Second appearance tonight from Cheri’s Barbara Walters.
— Funny opening title sequence with Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ intros to her various co-hosts, such as calling Star Jones “A sassy black woman” and Debbie Matenopoulos “A total idiot”.
— A laugh from Cheri’s Barbara singing The View theme song.
— I love the other ladies’ increasingly irritated non-verbal reactions to Debbie Matenopoulos’ various idiotic statements.
— The childish Spice Girls question that all the ladies are asked is pretty funny.
— A really good harsh reality check that Ana’s Cokie Roberts delivers to both Barbara and Debbie.
— I’m loving Tracy as Star Jones, especially the end of the statements she’s heard saying after all the ladies stop talking in unison.
— An overall solid and well-written showcase for the female cast, Tracy, and Claire.
STARS: ****
PARENTS’ WEEKEND
(host)’s parents Marty & Bobbi embarrass her at college with a medley
— Interesting meeting the Culps’ daughter.
— I loved Will’s line about the “University of Gettin’ Down”.
— Some of my favorite opera-ized songs the Culps are performing tonight are “Super Freak” and “American Woman”.
STARS: ***½
TV FUNHOUSE
“Blow Hot, Blow Cold” by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo battles ice monster
— I’m surprised it took this long for this season’s first Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon to appear.
— I love how when Ace and Gary decide to take action against the villains, we get a cutaway to them trying on jackets at a Barney’s store.
— Funny when the villains’ conversation about Ace and Gary’s apparent lack of girlfriends turns to Big Head’s own lack of a public love life.
— Memorable bit with Ace and Gary crashing through the ice monster’s butt.
STARS: ****
PETER PAN
jealous Tinkerbell (host) spews venom at Peter Pan (CHK) & Wendy (ANG)
— Meh. I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I’m not too crazy about this cliched premise of a family-friendly character going off on an obscenity-filled angry rant.
— I will say that Claire is performing this as well as she can, though I can’t help but think that a more comedy-experienced female host would make this material feel less cliched.
— I do kinda like the cheesy special effect of Tinkerbell drinking an entire bottle of whiskey.
— What was with the non-ending?
— Fun how after the sketch ends, we get to see the set being disassembled behind Claire as she dances while still hanging in the air on wires (though it feels like SNL only did this to hide the lack of an ending). It’s sad that I liked that better than most of the stuff in the actual sketch.
STARS: **½
WEEKEND UPDATE
Joe Blow gives the latest news about his neighborhood & family
— Man, the audience is quiet during a lot of jokes tonight. After one particular tepid audience reaction a joke receives, a guy in the audience breaks the tension by randomly yelling out “Norm!” and Norm humorously responds “Hello, hi, how are ya?”
— It’s about time SNL lets Colin do his first Update commentary of the season. Considering how badly SNL has been struggling to find appropriate roles for him this season now that he’s a repertory player, you’d think they would’ve already let him do an Update commentary or two earlier this season, since Update commentaries are clearly his niche at SNL.
— I think this is the last time we ever see Joe Blow, considering we’re only a few episodes away from a certain change in Weekend Update anchors.
— As always, Joe Blow is getting a lot of laughs out of me from his ranting about his personal life. I especially like his whole bit about the differences between public and catholic schools.
— I’m getting tired of how the Joe Blow commentaries always end with him grilling Norm about a beer he wants them to have together. That was a nice running bit for a while, but tonight, it felt like they did it just for the sake of doing it. At least this is the last time I’ll have to see it, if this indeed ends up being Joe Blow’s final appearance.
— An unusual amount of scattered booing from the audience in reaction to some of Norm’s jokes tonight.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Butterfly”
MR. PEEPERS
(WIF) & (host) attempt to release Mr. Peepers back into the wild
— Meh, though at least the setting for this Mr. Peepers appearance is different and may be interesting.
— So far, this is just going through the same tired beats these Mr. Peepers sketches always go through. Yawn.
— When Mr. Peepers is humping the truck, Claire starts cracking up and tries to hide it by burying her face into Will’s chest, which then causes Will himself to crack up, who also tries to hide his face (screencap below). Rare at this point of Will’s tenure to see him breaking.
— Interesting seeing Mr. Peepers’ family, portrayed by Ana, Cheri, and Jim all doing Mr. Peepers impressions.
— So, wait. Was this originally intended to be the final Mr. Peepers sketch ever? The way this sketch ended sure made it appear so. This would’ve been fitting closure for Mr. Peepers. Why, oh, why couldn’t they have kept this his final appearance?
— Without looking it up on SNL Archives, I’m trying to remember when Mr. Peepers’ next appearance is, to see how long SNL kept him retired after tonight’s sketch before needlessly resurrecting him. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember any Mr. Peepers sketches appearing in the remainder of this season. The next Mr. Peepers sketch I can think of is with Kelsey Grammer early in the following season (and I recall that sketch being particularly bad). I wonder what made SNL bring Peepers back after a year-long retirement. It’s not like Chris was desperate for a popular recurring character by that point. After all, he was busy shoving Mango down our throats at that time.
STARS: **
C.E.O. DREAMBOATS
teens (host), (CHO), (MOS), (ANG) adore moguls of CEO Dreamboats magazine
— Funny premise and good execution from Claire and the female cast.
— A good laugh from Molly french-kissing her C.E.O. poster.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My All”
SOUTHERN GALS
hick tourists (MOS), (CHO), (ANG) keep trip’s Frenchness at a safe level
— Wow, yet another sketch tonight starring the entire female cast. This is a huge night for them. They’re very dominant in this episode.
— Lots of little laughs all throughout this, from the southern ladies’ various observations and mistakes. And as usual, this is being well-performed by the female cast.
— Funny appearance from Tracy as a Frenchman, especially with that wig he’s wearing.
STARS: ***
THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode. There wasn’t much in this episode that I felt stood out as great, but most of the show had a consistently good, comfortable quality to it, and the episode as a whole flowed pretty well. Also, it can’t be said enough what a very dominant and strong night the female cast had, particularly Ana Gasteyer. It feels like this is the turning point where the Gasteyer/Oteri/Shannon female group officially became a dynamic trio.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jon Lovitz)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Everything about The Weston Collection is so great. Five stars from me.
The southern ladies sketch had one that has weirdly kind of stayed in my brain. I still catch myself saying “Ah Knooooooow!” lime they do in this sketch.
This is one of the first full episodes I remember watching. I’m surprised by how much I remember, like Claire’s “I’m the goodest” at the end of the monologue and the CEO magazine. “And he’s a Virgo!” “That means he’s sensitive!” I remember the Southern Ladies too, with Tracy being named Jean-Michele and Cheri not wanting to look at The Louvre because “these are the same pictures on the placemats that I have at my house”! I think they did this sketch again with Joan Allen but that’s it?
I read The Ladies Who Punch, and Tina Fey said that her main reason for writing The View sketches was to give the women something to do. Also, none of the men at SNL realized it was a real show that aired live every morning and that this group of exaggerated personalities wasn’t made up. IIRC, this is the only iteration of The View that isn’t first up after the monologue (in this era).
Also I must be obnoxious and say that I LOVE BUTTERFLY-ERA MARIAH SO MUCH. I love her always, but the “Butterfly” album is her most definitive as it was after she divorced Tommy Mottola and was free to collaborate a lot more with hip-hop artists. This is her third of sadly only four SNL appearances over a 30-year career.
Mariah was in great voice in this appearance; at the time the focus from the media was usually on how she looked so I’m glad she got the chance to show off her vocals here.
The next episode has the “FRIGGIN’ GIULIANI” sketch! I can’t wait!
I didn’t realize this episode had the reputation of being particularly good/great. I actually had this ep. on VHS for years and always felt it was your typical solid if unspectacular show from this era.
And as I pointed out a few reviews back it’s pretty amazing how much power Tina gained relatively quickly
Yeah I haven’t seen this one in years but it was probably my least favorite of that first half of the season. I did like the Norm sketch with all the various murderers coming to his house (did he write that? seemed like it had to be his) and debut of The View, Tracy’s Star Jones killed me, and Cheri’s Barbara Walters impression started off shakey in the first season or so but was a riot by this point. I was only take so much Mr. Peepers and Culps by this point, though I think the Culps kinda grew on me over time went on and they weren’t all exactly the same.
Always thought it was weird that Tina Fey was one of the fake audience members in this monologue (you can see her in the screenshot in front of Adam McKay) but never actually asks a question.
This is another of those episodes I only started to remember after I began watching with the review – the Tinkerbell sketch flipped on in my head almost immediately. The teenage girl CEO sketch was another (that particular sketch hasn’t aged at all, considering we still get gushy media profiles of CEOs). I wonder if this sketch helped inspire Aidy Bryant’s appearances as Tonkerbell – they don’t do a lot for me but I know some fans enjoyed them.
This is a pretty good episode overall. The highlight for me is The View sketch, which is absolutely perfect – not only is it funny, and gets full use out of the cast included, but it runs just the right amount of time. Tracy’s “I am a lawyer” and Cheri singing The View theme song are some of the most iconic moments of the late ’90s.
The last sketch overstays its welcome a little but it’s nice to see a change of pace for the ladies in the cast, especially Molly.
The Barry Scheck sketch is actually very good, slowly going right into chaotic greatness once we see OJ’s blood-covered shirt. You kind of forget about it as the episode rolls along. Weird how Will has a moment here with a Heinz bottle and then goes on to have a sketch about Heinz almost 22 years to the day.
Claire Danes is a solid host – she’s not a natural, but she’s effectively showcased. Probably the only other time I saw her name tied to SNL was when Anne Hathaway parodied Homeland in her last hosting stint. She sent apology flowers to Claire as a precaution, but Claire said that although she was flattered to be parodied, she decided not to watch the sketch.
My scattered memories of this period involved Norm being booed. I’d wondered if I might have exaggerated the memory over the years until I got to this Update. I know three years of confrontational material might have seemed like a long time for some viewers, but I still wonder what it was exactly that made the studio audience start to sour on him in this season. He hadn’t really changed his style or approach – his delivery is a little more weary, but that’s about it.
If anyone wants to see Tim Kazurinsky these days:
Wow, Kaz has aged well and that piece was actually pretty good. I didn’t even realize Second City had a show. I would see him there occasionally in the late 2000s but was always too shy to say anything.
Danes was only 18 years old here. Unless I’m missing an obvious one I think the Olson twins are the only teenager (s) to host since. Oh wait I guess Beiber?
Miley Cyrus.
Lindsay Lohan was 17 when she first hosted and I thinnnkkkk Britney was 18 the first time she did double duty.
I’m the same age as Lindsay so SNL from 2000-2005 was everything to me!
Oh wait Jennifer Love Hewitt the next season as well
This is a pretty good episode. My favorite is definitely “The View” I feel that Tracy Morgan as “Star Jones” was a big role for him. It definitely was my first time really noticing and becoming a fan of Tracy on the show.
Maybe I am old fashioned but I do not find a woman shaking a baby to death funny.