Month: January 2020

Posted on

April 10, 1999 – John Goodman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S24 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BACK TO LYING
ruefully-truthful Bill Clinton (DAH) tries reverse psychology on Kosovo

— Very funny concept of how Clinton has learned from his actions about the current war in Kosovo that he should never tell the truth and should always lie.
— Darrell is really milking the audience reactions to his Clinton thumbs-up and lip-biting moves, even moreso than usual.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host can’t convince audience members that the show isn’t a rerun

— Great turn with Paula Pell as an audience member interrupting the monologue to ask John “Is this a rerun?”
— I can see how they came up with the idea for this monologue, because not only has John hosted many times, but Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have also musical guested many times, often in episodes hosted by a Goodman-esque frequent host (Buck Henry, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, and later on, Alec Baldwin). Thus, John Goodman/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers definitely would’ve sounded to people in 1999 like a host/musical guest lineup that already occurred.
— I love how they’re going even further with this, by now having Paula hold up a fake newspaper that states this episode is a rerun from 1991.
— For the record, 1991 is the ONLY calendar year in the 90s that John hasn’t hosted in.
— Another Jimmy Fallon monologue walk-on that receives a good audience reaction, again showing how quickly popular he’s become in just his first season as a featured player. This ends up being Jimmy’s only appearance of the entire night, by the way. He had a Weekend Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he and Tom Petty perform a guitar song together.
— I love how Jimmy further confirms this episode is a rerun from 1991 by saying “I was in 8th grade when it first ran.” A funny exaggeration of Jimmy’s youthfulness as a cast member. (In real life, Jimmy was actually 17 in 1991.)
— Another dress rehearsal tidbit: Lorne’s walk-on in this monologue originally had him in a brown wig and t-shirt, to make it appear even more as if this episode is from 1991 (even though Lorne hasn’t had brown hair nor wore t-shirts onscreen since the 70s), but in the live show, he instead enters this monologue in his usual suit and gray hair.
— One oversight in this overall great monologue: how do they not involve Tim Meadows in any way? After all, he’s the only person in this then-current 1999 cast who was also in the 1991 cast. They definitely should’ve done something with that in this monologue. He could’ve walked on and casually asked John “Hey, ready to do the next sketch?”, and Paula Pell or Tina Fey could’ve blurted out “See, there’s Tim Meadows! That proves this is a rerun from 1991!”, and John could’ve responded “But Tim’s still in the cast now!”, which Paula or Tina could’ve responded to with a deadpan “Really?” as yet another SNL joke about how surprisingly long Tim has been on the show.
STARS: ****½


ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM
(host) brings high school antics to adult literacy class led by (TIM)

— John: “Do we have to know this for the test?” Tim: “(in a blunt, deadpan manner) Uh, no. You have to know this to know how to read.”
— Not a particularly hilarious character that John is playing, but his performance is making this work. Tim is also a great straight man to him.
— Boy, SNL sure loves doing sketches this season that end with a text crawl. I lost count of how many sketches in this season have ended with one.
STARS: ***


SHAUN MONDAVI VINEYARDS
self-styled wine heir’s (WIF) vile liquid further ires stepfather (host)

— A solid concept that Will is selling well.
— Will’s grimacing and groaning whenever he takes a sip of the wine are slaying me, especially when he starts really going all out on it.
— A very funny reveal of the wine coming in a Mountain Dew soda bottle with a shoddily-made wine label taped onto it.
— Great turn with Will’s angry stepfather crashing the commercial and giving Will a mean-spirited reality check.
— John: “This isn’t wine! It’s tequila, Five Alive, and those little marshmallows you put in cocoa.”
— Heh, does John’s character realize that calling Will’s character a son of a bitch in front of someone who’s both Will’s mother and John’s wife is technically calling his own wife a bitch?
STARS: ****½


CNN
lightweight magazines provide basis for serious reportage

— Pretty funny turn with this ad going from legitimate examples of hard-hitting news coverage to coverage from very light magazines like Cat Fancy and Highlights.
— Funny cutaway to John as a “bear”.
STARS: ***½


WRAP IT UP
(host) strongarms complaints about his incompetent gift wrapper son (CHK)

— Kattan’s horrible wrapping of Tim’s gift is pretty funny, especially when he tries to make the wrapped gift look like a swan.
— Bizarre sketch so far.
— Odd how this is the second consecutive live sketch with John playing a violent father.
— Funny little touch with Kattan randomly snipping off a small part of the flowers with a pair of scissors after destroying the flowers during his bad attempt to wrap a ribbon around them.
— Now this already-bizarre sketch is getting even more bizarre with Kattan’s thought bubble of a popsicle.
— John’s beatdown of every customer that has an unsatisfactory reaction towards Kattan’s gift-wrapping has some shades of that sketch from the season 20 finale where Chris Elliott, Morwenna Banks, and Chris Farley fatally beat up any customer that showed any kind of disrespect towards their folksy ways.
— I like how Kattan’s thought bubble about kitty cats is just another popsicle, this time with a cat’s tail.
— Overall, boy, was this one weird sketch, but it made me laugh enough.
STARS: ***


HELLO DOLLY
hucksters prefer collectibles to real-life youngsters

— John’s forehead is looking sweaty in this sketch.
— The Poopsie Daisy doll is funny, especially the gourmet jelly beans in the back of the doll’s soiled diaper, which John and Ana gleefully eat.
— I love the African-American “Dignity” doll.
— Like the last time they did this sketch, we’re getting some funny disturbing details about John and Ana’s troubled personal lives throughout the sketch. I especially like Ana’s casually-delivered line about how when she was pregnant with her second child, there was a good chance it was going to come out looking like the African-American “Dignity” doll.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM explains the meaning of acronyms appearing on current fashions
Colette Reardon surveys prescription drugs available to treat allergies

— Ah, a good old-fashioned “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the Dennis Miller era of Weekend Update, back when Quayle’s dumbness was a frequent target.
— Tracy Morgan makes his obligatory one appearance of the night. Would it kill SNL to use this man in more than one sketch in an episode?
— Tracy’s FUBU-esque acroynms for various things are all funny, especially the one for Timberland boots (the sixth above screencap for this Update). However, Tracy’s delivery is kinda stumbly throughout this commentary.
— Man, Colin looks so stifled in these last few Updates, now that he’s been (presumably) forced by NBC to refrain from muttering ad-libbed remarks towards the audience after his news jokes. In these last few Updates, you can tell when he wants to make an ad-lib after certain jokes but restrains himself.
— In these last few Collette Reardon appearances, I’ve pretty much run out of things to say about her, but she continues to amuse me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swingin'”


SPRINGTIME SANTA
a boozy & unpleasant Santa (host) unwinds at home during the offseason

— A North Pole/Santa Claus sketch in April? How random.
— John is solid as a belligerent, obnoxious Santa involved in a domestic argument with Mrs. Claus.
— A lot of funny tension in his sketch caused by Santa’s attitude.
— When Parnell and Cheri make their exit as the elf couple after spending their entire appearance standing on their knees to give off the illusion that they’re tiny elves, you can see both of them beginning to stand up on their legs before getting off-camera.
— Funny ending, re-dubbing footage of the original “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” stop-motion movie.
STARS: ***½


HAPPY SMILE PATROL
kid show stars’ ugly fate told by news bulletins aired during the program

— Here comes a favorite of mine.
— I love the news anchor’s (Parnell) disturbing details on the death of Kattan’s character.
— More and more laughs from the increasingly unsettling details of law troubles the Happy Smile Patrol actors have gotten in. I especially love the dark detail of Cheri’s character using a razor blade to cut a male victim’s throat to the spine (yeesh!) while he was climaxing during oral sex that she was giving him. Holy hell.
— Parnell is, of course, perfect in his role as the anchor breaking all of these special reports. The disturbing details he’s reading off are made that much funnier by his straitlaced delivery.
— Overall, a masterpiece.
STARS: *****


VH1
Behind The Music- bowling alley attendant Bun E. Carlos (HOS) thinks back

— Pretty funny reveal of Horatio’s Bun E. Carlos now being an attendant at a bowling alley.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Room At The Top”


CATHOUSE COMPUTER SYSTEM
embarrassed john (host) endures bordello computer system learning curve

— Good premise with the incongruity between the prostitutes and their savvy computer knowledge.
— I got a laugh from the little part with Cheri telling Horatio “You go upstairs and heat up the wax.”
— Funny southern accent from Cheri. It reminds me a bit of her future “Simma dah nah!” character Nadeen, who debuts the following season.
— And now, Cheri’s character has flat-out said “Now everybody SIMMA DAH NAH!” Yep, Cheri is definitely playing a prototype of her Nadeen character.
— Hilarious casual walk-on from Will in S&M gear, and the uncharacteristically friendly voice he’s using when helping the ladies with their computer trouble.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A much better episode than I recall it being. Until now, I had always deemed this episode to be the first of a two-year slump that John Goodman’s SNL episodes were in. However, I’ve come away from tonight’s viewing feeling it was actually a pretty good episode. (Goodman’s next episode from season 25, on the other hand? Oof. We’ll see if that one is the dud I remember it being.) This continues this season’s perfect streak of not having any episodes that I find outright bad. There were a few really strong pieces tonight, including one absolute masterpiece (Happy Smile Patrol), and no sketches that flopped for me.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Posted on

March 20, 1999 – Drew Barrymore / Garbage (S24 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ACADEMY AWARDS PRE-SHOW
Joan Rivers (ANG) turns demonic during Academy Awards Pre-Show coverage

— After previously doing the voice-over for Joan Rivers being portrayed by a skeleton, Ana plays Joan Rivers in the flesh here for the first time.
— Parnell’s Tom Hanks impression isn’t quite working for me, though I see what he’s going for. I love Parnell, but aside from Tom Brokaw, I never found him to be much of an impressionist.
— Oh, no, not the return of Darrell’s inexplicable impression of John Travolta. Blah.
— Great concept with Ana’s Joan Rivers gradually turning into some kind of demon each time the camera cuts back to her. Boy, between the aforementioned skeleton sketch from the preceding season and now this sketch, I see this SNL era’s not holding back any punches in regards to Rivers.
— Ana is great at pulling this sketch off, especially when letting out one long demonic scream before casually interviewing Tracy’s Cuba Gooding Jr.
— Joan Rivers to Cuba Gooding Jr.: “Your shirt looks like a clown raped Nelson Mandela and they made a baby and it was a shirt.”
— Fun ending with Ana’s Rivers being raised up in the air.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings about the path her life took between her SNL appearances

— Feels like just yesterday, I was reviewing 7-year-old Drew Barrymore in the last episode she hosted way back in season 8, and now I’m already reviewing her as an adult. This shows how far and quickly I’ve come along in this SNL project of mine.
— A lot of excitement from Drew early in this monologue.
— I love that Drew is now mentioning her season 8 hosting gig and how she was the youngest person to ever host SNL, and we’re even shown a clip of her season 8 monologue. It’s also a nice sight to see the underrated Tim Kazurinsky in that clip.
— Fun song about what crazy stuff Drew has been through in the years since her last hosting gig. I often forget about her “wild child” phase.
— Kattan in a whiskey bottle costume reminds me of Gabriel Byrne’s monologue from season 21. Kattan’s whiskey bottle costume isn’t the same one that Fred Wolf wore in the Byrne monologue, though. (side-by-side comparison below)

— Good to see Jimmy’s Adam Sandler impression back.
STARS: ***½


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Calista Flockhart (host) & other celebrities perform poorly

— Of all the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches, this is the only one I’m not all that familiar with. I’ve only seen it once or twice, due to Comedy Central strangely NEVER airing this Drew Barrymore episode back in the day when they aired SNL reruns. What was up with that anyway? After all, Comedy Central aired other episodes from this season ad nauseam back in the day, so where was this episode? Was it randomly not included in the package of episodes that Comedy Central received for this season? Or is this another case of Comedy Central somehow losing the tape of an SNL episode (like what supposedly happened with their copy of the Dennis Hopper episode from season 16)?
— Jimmy does it again with yet another spot-on and funny celebrity impression, this time doing a Nicolas Cage.
— Great part with Darrell’s Sean Connery guessing “Febtober” as a month that starts with “Feb”.
— Celebrity Jeopardy gives us another classic category mix-up, with Connery reading “The pen is mightier” as “The penis mightier”, and asking if it will really work on his penis.
— They’re up to Final Jeopardy already? Is it just me, or is this Celebrity Jeopardy installment shorter than usual?
— Hilarious gag with Nicolas Cage somehow losing his podium.
— I love that Drew-as-Calista-Flockhart’s explanation for not writing anything for her Final Jeopardy answer is that “the pen was too heavy”.
— Classic bit with Connery’s written Final Jeopardy answer being “Buck futter”.
STARS: *****


BANANA REPUBLIC
(HOS)’s non-reply to “How’re you doing?” panics Banana Republic employees

— Some pretty good laughs from the employees’ over-dramatic reactions to Horatio being the one customer who doesn’t answer their “How are you doing?” question, getting to the point where the employees press an alarm to clear customers out of the store.
— Will is great as the manager who the employees bring out as an emergency. His rough manhandling of Horatio to get him to finally answer the “How are you doing?” question is funny.
— Will: “They don’t pay me $6.15 an hour for doing nothing.”
STARS: ***½


VH1
Behind The Music- The Captain (Edward Norton) & Tennille (host) reminisce

— Random pre-taped Edward Norton cameo. I wonder if some viewers during the original airing of this episode had a hard time telling that was Norton, considering the sunglasses he’s wearing.
— An overall pretty good segment. Most of this season’s VH1 Behind The Music mini-sketches are pretty enjoyable, though not memorable.
STARS: ***½


THE HOW DO YOU SAY? AH YES, SHOW
Melanie Griffith (host) is obedient

— I like how Kattan’s Antonio Banderas stops Drew-as-Melanie-Griffith’s talking by telling her “Like the doors on Star Trek: shhh.”
— Funny visual of Banderas’ exaggerated amount of pubic hair when showing off his Zorro underwear. That fake pubic hair was actually a last-minute addition on Kattan’s part, who did it without geting Lorne’s approval first. When arriving backstage after this sketch ended, the first words out of Kattan’s mouth were reportedly “Is he pissed?”
— Nothing else noteworthy about this sketch.
— Thankfully, this is the last time we’ll be seeing this sketch for a long while. It surprisingly doesn’t get brought back until THREE SEASONS LATER, where they randomly resurrect it in an early post-9/11 episode (then-newbie Amy Poehler plays the guest in the sketch, which just goes to show you how far in SNL’s future the sketch is).
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Walter Mirisch accepts award & battles cat

— During one of the audience cutaway shots, I love the visual of Burt Reynolds eating a hoagie.
— Ehh, this hasn’t been one of Smigel’s funnier cartoons. It’s still providing some laughs, with the violent antics between Walter Mirisch and the cat, but this cartoon feels a little reaching, as if Smigel had a hard time coming up with material this week.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
eyeing time alone, Bill (DAH) encourages a Hillary Clinton run for Senate
CHK’s running commentary reveals meaning he derives from Cher’s “Believe”

— Darrell playing President Clinton on Update AGAIN? Didn’t he just appear on Update two episodes ago?
— Funny little bit with Clinton’s secret tie signal when talking about always finding things to do when Hillary’s not around.
— This Clinton commentary feels drawn-out for something with little material (even if that’s the intention), but I’ve been getting some laughs. This isn’t one of my favorite appearances of Darrell’s Clinton, though.
— Wow, very rare to see Kattan appearing on Update as himself. By the way, he’s been getting quite a lot of airtime tonight, after suffering a diminished amount of airtime in the second half of this season.
— Not quite sure what to think of this whole Kattan bit. It’s pretty unusual for an Update commentary, though he’s certainly putting his all into this. His interpretation of Cher’s “Believe” has some shades of his DeMarco Brothers character.
— Now we get some shades of Mr. Peepers with the way Kattan is climbing on Colin at the end of his commentary.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Special”


DOG SHOW
David Larry, Miss Colleen, shemale (host) attend canine wedding

— There’s what I believe is the very first Dog Show utterance of the phrase “Maybe I am, and maybe I am”. Meh. Never found that line all that funny, and we’re going to be hearing it ad nauseam for the remainder of Dog Show’s run.
— WTF? Drew as a “shemale” guest?
— Good ad-lib from Will when he has a hard time saying the name of Drew’s character.
— Now we get a questionable walk-on from Tim.
— SNL writer Scott Wainio makes his very first Dog Show appearance, playing a character named…. Scott Wainio.
— The dog playing Rocky Balboa looks drugged and half-asleep during tonight’s Dog Show installment (the second above screencap for this sketch). That dog is nowhere near as peppy as it usually is, which is a shame, as I adore its peppiness. I wonder if that dog was too hyper at this episode’s dress rehearsal, causing SNL to heavily sedate it for the live show.
— Overall, this Dog Show installment didn’t work for me. I usually enjoy Dog Show’s silliness, but they lost me with this one, and the quality had kind of an off feeling.
STARS: **


VH1
Behind The Music- fake Rick Allen (CHP) poorly hides that he has two arms

— Funny bit with the supposedly one-armed Rick Allen being seen casually using his hidden second arm to do things.
— Hilarious visual of Parnell panickedly bolting out of the room when his scheme is foiled.
STARS: ****


ART CLASS
during a sitting, Terence Maddox recalls meeting his wife (host)

— Will makes yet another good ad-lib tonight, this time when he has trouble untying his robe.
— Molly can be seen blatantly and loudly cracking up out of character right now. That’s basically an early glimpse into the annoying corpsing we’ll unfortunately be frequently seeing from her the following two seasons.
— At least they’re changing things up for this funny-but-repetitive recurring sketch, by having Terrence Maddox’s girlfriend appear.
— Good visual of the excessive armpit hair of Drew’s hippie character.
— I like Maddox telling his girlfriend “Don’t be a Yoko.”
— Interesting flashback to Terrence Maddox when he was young.
— A very skeevy but funny gleeful reaction from Maddox in the flashback when he finds out that Drew’s hooker character is 13 years old.
— When being told that he and his girlfriend can’t make love in this classroom, I love Maddox asking if an “HJ” is okay.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When I Grow Up”


VH1
Behind The Music- Fred Schneider (WIF) song titles comprise random words

— Funny performance from Will.
— The little touches with the frequent camera zoom-ins and zoom-outs on Will are somehow adding to the humor.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. Nothing was particularly memorable tonight, aside from Celebrity Jeopardy and the Joan Rivers cold opening, but the overall show was pretty enjoyable. This episode had a bit of a particularly silly and weird vibe that goes on to become somewhat of a tradition for most of the subsequent episodes that Drew Barrymore hosts (especially her 2007 episode). I always admire that silliness/weirdness in Drew’s episodes (even the times it doesn’t work, like tonight’s Dog Show sketch), as it gives her episodes a fun and unique vibe.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ray Romano)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode, after he’s made a cameo on an almost monthly basis this season

Posted on

March 13, 1999 – Ray Romano / The Corrs (S24 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PHONE SEX
inspired by Monica Lewinsky, Barbara Walters (CHO) tries out phone sex

— Nice touch with the pictures of Cheri’s Barbara Walters all over the bedroom.
— Very funny turn with Cheri’s Barbara calling up Parnell’s Tom Brokaw for phone sex.
— Tom Brokaw, to Barbara Walters: “Harry Reasoner was right. You are a whore.”
— A rare non-Celebrity Jeopardy appearance from Darrell’s Sean Connery.
— Great reveal of the lonely and horny person Barbara calls turning out to be Hillary Clinton.
— When hearing Barbara’s proposal to have phone sex, I love Ana’s Hillary quickly saying “I’ll be the man.”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host’s TV parents Peter Boyle & Doris Roberts [real] arrive bearing clips

— A lot of funny asides and stand-up comedy from Ray Romano.
— I particularly like Ray’s stand-up bit about ugly twins.
— I’m not too crazy about Ray’s stand-up being interrupted by a cameo from his TV parents, though I can’t complain much about a Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts cameo.
— Awesome seeing a classic clip of Boyle and John Belushi in the “Duelling Brandos” sketch from the season 1 episode that Boyle hosted.
STARS: ****


SPORTSCENTER
Chet Harper’s (host) catchphrases rankle Stuart Scott (TIM)

— Tonight’s show immediately leads off with what would go on to be the most famous sketch from this episode, and a legendary sketch in general.
— I love Tim-as-Stuart-Scott’s constant “BOO-YAH!”s.
— Ray, during his sports commentary: “You gotta get to White Castle before the weirdos show up.”
— There’s the first utterance of the now-immortal phrase “Sweet sassy molassey”.
— So many laughs from how bad Ray is at speaking for athletes in his commentary during sports clips.
— Ray’s various nicknames for Tim’s Stuart Scott are very funny, such as “Stu-pac” and “Stu-manji”.
— Hilarious bit with Ray saying, in regards to hearing Anna Kournikova’s name, “My peenie just went ‘urmp’.”
— Tim: “He shoots, he scores…” Ray: “…and he celebrates, like a slave who made it to the North!”
— During his “poignant” exit speech, I absolutely howled at Ray’s analogy to “a fat girl waving her trophy from the smell contest”.
— Ray: “Lord Sweet Pappy Johnson with an erection, I will be back!”
STARS: *****


VH1
Behind The Music- Meat Loaf’s (HOS) lyrics come from warning labels

— Horatio’s Meat Loaf impression always make me laugh.
— An overall decent piece.
STARS: ***


CARNABY’S
restaurant patrons laugh off Roberto Benigni’s (host) destructive antics

— The opening anniversary bit with Parnell’s character and his wife was pretty funny.
— Ray’s impression of Roberto Benigni is freakin’ hilarious and spot-on.
— A lot of laughs from everybody’s lighthearted reactions to Benigni’s appalling actions, eventually getting to the point where he chops off Horatio’s hand with an axe.
— I usually dislike sketch endings that rely on a newspaper headline, but for some reason, I really like this particular sketch-ending headline stating “Benigni incorrigible!”
STARS: ****½


PIMP CHAT
former NYPD officer (host) discusses new career as whoremonger

— The second and final installment of this sketch.
— Why’d they drastically change the look of Tim’s Pimpin’ Kyle character? (side-by-side comparison between Tim’s look in both Pimp Chat sketches below)

— I’m glad they’re not having Ray playing a carbon copy of the character who Vince Vaughn played in the first installment of this sketch, though Ray’s character isn’t as funny as Vaughn’s.
— Ray, after bringing in his fat ho: “I supersize my bitches.”
— Horatio must be trying to crack Tim up, as Tim busts out laughing out of character right before the sketch ends.
— Overall, ehh. I liked this Pimp Chat installment enough, but it was a big step down from the solid and fun first installment. Can’t say it’s a big loss that they stop doing this sketch after tonight’s episode.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Monica Lewinsky (MOS) breaks into fits of laughter while claiming remorse
CHO uses Barbie to represent march of women’s progress during the century

— Unlike the last episode, Colin’s jokes are getting really good audience reactions tonight.
— I see SNL is making more of an attempt to have Molly resemble Monica Lewinsky, by updating her look.
— I’m not caring for where this Update commentary of Molly’s has been going so far. It’s kinda bringing out some of Molly’s worst traits as a performer, which makes me dread what’s soon to come with her in the upcoming seasons 25 and 26, as I recall Molly’s worst traits being on full display in those seasons. I got really sick of her when those seasons originally aired.
— Colin’s having a decent night so far. Better than usual.
— Interesting seeing Cheri do an Update commentary as herself.
— Cheri’s commentary about women’s progress has been amusing me, and I’m really liking her little asides to Colin throughout this.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What Can I Do” & “Haste To The Wedding”


LOCKER ROOM
Suel Forrester gives a college basketball team a halftime pep talk

— This has always been what is probably my favorite Suel Forrester sketch. I love this NCAA setting for him, and some of his gibberish lines in this sketch have stuck with me over the years.
— Tim seems to be wearing his Stuart Scott wig from the SportsCenter sketch earlier tonight.
— The female voice and female gestures that Forrester randomly does just now are hilarious.
— The Forrester gibberish line that came out sounding like “the heart of a tampon” was particularly great.
— The confused facial reactions from the basketball team members are cracking me up.
— Another sketch tonight ending with a newspaper headline. Probably not necessary.
STARS: ****


BIG BABY
adman (host) plays parent during childlike partner’s (WIF) presentation

— Here comes a forgotten Will Ferrell gem.
— Great turn with Will’s mature businessman suddenly going through a childish emotional breakdown when he gets called out on a big mistake he made with his report. Will’s childlike crying is absolutely SPOT-ON, including the way he tries to speak through his crying. I can see this being annoying for some viewers, though.
— More spot-on and hilarious kid imitations from Will, with him now acting out a child’s typical temper tantrum, and then being given a juice box to calm down.
— Funny bit with Ray telling Will “sound it out” when Will’s having trouble pronouncing the word “exploit”.
— Hilarious twist at the end when Ray and Will are left alone. I especially love Will saying “What a bunch of anuses” and Ray saying “Let’s go get a lap dance”. This kinda reminds me of the ending of another great Will Ferrell sketch, Shirtless Bible Salesmen, which makes me wonder if both sketches are from the same writer.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Young”


QUIT JUDGING MY DREAMS!
GI’s (host) WWII foxhole mates are appalled by his oddball post-war plans

— I like the sudden odd turn with Ray detailing a very unusual hot dog-eating contest fantasy as his post-war plans.
— Ray: “They’re my dreams, man, so lay off it!”
— I love how increasingly disturbing Ray’s dreams are, especially the whole bit about hobo sex slaves.
— After some sketches earlier tonight fell victim to SNL’s crutch of newspaper headline sketch-endings, this sketch displays SNL’s other bad sketch-ending crutch: a text crawl. However, I actually really like this particular text crawl, especially the Shaun Hitler bit.
— Overall, a perfect sketch in my eyes. This is exactly the type of bizarre, oddball sketch that I always find this SNL era great at pulling off, and Ray fit this material to a T.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and has always been one of my favorites of this era. Lots of things to love in this episode, including a legendary classic (SportsCenter), a personal favorite of mine (Quit Judging My Dreams), many great sketches, a consistently strong post-Weekend Update half, and an excellent host in Ray Romano.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Murray)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Drew Barrymore, making her first return since hosting the show as a 7-year-old

Posted on

February 20, 1999 – Bill Murray / Lucinda Williams (S24 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE LADIES’ MAN
Stephanie Seymour [real] helps Leon teach love lessons

— The various demonstrations from Leon Phelps and Stephanie Seymour are providing some laughs.
— Overall, not bad, but not one of the more noteworthy Ladies’ Man installments.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
inspired by the Footloose musical, BIM sings & dances around the stage

 

— Funny bit with Bill saying he got inspired for tonight’s show by seeing Footloose the Musical.
— Hilarious comment from Bill about America being built on a dance.
— Bill’s dancing when singing Footloose is fantastic, very funny, and perfectly Bill Murray-esque. There’s shades of Nick the Lounger Singer here, which is nice compensation for us not getting an actual Nick the Lounger Singer sketch tonight.
— I absolutely love how all out Bill is going on this, now climbing up the railing on the side of the home base stage while singing into a boom mic. Very impressive and fun.
STARS: ****½


YAHTZEE
competitive couple (BIM) & (MOS) challenges dinner guests to Yahtzee

— Bill and Molly look a bit odd as a couple. Maybe because Bill is a lot older-looking and has gray hair.
— This almost turned into a Zimmermans sketch just now, with the inappropriate way Molly and Bill passionately made out in front of Will and Ana.
— Bill is perfect for this role. I’m enjoying how overly competitive he and Molly are, eventually getting to point where Bill angrily pushes a lamp and flower pot off of the table with one swipe of the arm when losing a game.
— Will’s “This is just kinda gettin’ creepy” when Bill desperately keeps challenging Will and Ana to various games was very funny.
— A huge laugh from Bill’s competitiveness now getting to the point where he offers to play Russian Roulette and says “Ladies first.”
— I love Molly angrily throwing a whole plate of dessert at Will.
STARS: ****


KNICKS CITY DANCERS
(BIM) leads fellow male Knicks City Dancers in front of unfriendly crowd

— As I said in my review of the Men’s Jazz Ensemble sketch from the last episode that Bill hosted, this Knicks City Dancers sketch feels kinda like a spiritual successor to that. Funny how Tim, the only cast member to be in both of these last two Bill Murray episodes, is one of the male dancers in both sketches.
— I like Tim’s delivery of “Hey, Woody Allen just gave me the finger!”
— As I said in an earlier review, I always get a kick out of Parnell dancing comically.
— This sketch is starting to feel dead. Not even Tracy choking Parnell could get as big a laugh out of me as it should’ve.
— Yeah, this sketch isn’t working. Pales badly in comparison to that aforementioned Men’s Jazz Ensemble sketch.
— Okay, I got a big laugh just now from the reveal of Will Ferrell randomly playing himself, when Bill was referring to each of the male dancers by name.
— A weak text crawl ending.
STARS: *½


SWILL

— Alright! They’re doing an encore presentation of this classic Bill Murray fake ad from season 3! It’s fun to see this being re-aired in a Bill Murray-hosted episode from two decades later in 1999.
— Nice touch with them leaving in the original audience’s laughter from when this commercial first aired in 1977.
— For my thoughts on this commercial, read my original review of it in this episode review.


THE QUOTABLE CADDYSHACK
BIM & CHC explain the reference work’s utility

— A fun and solid premise.
— I love Darrell quoting Rodney Dangerfield’s “We’re all gonna get laid!”
— Chevy Chase cameo. Meh. Pretty nice to see him and Bill together, though.
— The quality of this sketch is now kinda starting to die down a little (thanks for that, Chevy), but I did love Bill’s passing mention of “The Ted Knight Slowburn Foundation”.
STARS: ****


MORNING LATTE
minor celebrity (BIM) engages Tom & Cass in vapid banter

— A bit of a change of pace for these Morning Latte sketches.
— When Cheri is explaining to Will the premise of the sitcom Sister Sister, I love Will telling her in a friendly-but-blunt manner “Yeah, I’ve seen the show. Turn around.”
— Bill’s reason for not wanting Cheri to babysit his daughter is very funny.
— The audience has been pretty dead during this sketch.
— Odd bit with Cheri being bleeped out when talking vulgarly in regards to Robin Williams. That feels kinda out of place for this recurring sketch.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
wistful for coverage, Bill Clinton (DAH) asks media to dig for some dirt
freshly snubbed by Academy nominators, BIM gives his Oscar picks

— The audience’s deadness from the Morning Latte sketch has carried over into this Update, as Colin’s first two jokes tonight bombed.
— I love the “Yessss!” soundbyte used for the Marv Albert punchline of Colin’s joke just now.
— Okay, the audience has been getting a little more lively.
— Darrell-as-President-Clinton’s desperation to get back into the newspapers now that the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment trial is over is pretty funny.
— Yes! The return of Bill Murray’s traditional Oscar picks!
— Very funny comment from Bill about how unbearable Tom Hanks would be if he won his third Oscar.
— As always, I love Bill’s unorthodox method for choosing Oscar winners.
— Great ad-lib from Bill when he messes up the whole joke about Gwyneth Paltrow being English.
— And there’s the always-funny tradition of Bill giving short-shrift to the supporting actors/actresses categories.
STARS: **½


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


A BEAR ATE MY PARENTS!
because (HOS)’s parents were eaten by a bear, (CHP)’s party is ruined

— Early on in the sketch after we opened on a relaxed party, I howled at Horatio’s sudden yell of “You all can just kiss my ass!”
— The first thought that any viewer would naturally have about this sketch is that it feels like a leftover Chris Farley shoutfest sketch (specifically from the infamous 94-95 season, which notoriously overused Farley’s screaming shtick in badly-written sketches). However, this is actually a leftover Jim Breuer sketch that got cut after dress rehearsal during Jim’s time on the show. I think I heard it was cut from the Sting episode from 1997, but I can’t remember for sure. I can kinda picture Jim performing this sketch. After all, there were one or two times early in his tenure when SNL gave him Chris Farley-esque sketches (e.g. that office sketch with Jim violently punishing himself whenever he screwed something up).
— I love Bill’s sarcastic delivery of “Oh, that’s a great idea: take him outside… WHERE THE BEARS ARE??!??!” Otherwise, it feels like they’re kinda wasting Bill in this role.
— I used to absolutely HATE this sketch and considered it a prime example of how bad tonight’s episode is, but during this current viewing, I’m finding a “So dumb, it’s funny” quality to this sketch that’s kinda working for me.
— I got a good laugh from Will’s delivery of “He missed the couch” after Horatio jumps out the window. (He threw a couch out the window earlier in the sketch.)
STARS: ***


BOOK STORE
(BIM) spouts gibberish while trying to pose as owner of mystic curio shop

— I love Bill’s line “We’ve got Yin Yang Thought Pendants up the Yin Yang.”
— Bill’s obviously false statements are pretty funny, though once again tonight, the audience is kinda dead.
— Good bit with Bill repeatedly hitting Tim with the stick.
— This sketch is pretty good and Bill is doing his usual masterful job, but something about this sketch feels like it should be better.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten”


STEVE BAXTER, HOLLYWOOD GYNECOLOGIST
Hollywood gynecologist (BIM) has casual attitude toward patients’ privacy

— The featured players have been dominating tonight’s episode…. well, just Parnell and Horatio. Parnell in particular is having his biggest night of the season.
— Speaking of cast members’ airtime, here’s something I just realized: has Chris Kattan appeared in ANYTHING tonight??? I can’t remember seeing him at all. His airtime has surprisingly been pretty scarce in general during the second half of this season.
— I absolutely love Parnell’s over-the-top performance of the Steve Baxter: Hollywood Gynecologist theme song. He is a riot in this sketch.
— A solid premise for Bill.
— Watching this sketch in today’s climate, I can’t help but get a bit of a #MeToo reminder, but I’ll ignore that and put myself in a 1999 mindset for this sketch.
— Overall, short but sweet.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Why is Bill dressed as a fireman?

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not bad, but felt a little below standards for this strong season, and certainly a little below standards for a Bill Murray-hosted episode. As I said in a review earlier this season, I used to consider this season’s Kelsey Grammer, Vince Vaughn, and Bill Murray episodes to be this season’s “Trifecta of Suck”. (Actually, I should’ve called it a “Quadfecta of Suck”, because a few days ago, I remembered that I’ve also always found the John Goodman episode from later this season to be unusually bad for this season’s standards. We’ll see if that one holds up better than I previously deemed it.) Doing these reviews have made me come around on this season’s Grammer and Vaughn episodes, both of which I was pleasantly surprised to discover are actually pretty good. I had wondered if I would have that same change of heart towards this Bill Murray episode, and it turns out that I only did to an extent. While I found this episode to be better than I used to, it didn’t feel like there was much in it that stood out as noteworthy, and something felt a little off about the show. Perhaps the latter was due to how dead the audience was in certain portions of the show.
— Bill Murray did his usual great job hosting the show, though I wish some of the material he was given was a little better-written. As I’ve often said about Bill’s hosting gigs, it’s interesting and fun seeing how he works with different casts in the episodes he’s hosted in various eras. It’s a shame this ends up being the last time he’s ever hosted… at least to this day in 2020. Maybe that’ll change in the future.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brendan Fraser)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Ray Romano

Posted on

February 13, 1999 – Brendan Fraser / Busta Rhymes featuring The Roots (S24 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE PRESIDENT ON TRIAL
interviewee Linda Tripp (John Goodman) is defensive about Lewinsky affair

— An absolutely classic and epic part with Darrell-as-President-Clinton’s post-acquittal address to the nation only consisting of him saying “I. Am. Bulletproof.”, then beginning to walk away, only to return to add “Next time, you best bring Kryptonite.” Between the preceding episode’s “I Will Not Gloat” cold opening and now this moment, I love that we’re at the point where Darrell’s Clinton is in full-on badass, don’t-give-a-fuck mode.
— Yet another John Goodman cameo this season.
— The audience practically screams in laughter at the initial visual of John’s Linda Tripp in this.
— John has updated his Tripp impression. He’s not wearing the usual dress nor the glasses, and he’s making a whole bunch of exaggerated facial expressions that he never made as Tripp before. (He also seems to be wearing his fake overbites from the Bill Brasky sketches.) I’m guessing the exaggerated facial expressions are modeled after the Today Show interview that the real Linda Tripp had recently done.
— John’s exaggerated facial expressions are kinda reminding me of the facial expressions that Melanie Hutsell was (in)famous for making during her SNL tenure.
— A lot of good laughs from John’s performance and dialogue.
— I like the meta part with John’s Tripp being asked about her reaction to John Goodman’s impression of her, and her eventually saying that she can’t believe Goodman didn’t get nominated for The Big Lebowski.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host discovers that TOD has been locked in a bomb shelter since 1977

— Fantastic seeing a cameo from Tom Davis.
— I love Tom’s rat version of SNL, complete with the rats wearing the old Bees costumes from the original SNL era.
— A good laugh from Lorne nonchalantly revealing that he’s the one who locked Tom in the fallout shelter.
— Good part with a Mary Katherine Gallagher rat doing a pratfall, prompting Lorne to have a greedy fantasy of making money off of that rat.
— When pleading his case to Lorne in regards to Lorne’s claim that Tom screwed him out of a pot deal back in 1977, I love Tom saying “I bought it from Garrett!”
STARS: ****


BIO FLEX
(WIF) stays in shape by defending himself against BioFlex proto-sapien

— Hilarious premise of the “workout kit” just being a creature who beats the living hell out of Will.
— I particularly love the part using graphics to detail how the beatdown from the creature gets certain parts of your body into shape.
— Surprisingly, this pre-taped fake ad ends up being Will’s ONLY appearance all night. Very surprising for his standards, considering how heavily SNL typically utilizes him. Excluding three episodes that he would be completely absent in during his final season (due to him getting time off from SNL to film the movie “Old School”), this is the ONLY episode during Will’s entire SNL tenure that he makes no live appearances in.
STARS: ****


JUDGE JUDY
squeaky-voiced singer (host) sues over helium exposure

— Much like they did with The Joe Pesci Show sketches after the real Pesci and DeNiro famously cameoed, SNL inexplicably keeps the Judge Judy sketches going for one final round after the real Judge Judy “crashed” the last installment, which obviously would’ve been the most logical time to retire this recurring sketch.
— Finally, a Judge Judy sketch where the defendant ISN’T played by Ana.
— Brendan’s helium voice is priceless and impressive.
— Some of Cheri-as-Judge-Judy’s threats are really cracking me up.
— They finally change things up by having Judge Judy end up siding with the defendant for once, instead of the plaintiff.
— Overall, despite the fact that it feels like they should’ve retired this recurring sketch with the real Judge Judy’s cameo, tonight’s final installment wasn’t bad. In fact, I’d say it actually had slightly better writing than the one with the real Judge Judy.
STARS: ***


JUST ENJOY THE OZZY
(HOS) forces Ozzy tunes on diners (host) & (MOS); George Plimpton cameo

— Hilarious turn with Horatio’s polite, soft-spoken waiter suddenly busting out into a perfect Ozzy Osbourne impression when singing for the customers’ entertainment.
— Horatio’s Ozzy songs are getting a great audience reaction.
— Great bit with Horatio biting off a chicken head ala Ozzy.
— I love Tim’s stern delivery of “First off, sir, Ozzy rules” after Brendan complains to him about Horatio’s Ozzy songs. I also like the subsequent bit with Tim blackmailing Brendan into giving him $1,000.
— Tim: “Next time, just enjoy the Ozzy and keep your mouth shut.”
— A funny random use of a George Plimpton cameo.
STARS: ****


SPARKS
Zimmermans run hot & cold with trainer (host) during health club session

— A good setting for these characters, though these sketches always follow the exact same formula. I don’t mind these sketches, though. I can tolerate them more than some other people seem to.
— Funny visual of Cheri keeping her body locked in a stiff position when Brendan is carrying her away (the fifth above screencap for this sketch) after she had her legs wrapped suggestively around Chris.
— I love Brendan’s angry outburst of “I did not study at The Fitness Institute for THREE WEEKS for this!”
STARS: ***


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- The Poetry of Jewel is mockingly dramatized

— Great background gag with the stars in the sky spelling out “This sucks” during Jewel’s poetry reading.
— The whole bit with the frustrated tiger is solid.
— Funny ending disclaimer (screencap below).

STARS: ***½


YOU’RE A CHAMPION, CHARLIE BROWN
Lucy’s (ANG) prank yields gore

— Hilarious makeup job on the performers.
— A classic dark turn with Lucy’s usual football prank resulting in Charlie Brown splitting his skull open on the ground.
— I got a huge laugh from Franklin vomiting when he and Linus see Charlie’s bleeding head wound.
— I love Franklin telling Linus “Shut the hell up!” when Linus refuses to give up his security blanket.
— Funny line from Lucy about her doctor gig just being a scam to make nickels.
— Perfect ending with the off-camera paramedic speaking in the muffled “womp womp womp” voice that the adults in Peanuts always speak in.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Larry Smith (TRM) rolls a joint while rambling about Oscar nominations
Jerry Falwell (DAH) offers proof that Teletubby Tinky Winky is gay
JIF plays guitar & sings Valentine’s Day versions of popular songs

 

— This is the second Update in a row to not have an opening straight-to-camera rant from Colin. It’s safe to say that his rants are officially gone for good. Is this a result of executive meddling from NBC? (And no, we can’t blame Don Ohlmeyer once again, as he had retired from NBC sometime in 1998.)
— I love the look of Tracy’s character, especially the sideburns.
— A good laugh from Tracy casually beginning to roll a joint right in the middle of his commentary.
— Colin seems to have completely done away with his usual ad-libbed asides towards the audience after each of his news jokes. He hasn’t been doing ANY tonight, which has to be a first for his era of Update. I wonder if this is another result of executive meddling from NBC, giving him orders to knock it off with the constant ad-libbed asides. With the removal of Colin’s ad-libbed asides and opening straight-to-camera rants, NBC is really neutering him, just turning him into a bland Update anchor who only tells straightforward news jokes with an iffy, stilted delivery that doesn’t quite work for him in this format. Those opening straight-to-camera rants and ad-libbed asides, as wildly hit-and-miss as they were, were the only things giving Colin an identity as an Update anchor.
— Pretty funny commentary from Darrell, skewering Jerry Falwell and his ridiculous “Tinky Winky is gay” paranoia from this time period.
— Jimmy’s Update song routine officially becomes recurring.
— I’m not finding myself being quite as amused by Jimmy’s song parodies tonight as I was in his last Update commentary, but as usual, his charm is making this commentary enjoyable enough.
— I like the use of flashing studio lights during the climax of Jimmy’s last song parody.
— An overall long and jam-packed Update tonight, with three guest commentaries, which feels rare for the Colin Quinn era of Update.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Gimme Some More”


TWO FAT LADIES
supposedly-healthy snacks are prepared

— I love that Darrell is still wearing his Jerry Falwell pudgy facial prosthetics from Update, which fits this Two Fat Ladies role perfectly.
— I’ve never seen the real Two Fat Ladies show that this sketch is parodying (though I recall once finding out on an SNL site that one of the Two Fat Ladies ended up dying mere months after this episode), but this spoof is certainly making me laugh.
— A lot of funny disgusting visuals of the unhealthy food that the Two Fat Ladies are making, especially the “rice cakes”.
— Good bit with the Two Fat Ladies bringing out IV tubes full of pudding to feed themselves.
STARS: ****


MALE ESCORT
Carrie Donovan’s (ANG) request to be serviced makes escort (host) nervous

— It’s a good thing I remember this Carrie lady from the Old Navy commercials who Ana is playing, or I’d probably be completely lost during this sketch. I recall one SNL reviewer from 1999, who apparently wasn’t familiar with the Old Navy commercials, asking if Ana was supposed to be playing a female Harry Caray.
— Pretty funny bit with Ana’s Carrie letting Magic, the dog from the Old Navy commercials, join her and Brendan on the bed.
— Ana’s Carrie impression is pretty amusing, but I dunno, something about this sketch feels lacking. I want to like it more than I actually am.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tear Da Roof Off”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Yet another in a long line of solid season 24 episodes. This season is on a roll. (It must be some kind of ten-year thing: Season 4, season 14, and now season 24: all exceptionally strong seasons where those respective SNL eras were in the middle of a peak. This tradition continues ten years later with the also-great season 34. Unfortunately, it looks like the not-too-great season 44 broke that tradition, though I myself have only seen the first 1/3rd of that season, so I’m not the right one to say.) The first half of tonight’s episode was particularly good. The overall show was a little oddly-structured, though, with the post-Update half feeling very short, aside from the two musical performances. I wonder if the longer-than-usual Weekend Update had something to do with that.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gwyneth Paltrow)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bill Murray

Posted on

February 6, 1999 – Gwyneth Paltrow / Barenaked Ladies (S24 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

NO GLOATING
supposed good sport Bill Clinton (DAH) gloats about beating impeachers

— Ah, “I will not gloat”. A famous and memorable Clinton cold opening.
— I love Darrell-as-Clinton’s sarcasm over getting impeached by an entire “house” of representatives.
— A good laugh from a picture of a horse’s ass “accidentally” being used to represent Henry Hyde.
— A particularly great part with Tracy’s Betty Currie doing a slow gloating dance to Aretha Franklin’s “Chain of Fools”.
— A cool change-up to the “Live from New York…” sign-on, with Darrell’s Clinton saying “Live from New York, it’s gloatin’ time!”
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
Ben Affleck [real] asks host to stop pretending she’s English

— Already a good start with Gwyneth immediately speaking casually with a phony English accent as if it’s normal for her.
— Ben Affleck cameo. Nice to see this in retrospect, knowing what a great recurring SNL host he would later be. (His first hosting stint is the following season.)
— I liked English Gwyneth’s little line about “humorous” being spelled with an “o-u-r”.
— Right in this very first SNL appearance of his, Ben Affleck is coming off very solid, especially his mention of his and Gwyneth’s recent breakup. Now that I’m aware that this monologue is shortly after their breakup, this shows what great sports both Gwyneth and Ben are to perform with each other in this.
— Another great line from Ben to Gwyneth: “Don’t go all Minnie Driver on me, okay?”
STARS: ****


IMPEACHMENT COVERAGE
E! offers awards show-style coverage of the Clinton impeachment trial

— A very funny concept of a typical E! red carpet special being done for the Impeachment Trial, of all things.
— Gwyneth is funny as Sharon Stone, especially her “Isn’t he creepy?” line about her new husband. This Sharon Stone impression is also kinda infamous, as the real Sharon Stone would publicly complain about how offended she was by it, especially the aforementioned “Isn’t he creepy?” line.
— Speaking of celebrity impressions that famously pissed off the real person, Kattan’s Andy Dick always amuses me.
— WTF? Tim as Betty Currie? Didn’t we just see Tracy playing her earlier tonight in the cold opening? Is SNL going for a season 10 Doug Henning thing here (where Martin Short and Rich Hall each played Doug Henning in a separate sketch in the same episode)?
— I really like the random apocalyptic ending.
STARS: ****


VH1
Behind The Music- Joan Jett (host) recalls “I Love Rock n’ Roll”

— This is the first of several pre-taped black-and-white VH1 Behind the Music mini-sketches that we’ll be seeing this season (especially in tonight’s episode).
— Another strong and funny performance from Gwyneth tonight, and she’s really making this sketch.
STARS: ****


BLACK ANGELS
Mary Katherine Gallagher proves tougher than her all-girl gang initiators

   

— One of the more famous Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, which is impressive, considering the character is nearing the end of her run at this point and it seemed like she had been running out of steam before this.
— I like MKG’s line about making her decision to be a bad girl after seeing “The Patty Hearst Story”.
— Some laughs from the disgusting loud water-lapping sounds being heard when MKG is off-camera drinking water out of a toilet.
— A classic part with MKG telling Paula Pell’s nun character “I bet you have a real hairy ass”, followed by her literally barking at the nun.
— Another classic part, with MKG’s pratfall through the bathroom stalls, complete with water spraying out of a pipe from the wall. Easily my favorite MKG pratfall of all time. An interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit about this portion of the sketch is that Molly actually injured the back of her head when she was repeatedly throwing herself backwards onto the knocked-down bathroom stall walls while repeatedly yelling “I’ll kill ya!” at the camera. Like a trouper, Molly continues on with the sketch without missing a beat and without showing any signs of pain, but after this sketch ends, she spends the remainder of tonight’s episode with an ice pack pressed against the back of her head whenever she’s not onstage.
— Overall, this gets my vote for best Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch.
STARS: ****


VH1
Behind The Music- John Oates (CHK) came up with “Private Eyes” claps

— Short and funny, though not as strong as the Joan Jett one from earlier tonight.
STARS: ***½


MINDY & SKY
dumb girlfriend (host) ruins musician’s (JIF) act but is too sexy to drop

— A lot of laughs from the misinformed statements and bad songs that Gwyneth’s dumb hippie character is making throughout the sketch.
— Gwyneth’s “Rainforests are the devil” song is particularly hilarious.
STARS: ****


TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- impeachment spurs a rampage by the Constitution

 

— Funny visual of the Constitution coming alive and randomly eating people’s midsection, exposing their skeleton.
— A particularly shocking and hilarious part with Strom Thurmond gleefully telling a black senator, after the Emancipation Proclamation gets destroyed, “Whoo-hee, you’re mine, boy!” and trying to chain him. SNL’s studio audience can be heard groaning LOUDLY at that. Haha, gotta love Robert Smigel for daring to go places that SNL usually wouldn’t dream of.
— A great Iran/Contra scandal throwback reference, with Reagan and Bush destroying the monstrous Constitution by using a move that they call the “Ollie North”, which involves shredding the paper.
— Overall, one of the stronger X President cartoons.
STARS: ****


STATEN ISLAND NURSES
(host) & (CHO) socialize amidst medical drama

— This is one of the first SNL episodes I ever saw, and when this sketch came on during that viewing of mine, not knowing who was hosting this episode, I honestly mistook Gwyneth for Fran Drescher, considering the Nanny-esque way Gwyneth looked in that wig along with the New York accent she was doing (though she’s not doing a nasal voice like The Nanny).
— I’m iffy on this sketch, as the material feels a little on the weak side, but Cheri and especially Gwyneth’s performances are decent.
— I love Darrell’s line regarding two breast implants he’s holding in his hand: “I gotta go put these in some broad’s rack!”
STARS: **½


E!
Trent Lott (DAH) says “You’re Watching E!”

— Well… this overall bit was certainly random. Not to mention VERY short and straightforward, with Darrell’s Trent Lott impression from tonight’s earlier E! Impeachment Coverage sketch just saying into the camera “I’m Trent Lott, and you’re watching E!.” That’s it. That’s literally the ENTIRE sketch. I guess it’s kinda funny that Trent Lott, of all people, would do one of those brief “I’m (insert name here), and you’re watching E!” ads that celebrities would often do on E! in this era (Comedy Central also had ads like that in this same era), and maybe SNL’s just going for added realism here, after having done a full-length E! sketch earlier tonight.
— What’s with SNL’s heavy VH1 and E! focus in tonight’s episode, anyway?
— Hell, my review of this sketch is about four times as long as the sketch itself was.
STARS: N/A (too brief and material-less to give a rating to)


WEEKEND UPDATE
multitalented beltway insider Vernon Jordan (TIM) sings about himself

— For the first time all season, a Weekend Update doesn’t precede its opening title sequence with Colin standing in front of the Update desk and doing a straight-to-camera rant. I think that aspect of Colin’s Updates is officially gone by this point, but I can’t say for sure until I review the next episode.
— Boy, is Colin’s delivery awkward on some jokes so far tonight, even moreso than usual. Some of his jokes are bombing badly tonight too (which Colin, of course, responds to by comically scolding the audience for not laughing).
— Some pretty strong jokes from Colin tonight are somewhat balancing out the clunkers. A wildly hit-and-miss Update from Colin.
— Man, the graphics department sure screwed up Colin’s Eugene Robinson joke, by accidentally putting up an unrelated picture of Cher and a young black boy on the Update news screen (intended for Colin’s next joke), resulting in an understandably confused audience (and me).
— A very random musical turn during Tim’s Vernon Jordan commentary, but Tim is giving it that usual Tim Meadows charm that I always love.
— Now the Vernon Jordan commentary is getting even more random and extensive, with the use of Horatio, Ana, Molly, and Parnell as old-timey singers.
— I’m howling at the goofy open-mouthed smile on Tim’s face in the background when looking at the camera while doing a slow leg-kicking dance behind the singers (the last above screencap for this Weekend Update).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “It’s All Been Done”


DOING VOICES
(WIF)’s fiancee Margaret Healey (MOS) & her family love the jokey accents

— I wasn’t caring too much for this at first, until Ana started joining in on the ladies’ jokey accent gimmick by using a Southern belle voice. Not sure why Ana’s making this jokey accent gimmick work for me, but she is.
— Will is a funny straight man in this, and is now providing my real laughs in this.
— I recall an old SNL review from 1999 pointing out how much Horatio, in that wig and glasses, resembled John Belushi.
— A much-needed hilarious turn at the end with Horatio’s warning to Will.
— Nice touch at the very end with Horatio softly beginning to suffocate himself with a pillow.
STARS: ***


VH1
Behind The Music- Colin Hay (JIF) gets lost in “Who Can It Be Now”

— Knowing Jimmy’s love for 80s hit songs, he’s perfectly cast in this role of Colin Hay getting lost in his own bad reminiscent singing of some lyrics from “Who Can It Be Now”.
— Hmm, I’m not finding myself laughing much here. This piece is coming off pretty weak.
— The sketch-ending audience applause seemed to drown out whatever Jimmy’s final line was.
STARS: **


BIOGRAPHY
bitter over being ousted, Jack Perkins (DAH) tars Harry Smith

— A change of pace for these Biography sketches.
— I love the idea of Darrell’s recently-fired Jack Perkins bitterly doing a slanderous biography on his replacement, Harry Smith. The false info this biography is giving about Smith’s life is hilarious.
— A very funny scene with Darrell’s Perkins himself doing a re-enactment of Harry Smith supposedly murdering Bob Crane.
— Random walk-on from Gwyneth as Perkins’ new Inuit wife.
STARS: ****


SENATE VOTING
William Rehnquist (WIF) tires of partisan voting during impeachment trial

— Hmm, I have absolutely no memory of this sketch from my previous viewings of this episode.
— Darrell’s Trent Lott impression is getting a real workout tonight, appearing in THREE sketches in the same episode.
— The increasingly irrelevant things the senate is taking votes on are providing some laughs.
STARS: ***


HARDCORE ROCK
host endorses album of porn movie soundtrack music

— A funny turn early on with Gwyneth casually revealing how much she loves watching hardcore porn.
— Some good laughs from the way Gwyneth is nonchalantly reading off the various dirty porn titles that are displayed on the bottom of the screen, though you can tell she almost started cracking up at one very brief point.
— Overall, short and sweet.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode. The first half was especially great, with a lot of very solid and memorable sketches receiving a high rating from me. Gwyneth Paltrow impressed me with her very good performances all throughout this episode. I don’t recall her following two hosting performances (from 2001 and 2011) being anything special, but just based on her hosting performance in tonight’s episode, she definitely deserved to be brought back for a second hosting stint.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (James Van Der Beek)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Brendan Fraser

Posted on

January 16, 1999 – James Van Der Beek / Everlast (S24 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WHITE HOUSE
Bill Clinton (DAH) is honored to welcome Larry Flynt (HOS) to Oval Office

— I always find Horatio’s Larry Flynt impression to be pretty funny.
— Hillary Clinton, when seeing Bill with Larry Flynt: “What are you doing here with that whore-monger?!?” Bill Clinton: “You talkin’ to him or me?”
— Horatio gets his very first “Live from New York…”. We’re only halfway through this season, and two of this season’s three new featured players have already said LFNY (Horatio and Parnell, the latter having said LFNY twice already). On the other hand, Jimmy, the most popular of the three featured players, ironically wouldn’t get his first LFNY until his fourth season, believe it or not.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— After sounding sick in the last episode, Don Pardo is out tonight with laryngitis. Darrell Hammond fills in for him and, unlike some of the other times he’s temporarily filled in for a sick Pardo, where he basically just uses a generic announcer’s voice similar to the one he does as SNL’s regular announcer nowadays, he does an actual Pardo impression tonight. There’s a reason for that, as the following monologue will show.
— Speaking of foreshadowing the following monologue, I love the comically over-the-top, emotional, tearful way Darrell’s Pardo announces “Ladies and gentlemen, JAMES VAN DER BE-HEE-HEE-HEEK!!!” I recall hearing that some people who watched this episode live, who weren’t aware that wasn’t the voice of the real Don Pardo and didn’t know why he was saying Van Der Beek’s name so bizarrely and tearfully, wondered if Pardo was having a stroke on the air.


MONOLOGUE
disembodied voice of Don Pardo (DAH) expresses obsession with host

— A lot of laughs from the way Darrell’s Pardo is creepily hitting on James Van Der Beek.
— Good gag with Pardo’s gift for James being a pair of briefs.
— Don Pardo to James Van Der Beek: “You have something extra that makes me feel…. I don’t know…. HOT!”
— Lorne to Don Pardo: “Do you remember what happened with Scott Wolf?” Don Pardo: “(shamefully) Yes.”
STARS: ****


TEENY WEENIES!
fertility drug kit abets reckless attitude to motherhood

— A solid execution of a comically disturbing concept. I especially like the lyrics in the commercial jingle.
— A very funny visual of Ana’s particularly tiny baby being held in a spoon.
STARS: ****


NATIONAL SPELLING BEE CHAMPIONSHIP
spelling bee emcee (WIF) tries to improvise after losing the words

— A perfect premise for Will, who’s pulling this off very well.
— I love how it’s now gotten to the point where Will is awkwardly making up complete gibberish words for the contestants to spell.
— Will’s definition of the “word” Kevin McHale is great.
— Usually, I dislike text crawl sketch endings, but this one worked. There’s another one I like later this season, in that “Quit judging my dreams!” sketch from the Ray Romano episode.
STARS: ****


CATS HOME VIDEO
weary Cats castmember (CHP) narrates video marking 11,000th performance

— Funny voice from Darrell’s Andrew Lloyd Webber.
— Parnell’s thinly-veiled disdain during the straight-to-camera Cats tour he’s giving us is fantastic. Parnell is perfect at selling the destroyed soul of his character.
— I love the funny contrast between everybody’s bitter attitudes and James’ upbeat demeanor.
— It’s kinda hard to tell which cast member is which under all of that face paint. Until Will spoke, I honestly thought he was Colin Quinn making a rare non-Update appearance (which wouldn’t be the first time I made that mistake; remember the Will/Colin mix-up I said I made the first time I ever saw the Jingleheimer Junction sketch as a brand-new SNL viewer?).
— A great line from Parnell about Will’s skin issue possibly being due to him rotting from the inside.
— Very strong bit overall.
STARS: ****½


PROMO
LOM steps in when Don Pardo’s (DAH) voiceover lapses into host worship

— I love how the Don Pardo storyline from the monologue carries over into SNL’s “Next show” promo right now, with Darrell’s Pardo pretending that the next episode’s host is James Van Der Beek again instead of Gwyneth Paltrow, and Lorne dryly correcting him.


TEEN PULSE
sassy musical group 7 Degrees Celsius causes girls to swoon

— Oh, I had forgotten all about these 7 Degrees Celsius sketches until now. This is the debut of a sketch that SNL would do in this era whenever a male teen heartthtrob would host.
— I love the little detail with Parnell’s name being spelled “Jeph” and Kattan’s name being spelled “Samm”. Also a great detail with Parnell’s ridiculous wig.
— All the guys are funny in their respective intro, especially Horatio.
— This is such a spot-on and well-done parody of boy bands from this era.
— Will’s pervy producer character has always been my favorite part of these 7 Degrees Celsius sketches.
— Great reveal of a big, intimidating security guard sternly standing next to Will, after it’s revealed what Will was recently in prison for.
— Some really good laughs from the straight-to-camera mid-song speech that each band member delivers one-by-one while resting on a bouncy ball.
STARS: ****


DOG SHOW
David Larry & Miss Colleen preside over a canine slumber party

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Like last time, the silliness of this sketch is pretty amusing, though nothing great.
— The dog playing Rocky Balboa is always particularly adorable (the second above screencap for this sketch).
— A noteworthy mistake where, at one point when he’s supposed to say “Captain Gingersnap”, James unintentionally says “Captain Gingershit…snap”, which the audience seems to catch, though they don’t make too big a deal out of.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ fingers senators trying to make names for themselves via impeachment
foppish sports journalist Brian Fellow (TRM) uses tabloid-style reportage

— I’m not sure, but I think this ends up being the final Weekend Update to precede Update’s opening title sequence with Colin doing a straight-to-camera rant.
— Tonight’s overall opening straight-to-camera rant from Colin felt a little dead, though I got a few chuckles here and there.
— SNL sure loves passing off that picture of an average joe as different random people in this season’s Updates (the fourth above screencap for this Weekend Update). Kinda reminds me of a running gag in season 5’s Weekend Updates, where anchorpersons Jane Curtin and Bill Murray would pass off a comically bad photo of then-current SNL writer Alan Zweibel as different random people.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Wow, not only is it odd seeing Brian Fellow appearing in something that’s NOT a Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch, but in his debut here, he is almost NOTHING like the Brian Fellow that we would later go on to be familiar with. His look here is completely different (as you can see in the above screencaps), as is the main comedic concept of this character. The only similarities this version of Brian Fellow has to the later version are the effeminate voice and the fact that he opened this commentary by blurting out “I’m Brian Fellow!” (though regarding the latter, he doesn’t repeat it throughout this commentary like he later would in the subsequent Safari Planet sketches).
— To imply that Michael Jordan is a closeted gay man, Brian Fellow sassily says “Air Jordan is a friend of Dorothy”, which the audience goes “Ooooh” at. What exactly does “friend of Dorothy” mean? Is that just a reference to the “Gay men love Judy Garland” stereotype?
— The turn with Brian Fellow getting emotional when defending himself and complaining about constantly being disrespected is quite odd. Is this even being played for laughs?
— When telling off Colin, I got a kick out of Brian Fellow referring to him as “Mr. Update: Brooklyn Version” and telling him to “get those marbles out your mouth” (though regarding the latter, Tracy’s one to talk, as he sometimes has a habit of sounding marble-mouthed himself, including some points of this very Update commentary).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “What It’s Like”


LASER POINTERS
laser pointers of (host) & (TRM) ruin a Harry Connick, Jr. (JIF) concert

— Jimmy’s Harry Connick Jr.: “Tonight, I wanna get back to my roots: the songs that made Frank Sinatra famous.”
— This sketch is giving me such a throwback to how prevalent those annoying laser pointers were back in this era. Takes me back to my high school days from these late 90s/early 00s years.
— The joke of this sketch is starting to get old, though Jimmy’s anger is kinda amusing me, and there’s a bit of a silly charm to this sketch, though it still could be better.
STARS: **½


THE WAR ABROAD AND AT HOME
community college fumbles a WWII documentary

— Some good laughs from the bad, vague detailing of WWII from alleged professionals such as the two narrators and the professor played by James.
— I love how they’re using a Hogan’s Heroes clip as alleged WWII footage.
— A big laugh from the narrator pronouncing “Nazis” as “Nazzys” and explaining that “they were called that because they were nasty”.
— Ha, now we get a Small Soldiers clip, though that sadly just reminds me of Phil Hartman’s death.
— A Daffy Duck wartime cartoon clip! I’m always a sucker for Looney Tunes clips, especially from rarely-aired WWII-related Looney Tunes cartoons.
STARS: ***½


FRANKENTEEN
NBC exec (TIM) has created Frankenteen (host) to fill a programming niche

— Surprisingly, Tim is JUST NOW making his first (and only) appearance all night.
— A fairly promising concept of creating a Frankenstein-esque teen idol.
— I love Parnell’s sly, drawn-out delivery of “Pshaw!” Parnell’s been having a strong night tonight in general. It can’t be said enough how well he’s been fitting into the show in just his first season as a featured player.
— Frankenteen’s way of “attacking” people is pretty funny.
— A funny unscripted gaffe with Tim responding to Parnell’s “He’s a monster!” line by saying “But he’s a MONSTER! I mean… he’s OUR monster!” That’s the type of line flub that only Tim Meadows could make work.
STARS: ***


TV REPAIRMAN
Lou’s lovely daughter Maria tries to corral a TV repairman (host)

— The third and final appearance of Cheri’s unibrowed Maria character.
— Are we supposed to ignore the fact that Maria’s dad was played by Sylvester Stallone in Maria’s first sketch and is now being played by Horatio, who is made to look NOTHING like the dad that Stallone played? Also, where are Maria’s two sisters (usually played by Molly and Ana) in this sketch?
— Odd wig on James, which makes his forehead look HUGE.

— I’m getting a good laugh from the part with Maria showing the repairman how she can crack her back in three places.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An overall good episode. The first half of the show contained an impressive long string of strong segments at one point, but the second half of the show was just average. Nothing too bad in tonight’s show; even the sketch that I found to be the weakest (Laser Pointers) had a few merits.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Paxton)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gwyneth Paltrow makes her hosting debut

Posted on

January 9, 1999 – Bill Paxton / Beck (S24 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

MAC’S BAR
Newt Gingrich (CHP) & Bob Livingston (WIF) ask “What the hell happened?”

— I love Will-as-Bob-Livingston’s sudden delivery of “What the HELL happened?!?”
— The occasional repetition of “What the HELL happened?!?” continues to be funny.
— I like Tracy’s bartender character telling Livingston “You this close from gettin’ cut off, bro” when Livingston directs one of his many “What the HELL happened?!?”s towards him.
— Great part with Gingrich telling Livingston that the Macarena, Yahoo Serious, and The Magic Johnson Show all lasted longer than him.
— A hilarious sudden turn with Darrell’s President Clinton exiting from the bar’s backroom with a black woman.
— I love the very energetic “Live from New York…” delivery from Parnell, getting his first-ever solo LFNY (he previously said it in unison with Darrell in an earlier cold opening this season). The fact that he’s only been a featured player for half a season so far and is ALREADY delivering his second LFNY just shows how quickly he’s fit into the show.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Pardo noticeably sounds sick tonight. SNL would later fix this in reruns by replacing Pardo’s announcements with ones where he sounds like his normal self (though I recall Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode using the live version with Sick Pardo intact).


MONOLOGUE
castmembers douse host Carrie-style after he drops Sissy Spacek’s name

— I like the randomness of Darrell doing Will’s hair in the makeup room.
— Some laughs from the cast backstage making fun of Bill while he’s doing his monologue.
— I like the Bill Paxton/Bill Pullman mix-up.
— A good Carrie-esque turn with pigs’ blood being spilled on Bill.
— When we’re seeing various people’s reactions to the pigs’ blood prank, I love the shot of a shocked Lorne whipping off his headphones and mouthing “What the…?” in horror.
— Funny detail with a clip of Sissy Spacek and Bill Pullman from their respective SNL monologues being played in small circular images around a blood-covered Bill.
— During this Carrie parody, I absolutely love the lights in the studio going red and Bill using telekinesis to get revenge on everybody laughing at him. Pretty ambitious visuals for a simple SNL monologue.
STARS: ****


THE VIEW
fired Debbie Matenopoulos [real] makes an eloquent exit

— This ends up being the final View sketch in this era.
— Ah, I see this is after Debbie Matenopoulos got fired from the View in real life.
— Cheri’s Barbara Walters: “I haven’t felt this girlishly giddy since I was 70!”
— Now the real Debbie Matenopoulos appears.
— Tracy’s Star Jones, to Debbie Matenopoulos: “Girl, if brains were a crime, you’d never do time!”
— When the View ladies’ talking over each other at Matenopoulos starts dying down, I love Tracy’s Star Jones being heard saying “–drag your little Greek ass back to MTV.”
— A pretty funny uncharacteristically-poignant exit speech Matenopoulos gives when telling off the View ladies, before doing a pratfall when exiting the scene.
— Overall, not quite as strong as these View sketches usually are, but this was still good, and the Matenopoulos cameo gave this series of sketches a good feeling of closure.
— Odd how tonight’s host was nowhere to be seen in this first post-monologue sketch, but maybe he needed time to get the fake blood washed off of him after the monologue.
STARS: ***½


THE CULPS AT O’HARE
in an airport terminal, Marty & Bobbi serenade fellow stranded travelers

— I like how we’ve been seeing the Culps being placed in out-of-the-ordinary settings lately (Yankees game, airport).
— For once, a Culps sketch actually involves various cast members besides Will and Ana, though it’s only at the beginning of this sketch.
— Some good laughs from Marty Culp’s line about somebody filling his shoes with “dangerously hot” nacho cheese.
— During the song medley, I absolutely love the Culps’ take on “In the Air Tonight”, but I may be biased, as I’m always a sucker for that song.
— An overall good song medley from the Culps as usual.
STARS: ***½


TITANIC
Titanic director’s cut has shake down of Rose (CHO); James Cameron cameo

— I love Horatio as the fat bearded guy from Titanic.
— Bill’s performance in this is great.
— Funny turn with everyone violently turning on Cheri’s Rose, to get her to confess the location of the necklace.
— Why exactly is Darrell playing himself in this particular sketch? Horatio even flat-out referred to him as Darrell at one point.
— Funny pre-taped ending with James Cameron. He had several funny lines here, and I liked the visual of him casually using money to light his cigar.
STARS: ****


BEHIND THE MUSIC: FAT ALBERT
fall of Fat Albert (TRM) & The Junkyard Gang chronicled

— An absolutely hilarious premise of doing a VH1 Behind The Music parody of Fat Albert.
— Tracy’s Fat Albert voice is priceless.
— Tim’s interview as Mush Mouth is great.
— Very funny scene with Dumb Donald having a drug-induced mental breakdown.
— I like Beck’s interview about being inspired by Fat Albert’s music, made even funnier by how straight he’s playing this.
— An overall perfect sketch.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ comments on the degeneration of discourse in the Clinton scandal
Elizabeth Dole (ANG) resigned so she & Bob can party like it’s 1999

— Some laughs from the way Ana’s Elizabeth Dole is reading off lyrics from the song “Party Like It’s 1999” by, who she calls, “the group Prince”.
— The pictures that Elizabeth Dole is showing of herself are pretty funny.
— Man, Colin makes such a bad straight man to guest commentators on Update. That’s especially on display in tonight’s Elizabeth Dole commentary.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”


NEWSFORCE
MSNBC program is cluttered by on-screen information overload

— I like how out-of-hand the onscreen graphics are gradually getting, as it’s now starting to block the people onscreen. A good parody of the large number of onscreen graphics in typical real-life MSNBC shows like this.
— I especially like Will and Cheri being forced to duck their heads to get their faces seen onscreen underneath all of the graphics.
— Good bit with Tim randomly placing a big picture of the Terminator robot onto the graphics-crowded screen and just responding “That’s cool.”
STARS: ***½


KCF SHREDDERS
Rerun from 10/3/98


WHICH OVERNIGHT DELIVERY SERVICE?
overnight-delivery couriers vie for (ANG)’s business via sexy dance moves

— A funny sudden reveal of the random concept of this sketch.
— I love the look of Will’s host character.
— Always nice when Parnell gets to show off his array of funny dance moves.
STARS: ***


FANTASTIC VOYAGE
tiny scientists like hanging out in president’s penis

— I like the various creative penis euphemisms, especially “rumple foreskin”.
— Okay, they’re starting to get out of hand with the euphemisms, though that is the point.
— Funny bit with the guys holding still in the middle of their high-five, only for Ana to inform them “You guys, it’s not a freeze-frame” (though that joke would later be used in an even better way at the end of a news team sketch from the following season’s Garth Brooks episode).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tropicalia”


EXTREME HUNTING WITH TED NUGENT
Ted Nugent (host) welcomes Prince (CHK), shoots him

— Great casting of Bill as Ted Nugent.
— The debut of Skeeter, who would go on to be an obscure recurring character of Darrell’s that would pop up in random sketches.
— Surprisingly, this 10-to-1 sketch is Kattan’s first and ONLY appearance all night.
— The casting of Kattan as Prince, which initially seems pretty random, actually kinda makes sense, as I can see some facial similarities between Prince and Kattan.
— Kattan’s singing as Prince is cracking me up.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode. The show flowed very nicely with an endless string of good sketches all night, especially some of the standout strong sketches in the first half of the show. I also enjoyed Bill Paxton as a host and found him to be pretty fun.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
James Van Der Beek

Posted on

December 5, 1998 – Vince Vaughn / Lauryn Hill (S24 E8)

NOTE: This review is a re-post. While trying to fix the problems my site was going through over the last day, I accidentally permanently deleted the original posting of this review. My apologies to the people who commented in the comments section of the original review, as those comments are now lost.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS
oral sex experts testify for Senate committee investigating Bill Clinton

— Hmm, impeachment hearings. 21 years later, some things never change.
— Darrell’s Al D’Amato impression is cracking me up.
— The whole segment with Darrell’s D’Amato is solid.
— A funny lineup of celebrity oral sex experts being brought in to explain to the senate what oral sex is.
— It feels weird seeing someone other than Dana Carvey playing George Michael.
— I like the running bit with Parnell-as-Bob-Barr’s confusion over certain sexual terms.
— The struggling Tracy Morgan, after doing pretty much nothing the last few episodes (I can’t even remember when his last big role was), gets his very first “Live from New York…”!
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
to host’s relief, Alfred Hitchcock (DAH) isn’t upset about Psycho remake

— Boy, Vince Vaughn didn’t even get past one sentence (which he delivered awkwardly, by the way) in this monologue before SNL already had Darrell “interrupt” this as Alfred Hitchcock. Usually, monologues in this era that have a cast member “interrupt” the host let the host speak for a while before the cast member comes out. The fact that SNL didn’t even let Vince go past one mere sentence before bringing out Darrell’s Hitchcock is probably a sign of the “confidence” that SNL has in Vince, considering I recall him being a notably weak host in tonight’s episode.
— As expected, Darrell is doing a good Hitchcock impression.
— Vince is a stiff and bland straight man in this. I remember SNL reviewer Mark Polishuk (an SNL reviewing legend from the late 90s and early 00s) saying in his review of this monologue back when this episode originally aired, “Gee, Hitchcock’s been dead for twenty years but Vince Vaughn looked like the corpse here.”
— Overall, an okay enough monologue. Darrell’s Hitchcock had funny lines throughout, but I dunno, this monologue still felt like it could’ve been a little better. Vince’s blandness didn’t help.
STARS: ***


OOPS! I CRAPPED MY PANTS
Rerun from 9/26/98


DOG SHOW
David Larry (WIF) & Miss Colleen (MOS) prefer canine company

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Unlike most of the subsequent installments of this sketch, this one opens with a “Coming up next on Animal Planet…” intro. When watching this just now, that intro made me think we were getting a Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet sketch, until I remembered that sketch doesn’t debut until the end of this season. (The character Brian Fellow himself actually debuts in a Weekend Update commentary a few episodes from now.)
— Molly’s wig is blonde in tonight’s Dog Show debut, whereas in subsequent installments of this sketch, Molly wears a dark wig.
— Ha, the dog playing Mr. Bojangles keeps jumping into Will’s drum when it’s supposed to just sit still. After a while, Will ad-libs “Mr. Bojangles… not now”, which gets applause from the audience.
— Mr. Bojangles is absolutely stealing the sketch so far.
— I’m enjoying the bizarre humor of this sketch. I recall SNL writer Adam McKay later saying that he can’t believe that he somehow fooled Lorne into thinking that the absurdist humor in these Dog Show sketches was mainstream enough for these sketches to be placed in such an early spot in the episodes they appear in. Oddball sketches like this typically get buried around the 10-to-1 slot.
— The song Vince is singing to his dog is pretty funny.
STARS: ***


VEGAS PEEPERS
Trent Walker (host) makes a Swinger of Mr. Peepers with a Vegas road trip

— After the particularly awful sketch Mr. Peepers last appeared in during this season’s Kelsey Grammer episode, you can imagine my reaction to seeing him return tonight.
— Not even putting Mr. Peepers in this Swingers parody is adding much new life to this one-note character.
— Hmm, we actually get an interesting scene right now, with Mr. Peepers displaying some nice swing-dancing during the club scene. This scene is also giving me a reminder of the swing revival that was going on at this time in the late 90s.
STARS: **


MARRIED GUYS
spoken-for (host) & (WIF) mislead engaged (JIF) about joys of marriage

— The misleading info that Will and Vince are giving Jimmy on what to expect as a married man is providing a lot of laughs.
— I love Will’s overly specific description of thoughts you WON’T have about wanting to run away from your wife.
— Excellent ending exchange between Vince and Will: “Should we tell him the truth?” “Nobody told me. Screw ‘im.”
— Overall, a very well-written and well-performed sketch, and kinda had the feel of a sketch that would’ve appeared in an earlier SNL era.
STARS: ****½


BREW DUDE
Brew Dude party hat helps college students focus on beer, not books

— Maybe it’s the use of the word “Brew” in the commercial’s title, but I’ve always felt that this commercial seemed like something that Jim Breuer would’ve starred in if he were still on the show. He at least would’ve made a more convincing-looking college student than Will Ferrell, though Will is certainly fun in this.
— I love the random visual of Kattan as an immature William Shakespeare having his fart being lit.
— Nothing much to say about this overall, but was entertaining enough and funny in a silly way.
STARS: ***


LENNON MEMORIAL
ghosts of John Lennon (JIF) & Jerry Garcia (HOS) frustrate wisdom seekers

— Funny in retrospect hearing Vince say “John Lennon: John Legend”, years before a certain singer with the name John Legend would become popular.
— As I pointed out in my review of the Detectives sketch from the end of the Jimmy Smits episode from season 16 (where Smits as a detective kept reversing the verbs in fellow detective Dana Carvey’s sentences to sound wise), this Lennon Memorial sketch has the same premise as that Detectives sketch.
— I like how disillusioned the Lennon fans are gradually becoming by Lennon’s verbal reversal routine.
— This is getting increasingly funnier the more ridiculous Lennon’s verbal reversal routine is becoming. Despite the fact that this premise was already used in the aforementioned Jimmy Smits sketch, they’re making it their own in this sketch.
— Hilarious ending scene at the Jerry Garcia Memorial, with Horatio’s out-of-it Jerry Garcia badly doing Lennon’s verbal reversal routine.
STARS: ***½


EXXON-MOBIL MERGER
gas station employees mull the future in aftermath of Mobil-Exxon merger

— The dopey, misinformed conversation between Will and Vince’s rednecks is entertaining, as are the corrections that Parnell’s deadpan character occasionally gives to Will and Vince’s statements. I especially like Will snarkily suggesting that the merged version of Mobil and Exxon be named “Moron”, and Parnell responding “Except neither Mobil nor Exxon has an ‘r’.”
— Will and Vince have been having good chemistry with each other throughout tonight’s episode, which is no surprise in retrospect, considering the movies they’d later do together.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ marvels at Republicans’ persistence in pursuing impeachment
tree-chained Cinder Calhoun sings “Christmas Chainsaw Massacre”

— It feels kinda odd nowadays to see old Weekend Update jokes about how desperate REPUBLICANS are to impeach the president.
— Ha, an Update joke about a Chopper 4 crash, which immediately brings to mind a certain Mark McKinney sketch.
— An interesting change of pace for Cinder Calhoun, with her being broadcast live via satellite from outside of 30 Rock.
— I would normally assume that this outdoors footage of Cinder Calhoun is pre-taped, but it feels live, especially since Ana flubbed a line at one point.
— Cinder’s song is pretty catchy and has well-written comedic lyrics, though I’m not finding myself laughing all that much.
— I believe this ends up being the last time Ana ever plays Cinder Calhoun. I liked this character’s first few appearances, but got kinda burned out on her towards the end of her run. Can’t say I’ll miss her much, though Ana always did well in her performance as this character.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Doo Wop (That Thing)”


PSYCHO
cloying cheer of Norman Bates’ (host) mother (CHO) precipitated murder

— I’m not sure if it was intended to be funny, but I got a laugh from the opening chyron stating “A half hour before Norman Bates kills his mother”.
— Cheri is spot-on as a smothering, annoying mother oblivious to how she constantly embarrasses her son.
— A very funny line with the mother referring to Norman Bates as “Master Bates”.
— Overall, not much else to say, but I found this to be a decent and interesting Psycho parody.
STARS: ***


PIMP CHAT
Bishop Don ‘Mack’ Donald (TRM) & Pimpin’ Kyle (TIM) talk shop

— What’s this? The struggling Tracy Morgan gets his own showcase that can potentially become a recurring sketch? Wow, between getting to say his first “Live from New York…” earlier tonight and now getting to do this sketch, I see SNL really threw Tracy a bone this week.
— I love the very urban nature of the sketch, which feels refreshing and unconventional for this SNL era.
— A pretty good laugh from the sound of a mechanical, monotone, white man’s voice repeatedly saying “Give me the money” as Pimp Chat’s signal to start the “Pimp of the Month” segment.
— I recall hearing that SNL wanted Lauryn Hill to appear in this sketch, but she declined because she felt that the nature of this sketch was insulting to black women.
— Tracy briefly interrupting the show to roll down the window and yell to an unseen woman “Bitch, you got my money?!?” gave me a huge laugh, though at the same time, I’m starting to see what Lauryn Hill meant about this sketch. I’m trying not to let that ruin my enjoyment, though, because I’ve always had a soft spot for this sketch.
— Vince is hilarious in his performance as a white pimp, feeling like a precursor to the character he would later play in the movie Be Cool.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ex-Factor”


DELCO CAT TOYS
Delco Cat Toys salesmen trade macho banter & test quality of new products

— Will and Vince’s great chemistry gets yet another showcase tonight.
— I love the juvenile bro talk that Will and Vince’s businessmen are casually speaking to each other with.
— Will’s imitation of a cat’s mannerisms are freakin’ dead-on and hilarious. He originally did this cat act in his SNL audition, and from what I’ve heard, he also did it on various talk shows prior to this episode.
— Will to Parnell: “It escapes me how we have not kicked your ass yet!”
— Will to Parnell: “Your office banter is weak!” Parnell: “(in a dopey, insulting manner) Yeah… well… that’s what your wife said!”
— Funny how this is the second sketch tonight with Will and Vince ganging up on Parnell and berating him.
— The whole bit with Will and Vince both trying out the scratching post is priceless.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode and, much like the Kelsey Grammer episode earlier this season, was better than I had previously deemed it to be. (Let’s hope the Bill Murray episode from later this season will also follow this pattern, as I used to consider the Kelsey Grammer, Vince Vaughn, and Bill Murray episodes to be season 24’s “Trifecta of Suck”.) There was a nice amount of things I found to be solid and fun in this episode, especially the final two sketches. Vince Vaughn was also a better host than I had remembered. My past memory of him in this episode had him being stiff, bland, uncomfortable-looking, and way too glued to the cue cards all throughout the show. As it turns out, aside from the monologue, I didn’t notice any of those things in his performances during my viewing of this episode just now. I was surprised to find myself laughing at quite a number of his performances, especially in Pimp Chat. And as I said a few times during the review, he displayed great chemistry with Will Ferrell.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jennifer Love Hewitt)
a moderate step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin hosts the Christmas episode, with special musical guest Luciano Pavarotti with Vanessa Williams

Posted on

Site’s back

I apologize for the lack of a new review or any posts over the last day, but yesterday morning, the site stopped working for me, resulting in me spending YET ANOTHER stress-filled day in trying to fix the site. The site’s back now, and hopefully it stays this time.

My newest review of the Bill Paxton episode will be up in a moment, but first, I have to re-post my recent review of the Vince Vaughn episode. Last night, when doing everything I could to revive the site, I accidentally permanently deleted the Vaughn review. Luckily, I still have the written portions of the review saved, so I just have to copy-and-paste it onto this site, and add in the screencaps.

Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience, everyone.