Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
CALIFORNIANS FOR SCHWARZENEGGER
Arnold Schwarzenegger (DAH) gives non-specifics of his five-point program
— Darrell’s Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, which was never all that great to begin with in its prior appearances, has really slipped by this point. The voice is quite a ways off. Unfortunately, this would end up becoming the default version that we would semi-regularly see of Darrell’s Arnold impression.
— His “solution” for jobs is pretty funny.
— Some more decent laughs from his vague, overly simplistic statements about other things he would fix, like education and crime.
— After Darrell says “Live from New York…”, the screen does a hard cut to the (new) opening montage instead of crossfading into the montage. I’m pointing this out because tonight’s episode is the official point where it would become a long-lasting tradition for SNL to transition into the opening montage with a hard cut instead of a crossfade, a tradition that continues to this day in 2020, I believe.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— New montage.
— A very impressive and fun style and visual quality to this opening montage, feeling like a modernized hybrid of the big-budget continuous-shot style of season 10’s opening montage and the first-person perspective of the second opening montage from season 11. The very impressive visual quality of this montage makes sense, given the fact that it was directed by Dave Meyers, director of MTV music videos such as Missy Elliott’s “Work It”, though something unfortunate about this is that it kinda foreshadows how this SNL season in general will be pandering awfully hard to the MTV audience.
— Will Forte, Seth Meyers, and Jeff Richards have all been promoted from featured players to repertory players.
— Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson have been added to the cast tonight.
— After being credited on a regular basis in every opening montage since season 12, the SNL Band receives no credit in this new montage. This lack of an opening montage credit for the SNL Band would unfortunately go on to be a regular thing that continues to this day in 2020, at least in regular SNL episodes. I hear that the special SNL At Home episodes that SNL has been doing lately has credited the SNL Band in the opening montage (no, I haven’t seen those episodes myself yet, as I’ve been on hiatus from watching new SNL episodes ever since December 2018, and I won’t break from that hiatus until I eventually review all of the episodes that I’ve missed during that hiatus), but as far as I’m aware, those SNL At Home episodes don’t count as regular SNL episodes. The SNL Archives page for the first SNL At Home episode (link here) seems to agree with me, as there’s no official episode number listed for it like regular SNL episodes are typically given on that site, plus the fact that on that site’s Season 45 page (link here), SNL At Home is listed under the “Specials” tab instead of the “Episodes” tab. [ADDENDUM: SNL Archives now counts the SNL At Home episodes as regular SNL episodes.] (Not to get even further off-topic in this review, but those SNL At Home episodes kinda throw a wrench into my plans for this SNL project of mine. Right from the start, I had always made it a rule for this SNL project that I will only review regular episodes and no specials, as stated on my home page, and it’s a rule that I sternly refuse to break. If I allow myself to bend the rules and review one or two specials, then to me, my SNL project will always have an incomplete feel, because I would have reviewed one or some of the specials, but not others. However, I’ve seen some online SNL fans make the point that they personally consider the SNL At Home episodes to be part of SNL’s roster of regular episodes, which really confuses me over whether I should review them or not when I arrive at that point of SNL’s timeline. As of now, I’m siding with SNL Archives and not counting SNL At Home as regular episodes. So, at the risk of potentially disappointing some of you readers, the plan right now is for me to not review the SNL At Home episodes, unless someone can make a strong and convincing argument that those officially count as being part of SNL’s roster of regular episodes.) [ADDENDUM: After a strong and convincing argument from various commenters, I’ve decided to review the SNL At Home episodes.]
MONOLOGUE
host says “not this Jack” to ego trip prospect; WIF & Kyle Gass cameos
— New home base stage. I remember how exciting this was at the time, but little did I know just how insanely long this home base stage would last, still being used to this day, 17 years later, which sadly makes me lose all hope that we’re EVER going to see a new home base stage. Given that SNL has kept this home base stage for the exact same period of time that Kenan Thompson has been in the cast, it almost makes one wonder if SNL is waiting for Kenan to leave until they finally change the home base stage.
— Jack Black is doing a great job right out of the gate getting the audience hyped up. His typical energy is perfect for a season premiere monologue.
— An around-the-studio musical number from the host, in the tradition of things like Steve Martin’s Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight cold opening and Mike Myers’ monologue.
— Funny bit with Jack asking the two new cast members “What’s your names?”, then IMMEDIATELY cutting them off with “Like I care!” Amusing to see in retrospect that this is how record-breaking long-tenured cast member Kenan Thompson was introduced on SNL.
— Speaking of Kenan, it feels just as odd as I expected for me to have officially reached the tenure of a cast member who’s currently still on the show today, which makes me realize I’m slowly getting closer and closer to reaching the modern-day era of SNL and completing this SNL project of mine. Then again, it will be 8 seasons until I reach the debut of the second longest-tenured current cast member, Kate McKinnon, and by the time I reach that season, Kate may have already left the current cast.
— Holy hell, a random casual and quick Will Ferrell cameo, getting shoved face-first out of the way by Jack.
— Now the (almost) entire cast is joining Jack’s musical number, interestingly in the exact same spot in SNL’s studio that the entire cast joined Steve Martin in the portion of the aforementioned Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight cold opening where the cast sings the lyrics “We’re gonna learn our lines, do our parts well, then we’ll go back to coasting… etc.”.
— Horatio’s attempt at scatting is very funny.
— Ah, I knew SNL wouldn’t let Will Ferrell’s only appearance in this monologue just be a very quick, barely-noticeable, non-speaking appearance in which he just gets shoved face-first by Jack, though at the same time, it would’ve been absurdly hilarious if SNL did leave that as his only appearance in this monologue.
STARS: ****
HUGGIES THONG
Huggies Thong diapers may not stop leaks, but they sure are fashionable
— Rachel looks like she lost quite a bit of weight over the summer.
— In the past, I’ve always been pretty meh on this commercial (maybe because of the huge overexposure it would get this season, with it being repeated in WAY too many of this season’s episodes), but it’s coming off harmless enough during this current viewing, and I admit it’s a funny premise for a fake ad.
STARS: ***
QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GAL
(TIF) gets lifestyle advice from lesbians
— I see SNL’s wasting no time in immediately spoofing that summer’s hit new reality show, Queer Eye For The Straight Guy.
— Interesting seeing Paula Pell in a co-starring role, even though she has no actual dialogue here.
— A huge laugh from Jack’s lesbian character asking Tina “Where are your dildos?!?”
— The newspaper/magazine reviews shown throughout this aren’t that funny.
— Jack: “We should tear this carpet up.” Tina: “You guys would know about tearing up carpet.” A very funny line on paper, but something about Tina’s delivery of it didn’t quite work for me. The fact that she probably wrote that line herself (which I’m only assuming, as the writing of this sketch in general seems like her style) also gives her delivery of it a self-indulgent feel that I don’t like.
STARS: **½
THE WADE ROBSON PROJECT
awful dancers (MAR), (AMP), (host) flail
— (*sigh*) More early proof that this season of SNL will be pandering hard to the MTV audience. I also don’t like how the first two lead-off sketches of tonight’s season premiere are BOTH reality show parodies.
— Maya reuses the leaning-all-the-way-back-in-a-staccato-manner dance move from the MTV Spring Break sketch she did with Cameron Diaz in season 27.
— Some of the dialogue is falling kinda flat with the audience.
— A good laugh from one part of Amy’s dance sequence, where she mimes giving birth and then throwing the baby away.
— Jack’s performance and dance sequence is hilarious, and is giving this tepid sketch a much-needed boost. I especially love him doing the Russian Cossack dance move.
— The ending bit with Seth’s Wade Robson telling each dancer how bad they are is another portion of this sketch that’s falling flat.
STARS: **
COOKING CLASS
long-haired chef (host) teaches Vasquez, Gabe, Ruth, Pete (CHP) to cook
— Our third and final sketch with this group of student characters (though Horatio’s Vasquez will continue to make other appearances), but the A.J. character played by the no-longer-on-the-show Tracy Morgan has been replaced with a new character named Pete, played by Parnell.
— Another Jack Black character tonight that is so perfect for him that you would think he wrote it himself.
— A pretty good laugh from Jack’s character being unaware that his long curly hair is dipping into the pot of sauce while he’s speaking.
— Fred continues to kill me as his Gabe character.
— Rachel’s constant mentions of her allergies are getting tired.
— The band-aid ending was very funny.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“Yankee Super-Heroes” by RBS- deep pockets empower baseball mercenaries
— Why is Stuart Scott being voiced by Parnell, of all people?
— A good laugh from the photo seen in each Yankee player’s locker.
— I don’t know why, but the voice for Derek Jeter is cracking me up. There’s also a funny gag with him singing a Mariah Carey-esque sonic shriek as a weapon against enemies.
— Some laughs throughout this overall cartoon, though this felt a little on the unmemorable side.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
— Jack mistakenly pronounces John Mayer’s last name as “Myer”, then makes a very funny and genuine “Oops!” face as the camera pans away from him (screencap below).
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bigger Than My Body”
WEEKEND UPDATE
doped-up Rush Limbaugh (JER) is unapologetic about racial insensitivity
FIM recalls birthday party at Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon screening
Bill Cosby (KET) scuffles with Wanda Sykes (MAR) at Emmy Awards
— This is the second of only two appearances for Jimmy tonight, and the first was a quick non-speaking appearance in the monologue. His airtime is going to be unusually light in the first half of this season, as he’s filming the movie Taxi.
— Jimmy’s brief vocal impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger was very spot-on, putting Darrell’s impression to shame and making one wonder why SNL didn’t cast Jimmy in that role, other than the fact that SNL feels the need to justify Darrell’s unnecessary ninth season in the cast.
— An interesting out-of-the-ordinary set-up to Jeff’s Rush Limbaugh commentary.
— For some reason, it feels a little out of place and dissonant seeing Jeff in this season. Maybe because I now know what’s to come for him mid-season…
— As expected, Jeff’s Rush Limbaugh is yet another spot-on celebrity impression from him.
— A very funny line from Jeff’s Limbaugh about how he regrets the timing of his various controversies, as the possibility of him going to jail just so happens to be right after he pissed off a lot of black guys.
— Wow, a lame photo-based joke (the one about Laura Bush) that feels like a bad throwback to the old days of Update where lame photo-based jokes were a lot more common. (Dennis Miller is especially remembered by some SNL fans today for relying almost entirely on lame photo-based jokes. I disagree with that assessment of Dennis, but that’s another topic.) I think it was the Norm Macdonald era of Update where SNL finally got away from their bad habit of photo-based jokes.
— Giving Finesse Mitchell his own stand-up commentary on Update is a good way to introduce him in his first episode, though it certainly doesn’t make one forget about Tracy Morgan, who’s spot in the cast Finesse was seemingly hired to fill in.
— Kinda lame how Finesse’s commentary is focusing on a movie that came out THREE YEARS prior (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), especially since Tina set his commentary up as being about the new Denzel Washington movie Out Of Time. Finesse must’ve taken this commentary from an old stand-up routine of his, but couldn’t he have updated it?
— I’m having a hard time enjoying this Starkisha routine that Finesse is doing in his commentary, knowing in retrospect that this whole Starkisha bit would soon be spun-off into an unbearable recurring sketch.
— I really like how Jimmy is doubling down on the Norm Macdonald-esque deadpan, blunt punchlines and delivery that he began honing the preceding season. I know Jimmy is certainly no Norm, but still. And it’s certainly preferable to the mediocrity that Tina’s been dishing out lately at the Update desk.
— The random evil twin bit with Jimmy and Tina made me laugh, just because of how funny Jimmy looked in that fake big mustache.
— Here comes Kenan Thompson in his very first big SNL role, doing the Bill Cosby impression that he used to do back in his All That days on Nickelodeon.
— I am absolutely howling at the way Kenan’s Cosby keeps saying “Get out of m’face.” The fact that Kenan can get this big a laugh out of me in his first episode is impressive.
STARS: ***
CAT’S IN THE CRADLE
while onstage, guitarist (host) broaches childhood issues with dad (HOS)
— This is the very first sketch written by newly-hired SNL writer and future cast member Jason Sudeikis.
— Kenan looks so baby-faced here compared to how he looks today.
— Pretty funny reveal of Jack’s stepmom being Shelley Long, portrayed amusingly by Amy.
— Some funny lines from Horatio, such as him saying Jack’s cat had Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and him justifying his own drunkenness one Halloween by saying he was dressed as Abraham Drinkin’.
— Knowing that Jason Sudeikis wrote this, the constant mentions of the sitcom Cheers make a lot of sense, as Jason is George Wendt’s nephew. (Am I the only one who can see a bit of a facial resemblance between them?)
— Also knowing that Jason Sudeikis wrote this, I can’t help but picture him playing Horatio’s role, and he would’ve been absolutely perfect in it, though Horatio is absolutely fine here in his own right.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
— This time when saying John Mayer’s last name, Jack correctly pronounces it in a comically emphasized manner, as if to say “See, everyone, I got it right this time!”
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Clarity”
WINE TASTING
vintner’s son (SEM) endures spit-take facials from wine expert (host)
— Meh, a sketch centered around spit-takes.
— After not laughing for most of these spit-takes, I finally got one laugh just now, from Jack turning all the way around while spitting out wine just to get it on Seth, after Seth has moved to a different spot.
— As I expected, I’m not caring for this very one-joke sketch, though Jack and Seth are performing this really well.
— Okay, I spoke too soon about Seth giving a strong performance, as he annoyed me just now with his horrible overacting during his delivery of “What about the special bottle?!? You have to try the special bottle!” It’s bad moments like that that make me wonder what SNL was thinking a year later in season 30 when they erroneously think Seth has what it takes to carry the show on his back as the male star of the cast.
STARS: **
TELEMARKETERS
via song, telemarketers romanticize sales method killed by no-call list
— Ugh, Kenan’s bizarrely goofy delivery of the line “The majestic buffalo” was too out-of-place for this sketch, and reminds me of how long it would take for him as an SNL cast member to shake a lot of his weaker habits from his child actor days on Nickelodeon. I also recall how, when tonight’s episode originally aired, some online SNL fans who were unhappy with SNL’s decision to hire a former All That cast member (and some of those SNL fans seemingly STILL haven’t gotten over that today, 17 years later) complained about how awful, distracting, and unnecessary Kenan’s mugging during some of Jack’s lines in this sketch was. Over the course of these next (insert large number here) seasons that I’ll be reviewing, it’s going to be interesting seeing Kenan gradually grow into the mature, solid, and reliable veteran he is today.
— Yet another sketch that Jack is absolutely perfect for.
— Horatio has been all over tonight’s episode.
— On an opposite note from what I just said about Horatio, where the heck has Forte been tonight? SNL went through the trouble of promoting him to a repertory player after only one season, only to give him practically nothing to do in his first episode as a repertory player. That being said, he completely steals this sketch with his one and only line of tonight’s entire episode: a hilarious solo lyric about his cocaine addiction.
— Fun guitar bit Jack is doing while standing on the desk.
— Both the audience and me got a pretty good laugh from Jack’s little “Take it” ad-lib in the middle of his long spiel while he handed his guitar to someone off-camera.
— The ending of this sketch abruptly gets cut off due to the show running long.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
— Further proof that this episode is running particularly long, as these goodnights get cut off before Jack even finishes his goodnights speech.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite an exciting new feel to the season with a brand-new opening montage, new home base and musical guest stages, and even a new visual quality onscreen, this ended up being a somewhat meh season premiere, and not a promising sign for the season. This episode was far from awful, but a lot of it hovered around the fairly unimpressive two-and-a-half/three-star rating range. Barely any sketches stood out. Jack Black was certainly a strong host, though, and gave this episode a boost with his fun and reliable energy.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2002-03)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Justin Timberlake makes his hosting debut
Which is the best opening shot? The ON AIR sign or the Grand Central Terminal clock? Open question.
Since you brought it up, I’ll make my argument here for the SNL At Home episodes being episodes.
The official SNL page on nbc.com lists them as episodes, giving them numbers (episode 16 and 17 respectively), listing the hosts as Tom Hanks and The Cast of SNL, and giving no indication of them being specials.
Alternately, on the same website, actual special episodes like Live From Mardi Gras, the 15th, 25th, and 40th Anniversary specials, Weekend Update Thursdays, the various holiday compiliations, are all either not listed or are listed as Episode 0, Episode 100 or other non-sequential numbers based on the season they aired in.
I get the archive isn’t sure yet how to log them, but based on the OFFICIAL SNL’s website they genuinely are listed as episodes of season 45.
Thank you for arguing based on facts and reasoning. I was just going to emotionally implore Stooge to review those episodes because OF COURSE they’re real episodes and that was absolutely Tom Hanks’ 10th hosting appearance even if he hardly did anything. These episodes absolutely belong as legit instalments of SNL.
I’d also argue for these to be considered regular episodes – they are 90 minutes, rather than shortened as many of the “summer Update” or “halftime” episodes are, or what have you. These also aren’t really any type of bonus episodes or extra episodes – the season was abruptly ended due to the pandemic and they have tried to cobble together production since then. I think the show and NBC see them as regular episodes so I do as well. Of course I know it’s not my blog so I’m just giving my opinion, as you are, but I thought I’d just say I agree with you.
The new stage was a big deal starting around July ’03 when somebody took an NBC tour and posted on the old SNL message board that the stages had been disassembled. Being the SNL dork I was in high school I turned on a TV at a bowling alley just in time for the monologue so I could see it (you can see part of it in the promos. It was weird seeing the guitarist behind Lenny.
Has a reason ever been given as to why the SNL Band is no longer credited? They are NOT credited in the SNL at Home episodes BTW.
The new visual quality of the show is very evident. It seems less “dark” as if they improved the lighting and possibly got new cameras.
At 17 I never thought Kenan would still be around into my mid 30s.
Yea, technically, the SNL Band wasn’t credited, but at least they were shown in the montage playing their respective instruments at home.
Photo-based jokes are usually lame, but I feel like Dennis had a style of delivering them that tended to work for me.
I also would count the at-home episodes as real episodes because as John pointed out, they are basically just 90-minute episodes that have the same format as any regular episode, as opposed to a clip show or abbreviated Update thing or the Mardi Gras thing. However, they might be hard to evaluate as I feel like you would constantly say “pretty tough giving this a normal grade” for every thing.
The SNL Band: “Are we a joke to you?” x18
Put me down in the at-home episodes count camp, too. We’ve got a while before it matters, of course.
Jack Black is great on SNL, but yeah, this was pretty meh. The pre-Update portion is some bad foreshadowing on what’s coming this season and in S30.
IMO, ’03-’05 might be one of the most un-fun eras of the show to watch. There’s so much MTV pandering and hacky nonsense and bad writing choices (some of which remain in the show to this today due to certain writers still being there…)
Yet, this time period doesn’t really have that bad of a reputation. I think that’s because the episodes don’t completely bomb out with the studio audience the way a lot of S6/S20 do, and a lot of this cast is still well-liked to this day. A lot of these cast members have had successes either outside of these two seasons or outside of SNL, so I think people just assume that this era is good (not to rag on anyone who enjoys these eps.)
This is probably in my top four of opening credits sequences – the constant motion being used to tell a story of a night in New York is a fun idea, and it’s nice to get a break from the generic party shots…and to not have credits where various cast members (Rachel and especially poor Maya) just look like the camera snuck up on them at random. It’s too bad Jeff Richards’ exit sort of mucks these up.
This is a fun monologue, but the tryhard stench of the early ’00s makes it much more dated. I’d still put this over Mike Myers’ annoys me (mostly because that “it’s hosting it’s hosting now” song irritates me), but “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” walks all over this. You also get a sense of just how awkward this cast is and how unsure Lorne is of what to do with them – they mostly just have one quick scene where the joke is Jack doesn’t even know who they are, then he does the bulk of the monologue with one cast member and a prestigious alum cameo. It’s like a meta statement on how the cast will be balanced against cameos and favoritism from this point on…
Jack Black is a ball of energy and I wish he had hosted in different periods for the show than what we ended up getting.
The Bill Cosby Emmy segment in this episode is odd in that it’s much more aggressive toward Cosby than a more recent Cosby sketch (in Seth Meyers’ 2019 episode) that happened after Cosby was accused and convicted of drugging/assaulting women. I’m not sure if that says something about how badly the 2019 sketch was written, or just that someone at SNL in 2003 really hated Bill Cosby.
Here is the clip (as a bonus you get Jimmy Kimmel, closer to cuddly trampoline days and far away from bearded, crying moral conscience of late night days)
Jack Black’s episode from 2005 is good–at the very least two of the best shorts in show history, and the debut of the A-Holes, and I like the spelling bee sketch.
I watched this episode when it originally aired.
When I saw that Kenan Thompson had joined, I thought he would last about three seasons max.
Little did anyone know that he would become the longest tenured cast member.
Kenan (as much as I’ve grown to like him recently) and this set should *really* be gone by next season.
As for SNL at Home, they are absolutely real episodes. If they had only done one, I’d concede it could be considered a special, but they’ve done two, and a comment from Mikey to Ego in a blooper that was posted (“you’re going to have to keep that [green screen] up until fall”) makes me feel that they intend to do more. Don’t think you can consider these specials if they end up doing four-six to fill out the season. NBC and Hulu are also numbering these as episodes from this season.
And since I’ve been a geek about theme songs and intros since I was a kid, I have to add that this intro montage absolutely rocks. It’s my second favorite from the show, under season five’s second montage. Actually, the two intros have so many similar elements (subway, continuous shot, restaurant kitchen, last shot being a couple holding hands and walking away) that I almost wonder if the show tried to do a modern redo of the season five montage and got the idea to look at it for inspiration because season five’s second homebase set was also a subway station replica. A bit too many coincidences there for me to believe they’re truly just coincidences.
Anyway, it’s a shame that this one only lasted one season, and it’s also a shame that I doubt they’ll ever do a fun intro like this again. The current Pentagram artist that does all the intros (Emily Oberman, I believe) is on record stating that she doesn’t think the montage is the place for jokes, and this one is chock full of them.
As for the band losing their credit, I kind of get it. The band had a lot of prominence in the show back when G.E. was there. By this point, they weren’t really shown on camera much, anymore.
“As for the band losing their credit, I kind of get it. The band had a lot of prominence in the show back when G.E. was there. By this point, they weren’t really shown on camera much, anymore.”
:'(
I would argue that the “At Home” shows are not regular episodes.
The amount of sequel sketches and return of recurring segments after long breaks give them a “big event” feeling that wouldn’t be present during a typical night. The host/MG situation is still unclear when one show credits them and the other one doesn’t, while having respective people in the same roles. Also, the number of cameos is excessive, even for modern standards.
In an unbiased point, the Marli Gras Special took place in a new setting but mostly stuck to the usual format while performing in a different place, not unlike what the current shows are doing.
If these specials remain and become the new norm, I might reconsider my sentiment. But really, how can it be Saturday Night Live if it’s all pre-taped.
” But really, how can it be Saturday Night Live if it’s all pre-taped.”
Hasn’t that happened on other occasions where emergency prevailed (like the Rosanna Arquette episode)? Even the confusion over whether there’s a host has happened in the past (in season 5). I can see your argument but I think some of this is the usual SNL ramshackle structure popping up again.
The SNL band is not credited in the new at-home montage but they are seen playing the theme at their respective homes, everyone except for Christine Ohlman and Ron Blake.
The opening montage is one of the better ones, the pov angle and the cast interacting camera as if it’s a person gives it that unique feel.
Jack Black’s other two episodes are pretty good, this one is kinda bland and meh, fortunately that’s not due to Black himself.
SNL rarely recasts impressions if the person who was doing it is still in the cast, but they did kind of regularly during this time Michael Jackson, George W. Bush, Martha Stewart, Colin Powell, there might be others, but not Arnold. Looking back now, Darrell is the first castmember who is allowed to stay simply because he has nowhere else to go. The start of a troubling trend.
Darrell filmed two movies over the summer New York Minute and Scary Movie 3, so he tried to get out there but by his own admission, he’s not that great of an actor. By the time he finally left SNL, Frank TV had already come and gone and the main difference between the two is that Caliendo was able to write things in sketch form and Darrell never wrote for himself.
First; The “At Home” shows SHOULD count–the cast and crew go through all the trouble to bring a show to you under those conditions, there’s even a Musical performance thrown in. Granted the “Host” part is a little debatable, but as long as it’s a show with 100% new content and not clips mixed in to it (SNL Film Festival from 1985, I’m looking in YOUR Direction), I say it counts.
As for this one; I’m always going to be a fan of the titles in this season, and I make a case for why (and also why they COULDN’T stay) here:
https://usefullyuselessinfo.wordpress.com/2019/11/09/snl-season-29/
Also on that link are my thoughts on the home base (among other things for this year).
Finally, I think this particular show wound up suffering from similar problems to seasons 20 & 40’s premieres; aside from some weak pieces, a lot of new elements (albeit aesthetic ones) were being introduced to us at once; so jarring were these changes that it might’ve made the rest of the show feel like an afterthought, no matter how good or bad some of it was…which is unfortunate, because JB busts his ass on this one…too much, in fact (though that could be attributed to the Kattan/Tracy vacuum trying to be sealed up out of the gate).
I didn’t see it mentioned, but during the title sequence, the guy looking in the mirror is Dave Meyers, the director of the sequence.
I am in the “At Home counts” camp, if only because we have absolutely no idea when normal live shows will occur again.
As for the show you just reviewed– there’s not a whole lot here that I can contest. I sort of disagree about the Yankees Smigeltoon; it was intended to be corny in a Saturday morning cartoon kinda way, though the weak celebrity impressions were a hindrance. The opening montage is my favorite of the last 20 years. I don’t think the reality TV parodies bothered me as much 16 1/2 years ago, though I didn’t anticipate how much SNL would spoof that over the next two seasons.
My problem with most of the parodies is that I found them to be really badly done, cringeworthy, and mostly done to try to seem “current,” rather than because anyone wanted to make them. This started around ’93, with that poor Real World parody in Shannen Doherty’s episode, and slowly builds. Generally I think In Living Color and Mad TV were better at parodies in the ’90s and ’00s.
Later seasons start to move parodies to pre-tape, which means slick editing and cuts to make the material feel less dead. The difference in quality between some of the Kardashian pre-tapes and the interminable Kardashian live sketches can be striking.
So I’m reading the tea leaves a bit here on the consensus opinion on the 03-04 season and I felt I could chime in by saying…I really don’t hate this season. Or, more explicitly, I remember liking this season more than the 02-03 season, which I always felt had a stale air to it.
Maybe it’s just the red hot opening montage, but there is something fresher about this season, even if it is still a bit of a mess. The novelty hosts obviously get crazy out of hand and there are certainly some massive duds to be found, but I think this season’s highs are higher than 02-03’s and CERTAINLY 04-05. Maybe it’s just a case of there being, like, five really good episodes this year, but that’s a couple more than the previous year. It’s a huge year for Forte and Fallon is the best he’s ever been (really). I don’t know, it’ll be fun dissecting what does and doesn’t work over the next two seasons, but I’m getting the feeling I might not jibe with the consensus.
Also, I always loved the monologue from this episode.
Yeah there are some odd hosting choices this season and in the next. Have no idea with the sudden shift in focus to more mtv/tabloid/reality tv type stuff. Marci Klein behind that? Things of course get back to normal in 05/06.
I’m on the “SNL At Home episodes count” bandwagon. According to the Xfinity TV guide and the NBC website, they’re both listed as the 16th and 17th episodes of Season 45 respectively. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s gonna be at least one more before they move on to Season 46 in the Fall.
I certainly think that the SNL at Home episodes count as actual episodes. But don’t bother reviewing them, they’re awful.
But let’s get back to the subject of this episode. Here’s my thoughts:
• I’ve been waiting for you to get to the “Kenan era”, as I like to call it. Who would have guessed that a former All That cast member would go on to be the longest lasting SNL cast member?
• Finesse Mitchell? Who’s that??? ?
• Darrell’s lack of interest should be more obvious over this coming season. He had a few great performances in Season 28 (mostly in the John McCain episode), but it’s pretty much all downhill from here.
• Thank God that Jimmy cut his hair. That Dennis Miller-esque mullet he’s got there doesn’t suit him.
• I just realized that Trump’s first hosting stint (which wasn’t really that bad compared to his second one) is in this season. So is this the point where the Trump jokes slowly become more frequent (along with Darrell’s impression)?
I’ve enjoyed the two episodes, although part of that is getting the break from some of the worst habits of the last 5-10-20-etc. years of the show.
The Apprentice started in January 2004 and brought Trump back into the headlines.
I mostly remembered Finesse for bad drag roles, so I am glad he at least got an Update showcase early on. I thought he was badly out of place on the show. I’m not sure how I’d feel this time around.
I agree, hopefully we’ll get to talk about them in the future, but so far I’m really enjoying the At Home episodes. Yes, the celebrity cameos are still a crutch (I enjoyed the Larry David piece, but not the Brad Pitt one) and their are rehashes galore. But for every recurring piece with iffy execution (What Up With That, RBG), there have been other pieces that worked waaaaaay better for me in the new format (Aidy and Kate’s old office ladies, Soul Cycle). The greater focus on solo work has also provided some of my biggest highlights, as curiosities by Aidy, Melissa, Alex and Ego have all been the kinds of pieces the show straight-up never does and wouldn’t be possible in any other setting. Also, Update has absolutely killed. So yeah, I can deal with lame bits like Mikey’s SnapChat reporter thing if it means I can have Ego doing makeup tutorials. The change of pace still works for me.
I also want to mention that I, too, am a fan of the opening montage. However, I’m not crazy about the 3D-type bumpers.
I will join the chorus of SNL At Home being regular episodes. Most points have been made by others, but I think if SNL/NBC is counting them as part of the regular season, we can too.
This is my 2nd favorite opening montage, behind only Season 3’s Times Square opening. I’d also put Season 12 up there with the fun “storyline” of the cast running through NYC. I’m not remembering this season being that terrible (other than the increasingly annoying Fallon), so this will be an interesting season to rewatch.
These are weak seasons coming up, but I have a soft spot for them as they are the first seasons I began watching “live.” To this point, I had watched a lot of Comedy Central repeats, owned a lot of the “Best of” tapes, and caught some prime time specials, but now I was finally staying up to watch the actual show.
As someone alluded to above, one of the awkward feels for these seasons is the hosts–it feels like a transition period as the show begins to move away from steady, reliable hosts like Goodman or Walken but haven’t yet established a new crew of steady hosts (like Timberlake, Scarlett Johansson, or Jonah Hill). Things are kind of normal this year until the end, where we get a particularly horrifying slate of Trump, Janet Jackson, Lohan, Snoop, and the Olsen Twins (no offense to these people, but did we ever get such a long slate of unorthodox hosts?).
It’s really fascinating to think about the staple hosts of each era and the struggles to find new hosts, who will stick, who won’t (I can’t imagine anyone thought Scarjo would host 6 times). This period where Lindsay Lohan would host every season, 3 years in a row, is especially strange looking back.
Thanks, everyone. I’ve officially been convinced to review the SNL At Home episodes.
Congrats, Stooge! I’m glad you made this decision because I was about to convince you until I read the comments and saw that everybody else had made most of my arguments for me.
All I would’ve added is that after clicking through the “seasons” page of SNL archives and seeing what was listed under the “specials” tab for seasons that had them, the only two “specials” that actually aired in SNLs’ regular Saturday 11:30pm EST timeslot were “SNL At Home” and season 10s’ “SNL Film Festival”. Of those two, “SNL At Home” is the only one comprised of 100% all new original material that hadn’t aired in any previous episodes (even though Ego Nwodim’s solo makeup tutorial seems to have been lifted directly from her Instagram stories, it’s still the first it’s aired on NBC under the SNL name).
The only other argument I could’ve made was that I myself had already reviewed both of them as they aired. I, too, was hesitant to do so given the circumstances as well as not knowing what type of “content” to expect besides a remote Weekend Update. Then, I started noticing as I watched it that they tried to structure it very much like a regular live episode. As with the rest of the live episodes of these past few seasons, I’ve taken to writing the bulk of my reviews lately live as the show airs just to take notes and collect my thoughts so I can piece together a full length blog post after the show airs. I found myself still being able to think critically and form my own solid opinions about the content I was seeing in the SNL At Home episodes. Enough of my thoughts just snowballed from there that I decided to put them in a blog post as several of my friends in the That Week in SNL Discord chat and our Twitter group DMs were big enough fans of my current reviews that they urged me to do so. If I can put together a review of these episodes, you could knock one out of the park!.
I’ve missed a good 2/3 of last week’s new SNL at Home. Thankfully, I’ve already recorded the whole thing. 😀
I wish you would reconsider NOT reviewing the SNL At Home “episodes.”
To me, they don’t count, and never will. Plus, they were both stinkers.
I also just really don’t understand why someone would be like, “Please, Stooge, I want LESS content.”
— “But don’t bother reviewing them, they’re awful.”
— “Plus, they were both stinkers.”
Well, then Stooge should have skipped those pesky Steven Seagal and Paul Reiser shows if that’s the yardstick we’re judging by. Oh well, too late now…
Count me as part of the “SNL At Home counts” camp. The episodes are closer in format to specials like Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video and Things We Did Last Summer, plus there’s a “previously recorded” disclaimer despite the material being new. At least SNL doesn’t take shortcuts, though, the way MADtv’s thirteenth season had three “new” episodes in February 2008. There, MADtv attempted to get around the WGA strike by cobbling together cancelled-episode pre-tapes and content from the eighth to tenth seasons. SNL could easily do something similar and scrape off dress-rehearsal content from the most recent seasons, but that would feel more like filler than the SNL At Home format does.
(As an aside, that thirteenth MADtv season…oof. That was a perfect example of Fox losing interest in a show, but being too apathetic to replace it.)
When would everyone say the turn for Kenan started where he really started to become great on the show?
Seth Meyers put it great one time, basically saying he’s been at the show so long that his mind is more acclimated to sketch comedy than anyone else in the world, and I kind of see where he’s coming from.
If the show wanted to sack their current home base stage and also wanted something new, for me, it would be cool if their new home base stage’s theme will be based on their own home, 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Imagine all the glamorous art deco elements on Studio 8H.
Good idea, Ezra. I would love to see home base decked out in Art Deco.
Great review. Wow the new opening made me realize THIS is the season I actually started out with. I was flip back and forth from SNL to MadTv at this time. I loved it and excited to see where this leads. Just like any season, it has its faults, but i cant wait ti see where it leads to my Renaissance of SNL, 05-13.
Myfavorite part of the openeing are the writers. The people the cast interacts with are looking in the cameras are differnet writers.
Looks like Garrett Morris is in the front row of this show (you can see him when the camera cuts to the crowd right when the theme ends). Anyone know why Garrett seemed to be in the studio for some shows around this time? He’s here, in the audience for Sharpton’s, and cameoed in Brittany Murphy’s a year prior.
One of the kids sitting on the couch during the opening monologue is Tyler James Williams, star of Everybody Hates Chris.
I feel like I keep commenting lately to defend Tina, but I wanted to do so again in the Queer Eye sketch (my guess was that Paula wrote it). Tina’s delivery of the carpet joke is hammy, but I don’t think that was Tina being like “look at this amazing joke ha ha!” I think she was playing a character who was overly proud of a corny/hacky joke, and the humor comes from the lesbians reaction to it, rather than the joke itself. At least that was my interpretation. (And sorry to only comment when I disagree, but I’ve been glad to read these recaps as I do my own rewatch.)
why did Jack hosted the season premiere of SNL? Is he there to promote School of Rock?
Yeah. School of Rock was released in theaters that weekend.
Gotta love how the whole argument over the At Home shows ended up being irrelevant, since Stooge bailed on the project before reaching them.
Is there a reason for the better visual quality this season? Had they transitioned to using HD cameras while still in standard definition?