Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
A NONPARTISAN MESSAGE FROM SARAH PALIN & HILLARY CLINTON
Sarah Palin (TIF) & Hillary Clinton (AMP) address campaign sexism
— The debut of former cast member Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impression. And this debut is in what ends up being a very famous and popular sketch.
— Speaking of Tina being a former cast member, I remember how there were news articles earlier the week of this episode stating that SNL was trying to get Tina to play Sarah Palin (given how everybody was talking about how strongly Palin resembles Tina), and that if Tina wasn’t available that weekend, Casey Wilson was SNL’s back-up plan for a Palin impersonator. I remember desperately having my fingers crossed for Casey to get the role, given how underused and underappreciated she was, and how much I liked her and wanted to see her succeed on SNL. And thus, when SNL went on the air that weekend and we immediately saw in the cold opening that Tina was playing Palin, I couldn’t help but initially be kinda disappointed (though that disappointment quickly went away when I saw both how good Tina was in the role and how strong the writing was). It’s interesting, though, to think of an alternate universe in which Casey DID get the Palin role and did successfully with it. You really have to wonder how differently her SNL tenure would’ve turned out had that happened. Casey’s success in the important role of Palin might’ve led to her getting good buzz in the media and online, which in turn might’ve led to her becoming a well-liked cast member, her gradually getting more and more general airtime, and her having a nice, full tenure. I gotta say, though, it’s really difficult for me to picture all the famous Palin sketches from this season being done with Casey in place of Tina.
— Right out of the gate in this cold opening, Tina’s Palin impression is a big hit with the audience.
— A very well-remembered and often-played part with Tina’s Palin saying “And I can see Russia from my house!”, making fun of something the real Palin said, though I think her wording of it was different (I can’t recall now, 12 years later).
— What is “FLIRJ” an acronym for anyway? (Or is it spelled “FLIRGE”? Or “FLURJ”? Or “FLURGE”?) Amy’s Hillary Clinton tells us to stop referring to her as that, after Tina’s Palin asks us to stop referring to her as a MILF, a very famous acronym. I remember people online back at this time in 2008 speculating both how “FLIRJ” is spelled and what it’s an acronym for, but I don’t think I ever saw a definitive answer.
— So many great lines from Amy and Tina here. Practically every single line is killing.
— Another memorable bit with Tina’s Palin, in which she stands in various poses for the camera during Amy-as-Hillary’s angry rant about how hard she worked in her attempt to become president.
— I love Amy-as-Hillary’s passive-aggressiveness throughout this in response to things Tina’s Palin is saying.
— Amy: “I invite the media to grow a pair…and if you can’t, I will lend you mine.”
— Overall, a classic, and an excellent debut of what would go on to be a very memorable, important, and iconic Sarah Palin impression this election season.
STARS: *****
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding two seasons. However, some minor changes have been made to it: 1) many of the shots of New York City scenery are now shown in black-and-white, 2) the onscreen text of the SNL logo and cast members’ names are now displayed in a much more compact and smaller size, being shown in the middle of screen instead of being shown in a wide size that covers almost the entire left-to-right end of the screen, and 3) as the gray-colored SNL logo and cast members’ names slide out of the shot after being displayed, they’re now each shown in different colors instead of still being shown in gray.
— Bobby Moynihan has been added to the cast tonight.
MONOLOGUE
William Shatner [real] advises host on endorsements; Debbie Phelps cameo
— Amy as Michael Phelps’ overexcited mom is just generically-written stuff, but Amy is making it work decently enough.
— I like Amy egotistically asking the woman sitting next to her, “Do you have children? How many of them have gold medals?”
— A good laugh from Will wanting Michael to endorse his My First Meth Lab product.
— William Shatner cameo. Surprisingly, I think this is his first SNL appearance since famously hosting way back in season 12.
— Amusingly enough, in several shots, Guy Fieri can be seen sitting in the audience (as seen in the bottom left corner of the fourth, fifth, and sixth above screencaps for this monologue). That unmistakable hair of his alone gives him away.
STARS: ***
QUIZ BOWL
home-schoolers (WLF), (AMP), (host) whiff on science questions
— Funny in hindsight seeing the long-ish curly hair Bobby Moynihan has in his first few months on the show, before he would cut his hair to a much shorter style that people today remember him as having on SNL, as he would keep that hairstyle for the rest of his SNL tenure.
— Decent concept of Will, Amy, and Michael’s characters.
— The camera accidentally cuts to a close-up of Michael when Will says his first answer. I remember an online SNL fan saying back at this time, “Well, at least we know Michael Phelps stays in character when he thinks he’s not on camera.”
— Kristen playing what’s probably generally considered to be a very stereotypically Kristen Wiig character, twitches and all.
— Right in his very first sketch, Bobby gets a good laugh from the audience, by answering Jason’s rhetorical “What, are you home-schooled, too?” question with a proud “No, public school.”
— The main joke of this sketch with the answers the home-schooled kids give is starting to get kinda old for me. It also doesn’t help that it’s obvious Kristen was given no actual material to work with, and she’s apparently trying to overcompensate by turning the hamminess, mugging, and twitchiness up to 11.
— Jason’s frustration throughout this sketch is good.
— Great ending line from Jason about social services waiting outside for the home-schooled kids.
STARS: **
JAR GLOVE
without a Jar Glove, (KRW) would suffer a calamitous cascade of gerunds
— When Kristen burns her hand with hot water when trying to open the jar, some girls in SNL’s audience can be heard loudly shrieking in gleeful excitement for some inexplicable reason. The hell? Are those girls seeing Michael Phelps take his shirt off in the studio or something?
— A very funny progression to how out-of-hand Kristen’s life gets just from her difficulty in opening a jar, all presented in the cheesy style of black-and-white “There’s gotta be a better way” dramatizations you typically see in this type of commercial.
— A funny simple solution to Kristen’s jar-opening problem, after all the insanity we saw her go through in the alternate scenario.
STARS: ****
SWIM TEAM MOTIVATION
unlike his swim team, terpsichorean coach is moved by “Fancy Pants”
— Oh, no. What are you doing, SNL? You cannot do a second installment of this classic sketch from the season 32 Peyton Manning episode.
— Quite a number of line flubs early on in this.
— Ugh, Michael’s “I thought I fudged my speedo” line was not only cringeworthy, but was just an inferior variation of Peyton Manning’s “A little bit of pee came out” line from the first installment of this sketch.
— The crazy music Will is dancing to is catchy, at least (I’m sure it’ll get stuck in my head again, much like it did back when this episode originally aired 12 years ago), but it doesn’t compare to the Casino Royale music from the first installment of this sketch.
— On a similar note to above, Will’s dancing doesn’t compare to his dancing from the first installment, but it’s still cracking me up, I’m not gonna lie. I also admit to getting laughs when the song he’s dancing to suddenly displays vocals singing what I guess are the words “fancy pants” (though to me, the words they’re singing sound more like “dancing plants”, or “dancing pants” or “flancy plants”, even if the latter doesn’t make any sense). By the way, is this a real song, much like the aforementioned Casino Royale one, or is this a made-up song from SNL?
— On a similar note to how the text in SNL’s opening montage is shown in a more compact manner in the middle of the screen this season (same goes for the text in the going-to-commercial SNL bumpers and the “next week’s host and musical guest” promo), I’ve been noticing that even the placement of various performers onscreen in sketches is more near the middle of the screen instead of all around the screen like usual. This leaves a lot of space on the left and right ends of the screen.
— Will’s scene partners are surprisingly keeping a completely straight face at his dancing this time (even non-actor Phelps), unlike in the first installment of this sketch. I have no idea how they’re not breaking HARD at these absolutely insane, wild dance moves of Will’s. At least Bobby Moynihan has proven right in his first episode that he will be reliable at keeping a straight face in sketches.
— Okay, I’m now noticing Bill occasionally resting his hand over his mouth in a strategic manner to hide his amusement at Will’s dancing, just like in the first installment of this sketch. The rest of the guys, though? STONE-FACED.
— Blah, Michael joining in on Will’s dance isn’t being pulled off anywhere near as hilariously as when Peyton Manning did it.
— The “Let’s get outta here” ending felt so lame, empty, and lazy compared to the original version of that ending in the first installment of this sketch, where the line was “Let’s get the eff outta here”, referencing a running gag early on in the sketch.
STARS: **½
BIG KIDS
awkward quirks of Stacia & cousin Craig (host) creep out dinner guests
— OH FUCKING NO. As if it wasn’t bad enough that tonight’s episode brought back the classic Locker Room Motivation sketch that should’ve remained an epic one-off, now they’re bringing back a sketch that I didn’t even like the first time. Some really lazy writing in tonight’s season premiere so far (which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise, but still…).
— Bobby is already very prominent so far in his first episode.
— Boy, Kristen seems to be mugging even worse than she did in the first installment of this sketch. (That makes this the second time in this season premiere review that I’ve noted Kristen mugging more than usual. A harbinger of what’s to come from her this season, perhaps?)
— Casey seemed to be really late on her cue to say her line just now.
— (*groan*) Cue the camera doing frequent pan shots of the straight man characters each having a frozen unpleasant look on their face as they’re witnessing something odd Kristen and Michael’s characters are doing, a tired trope that his SNL era relies too heavily on. It doesn’t help that the Swim Team Motivation sketch that aired right before this also had that exact same type of pan shot of straight men at one point when Will was listening intensely to the music, which further proves my point about how much this SNL era overuses this trope.
— When Bill and Amy ask their guests if they have any kids, I love Bobby responding “We were seriously considering it, but we probably won’t now.”
— During one of the ENDLESS number of aforementioned pan shots of straight man characters having a frozen unpleasant look on their face, the very stern, bored look on Andy’s face (the last above screencap for this sketch) perfectly mirrors the look on my face while sitting through this insufferable sketch.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mack Maine [real] perform “Got Money”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Sarah Palin supporter Alaska Pete (WLF) admonishes the media elites
once again, Nicholas Fehn fails to communicate anything substantive
dispatcher (SEM) fields a 911 call placed by a cockatoo (AMP)
comic strip staple Cathy (ANS) reprises her usual hair-raising themes
— As yet another example of how things in tonight’s season premiere, such as the text in the opening montage and the going-to-commercial SNL bumpers, and the placement of performers onscreen, all seem to be shown more in the middle of the screen, even something about the Update photo graphics are shown closer to the middle of the screen tonight, with a lot more space on the left or right sides of the screen. I wonder if the reason for all of these changes tonight is because some NBC affiliates were airing SNL in an aspect ratio that cut off the left and right sides of the screen. Indeed, when I watched this episode on NBC’s New York affiliate back when this episode originally aired, the left and right sides of the screen were cut off for the entire episode, which was particularly noticeable in the Quiz Bowl sketch, as it made it look like SNL’s cameras had a hard time following the wandering-around Kristen Wiig. In some shots, only her arm was onscreen while she was speaking, which looked just as bizarre as you might imagine.
— A somewhat interesting-seeming new character for Will, a topical one-off character related to the Sarah Palin media craze.
— So far, a fairly forgettable vibe to Will’s Alaska Pete commentary, but he has enough decent lines here.
— Seth, when introducing tonight’s Nicholas Fehn commentary: “Ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a real treat.” Why does he or Amy continue to say stuff like this every time they introduce Fehn, when they KNOW from his previous appearances that he’s a hack comedian who always fails to make a point?
— (*sigh*) Fred’s Nicholas Fehn routine continues to get more and more tired. This routine has gone from having me practically in stitches in its first two appearances to having me just stare at my screen bored. He just does the same damn thing EVERY TIME.
— Okay, Fred got me just now. I admit to laughing right now during his endless sentence cut-offs and subject-changing during his face-to-face rant to Seth at the end of this commentary (I also like Seth’s leaning forward, hand-under-chin posture during that, as he’s impatiently waiting for Fehn to make a point, as seen in the fourth-to-last above screencap for this Update), even though, again, Fehn does that in EVERY commentary.
— Pretty fun bit with the Seth-and-Amy-voiced cockatoo 911 phone call.
— The debut of Andy’s Cathy impression.
— This Cathy commentary is really dumb on paper, but it’s the exact kind of dumb that Andy typically makes work.
— Not sure this Cathy commentary deserves to eventually be turned into a recurring Update feature, but we’ll see how I’ll now feel about her subsequent appearances.
STARS: ***
THE CHARLES BARKLEY SHOW
Bela Karolyi (DAH) & host panel at casino
— Mixed feelings from me upon the sight of this sketch. I always love Kenan’s Charles Barkley impression, but I am beyond tired of SNL relying on the ol’ lazy talk show format, especially celebrity-hosted talk show sketches.
— Darrell finally makes his first, and only, appearance of this season premiere. This reminds me that this ends up being his final season. Feels like I’ve been reviewing him forever at this point. By far the longest tenure I’ve had to cover of a single cast member so far in this SNL project of mine. (Wait’ll we get to Kenan’s more recent seasons.)
— When Darrell starts speaking, a clipboard is heard LOUDLY falling on the floor off-camera, which distracts Darrell in the middle of his line delivery and causes him to almost crack up. The falling clipboard is from one of the child extras who the camera is soon going to be doing a cutaway to in a funny reveal of Kenan-as-Barkley’s show having a crew consisting entirely of children.
— Kenan-as-Barkley’s Angola story was hilarious.
— The bit with Kenan-as-Barkley’s next guest, Usain Bolt, never showing up onscreen made me laugh.
— Kenan’s Charles Barkley to Michael Phelps: “Just for Twinkies, would you speak in a Jamaican accent and pretend to be Usain Bolt?”
— Overall, not a bad sketch at all. Much better than I was expecting, given my fatigue towards the celebrity-hosted talk show format.
— This ends up being the only installment of this particular celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, despite it seeming like it was on its way to becoming recurring. I think I recall hearing that a later installment of it ended up getting cut after dress rehearsal, but I’m not sure, nor do I remember what episode it was cut from. I kinda wanna say it was cut from the Ben Affleck episode from later this season, but I’m probably wrong.
STARS: ***½
T-MOBILE
dad’s (JAS) interest in teenaged T-Mobile Fave 5 creates marital discord
— The very first aired sketch to be written by newly-hired SNL writer John Mulaney.
— A great deconstruction of a real T-Mobile ad from a year or two prior to this (which makes me wonder if this sketch is material Mulaney wrote long before getting hired as an SNL writer).
— A big laugh from Jason angrily telling his wife Kristen, “What would YOU know about sexy?!?”
— I love the structure of this sketch, with the constant cutaways to light-hearted T-Mobile interstitial shots in between each short scene with Jason and Kristen’s domestic quarrel.
— Great stern delivery from Kristen when she asks Jason, “Michael…who is in your 5?”
— For the first time all night, Michael Phelps is actually funny in a sketch.
— Overall, not only a very funny sketch, but a very strong and promising writing debut for Mulaney. In hindsight, a great sign of things to come for him during his SNL writing tenure.
STARS: ****
SPACE OLYMPICS
administrative failures wreck an off-world extravaganza
— Pretty fun concept and visuals right out of the gate in this short.
— Solid melody to this song.
— A rather random shoutout to SNL favorite (and polarizing among online SNL fans) Justin Timberlake, with Andy’s final lyric in this short being taken from the Timberlake song “My Love”.
— An overall fun and amusing adventure.
STARS: ***½
UNO’S
the smell of pepper distracts unhelpful pizzeria waiter Mark Payne (BOM)
— After being prominent in supporting roles in the first half of this first episode of his, Bobby Moynihan impressively now gets his own lead role in a sketch. This ends up being a sketch that would NOT go over well with a lot of online SNL fans back at this time in 2008. This sketch was so poorly-received among a large number of online SNL fans that it made them immediately and unfairly write the newly-hired Bobby off as a dud. (He would thankfully win most of those SNL fans over with a solid John Mulaney-written Of Mice And Men sketch he stars in in the very next episode.)
— Bobby’s Mark Payne, in a proud announcement to the customers: “We got over four different flavors of soda!”
— I can definitely see why people back in 2008 (and perhaps even people today) were annoyed by this sketch when it originally aired, especially with the obnoxious and seemingly pointless running bit involving Bobby’s Mark Payne mentioning the smell of pepper, but personally, I’m finding Bobby’s characterization strangely fun. Even the dumb pepper running gag is working for me, due to the odd and detailed analogies Mark Payne keeps making to the pepper. While this sketch isn’t an accurate representation of the type of work and characterizations Bobby will be bringing to SNL during his 9-year tenure, I still cannot hate this sketch at all. It’s consistently making me laugh.
— A hilarious sudden realization from Mark Payne: “Oh, snap! Yo, I left my kid on the bus!”
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lollipop”
THE MICHAEL PHELPS DIET
the calorie-laden Michael Phelps Diet suits host only; Jared Fogel cameo
— As soon as the camera first cuts to Michael, he immediately turns his head to the side and gives an unscripted hard cough (or sneeze) into his arm (the first above screencap for this sketch) before starting to speak into the camera. You can tell by the embarrassed and amused face he makes shortly after starting to speak (the second above screencap for this sketch) that he’s aware his coughing (or sneezing) gaffe was caught on camera.
— Good concept to this sketch.
— A laugh from an actual pig in a blanket being one of the meals in the Michael Phelps Diet.
— Some of the before/after photos are hilarious.
— A decent way to get mileage out of Amy’s real-life pregnant belly.
— OH MOTHERFUCKING NO. A cameo from the one and only Jared Fucking Fogel. Ugggghhhhh. And as if that alone didn’t age this sketch horribly, we also get Jared making an oral sex reference with his line about how “this diet sucks a footlong”, a line that I remember had me laughing out loud in 2008, but I can’t look at the same in more recent years. Also, in my original 2008 review of this episode back when this episode originally aired (and I already didn’t like Jared back in those days, though obviously for different reasons from why I don’t like him today), I made this now-cringeworthy statement when praising Jared for what I deemed to be a surprisingly-funny performance: “I usually can’t stand this guy, but now he earned a little bit of respect from me.” Well, so much for that respect he earned from me……
— Yeesh, even for athlete host standards, Michael is flubbing his lines left and right in this sketch.
— Overall, not a bad sketch, though it’s strong potential was marred a little by some sloppiness, not to mention JARED FUCKING FOGEL.
STARS: ***
IN MEMORIAM
a photo of Bernie Brillstein marks his passing
Not included in my copy of this episode
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly mixed episode, with the pretty weak first half and the good second half. Not a remarkable start to the new season, but this overall episode had enough good stuff. Michael Phelps was a blah and forgettable athlete host. He displayed no charisma, and came off completely bland and stiff, and not the fun kind of stiff that some athlete hosts are (e.g. Wayne Gretzky, Derek Jeter).
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2007-08)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
James Franco makes his hosting debut
I remember Bobby’s big debut sketch being super panned–a lot of people said it had a Mad TV vibe, which I can see. At the time, I didn’t find it super funny but I thought Bobby did nail the kind of character you would run into in these scenarios. And to his credit, Bobby proved he was a very versatile performer–he could have lazily kept doing lead roles like Mark Payne but instead he began doing many diverse roles. A good example of how a potentially rough start doesn’t always derail a SNL career.
I’m a little harsher on the T-Mobile sketch than you–it gets some laughs out of the performances, but it’s basically like a live-action recreation of what a lot of people were riffing on when that commercial first came out. It’s funny, but to me a lot of the material is being served up by the original product.
I played six years of college quizbowl and currently work for a quizbowl question company, so I was slightly disappointed that the “quizbowl” sketch in this episode is just an unimaginative nod to homeschool kids not learning stuff.
This is such a lazy episode for a season premiere, which I guess is sometimes par for the course. I guess you’re hampered by the host, but surely there were some conceptual stuff or non recycled things you could throw out there?
Phelps seems like he would have been potentially okay for a quick cameo (maybe in the short and something else), but not a host. I liked that 80s SNL would do things where you would have a special guest who would appear in a few sketches but not host. Nowadays it’s like you only get to be in a string of cameos or host.
I love Space Olympics. The “And as I stare death in the face, I know my sins will take me to hell” line is probably the hardest I’ve laughed at a digital short just because it caught me so offguard.
I’m not a fan of the compact blocking that you pointed out. I don’t know if that stays through this whole season, but it makes the direction look a lot flatter.
Also, I’m super mixed on Tina Fey’s Palin. This cold open was alright and the Couric interview sketch from later this season is one of my favorite political sketches SNL has done, but the success of Tina’s portrayal definitely gave Lorne a high that he continues to chase today, with very iffy results.
Yes, I forgot to comment on this–Tina is excellent as Palin and almost every sketch she is in this year is great. But there are two big problems with this:
1. It sets the precedent that these prominent political roles should be played by non cast members. I have no real problem with Fey as Palin–she did look amazingly like Palin and I’m unsure if anyone in the (rather small) female cast at the time would be as good. But it got taken to ludicrous proportions–when no one on your current crew has played Trump, Biden, or Kamala Harris…that’s really bad. Imagine if Phil Hartman kept showing up as Clinton in the late 1990s.
2. It also kept feeding in to a rather toothless political portrayal, in which every political person was depicted in a sort of cheerfully inept way, much like the early Ford sketches. There’s occasional real bite in the Palin sketches (much more so compared to others), yet we end up having the real Palin show up (much like the real Hillary did last year). Again, I don’t mind this too much in 2008, as Palin was basically seen as a sideshow even then, but it also gets taken to extremes.
Outside of the instant classic Fey/Palin cold open, Year 34 gets its worst show out of the way first. Most of the sketches did nothing for me, though its not as interminable in the second half. In hindsight, this was definitely a harbinger of Kristen’s tendency to ham things up.
I think Mark Payne was Bobby’s signature character at UCB for many years before he was on SNL. I remember thinking the biggest problem was just throwing this fully developed character out there we knew nothing about and just accepted this weirdo yelling about pepper haha, just kinda felt like we were missing whatever his backstory was supposed to be. I remember Bobby talking about the sketch of his he most wishes wasn’t cut during his whole SNL tenure and it was something was later this season where we get a flashback to Mark Payne and how he became the way he is with Tracy Morgan of all people (the host of that episode) as his mentor or something. If they still made Best-Of’s and Bobby got one, that would have to be one of the DVD extras! Also worth mentioning, I just saw Bobby on Tacoma FD last week (the fireman comedy on TruTV starring the Super Troopers guys, Bobby was also a guest on the aftershow of the episode as well) and Bobbys looking more like he did in those early days again, big beard and very long hair, looking more like Hurley from Lost again like he did in all the old internet videos he was in pre-SNL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B84bmjc04MM
And yeah, I definitely remember the speculation that Casey could be Palin, even with everyone clamoring for it be Tina because of the resemblance, of course at the time it was an absurd thought that they’d get an outside the cast cameo to come by every single week for a political impression they’d obviously need so much in an election season. Oh if they only knew! I guess this was really the beginning of that, even before 2016.
FLIRJ, according to Urban Dictionary, would be “First Lady I’d Rim Job”. For the sake of decency, I will not disclose what a rim job will be here.
Will’s song this time is “Fancy Pants” by Al Hirt.
I used to believe that the finale of Season 34 was when the celebrity cameos started to get out of hand, but I totally forgot about Tina Fey’s appearances. What was the reason for Shatner’s cameo in the monologue? Did he have some movie out or something?
A few months ago, NBC Sports Network was showing a marathon of SNL episodes hosted by athletes, and this was one of them. I’m guessing they left out the Jared Fogle sketch in that airing.
I don’t know what the purpose of these Cathy commentaries is. They are some of the worst I have ever seen. Actually, I’d say that almost all of Andy’s commentaries are pretty bad. Anybody else remember those “Teen Who Just Woke Up” routines that he did?
They showed an episode with Cathy after the Daniel Craig one, this year, and I couldn’t believe how stupid the bit was.
I actually like a lot of andy’s update commentaries, I think they’re all knowingly dumb which makes it okay. But! since you mention ‘teen who just woke up’, andy said recently that those were written by colin jost, and he (andy) didn’t even want to do them, so I guess he agreed with you that they’re not great!
These were the last years of Cathy and the comic was mostly forgotten beyond some derision, so I’m not sure why it suddenly appeared again here. Tina Fey did a brief homage on 30 Rock in spring 2008 so I wonder if that inspired Andy’s bit. It also has vibes of “Lorne wants more Andy on the show this week since people like him but he has no material available.”
I don’t know for sure why Shatner made a cameo. I remember reading around this time that the original monologue for this episode was going to involve cameos from Barack Obama and Chuck Norris but both dropped out to help the victims of a recent Texas hurricane. Shatner must have just been a last minute replacement. Also, I’m a fan of thte Cathy commentaries for how left field and gleefully stupid they are but I can’t say the same for the “teen who just woke up” commentaries.
The Guy Fieri “cameo” always makes me laugh, It’s just so random. At this point in 2008 Fieri has hosted Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives for four seasons.
Fieri and fellow Food Network chef Bobby Flay are both big SNL fans. Bobby Moynihan, Jay Pharoah and Cheri Oteri have appeared on Beat Bobby Flay as judges and his various NYC restaurants have hosted the SNL after party a number of times.
Also, there is a sketch that became recurring that got cut on air in this episode because of the particularly upbeat audience reacting to everything.
The ratings for this episode, buoyed by the Fey as Palin talk, were the best in 6 years since Al Gore / Phish iirc.
You got to it in your Update notes, but yeah, I’m pretty sure the show not being letterboxed is why they shrunk everything down. I remember walking in on my mom watching this episode, and I was surprised that it was in fullscreen (either because NBC letterboxed everything, at this point, or I remembered SNL being letterboxed the few times I’d peeked at it the previous season).
I didn’t start watching until season 35, but I certainly remember all the Palin bits from this season (and I think I semi-watched the Will Ferrell finale while using the computer, which was next to the TV). It’s gonna be weird to start having memories to attach to these reviews.
The 4:3 framing only lasts for a few shows IIRC. This was around the time when analog broadcasting was mandated to switch over to digital. HD TVs still weren’t commonplace and the converter boxes for analog TVs had an option to make letterboxed shows full screen. I guess the network was trying to make everybody happy as ALL NBC programming this season framed their shows to fits the 4:3 SD aspect ratio.
Bobby Moynihan serves as a needed spark plug in a cast that for the most part already felt somewhat too familiar by the time of his arrival. He manages to make bits that could seem toe-curlingly cloying and desperate, like the “pepper” sketch (so many pepper sketches on SNL…) or his later Snooki impression, among others, feel fun instead of self-indulgent. With Bobby, it means that once others like Abby, Taran and Vanessa arrive, for a few years the cast balance starts to tip toward “hey kids, let’s put on a show!!!” types of performances, but even then Bobby can make me smile or laugh, and we get some glimpses of what else he can do in the last few years of his tenure. For me he is one of the most underrated performers SNL has had.
I can see why people didn’t care for the pepper sketch – “lol a white person has a blaccent” material was already dated in 2008 (although we have a while to go with this on SNL – I think Cecily Strong does this her first few seasons as well), but his performance is lively and committed enough to where he makes it work for me.
The main story of this episode is, of course, Tina Time, AKA what I think many remember about Tina’s years with SNL (maybe along with her partnership with Amy and some of the better moments with Jimmy) rather than the many laborious anti-W screeds and even more laborious attempts at chasing pop culture. I couldn’t believe it when I read that Lorne was initially unsure about her being Palin because she wasn’t a cast member. What a contrast to today (although as always your blog is right on time with the news cycle…), where many, presumably including the show itself, need Maya Rudolph to reprise her Kamala Harris role for months or even years, in spite of the pandemic and a busy life and career.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/snl-political-secrets-revealed-hillarys-726324
This season has several very good Palin sketches – this one I have to ding just a tiny bit because of the too self-aware “Tina Fey glasses” line, but it’s still strong. Tina is superb, but Amy is the backbone, as she’s taken us through Hillary’s very degrading season 33 journey to end where we are now – that wailing, guttural “N-No! Mine! Mine!” is one of the best things Amy ever does on SNL, and one of my favorite political moments ever on SNL.
As for Michael Phelps, I see him on lists of not only worst athletic hosts, but worst hosts, period. He’s not good, but I wouldn’t say he’s one of the worst, as he doesn’t get in the way of the episode’s strengths. Sketches like the school quiz are let down by their complete lack of focus (I feel like someone midway through realized they would get some hate if they just went on the air 100% taking shots at home school kids, so we got a mess instead), not his work. I’d say he is flat, with his worst moments (the diet sketch) being somewhat unfair to give him – that’s way, way too much dialogue for someone who is clearly not an actor. If they just gave him that sketch so they could work in the Jared cameo, they should have junked it.
I think someone in the Rogen comments said this “annoying kids” sketch was better than Rogen’s. I would have to agree – Phelps is decent, and they at least realized, annoying as the kids are, there’s nothing here that would make a leap to suicide very logical (or funny). It’s still not something I needed to see again, but that’s SNL – especially Seth Meyers assembly line era SNL – for you.
Speaking of a sketch I NEVER needed to see again, I think I have tried one time to watch the locker room reprisal and that was it. The first is just too good to ever repeat. Nope. Not doing it.
I like Andy’s style (sort of mimicking the Hunger Games look before those movies came out), and the digital short is very well-filmed, but…not one I remembered much of after watching it.
The pre-tape with Kristen as the inane accidental murderous wife is the best of the episode, I’d say, along with the cold open and, the Barkley talk show (Kenan’s charisma and confidence help carry a lazy idea and not that great an impression – this is also the best use of Michael, especially his reaction to being asked to do a Jamaican accent).
I also like the T-Mobile parody – and while Mulaney’s style is as flawed as anyone else’s it’s good to see right from the start he was able to construct a coherent, easy to follow and enjoy sketch, unlike several other writers at this time. I didn’t put it a bit higher because I feel like Jason’s performance does the real heavy lifting.
About the usual for a season premiere, I guess, especially for this period. Could have been worse.
Promos and a behind the scenes look that shows a glimpse of rehearsal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCO70-9_utU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkaJAllmebc
Bobby’s always been one of my favorites too, mostly because of that sketch where he punches the computer (can’t wait for Stooge to reach that episode).
Well, I definitely remember Tina Fey’s first appearance as Sarah Palin though I didn’t know she’d also do her voice and accent (“You Betcha” always gets me!). Such great lines as “Tina Fey glasses” and “I can see Russia from my house!” That’s one sketch from this era of “SNL” that’s always ingrained in my mind! The only thing I remotely remember from this ep is Jared Fogel’s cameo and now I want to forget that…
Found an interview with Bobby from, I guess 2010 (upload date is 2011 but he says he was just with JLo so that would be early ’10), where he talks a bit about his first episode and Mark Payne. He says that the establishing shot of the Uno’s is the actual restaurant he had worked at for years.
Bobby has a great new interview on SNL Stories, where he shares some stories about his first two episodes. Among other details, he reveals who the original host of this premiere was going to be – Tom Hanks.
Hanks had no acting credits in 2008 so I wonder what he would have been promoting