Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW
(host)’s daughter Dooneese frightens (WLF)
— For once, I actually got a chuckle from something Fred’s Lawrence Welk said, when pointing out how odd it is that he can pronounce the “th” in “mother”, but not the “th” in “thank you”.
— Deservedly huge applause for the first appearance of tonight’s special host, Betty White.
— We also get nice applause for the special return of former female cast members Tina Fey, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Ana Gasteyer. Their presence tonight gives a fun novelty to the already-special feel of this Betty White-hosted episode.
— All that being said about Betty and the returning former female cast members, we unfortunately still have to see all of them get stuck playing second fiddle to a one-note Kristen Wiig character.
— Nothing to say about the Dooneese portions of this sketch. Same-old, same-old routine.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
host thanks Facebook for the gig but prefers traditional youth activities
— Already such a charm to the opening spiel of an overwhelmed Betty.
— Funny line about how, unlike live TV shows in her day, SNL has no excuse to be live instead of taped.
— A much-deserved thanks Betty gives to Facebook for campaigning for her to host SNL.
— So many laughs from a lot of the things Betty’s saying here.
— I know a lot of SNL fans find Betty’s line about her needing a Ouija board to connect with old friends to be really groan-worthy, but it made me laugh, perhaps just due to my goodwill towards Betty and her comic timing.
— Betty wistfully mentioning the historic things she’s lived through in her long life, then gratefully saying she’s here because we wanted her here is actually making me feel emotional.
STARS: ****
MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber (host) insists on “thank you” & “please” and tells embarrassing stories
— Our final set of MacGruber shorts to ever air on SNL. These can also be considered the real last hurrah of Will Forte, given the fact that he sadly gets no noteworthy roles in his final episode the following week, as you’ll see when I review that episode.
— Good laughs from the embarrassing things about MacGruber’s childhood that his grandma is revealing.
— I love Will’s extremely angry outburst.
— A very standard ending compared to some of the more noteworthy endings of MacGruber shorts, but still a funny one.
STARS: ****
THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry celebrate dietary fiber with (host)’s famous muffin
— Wow. Feels very special and refreshing to see this recurring sketch back after so many years.
— So nice to see that Molly and Ana have not lost their touch at all with these great characters.
— Ah, a variation of the legendary Schwetty Balls installment of this recurring sketch, I see.
— While none of the Schwetty Balls sequels or variations will ever measure up to the original, in my opinion, all of the “dusty muffins” puns in this sketch are hilarious and hold their own pretty well.
— Betty: “As I used to say to my loving husband, Irving, of 55 years: What are you waiting for, stupid? Eat it!”
— I love Betty’s very deadpan delivery of “Not a fan” upon hearing that the topic of the next episode will be pork buns.
STARS: ****
THE MANUEL ORTIZ SHOW
Latin vibe permeates a love quadrilateral
— Ugh. This sketch has officially become recurring.
— Maya is at least a natural for this sketch.
— A very funny and memorable visual of Betty sloppily attempting to do the traditional dance of this recurring sketch. Easily the funniest thing to ever happen in any installment of this sketch.
— I like the awkward look on Ana’s face when the music stops very short while she’s doing the traditional dance.
— Will’s parents, upon finding out he’s gay: “That explains why he doesn’t like tacos!” Ugh. Hacky joke alert.
STARS: **
MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber tells more embarrassing stories & plays dead
— Solid bit with playing MacGruber’s grandma playing dead and MacGruber calling her out on it.
STARS: ****
GINGEY
only (host) sees folly of feminizing Antebellum lesbian grandkid (AMP)
— An oddly Chucky-from-Child’s-Play look for Amy’s character.
— Amy’s cheesy old-timey way of playing this character is pretty funny, and is right in her wheelhouse.
— Very one-note lines from Betty, but as usual, her delivery is tickling me.
— I particularly like Betty disclosing the fact that she wouldn’t miss balls if she could go back in time and “lez it up”.
STARS: ***
MACGRUBER
Grandma MacGruber accepts her grandson’s marriage proposal
— MacGruber’s comedic throwaway line about going through a gay phase in his past felt unnecessary. Between these past few sketches and shorts tonight, tonight’s episode seems to be doubling down a little too much on lolgay jokes.
— An absolutely hilarious turn with MacGruber’s “It’s a shame you can’t marry your own grandma…or can you?” I especially like the cutaway to Kristen’s smile fading during that.
— Very funny ending with MacGruber and his grandma’s romantic kiss getting cut off by what ends up being our final end-of-MacGruber-short explosion. (*sigh*) These MacGruber shorts had such a great run, and I’ll miss them.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs a medley of his hits; Bridget Kelly cameo
WEEKEND UPDATE
Whitney Houston (MAR) fails to rebut bad reviews of her comeback tour
Sally O’Malley’s 90 year-old counterpart (host) likes to stand, bend, sit
incredulous SEM, AMP, TIF say “Really!?!” to anti-terror schemes & Greece
— Seth’s Iceland volcano joke suddenly gets interrupted by an appearance from Maya’s Whitney Houston impression. I got sooooo sick of this impression during my coverage of Maya’s later days on SNL, but I’ve at least gotten a long break from it since then.
— There goes Maya’s usual extended dance-mugging as Whitney. That and lots of the other ad-libs Maya’s making here is making this commentary go on awfully long.
— This Whitney commentary is whole bunch of nothingness. Maya’s frequently ad-libbed lines and dancing, which themselves aren’t doing anything for me, are the only thing standing out here, as the written material isn’t up to anything at all.
— Okay, at least the bit with Maya’s Whitney instantly being out-of-breath when trying to sing “How Will I Know” is something different, but it’s still doing nothing for me.
— Ah, a Sally O’Malley appearance. My opinion of her is the inverse of me going from tolerating Maya’s Whitney Houston shtick in its earliest appearances to eventually getting sick of it, in that I couldn’t stand Sally O’Malley when I covered her first few sketches, then I came around on her in both her appearance in Molly’s final episode as a cast member and the episode that Molly hosted in season 32.
— A change of pace with Sally O’Malley getting interrupted by Betty playing a fun 90-year-old counterpart to O’Malley.
— The topics that tonight’s “Really?!?” segment is focusing on aren’t all that great compared to some of the past topics covered in this segment, but Seth and Amy are making a lot of good points here, and their comments are getting funnier as this goes along.
— Ah, now Tina joins in on tonight’s “Really?!?” to add a Greek flavor.
— At the very end of this Update, right before the camera fades to black, we get a very charming ending shot of a smiling Seth lowering his head in an overjoyed manner when Amy and Tina are embracing him (screencap below). You can tell it means a lot to him being surrounded at the Update desk by Amy and Tina.
STARS: ***
SCARED STRAIGHT
disobedient teens turn deaf ears to Lorenzo McIntosh & his grandma (host)
— Very funny visual of Betty in that wig.
— I know I keep pointing out Kenan’s weight loss this season, but it’s particularly noticeable here, compared to how he looked in the installments of this sketch from previous seasons.
— The usual laughs from the movie plot and prison rape references in this recurring sketch.
— There goes Bill’s obligatory character break whenever Kenan and the host gang up on him in these Scared Straight sketches. Jason makes it funnier this time by playfully throwing a shoe (the same one taken off of Bobby earlier in this sketch) at him from off-camera. Humorously, somebody on an SNL board back at this time in 2010 was really put off by that thrown shoe bit, because they mistakenly assumed the shoe was thrown by an unruly audience member. I remember that board member saying something like “This Betty White episode is getting a little too rowdy. Now we’re having audience members throwing shoes at performers during sketches?!?”
— A classic “Wizard of ASS!” line from Betty, especially when she comes back to repeat it in an emphasized manner at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***½
CSI: SARASOTA
(RAD) & David Caruso’s aunt (host) in geriatric procedural
— Of all the returning female cast members tonight, it feels like Rachel’s been somewhat shafted in this episode. Up until this sketch, she hasn’t felt as visible or prominent as the other returning females tonight. She did have a cut-after-dress-rehearsal Debbie Downer sketch that would be posted online sometime after the show, (along with several other cut-after-dress sketches from this episode).
— Rachel appears to be playing her Abe Scheinwald character from back in the day, but her character is given a different name in this sketch.
— Betty’s David Caruso-esque one-liners into the camera at the end of each scene are pretty fun.
STARS: ***
THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
cast members’ “Thank You For Being A Friend” precedes host’s metal version
— This tender singing of “Thank You For Being A Friend” by the cast and returning former female cast members is putting such a big smile on my face, and it’s so fun seeing this mixture of then-current and former cast members.
— A priceless turn with a masked Betty performing a wild and violent metal version of the song.
— I love the brief shot of Nasim screaming in absolute horror when she gets splattered by some blood from a hit-in-the-face-with-a-bat biker.
— Great shot of an intrigued Jason starting to film these wild actions on his phone.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Mr. Hudson [real] perform “Young Forever”
THE CENSUS
census taker (TIF) records apartment dweller’s (host) crazy responses
— Much like how we got a variation of the classic Schwetty Balls sketch earlier tonight, we’re now getting a variation of the classic Census sketch from Christopher Walken’s season 25 episode.
— It makes sense that Tina’s playing the Tim Meadows role in tonight’s variation of the Walken-starring Census sketch, as Tina wrote that Walken sketch, and I assume she also wrote this one.
— Tina: “How many people live at this residence?” Betty: “Uh, zero.” Tina: “You don’t live here?” Betty: “Oh, including me? Three.”
— Very funny bit about Betty not being able to tell if the cats living in her home are really cats or just homeless guys in fur coats.
— Betty: “Ah, ascertain – that used to be my stripper name.”
— Overall, much like the variation of Schwetty Balls earlier tonight, this doesn’t compare to the original, but was still a strong sketch in its own right.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
— Such a wonderful way to end tonight’s special episode, with Betty being presented with two bouquets of flowers. The live version I’m watching of this episode cuts these goodnights off VERY early while the camera is on a close-up of an overjoyed Betty holding her two bouquets of flowers (the last above screencap for these goodnights), but that’s a strangely fitting, significant, and heartwarming image to end this episode on.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode deserving of its high acclaim. While not without its issues, this episode as a whole was a lot of fun, had a very special and unique feel, and contained a good number of strong pieces. The return of the former female cast members contributed to the important feel of this episode, and it was an interesting novelty seeing them interacting with then-current cast members throughout the night’s sketches. And the esteemed Betty White lived up to people’s high hopes by doing an excellent hosting job and even managing to appear in every single segment of this episode (not including Jay-Z’s musical performances), all of which is an impressive feat for someone her age.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Thank You For Being A Friend
MacGruber 3
Monologue
The Delicious Dish / The Census (tie)
MacGruber 1-2 (tie)
Scared Straight
CSI: Sarasota
Gingey
Weekend Update
The Manuel Ortiz Show
The Lawrence Welk Show
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gabourey Sidibe)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 35 comes to an end, with host Alec Baldwin. It’s the final episode for veteran Will Forte and newbie Jenny Slate.
I can remember Seth Meyers saying he and Andy Samberg teared up at the after party realizing that had seen something special tonight
Eh. I’m a dick, I know, but this episode never did much for me. I’m 100% down with them bringing back Scared Straight and MacGruber, but this is the point when I started to hate the Fey-era hagiography. I always felt, like, how could I love Fey, Poehler, Rudolph et al if they won’t go away. Betty White is charming, no doubt, and she does well in the scenes where they re-hash classic bits (Census, Delicious Dish), but it always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. It says something that my favorite sketch of the night was the CSI bit. It felt original and sweet and breezy and it included the cast alum who, at the time, was the least worshiped.
I’m a curmudgeon, sorry.
Jay-Z’s medley was incredible though.
Hey Carson. I Really Think You Should Have Some Body Else And Complain That Tina And Amy And Maya Never Leave ! You Don’t Have To Take Betty White To Say That ! Also, IF You Would Say, Betty White IS Too Old Or I Never Cared For Golden Girls OR Mary Tyler Moore OR This Is Too Sentimental And That Is Not My Kind OF Show OR Person, Then Okay ! !
What the fuck are you talking about?
@Carson, I can see what you mean about the Fey-era overhype. When I watch this one (I haven’t watched all the way through lately – I will again soon I suppose) I was mostly interested in the aspect of the final goodbye for Ana and Molly. And I guess it pretty much has been, aside from that one Ana cameo and then the heartbreaking tribute to Hal Willner.
This was a huge period of Betty-mania – around this time she had a 90th birthday special on NBC (with some SNL alum, I believe), and due to strong ratings they had a birthday special for her the next year as well.
The Debbie Downer and Pretty Living reprisals (I’m sure you are sorry you did not have to review that one, @Stooge!) are on Youtube (blocked in the US), along with some sketch with Maya and Fred (also blocked in the US). The Debbie Downer reprisal does appear in this large chunk of Debbie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgP9ZHtsaQ
Speaking of Rachel, I think it was around this time that she realized she was pregnant. That must have been a very surreal period for her…
A few months ago, Seth had a Zoom edition of Second Chance Theater with a sketch cut from this episode (and from Will Ferrell’s ’12 episode, I believe) – a dark sketch about unicorns at a children’s party. There are three clips, one where Mike O’Brien and Jason Sudeikis (who wrote it, I believe) talk about why Betty and/or her people were hesitant about having her play it. Here’s the clip for the sketch itself.
>The Debbie Downer reprisal does appear in this large chunk of Debbie,,,
Here’s where it starts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkgP9ZHtsaQ&t=717
Tina seems miscast to me in this one.
Amy and Rachel both delivered boys a few months later – Amy on August 6, Rachel on August 24.
I’m agreement with Carson. Don’t get me wrong Betty White is a fanatastic host and is impressive as hell throughout the episode, but she deserved better writing and not lazy rehashes. Though Betty is one of, if not the best host of the season, and the overall tone is jubilant, the episode itself is subpar. Besides Macgruber and his Grandma, the monologue and Thank You for Being Friend, nothing has stuck with me over the years.
After a long strong of lackluster 2010 eposodes, people responded to the general enthusiasm in this show.
Also, Betty White appeared in all 15 segments of the show. That has to be a record for a SNL host. No?
Hey Shawn. I Thought IT Was Good Because I Would Wonder What Betty White Would Be Like In These Various sketches ! I Wouldn’t Be Interested IF Betty White Was AT Some Body’s House OR IF Betty White Was In A Restaurant ! ! Actually, I Do NOT Remember CSI: Sarasota !
Yeah I love the tribute to Betty and she’s great but I never thought this was a great episode
If anything, THIS should’ve been the season finale- it could’ve been one heck of a capper.
I wonder why Cheri Oteri didn’t appear in this episode. She would have been great to appear on.
I also felt Rachel got the shaft compared to the other female alums who appeared. Debbie Downer would have better to watch than Lawrence Welk and Manuel Ortiz.
I should add that when s-n-l dot com was up, people on the boards were criticizing the show for giving Jenny more airtime than Rachel. Also, Abby’s only appearance in the show was in the Digital Short.
Other than that, it was a good episode. Betty deserved to host, and she rocked her stint.
There was a tweet where SNL asked users who should play which Golden Girls character in a sketch. I wonder if they did a sketch during dress rehearsal or if Betty shot the idea down. (Maybe there were other parody ideas involving Betty, like Mary Tyler Moore, that she might or might not have been game for that never made it to the live show)
Simple, Lover: all the women involved were moms (or about to be moms) and as far as I can tell Cheri never had kids. Also, like Kattan she’s rumored to be persona non grata.
I didn’t hate the Lawrence Welk sketches, so beyond that this episode was a Year 35 high point. “Manuel Ortiz” was the sole clunker.
Very on brand that the most momentous and noteworthy episode of S35 is still almost all repeat sketches except for the Digital Short and a sketch based around gay jokes. (Not complaining, but it’s just funny how even a special episode like this couldn’t break the repetition of this season’s creative choices.)
The draw of having all these cast members come back doesn’t pack as much of a punch nowadays since SNL pulls favors like this too often, especially with the cast from this era you’re covering (it feels like Fred Armisen lives in 8H at this point) but it’s still very fun and I love that they got Betty White to host. Also kind of a shame that Cheri Oteri didn’t get to be involved at all. Even with all the alums, Betty is the real highlight of the episode and helps carry some material that would otherwise be hacky with any other host.
Hey Ruby. I Think They Thought That Betty White Probably Could Not Do Very Much OF Any Thing Because OF Her Age ! Also, Betty White Was An Actress And She Has Done Sitcoms, But They Did Not Know iF She Could Do Comedy So I Think They Got The Other Former Cast Members To Do Most OF The Sketches ! ! How Ever, Betty White Fooled Every Body And She Was In Every Single Thing Except When Jay Z Was Singing ! Betty White Was Even On Week End Update !
Here are the cut sketches on Youtube (again, blocked in the US)
Bronx Beat. Betty plays Amy’s mother; this one isn’t as much fun as some of the BB sketches, but Betty has some good sly moments and Andy is capable as ever in his straight man role. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tlaLIN91ac
Pretty Living. Surprisingly they choose to address the gap between sketches, with Ana saying they’ve been off the air for ages and are now back just in taxis; Molly’s physical stunts are also drastically toned down. This is mostly just flat, which makes for an improvement over most of these, but isn’t a huge beacon of entertainment. Betty has one good line (“we met at jury duty” “and I was even found not guilty!”) but otherwise the only memorable part may be the huge flub Ana seems to make near the start of the sketch – https://youtu.be/FXHCHo2mhlA
Car Bomb Press Conference – Fred and Maya give us both a translator sketch and Rachel Dolezal in stereo. So…yeah. https://youtu.be/ekfm98ETKtU
I think this episode works as a fun special attraction (it would have been a good season finale, as somebody noted, due to the loose atmosphere), but not so much as a consistently good episode. It was fun to watch at the time, but I’m not really keen on rewatching most of its moments.
I think that’s it. It’s fun. It’s special. It’s not very good. But it’s fun and special.
So what is the story with Cheri being Perona non grata? She is one of my all time favs and feel like she gets forgotten among the great female SNL renaissance that started in late 90’s
Hey CJ. Also, Why Is Chris Katan Persona Non Grata ?
IMO I thought this episode was the highlight of the season. Yes, it was special, but it was also monumental in the shows history. Much like the Miskel Spillman episode, it was something SNL had never done before, taking a suggestion from the public (via Facebook) to have someone host. And at 88 1/2 years-old, Betty White proved that she still had what it takes to entertain. The cold open was fantastic because of the return of the ladies of SNL for a Mother’s Day special. The monologue was heartfelt and genuine. The return of some sketches might’ve seemed annoying, but they were made so much better by the energy of the audience and the cast. I watch this episode a few times a month. It’s that funny to me.
Hey Benjamin. THANK YOU ! AS I Said, I Wouldn’t Be Interested IF Betty White Was AT Some Body’s House OR IF Betty White Was AT A Restaurant ! ! I Would Wonder How Betty White Would Do These Other Sketches !
Don’t ask me why I know this, but the final shot of the final MacGruber sketch with the bridge exploding is stock footage of a bridge in Rochester, NY being demolished. It was also used in a Sesame Street segment about twenty years earlier where a man uses a magic remote to make things go up and down.
I recognized that Sesame Street bit as well. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdkavJPLJLE
This is the Snickers Super Bowl commercial Betty White appeared in, which in turn lead to the Facebook petition, which in turn lead her to host Saturday Night Live at the age of 88.
I remember liking this ep very much because of both Betty White and the return of the female SNL alums from the past decade!
I remember Betty did press after this and she said the hardest thing was that she had trained herself to memorize for so long, and they told her to just read the cards. I also love Jay-Z dedicating Forever Young to Betty White.
After rewatching Betty White’s ‘Scared Straight” character talking as if she had grown up like Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” I decided to check something. It turns out that Betty White (January 17, 1922 – ) was born almost five months before Judy Garland (June 10, 1922 – June 22, 1969).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Gabourey Sidibe, as of May 8, 2010)
a colossal step up, due to an 88-year old Betty White hosting SNL
Betty White has passed away at 99, a few weeks before she would’ve turned 100.
R.I.P.
Oh Betty. A true legend, one of the funniest and smartest people to get through Hollywood. I had mixed feelings on this episode but I’m glad Betty got this level of a tribute, one she more than deserved.
NBC has her episode up right now to watch for free, if anyone wants to see it again.
Thanks to @Anthony for finding this little story from Christine Nangle.
https://twitter.com/nanglish/status/1477013104651165696
This should be the next Vintage SNL. A good way to pay tribute to Betty.
It’s being repeated in full tonight.
It was so beautiful to see the great respect Betty White was shown on SNL. JZ was amazingly loving to Betty White. I saw it back then and what a funny segment it was to see once again. Thank you for celebrating her comic genius and the wonderful people around SNL.
A couple of filmed pieces from previous and subsequent eps were added for this ep tonight: “Brownie Hubby” in which Tina Fey makes love to a brownie made man which “erupts” while she really licks him up! And “Mom Jeans” in which she and and her fellow female castmates are in overfitting pants.
An oral history of Betty White’s week as host:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/01/betty-white-saturday-night-live-oral-history
RIP Betty