Tag: 1990-91

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May 18, 1991 – George Wendt / Elvis Costello (S16 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
because it’s DEM’s last show, LOM lets him say the opening line

— A good way to announce on the air that this is Dennis’ last episode.
— This is the first time Dennis has appeared outside of Weekend Update since all the way back in season 14.
— I loved Lorne asking Dennis “You’re not gonna come back every week and hang out on the set like Lovitz, are you?”, and then going on and on about how pathetic Lovitz is for doing that. I recall hearing that Lovitz actually got upset by this when watching the show this night. Maybe Lorne should’ve stood on stage during the goodnights while holding up a “LOVITZ- I WAS JUST KIDDING” sign, ala Dennis in the goodnights of the Catherine O’Hara episode.
— Dennis makes a big deal about how he’s always wanted to say “Live from New York…”, as if he’s never gotten the chance to say it before. He must’ve blocked season 11 out of his mind (or took to heart Madonna’s claim that season 11 was a “horrible, horrible dream”), because he actually DID say “Live from New York…” previously, in the Burger King/Herb cold opening from the aforementioned season 11.
— Funny how Dennis’ “Live from New York…” in this cold opening doesn’t start the show, as Lorne just keeps this opening going.
— Very interesting having Lorne be the one who delivers the official “Live from New York”, the only time in SNL history he would ever do so.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host manhandles a lookalike of Queen Elizabeth

— George’s rough handling of the queen is pretty funny so far.
— I like the queen fearfully trying to walk away as soon as George begins talking about wrestling.
— Great camera perspective of the queen being spun around.
STARS: ***½


LIL’ GENERAL FIREWORKS
kids love to have harmless fun with explosives

— Good idea for a summer commercial.
— Pretty funny treatment of huge explosives as family-friendly fun. The explosions of casual things are providing some laughs.
STARS: ***


MR. NO-DEPTH PERCEPTION
two-dimensional guy (KEN) throws a dinner party

— This can be considered a sister sketch to Tom Hanks’ Mr. Short-Term Memory, as the name, opening credits sequence/theme song, and concept are in a similar vein. Wonder if both characters are from the same writer.
— Kevin is perfect for this character and is pulling off this humor really well.
— I particularly like the part with Kevin casually sticking his head straight through the glass window (and not even reacting to it) when checking to see if their friends are outside the house.
— Kinda surprised this overall sketch remained a one-off and never became recurring.
STARS: ****


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Bob Swerski (host) & other Super Fans talk about the Bulls & the Bears

— George Wendt takes over as the new host of this sketch, Bob Swerski, replacing Joe Mantegna’s Bill Swerski, who the show writes off as recovering from a heart attack.
— Much like the last time they did this sketch, we get some funny outlandish Bears scenarios from the guys.
— An overall enjoyable installment, though I didn’t find this quite as strong as the first installment. There would be better ones to come later on.
STARS: ***½


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Retired Man (host) helps Middle-Aged Man battle Independent Widow (JAH)

— This ends up being this character’s final appearance.
— Love the addition of Jan as Independent Widow.
— A funny turn with cookies being Middle-Aged Man’s kryptonite.
— I like how we meet Retired Man, who was mentioned in an earlier installment of this sketch.
— Jan’s screaming reaction to the giant roach was really funny.
— A big laugh from the gruesome blood that results from Middle-Aged Man crushing the giant roach.
— Nice little touch with the roach crawling over the text in the disclaimer shown at the end.
— I like how this overall installment had a more epic feel than the first two Middle-Aged Man installments, involving more characters, more action, and more scenery changes. In retrospect, a nice way for this character to go out.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Other Side of Summer”


WEEKEND UPDATE
General Norman Schwarzkopf (CHF) challenges Evander Holyfield to a match
CSR tells why there won’t be a black vice president

— (*sigh*) Hard to believe we’ve officially arrived at Dennis Miller’s final Weekend Update.
— Farley makes his very first visit to the Update desk, though he appeared in two previous Updates “via satellite” (the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary and the marathon runner commentary).
— A classic turn in the middle of Farley’s commentary, with him suddenly getting up, declaring “I WANT HOLYFIELD! I WANT HOLYFIELD!”, and hyping up a huge match between him and Holyfield. A great early display of Farley’s Belushi-esque knack for playing roles where he slowly goes from calm and professional to worked-up and loud. I’m also loving watching Dennis’ reactions to him. Over the course of this season, it’s been fun seeing Dennis’ interactions with the new kids in the cast.
— Lots of very funny comments from Rock about how we’ll never see a black vice president, because some black guy will just kill the white president so the black VP can become president. I especially love Rock saying how he would have nothing to worry about if he got arrested for killing the white president, because every black guy in prison would treat him like a hero.
— Dennis’ final Update joke is unfortunately a lame “misinterpreting a photo” type of joke, something that he’s been relying on way too much this season.
— A very nice, sentimental, and classy goodbye speech from Dennis at the end, with him thanking everyone he’s worked with at the show and saying he’s gonna miss working here. You can tell by his voice that he was on the verge of tears.
— After getting so used to reviewing Dennis Miller Weekend Updates for the past six seasons (the longest-tenured Update stint at this point in the show’s history), it sure is going to feel weird reviewing a brand-new version of Update next season.
STARS: ***


THE CARSENIO SHOW
Johnny Carson (DAC) borrows from Arsenio’s program

— An absolutely hilarious concept. I love this hybrid of Arsenio and Johnny Carson.
— I like how this is bringing back memories of another fantastic Arsenio parody the show did previously with Rob Lowe.
— Carsenio: “Buddy Hackett is in my house!”
— Good segment with Carsenio breaking down the street lingo he’s been using.
— Phil as Ed McMahon: “That is the straight stuff, o funkmaster!”
— I love Carsenio demonstrating how to do “the wild thing”, while asking “Is this dope? Is this dope stuff?”
— When asked about the whooping audience, I got a big laugh from George’s response being a blunt “The truth is, Johnny, they’re morons.”
STARS: *****


BURGER BARN DRIVE THRU
a family’s order at Burger Barn’s drive-through gets very complicated

— A lot of laughs from George being forced by his family to make increasingly confusing and complicated changes to their fast-food order.
— I especially love Jan as the grandmother, and she has some really funny lines.
— Good growing frustration from George.
— Excellent angry loud outburst from George at the end when putting an end to the madness and starting over with a simple fast-food order.
— An overall very solid and relatable slice-of-life sketch.
STARS: ****½


THE SHINDELLS
lyrics of doo-wop group stray into members’ personal lives

— Pretty funny doo-wop performance from the guys.
— I like Dana awkwardly trying to keep the song going by sporadically adding in melodic “shwop-shwop”s into the middle of his argument with George.
— George to Farley: “Why didn’t you tell me, you fat pig?” Farley: “Hey, you’re just as fat as I am, man!” Other guys: “(singing) Maaaaaybe fatter!”
— Nice conclusion.
STARS: ***½


IT’S PAT
barber’s (host) small talk doesn’t reveal the sex of androgynous Pat

— A lot of characters tonight with their own opening credits sequence and theme song, between Mr. No-Depth Perception, Middle-Aged Man, and now Pat.
— The usual laughs from Pat responding to potentially-gender-revealing questions with gender-unspecific answers.
— I like the mention of Pat having a group of friends named Terry, Frances (or Francis), and Robin.
— A priceless part with George’s very focused brushing around Pat’s chest and crotch.
— This sketch ended a little awkwardly.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on memories of family outings


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski plugs Long Leak malt liquor & You’re That Guy credit

— Quite a lot of airtime for Rock tonight, which is refreshing.
— On a similar note, Farley’s been in tons of sketches tonight; far more than a featured player typically gets. A nice way to end what has been a fantastic rookie year for Farley, by far the standout newbie of the season.
— Great “Mother joke of the day” delivered by Rock: “Your mother’s so old, I told her to act her age and the bitch dropped dead.”
— Very funny photo of a grimacing Don Pardo wearing a trendy 8-ball jacket.
— Rock’s description of the “You’re That Guy” credit is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Like Candy”


THE SUNRISE SHOW
singer of kids’ songs (host) switches to raunchy lyrics

— (*sigh*) Jan Hooks’ final sketch as a cast member. I’m glad they gave her the 10-to-1 spot of the season finale, even if they (I assume) weren’t aware at the time that she’s leaving.
— Ha, is George wearing Elvis Costello’s beard?
— I like Jan’s gleeful singing of George’s kid-friendly songs, as a sample of his work.
— George suddenly breaking out into a raunchy sexual song is very funny, made even more priceless by the way his thick fake beard makes his raunchy facial expressions look.
— Another great turn with the tone of George’s raunchy song suddenly changing to a jolly, kid-friendly melody as he sings about wanting to get a woman to make various animal sounds during sex.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently very solid and fun episode, with no real lowlights. A great way to end the season. George Wendt was a strong host, and was allowed to give even funnier performances than the unique previous episode he hosted.

— This was the final episode for both Jan Hooks and, of course, Dennis Miller. Dennis’ tenure ended with a bit of a whimper, as he was clearly burned-out during the last three months and began using a more monotone and low-energy delivery, looked fairly tired, and half-assed his trademark scribble-wildly-on-a-sheet-of-paper move during his tagline. It didn’t help that the quality of his jokes went downhill as well, often relying too heavily on corny “misinterpreting a photo” type of jokes. However, none of this takes away from the amazing tenure he had as a whole. Right from the start, he completely reinvented Update at a time where the segment desperately needed a boost after the dire quality of it during the non-Lorne years in 1980-1985. Dennis made Update important, hip, laid-back, and most importantly, very funny. And as much as I kept harping on the lethargy of his performances during his last three months, he still was reliable for laughs, especially with his usual knack for funny ad-libs. All-in-all, Dennis is easily my favorite Update anchor of all-time (tied with Norm Macdonald). And as for Jan Hooks, I cannot find enough great things to say about her. She ended a fantastic tenure that was consistently strong from beginning to end. She was an incredibly valuable cast member who could do pretty much no wrong and could handle ANYTHING the writers threw at her. Much like how Dennis is my favorite Update anchor of all-time, Jan is my favorite female cast member of all-time and one of my all-time favorite cast members in general. She will be sorely missed in the cast, especially when you’re aware of how badly the female cast ends up struggling during the next few seasons. However, at least we eventually get frequent special guest appearances from Jan during seasons 18 and 19.

— Season 16 as a whole was another in a long line of very good seasons, even if this one wasn’t QUITE as strong as the season that preceded it. Aside from the notorious Steven Seagal flop, this was a season impressively filled with episodes that ranged from okay to excellent. This was also a very exciting year with a lot of freshness, as we got a huge influx of new featured players over the course of the season, as well as lots of debuts of big recurring segments (including Deep Thoughts). This combo of new featured players and important new recurring segments have kicked off the gradual start of an era of its own, even as this season held on to many important aspects of the preceding 1986-1990 era.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Delta Burke)
a step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1989-90)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 17 begins, with host Michael Jordan. We start off the season with three new featured players and a new Weekend Update anchor.

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May 11, 1991 – Delta Burke / Chris Isaak and Silvertone (S16 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) proves he’s in good health despite Graves’ disease

— Only Dana’s Bush can make the term “atrial fibrillation” sound funny.
— Very funny facial expressions from Bush when making himself sexually aroused to test his heart rate.
— The whole spiel about ailments former presidents suffered had some decent lines, particularly Zachary Taylor having Elephant Man’s Disease and JFK having the clap.
— When showing off his Nike sneakers, I liked Bush pronouncing the “Just do it” slogan as “Just dah ihh”.
— Pretty good bit at the end with the treadmill.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
a beauty pageant-like retrospective of host’s week at SNL

 

— A decent beauty pageant-esque video package of Delta’s week at SNL, though it’s coming off more cute than funny.
— I like how this has now become even more beauty pageant-esque with Jan doing color commentary from SNL’s audience balcony.
STARS: ***


BALZ-OFF
(JAH) tells how testosterone blocker Balz-Off made (KEN) an ideal husband

— A clever and very funny premise.
— Excellent spokesperson performance from Jan, in what ends up being her final SNL fake ad.
— Very funny portrayal from Kevin, displaying Balz-Off’s effects on his masculinity.
— SNL would later do a rip-off of this commercial in a season 30 sketch, with Amy Poehler in the Jan Hooks role and Will Forte in the Kevin Nealon role. I have a theory that the same writer who I once brought up as possibly being responsible for a rip-off SNL would later do of the Corbin Bernsen-starring “Conceited Guy” sketch is also responsible for the Balz-Off rip-off. The writer in question is a certain long-time SNL writer from the 2000s and 2010s (still currently working at the show today) who’s been accused quite a number of times of plagiarism. I won’t name him until I eventually review the aforementioned rip-offs of Balz-Off and Conceited Guy.
STARS: ****


WAYNE’S WORLD
a dream sequence game of Truth Or Dare with Madonna [real]

— Believe it or not, this is the first time a Wayne’s World sketch has had a Top Ten list since the sketch’s very first installment. Considering how much the Top Ten list would go on to be an ingrained and important feature of Wayne’s World, it’s surprising that it took this long for it to become recurring.
— Wayne and Garth’s Top Ten list of babes is great and has a few very funny unexpected entries, such as Granny from “The Beverly Hillbillies” and the callback to Garth’s mom (portrayed in an earlier Wayne’s World sketch by Candice Bergen).
— Classic fantasy sequence with Wayne and Garth meeting Madonna in a “Truth or Dare”/“Justify My Love”-esque setting. It’s great that SNL managed to get Madonna to participate in this.
— I’m loving all the callbacks to Wayne and Garth’s commentary from an earlier sketch where they watched the “Justify My Love” music video (e.g. “It’s Prince!”, “Look at the unit on that guy!”).
— Strong ending after the fantasy sequence concludes.
— A legendary Wayne’s World sketch overall.
STARS: *****


NRA THEATER
nightmarish scenario shows America under the Brady Bill

— Nice that we get Phil’s great Charlton Heston impression for the second episode in a row.
— Kevin’s intentionally stiff delivery of “What?!?” (as a spoof of the bad acting you typically see in dramatizations like this) during his conversation with Dana made me laugh.
— A big laugh from Dana giving Kevin a medieval spiked ball mace as a loaner until he can receive his gun.
— Great little moment with Kevin’s “I’m so edgy, I’m sleeping in my clothes!”, as he pulls off the bed covers and reveals he still has his clothes on from an earlier scene in this sketch. A funny meta joke about how it wasn’t possible for Kevin to change from his regular clothes into a pair of pajamas in such a short amount of time during this live setting.
— I like Rock constantly saying Tim’s full name (Willie Horton) in front of the family they’re holding up, which increasingly angers Tim.
— An absolutely priceless pratfall from Farley over the coffee table. This is the very first of MANY breakaway furniture that Farley would crash his way through during his SNL tenure. SNL would later even do an epic montage of Farley’s various furniture-breaking pratfalls, in his “Best Of” special.
— When the camera goes back to Phil’s Heston, even HE had to point out how funny Farley’s pratfall was.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on a cowboy literally loving the land


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wicked Game”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ADS does his half of a Mother’s Day mealtime conversation

— Very funny how the song playing during the opening title sequence is the Loews Theater jingle.
— Second episode in a row with Adam doing an Update commentary as himself.
— Fun concept with Adam acting out his half of a dinner conversation with his mom, so she can record this from home and then play it at a restaurant the next day on Mother’s Day.
— I’m enjoying how overly vivid Adam’s conversation is getting.
— Adam’s overall commentary was good, though he would later do another version of this bit (where it was Thanksgiving instead of Mother’s Day) that’s actually funnier than this one.
— An unusually short Update tonight overall, but no big loss given Dennis’ somewhat forgettable jokes and less-than-stellar delivery as of late. Hard to believe, though, that there’s only one Update left in the Dennis Miller era.
STARS: **½


WEIGHT WATCHERS MEETING
Stuart Smalley & food group freak (host) attend a Weight Watchers meeting

— Julia’s characterization is a dead-on portrayal of this type of support group leader.
— I love Farley barging into the meeting with a slice of pizza, a cigarette, and a six pack of beer.
— Farley’s performance in general is hilarious in this.
— Very interesting seeing Stuart Smalley appearing outside of his talk show, in a group setting. It’s nice seeing what his life is like outside of his show.
— A good laugh from Farley muttering “This is a friggin’ circus” when observing the craziness at the meeting.
— I liked Victoria’s tearful outburst before running out of the room.
— I’m enjoying all the various characterizations in this, and the solid ensemble work being done.
STARS: ***½


HOLLYWOOD MINUTE
Ocean’s Eleven clip has gay Sammy Davis, Jr. (TIM) & Frank Sinatra (PHH)

— Decent setting with a homoerotic “Ocean’s Eleven” encounter between Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
— I love Tim’s laugh as Sammy.
— A short-and-sweet sketch.
STARS: ***½


KARAOKE BAR
bar patrons (PHH) & (KEN) stage revolt against karaoke machine hog (host)

— Chris Isaak’s dorky, awkward dance moves during his opening karaoke number are pretty funny.
— Very awkward beginning to Delta’s singing of “Reunited”, where she unintentionally misses her cue to start singing and then nervously giggles her way through the beginning of her singing. I’ve never seen the rerun version of this sketch, and I’m curious if Delta’s blooper is fixed in it.
— Not caring too much for where this sketch is going.
— Phil’s angry lines about how much he hates Delta are making me laugh.
— Finally, we get a somewhat decent turn with Phil and Kevin deviously planning a retaliation against Delta.
— This overall sketch didn’t amount to much. Considering the promising dark direction this appeared to be headed in halfway through, it felt like this overall sketch could’ve been a lot better.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Diddley Daddy”


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Paul Baldwin & ex-girlfriend (host) on java & baseball

— For the first time, the theme music used for Coffee Talk is the one we’re now familiar with, but we’re still seeing Mike as his proto-Linda Richman character, Paul Baldwin.
— This is unfortunately going in the same direction as the preceding Coffee Talk installment, where the only joke is New York-accented characters constantly pronouncing words that have “aw” sounds. Again, I can relate to this as a heavily-accented New Yorker myself, but that doesn’t make it funny.
— Okay, I admit, I’m now starting to find a certain charm to this humor. But there’s absolutely no way this thin premise would’ve lasted long-term if they had kept these Paul Baldwin-hosted Coffee Talk sketches going for years. I can see why they would soon revamp this into the Linda Richman sketches we’re now familiar with. Again, I’m not a Linda Richman fan, but at least those sketches have an actual premise.
STARS: **


SHOUTING MOTHERS
women (host) & (JAH) interrupt their conversation to yell at their kids

— Hmm, a sketch with friends in a backyard constantly stopping mid-conversation to yell at their off-camera kids who won’t stop doing something they’re repeatedly told not to do. This is coming off as an inferior precursor to a certain memorable future Will Ferrell sketch (“Get off the shed!”).
— Jan’s adding good realism to this with her performance, which is the only highlight I’ve been able to find about this sketch so far.
— Seeing Jan and Delta paired together reminds me, doesn’t Jan eventually replace Delta on “Designing Women”, right after this season, in fact? I don’t remember the whole story of why Delta was fired from that show.
— I finally got a laugh, from Julia’s intense coughing fit as the elderly grandmother.
— Yeah, this overall sketch just didn’t work for me.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly pretty good episode, but ended poorly with an underwhelming string of sketches in the last 20 minutes. Before that, things were fine, even if nothing stood out as particularly memorable except for an all-time classic Wayne’s World installment.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steven Seagal)
a step up (needless to say)


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 16 comes to an end, with host George Wendt. We also get the last hurrahs of Dennis Miller and Jan Hooks.

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April 20, 1991 – Steven Seagal / Michael Bolton (S16 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Pumping Up With Hans & Franz- host confronts duo after they insult him

— This recurring sketch has strangely gone from seemingly being phased out to suddenly appearing twice in three episodes.
— Oh, god, here we go: our first Steven Seagal appearance of the night.
— Hans and Franz’s zen definition made me laugh.
— I got a good laugh from Dana’s delivery of “It’s the super baby fingah!”
— Seagal’s overall appearance didn’t bring down this sketch as much as I had remembered.
— Good fantasy sequence with Hans and Franz acting like Seagal. I especially like them replacing their trademark hand clap with a soft pinky bump.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “Kung Fu Fighting” & plays guitar

— I guess Seagal’s dead-serious set-up is supposed to be funny, considering what song he ends up singing, but his typical delivery is so un-humorously somber that it’s killing the potential humor.
— Ugh, now we have to sit through him singing, complete with guitar-playing.
— Hearing Seagal mangle a classic like “Kung Fu Fighting” is painful.
— The awkward look on Chris Rock’s face during his back-up singing says it all. He’s fully aware of the lameness of what he’s participating in.
— At least the song was fairly short.
— In true rude Steven Seagal fashion, Seagal walks off the stage before the camera even fades to black at the end of this.
STARS: *


WINSTON-MCCAULEY FUNERAL HOME
— Rerun from the George Steinbrenner episode


TENELLI: ONE MAN ARMY
Richard Laymer gets on the bad side of demoted renegade cop Nico (host)

— Right off the bat, Seagal is butchering the dialogue with his bad acting and odd vocal inflections. He seems completely uninterested and uncommitted to the material.
— The brief interaction between Seagal and Julia would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The reason for this is because in the live show, Seagal forgot to (or maybe flat-out REFUSED to) playfully ruffle Julia’s hair, which he does in the dress rehearsal version. When he forgets to do that in the live show, you can see Julia looking at him confusedly, obviously wondering why he didn’t do it. Adding insult to injury, this ends up being Julia’s ONLY appearance of the entire night. I’m sure she was THRILLED to have Seagal botch the only scene she appears in.
— Okay, there’s finally a good laugh, with Farley’s hilarious pratfall as Seagal shoves him to the floor. I can already tell that little moment is easily going to end up being one of the overall highlights of this troubled episode.
— Oh, god, Richmeister AGAIN? He debuted in January, and now, just three months later when this season hasn’t even ended yet, he’s ALREADY making his fourth appearance. Four appearances in less than half a season is insane for such a one-note, one-dimensional character like this.
— It’s very telling that the writers were struggling to come up with ideas that Seagal was willing to perform, when they have to resort to bringing back so many characters that they used just two episodes ago (Hans and Franz, Richmeister).
— For the first time ever, Richmeister receives recognition applause. By comparison, it only took Julia’s Pat character three installments to start receiving recognition applause.
— I got a big laugh from Richmeister suddenly being shoved by Seagal through the breakaway copy machine prop. That came out of NOWHERE.
— The hanging-Richmeister-out-the-window scene could’ve been funny, but of course you have Seagal’s stitled, stumbly delivery hurting the potential humor.
— A weak and awkward ending.
STARS: *½


ALL STAR CELEBRITY TRIBUTE
Gulf War soldier (TIM) receives one of many All-Star Celebrity Tributes

 

— Tim’s subtly annoyed reactions to this overblown celebration are well-done. This is a great early display of Tim’s funny and reliable straight man skills.
— The pre-taped Bush message is very funny with the intermittent, obviously spliced-in footage of him saying things specific to Tim’s character.
— This feels like the first in a long time we’ve seen Phil’s Charlton Heston impression.
— Hilarious segment with Phil’s Heston reading a private and humiliating masturbation letter that Tim sent to a friend.
— The Tony Orlando song is funny with the clumsy, specific lyrics describing things about Tim.
— An overall very solid sketch. Amazing what the lack of Steven Seagal can do to a sketch.
— According to GettyImages, Farley appeared in the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in a role that was cut from the live version (pic here and here). I can’t tell from the pictures who he played.
STARS: ****


THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
Nat X interviews Andrew Dice Clay (host)

 

— The audience is dead during the first half-minute of this, though Rock’s stumbly delivery isn’t helping.
— Okay, after a rough start, things are getting better.
— Nice to see Farley’s Sandman character getting a good amount of dialogue for once.
— You can tell Rock is trying not to crack up at Farley’s comically hokey, kid-friendly delivery while reading a letter from a kid.
— Great line from Nat X about loving bowling because he gets to see a black ball crash into white pins with red necks.
— The Top 5 list of reasons why the L.A.P.D. beat up Rodney King pales in comparison to other Top 5 lists from other Nat X sketches. This one is more notable for containing SNL’s very first direct mention of rival(?) sketch comedy show “In Living Color”.
— Ugh at Seagal as Andrew Dice Clay. I guess this is fitting casting, though, considering Dice was SNL’s last controversial host. However, compared to Seagal’s unbearable performances tonight, Dice was comedy gold in his hosting stint.
— The bleeps during Seagal-as-Dice’s expletive-filled rant are poorly-timed.
— I loved Nat X’s nursery rhyme to Dice that ends with “Blah-blah-blah-blah, my big black foot in yo ass!”
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on hoping that nude operas exist


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love is a Wonderful Thing”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mr. Subliminal gives editorial on Kitty Kelley’s Nancy Reagan biography
ADS spent his Greek vacation goofing off at the hotel

 

— As par for the course lately, we unfortunately get a monotone and dour-sounding Dennis Miller tonight. Only two Updates left…
— Kevin makes his final appearance at the Update desk before eventually taking over as the new Update anchor next season. Interesting to see this passing-of-the-torch tonight, even if neither Dennis nor Kevin were aware of it at the time.

— We get the usual reliably funny subliminal dialogue during the Mr. Subliminal commentary. My favorites have been the doggy style and L.A.P.D. comments.
— A good laugh from Dennis subliminally calling Mr. Subliminal’s overall commentary “too long”.
— Boy, Dennis isn’t even TRYING with some of these lame “misinterpreting a photo” jokes tonight.
— Adam Sandler makes his very first visit to the Update desk. Feels weird seeing him in a Dennis Miller-anchored Weekend Update.
— SNL would later replace Adam’s commentary with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most noticeable difference is the way he’s dressed in both versions (side-by-side comparison below).

— Adam’s getting some good laughs from his goofy charm. You can tell he’s kinda nervous during this, but it works here.
— Dennis, after Adam’s commentary has ended: “Maybe I was a little hard on Mr. Subliminal.”
— According to GettyImages, Al Franken had a commentary that was cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here).
STARS: **½


MUSICIANS FOR FREE-RANGE CHICKENS
musical guest & others do benefit recording for free-range chickens

   

— Funny intro from Dana’s Casey Kasem.
— The very first of what will be several epic “We Are the World”-esque musical pieces that SNL would do in this era.
— Good use of Michael Bolton here.
— I’m loving the various celebrity impressions here, particularly Adam’s Axl Rose and the return of Dana & David’s Dylan and Petty duo. And, when I look past the unfortunate blackface factor, Jan steals almost the entire sketch as Diana Ross (“I love you! Don’t touch me! I love you!”).
— The song is excellent, especially when the performers are all singing the chorus in unison.
— An insane visual of Victoria-as-Cyndi-Lauper’s vocal chords bursting during a high note she sings.
— An overall classic sketch, and also happens to be our second sketch of the night that features no Steven Seagal. Notice a pattern here?
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on that neck-loving screeching thing


DADDY’S GIRL
(host) uses intimidation to ensure daughter’s safety on date with (CHF)

 

— Some good lines from Farley at the beginning, during his conversation with Jan.
— Seagal IMMEDIATELY kills any momentum this sketch had going as soon as he’s begun to speak.
— Boy, is this sketch dead so far, not to mention sluggishly-paced as hell.
— A laugh from the bit with Rob whispering many details of Farley’s car to Seagal.
— Good god, where’s the damn volume button on my video player? Seagal’s delivery is becoming increasingly inaudible and mumbly as this sketch progresses, to the degree that I can hardly hear him anymore. Not that he’s been saying anything funny anyway.
— God bless the always-reliable Jan Hooks, who’s been adding some much-needed little laughs throughout this with her chipper utterances whenever she’s about to exit the scene.
— After my praising of Jan’s performance in this, it just hit me that we’re sadly in the homestretch of her SNL tenure.
— Thank god this sketch is finally over.
— This sketch was actually originally intended for Dennis Hopper earlier this season, but it got cut after that night’s dress rehearsal. A video of that Hopper version of this sketch used to be available on Yahoo Screen. I don’t remember it being too great a sketch, but as you can imagine, Hopper was miles better in his performance than Seagal.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Time, Love & Tenderness”


BRACE STEELE, GREENPEACE PHOTOGRAPHER
Greenpeace photograher Brace Steele (host) stumbles upon Exxon conspiracy

— Just when it seemed like this episode couldn’t get any worse, here comes one of my all-time least favorite SNL sketches ever.
— Things are ALREADY starting off rough during the opening darkroom scene, especially the poorly-delivered bit with Seagal revealing that the film Mike overexposed was Seagal’s beloved vacation photos. The right kind of host could’ve made that joke work, but instead, we have Steven Seagal, who couldn’t sell a joke to save his life.
— Another use of Dana’s Bush impression tonight, this time being heard through a speaker phone. His impression is coming off so out-of-place in this particular sketch.
— Okay, I did get a laugh from Dana’s Bush being heard hanging up the phone in a panic after Seagal breaks up the meeting.
— You gotta ironically love Seagal’s epically horrible dramatic delivery of “I’ve got evidence… PHOTOGRAPHIC evidence.”
— God bless the always-reliable Phil Hartman, who managed to get a much-needed chuckle from me with his nonchalant laugh to the other execs when explaining to Seagal that he’ll just lie about what he and the execs were doing in Seagal’s candid photos of their meeting.
— Phil actually looked like he was almost going to crack up after slapping Seagal the first time. There’s a reason for this. In Phil’s “Best Of” DVD, during the bonus “outtakes” feature where they show dress rehearsal bloopers involving Phil, there’s a clip from the dress version of this sketch where, IIRC, the slap sound effects are delayed when Phil slaps Seagal, leading to Phil having a funny facial reaction.
— We now get a too-realistic and completely unfunny fight sequence with Seagal kicking the execs’ asses and throwing them into breakaway furniture props. I ironically love how they actually had to use a stunt double for Phil.
— Aaaaaaaand tonight’s notorious SNL episode concludes with Seagal delivering a serious, preachy, straight-to-camera “This is what happens when you pollute the planet!” It’s almost comedic in itself that such a dreaded SNL episode end in this particular manner. It’s strangely fitting.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

— After a while, Seagal doesn’t even TRY to interact with the cast anymore. He goes to the back of the stage by the SNL Band and stays there for the remainder of the goodnights. I think I remember Chevy Chase doing something similar during the goodnights of his own notorious episode in season 11 (when he spent the entire week offending pretty much the entire cast).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— And so ends one of the most infamous episodes in SNL history. On the positive side, the show still had its merits, though it was mainly just limited to All Star Celebrity Tribute and Musicians For Free-Range Chickens (it’s not a coincidence that neither of those two sketches involved tonight’s host). But on the negative side, what was bad in this episode was fucking BRUTAL, especially the monologue and the final two sketches of the night. Steven Seagal certainly deserves much of the blame for this episode’s lousiness. All I have left to say about him is, he ABSOLUTELY lives up to his bad reputation as a nightmare host.
— I guess I was long overdue to review a notably really bad episode anyway, considering there impressively weren’t ANY during the 1986-1990 renaissance era, nor during this season up until this point. Tonight’s episode was easily the worst I’ve reviewed since covering season 11. Until now, I had kinda forgotten what it’s like for me to be so salty during a review.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Catherine O’Hara)
a huge step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Delta Burke

Posted on

April 13, 1991 – Catherine O’Hara / R.E.M. (S16 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Frank Sinatra (PHH) & Nancy (JAH) Reagan cuckold Ronald (PHH)

 

— Great reveal of the delivery boy being Sinatra in disguise.
— Very funny part with Sinatra flimsily disguising himself as a coat rack.
— Sinatra to Nancy Reagan, regarding the First Ladies he’s slept with: “You got the best rack, but a guy could eat off of Bess Truman’s ass.”
— Funny decision with Nancy choosing to have Ronald’s address to the nation playing on the TV during her and Sinatra’s lovemaking.
— Good gag with parts of the ceiling caving in on Ronald from the raunchy lovemaking going on in the room above him.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
improv troupe translates host’s song based on Presumed Innocent

— Unsurprisingly, Catherine is coming off as a total pro here and is getting good laughs from lots of little things.
— Her interaction with the SNL Band has some really funny moments.
— I love her bizarre-yet-strangely-catchy foreign language singing, as well as the translations from the improv group.
STARS: ****


THE DANCER
— Rerun


SPROCKETS
actress’ (host) films involve rusty metal box & caribou

— I like the titles shown of Catherine’s various movies, such as “Pasta & Screams” and “This Squid Has One Too Many Arms”.
— Dieter: “I feel spent, like a man who is forced to wear his genitals like a pendant.”
— The bizarre movie clips starring Catherine are all very funny, especially “He Loves Me, He Loves My Caribou”.
STARS: ****


MTV SPRING BREAK 1991
drunken Kennedys & partygoers mix at compound

— Very funny how this is being held live from the Kennedy Compound.
— I like how Phil as a drunk and rowdy Ted Kennedy is the guest VJ.
— Rock is cracking me up as Flavor Flav, and he fits the role more than Tim did earlier this season.
— Some good laughs from Jan’s performance as a very old Rose Kennedy.
— Kinda surprised this sketch has ended already. I had remembered this being longer and involving more of the cast. Maybe I’m getting parts of this mixed up with the U.K. Spring Break sketch from Miranda Richardson’s episode two seasons later.
STARS: ***½


IT’S PAT
druggist (host) fails to discern androgynous Pat’s sex from purchases

— This is only Pat’s third appearance, and the character is already getting recognition applause. That’s more than I can say for Richmeister in HIS third appearance from the previous week’s episode.
— We get the debut of the “It’s Pat” opening title sequence and theme song.
— I like how in the opening title sequence, the headshot circles shown of various people reacting to Pat remind me of Mr. Short Term Memory’s opening credits, where we see headshot circles of various people reacting to him. (comparison below)

— This one guy in the audience has a very distinctive laugh that stands out far above the rest of the audience’s laughter.
— I got a good laugh from Catherine suggesting Secret deodorant to Pat because, as the deodorant’s slogan goes, “Strong enough for a woman but made for a man.”
— Overall, not my favorite Pat sketch so far, but still decent and featured a good straightman performance from Catherine.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what to do upon falling from Sears Tower


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Losing My Religion”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS gives more thoughts on what’s in & what’s out

   

— Dennis’ lethargic delivery from the last two Updates has pretty much become a regular weekly thing now. It’s sad seeing this legendary Update anchor limp towards the finish line of his SNL tenure. I will say that his delivery is slightly less lethargic tonight, and the jokes themselves aren’t bad.
— Good to see David’s “What’s in and out” segment return.
— Hmm, this edition of “What’s in and out” isn’t as good as David’s previous one.
— Okay, I got a big laugh from David just now, with his bit about not enunciating the phrase “gettin’ some pussy” so the censors can’t bust him.
— Another big laugh from David, with his bit about “kissing ass to the host so you can get into the Home Alone sequel”. That’s even funnier in hindsight, considering a certain castmate of David’s would end up getting a part in that very same Home Alone sequel.
— I always love the camaraderie between Dennis and David whenever David’s Update commentaries end. Something about it feels like there was an intended passing-of-the-torch between them (you can particularly see it in the screencap below).

After all, both Dennis and David have a similar laid-back, wiseass, meta, self-aware sensibility. Makes one wonder what it would’ve been like had young David succeeded Dennis as an Update anchor instead of Kevin Nealon. And before anyone says that a Spade-anchored Weekend Update might’ve been too much like the dreaded “Spade in America” segments from season 21, I’m talking about 1991 David Spade, back when he was new, fresh, and actually gave a damn and put effort into his snarky performances. “Spade in America”-era David Spade, on the other hand, was at a time when David’s snarky shtick had gotten beyond played-out and he was giving lethargic, tired, and half-assed performances all the time… hmm, kinda like Dennis Miller himself at the point we’re currently in, at the homestretch of HIS tenure.
— David’s overall commentary tonight began slow, but took off after a while.
— I loved the mean-but-funny punchline to Dennis’ “Tales From the Crypt” joke about Jon Lovitz playing a desperate down-and-out actor in an upcoming episode: “Hmm, since when did HBO start doing documentaries?”
— Hmm, a child actor from “Eight is Enough” was recently arrested for trying to rob a pharmacy? I’m betting SNL’s writers were kicking themselves for not including him as one of the criminals in the recent America’s Most Wanted Child Stars sketch. By the way, what the hell is with so many former child stars robbing stores around this time anyway? First Dana Plato, now the “Eight is Enough” guy.
— Very odd, random mock-serious bit with Dennis having varying reactions to learning Merv Griffin may possibly be gay. Not quite sure what to make of that bit.
STARS: ***


JUSTICE LEAGUE
Fantastic Woman’s (host) flight scrutinized by Justice League of America

— Something about the visual of Chris Rock in a lizard costume constantly moving his tongue in and out in a lizard-esque manner is priceless to me.
— Tom Davis’ superhero character being revealed as “The Incredible Kiss Ass” was worth a laugh.
— This sketch in general isn’t too funny so far.
— I kinda got a laugh from the line about Catherine using her x-ray superpower to ruin people’s film.
— Kevin looks completely unrecognizable in that zombie make-up (last screencap above). I can only tell it’s him by the voice.
— A very weak ending to an overall dud of a sketch. Seriously, what was the POINT of this sketch? Not even Catherine’s usually reliable sketch comedy skills could do anything for this.
STARS: *½


FRANK GANNON, P.I. P.I.
politically incorrect P.I. (KEN) investigates murder of a black professor

— The debut of a short-lived but memorable Kevin Nealon recurring character. I love the “Politically Incorrect Private Investigator” concept. As I often say about Kevin Nealon sketches, this is a very Kevin Nealon-y premise that could only have come from him (though I stand corrected if this sketch was written by somebody else).
— Kevin’s great at playing this jackass character, with his various idiotic assumptions and incredulous reactions due to his sexist and racist viewpoints.
— This sketch is ending ALREADY?
— The “preview of next week’s episode” scene with Kevin trying to wrap his mind around the concept of same-sex parents (played by Jan and Julia) was decent.
— Overall, this was definitely fine, but I prefer the second installment they’d later do in a Woody Harrelson-hosted episode from next season. It was much more fleshed-out and had even funnier lines.
STARS: ***½


IN CONCLUSION THEATRE
last act of play doesn’t make sense; RAQ cameo

— I feel like I’m saying this a lot tonight, but I love this sketch’s concept.
— We get another occurrence of Jack Handey’s great fake sponsors trademark. My favorite of the sponsors tonight was Post-Coital Chewing Gum.
— Ha, a random Randy Quaid appearance! Feels kinda weird reviewing him again for the first time since I regularly reviewed him when covering season 11.
— It also feels weird seeing Randy Quaid and Phil Hartman in the same scene, standing beside each other, considering their similarities as SNL utility men who’s tenures were back-to-back.
— I love the gag with Randy’s tiny legs.
— A gruesome but very funny visual of Dana with his eye hanging out of his socket. Great make-up there.
— I’m enjoying all the bizarre, unanswered visual details in general.
— Great part with a crutches-confined Farley getting shot out of nowhere.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Kate Pierson [real] perform “Shiny Happy People”


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
the Kurds should forgive George Bush & Saddam Hussein

— Random observation: Stuart Smalley has the same hair that Catherine O’Hara has had tonight. Same style, color, and everything. (side-by-side comparison below)

— Stuart’s message to the Kurds has some pretty good laughs.
— This overall sketch felt a little too short and a bit empty, though still decent.
STARS: ***


WEDDING AND A FUNERAL
(host) causes ritual dilemma by wearing wedding dress to fiance’s funeral

— I like the opening conversations between various funeral guests, especially the exchange between Farley and Rock.
— An odd but clever turn with Catherine suddenly entering in a wedding dress, forcing Mike to do a clumsy hybrid of a wedding speech and a funeral speech.
— Very interesting structure to this sketch. Doesn’t feel typical for this era. In my previous viewings, I found this sketch a little too hard to understand what it was going for, but I’m appreciating it more now.
— Catherine’s frozen, oblivious smile throughout this is good.
— I got a laugh from Mike’s emphasis to Catherine when saying, as part of his wedding/funeral speech, “…stand here ALONE!”
— Hilarious part with the guests simultaneously screaming in horror when Catherine throws the bouquet behind her.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Dennis holds up a sign saying “LOVITZ- I WAS JUST KIDDING”, as damage control for the earlier harsh-but-good-natured joke about Jon Lovitz on Weekend Update.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly good episode. As one might expect, Catherine O’Hara was an ideal host and the show utilized her talents pretty well, catering to her comedic styles in creative and oddball stuff like the monologue, Sprockets, In Conclusion Theatre, and Wedding And A Funeral.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeremy Irons)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Oh, no. STEVEN FREAKIN’ SEAGAL.

Posted on

March 23, 1991 – Jeremy Irons / Fishbone (S16 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Pumping Up With Hans & Franz- they intend to liberate Kuwait atop a camel

— These characters seem to be appearing less and less lately.
— An interesting new setting for Hans and Franz.
— A chuckle from the visual of the obviously fake camel they’re sitting on.
— Their fake Arab dialect to Mike is funny, especially Dana’s random melodic “haaaaaaaah” in the middle of it.
— The camel’s bizarre-sounding loud laugh had me cracking the hell up.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.


MONOLOGUE
hobbies designed to keep host’s mind off his Oscar nomination don’t work

— In addition to the theme music being replaced with the dress version in reruns, the same would also happen to this monologue.
— The Oscar statuette-shaped candle that Jeremy pulls out from his jacket is unintentionally missing its head (third screencap above). It must’ve fallen off while inside Jeremy’s jacket. This is most likely the reason why reruns replace this monologue with the dress rehearsal version.
— A good laugh from Jeremy’s “Thank you very much, Lorne” when handing his wood-carved Oscar statuette to an unseen stagehand.
— I like Jeremy’s comically exaggerated panicked, quivering way of saying Los AN-AN-AN-ANGELES” and “MON-MON-MONDAY”.
— Some good laughs from his various ways of “proving” he’s kept his mind off of the Oscars by taking up several hobbies, where his Oscars obsession still manifests itself.
STARS: ***½


MCINTOSH JR.
— Rerun.
— I wasn’t able to review the original airing of this commercial, since it was missing from my copy of that episode (Roseanne Barr). However, I can’t review tonight’s airing of the commercial either, because in the copy I’m watching, there’s strangely no sound AT ALL during this commercial.
— Halfway through this, a professional voice-over announces “We’re sorry for the audio difficulty originating at the network. We hope it will be fixed shortly.”
— Just now, the sound has finally come back on, right at the very end of the commercial when the audience is applauding.


OFFICE PARTY
Richard Laymer gets emotional at a goodbye party for co-worker (host)

— This installment was originally intended for the preceding week’s Michael J. Fox episode, with Fox playing the role Jeremy Irons will play here, but the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal. A video of it used to be available online at Yahoo Screen.
— Richmeister returns once again. At least they waited a while this time.
— Richmeister is still new enough at this point that he doesn’t receive recognition applause from the audience yet.
— The copy machine bit with Farley and Victoria was pretty funny, as was Richmeister panicking over that and calling security.
— At one point, Jeremy mistakenly calls Richmeister “Drew”, which is his own character’s name.
STARS: ***


SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY
Sherlock Holmes (host) spoils the fun at his own surprise party

— I love Phil’s voice as Watson.
— Perfect casting of Jeremy Irons as Sherlock Holmes.
— Weird how this is the second sketch in a row with a party being held for a character played by Jeremy.
— I like Sherlock using his brilliant clue-deducing skills to figure out from many minor details that a surprise party is being held for him.
— Jeremy’s delivery is surprisingly stumbly at times here.
— A good laugh from the bit with Watson’s gift to Sherlock being a sexy ladies outfit that was supposed to remain secret between both of them.
— An overall charming and clever sketch that this cast is always great at pulling off.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on stories involving sad clowns & diarrhea


COWBOY SONG
(host) & lonesome cowboys sing about the unappealing nature of their job

— The return of a sketch from the previous season’s Woody Harrleson episode.
— Not sure what the joke here is supposed to be.
— Okay, there was finally a laugh, with the unexpected mention of a “catalogue of female genitalia”.
— Jeremy is selling the material well, even if I’m not laughing all that much at this. His charming performance is making me smile throughout this.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sunless Saturday”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DEM steps in before Razor Ruddock [real] can talk about end of Tyson bout
CSR gives tips on how to enjoy your trip to see New Jack City

— Sadly, Dennis still sounds just as lethargic as he did in his terrible Update from the last episode.
— Dennis had a good joke just now, with him quoting Bush as saying “I am the lizard king! I can do anything!” I also liked how Dennis followed that up by ad-libbing “I always get so embarrassed when I act.”
— Very lame bit with the Razor Ruddock commentary getting cut off by Dennis shortly after it began, as a weak spoof of a then-recent incident where a referee cut short Ruddock’s fight with Mike Tyson.
— I like how Rock is doing a commentary about the controversial then-new movie “New Jack City” since he appears in it.
— Rock’s tips on how to enjoy seeing “New Jack City” in theaters is okay, though not my favorite Chris Rock Update commentary.
— Dennis’ jokes in tonight’s overall Update were a little better than the previous episode, despite his off delivery.
STARS: ***


ACCENT
(JUS), (JAH), (VIJ) love the novelty of (host)’s English accent

— Some aspects of this sketch have always brought to mind a bar sketch from the previous season’s Rick Moranis episode.
— Decent laughs from the ladies asking Jeremy to say increasingly specific lovey-dovey things in his natural accent.
— Not sure what the point of Farley’s appearance at the end was.
STARS: ***


WAYNE’S WORLD
the boys offer up their Oscar picks

 

— What in the world is this hugely popular recurring sketch doing on so late? The late placement of this sketch made sense in the John Goodman episode earlier this season, because they were showing a controversial Madonna music video that was banned from MTV, but I’m aware there’s not going to be anything like that in tonight’s installment, so what gives?
— I like the return of the “Wayne’s Oscar Picks” segment.
— I love Wayne and Garth’s examples of how cool Joe Pesci’s last name sounds.
— Here we have the very first time “Shwing!” is used in the manner we’re now familiar with, as a sound effect when miming an erection. Before this, Wayne only used “Shwing!” as a sound effect for more innocent, non-sexual things.
— Overall, this Wayne’s World installment was kinda average. Aside from the “Pesci” talk, nothing was memorable in this. That still doesn’t explain why this was buried so unusually late in the show.
STARS: ***


CELLMATE
Hannibal Lecter (host) psychoanalyzes rageaholic cellmate Mace

— A good laugh from the opening scene with Phil’s Mace character on a date with his hand, which is made up to look like a woman.
— Nice turn with Mace’s new cellmate being Hannibal Lecter. Though couldn’t they have at least ATTEMPTED to make Jeremy look even remotely like Anthony Hopkins?
— I love the rapid-fire back-and-forth right now between Lecter and Mace.
— Pretty good ending.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how to temper homicidal urges


BUZZ PEN
shave phone messages into friends’ hair; Razor Ruddock cameo

— A good take-off on a popular craze from the early 90s.
— I like the still photo examples they’re showing of messages the Buzz Pen can shave into hair, especially the grocery list.
— Considering SNL had no black writers this season (unless I’m mistaken), I wonder who wrote this.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Everyday Sunshine”


LOONEY TUNES CLASSICS
host plugs album of classical music from cartoons

— Another great use of Jeremy.
— Very funny premise, associating famous classical melodies with well-known Looney Tunes scenes.
— Some good laughs from the scrolled titles and Jeremy’s accompanying Looney Tunes imitations when reading off the titles.
— You can tell Jeremy’s having fun performing this sketch.
— Love the classic clip they showed of Daffy Duck singing made-up, rapidly-sung lyrics to “William Tell Overture” while chasing Porky Pig down a fire escape (last screencap above). Brings back so many great childhood memories of watching that and other Looney Tunes cartoons.
STARS: ****


FOOTBALL DAYS
by Jennifer Meyer- Jack Handey’s gridiron career recalled

— A rare occurrence of a Jack Handey short film. There’s actually another film from him that was inserted into the reruns of the Sting episode from this season. That film had a teenage Jack Handey being played by the same actor who plays teen Handey here.
— Speaking of the actor who plays teen Handey, that’s perfect casting, because it’s easy to imagine Handey’s monotone, deadpan voice coming from him.
— I love the visual of Handey’s ridiculous football uniform.
— The sudden handcuffs twist was a great ending.
— Overall, the usual offbeat, bizarre, and very funny Jack Handey humor.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid and consistent episode, with nothing I disliked. The show was also helped by Jeremy Irons. Despite some line flubs here and there, he was a very solid host and came off fun, charming, and game.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Michael J. Fox)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Catherine O’Hara

Posted on

March 16, 1991 – Michael J. Fox / The Black Crowes (S16 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
during a George Bush (DAC) speech, Dan Quayle (host) mistimes his claps

— Some good lines during Al Franken’s opening voice-over.
— The frequent standing ovations everybody’s giving to every little thing Bush says are funny.
— Loved the part with Michael J. Fox’s Dan Quayle foolishly getting up to give a standing ovation to Bush saying “Our country had lost its way”, only to realize nobody else is doing the same.
— Some more laughs from Quayle’s various miscues throughout this, including Phil’s Speaker of the House holding him back from applauding Bush’s simple “Operation Desert Storm” statement.
— Funny ending with Quayle continuing to chant “Powell!” long after everyone else has stopped.
— Overall, for a cold opening that was so long (about 8 minutes!) and had thin material, this somehow managed to turn out strong and memorable.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— This is the only time this season where every single featured player is credited. You really see from tonight’s montage how extremely big this season’s cast is (and it only gets bigger next season!).


MONOLOGUE
host meets two versions of himself (DAC) & (DAS) Back From The Future

 

— A good laugh from Michael’s intentionally terrible “Hard Way” pun.
— Great to see Dana’s great Michael J. Fox impression again, and this is a great concept with him coming from 90 minutes in the future to warn the real Michael that the show turns out to be a dud.
— I love Dana pronouncing “It bombed!” as “It baaahhhmbed!”
— Now this is getting even better as we get David’s also-great MJF impression as Michael in the past. Truth be told, I’ve always slightly preferred David’s impression to Dana’s. Dana’s great with the voice, but David nails both the voice AND the mannerisms.
— Fun seeing all three MJFs together in Lorne’s office.
— Great part with Lorne bribing the three MJFs with a gigantic bag of money.
STARS: ****½


CHIA HEAD
— Rerun


JASPER THE CLOWN
circus owner (PHH) tells clown (host) that his stinging act isn’t working

— Some pretty good laughs from Michael’s description of what he does.
— A clown makeup-wearing Farley briefly barging in just to say “It’s a GREAT act!” made me laugh for some reason.
— This sketch is too slow-moving and quiet for the lead-off sketch of the night.
— A big laugh at the end from Farley’s clown name being revealed as Exposo.
— Overall, the sketch itself wasn’t bad, but it had no business being in such an early timeslot. This came off fairly dull as a lead-off sketch. This would’ve come off much better had it aired towards the end of the show, where the quieter, slower-paced pieces usually air.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on taking a dog on the Space Shuttle


HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
at his high school reunion, hitman (KEN) is quick to volunteer services

— Good characterization from Kevin here.
— Eh, a one-joke sketch so far. Not too exciting.
— Okay, I finally got a laugh, from Kevin saying his usual “I’ll take care of it” response when hearing that Michael was let down by Daryl Strawberry leaving the Mets for the Dodgers.
— As if this sketch weren’t already bad enough, now we get a VERY awkward ending. After the big “joke” with Kevin promising Adam he’ll “take care” of a girl who supposedly broke Adam’s heart, there’s absolute DEAD SILENCE from the audience, and then an off-camera G.E. Smith is heard yelling “One, two!” followed by the SNL Band playing the show to commercial. So the sketch abruptly ends very emptily with no actual conclusion, no laughter, and no applause. What the hell???
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Thick & Thin”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB says easy post-Vietnam wars were good preparation for domestic strife

— Right off the bat, Dennis’ delivery sounds VERY off. He sounds like he’s literally half-asleep. Even his hair has a depressed, haggard look to it.
— Good opening jokes about the infamous L.A.P.D./Rodney King incident that had just recently happened.
— Dennis’ delivery is so off tonight that even his intro to A. Whitney Brown’s commentary sounded weird.
— Here’s what turns out to be A. Whitney’s final Weekend Update commentary ever, as well as his final SNL appearance ever.
— A. Whitney’s Grenada joke about how “it didn’t take a lot of military strategy to knock over a fruit stand with two aircraft carriers” was already used in one of his earlier Big Picture commentaries.
— Tonight’s overall A. Whitney commentary was too average. Between the lack of any standout lines and the fact that he recycled the aforementioned Grenada joke, this was a fairly disappointing final edition of The Big Picture. His Big Picture commentaries in general had a good run, though, and often provided witty one-liners and a nice cerebral change of pace from SNL’s usual tone.
— Ugh, Dennis has been doing TONS of bad “misinterpreting a photo” jokes tonight.
— Okay, we finally get a good joke from Dennis, with the Richard Grieco “If Looks Could Kill” bit.
— As if Dennis’ performance in tonight’s Update hadn’t been lethargic enough, he ends this by COMPLETELY half-assing his usual arm swipe when doing his trademark scribble-wildly-on-a-sheet-of-paper move after saying his “I… am… outta here” tagline.
— Overall, yikes, a pretty brutal Update. In retrospect, this begins a turning point and signals that the end of the Dennis Miller era is approaching. I recall that most of the remainder of Dennis’ Updates sadly feature him practically sleepwalking his way through the broadcasts, similar to tonight. You can tell Dennis was done with SNL by this point and was counting down the days until the season ended.
STARS: **


AMERICA’S MOST WANTED
former child actors plan their latest crime

— Finally, here comes something that’s actually GOOD, after the string of duds that preceded this.
— Such a fantastic concept for this sketch, which appears to be based on Dana Plato’s infamous then-recent video store robbery.
— I’m loving the intro of each child star who’s in the crime ring.
— An absolutely priceless visual of Adam portraying Barry Williams as what Phil’s John Walsh describes as a cross-dressing cannibal.
— Drew Barrymore’s “bad girl” phase from around this time feels weird to be reminded of, considering how much she turned her life around since then.
— Farley is a riot as Mindy Cohn, especially his angry outburst of “JUST DO IT, RIPPY!”
— Very funny performance from Dana.
— Ha, I love that we’re getting a reprise of David’s Michael J. Fox impression from earlier tonight.
— The glare on Michael’s face while watching David’s impression of him is CLASSIC (second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: *****


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart Smalley is upset with his new time slot

— Good to see this sketch officially become recurring.
— A good laugh from Stuart revealing his show is moving from a convenient afternoon timeslot to 2:35 A.M.
— I like Stuart gradually saying inappropriate things about the station manager responsible for changing his show’s timeslot.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “She Talks to Angels”


NOT GETTIN’ ANY
losers ponder the source of their sexual inactivity

— I absolutely love how this is showcasing the group of new male cast members who would go on to collectively be known as the Bad Boys. Well, minus Rob Schneider, who not only is missing from this sketch, but is nowhere to be seen tonight in general, despite being credited in the opening montage.
— Farley’s sudden tender singing of the lyric “Lay you down in the tall grass, let me do my stuuuuuff” cracked me up so much.
— Farley is hilarious in this in general.
— It took Rock about FIVE MINUTES into this sketch to finally speak. I point this out because, according to what I’ve heard, this ENTIRE sketch would later be included in Rock’s “Best Of” special. So let me get this straight: in a compilation special celebrating Chris Rock’s supposedly greatest SNL moments, we have to sit through a sketch in which the first four minutes feature the man of the hour, Chris Rock, saying and doing absolutely NOTHING while other performers get the laughs, and THEN Rock finally gets his time to speak, only to go back to being silent for the rest of the sketch? That is ridiculous, and shows how hard-pressed they were in trying to find 90 minutes worth of material to put in a “Best Of” for a cast member who was only on for three seasons and was extremely underused. I remember somebody at the SNL newsgroup (alt.tv.snl) once joking that at the rate Rock’s “Best Of” was going, they might as well have thrown in the famous “Clinton at McDonalds” sketch in which Rock’s only contribution was appearing as a cashier at the beginning, where his only line was “Okay, so that’s a quarter-pounder with cheese and…”
— All that being said about Rock, his whole “I wanna be THAT GUY” mini-rant in this sketch is really good. So much so, that I wanted his part of the sketch to go on longer.
— I don’t like how they wasted Adam in this. He didn’t get to speak until the very end, where he was relegated to basically telling the other guys that there are people in the world who are worse off than them. He didn’t even get anything comedic to say, which isn’t fair, as all the other cast members got their share of laughs here.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the end of the age of the Vikings


ELEVATOR
Sting’s elevator fans give host a similar song treatment

— The return of a classic sketch from the Sting episode earlier this season.
— I got a good laugh from Kevin breaking out into a quiet, high-pitched singing of the lyric “Gonna go back in tiiiiiime”, or as he pronounces it, “Gonna go back in tyyyyeeeeem” (Dana pronounces it even funnier later in the sketch).
— Okay, Kevin’s endless repetitions of “Gonna go back in tyyyyeeeeem” aren’t so funny anymore. The increasingly dead audience apparently agrees with me.
— Dana finally got me laughing again by breaking out into the “Family Ties” theme song, eventually being joined by Kevin.
— Overall, despite some laughs and the usual funny performances from Kevin and Dana, this was nowhere NEAR as good as the one with Sting, and was an unnecessary follow-up to a sketch that should’ve been left as a classic one-off. On its own, tonight’s installment probably comes off fine, but after having just watched and reviewed the Sting installment a mere few days ago, tonight’s installment paled fairly badly to me. The worst of these installments has yet to come, though. Wait till we get to the Michael Jordan episode next season.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the similarity between boxing & ballet


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mixed episode. What was great in this episode was fantastic and very memorable, such as the cold opening, monologue, and America’s Most Wanted; so fantastic and memorable, in fact, that they probably make people remember this overall episode as being really strong. But if you take off the nostalgia goggles and look past those great highlights, you’ll find this episode had more weak material than usual for this season, including a very lethargic Weekend Update. The show also suffered from odd sketch placements, such as a fantastic huge piece like America’s Most Wanted being buried after Update while the two sketches in the pre-Update half consisted of the sluggishly-paced Jasper The Clown and the poor one-joke High School Reunion.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jeremy Irons

Posted on

February 23, 1991 – Alec Baldwin / Whitney Houston (S16 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The McLaughlin (DAC) Group- panelists don’t get a chance to give answers

 

— Farley’s playing the same panelist (Jack Germond) that John Goodman played in the first installment of this sketch, yet Farley’s wearing a bald cap with gray hair on the sides while Goodman kept his normal head full of dark hair.
— Unlike the first installment, Dana’s McLaughlin is saying “Wrong!” a lot more often this time.
— I love how the correct answer to the ink blot test turned out to be “It’s my mother stealing my penis.”
— Dana’s McLaughlin singing the name Jack Germond in a “Blue Moon”-esque manner was hilarious.
— For some reason, the entire portion right now with McLaughlin asking the panelists “How large is the tumor growing in my brain?” would later be removed from all reruns. The reruns try to hide the edit by splicing in a brief random shot of Farley just sitting there, not saying or doing anything. Does anyone know why the brain tumor portion is cut from reruns? Was the real John McLaughlin diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly after this episode aired or something?
— Great variation of “Live from New York…” by having Dana’s McLaughlin say “Show show show, here we go.”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
audible thoughts of host, musical guest, others reveal moments of doubt

 

— Alec mentions that his first episode was so well-received that it was nominated for an Emmy.
— Some good laughs from Alec’s inner thoughts when he’s digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole during the spoken portions of the monologue.
— I disagree about the Dennis Hopper episode being great, though I think that line was just an excuse for Alec to comically make a dig at Hopper.
— Loved Alec’s inner thought worriedly saying “This is ALREADY not as good as last year.”
— Funny line from the boom operator (played by stage manager Joe Dicso for some reason) saying the show should only hire qualified boom operators and not just relatives.
— Ha, yet ANOTHER Jon Lovitz cameo this season, and in true Lovitz fashion, he makes a self-deprecating dig at that: “Maybe it was a mistake to leave the show. Six months later, I’m still hangin’ around. I gotta get a LIFE!”
— Alec referring to his inner thoughts as a “moment of doubt” reminds me of the season 11 sketch of the same name, which makes me wonder if the writer behind that sketch also wrote this monologue.
— This monologue ends on a serious note with Alec saying all of their thoughts are with our troops in the Persian Gulf. Which reminds me, this would turn out to be the final live SNL episode before the Gulf War comes to an end.
STARS: ****


THE DANCER
home exercise unit lets you boogie; Evander Holyfield cameo

— The shot of Dana dancing wildly in a club cracked me up.
— A decent though not hilarious idea of an exercise-type dancing machine. Some good physical work from Dana here.
— This overall commercial was too average for its own good. Not even the Evander Holyfield cameo did much for this.
STARS: ***


THE HONEST PLANET
on The Honest Planet, office workers dispense with tact

— Already a big laugh from the establishing shot of the building having the name Greedy Industries.
— Phil is great at openly admitting cruel facts about himself.
— What the hell just happened? When an excited Dana enters and announces he got the promotion, the camera suddenly briefly cuts to a darkened shot where only a tiny red light is visible (screencap below).

Odd blooper there. SNL would later replace about half of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns, possibly to cover for that blooper.
STARS: ***


THE SINEAD O’CONNOR AWARDS
materialism in music industry is marked

— Good concept for an awards show sketch, as a reference to Sinead O’Connor boycotting that years Grammys (as mentioned in a then-recent Weekend Update).
— Dana’s bizarre rambling as Paul McCartney is priceless.
— Classic cutaway to Farley in the audience as a gleefully smiling Carnie Wilson.
— I loved Alec’s scene as Bono.
— Very funny twist in the Tim-as-Tracy-Chapman scene, with her somber song suddenly turning into a materialistic, upbeat “Everybody do the funky wa-wa” number, which of course upsets Sinead.
— For some reason, in my early SNL fandom days, I strangely used to think that was A. Whitney Brown playing the other Nelson brother besides Spade (third-to-last screencap above).  Turns out that’s actually Spike Feresten, who was supposedly an uncredited writer at the time. Some SNL fans probably think it’s Adam Sandler, as there is a resemblance there.
— Yikes, a big blooper just now. When Jan hands Phil the award, she does it in such a sloppy, careless manner that it causes Phil to accidentally drop the award on the floor (second-to-last screencap above), where it then falls off the stage. He has to wait for somebody offstage to pick the award up and hand it to him before he can continue with the sketch. Poor Jan embarrassedly smirks out of character, which she tries to hide with her hand. You don’t see any of this in reruns, because they replace most of the Sinatra portion of this sketch with the flub-less dress rehearsal version.
— I absolutely love Sinatra’s harsh rant to Sinead, especially him talking about the days when “you were just a gleam in some dumb mick’s bloodshot eyes!”
— SNL usually has a poor track record with long award show sketches, but this has been one of the rare times they got it right.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Your Baby Tonight”


LANK THOMPSON: I’M A HANDSOME ACTOR
host is a product of Lank Thompson’s “I’m A Handsome Actor” course

— Hmm, I see I was wrong when I said earlier this season that the John Goodman episode was the final occurrence of a sketch airing in between the first musical performance and Weekend Update.
— Alec demonstrating various dramatic acting techniques is very fun and spot-on.
— For some reason, Alec keeps loudly clearing his throat all throughout this sketch.
STARS: ****


PAN AM
Pan Am will let anyone who flies to Europe during Gulf War keep the plane

— Phil’s announcement that passengers can now keep the Pan Am plane they rode on is quite funny.
— As always, very amusing spokesman delivery from Phil.
— An overall very short and very topical piece that, while still fairly funny in its own right, doesn’t hit quite as hard in 2019, long after whatever Pan Am controversy this sketch was based on has been forgotten.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
DEM translates for unintelligible Bob Dylan (DAC) & Tom Petty (DAS)

 

— I didn’t get Dennis’ joke about how an Andy Warhol movie is currently doing poorly at box office “but the first 15 minutes of it were great”.
— Dana’s Bob Dylan is freakin’ hilarious! I also love how Dennis is providing translations of Dylan’s gibberish for the “Dylan impaired”.
— Now this has gotten even better with David entering as Tom Petty. Great impression from David, and a lot of laughs from him and Dana’s Dylan holding an unintelligible conversation with each other, before breaking out into an intelligible duet of “Free Fallin’”. Classic.
— When mentioning a former “Dance Fever” performer, Dennis quips “I don’t think I’ve seen choreography that stiff since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.” I’m pretty sure I remember Dennis using that EXACT same analogy before. I think it was when he was critiquing the Super Bowl Shuffle video during season 11.
STARS: ***


THE GODFATHER PART IV
Michael Corleone (host) is the don of the future

— Nice concept of a futuristic Godfather. I think this is supposed to be a mash-up of Godfather and a Star Trek movie that came out around this time.
— No idea what to say about Alec’s Pacino impression.
— For some reason, I love the very dark, bitter look on Phil’s face during the close-up of him reacting to Corleone telling him he can’t grant his favor.
— Alec’s delivery of “They keep pulling me back IN!” cracked me up.
— We get an appearance from Kevin as Spock. Yep, I guess this IS a partial Star Trek mash-up.
— Didn’t like Corleone’s flashback sequence. It went on too long and wasn’t all that funny.
— Okay, ENOUGH with Alec’s “They keep pulling me back IN!”s. It’s not funny anymore after the 30th time.
— Man, a lot of this sketch is dragging.
— Phil’s comical delivery of “50 bullets in him and they saved his BRAIIIIN!” was great.
— Ugh, they’re STILL having Alec say “They keep pulling me back IN!” over and over. STOP.
— Weak ending.
— Overall, oof. A big disappointment, considering what a promising idea this had. You can tell SNL themselves realized what a flop this sketch turned out to be, considering they would later bury this at the end of the show in reruns, as the second-to-last sketch of the night.
STARS: *½


RECONCILIATION
(JUS) is flustered by face-to-face confession to handsome priest (host)

— A strong Julia Sweeney showcase. There’s a lot of great realism and likability in how she’s acting towards Alec.
— A very funny part just now with Julia’s almost orgasmic reaction to Alec’s unintentionally suggestive description of how he prefers to eat Oreos (“I like to spread the cookie open and eat the creamy center”).
STARS: ****


CYRANO DE BERGERAC
wide-nosed Cyrano de Bergerac (TIM) helps (host) get with Roxanne (JAH)

— Hilarious visual of Tim with a ridiculously wide nose.
— I’m glad we’re seeing Tim in his very first big role. This is a good showcase for him (which is something that will unfortunately go on to be rare for him in this era).
— Great turn with Alec mouthing Tim’s smooth talk while funky music plays.
— Good ending scene in the bedroom. Speaking of which, was that scene pre-taped? The camera cuts from the main characters being outside by the balcony to them suddenly being in the bedroom.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All The Man I Need”


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski sends F’ed Up malt liquor to the Gulf War troops

— Standard stuff so far. I’m still chuckling throughout this, but it’s not a good sign that in its second installment, this recurring sketch is ALREADY starting to feel too routine and by-the-numbers.
— Loved the picture of Don Pardo sporting a solid gold four-finger ring. I think this episode aired on Don’s birthday, so perhaps showing a picture of him in a sketch was some kind of birthday present from SNL.
— Tim’s Flavor Flav is funny, though almost for the wrong reason. I’m laughing more at how out-of-place and stiff Tim is coming off in this performance. This is our very first glimpse of how unnatural Tim is in homeboy roles, which we’ll be seeing other occurrences of throughout his SNL tenure.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— The SNL Band cuts Alec off before he was even finished speaking.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good episode, though it doesn’t measure up to Alec’s phenomenal first episode. However, there were some really strong pieces tonight. Alec further solidified himself as a reliable host after his strong debut the previous season.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Roseanne Barr)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Michael J. Fox

Posted on

February 16, 1991 – Roseanne Barr / Deee-Lite (S16 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
army general Mr. Subliminal briefs the press about the Gulf War

— Second episode in a row with a cold opening starring Kevin as someone giving a military briefing to press reporters, and both openings also have an intro from Phil setting up the appearance of Kevin’s character. In my early days of watching reruns on Comedy Central, I used to get these two cold openings confused for each other all the time.
— Good to see Kevin doing his subliminal routine in the cold opening slot again this season.
— Overall, while Kevin’s subliminal lines in tonight’s opening wasn’t as consistently strong as his ones from the Tom Hanks episode and no particular lines tonight stood out, they were still reliably funny as usual.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Adam Sandler’s photo from his debut in last week’s montage (first screencap below) has been changed to a new pic (second screencap below).


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Fun part with her excitedly announcing she’s officially overexposed.
— Great self-deprecating line from her at the end about being an “insecure ego-driven megastar who cannot deal with rejection”.
— A pretty high-energy monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


METROCARD
operator (host) & customer (PHH) remember a call for help

— A lot of laughs from Roseanne giving a comically out-of-place Roseanne-esque performance as the phone operator, with her blunt comments throughout her stories.
— Very funny contrast between the tone of Phil and Roseanne’s testimonials, with my favorite part being Phil kindly recalling a harsh comment from Rosanne telling him what he can do with a personal check as “She gave me several options.”
— Supposedly, there was some kind of bad technical error during the live broadcast of this. While the version I’m reviewing of this episode is live, it’s a Canadian west coast airing, where they apparently fixed whatever the bad technical error in this sketch was.
STARS: ****½


MISERY II
DAC’s biggest fan (host) makes him keep Church Lady alive

— Dana announces he’s retiring Church Lady, which is a promise that he’d end up keeping for the rest of his SNL tenure.
— The camera does a casual reveal of Jon Lovitz sitting next to Dana in the car, which receives absolutely no audience reaction. It may be because they already saw him sitting there, but it’s funny to imagine that it’s because Jon’s cameos have become so commonplace that the audience has no reaction to them anymore.
— I like Jon asking if he can take over Church Lady.
— Perfect casing of Roseanne.
— Absolutely hilarious visual of Dana’s banged-up legs.
— Am I crazy, or whenever Roseanne enters and exits the room, you can see the back of Jon Lovitz standing in the hallway (screencap below)? Why is he there? Waiting for his cue to enter at the end of the sketch?

— Great visual of a reluctant Dana dressed as Church Lady when the camera cuts back to the bedroom scene.
— The scenes with Lorne in his office are very good. I loved the part with him saying he doesn’t need Dana’s characters or impressions anymore because he has the next big thing: a character who calls people by a bunch of nicknames, and as Lorne gives an example of that, you realize he’s talking about Richmeister. Considering the last two episodes featured Richmeister’s first two appearances, and now he’s being mentioned in this sketch tonight, this shows how much they were really trying to push that character and/or how quickly popular he became.
— I love Dana using his Church Lady catchphrases in an angry manner when trying to kill Roesanne (“Isn’t THAT special?!! Isn’t THAT convienient?!?”).
— Dana: “Jon, I thought you were dead.” Jon: “ACTING!”
— Great ending with Jon fulfilling his dream to play Church Lady.
STARS: ****½


SALLY
host & Tom Arnold [real] respond to TV movie

— Another good use of Victoria’s great Roseanne impression, as well as a welcome return of Farley’s Tom Arnold impression.
— Feels a little weird seeing Tom Arnold so fat here.
— Once again, Jan is really good at doing the Sally Jessy Raphael overdramatics.
— The end of the restaurant scene was priceless. This is the first of two times in the calendar year 1991 where Victoria Jackson gets humped on a restaurant table during a sketch. A hint on what the second sketch is: it’s a very famous one that features a whole bunch of Italian characters.
— I love Farley’s demented “I! DON’T! TAKE! NO! CRAP! FROM! NO! BODY!” yelling during the dramatic close-up of him kicking a photographer to death.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “World Clique”


WEEKEND UPDATE
propaganda tool Iraqi Pete (ADS) spouts anti-American sentiments

— Adam Sandler gets his first-ever big role, and his performance here as Iraqi Pete is freakin’ priceless, made even funnier by the chorus of audience boos throughout the segment.
— Excellent delivery from Dennis during his long-winded set-up of a joke about a character from Thirtysomething dying.
STARS: ***½


PAT
(host) fails to figure out whether androgynous Pat is a man or a woman

— Pat officially becomes recurring. I believe according to the “Live from New York” book, it was Roseanne’s idea to bring the character back, as she was a fan of the first Pat sketch and asked Julia if they could do another installment of the sketch.
— Julia’s wearing less padding than she wore last time she played this character.
— I like the mysteriousness of Pat’s answer to Roseanne saying accounting is such a male-dominated field: “Why do you think I took this job in the first place?”
— Like last time, there’s some good laughs from Pat’s gender-unspecific answers to questions asked by others.
— Funny appearance from Dana as the equally androgynous Chris.
STARS: ***½


A PRESIDENTS’ DAY REMEMBRANCE
Abraham (PHH) vs. Mary Todd (host) Lincoln

— A big laugh from how Mike’s dignified set-up of a typical evening with the Lincolns is casually followed by a scene with them in an insane, wild fight. Phil’s loud outbursts during that scene are especially hilarious.
— Funny how an unfazed Mike casually continues speaking to the camera while the Lincoln’s fight gets carried over to right next to him.
STARS: ***½


HAPPY FUN BALL
Happy Fun Ball comes with a bunch of scary-sounding disclaimers

— Here’s a Jack Handey classic and one of my all-time favorite SNL pieces.
— Priceless contrast between the playful tone of the early scenes with the kids and the serious disclaimers that take over the commercial afterwards.
— Some of my favorite parts of the disclaimers are the long list of symptoms one might suffer from Happy Fun Ball, the mention of Happy Fun Ball being dropped from war planes onto Iraq, and of course “Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.”
STARS: *****


IRAQI PETE
Iraqi Pete further eggs on the audience; TV Guide “cheers” SNL for him

— Another hilarious goofy villain-esque performance from Adam as this character.
— We get another TV Guide Cheers & Jeers ending. This one was okay.
STARS: ****


COMEDY KILLERS
stand-up comics on a game show about audience turn-offs

— Great concept.
— Some good laughs from the list of categories on the board.
— A particularly strong part with Roseanne’s self-referential story about doing a jokingly bad rendition of the National Anthem.
— I’m loving Kevin’s delivery throughout this, especially his reading of the example sentence “I hope you get rectal cancer” and the way he said “Ted Kennedy: not a respected figure.”
— The lightning round with Roseanne is fun.
— Funny reveal that the greatest comedy killer of all time is the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Power of Love”


VICTORIA’S SECRETS
VIJ tells all about her dumb blonde image

— A creative and different setting.
— Victoria’s revelations are providing some solid amusement. This has an almost Deep Thoughts-esque feel.
STARS: ***½


OPPOSITES ATTRACT
movie about a millionaire (MIM) & a prostitute

— This feels very different from what you typically see in this era.
— Good disgusting make-up on the prostitute.
— I liked the lobster/crabs joke during the dinner table scene.
STARS: ***


WHITE TRASH HISTORY MINUTE
how tuna noodle casserole was created

— During the opening shot of a bookshelf, one of the book titles seen is “The Big Picture by A. Whitney Brown.”
— Rosanne’s constant slaps to Farley’s head are fairly funny. Not much else to laugh at here, though.
— An overall weak way to end the show.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly very strong episode, and had some really memorable pieces, particularly MetroCard, Misery II, Happy Fun Ball, and Comedy Killers.
— The aforementioned Canadian west coast live airing I reviewed of this episode was missing a fake ad for McIntosh Jr. (“The power to crush the other kids”).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kevin Bacon)
— a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin

Posted on

February 9, 1991 – Kevin Bacon / INXS (S16 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
reporters at a Desert Storm press briefing ask for classified information

— While it feels a little weird in retrospect seeing a pre-Darrell Hammond portrayal of Dick Cheney, Phil’s impression is good.
— A rare example of a one-joke sketch actually being pulled off really well. This is the right way to execute this type of premise.
— Part of what helps make this work is Nealon’s responses to the idiotic questions. There’s one particular part where he gives Tom Davis a hilarious speechless, squinty-eyed stern stare in response to a question he asked (fifth screencap above).
— Tim Meadows makes his very first SNL appearance. It feels interesting arriving at his tenure, knowing how VERY long we’re going to be seeing him on the show.
— Speaking of Tim Meadows, throughout this entire cold opening, he has pudgy prosthetic make-up on the lower half of his face. That’s his make-up for a Colin Powell impression that he’s going to be doing later tonight. (Though I have to ask, since when does Colin Powell have a pudgy face?) When this cold opening would later be rerun, SNL would replace the part where Tim asks a question with the dress rehearsal version, in which he looks like his normal self and doesn’t have the pudgy facial prosthetics. However, they still leave in the shots where Tim is seen in the background with the prosthetics. I remember I used to be confused as hell by that when frequently watching this episode in Comedy Central reruns, before I was told that the shot of Tim without the prosthetics is from dress rehearsal.
— Love the part with Rob as a Baghdad reporter asking “Where are your troops and can I go there and count them?”
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— In addition to Tim Meadows being added to the cast as a featured player tonight, writer and frequent bit player Adam Sandler has also been added as a featured player tonight.

This now puts the cast at SIXTEEN members, which, at this point in SNL’s timeline, is easily the largest number of cast members in a single season. It’s also only the second time in the show’s history where there were more featured players than repertory players (the first time being season 5). I really have to wonder what it was like at this time in 1991 for SNL fans to witness the cast suddenly getting so insanely large, especially after those SNL fans had become so accustomed to the small, cozy cast of the late 80s.
— I like how with the hiring of Tim Meadows, we now have two black male cast members, making this the first time in the show’s history where they had multiple black cast members of the same gender.
— For this episode only, Rob Schneider is announced by Don Pardo as “Robert Schneider”.


MONOLOGUE
host counters nervousness by controlling his pulse rate & salivary glands

— I liked Bacon’s line about controlling “the instrument that is my body”.
— The premise is probably too mundane for its own good, but something about Bacon’s execution of it kinda works for me. I think I’m in the minority, as quite a number of SNL fans seem to hate this monologue.
— Okay, I admit I didn’t care for the ending with Bacon looking downward and realizing he forgot to control his bladder.
STARS: **½


NO COMMERCIAL
due to Gulf War, SNL refrains from running fake commercial for Execu-John

— Hilarious mock disclaimer about how the seriousness of the Gulf War is preventing SNL from airing a “the briefcase you can poop in” commercial.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


COPY MACHINE
Richard Laymer loses his socialization facilitator when the copier breaks

 

— Oh, you gotta be kidding me. They’re ALREADY bringing this back??? This debuted in just the last episode!
— At the beginning of this, Richmeister receives some recognition laughter and very mild applause.
— So far, this installment has been going in the exact same direction as the first installment from the last episode.
— Okay, now we get some actual plot, with the copy machine breaking down.
— I like the mock dramatic turn with Phil and Julia being concerned that the lack of a copy machine will destroy Richmeister.
— The last minute or so of this sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. In the live version I’m watching, Schneider doesn’t say “Disaster for the Richmeisterrrrr” during the long silent pause after he realizes he’s lost without the copy machine.
— Ha, I love how Richmeister brings in the coffee machine from another room, to compensate for the lack of a copy machine.
— Tim Meadows randomly playing himself in this is a decent subtle way to introduce him to the audience.
— Tim still has the pudgy prosthetic make-up on his face. Much like the cold opening, the dress rehearsal version of this shown in reruns has Tim without the prosthetics.
STARS: ***½


THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
Nat X’s guests are Colin Powell (TIM) & Vanilla Ice (host)

— Unlike the first installment of this sketch earlier this season, the set of this sketch now has a window behind Nat X, making it look more like a real talk show.
— Chris Rock’s delivery is a little sloppy early on in this sketch.
— Love the Top 5 list of reasons black guys don’t play hockey. The number one reason is priceless: “Don’t feel the need to dominate yet another sport”. Word has it that Adam Sandler was the one who suggested that line when Rock was writing this sketch.
— Very funny point from Nat X about whitey being responsible for Black History Month taking place in the shortest month of the year, and also the coldest month so black people can’t hold a parade.
— Nice touch how the off-camera band plays an instrumental of “War (What is it good for)” as entrance music when Tim’s Colin Powell walks on set. I’m always a sucker for that song.
— Haha, Bacon as Vanilla Ice, just two episodes after the real Vanilla Ice was a musical guest on the show! Bacon is even wearing the same outfit Vanilla Ice wore on the show, complete with a diamond-studded “WORD TO YOUR MOTHER” seen on the back (side-by-side comparison below).

— True story: the first time I ever saw this episode, which was in a Comedy Central rerun way back when I was just starting to get into SNL as a teenager, I missed the first 10 minutes or so of this episode, and thus, didn’t know who was hosting. When Kevin Bacon entered this sketch as Vanilla Ice, I said to myself “Hey, Jim Carrey as Vanilla Ice! This is gonna be hilarious!” and then I said “But wait, Jim Carrey was a cast member on SNL??? He did both this show and In Living Color???” Yes, you read right: stupid teenage me mistook Kevin Bacon for Jim Carrey, and thus, assumed that Jim Carrey was once a cast member on SNL. It wasn’t until shortly after Bacon started speaking that I had a disappointed realization of “Wait, that ain’t Jim Carrey”.
— When questioning Vanilla Ice on how they made him dance so well in his music video, I howled at Nat X asking “Did they feed you chitlins?”
— This whole Vanilla Ice interview is classic.
— Fun sequence with Nat X and Colin Powell dancing in unison.
STARS: ****½


THE SARCASTIC CLAPPING FAMILY OF SOUTHHAMPTON
members of The Sarcastic Clapping Family Of Southhampton speak their mind

— Phil’s intensely dramatic opening speech is funny.
— Some really good laughs from every family member’s statement being responded to by another family member slowly applauding sarcastically.
— Boy, Farley is sweating insanely during his close-up.
— Good reveal of the “The Sarcastic Clapping Family of Southhampton” title towards the end of the sketch.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how kids like to be tricked


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bitter Tears”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB says it’s no surprise the Gulf War was waged on George Bush’s watch

— Funny bit with gunshot sound effects being added to a montage of Colin Powell finger-pointing at a press conference.
— Dennis: “Last Saturday, Feburary 2nd, was Groundwar Day. Saddam Hussein came out of his underground bunker and saw his shadow, meaning there will probably be six more weeks of Iraqis getting stomped on.”
— I liked A. Whitney’s comment about the Gulf War being our first-ever Nintendo war.
— A. Whitney on smart bombs: “Our bombs are better educated than the average high school graduate. At least they can find Kuwait.”
— Dennis does a slight variation of his usual tagline, by replacing “I… am… outta here” with a simple “I’m gone”.
STARS: ***½


NEW ROOMMATE
(host) has no problems with potential roommate’s (DAC) strange habits

— Bacon and especially Dana each have some pretty funny casual reveals to each other of their bad habits, which neither of them have a problem with.
— I liked Bacon’s strange suggestion that he watch even channels on the TV and Dana watch odd channels.
— I loved the part with Bacon being iffy about Dana asking if he can bring his dog, but then immediately having a change of heart when Dana explains it’s a dead dog.
— Decent part with former roommate Mike’s passing mention of once having cut off Bacon’s testicles and using them as clackers.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on biting what seemed to be a nectarine


DANCE PARTY USA
teens boogie in support of the Gulf War effort

— Much like the First Impression sketch in the last episode, this sketch would later be removed from reruns. It’s replaced with a cut dress rehearsal sketch where Gulf War soldiers hold a meeting to come up with ideas for taunting messages to write on the bombs that will be dropped on Iraq.
— I like the goofy look on Rock’s face while he’s dancing.
— The premise of teens “supporting” the Gulf War by partying and dancing kinda reminds me of something I once saw on Conan O’Brien’s NBC Late Night show, which makes me wonder if it’s possible that either Conan or Robert Smigel wrote this sketch.
— Dana as an out-of-place conspiracy theorist is fairly funny.
— Why wasn’t David Spade credited in the SNL opening montage earlier tonight? He has a fairly noteworthy speaking role in this sketch.
— Not too many laughs from this sketch so far. I do, however, love how very early 90s everything about this is.
— Okay, we finally get a pretty big laugh, with Farley’s heated-up misguided rant about how we should “keep bombing the Ayatollah”.
— Not even Adam Sandler can breathe much life into this sketch with his musical performance, though he’s certainly trying.
— By the way, with this sketch cut in reruns, Adam’s only appearance of the night is a non-speaking walk-on bit role as a repairman in the Richmeister sketch, which makes it seem like SNL promoted Adam from writer to featured player just to play a useless silent role that they could’ve just hired an extra to play.
— Overall, aside from nice usage of all this season’s new featured players (well, minus Rob Schnei– uh, excuse me… ROBERT Schneider) and a funny line from Farley, this sketch didn’t really work. No big loss that this is cut from reruns. The aforementioned Bomb Messages dress rehearsal sketch that replaces this is a lot better.
STARS: **


SOUNDSTAGE
(host) only contributes handclaps in lopsided folk duo

— Jan’s getting some good laughs with her soft-spoken delivery, which is a dead-on imitation of the type of people who host shows like this.
— Clapping being the only thing Bacon contributes to the songs sung by Nealon is pretty funny.
— A little strange, by the way, how there’s been two sketches tonight centered around clapping.
— I really liked the part with a sample played from Bacon’s solo album, which just consists of clapping with no music whatsoever.
— Funny part with Bacon very briefly demonstrating the music he learned in other countries.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Suicide Blonde”


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
insecure Stuart Smalley (ALF) teaches self-acceptance

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring sketch debut!
— These past three episodes alone, we’ve gotten the debuts of Super Fans, Deep Thoughts, Richmeister, Coffee Talk, and Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley. That’s amazing, and really shows the new direction the show has slowly been taking this season.
— Very interesting use of Al Franken, who doesn’t usually go this deep into character when appearing in sketches during the late 80s/early 90s years.
— Stuart Smalley: “And that’s……. okay.”
— I like Stuart panickedly blanking when trying to come up with a topic on the spot.
— Solid debut overall, and right off the bat, Al Franken has a good handle on this fully-realized character.
STARS: ***½


CLEANING MY RIFLE
a Desert Storm soldier (host) sings “Cleaning My Rifle & Dreaming Of You”

— Bacon’s doing a good imitation of this type of cracking-voiced country singing.
— Clever subtle euphemism with Bacon’s constant mentions of “cleaning my rifle”.
— A nice way to end the show.
— What’s even funnier than this sketch is the number of people who completely miss the masturbation euphemism of the song and think it was supposed to be a serious patriotic number.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode with minimal lowlights and some memorable pieces. I also like how heavily centered around the Gulf War this episode was, which in retrospect serves as a nice time capsule to future viewers like me.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Roseanne Barr

Posted on

January 19, 1991 – Sting (S16 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- opinions on the best & worst of Gulf War TV coverage

 

— The topical concept is a nice change of pace for Wayne’s World, and is a great way for SNL to address the recently-started Gulf War right out of the gate tonight.
— This is also the first time Wayne’s World has ever been used as a cold opening, which would soon go on to be a regular thing.
— Lots of great lines during Wayne and Garth’s rundown of the best and worst of Gulf War news coverage. Some of my favorites are them pointing out how fake Wolf Blitzer’s name sounds and equating it to if somebody was named “Howitzer Explosion Guy”, and Wayne’s definition of “scud” being a girl who looks good from a distance but looks bad up close.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
musical guest performs “All This Time”

— I liked Sting’s story about the irony of him turning down previously-offered hosting gigs earlier this season because they were during weeks of distracting events, and then the week he DID choose in advance ends up being the same week the Gulf War broke out.
— He segues into a full-fledged musical performance on the musical guest stage.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


HEDLEY AND WYCHE
British people love brushing with sugary Hedley & Wyche toothpaste

— Love the visual of the British citizens’ bad teeth while they’re touting the British toothpaste.
— Funny reveal that the toothpaste has sugar.
— Farley steals the commercial during the cutaway to him happily stating “And it tastes great on a cracker.”
STARS: ****


ELEVATOR
during a long elevator ride, fans (KEN) & (DAC) sing host’s songs to him

— Some good initial laughs from the awkward realism of Kevin and Sting’s conversation while Kevin’s praising Sting as a singer.
— Priceless turn with Kevin slowly breaking out into a high-pitched rendition of “Roxanne”, much to Sting’s discomfort.
— Dana as a second elevator occupant eventually starting a high-pitched singing of “If You Love Somebody” is equally hilarious.
— Haha, this has now become classic with Dana and Kevin dueting, driving Sting crazy.
— I like the pre-taped shot of an out-of-breath Sting walking up a long flight of stairs.
STARS: *****


THE SINATRA GROUP
Sinead O’Connor (JAH) & others discuss issues

— A great and creative idea for a McLaughlin Group parody.
— Sinatra casually addressing Sinead O’Connor as “Sinbad O’Connor” had me HOWLING.
— Love how fast-paced the humor in this is. We’re only a minute into this sketch so far, and it has ALREADY been full of laughs.
— I love Rock’s Luther Campbell declaring “I don’t have any talent!”, while Sinatra absurdly claims Campbell has a Ben Vereen/Dionne Warwick quality.
— Great cutaway to Sinatra sarcastically miming tearful violin-playing during Sinead’s rant about starvation in the world.
— Sinatra: “Forget the head. Put a bag over it and do your business!”
— IIRC, when a clip from the “Milli Vanilli: what is this f**got crap?” portion of this sketch was shown in the “SNL in the 90s” documentary (if not that, then it was some other SNL documentary), they bleeped out Phil’s utterance of the f-word slur and blurred it out of the text displayed on the bottom of the screen.
— Sting is great as Billy Idol.
— As much as Sinatra’s “Sinbad O’Connor” utterance had me dying with laughter earlier, him calling Sinead “Uncle Fester” just now is even funnier.
— Sinatra to Billy Idol: “I got chunks of guys like you in my STOOL!”
— Overall, an undisputed classic and one of the greatest of all time. There was hardly a moment during this masterpiece where I wasn’t laughing.
STARS: *****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on figuring out why clowns seem frightening

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring segment debut! And I could not be any more excited to finally arrive at the coming of this segment. Deep Thoughts has always been a HUGE favorite of mine.
— Hilarious bizarre punchline to this one. I can’t think of a better way for Deep Thoughts to have debuted. A quintessential display of Jack Handey’s brilliantly off-kilter humor.
— I wonder what it was like at the time watching this inaugural Deep Thoughts edition when this episode originally aired, as SNL had never really done anything like this before.


COPY MACHINE
Richard Laymer (ROS) bombards his co-workers with elaborate nicknames

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have ANOTHER major recurring segment debut! Two in a row tonight!
— Kevin’s uptight delivery of “The name is Randy!” when Richmeister gets his name wrong always makes me laugh whenever I see this installment.
— This Richmeister routine is a good spoof of “that guy” who’s commonly found in real-life settings like this.
— I liked Phil’s sour face immediately after playing along with Richmeister and imitating his routine for a second.
— In retrospect, it’s weird how this inaugural installment is literally just Richmeister spouting off endless nicknames for his co-workers, with no real plot twist or conflict. This was probably hilarious at the time it debuted, but comparing it to the character’s subsequent appearances where things actually happen, this one feels empty and unmemorable. I can still laugh, though, when looking at it in the original context it was intended to be looked at in.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the definition of cowardice


WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF reports on the Gulf War from Baghdad
DAS gives his thoughts on what’s in & what’s out
DEM demonstrates the mating habits of the dancing Coke can

— As expected, tons of Gulf War jokes tonight.
— Excellent topical setting for One-Man Mobile Uplink Unit Al Franken. Speaking of which, this ends up being the final appearance this recurring piece makes during Al’s years as a writer.
— Great ending with Al casually detailing the path of a homing missile, until he realizes it’s headed right towards him and he lets out a horrified “OH MY GO–” before an explosion cuts off the satellite feed.
— I love this idea of David Spade’s commentary, with him doing a “what’s in and out in 1991” segment.
— David, after praising the Gulf War American troops and bashing Saddam Hussein: “In: sucking up to popular opinion for applause. Out: integrity.”
— David: “In: people who recognize me from this show, even though I’ve only been on twice. Out: people who think I’m Dana Carvey.” Supposedly, that’s based on truth, as viewers really DID frequently mistake David for Dana Carvey early on in his rookie days on SNL, due to the fact that both he and Dana look similar from a distance.
— David: “In: radar. Out: palindromes.”
— A fantastic commentary from David overall. I loved the format, he came off very engaging and relaxed for a newbie, and he had one great line after another. Unlike the dolls commentary he did on Update earlier this season, THIS commentary is more of an accurate glimpse into the type of Update commentaries he’d regularly do later on.
— Great segment with Dennis demonstrating the mating habits of the dancing Coke can. The ending is especially funny, with a can opening sound effect being played when the can climaxes.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Mad About You”


DR. FRANKENSTEIN
Dr. Frankenstein (host) tries to expand his monster’s verbal skills

 

— Interesting use of Phil’s Frankenstein.
— Dana’s making me laugh as Igor.
— Some good laughs from Frankenstein’s various reactions to the baby bunny story.
— This sketch is a little too slow moving for my likes.
— Classic part with Frankenstein’s successful uttering of words while sipping from a tea cup in a dignified manner.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on telling kids where rain comes from


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Paul Baldwin (MIM) takes calls about dogs & daughters

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a third major recurring segment debut tonight!
— The opening Coffee Talk theme music is different from the one we’re now used to hearing, but that’s nothing compared to the most glaring difference: Mike Myers is playing someone other than Linda Richman!
— This Paul Baldwin character isn’t much different from the later Linda Richman character, except Mike is playing him in a more low-key manner and is using a deeper version of the voice he’d later use for Richman.
— I got a laugh from the caller saying we should saw off Saddam Hussein’s privates with a circular saw.
— The big “joke” throughout this sketch just seems to be Paul Baldwin and all the New York-accented callers saying an excessive amount of words that have an “aw” sound. As a heavily-accented New Yorker myself, I can relate, but that doesn’t make this sketch funny.
— They must use the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns, because in the live version I’m currently watching, the Boston-accented caller (voiced by writer Conan O’Brien) introduces himself as Arnold Barr, whereas the rerun version has him named Paul Sean.
— Overall, meh. As much as I’m not a fan of the future Linda Richman-hosted installments of Coffee Talk (as you’ll see when we reach that point in SNL’s run), at least those sketches have actual things going on, instead of just New York-accented characters uttering words with “aw” in them for four minutes. It’s similar to how the inaugural Richmeister sketch earlier tonight feels empty compared to subsequent installments where actual things happen instead of just Richmeister spouting off nicknames for four minutes.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the contents of a big shark’s stomach


FIRST IMPRESSION
flashbacks show the first time (VIJ) met husband’s (host) parents

— This sketch would later be replaced in reruns with an autobiographical Jack Handey film about his teenage obsession with a hammer. Between that and the huge amount of Deep Thoughts scattered throughout the night, the rerun version of this episode is absolutely DOMINATED by Jack Handey.
— Boy, this is one weird sketch, but I sure am enjoying it.
— Some good laughs from Victoria randomly embarrassing herself in outlandish ways, such as wearing an upside-down plate of mashed potatoes on her head.
— I like how each time they cut back to Victoria and Sting in the present-day scene, one of them has been replaced by an ugly-looking dummy mouthing the actor’s pre-recorded dialogue. This is a tongue-in-cheek meta joke about how Victoria and Sting don’t have enough time to rush back-and-forth from the flashback set to the present-day set, so SNL has to resort to using dummies in the present-day scenes. There are also some other funny little meta touches, like the “blooper” with Phil “mistakenly” starting to walk off the set too early when the screen was still doing a ripple effect transition into the present-day scene.
— Yeah, this is DEFINITELY one of the strangest sketches SNL has ever done. It actually has almost a creepy undertone to it, which is only adding to my enjoyment. Even the aforementioned screen ripple effect transition is bizarre-looking, unlike the generic wavy screen transition SNL typically uses for flashbacks in sketches.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Purple Haze”


POET
Ernie Hitchens suggests (host)’s bleak poetry could be brighter

— Love Phil’s performance as the British emcee.
— Sting’s delivery of his tragic poem is very good.
— The return of Mike’s Ernie Hitchens character from the Talking Through Touch sketch in the Dennis Quaid episode.
— Speaking of Mike, he has been getting TONS of airtime tonight. Most of the rest of the cast, on the other hand, have barely appeared in anything tonight.
— The turn this sketch has taken with Ernie Hitchens and Sting’s conversation hasn’t been doing much for me.
— Fairly weak ending with Sting telling Hitchens many variations of “get lost”.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very memorable first half of the night, which had lots of strong and well-regarded pieces. Unfortunately, the quality trailed off in the post-Update half, aside from the insanely bizarre First Impression sketch. However, this is a very important episode, as it featured the debuts of several things that would go on to help define the early 90s era of SNL: Deep Thoughts, Richmeister, and Coffee Talk.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Joe Mantegna)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kevin Bacon