Tag: 1991-92

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May 16, 1992 – Woody Harrelson / Vanessa Williams (S17 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The Tonight Show- late walk-ons ruin Johnny Carson’s (DAC) last show

 

— Phil as a drunk Ed McMahon is hilarious.
— I absolutely love the taped farewell messages from other talk show hosts, with Kevin as Jay Leno rambling about how Carson’s retirement is great for him (Kevin’s voice constantly changing pitches throughout that speech kills me), Rock-as-Arsenio-Hall’s deep, intense philosophizing as the camera slowly zooms into his mouth, and Dana reprising his impression of his former castmate Dennis Miller, ranting about how badly his talk show is doing.
— Adam’s David Brenner impression is cracking me up.
— I like the insane turn this has taken during Carson’s final minute on the air, with a tiger cub going wild and peeing all over the place while attacking David Brenner, before being wrestled by drunk McMahon.
— According to GettyImages, Victoria (who’s final night on the show is tonight) was cut after the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, playing herself performing a ukulele song (pic here). Farley was also cut playing who appears to be Marlon Brando (judging by what it says on whatever that thing is he’s holding in his left hand in this pic) (another pic here).
STARS: ****½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The only second-category featured players (i.e. the featured players who only receive a still photo in the opening montage and are only credited occasionally) who are credited tonight are Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell, but reruns of this episode would add in Robert Smigel, presumably because he appears in a Super Fans bit later tonight.
— A very minor note, but it’s something I’ve always found strange: around the middle of this episode’s theme music, G.E. Smith’s plentiful guitar-playing suddenly stops for a long time before eventually continuing towards the end. I wonder what happened there.


MONOLOGUE
after denying ego problems, host plays guitar & sings a song about SNL

— A rare occurrence of G.E. Smith being heard speaking on camera, when handing a guitar to Woody.
— Some good laughs from Woody’s constant stopping before singing, to assure us of how his fame doesn’t affect him.
— His SNL tribute song is funny with its lyrics that’s repeating everything he just said about SNL before launching into the song.
STARS: ***½


ACTION CATS
— Rerun from the Mary Stuart Masterson episode.


TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF
(host) encourages grotesque-bodied beachgoers to take off their shirts

— I like how the body reveals are starting off conventional with Woody’s body, then gets just slightly odd with Farley being Farley, and then is getting flat-out grotesque starting with Kevin’s insanely hairy body.
— Adam’s phallic outie belly button is an absolute riot, as is Tim’s snarky one-liner as a passerby: “Can I put a bun and mustard on that thing? I’m gettin’ kinda hungry.”
— Woody’s encouragement to each guy after they take their shirt off is making me laugh, like him asking hairy Kevin “Did Burt Reynolds just ask me a question?” (though that line was kinda drowned out by audience laughter).
— Farley’s spastic gesturing while playing catch football with Kevin causes Woody to break.
— Considering Dana’s real-life infamous botched heart surgery from the late 90s, his character in this sketch having had heart surgery is eerily prophetic. That being said, I love the particularly disgusting visual of his transplanted baboon heart being outside of his chest.
— Another great snarky one-liner from a passerby, this time with Siobhan asking a feminine breasts-having Mike “Didn’t I see you on the cover of Juggs Magazine?”
STARS: ****½


SPROCKETS
(host)’s EuroTrash theme park is a rebuttal to EuroDisney

— They did a Sprockets sketch last time Woody hosted SNL, but his character in tonight’s Sprockets is different from the one he played last time. For some reason, I kinda love the name of the character he’s playing tonight: Graus Grek (which was used in an earlier Sprockets sketch as a name that Dieter mentioned in passing).
— I like Woody’s bizarre wig.
— The pictures that Woody’s displaying of his EuroDisney alternative, EuroTrash, have some funny pictures, especially the Diseased Bear Jamboree.
— I love the part with Dieter going on about what a Fred Flintstone fanatic he is.
— This ends up being the final Sprockets sketch in its normal (if it can be called that) format during Mike’s tenure as a cast member. All future Dieter appearances during Mike’s cast tenure are outside of the typical Sprockets format.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on having “impressions” during a math test


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Save The Best For Last”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Super Fans offer tips to Knicks fans on what to do after the Bulls win
Operaman sings about Ross Perot, L.A. riots, Mark Messier, Johnny Carson

 

— Very interesting seeing the Super Fans appear on Update for a change. However, it appears George Wendt was too busy this week to cameo (which is funny since his Cheers co-star is hosting tonight). Feels odd seeing the Super Fans without a “lead character” like Wendt or Joe Mantegna.
— I loved Smigel’s disparaging comment on what a Knick is: “It’s what a New York man gets when he shaves his leg before going into a Greenwich Village bar.”
— Operaman officially becomes recurring, only two episodes after making his debut.
— Fantastic biting satire with Operaman singing about President Bush sleeping during the L.A. Riots.
— Another great part during the Operaman commentary, with him lamenting “El chin-o” (Jay Leno) replacing an about-to-retire Johnny Carson. I like that SNL’s not afraid to take shots at Leno tonight after he had just cameod on the show a week earlier.
STARS: ***


DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg don’t want to give their notes to Sigma Chi frat brothers

— Here comes what ends up being the final installment of this sketch (though Melanie’s character would end up making a “cameo” in the very first Gap Girls sketch next season).
— Boy, am I glad I’ll never have to hear that annoying-as-hell catchphrase “Delta Delta Delta, can I help ya help ya help ya?” anymore after this episode.
— David’s constant sotto-voced attempts to persuade Beth are kinda funny.
— I found this overall installment to be really meh and mostly unnoteworthy. A step down from the surprisingly semi-tolerable preceding installment from the Mary Stuart Masterson episode.
STARS: **


COWBOY SONG
lonesome cowboys sing about how they’re proud they’re not minorities

— Another recurring sketch making its final appearance tonight. This sketch debuted the last time Woody hosted.
— I’m getting a lot of “That is SO wrong” laughs from the cowboys’ bigoted lyrics about minorities and “girl-boys with big ol’ girl vaginas”.
STARS: ****


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida confuses host’s Cheers & White Men Can’t Jump roles with reality

— (*groan*) This character again…
— Ugh, this routine with her confusing hosts’ fictional characters with real life is BEYOND tired by this point.
— An overall particularly tepid, by-the-numbers Zoraida installment. No redeeming factors at all here.
— While I was never all that crazy about this character’s routine to begin with in her debut in the season premiere, it’s amazing how quickly they milked it dry over the course of just one season.
STARS: *


FRANK GANNON, P.I. P.I.
politically incorrect P.I. looks into abortion clinic vandalism

 

— Good to see this character officially become recurring, though we end up never seeing him again after this episode.
— Frank Gannon assuming the “Baby Killers” graffiti was the abortion clinic’s real sign was hilarious.
— Lots of funny offensive, bigoted (I seem to be using that word quite a lot tonight) assumptions from Gannon throughout this, especially his theory that young black men from the L.A. Riots looted the abortion clinic and stole the files so they can know the names and addresses of all the loose women in the neighborhood.
— I like the addition of Woody as Gannon’s rookie assistant, Rudy.
— The close-up of Gannon’s dopey, cocky grin into the camera as Ellen is getting arrested is great (second-to-last screencap above).
— It’s Victoria’s final episode as a cast member, and she’s JUST NOW making her first appearance, in the last 20 minutes of the episode.
— I love Victoria’s tearful “You’re an idiot!” to Gannon at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Comfort Zone”


THE SENSITIVE NAKED MAN
The Sensitive Naked Man attends a baseball game with his son

— Much like Frank Gannon, this character makes his second and last-ever appearance. Seems to be a lot of characters unknowingly taking their final bow tonight (Delta Delta Delta, Singing Cowboys, Frank Gannon, Sensitive Naked Man, Sprockets sorta… too bad Zoraida’s not one of them).
— I got a laugh from Rob thinking he’s ridiculed by his son’s friends just because he’s a social worker.
— An overall surprisingly forgettable installment of this sketch. The ending especially came off weak, and the sorta-reveal of Rob’s bare behind fell flat. This overall installment doesn’t hold a candle to the far-superior installment from earlier this season.
STARS: **½


BAD EXPECTANT MOTHER
(VIJ) unwittingly sets examples of what expectant mothers shouldn’t do

— Much like Jan Hooks in the preceding season’s finale, I’m glad they gave Victoria the 10-to-1 spot in this season finale even if I’m not 100% sure if they knew at the time that she’s leaving (though the fact that she gets to stand at the front of the stage during the following goodnights suggests they possibly were indeed aware).
— I liked Woody’s line about it being safe for Victoria to drink Irish coffee because “the alcohol and caffeine will probably just cancel each other out”.
— A lot of big laughs from Victoria doing a succession of actions that pregnant women should never do, such as sniffing glue, putting her belly in the microwave when trying to fix it, etc.
— A great cutaway to a pre-taped Jon Lovitz revealing that the sketch was based on his mother when she was pregnant with him, and then plugging his upcoming FOX special.
— An overall strong note for Victoria to go out on. One of her best sketches ever.
— In reruns, SNL moves this sketch up to a much earlier timeslot in the first half of the show. I can kinda see why, but I like this better in the 10-to-1 slot, as this is Victoria’s last show, and it’s also a solid way to close the season. (Reruns place the underwhelming Sensitive Naked Man sketch in the 10-to-1 slot, which is a pretty poor way to close the season)
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid season finale, even if it doesn’t measure up to the two fantastic episodes that preceded it. Despite tonight’s episode being weighed down by a few recurring characters I dislike (Delta Delta Delta and Zoraida), there was still plenty of good material in the show. We also got a surprisingly large amount of delightfully offensive, un-PC material in the post-Update half, such as Cowboy Song, Frank Gannon P.I. P.I., and Bad Expectant Mother.

— Tonight ended up being the final episode for veteran Victoria Jackson and first-year newbies Siobhan Fallon and Beth Cahill. Victoria’s tenure ended with a very forgettable final year for her, as she was gradually phased out (hell, as mentioned earlier in this review, she didn’t even appear in her final episode until the last 20 minutes) and did very little of note in the second half of the season. Overall, though, I feel Victoria’s SNL tenure as a whole was pretty good. While she was very limited in her range and does not measure up to the fantastic work of most of her original late 80s castmates, I appreciate what she brought to the show, especially on Weekend Update during the Dennis Miller era. And she had a likability about her that made her lack of range more forgivable. Siobhan Fallon and Beth Cahill are both interesting cases, given their short time on the show. I feel Siobhan showed a lot of potential in her somewhat-limited airtime and also had a professionalism that I liked. However, she did sometimes have a tendency to kinda overact in her delivery during some walk-on roles. I feel that overall, she definitely deserved a second season, but supposedly, the reason she was dropped was because her strong religious beliefs caused her to turn down the more “un-clean” roles she was offered on the show (I was told that the “Their Eyes Were On Their Breasts” sketch was one of them), which apparently was frustrating for the writers. Beth Cahill is difficult to assess, given her extreme lack of airtime and generic roles she was usually stuck in. I did find her Denise Swerski character to be decent, but other than that, I’ve always felt Beth usually had kind of a blandness to her as a performer. But again, it’s hard to tell, considering how little she was used and how non-descript her roles typically were. She deserved a second season just to see if she would’ve gotten more of a chance and developed, but that probably wouldn’t have happened much in season 18, with a still-gigantic cast and a slowly-increasing Boys Club mentality. I could go on about how unfair it is that the very limited and occasionally very annoying Melanie Hutsell got to stay over either Siobhan or Beth, and I do feel that way, but I’ve been a little more lenient on Melanie in this SNL project than I’ve been in the past (anyone who remembers the standalone 1990-1994 reviews I did on SNL message boards back in 2010 would know that). During this SNL project, I’ve found myself having more recognition of and appreciation for Melanie’s non-annoying moments. I’m not sure how much longer that’ll last, considering I recall her performances being consistently bad two seasons later during her final year (season 19).

— Season 17 as a whole was yet another in a long line of strong seasons. As much as I absolutely love the preceding season 16, I think I enjoyed season 17 slightly more as a whole. I felt this season had even bigger highs than season 16, and had impressive stretches of solid consecutive episodes at various points of the season. And the historically gigantic cast strangely helped give this season a fun feel to me, especially the times the show would go out of their way to work all or most of the cast into sketches (e.g. Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight, Partridge Family vs. Brady Bunch, History Class).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a mild step down


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1990-91)
a very slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 18 begins, with Nicolas Cage as host, and a slightly smaller cast

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May 9, 1992 – Tom Hanks / Bruce Springsteen (S17 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ross Perot (DAC) offers to base his presidential salary on America’s GNP

— The debut of Dana’s memorable Ross Perot impression.
— Right off the bat, this begins with Dana’s Perot addressing the L.A. Riots, which had occurred the previous week when SNL was in reruns. I can’t help but wonder what it would’ve been like if SNL had a live episode during the weekend the L.A. Riots were still occurring.
— Solid part with Perot displaying a check to pay for damages made during the L.A. Riots.
— Dana’s Perot impression is coming off pretty low-key here compared to his more goofy portrayal in later appearances. This is also the only time he ever plays Perot without glasses.
— Perot, regarding his aforementioned check: “This a one-time deal. If you burn down a buildin’ tomorrow, that’s your problem.”
— Very funny line about training the Crips and the Bloods to operate computers, as part of Perot’s plan to rebuild L.A..
— A lot of laughs during his proposal on how much we pay him proportionate to the percentage of growth in the economy during his hypothetical presidency.
— Great part with him reading off an ad for Munsingwear underwear, as part of a deal for the airtime he was given.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
last-minute replacement for Joe Pesci host asks PHH “How am I funny?”

— Tom mentions Joe Pesci was the originally-scheduled host for this episode but had to drop out due to the filming of his latest movie running late. Pesci would later end up making up for this by hosting early next season.
— Good bit with Tom’s over-the-top bragging about Pesci’s great year.
— Much like Tom’s season 14 monologue, this has a false ending where the screen fades to black but then suddenly continues with Tom being shown entering backstage when the show is supposedly in a commercial break.
— Tom’s great at doing Pesci’s famous “What do you mean I’m funny?” GoodFellas rant, especially when he gets really worked up by the end of it.
— Priceless visual of Tom smashing a bottle over Lorne’s head and then roughhousing him while heading towards the home base stage. I also love Tom’s hilarious angry gibberish during that (at one point noticeably saying “Bada bing, bada boom!”).
STARS: ****


JOHN CABRIZIO CHEVROLET MAZDA HYUNDAI
Los Angeles car dealer rep (ROS) announces sale on riot-damaged autos

— More good comedy tonight at the expense of the L.A. Riots.
— Solid spokesman performance from Rob, and some good laughs from him proudly advertising destroyed cars from the L.A. Riots. I like how the condition of each advertised car is getting increasingly worse as the sketch goes on, such as a still-burning Chevy Pickup.
STARS: ***½


SABRA PRICE IS RIGHT
merchants of shoddy wares haggle with contestants

— Oh, here comes a classic sketch that has HUGE historical significance to me as an SNL fan. I want to go into details about that, but since it’s a long story, I’ll save it for the end of this sketch.
— This sketch is improving upon the lesser-known original Sabra Shopping Network sketch from Tom’s last episode.
— A good laugh from Tom’s iffy, speechless reaction to a black contestant (Rock) entering the game.
— I love the cheap products being falsely advertised, such as a TV antenna being passed off as a satellite dish, and a “cordless telephone” that’s simply a home phone with its cord unhooked.
— The whole back-and-forth between Tom and Mike kills me, especially Tom’s endless “Nonono nonononononono” and Mike’s “It’s not even a CD player; it’s a child’s bank!”
— “Deesco, deesco, good, good!”
— I’m not sure, but I think portions of this sketch are replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. Some parts of the live version I’m currently watching don’t quite match the version of this sketch that’s been deeply ingrained into my memory since my teenage years (you’ll find out why it’s been so deeply ingrained into my teenage memory in a moment).
— An overall priceless, perfect, and very memorable sketch.
— Okay, now for the story of why this sketch has HUGE historical significance to me as an SNL fan: Back when I was just starting to get into SNL, which was during my teenage years, I was first exposed to this episode in a rerun during a Friday night SNL marathon on Comedy Central. As I watched this particular sketch, I was absolutely enthralled by it, as I found it SO funny and quotable. Thankfully, I happened to be recording this Comedy Central airing on my VCR, and so, some days later, I replayed this sketch on my VHS tape while recording the entirety of its audio onto a cassette tape, which also contained three other select sketches that teenage me loved, so I could listen to all four of those sketches on my walkman while either drifting off to sleep or if I was at a place that didn’t have a TV (for those curious, the other three sketches I had recorded on that audio cassette tape was 1) one from next season’s Kevin Kline episode where Kline plays an Italian celebrity with an uncontrollable farting problem, 2) Jennifer Aniston’s Fight Club monologue from her then-recent season 25 episode, and 3) another sketch from that same Aniston episode, where she and Rachel Dratch play old-timey street urchins trying to get a modern-day family to take them in for Christmas). Boy, did I end up playing the hell out of that audio tape. I loved listening to all four of those sketches over and over, but especially Sabra Price is Right. I listened to that particular sketch on that tape SO much to the degree that, ever since then, I have the ability to recite almost all of the dialogue of the sketch by heart, word-for-word. All-in-all, teenage me’s constant listening to this sketch on that cassette tape has been partly responsible for me becoming an obsessive, hardcore SNL fan.
STARS: *****


MR. BELVEDERE FAN CLUB
weirdos speak at a meeting of The Guy Who Plays Mr. Belvedere Fan Club

 

— Boy, the hits keep on comin’ tonight. Here’s another personal favorite sketch of mine, even if it doesn’t have quite the historical significance to me personally that Sabra Price Is Right has.
— I love the detail of how, despite these people being huge Mr. Belvedere fans, they apparently don’t even know the name of the actor who played him, judging by how they named their club “The Guy Who Plays Mr. Belvedere Fan Club”.
— I like the club members proposing nicknames for Mr. Belvedere, culminating in them settling on the now-legendary-among-SNL-fans moniker Brocktoon.
— Great disturbed facial reaction from Tim during Farley’s long-winded declaration of his admiration for Mr. Belvedere.
— Farley at the end of his above-mentioned declaration about Mr. Belvedere: “I’m wondering… should we kill him?”
— The increasingly disturbing turns this meeting keeps taking are fantastic.
— Adam: “I should like watching Mr. Belvedere a lot, but I shouldn’t have to masturbate at the end of every episode.”
— There’s my absolute favorite part of this wonderful sketch: the entire “to tear the flesh” spiel delivered by a particularly creepy Phil. Tom’s taken-aback speechless reaction to that is also great.
— Excellent ending with Tim’s whole “You people are crazy!” rant being immediately followed by a cutaway to him locked in the giant jar that was mentioned earlier in the sketch.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lucky Town”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jay Leno [real] gives KEN the latest news on the L.A. riots
DAS uses a personal anecdote to explain why he prefers Mother’s Day
Queen Shenequa talks about the L.A. riots; Akeyla Cleghorne cameo

 

— Lots of good L.A. Riots-related jokes right off the bat… that is, when they’re not being bungled by Kevin’s stumbly delivery.
— Random appearance from Jay Leno, playing himself as an L.A. Riots correspondent.
— I liked Leno’s line about how he considers the sight of a black man and white man stealing a TV together as a sign of unity.
— A short overall commentary from Leno that was basically an excuse for him to do some stand-up jokes about the L.A. Riots.
— After Leno has left, Kevin says “We wish Jay good luck with The Tonight Show”, as this is shortly before Johnny Carson’s retirement and Leno taking over for him.
— David Spade FINALLY gets an Update commentary on the air, after getting a string of them cut from the last few episodes’ dress rehearsals.
— David tells a childhood story about his father giving him a Nerf football, which David responds to with a funny sarcastic “Ooh, it’s two colors. You spoil me, ya bastard.” I’m not 100% sure, but I think he later reprises that exact same bit during an edition of Spade in America from season 21, where he re-enacts a conversation he recently had with his dad when reuniting with him for Thanksgiving (one of my favorite editions of Spade in America).
— Some pretty solid humor from David here, especially him telling us how, after breaking the news to his mom that he can’t be there at Arizona for Mother’s Day because he’s busy working at SNL, his mom responded to him “Can’t you get someone else to stand there and wave goodnight?” A great self-deprecating dig at David’s extreme lack of airtime on SNL.
— Another Queen Shenequa commentary already, after we just saw her two episodes ago?
— Some fairly tepid jokes from Queen Shenequa overall tonight, but I enjoyed the Mother’s Day-related ending with her daughter, especially Shenequa explaining to us that her daughter’s Swahili name translates to “Little bitch, don’t even think about gettin’ pregnant”. By the way, this is the very first of many SNL appearances from Ellen’s real-life daughter Akeyla (not counting the goodnights of the Rob Morrow episode from earlier this season, where she can be seen being held high by Ellen).
— Kevin’s Mother’s Day poll on the most often-used phrases by his mother when he was growing up had a funny ending (second-to-last screencap above).
STARS: ***


SHE TURNED INTO HER MOTHER!!
(JUS) takes on the traits of her mom

— Very funny performance from Julia, who’s doing a great job pulling off her character’s uncontrollable back-and-forth transitioning from her normal voice into her mother’s voice. Tom is also a perfect straight man for this.
— I like the horror movie presentation of this whole thing.
— Solid ending.
— Overall, one of the best showcases that the underappreciated Julia Sweeney receives during her entire SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “57 Channels” & “Living Proof”


THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
Nat X argues with disguised Rodney King trial jurors

— Nat’s line “I wanna say hello to all my fans watchin’ on brand-new TVs!” was yet another funny joke tonight at the expense of the L.A. Riots.
— Nice topical variation of the usual White Man Cam segment, with it now being the L.A.P.D. Cam.
— I like how Nat’s guests tonight are the Rodney King jury. Some good laughs from them all entering with goofy disguises, such as David in a Cousin Itt wig and Julia with a Batman mask.
— Nat’s angry questions to the jury has some pretty solid laughs.
— I love the casual cutaway to Phil with a brown paper bag over his head that has the words “PLEASE DON’T KILL ME” on it.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on hoping that God likes enchiladas
— This is missing from my copy of this episode.


SHOWCASE PLAYHOUSE THEATER
(MIM) & (JUS) grow up wanting to fly

— You can immediately tell this sketch is a Jack Handey piece by the use of the character name Cameron Hormel, which is to Jack Handey-written sketches what the name Dale Butterworth is to Andy Breckman-written sketches, though to a much lesser extent in Handey’s case, as I can only think of one other sketch of his that uses the name Cameron Hormel (Tales Of Fraud And Malfeasance In Railroad Hiring Practices, from season 20’s George Clooney episode).
— A big laugh from Phil’s promo for the sponsor Nice Ass Baby pantyhose (Jack Handey knocks it out of the park once again with yet another great fake sponsor).
— Julia is getting a lot of good airtime tonight, which feels rare for her this season.
— Some really funny back-and-forth reveals from Phil of the legitimacy of the Nice Ass Baby pantyhose sponsor.
— I’ve always kinda had difficulty figuring out what to make of this sketch, but I can appreciate its weirdness. It’s far from one of my favorite oddball Jack Handey pieces, but all the flying fake-outs during the Mike/Julia scenes are amusing and Phil’s intro segments are solid.
— Pretty funny bit at the end with Phil randomly removing his mustache during his sign-off.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As usual when Tom Hanks hosts in the late 80s/early 90s years, this was a strong episode, even if it’s not my favorite episode he hosted. The first half of tonight’s episode was particularly great, where we got two all-time classic sketches back-to-back: Sabra Price Is Right and Mr. Belvedere Fan Club, one of the greatest one-two punches in SNL history (and coming right after an episode that itself had a fantastic one-two punch in its first half, with Stand Up And Win and History Class). There were also no sketches that I disliked tonight, for the second episode in a row.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jerry Seinfeld)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 17 comes to an end, with host Woody Harrelson. We get the last hurrahs of veteran Victoria Jackson and newbies Siobhan Fallon and Beth Cahill.

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April 18, 1992 – Jerry Seinfeld / Annie Lennox (S17 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill Clinton (PHH) & Jerry Brown (DAC) agree on off-limit debate topics

— Right out of the gate, as soon as this cold opening starts, Victoria stumbles through her only line. SNL would later replace that portion of this cold opening with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Phil and Dana’s Clinton and Brown impressions from the recent Star Trek Convention cold opening are again coming off very funny here.
— A lot of laughs from the many scandalous things Brown and Clinton agree to not bring up about each other during the democratic candidates debate that’s about to start.
— Now this has gotten even funnier with Brown and Clinton confessing to being responsible for infamous disasters, such as crashing the Exxon Valdez and coming up with the idea for the movie Ishtar.
— Clinton: “You wanna swap wives?” Brown: “I’m not married, Bill.” Clinton: “……..Do you have anything you wanna swap?”
— Great ending with Al Franken’s Paul Tsongas.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about airplane issues, crime, cab drivers

— Jerry’s stand-up here is already starting off with big laughs right out of the gate.
— Unsurprisingly, all of the observational humor here is fantastic, and becomes classic once he starts his whole spiel about cab drivers.
STARS: *****


STAND-UP AND WIN
hack comics compete on observational humor game show

— For some reason, I like the name of Jerry’s gameshow host character, Bobby Wheat.
— I’m loving this sketch, with all of the contestants’ Seinfeld-esque voices and observational humor. This is like a spiritual successor to those Stand-Ups sketches from season 11.
— I loved Adam’s delivery of “Somebody went to Super Cuts and fell asleep in the chair!”
— This sketch is endlessly funny. Some of the particularly great parts are the “Why don’t they build the whole plane out of the black box?” bit and all the riffing on Gilligan’s Island.
— Adam: “Who are the ad wizards who came up with this one?”
STARS: *****


HISTORY CLASS
high school history teacher (host) struggles to teach class about WWII

 

— Another example of this season using their gigantic cast to their advantage. This sketch is a great use of the huge group of newer cast members from these last two seasons. It feels like all of them are in this, but there are actually still some missing (Julia, Tim, and Rob, off the top of my head), which I guess goes to show you just how enormous the newer cast is.
— I like Melanie pointing out to Jerry that “I thought you said we didn’t have to know dates.”
— For the first time in two months, David Spade actually gets more than one line in a sketch.
— Excellent part with the students beginning to slowly and sheepishly raise their hand in unison when being asked “Is this Europe?”, only to immediately raise their hand all the way up after being told they’re correct (last two screencaps above).
— I love Adam always claiming he was going to say the correct answer every time someone else has already gotten it correct.
— So many funny things throughout this. Much like the two segments that preceded this (the monologue and Stand-Up And Win), there’s an endless amount of laughs here. A lot of humor here from the students’ responses and Jerry’s calm-but-slowly-growing frustration.
— Great ending with a given-up Jerry taking one of the students up on their offer to bring in a copy of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Why”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Operaman (ADS) sings about John Gotti, Donald & Ivana Trump, others
KEN conducts a test of the Emergency Broadcast System by himself

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut (Operaman)!
— Adam’s been having a big night so far, which is rare for him at this early stage in his SNL tenure.
— For some reason, the first few Operaman news stories here, while funny, aren’t getting ANY responses from the audience. That, combined with how Adam is immediately moving on from one story to the next, oddly gives this more of an authentic opera feel that I’m kinda liking. I guess the audience’s lack of response shows they don’t know what to make of this new character yet, which feels odd in hindsight when you’re aware of what a huge crowd-pleaser this character would later go on to become.
— Operaman’s “sotto voce” part regarding Bill Clinton is hilarious and has finally won the audience over.
— Some more solid bits with Operaman, especially him proudly bidding adieu to a recently-arrested Leona Helmsley.
— Unlike future Operaman appearances, he doesn’t get a whole bunch of roses thrown at him from off-camera at the end of tonight’s commentary. Kevin simply gives him a standing ovation (which results in a blooper where Kevin’s clip-on mic accidentally falls off and he takes an extended amount of time reapplying it to his tie).
— Kevin’s random Emergency Broadcast Test bit where he poorly makes the long beep sound with his own voice is very good.
— Surprise, surprise – according to GettyImages, the perpetually neglected David Spade had YET ANOTHER Update commentary cut after dress rehearsal (pic here). Heh, at this point, it’s almost starting to become a joke to see how they kept cutting the poor guy’s Update commentaries on an almost weekly basis this season.
— Also according to GettyImages, Beth Cahill had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here), where she did a reprise of her Denise Swerski commentary from a few episodes ago. Recently, there was a mention in the comments section of my blog that Beth revealed in an interview that SNL writers suggested she make her Denise Swerski Update commentary into a recurring bit, but she declined. I guess Beth’s memory was a little faulty during that interview, because it looks like she did attempt to make the Swerski Update bit recurring.
STARS: ***½


PASSOVER SEDER
obnoxious Elijah the Prophet (host) shows up at a Passover Seder

— Some pretty funny tension between the family at the beginning.
— Mike’s old Jewish male voice is the exact same as his Linda Richman voice, right down to the feminine lispiness when pronouncing the ‘s’ in his words, which comes off out of place for this heterosexual male character.
— Hilarious concept with an obnoxious Elijah the Prophet randomly crashing a family’s Passover Seder.
— A big laugh from Elijah letting Mike’s old man character know a secret: “September 24, in your sleep!”
— Jerry is fantastic in this role and his Borscht Belt comedian-esque one-liners are all hilarious.
— Perfect ending with Phil entering as a casual, laid-back Jesus.
STARS: ****½


LANK THOMPSON: I’M A HANDSOME BLACK MAN
TIM is a product of Lank Thompson’s “I’m A Handsome Black Man” course

— I like how Lank Thompson is making callbacks to his previous sketches, including the memorable “I’m A Handsome Actor” one with Alec Baldwin.
— A great rare showcase for the usually-invisible Tim Meadows, and I like the decision to let him play himself here.
— Much like the Coldcock commercial from earlier this season, Tim works in a smooth delivery of “Faaaan-tas-tic”, which is a precursor to a catchphrase of his in the recurring Perspectives sketches from later in his tenure.
— Rock’s mock-cheesy delivery of “That’s a handsome black man!” was great.
— Fun scenes with Tim demonstrating all of Lank Thompson’s handsome black man tips.
— Some good laughs from Phil as a mestizo Indian audience member asking a question at the end.
STARS: ****


PERMANENT POSITIONS
office workers maintain their body postures while performing their jobs

— I absolutely love the format of this sketch. This season has been really good at doing this type of unique format sketch where characters perform their actions or dialogue in the same out-of-the-ordinary manner as each other (e.g. the Teenage Insults sketch from the Rob Morrow episode, the Money For Booze sketch from the Mary Stuart Masterson episode), which is a type of sketch I’m always a sucker for.
— It’s fun seeing how the frozen body posture that each character enters with pertains to their place in the office.
— Great part with a passing-by Mike asking for the bathroom while being in a frozen crouching-down posture with a newspaper in his hand.
— Excellent ending with Phil who, unlike everyone else, walks into the office with a normal upright posture, but then, while reading a report, stiffly falls back onto a couch without changing his normal upright posture. A difficult action that Phil pulled off seamlessly.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Legend in My Living Room”


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on hoping that nude operas exist {rerun}
— Rerun from the preceding season’s Steven Seagal episode


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski plugs Bullet Hole Tampons & delivers a mother joke

— As usual in these sketches, Rock has a great very wordy intro to Farley’s character.
— A good laugh from tonight’s sponsor being Bullet Hole Tampons.
— Funny little part during the discussion of Silence of the Lambs, where Rock and Farley contemplate how the process of eating people goes.
— Very good part with the prize the “Mother Joke of the Day” winner receives being an O cap that one can use to play Tic-Tac-Toe with your friends who have an X cap (the latter of which was popular among black people at the time, due to the Malcolm X movie that had recently come out).
STARS: ***½


THE LENNY WISE SHOW
(PHH) explores Superman’s (host) faculties & foibles in a radio interview

— This is automatically a fantastic sketch, right from the concept alone. I love the very casual treatment of Superman being a radio show guest. And Jerry is, of course, perfect for the Superman role, and I love his characterization of Superman as an average joe.
— Phil’s questions to Superman are great, made even better by Phil’s spot-on imitation of the delivery that typical radio show hosts use.
— The Scrabble bit was really funny.
— I like the phone call from Julia as an irate citizen.
— Great ending with Superman “revealing” his identity to Phil.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

— Among his many thanks, Jerry thanks Superman for making a special appearance.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An absolutely fantastic episode, and has always been one of my personal favorites of this entire era. In fact, after having reviewed the episode just now, I’ve come to realize that it’s actually one of my personal favorite episodes of all-time. It’s not often I hand out so many four or five-star ratings in a single episode review. In fact, aside from Weekend Update and I’m Chillin’ (which were both still pretty solid in their own right), there wasn’t a single segment in this episode that received a rating under four stars; that’s how strong this episode was. Jerry Seinfeld was also a great and very fun host who added to the high quality of this episode. This was also a strong night for the cast, with even some of the typically underused newer cast members getting more chances (Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, even David Spade a little).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sharon Stone)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tom Hanks

Posted on

April 11, 1992 – Sharon Stone / Pearl Jam (S17 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- the annual Best & Worst of the Oscars are announced

— A lot of great comments from Wayne and Garth making fun of Juliette Lewis’ bad cornrow hairstyle from that year’s Oscars.
— Very funny recalling of a famous scene in Silence of the Lambs where a man in a cell flicks his “man goo” (as Wayne puts it) onto Jodie Foster’s face.
— An overall particularly strong installment of Wayne’s World.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host keeps studio on edge by setting up for a Basic Instinct leg cross

— Shortly after this monologue turns into a parody of the famous interrogation room scene from Basic Instinct, things get notorious as angry voices from the audience are suddenly heard VERY loudly chanting “Fight AIDS, not women!” Those angry chanting voices are from a gay activist group who got tickets to be in SNL’s audience as an excuse to protest Sharon Stone’s role in Basic Instinct, due to the movie’s negative portrayal of LGBT characters.
— This protesting/heckling incident is very reminiscent of what infamously occurred during Andrew Dice Clay’s monologue two seasons earlier. To Sharon Stone’s credit, she’s handling the heckling professionally, and is keeping a laid-back demeanor as she tries to go on with her dialogue. She occasionally keeps stopping mid-sentence, though, due to the protesters’ loud voices being too much, which is throwing off her set-up to the main joke of this monologue (which is various people’s comedic reaction shots to what she’s saying).
— Just now, while the protesters are still loudly chanting, another voice in the studio can be heard calling out “Security!” (it sounds like Lorne, who is standing nearby as he waits for the camera to show a comedic reaction shot of him later in the monologue), which is followed by the protesters’ chanting voices fading away as they’re seemingly being taken away by security guards. Reportedly, those protesters were arrested after being escorted out of the studio. I recall hearing that part of the protesters’ intended plan was to eventually march to the home base stage where Sharon Stone was and chant right in front of her. Geez, could you imagine if that happened on live TV during an SNL monologue?
— For obvious reasons, the whole protesters portion of this monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. While my above descriptions probably make it sound like the protesting incident lasted a long time, it was actually only a small portion of this monologue. It stopped right as the camera showed Farley’s reaction shot to Sharon (third screencap above).
— The cutaways to various people’s reactions to Sharon are very funny, especially Victoria licking her lips. In Lorne’s cutaway (fourth screencap above), he does a good job not showing his dismay over what had just occurred with the protesters.
— This overall monologue was fine, but comes off funnier in reruns without the distraction from the protesters.
STARS: ***½


JIFFY POP AIRBAG
— Rerun from the Jason Priestley episode.
— During the shot of Tom Davis eating popcorn from the airbag, you can hear the voice of someone live in the studio calling out “Jon Lovitz!” The following sketch explains why.


HITTING ON WOMEN
intimidated (CHF) & (ADS) babble while hitting on (host); JOL cameo

— Farley’s neanderthal-esque babbling while trying to speak to Sharon is really funny, especially his self-deprecating remarks about himself.
— Now Adam’s babbling to Sharon is even funnier, and is an early display of an archetypal Sandler performance. I especially like when he randomly brings out a pencil for no reason.
— Great line from Adam bluntly telling Farley “Forget it, man, she’s a bitch.”
— Excellent twist with Jon Lovitz (in his first cameo of the season) showing up to woo Sharon. I especially liked his pick-up line simply being “Did I mention I have a penis?”
— This entire sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The most visible difference is the way Jon is dressed in both versions (side-by-side comparision below).

STARS: ****


SEX GAMES
(KEN) can’t lose himself in sex-game role playing with wife (host)

— What’s with the wholesome background music throughout this?
— Some good laughs from how bad Kevin is at sex role-playing, and how he constantly gets angry and drops character at some of the things Sharon mentions. Kevin always excels at pulling off characters like this.
— Kevin, regarding keeping his first name during the sex role-playing: “My last name’s different, though, because I don’t wanna bring my parents into this.”
— Just to show you how bad David Spade’s airtime has been this season, his walk-on in this sketch is his first speaking role in over a month. This also ends up being a typical bit role for him, and is his only appearance all night. It’s easy to see why the poor guy almost ended up getting fired before hitting it big with Hollywood Minute next season.
— Speaking of David’s walk-on in this sketch, at one point during it, a girl in the audience can be heard excitedly calling out “Spade!”, which makes him kinda smile out of character.
STARS: ***½


FLIPPY, THE FLIPPING CHIHUAHUA
Toonces runs over Flippy The Flipping Chihuahua before driving off cliff

— A funny very random concept of a flipping chihuahua.
— A good laugh from the visual of a sad Flippy half-heatedly trying to flip when chained in the backyard.
— A hilarious unexpected part with Flippy suddenly getting run over by a car immediately after being set free.
— Ha, it turns out to be Toonces who runs Flippy over! Great sudden twist.
STARS: ****


LUNG BRUSH
— Another rerun tonight, this time from the Kiefer Sutherland episode


INTERROGATION
Basic Instinct interrogation scene doesn’t discern sex of androgynous Pat

— Second sketch in a row with a surprising unexpected reveal of a recurring character. This one had a great reveal of Pat being in the Basic Instinct interrogation chair, after the set-up made you think it would be Sharon again.
— Classic part with Pat’s “beaver shot” (second-to-last screencap above).
— This setting is offering a nice change of pace to the usual “people ask Pat gender-specific questions to try to figure out Pat’s gender” premise of these Pat sketches.
— For some reason, I got an unintentional laugh from an excited person in the audience randomly cheering “OWW!” after Dana’s intense “I’m gonna figure you out! I’m gonna figure you out, Pat!”
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Alive”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ROS recounts escalating responses he got during his door-to-door survey
Queen Shenequa- “my ancestors’ labor should exempt me from income tax”
newly-engaged VIJ sings “I Love A Cop” & does a handstand on the newsdesk

— Rob is getting good laughs detailing the increasingly bothered responses he got from a couple he surveyed, especially with the disturbing turns Rob’s actions during the survey keep taking.
— A forgettable Queen Shenequa commentary overall. The only thing noteworthy was that one part of it offered yet another display tonight of mockery towards Juliette Lewis’ cornrow hairstyle.
— A great random bit from Kevin just now, where he says “When we come back, a surprising report from the Philippines” and then the camera zooms out as the Weekend Update theme music plays, as if this is a real news broadcast about to go to commercial, only for Kevin to immediately continue on with Update with no commercial break. I always like when Kevin randomly plays with the Update format with that type of mock-serious spoof of real news broadcasts, which helps differentiate him from his predecessor at the Update desk, Dennis Miller.
— Kevin seems particularly stumbly with his delivery of jokes tonight. Quite a number of his jokes are also getting a very tepid audience reaction.
— After having a rapidly diminishing presence in the back half of this season, Victoria gets her first big live thing to do on the show in months.
— Fun turn with Victoria breaking out into a catchy “I Love a Cop” song after announcing she got engaged to a cop. This is surprisingly her first Update song in YEARS, after being a frequent feature of the peak years of Dennis Miller’s Weekend Update.
— And now, Victoria reprises her classic Update handstands.
— Nice how Kevin incorporated Victoria’s “I Love a Cop” commentary into the first news joke after her commentary ended (third-to-last screencap above).
— An overall fairly subpar night for Kevin, though he almost redeemed himself with some pretty strong jokes at the end.
— According to GettyImages, the extremely underused David Spade had YET ANOTHER Update commentary that was cut after dress rehearsal (pic here). I lost count of how many of his Update commentaries have been cut after dress this season. Also, it’s odd how this ALREADY jam-packed Weekend Update was originally going to have as much as FOUR guest commentaries.
STARS: **½


SECURITY CHECK
male airport security guards abuse their authority & make (host) undress

— Something about the New York(?) accent Kevin’s using sounds odd and forced.
— Funny part with the security guys just waving off Farley and telling him to go ahead when the alarm keeps going off on him.
— I love how after Sharon complains “I’m gonna miss my flight”, Phil as the pilot is suddenly revealed to be standing to the side, saying in a professional, deadpan tone “This plane ain’t going anywhere. Now, please, for the love of humanity…. take off your shirt.”
STARS: ***


ERNIE’S
shopkeeper (CSR) bombards his wife (ELC) with participle-based insults

— Interesting format with most of the dialogue only consisting of Rock’s endless succession of name-calling related to what Ellen is doing at the moment.
— I like the fake-out with Rock taking a sip of water as if he was finished with his insults, only to immediately continue afterwards, as well as him momentarily stopping mid-insult to look up something in a dictionary/thesaurus when having trouble coming up with one particular word.
— This sketch ended up being the perfect length and didn’t go on longer than it should’ve.
STARS: ***½


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
(host) borrows Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly from neighbor (DAC)

— Something about Dana looks a bit unusual in this, especially his hair and eyes. He probably had just recently removed his wig and dark makeup from the Security Check sketch, which would explain his somewhat unkempt hair and face in this sketch.
— I’m aware this mini-sketch is a word-for-word recreation of a real series of Taster’s Choice ads, only replacing “coffee” in the dialogue with “spermicidal jelly”. This spoof isn’t funny to me, not even after having once been provided a YouTube video of the real Taster’s Choice commercials. And unfortunately, this is only Part 1 of a runner throughout the back half of tonight’s episode.
STARS: *½


PHIL HARTMAN CREATIONS
PHH demonstrates the many uses of his wigs

— Here’s the sketch that I mentioned can be seen getting cut at the last minute during the Zoraida sketch in the Susan Dey episode.
— Fun premise with Phil as himself advertising his line of men’s wigs.
— Phil’s “Troy” wig looks almost like Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley’s wig (first screencap above).
— I’m enjoying the accompanying picture and varying background music for each wig that Phil details. The music played during the part with the foreign guy wig is particularly funny.
— An overall great showcase for Phil as himself.
STARS: ****


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly borrower will repay neighbor later

— Still not funny.
— An awkward, unflattering-looking freeze-frame of Dana at the end (screencap below).

SNL would later fix this bad freeze-frame in reruns by showing the dress rehearsal version of this sketch.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Porch”


PORNO COUPLE
(PHH) & fiancee (host) come clean about their pornography-based lives

— Phil’s initial confession of acting in porno movies is fairly funny.
— Aaaaaand the joke quickly dies off with the increasingly less funny confessions of other porno-related secrets.
— Weak newspaper ending.
STARS: *½


TAYSTER’S CHOICE SPERMICIDAL JELLY
Tayster’s Choice Spermicidal Jelly borrower meets neighbor at party

— Ugh, a THIRD one of these.
— As no surprise by now, I’m still not getting any laughs from these.
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode that started off with a lot of solid things in the first half, then got more average around the middle, then died a miserable death towards the end with the endless number of unfunny Spermicidal Jelly mini-sketches along with the terrible Porno Couple sketch. An overall mixed bag of an episode, but had a good-enough number of solid highlights in the first half.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mary Stuart Masterson)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jerry Seinfeld

Posted on

March 21, 1992 – Mary Stuart Masterson / En Vogue (S17 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
The McLaughlin (DAC) Group- Pat Buchanan (PHH) returns to the panel

— Here’s what ends up being the final McLaughlin Group sketch.
— I’m liking all of McLaughlin’s questions being about Pat Buchanan’s failing presidential campaign.
— Buchanan: “The campaign isn’t actually over.” McLaughlin: “WRONG! It was over weeks ago, you just haven’t been notified.”
— All of McLaughlin’s mockery towards Buchanan’s campaign is really funny.
— Here’s an epic moment that I’ve never been 100% sure is a genuine blooper or a scripted part of the sketch: when Dana’s McLaughlin asks how to start the show, Mike answers with the usual “Live from New York…”. As Dana’s McLaughlin tells Mike “WRONG!”, the drummer in the off-camera SNL Band is heard beginning to play the SNL theme music when it isn’t time yet. After the drummer cuts himself off when realizing his mistake, Dana looks in the SNL Band’s general direction (last screencap above) and yells a particularly loud “WRONG!!!”, which gets a huge audience response. A priceless moment that does seem like a real blooper, but I’ve never seen it confirmed if it actually is real or not.
— As usual, Dana’s McLaughlin starts the show with something other than “Live from New York…”, this time with a simple “Start the shoooowww.”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
to prevent typecasting, host briefly shows her vulgar & stupid side

— Her doing a “vulgar yet stupid” dance, then immediately regretting it was only okay, but nothing particularly great.
STARS: **½


ACTION CATS
feline accessories give kids a new way to play with pets

— Not exactly sure where the hilarity is supposed to be coming from, as this is coming off more cute than funny. Though as a cat lover, I can kinda appreciate the cuteness.
STARS: **


LISA PONGRASIC, VERY PREGNANT UNDERCOVER COP
(CHF) & very pregnant undercover cop (host) execute a drug bust

 

— The beginning of this, with Phil as a police chief chewing out Mary’s cop for her renegade actions, reminds me of the beginning of the Tenelli: One Man Army sketch with Steven Seagal, which began the exact same way and with Phil in the police chief role.
— Good reveal of Mary being pregnant.
— Pretty fun opening credits sequence.
— Dana plays yet another Scarface-sounding criminal.
— This is the second episode in a row where Rock plays a character named G-Love. In the last episode, it was the name of his character in John Goodman’s Teen Dermatologist sketch.
— Great shocked look on Farley’s face during the freeze-frame ending after Mary reveals “My water just broke.”
STARS: ***½


LYLE, THE EFFEMINATE HETEROSEXUAL
even Lyle Billup’s wife (JUS) & daughter (host) think he’s a homosexual

— Surprisingly, this is the first time they’ve brought this sketch back since its debut three years earlier in a Chris Evert-hosted episode from 1989. This has got to be one of the longest a sketch took to become recurring.
— They’ve altered the opening title sequence to insert Julia in Chris Evert’s place as Lyle’s wife and to add Mary in as an additional daughter.
— Like last time, Dana’s giving me a lot of laughs as this character.
— Very funny part with Lyle receiving an unwanted raunchy stripping telegram from Tim.
— A great lengthy “Whaaaaaaaaaaaa???” from Lyle at the end when even his wife asks him “Aren’t you gay?”
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on dealing with unwanted Thanksgiving food


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” & “Hold On”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Denise Swerski gives beauty tips for brides-to-be
Cajunman gives his predictions for the NCAA basketball tournament

 

— Here comes what ends up being the biggest showcase Beth will get during her short-lived SNL tenure.
— Beth’s bad makeup tips and accompanying pictures are pretty funny. Nothing particularly hilarious, but decent.
— Surprisingly, Cajunman does an Update commentary for the second episode in a row.
— Adam has really found his groove as Cajunman by this point, and there’s a lot of funny lines with him here, especially when he realizes he lost all his money betting on NCAA games. I especially like him saying the punishment he’ll receive for not paying a loan shark will be “castra-shown”.
— Kevin mentions gay activist groups protesting the homophobic portrayal of lesbians in the then-new movie Basic Instinct. Little does SNL know at this time that they’ll soon be dealing with some members of those gay activist groups in person, heckling the monologue when a certain Basic Instinct star hosts the very next episode.
STARS: ***½


DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg don’t like how the real world has changed alumna (host)

— (*groan*) Didn’t they just do a Delta Delta Delta sketch two episodes ago? I guess I wouldn’t complain if I actually liked this recurring sketch. After all, I had no complaints about Cajunman appearing two episodes in a row.
— I noticed something very odd: Mary has played a character named Lisa in every single sketch so far tonight (Very Pregnant Undercover Cop, Lyle The Effeminate Heterosexual, and now this). What in the world??? Is this intentional? An inside joke?
— I begrudgingly admit to getting a laugh from Melanie’s delivery of “The real world…. is sooo… scary” in that valley girl-type voice.
— For some reason, when Mary answers the phone, she quickly whips off her left earring and tries to hide it from the camera before holding the phone up to her left ear. Why did she do this?
— Interesting moment with the now-speechless Delta Delta Delta girls not joining Mary in the cheer they all did together earlier, due to being disturbed by hearing her use her “work voice” while speaking on the phone. That added a kinda-deep, slice-of-life factor to this.
— Overall, I found this slightly more entertaining than the usual Delta Delta Delta sketches, even if that’s still not saying much.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on helping children develop a lucky feeling


MONSTER SPRAY
the makers of Monster Spray prey on kids’ irrational nighttime fears

— The usual great utilization of Phil’s comedic pitchman skills.
— During a close-up of Phil, the actor playing the little boy can be seen sneaking off the bedroom set behind Phil when stagehands have replaced him off-camera with a dummy.
— Another blooper during another close-up of Phil, where a crew member’s head can be seen accidentally entering the shot (screencap below).

— I love the turn this took with the demonstration of what will happen to a kid without Monster Spray, where we’re shown a monster tearing the kid’s head off and sucking the blood that spurts out from the kid’s now-headless neck. Hilariously gruesome and tasteless.
STARS: ****


WHO SHOT ME?
inner-city school teacher (KEN) tries to figure out who’s shooting him

— I loved Tim’s “Every time you get shot, you blame me!”
— This sketch has a certain silliness that’s working for me, especially with the casual treatment of Kevin’s back repeatedly getting shot by the students, which is being treated as if the students are merely throwing something at him.
— It’s hard to tell what exactly went wrong, but there’s a weird gaffe during the part where Rock’s character apologizes for reloading his gun. This would later be fixed in reruns by replacing that small portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version.
— When Mary’s character arrived, Kevin called her Ms. M, but after she has now left, Kevin refers to her as Ms. Ketchum. What’s up with that? At least he didn’t call her Lisa.
— Fairly weak ending with a whole bunch of gunshots being heard going off at Kevin during an exterior shot of the school. Reruns of this sketch actually alter this ending a bit: after the sound of a whole bunch of gunshots, audio is added in of Kevin asking a mildly irritated “Okay, who did that?”
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Your Mind”


COLOSSEUM EVENTS COMMITTEE
Colosseum events committee brainstorms ideas for gladiator contests

— Second episode in a row with a sketch taking place in Roman times, after the sketch about plotting Caesar’s death in the John Goodman episode.
— I’m loving the very absurd proposed ideas for Colosseum events (e.g. a battle of amputees fighting each other with their own amputated limbs).
— I like them unknowingly coming up with the idea of what we know today as baseball, but with a twist that the batter gets beaten as he runs around the bases, and when he gets to home base, he gets crucified.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****


MILLION DOLLAR ZOMBIE
by TOS- (VIJ) uncovers Ed McMahon’s (PHH) dungeon

— Victoria “Oh, that’s right, she’s still in the cast” Jackson’s diminishing presence this season continues, as this pre-taped film ends up being her only appearance all night, meaning she doesn’t make any live appearances in this episode. At least her part in this film is a lead role, though.
— A great and creative use of Phil’s Ed McMahon impression.
— Fantastic part with McMahon being taken down by seeing a cross with Jay Leno’s picture (second-to-last screencap above).
— Great use of Phil-as-McMahon’s “Hey-ooooo!” catchphrase after he gets stabbed to death.
— Overall, the usual solid and creative Schiller film.
STARS: ****


MONEY FOR BOOZE
(PHH) thinks that money given to panhandler (CHF) might be spent on booze

— I’m always a sucker for sketches with an interesting, unique format, such as this one with the heavy use of thought bubbles and pre-taped voice overs to carry along the storyline.
— I only have the rerun version of this sketch available, and it appears to be a mixture of live and dress rehearsal, as halfway through this sketch, there’s suddenly some subtle changes in both Farley’s appearance and the lighting of the scene (side-by-side comparison below).

My guess as to why they inserted portions of the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns is because there were probably some timing issues with the displaying of the thought bubbles during the live airing.
— Funny turn with the thought bubble of Phil drinking a giant glass of wine when he’s contemplating keeping his money for himself.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— Future regular writer Fred Wolf receives what I believe is his very first “Additional Sketch By” credit tonight. No idea what it was that he guest wrote in this episode. Maybe it was the Monster Spray sketch, since it involved spurting blood at one point, which would go on to be one of the trademarks of typical Fred Wolf sketches.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, if not particularly memorable. There were a few weak spots, but we got some solid stuff as usual, and good creative ideas in the post-Weekend Update half. Mary Stuart Masterson has to be one of the most underutilized hosts in this era. She only appeared in four sketches (and, as pointed out earlier, three of those four sketches had her playing a character named Lisa) and of those four sketches, only two of them were significant roles (the Very Pregnant Cop and Delta Delta Delta sketches). She was also nowhere to be seen during the last 15 minutes of the show (not counting the goodnights, of course). You’d think Phil Hartman was the host tonight with how heavily he was utilized throughout the episode, especially with how he carried a majority of the post-Weekend Update half.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sharon Stone

Posted on

March 14, 1992 – John Goodman / Garth Brooks (S17 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Jerry Brown (DAC), Paul Tsongas (ALF), Bill Clinton (PHH) court Trekkies

— Very funny and dead-on Jerry Brown impression from Dana, especially all of his endless ranting.
— When Dana’s Jerry Brown displays his 800 number, does anyone know what the “not flaky” bit is a reference to? I never understood that part of this sketch.
— Even though I have no familiarity with what Paul Tsongas sounds like, I’m finding Al Franken’s Tsongas voice to be an absolute riot. The occasional cough he does is very funny too.
— Funny bit with Mike as a Trekkie speaking in the exact same voice as Tsongas.
— A significant moment right now, as we get the debut of a Bill Clinton impression on SNL. Phil Hartman gets the honors here.
— Phil’s spot-on Clinton voice is immediately getting big laughs from the audience.
— The whole Clinton portion of this sketch is great, especially him destroying the podium in a tantrum at the end.
— According to GettyImages, Rob Schneider was cut from this sketch as a Trekkie standing next to Phil’s Clinton (pic here).
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
musical, car chase, monster movie clips from host’s movie The Babe

— I like how John’s frequent hosting has gotten to the point where he opens tonight’s monologue by saying a lighthearted “It’s great to be hosting blah blah blah!”
— A laugh from him referring to his movie King Ralph as a “fat little turd”.
— The clip of John as Babe Ruth doing a cheesy upbeat “I’m the Babe” musical number is cracking me up.
— The other fake movie clips with John’s Babe Ruth, one involving a car chase and another with him as Godzilla, are decent, though nothing particularly great to me.
— Good callback to the beginning of this monologue, with John ending this by saying “Stick around, cause blah blah blah!”
STARS: ***


UNFORGIVABLE
album of Natalie Cole (ELC) “duets” with deceased singers

— I really like the idea of this parody of Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” album, by having her singing with her father’s dead friends and titling the album “Unforgivable”.
— This is getting increasingly fun with the more and more outlandish celebrity choices they’re throwing in, such as Mama Cass, a not-dead-yet Tammy Wynette, and John as old fat Elvis (after Rob played young thin Elvis earlier in the sketch).
STARS: ****½


MY 75 KIDS
sperm doctor Cecil Jacobson (host) deals with his offspring

— An inspired and funny idea for a parody of an infamous then-topical story.
— The opening credits to this sitcom has lots of hilarious images, especially the kid-filled bus called the “Spermmobile”.
— Great visual of a living room full of chubby little John Goodman lookalikes.
— I love John reminiscing which Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine he looked at when “conceiving” each child, and him telling one kid “You were an accident; I was reading Newsweek.”
— Dana’s Uncle Charlie is always hilarious (even if I have no familiarity with My Three Sons), and he had a lot of great lines at the end of this.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on feeding drumsticks to the dolphins


UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc feigns naivete in front of City Council

— Second sketch in a row tonight to open with a screen crawl explaining somebody’s backstory. Both screen crawls even use the same font.
— This wonderful sketch officially becomes recurring.
— As usual, top-notch fake sponsors from Jack Handey, with my favorite tonight being Dog Assassin.
— Victoria makes what turns out to be her only appearance all night, and it’s just a very minor role with no lines. More and more as this season goes on, it truly feels like her presence on the show is disappearing right before my eyes. As I said in my last episode review, it’s gotten to the point where I kinda forget she’s even still in the cast.
— Phil-as-Cirroc’s lines in this installment are even funnier than his lines in the first installment from earlier this season.
— Very funny “next week’s episode” preview at the end, with a drunk Cirroc on a plane.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rodeo”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CHF objects to St. Patrick’s Day parade gays, points out audience Irish
KEN asks Cajunman about his spring break trip to Daytona Beach
footage shows Ed McMahon (PHH) getting married to third wife Pamela (BEC)

 

— Kevin’s usual dark suit has been replaced tonight with a much lighter-colored one.
— Not sure what exactly the point is of Farley ranting against gays in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, but I’m enjoying the random brief interludes with him calling out Irish-named friends in the audience.
— Cajunman officially becomes recurring, giving Adam what I believe is his very first major recurring character.
— Unlike his first appearance, Adam’s Cajunman delivery tonight sounds more like how it’s remembered today.
— The usual good laughs from Cajunman’s shtick, especially him detailing the “hallucina-shown” he experienced when drunk.
— Interesting bit with footage of Phil’s Ed McMahon getting married. Though it’s a thin premise, there’s still pretty good laughs from the use of Phil’s typical McMahon-isms as answers to questions the priest asks him.
— Not sure we needed Kevin’s “When asked if he was nervous, Ed said ‘Yes!’” addendum after the Ed McMahon segment ended.
STARS: ***


THEATRE STORIES
Katharine Hepburn (SIF) & others recall performances

— This sketch officially becomes recurring. Mike’s character looks a bit different tonight compared to the first installment and all subsequent installments.
— We get the birth of a running gag in these sketches, with Mike’s character referring to himself by the nickname Cucumber Jones.
— Dana’s Mickey Rooney has interesting new additions of tiny legs and old man make-up (the latter of which is actually the same old man makeup Dana wore earlier tonight in the My 75 Kids sketch).
— This would turn out to be the only Theatre Stories sketch they would ever do without Julia’s Dame Sarah Kensington character.
— Hate to say it, but after two installments of this sketch, I’ve gotten tired of Dana-as-Mickey-Rooney’s endless repetitions of “I was the number one staaaaarrr….. in the wooooorrrrld…..” I used to love Dana’s Rooney impression, but I didn’t realize until now how overly reliant on the same catchphrase it is. Dana does have a tendency sometimes to go a little overboard with the catchphrases of some of his characters and impressions, though most of that doesn’t bother me. I recall an online SNL fan once referring to Dana, Jon Lovitz, and Mike Myers as the “Catchphrase Bullies” of the late 80s.
— I’m enjoying Siobhan’s Katharine Hepuburn impression.
— Funny random bit with Mike telling us how he “often says things twice, only the second time much slower”, which he proceeds to prove by repeating that exact same statement… only much slower.
STARS: ***½


ANTON MESROBIAN, TEEN DERMATOLOGIST
teen dermatologist Anton Mesrobian (host) divines true causes of acne

— Some laughs from John being able to tell so many details of what secret is causing the blackheads on Julia’s nose.
— John’s dangerous, ill-fated advice to his patients is pretty funny, especially him advising Rock to join a gang.
— Overall, John played his role very well and there were some laughs, but I felt the material was fairly dull in some spots.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The River”


COUNTRY SINGER NAMES
country singer (host) seeks catchier name from agent Schlomo Fuchs (PHH)

— Phil has some funny reveals of famous country singers’ real names, such as Eddie Rabbit really being named Eli Rabinowitz.
— The ending reveal of Phil’s name being Schlomo Fuchs was merely okay; I don’t feel that punchline landed quite as well as it should’ve.
— The overall sketch had some charm and chuckles throughout, but something about the sketch felt a little empty.
— This sketch kinda felt like it was setting up an appearance from tonight’s musical guest Garth Brooks, but he was nowhere to be seen here. In retrospect, knowing what a surprisingly strong two-time host he would turn out to be later in this decade, I wish they did give him a role here or in any other sketch tonight.
STARS: **½


SIDE NOTE: A strange gaffe just now. Right after the preceding sketch ended, the camera shows the SNL Band about to play the show to commercial, but G.E. Smith immediately raises his hand in the air to signal the rest of the band not to play yet (screencap below). Then a Deep Thoughts segment awkwardly begins playing (with some audio glitches at first). I wonder what went wrong.


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on running like an angry rabbit


THE IDES OF MARCH
sauna-goer (host) interrupts a meeting about the assassination of Caesar

— Pretty weak sketch so far, with a dull main joke consisting of John repeatedly interrupting the guys’ secret plan to assassinate Caesar.
— I am getting some good laughs from how Farley’s solution to every problem is to stab it.
— Weak ending.
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on being sprayed by a golden skunk


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An episode with a very strong first half, a pretty good middle, but an unremarkable ending with the final three ho-hum sketches. Overall, though, the highlights in the first half were strong enough to make this episode worth watching. John Goodman, by this point, has become official as a sure-fire solid and fun host who can handle anything he’s given with total ease.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Roseanne and Tom Arnold)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Mary Stuart Masterson

Posted on

February 22, 1992 – Roseanne and Tom Arnold / The Red Hot Chili Peppers (S17 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
New Hampshire primary taught George Bush (DAC) that “You’re pissed!”

— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Dana-as-Bush’s very funny various ways of explaining to us that he got the people of New Hampshire’s message.
— Great part with him finally revealing on a sheet of paper what the message from New Hampshire was: “YOU’RE PISSED!”
— Kiddie Dan Quayle to Bush: “You’ll beat Buchanan, won’t you? He’s ugly!”
— A very funny little part after Kiddie Quayle leaves, with Bush speculating a “Bush/Buchanan” ticket before saying “Nah!”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
hosts find that they have no secrets about themselves left to expose

— Tom Arnold’s looks have changed quite a lot since his cameo just a year earlier in Roseanne’s season 16 episode. Roseanne herself looks quite different too. (side-by-side comparison below)

— A funny part where after Roseanne says they’re already gaining back all the weight they lost from the diet they talked about on Oprah, Tom says “So did Oprah, though.”
— Feels strange in retrospect hearing a mention of a now-obscure talk show called Sonya Live among the many names of talk shows that are still well-remembered today like Oprah, Donahue, and Larry King Live.
— Now they’ve mentioned another now-obscure talk show, The Paul Rodriguez Show, though judging from Roseanne and Tom’s jokes, that show was considered an embarrassing joke even back then.
STARS: ***


DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
Dick Clark’s receptionist keeps Roseanne & Jesus (PHH) waiting

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Like last time, David’s getting a lot of laughs from his questioning the importance of who the clients are and his obliviousness to any kind of pop culture.
— I love Roseanne going head-to-head with Dick Clark’s receptionist in a snark-off.
— Great part with Julia pouring her heart out to the receptionist regarding being Dick Clark’s long-lost biological mother, only for it to be revealed that the receptionist was on the phone the whole time and didn’t hear anything she said.
— Now this already-strong sketch turns truly epic, with Phil randomly appearing as Jesus, which gets a great audience reaction.
— A lot of laughs from Dick Clark’s receptionist doing his usual questioning routine to Jesus of all people. I also love Phil’s calm-but-slightly-taken-aback facial reactions.
— Kevin to Jesus, regarding the receptionist: “Can’t you do anything?” Jesus: “I’ll give him one more minute.” Receptionist: “Threatening me with eternal damnation won’t get you in any faster.”
STARS: *****


COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda & friend Liz (Madonna) praise Barbra Streisand [real]

— Linda Richman officially becomes recurring, and they’ve now dropped the “Coffee Talk with Paul Baldwin” title and have officially begun titling this sketch “Coffee Talk with Linda Richman”.
— Despite this only being her second appearance, Linda Richman is already getting big audience cheers during her opening statement in tonight’s sketch. I guess this shows how hot tonight’s crowd is.
— We get a mention of Linda Richman’s daughter Robin, which is an inside reference, as Mike Myers based the character of Linda Richman off of the mother of his then-wife named Robin.
— A very random Madonna cameo.
— I like Roseanne a lot in this. Even just the look of her character is cracking me up.
— Two minutes into this sketch, and Roseanne has been providing my ONLY laughs, though I do kinda like the details and realism that Madonna’s bringing in her characterization (which is supposedly another inside reference, as Madonna’s character is reportedly based on her own publicist).
— The self-deprecating part with Madonna’s character calling Madonna a tramp was okay if cliched.
— I got a big laugh from Roseanne randomly making a very loud “CCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!” sound with her throat while cleaning out her ear.
— Here comes the reason this installment of Coffee Talk is famous, and the moment that makes this fairly tepid and overlong installment worth sitting through: Barbra Streisand randomly showing up out of nowhere at the end. A memorable and legendary SNL moment, especially since neither Madonna nor Roseanne were told beforehand that Streisand would appear, and thus, their stunned reactions you see are 100% genuine (Roseanne in particular goes WILD and completely drops character), which helps make that moment so classic. Mike, on the other hand, was informed of Streisand’s cameo beforehand, but only a few minutes before the sketch started. He reportedly had just enough time to call his Streisand-obsessed mother-in-law and tell her to get down here.
STARS: ***


TALL TALES OF THE RECESSION
the story of the Fast-Firing CEO (Tom)

— A bit odd how Tom Arnold is just NOW making his first sketch appearance of the night.
— Fun performance from Dana, and I like the sound effect they keep playing whenever he cracks his whip.
— I got an unintentional laugh from a technical error where they accidentally cut to a brief shot of a devil (Rob) sitting down at a restaurant table while Dana’s introducing the scene to us. This gaffe would later be edited out of reruns.
— The use of Rob as the devil really makes one yearn for Jon Lovitz’s Mephistopheles character. Rob’s performance here is bland and comes off lame compared to what Jon’s Mephistopheles would’ve brought to the sketch. They’re even having Rob wearing what appears to be Jon’s old Mephistopheles costume!
— Another unintentional laugh, this time from Dana’s whip almost knocking off his hat one of the times he cracks the whip.
— Overall, Dana was the only thing providing any real laughs in this sketch. The actual meat of the sketch, the CEO scenes with Tom, were dull and fell flat.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stone Cold Bush”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Grumpy Old Man has no use for Winter Olympics innovations

— Feels a bit weird seeing Grumpy Old Man in a Kevin Nealon-anchored Update for a change. This ends up being the final appearance of this character, as well as the only time he ever appears outside of a Dennis Miller-anchored Update.
— The usual funny stories from Grumpy Old Man, especially the one about using corpses as skiis and how one of the Winter Olympics events in his day was compressing your lips to a freezing metal pole.
— Kinda surprised Grumpy Old Man’s commentary is over already. Felt kinda short.
— Very strong night for Kevin overall. Lots of great jokes from him.
STARS: ****


DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg welcome new Delta Delta Delta sorority sister (Roseanne)

— This sketch officially becomes recurring (I’m saying that a lot tonight). Can’t say I’m thrilled to see these characters back.
— Very interesting seeing Roseanne playing against type as a valley girl-esque character.
— Boy, am I already sick of the overuse of a running bit in these Delta sketches, where one of the girls says something serious and then immediately follows it up by pointing out something trivial and irrelevant (e.g. “Your hair looks so red”, “Do I have lipstick on my teeth?”, etc.). I know that’s an accurate spoof of this type of ditzy college student, but hearing it being said after almost every single line is not funny to me.
— Despite Roseanne playing against type, I see they let her get in a typical Roseanne-esque line just now, by suddenly saying “I gotta go use the can; I gotta let one rip!”, which I admit kinda made me laugh just because of the contrast between that and the Delta Delta Delta girls’ personality.
STARS: **


A STAR IS BORN
Roseanne’s career crashes after Tom rides her coattails

 

— Victoria, who I’ve lately been starting to kinda forget is still in the cast, is just NOW making her first (and only) appearance of the night. Then again, this has been a VERY light night for most of the cast in general, possibly due to a combo of having two hosts and a gigantic cast. Chris Farley doesn’t even appear AT ALL tonight.
— I love the method Dana’s Larry Roman uses to come up with the stage name Tom Arnold.
— As usual, the Larry Roman character is making some funny comedic analogies. I especially liked “He’s pullin’ you down faster than Wilt Chamberlain’s pants!” However, the “He’s gotta go like June Allyson after a freakin’ six-pack!” one was reused from a Weekend Update commentary that Larry Roman did earlier this season.
— Dana makes Roseanne break character and laugh (fifth screencap above) right as she’s about to deliver a dramatic line before exiting.
— I’m cracking up at Roseanne badmouthing various actresses during her drunken “acceptance speech”, especially her line “Kirstie Alley, get a chin!”
STARS: ***


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart dislikes sister’s (Roseanne) abusive ex (Tom)

— A laugh from Stuart mentioning the title of his poorly-received recent episode, “Whining is Anger Coming Through a Small Opening”.
— Roseanne plays against type once again tonight, this time as a timid character.
— Some good laughs from Stuart listing off all the terrible things that Tom did to Roseanne.
— Stuart to Roseanne: “Jodi, it’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world.”
— Good part with Tom beating the hell out of Stuart with the padded bat. We also get a great visual afterwards with Stuart’s hilariously messed-up hair after the beatdown.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under The Bridge”


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the most dangerous animal in the world


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, but doesn’t measure up to the two great episodes that preceded this. After those two episodes, tonight had a feeling of averageness. However, we did get a few really memorable moments tonight, such as Phil’s Jesus in the Dick Clark Productions sketch and Barbra Streisand’s cameo in Coffee Talk. Of the two hosts, Tom Arnold was merely okay while Roseanne fared better and had a bigger presence. It was also refreshing to see Roseanne play against type a few times tonight, which I don’t think she did at all during her first hosting stint in the preceding season, even though that was the better of the two episodes she’s hosted so far at this point.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Priestley)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman, in our second consecutive episode where the host comes from the same then-running sitcom (“Roseanne”). I don’t think there have been any other times in SNL history where two consecutive episodes were hosted by co-stars of the same then-current TV show.

Posted on

February 8, 1992 – Susan Dey / C+C Music Factory (S17 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
L.A. Law- Richard Laymer creates nicknames for Grace Van Owen (host)

— Victoria’s whispery delivery is making me laugh.
— Hilarious reveal of Richmeister out of nowhere, after such a serious beginning.
— I like how Richmeister is getting meta, now referencing Susan Dey’s Partridge Family past.
— After Rob delivers “Live from New York” (his very first solo one, by the way), it looks like the wall behind him already starts to be disassembled by the crew right before the opening montage even starts.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Nice turn with her unveiling her more casual, revealing wear to differentiate herself from her TV characters.
STARS: ***


LEEVI’S 3 LEGGED JEANS
— Rerun from the Linda Hamilton episode


HARRASSMENT TRIAL
(PHH) fails to convince jury that Mike Tyson’s penis size isn’t relevant

— Boy, that extra playing Mike Tyson doesn’t look a thing like him.
— An absolutely hilarious turn with Mike Tyson showing his “evidence”, represented off-camera by a loud thud sound after he unzips his pants. Phil, Myers, and Susan’s speechless reactions are great, as is Susan saying afterwards “I’ll allow it.”
— Lots of very funny frozen-faced shocked reactions from the jury while Phil slowly walking past them as he gives his statement. I especially like Farley’s thumbs-up gesture and Ellen’s unimpressed look.
— Phil’s speech about penis size has so many funny lines, and I also like Julia and Melanie’s simultaneous head-shaking whenever they disagree with him.
STARS: ****½


THE ARAKAWA GROUP
Japanese version of McLaughlin bashes lazy Americans

— Much like The Sinatra Group, we get another variation of The McLaughlin Group.
— I can look past the very broad Japanese stereotypes here and enjoy the discussion, funny lines, and general silliness, but I’m probably biased because I’ve always enjoyed this sketch, long before it would’ve been considered too un-PC by modern standards.
— Mike’s “You’re killing me. Oh, my sides” when laughing at Rob’s joke is cracking me up.
— Funny line about the laziest Americans being postal worker on drugs.
— The panelists’ discussion of Barbara Bush has a lot of funny lines about her.
STARS: ***½


THE SENSITIVE NAKED MAN
The Sensitive Naked Man (ROS) tries to find out what’s bothering (host)

— Already starting off hilarious with the opening title and the subsequent casual cutaway to a naked Rob greeting Susan.
— The execution of this is very funny, especially with Rob’s insistence on getting Susan to open up about what’s REALLY bothering her. Rob’s performance here is great.
— A priceless nonchalant reveal of Rob’s uncensored behind at the end, which gets a great audience reaction.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Here We Go Let’s Rock & Roll”
musical guest performs “Gonna Make You Sweat”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Crystal Blue Persuasion (ELC) talks about the refugees sent back to Haiti
Cajunman (ADS) gives KEN a rhyming overview of Mardi Gras
KEN gives a subliminal editorial on the Japanese & the economy

— Very hot audience tonight. Some of Kevin’s jokes are getting big reactions from them.
— Ellen attempts a new character, Crystal Blue Persuasion, who never ends up becoming recurring.
— Ellen’s characterization is decent, but the commentary itself is not interesting and has nothing that’s jumping out at me as really funny. I can definitely see why this character never ended up recurring.
— A lot of comedic random one-line asides from Kevin (e.g. “You know, there are a lot of people out there…”).
— The debut of Cajunman, a character that actually DOES end up becoming recurring.
— I really like the format of Adam’s Cajunman commentary, with his dialogue consisting only of words that end with an “own” pronunciation. Adam’s raspy voice and accent are also adding a lot to the humor.
— Adam’s Cajunman delivery in tonight’s debut is a little faster than it would go on to be in subsequent appearances.
— Among Cajunman’s lines, I especially got a laugh from him saying he got an “infec-shown” from an exotic dancer.
— Kevin’s strong night ends with him doing a Mr. Subliminal editorial, for the first time since he took over as the new Update anchorperson.
— As usual, some very funny Mr. Subliminal lines, especially “Maybe we could learn something from the Japanese (sneak attack).”
STARS: ***½


PARTRIDGE FAMILY VS. BRADY BUNCH
Laurie (host) & Partridges vs. Jan (MEH) & Bradys in battle of the bands

— Here comes the centerpiece of this particular episode, a very fun and all-time classic sketch.
— Big audience reaction as soon as the Partridge Family opening credits and theme song starts playing.
— Good to see Melanie’s Jan Brady impression officially become recurring, and it’s nice seeing it crossed over into a Partridge Family sketch.
— A cringeworthy line flub from Melanie just now, which causes her to nervously laugh her way through the rest of her line.
— Melanie recovers nicely from the blooper mentioned above, by getting very good laughs with her spot-on delivery of “Marsha , Marsha, Marsha!”
— I love the cutaway to Farley’s Reuben Kincaid just observing the Partridges playing music while he has that big grin with his hand resting under his chin.
— This is now starting to get epic as the rest of the Brady kids have shown up.
— Adam’s constantly-cracking voice as Peter Brady is a riot.
— Excellent turn with a battle of the bands between the Bradys and the lip-syncing Partridges.
— Ha, Dana is getting REALLY into his lip-syncing and guitar miming.
— A very funny and outrageous part with Farley’s Reuben Kincaid wildly making out with Julia’s Shirley Partridge.
— The part right now with Phil as Sam the Butcher and writer Christine Zander as a covered-in-snakes Alice would later be removed from reruns. I have no idea why.
— Phil’s Sam the Butcher voice is hilarious.
— What’s with Susan’s stiff, monotone delivery of “I hate you” to the Brady kids? Perhaps that was just her way of making fun of her own acting on Partridge Family.
— Great random inclusion of Rock as… uh… Mushmouth? Dumb Donald? I’m confused over which Fat Albert character he was playing, because, while Dana’s Keith Partridge refers to him as Mushmouth, and Rock was certainly using the Mushmouth voice, I’ve heard during online discussions of this sketch that Rock was actually dressed as Dumb Donald. I wouldn’t know for sure, as Fat Albert was before my time and I’ve never had the fortune of seeing reruns of it. I am vaguely familiar with the show, but only through clips and hearsay.
STARS: *****


GESTURES
on a blind date, (MIM) & (host) make their points semi-verbally

— Pretty charming premise with everyone’s cartoonish physical descriptions of their emotions.
— Very funny part with Susan’s spittake into Mike’s face.
— Mike is particularly great at pulling off the cartoonish physical descriptions.
— Was Mike’s “I think I love you” to Susan supposed to be a subtle Partridge Family reference?
STARS: ***½


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida confuses host’s L.A. Law love scene with real life

— At the beginning as they show Susan walking backstage, I noticed on the SNL home base stage behind her that you can see stagehands disassembling a set and carrying away a desk that has mannequin heads wearing wigs (screencap below).

This was actually going to be a sketch called “Phil Hartman Creations”, where Phil as himself advertises a variety of his trademarked wigs. The sketch seemingly got cut at the last minute tonight and ends up airing later this season in the Sharon Stone episode.
— Despite an okay line or two, Zoraida’s whole shtick of mistaking host’s TV characters with real life is getting increasingly tired with each passing sketch she appears in.
— I did like the ending, with an angered Zoraida yelling to a walking-away Susan “Your family used to sleep in a bus!” and calling her an “una puta”.
STARS: **


BOSS & JANITOR
(MIM) & (DAC) discuss irony & repeatedly trade janitor & executive roles

— Always interesting seeing Mike and Dana being paired together in non-Wayne’s World sketches.
— I like Dana and Mike’s exaggerated cheesy laughter at the end of every scene.
— I’m loving the escalating absurdity in this, with Dana and Mike’s constant back-and-forth job-switching with each other, and them explaining the circumstances that led to it.
— Ha, now this has taken an even more bizarre turn with them both being janitors simultaneously.
— I like the meta part with Dana and Mike’s characters openly mentioning the back-less businessman suit that they kept changing into earlier in the sketch.
— Phil got some good laughs at the end as the angry boss and added to this sketch’s silly vibe.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “A Deeper Love”


ART MUSEUM
museum visitors make personal admissions while contemplating a painting

— Mike Myers has been having a HUGE night. It feels like he’s had a big role in almost every single sketch.
— Mike, in a deadpan response to an odd statement from Susan: “You remind me of my mother. I’m leaving the museum.”
— I love the structure of this sketch, with each character giving a snobbish yet unflattering personal description of themselves before giving their critique of a certain painting. Phil especially had a very funny description of himself.
— Tim absolutely KILLED with his hilarious smugly-delivered line about tying his white girlfriend (Beth) up with a belt and making her moo like a cow. It’s so rare for him to get that type of great one-liner during this era; that’s the type of dialogue that he would later typically get during the second half of his SNL tenure, where he had a much bigger presence and impact on the show.
— Kevin is great as a random deranged guy who ends up deciding to pull down his pants and run around the museum screaming.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS
host announces that PHH is now the daddy of Birgen Hartman

— A legendary moment right now: Susan announces the birth of Phil’s daughter Birgen. A joyed Phil’s eyes fill up with tears as everyone around congratulates him. One of the most genuinely touching and heartwarming moments in SNL history, especially in retrospect after Phil’s untimely death.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode. We got a lot of great sketches, one bonafide classic (Partridge Family vs. Brady Bunch), and a heartwarming special announcement during the goodnights. I’ve always felt this episode accurately represents this season, particularly how big the cast is, as we got several instances of SNL using this cast’s extremely large size to their advantage in sketches (Harrassment Trial, Partridge Family vs. Brady Bunch, and somewhat Art Museum), some of which could never have been done with, say, the small late 80s cast.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chevy Chase)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jason Priestley

Posted on

January 18, 1992 – Chevy Chase / Robbie Robertson (S17 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Wayne’s World- the top ten bad things about the fall of communism

— Always a fun way to start off the show.
— This is the last Wayne’s World sketch that aired before the release of the first Wayne’s World movie.
— Very funny line about 1991 being the year Garth finally got pubes.
— The Top 10 List has a lot of great lines as usual, especially the one about bogus soviet rock bands.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
CHC lip-syncs “The Greatest Love Of All”

— A minor thing: For some reason, after the opening montage ends, the camera pans down to the home base stage from the left side instead of the usual right side. This is the only time from 1989-1995 that they would do so.
— What’s with Chevy’s obvious toupee? He was openly going bald long before this episode, and now we’re supposed to believe he suddenly has a head full of hair?
— As expected, HUGE extended applause for Chevy at the beginning of this monologue.
— I laughed at the mention of “that bitch Jane” when Chevy lists off his original SNL castmates.
— Chevy’s trademark forgetfulness routine can be tiring sometimes, but it’s coming off merely okay here.
— Good turn with Chevy blatantly lip syncing to “The Greatest Love of All”, especially with the use of a split-screen effect showing a close-up of his comically dramatic facial expressions.
STARS: ***


THE LOVE TOILET
— Rerun from the Macaulay Culkin episode


ADOPT A PET
(CHC) & (VIJ) try to unload some unappealing animals

 

— Some really funny lines during Chevy and Victoria’s unflattering descriptions of the pets.
— Interesting detail with Chevy’s gloves.
— Very funny part with reveal that the monkey is suffering from syphilis, blindness, and insanity.
STARS: ***½


DANIEL’S DINER
aide (PHH) helps George Bush (DAC) through uncomfortable campaign stop

— Interesting use of Dana’s Bush. This feels like a precursor to the famous Clinton at McDonalds sketch from the following season.
— I like Dana’s Bush just saying “Persian Gulf” at every chance he gets during his greetings to the diner patrons.
— Funny dark part with Phil’s details of the Daniel’s Diner owner committing suicide.
— Siobhan’s stone-faced expression as the speechless diner owner provided a good laugh.
— I really like Julia in this, as an old lady going on to Bush about her disgusting health issues, like a polyp on her colon.
— Good recurring bit throughout this with a ready-to-get-the-hell-out-of-here Bush constantly asking his aide Phil how much time he has left, and having Phil participate in a “Good cop, bad cop” routine to get Bush out of uncomfortable conversations.
— Bush to Julia’s character, while leaving: “Polyp Lady, I think I’ll miss you most of all.”
STARS: ***½


DAHMER’S DEFENSE
Jeffrey Dahmer’s (CHC) lawyers (PHH) & (KEN) know insanity plea will work

— I like the audience’s “Ohh” laughter immediately after hearing the name Jeffrey Dahmer early on in the sketch.
— Pretty funny ad-lib from Chevy after his “money/Monday” line flub, reminding me of how quick he was at saving himself whenever he would flub a joke during his Update anchor days in the original era.
— A hilarious and outrageous part with Chevy’s Dahmer casually chewing his fingers off. Phil and Kevin’s disgusted reactions are cracking me up as well.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Go Back to Your Woods”


WEEKEND UPDATE
co-anchor CHC reads outdated Weekend Update items from the ’70s
CSR gives his thoughts on Arizona’s non-observance of the MLK holiday
CHC offers some historical perspective on breast implant problems
CHC repeatedly prompts KEN with nonsense as the latter fumbles for words

— Chevy gets added to the Update opening title sequence, letting us know that he will be returning to his old spot at the Update desk. At least this pairing of him and Kevin makes far more sense than the painfully awkward pairing of him and Dennis Miller when Chevy last hosted in season 12.
— Right off the bat, we get the return of Chevy’s trademark “phone conversation” opening Update gag, this time with a great twist that it’s Kevin on the other line who Chevy’s talking dirty to.
— More callbacks to Chevy’s Update trademarks, such as “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead”, and the prostitution stamp joke.
— Rock’s rant about Arizona’s refusal to celebrate Martin Luther King Day has so many funny lines, especially him detailing how Arizona would celebrate an Elvis Day, and the whole bit about Columbus discovering a West Indian backyard.
— Chevy’s breast implant commentary had a few funny lines here and there, but I wasn’t crazy about the segment as whole.
— I love the bit with Chevy filling in the blanks of Kevin’s speech with inappropriate words.
— Overall, tonight’s pairing of Kevin and Chevy worked pretty well for the most part.
— According to GettyImages, David Spade had an Update commentary that was cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal (pic here). In the pic, he’s noticeably displaying a judicial scale.
STARS: ***½


BOB SWERSKI’S QUIZ MASTERS
Super Fans on Bears & Bulls trivia game show
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Polish Sausage- for post-heart attack snacking

 

— Very nice change of pace for the Super Fans sketches.
— I liked the ridiculously brief “meet the contestants” segment.
— Funny “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Polish Sausage” commercial, especially the stilted delivery from the guys.
— The lightning round with Mike was fun, though I wanted it to go on longer.
— I love each contestant’s written answer on their card, especially Farley’s long-winded intelligent answer being written on both sides of the card.
STARS: ****


VAN MORRISON CONCERT
at a Van Morrison concert, (MEH)’s dancing obstructs (JUS)’s view

— What started out as a relatable piece is getting old fast.
— I do like the part with Chevy speaking to Melanie in staccato speech so she can hear him whenever she bops her head in his direction.
— Didn’t care for the ending at all.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Weight”


BACKSTAGE
CHC tries to comfort a crying TIM in the latter’s dressing room

— For some reason, at the beginning of this sketch when Chevy and Victoria are having a conversation, the SNL Band can be heard LOUDLY continuing to play the music they had been playing during the commercial break. It’s distracting, making it hard to pay attention to what Chevy and Victoria are saying. I’m guessing there was some kind of mistiming or something, where the SNL Band wasn’t informed that the show had returned from commercial break. Reruns of this sketch mute out the SNL Band’s music.
— Good to see Tim getting a rare showcase.
— Chevy’s various outlandish guesses on what’s bothering Tim are quite funny.
— Chevy’s actually coming off likable and affable in this, which is rare for him post-70s.
— Tim, when Chevy tells him to get ready for the next sketch: “I’m not in anything, except for this.” Yet another funny dig at Tim’s lack of airtime, after his solo number in the “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” cold opening from two episodes ago. Just to show you how right he is regarding his underusage, he didn’t appear in ANY sketches in the episode between Steve Martin’s and tonight’s (Rob Morrow).
STARS: ***


KAUFMAN’S BIG AND TALL, AND SHORT AND SMALL SEPHARDIC JEW MEN’S CLOTHING STORE
Sephardic Jews (CHC) & (ROS) sell big & tall & short & small clothing

— An initial chuckle from the store’s name.
— Aaaaaaaand that initial chuckle mentioned above ended up being the ONLY laugh of this whole thing. What in the world was the point of this overall sketch? Where were the jokes? Why did Chevy’s last line get cut off?
STARS: *


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode. The quality was mostly consistently good, until we got a few very weak sketches towards the end (Van Morrison Concert and Sephardic Jew Men’s Clothing Store). Chevy was only okay as the host tonight. He’s still a far cry from his reliably funny self from the 70s, but he wasn’t as bad as he’s been in some of his other hosting stints and he didn’t bring down this episode too much for me.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rob Morrow)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Susan Dey

Posted on

January 11, 1992 – Rob Morrow / Nirvana (S17 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Oliver Stone (PHH) sees conspiracy in George Bush’s (DAC) barfing episode

— Some good laughs from how overly cautious Phil’s Oliver Stone is when Kevin arrives for their meeting.
— Priceless video of Dana’s Bush vomiting and passing out, and Phil’s Barbara Bush panicking and climbing on the table.
— Some more laughs from the back-and-forth replay of the vomit going out and back into Bush’s mouth.
— This whole cold opening is tickling the hell out of me, especially with Phil-as-Oliver-Stone’s overly serious discussion of the vomit.
— The huge sheet of plastic vomit that Phil displays looks like it could be the same one that he displayed in the Apex Novelty sketch from the Jeff Daniels episode earlier this season, only without the uneaten sandwich.
— The “the president has wet his pants” ending was okay, though didn’t make me laugh quite as hard as the rest of the sketch.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
a clip of the substitute judge sketch proves that host was on SNL before

 

— Morrow is coming off very composed and relaxed in his performance here.
— Pretty memorable bit with Morrow pointing out he appeared as an extra in the Substitute Judge sketch from season 5’s Rodney Dangerfield episode. I’m also enjoying the fact that we get to see a clip from that sketch, as it brings back nice memories of not only when I reviewed that sketch, but when I reviewed that era in general.
— Some pretty good laughs from Morrow exaggerating the impact of his work as an extra, and acting like it’s the reason SNL had him back tonight.
STARS: ***½


SÁLON
putting the accent on the first syllable makes the shampoo work

— David Spade getting a rare showcase this season!
— David’s giving a strong performance and he’s totally selling this commercial. It feels interesting in retrospect seeing him nail a role like this, as it’s so opposite of the persona he’d go on to frequently use in sketches during his later seasons.
— I’m liking the insistence on how you must say “salon” with the accent, and the animated graphic showing how your hair is affected by the various ways you say “salon”.
STARS: ****


IT’S PAT
partygoers’ game of strip poker fails to indicate androgynous Pat’s sex

— An interesting oddly specific look of Mike’s character.
— I like the reveal of strip poker being the game that Pat’s co-workers think will reveal Pat’s gender.
— I loved Pat’s delivery of “I feel so NAUGHTY!”
— Good line with Pat requesting the song “Dude Looks Like a Lady”.
— I didn’t like the turn this took near the end, with the strange stock footage montage of people at work while a voice-over talks about people being comfortable with the sexuality of themselves and others, nor did I care for the subsequent scene with Pat being the only one at the party who still has clothes on.
— Not one of my favorite Pat sketches overall, as I felt it fizzled out near the end and the sketch as a whole was unusually short, when it felt like it could’ve benefited from doing more with the premise.
STARS: **½


DELTA DELTA DELTA
Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters Pam (BEC), Di (MEH), Meg (SIF) yak

 

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Very interesting seeing a showcase of the newer female cast members (minus Ellen), and in such an early timeslot tonight. This is also the very first time Melanie Hutsell has ever gotten a big role.
— Boy, right off the bat, Melanie is mugging up a freakin’ storm. Sadly, that’s something I’m gonna have to get used to during her SNL tenure.
— I got a chuckle from the incredibly low-budget, fake-looking shot of Siobhan running across the campus (third screencap above).
— Beth, Melanie, and Siobhan are all doing an accurate take-off on this valley girl type, but it’s coming off more annoying than funny to me.
— Morrow’s walk-on was brief, but I really liked his performance and delivery.
— According to GettyImages, this sketch was actually originally supposed to air in the Hammer episode from earlier this season, but got cut after dress rehearsal. In that one, Mike Myers appeared to be playing the role that Morrow plays in tonight’s sketch (pic here).
STARS: **


COWBOY SONG
(host) & lonesome cowboys musically resolve to better themselves

— I liked Dana’s lyric about using sex as a means of escape.
— A big laugh from the whole part about how these guys used to molest the cattle.
— Overall, these singing cowboys sketches from this era have a nice charm to them, and tonight was no different. We also got a lot of funny lyrics this time from each of the three performers, making this what I feel is the best of the singing cowboys sketches that have aired by this point.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Smells Like Teen Spirit”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jan Brady (MEH) gets on a Marsha tangent while discussing breast implants
VIJ doesn’t understand the “dumb blonde” jokes she finds offensive

— Melanie Hutsell’s big night continues. Just to show you what a huge turnaround her airtime has suddenly taken, here’s a rundown of how she was used before tonight: In her debut in the Linda Hamilton episode, she only got two very small unnoteworthy roles, one of them a non-speaking one. Then in the following week’s Macaulay Culkin episode, she wasn’t even credited in the opening montage, yet did appear silently in the background during the pizza party cold opening. Then the opposite happened in the following episode when Hammer hosted: Melanie was credited in the opening montage, but was nowhere to be seen during the actual show. And finally, in the following week’s Steve Martin episode, her only appearance was with the whole cast at the end of the the epic “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” number. So overall, until tonight’s episode, Melanie had a VERY quiet start as a cast member, basically being a glorified extra. I was starting to forget that she’s even in the cast until tonight’s episode reminded me.
— Melanie’s doing a good job here.  Her Jan Brady impression is very spot-on and funny.
— Pretty fun hearing Melanie’s Jan Brady referencing the plotlines of famous Brady Bunch episodes.
— Hmm, some awkward pauses and stumbliness in Melanie’s delivery throughout this commentary, which is ANOTHER unfortunate thing that I’m going to have to get used to during her SNL tenure.
— What’s with the lights in the background during Melanie’s commentary? They keep alternately turning on and off right now.
— Victoria’s commentary is okay, and is thankfully not another iteration of the recurring bit where she gives an intelligent speech and then reluctantly reveals she didn’t write it.  While the “dumb blonde” shtick of hers feels kinda played-out by this late stage in her SNL tenure, there’s some laughs from the “dumb blonde” jokes she’s quoting in tonight’s commentary.
STARS: ***


LENIN’S BODY
(host) tries various money-making schemes involving Lenin’s body (MIM)

— The living room set is the same one used earlier tonight in the Delta Delta Delta sketch.
— I’m loving the bizarreness of this, with Morrow’s insane, harebrained scheme of making money off of Lenin’s dead body.
— Very funny line from Phil as the store manager explaining to Morrow that customers are leaving in disappointment because when they heard about the display of Lenin’s body, they assumed it was John Lennon. Phil’s subsequent line regarding the customers’ complaints about the way Lenin smells was also funny.
— I like how the absurdity and outlandishness of this sketch is increasing as it goes on. I’m also loving all the various scenery changes throughout this, which is giving this an epic, fleshed-out feel.
— Even little things like the loud sound effect used for Lenin getting hit in the face with a baseball are cracking me up.
— By the way, I have to laugh at how they’re using an actual cast member (Mike) to play dead Lenin. Mike’s actually doing a solid job in what must not be an easy role to play, having to hold still the whole time and take a whole bunch of physical abuse without reacting.
— Good turn with Morrow finally achieving success, with Lenin being used as a stunt double for a movie set in the old west.
— Fun ending with the montage of stunt dummies from movies. I recognize some of these movie clips, especially the one from “Friday The 13th Part V” (last screencap above). (As I mentioned in some of my earlier reviews, I’m a huge Friday The 13th buff).
STARS: ****½


MOVIE TALK
at the pearly gates, (DAC) is engaged in small talk about movies

 

— There’s a nice slice-of-life charm to this, but I gotta be honest, I’m not all that crazy about this premise of angels asking Dana for his opinions of recent movies. The conversations here aren’t that interesting to me.
— Phil had a really funny line just now, about how he couldn’t get over Barbra Streisand’s unconventional looks when watching “The Prince of Tides”.
— This sketch would later be replaced with dress version in reruns. In that one, Dana doesn’t wear glasses like he does in this live version.
STARS: **½


CHRIS ROCK’S WHITE PERSON’S GUIDE TO SURVIVING THE APOLLO
CSR’s White Person’s Guide To Surviving The Apollo helped (host) & (SIF)

— A nice showcase for the underused Chris Rock, and a very funny premise with him providing tips for white entertainers on how to survive the Apollo.
— Ellen is cracking me up as the rowdy audience member.
— I got a good laugh from the mention of how you can never go wrong doing a “James Brown on the toilet” impression.
— I’m really enjoying all the before and after clips of the white performers who took Rock’s advice.
STARS: ****


INSULTS
at a pizza parlor, insulting names are a natural part of teens’ banter

— Some good laughs from all the fast-paced insulting names the teen guys are casually addressing each other by.
— Very funny slam with Adam’s line about picking his little hairs out of Morrow’s sister’s teeth.
— I like Kevin’s succession of insults when handing each guy their pizza slice.
— Not only has Melanie been getting a lot of airtime throughout tonight’s episode, but so have her fellow rookies Beth and Siobhan.
— I’m enjoying the unique structure of this sketch, and everyone’s performances are fun. It helps that their delivery of these rapid-fire insults is flawless. Even Melanie is managing to get through this fast-paced dialogue without flubbing a line.
— I like how it’s gradually revealed that all of these characters’ insults are just their friendly way of communicating. A good take-off on how teen buddies do tend to speak to each other like that.
— What REALLY makes this already-solid sketch for me is the ending. I loved Phil as a random wise man explaining to us (regarding the teens) “Sticks and stones may break their bones, but apparently words… will never hurt them…”, and then slowly covering his still-staring-at-the-camera-with-a-smile face with a restaurant menu. Phil is always so great at pulling off twisted, oddball, creepy things like that.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Territorial Pissings”


MINUTES BEHIND
(host) repeatedly comes up with clever comments about 15 seconds too late

— Interestingly, this is the second set that was used in two separate sketches tonight. There was the Delta Delta Delta living room set earlier, and now, the cafe set used in this sketch was seen just minutes ago in the preceding Insults sketch, only decorated differently.
— Tonight’s “Attack of SNL’s New Girls” theme continues, as Beth and Siobhan get more good airtime here. I sure hope they’re both enjoying this, because as we know now, it’s not gonna last.
— Some good realistic laughs from how badly delayed Morrow’s witty interjections during Beth and Mike’s conversation are.
— The part of the conversation with Beth being surprised that Prince is still making music, and Mike saying “The old man still has some life left in him” when praising Prince’s new album feels strange. I mean, this is only 1992; why are they acting like Prince was ALREADY a veteran old-timer in music? He had only been around for a little over 10 years by this point, hadn’t he?
— I love Morrow’s “Clam chowdaaahhhh” interjection.
— Siobhan is funny as the testy waitress.
— The realism of this sketch is getting more and more funny, especially as Morrow grows increasingly unnerved.
— I love how when Morrow is sulking around the bathroom, he conveniently stumbles upon a random time machine as one of the bathroom stalls.
— Solid ending with a time-traveling Morrow nailing the timing of his witty interjections during Beth and Mike’s conversation.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— These goodnights would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. The reason is because in these live goodnights, all three members of Nirvana begin exaggeratedly making out with each other, lips-on-lips and all (as seen on the left in the second and third screencaps above), in what I’m guessing was an attempt to play for the cameras. Apparently, this ended up causing some controversy at the time, which is why this version of the goodnights has never been seen in reruns.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very good episode, and a nice bounce back for this season after the surprisingly disappointing Steve Martin episode. While there were no sketches tonight that stand out as famous gems (besides maybe the Chris Rock/Apollo sketch) and there was a bit of a slow start with the first two post-monologue sketches (Pat and Delta Delta Delta), this overall episode had a low-key, quietly solid feel to it. Sketches like Lenin’s Body, Insults, and Minutes Behind weren’t big flashy pieces that would frequently be included in highlight reels, but they were the type of sketch that I personally love and they helped make this a solid episode. Another interesting factor tonight is what I dubbed earlier the “Attack of SNL’s New Girls” theme, where Melanie Hutsell, Beth Cahill, and Siobhan Fallon each had a rare dominant presence throughout the show. And finally, I was impressed by Rob Morrow, who was very natural as a host, came off likable, and blended nicely into the show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Steve Martin)
a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Chevy Chase