Tag: Christian Slater

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October 30, 1993 – Christian Slater / Smashing Pumpkins (S19 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Coffee Talk- in a Barbra costume for Halloween, Linda takes some calls

— You probably already know my reaction to this sketch making yet another appearance…
— Well, at least Linda Richman’s wearing a fairly funny costume this time.
— Geez, tonight’s Coffee Talk installment has been even more catchphrase-driven than usual so far, with all the dialogue in the the entire first minute literally only consisting of an endless string of Richman’s catchphrases that never make me laugh.
— In a desperation to find SOMETHING to like here, I kinda chuckled at the Andre Agassi comments.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
host goes trick-or-treating backstage but fails to gather much candy

— Very fun premise with Christian going around backstage trick-or-treating.
— Some good laughs from the “candy” Christian is being given, such as Tic-Tacs and a prosthetic nose from the makeup department.
— A big laugh from David and Tim trying to get rid of an excessive amount of leftover Coneheads merchandise from the Coneheads movie that had come out earlier that year.
— The baby Conehead doll among the Coneheads merchandise looks like it could be the same one that was held by Nora Dunn in the New Coneheads sketch from Steve Martin’s season 14 episode.
— Very funny part with Lorne hitting on Mike still dressed as Linda Richman, thinking she’s a real woman.
— Nice visual of an excited Chis Farley in a giant pumpkin costume.
STARS: ****


MMMPH?
— Rerun from 5/15/93. We’re only five episodes into this new season, and they’ve already repeated TWO ads from season 18. What’s up with that?


MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
Matt Foley lectures (MEH), (DAS), (host) about Halloween vandalism

 

— Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Matt Foley officially becomes recurring, despite the fact that his first sketch should’ve remained a one-off, as there’s no way they can come anywhere close to topping it. However, I understand why they brought this sketch back.
— You can tell they’re trying hard to recapture the magic of the first installment, with them even going so far as to reuse the same living room set and having David and Phil reprise their roles as one of the troublemaking teens and the dad, respectively.
— Loved Matt Foley’s “I’m the egg man, goo goo g’joob!” reference.
— Yeah, despite the amusement I’ve been getting here, this sketch is definitely not working anywhere near as strongly as the first installment. I kinda find some of the subsequent Matt Foley sketches a little better than tonight’s, partly because they put him in a completely different setting for a change.
— I do like the idea of Matt Foley telling a scary Halloween story while using a flashlight in the dark.
— Now they’re trying to recreate the legendary unscripted breakaway coffee table crash from the first installment, which doesn’t work as well this time as it’s not as spontaneous. At least the subsequent Matt Foley sketches change the type of breakaway prop he falls through.
— Funny bit with the flaming bag.
STARS: ***


SASSY’S SASSIEST BOYS
host & other stars are unthreateningly rebellious

— And now here comes another sketch that was funny the first time but doesn’t seem necessary as a recurring sketch. An early sign of this season’s bad habit of frequently bringing back sketches that were better left as one-offs, as they pulled out all the stops in their first installment and have no legs as a recurring bit.
— I wonder if Christian playing himself as a guest is a reference to the fact David played him in the first installment of this sketch.
— Mike-as-Joey-Lawrence’s dialog consisting only of “Whoa!”s is pretty funny and oddly memorable.
— Jay Mohr’s bug-eyed, out-of-it Andrew McCarthy impression is cracking me up. Only two episodes into his tenure so far, and I’ve been liking what Jay has to offer with his celebrity impressions.
— Phil: “I just stepped in a big pile of sassy!”
— Surprisingly, Phil’s endless “sassy” one-liners into the camera are still remaining funny tonight, despite the thin nature of the gag. I guess it’s that one-of-a-kind Phil Hartman magic that keeps it from getting old.
— I like how the bit with Phil pulling out a map of Sassyland is heightening the absurdity of this sketch.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cherub Rock”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Queen Shenequa doesn’t like Whoopi Goldberg defending Ted Danson
this year, ADS gives cheap Halloween costume ideas that focus on the face

— Queen Shenequa had a funny slam just now about Ted Danson’s penis size.
— Queen Shenequa’s overall commentary was okay. Also, IIRC, this ends up being this character’s last appearance ever, despite the fact that Ellen still has a little under two seasons left in her SNL tenure. I didn’t realize until now that, between Queen Shenequa making her final appearance here and us already having seen the last of Zoraida (not counting the latter’s appearance in a recurring character group piece at the end of this season), it’s already the end of the road for Ellen’s only two big characters. At this moment, I can’t recall her debuting any new big characters for the remainder of her tenure, though there’s her upcoming recurring-but-short-lived Jocelyn Elders impression that I remember kinda liking.
— Adam’s annual Halloween costume suggestions makes its final Weekend Update appearance. (It makes a resurgence a year later as a brief part of a Ross Perot trick-or-treating sketch.)
— As always with these Halloween costume commentaries, Adam is able to mine a surprising amount of charming, fun laughs out of such an overly simple, childish premise.
— One of the SNL bumper photos shown of Christian Slater tonight has him holding the handle of a coffee mug in front of his eye like a monocle (screencap below). I’d like to think that’s a clever reference to Adam’s Halloween costume routine.

— Coincidentally, the only two Update guests tonight, Queen Shenequa and Adam Sandler as himself giving Halloween costume suggestions, were also the only two Update guests in Christian Slater’s previous episode.
STARS: ***


TEEN BAND
(host) & fellow teens debate what their band’s name & focus should be

— David’s sotto voce “I like Loverboy” aside made me laugh.
— Some pretty funny idiotic interjections and ramblings from Chris’ stoner character, such as suggesting the band call themselves Pearl Jam 2, and his story about getting crabs from his friend’s couch.
— I loved Christian’s “Did you just make some money in the last five minutes?” question when Melanie again suggests “Let’s go get some pot” shortly after suggesting it a first time.
— I’m conflicted on this sketch. I like the realistic, simple, slice-of-life premise, but the execution is iffy. There’s some laughs, but the sketch as a whole isn’t coming off particularly interesting, and I’m not caring at all for the running bit with Christian’s character and his off-camera mom having a shouting match.
— Adam working in his goofy-voiced guitar song shtick from Weekend Update felt kinda out-of-place and tacked-on in this sketch.
STARS: **


OUT OF AFRICA
(host) & tribal art dealer deny marijuana possession during police bust

— Oh, dear god, no.
— The endlessly-repeated “You put your weed in there!” catchphrase continues to increasingly get on my last nerve with each passing utterance.
— We get a “big change” with the addition of Christian as a similar co-employee of Rob’s character, which only means we now have TWO characters saying the stupid “You put your weed in there!” catchphrase, as if that’s somehow supposed to be funnier.
— Okay, I finally got a chuckle just now, from Christian’s line to Tim about how he and Rob need to keep Tim’s weed-clogged artifact overnight to get the weed out.
— Why does this recurring sketch always have to conclude with cops showing up?
— Poor ending.
— Thankfully, this ends up being the final installment of this sketch. I think I recall once reading someone claim that a third installment of this sketch appears in the Emilio Estevez episode from later this season, but it absolutely does not. My memory of reading that false claim is admittedly very fuzzy, so perhaps the person claiming that was actually saying the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal in the Estevez episode.
STARS: *½


THE VALLENCOURT BOYS
New Englanders (ADS) & (KEN) drink & take calls

— Adam appears to be playing a variation of his Boston-accented Tony Vallencourt character from the What’s The Best Way gameshow sketch from season 18, only this time he’s named Bobby Vallencourt and has a mullet and flannel jacket that he didn’t have last time. To make things even more confusing, the next time this character appears, which is in the cold opening of the following season’s Bob Saget episode, he goes back to having the Tony Vallencourt name from his first appearance while still having the mullet and flannel jacket from tonight’s appearance.
— It is just me, or does Kevin’s Boston accent sound lousy and unnatural?
— I recall once reading a spot-on comment made back at this time in 1993 (within this post here) that basically said this sketch feels like a bad attempt at a Boston-themed version of SCTV’s McKenzie Brothers sketches.
— Oh, talk about lousy Boston accents, here comes Tim. While there’s an affable goofiness in Tim’s presence here that usually works for me in other Tim Meadows performances, it’s not doing a thing for me here.
— Man, this sketch is DEAD so far. No real laughs from me (nor the audience) at all.
— Wait, did Kevin just say “Before we bring out our next guest”? Ugh, I thought this boring sketch was mercifully about to end. Turns out they’re bringing out a guest now? So you mean I still have a few more minutes to put up with this snoozefest?
— Unfortunately, the interview with Christian didn’t make this overall sketch any better. I’ve gone through this entire overlong sketch without finding a single worthwhile aspect.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Today”


THE HEADLINE STORE
joke headline shop owner (host) belittles choices of Canteen Boy & others

— Tonight’s episode continues to die a long, miserable death. This sketch is pure one-joke material; a joke that wasn’t funny to me to begin with.
— A rare flub from Phil, as he accidentally blocks the newspaper headline Christian holds up (the third above screencap for this sketch) and doesn’t realize it until towards the end of the shot.
— A random Canteen Boy walk-on? Not so happy to see him so soon after that awful Garage Sale sketch he starred in just two episodes ago.
— I recall an SNL fan once saying that this sketch would’ve worked had Norm Macdonald played Christian Slater’s role. I can definitely see that. Something about this sketch’s material does seem like something that only Norm could sell with his unique delivery.
— Chris tries to breathe some life into this dead sketch, but I just see it as one of way too many Screaming Chris Farley Roles that we’ll be bombarded with over the course of both this and (especially) next season.
— A lame, dumb ending.
STARS: *


TRENT MARKHAM, LUNG DOCTOR
cigarettes escape blame in the ’50s

— Ah, thank god Phil Hartman has come to save the day after an endless string of horrible sketches.
— Phil always succeeds in these authentic 1950s-era black-and-white pieces, and this sketch feels like a nice throwback to his first season where SNL often did sketches like this. While tonight’s sketch feels slightly empty not seeing Phil being surrounded by the castmates he always used to perform these black-and-white sketches with, like Jon Lovitz, Dana Carvey (who probably would’ve worked an “I oughta pound yooouuu!” into this sketch), and Nora Dunn, Phil’s still receiving nice support from Julia and Christian.
— Pretty funny ad-lib from Christian when Julia unexpectedly has trouble lighting his cigarette.
— I loved the dark humor of Phil handing a cigarette to a newly-pregnant Julia and telling her “Take a big pull; you’re smoking for two now!”
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The worst episode of the season so far, and the weakest episode I’ve reviewed in quite a while. The first half of this episode, while not terrible, was dominated by lazily rehashed material, one of which was a recurring sketch I typically don’t like and went particularly heavy on the catchphrases tonight (Coffee Talk), and two of which were newly-recurring sketches that were probably better left as funny one-off pieces last season despite still producing some laughs tonight (Matt Foley and Sassy’s Sassiest Boys, though the latter ended up being better tonight than I thought it would). And the second half of this episode? Yikes. It already started off iffy with the somewhat-promising but uninteresting Teen Band sketch, and only got worse and worse with each passing sketch, some of which produced literally no laughs from me AT ALL, and some of which felt like a sneak preview of what we’ll typically see next season. Thankfully, the night ended on a high note with a solid and classy Phil Hartman sketch showing up out of nowhere. Other than that sketch, the only real highlights of the overall night were the monologue and a portion or two of Weekend Update.


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Malkovich)
a huge step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Rosie O’Donnell

Posted on

October 26, 1991 – Christian Slater / Bonnie Raitt (S17 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
John McLaughlin [real] takes over a Halloween parody of his Group

— Nice change of pace from other McLaughlin Group sketches, with this one having a Halloween theme.
— Good sudden turn with Dana’s McLaughlin being mysteriously dead and the real McLaughlin showing up and taking his place.
— McLaughlin doing Dana’s routine is entertaining, especially him singing Jack Germond’s name.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host discovers mesmerized control room & audience doing the Tomahawk Chop

— Funny cutaway to the crew in the control room doing the Atlanta Braves Tomahawk Chop while watching the World Series.
— John McLaughlin makes another funny appearance tonight.
— Fun turn with everybody in the studio, including the audience and the SNL Band, doing the Tomahawk Chop when Christian returns from backstage.
— There’s a technical error at the end, where instead of fading to black as this monologue concludes, the screen crossfades to a strange orange title card that just has the word “Coldcock” (the title of a fake ad that follows this), before the screen suddenly cuts to black. Heh, maybe the crew in the control room really WERE too busy watching the World Series. This technical error would later be removed from reruns.
STARS: ***½


COLDCOCK
you’ll never expect it when Coldcock Malt Liquor hits you

— Great use of Tim. This features some of his best work from his early seasons.
— Funny visuals of an animated fist punching people who drink from the liquor can.
— After getting punched by the animated fist, Tim delivers the line “Faaaannn-tastic” in the same way he would later regularly do as his Lionel Osborne character from the future recurring sketch Perspectives.
— Solid ending with a swollen-eyed Tim concluding the commercial while laying on the floor.
STARS: ****


RON’S WINGS ‘N’ THINGS
despite repeated warnings, (host) orders the Super Fire Hot chicken wings

 

— I like Phil entering as the manager to try to persuade Christian to re-think his order of super fire hot wings.
— As no surprise, I’m really liking the way Phil is selling this, especially his repeated revelations that he keeps giving Christian medium hot wings instead of super fire hot wings.
— I’m enjoying this sketch, but it feels a little odd as the lead-off sketch of the night. The pacing of this is slower than a typical lead-off sketch.
— Ha, I love how the restaurant is now having Christian sign release forms before finally serving him the super fire hot wings.
— Good epilogue ending with a narrator (Phil) describing the many cartoonish reactions Christian had when eating the super fire hot wings. I especially laughed at Phil’s monotone way of saying “he ran around shouting ‘woo woo’”.
STARS: ***


DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY FEUD
troubled clan wins against well-adjusted group

 

— Good premise for a Family Feud parody.
— I’m loving the tension between Phil’s family.
— A good laugh during the “Name something families say to recent college graduates” question, where Siobhan’s upbeat answer “Get out there and do your best” turns out to be correct, as it comes close to matching the negative “Get out!” answer on the board.
— David Spade finally makes an appearance in a sketch, after getting completely shut out of the last two episodes. Also, believe it or not, this is his first speaking role all season. Geez, the fact that it took him FOUR EPISODES into this season to get a speaking role shows how bad his airtime has been lately.
— Farley is filled with tons of energy here.
— Very funny annoyed delivery from Phil telling Farley “How about clothes you’ve gotten too fat for?”
— Good dark humor with the whole loaded-gun-in-the-closet/“You don’t have the guts!” exchange.
— Hilarious part with Victoria’s disturbing answer to the question “Something you find in your bedroom closet” (“My father?”).
STARS: *****


CLUB BANANA
every male at Club Banana unilaterally engages (JUS) in dance

— I like the first-person perspective format of this.
— Dana’s sleazy facial expressions while dancing are priceless.
— Funny twist with the lady in the bathroom turning out to be Adam in disguise, who whips off his wig and dances in front of the woman who we’re seeing the perspective of.
— Creative approach to this whole sketch. Also, I love how this is utilizing just about every male cast member, and it’s fun seeing how each of them are being incorporated into this.
— When the woman who’s perspective we’re seeing blacks out as she faints, the screen stays black and silent for an abnormally long time. I almost thought something went wrong, technical-wise.
— The look on Phil’s face when he and Tim as the paramedics begin dancing is cracking me up.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Something To Talk About”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Queen Shenequa (ELC) is upset about the lack of available black men
ADS shows how to use everyday items to make crazy Halloween costumes

— Kevin gets his very first “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke, carrying on a tradition from Dennis Miller’s Updates.
— The debut of Ellen’s Queen Shenequa character. She’s wearing a different outfit than the one she would regularly wear in subsequent appearances.
— I’m enjoying Ellen’s delivery here, and she’s getting some good laughs. I especially like her declaring “Julia Roberts was a ho!”
— Didn’t care for the ending of the Queen Shenequa commentary with her saying everything should be titled “Man in My House”.
— The words “Subliminal editorial” have shown up on the news screen. Hmm, I thought Kevin didn’t start incorporating his Mr. Subliminal routine into his anchorman persona until later in the season.
— Oh, never mind. Tonight’s subliminal editorial turned out to have nothing to do with Mr. Subliminal; the joke here was Kevin not saying anything at all for his “editorial”.
— Kevin’s joke portions of this Update are fast-paced, though not every joke is working. Pretty hit-and-miss, but the hits are very strong.
— Kevin is quite stumbly throughout this Update, as I also observed in an earlier Update of his.
— Funny bit with Kevin avoiding offending blind viewers by silently displaying a graphic on the bottom of the screen that states “I thought it was funny” when talking about a recently-canceled and much-complained-about TV series that made light of blindness. This reminds me of an Update joke Norm Macdonald would later do, where he criticizes the looks of a deaf Miss America contest winner while holding a sheet of paper over his mouth so she can’t read his lips.
— The debut of Adam Sandler’s annual Halloween costume suggestions.
— This commentary of Adam’s would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. In that version, he wears a blue/green-ish shirt instead of the Halloween-themed orange shirt he wears in this live version (side-by-side comparison below).

— Adam’s commentary is a good early display of his simplistic childlike silliness as himself. Hard to explain why this commentary is working so well; it just is.
— I especially got a laugh from Adam’s Crazy No-Armed Woman costume.
— Just now, when Adam delivered a goofy-voiced “Fork it over!”, it honestly came out unintentionally sounding like “Fuck it over!” I wonder if THIS is the reason they replace this commentary with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Adam’s commentary ends differently in the live and dress rehearsal versions. The live version has him responding to Kevin’s Cup Head costume by saying a disappointed “That was… better than all of mine” and sadly walking away in defeat (this would later get turned into a running gag in his future Halloween costume Update commentaries, where he would always end it by saying a humbled “You have topped me again, Kevin Nealon”). The dress rehearsal version, on the other hand, ends awkwardly with him kinda just laughing at Kevin’s Cup Head costume and not saying anything in response.
STARS: ***½


THE CURSE OF THE WOLF MAN
(host)’s metamorphoses described step-by-step

— A silly sketch, but the intentional dumbness and cheesiness of Christian constantly ducking below the camera view as he “transforms” into a wolf man bit-by-bit is coming off funny. His intentionally stilted delivery is also helping.
— Funny detail of exaggeratedly loud zipper sounds being heard off-camera before Christian returns to the camera view wearing an obviously fake wolf suit over his body.
— Some more laughs from the two cops detailing Christian’s reverse transformation back into a human. I especially like the camera catching Christian removing the fake wolf teeth from his mouth.
STARS: ***


YOUNG ACTORS FORUM
host & others have slept with most actresses

— Ha, what is with the random casting of Victoria as Rob Lowe?
— Really bad Charlie Sheen voice from Mike.
— Dana is hilarious as Keanu Reeves.
— I like each actor saying variations of “Did her” in succession whenever an actress’ name is mentioned.
— Good to see David Spade getting decent airtime and dialogue tonight. Great Matthew Broderick voice from him as well. He’s also a dead ringer for him in that wig.
— Great turn with Rob’s Emilio Estevez immediately blurting out “Did him” when the name Clint Eastwood gets brought up, only to immediately regret saying that.
— Strong ending with all the guys running off in unison when hearing about an up-and-coming new actress, and then returning seconds later while saying their usual variations of “Did her”.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can’t Make You Love Me”


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Arnold Schwarzenegger [real] trains kids

— The phasing-out of these characters continues, as evidenced by how late they’re appearing in tonight’s episode. Not too long ago, these two characters were routinely headlining cold openings, and now they’re being buried in the 12:45 timeslot. This ends up being their second-to-last sketch ever (not counting the times they were brought back after Dana’s departure), and their final sketch doesn’t even occur until a whole year later in October ’92.
— Ha, just now, Hans and Franz have even openly addressed how scarce their appearances are getting, by saying “Many of you have been wondering, where have we been?”
— Interesting cutaway to a pre-tape with Hans and Franz giving lessons to a group of children. We also get another cameo from Hans and Franz’s cousin Arnold Schwarzenegger.
— Hmm… this pre-taped setting may be a change of pace for Hans and Franz, but it’s not turning out all that funny. I haven’t been getting many laughs at all during this. It’s a little sad witnessing the gradual death of these once-popular characters. It’s painfully obvious by this point that their time is officially up. I guess not every recurring character from this era can go out gracefully like, say, Church Lady.
— Even the ending of the pre-tape was just a rehash of previous times Hans and Franz made their chest muscles move in unison.
— Okay, I did like the live bit right after the aforementioned chest muscles bit, where Hans and Franz do a P.S.A.-esque “These are your muscles on steroids” demonstration with eggs.
STARS: **


NICH-AID
host touts Nich-Aid hair dryers for hands-free Jack Nicholson mimicry

— A pretty good laugh from Phil’s awesome Nicholson impression being undermined by his holding his hair back with his hand, which takes his friends right out of his impression (“What’s he doing? Jack Nicholson never holds his hand on his head!”).
— Good concept of a device with tiny hair dryers automatically blowing your hair back so you can do a hands-free Nicholson impression.
— A fitting use of Christian as the spokesman for this particular product.
— I like the ending visual of Phil in that silly Nich-Aid device as he wows his friends with his now-hands-free Nicholson impression.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, minus a supbar late-era Hans and Franz installment. The overall show, while not outstanding, had a very nice flow to it and there were a lot of things to like, especially the classic Dysfunctional Family Feud and the creative & fun Club Banana.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kirstie Alley)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kiefer Sutherland