Tag: Dana Carvey

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February 5, 2011 – Dana Carvey / Linkin Park (S36 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

WAYNE’S WORLD
Winter’s Bone dominates the Oscar picks of Wayne & Garth

— Ah, Phil Hartman’s old voice-over intro.
— Fuck yeah! The return of Wayne’s World after many years! I remember what a huge shock it was to see this return when this episode originally aired, as no announcement of it was made beforehand.
— I like the callback to one of the last Wayne’s World sketches, with Garth saying “Last time you saw me, I got pubes.” To nitpick, though, that didn’t happen the last time we saw him (which was the season after Dana left the cast, and thus, he had to make a cameo for that night’s Wayne’s World sketch). That happened the second-to-last time we saw Garth (which was the final Wayne’s World sketch to be done during Dana’s tenure as an SNL cast member), and even then, Garth’s pubes announcement that night had already been made in an earlier Wayne’s World sketch.
— Such a novelty seeing a Wayne’s World sketch in such clear visual quality in a newer episode.
— I love that this cold opening is making me feel like I’m back to reviewing SNL’s late 80s/early 90s era again.
— A very funny meta “How old are you?” “Uh, it was never determined” exchange between Wayne and Garth.
— Despite Mike and Dana being much older than they were when these Wayne’s World sketches regularly appeared, these characters have not lost a step. We’re getting their usual hilarious humor.
— Even the overuse of the Winter’s Bone gag is made funny by Wayne’s self-deprecating “This joke has been done three times” line.
— Is it just me, or is Mike’s natural Canadian accent a lot more noticeable here than in previous Wayne’s World sketches?
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
JOL backs up DAC’s contention that their era’s cast was SNL’s best ever

— I can certainly let my fatigue towards this season’s oversaturation of musical monologues slide in this case, given the song Dana’s singing about 1986-1993 being SNL’s best years. It also helps that those years just happen to be my personal favorite SNL years.
— I love hearing Dana mention the underappreciated Jan Hooks among the three examples he gives of important cast members that made his era beloved.
— A notable lyric of Dana’s song: “I did Ching Change, but that’s racist now, oops!”
— Of all the then-current cast members who make a walk-on in this, Andy noticeably gets much more cheers from the audience than Bill or Kristen.
— This monologue now gets even better, as JON LOVITZ gets involved!
STARS: ****


i-SLEEP PRO
Rerun from 10/2/10


CHURCH CHAT
Snooki (BOM) is exorcised & Justin Bieber [real] is tempting

— Ah, another old Phil Hartman voice-over intro.
— The fun nostalgia trip of tonight’s episode continues with our obligatory Church Chat return.
— Some funny opening lines from Church Lady about current trashy shows on TV.
— As I said in a previous review(s), whenever Dana brings Church Chat back in his hosting stints and cameos, it’s always a fun novelty seeing Church Lady interact with modern-day celebrities.
— A solid and out-of-the-ordinary-for-this-recurring-sketch sequence with Bill’s priest character attempting to exorcise Bobby’s Snooki.
— Aaaaaaaand the fun of this sketch comes to a screeching halt with a Justin Fucking Bieber cameo out of fucking NOWHERE. Are you kidding me, SNL?!? Bieber being brought on in a nostalgia-filled Dana Carvey-hosted episode, of all episodes?
— And to make the Bieber portion of this sketch even worse, it basically turns into that insufferable Lonely Teacher sketch from the preceding season’s Tina Fey-hosted episode, with an adult female character having inner thoughts about their inappropriate lustful feelings for Bieber. Ugh. That was squicky and unfunny enough the first damn time.
STARS: ***½ (the Bieber portion brought the rating of this sketch down half a star, and even then, I’m being generous, as I hated the Bieber portion of this sketch enough that I have the urge to demote a FULL star from the rating)


CELEBRITY TEEN CRISIS CENTER
actors poorly answer youths’ calls for help

— Always great to see Bill’s eerily-uncanny Alan Alda impression.
— Mm, probably not a good sign that the opening scene of this sketch, with Bill’s Alda giving advice to a teen, already has a meh feel.
— Even though Dana’s Mickey Rooney was never one of my favorite impressions of his, it still feels welcome to see it return here.
— Despite the fact that I’ve seen better Ice-T impressions, and despite the fact that we’re at the point of Fred’s SNL tenure where I’m sick of him getting away with playing black celebrities (Barack Obama, Prince, probably others I can’t remember), Fred’s Ice-T impression is cracking me up.
— After a slow start, this sketch has gotten a little better, though it’s still nothing special at all.
— Much like Bill’s Alan Alda, Jay’s Eddie Murphy impression is always fun.
— Another example of Jay’s penchant for line-flubbing, with him botching his Yo Gabba Gabba line at the end of this sketch, which he then tries to ad-lib his way out of. When this originally aired, I didn’t even realize that was a blooper, as it came off as part of the sketch to me. Watching it now, it’s obvious that it was a blooper, judging from the awkward pause Jay makes after initially butchering the title Yo Gabba Gabba, then the hesitant way he tries ad-libbing about it afterwards.
STARS: ***


THE ROOMMATE
Justin Bieber [real] & Sir Ben Kingsley (ANS) in trailer for male version of The Roommate

— (*sigh*) Really, SNL? You’re really gonna let Justin Bieber slowly take over a freakin’ Dana Carvey-hosted episode? One sketch appearance wasn’t enough?
— No idea what to say about the comedy of this piece so far.
— And this commercial is now over, with my only real laugh in the whole thing coming from the reveal of Sir Ben Kingsley playing Andy’s character.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Waiting For The End”


WEEKEND UPDATE
SEM groups participants in Egypt’s political unrest into Winners & Losers

multitasker James Franco (PAB) loves keeping busy doing a variety of jobs

Angela Dixon’s (KRW) meteorology is colored by her disco queen background

— The debut of a Seth Meyers Update segment called Winners/Losers. With this and that “Come On, Dictionary” segment he did earlier this season, Seth seems to be trying to branch out from doing “Really?!?” segments.
— Seth’s Winners/Losers rant tonight ended up being pretty meh for me, sadly.
— Good to see the underused Paul Brittain with an Update commentary.
— A pretty solid performance from Paul as a workaholic James Franco. I particularly like his delivery of “I’m goin’ to Disney World!…to work at Space Mountain.”
— I love the turn immediately after the Franco commentary ends, with Paul’s Franco delivering Seth’s next Update joke for him before Seth quickly puts an end to that.
— I like how the Franco workaholic gag continues even two minutes after the Franco commentary has ended, with Seth stopping mid-joke when realizing Paul’s Franco is now holding Seth’s cue cards.
— (*groan*) Kristen’s disco meteorologist commentary is turning out to be a typical badly-written, annoying Kristen Wiig/James Anderson (IIRC) collab from Kristen’s later seasons.
— (*another groan*) The further this disco meteorologist commentary goes on, the more awful it gets. This is UNBEARABLE and feels endless.
— I like how, even at the end of Update after Seth says his sign-off, we get another continuation of the James Franco workaholic running gag, with Paul’s Franco now cleaning off the Update desk.
STARS: ***


LIVE WITH REGIS & KELLY
Kathie Lee Gifford (KRW) drops by

— Feels odd seeing a Regis & Kelly sketch without Darrell Hammond and Amy Poehler in the roles, but it’s certainly nice to see the return of Dana’s Regis impression.
— I see what Nasim’s going for in her impression of Kelly Ripa’s voice, but it’s not fully coming through, as Nasim’s natural voice is too distinctive, and the mish-mash of her natural voice attempting to imitate Ripa’s voice just sounds odd and a little grating.
— A relief to see a Regis & Kelly sketch that doesn’t portray Gelman as a flamboyant gay stereotype for once.
— Feels odd how they’re just letting Kristen as Regis’ former co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford, completely hijack this sketch with her usual shtick. I’ve gained a lot of tolerance for Kristen’s Kathie Lee over the past few seasons, but I can’t say this is the best way to end this sketch, and it feels too out of place for the tone this sketch set prior to Kristen-as-Kathie-Lee’s appearance.
STARS: **½


PAGEANT PREVIEW
boy (ANS) competes in preteen girl pageant coordinated by (DAC) & (KET)

— The first Dana Carvey sketch role all night that’s not a character or impression from his SNL tenure.
— I haven’t been caring at all for the campiness of this sketch. This is completely boring me.
— It figures that, out of all the female cast members, Wiig would be the one who plays the one little girl in this pageant who’s a screenhog. Even for 2009-2012 standards, there is so much wrong with the way tonight’s episode in general has been utilizing Kristen.
— Dana’s having a little fun with his role, but that’s the only enjoyment I’m getting out of this sketch.
— A poor reveal at the end with all the contestants onstage being disqualified.
STARS: *½


DEIDRA WURTZ: DOWNSIZING EXPERT
Deidra Wurtz (ABE) delivers bad news with empty apologies & platitudes

— A rare Abby Elliott-starring piece. Even more rare to see her starring as a character and not a celebrity impression.
— This was cut from preceding week’s episode, made obvious by the fact that Jesse Eisenberg can be seen as one of the employees during the office meeting scene (seen to Abby’s left in the third above screencap for this commercial).
— Good performance from Abby as this character. However, the humor itself is too generic and one-note for my likes. There’s not much to see here.
STARS: **


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
JOL, MIM, DAC introduce musical guest


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When They Come For Me”


SPORTS BAR
New Wave band spoils Packer-fan Super Bowl party at nepotist’s (TAK) bar

— Another sad example of Jason’s diminished airtime in some episodes this season, as he’s just NOW making his first appearance of this entire episode…in the final sketch of the night. Geez.
— Another “Fred band” sketch this season, I see. Given the track record of these sketches, I’m very wary of what this particular one has in store for me.
— I do like seeing Fred and Dana paired together as these British-accented 80s singers. Makes me wonder what fun collaborations we could’ve seen Fred and Dana do if they were castmates back when Fred was still in his prime on SNL.
— A fairly meh conceit with the juxtaposition of this extremely soft 80s song being performed at a sports bar filled with manly guys who have no tolerance for this type of music. I’m also getting tired of all the cutaways to the manly guys’ frozen-faced reactions to the music.
— There is something a little catchy about that “Embrace Me” song being performed.
— I love Taran’s silly dancing at the end. One of our very first displays of Taran’s ability to elevate a sketch just by dancing in a wild, silly manner.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS
DAC’s sons Dex & Tom [real] join him onstage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first 20 or so minutes of this episode were strong, fun, and nostalgia-filled. However, as no coincidence, Justin Bieber’s cameo halfway through the Church Chat sketch seemed to start a turning point where the quality of this episode gradually died off. The show sadly never recovered; in fact, the post-Weekend Update half didn’t contain ANY segments I fully liked. An overall pretty disappointing Dana Carvey episode. Certainly no fault of Dana himself, though. A shame this ends up being his final hosting stint (as of 2020).


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Wayne’s World
Monologue
Church Chat
Celebrity Teen Crisis Center
Weekend Update
Sports Bar
Live with Regis & Kelly
Deidra Wurtz: Downsizing Expert
The Roommate
Pageant Preview


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jesse Eisenberg)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Russell Brand

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October 21, 2000 – Dana Carvey / The Wallflowers (S26 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THIRD PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
undecided voters question debaters Al Gore (DAH) & George W. Bush (WIF)

— Parnell’s facial prosthetics as Jim Lehrer seem to get doughier and goofier-looking with each passing debate sketch.
— I can’t help but think that the woman seated behind Kattan (seen in the fourth screencap above) looks like a female Rob Schneider.
— I like Parnell-as-Jim-Lehrer’s sighing, head-shaking reactions to dumb things being said throughout this debate.
— Great to see Dana’s obligatory Bush Sr. appearance in this debate sketch.
— As always, Dana’s Bush is getting lots of laughs here. I even love how towards the end of his first spiel, he says “So to sum up…”, which was a regular thing Dana’s Bush always said towards the end of his address-to-the-nation sketches from the late 80s/early 90s.
— Ha, there goes Darrell’s Gore bringing up his famous lockbox again.
— I love Bush Sr. and his aides now flimsily disguising themselves as undecided Latino voters.
— Now Bush disguises as his wife Barbara, which is also funny.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— Much like in the season premiere’s opening montage two episodes earlier, we get a credit for A Cartoon By Robert Smigel that ends up not even airing tonight, presumably due to the show running long.


MONOLOGUE
DAC does stand-up about presidential candidates’ mannerisms

— As always, Dana is making fantastic ad-libs towards the audience’s reactions at the beginning of this monologue.
— I absolutely love Dana doing Bush and Gore impressions, making me wonder what it would’ve been like if the Bush/Gore elections had occurred during Dana’s tenure as a cast member.
— Some interesting out-of-the-ordinary camera angles throughout this monologue, such as all the close-ups of Dana’s face when demonstrating various impressions, and shots of the audience whenever they applaud Dana’s impressions.
— I love how Dana’s now doing a Joe Lieberman impression.
— Dana’s Johnnie Cochran/Monopoly bit is great.
STARS: ****


MAGIC MOUTH
Magic Mouth ass-appliance converts flatulence into erudite conversation

— For a low-brow fart joke, this actually isn’t bad at all. A pretty funny ridiculous device to hide your farts. I especially like the device’s obvious mechanical voice that people are somehow supposed to believe is your own voice.
— Will: “Magic Mouth – it’s like having a professor up your butt.”
STARS: ***


THE DELICIOUS DISH
Margaret Jo & Terry welcome a teacher (DAC) besieged by gang activity

— This always-solid recurring sketch has been appearing so scarcely by this point.
— I like Molly’s stern, humorless delivery of “There’s nothing cartoonish about my religious beliefs.”
— I like seeing Dana appear in a Delicious Dish, as it feels interesting seeing a former cast member appearing in a newer recurring sketch from a current era, when it’s usually the other way around in episodes hosted by former cast members (as we’ll see in a certain popular returning Dana Carvey recurring sketch right after this).
— The high-pitched, soft-spoken voice that Dana’s using here sounds kinda familiar, as if I heard him previously use it in a sketch that I reviewed back when I covered Dana’s years as a cast member. I can’t put my finger on which sketch I’m thinking of. Perhaps it’s the Jason Priestley ice skating cold opening, where Dana played Scott Hamilton?
— Dana going on about the urban juvenile gang who terrorizes his neighborhood is very funny, especially when he starts getting worked up when talking about how he’s going to get even with the gang.
STARS: ****


CHURCH CHAT
Hillary Clinton (ANG), Anne Heche (CHK), Eminem (CHP)

— Always great to see this sketch return.
— A hilarious Indian analogy that Church Lady makes in regards to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s relationship, especially the line about Bill getting his “peace pipe” smoked.
— Kattan reprises his Anne Heche impression for the first time since way back in season 22 when he played her opposite Mark McKinney as Ellen DeGeneres, just to show you how long ago it was.
— I love Church Lady’s dig at Heche’s infamous wandering incident.
— The “Taco or wiener?” part of the Church Lady/Anne Heche interview has always stuck in my memory since this originally aired.
— Church Lady’s facial reaction to a profanity-filled clip being played of an Eminem song is priceless.
— Great ending with Church Lady doing a “The Real Slim Shady”-esque number, complete with Church Lady lookalikes surrounding her.
STARS: ****


HUNTING
George (DAC) seeks gravitas in George W. (WIF) Bush during a hunting trip

— I love that we get two appearances tonight from Dana and Will’s Bushes, this one being more in a similar vein to the cold opening that Dana and Will did as the Bushes in the preceding season’s Christopher Walken episode. Will’s Bush impression has really improved since then.
— I like that we get a return of the Bush-Sr.-slapping-Bush-Jr. gag from the last Bushes sketch with Will and Dana.
— A good dark bit with Bush Sr. contemplating shooting his son.
— SNL would later replace this sketch in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which has a memorable blooper in which Dana fake-slaps Will at a much earlier point in the sketch than he was supposed to, causing Will to react by moving his head upward in a comically confused manner, before ad-libbing a line to Dana, in character: “You tried to hit me?”, which Dana responds to, in character, with “Thought I saw a fly there.” Then later in the sketch when Dana fake-slaps Will when he’s supposed to, Dana ad-libs in character, in a stern manner, “Now that time, it wasn’t a fly!”
STARS: ****


BAHA MEN
going to commercial, Baha Men [real] perform “Who Let The Dogs Out”

— Um… ooooookay.
— At least this shows that SNL is still trying different things with their format this many decades into their run.


WEEKEND UPDATE
Anna Nicole Smith (MOS) outlines her university’s gold-digging curriculum
opinion-gauger Adam McKay [real] comes off as a dangerous stranger
Robert DeNiro [real] responds to JIF’s review of Meet The Parents

— Parnell’s now doing the voice-over intro for Update, after the voice-over intro in the previous two Updates this season were done by a male with an unidentifiable voice.
— Tina’s doing tonight’s Update without her glasses, which I remember being an odd sight even at the time, considering the only two Updates that we had seen Tina do prior to this had her with glasses, but it ESPECIALLY comes off as an odd sight when re-watching this nowadays, after being so familiar with Tina doing Update with glasses for SIX SEASONS.
— I like Jimmy’s various jokes about a bulge that Al Gore is sporting in a picture.
— Molly doing a very typically Molly Shannon-esque “impression” of Anna Nicole Smith. Blah. I found this “impression” of hers a lot more tolerable in pre-taped form in that great Fanatic piece from the preceding season’s Ben Affleck episode. In tonight’s live Update commentary, all that Molly’s Anna Nicole impression is making me do is wonder two things to myself: 1) why couldn’t Molly have left with Cheri, and 2) exactly how many more episodes do I have left until Molly mercifully leaves mid-season? It’s been pretty rough watching her go downhill these last few seasons.
— Tina’s whole rant about French whores is great, and I remember made me wonder back when this originally aired if Tina was the writer behind the great Old French Whore sketch from season 23’s Garth Brooks episode. As we know now, she indeed was.
— Interesting sudden use of a drop-down news screen behind Jimmy and Tina.
— SNL writer Adam McKay gets his own remote segment.
— Good remote segment from McKay so far, especially him trying to lure kids into his van.
— UCB’s Matt Walsh makes a funny appearance as an angry parent kicking McKay’s ass.
— Adam McKay, to Matt Walsh, regarding the kids: “I just want them to go in my van so I can film them talking about Bush!”
— A Robert DeNiro cameo, back when Robert DeNiro appearances on SNL still had a level of excitement.
— More interesting camera angles tonight, with the odd tight close-ups of Jimmy and DeNiro, respectively, at the beginning of DeNiro’s cameo (the last two above screencaps for this Weekend Update). SNL’s been doing a lot of experimenting with camera angles in tonight’s episode.
— I like Tina saying “You are on your own” when Jimmy asks her for help during DeNiro’s tense grilling of him.
— This DeNiro commentary is a prototypical example of how corny and tired a lot of SNL’s “a celebrity walks on and confronts a cast member who impersonates them” trope tends to be. There have been some examples where that trope actually worked well and provided good entertainment, but I can’t say this is one of them, in my opinion. Jimmy is coming off pretty charming in his reactions, though, especially after DeNiro signs off for him by saying “And I’m Jimmy Fallon” in a hokey, high-pitched voice. Am I remembering correctly that on Jimmy’s very first episode as host of Late Night, he and that night’s first guest, DeNiro, did a comedy bit that seemed to be based on this Update cameo of his, in which Jimmy and DeNiro read scripted lines as each other, with Jimmy doing his typical DeNiro impression and DeNiro using the same hokey, high-pitched voice that he imitated Jimmy with in tonight’s Update?
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sleepwalker”


VH1 VOGUE FASHION AWARDS
stars celebrate style superlatives

— Yikes, poor Jerry Minor, flubbing his first line in this sketch when trying to say the name Cuba Gooding Jr. SNL would later replace this portion of the sketch in reruns with the dress rehearsal version.
— Maya’s Macy Gray impression is spot-on and funny.
— I like Kattan’s take on Dylan McDermott, especially him asking us to stare at his “package”.
— Tracy as a loud Samuel L. Jackson is cracking me up.
— A lot of then-recent SNL hosts and musical guests are being impersonated in this sketch: Cuba Gooding Jr., Macy Gray, Dylan McDermott, Sting…
— Rachel is hilarious in her impression of Cheb Mami during the Sting performance.
— A spot-on Sting impression from Jimmy.
— I can’t really judge the accuracy of Dana’s impression of Survivor’s Rudy Boesch, as I’ve never been a Survivor watcher, though I remember seeing a clip or two of Rudy back then on other shows. Dana’s performance is making me laugh here, though, plus I like the Super Fans-esque Chicago accent he’s using, which makes me wonder what it would’ve been like if Dana had played one of the Super Fans back when he was a cast member.
STARS: ***


PET CHICKEN SHOP
Ching Change receives financing for his Broadway play about chickens

 

— OH. NO.
— Why, why, why did Dana have to bring back this wretched character tonight? I don’t need to be reminded of how miserable it was for me to review these sketches back when I covered Dana’s first few seasons as a cast member.
— A cue card has made an accidental onscreen cameo just now (screencap below), which is somehow more interesting than the sketch itself is.

— This feels like Horatio’s first appearance all night. Man, his airtime has been pretty terrible so far this season.
— Horatio’s incredibly hammy, over-the-top performance is cracking me up in spite of myself. Dana can be seen cracking up at him at one point too.
— Oh, no, and now to make this already-awful Ching Change sketch even worse, we get that “Tomorrow” song from Annie that I despise with a fiery passion.
— The change of pace towards the end, showing a Broadway play starring chickens, is kinda funny, I admit.
— Aaaaaand my goodwill from the above Broadway chicken play bit immediately gets soured by Dana breaking out into that “Tomorrow” song AGAIN, as if hearing that song once in this sketch wasn’t bad enough.
— This has the dishonor of being the first sketch all season that I’m giving a rating under three stars to, though it’s certainly impressive that this season made it this long without having a sketch rated 1-2 stars by me.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hand Me Down”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As expected, a solid episode with Dana Carvey as a host, though the episode’s quality gradually trailed off a little in the post-Update half. The first half of the show, minus the Magic Mouth commercial (which was still good), had an impressive long string of sketches that got a 4-star rating from me. Season 26 continues to do very well so far.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Charlize Theron. This is a very special episode for me, as it’s the very first episode I ever did a review of, back when I regularly did reviews of new SNL episodes right after they aired, for 14 long years. (Those reviews are archived at this site.)

Posted on

October 26, 1996 – Dana Carvey / Dr. Dre (S22 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LARRY KING LIVE
Ross Perot (DAC) & other third-party candidates

— Feels very odd to see Will playing Larry King, especially knowing that Norm takes over the impression later this season and would do a definitive take on him.
— A welcome sight to see Dana’s Ross Perot impression back.
— Will’s Larry King impression is reminding me a lot of Kevin Nealon’s impression of him.
— A funny bit from Perot about how we all love the visual of dictators.
— Hmm, Mark playing an insignificant role who’s lines always get cut off by a more popular performer. Sadly, this is unintentionally a spot-on representation of Mark’s time on the show this season.
— Chris playing a candidate from the Female Circumcision Party is really funny.
— While Dana’s Perot is making me laugh as usual and is selling this as best as he can, this cold opening is going on pretty long for something that’s thin on material.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
DAC & his recurring characters sing “I Like To Be These People For You”

— Wow, that has to be THE longest ending note the SNL Band has ever played at the end of an episode’s theme music.
— I like Dana saying “I got wig hair, man!” when pointing out how unkempt his hair looks from the quick change he went through between the cold opening and monologue.
— Dana’s doing such a great job making funny little ad-libbed asides towards the audience. I had forgotten how great he is at improvising like that.
— A funny “I’m in denial” aside from Dana right after he claims he’s hosting because he currently has a hit show on ABC that follows Home Improvement.
— I absolutely love Dana’s song featuring various popular SNL characters and impressions of his. Very fun.
— The song gets even funnier when it gets to the point where Dana starts falsely claiming that among his SNL characters are Mr. Uneven Sideburns (a non-existent character), Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat, and Cheri’s Cheerleader character.
— Wow, what a visual of Dana dancing with all of his characters.  Impressive special effects on SNL’s part.
STARS: ****½


HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
George Michael (DAC) & Joseph Hazelwood (MAM)

— Not excited to see this sketch become recurring.
— At least we get the return of Dana’s George Michael impression. Interesting seeing his George Michael have a more modernized look compared to the 80s version of George Michael that Dana used to always play.
— Boy, Jim seems to be going PARTICULARLY heavy on the goat-braying sounds in tonight’s installment. Sorry, Jim, but it’s not making this tepid material any funnier.
— Some laughs from George Michael going on about the power of his butt.
— A big laugh from Goat Boy biting into George Michael’s butt when hearing a high-pitched tone from it.
— A wild, out-of-control melee with Goat Boy going nuts with the prod that he snatches away from the scientists. Decent way to end this sketch. That ending and the aforementioned bit with Goat Boy biting into George Michael’s butt are ALMOST enough to save this entire sketch.
STARS: **½


THE BARBARA WALTERS SPECIAL
Elizabeth Dole (ANG) lauds her husband

— An interesting Ana Gasteyer showcase.
— I love Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ delivery of “Will somebody get me a towel? I’ve just been doused with a bucket of southern comfort!”
— Cheri’s Barbara Walters is developing more and more into the version that SNL fans today are familiar with.
— Ana’s Elizabeth Dole trying to get more and more comfortable throughout the interview (slipping into fuzzy bunny slippers, unbuttoning her skirt, drinking beer, etc.) is providing pretty good laughs. This sketch is a solid early use of Ana.
STARS: ***½


BROKAW PRE-TAPES
Tom Brokaw (DAC) pre-tapes news to cover Gerald Ford death contingencies

— A very popular SNL sketch, one that I hear was originally performed on Dana’s short-lived ABC show.
— There’s Dana-as-Tom-Brokaw’s first utterance of a line that would be ingrained into the brain of hardcore SNL fans: “Gerald Ford dead today…”
— The increasingly outlandish death scenarios for Gerald Ford are priceless. Some of my favorite Ford death scenarios are overdosing on crack cocaine, eaten by wolves, and strangled to death by Richard Nixon’s corpse.
— During the aforementioned “eaten by wolves” part, I love Brokaw adding in the detail “He was delicious”, then when Brokaw questions why he said that, the off-camera director responds “He’s a former president, Tom. What are you saying, he’s not delicious?”
— The director telling Brokaw “Fine, we’ll get Stone Phillips to do it” reminds me that SNL would later do a sketch in a bit of a similar vein to this with Rob Lowe as Stone Phillips taping various intros for Dateline NBC.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Joe Blow talks about decadent behavior he witnessed in Yankee Stadium

— A rare miss for an O.J. joke from Norm. I’m not even sure how this particular one was even supposed to be funny.
— Joe Blow makes his first appearance of the season.
— Did Colin lose weight since season 21? He looks thinner here.
— As always, some really funny ranting from Joe Blow. I especially love him detailing the odd way he and his brothers used to eat hot dogs when they were kids.
— Okay, we now get a better O.J. joke from Norm.
— I like the oddly awkward way tonight’s Update ended, as if Norm was surprised this was the end of Update.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Been There Done That”


CHURCH CHAT
Church Lady judges O.J. Simpson (TIM) & Madonna (MOS)

— Church Lady makes her SNL return for the first time since Dana publicly announced his retirement of her on SNL in February 1991. Feels nice to be able to review a Church Chat sketch for the first time since season 16.
— Fun to see Church Lady interviewing more modern (for 1996) celebrities, which is something that’s always interesting to see whenever Dana brings this sketch back in his post-cast member days.
— Decent song at the end.
STARS: ****


BOB DOLE’S TIME TUNNEL
the future visits young Bill Clinton (DAC)

— Fantastic concept. I love the idea of this sketch.
— Wow, it feels weird seeing Dana playing Bill Clinton on SNL.
— Hilarious visual of Norm’s Dole dressed as a hippie.
— Interesting seeing Dana’s young Clinton and Darrell’s modern Clinton side-by-side.
— Funny ending with a callback to Chris’ Female Circumcision Party candidate character from the cold opening.
STARS: ****


HALLOWEEN
Rita Delvecchio receives trick-or-treaters & battles Halloween pranksters

— I always like this Rita Delvecchio character. There’s a realistic, slice-of-life aspect to her that I enjoy.
— A meta turn, with two trick-or-treaters dressed as SNL’s Spartan Cheerleaders, which shows what a huge part of pop culture those two characters had become. This portion of the sketch gets even more meta with Cheri’s Rita saying in regards to the Cheerleaders “If I see that freakin’ skit one more time, I’m gonna put my foot through the TV”, echoing the complaints of some SNL fans (including myself).
— The Madonna bit is pretty funny.
STARS: ***


JOHNNY CARSON AND PHIL DONAHUE: THE RETIREMENT YEARS
retirees Phil Donahue (DAH) & Johnny Carson (DAC) look for latter’s keys

— A fun use of Dana’s Johnny Carson and Darrell’s Phil Donahue, and it’s interesting seeing them in a normal setting, outside of their usual talk shows.
— As usual, some great run-on ranting from Darrell’s Donahue.
STARS: ****


RUSSELL & TATE
attorneys Russell (TIM) & Tate (TRM) have the means to get you your money

— Nice to see Tim and Tracy paired together for the very first time. This is also Tracy’s very first really meaty role in a live sketch.
— Some really funny lines from Tim and Tracy regarding how they’re gonna “git’cho money”.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first strong episode of the season. This was as solid and fun as a Dana Carvey episode can be expected to be. Almost every single sketch was enjoyable, several were great, and one was a true classic (Brokaw Pre-Tapes). Even the weakest sketch, Hey Remember The 80’s, was slightly more tolerable than the usual installments of it.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Pullman)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
The second of five consecutive episodes hosted by a former cast member. This time, it’s Chris Rock, with special guest Dana Carvey (yes, you read right).

Posted on

October 22, 1994 – Dana Carvey / Edie Brickell (S20 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A MESSAGE FROM GEORGE BUSH
from Houston, George Bush [real] starts show as a favor to his friend DAC

— A huge deal for SNL to get an appearance from a former president.
— Bush is coming off as a great sport here, and there’s a lot of laughs from his statements, made even funnier by his deadpan delivery.
— I particularly like the line about how if sketches get too long, he’ll flip over to Tales from the Crypt.
— A rare occurrence of a Don Pardo-delivered “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
George Bush [real] to DAC- “your impression of me is too exaggerated”

— Great how Dana is entering as Bush. I’m a sucker for hosts doing their monologue in character as someone.
— As expected, Dana’s Bush is doing lots of fun things here.
— Solid exchanges between Dana and the real Bush. Even though this is featuring the cliched “celebrity talks like their impersonator while complaining that they sound nothing like their impersonator” trope, there’s enough goodwill towards this Bush appearance that the trope is coming off charming, and it’s helped by Bush’s aforementioned deadpan delivery.
— Dana briefly breaks out into his Church Lady voice, which reminds me that there would be no Church Chat sketch tonight, I’m assuming because Church Lady was still retired after the Misery II sketch from the season 16 Roseanne Barr-hosted episode. It appears that Dana would end up officially un-retiring Church Lady sometime after tonight’s episode, as all of his future hosting stints feature a Church Chat sketch.
— Speaking of recurring Dana Carvey characters we surprisingly won’t be seeing tonight, there’s also no Wayne’s World sketch, despite the fact that Mike is still in the cast. I wonder if the reason for Wayne’s World’s absence is because of the alleged feud going on at the time between Dana and Mike, which started sometime during the filming of Wayne’s World 2.
STARS: ****


VIRTUAL REALITY BOOKS
Virtual Reality Books are a poor use of technology, but (MMK) loves them

— I got a big laugh from “Call me Ishmael” being divided into two pages.
— Michael’s overexcitement over such a useless product is funny.
— Overall, this was better than I had remembered it, though I wish they went further with the downsides of the cheapness of mid-90s technology.
STARS: ***


THE SIMPSON TRIAL
Johnny Carson (DAC) cross-examines witnesses in the O.J. Simpson trial

— Fun topical use of Dana’s Johnny Carson impression.
— I can’t help but grit my teeth a bit seeing Michael do an Ed McMahon/Robert Shapiro hybrid. The only thing his attempt at a McMahon impression is succeeding in doing is making me miss Phil Hartman even more than I already have this season.
— “LAPD detective Rick Fuhrman”? Isn’t it Mark Fuhrman?
STARS: ***½


HALLOWEEN IN DALLAS
Ross Perot’s (DAC) Halloween visitors include ADS as Crazy Eggbeater Head

— The Dana Carvey Nostalgia Tour continues tonight with his Ross Perot impression now appearing.
— When one group of kids botch their “trick or treat” greeting, I loved Dana ad-libbing in character “Now that is a pitiful trick-or-treat. You couldn’t even get together on that.”
— A lot of laughs from Perot’s berating of the trick-or-treaters.
— I love the way they’re working in Adam’s traditional Halloween costume routine from Weekend Update.
— There’s Dana-as-Perot’s famous “Can I finish?!”
— The exchanges between Kevin and Perot have some awkward pauses on Kevin’s end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Paul Simon [real] perform “Green”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ALF presents some examples of outrageously negative political commercials
Hans & Franz warn other recurring characters to avoid Weekend Update

— Feels weird seeing Al Franken as himself in an Update commentary this late in his SNL tenure, especially knowing how upset he reportedly was that he lost a potential anchorperson spot to Norm.
— The “Kennedy: He’s a big fat drunk” attack ad shown by Al is hilarious.
— More funny attack ads, such as the “She’s a Jew” one and especially the chainsaw-between-the-legs one.
— Norm’s recurring David Hasselhoff theory now finally gets applause, after receiving a mixed, confused audience reaction in Norm’s previous Updates.
— Here’s our latest of The Dana Carvey Nostalgia Tour. Very interesting to see Hans and Franz on Update.
— I absolutely LOVE Hans and Franz calling out then-current recurring characters (Linda Richman, Stuart Smalley, Matt Foley). I’m always a sucker for when different recurring characters collide, even if it’s only by mention in this case.
— Now the Hans and Franz commentary gets even more meta, with Franz (Kevin) telling Norm “The guy who was here before you was much nicer.”
— I love Norm’s running gag throughout this Update with various books having a variation of “O.J. is guilty” in their title.
— The strongest Update of the season so far.
STARS: ****


PEPPER BOYS
master pepper miller (DAC) teaches apprentice (ADS) nuances of the craft

— Very funny characterization from Dana, and even Adam’s goofy voice shtick, which I had previously stated officially ran out of steam during the homestretch of the preceding season, has some new spark here.
— I love the way Dana is presenting the art of pepper grinding. His seductive actions towards Tim are especially hilarious.
— Such a great sketch so far. Feels like something that would’ve aired a few seasons earlier. In fact, I used to feel this was, in some ways, a sister sketch to the Italian Restaurant sketch from Kirstie Alley’s season 17 episode. Maybe because both sketches use the same restaurant set, both star Dana doing an Italian accent, and both have a raunchy sexual theme.
— When showing off a new pepper dispenser, I love Michael’s delivery of “How about that, huh? Ha ha! You’re both fired.”
STARS: ****½


64TH ANNUAL NOBEL PRIZE AWARDS
Nobel Prizes are awarded in a star-studded, televised extravaganza

— As I often say, SNL usually has a bad track record with award show sketches. The dull subject matter of this particular sketch isn’t making me any more excited for it.
— Is this opening song with Michael’s Tom Skerritt ever going to end? It’s going on way too long for something that contains no apparent humor.
— Dana’s Garry Shandling impression is a hoot.
— No comment about Jay’s brownface Indian routine.
— Michael in two different live roles? Fast costume change. Then again, this insufferable sketch is certainly long enough for a cast member to have time for a costume change.
— Not sure how I feel about Laura’s Paula Poundstone impression. At least she’s actually being given something comedic to do, though, for the first time since the season premiere.
— Oh, great, more stereotypical middle-eastern accents, with Chris Elliott now being dragged into this.
— The “John Denver is dead” announcement comes off as a case of Harsher in Hindsight, considering Denver’s untimely real-life death just a few years later.
— Finally, this sketch is over. As awful and long as this was, it’s sadly still not the worst nor longest awards show sketch this season would have to offer (hint: Deion Sanders).
STARS: *½


BAND SHOT
going to commercial, G.E. Smith [real] & doppelganger (ADS) play guitar


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Tomorrow Comes”


MADE UP STORIES
(TIM) shamelessly makes up excuses to avoid getting in trouble at work

— A good laugh from the reveal that Tim’s dramatic, tragic drive-by story was just fabricated to get himself out of trouble.
— Ehh, now this is just repeating the same joke over and over. Tim’s performance is good, though.
— Okay, I did get a big laugh just now from Tim’s definition of hypoglycemic: “’Hypo’ means ‘make’, ‘glycemic’ means ‘stuff up’.”
— Didn’t care for the fourth wall-breaking ending with David, and it featured the type of unlikable, aloof, sneering, half-assed performance we would often see from him this season.
— While I’m griping about David, let me just say that I hate his hairstyle this season. It makes him look like a middle-aged man who’s starting to go bald, when in previous seasons, he practically looked like a 13-year-old. He’s aged a lot this season in general, and it’s not just the hair.
STARS: **


OFFICE SPACE
by Mike Judge- Milton’s area gets a roach bomb

— I believe this is the final Office Space cartoon to air in a new SNL episode.
— Wait, is this a rerun? So far, Milton’s opening spiel is pretty much the exact same one from a previous Office Space cartoon.
— Never mind, turns out this is new. Maybe they just repeated Milton’s opening spiel for narrative exposition.
— Milton’s boss always cracks me up. He’s coming off particularly cruel towards Milton in tonight’s cartoon.
— The roach bomb bit is really funny.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A solid episode, even if it started tapering off towards the end. This didn’t feel like a typical season 20 episode at all, but of course, the main reason for that is because a lot of the episode was basically just a throwback to old recurring Dana Carvey favorites from the late 80s/early 90s glory years. No complaints there, though, as I found it welcome seeing Dana and his recurring bits return to the show, especially during trying times for SNL like this season. The best sketch of the night, though, was actually an original non-recurring Dana sketch (Pepper Boys). Also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the episode’s quality started tapering off when beginning to focus on sketches not centered around Dana.
— Tonight makes the third consecutive good episode of this young season. If I had been watching this season live when it originally aired and didn’t know what the outcome of the season would be, the past three episodes would have me fooled into thinking this was going to be a good year, ignoring the rough season premiere. Then again, season 11 also had a misleading streak of three solid consecutive episodes early on (Pee Wee Herman, John Lithgow, Tom Hanks) before being immediately followed by a terrible point-of-no-return episode that accurately set the tone for the season (Teri Garr). Sadly, that mirrors what ends up happening this season.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sarah Jessica Parker, this season’s equivalent to season 11’s tone-setting, point-of-no-return Teri Garr episode. Get ready for what will probably be one of the most negative reviews you’ll ever see me do.