Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Karl Malden (JOP) saves host with an American Express Traveller’s Script
— Joe’s random Jimmy Durante-esque delivery of “Ha-cha-cha-cha-cha!” was pretty funny.
— Good “Live from New York…” delivery from Michael.
— An overall decent idea for a cold opening, but the execution didn’t come off all that funny or special.
STARS: **
OPENING MONTAGE
— Eddie Murphy isn’t credited at all tonight. Kinda surprising that they would officially remove him from the credits ALREADY, considering I’m aware they’re not finished airing all the sketches he taped before this season started. There’s, I think, just one more taped Eddie sketch remaining, but I forgot which episode it airs in. Removing him from the credits tonight probably made people think we wouldn’t be seeing him anymore for the remainder of the season.
— Feels weird seeing the credits just go from Julia Louis-Dreyfus to Joe Piscopo, with no Eddie in between. Also, with Eddie gone, Joe is now the cast member who receives by far the wildest audience cheers.
— Despite Eddie’s absence, I’ve noticed Comedy Central’s “The Eddie Murphy Experience” station bug showing up on the corner of the screen at one earlier point in my copy of this episode. If Eddie’s not in this episode, why in the world would Comedy Central air it in an Eddie Murphy marathon???
MONOLOGUE
host follows his dad’s advice & shows a clip from Romancing The Stone
— Nice that he brought up how his father Kirk hosted the show four years ago.
— I liked Michael’s very brief impression of Kirk.
— Ah, a “humorous screen crawl while someone is delivering a serious speech/song” monologue! I love this trope from the original era.
— Ehh, tonight’s screen crawl could’ve gone farther. This one paled in comparison to the Buck Henry ones.
— Wow, that mudslide clip they showed from Romancing the Stone was insane.
— An okay ending with the reveal of the back of Michael’s jacket.
STARS: **½
MTV NEWS
Nina Blackwood (JLD) does the MTV music news
— I admittedly did kinda chuckle at the cheap joke about winners of a ZZ Top contest getting to vacation in the beards of the ZZ Top members. I think Julia’s delivery of that line helped make it funny for me.
— The sketch is over already? Oh, judging from how Julia threw to a “commercial”, I think this sketch was just Part 1 of a two-part sketch that will continue after the “commercial”. Very interesting format break for SNL. Kinda reminds me of what they did with that David Susskind/Buckwheat sketch last season.
STARS: **
FOLDGERS CRYSTALS
hospital patients’ blood is secretly replaced with Foldgers Crystals
— Hilarious random concept with replacing hospital patients’ blood with Folgers Crystals coffee. This is being executed perfectly.
— Much like the “Buddweiser Light” commercial from a few episodes ago, an SNL fake ad uses a real brand name but slightly changes the spelling (“Foldgers” Crystals instead of Folgers Crystals). I’m assuming that’s for legal reasons.
STARS: ****
MTV NEWS
The Garage Band’s (BRH), (JIB), (GAK) video “Look At Our Video”
— Yep, I was right; here’s Part 2 of the MTV sketch.
— I always like the way Julia’s Nina Blackwood says “hhhoottt!” in a whispery, exaggerated tone.
— “The Garage Band”? I wonder if this is an evolved version of the garage band that Jim, Brad, and others played in a sketch from the Smothers Brothers episode earlier this season. Can’t remember if Gary was part of that band or not, though.
— I like how we’re about to see the world premiere video of the band’s “song”.
— The random “Brady Bunch squares” part of the music video was hilarious.
— This whole video is fucking great, and feels so much like an authentic music video from 1984. So much dead-on detail in every aspect of this. I also love how this has such a different feel for this era of SNL.
— Great sketch overall, and the music video portion will definitely go down as one of my favorite moments of this whole season.
STARS: ****½
TV’S FOUL-UPS, BLEEPS, BLUNDERS, BLOOPERS, PRACTICAL JOKES, AND POLITICAL DEBATES
Shelley Winters (ROD) & Kirk Douglas (host) show debate bloopers
— It’s noticeable right out of the gate that Michael is wearing a band-aid on his forehead. I’m aware that the band-aid isn’t part of the sketch at all; it’s actually the result of an injury Michael suffered during a sketch tonight. However, said sketch HASN’T EVEN AIRED YET in my copy. Boy, do I hate how these Comedy Central reruns wildly shuffle around the original running order of episodes’ sketches, especially when it produces confusing continuity issues like how we’re seeing Michael in a head band-aid BEFORE he even cuts his forehead. [ADDENDUM: Turns out the way this Comedy Central version shuffled tonight’s original running order is especially crazy: they basically took the entire second half of the show and moved it to the first half, while pushing the original first half to the second half. What the HELL?!?] We’ll get to the injury-inducing sketch eventually, though.
— Michael’s intense impression of his father Kirk is pretty funny. Shouldn’t he have gray hair, though? I recall Kirk having gray hair when I covered the episode he hosted in season 5.
— I’m still a little iffy on Robin’s exaggerated take on Shelley Winters. I liked her impression better back when it was a little less over-the-top and didn’t rely so heavily on stretched-out syllables.
— The return of Joe’s blackface impression of Jesse Jackson.
— The casting choices for these political candidates seems so random. Little Timmy Kazurinsky as Gary Hart? Brad as Walter Mondale? Maybe the latter only feels weird because I know Gary Kroeger would later do a much better Mondale impression next season.
— This sketch is fucking terrible so far. Really, Ebersol-era SNL? THIS is your idea of political satire? A “wacky”, unfunny blooper reel?
— SNL makes yet another “Where’s the beef?” reference.
— Once again, Joe is nailing Jesse Jackson’s fiery delivery, even if the voice itself still isn’t dead-on.
— Now we’re getting “wacky” whoopie cushions? Ugh, just end this sketch already.
STARS: *½
SUGAR OR PLAIN
(JIB) & (Rob Riley) run high-pressure ice cream parlor
— Weird seeing so many unknown non-SNL performers starring in this, with Jim Belushi being the only cast member here.
— Jim and Unknown Other Guy are really funny with their creepiness as the ice cream clerks.
— I love how insane and chaotic this is getting.
— I’ve been noticing lately that Jim REALLY seems to excel in pre-taped short films. There are also some great ones with him coming up in season 10.
— Pretty strong short overall. Also, this kinda feels like the type of oddball short that Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney would do in recent years.
STARS: ****
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
Wayne Huevos offers solutions to NYC’s vermin, court mess, ugly buildings
GAK gives Romancing The Stone a bad review- his girlfriend liked host
— Michael is our guest anchor of the week.
— I got a chuckle from the Space Shuttle Challenger clip that Michael sets up just turning out to be the mudslide clip from Romancing the Stone again.
— Okay, now they’re replaying the mudslide clip for EVERY news story Michael does. Yeah, not funny anymore.
— Do we really need the return of Tim’s Wayne Huevos character, after how weak his first commentary was a few episodes ago?
— As I was worried, tonight’s overall Wayne Huevos commentary was just as tepid as the first.
— Oh, god, now Michael has gone back to the tired joke of him overplaying the Romancing the Stone clip for every news story.
— Gary’s complaints about Michael are really funny.
— Haha, Gary once again gets thrown over a desk, for the third time this season.
— A bad edition of Saturday Night News overall, minus Gary’s commentary. As I expected, Michael came off weak in the anchorperson role.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”
SOUNDTRACK
(host) goes to a psychiatrist to seek relief from his personal soundtrack
— I like the Twilight Zone music that’s suddenly started playing during Michael’s story.
— Oh, the music constantly keeps changing to tie in with what Michael’s saying as he’s telling Tim his life story of being tormented by music that follows him. Interesting premise.
— Here it is, the mishap that led to Michael’s aforementioned head band-aid: when hurriedly throwing a glass of water into his face just now, he did it too forcefully and unintentionally rammed the rim of the glass cup into his forehead HARD, producing a very loud “conk” sound. Ouch! You can tell by his genuine facial expression afterwards that it hurt like hell.
— And now, as Michael continues on with the sketch (and I give him credit for being all smiles, considering how much pain he must be in), you can very clearly see lines of blood trickling down his forehead. (last two screencaps above) HOLY FUCKING HELL.
— Overall, despite me liking the initial idea of this sketch, it didn’t go anywhere too interesting, and the ending was completely overshadowed by Michael’s forehead mishap.
STARS: **
FOOTLESS
rebel (BRH) moves to a town in which there are no feet
— I like Tim’s fake beard and accent.
— Gary appears to be playing his recurring old man character Walter.
— Boy, Robin is going really over-the-top in this, but her constant face-rubbing mannerism IS making me laugh. Her general twitchiness in this kinda reminds me of a typical Cheri Oteri character.
— I liked Joe’s Frank Nelson-esque “Eeyyeeeeeessssss???” Strange, though, how this is the second time tonight where Joe has thrown in a random old-timey catchphrase from a celebrity he’s not even playing (the first time was his Jimmy Durante quote in the Karl Malden cold opening).
— Interesting use of writer Nate Herman as Kenny Loggins.
— This sketch is getting really fun with the big “Footless” musical number, especially the dance sequence with Gary and Brad.
— Wow, great high jump from Gary just now during the dance sequence.
— An overall good sketch, highlighted by a fun dance interlude (which is something I don’t often say, as I’m usually not a fan of musical sketches).
STARS: ***½
SLEEPY BOY 2000
— Rerun from last season
PRICE WATERHOUSE
Price (TIK) & Waterhouse (JIB) choose who they think should win Oscars
— I like the randomness of Price and Waterhouse’s office door being a huge bank vault.
— Jim’s blunt “He sucked” critique of Sam Shepard made me laugh, just because of how brief the sentence was and how unexpected that comment was for his character.
— Jim and Tim’s ways of choosing Best Supporting Actress at random is really funny.
— Their other odd ways of picking winners of other categories are also funny. I like how this is kinda bringing back memories of Bill Murray’s unusual Oscar-picking method.
— This sketch has good writing and solid performances from Jim and Tim.
STARS: ***½
4 MINUTES TO LIVE
(GAK) endures slow elevator ride after learning he has 4 minutes to live
— Hilarious part with Jim’s cruel “I lied; there IS no good news” line after telling Gary the bad news about his health.
— Yet another pre-taped segment tonight that’s either a short film or a music video. You can DEFINITELY see aspects of season 10 now starting to arise in the homestretch of this season.
— I’m loving the concept of this short.
— Even Gary just simply waiting for the elevator all smiles as his triumphant background music continues playing is cracking me up.
— Ha, the triumphant music has suddenly stopped as a now less-smiley Gary is awkwardly waiting forever for the elevator.
— I like Gary’s panicked yells of “ Hold the elevator!!!” while frantically running towards the closing elevator.
— From the numbers on top of the elevator, I see that this is one of those buildings that superstitiously has no 13th floor.
— I believe this is the first SNL appearance of child actor Frederick Koehler, making this film feel even more like a season 10 piece, as Koehler would go on to be a frequent extra that season.
— LOL, I loved Gary angrily strangling Koehler for pressing a whole bunch of buttons on the elevator.
— Excellent ending with the elevator getting stuck RIGHT BEFORE reaching the first floor, as poor Gary is heard crying out loud off-camera.
— An overall strong film and a great Gary Kroeger showcase.
STARS: ****½
ANNIE AUDITION
(host) auditions 33 year-old (MAG) for a kid’s role in a play
— Tim seems to be getting TONS of airtime tonight. He’s been all over this episode.
— I liked Michael’s angry “If I wanna kill a diabetic, I’ll call you!” outburst to the first little girl auditioning.
— Holy hell at Mary’s sexy lingerie reveal after tearing off her dress.
— Michael’s stiff-legged walk was pretty funny.
— Michael’s sleazy actions towards Mary are getting a little uncomfortable.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wrapped Up”
GOODNIGHTS
— When bringing up how Michael Douglas is known for being a trouper in tough filming situations, Joe hilariously mentions tonight’s incident with Michael “shoving a glass into his forehead”.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty fun and interesting episode, especially with some of the entertaining musical sequences (the “Look At Our Video” music video and the Footless dance number) and the heavy reliance on strong pre-taped segments. While this episode was far from perfect, I got some really good enjoyment from the show as a whole.
— With Eddie Murphy not appearing in ANY form, very little Joe Piscopo, a more experimental feel to the night, and the aforementioned reliance on lots of pre-tapes, a shift appears to have started at SNL that will eventually lead us into the newness of season 10.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Billy Crystal):
— a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
George McGovern