Tag: Drew Barrymore

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October 10, 2009 – Drew Barrymore / Regina Spektor (S35 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OBAMA’S NOBEL PRIZE
Nobel Peace Prize awardee Barack Obama (FRA) adds lottery jackpot to haul

— Two President Obama address-to-the-nation cold openings in a row?!? Also, all three of this season’s cold openings so far have featured Fred, by himself (aside from a small walk-on from Kristen in tonight’s cold opening), addressing the nation as someone. Really, SNL?
— A laugh from Kristen’s smile fading in response to Fred-as-Obama’s lighthearted comment about how easily he won the lottery before her on his first try.
— I found this overall opener to be pretty boring, and I feel it’s two steps back in SNL’s portrayal of Obama, after the refreshing take they had of him in the preceding episode.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
recordings of host’s thespian ancestors indicate a shared verbal cadence

— I like that we’re shown a photo of a 7-year-old Drew Barrymore from the goodnights of her 1982 episode (the second above screencap for this monologue), and it’s also nice seeing within that photo Tim Kazurinsky, a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and the jaw of Gary Kroeger. Seeing this photo takes me back to when I was covering that early 80s era earlier in this SNL project of mine.
— Drew announces that she’s hosted more than any other woman in SNL history.
— Good way to reprise Kristen’s spot-on Drew Barrymore impression from a Prince Show sketch back in Kristen’s first season.
— A fairly fun concept with every movie clip featuring a cast member playing a similarly-voiced thespian ancestor of Drew’s, including Abby getting to do the Drew Barrymore impression that she’s had in her repertoire before SNL. This monologue feels a bit like a variation of the Walken Family Reunion sketch.
STARS: ***


GILLY
Italian foreign-exchange student Gigli (host) & Gilly are kindred spirits

— Where are the glasses that Will’s character wore in previous installments of this sketch?
— Speaking of Will, not counting the Gilly Christmas special from later this season, this is the last time we’ll be seeing him play this character (often cited as one of the very few saving graces of these Gilly sketches). All future installments of this sketch are after Will’s departure, and each have a different teacher.
— Gilly now has a title screen shown at the end of her theme song.
— Continuing the trend of me recently starting to warm up to some Kristen Wiig characters and impressions that I previously hated for the longest time (Kathie Lee Gifford, Target Lady), I’ve actually been finding Gilly less and less annoying with each passing sketch she appears in, believe it or not. I’m still not all that crazy about her, but she’s harmless enough, I guess. The structure of these sketches is still a problem for me, though, because it’s way too redundant.
— I don’t care much for Abby’s mugging at the end of every one her lines. Also, that mugging facial expression she keeps making strangely kinda reminds me of Melanie Hutsell. That makes this another comparison I’ve made between Abby and Melanie’s SNL tenures in my reviews.
— I actually kinda laughed at the twist with Gilly making Drew’s Gigli character explode.
STARS: **½


CELEBRITY GHOST STORIES
Matthew McConaughey (Justin Long) among spooked stars

— I always like Andy’s Billy Bob Thornton impression.
— Very funny Anna Faris impression from Abby. I also love the little detail of her wearing the same dress the real Anna Faris wore in her SNL monologue the preceding season (side-by-side comparison below).

— I shouldn’t be surprised, but man, Drew’s attempt at a Sharon Osbourne impression is AWFUL.
— Justin Long, who Drew was going out with at this time, makes a cameo doing a good-though-cliched Matthew McConaughey impression. That makes this season 3-for-3 in the host bringing along their celebrity boyfriend/girlfriend in a cameo. I wonder if that’s a record.
— Nasim’s brief Charlyne Yi appearance at the end of this sketch is hilarious.
STARS: ***


UNIVERSITY OF WESTFIELD
University Of Westfield Online alums are advised to elide alma mater

— For the first time since the sketch where she notoriously dropped an accidental F-bomb two episodes prior, Jenny finally gets dialogue, though, of course, it’s in a pre-taped commercial. Her only live appearance in tonight’s episode, as a prostitute (*groan*) in Drew’s monologue, had her with no lines, making this the SECOND consecutive episode in which Jenny has no dialogue in any of her live appearances. Like I said in my last episode review, I don’t think that’s a coincidence on SNL’s part.
— Funny concept to this commercial, and it’s being well-executed.
— Jenny’s delivery is actually solid in this, and is providing some of the best parts of this commercial, especially her ending line.
STARS: ***½


LA RIVISTA DELLA TELEVISIONE CON VINNY VEDECCI
Vinny Vedecci hopes host will flash him

— I was about to say it feels odd seeing a female guest in a Vinny Vedecci talk show sketch for once, but then I remembered the very first Vinny Vedecci talk show sketch had a female guest (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).
— Man, these sketches have GOT to stop opening the same way every single time, with the guest saying they don’t speak Italian, leading to an argument between Vinny Vedecci and Fred’s character.
— Ah, we actually get an acknowledgment of the aforementioned tired formula of the beginning of these sketches, as all the regular characters give a guilty look into the camera after Drew says, in regards to the show’s guests not understanding Italian, “I’m sure this has never happened before.”
— Funny angry outburst from Bobby to Drew.
— A pretty good laugh from Vinny Vedecci, after a distraction, continuing his interview with Drew by saying the completely non-sequitur “Speaking of your breasts…”.
— Very funny when Vedecci is slyly trying to get Drew to reprise her famous “dance on top of the desk and flash the host” move she pulled on Letterman.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Eet”


WEEKEND UPDATE
James Carville (BIH) criticizes those who criticize Barack Obama

coin-hoarding Scrooge McDuck (ANS) likes the rise in the price of gold

Maya Angelou (KET) reads a poem to dispel false rumors of her death

— Bill’s memorable James Carville impression makes its first regular-episode appearance, though it actually debuted in a Weekend Update Thursday special earlier this season.
— Bill’s performance as Carville is hilarious, and he’s making a lot of funny comments here.
— Interesting idea of having Andy as Scrooge McDuck.
— I love Andy-as-Scrooge-McDuck’s reaction when Seth points out caviar is made out of duck liver.
— Some funny lines from Andy’s Scrooge McDuck.
— After the Scrooge McDuck commentary has ended, I like Seth pointing out in an ad-lib how plastic Scrooge McDuck’s gold coins sound when they land on the desk. I noticed that, too, about the sound.
— Kenan In A Dress alert. (I surprisingly haven’t said that in a long while, despite Kenan not having given up dressing in drag on the show since the last time I used that line.)
— Kenan seems awfully amused during his own commentary. A lot more amused than I am.
STARS: ***


TAMPAX TO THE MAX TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS 1991
Pete Twinkle (JAS) & Greg Stink (WLF) cover 1991 ladies’ billiards match

— The debut of these ESPN Classic sketches with Jason and Will’s Pete Twinkle and Greg Stink characters. We’ll be seeing these sketches A LOT this season.
— Lots of very fun and solid interplay between Jason and Will, especially with the idiocy of Will’s character.
— Jason’s Tampax slogans are getting funnier and funnier as this sketch goes on.
— I got a big laugh from Jason disclosing, regarding what he prefers in a woman, “I like boobs and teeth.”
— Jason: “Tampax – helping you relax when Mother Nature attacks your slacks…(*holds a very long pause while the audience laughs*)…Tampaaaax!”
— Will, regarding how he got this job: “My father works at ESPN, and he pulled some strings.” Jason: “Speaking of pulling some strings, Tampaaaax!” A perfect way to end this sketch.
STARS: ****½


COOKING AL FRESCO WITH FRAN & PHIL
outdoor venue leaves chefs vulnerable to bird attack

— Perfect casting of Bobby as Guy Fieri, and he’s very fun in this sketch.
— Pretty funny elaborate gag with the birds dipping bread into the marinara sauce.
— The constant bird attacks and “Please stand by…” cutaways are getting old.
— Okay, I did get a laugh from the ending bit with Guy Fieri’s falling skeleton. What made that even funnier is the fact that the top half of the skeleton’s skull popped open after landing, which I’m not sure was intentional.
STARS: **


LARRY KING LIVE
panelists discuss where men put their wieners

— I always have a very meh reaction to seeing Fred’s Larry King show up.
— Very lame conceit to this, with professionals constantly using the word “wiener” as a penis euphemism. In hindsight, this is an early example of the unfunny sophomoric humor we’ll unfortunately be seeing quite a bit this season.
— I’m two minutes into this sketch, and none of the wiener stuff has gotten a single laugh from me.
— I finally got a laugh just now, from Jason’s line about how, on the “doing bad stuff with your wiener” scale, Roman Polanski is “a 9, or a European 4”.
— I got a second chuckle just now, from Kristen’s delivery of her line about how she likes comparing herself physically to famous women who have touched wieners.
STARS: *½


BRENDA & SHAUN
venues for performers Brenda (host) & Shaun (FRA) trace downward spiral

— Much like the well-loved Body Fuzion Digital Short from the last episode Drew hosted, we get a Drew Barrymore-starring Digital Short that’s made to look like video from an old, worn-out 1980s VHS tape.
— Fred and Drew’s performer characters showing up at increasingly out-of-place events and annoying people there is pretty funny.
— Funny downward spiral of Fred and Drew’s characters, and how each stage of this downward spiral is being presented in the typical cheery manner that the earlier, lighter-hearted portions of this short were presented in.
— Ha, is the crow that Fred and Drew are eating one of the same crow props from the Cooking Al Fresco sketch from earlier tonight?
— This overall short certainly pales in comparison to Body Fuzion, but it’s absolutely fine on its own.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Calculation”


BOOK READING
Hamilton (WLF) crashes (host)’s reading of memoir about her time with him

— After Drew’s book reading at the beginning of this sketch, I like Jason’s slightly passive-aggressive line about how people don’t usually read the entire book at a book reading.
— Will’s Hamilton character, my favorite part of the wedding/funeral speech sketches from the preceding season, has now gotten spun-off into his own sketch.
— Every moment of Hamilton’s dialogue in this sketch is funny.
— Drew: “There are so many things you would have to change, I don’t know where to start.” Hamilton: “Start towards the end.”
— I’m liking all the inexplicable comments about Hamilton’s “good” looks.
— Hamilton: “In the words of the black singer, Usher…”
— Funny turn with Hamilton wooing Drew by singing “In This Club” in his very non-melodic trademark voice.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly forgettable episode, but was nowhere near as bad as I had remembered. This episode had more merits than I had recalled, and some of the stuff I hated back when this episode originally aired came off a little better tonight (particularly the Digital Short). That Larry King Live sketch is still fucking terrible, though.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Tampax To The Max Tournament Of Champions 1991
Book Reading
University of Westfield
La Rivista Della Televisione con Vinny Vedecci
Brenda & Shaun
Celebrity Ghost Stories
Monologue
Weekend Update
Gilly
Cooking Al Fresco with Fran & Phil
Obama’s Nobel Prize
Larry King Live


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ryan Reynolds)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Gerard Butler

Posted on

February 3, 2007 – Drew Barrymore / Lily Allen (S32 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

AMERICAN IDOL
judges criticize animals for their poor performances

— Wait, what’s this? Seth IN A SKETCH?!? And in a lead role here?!? During his Weekend Update-only years?!?
— A laugh from Maya’s successful audition only being shown for a split second before getting cut off to show bad auditions.
— Mm, not sure I care for this premise of animals auditioning for American Idol.
— Solid Simon Cowell impression from Jason.
— Yeah, these constant reveals of animals being critiqued by the Idol judges aren’t working for me.
— Why do I hear Kenan laughing off-camera during one of the scene transitions (right after the donkey scene)?
— An unintentional chuckle from the two cats both looking alarmed when a sound effect of meowing cats is played.
— I do like the gag with the auditioning dog’s family of dogs waiting for him outside of the audition room.
— Yet another strong and energetic “Live from New York…” delivery from Seth.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
host’s backstage encounter with ANS follows romantic comedy boilerplate

— Drew sets up her backstage visit by claiming she’s going to take us to the Five-Timers Club, as this is her fifth time hosting, only for this monologue to blindside us with a cookie-cutter rom-com spoof that has nothing to do with the Five-Timers Club. Really, SNL? I don’t have too much of a problem with SNL doing this kind of monologue spoofing rom-coms, but why lie to us by prefacing it with an exciting-sounding Five-Timers Club visit?
— Hmm, I see SNL still has binders with the old circular SNL logo from 1988-1995 (as seen held by Amy in the third above screencap for this monologue). Ellen Cleghorne was seen with that same green binder in the backstage cold opening from the season 20 finale, back when that was still the current SNL logo. I think there’s a later backstage monologue/sketch sometime after tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode where that same green binder with the 88-95 SNL logo is also seen, but I can’t remember which episode.
— Pretty funny lines from Will, perfectly playing the douche of typical rom-coms.
— I like the slow-motion montage of backstage scenes that had literally just happened.
— Am I crazy, or does the look of Andy’s hair keep changing back-and-forth throughout this monologue? (side-by-side comparison a little below) Are some portions of this monologue pre-taped for whatever reason? I’m currently watching the live version of this episode, so this isn’t a case of a dress rehearsal substitution being made in reruns.

— Wait, what? Now this randomly turns into a questions-from-the-audience monologue? This monologue, while pretty funny, is an unfocused mess.
— Ah, never mind. The questions-from-the-audience bit is just a set-up for Andy to interrupt with a Say Anything spoof. Lots of odd fake-outs throughout this monologue.
— Ugh, I see a Target set in the background during the shot of Andy holding a radio up in the air ala John Cusack, which gives away the fact that there’s going to be a damn Target Lady sketch tonight. Didn’t they just DO one, like, 2 episodes ago?
STARS: ***


THE DAKOTA FANNING SHOW
Dakota Fanning (AMP) is mature beyond her years

— Oh, I absolute LOVE how SNL transitions from the monologue to this sketch by having the camera pan over from the home base stage to the set where this sketch is taking place. Reminiscent of what SNL did after the monologue in the season 25 Christina Ricci episode and the season 27 Gwyneth Paltrow episode.
— Boy, Amy sure got changed fast from her appearance in the middle of the monologue.
— “The” Family Guy? What’s with Kenan referring to the show Family Guy as that?
— Kenan’s slow burn facial reactions to Amy-as-Dakota-Fanning’s backhanded remarks to him throughout this sketch are freakin’ perfect.
— Why does Bill’s shirt look so insanely wrinkly?
— For obvious reasons, it’s fitting to have Drew Barrymore play a child actress.
— The tenseness from Amy’s Dakota during the Abigail Breslin interview is solid.
— I love the “Thank you, Catherine” “Okay, you can just call me mom” exchange between Amy’s Dakota and Kristen’s snack-providing character.
— A killer way to end this sketch, with Drew-as-Abigail-Breslin’s bragging about her important upcoming movie role being responded to by Amy’s Dakota saying a casual, fake-gleeful “I get raped in my next movie! Anyway…”
STARS: ****


POISON THERAPY
therapist (KRW) counsels (WLF) & the wife (host) who poisons him

— Interesting facial prosthetics on a poisoned Will.
— I absolutely love the oddball, absurdist, creative premise of this sketch, especially for a sketch placed in such an early spot in this episode.
— Very strong understated performances from all involved in this sketch. A perfect mix of a great premise and great execution by the writers and performers.
— Funny reveal of Will being a model.
STARS: ****½


BODY FUZION
’80s exercise tape has low-impact workout & softcore porn

— A change of pace for a Digital Short.
— Funny random detail of two of the girls being named Donna.
— I love Maya’s aggressive brief shout of “WOO!” during one exercise.
— Kristen giving us an early display of her future Triangle Sally dance.
— So many hilarious little gags all throughout this.
— The recreation of the look of a typical video from an old, worn-out 1980s VHS tape is absolutely DEAD ON, right down to the littlest details like the occasional bad tracking.
STARS: ****½


TARGET
Target Lady teaches trainee (host) how to ring up items at the checkout

— (*sigh*) And here’s our Target Lady sketch that was spoiled earlier in this episode.
— I do somewhat like Target Lady’s subtly disappointed/heartbroken reaction when Jason decides to buy something she really wants that is now out of stock, which I kinda appreciate just because it’s a change of pace from the usual tired dreck we see with Target Lady.
— This was mercifully somewhat short for a Target Lady sketch.
STARS: **


JOB INTERVIEW
hyper job applicant (host) digs a deeper hole following botched interview

— This is a sketch that I recall getting a lot of acclaim from online SNL fans back in 2007, but I’ve also seen online SNL fans in recent years have a negative reaction to this sketch and say it comes off like a bad James Anderson-written one-note Kristen Wiig-starring sketch. In my original 2007 review of this episode back when this episode originally aired (seen here), I didn’t care much for this sketch. I’m curious how I’ll react to this sketch during my current viewing, after what I just said about how wildly differing the reaction from fans in 2007 and 2020 are.
— Shaundra Shart? Is this a sister character to future cast member Mikey Day’s character Matt Schatt?
— Never mind, Drew’s character reveals that she messed up her last name, which is actually Sharpe.
— I love Drew calling Kenan “Grown-Up Webster”.
— Drew is selling her character’s tenseness, hyperness, and antsiness really well.
— Did I just hear Amy pronounce the first name of Drew’s character completely differently from how Drew herself pronounced it?
— A fart gag in this sketch? Oof. As this sketch goes along, I’m starting to get more and more of a James Anderson vibe from it.
— Didn’t care for the ending at all.
— I’m torn on this overall sketch. One one hand, I loved Drew’s performance, she did a great job with the material, some of the material itself was really funny, and the structure to this sketch was interesting and unique. On the other hand, some portions of this sketch kinda rubbed me the wrong way and reeked of bad James Anderson trademarks, and I hated the ending.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Smile”


WEEKEND UPDATE
menacing nanny Barbara Birmingham (KET) is against spanking ban

— Kenan In A Dress alert.
— The debut of a very short-lived and forgotten Kenan Thompson recurring Update character.
— At least Kenan’s playing this particular black female role differently from the interchangeable way he portrays most black female roles.
— I love Kenan angrily lunging over the desk at Seth.
— Seth’s mean-spirited joke about his grandmother dying was odd but very solid.
— I like Amy’s hints at her small chest size during the breast-enlarging shampoos/soaps/lotions bit with her and Seth. However, she almost ruined it in typical Amy-Poehler-on-Weekend-Update fashion by making an annoyingly corny, hammy, cutesy ad-lib at the end of the bit.
STARS: ***½


VERSACE SUPER BOWL PARTY
Elton John (HOS) attends Donatella Versace’s (MAR) Super Bowl Party

— Jesus Christ, they’re still trotting out these way-past-their-prime Versace sketches in 2007? By this point, I had forgotten these sketches were even a thing. After all, the last Versace sketch prior to this was two seasons ago when Johnny Knovxille hosted. Tonight’s Versace sketch also (mercifully) ends up being the final one.
— Maya’s Versace explains her long absence by saying she was in rehab for two years. Meh, SNL could’ve come up with a funnier reason for her two-year absence.
— Somewhat interesting to see Fred’s Prince outside of those tired and formulaic Prince Show sketches, but I’m not sure putting him in a Versace sketch is the way to add new life to this impression.
— They’re even repeating the tired “Hey, where did Prince go?” gag from the Prince Show sketches, though I guess that adds up, as James Anderson is, I believe, the writer of both the Prince Show and these Versace sketches.
— The atmosphere of this sketch feels kinda dead so far, which is further proof of how way-past-their-prime these Versace sketches are.
— Wow, TWO big sketch appearances tonight from the Weekend Update-only Seth!
— Seth’s high-pitched British accent as David Beckham reminds me of Dana Carvey, for some reason. Anyway, Seth’s adding some much-needed fun life to this otherwise laughless tripe.
— Was that a “Da Bearrrsssss” self-reference SNL randomly made just now, with Versace telling the Beckhams that they’re so boring, if they were a football team, they’d be called “Da Borrrreeeesssss” (ugh, what an awful, hacky joke).
— As if this sketch weren’t insufferable enough, we now get a random Horatio Sanz cameo? And as Elton John? (*groan*)
— Horatio is noticeably a little thinner here compared to how he looked in his days as a cast member. As we now know, this is only the beginning of a drastic weight loss that would eventually result in a legitimately thin and healthy-looking Horatio. Maybe getting fired from SNL was the best thing to happen to his health.
— Ugh at that joke about Elton John being a “musical fruit”, not to mention the subsequent barrage of hacky gay jokes about Elton John that these Versace sketches always bombard us with.
STARS: *½


JO-JO THE VALET
at a country club, valet (AMP) woos out-of-his-league divorcee (host)

— Amy playing a character that, in hindsight, comes off as a very Kate McKinnon type of character. After having gotten so used to seeing Kate play roles like this in recent years, it feels odd now seeing Amy play it in an old sketch that I hadn’t seen since 2007.
— Amy’s portrayal of this character is solid.
— Amy as Jo-Jo: “I don’t have a fancy house…or a house.”
— Funny snobbish voices from Will and the sadly-very-underused Bill Hader, reminding me of the snobbish voices they used in that great tennis sketch from the preceding season’s Tom Hanks episode.
— A very odd sketch, but Amy’s performance is definitely making it work for me.
— SNL would later attempt to bring this Jo-Jo character back in an episode later this season (I think the Peyton Manning episode, but I’m not sure), in a sketch where Jo-Jo is a waiter at a restaurant, but the sketch would end up getting cut after dress rehearsal. I think I recall hearing that the sketch can be seen in the bonus features of SNL’s “Best Of 2006-2007” DVD.
STARS: ***½


FIRESTARTER BRAND SMOKED SAUSAGES
pyrokinetic Charlie McGee (host) hawks Firestarter-brand smoked sausages

— SNL keeps the unique and oddball sketch concepts going tonight, as we now get this wonderfully-absurd and creative piece.
— Great callback to a childhood movie role of Drew’s.
— I absolutely love Jason’s performance as this bizarre singer character, a very Will Ferrell-esque role.
— This was cut after dress rehearsal from Drew’s season 29 episode. I’m VERY curious as to who played Jason’s role in that version of this sketch, given the fact that Jason was only a writer that season and wasn’t in the cast yet. The only season 29 cast member I can picture playing this role is Will Forte (and I’m sure he would’ve killed it in this role just as much as Jason, if not moreso), but he’s still on the show by this point in 2007, and I doubt SNL would take the role away from him. Then again, maybe Jason himself was the one who wrote this sketch back in season 29, and perhaps that’s the reason for SNL now letting him play this singer role.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “LDN”


FORMOSA CAFE
Peter O’Toole (BIH) & progenal sot host elegize drinking’s glory days

— Ah, Bill Hader front-and-center as the lead in a sketch. Sad how that feels rare at this stage of his SNL tenure.
— Great to see Bill’s Peter O’Toole impression back, after that very solid Weekend Update commentary he did earlier this season.
— I love the style of this sketch, as well as the interplay between Bill and Drew. Bill also has lots of great lines here. I especially love his line about flashing his “O’Toole”.
STARS: ****


NELSON’S BABY TOUPEES
— They’re still re-running this commercial from the preceding season?


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, despite two typical weak recurring things (Target Lady, Versace), and a tepid American Idol cold opening. A big part of what I admire about this episode is how it tried a lot of different, unconventional sketches (especially in the post-Weekend Update half of the show), all of which worked for me to varying degrees.


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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Forest Whitaker

Posted on

February 14, 2004 – Drew Barrymore / Kelis (S29 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ENDORSEMENT
John Kerry (SEM) doesn’t want bad-luck charm Al Gore (DAH) to endorse him

— Seth’s got John Kerry’s smile down pretty well, but does he have to keep briefly flashing it so often throughout this cold opening? He’s pushing that smile WAY too hard in this.
— A laugh from Darrell-as-Al-Gore’s odd delivery of “IIIIIIIII’ve decided to suppoooort yoooouuuu.”
— The “crackle crackle” bit Seth’s Kerry uses as an excuse to end the phone conversation with Gore made me laugh, but it’s a cliched joke.
— Aside from the aforementioned two decent bits (and not even those were particularly hilarious), this overall cold opening did not have many laughs. Typical dull Jim Downey political writing from this period.
STARS: **


MONOLOGUE
E.T. (WLF) visits, as do ’80s sci-fi characters host didn’t co-star with

— Good makeup on Will as E.T.
— Meh. I’m not caring for the direction this has gone in, with characters from non-Drew Barrymore movies mistakenly thinking Drew was in their movies. Lazy premise that shows the writers didn’t know what else to do for this monologue. This probably would’ve been better off just focusing on Will’s E.T.
— Is that an ad-lib Darrell made after stumbling over the word “sith”? Drew seemed genuinely amused.
STARS: **


A VERY SPECIAL VALENTINE’S VERSACE
Courtney Love (host) lays waste

— Blah. Are they going to trot out this Versace impression for EVERY holiday this season? First it was Halloween, then Christmas, now Valentine’s Day. Is Easter next up on the queue?
— This sketch is really going through the motions. This Versace routine is simply past its prime by this point, as is Horatio’s Elton John shtick (though I’m pretty sure the latter never had a prime to begin with).
— I finally got one laugh just now, from Versace’s slam to Amy’s Madonna about Dennis Rodman “boning you sideways”.
— Feels a little odd seeing somebody other than Molly Shannon play Courtney Love.
— The audience is eating up Drew-as-Courtney-Love’s violent outbursts, but it’s doing absolutely nothing for me.
— Ugh, they are dragging the hell out of the bit with Versace repeatedly asking Courtney Love to not smash Versace’s cherished figurines, which I get is supposed to be funny because of how drawn-out it is, but it’s just annoying me.
— Double ugh, now there goes these Versace sketches’ obligatory endless repetition of the word “bitch”. As I said in my review of the Versace sketch from the preceding season’s Salma Hayek episode, “These Versace sketches need to realize that the word ‘bitch’ stops being funny when it’s thrown around so frequently in such a short time frame.”
STARS: *½


JARRET’S ROOM
Gobi’s hot stoner sister (host) appears in dream sequence

— Surprisingly, this is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made all season. I’m glad they rightfully cut back big-time on the frequency of these sketches, after how heavily overused it was in the preceding season.
— An unintentional laugh from how a whole bunch of teen Jimmy Fallon fangirls in the audience can be heard loudly going “Awwww!” after Jarret says he doesn’t have a valentine this year.
— The “pipe” that Jarret is smoking in the fantasy sequence is fairly funny (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch).
— The fantasy sequence is being awkwardly executed, but it has a bit of a charm.
— Jesus Christ, as if it weren’t obvious enough that Jarret’s Room is such a Wayne’s World knock-off, tonight’s Jarret’s Room installment follows up the fantasy sequence with an “I guess it was all a dream… or was it?!? (*sees something in reality from the dream*)” bit, which was a staple of Wayne’s World sketches that involved fantasy sequences. Way to be original, Jarret’s Room writers.
STARS: **½


ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
Charlize Theron (host) gets ugly for acting accolades

— The silly movie clips feel like cheap laughs. Drew is pulling it off okay enough, but I’m still not crazy about the clips.
— Enough with the damn “Pat O’Brien can’t breathe through his nose” jokes. It’s beyond played-out by this point.
STARS: **½


OCTANE
motorcycle movie’s special effects comprise toys & lighter fluid

— Brief J.B. Smoove appearance!
— Kenan’s intense delivery during his brief scene was very funny.
— Not sure what to say about this overall. I got laughs from the fast-paced insanity of this and from the use of cheap model toys for the “action” scenes, but this commercial went by really fast and was kinda hard to follow.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Milkshake”


WEEKEND UPDATE
imprisoned Diana Ross (MAR) contrasts life behind bars with glory days

— Not caring much for this commentary with Diana Ross in prison, and they’re overdoing her “Jail is not like that” statements.
— Holy hell, that’s it?!? Update is over ALREADY?!? Wow, this Update was only about five minutes long. At least Jimmy and Tina’s jokes were mostly decent. Could’ve used a better guest commentary, though.
STARS: ***


MIKE’S BAR
John Kerry (SEM), George W. Bush (WLF), Bill Clinton (DAH) meet at Yale

— We get the debut of Will’s George W. Bush impression, making this the THIRD time in just these past two seasons that the Bush impression has been given to somebody new. Interesting how Will’s Bush is making its debut in a sketch set several decades prior. Can’t remember any other time in SNL history where an important impression of a current president debuted in such a manner.
— Right out of the gate, Will’s Bush impression is coming off as a huge improvement over both Chris and (especially) Darrell’s Bush impressions. Will sounds enough like Bush here, and most importantly, his impression is very fun, immediately making you get onboard with it.
— A good and creative setting of Bush, John Kerry, and Bill Clinton meeting each other in the 1960s, and this sketch is being executed well.
— A great line from Darrell’s Clinton, asking Seth’s Kerry, in regards to Drew’s Hillary Rodham, “Hey, G.I. Joe, why don’t you do us all a favor and jump on THAT grenade?”
— There’s Seth briefly flashing that Kerry smile once again. It’s as if that smile is the only thing Seth personally feels he’s nailed about John Kerry, so he’s overcompensating by relying very heavily on it.
STARS: ****


LARRY KING LIVE
flighty Anna Nicole Smith (host) has lost weight

— Quite a lot of entertainment show spoofs tonight with Jimmy as the host, between Access Hollywood and now this.
— For various reasons, it feels odd seeing Jimmy playing Larry King. I’m also not caring much for his impression. He’s not sounding believable in the role.
— I remember the trainwreck Anna Nicole Smith interview this sketch is spoofing.
— The “biscuit” bit at the end was funny, but this overall sketch just kinda came and went with mostly only mild-at-best chuckles from me.
STARS: **


SPY GLASS
Ian & Zoe point the lens at their own scandalous behavior

— Like the first time this sketch appeared, we get some pretty fun bad puns from Seth and Amy’s characters.
— Seth’s delivery gets better and better with each passing installment of this sketch, and he had a string of particularly funny puns about Diana Ross just now.
— Geez, we get the unnecessary return of Jimmy’s British Pat O’Brien, as well as the return of more tepid “Pat O’Brien can’t breathe through his nose” jokes. Ugh, ENOUGH with this shit.
STARS: ***


THE WORLD OF SCOTT WAINIO
people talk into a microphone-free hand

— The no-longer-on-the-show Jeff Richards does the voice-over intro at the beginning of this, proving that this is a segment that had been sitting on SNL’s shelf for a while.
— Uh… okay, this is certainly something different. At least we’re getting a change of pace for this SNL era. I like the idea of this era doing a short film starring an unknown SNL writer.
— Just when I thought I’d be onboard for this, I end up being very put off by the result. How is Scott Wainio interviewing people with an invisible microphone supposed to be even remotely funny? This feels like a failed attempt at the type of absurdist, alternative humor that I usually love. And why does Wainio keep suggestively rubbing some of the men he’s interviewing?
— Overall, I’m all for SNL trying offbeat concepts, but yeah, this did NOT work for me.
— “The World of Scott Wainio” seems like it was being set up to eventually become a recurring segment (in fact, when this originally aired, I remember wondering if SNL was attempting a new-age Rocket Report type of segment), but we end up never seeing this return. I wouldn’t have minded seeing this get a second shot, as long as it had an actual funny concept, unlike tonight’s.
STARS: **


THE WHITE STRIPES
ostensible crime fighters Jack (JIF) & Meg (host) White just play music

— Poor Chris has been practically non-existent tonight.
— Jimmy, on the other hand, has been EVERYWHERE tonight.
— Interesting concept of The White Stripes as superheroes.
— Meh. The twist with The White Stripes’ self-played superhero theme song being so long that the criminals get away is a cliched gag that I swear SNL used to better effect another time, though I can’t remember when.
— Very weak ending.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Trick Me”


PRINCE SHOW
Beyonce Knowles (MAR) mediates Pink (host) guest spot

— This sketch makes its debut. Kinda surprising in retrospect to see that this debuted as a 10-to-1 sketch.
— While this is yet another damn celebrity-hosted talk show sketch, an overused concept of which I’ve griped about many times, Fred’s Prince impression and the eccentric setting of this sketch seem like they’ll be fun.
— Drew has done a celebrity impression in almost every single sketch tonight. I’m not caring much for her take on Pink in this particular sketch. Feels like she’s just doing a poor man’s variation of Amy’s Avril Lavigne impression.
— Such a spot-on Prince impression from Fred, which makes sense, given what a devoted Prince fanatic Fred is said to be.
— Kenan’s performance as George Clinton is kinda making me laugh.
— All the oddball little segments Prince does throughout this are amusing and entertaining.
— I believe we’ve gotten our very first “Kenan reacts” moment in SNL history, when the camera does a brief cutaway to Kenan’s George Clinton speechlessly staring in confusion at Prince’s odd mask routine (screencap below).

— Overall, a good debut for this sketch. I personally feel this should’ve stayed a one-off. IIRC, the subsequent installments of this sketch don’t offer anything particularly new or exciting, and the concept gradually wears thin.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blah episode. There were way too many things that I didn’t care for in this episode, particularly in the first half of the show, in which I didn’t give ANYTHING a passing rating. Overall, I’m sure I’ll go on to remember absolutely nothing about this episode, aside from the Mike’s Bar sketch.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Megan Mullally)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christina Aguilera

Posted on

October 13, 2001 – Drew Barrymore / Macy Gray (S27 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

SECRET LOCATION
from Afghanistan, army-of-one Dick Cheney (DAH) tells how he’ll win war

— A good way for SNL to address Dick Cheney’s mysterious disappearance from the public during the 9/11 craziness going on at the time.
— Great reveal from Darrell’s Cheney of him being a one-man Northern Alliance.
— Another good reveal, this time of Cheney having a bionic ticker for his heart.
— I love the maniacal laughing face that Darrell keeps doing as Cheney throughout this.
— A very funny “The beard’s goin’!” message from Cheney to Osama Bin Laden.
— Overall, much like the Bush cold opening in the last episode, this was a solid balance of both comedy and patriotism that the nation needed.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host overcame her fears of terrorism to do SNL; Tom Green cameo

— An interesting anecdote from Drew detailing the timeline of her constantly changing mood towards hosting SNL so soon after 9/11, especially when she talks about the panic that had happened at the show earlier this week with anthrax being discovered in 30 Rock, which led to Drew initially walking out on the show and contemplating dropping out as this week’s host. Man, I remember what a crazy week that was for SNL. There were so many articles and discussions online about what the hell is going to happen to that weekend’s SNL episode. Nobody knew what desperate measures SNL might have to take under both the anthrax situation and the Drew-walking-out-on-the-show situation. At one point, there were sources that said SNL may have to resort to doing that weekend’s episode without a studio audience… and I’ll be honest, I remember part of me actually got kinda eager and excited when hearing that, as it made me very curious to witness what a live SNL episode would be like with no studio audience. (Actually, that just might end up happening soon in SNL’s current season, considering a certain pandemic we’re now dealing with.)
— Very nice how Drew is commending the bravery of both herself and the studio audience for being here tonight.
— All I’ll say about Tom Green’s cameo is that, if SNL had to put him in tonight’s episode, then giving him a brief, wordless appearance in a harmless cutaway to the audience was the right way to go.
— An overall simple and (mostly) non-comedic monologue, but one that was also heartfelt, endearing, and actually kinda important, given the circumstances. This also kinda felt like a monologue that I can see appearing in SNL’s early eras (the 70s and early-to-mid 80s), back in the days before it was a requirement for monologues to have a big comedic conceit.
— Not sure if this is true, but I recall once hearing that the dress rehearsal version of this monologue was completely different and did have a comedic conceit, with Will appearing as a bizarre white-haired character.
STARS: ***½


CROSSING OVER WITH JOHN EDWARD
John Edward’s (WIF) cold readings have low success rate

— I remember how excited I was at the time for SNL to finally spoof this John Edward show, as I used to occasionally watch his show at the time for some unintentional laughs and found the show ripe for parody.
— Between her opening montage photos, the monologue, and now this sketch (plus some of the SNL bumper photos of her we’ll be seeing later tonight), Drew’s been going for quite an androgynous look tonight.
— Will-as-John-Edward’s constant terrible psychic guesses are providing some good laughs.
— I like Edward now starting to get hostile when he thinks Maya and Drew are starting to doubt him.
— John Edward, when realizing that a psychic guess he has just made is way off: “No, no, no, I take it back. That was dumb.”
— I love the way Maya delivered the line “This is incredible” with very understated excitement.
STARS: ***½


LOVERS
in hotel hot tub, Roger & Virginia entice Dave (JIF) to be (host)’s lover

— I love Will-as-Roger’s way of pronouncing “hot tub” as “hah-TAHB”, which would go on to be a memorable trademark of The Luvahs.
— What’s with the bubbling under the water just now, shortly after Drew entered the “hah-TAHB”? Did Drew or one of the other performers… uh, break wind underwater? Jimmy and Drew’s sudden smirking right now would have you think so.
— This sketch has slowly been devolving into a gigglefit from EVERYONE, and not just the perpetually-giggly Jimmy. It also seems that Will is now trying to instigate further giggling from his scene partners by repeatedly going “Uhhh…” in a lost way while Rachel is speaking.
— As much as the performers are breaking throughout this sketch, the dress rehearsal version of this sketch that’s shown in reruns actually features EVEN HARDER breaking, to the degree that the performers have a seriously hard time continuing on with the sketch. On a similar note, Will’s famous cut-after-dress-rehearsal Old Prospector sketch comes from this episode’s dress rehearsal, and that sketch also features a VERY heavy amount of breaking from everyone. I chalk up all these instances of performers breaking particularly hard during this episode’s dress rehearsal and live show to the fact that SNL lost a day of rehearsals due to the anthrax mess.
— Will-as-Roger’s line “Below the surface, there is a frenzy of activity” was very funny.
— As Jimmy is making his exit from the “hah-TAHB”, Will jokingly places his hand on Jimmy’s butt.
— (*groan*) Why do these Luvahs sketches always have to end with Roger complaining to Virginia about his back when they’re starting to make love?
STARS: ***


WILLY WONKA COLLECTOR’S EDITION
DVD of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory has outtakes & cast commentary

— Another early display of a fantastic celebrity impression from Jeff, this time nailing Gene Wilder’s performance as Willy Wonka.
— The EXTREMELY brief clip of Horatio and Drew ends up being Horatio’s ONLY appearance all night, and it was just a pre-taped clip, plus Horatio didn’t even speak or do anything in the clip but just stand there. He ends up being far from the only cast member who gets shafted tonight, as we’ll see as this episode progresses.
— Hilarious scene with Maya as Nelly Furtado performing an Oompah Loompah song.
— Pretty fun small portion of this sketch showing some never-before-seen Willy Wonka celebrity screen tests (an idea that almost sounds like it could be a full sketch in itself, in the same vein of screen test sketches that SNL has done for classic movies like Star Wars, Back To The Future, etc.). Dean’s Sidney Poitier impression especially has me laughing out loud. This is the first time we’ve seen Dean in a while, by the way, making his first appearance since his first episode.
— Tracy’s ONLY role in tonight’s entire episode isn’t even a physical appearance; it’s just a voice-over heard at the end of this commercial, in which he says, in an amused, jovial manner, “Ha ha ha! Order the Willy Wonka Collector’s Edition today!” I admit that voice-over made me laugh for some reason (Tracy is just so damn naturally funny, even in voice-over form), but considering the fact that Will did the voice-over for most of this sketch, it makes no sense why Tracy was suddenly thrown in as the closing voice-over. Did SNL throw him into this sketch at the last minute during the live show because they felt bad that all of his appearances got cut after dress rehearsal?
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“NBC Fall Retooling Preview” by RBS- instant ratings guide Emeril genres

— Our first TV Funhouse to air in this season, three episodes in.
— Some laughs from the NBC execs’ constant desperate retooling of Emeril Lagasse’s troubled sitcom.
— Hmm, all of a sudden, this has started devolving into a string of cheap homoerotic gags, a lazy resort.
— Ha, Gary Condit. I forgot about that scandal until now. That Gary Condit scandal was inescapable on the news until 9/11 came along.
— While I’ve been enjoying this cartoon, it’s going on rather long and some parts are kinda dragging for me.
— I love one of the NBC exec’s monotone cheer of “Woo.” at the end when seeing how Emeril’s ratings have finally achieved success.
STARS: ***


FIRST LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK LIQUIDATION SALE
(WIF) announces currency liquidation sale

— Will’s performance is okay, but the material here isn’t exactly the greatest, and not even Will can enhance it much with his usual sketch-saving abilities.
— More lazy gay-related humor tonight, with Will’s ending line “Oh, and I’m gay. (sarcastically) SORRY, DAD!” I admit that I do kinda like Will’s delivery of that line, though.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sexual Revolution”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Gay Hitler (CHK) makes a brief flamboyant appearance

COQ gives his thoughts on the war against terrorism

Gay Hitler returns as Neil Diamond (WIF) performs “Heartlight”

 

— After leaving the recently-fired Chris Parnell’s old Weekend Update voice-over intro intact in the first two episodes of this season, SNL has now replaced it with a new voice-over from Amy.
— The debut of Gay Hitler. Blah. I just see this as yet another typical, lazy Chris Kattan gay role, not to mention even more cheap gay-related humor tonight.
— A Colin Quinn cameo! I also love how Tina introduces him as “the New York-iest New Yorker I know”.
— I may have had quite a lot of issues with Colin when I covered his stint as an Update anchor, but Update guest commentaries like this where he’s allowed to just rant about a particular story in the news in his usual stand-up style are where he’s really in his element. I love him in this venue.
— A particularly funny line from Colin when talking about the announcement of a Dr. Dre music video attacking Osama Bin Laden: “What are the odds that video rhymes ‘Osama’ and ‘yo mama’ at one point?”
— The return of Will’s Neil Diamond impression! Believe it or not, this is the first time we’re seeing this epic impression of Will’s since the classic Storytellers sketch this impression made its debut in four seasons prior.
— Fun ending to this Neil Diamond commentary, with the song he performs. Even Gay Hitler eventually joining Diamond has a lot of goodwill from me. At one point, Will hilariously ad-libs “Don’t do it, Gay Hitler!”, which sends Jimmy and Tina into hysterics in the background.
STARS: ***½


ACTION TALK SHOW WITH KLAUS VONBRAUNMAN
Klaus VonBraunMan (CHK) welcomes action actress (host)

— Geez, I can tell even from the opening title sequence that this new Chris Kattan sketch is going to be AWFUL.
— The voice Chris is using sounds like a variation of his Jean-Claude Van Damme voice from Jackie Chan’s season 25 monologue.
— The cutaways to a deadpan Dean Edwards doing a lethargic German accent are making me laugh.
— As I expected, this sketch is just plain bad so far. Even Dean’s deadpan occasional interjections have stopped being funny after a while.
— A ho-hum use of Seth Meyers right now, making his only appearance of the night.
— We finally get a genuine funny part of this sketch, with Drew’s character mentioning how challenging it was for her to learn an Australian accent for her movie, after we had just seen a clip from the movie, in which Drew didn’t use an Australian accent at all.
— Overall, all I have to say is, THANK GOD this awful talk show sketch never became recurring, even though I’m sure SNL originally intended for it to.
— I cannot stress enough this season how beyond his expiration date Chris clearly is by this point of his SNL tenure. It’s getting sad to watch him this season.
STARS: *½


WUUB PRIME TIME THEATER
while airing King Kong, TV station replaces World Trade Center finale

— During the opening King Kong movie clip, I got a big laugh from Jeff Bridges’ utterance of “World Trade Center” being very sloppily re-dubbed to “Chrysler Building” by another man’s monotone voice.
— Unconventional use of Darrell in this role. This role kinda feels to me like something that the recently-fired Chris Parnell would play had he still been in the cast at this point.
— Not quite sure what this sketch is going for so far. Well, I guess I kinda “get” what it’s going for, but it’s not doing anything for me.
— The reveal of Darrell and Drew’s “actor” characters actually being the network’s news anchors didn’t really work for me.
— Okay, I got a decent laugh just now from Cheers and Superman stock footage being randomly inserted into the re-done King Kong ending.
— Something about Darrell’s intentionally cheesy, stilted delivery throughout this sketch is starting to work for me.
— Will’s over-exaggerated “heart attack” is pretty funny.
— Drew’s exaggerated, stilted, stretched-out scream of “Kong” results in Darrell busting out laughing, which in turn leads to Drew herself busting out laughing, to the degree that both of them end up basically giving up on the sketch, forcing the ending credits to be abruptly cued up. Given the fact that bad, sloppy, low-budget acting was an intentional theme of this sketch, but also given the fact that there’s been a lot of GENUINE sloppy breaking among the performers in some of tonight’s sketches, it’s hard to tell if Darrell and Drew’s laughing breakdown at the end of this sketch was part of the script or not. I’m leaning towards the former, but Darrell and Drew did make it look awfully real. At least if Chris Parnell had indeed played Darrell’s role like I mentioned earlier, then we’d KNOW that his and Drew’s laughing in this sketch was scripted, because Parnell ain’t one to break so easily.
— Overall, this sketch started picking up near the end (sometime after the fake commercial break in the sketch), but this sketch as a whole is still hard for me to figure, and had a flat feel (even if that was the intention) that bored me.
STARS: **½


WHOLE LATTE LOVE
(WIF) heckles ex-girlfriend (host) & her new lover (MAR) at coffeehouse

— Something very odd regarding Drew’s wig and clothes in this sketch: when SNL aired a Halloween compilation special a few weeks after the original airing of tonight’s episode, one of the sketches shown was a cut-after-dress-rehearsal sketch from tonight’s Barrymore episode, titled “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead”, which was a Night Of The Living Dead spoof with zombies having drunken-type hangovers the morning after a night of eating human’s brains. In that sketch, there’s a short scene with Drew playing Will’s wife/girlfriend/whatever (I can’t remember what). Drew’s wig and clothes in that scene are THE EXACT SAME wig and clothes that she wears in the live version of the Whole Latte Love sketch that I’m currently reviewing. As if that’s not odd enough, during NBC’s later re-airing of tonight’s Drew Barrymore episode, the dress rehearsal version of this Whole Latte Love sketch was shown, in which Drew is dressed completely differently, having a more “butch” look that stereotypically fits her character rather than the traditionally feminine wig and clothes she wears in both the live version of this sketch and in the cut-after-dress “The Morning After The Night Of The Living Dead” sketch. So what the hell happened during the live version of this Whole Latte Love sketch? Was SNL originally all set to do the Living Dead sketch on the air and even got Drew into costume for it, but then decided at LITERALLY the last minute to cut the sketch and instead do the Whole Latte Love sketch, but Drew didn’t have enough time to change out of her Living Dead costume before the show came back from commercial break? That’s the only theory I can come up with that makes any kind of sense.
— My god, this is Ana’s FIRST and ONLY appearance all night, and it’s just a somewhat minor role. Are you kidding me, SNL? Come to think of it, Ana’s airtime has been severely reduced in general this season so far, which, as I said in the last review, is a sign that she’s on her way out. Also, between Horatio and Tracy both being pretty much absent tonight, Ana making her only appearance of the night in a somewhat minor role in the final sketch, and a lot of the remaining cast members appearing in no more than one or two sketches, what has happened to the cast tonight? Very lopsided airtime among them, with Will starring or co-starring in almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH while almost all of his castmates are left with little to nothing. It’s giving the show kind of a weird empty feeling.
— Will’s role in this sketch is really weak, and a complete waste of his talents. His usual ability to save iffy sketches is NOT on display here, which is the second sketch tonight I’ve noted that in.
— Maya’s doing a good job keeping a perfectly straight face while getting paper thrown at her by Will.
— Maya and Drew are getting some laughs from me with their dialogue. However, the Will Ferrell portions of this sketch are hurting this… which, by the way, is a sentence I never thought I’d say in my life. As I said in a review from earlier this season, it takes truly bad writing to make Will Ferrell look unfunny.
— Rachel and Ana’s characters kinda feel like a feminist-themed hybrid of Cinder Calhoun and the Bloater Brothers. There’s some laughs from their portions of this sketch, but I just hate the fact that this is the ONLY thing that such a valuable veteran of Ana’s caliber has been relegated to doing tonight.
— I didn’t care for the ending with Drew getting back together with Will.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Baby”


MY BIG THICK NOVEL BY JACK HANDEY
world-ruling dinosaurs in chapter 315


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I understand that this was another difficult week for SNL, with all of the anthrax mess that happened, but, meh, I was not crazy about this episode as a whole. The first 1/3 of the episode started off pretty well, but the show lost quite a lot of steam afterwards and never fully recovered. Aside from a fun Weekend Update, I didn’t get much enjoyment from ANYTHING that aired after the TV Funhouse cartoon ended, and the show especially hit almost rock bottom with that awful Action Talk Show sketch. Also, as I said earlier in the review, the odd lack of airtime for most of the cast kinda gave this show a weirdly empty feel.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Seann William Scott)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman

Posted on

March 20, 1999 – Drew Barrymore / Garbage (S24 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ACADEMY AWARDS PRE-SHOW
Joan Rivers (ANG) turns demonic during Academy Awards Pre-Show coverage

— After previously doing the voice-over for Joan Rivers being portrayed by a skeleton, Ana plays Joan Rivers in the flesh here for the first time.
— Parnell’s Tom Hanks impression isn’t quite working for me, though I see what he’s going for. I love Parnell, but aside from Tom Brokaw, I never found him to be much of an impressionist.
— Oh, no, not the return of Darrell’s inexplicable impression of John Travolta. Blah.
— Great concept with Ana’s Joan Rivers gradually turning into some kind of demon each time the camera cuts back to her. Boy, between the aforementioned skeleton sketch from the preceding season and now this sketch, I see this SNL era’s not holding back any punches in regards to Rivers.
— Ana is great at pulling this sketch off, especially when letting out one long demonic scream before casually interviewing Tracy’s Cuba Gooding Jr.
— Joan Rivers to Cuba Gooding Jr.: “Your shirt looks like a clown raped Nelson Mandela and they made a baby and it was a shirt.”
— Fun ending with Ana’s Rivers being raised up in the air.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings about the path her life took between her SNL appearances

— Feels like just yesterday, I was reviewing 7-year-old Drew Barrymore in the last episode she hosted way back in season 8, and now I’m already reviewing her as an adult. This shows how far and quickly I’ve come along in this SNL project of mine.
— A lot of excitement from Drew early in this monologue.
— I love that Drew is now mentioning her season 8 hosting gig and how she was the youngest person to ever host SNL, and we’re even shown a clip of her season 8 monologue. It’s also a nice sight to see the underrated Tim Kazurinsky in that clip.
— Fun song about what crazy stuff Drew has been through in the years since her last hosting gig. I often forget about her “wild child” phase.
— Kattan in a whiskey bottle costume reminds me of Gabriel Byrne’s monologue from season 21. Kattan’s whiskey bottle costume isn’t the same one that Fred Wolf wore in the Byrne monologue, though. (side-by-side comparison below)

— Good to see Jimmy’s Adam Sandler impression back.
STARS: ***½


CELEBRITY JEOPARDY
Calista Flockhart (host) & other celebrities perform poorly

— Of all the Celebrity Jeopardy sketches, this is the only one I’m not all that familiar with. I’ve only seen it once or twice, due to Comedy Central strangely NEVER airing this Drew Barrymore episode back in the day when they aired SNL reruns. What was up with that anyway? After all, Comedy Central aired other episodes from this season ad nauseam back in the day, so where was this episode? Was it randomly not included in the package of episodes that Comedy Central received for this season? Or is this another case of Comedy Central somehow losing the tape of an SNL episode (like what supposedly happened with their copy of the Dennis Hopper episode from season 16)?
— Jimmy does it again with yet another spot-on and funny celebrity impression, this time doing a Nicolas Cage.
— Great part with Darrell’s Sean Connery guessing “Febtober” as a month that starts with “Feb”.
— Celebrity Jeopardy gives us another classic category mix-up, with Connery reading “The pen is mightier” as “The penis mightier”, and asking if it will really work on his penis.
— They’re up to Final Jeopardy already? Is it just me, or is this Celebrity Jeopardy installment shorter than usual?
— Hilarious gag with Nicolas Cage somehow losing his podium.
— I love that Drew-as-Calista-Flockhart’s explanation for not writing anything for her Final Jeopardy answer is that “the pen was too heavy”.
— Classic bit with Connery’s written Final Jeopardy answer being “Buck futter”.
STARS: *****


BANANA REPUBLIC
(HOS)’s non-reply to “How’re you doing?” panics Banana Republic employees

— Some pretty good laughs from the employees’ over-dramatic reactions to Horatio being the one customer who doesn’t answer their “How are you doing?” question, getting to the point where the employees press an alarm to clear customers out of the store.
— Will is great as the manager who the employees bring out as an emergency. His rough manhandling of Horatio to get him to finally answer the “How are you doing?” question is funny.
— Will: “They don’t pay me $6.15 an hour for doing nothing.”
STARS: ***½


VH1
Behind The Music- The Captain (Edward Norton) & Tennille (host) reminisce

— Random pre-taped Edward Norton cameo. I wonder if some viewers during the original airing of this episode had a hard time telling that was Norton, considering the sunglasses he’s wearing.
— An overall pretty good segment. Most of this season’s VH1 Behind The Music mini-sketches are pretty enjoyable, though not memorable.
STARS: ***½


THE HOW DO YOU SAY? AH YES, SHOW
Melanie Griffith (host) is obedient

— I like how Kattan’s Antonio Banderas stops Drew-as-Melanie-Griffith’s talking by telling her “Like the doors on Star Trek: shhh.”
— Funny visual of Banderas’ exaggerated amount of pubic hair when showing off his Zorro underwear. That fake pubic hair was actually a last-minute addition on Kattan’s part, who did it without geting Lorne’s approval first. When arriving backstage after this sketch ended, the first words out of Kattan’s mouth were reportedly “Is he pissed?”
— Nothing else noteworthy about this sketch.
— Thankfully, this is the last time we’ll be seeing this sketch for a long while. It surprisingly doesn’t get brought back until THREE SEASONS LATER, where they randomly resurrect it in an early post-9/11 episode (then-newbie Amy Poehler plays the guest in the sketch, which just goes to show you how far in SNL’s future the sketch is).
STARS: **½


TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- Walter Mirisch accepts award & battles cat

— During one of the audience cutaway shots, I love the visual of Burt Reynolds eating a hoagie.
— Ehh, this hasn’t been one of Smigel’s funnier cartoons. It’s still providing some laughs, with the violent antics between Walter Mirisch and the cat, but this cartoon feels a little reaching, as if Smigel had a hard time coming up with material this week.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
eyeing time alone, Bill (DAH) encourages a Hillary Clinton run for Senate
CHK’s running commentary reveals meaning he derives from Cher’s “Believe”

— Darrell playing President Clinton on Update AGAIN? Didn’t he just appear on Update two episodes ago?
— Funny little bit with Clinton’s secret tie signal when talking about always finding things to do when Hillary’s not around.
— This Clinton commentary feels drawn-out for something with little material (even if that’s the intention), but I’ve been getting some laughs. This isn’t one of my favorite appearances of Darrell’s Clinton, though.
— Wow, very rare to see Kattan appearing on Update as himself. By the way, he’s been getting quite a lot of airtime tonight, after suffering a diminished amount of airtime in the second half of this season.
— Not quite sure what to think of this whole Kattan bit. It’s pretty unusual for an Update commentary, though he’s certainly putting his all into this. His interpretation of Cher’s “Believe” has some shades of his DeMarco Brothers character.
— Now we get some shades of Mr. Peepers with the way Kattan is climbing on Colin at the end of his commentary.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Special”


DOG SHOW
David Larry, Miss Colleen, shemale (host) attend canine wedding

— There’s what I believe is the very first Dog Show utterance of the phrase “Maybe I am, and maybe I am”. Meh. Never found that line all that funny, and we’re going to be hearing it ad nauseam for the remainder of Dog Show’s run.
— WTF? Drew as a “shemale” guest?
— Good ad-lib from Will when he has a hard time saying the name of Drew’s character.
— Now we get a questionable walk-on from Tim.
— SNL writer Scott Wainio makes his very first Dog Show appearance, playing a character named…. Scott Wainio.
— The dog playing Rocky Balboa looks drugged and half-asleep during tonight’s Dog Show installment (the second above screencap for this sketch). That dog is nowhere near as peppy as it usually is, which is a shame, as I adore its peppiness. I wonder if that dog was too hyper at this episode’s dress rehearsal, causing SNL to heavily sedate it for the live show.
— Overall, this Dog Show installment didn’t work for me. I usually enjoy Dog Show’s silliness, but they lost me with this one, and the quality had kind of an off feeling.
STARS: **


VH1
Behind The Music- fake Rick Allen (CHP) poorly hides that he has two arms

— Funny bit with the supposedly one-armed Rick Allen being seen casually using his hidden second arm to do things.
— Hilarious visual of Parnell panickedly bolting out of the room when his scheme is foiled.
STARS: ****


ART CLASS
during a sitting, Terence Maddox recalls meeting his wife (host)

— Will makes yet another good ad-lib tonight, this time when he has trouble untying his robe.
— Molly can be seen blatantly and loudly cracking up out of character right now. That’s basically an early glimpse into the annoying corpsing we’ll unfortunately be frequently seeing from her the following two seasons.
— At least they’re changing things up for this funny-but-repetitive recurring sketch, by having Terrence Maddox’s girlfriend appear.
— Good visual of the excessive armpit hair of Drew’s hippie character.
— I like Maddox telling his girlfriend “Don’t be a Yoko.”
— Interesting flashback to Terrence Maddox when he was young.
— A very skeevy but funny gleeful reaction from Maddox in the flashback when he finds out that Drew’s hooker character is 13 years old.
— When being told that he and his girlfriend can’t make love in this classroom, I love Maddox asking if an “HJ” is okay.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When I Grow Up”


VH1
Behind The Music- Fred Schneider (WIF) song titles comprise random words

— Funny performance from Will.
— The little touches with the frequent camera zoom-ins and zoom-outs on Will are somehow adding to the humor.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode. Nothing was particularly memorable tonight, aside from Celebrity Jeopardy and the Joan Rivers cold opening, but the overall show was pretty enjoyable. This episode had a bit of a particularly silly and weird vibe that goes on to become somewhat of a tradition for most of the subsequent episodes that Drew Barrymore hosts (especially her 2007 episode). I always admire that silliness/weirdness in Drew’s episodes (even the times it doesn’t work, like tonight’s Dog Show sketch), as it gives her episodes a fun and unique vibe.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ray Romano)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode, after he’s made a cameo on an almost monthly basis this season

Posted on

November 20, 1982 – Drew Barrymore / Squeeze (S8 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
in host’s dressing room, the cast is upset she was selected to do SNL

    

— A decent laugh from the look of Drew’s dressing room.
— LOL at Eddie’s slam at Tim for working with monkeys and kids.
— Tim, in response to Eddie’s aforementioned slam regarding monkeys and kids: “Be nice to ’em; who do you think is buying your album?”
— What’s this? Robin Duke with actual lines? Wow, I almost forgot what that’s like, given her non-existent presence these last few episodes.
— A reference to Dick Ebersol’s on-camera appearance the previous week where he supposedly trashed Andy Kaufman. As I mentioned in my last review, that Ebersol/Kaufman segment (among other things) is missing from the rerun version I reviewed of that episode. It’s notoriously difficult for anyone to find a copy of the live broadcast of that episode.
— Loved the part where it’s said that a Frontier Gynecologist sketch has been cut, which a disappointed Gary responds to by angrily yanking off the doctor gloves on the cowboy outfit he’s wearing. I like how it’s become a running gag in these backstage sketches for hapless Gary Kroeger to be told a sketch of his has been cut.
— Here’s the arrival of SNL’s youngest host ever.
— Drew Barrymore’s delivery is what you would expect from a 7-year-old on a live TV show. However, it hasn’t been TOO cringeworthy so far.
— Hmm, maybe I spoke too soon. Drew completely blanked at the end when she was supposed to say “Live from New York”, and during that long awkward pause, the theme music abruptly began, THEN Drew finally said her “Live from New York” while the screen did an unusually very slow crossfade into the opening montage. Awkward ending to this cold opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
TIK helps host answer some questions from the audience

   

— Interesting how Drew is making her entrance with Tim alongside her. Between the cold opening and this, they seem to have established Tim as Drew’s chaperone for the night. Did they pick him because he’s the shortest member of this cast (I think even tiny little Julia Louis-Dreyfus is slightly taller than him, judging from sketches where they stood next to each other)?
— Very nice interplay and chemistry between Drew and Tim throughout this monologue.
— The bit with the monkey was a fairly decent ending.
STARS: ***


THE WEB
stops the burglar before he can leave his own house

   

— An okay punchline with stopping a burglar before he gets out of his own house, after the setup of this commercial made it seem like he was robbing someone else’s house. Kinda reminds me of that Sleepy Boy 2000 ad I reviewed in the last episode, only that one was funnier.
— This commercial originally aired in the season premiere, but it wasn’t in my copy of that episode, so this is the first time I’m seeing it.
STARS: ***


E.T.
after Gertie (host) kills E.T., Mr. T (EDM) comes looking for his boy

   

— Here’s our obligatory E.T. sketch of the night (or the “host sketch”, as Susan Saint James worded it in her season 7 monologue).
— Tim as Elliott is perfect casting.
— In that blonde wig, I initially mistook Gary for Brad Hall.
— Drew’s cruel comments about the dead E.T. are pretty funny, especially her suggesting “Stuff him” when the boys are wondering what they should do with E.T.’s body.
— Great inclusion of Eddie as Mr. T, here to fetch his boy “E”. You gotta love the 80s pop culture explosion here, with Mr. T being in an E.T. sketch.
— In response to Drew finally saying one of her lines after awkwardly pausing, Eddie says to her “Very good” in his normal voice, then he and others in the scene start cracking up.
— Eddie to E.T.: “Atari’s coming out with a game about you!” Heh, funny hearing that in hindsight, if you’re aware that that game would infamously end up being SUCH a disastrous flop that a frustrated Atari buried thousands of unsold copies in a landfill. (read about it here)
— Overall, despite some awkward timing issues throughout, I found this to be a pretty fun sketch.
STARS: ***½


VOTE FOR ANDY
GAK announces phone-in contest to decide Andy Kaufman’s SNL fate

 

— Gary receives a strong amount of audience applause when introducing himself at the beginning of this, which is kinda surprising considering how new he is at this point.
— Gary sets up tonight’s contest where viewers will decide if Andy Kaufman will appear on the show again.
— Strange how they picked THIS of all episodes to do this vote-in contest. Now we have TWO unconventional gimmicks on the same night.
— Gary managed to get some laughs here overall.
— I had this same thought when watching the Larry the Lobster vote-in episode last season, but I wonder how they did this in dress rehearsal.  Since they obviously couldn’t have gotten calls from viewers yet during dress rehearsal, what did SNL do for these vote-in segments?  Did they just not include these in dress?
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


WHINERS
Doug & Wendy Whiner decide always-complaining (host) is the kid to adopt

   

— Mary Gross plays yet ANOTHER nun.
— Funny blooper when Mary accidentally gets her nun habit caught in the door and ad-libs her way out of it.
— Oh, lord, here comes the Whiners…
— It IS kinda interesting, though, how this seems to be picking up where the last Whiners sketch left off, where Ron Howard as a doctor tried convincing the Whiners to adopt a child. It’s kinda rare to see a story arc in a recurring SNL sketch.
— I got a laugh from a fed-up Mary quickly paying the Whiners to take Drew home as soon as possible.
— The sketch is over already. Overall, this was one of the more tolerable Whiners sketches by default, only because we barely saw them in this.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Annie Get Your Gun”


SHOULD ANDY KAUFMAN BE ALLOWED ON SNL?
answers to “Do you think Andy Kaufman should be on SNL?”; Ed Asner cameo

   

— Funny to see how polarizing Andy Kaufman is among the general public.
— Wait, was that a mustached Ed Asner I just saw as one of the people being interviewed? (second screencap above) [ADDENDUM: It is indeed Asner. How random.]
— LOL at one guy’s answer to the question being “I think he’s really hot”.
— Overall, some funny answers from some of the interviewees here.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


VOTING SO FAR
preliminary voting says “dump Andy,” EDM says viewers should reconsider

— For the second episode in a row, Eddie oddly wears an open leather jacket with no shirt underneath. Was that a thing back then in the early 80s, or was Eddie trying to make it a thing?
— I like how Eddie made a reference to the famous Larry the Lobster vote-in.
— Yikes, Andy’s ALREADY losing by a wide margin.
— After the audience’s positive reaction to “Dump Andy” being ahead in the votes, I liked the comically taken-aback look Eddie gave the audience before saying “You people are sick”.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
TIK warns Boston Herald-American readers by showing more Post headlines
BRH looks at real-life celebrity couples who could play the Reagans
JOP is sad the NFL strike is over- he liked coverage of alternate sports

         

— For the first time this season, Brad starts a Saturday Night News without wearing glasses. Hopefully, he’s gotten rid of them for good, because I really can’t understand his habit of wearing glasses at the beginning of each SNN, only for him to take them off after a few jokes, and then randomly put them back on after a guest commentary.
— Brad’s long bit about widowed public figures isn’t that great, and reeks too much of the type of dreadful “long photo montage” bits that Brian Doyle-Murray regularly did on SNL Newsbreak last season.
— Awkward moment during Tim’s “Salute to Journalism” commentary, where he mistakenly got mixed up with two of the papers at one point and had to backtrack. Unlike a blooper he made in a Dr. Jack Badofsky commentary earlier this season, this one wasn’t funny and it’s kinda thrown the segment off.
— Tim’s overall journalism commentary tonight was nowhere near as good as his previous one. Some of the supposedly “ridiculous” newspaper headlines he displayed were reaching, and the whole thing seemed to REALLY die down towards the end. The aforementioned blooper didn’t help, either. Also, between this recurring segment and the Badofsky bits, I’m starting to wonder why Tim seems to have a thing for doing Saturday Night News bits where he shows a series of titles to the camera one-by-one.
— Brad’s bit about which famous married couple will play the Reagans in a biopic had some laughs, and a good payoff with the chosen “married couple” turning out to be Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson.
— Joe’s rundown of what temporary televised sporting events we’ll miss now that football is back is funny due to the random clips shown as examples of replacement sports. Rubik’s Cube competitions were really a televised event back then?!?! Ah, the 80s…
STARS: **


BRAIN SURGERY
(JLD) gets the interesting date she wanted by helping with brain surgery

   

— There’s Julia wearing Ana Gasteyer’s future Bobbi Mohan-Culp dress once again.
— Ha, the sudden brain surgery twist came out of nowhere and is quite funny.
— I like Eddie’s various “He’ll never (insert random function here) again, you idiot!” to Julia.
— Wow, the audience is absolutely dead during this sketch so far. I’m personally liking this sketch just fine. Is it too fast-moving for the audience?
— Tim’s meek “I suppose I better be taking you home now” to Julia after the chaotic surgery scene has ended was pretty funny.
— Overall, a decent sketch. Something about this had a quintessential Ebersol-era feel to it. Maybe it was the frantic pacing of the whole thing. I can’t picture this sketch appearing in any other SNL era.
STARS: ***


VOTING SO FAR
MAG tries to help Andy Kaufman’s chances by showing a montage of his bits

     

— Mary rapidly reading off the “Dump Andy” number after carefully reading off the “Keep Andy” number was a gag that Eddie did during the Larry the Lobster vote-in.
— A fairly interesting Mary Gross-narrated montage of Andy’s previous appearances from SNL’s first seven seasons. Considering I reviewed all of those episodes during this SNL project of mine, I’m getting a nice nostalgic feel from this montage.
— Funny part where a section of pictures of Andy successfully defeating women in wrestling matches was followed by Mary saying “Then he wrestled a man” as we just see a picture of a humbled Andy in a neckbrace.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


OKLAHOMA
effeminate Mr. Blunt (JOP) unhappy with high school Oklahoma production

    

— Joe is spot-on in his portrayal of your typical drama queen-esque overbearing musical director.
— I liked Joe telling Gary “You’re an actor; now hold me like you mean it, dammit!”
— This was really missing a good ending. This had a very awkward, underwritten “conclusion”.
STARS: **½


DRESSING ROOM
babysitter TIK lets host dress him in women’s clothes a la E.T.

  

— First time we’ve seen Drew in a while. The last appearance she made was way back in the pre-Saturday Night News half of the show.
— Interesting Mommie Dearest “No more wire hangers” reference.
— That’s it? Wow, this was VERY short and felt kinda pointless. Tim and Drew do continue to have charming chemistry, however.
STARS: **


VOTE FOR ANDY
JOP reminds home viewers that there are only two minutes left to vote

— An incredibly short segment with Joe just telling us they’re running short on time and viewers have only two minutes left to decide Andy’s fate.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


MY FRIEND ZEUS
loser high school student (GAK) gains a powerful buddy

     

— Zeus making Gary say ridiculous things to his crush (Julia) is pretty funny, and the first laugh I’m getting from this whole sketch so far.
— Zeus to Gary: “Let’s go find a real woman, or maybe a goat or something.”
— A forgettable sketch overall, despite a few laughs.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pulling Mussels From A Shell”


SINGLE
career woman ROD says host makes her biological clock tick louder

 

— Good to see Robin getting a big showcase as herself, given how extremely underused she had been these last few episodes.
— Nice slice-of-life quality to Robin’s whole spiel.
— Drew responding to Robin’s idea of watching her own SNL appearances with “I’d rather watch Eddie” was a funny line on paper, but Drew awkwardly stopped in the middle of the line, before pausing and then repeating the whole line, which killed the joke and received awkward silence from the audience.
— Overall, I wanted to like this piece more than I did, but it was still nice to see Robin front-and-center as herself.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS
by a count of 195,544 to 169,186, Andy Kaufman has been dumped from SNL

  

— Gary reads the final tally, aaaannnndd…. “Dump Andy” has received the most amount of votes, and thus, Andy Kaufman is officially voted off of SNL. In response, a lot of people in the audience happily cheer while some of the cast members are seen making exaggeratedly(?) unhappy faces.
— As a huge Andy Kaufman fan, I feel like I should be pissed off by the voting results, but it doesn’t bother me too much, especially since I’m aware he was actually the one who came up with the whole idea of this “Keep or Dump Andy” contest in the first place.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An interesting show as a novelty considering the age of the host, but the quality of the episode itself wasn’t all that great. There were still several highlights, of course, but nothing stood out as particularly strong, and the limitations in the type of humor they could do tonight was very apparent. Despite some flubs, Drew certainly did the best that a 7-year-old could be expected to do in a live sketch comedy show, and there were some fun moments here and there with her. This overall episode was nice as a little one-time experiment, but it’s probably wise that the show never went this young for a host ever again.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robert Blake):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
The Smothers Brothers