Tag: George Wendt

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May 18, 1991 – George Wendt / Elvis Costello (S16 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
because it’s DEM’s last show, LOM lets him say the opening line

— A good way to announce on the air that this is Dennis’ last episode.
— This is the first time Dennis has appeared outside of Weekend Update since all the way back in season 14.
— I loved Lorne asking Dennis “You’re not gonna come back every week and hang out on the set like Lovitz, are you?”, and then going on and on about how pathetic Lovitz is for doing that. I recall hearing that Lovitz actually got upset by this when watching the show this night. Maybe Lorne should’ve stood on stage during the goodnights while holding up a “LOVITZ- I WAS JUST KIDDING” sign, ala Dennis in the goodnights of the Catherine O’Hara episode.
— Dennis makes a big deal about how he’s always wanted to say “Live from New York…”, as if he’s never gotten the chance to say it before. He must’ve blocked season 11 out of his mind (or took to heart Madonna’s claim that season 11 was a “horrible, horrible dream”), because he actually DID say “Live from New York…” previously, in the Burger King/Herb cold opening from the aforementioned season 11.
— Funny how Dennis’ “Live from New York…” in this cold opening doesn’t start the show, as Lorne just keeps this opening going.
— Very interesting having Lorne be the one who delivers the official “Live from New York”, the only time in SNL history he would ever do so.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host manhandles a lookalike of Queen Elizabeth

— George’s rough handling of the queen is pretty funny so far.
— I like the queen fearfully trying to walk away as soon as George begins talking about wrestling.
— Great camera perspective of the queen being spun around.
STARS: ***½


LIL’ GENERAL FIREWORKS
kids love to have harmless fun with explosives

— Good idea for a summer commercial.
— Pretty funny treatment of huge explosives as family-friendly fun. The explosions of casual things are providing some laughs.
STARS: ***


MR. NO-DEPTH PERCEPTION
two-dimensional guy (KEN) throws a dinner party

— This can be considered a sister sketch to Tom Hanks’ Mr. Short-Term Memory, as the name, opening credits sequence/theme song, and concept are in a similar vein. Wonder if both characters are from the same writer.
— Kevin is perfect for this character and is pulling off this humor really well.
— I particularly like the part with Kevin casually sticking his head straight through the glass window (and not even reacting to it) when checking to see if their friends are outside the house.
— Kinda surprised this overall sketch remained a one-off and never became recurring.
STARS: ****


BILL SWERSKI’S SUPER FANS
Bob Swerski (host) & other Super Fans talk about the Bulls & the Bears

— George Wendt takes over as the new host of this sketch, Bob Swerski, replacing Joe Mantegna’s Bill Swerski, who the show writes off as recovering from a heart attack.
— Much like the last time they did this sketch, we get some funny outlandish Bears scenarios from the guys.
— An overall enjoyable installment, though I didn’t find this quite as strong as the first installment. There would be better ones to come later on.
STARS: ***½


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Retired Man (host) helps Middle-Aged Man battle Independent Widow (JAH)

— This ends up being this character’s final appearance.
— Love the addition of Jan as Independent Widow.
— A funny turn with cookies being Middle-Aged Man’s kryptonite.
— I like how we meet Retired Man, who was mentioned in an earlier installment of this sketch.
— Jan’s screaming reaction to the giant roach was really funny.
— A big laugh from the gruesome blood that results from Middle-Aged Man crushing the giant roach.
— Nice little touch with the roach crawling over the text in the disclaimer shown at the end.
— I like how this overall installment had a more epic feel than the first two Middle-Aged Man installments, involving more characters, more action, and more scenery changes. In retrospect, a nice way for this character to go out.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Other Side of Summer”


WEEKEND UPDATE
General Norman Schwarzkopf (CHF) challenges Evander Holyfield to a match
CSR tells why there won’t be a black vice president

— (*sigh*) Hard to believe we’ve officially arrived at Dennis Miller’s final Weekend Update.
— Farley makes his very first visit to the Update desk, though he appeared in two previous Updates “via satellite” (the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary and the marathon runner commentary).
— A classic turn in the middle of Farley’s commentary, with him suddenly getting up, declaring “I WANT HOLYFIELD! I WANT HOLYFIELD!”, and hyping up a huge match between him and Holyfield. A great early display of Farley’s Belushi-esque knack for playing roles where he slowly goes from calm and professional to worked-up and loud. I’m also loving watching Dennis’ reactions to him. Over the course of this season, it’s been fun seeing Dennis’ interactions with the new kids in the cast.
— Lots of very funny comments from Rock about how we’ll never see a black vice president, because some black guy will just kill the white president so the black VP can become president. I especially love Rock saying how he would have nothing to worry about if he got arrested for killing the white president, because every black guy in prison would treat him like a hero.
— Dennis’ final Update joke is unfortunately a lame “misinterpreting a photo” type of joke, something that he’s been relying on way too much this season.
— A very nice, sentimental, and classy goodbye speech from Dennis at the end, with him thanking everyone he’s worked with at the show and saying he’s gonna miss working here. You can tell by his voice that he was on the verge of tears.
— After getting so used to reviewing Dennis Miller Weekend Updates for the past six seasons (the longest-tenured Update stint at this point in the show’s history), it sure is going to feel weird reviewing a brand-new version of Update next season.
STARS: ***


THE CARSENIO SHOW
Johnny Carson (DAC) borrows from Arsenio’s program

— An absolutely hilarious concept. I love this hybrid of Arsenio and Johnny Carson.
— I like how this is bringing back memories of another fantastic Arsenio parody the show did previously with Rob Lowe.
— Carsenio: “Buddy Hackett is in my house!”
— Good segment with Carsenio breaking down the street lingo he’s been using.
— Phil as Ed McMahon: “That is the straight stuff, o funkmaster!”
— I love Carsenio demonstrating how to do “the wild thing”, while asking “Is this dope? Is this dope stuff?”
— When asked about the whooping audience, I got a big laugh from George’s response being a blunt “The truth is, Johnny, they’re morons.”
STARS: *****


BURGER BARN DRIVE THRU
a family’s order at Burger Barn’s drive-through gets very complicated

— A lot of laughs from George being forced by his family to make increasingly confusing and complicated changes to their fast-food order.
— I especially love Jan as the grandmother, and she has some really funny lines.
— Good growing frustration from George.
— Excellent angry loud outburst from George at the end when putting an end to the madness and starting over with a simple fast-food order.
— An overall very solid and relatable slice-of-life sketch.
STARS: ****½


THE SHINDELLS
lyrics of doo-wop group stray into members’ personal lives

— Pretty funny doo-wop performance from the guys.
— I like Dana awkwardly trying to keep the song going by sporadically adding in melodic “shwop-shwop”s into the middle of his argument with George.
— George to Farley: “Why didn’t you tell me, you fat pig?” Farley: “Hey, you’re just as fat as I am, man!” Other guys: “(singing) Maaaaaybe fatter!”
— Nice conclusion.
STARS: ***½


IT’S PAT
barber’s (host) small talk doesn’t reveal the sex of androgynous Pat

— A lot of characters tonight with their own opening credits sequence and theme song, between Mr. No-Depth Perception, Middle-Aged Man, and now Pat.
— The usual laughs from Pat responding to potentially-gender-revealing questions with gender-unspecific answers.
— I like the mention of Pat having a group of friends named Terry, Frances (or Francis), and Robin.
— A priceless part with George’s very focused brushing around Pat’s chest and crotch.
— This sketch ended a little awkwardly.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on memories of family outings


I’M CHILLIN’
Onski plugs Long Leak malt liquor & You’re That Guy credit

— Quite a lot of airtime for Rock tonight, which is refreshing.
— On a similar note, Farley’s been in tons of sketches tonight; far more than a featured player typically gets. A nice way to end what has been a fantastic rookie year for Farley, by far the standout newbie of the season.
— Great “Mother joke of the day” delivered by Rock: “Your mother’s so old, I told her to act her age and the bitch dropped dead.”
— Very funny photo of a grimacing Don Pardo wearing a trendy 8-ball jacket.
— Rock’s description of the “You’re That Guy” credit is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Like Candy”


THE SUNRISE SHOW
singer of kids’ songs (host) switches to raunchy lyrics

— (*sigh*) Jan Hooks’ final sketch as a cast member. I’m glad they gave her the 10-to-1 spot of the season finale, even if they (I assume) weren’t aware at the time that she’s leaving.
— Ha, is George wearing Elvis Costello’s beard?
— I like Jan’s gleeful singing of George’s kid-friendly songs, as a sample of his work.
— George suddenly breaking out into a raunchy sexual song is very funny, made even more priceless by the way his thick fake beard makes his raunchy facial expressions look.
— Another great turn with the tone of George’s raunchy song suddenly changing to a jolly, kid-friendly melody as he sings about wanting to get a woman to make various animal sounds during sex.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently very solid and fun episode, with no real lowlights. A great way to end the season. George Wendt was a strong host, and was allowed to give even funnier performances than the unique previous episode he hosted.

— This was the final episode for both Jan Hooks and, of course, Dennis Miller. Dennis’ tenure ended with a bit of a whimper, as he was clearly burned-out during the last three months and began using a more monotone and low-energy delivery, looked fairly tired, and half-assed his trademark scribble-wildly-on-a-sheet-of-paper move during his tagline. It didn’t help that the quality of his jokes went downhill as well, often relying too heavily on corny “misinterpreting a photo” type of jokes. However, none of this takes away from the amazing tenure he had as a whole. Right from the start, he completely reinvented Update at a time where the segment desperately needed a boost after the dire quality of it during the non-Lorne years in 1980-1985. Dennis made Update important, hip, laid-back, and most importantly, very funny. And as much as I kept harping on the lethargy of his performances during his last three months, he still was reliable for laughs, especially with his usual knack for funny ad-libs. All-in-all, Dennis is easily my favorite Update anchor of all-time (tied with Norm Macdonald). And as for Jan Hooks, I cannot find enough great things to say about her. She ended a fantastic tenure that was consistently strong from beginning to end. She was an incredibly valuable cast member who could do pretty much no wrong and could handle ANYTHING the writers threw at her. Much like how Dennis is my favorite Update anchor of all-time, Jan is my favorite female cast member of all-time and one of my all-time favorite cast members in general. She will be sorely missed in the cast, especially when you’re aware of how badly the female cast ends up struggling during the next few seasons. However, at least we eventually get frequent special guest appearances from Jan during seasons 18 and 19.

— Season 16 as a whole was another in a long line of very good seasons, even if this one wasn’t QUITE as strong as the season that preceded it. Aside from the notorious Steven Seagal flop, this was a season impressively filled with episodes that ranged from okay to excellent. This was also a very exciting year with a lot of freshness, as we got a huge influx of new featured players over the course of the season, as well as lots of debuts of big recurring segments (including Deep Thoughts). This combo of new featured players and important new recurring segments have kicked off the gradual start of an era of its own, even as this season held on to many important aspects of the preceding 1986-1990 era.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Delta Burke)
a step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1989-90)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 17 begins, with host Michael Jordan. We start off the season with three new featured players and a new Weekend Update anchor.

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March 22, 1986 – George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola / Philip Glass (S11 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
LOM tells cast that NBC has brought in Francis to direct tonight’s SNL

— I believe this is our very first Lorne appearance of the season, making this the first time we’ve seen him on camera since season 5.  It’s funny how much his general look has drastically changed since the original era.  Back in those days, he was very young-looking, always dressed in casual clothes, and looked like an average joe.  Half a decade later, he’s gray-haired, wears a suit all the time, and looks like a typical network exec.
— Nice way to introduce tonight’s big storyline of Francis Ford Coppola being given full control of the show.
— Dennis is the only cast member absent in this.
— When Terry delivers his line “That raving egomaniac, he’ll ruin the show!” in a particularly effeminate, over-dramatic manner, Anthony can be seen uncontrollably cracking up and then trying to hide it.
— Funny line from Lorne about being forced into a supervisor role before moving full-time into wrestling, which I assume is a reference to Dick Ebersol producing “Saturday Night Main Event”, a wrestling program that NBC would sometimes air in SNL’s timeslot this season during some of the weeks SNL didn’t have a new episode.
— Though some of the cast members ask if there’s going to be a “Live from New York…” tonight, this cold opening ends without one being officially delivered. I believe that makes this the only time (as of 2019) in Lorne’s reign as producer where an episode didn’t kick off with an official “Live from New York…” or any variation thereof.
— Overall, a pretty straightforward cold opening setting up the running premise for tonight’s episode, though there were funny little jokes thrown in there.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— We get a special opening montage for tonight’s unique episode.

— The moody, feature film-esque beginning of this montage gets a good initial laugh from the audience.
— There’s no Don Pardo announcements. The names of the guests and cast are just superimposed over a darkened wide shot of SNL’s studio, while a soft, dramatic music score plays (which I recall reading somewhere is being performed by tonight’s musical guest Phillip Glass). Also, the cast is interestingly listed “in order of appearance”.


MONOLOGUE
Francis directs George & audience on how he wants the jokes to work

— Adding to the unique feel of tonight’s episode, the main camera angle on George throughout this monologue is an undershot, which is a nice change of pace from SNL’s usual camera angle during monologues.
— Here’s our first Francis Ford Coppola appearance of the night, humorously interrupting George’s monologue to make him re-tell a joke.
— Hilarious that Francis is instructing the audience to go back and remember something funny from their childhood, so they’ll laugh at George’s re-telling of his joke.
— Great exaggerated audience reactions during George’s joke re-telling.
— Interesting ending to George’s monologue portion.
— I liked Terry flat-out calling this season a “sinking ship”.
— Here, Terry establishes himself as Francis’ assistant for the night, a role he ends up playing for the rest of the show, which means he doesn’t appear in character during any of the actual sketches.
— Very nice segue, with the camera crane that Francis is seated on being moved over into the next sketch.
STARS: ****


THE HONEYMOONERS: THE LOST EPISODES
Ralph (George) punches Alice (NOD)

— You can hear an off-camera stagehand whispering “Nora” right before Nora turns towards the door to greet George.
— Strange blooper where George enters through the wrong door, and humorously tries to make it seem like it was part of the sketch.
— Not too sure I like George’s Ralph Kramden impression. The voice sounds too forced.
— Boy, this sketch has a lot of weird flubs and miscues so far.
— Anthony Michael Hall as Norton? Ooookay, THAT’S strange casting.
— Ha, holy hell at George’s Ralph actually punching Nora’s Alice, knocking her out cold.
— This overall sketch ended up petering out towards the end after the punch, and felt very underdeveloped.
STARS: **


COMMERCIALS
Tommy Flanagan as Grant Tinker gives Francis the OK to go commercial-free

— Wow, they actually interrupted a real Tic-Tac commercial when the show goes to a commercial break.
— This is now the FOURTH consecutive episode to feature Tommy Flanagan, and his fifth appearance in the last six episodes. Pretty insane. It’s a good thing I have a fondness for this character, because otherwise, I’d be driven out of my damn mind having to see this character day-after-day while doing these daily reviews. I remember how crazy I was driven during my coverage of season 1 when Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella appeared on Weekend Update for about FIVE consecutive episodes at one point, doing the EXACT SAME SHTICK each time (which I never found all that hilarious to begin with).
— Some laughs from Tommy Flanagan acting as head of NBC Grant Tinker, though his lines are pretty basic so far. The general overuse of Flanagan this season has made me go from finding his humor hilarious to now finding it just decent. However, he still hasn’t reached Emily Litella levels of groanworthiness.
— The ending felt very abrupt, as if the recording I’m watching cut this off prematurely.
STARS: ***


CAMERA CONTROL / MYSTERY PLAYHOUSE
Francis’ bad camera switches screw up a Mystery Playhouse sketch

   

— When Francis asked director Dave Wilson for a favor, I liked Dave’s suck-up delivery of “Anything, babe!”
— Another great line delivery, with Terry’s incredulous “I can’t believe you just said that to Francis”.
— Fun premise of Francis’ impromptu decision to control the camera cuts for a sketch.
— LOL at all the (intentional) bad camera switches, always cutting to the wrong shot whenever anyone says something.
— Haha, now the botched camera cuts are humorously causing us to miss a crucial moment where the murder weapon and killer are revealed.
— Very funny piece overall.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lightning”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers express the Marcos scandal as “What You Need”
believing it was a comedy, JOC slams Out Of Africa for not being funny
Francis doesn’t want DEM to do a satellite interview with Pinochet

 

— For the first time ever, a Dennis Miller Weekend Update opens with a rock song as the theme music, though I don’t recognize this particular tune.
— Dennis’ opening joke about bad newspaper headlines felt like it was in the spirit of Tim Kazurinsky’s Salute to Journalism commentaries from back in the day.
— Dennis’ joke about McGruff the Crime Dog paying for his bitches was fucking hilarious.
— (*groan*) Here’s our obligatory pointless Weekend Update Dancers segment of the week.
— Hmm, tonight’s Weekend Update Dancers segment is more elaborate than usual.
— Feels weird seeing Joan in her own Update commentary.
— Joan’s commentary isn’t really working for me. The main joke of a person complaining about a dramatic movie not being funny feels like something I’ve already seen other times.
— I didn’t get Dennis’ post-Joan-commentary joke about how Joan’s movie reviews “can be heard on WOR radio, but not as often as they used to be”. That got a pretty good audience reaction, but flew right over my head.
— Interesting how the Francis Ford Coppola running storyline is even carrying over into THIS, with Francis interrupting Dennis’ satellite interview with Pinochet.
— Dennis: “I find it real tough taking artistic direction from a guy who came up with Rumblefish.”
— We get a reminder to send in entries for the Pinochet Countdown contest that Dennis introduced in the last episode. Does anything ever become of this particular contest, or does it end up fizzling out?  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the latter, considering SNL’s dire ratings this season.
STARS: ***


THAT BLACK GIRL
Francis interrupts That Black Girl- he wants more realism from set & DAV

— I like Francis interrupting the sketch to ask for it to have more squalor and grit, and telling Danitra to act more like a real black girl.
— Hilarious gag with SNL’s writers turning out to be three preppy, mega-whitebread guys. We’ll be seeing them again later this season, during the epic “Billy Martin sets the cast on fire” season-ending cliffhanger.
— Terry: “(to the writers) Why do you write so poorly? Just a question.”
— Love the gritty turn the now-revamped That Black Girl scene has taken.
— Wow, fantastic mock-dramatic intense monologue from Danitra. Great use of her performance skills.
STARS: ****


FISH MARKET
fish market owner (George) tries to unload a mistakenly-delivered whale

— I’m already laughing right from opening shot of a sign that reads “Mmmm…. Whale!”
— Also a great visual of the giant whale in the store.
— Very good performance from George, in his desperation to sell that whale.
— I love the part with George trying to bribe Nora’s cop character by offering her the blowhole of the whale, as if that’s something desirable.
— Good reveal that the reason the store was delivered a whale is because “whole shipment” was misread as “whale shipment”.
— An Akira Yoshimura sighting! Always fun seeing him pop up on SNL.
— Kind of an awkward ending.
STARS: ***½


ACTORS
Jimmy Chance (RDJ) & Ashley Ashley (NOD) link last skit to Francis’ ego

— Nice random interlude, with the preceding whale sketch being immediately followed by this “critique” of it.  Fast costume change for Nora, by the way, who was last seen very recently as a cop in said whale sketch.
— I’m really liking Robert’s delivery in this.
— Lots of funny lines from Robert here, especially during the part where he’s intensely detailing his days as Francis Ford Coppola’s caterer, adding at one point “I kept his donuts well-jellied!”, putting particular emphasis on the last part of the sentence, which always tickles me to no end whenever I watch this episode.
— This overall piece was a lot better than I had remembered. Nora and Robert both did very accurate and fully-realized characterizations of this type of pretentious actor, and Robert in particular gave me some good laughs.
STARS: ***


GHOST OF THESPIANS PAST
ghost of Master Thespian visits Francis & asks to be in the grand finale

— There’s been a running joke all throughout tonight’s episode of how to pronounce “Coppola”. Master Thespian gets in a particularly amusing mispronunciation of it here.
— An interesting different use of Master Thespian.
— A mention of how SNL is hanging by a thread, as a reference to the possibility of SNL soon getting canceled.
— Overall, not particularly hilarious, but this featured the usual strong Master Thespian performance from Jon, and it was a decent way to set up the grand finale we’ll be seeing later tonight.
STARS: ***


VIETNAM SKETCH
Francis nearly quits when AMH gets shot during a too-real Vietnam sketch

— Robert running out into the field with a blaring radio and IMMEDIATELY getting slaughtered was hilarious, as was Randy’s only response to that being “Hmm, must’ve heard him comin’”.
— Excellent breaking-the-fourth-wall turn with the performers dropping character because Anthony has gotten shot “for real”.
— Ha, I like Francis proudly revealing he’s using live ammunition in the sketch to give off a sense of realism, not even being aware of how insane that is for a sketch comedy show.
— I’m loving Anthony’s angry yelling at Francis. Some really funny lines from him there, including “You were NEVER my age!” and “Nobody cares about realism anymore; this is the 80s!”
— Wow, very nice dramatic rant from Randy to Francis.
— Great tracking shot of a depressed Francis walking past some of the sets from tonight’s earlier sketches and then walking down the long hallway backstage, all while we hear his inner monologue.
— Lorne’s delivery of “Nobody knows what the finale is; you didn’t tell us!” made me laugh.
— Overall, this has always been one of my favorite parts of this episode, and I really like how extensive this all felt.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rubric” as Koyaanisqatsi scenes are shown


CONFRONTATIONAL MONOLOGUE
RDJ is upset that JOC is also doing a suitcase confrontational monologue

— LOL, such a random, bizarre idea, and it fits tonight’s experimental episode perfectly (though I recently found out this was actually cut from the Jay Leno episode earlier this season).
— Haha, Robert spouting off a string of insane, nonsensical one-liners is fucking hilarious. I especially howled at “I know why whales beach themselves…. SPIDERMAN TOLD ME!!!”
— Between the Actors piece earlier in this episode and now this sketch, I’m surprised by how much Robert is actually making me laugh throughout tonight’s episode.
— Pretty funny turn with Joan casually interrupting the scene to do the exact same thing Robert’s doing.
— A dangerous-seeming part just now, where Robert’s intentional tipping-over of himself caused him to land right on the very edge of the stage, where he could’ve easily fallen head-first off the stage by accident. Who knows; maybe they had padding on the floor below just in case.
STARS: ***½


GRAND FINALE
Francis’ grand finale pays tribute to live television & Studio 8H
bartenders ALF & TOD serve beer to finale non-participant George

— Ah, here it is; our hyped-up grand finale.
— Wonderful part with Master Thespian detailing to us the illustrious history of Studio 8H while various clips are played on a chroma-key screen behind him.
— Master Thespian randomly breaks out into a Tommy Flanagan voice for a brief moment when telling a lie. It’s fairly funny seeing Jon’s two biggest recurring characters overlapping, but BOY is this season hellbent on shoving Tommy Flanagan down our throats.
— Here’s what’s always been my absolute favorite part of tonight’s whole episode: the camera doing a very impressive tracking shot of the entire studio, showing a different cast member at each set from tonight’s earlier sketches while NBC’s “Be There” jingle plays. This is all absolutely BEAUTIFUL.
— We now interestingly go to an outside-the-studio sequence with George Wendt at a bar, somberly watching SNL’s grand finale on a TV screen.
— Hey, it’s Franken and Davis randomly appearing as bartenders. First time in years we’ve seen either of them appear on the show.
— Davis: “How’d you like doing the show?” Wendt: “The horror… the HORROR!” Franken: “How do you think we feel? We’re the producers.”
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

— Oh, I love this deviation from the normal goodnights, showing George out in the street trying to hail a cab while the usual ending credits scroll by and the goodnights music plays.
— Hmm, even the goodnights music has a more tender, sentimental sound to it than usual tonight.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow! What an episode! Definitely one of the most creative and daring things SNL has ever attempted, and it definitely payed off. I loved all the unique things they did throughout the show (even the musical guest was an unconventional pick that fit this episode perfectly), all the format-breaking, all the commitment to the “Francis Ford Coppola directs the show” storyline, etc. The episode was so fun to watch and had such a nice flow; even the few normal sketches that had no involvement from Coppola were solid (well, except for The Honeymooners, but even that had a fun vibe). This just might be one of my personal favorite SNL episodes ever, and it also goes without saying how this episode was leaps and bounds above most season 11 episodes. Even some of the weaker cast members like Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey had their best night of the season in this episode (Robert especially).
— Considering how much SNL was in danger of cancellation at the time, I get the feeling they quietly intended this to be a potential stealth “last episode ever” just in case NBC indeed ended up pulling the plug on them sometime between this and the next episode. In hindsight, that gives this episode a bittersweet feel. Of course, as we know now, SNL ended up being fine, but honestly, if this HAD turned out to be the final SNL episode ever, it would’ve been a pretty fitting way to end the series. In particular, that grand finale at the end of the episode would’ve brought nice closure to SNL’s run.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Griffin Dunne):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Oprah Winfrey