Tag: Kirstie Alley

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April 17, 1993 – Kirstie Alley / Lenny Kravitz (S18 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
SNL’s recurring characters sing “Fire Bad” for post-Rodney King unity

— Very fun concept of some of this era’s biggest recurring characters coming together in a We Are the World-esque unity song.
— I absolutely love the way the many different recurring characters are being incorporated into this, how their individual lyrics about unity pertain to their known traits, and how we’re seeing the characters paired off in twos.
— You can really see just from this cold opening what a fun and memorable era this is for recurring characters.
— For some odd reason, Rock’s Nat X is blatantly lip-syncing to a completely different voice. I have no idea why they’re doing that, but it always cracks me up whenever I watch this. In the live version I’m currently watching, you can kinda hear Rock’s real voice singing under the lip-synced voice. I believe that would later be muted out in reruns.
— Very interesting and fitting how Wayne and Franz are paired together, considering they’re two characters that can’t be performed regularly anymore after Dana Carvey’s departure. (That being said, Mike does later attempt a Garth-less Wayne sketch the following season, in a Melrose Place parody)
— I love Rob’s big solo as Richmeister.
— Very catchy song, especially the chorus.
— Great ending with Tim as himself lampshading the fact that he couldn’t participate in the musical number because he doesn’t have any recurring characters, then receiving compensation for that by getting to deliver his very first solo “Live from New York…” (which you can tell he was thrilled to do).
STARS: *****


MONOLOGUE
castmembers pretend to be host’s Cheers co-stars to make her feel better

— When mentioning how emotional it was recently taping the final episode of Cheers, Kirstie mentions losing her voice, which seems to be her explaining why her voice sounds so hoarse tonight. To be honest, her voice has always sounded kinda raspy to me, though.
— A fantastic callback/parody of Kirstie’s previous monologue, with the SNL cast now impersonating Kirstie’s Cheers co-stars, resulting in a gradually disillusioned Kirstie.
— Funny detail with Farley nailing George Wendt’s distinctive walk.
— Another funny detail is Phil’s dead-on imitation of Kelsey Grammer’s smile.
— Hilarious visual of Adam as Rhea Perlman.
STARS: *****


CHAMELEON XLE
Rerun from 11/14/92


LA CANTORIA
the overamorous Italians attend to vacationing Kirpatricks in hotel room

 

— Much like the monologue, this is another follow-up to a classic piece from Kirstie’s first episode. I like how this follow-up to the Italian Restaurant sketch is now taking place in a hotel.
— Last time they did this sketch, Dana Carvey played the leader of the Italian employees. Tonight, due to Dana’s departure, Rob’s character seems to have taken over as the leader. Rob’s doing a strong job in this role.
— Mike’s character looks completely different from how he looked in the first installment of this sketch. In the first installment, he didn’t wear a gray wig or glasses, instead just having his real hair greased back and wearing a fake tipped mustache.
— Rob seemed to mistakenly say “I come back” way too early, as he ends up staying for a good while after saying it, and then he later repeats the line right before he actually does leave.
— Like last time, the Italian employees’ perverted amorous actions towards Kirstie are a freakin’ riot, as are Kevin’s outraged reactions.
— Kevin happily singing to himself in Italian while eagerly disrobing when getting ready for his and Kirstie’s lovemaking is cracking me up.
— Hilarious entrance from Adam in a meat bikini.
— Great continuity with Kevin now recognizing the employees from the Italian restaurant.
STARS: *****


THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW
audience member’s (host) comments fall flat

— Things seem to be looking up for the criminally-underused Tim Meadows lately, between his big role here, his getting to say “Live from New York…” earlier tonight, and his many co-starring roles in the preceding week’s Jason Alexander episode. IIRC, his sudden upswing in airtime doesn’t last, though.
— Ha, I like how Farley’s entrance receives a wolf-whistle from someone in the talk show audience.
— I cracked up at Rock’s delivery of “That’s like saying ‘I just ate my next door neighbor, but I don’t consider myself a cannibal’!”
— The main joke with Kirstie’s failed attempts at witty one-liners is only okay, but nothing special. The other aspects of this sketch are actually funnier to me.
— The subject matter of the Phil/Melanie/Farley portions of this talk show reminds me of a Ricki Lake sketch the show would later do in the Bob Newhart episode from season 20. I swear Farley even wears the exact same shirt in both sketches, except that in tonight’s sketch, he’s wearing a blazer over it.
— “The Jane Pratt Show”? They keep mentioning that throughout this sketch. It must’ve been a daytime talk show that, unlike The Montel Williams Show, went on to completely fall by the wayside, as I have absolutely no memory of it.
— This overall sketch started fizzling out for me towards the end.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida annoys host by confusing Cheers with real life

— Something odd and funny I’ve always noticed about this sketch: at the beginning, as stage manager Joe Dicso is walking Kirstie backstage, you can see Farley initially following them, then making a startled face at the camera when he realizes he’s walked too far and isn’t supposed to be on camera, then he embarrassedly exits the shot in a hurry.

That has always looked like a genuine blooper to me, but I once read a theory that it may have been part of the script as a background joke, as perhaps the reason for Farley’s startled face and his exiting the shot in a hurry is because he spotted Zoraida and didn’t feel like dealing with her usual nonsense, so he quickly bolted. That is an amusing and plausible theory, but I feel like if that were part of the script, they would’ve made it more obvious and noticeable.
— (*groan*) This character again. At least they waited a pretty long time since Zoraida’s last appearance, which was in the Joe Pesci episode all the way back in October. Tonight ends up being the final full-fledged Zoraida sketch (not counting her appearance in next season’s So Long Farewell, a musical piece pairing together various recurring characters much like tonight’s cold opening). Ellen wanted to do a Zoraida sketch in next season’s Sally Field episode, but if you read Jay Mohr’s SNL book, you’ll know that Sally Field had a less-than-pleasant response to Ellen pitching that sketch to her.
— Oh, gee, what a surprise: Zoraida is confusing the host’s TV character for reality once again.
— Okay, I’m actually laughing at Zoraida going on about how her so-called stupid boyfriend makes love like “a big dumb, stupid animal”.
— Ha, when talking about how the Cheers actors are now going to be out of a job, I loved Zoraida’s line “That fat guy Norm, he’s around here all the time”, obviously referring to George Wendt’s many SNL cameos in this era.
— I like Kirstie getting sassy and actually standing up to Zoraida, unlike how most hosts blandly put up with her nonsense until eventually walking off in frustration.
— Overall, this was surprisingly one of the more tolerable Zoraida sketches. A decent way for the character to go out.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Are You Gonna Go My Way”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Nipsey Russell (CSR) recites a poem about the Rodney King verdict
Operaman sings about Marla Maples, Grateful Dead, Demi Moore, Rodney King

— This may be the earliest an Update commentary occurred during a Kevin Nealon-anchored Weekend Update. Kevin was only about a minute into tonight’s Update when he introduced the first guest.
— Rock’s overall Nipsey Russell commentary was merely okay. It did have a pretty fun atmosphere, though.
— Operaman’s overall commentary was solid as always, even if there weren’t as many noteworthy bits tonight as these Operaman commentaries usually have.
STARS: ***½


ORIGINALS
new employee at make-up counter (host) tends to customers (JUS) & (MEH)

— David’s little “You should model; I am serious” aside to Julia’s old lady character made me laugh.
— I liked David inhaling a bottle of tranquilizer makeup to calm himself down after getting worked up.
— A few minutes into this sketch and I’m now realizing that David has been providing my ONLY laughs so far.
— Okay, I got some laughs just now from Kirstie’s many backhanded comments to poor Melanie.
— Another chuckle during the Kirstie/Melanie scene, with Kirstie telling a walking-away Melanie that she can be a runway model, then saying “…at LaGuardia” under her breath.
STARS: **


BAD TASTE SKETCHES
disclaimers fail to warn viewers about sketches involving vomit

— A good laugh from how immediately after Phil’s warning that the scene we’re about to see doesn’t contain sex with animals or vomiting, the scene ends up being a trashy hillbilly scene that features exactly what Phil claimed we wouldn’t see.
— The sudden vomiting from increasingly unlikely people is cracking me up, especially when it happens with Phil. Sophomoric, yes, but I feel this material is being executed well, even if it can be seen as an unfortunate harbinger of the following two seasons being dominated by bad, tasteless, juvenile humor. At least this sketch is self-aware, though. Speaking of harbingers and the following two seasons, this sketch has always felt to me like a precursor to another sketch featuring a chain reaction of vomiting: the notorious Rookie Cop from season 20, a sketch that you might be surprised to learn that I actually… like. Yes, I fully admit it, at the risk of getting stones thrown at me. That sketch is very hard to defend, as it epitomizes some of season 20’s many problems, but I’ve just always found that particular sketch stupidly funny, and I like the ridiculous escalation in how complex and extensive the structure was, both in how it featured many different scenes involving various sets and how it utilized the entire cast one-by-one. Obviously, I’ll go into more detail when I eventually cover that episode.
— Getting back to this sketch, I enjoyed the ending with Adam and his pig wife.
STARS: ***½


CARRIAGE RIDE
Toonces chauffeurs disaster-bound 19th-century women (host) & (JUS)

— I like the format of this sketch, with the succession of happy news Kirstie and Julia reveal to each other being a future historical tragedy, with each reveal being accompanied by eerie foreshadowing music.
— Great sudden reveal of Toonces, in yet another inspired and random “cameo” from him at the end of a sketch. This ends up being Toonces’ final SNL appearance ever. It’s been fun covering all of his appearances over the last few seasons. I’ve always appreciated his sketches.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always on the Run”


STOP THIS CRAZINESS!
Susan Powter’s (host) videos center around revenge against her ex-husband

— This was originally supposed to air in the Miranda Richardson episode from earlier this season, but got cut after dress rehearsal. In it, Richardson played the Susan Powter role.
— I kinda like the idea of the gradual tape-within-a-tape-within-a-tape reveals, but the sketch itself isn’t doing anything for me.
— Kirstie is fine in her performance, but I can’t help but wonder if Miranda Richardson pulled off this role better in her unseen dress rehearsal version of this.
— Farley and Melanie’s testimonials fell flat for me.
STARS: *½


WHILE THE CITY SWEEPS
by TOS- a variety show by & for janitors

— Very fun sudden turn after the last of the business personnel leaves, with the building’s night staff putting on a variety show for each other.
— Rob is absolutely fantastic in the lead role here. This film is always one of the first things that come to mind whenever I think of how underrated Rob’s SNL tenure is.
— Farley’s lip-syncing of a baritone Roll Out The Barrel is killing me.
— I love the emotional, melancholy ending after the variety show has concluded.
— Overall, Tom Schiller does it once again with yet another excellent film that was entertaining, charming, and had heart. This is one of my personal favorites of his Schiller Reels.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Another very solid Kirstie Alley-hosted episode, even if this one wasn’t as consistently strong as her first episode. Still, the highs of tonight’s episode were VERY high and memorable, especially within the first 15 minutes, which helped give the overall show a fun vibe, despite some things falling flat.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Alexander)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christina Applegate

Posted on

October 12, 1991 – Kirstie Alley / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S17 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
senators question Clarence Thomas (TIM) & give him some harassing tips

— Some good opening laughs from Kevin doing a rundown to Ellen’s Anita Hill of all the unpleasant topics they discussed during her part of the hearings.
— Boy, that is some awful-looking hair on Kevin’s Joe Biden. But I suppose the same can be said about the real Biden’s hair at the time.

— I love the cutaways to the senators all murmuring to each other in an impressed manner whenever Tim’s Clarence Thomas unintentionally gives them advice on how to pick up women.
— Very big audience reaction to the hilarious reveal of Phil playing Ted Kennedy. I also loved his question “Were you, ah, drunk at the time?”
— Dana is PRICELESS as Strom Thurmond.
— Oh, god, please don’t make me address the elephant in the room regarding what an uncomfortable coincidence it now is that Al Franken was cast in a sketch about senators giving sexual harassment tips.
— I like Al’s Senator Paul Simon harping on how his bowtie hurts his chances with women.
— Great walk-on from Rock as Long Dong Silver.
— Nice to see Rock deliver his very first “Live from New York…”.
— A classic cold opening overall.
STARS: *****


OPENING MONTAGE
— In the original live East Coast broadcast of this episode, Don Pardo’s timing is wildly off throughout the entire opening montage. He announces everybody’s names either way too late or way too early. He especially has a rough time during the long list of featured players. When the shot of Tim Meadows comes up, Pardo completely blanks and just stays silent during the shots of the next few featured players (Sandler, Schneider, Spade). Then after the shot of David Spade, Pardo tries to catch up by quickly spitting out “Adamsandlerrobschneiderdavidspade” in rapid succession without taking a breath, leaving out poor Tim. The version I’m reviewing of this episode is the West Coast tape-delayed “live” airing from that night, in which they replace Pardo’s botched announcing with his flawless announcing from dress rehearsal.


MONOLOGUE
host & Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Kelsey Grammer [real]

 

— Huge, and I mean HUGE audience reactions to the succession of cameos from Kirstie’s “Cheers” co-stars, who each pop out from a random place in the studio and join in on Kirstie’s singing of the “Cheers” theme song. Very infectious energy here.
— With George Wendt’s cameo here, his cameo two weeks earlier in the Super Fans sketch from the season premiere, and his hosting the preceding season’s finale, he has been appearing on SNL a LOT around this time, more than some of the actual cast members (especially David Spade, who’s been almost completely invisible so far this season).
— I like Ted Danson’s callback to the memorable sketch he got to do with live pigs when he hosted.
— I love the running bit with Kelsey Grammer constantly being ignored when explaining to his co-stars that, unlike them, he’s never hosted SNL.
— A lot of good laughs from Kirstie’s irritation over her co-stars taking over her monologue duties by reading off her concluding lines.
— Great ending with Kelsey taking pleasure in standing alone onstage and concluding the singing of the “Cheers” theme song.
STARS: *****


LONELY CHOICE
Lonely Choice Dinners are frozen entrees for women without relationships

— Siobhan Fallon finally gets her first big showcase.
— This is a lesser-known fake ad from this era (especially since it was cut from the 60-minute version that Comedy Central used to always air of this episode), but this is being executed nicely with a good subtle approach and a solid spokesperson performance from Siobhan.
— Some funny details in the visual of the TV dinners, especially the two big sleeping pills on top of one of the meals, and the giant Oreo cookie.
— I like the meal titles shown on the pile of dinner boxes (last screencap above).
— Funny ending slogan from Phil’s voice-over: “We’ve taken the ‘difficult’ out of ‘difficult and sad’.”
STARS: ***½


IL CANTORE
overamorous Italians serve the Kirpatricks (host) & (KEN) at a restaurant

— The restaurant set being used in this sketch would go on to be familiar, as it would be frequently used in a number of sketches from later this era, including the season 18 sketch with Kevin Kline as an uncontrollably farting Italian celebrity and the Pepper Boy sketch from Dana Carvey’s season 20 episode.
— The Italians’ overly-affectionate actions towards Kirstie are hilarious.
— Dana’s actions towards Kirstie are getting particularly funny, especially him licking all over her face.
— This sketch has now become an absolute riot, with Dana being seen humping Victoria on a restaurant table in the background while Kirstie remains completely oblivious to it. This is the other sketch I was talking about in my review of the preceding season’s Roseanne Barr episode, where I said that episode contained the first of two times in 1991 where Victoria Jackson gets humped on a restaurant table during a sketch.
— This sketch is getting more and more outrageous as it goes along. I love it.
— Strong ending with Kevin and Kirstie thinking they’ll experience more civility at a nearby Greek restaurant.
STARS: *****


IT’S PAT
androgynous Pat receives birthday greetings from parent Francys (host)

— Julia Sweeney’s birthday was earlier that week (October 10), which is probably what inspired the idea of this sketch.
— Julia’s Pat voice seems to get increasingly higher pitched and whinier with each passing sketch this character appears in. I personally prefer the low-pitched voice Julia used in the first two Pat sketches.
— I like a confused Chris Rock entering the scene while dumbfoundedly saying “Your mothe– your fath–” over and over when trying to tell Pat that a parent of Pat’s has arrived.
— Speaking of Rock, something about the way he’s dressed in this sketch really emphasizes his extreme skinniness.
— Great turn with Kirstie entering as Pat’s equally-androgynous parent.
— Kirstie’s really good at imitating the Pat giggle.
— Despite my earlier mention of not liking Pat’s whinier voice as much as Pat’s lower pitched voice from earlier installments, I got a good laugh just now from Julia’s over-the-top delivery of the line “I want you to hear the MADNESS!”
— Good ending with Pat’s co-workers singing a variation of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, with the lyrics awkwardly altered to be gender unspecific.
— I’m surprised this didn’t end with them cutting to the usual closing credits sequence with the Pat theme song. Wonder why they didn’t do that here.
— One of the more memorable Pat sketches overall.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on saying “puke” at the dinner table


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Into the Great Wide Open”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR says Clarence Thomas is guilty of nothing more than bad pick-up lines
VIJ’s erudite term limits commentary turns out to have been ghost-written
Phil Perry (ROS) voices athletes’ thoughts during baseball highlights

— When talking about Anita Hill, I liked Rock asking “Isn’t that the same woman who was caught smoking crack with Marion Barry? Someone should do a check.”
— Some okay lines from Rock, but his delivery here is stumbly and this commentary isn’t as good as his Update commentaries usually are.
— Surprisingly, this is Victoria’s first Update commentary as herself in over a year. She didn’t do any in season 16.
— A weak and obvious punchline to Victoria’s commentary, with her admitting she didn’t write the intelligent speech she just delivered.
— Some good laughs from Rob’s sportscaster getting out of hand with his voicing athletes’ thoughts during sports clips, especially when he starts resorting to bad stereotypical ethnic voices.
STARS: ***


THEIR EYES WERE ON THEIR BREASTS!
female aliens distract male earthlings

— The spaceship the aliens are standing in front of is the same spaceship that would later be used in a notorious season 20 sketch involving Deion Sanders and an accidental mooning from Farley. The scenery behind the spaceship appears to be the same in both sketches too.
— Solid concept.
— Kevin has been in tons of sketches tonight.
— Funny brief walk-on from Farley.
— I love the cutaways to each of the three scientists staring intensely at the aliens’ eye breasts.
— The questions the scientists ask the aliens are really funny. I especially like “When you get older, does your vision sag?” and “Can you see better when it’s cold outside?”
STARS: ***½


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Linda Richman (MIM) & (host) are big Barbra Streisand fans

— Though they’re still using the “Coffee Talk with Paul Baldwin” title, we get the debut of Linda Richman, filling in for an ill Baldwin. Very rare for SNL to suddenly revamp an already somewhat-established recurring sketch in this drastic manner. I can’t think of any other time in SNL history that this has happened, but perhaps I’m forgetting some examples.
— Phil’s performance as Kirstie’s husband is funny and is adding good realism to the scene.
— Linda Richman is certainly a more fleshed-out character than Paul Baldwin, and we’re immediately seeing all of what would go on to be Linda Richman’s trademarks, including her Barbra Streisand obsession, her describing something as being “like buttah”, her speaking Yiddish, her getting verklempt and instructing us “Tawk amongst yuhselves… I’ll give you a tawpic…”, etc.
— Overall, while I didn’t laugh all that much aside from Phil’s lines, I didn’t hate this sketch. After recently sitting through the one-note Paul Baldwin-hosted Coffee Talk installments, in which New York accents was literally the only “joke”, this Linda Richman debut came off oddly kinda refreshing to me. However, I know my lenience towards Richman will not last much longer the more I’ll have to sit through these sketches, especially when we arrive at season 19 where the character appeared ad nauseam.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Kings Highway”


PSYCHO DIVORCED MOTHER
(host) damns phone company & cable company to Hell

— Great reveal of the title “Psycho Divorced Mother” after the opening scene where Kirstie snapped at her two kids.
— Kirstie going off on an insane rant to nobody about the phone company is providing some good laughs.
— I absolutely loved Kirstie’s raspy-voiced delivery of “Damn you to HELL, cable company!”
— Kirstie has gotten so into her psychotic characterization that it sounds like she almost dropped an MF-bomb just now, during her cable company rant. She begins to say “Die, mother–” but then immediately cuts herself off.
— Wow, this sketch was quick.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on cutting down screaming trees


LOOK WHO ELSE IS TALKING ALSO
possessions of James (DAC) & Mollie (host)

— I loved the line from the Tom Davis-voiced dog, saying “I get lucky every night… because I can lick myself.”
— The usual very funny John Travolta impression from Dana.
— I liked the ending with the talking condom and diaphragm.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how a child can look like a deer


GOODNIGHTS
MIM kills time by leading a round of “O Canada”

— These particular goodnighs are very unique. There’s A LOT of extra time to fill before the ending credits scroll by, so we’ll be seeing lots of comical vamping for time. According to what I once heard, the reason the show has so much time to fill here is because a sketch was removed at the last minute, with nothing scheduled to replace it. Supposedly, the removed sketch was a parody of the then-current William Kennedy Smith rape trial, and SNL apparently was worried that sketch would be too much in an episode that already had a parody of the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment hearings as the cold opening.
— Speaking of sexual harassment and rape trials, during part of her goodnights speech, Kirstie brings up how there’s so much in the news lately about sexual harassment allegations going on and then thanks the people at SNL for not sexually harassing her, at which point several of the guys onstage jokingly lunge at her and grab her breasts (and no, Al Franken was not among the guys who did that, for anyone wondering).
— Mike Myers has now been brought to the front of the stage and tries to lead everyone in a round of “O Canada”, only nobody else onstage seems to know the words, so they just laugh and try to clown around with Mike while he’s doing his best to continue the song.
— This is so fun seeing the natural goofy, loose antics of the cast as themselves, which feels so rare to see in this period of the show. It was much more common during the original era and even the early 80s.
— About halfway through the scrolling ending credits, everybody walks off the stage one-by-one, leaving only the SNL Band, who continue to play the goodnights theme music on a now-empty stage.
— It’s amazing how long these goodnights are STILL going on, long after the scrolling credits have finished. This is beautiful, and really makes you appreciate the goodnights theme music.
— It sounds like the band was starting to play the rarely-heard official ending notes of the goodnights theme right as the Broadway Video and NBC Productions vanity cards started showing up, but unfortunately, in the recording I’m watching of this episode, the tape seems to cut off right at that moment and goes to another recording. Too bad; I started getting goosebumps at hearing those ending notes. I believe the only two other times in SNL history where we get to hear the official ending notes of the goodnights theme are the ice-skating goodnights of two episodes: Candice Bergen from 1976 and Kevin Hart from 2017.
— Reruns of this episode shorten these goodnights extremely. All the vamping for time before the ending credits roll are removed, as is the SNL Band’s extended playing after the credits finish rolling. To fill in the extra time left by the removal of those moments, reruns add in a cut dress rehearsal sketch called “I Love Lucy: The Lost Tapes”. It’s obvious that sketch was made sometime later in the season, because future cast member Melanie Hutsell is in it playing Ethel.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode. The first half in particular was absolutely amazing, being dominated by all-time memorable pieces. There was also a high energy in the air throughout the episode to go along with the fine quality. The cast’s unique time-killing antics during the very extended goodnights only added to this episode’s special feel.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Daniels)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christian Slater