Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NFL ON NBC
sideline reporter O.J. Simpson (TIM) hints that he’s guilty
— I wonder if viewers at the time were a little lost during the beginning of this cold opening with Darrell’s Bob Costas and Koechner’s Mike Ditka, considering the fact that those viewers would’ve been unfamiliar with Darrell and Koechner (not helped by the fact that the Ditka makeup renders Koechner fairly unrecognizable). I bet some viewers were like “I can’t tell which new cast member is which in this!”
— The audience gives a big (albeit hesitant at first) applause when Tim shows up as O.J.. I wonder if that applause is because of 1) this being SNL’s first O.J. parody since the big verdict from a few days earlier, or 2) Tim’s seniority in a mostly-new cast, combined with the fact that the two cast members who appeared before him in this cold opening were two fresh, unfamiliar faces. If it’s the latter, then it’s so nice to see Tim finally getting the recognition from the audience that he deserves, after always being overshadowed by the Bad Boys in the previous era’s cast.
— So much great humor here so far, especially O.J.’s murder innuendos when talking to Will’s Marv Levy about football.
— An absolutely classic SNL moment right now with O.J. spelling out “I did it” on the telestrator.
— I love Will’s panicked facial reaction to the aforementioned “I did it” part.
STARS: *****
OPENING MONTAGE
— When Mark McKinney’s picture shows up, Don Pardo is oddly silent at first, then quickly spits out “Mark McKean” instead of “Mark McKinney”. I guess Don hasn’t gotten used to not having to announce Michael McKean’s name anymore.
MONOLOGUE
CHC recalls SNL’s first episode & sings “When You Wish Upon A Star”
— Chevy mentions that tonight is only a few days away from the 20th anniversary of SNL’s very first episode.
— Wow, heartfelt reminiscing from Chevy over getting ready for the very first episode’s cold opening right before airtime. I kept expecting a comedic twist to this reminiscing at first, before realizing that this is a genuinely earnest, emotional, and straightforward moment. I’m actually finding this really nice.
— When singing “When You Wish Upon A Star”, Chevy imitates Jiminy Cricket’s facial expression, which some SNL fans incorrectly assume was just Chevy randomly making a stupid face to get a cheap laugh from the audience (something that he’s certainly not above doing). While it’s not particularly funny in the context of this monologue, he actually did this same Jiminy Cricket bit before, during one of his traditional Weekend Update phone gags back when he was a cast member.
STARS: ***½
LOBOTOL
(NAW) dumbs down prolific co-worker (CHO) with a dose of Lobotol
— A nice Nancy Walls showcase.
— Funny line from Nancy about her husband giving her a dose of Lobotol when he felt she was asking too many questions.
— Pretty good ending with the cutaway to a Lobotol-ized Cheri moving around helplessly while lost in a dress fabric.
STARS: ***
COCKPIT
boisterous girl Althea (CHO) visits with pilot (CHC) in the cockpit
— Hoo, boy. The debut of a short-lived Cheri Oteri recurring character that I remember never caring for. I’ll go into this with an open mind, especially since Cheri is new at this point.
— I will say Cheri is VERY convincing as a hyperactive little girl, both in looks and in acting.
— Chevy’s straight man reactions are making me laugh, such as him asking Cheri’s Althea character “Maybe you’d like to see the outside of the jet.”
— Another funny one-liner from Chevy, with him announcing into the intercom an annoyed-but-restrained “Will any freakin’ flight attendant come into the cockpit?”, which receives wild cheers from the audience.
— Good exchange with Althea telling Nancy’s stewardess character that the captain has two testicles and Nancy responding “Yes, I know.”
— Overall, definitely not as a bad as I remembered it. A lot of what made the sketch work was everybody’s reactions and responses to Althea.
STARS: ***
THE BLAME GAME
black (TIM) & white (CHC) contestants fan racial tensions
— Chevy does his usual shtick of trying to save a flubbed line of his by ad-libbing comical gibberish, something that was funny when he used to regularly do it on Weekend Update back in the original era whenever he flubbed a joke, but kinda detracted from this particular sketch.
— Tim to Chevy: “Why don’t you go put on a pair of Dockers and watch another episode of Mad About You?!” Great line.
— I’m loving this premise. Lots of funny dialogue of racial tension between Tim and Chevy.
— Mark is very solid as the gameshow host, which makes me wonder why SNL doesn’t use him in this role more often.
— The speed round with Tim is very funny.
— This is yet another sketch this season where Tim is giving a really strong performance. He’s been having a great season so far.
— Is Chevy’s constant premature ringing of the buzzer throughout this sketch an ad-libbed gag? If so, much like his aforementioned ad-libbed gibberish after flubbing a line earlier in this sketch, it’s not funny and is kinda detracting from this sketch. 1990s Chevy Chase just doesn’t have that great knack at pulling off ad-libs that 1970s Chevy Chase had.
— I like Nancy’s delivery of “(in a sweet manner) Don’t patronize me. My name isn’t honey. (in a suddenly bitter manner) YOU’VE WON A CLOCK.”
STARS: ****
FUZZY MEMORIES BY JACK HANDEY
an encounter with an escaped convict
BRAVEHEART
CHC advises JMB not to rely on physical comedy; Mariel Hemingway cameo
— I like the idea of this meta sketch.
— A very random cameo from the preceding episode’s host, Mariel Hemingway.
— When Jim tells Chevy he’s one of the new cast members, Chevy responds “Hope you can save the show.” Just a little comment that I found interesting, as it shows that people still weren’t sure yet if this new cast was going to work out and save SNL from cancellation.
— Nice to see Jim getting a lot of facetime as himself here, after having practically nothing to do in his first episode the preceding week.
— (*groan*) Chevy’s old routine of constantly calling someone by the wrong name is coming off particularly tired here.
— Not caring much for Chevy’s long speech to Jim.
— Good Chevy-esque pratfall from Jim down the stairs. I like the little touch of him slamming his head into the side of the stairs at one point during that fall.
— Pretty cool how the ending of this sketch segued into Chevy introducing the following musical performance. That adds to the exciting, fun feel of this new season.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Do You Sleep?”
WEEKEND UPDATE
from Central Park, Father Guido Sarducci reports on Pope’s lost wallet
Father Guido Sarducci tells the papal wallet finder that he’ll get a mass
— After using the Friends theme song for Norm’s new Update intro music in the preceding episode, tonight’s Update intro music is the theme of another then-current NBC show, E.R.. Are these NBC theme songs supposed to be Norm’s version of how Dennis Miller’s Updates used to open with a different rock song each week? Either way, it doesn’t last for Norm, as they would soon settle on an intro tune to use regularly for his Updates.
— Tonight’s Update starts with one of Norm’s most legendary Update jokes of all time, in which he says “It is finally official: murder is legal in the state of California” as a picture of O.J. is on the news screen. Classic.
— Some really big reactions from the audience towards some of Norm’s jokes tonight.
— A surprise return of Father Guido Sarducci.
— Interesting and I guess fitting how this and Sarducci’s last guest appearance were in episodes hosted by an SNL alum from the 70s cast (Bill Murray, Chevy Chase).
— As usual, Sarducci is getting some good laughs from a lot of little things, such as his bit with the Pope mask.
— I like how Norm is continuing his running gag from last season of punchlines that deal with a dog sniffing another dog’s ass.
— The continuation of the Father Guido Sarducci/pope bit feels a little unnecessary, but I liked Sarducci’s line about low masses.
STARS: ****½
ALWAYS & FOREVER
at their prom, ’70s teens (WIF) & (CHO) freak out with little provocation
— Ah, our very first Ferrell/Oteri character piece, I see.
— Will’s angry punching of the air during his outbursts is cracking me up.
— Speaking of Will’s outbursts in this sketch, they probably did nothing to stop some viewers’ fears at the time that Will would be another season 20-era Chris Farley who yells in every sketch. To me, Cheri’s coming off more shouty in this sketch than Will.
— Interesting how this is the second consecutive season where the second episode had a prom sketch set in the 70s.
— Fun running gag with Will and Cheri’s robotic dancing.
— So far, this sketch is more fascinating to me than funny. It’s pretty fun to watch the very first SNL display of Will and Cheri’s great chemistry from their Groundlings days together, even if I’m not laughing at every single thing in this. I still prefer this to the Cheerleaders sketches we’ll start seeing soon enough (though if the Cheerleaders had only lasted one installment and never became recurring, I’d probably have a bit more of a favorable reaction towards them like I’m having with this prom sketch).
— Will’s reaction to being told he’ll be getting a “BJ” is great.
STARS: ***
GANGSTA BITCH BARBIE
Gangsta Bitch Barbie & Tupac Ken are dolls appropriate to the urban scene
— Very funny concept, and I love how mid-90s this feels. It also feels kinda refreshing seeing such urban humor on SNL back in these days.
— A lot of good little details with the dolls’ various accessories.
STARS: ****
THE MARK FUHRMAN SHOW
Mark Fuhrman (CHC) says he likes (TIM)’s anti-white rap
— I love the name of Tim’s rapper character, MC Bodybag.
— Some funny lines here and there so far, but this is a slow sketch, and not in a good way.
— I’m getting some laughs from the snippet they’re playing of MC Bodybag’s song “Good Cop, Dead Cop”. I also like Fuhrman’s head-bopping during that.
— Very weak gag involving Fuhrman leaving a bloody glove where MC Bodybag had been sitting. Is that what this whole sketch was leading up to? Yikes. You can tell they were expecting that gag to get bigger laughs than it did.
STARS: **
O.J. TODAY
anchor Bill McDonald (WIF) & legal analysts do the final show
— Interesting how they’re bringing back this sketch from the season premiere.
— I like Will’s line about how O.J. Today’s timeslot will now be filled by Fantasy Island.
— Surprisingly, this is Molly’s first and only appearance all night.
— Norm’s whole awkward story about how he got hired as a lawyer is funny.
— Not crazy about the blooper reel that’s now playing, which isn’t providing many laughs.
— Sadly, this sketch is probably the biggest comedic role Koechner has gotten on SNL so far, which still isn’t saying much. He’s had a fairly quiet start in his two episodes so far, and has yet to be given any big showcase pieces, unlike his fellow newbies (even the very underused Jim Breuer had that Braveheart piece with Chevy).
— Overall, not much to this sketch, despite a few laughs in the pre-blooper reel half. I was expecting this to be so much better.
STARS: **
SPADE IN AMERICA
DAS gives examples of how rock & roll is out of control
— Geez, once again, I almost forgot that this segment is a thing this season. Tonight’s installment is airing even later than the one from the season premiere.
— Spade’s imitation of The Cranberries’ Zombie song is funny.
— Yeesh, some of Spade’s jokes about rock music are coming off kinda cringeworthy and hacky.
— I do like the complete randomness of Spade just saying “When I was a kid, I had an ant farm” as a very brief non-sequitur segue into talking about FarmAid. That non-sequitur segue went by so fast, it almost doesn’t have time to register with you.
— Interesting hearing Spade do a Casey Kasem impression.
— Overall, much like the last Spade In America, I got a few laughs from this and I see some promise in this segment, but some parts were weak and there’s room for improvement. These Spade In America segments have not hit their stride yet.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stay”
LAMPREYS
a boy (CHO) doesn’t want to part with his sucking creatures
— I really like this very random concept.
— Nice visual of Cheri entering with lampreys all over her.
— This makes two kid characters for Cheri tonight, each of opposite genders. Once again, Cheri’s very convincing in the role of a child.
— The amusing oddness of this sketch shows the huge change in SNL’s writing style this season. I cannot for the life of me imagine a sketch this delightfully random and weird appearing in the preceding season. Well, okay, now that I’m thinking about it, I guess season 20’s resident oddball Chris Elliott could’ve done this sketch. In fact, the more I think about it, I would’ve LOVED to have seen Chris Elliott do this sketch. The bizarre mental image of a bearded Chris Elliott in overalls and a little boy wig playing Cheri’s character in this odd Lampreys sketch is nothing short of fantastic. Dammit, WHY COULDN’T IT HAVE HAPPENED?!? I would’ve liked that version of this sketch even more than the Cheri Oteri version.
— The fact that this sketch is using the same living room set used in Chris Elliott’s (notorious) babysitter sketch with Mark makes it even easier for me to picture Elliott performing this Lampreys sketch.
— Funny pre-taped segment with Cheri’s character emotionally parting ways with each of his lampreys.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— After the preceding week’s solid season premiere, I was hoping tonight’s episode would keep the momentum going, but unfortunately, it instead ended up being a bit of a letdown. This episode had a somewhat forgettable feel, especially the post-Update half. I feel like the cold opening and The Blame Game were the only two sketches all night that I felt strongly about. There were some other pretty good sketches, but too much of the show hovered around the okay-to-meh range. There’s not much I’ll remember about this episode by the time I reach the end of this season. It’s understandable, though; after all, the new cast and writing staff are still growing at this point.
— Chevy Chase barely felt like the host. Towards the end of the episode, I kinda started forgetting who was even hosting. I think Chevy only appeared in ONE post-Update sketch. Maybe the idea was for him to mostly relax and let the new kids in the cast do their stuff, but it kinda feels like SNL should’ve spread his appearances throughout the episode instead of frontloading them in the first half. He also gave his usual questionable hosting performance, where he seemed a little off compared to how he was in his prime.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mariel Hemingway)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
David Schwimmer