Tag: Michael Keaton

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April 4, 2015 – Michael Keaton / Carly Rae Jepsen (S40 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ROAD TO THE FINAL FOUR
Mike Krzyzewski (TAK) says biology test trumps basketball title game

— Quite a number of sports-related cold openings in the second half of this season. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, as this probably ends up being the final season I’ll cover where there’s a good amount of non-political cold openings.
— No Shaq in this line-up of Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley impressions?
— A good goofy appearance from Bobby.
— Some funny lines from Kenan’s Barkley, including a genuinely botched delivery of one particular term.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
fans TAK & BOM want host to play Batman & Beetlejuice with them

— Much like Dwayne Johnson’s “Franchise Viagra” monologue in the preceding episode, I can excuse tonight’s musical monologue, as it’s always been an absolute favorite of mine.
— The “Will you play Batman/Beetlejuice with us, Michael Keaton?” song is very memorable, and the geeking-out from Taran and Bobby is so damn charming and fun.
— A hilarious part with Bobby, after his reveal that he has only six weeks to live, explaining “It’s just a guesstimate based on the choices I’ve made” while gesturing towards his body.
— I love the running gag with Taran and Bobby’s angry outbursts at Jay’s walk-ons, especially when he has an angry outburst of his own back at them.
— The pre-taped Batman/Beetlejuice sequences are absolutely priceless, and really puts this already-strong monologue over the top.
— I love the long, deadpan, tense stare Keaton does into the camera before his poignant delivery of “I’m Batman”.
STARS: *****


CNN NEWSROOM
amateurish reenactments fail to shed light on news items

— A pretty good laugh from the cheap animated reenactment, and the comparison of it to the music video for Dire Straits’ “Money For Nothing”.
— Some more pretty good laughs from other cheap reenactments, one with puppets and another with a local performance arts group.
— Odd usage of tonight’s host.
— A pretty fun silly sketch overall.
STARS: ***½


PROM QUEEN
high school student (MOB) asks loser teacher (host) to be his prom date

— I remember, when this originally aired, I thought to myself upon seeing that new hairstyle of Mike O’Brien’s, “Is he trying to look even more like Sam Smith than he already does?”
— A very solid premise, and, as usual for Mike’s shorts, he’s perfectly blending comedy and sentimentality.
— Vanessa’s selling her “neglected wife” role to perfection.
— Love the turn with Mike winning Keaton back in the door entrance of Keaton’s house.
— Excellent ending, and that little twirl Mike does towards the camera as the screen irises out on him is such a great touch.
— Overall, Mike does it once again with another phenomenal short.
STARS: *****


CALL YOUR GRANDPARENTS
despite the downsides, (SAZ) suggests calling your grandmother for Easter

— An amusing juxtaposition of a sexy late-night phone ad and the concept of calling your grandparents.
— Kate using her Ruth Bader Ginsburg voice for this generic grandma role. In Kate’s defense, though, her RBG voice hadn’t become a recurring part of her RBG appearances yet at this time.
— A nice novelty seeing Sasheer in such a front-and-center role.
— I had absolutely no prior memory of this sketch, though Leslie’s scene kinda rang a bell to me just now. I think I previously got her scene and the rest of this sketch mixed up with that pre-taped “Alexa for old people” commercial from an episode within these next few seasons.
— Some good relatable humor here.
STARS: ***½


AD AGENCY
advertising boss (host) interjects incongruous sex & violence into pitches

— I like Leslie’s unhappy reaction to how her corny, lighthearted joke didn’t get the laughs from her co-workers that Kenan’s corny, lighthearted joke did.
— I’m laughing out loud at all of Keaton’s off-kilter, immature, pervy suggestions to the employees’ more traditional, family-friendly commercial ideas.
— Even the random side gag with the blood stain from Keaton’s stomach is absolutely working for me, and is adding a twisted feel that I like.
STARS: ****


NEUROTOLOGY
annotations show fates of those in 1990 Church Of Neurotology music video

— I’m not familiar with the actual Scientology music video this is spoofing, but I don’t need to be to have always absolutely loved this short and found it to be a classic.
— Such a biting takedown of Scientology.
— The annotations of every Neurotology member’s grim future are fantastic. Not only are they funny as hell, but I love the creepy, dark, unsettling vibe they’re giving this short.
— All of the little details in making this look like an authentic 1990 video are pitch perfect.
— An absolutely hilarious cutaway to a cheesily-smiling Colin, making a rare non-Weekend Update appearance.
— Even the melody of this intentionally-corny song is catchy.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Really Like You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
mistaking him for a zombie, Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) shoots stoned PED

Jebidiah Atkinson thinks television has always been a vast wasteland

— A good Lethal Weapon bit from Colin.
— Some okay if slow-paced (even if that may be the intention) bits in Pete commentary, but it picks up with the whole Walking Dead turn towards the end.
— The Jost/Che era of Update continues to be on a hot streak within these past few episodes, suggesting that we have indeed reached the point where this Update era has fully hit its stride. (Colin has especially shown improvement.) I could not be happier about that, given how, as I disclosed in a previous review, this is one of my top 3 favorite Update eras of all time.
— Yes! As if tonight’s Update wasn’t already solid enough, we now get Jebidiah Atkinson! Believe it or not, this sadly ends up being his final appearance.
— Damn, Jebidiah’s slams are starting out hot tonight, with his “Hey, AMC, if I wanted to know what life was like in the 1960s, I’d move to Indiana!”, which receives loud “Ohhhhhhh!”s from the audience. Usually, the audience doesn’t react that wildly to a slam of his until a few minutes into his respective commentaries.
— Jebidiah, on The West Wing: “The best lines on that show were the ones that went up Sorkin’s nose!”
— Jebidiah, on Lost: “Sure, it started out good, but I haven’t seen a final season that bad since Joe Paterno’s! (*the audience reacts in shock and Jebidiah mocks that reaction*) If you don’t like that joke, just do as Joe did and turn a blind eye!”
— Jebidiah, in a meta moment, commenting on Saturday Night Live: “The same tired characters repeating the same tired catchphrases. (*throws his index card into the air*) NNNNEEEEXT!!!”
— I like the audience genuinely groaning as soon as they realize Jebidiah’s about to bash I Love Lucy.
— The overall usual great Jebidiah Atkinson commentary. I’m going to miss the hell out of him; one of my all-time favorite Update characters by far. I never understood why they suddenly stopped using him after only a handful of appearances. Maybe I should be happy they refrained from running him into the ground.
STARS: ****


SMART HOME
inventor (host) & wife (CES) show toaster & couch concepts to neighbors

— (*sigh*) Between everyone’s exaggerated southern accents and the completely random gag involving the guests standing outside the front door, we’re ALREADY starting off with a whole bunch of gags that are aggressively James Anderson & Kent Sublette-y.
— I liked the “googly eyes on inanimate objects” gag better when Christopher Walken did it.
— Ugh at the sequence with Cecily and Keaton describing the tube that anally recognizes you.
— I am at least liking Cecily’s laid-back performance, which I find strangely kinda comforting. That’s the only positive I can find in this whole thing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “All That”


AN EASTER MESSAGE
host presents his Easter basket contents with Portia (KAM) & Jordan (BOM)

— Good to see another variant of this sketch, previously done with Steve Buscemi and Edward Norton. These always work for me, though I’ve never had the time to watch the cut-after-dress ones that were posted online.
— Solid side character from Kate, and an improvement over Bobby’s side character from the Edward Norton installment of this sketch.
— Keaton: “This is unleavened bread, which means, unlike Jesus, it doesn’t rise. Jesus: 1, bread: nothing.”
— Keaton, on Cadbury eggs: “I gave these up for Lent last year. Know what I gave up this year? Cocaine…………………almost.”
— I love Keaton’s creepy delivery of his random line, “Something’s wrong with me.”
— Speaking of Bobby and side characters, he actually shows up as this sketch’s second side character, and is a lot funnier here than he was in the Edward Norton version of this sketch.
— Very funny gag with Kate feeding her “child chicken” a McNugget.
— Keaton, about Kate’s character: “This kid has aaaallll the warning signs.”
— Keaton, on his chocolate bunny being hollow: “Some people like the solid ones, but then, how would you get your little wiener in there?”
— Great reveal at the end that Keaton was playing himself in this sketch the whole time.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I had always liked this episode a lot in the past, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how big I was on this episode in my current viewing. I mean, man – THREE five-star-rated segments in this episode, lots of other very strong segments, and only bad segment all night. Such a great episode. Odd structure to it, though, with how minimal the amount of segments in the post-Weekend Update half was. Clearly, a sketch got cut at the last minute, made even more obvious by the fact that our “10-to-1” for the night was just a shot of the SNL Band playing the show back to commercial after the show had just come from a commercial break. I think I once heard that the cut-at-the-last-minute sketch in question was a Nick Rutherford-written Pee Wee’s Playhouse pastiche that would later be posted online (seen here). I’ve never watched it myself, but if that sketch is as strong as I’ve always heard it was, it’s a damn shame it got cut at the last minute, as it would’ve made this already-fantastic episode even better.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Neurotology
Prom Queen
Monologue
An Easter Message
Ad Agency
Weekend Update
CNN Newsroom
Call Your Grandparents
Road To The Final Four
Smart Home


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dwayne Johnson)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Taraji P. Henson

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November 14, 1992 – Michael Keaton / Morrissey (S18 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) calls campaign contributors to apologize for losing

— A fairly mundane premise, but is coming off pretty funny due to some amusing lines and Dana’s always-reliable Bush, who’s making one of his final appearances after the real Bush had just lost the election. Speaking of which, I wonder what SNL’s plan was for if Bush had won. Considering Dana already has one foot out the door at this time, what would SNL have done for Bush’s hypothetical second term?
— The bit with one particular caller using a call-waiting excuse is good.
— I recall once reading an interview with Julia years ago where, at one point, she was asked about her most embarrassing moment on SNL, and she brought up an incident from this particular cold opening where she mistakenly was about to make her exit much earlier than she was supposed to, until Dana, in character, asked her to stay a while longer. Dana and Julia both did a good job making that seem like it was part of the sketch, as I’m sure viewers didn’t even notice it was a blooper (I know *I* didn’t until I read that interview… and funny enough, the exact same thing could be said about the botched ending of that Marilyn Monroe/JFK sketch with Catherine O’Hara in the last episode).
— Great twist after the “Live from New York…” delivered by Phil as the newly-elected Bill Clinton where, instead of immediately cutting to the opening montage, we go back to Dana’s Bush who, after letting the audience’s premature applause die down, says in a sorrowful tone “*I* used to say that.”
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
Audience McGee lectures host after fellow audience member (TOD) is tossed

— I love Michael constantly breaking from his monologue to call out an audience member (Tom Davis) on his refusal to applaud with everyone else.
— Michael’s getting good laughs trying to convince the audience member to watch the show at home, eventually getting security to remove him from the studio.
— Audience McGee officially becomes recurring.
— Funny turn after McGee convinces Michael to bring back the kicked-out audience member, where Michael suddenly gets security to remove McGee instead.
STARS: ***½


CHAMELEON XLE
nice interior & trashy exterior make Chameleon XLE a practical luxury car

— Here comes one of my personal favorite fake ads of this entire era.
— Great concept of a thief-proof car that looks very shoddy on the outside but is very luxurious on the inside.
— So many funny details in all of the unflattering features of the car that Phil as the spokesman (brilliant in that role as always) displays.
— Nice bit with the marble rolling on the car, parodying a real car commercial from this era.
— Great tagline at the end: “They might tow it away… but they’ll never steal it.”
STARS: *****


ELEVATOR
elevator operator (ROS) gives nervous trainee (host) tips on small talk

— A pretty simple premise for a lead-off sketch, but Michael is getting really good laughs out of it with this awkward, slow-witted character, and I’m also really enjoying Rob’s performance as his boss.
— I loved Rob’s “Now you’re scaring the people” to Michael, telling him he’s coming off too “homeless-y”.
— Good panicked reaction from Michael when various people unexpectedly enter the elevator simultaneously.
STARS: ****


THE FIRST ANNUAL GUTENBERG AWARDS
Billy Crystal (ROS) emcees publishing industry honors

— Rob has been having a strong showing throughout tonight’s episode so far, continuing the great season he’s been having in general. His impression of Billy Crystal is nailing Billy’s hamminess and penchant for corny ad-libs.
— The song medley was too long and uninteresting for my likes and could’ve been shortened.
— I like Julia-as-Susan-Sontag’s way of saying the book title “Meat: The World of Meat”.
— I love that Rob’s now imitating Billy’s annoying penchant for breaking into an imitation of an old Jewish man’s voice. (Too bad Rob didn’t also lampoon Billy’s even-worse penchant for breaking into a stereotypical black voice)
— Nice to see Farley for the first time in a while, after being absent in the last two episodes due to being in rehab. Unfortunately, he ends up back in rehab only a little over a month later.
— I like Phil’s anger over having to go through with the corny award show banter.
— Not a particularly good sketch overall. A lot of this kinda dragged, and some of the imitations of typical award show segments came off almost as dull as the real thing. That’s unfortunately a common flaw with SNL’s award show parodies in general. Rob’s lampooning of Billy Crystal kept me entertained throughout this, though.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Glamorous Glue”


WEEKEND UPDATE
moron Hank Fielding (RBS) gets his facts wrong during election analysis

— Interesting concept of Robert Smigel as a character giving a moron’s perspective on the election. This soon-to-be-recurring character ends up being easily the biggest onscreen role Smigel would ever get during his SNL tenure.
— Funny detail of Hank Fielding’s name being very slowly spelled out in cursive in a graphic displayed on the bottom of the screen during his commentary.
— Fielding’s ignorant statement about how the Ayatollah is “once again rearing its ugly head in Iraq” supports my theory that Smigel wrote (or at least co-wrote) that rarely-seen Dance Party U.S.A. sketch from the season 16 Kevin Bacon-hosted episode, as Farley’s character in that sketch makes a similar ignorant statement linking the Ayatollah and Iraq. In my review of that sketch, I explained that my theory of Smigel writing that sketch is based on the similarity it shares to a bit I saw in the early 2000s on Conan O’Brien’s NBC “Late Night” show.
— Lots of funny idiotic comments from Hank Fielding throughout his commentary, made even funnier by his smug obliviousness to how wrong all of his facts are. I especially liked the Spider Man bit at the end.
STARS: ***


FIRST DAY
(host)’s attempts to join new co-workers’ jokes come off as mean-spirited

— Phil’s such a great performer that he even has the ability to get laughs out of the corny light-hearted banter his character has with the employees.
— When Michael insults the picture of Rob’s wife, something about the way Rob stares at Michael and says an offended, taken-aback response of “……..That’s my wife” made me laugh a lot.
— Some good laughs from Michael’s mean, offensive attempts at playful banter with everyone.
— Michael’s line at the end fell a little flat, but for some reason, I like how as the camera slowly zoomed out during the sketch-ending audience applause, Phil just stood there in the middle of the office set with a deadpan look on his face, his hands in his pockets, and standing perfectly still.
STARS: ***


FIRST DATE
on a first date, (host) finds out that (JUS) is no longer a nymphomaniac

— I’m laughing at Michael’s excitement early on over what he thinks is going to happen between him and Julia later that night.
— A lot of laughs from Julia’s various revelations of what a wild horndog she used to be before reforming herself, and I’m loving Michael’s subtly frustrated reactions.
— Great ending with Michael’s dad (Phil) being ANOTHER guy who recognizes Julia, and then saying “Hey, our table!”, as a callback to a story Julia told earlier in the sketch about a certain something she once did to a date under a restaurant table.
STARS: ****


LOOKING AFTER GRANDMA
to facilitate makeout session, (host) asks (CHF) to occupy grandma (ADS)

— Funny seeing Michael and Julia playing a couple getting ready for sex, considering the sketch that preceded this.
— Michael’s increasingly brutal roughhousing of Farley is cracking me up.
— Michael angrily returning to the scene in his leopard-skin underwear is hilarious.
— When Adam says to a lying-down-on-the-floor Farley “I’m sorry, but you brought this onto yourself”, Adam is stifling laughter. This is probably because of what happened during the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, of which portions are shown in Farley’s “Best Of” DVD. In that version of this sketch, Farley wore a wig and it kept falling off throughout the sketch whenever Michael would rough him up. As the sketch progressed, it became harder and harder for the performers to keep a straight face, culminating in an ending scene where Farley, Adam, and Michael are laughing especially hard while gathered together on the couch.
— Heh, what was with the weird hint that Adam’s character is actually Farley’s mother instead of his grandmother?
— Overall, probably not a particularly strong sketch, but I’ve always found several aspects of it to be fun. The blooper-filled dress rehearsal version is probably preferable, though.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Suedehead”


OUTWEEK
(host) & (DAC) don’t limit celebrity exposes to homosexuality

— Dana makes his first appearance since way back in the cold opening. His diminishing presence this season sometimes makes me kinda forget that he’s still in the cast (which I’m aware I also said about Victoria Jackson a few times in my reviews of the preceding season).
— Michael and Dana’s performances are getting good laughs, and this sketch has a fun format, especially with the fast pacing of it.
— This is getting hilarious as the subject matter of the celebrity outings becomes more and more outlandish, such as Roger Moore being outed for wearing adult diapers and Bonnie Franklin being outed as a lousy lay. A lot of this has me howling.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode, and there was only one sketch I was underwhelmed by (Gutenberg Awards). I’m glad Michael Keaton was given a second chance after his flawed hosting stint from 10 years earlier, as he was FAR better tonight. He was a strong host, consistently made me laugh throughout the episode, and seemed much more at ease than he did last time.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Catherine O’Hara)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Sinbad

Posted on

October 30, 1982 – Michael Keaton / The New Joe Jackson Band (S8 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host finds out there won’t be any cue cards tonight; Michael Palin cameo

   

— Like the last episode, this is another one that’s being performed from two different studios on two separate floors, due to Studio 8H being used for mid-term election coverage. I still find it amazing that SNL was able to pull off live shows with that awkward set-up.
— Funny bit with Joe Dicso breaking the news that there will be no cue cards tonight.
— Eddie’s random native bodysuit is funny.
— Michael Palin!
— It’s pretty well-documented that in a panicked move earlier that week, Dick Ebersol brought in Michael Palin as an emergency special guest/stealth backup host after seeing how poorly Michael Keaton performed during that week’s readthrough.
— Keaton’s “We got no cue cards!!!” outburst made me laugh.
— Ha, now they’re being told by Dicso that they won’t be able to use the elevators they need to get from studio-to-studio.
— I’m loving Palin’s complicated Monty Python-esque explanation to Keaton of how to get to Studio 3A.
— Gary appears in the same musketeers outfit he wore in the backstage cold opening from the last episode.
— I like the part with Gary listing off the titles of (fake) sketches that were cut tonight (“Wiener Water”, “Bess Truman in Hell”, and “I Was a G-Spot For the FBI” ).
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about his childhood trick-or-treat experiences

  

— We’re already off to a rocky start, as Keaton came off really awkward with that weird opening “Nice to be back hosting again… wait, have I hosted before?” bit.
— I know Keaton got his start as a stand-up comedian,  but it’s very hard for me to picture that man in a stand-up comedy club telling jokes into a mic.
— Trick-or-treating isn’t a particularly interesting stand-up comedy topic, and his material is pretty mundane so far.
— Okay, I did like the bit about his trick-or-treating brother requesting a sandwich from people handing out candy.
— This overall stand-up routine was weak, and man, Keaton’s uncomfortable demeanor here definitely helps me see why Ebersol panicked during readthroughs that week.
STARS: *½


THE INTERESTING FOUR
on Halloween night, The Interesting Four is looking for Espresso (MAG)

         

— I liked Mary’s delivery of “Drink your little Hawaiian Punch, you little snot-nosed brats!”
— It’s too soon to bring back the subpar Interesting Four sketch, and why is it placed as the lead-off sketch tonight? The first time they did this sketch, it was buried near the end of the episode (and rightfully so).
— At least this is a very different setting for them.
— Funny part with Brad as the Human Stapler being heard loudly yelling from the bathroom, then emerging with his hand stuck to his groin.
— Boy, that scene with the second group of kids was awkward as hell.
— I love the “time reversal” part with the performers talking and moving like the scene is being rewound. As I mentioned sometime before (when reviewing a Hercules sketch from a season 3 episode), I always get a kick out of whenever performers have to act out a scene being rewound, fast-forwarded, or played in slow-mo.
— Hmm, they’re doing the exact same backwards scene again.
— Okay, what the hell? Why do they keep repeating the same backwards scene over and over and over?
— Overall, this was a marginal improvement over the first Interesting Four installment, but I still had some issues with this one.
STARS: **½


A SENSE OF FEAR
events in (Michael Palin)’s scary story happen as he reads them

   

— Palin’s performance is really cracking me up so far.
— The scary story increasingly appearing to be about Palin himself feels like a kinda cliched premise.
— I liked Palin’s screaming and falling out of his chair.
— What was the point of that sponsor bit at the end?
— Overall, this featured a fine Palin performance, but the material itself wasn’t the best.
STARS: **½


THANK YOU, RON REAGAN.
privileged citizens say “Thank You, Ron Reagan” while others suffer

     

— Pretty biting satire of President Reagan’s economic policies. I’ve always heard that the Ebersol era supposedly often shied away from doing political stuff, but so far, I’ve been seeing quite a lot of unabashed anti-Reagan sentiment in these episodes.
STARS: ***½


SNOOKIE
after a first date, (TIK) gets mixed signals from (JLD) & her teddy bear

 

— Julia’s wearing the same dress that we’d later see Ana Gasteyer regularly wearing in her and Will Ferrell’s recurring Culps sketches. That same dress is also worn by someone (Nora Dunn, I think) in a 1988 cold opening where Jan Hooks as Oprah Winfrey (yes, you read right) hallucinates her talk show guests having food for heads. Speaking of Jan, I think she herself wears that dress in the famous “Jew or Not a Jew” sketch, but I’m not sure.
— Julia suddenly slapping Tim after asking him to sleep with her was really funny.
— Heh, a teddy bear with earrings.
— A lot of laughs from Julia’s odd way of relaying thoughts through the teddy bear.
— The bear has been referred to as both a “he” and a “she” all throughout this sketch.
— Great touch with Tim dismissively throwing the bear aside when finally getting Julia in bed.
— Overall, a strong sketch that was well-written and performed. Julia did a really good job as this strange character, and Tim was a solid straight man.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Steppin’ Out”


BILL SMITH CARES
a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on in a political campaign

     

— Wow, Keaton is JUST NOW making his first actual sketch appearance of the night, and it looks like it’s not even a particularly big role. [ADDENDUM: Looking at a list of the original running order of this episode’s sketches, this sketch originally aired even later in the night, meaning Keaton didn’t make ANY sketch appearances in the entire pre-Saturday Night News half of the show. Wow.]
— Eddie and Clint Smith’s performance as “The Love Brothers” is kinda funny, but seems really out of place for the tone of this sketch. It IS nice to see Clint with a lot of lines, though.
— I like Mary as the bitter wife.
— What’s with Eddie and Clint’s singing of THE ENTIRE Jeffersons theme song? At first, I thought it would just be a truncated version of the song, but they ended up performing THE WHOLE THING. Geez.
— Interesting structure to this sketch, having various scenes that go back-and-forth from the campaign headquarters to Joe’s hotel room. That’s making this sketch feel very long, however.
— Heh, Tim’s been getting a lot of “action” in this episode. This is the second sketch of the night that ended with him sleeping in bed with a female cast member (first Julia, now Mary).
— Overall, for a sketch that was so long, this didn’t feature much that was noteworthy, and the overall thing fell kinda flat.
STARS: **


TOPOL THE IDIOT
Topol the Idiot (Michael Palin) wasn’t originally written in English

   

— The idea of Michael Palin playing an idiot character like this is already making me laugh.
— I almost didn’t recognize Keaton in this. He’s also doing an interesting character voice.
— The bad foreign language translation seems to be the main joke, though I’m not sure that it’s coming off all that well. I did, however, like the “May your house be full of Belgians” line.
— I didn’t get the bit with Palin showing a stained napkin to the camera, though it made me laugh anyway just because Palin is so goddamn funny.
— Overall, some things about this sketch kept tickling me (mainly Palin’s performance), but the thing as a whole didn’t work all that well.
STARS: **½


NUTTY PRESIDENT
Ronald Reagan (JOP) transforms a la The Nutty Professor during a speech

   

— Heh, WTF at Joe-as-Reagan’s sudden Jerry Lewis-esque loud wacky voice when saying how high unemployment shot up?
— Haha, he seems to be going through a full Jerry Lewis transformation.
— Yep, now the camera has cut back to him in a Lewis-esque wig.
— And there’s the buck teeth.
— An overall pretty funny idea and decent execution from Joe, even if there wasn’t much to this besides a simple transformation.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
BRH makes endorsements in political races based on celebrity support
an upset MAG lists federal budget cuts she feels should be made
Raheem Abdul Muhammed refuses to believe that Liberace is a homosexual

     

— Second episode in a row with Saturday Night News making an unusually late appearance. In the last episode, it turns out SNN aired much earlier in the original live broadcast and was only bumped to a late timeslot in the rerun version I was watching, so I’m assuming that’s the same case for tonight’s SNN.  Boy, do I hate the odd re-shuffling of the running order in some of these old Comedy Central reruns (back in Comedy Central’s early days when they aired full 90-minute SNLs instead of shortened 60-minute ones).
— Interesting bit with Brad breaking down which celebrities are endorsing which candidates in the mid-term elections, though this seems to be kind of a time-killer that’s going on a little too long.
— Nice to see the return of “Spittin’-Mad Mary Gross”.
— Mary’s heated rapid-fire rant on budget cuts that should be made has some really good lines, especially “We pay, they pee” and (in regards to the Secret Service) “Thanks to you, only two of our last six presidents have been shot”.
— Some good ad-libs from Mary in response to some occasional flubs of hers during her fast-paced rant.
— I’ve been noticing these last few episodes that whenever the camera goes back to Brad after a guest commentary, Brad always says to the camera “More news” in a way that’s supposed to be funny, but it doesn’t work and just seems unnecessary.
— Eddie’s denial over Liberace being a homosexual is pretty funny, especially the incredibly flamboyant Liberace pictures he uses as proof of Liberace’s “masculinity”.
— Wow, that was a short Saturday Night News overall. Probably for the best, though.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Another World”


PUMPKIN
— A repeat of the gory pumpkin-carving short from last season’s Donald Pleasence-hosted Halloween episode.


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Keaton mentions that they had to cut tonight’s special guest Andy Kaufman. I think this is what would end up famously leading to the Larry the Lobster-esque “Keep or Dump Andy” vote-in that we’ll see a few episodes from now.
— Whoa, I just realized, where the heck was Robin Duke in tonight’s episode??? She didn’t appear in ANY sketches, and I’m not even seeing her onstage in these goodnights. Was she out sick this week?
— Gary Kroeger was also almost non-existent in tonight’s episode, but at least he was still in the show.
— It looked like Keaton walked off right in the middle of these goodnights. If so, I wonder if it’s because of Ebersol’s infamous treatment of him.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not a very good episode. Despite a few good things, there was kind of a ho-hum, forgettable quality to the night as a whole, and there were too many overlong sketches. This episode also had a very weird feeling to it, which may have been due to the non-Studio 8H aspect, though that didn’t make the Howard Hesseman episode feel too weird (maybe because that episode had enough strong material to mask the weird atmosphere from being performed in two different studios). All I have to say is, thank God they’ll be back in Studio 8H by the next episode.
— The whole situation with Michael Palin being brought in as emergency backup makes me feel kinda bad for Michael Keaton, but Keaton truly didn’t seem too up to the task of handling the show, judging from his awkwardness tonight. I can understand why they barely put him in any sketches. He would later do a much better job in his 1992 and (especially) 2015 hosting stints.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Howard Hesseman):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Robert Blake