Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Paulette Clooney meets her idol host by chance in the ladies’ restroom
— Nice to see another appearance from Robin’s “She’s a pig” character, Paulette Clooney. Does this character appear beyond this season, or does this end up being her final appearance?
— A good laugh from Robin’s line “Olivia Newton-John in the john!”
— Pretty funny lipstick job Robin did on herself.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Announcer Mel Brandt (who we’ll be hearing on SNL for the last time tonight) mistakenly announces Michael Davis as a “special host” instead of “special guest”.
TALENT ENTRANCE
— Uh, where’s the cast? For this Talent Entrance, Brandt announces “Olivia Newton-John and the cast of Saturday Night Live!”, but only Olivia makes an entrance. Strange. This would’ve been the cast’s last chance to do a Talent Entrance, as that segment gets dropped after this season.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Physical”
TRANSEASTERN
— Rerun
EBONY & IVORY
Frank Sinatra (JOP) & Stevie Wonder (EDM) sing “Ebony & Ivory” variant
— Oh, this is a very well-known classic sketch.
— Eddie’s solo singing of “Ebony and Ivory” actually sounds genuinely nice.
— Joe’s Sinatra: “When I think of Ebony, I think of a magazine that most people do not buy.”
— I always get a kick out of Sinatra’s lyric “You are blind as a bat and I have sight”.
— Overall, a perfect and very well-done sketch, and is one of the quintessential displays of the great chemistry Eddie and Joe have always had.
STARS: *****
I MARRIED A MONKEY
Madge doesn’t want to give up her new life as a nun
— Ha, they fooled me with the long opening set-up with the nuns before the monkey showed up. I had no idea this would turn into another “I Married a Monkey”.
— Funny part with Tim responding to Madge’s lack of a verbal response to his question by saying “You’ve taken a vow of silence”.
— Overall, ehh, I found myself laughing very little during this. After a strong first two installments, I definitely seem to be slowly getting tired of this recurring sketch. These last two installments didn’t do much for me. I’m afraid to ask how many more times they’ll do this sketch over the next two seasons.
STARS: **
HITLER IN HEAVEN
Colonel (Graham Chapman) halts sketch about Hitler (TIK) at pearly gates
— Ha, is that a Hitler mustache I’m seeing on Tim under his “Mother Theresa” cloak?
— Yep, he IS playing Hitler.
— Tony’s “Go to hell” to Hitler was funny.
— Graham Chapman!
— Good audience applause in response to Chapman’s appearance. I thought I remember reading somewhere before that Chapman’s cameo in this episode disappointingly got no reaction from the audience.
— Nice breaking of the fourth wall with Chapman pointing out the general idea of this sketch was “stolen” from Monty Python.
— Another Twilight Zone twist with Brian showing up as Rod Serling. That’s making this feel reminiscent of a sketch they did before. I might be thinking of that sketch from the Chevy Chase-hosted episode in season 3 where characters in a scene tried various ways to end the sketch they’re in. Did Dan Aykroyd’s Rod Serling impression appear in that? I can’t remember.
— Overall, this didn’t work quite as well as it should have, especially for something involving a Graham Chapman appearance. This paled in comparison to that aforementioned season 3 sketch.
STARS: **½
NOT A RECORD AD
an unspecified product is very beneficial, but it’s not a record
— I’m enjoying the rapid-fire shots of random stock photos and clips.
— Wow, what the—? This overall ad went by so fast and was so strange, I couldn’t even fully process it. From what I could make of it, I did enjoy its weirdness.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Make a Move on Me”
SNL NEWSBREAK
ersatz Arnold Schwarzenegger (Leo Yoshimura) impresses MAG with his body
a banned advertisment for “The Secret Policemen’s Other Ball”
Graham Chapman [real] apologizes for any offensive material in the ad
TIK dislikes the popularity of self-help books
stills of Sophia Loren’s movie roles document her prison stay
host summarizes what James Watt has done during his time in office
JOP predicts how the trend of athlete endorsements will continue
EDM’s warning to fathers- “everybody gets it on prom night”
— A continuation of the running gag with Mary interviewing Akira Yoshimura as the wrong person, this time as “Arnold Schwarzenegger”. The image of a monotone Yoshimura in that Conan the Barbarian outfit is cracking me up.
— I liked Mary’s “Any lower and I’d be having your children!” line when Yoshimura lifted her in his arms.
— Graham Chapman again!
— The ending of Graham’s commentary was very predictable, though it was kinda funny seeing Brian dressed like that.
— Why’d the camera randomly move to the side strangely in the middle of Tim’s commentary?
— Tim’s overall commentary was okay and displayed some decent snarkiness and sarcasm from him.
— Oh, no, here comes SNL Newsbreak’s dreaded weekly “long photo montage”, this time showing Sofia Loren “in prison”.
— Odd seeing an Olivia Newton-John commentary. Hosts rarely do their own Update commentaries, especially back in this era.
— Uh, wow. What the heck was the point of Olivia’s overall commentary??? To deliver a straight, non-comedic speech railing against then-Secretary of the Interior James Watt? If I wanted to see out-of-place preachiness and politically-charged clapter on SNL, I’d tune into a modern-day episode.
— Man, most of Christine’s jokes are absolutely BOMBING tonight, even worse than they usually do.
— Joe’s SNL Sports commentary tonight is pretty funny with the increasingly silly fake athlete-endorsed products he’s displaying. I especially like the Secretariat ballpark franks.
— Funny ending to Joe’s commentary, with him repeatedly shoving the pull-string doll of himself into Brian’s face while Brian’s trying to speak. Seems like something Joe would’ve done to Charles Rocket the previous season, back when Joe would sometimes follow up his SNL Sports commentaries by trolling Rocket with a prop while Rocket was in the middle of a news joke.
— Is tonight’s SNL Newsbreak ever going to end?
— Great commentary from Eddie about sex on prom night, especially his line about “giving her the ol’ heave-ho like a champ” and him declaring that “EVERYONE gets it on prom night”.
— And so ends the final edition of SNL Newsbreak. And with that, I breathe a sigh of relief and thank God I no longer have to review this segment. My goodness, what a dreadful year for SNL’s news segment this was. You KNOW it was terrible when it has me welcoming the upcoming freakin’ Brad Hall era of the news with (somewhat) open arms.
STARS: **
MICHAEL DAVIS
Michael Davis [real] orally juggles ping-pong balls & hard-boiled eggs
— LOL at the audience gasping at Michael quickly inhaling a ping-pong ball into his mouth.
— Michael, on the dangers of swallowing a ping-pong ball: “It would hurt… twice.” Haha, I like how it took a few seconds for both me and the audience to get that joke.
— Man, some of Michael’s tricks never fail to make me wince, but I love it.
— Funny mock-disgusted sounds from Michael when he spits the ball into the audience.
— Very funny part with the audience going “ohh” when Michael actually messed up and didn’t catch the ball in his mouth like he was supposed to, only for him to quickly put the ball into his mouth by hand and then sternly ask the audience “What do you mean ‘ohh’?”
— Very impressive work, orally juggling two ping-pong balls at the same time.
— I love the cruel pleasure he always takes in making the audience wonder if he’s really going to do a stunt he announces.
— Overall, fantastic work from Michael as usual. Does this end up being his final SNL appearance, or does he appear beyond this season? If this is indeed his final appearance, it’s a shame he didn’t continue to appear after this season. He was definitely a consistent big highlight of the year.
STARS: ****½
BUZZ WORDS
(EDM) can’t comprehend other businessmen’s metaphors for “you’re fired”
— LOL at Eddie’s “white guy businessman” voice.
— What’s with all the abbreviation talk?
— Tim’s “What’s all this BS?” amid all the professional abbreviation talk kinda made me laugh, though it got no audience reaction.
— Very good flawless fast-paced delivery from Tim and Joe, even if it’s not making me laugh much.
— I do like Eddie suddenly dropping his “white” voice and going all loud, deep-voiced, and ghetto on Tim and Joe after they fire him, though it’s not enough to save the sketch.
STARS: **
SANDY’S CURSE
unpopular girls (MAG) & (ROD) try to impress bad girls (host) & (CHE)
— Our obligatory Grease-related sketch of the night.
— Why do they keep trying to pass Brian Doyle-Murray off as a teenager this season? Who are they fooling?
— Yet another sketch tonight making mention of Robin’s alleged small chest size.
— Christine is dead-on as Rizzo.
— An overall decent sketch, though it kinda dragged a bit in some spots.
STARS: ***
SPORTS ORGAN CLASSICS
bring ballpark excitement home with this songbook
— Not too great of a concept, but still kind of a fun idea.
— An overall pretty forgettable sketch. I’m assuming this ends up being Tony’s final big role on the show, which is an underwhelming way for him to go out, though he certainly did what he could with the material in this.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host performs “Landslide”
THE CLAMS
— Aw, man, THIS is our final segment of the season? A repeated commercial??? Really, SNL?
— In a way, this is an accurate representation of the unusually high amount of repeated commercials we’ve seen over the course of this season. Sure hope there’s a lot less repeats in store for me in season 8.
GOODNIGHTS
— Is Joe drunk? He looks a bit smashed and his speech sounds unusually slurred.
— Joe announces that Eddie “is doing a movie this summer with Nick Nolte”. Of course, we now know what movie that would be.
— Oh, wow, very interesting how they’re now showing a still-photo montage of various sketches from this season while the ending credits are rolling.
— One of the pictures is of Danny DeVito dressed as a king while sitting on a throne. (fifth screencap above) Where did that come from? DeVito was never dressed like that anywhere in my copy of his episode, and as far as I know, there weren’t any sketches missing from my copy. Was that picture from a cut dress rehearsal sketch?
— The picture of Bill Murray and the cast singing with the Yale Whiffenpoofs in the Christmas episode noticeably has Father Guido Sarducci singing with them. That picture DEFINITELY has to be from dress rehearsal, because Sarducci was nowhere to be seen during that Whiffenpoofs performance in the live show.
— Overall, that montage was very fun. And something about it combined with the usual touching goodnights music playing in the background and the fact that this is the end of the season actually made me feel a little emotional.
— As far as I know, this ends up being the only season finale in SNL history that does this type of year-end “season montage”. It should’ve gone on to become a tradition for the end of every season; it’s a fun way to look back on the year as a whole.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An underwhelming, forgettable episode, which is pretty disappointing for a season finale. Kind of a microcosm of the quality of the second half of this season in general. Even Graham Chapman’s cameos tonight ended up being kinda disappointing. And ending a season finale with a repeated fake ad wasn’t the best idea, either (though maybe the show ran long and had to put that repeated ad in place of a planned live sketch). The only two things that stood out as strong were the classic Ebony & Ivory sketch and the Michael Davis spot.
— This would end up being the final episode for Tony Rosato, Christine Ebersole, and Brian Doyle-Murray. I know Tony and Christine were fired, but I’m not sure if Brian’s departure was his own decision or not. I was pretty surprised at how Tony and Christine turned out to be better cast members than I had been expecting. I already mentioned recently how reliable and solid Tony could often be in his performances. I’ve also noticed that he had a bit of a “Low-Key John Belushi” quality to him at times, and also had some of the likability that Belushi brought to his “everyman”-type of roles back in the day. Christine was a good performer in her own right and displayed solid performance skills in various roles. I said at one point early this season that I’m not looking forward to a whole season of constant Christine Ebersole musical sketches, but after now having gone through the entire season, I take that comment back. I actually ended up finding her musical sketches to be pretty enjoyable, and there weren’t anywhere near as many of them as I had been worried. In fact, the second half of the season barely had any. That may be a bad thing, actually, as Christine’s airtime in general also seemed to somewhat diminish in the second half of the season. Giving her the co-anchor spot on SNL Newsbreak in the last quarter of the season wasn’t a good decision, either, as she came off too bland and overly-straight for the role. Speaking of Newsbreak, I certainly have no problem with Brian’s departure. He helmed what is possibly the all-time worst era of SNL’s news segment, and his nothing-special delivery of the jokes didn’t help at all. As a sketch performer, he was serviceable at best, but nothing noteworthy. His presence on the show will not be missed at all.
— Season 7 as a whole was a very unusual one. It’s basically a tale of two halves: the first half with Michael O’Donoghue in charge saw lots of experimentation, weirdness, darkness, and a daring sense of danger (particularly the Donald Pleasence episode on Halloween), more than any other SNL era has ever had. O’Donoghue’s sense of experimentation, weirdness, etc. may not have always worked in this season’s first half, but I admired it and found myself enjoying most of the episodes in that half of the season. The second half of the season after O’Donoghue’s mid-season firing saw the show having a VERY different feel from the first half. Gone was the experimentation, weirdness, and danger, and in its place was a lot more safeness, blandness, and a generally overly-average feeling. Also adding to the unexciting vibe was the roster of hosts, as aside from Danny DeVito, the entire second half of the season had an endless string of bland or non-comedic celebrities hosting, with only Johnny Cash defying expectations and giving a strong hosting performance. While the second half of the season was a definite step down from the first, the season as a whole was still a step in the right direction after the chaos of season 6.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny DeVito):
— a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
Season 8 begins, hosted by Chevy Chase via satellite. We get a few new cast members, a revamped news segment, and the return of several SNL traditions that season 7 did away with.