Tag: Paul Simon

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May 14, 2011 – Ed Helms / Paul Simon (S36 E21)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER
with Osama Bin Laden dead, cocky Barack Obama (FRA) plays stand-up comic

— This is easily one of the few legitimately strong Obama performances Fred has ever given. The escalation to his-as-Obama’s newfound laid-back, smug demeanor while bragging about killing Osama Bin Laden is great, especially his catchphrase “Kiiiiiiilllllled Bin Laden!”
— Jason’s occasional mumbling as Wolf Blitzer always makes me laugh, and I like the touch with him even doing it during his LFNY at the end of this.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE

— For the first time in years, long after the TV Funhouse segment has been retired, we get an “A Cartoon By Robert Smigel” announcement in tonight’s opening montage, which I remember was a HUGE shock at the time, as there wasn’t a prior announcement of it before the show (as far as I know, at least).


MONOLOGUE
host relives his beloved childhood stint as a spandex-clad baton twirler

— I recall Ed Helms being a surprisingly awkward host in this episode, but in this monologue so far, he’s handling himself just fine.
— A long-winded but good childhood story from Ed.
— Funny twist with Ed ripping off his clothes to reveal a unitard, and then proceeding to launch into his old baton-twirling routine.
STARS: ***½


CORN SYRUP PRODUCERS OF AMERICA
Rerun from 3/12/11


WHAT UP WITH THAT?
musical guest, Chris Colfer [real], Lindsey Buckingham (BIH) & Lindsey Buckingham [real] are saluted

— This is the first appearance this recurring sketch has made in half a season, which is pretty surprising, given how frequently this popular sketch appeared prior to its half-season-long hiatus. That hiatus makes the presence of this sketch tonight come off more refreshing.
— Ooh, a change of pace, with the guest in the first seat, Paul Simon, sticking up for Bill’s Lindsey Buckingham by pointing out to Kenan’s Deandre Cole that Buckingham never gets a chance to speak on the show.
— Wow, and now Fred, Jason, Nasim, and Vanessa’s usually-non-speaking background characters (well, not counting the usual singing from Nasim & Vanessa) not only speak, but we even find out their names: Giuseppe (Fred), Vance (Jason), and Poppy & Pippa (Nasim & Vanessa). I’m loving all of the changes of pace in tonight’s WUWT installment.
— A display of Ed’s real-life banjo skills.
— Holy hell, this sketch continues to break format, as we, in a surreal twist, get an appearance from a second Lindsey Buckingham, played by the real Lindsey Buckingham, doing an awesome acoustic guitar solo.
— Overall, definitely one of the best installments of this always-fun sketch. So nice to see them try so many different things. Speaking of which, it would later be revealed from someone on the show (I can’t remember who; it may have even been Kenan himself) that this was intended to be the farewell installment of What Up With That, which explains why there were so many changes of pace and format breaks within it. However, WUWT’s retirement would end up being short-lived, because just a year later when Maya Rudolph hosts, they bring the sketch back due to how much she reeeaaaaalllly wanted to do it.
STARS: ****½


SIDE NOTE: The mid-commercial break shot of SNL’s studio shows an office set being assembled on SNL’s home base stage for the next sketch (screencap below). However, when the show comes back from commercial, the sketch that the office set was assembled for is nowhere to be seen. Strange.


TV FUNHOUSE
by RBS- Dr. Brainio’s (Stephen Colbert) gun fleshes Ace (Jon Hamm) & Gary (JIF)

— Ah, so nice to see that TV Funhouse opening title sequence (“Come back here with myyyy shooow!”) again after so many seasons.
— Kinda amusing to see how primitive the original Ambiguously Gay Duo opening title sequence from 1996 looks when airing in a 2011 episode.
— Given the fact that Ed Helms is the host of tonight’s episode, it’s fitting hearing the voices of his former Daily Show co-stars Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert playing their usual characters in these AGD cartoons.
— The usual laughs from the usual AGD beats, such as the suggestive homoerotic visuals of innocent things Ace and Gary do, and the conversations between the villains on the topic of Ace and Gary’s sexual orientation.
— Whoa, we get the turn to end all turns! Ace and Gary suddenly get transformed into live-action characters, played by Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon.
— Now the villains have gotten transformed into live-action characters, most of them being played by their voice actors. This is so great to see.
— Steve Carell looks almost completely unrecognizable in that Bighead getup.
— This whole live-action sequence is incredible, and I love the visual quality of the nighttime outdoors scenes, making it feel like I’m watching a movie.
— Overall, an absolute blast. Such a great novelty. I’m glad Smigel went all out on this, and this feels like a much more fitting farewell for TV Funhouse than the actual final TV Funhouse cartoon to air prior to this one.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rewrite”


WEEKEND UPDATE
out-of-the-loop Anthony Crispino botches reportage of current events

Will Smith (JAP) makes his trailer & everything else bigger & better

the latest Garth & Kat ouevre addition comprises impromptu vacation songs

— Another instance of Seth having fun doing a British accent during the punchline of an Update joke.
— I like the Fergie tie-in during Anthony Crispino’s Prince William/Will.i.am mix-up.
— Crispino makes an amusing and unexpected namedrop of SNL’s own Maya Rudolph during his mix-up about the 2012 apocalypse.
— I love Crispino proudly yelling “We finally killed Oksana Baiul!” during his Osama Bin Laden mix-up.
— Given how reduced his airtime had been the last handful of episodes prior to this, it’s nice to see Jay get an Update commentary. That being said, it’s kinda hard for me to get excited about it being a Will Smith commentary, given the fact that it feels like they’ve been over-relying on that impression. It’s losing its novelty for me.
— As I was worried, there’s not much to this Will Smith commentary so far. It’s completely meh.
— What was with Jay’s extended frozen smile into the camera after the photo of Kim Kardashian posing with Will Smith’s trailer was shown?
— (*screams in anger for 10 straight minutes*) Fred continues to be Weekend Update poison (hell, “season 36 poison” is more accurate in terms of Fred) in his frequent Update appearances in the second half of this season, with us now getting a damn Garth & Kat commentary. And it’s just my luck that this happens in the episode RIGHT AFTER one where I was worried Seth was introducing a Garth & Kat commentary, only for it to thankfully be a Stefon commentary instead.
— The only positive thing I can say about tonight’s Garth & Kat commentary is that at least it’s appearing in the second-to-last episode of the season instead of the actual last episode of the season, like how SNL disappointingly ended the preceding season of Update with these characters.
STARS: **½ (as usual, Garth & Kat’s painful and overlong commentary brought the rating down half a star)


SONG MEMORIES
“Wild World” evokes family secrets of (host) & other icky reminiscers

— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in over a year, and its first-ever appearance without Will Forte as one of the four “icky reminiscers”. Andy takes over Will’s place in tonight’s installment.
— There’s our obligatory topical punchline to one of the guys’ stories, with Bill’s father (who he always refers to in these sketches as “muh dad”) turning out to be the recently-killed Osama Bin Laden.
— As expected, it initially feels a little odd seeing Andy telling one of the stories in this sketch, though he’s fitting in well-enough with the other guys.
— I like how tonight’s installment of this recurring sketch has returned to the tradition of having each icky reminiscer say a humorous addendum to their story, after singing the chorus of the song with the other guys. This recurring sketch dropped that aspect in the last few installments prior to tonight’s.
— Funny bit with Ed unknowingly drinking the ashes of Jason’s grandfather in the drinking cup, and then coughing out a cloud of the ashes.
— While not one of the best installments of this recurring sketch (this sketch’s best days are probably long behind us), I’m enjoying all of the punchlines to the guys’ stories more than I enjoyed the story punchlines in the last two installments of this sketch.
— Ha, a Human Centipede ending. That alone is worth the price of admission.
STARS: ***½


ONE TAKE TONY
in 1941 Hollywood, bad actor One-Take Tony’s (ANS) nickname is a misnomer

— It feels kinda rare seeing Andy starring as an old-timey 1940s character, even though this particular 1940s character feels like a very fitting role for him.
— A genuine surprise from me when Andy did that Matt Foley-esque pratfall through the breakaway table.
— Funny appearance at the end from Kenan as Louie Armstrong singing One-Take Tony’s randomly-appearing ending theme song.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “So Beautiful Or So What”


ANN-MARGRET TRIES TO THROW AWAY A WAD OF PAPER INTO A TRASHCAN
Ann-Margret (KRW) does what the title above says

— Here’s the type of sketch I call a Wacky Wiig Showcase, but unlike some Wacky Wiig Showcases from these later seasons of Kristen’s SNL tenure, I’m not instantly groaning at the sight of this particular one, because in these past few months of this season, SNL has thankfully cut back big-time on the number of Wacky Wiig Showcases, outside of Update commentaries. It’s been refreshing not seeing Kristen so dominant on the show anymore, so hopefully, that’ll make this Ann-Margret sketch come off more welcome than it would’ve if it had aired during the days of endless Wiig Domination.
— For some odd reason, when the camera cuts to a close-up of Ed saying “Should’ve done this myself”, he suddenly stops mid-sentence, pauses awkwardly for a few seconds, and then repeats the line in full after the camera cuts away from the close-up of him. He seemed to think he mistakenly started saying that line too early, even though he clearly didn’t say it too early, because the camera was on a close-up of him during that.
— Fun performance from Kristen, and a good execution from her on this comically-scant premise, even if I don’t find this to be anywhere near the classic that SNL wants me to. Earlier in this sketch review, I pointed out that, if this sketch had aired during the days of endless Wiig Domination (2008-2010), I’d probably have found it tired and annoying. Well, conversely, if this sketch had aired in 2006 when Kristen was new, fresh, and wasn’t cast in wacky roles anywhere near as often, I’d probably be much more impressed by the sketch, having a “Wow, that new girl is GREAT!” reaction, and I might’ve indeed found the sketch to be a classic. By this point in 2011, there’s a feeling of “We’ve already seen everything Kristen can do, 100 times over”.
— An overall simple and funny sketch.
STARS: ***½


REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE
unspecified white male GOP presidential candidate (host) is plain vanilla

— Ah, there’s the office set that, as I pointed out, was shown being assembled on SNL’s home base stage much earlier tonight during a mid-commercial break shot. I’m VERY curious why they suddenly decided at literally the last minute to move this sketch to the very end of the show. Did something go wrong?
— Another instance tonight of Ed suddenly stopping in the middle of a line, then pausing awkwardly for a few seconds, then repeating the line in full. This time, it happens during the “My dad” bit, and this gaffe of Ed’s hurts the gag of that line.
— Another overall simple sketch. Aside from Ed’s aforementioned gaffe, this sketch wasn’t bad, though it was a little too much on the forgettable side, given the promising concept it had.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty solid episode. The pre-Weekend Update half had some impressive highs, with the special farewell (for a while) installment of What Up With That, the also-special live-action return of TV Funhouse, and one of Fred Armisen’s very few strong Obama performances. While less impressive than the pre-Weekend Update half, the post-Weekend Update half of the show was consistently good. Aside from one gaffe in both the Ann-Margret and Republican Candidate sketches, Ed Helms wasn’t as awkward or ill-prepared a host as I had remembered. However, he was very forgettable, which is disappointing, given how reliably funny he can be elsewhere. On another note, I found the way this episode was structured to be a little odd, with how scant the number of segments between the monologue and Paul Simon’s first musical performance was, especially with there only being ONE actual live sketch in that portion of the show. Then again, as mentioned earlier, that Republican Candidate sketch was all set to air in the first half of the show, before something behind the scenes seemingly caused a change of plans.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
TV Funhouse
What Up With That?
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
Song Memories
Ann-Margret Tries To Throw Away A Wad Of Paper Into A Trashcan
Monologue
One Take Tony
Republican Candidate
Weekend Update


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tina Fey)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 36 comes to an end, with host Justin Timberlake

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May 13, 2006 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus / Paul Simon (S31 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PARALLEL EARTH
on a parallel Earth, everything is great under president Al Gore [real]

— Right from the opening intro sequence of this, it looks like we’re in for an out-of-the-ordinary cold opening.
— Very fun concept of the real Al Gore being president in a parallel universe, and Gore has proven himself in the past to be a good presence on SNL.
— So much great and inspired ironic humor here, and this is both very well-written and well-performed.
— Ha, there goes a lockbox mention.
— A particularly funny line about California no longer existing, and having been replaced by Mexifornia.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
Jason Alexander [real] thinks JLD has broken the Seinfeld [real] curse

— It feels very nice to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus back on SNL for the first time since her departure from the cast in 1985.
— I like that Julia starts this monologue by bringing up the little-known-among-more-casual-viewers fact that she was once an SNL cast member. I wish she talked a little more about that here, but she would later do that in her season 41 monologue.
— We also get a mention that Julia has the honor of being the first female cast member to host. I remember how, before this, a lot of online SNL fans were surprised that in SNL’s then-31 years on the air, there had yet to be a female cast member who has come back to host. Thankfully, after Julia’s hosting stint in tonight’s episode, there have been much more female cast members who have hosted.
— Very funny mockery of men’s maturity levels with the various working titles Julia says that her show The New Adventures Of Old Christine originally had.
— I absolutely LOVE how we’re getting a Seinfeld-esque pre-taped outdoors scene with Julia and Jason Alexander.
— Great scene with Julia and Jason, especially the sudden car collision ending.
— Now we get a Jerry Seinfeld cameo! Even the odd raspiness in his voice here is making me laugh a lot.
— A noticeable absence of a Michael Richards cameo. Either he wasn’t available, or SNL somehow looked into the future and saw that he was soon going to gain extreme notoriety with his infamous Laugh Factory incident later in this same year.
STARS: ****½


TECH PACK
wired vest organizes electronic devices but looks terroristic

— I recall this getting cut from many dress rehearsals this season before finally making it on the air in tonight’s episode.
— I like how the only performers in this are two of the newbies.
— Amusing how the Tech Pack that Jason is demonstrating to Kristen looks unintentionally like a terrorist’s bomb strap, complete with a detonator.
— Very funny ending with Jason running through the airport with his bomb strap-looking device, scaring the hell out of the other people at the airport.
— Overall, short and sweet.
STARS: ***½


BUM ATTENTION
insecure (JLD) is upset she isn’t being harassed by a lewd bum (BIH)

— Feels interesting seeing Julia paired with this female cast after having gotten so used to seeing Julia’s female cast mates being Mary Gross, Robin Duke, etc. when I reviewed her SNL era earlier in this project of mine.
— Julia’s disappointment at not getting sleazily hit on by Bill’s disgusting hobo character like her friends did is very funny.
— A great crass performance from Bill.
— I love the long, suspenseful buildup to the comment Bill is going to make to Julia.
— A hilarious dirty line that Bill eventually says to Julia, much to her poorly-disguised pleasure.
STARS: ****


THE MORNING SHOW
everything goes wrong during live television broadcast

— It certainly feels odd but interesting seeing this pairing of Kristen and Horatio front and center in this sketch. Watching back this season in retrospect years after it originally aired, it kinda blows my mind now that Kristen and Horatio’s SNL tenures overlapped for a season, as that’s easy to forget when watching this season, partly due to them rarely interacting with each other onscreen, partly due to the very different SNL eras they represent respectively, and partly due to how Horatio’s presence has gradually diminished this season while Kristen’s presence gradually increased.
— I absolutely love how literally EVERY SINGLE THING is going wrong in this morning show. SNL has done this premise with some other news or morning show sketches (e.g. a sketch from Britney Spears’ season 27 episode, and one from Andy Roddick’s season 29 episode), but it’s being particularly executed well here.
— Two hilarious running gags throughout this sketch, one with a deceased staff member and another with the show’s theme song randomly playing at the wrong times.
— A rare solid performance from Horatio at this late stage of his SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


MYSPACE SEMINAR
students in (ANS)’s Intro To MySpace class are mostly sexual predators

— In retrospect, an interesting time capsule of the MySpace craze still going strong at this time.
— Great reveal of the class being mostly full of sexual predators in their 40s.
— Is Will playing an early version of Jeff Montgomery, his later and well-remembered sex offender character from season 34 (most famously in a sketch with Jon Hamm where Montgomery is a trick-or-treater)? Will’s even wearing the exact same jacket in this MySpace sketch that he would later wear in the Jeff Montgomery sketches.
— Oh, that’s right, Seth Meyers is still a cast member. Lately, he’s been joining Maya and Horatio in the “They’ve been appearing on the show so little lately that it feels like they’ve already left the cast” department.
— I love Seth’s line about using 1991 in his username because 1,991 is supposedly his favorite number.
— Hilarious bit with Will pretending to type on this laptop when he says he’ll change his “NaughtyGirlHotStuff” username after being told that username will attract a lot of teenage boys.
— Seth’s Dateline question is fantastic.
— Ha, something about Chris’ mere delivery and facial expression during his bit about having his face altered is cracking me up.
— I love all the guys immediately clearing out of the room in a panic when a cop shows up.
— After the cop leaves, we get an absolutely priceless reveal of Horatio hiding very poorly behind a small potted plant. Speaking of Horatio, wow, between the Morning Show sketch and now this, he’s having by far the best night he’s had in a LOOOOOOONG time.
— Overall, such a perfect sketch.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “How Can You Live In The Northeast?”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AMP & Al Gore [real] do a Point-Counterpoint about global warming

TIF’s grandfather (FRA) tries to sign up for Medicare benefits via phone

FIM gives fashion tips to young men regarding appropriate prom attire

David Blaine (ANS) fails in his attempt to hold his breath for 9 minutes

— A big laugh from the mostly-blacked-out global warming report that Al Gore displays.
— Ugh, words cannot express how much I absolutely HATED Amy “flipping” the “You ignorant slut” routine when Gore was about to say it during his and Amy’s Point-Counterpoint. Amy’s corny, cutesy delivery of “You ignorant slut” didn’t help. Way to piss all over a great, long-standing SNL tradition, Amy.
— A somewhat interesting change of pace for Update with the segment involving Fred as Tina’s grandfather, Wolfgang.
— I admit to getting a cheap laugh from Fred’s Wolfgang muttering “I got the damn cleaning lady” when the phone operator speaks in Spanish.
— Finesse appears in his final Update commentary.
— I loved Finesse’s “You are a magician” bit, as did the audience. The rest of this commentary, on the other hand? Meh. At least it’s not as painfully unfunny as Finesse’s last Update commentary before this about angry black women.
— I like Rachel’s lines as the phone operator in the second segment with Fred’s Wolfgang.
— This Update feels like it’s going on FOREVER.
— The whiny, gaspy voice Andy is using after he as David Blaine failed to complete his magic trick sounds very Adam Sandler-esque.
— Andy’s David Blaine commentary is pretty dumb on paper, but it’s the kind of dumb that Andy can execute well (which is another similarity Andy has to Adam Sandler), which he is doing here.
— Tired, past-their-prime, and about-to-leave SNL veterans having a better night than usual seems to be a theme tonight, because not only has Horatio been having a surprisingly strong episode, but Tina has had what is probably her best night in a while in tonight’s overall Update, though it’s still a far cry from her glory days on Update back in 2000-2002. Amy, on the other hand, was as horrible tonight as she usually is in the Fey/Poehler era of Update, maybe even moreso, especially that absolutely god-awful dolphin joke of hers tonight.
STARS: **½


CHARADES
contestants’ (AMP) & (JLD) pantomime is sexually suggestive

— Fitting casting of Darrell as impressionist Rich Little.
— I like Chris always responding to Darrell-as-Rich-Little’s hacky and shoehorned celebrity impressions by immediately shutting him down or just quickly moving on in a clearly-unamused manner.
— Some good laughs from the increasingly suggestive-looking charade gestures Amy and Julia have to do, and how the celebrity contestants can easily guess Amy’s gestures, but constantly mistake Julia’s gestures for sex acts.
— Maya’s Charo is getting increasingly unintelligible as this sketch goes on.
— I love the look Kenan’s Nipsey Russell gives Maya’s Charo after she says “You are me – Charo!” (which makes at least one line of hers that I could decipher) in response to one PARTICULARLY dirty-looking charade gesture of Julia’s.
STARS: ***½


UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
Unsolved Mysteries re-enactor (JLD) doesn’t believe (KRW)’s alien story

— I remember the absolutely befuddled reaction among online SNL fans back at this time in regards to SNL’s decision to do an Unsolved Mysteries sketch in 2006, years after Unsolved Mysteries had stopped being relevant.
— I also recall how I and other online SNL fans back at this time got a VERY Mo Collins (from MADtv) vibe from Kristen’s twitchy, psychotic character in this sketch, back in the days before us SNL fans got very accustomed to seeing Kristen play twitchy, psychotic characters.
— It’s cracking me up how, among the cartoonish ghoulish off-camera voices, one of the voices is literally just saying “Ghoooosts” in a quivery, spooky voice.
— The increasingly bizarre movie characters showing up during the scene being filmed are pretty funny.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Outrageous”


PEYOTE
peyote leads to street-level suicide jump threat drama with (ANS) & (WLF)

— This is the ONLY time I can remember that a Lonely Island-made Digital Short, billed on the air as such with the “An SNL Digital Short” title screen, has ever aired as the last segment of an episode, but I can’t say for sure.
— A hilarious ending reveal of Andy not standing on the high ledge of a building like we were led to believe, but rather standing on a sidewalk against a building, and Will being crouched down right in front of him.
— Much like at the end of the Lettuce Digital Short from earlier this season, we get a very brief Jorma Taccone appearance as a passerby.
— Speaking of Lettuce, tonight’s short has a similar twist ending, with peyote being the subject matter instead of lettuce, which is very funny after the aforementioned reveal of Andy and Will both bizarrely being on ground level.
— This may be the shortest Lonely Island Digital Short of all time.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
(Not included in the copy I’m reviewing of this episode. For anyone keeping count, this is only the third time in my SNL project that the copy of an episode I reviewed cut off abruptly before its existing goodnights were shown. The previous two episodes were Christopher Walken’s season 21 episode and The Rock’s season 27 episode. Unlike those two, tonight’s episode isn’t followed by an Alec Baldwin-hosted episode, so at least I know there’s not some kind of curse going on.)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and one of the absolute best of this season. This episode was almost completely flawless, minus Weekend Update, though even THAT was a little better than it’s usually been in the Fey/Poehler era. The first half of this episode was especially phenomenal, with almost EVERY SINGLE SEGMENT receiving a rating ranging from 4-5 stars. Very impressive. Almost everything in the first half of this episode seemed so “on”, especially the inspired writing. And as I mentioned earlier, even some tired veterans in the cast had their best night in a while in this episode.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 31 comes to an end, with host Kevin Spacey. It’s also the final episode for Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz, as well as the final episode of Seth Meyers’ tenure as a regular sketch performer.

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November 4, 2000 – Charlize Theron / Paul Simon (S26 E4)

NOTE: As I mentioned at the end of my last review, this Charlize Theron episode is a very special episode for me as an SNL reviewer, as it’s the very first episode I ever did a review of, back when I regularly reviewed new SNL episodes right after they aired, for 14 long consecutive seasons. My original review of this episode is here, though only a few portions of it still exist, as I unfortunately lost most of it. Anyway, if you’d like, feel free to compare and contrast the linked review to the review I’m about to do below.

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

A GLIMPSE OF OUR POSSIBLE FUTURE
swamped president George W. Bush (WIF)

— I love the beginning, with Will-as-Bush’s off-camera whining about how he doesn’t want to go on camera, as an angry aide (voiced by Parnell) is urging him to do it.
— Speaking of Will-as-Bush’s whining, his particular whine of the line “I don’t wanna go out, it’s too haaaaaarrrrrddd!” feels like a precursor to the whiny Bush impression that future cast member Will Forte would later do on a regular basis.
— In hindsight, this cold opening feels a little eerily reminiscent of a certain infamous event that would later happen under Bush’s presidency the following September 11th, so much so, that Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode would remove this cold opening, and that’s noteworthy, as Comedy Central’s 60-minute SNL episodes usually NEVER removed cold openings from seasons 25 and 26. By the way, here’s something even eerier about this cold opening’s similarities to 9/11, on a more personal note: on the night of September 10, 2001, I randomly chose to rewatch this cold opening on a VHS tape that I had recorded this episode on back when it originally aired. After rewatching this cold opening, I remember Will-as-Bush’s line “That big tit building’s on fire again!” was stuck in my head the whole rest of that night. Well, fast-forward to the fateful next day, September 11, 2001, and hoo, boy, when I saw all the tragic breaking news on TV, there was one point where I couldn’t help but be reminded of the SNL cold opening that I had just watched the preceding night, and I was particularly reminded of the immortal (to me) line “That big tit building’s on fire again!”, and then I felt strangely both kinda guilty and prescient.
— Hilarious reveal that all of these disasters happened a mere two weeks into Bush’s presidency.
— The line about Bush having killed vice president Dick Cheney in a hunting accident? Hoooooly hell, talk about prescient, even if it was actually Cheney who would end up being the cause of the real-life hunting accident years later.
— Funny ending with an ostrich.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
TRM commiserates with host upon learning she’s an African-American

— When Charlize addresses an “audience member” played by Tracy as “sir”, I love Tracy responding “I’m not a sir, I’m Tracy Morgan, I’m on the show.”
— Tracy pointing out how Charlize is technically African-American is great.
— Tracy is a riot in this monologue, just being his natural self. He and Charlize have a nice chemistry too. This monologue feels like it’s in a similar vein to the backstage sketches that Tracy did with Garth Brooks and Jamie Foxx in the preceding season, but I can see why they instead put this one in the monologue spot tonight.
STARS: ****


TRL
Gemini’s Twin (ANG) & (MAR) added (host) for looks

 

— The debut of the Gemini’s Twin sketches.
— Funny music video shown of Gemini’s Twin early in the sketch.
— In Charlize’s second hosting stint 14 years later (which was coincidentally the second-to-last episode I reviewed during my aforementioned 14-year original run as a reviewer of new SNL episodes), she talks about this Gemini’s Twin sketch in her monologue and points out that the writers had to work around her inability to sing by having her resort to just throwing in brief one-liners after Maya and Ana’s harmonizing.
— Charlize’s performance here is cracking me up.
— This Gemini’s Twins group is a good parody of Destiny’s Child.
— Overall, while I’m not sure I’m going to enjoy this as a recurring sketch, this debut was pretty good.
STARS: ***


A GLIMPSE OF OUR POSSIBLE FUTURE
professorial president Al Gore (DAH)

— I like how this is a runner tonight, going through each of the presidential candidates.
— Darrell-as-Al-Gore’s teacher-esque treatment towards the nation is very funny, especially him chastising the nation for their performance in last week’s pop quiz (“Idaho, I’m lookin’ in your directiiiioooonnn…”).
— An interesting use of pre-tape and a body double to make it look like Darrell is playing both Gore and Bill Clinton in this sketch, but there’s an awful lot of awkward timing issues here. There’s some delays before they cut to Darrell as pre-taped Clinton, and the body double playing live Clinton is way off on his cues, as he keeps doing certain actions too early or too late.
STARS: ***½


MARLA AND CODY’S BLAIR WITCH TOUR!
Azrael & Circe take Marla (host) & Cody’s (HOS) Blair Witch Tour

— Funny sudden reveal of Kattan and Molly’s Goth Talk characters. This is a refreshing use of them, and ends up being their final appearance.
— I’m really liking Charlize’s characterization here.
— A big laugh from Azrael Abyss fearfully answering “Yes” when Charlize asks him and Circe Nightshade the rhetorical question of if either of them were ever caught in a parking lot while the shop teacher went down on them.
— Great bit with Azrael’s “I’m so scared” close-up turning out to be him struggling to pee in the woods.
— Horatio is funny as the alleged Blair Witch.
STARS: ***½


TV FUNHOUSE
“The All New Adventures of Mr. T” by RBS- actors’ strike leads to ad gig

— Good to see this back.
— The picket sign holder’s odd way of walking when approaching Mr. T’s van is strangely amusing to me.
— I like the random involvement of actor Michael Gross.
— Some good laughs from the mere fact that Mr. T is fighting just to be a Maxi-Pad commercial.
STARS: ****


THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH
jealous Joe DiMaggio (JIF) guards wife Marilyn Monroe (host) on the set

— Darrell’s foreign-accented line about Marilyn Monroe’s wonderful “crotchenboxen” was very funny.
— Oh, god. There’s the obligatory breaking from Jimmy, for no apparent reason.
— A very funny reveal that Horatio’s character, who’s squeezing Marilyn Monroe’s breasts as if to get them ready for the scene that’s about to be filmed, doesn’t even work here.
— Funny ending line from Parnell’s voice-over braggingly saying, in regards to Joe DiMaggio, “He had sex with Marilyn Monroe, and you didn’t”, which is humorously followed by a long, rapidly-scrolled list of people who did have sex with Marilyn. I caught some interesting names in there, including some SNL-related ones. (For anyone curious, below are screencaps of the list)

STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hurricane Eye”


WEEKEND UPDATE
RAD’s attempt to spring a surprise wedding on JIF meets with failure
TIF explains the electoral college & the potential order of succession
lone Jewish SNL writer Hugh Fink [real] talks about Joe Lieberman

— Interesting commentary with Rachel as herself in a wedding dress, proposing to Jimmy.
— A pretty good laugh from Jimmy telling Rachel that he can’t marry her because he just got PlayStation 2, which, as he says, is “very time-consuming”.
— Solid side segment from Tina explaining the convoluted process of how the president is elected.
— Yikes, Jimmy botched the Renovations joke HORRIBLY, which is something that usually comes to mind whenever I think about how green Jimmy sometimes tended to come off in his first season as Update anchorperson. However, he immediately saves himself in his botched Renovations joke tonight with a great ad-lib, where he says a mock-surprised “Oh, we’re gonna do it live this week?!?” Right before that ad-lib, I also like Tina’s hand reaching into the shot of Jimmy to comically rub his face (the sixth above screencap for this Weekend Update) after he botched the joke.
— Jimmy’s critique of GQ’s picks for Men of the Year is pretty funny.
— Man, Jimmy is STILL botching jokes. Pretty rough night for him.
— SNL seems to be letting a lot of their writers do Update commentaries as themselves lately, between Kevin Brennan in the back half of the preceding season, Adam McKay in the last episode, and now Hugh Fink tonight.
— I love Fink making fun of the last names of his fellow SNL writers (e.g. McNicholas, Herlihy, Shannon).
— Fink’s impression of Joe Lieberman is cracking me up.
— An overall solid commentary from Fink. I wish this led to him doing more Update commentaries, but alas, this ends up being his only one.
STARS: ***


BEDTIME STORIES
sex therapy patient (host) is turned on by Mr. Peepers

— It’s gradually feeling more and more odd lately to see Molly still on the show this season. It doesn’t feel out of the ordinary when I see her playing her recurring characters like Circe Nightshade or her Delicious Dish character, but when I see her playing non-recurring characters like in this sketch, it gives me a weird feel of “Oh, Molly’s still in the cast this season? I forgot.”
— Meh, a Mr. Peepers sketch.
— Charlize is a real good sport to participate in all of these crazy things that Mr. Peepers is having her do while she’s blindfolded, but it sure is disgusting to watch.
— When starting to hump Mr. Peepers in a doggy style position, Charlize accidentally pulls Kattan’s wig off (the last above screencap for this sketch). Surprisingly, this blooper isn’t all that noticeable and doesn’t affect the sketch (unlike a similar wig blooper with Brendan Fraser in a Xena sketch), probably due to all the craziness and raunchiness happening in the scene right now. Eventually, after failing in his attempt to put the wig back on his head, Kattan just casually throws the wig aside during the wild three-way humping session between Mr. Peepers, Molly, and Charlize.
— Overall, while still not all that great, I found this a little more tolerable than a lot of Mr. Peepers sketches, partly due to Charlize’s great commitment, and partly due to the crazy ending.
STARS: **½


A GLIMPSE OF OUR POSSIBLE FUTURE
fantastic president Ralph Nader (JIF)

— Hilarious idea of doing an “A Glimpse of Our Possible Future” scenario with the no-chance-of-realistically-winning Ralph Nader. I absolutely love the screaming laugh from a guy in SNL’s audience upon hearing the Ralph Nader reveal at the beginning of this.
— I remember when this episode originally aired, I missed the beginning of this sketch, but even when I came into this sketch mid-progress and saw Jimmy, I could immediately tell he was playing Ralph Nader. Jimmy’s doing a good impression of him, right down to imitating his twitchy eye.
— I like the hints that Nader’s presidency would only happen when pigs fly and when hell freezes over. When I first saw this sketch when it originally aired, then-teenage me didn’t “get” the joke of two shivering devils in scarves (played by Parnell and SNL writer Scott Wainio) throwing snowballs at each other, until I soon saw it explained on an online SNL forum that the joke is implying that hell has frozen over. I also remember having a difficult time figuring out who was playing the non-Parnell devil, as I wasn’t all that familiar with Scott Wainio at the time, plus the red face paint made it even harder to identify him in this sketch.
STARS: ****


AUDITION
musical guest watches Kyle & Sean DeMarco interpret his songs via dance

— Geez, TWO Chris Kattan recurring sketches in a row tonight? (Not counting the Nader mini-sketch in between.) Ehhh….
— Always nice to see Paul Simon appear in a sketch. I just wish it was something better than THIS sketch.
— I will say that I am kinda liking the DeMarco Brothers’ interpretation of “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”.
— Okay, these song interpretations are quickly getting old.
— I’ve had nothing but good things to say about Charlize’s performances so far tonight, but geez, she’s kinda awful in this sketch. She’s overacting badly.
— Okay, the DeMarco Brothers are kinda winning me back over with their pretty funny interpretation of “Slip Sliding Away”.
— Overall, blah. SNL should’ve given this recurring sketch an early retirement after the tolerable Britney Spears installment.
STARS: **


THE COCONUT BANGERS BALL: IT’S A RAP!
Robert Goulet (WIF) covers rap songs on album

— Yes! The debut of Will’s Robert Goulet impression!
— A hilarious concept of Robert Goulet singing famous rap songs in a crooner style.
— Haha, holy hell at Will’s Goulet casually dropping the n-word when singing lyrics from “The Thong Song”. It took serious balls for Will to do that on the air.
— I howled at Will’s intense delivery of the lyric “Throw your hands in the air if you think YOU’RE A PLAYA!!!”
— Ha, Will gets away with another n-word drop during another song.
— Will-as-Goulet’s whole interaction with the big-horned sheep is pure comedy gold, especially the staring contest.
— Overall, my god, this sketch was so damn funny, even moreso than I had remembered all these years. Absolutely perfect. A Will Ferrell classic.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Old”


BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Buena Vista Social Club members get friendly with audience member (host)

— You can tell that this sketch is being rushed, as it fades in on Parnell already mid-sentence, as if SNL told him right before the show came back on air to hurry up and start speaking so they can try to squeeze in this sketch, due to the show starting to run long. Paul Simon’s preceding musical performance also felt unusually short (it was seriously only about two minutes long), and I wonder if he was also told to rush, or if that’s just the normal length of the song.
— Man, this is Jerry Minor’s FIRST (and only) appearance all night. So far in his SNL tenure, he sadly hasn’t been getting many opportunities to show his strengths as a performer.
— Some laughs from the Latin singers’ dirty lyrics that Will is casually translating.
— Tracy’s delivery here is cracking me up.
— I love Will translating the Latin singers’ lyric about getting rid of the dumbass with a red tie, only for Will to then angrily realize “Hey, I’m the only dumbass here with a red tie!”
— Uh-oh, looks like SNL is unsuccessful in their attempt to squeeze in this entire sketch before the show runs out of time, as the ending of this sketch abruptly gets cuts off by a commercial break. I can’t remember if SNL would later show the full ending of this sketch in reruns or not, but I don’t think they do.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, and had some strong sketches here and there, as well as one classic (The Coconut Bangers Ball), though there were unfortunately two subpar Chris Kattan recurring character pieces mixed into the second half of the show. Aside from her performance in the DeMarco Brothers sketch, Charlize Theron was a pretty solid host, better than I would’ve expected her to be.
— On a personal note, reviewing this episode just now has brought back so many nice memories of when I wrote my very first SNL review ever. It’s going to feel odd but exciting re-reviewing these next few seasons, especially now that I’m much older and more mature than the teenage version of me who originally reviewed these seasons back in the early 2000s.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dana Carvey)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Calista Flockhart

Posted on

May 15, 1993 – Kevin Kline / Willie Nelson and Paul Simon (S18 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton deal with Bob Dole (DAA) differently

— Nice to see Dan Aykroyd returning as Bob Dole. Between him and Jan Hooks, I love that we’re getting a cameo from two SNL greats (and two of my personal favorite cast members of all time) from two completely different eras.
— Hillary claiming that she’s the co-president of the United States is hilarious.
— Dan’s delivery of his lengthy dialogue throughout this is freakin’ fantastic. Since it’s been quite a while since I last reviewed his SNL era, I had kinda forgotten how brilliant he is at delivering fast-paced dialogue.
— I’m enjoying the way Jan and Dan are playing off of each other.
— The negative tension between Hillary and Dole is really funny, eventually building up into a big fight between them. During that fight, I love Dole telling Bill “I’m doing something you should’ve done a long time ago.”
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— When announcing special guest Jan Hooks, Don Pardo mistakenly says “Special musical guest……….(long pause as he realizes his screw-up)……….Jan Hooks!”


MONOLOGUE
Audience McGee figures out that KEN is impersonating host on-stage

— An interesting approach here, with Nealon entering as Kevin Kline, which is a nice change of pace for a monologue.
— Good reveal that Kline got the idea of having Nealon impersonate him from his new movie Dave.
— I love a confused Audience McGee standing up and going “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here!”
— The back-and-forth bickering between Nealon and Audience McGee is giving me good laughs.
— Great ending with Rob and Rock entering as musical guests Paul Simon and Willie Nelson. I especially love the double-take Kline does when seeing Rock.
STARS: ****


MMMPH?
board game lets players give semi-verbal hot & cold signals

— I’m kinda conflicted, as there’s a charm to this, but at the same time, I’ve always felt this is a fairly bland and unmemorable commercial, especially when compared to SNL’s many memorable fake ads from this era.
STARS: **


ROME
otherwise-suave Italian’s (host) flatulence ruins encounter with (JUS)

— This sketch has always held a special place in my heart for reasons mentioned at the end of my review of the Sabra Price is Right sketch here.
— The look Farley gives Kline and Julia after the first fart sound is heard is great.
— A priceless casual look on Nealon’s face as he stands behind Kline while Kline lets out a very long fart outside the car.
— I love the subtly displeased look on Phil’s face after greeting Kline.
— The flambé bit was hilarious.
— Interesting how some of the veteran writers who’s last episode is tonight (Christine Zander, Bonnie & Terry Turner) are all appearing in this sketch, most of them in speaking roles. Speaking of which, I recall once hearing years ago that the reason Christine Zander and the Turners left SNL is because they were fed up with how Adam Sandler was getting more and more airtime with his brand of goofy comedy. I can’t remember where I heard that and I have no idea if it’s true, so please take it with a grain of salt.
— I love Kline’s line about how he’s already done his time in hell, and that statement immediately being followed by a particularly loud fart from him.
— Excellent touch at the end of the sketch with Kline wiping a tear off his face.
— Overall, it’s amazing how what was essentially a fart-joke sketch turned out to be so strong. The fart humor was pulled off surprisingly well, featured an excellent performance from Kline, and contained many genuinely funny moments and gags. And as I hinted in my recent positive comments about the much-hated Rookie Cop sketch, I usually have an affinity for sketches that involve multiple scenes and sets. It gives sketches that epic, movie-like feel that I personally love.
— I recall hearing that the reason for the epic, movie-like feel of this particular sketch is because it was originally written for an SNL sketch movie that never ended up getting made. I don’t know most of the details about it, though.
STARS: ****½


HOW TO FIND FINANCIAL FREEDOM WITH DON LAPRE
Don Lapre (DAS) tells How To Find Financial Freedom with a 900 number

— Very funny Don Lapre impression from David, and he’s giving a solid performance.
— A lot of funny lines from David’s Lapre, made even more amusing by his delivery.
— A good laugh from the random reveal of a broken-off lawn dart stuck in the back of Tim’s head.
— A funny overall sketch, though I feel it pales a little in comparison to a later Don Lapre sketch the show does in next season’s Jason Patric episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Graceland”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Bennett Brauer delineates the reasons why he’s ill-suited for TV
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about the royal family scandal
Hollywood Minute- DAS dishes celebrity dirt during end-of-season wrap-up

— Bennett Brauer becomes recurring, which I’m sure most SNL fans at the time never would’ve predicted would happen.
— Some of Bennett Brauer’s air-quoted unpleasant revelations of himself are even funnier than last time. The one about how he “pops his whiteheads with a compass used in high school” especially had me howling.
— Kevin’s subliminal editorial tonight was pretty forgettable. I really hate to say it, but I think I’ve officially gotten tired of Nealon’s subliminal routine. He’s relied on it awfully heavily this season, and there were times it suffered from diminishing returns.
— Boy, a lot of tonight’s Update jokes are falling flat. You can tell Nealon’s aware of that, because he keeps ad-libbing little addendum one-liners (e.g. “Something to think about”) whenever a joke receives a tepid audience reaction.
— This Hollywood Minute commentary that David is currently doing was cut after dress rehearsal from some of the last few episodes.
— David does a joke about former SNL writer Conan O’Brien, jokingly quoting him as saying “When I sent in the sweepstakes envelope, I had no idea I could win!”, referring to how unknown Conan was to the general public at this time when he was announced as David Letterman’s replacement as host of Late Night. After mentioning having worked with Conan in the past, David says a tongue-in-cheek “It’s good to see someone from Saturday Night Live finally make it!”
— David’s overall Hollywood Minute commentary tonight was solid as usual. My favorite comments were about Latoya Jackson and the particularly mean-spirited but funny crack about Whoopi Goldberg.
— A weak Update for Nealon overall tonight, and an underwhelming way for him to end the season. The two guest commentaries at least salvaged this somewhat. I can’t help but see Nealon’s rough night as an unfortunate precursor to how burned out he will often be on Update next season, IIRC.
— Believe it or not, there was an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which Rob played his Orgasm Guy character giving a sports commentary.
STARS: **½


THE JUICE
Hub’s Gyros workers travel to Mount Olympus to get more juice

— Speaking of things that SNL fans at the time never could’ve predicted would become recurring…
— As utterly ridiculous as the idea of bringing back this meta, intentionally repetitive one-off sketch seems, there’s something so silly about the idea of this becoming recurring that it’s hilarious to me.
— Something I always notice in this sketch: at the beginning as Melanie plays a customer receiving a tray of food, she almost slips on the floor as she exits the shot. If she had slipped and fell down, that would’ve been so embarrassing, not to mention a huge mess, considering she was carrying a full tray of food and a drink. By the way, why was she cast in such a tiny, useless role anyway? That’s the type of role that, in this era, would normally go to an extra or writer. I have to wonder if this particular role originally was given to an extra or writer, but then SNL re-cast Melanie in the role after dress rehearsal when realizing all her non-pre-taped appearances were cut after dress (including another “Tori” sketch, in which Melanie’s Tori Spelling talks about graduation), and they didn’t want her to get shut out of this season finale.
— Rob’s reaction after tasting the bad juice is really funny with him saying, among several things, “Juice is rancid” and “I throw up”.
— I like how this is now going in a completely different direction, with the employees traveling to Greece for better juice.
— Phil sounds like he’s doing a Greek version of his Ed McMahon impression. He even enters saying “Ha ha ha ha! YES!”, which is one of his catchphrases as Ed McMahon.
— Great meta turn with Mike complaining about being in a really idiotic sketch, Adam asking him “You can’t believe characters were brought back, eh?” (the latter of which probably echoes how the audience felt), and Rob promising never to do this sketch again.
— Now this has gotten even better with Lorne entering, doing the “You like-a da (insert thing here)” routine, and pointing to a sleeping Tim and saying “Shh, don’t wake Timmy.”
STARS: ****


SHMEE
youngster’s (CSR) magical bee (CHF) thwarts a burglary attempt

— This was cut after dress rehearsal in the Kirstie Alley episode from earlier this season.
— Funny theme song and title sequence.
— I love Rock’s little kid voice in this.
— I’ve always considered this to be a sister sketch to Phil’s Egg Man sketch from the Kathleen Turner-hosted episode in season 15, but apparently that sketch wasn’t written by the same person who wrote this one. Egg Man is admittedly better-written than this Shmee one, but I’m enjoying the intentionally low-budget silliness of this Shmee sketch anyway. There’s kind of a “So bad, it’s good” quality to this.
— Ellen’s line about how “I’m-a cook that bee; we gonna have us some bee puddin’!” cracked me up.
— Adam’s delivery of “Dat bee is bad news!” before bolting always cracks me up whenever I watch this sketch, and is my favorite part of this. It sounds like he was using the same voice he’d later use in the Captain Jim & Pedro sketches from next season.
— This overall sketch ends up being Rock’s final sketch as a cast member. At least it had him in a lead role, which he should be happy about, considering how often SNL has wasted him in forgettable small roles.
STARS: ***


DR. FRANKENSTEIN
(host) doesn’t get gist of Dr. Frankenstein’s (PHH) reanimation theory

— Boy, this is going NOWHERE once you realize the only joke of the sketch is Kline constantly saying he doesn’t follow what Phil is saying. That wasn’t even funny to me the first time Kline said it, yet they’re repeating it ad nauseam.
— Phil is giving it his all as always, but this sketch is D.O.A.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Still Is Still Moving To Me”


CRIMINAL ENCOUNTER
by TOS- con (CHF) & victim (ROS) undergo mediation

— I love the tone and atmosphere of this.
— Farley’s listed-off bad excuses for committing his crime are making me laugh (e.g. “I had a lot of laundry to do that night”, “The cable was out”). I also like Tom Schiller’s host character calling out Farley on an inconsistency in his bad excuses (Schiller: “You told me you were an orphan!” Farley: “Well, there’s another reason.”)
— Rob is cracking me up with his detailing of how he’d love to stick an iron bar into Farley’s head and then twist it until his head pops off “like a champagne cork”.
— Strong performances from both Rob and Farley. I like how we’re seeing a much more serious, low-key side of Farley in this.
— The turn with Farley unexpectedly asking Rob for a dance is both hilarious and touching.
— Funny epilogue screen crawl at the end.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
colleague (RBS) convinces Audience McGee that reruns are OK

— Oh, I love this. A unique deviation from the usual goodnights, with Audience McGee interrupting to ask what are SNL fans to do during SNL’s summer break.
— Great turn with Robert Smigel interjecting as another Audience McGee-like audience member. Considering this is Smigel’s final episode (and I believe he’s the writer of all of Audience McGee’s appearances), this is a great subtle sendoff to him.
— An overall inspired and very fun way to end the season. Anytime SNL does something special and meta for the final sketch of a season (or final goodnights of a season, in tonight’s case), I’m happy.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid season finale, though not quite as strong as I’d expect the finale of a big season like this to be. Still, we got some very good pieces tonight, including an epic lead-off sketch and a fun deviation during the goodnights. Kevin Kline was oddly invisible for a host, only appearing in three sketches all night (not including the monologue), one of them just being a small supporting role, and even in his own monologue, he barely did anything (which was the premise, I know, but still…). Makes me wonder if perhaps he had to do so much press for his movie Dave throughout this week that it left him little time for rehearsals, so SNL had to work around that by writing a lot of sketches that didn’t include him.

— As mentioned earlier, this ended up being the final episode for Chris Rock and occasional featured player (and regular writer) Robert Smigel, the latter obviously jumping ship to join his former SNL writing mate Conan O’Brien’s soon-to-start Late Night show. It’s a shame Chris Rock’s tenure wasn’t very successful, especially knowing the big fame he’d achieve post-SNL. His SNL tenure actually started off fairly hot early in his first season, and the urban humor he immediately brought to the show was a nice breath of fresh air from the complete absence of black representation during SNL’s late 80s era. Unfortunately, a few months into his first season, it started becoming obvious that the show was beginning to struggle to find ways to use him, a struggle that would sadly continue for the rest of his tenure. Despite that, he did have occasional hits, especially his Weekend Update commentaries as himself, in which we got to see early glimpses of the type of brilliant stand-up comedy that would go on to define his post-SNL career. There’s not much to say about Robert Smigel as a featured player, as he was only an occasional performer who didn’t make too big an impact onscreen. Despite that, he did display solid voice skills in his character work, and his short-lived recurring Hank Fielding “The Moron’s Perspective” commentaries on Weekend Update this season were always good. Smigel’s departure leaves far more of an impact in the writers’ room, where he was a very important part of the show for years. As a writer, he contributed greatly to the show and deserves credit for being partly responsible for the high quality of SNL’s writing in the late 80s and early 90s. His departure (as well as a few other solid veteran writers like Christine Zander and Bonnie & Terry Turner) hurts when you’re aware of how downhill SNL’s quality will go in the upcoming season 19.

— Season 18 as a whole was fantastic. In fact, in my early years as an SNL fan, this used to be my absolute favorite season. Some years later, that went away as I took on a more neutral standpoint by considering all of the 1986-1993 years to be equally my favorite. Then in more recent years, season 14 became my definitive favorite season (especially after covering it fairly recently in this SNL project). However, having now just reviewed the entire season 18, I’m reminded of why I used to be so big on it. While it still doesn’t dethrone season 14 as my definitive favorite, I have so much love for it. The many highs of this season were spectacular and very memorable, and there’s a good number of standout phenomenal episodes. It says something that in the first half of this season, the occasional absences of THREE of the most popular members of the repertory cast (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, and Chris Farley) still didn’t hurt the season’s quality, nor did the mid-season full-out departure of Dana Carvey. And despite the fact that you can definitely see early glimpses of the type of juvenile humor that would unfortunately plague the next two seasons, the difference is that the writing of them was usually solid here. All-in-all, to me, this season is the peak of the early 90s era.


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


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS (Note: These picks were hastily made off the top of my head and will naturally be missing some deserving sketches. I don’t have enough time to do full, thought-out “Best Of” picks for this whole season)

   


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christina Applegate)
a mild step down


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1991-92)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 19 begins, with host Charles Barkley. After being spoiled by the long stretch of great seasons from 1986-1993 (probably the longest consecutive run SNL has ever had without a subpar season, though I would also make an argument for 1995-2002, which also happens to be the same amount of years as 86-93), I’m sure it will feel a little weird for me to enter the downhill slide that is season 19.

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November 17, 1990 – Dennis Hopper / Paul Simon (S16 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Live With Regis (DAC) & Kathie Lee (JAH)- morning talk in Saudi Arabia

— Pretty funny visual of Kathie Lee’s overly sunscreened baby, as well as Dana’s Regis pointing out he looks like Al Jolson.
— I like the occasional cutaways to the soldiers’ stone-faced reactions to Regis and Katie Lee doing their usual shtick in this out-of-place setting.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host can’t remember anyone during “This Is Your Life”; Bert Parks cameo

— I like the sudden “This Is Your Life” turn. Nice change of pace for a monologue.
— An okay joke with Hopper not remembering anything from earlier in his life for obvious reasons.
— A good laugh from Hopper acting like he’s just now meeting Jack Nicholson for the first time.
STARS: ***


NIKEY TURKEY
the inflatable bird is perfect for large holiday gatherings

 

— I love how early 90s everything about this is. Brings back nice memories of rap music videos from this time period.
— Very amusing concept and fun song.
STARS: ****


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
even in his dreams, Toonces manages to drive over a cliff

— An interesting change of pace, with us seeing Toonces’ dream.
— Toonces showing up in his underwear is a funny visual.
— Toonces shockingly speaking like a human is a riot. Is that Don Pardo doing his voice?
— Funny brief appearance from Farley as a firecracker-holding bad little boy chasing the car. This bit role unfortunately ends up being Farley’s ONLY appearance of this entire episode.
— Good deviation during the usual car-falling-off-a-cliff bit, with the car actually stopping mid-air, only to continue falling and eventually crash as usual.
STARS: ***½


INFLATABLE DOLL PARTY
(host) & his friends treat inflatable dolls as if they were real women

— Pretty funny reveal of the blow-up dolls at the party.
— Hopper, regarding if he’s seeing anybody other than his blow-up doll girlfriend: “When you got steak at home, huh, why go out for hamburger?”
— Funny cutaway to Rob making out with one of the dolls.
— The somewhat thin premise is starting to lose its novelty a bit towards the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Obvious Child”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR dislikes the government taxing him to make prisons more comfortable
DEM lip-syncs a story on Milli Vanilli

— So many good jokes from Rock about taxes, checks, and prison overcrowding.
— Rock, on how criminals in prison should be fed: “If you miss a meal, go to death row and get the extra meat off the electric chair.”
— It’s amazing in hindsight how strongly Chris Rock has been doing in his SNL tenure so far and how he’s been getting so many opportunities to shine, considering how notoriously bad his airtime soon ends up getting for the remainder of his SNL tenure. What went wrong?
— Pretty strong overall Update for Miller tonight.
STARS: ****


BOWMAN’S RETIREMENT PARTY
co-workers silently mock (JUS) & (musical guest) upon learning of liaison

— The co-workers mocking sexual gestures in the background are funny, especially Dana’s gestures.
— Strange way for the sketch to end.
— Surprised by how short this overall sketch was.
STARS: ***


THE CIVIL WAR
Confederate soldiers prepare to have group photo taken

— Phil’s amusing aggression throughout this is the only entertainment I’ve been getting so far.
— Overall, a very dull sketch. I understand what they were going for, but for a realistic slice-of-life piece, this missed the mark.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Proof”


WHAT ANIMAL WERE YOU RAISED BY?
(host) recalls his non-human guardians

— Looks like the same set from the Slapped By Beaver Tails sketch earlier this season.
— I liked Hopper’s imitation of a faulty plane.
— Funny reveal that Hopper shot his own flamingo parents.
— Hopper’s delivery of “If you got hungry enough… you would EAT DUNG!” made me laugh out loud.
— I recall some people saying that this sketch would’ve been perfect for Christopher Walken. While I thought Hopper was fine in this overall sketch, it’s undeniable that Walken indeed would’ve killed in this. For example, that whole “eat dung” quote from above would’ve come off freakin’ priceless had it been delivered by Walken.
STARS: ***


SUDDEN PRESSURE
Schillervision- 1950s-style program features Man-Bra ad & bathroom run

— As usual for Tom Schiller’s period pieces, this is an accurate recreation of 1950s TV.
— The Man-Bra commercial is priceless.
— The rest of the film is just average, though I like the “Gandhi With the Windy” scene.
STARS: ***


STAN DUFFY’S GAMBLING TO WIN
Stan Duffy (KEN) fails to heed his own advice

— This is the type of thing that Kevin is always great at selling.
— Very funny progression with Kevn’s downward spiral as each of his advertised gambling rules fail him, eventually leading to him advertising a gambling tape called “Hiding and Creating an Alias” while he still tries to keep an upbeat mood.
— The twist at the end with the alcoholism tape was good.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Late in the Evening”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Much like the last episode, this was a forgettably average episode. Not much was weak, but not much was great either. The overall show just had an unexciting, unmemorable feel.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Smits)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman

Posted on

December 19, 1987 – Paul Simon / Linda Ronstadt with The Mariachi Vargas (S13 E8)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
the apostles prepare a surprise party for Jesus’ 30th birthday

— I like the humorously casual discussion the apostles are having about Jesus.
— Very funny bit with Jon wanting Jesus to turn the pitcher of water into wine.
— Jan’s abrupt “Live from New York” had no real segue and seemed awkwardly shoehorned in. That, coupled with the fact that host Paul Simon appeared in this, makes me wonder if this wasn’t the cold opening in dress rehearsal.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Much like in the previous season’s Christmas episode (William Shatner), the SNL Band plays a snippet of “Joy to the World” at the beginning of the opening montage before segueing into the regular theme music.


MONOLOGUE
host & senator Paul Simon [real] tell how their engagements are confused

— Great start with Paul making his monologue entrance alongside senator Paul Simon.
— Some good laughs from the mix-up over which Paul Simon was supposed to host, as well as them recalling times where one of them mistakenly showed up at an event meant for the other.
— An overall funny, charming, and memorable monologue.
STARS: ****


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
(no synopsis available)

— These characters are now officially popular, with them immediately getting a good amount of audience applause while they’re introducing themselves at the beginning of this.
— Some laughs from them forcing an injured Paul to do a workout.
— Nice to see the reappearance of Phil’s flabby Helmut character.
— Good continuity, updating us on Helmut’s physical progress since his last appearance, even showing still photos of his last appearance.
STARS: ***½


MASTER THESPIAN
Master Thespian improvises while tackling Santa role at Macy’s

 

— Funny moment with the camera pulling back and revealing that Master Thespian’s journal writing has been taking place in a men’s bathroom.
— Love seeing another appearance of Phil as a Frank Nelson-esque boss (“Eee-Yeeessssssss?”).
— The “pull my finger” bit was hilarious, especially Phil’s grossed-out vocalization. Only this era could get away with that kind of fart humor without it coming off groanworthy.
— I like this premise of Master Thespian as a mall Santa.
— Very funny overdramatic reaction from Master Thespian when he gets fired.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Los Laureles” & ” La Cigarra”


CASTAWAYS
(host) is amazed by craftsmanship of gifts given by fellow castaway (VIJ)

— Good laughs from Victoria revealing she made Paul’s watch herself, detailing the complicated process of how she made it with limited resources.
— More solid humor from how cheap Paul’s gifts look in comparison to Victoria’s.
— Great ending with the reveal of a hidden motor scooter.
— An overall very strong and charming sketch. One of Victoria’s best.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
the people say Gary Hart’s crazy for re-entering the presidential race
NBC’s shocking find is a clip of Jerry Lewis
DEM & Dennis Miller (DAC) debate whether Gary Hart’s decision was sound

 

— Decent bit with “The People” giving their opinion on Gary Hart.
— Dennis is coming off a little marble-mouthed at times tonight.
— Hilarious random bit with Dennis presenting a goofy 1950s clip of Jerry Lewis as “shocking and disturbing” footage.
— Dennis’ message towards Donna Rice was great.
— Yes! The debut of Dana’s Dennis Miller impression. As I mentioned earlier this season in my review of the Candice Bergen episode, Dana’s Dennis impression was supposed to debut that night in a similar point/counterpoint debate on Weekend Update, but there was a mix-up with Dana erroneously thinking the segment got cut, leading Dennis to awkwardly abort the segment on-air.
— Dana’s impression of Dennis is freakin’ dead-on and hilarious. I’ll ignore the bad wig, though.
— An overall excellent commentary from Dana’s Dennis.
— A very strong overall Update from Dennis, and a great comeback after the slump his Updates have been in the last handful of episodes.
STARS: ****


SUBWAY
(PHH) solicits money on a subway car by changing his story with each pass

 

— Love the turn with Phil revealing his hobo bit was just an act for a play he’s performing in.
— I really like where this is going, with Phil constantly switching his story and personality. This is a great showcase of Phil’s talents.
— Excellent ending with Phil changing his act to a stick-up robbery.
STARS: ****


SKI LODGE
in a ski lodge, Sweeney sisters “treat” host to a medley of his songs

— Okay, here’s the sketch that commenter Rssk informed me that the now-notorious Brynn Hartman appears as an extra in (and supposedly is even shown during a close-up at one point). Even though it will probably feel kinda chilling seeing her, I’ll keep my eye open on which female extra may possibly be her. I’m not very familiar with what she looked like, though. All I have to go on is the fact that she had blonde hair.
— I like the Sweeney Sisters launching into a Paul Simon medley, accompanied by a shot of Paul looking uncomfortable.
— Funny part with the Sisters forcing a reluctant Paul to join in during the name parts of the 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover chorus.
— A very solid Sweeney Sisters sketch overall.
— Okay, so… which blonde female extra was Brynn? The ski accident victim in the leg cast (seen in the first screencap above, as well as in the background of the last two screencaps above) or the woman in the winter sweater (seen in the background of the fourth screencap above)? I’m guessing it’s the former. Can anyone confirm?
STARS: ****


SUCCINCTLY SPEAKING
Tonto (JOL), Tarzan (KEN), Frankenstein (PHH) opine

— The debut of Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein.
— I like Nora casually introducing Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein as her talk show guests, as if it’s perfectly normal to have them on.
— This is sometimes inaccurately remembered by SNL fans as being a Pat Stevens sketch. Nora is actually just playing a generic, non-recurring talk show host here.
— I like Nora suddenly going from asking Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein simple questions to asking them about the INF treaty.
— There goes the most well-remembered part of the sketch, and a legendary SNL moment in general: Phil suddenly busting out laughing uncontrollably one of the times he’s supposed to say “Fire bad!” Absolutely classic, made even more noteworthy by the fact that it’s a usually-unflappable pro who’s breaking character so badly. While Phil would go on to have a (very) few minor instances of laughing out of character in later seasons (most notably a Matt Foley sketch from the Martin Lawrence episode, where an absurd line flub from Chris Farley causes every cast member in the scene, including Phil, to lose it and crack up), they were nowhere near as major as his character break in this sketch.
— The hilarity continues as the sketch concludes with Phil’s Frankenstein walking around destroying the set while Phil is still laughing out of character. It almost feels like getting up and destroying the set was an ad-lib from Phil in an attempt to divert attention away from his character breaking, though it’s obviously not, because the wall he tears through is clearly a breakaway prop.
STARS: *****


SEASON’S GREETINGS
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein sing “Away in a Manger”

— And with the debut of debut of Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein in the preceding sketch, we now get the debut of a recurring segment with them performing a holiday song.
— This is great. It’s kinda hard to explain why this is so funny, especially as it eventually becomes a recurring bit, but it just works and has a silliness that I love about this era of SNL.
— For some reason, a stagehand is seen mopping in the background throughout this.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
host & musical guest perform “Under African Skies”


TEXAS DINER
at the truck stop, Anita & friends reflect on the events of the past year

— Hmm, here’s a sketch that I have no memory of from my past viewings of this episode.
— I think this is the same diner waitress (Anita) that Jan played in a well-done slice-of-life sketch from the Willie Nelson episode the previous season. Never knew this was a recurring character. I wonder if it’s also the same character Jan plays in the memorable Sexual Tensions Diner sketch with Alec Baldwin.
— Interesting argument these people are making of why 1987 was such a bad year (Black Monday, televangelist scandals, Oliver North, etc.).
— I like Jan’s character occasionally speaking in uncharacteristic intelligent, complicated terms.
— Overall, this was a nice, low-key, realistic piece, which is something this cast is always great at pulling off. Jan, in particular, shined here, as she usually does as this character.
STARS: ***½


A MESSAGE TO FUTURE VIEWERS
JOL uses sci-fi cliches to address those watching the show in syndication

— Here’s another sketch I have no memory of ever seeing in the past. I thought I remembered tonight’s overall episode really well.
— I love this premise of Jon delivering a message to future generations watching this episode in syndication. I always get a kick out of this type of thing, as well as seeing what people in the past thought the future would be like.
— Some funny wild assumptions Jon is making about the future, and I liked his line threatening to invent a time machine so he can come and kill us future viewers.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A great episode. Easily my favorite of the season so far, and was very welcome after a string of episodes ranging from average to forgettable (the Bergen, DeVito, and Dickinson episodes). Everything in tonight’s episode worked for me, and there were lots of memorable sketches and moments, as well as a fun, feel-good vibe, all of which are things I always love to see in an SNL Christmas episode.
— I’d like to add that Phil Hartman had a particularly fantastic night. I think he appeared in literally every single sketch except for Castaways and Message To Future Viewers. This episode was one of the finest displays of Phil’s strengths, versatility, and “glue”-like skills. And to put it over the top, he had an all-time legendary moment with his Succinctly Speaking character break.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Angie Dickinson)
— a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter 1988, with host Robin Williams

Posted on

November 22, 1986 – Robin Williams / Paul Simon with Ladysmith Black Mambazo (S12 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
crosstalk in Ronald Reagan’s (host) earpiece disrupts press conference

— For tonight only, Robin Williams takes over the Ronald Reagan impression, which was unoccupied at the time, as our last Reagan impersonator, Randy Quaid, had recently left, and Phil Hartman hadn’t taken over the role yet (the latter’s Reagan impression actually debuts in the very next episode, in a legendary sketch).
— I also wonder if this is the only time a sitting president was played by a non-cast member before Alec Baldwin made that a regular thing in recent years.
— Good Reagan voice from Robin, and it’s nice to see that unlike with Randy Quaid, SNL has actually made an effort to make Robin look like Reagan.
— Love how Robin’s Reagan is heard off-camera quietly singing the “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” song when he’s about to make his press conference entrance.
— LOL at him actually walking out of the conference just to briefly tell the two earpiece technicians that he was only pausing for dramatic effect.
— Very funny turn with Reagan’s earpiece receiving interference, leading to him repeating police reports out loud. It was especially hilarious when he repeats one particular report of a perpetrator being a “burly male negro” as the press members he’s in front of stare on in shock.
— Haha, and now he tries to play off his aforementioned “burly male negro” utterance as him describing our new ambassador to South Africa.
— Good ending with the interference going particularly wild, leading to Reagan repeating a rapid-fire string of different things from different radio stations. Strong use of Robin’s penchant for doing various voices.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about the Reagan administration & televangelists

— For some reason, the regular home base stage is blocked by a huge brick wall with windows (which, by the way, forces the SNL Band into the “alley” to the left of the home base stage). SNL usually only has that wall set up for some of the musical guests’ performances this season; it’s a little unusual how they’re using it for a host’s monologue. I do know it happens again later this season in at least one other monologue, when Dennis Hopper hosts the season finale. I think it might also be in Willie Nelson’s monologue, but I’m not 100% sure.
— I like the fact that Robin’s immediately launching into jokes about the Reagan press conference that SNL just spoofed in the cold opening.
— The part about how Reagan talks like a badly-dubbed kung fu movie had me howling.
— Some really good material from Robin going through the “cast of supporting characters” that is Reagan’s White House administration.
— Boy, this monologue is a riot so far.
— I particularly love the part just now about Jesus coming back as a large black man named Jesse.
— Overall, a hilarious monologue and a big improvement over Robin’s disappointingly average monologue from his season 9 hosting stint. The laughs in tonight’s monologue were very consistent, and that combined with the fast pacing of Robin’s jokes had me laughing pretty much non-stop for the entire duration.
STARS: ****½


TICKET LINE
musical guest has incredible memory but can’t recall Art Garfunkel [real]

— Some good laughs from the increasing absurdity of the small details that Paul remembers about fans he met years ago.
— I like the little touch with Paul and Jon’s absurdly-long handshake as they’re speaking to each other.
— Solid punchline with Paul not recognizing his former partner Art Garfunkel.
STARS: ***½


THE NEW YORK WORD EXCHANGE
(PHH) tells how investors can make money at the New York Word Exchange

— A funny concept of investing in words, and this is so perfect for Phil Hartman’s style. Unsurprisingly, he’s executing this perfectly.
— A particularly funny bit with how “da”, a variant of the word “the”, is gaining more and more popularity in recent years.
— A very solid overall sketch that had such a quintessential Phil Hartman feel.
STARS: ****


HAMLET
Shakespeare (JOL) can’t stand improvisational comedian’s (host) Hamlet

— Robin playing himself as a Shakespearean-era anachronistic improv comedian is a perfect use of his ad-libbing tendencies.
— Love how Robin suddenly enters the play wearing a comically-oversized codpiece.
— Overall, very fun and strong sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Ronald Reagan demonstrates qualifications for the job of Isuzu spokesman
AWB on whether censorship or pay-TV smut is a bigger threat to SNL

— Boy, is Dennis speeding through these jokes.
— Ha, and now he actually acknowledged the same thing I pointed out above, by jokingly acting out of breath and saying “I had to slow down; I was about to pass out.”
— Good bit with President Reagan’s “audition” for Isuzu commercial spokesman, represented by clips of Reagan lying at a press conference while disclaimers on the bottom of the screen call him out. This is probably only funny if you’re aware of the real Joe Isuzu commercials this is spoofing, which I’m familiar with from seeing coverage of in some 80s documentaries.
— An interesting mention of veteran SNL bandmember Cheryl Hardwick recently getting married to former SNL writer Michael O’Donoghue.
— I like the meta-ness of how A. Whitney’s commentary tonight is about censorship that SNL faces.
— A big laugh from A. Whitney summing up SNL’s viewers as being “a jaded, thick-skinned group of thrill-seekers”, which receives enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
— Coincidentally, A. Whitney’s censorship commentary has suddenly started repeatedly cutting to a static-y screen in the copy I’m watching of this episode. I know it’s just some kind of TV or tape error, but it’s unintentionally funny because it makes it seem like NBC is panickedly censoring A. Whitney’s stance against censorship.
STARS: ***


BAYCREST JEWISH RETIREMENT HOME
Sweeneys sing a Fiddler On The Roof medley at a Jewish retirement home

— Good elderly Jewish voice on Robin.
— The Sweeney Sisters now officially become recurring.
— Strangely, musical guest Paul Simon seems to be appearing in more sketches tonight than he did in the episode he actually (co-)hosted the previous season.
— A strong medley from the Sisters tonight, even if I didn’t recognize most of the Jewish-themed songs in this.
— Not sure I needed the additional musical number from Robin and Paul, but it still had a charming vibe that made it enjoyable enough.
STARS: ***½


AND SO ADIEU
Master Thespian’s inability to remember a line frustrates director (host)

— An interesting change of pace for Master Thespian. Assuming all his prior appearances were set in modern times, he must be a time-traveler, because he looks the same age in this sketch, which takes place in 1937.
— I liked Robin’s little ad-lib when Phil corrects a line flub of his.
— Master Thespian’s various ways of screwing up his one line in the scene is increasingly cracking me up.
— Funny how the tables have turned on Robin and Jon. In the Hamlet sketch earlier tonight, Robin was the comedic character and Jon was the stern straight man who was aggravated by Robin throwing off the scene. Now in this Master Thespian sketch, Jon is the comedic character and Robin is the stern straight man who is aggravated by Jon throwing off the scene. Also in both sketches, Phil is the man in the middle of all this craziness.
— I’m really enjoying Robin’s growing frustration, especially him telling Master Thespian “You say it or you die!”
— LOL at the part just now with Phil and Master Thespian getting mixed up and saying each other’s line.
— This sketch is getting funnier and funnier. Much like the monologue, I can’t stop laughing now.
— Overall, it’s amazing how much laughs they managed to get out of such a simple, thin premise.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
host translates while Whoopi Goldberg [real] introduces musical guest

— Fun bit.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Boy in the Bubble”


AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF AMERICA
Automobile Club spokesman KEN rambles while discussing proper map use

— Kevin’s already getting good laughs early on with his various attempts to open the map by licking his fingers.
— You can tell this is most likely a bit from Kevin’s stand-up, but this is really funny so far. Throughout his SNL tenure, Kevin often shows a strong knack for adapting his stand-up material into great SNL bits.
— I especially love the map-tearing bit right now when talking about his Hawaii trip.
— The bit about a heavyset tour guide using her leg as a map was a hilarious ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Late Great Johnny Ace”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fantastic episode. I’ve always had so much love for this episode, and I’m glad to see from my viewing tonight that it still holds up. In fact, I walked away from this viewing feeling that this episode just may be one of my personal favorites of this entire era. There weren’t ANY segments in this episode that I disliked; every single segment worked for me, and most of them were particularly great. This episode was pretty much flawless. Robin Williams was an even better host than he was in his previous hosting stint in the Ebersol era, and he added such a fun energy to tonight’s episode. His monologue in particular may be one of my favorite stand-up monologues I’ve ever seen on SNL. I’m looking forward to his third hosting stint next season.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sam Kinison):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
The impressive recent streak of funny comedians hosting the show continues, as our next episode is helmed by the trio of Chevy Chase, Martin Short, and Steve Martin. The latter makes his return as host for the first time since the original era.

Posted on

May 10, 1986 – Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon / Ladysmith Black Mambazo (S11 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Paul performs “You Can Call Me Al”

— We start off with a straightforward musical performance.
— Feels weird seeing an SNL episode beginning in this manner, but it’s not the first time Paul opened the show with a musical performance. The first time he did it was a special case, though, as that episode in general consisted almost entirely of musical performances.
— Interestingly, we get a slight variation of the usual “Live from New York…” tagline, with Paul announcing “We are live from New York on a Saturday Night.”


MONOLOGUE
Catherine’s Dynasty rivals Alexis (TES) & Dominique (DAV) have a catfight

— In hindsight, it’s good that Catherine’s going into a lot of detail about what she does on the show Dynasty, as I’m sure there’s a lot of modern-day viewers who have no idea who Catherine Oxenberg is.
— Terry’s Joan Collins portrayal is pretty funny.
— I got a laugh from Terry’s Aunt Jemima insult towards Danitra’s character.
— Not caring for most of the Terry/Danitra physical fight, though it was kind of a nice touch with them crashing through breakaway glass on one of the doors on the home base stage.
STARS: **½


GERALDO RIVERA OPENS THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Geraldo Rivera’s next stunt

— A funny parody of how Geraldo Rivera’s then-recent televised opening of Al Capone’s vault infamously turned out to be a bust.
STARS: ***


PRISON
prisoners (Paul) & (JOL) try to escape despite being shackled to a wall

— I got a big laugh from Paul’s asinine idea of Jon melting down the iron bars with heat from his eyeballs.
— Haha, I love the repeated visual of Paul straining to attack Randy while being held back by the chains.
— Some more really funny asinine escape plans from Paul and Jon.
— An overall solid sketch.
STARS: ****


THE LATE SHOW WITH JOAN RIVERS
Roger Vadim’s ex-wives fight back

— Until now, I had forgotten that I heard about Joan Rivers having a short-lived late night talk show in this era, competing against Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
— Two drag roles for Terry in one night. At least this appears to be a better vehicle for his Joan Rivers impression than the way it was bafflingly shoehorned into that Cleveland Vice sketch earlier this season.
— The only thing Randy’s Ed McMahon impression seems to consist of here is increasingly-exaggerated “ho ho ho” laughter, which made me laugh early on but is running out of steam fast.
— Is that a bespectacled Don Pardo who has randomly walked into the scene at the very end, during the sketch-ending audience applause? (screencap below) What was THAT all about?

— Didn’t care too much for this sketch overall.
STARS: **


THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
Paul’s hell is Muzak versions of his music

— They surprisingly haven’t done this sketch in a quite a while, after overusing it in a consecutive string of episodes around the midpoint of the season.
— A lot of the Floating Head’s demonstrations are falling flat in tonight’s installment, but I laughed at the demonstration with him putting a cigarette out with his tongue.
— Joan flubs her line, mistakenly addressing young Paul Simon as “Seymour” before mentioning an Uncle Seymour who’s upstairs.
— I kinda like Robert’s badly-rhymed Uncle Seymour song.
— Good to see the return of Jon’s Mephistopheles character.
— Funny “So am I” response from Mephistopheles when young Simon and Garfunkel reveal to him they’re Jewish.
— In hindsight, it’s interesting seeing Paul Simon playing himself in a scene taking place in a then-much later year that has now long since come and gone (2010).
— I love the gradual reveal that Paul’s hell is staying eternally stuck in an elevator while being tortured by musak versions of his songs.
— Overall, I found this sketch more interesting than flat-out funny, but it was entertaining either way.
STARS: ***½


DIRK LANDERS
former CIA operative (RDJ) is offed by stranger (Catherine)

— Fairly amusing cheap opening credits.
— Very funny how after such a lengthy opening credits sequence setting up the premise of the show, the episode itself turns out to be a very quick scene that immediately ends as soon as the main character is all-too-easily shot dead.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mouse Trap board game helps DEM explain what happened at Chernobyl
AWB chides the Soviet Union’s policies on Chernobyl & Afghanistan
for Mother’s Day, DEM reads an excerpt from Oedipus Rex

— Funny in retrospect hearing the then-new network FOX being mentioned as “Rupert Murdoch’s fledgling fourth network.”
— I love Dennis using the Mouse Trap board game to demonstrate the then-recent Chernobyl disaster.
— Dennis delivers a random “Back to you, Dennis” “Thank you, Dennis”. Why are we reusing old Brad Hall bits all of a sudden?
— I like how it’s become a recurring thing for Dennis to do random one-liners about Nell Carter’s weight.
— Surprised to see an A. Whitney Brown commentary tonight, as he wasn’t credited in tonight’s opening montage for some reason.
— Tonight’s overall Big Picture commentary wasn’t one of my favorites from A. Whitney, but this featured some funny comments about radioactive gas and Soviets.
— Good bit with Dennis’ Mother’s Day present to his mom being him reading a disturbing excerpt from an Oedipus story.
— Nice part with Dennis announcing that SNL (despite its many troubles and cancellation worries this season) was renewed this week for a 12th season. This gets a good amount of audience applause. Also, this reminds me that I remember hearing season 12 was originally only picked up for 13 episodes, because a wary NBC wanted to wait and see if the retooled version of SNL that season was a success before giving it the usual full 20-episode order. So I guess we can say that if season 12 hadn’t turned out to be such a hit, SNL would’ve officially been canceled somewhere around February 1987, which is around the time the 13th episode of that season aired.
— Yay, we went through this entire Update with no appearance from the Weekend Update Dancers!
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul & musical guest sing “Homeless”


BEVERLY HILLS
producer Tommy Flanagan swaps falsehoods with an “actress” (Catherine)

— After having a break from him in the last episode, Tommy Flanagan goes back to being overused.
— I did like Flanagan’s Taiwan/Out Of Africa bit just now.
— Overall, this was pretty standard Flanagan stuff that’s been suffering diminishing returns lately, but I did like the nice chemistry between Jon and Catherine.
STARS: **½


BRIM DECAFFEINATED
drowsy waitress (NOD) recommends Brim Decaffienated to sleepy (RAQ)

— Is this offering ANYTHING other than frequent yawning from Nora and Randy?
— (a few minutes later…) I guess not. Overall, this was a waste.
STARS: *


PENN AND TELLER
Penn & Teller [real] execute strait jacket escape during Casey At The Bat

— Surprised to see Penn and Teller appearing for the second episode in a row, but I’m not complaining about seeing more of these guys, especially considering the lack of quality this season.
— Ha, great reveal of a spiked platform that’s now under an upside-down dangling Teller.
— Quite funny seeing Teller’s unsuccessful frantic attempts to free himself while Penn is reading.
— Hilarious part with Penn comically speeding up his reading as Teller is finally starting to untie himself.
— LOL, that overall trick was great. An improvement over Penn and Teller’s appearance in the last episode.
STARS: ****


A MOTHER’S DAY MESSAGE
half-audible (JOC) stresses “moral values”

— What… the… hell??? Is the joke here supposed to be Joan occasionally silently mouthing random parts of her sentences? How is that even remotely funny?
— Overall, YIKES. The audience’s silence said it all. How did something like this make it on the air?
STARS: *


TROJANS
— Rerun


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul performs “Graceland”


GOODNIGHTS

— This is coming off kinda awkward. Why aren’t Paul or Catherine saying the usual goodnights speech? They’re just standing there smiling silently as the audience applauds.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty forgettable episode. There were some things I liked in the first half, though most of them weren’t anything particularly great. Then the show got REALLY rough in the second half where, aside from a solid Penn & Teller segment, we got a mega-overused recurring character (Tommy Flanagan) and horribly-written sketches where the only “joke” (if it can even be called that) was people repeatedly yawning or silently mouthing random parts of their sentences.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tony Danza):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jimmy Breslin

Posted on

March 15, 1980 – Paul Simon and James Taylor / David Sanborn (S5 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
for SNL’s hundredth show, LAN, JAC, GAM, GIR summon spirits of MOD & JOB

   

— A mention of this being SNL’s 100th episode.
— Hey, a Mr. Mike cameo!
— Loved O’Donoghue’s line “Did I mention that since I left, the show really sucks rubber donkey lungs?”, which is a criticism he really did famously state about this season of SNL (and maybe season 4, too) during an interview, I believe.
— Good comeback from Laraine to O’Donoghue, giving him a sarcastic “By the way, congratulations on Mondo Video”.
— The male voice that a possessed Jane is miming sounds like John Belushi doing his Samurai gibberish.
— Yep, it IS Belushi!
— A welcome return of John’s traditional “but noooooo” rant, complaining about doing this “cheap séance sketch”.
— Overall, a pretty fun cold opening, featuring an interesting premise and nice visits from some alums. Too bad they didn’t get Dan Aykroyd, though. Was he unavailable that week?
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Okay, this episode has always been listed on SNL sites as having no host, and lists Paul Simon, James Taylor, and David Sanborn as the musical guests. However, I noticed that in the section of tonight’s opening credits where the host is usually announced, Don Pardo says “With Paul Simon and James Taylor” (“with” was typically how Don announced hosts in the opening montage back then, instead of announcing them as “your host” or any variation thereof) while David Sanborn is announced separately as the musical guest. Looks like all those SNL sites are wrong; this episode DOES have a host – two, in fact. Lorne seemingly considers those two the hosts of this episode as well, because the famous 1990 monologue with Tom Hanks being inducted into the Five-Timers Club includes Paul Simon as one of the club members, which used to baffle many SNL fans (including myself), as it was always thought that Paul has only hosted FOUR times (seasons 1, 2, 11, and 13). Well, now I see that he actually HAS hosted host five times. And, hey, who knew James Taylor ever hosted SNL as well?
— So, after all that, I just have to ask: where did this decades-long misconception that this episode has no host come from?


MONOLOGUE
commuter BIM sings a song about what a typical day in NYC is like for him

     

— Looks like Bill gets the honors of doing the 100th monologue. Maybe THIS is why everybody thinks this episode has no host. But then again, when The Rolling Stones hosted the previous season, they didn’t do a monologue either – Mayor Ed Koch randomly did. Yet I don’t see any episodes guides listing THAT episode as having no host.
— Hey, we get a remodeled home base stage! Are they doing this because it’s the 100th episode?
— The new home base is a replica of a subway set, and it reminds me of a more extensive version of the subway newsstand home base stage they would later use temporarily at the beginning of season 10.
— Bill going into a Nick the Lounger Singer-esque number about New York.
— Loved Bill’s little jumping dance interlude.
— This song is really starting to get amped up, and damn, Bill is REALLY going all out with an insane, energetic performance. He’s cracking me the hell up.
— Loved Bill shouting “NEW YORK!!!! I LOVE YOU SO!!!!” and then doing a flip onto the floor.
— Funny little part with him spitting on the “spitting is unlawful” sign.
— Overall, I got a lot of enjoyment out of this, and Bill’s increasingly manic performance freakin’ killed me.
STARS: ****


HORIZON SYSTEM 12
the Horizon System 12 is the largest television system ever

   

— This parody of then-contemporary TV sets is serving as a nice little time capsule.
— Nice graphics for an SNL fake ad from 1980.
— That’s the whole thing? Not much of a joke. There was no audible laughing from the audience, either.
STARS: **


THE BIGGEST LEPRECHAUN
Patrick Moynihan [real] narrates the tale of The Biggest Leprechaun (PEA)

   

— A big role for Peter Aykroyd?
— Oh, I see they needed someone tall for the role, and Peter IS the tallest of all the cast members and featured players this season, so…
— Great voice from Harry.
— Overall, eh, I didn’t care for this. A pretty dull sketch.
STARS: **


TODD’S CAMPAIGN
Todd’s quest to be student body president is threatened by moon blackmail

   

— SNL has surprisingly been cutting back on The Nerds lately. This is only their third appearance of the season, and the season is almost over. I wonder if this ends up being these characters’ last appearance.
— I like how these sketches always make a mention of Mrs. Loopner’s famous egg salad.
— Uh, what the hell is Garrett doing??? Very awkward entrance from him, with him silently looking around every area of the house for some reason, like a paranoid weirdo. What in the world??? The audience is DEAD SILENT during this part, too.
— Oh, now I see what Garrett was doing. He’s Todd’s bodyguard, so he was scoping out the house to make sure it’s safe for Todd to enter. Still, it feels like that could’ve been executed in a less-awkward way.
— I like Garrett’s “I’ll just say it was me” plan, regarding the mooning picture of Todd.
— Fairly weak ending.
— Overall, despite an interesting premise for the Nerds, this ended up being just average. If this turns out to be the final Nerds sketch, this was not the best way for them to go out.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
hosts perform “Cathy’s Clown” & “Sunny Skies”
hosts perform “Take Me to the Mardi Gras”


WEEKEND UPDATE
during a polemic on economics, Ralph Nader [real] bashes the Ford Pinto
BIM models different hats on a dummy of Ayatollah Khomeini
Roseanne Roseannadanna wanders from breast-feeding to Bo Derek

         

— What’s that thing hanging off of the upper clock behind Jane? (first and sixth screencaps above)
— A cameo from SNL one-timer Ralph Nader.
— Another Nader reference to hot dogs having rat excrement, which was originally a line he said in the cold opening of the season 2 episode he hosted.
— Nader’s commentary was pretty dull overall. Not even the visual of a Pinto toy car lighter came off all that funny.
— Jane’s presumably made-up news story about Walter Cronkite being attacked by a swarm of Malaysian butterflies is an interesting variation of this season’s Jane/Cronkite story arc.
— Haha, Bill’s WTF-type facial reaction to Jane’s Malaysian butterflies story was great. (fifth screencap above)
— Bill to Jane, regarding Cronkite: “You’ll do anything to get in that old geezer’s pants, won’t you?”
— Bill’s Ayatollah hats segment was decent. I liked the SNL meta-reference with one of Bill’s looks for Ayatollah being “the Jake and Elwood routine”.
— First time we’ve seen Roseanne Rosannadanna in a while.
— Rosannadanna’s rant about Bo Derek’s nose hairs is fairly funny.
— The rest of Rosannadanna’s commentary did nothing for me, not even her little song at the end. I’m so burned out on this character. Couldn’t they at least try doing something different with her instead of just the same tired routine every single time? Even Emily Litella got put in different settings every now and then.
STARS: **½


MEDIEVAL BAND
(BIM)’s lack of rhythm irks fellow minstrels during gig for queen (JOB)

   

— Ah, here’s the infamous “flogging” sketch that contains an epic Paul Shaffer slip-up.
— This seems to be possibly the biggest role Shaffer has gotten in a sketch so far.
— James Taylor surprisingly sounds like a natural doing the medieval accent.
— Haha, there it is! Shaffer’s accidental f-bomb when he was supposed to say the fake swear word “flogging”. Some people in the audience react for a bit, but the performers immediately keep the sketch going. I didn’t see any visible realization from Shaffer after his mistake, unlike the infamous puffed-out-cheeks facial expression future cast member Jenny Slate made after her similar f-bomb slip-up in a sketch where she was supposed to say “friggin” over and over.
— Belushi again!
— Oh my god, John’s voice and accent…
— John sounds like Dan Aykroyd as Julia Child.
STARS: ***


TALK OR DIE
guests’ lives are threatened on (Michael Palin)’s talk show

     

— Random Michael Palin appearance!
— This sketch is already starting hot, with a great stunt at the beginning involving Michael flipping a man over the table. You don’t usually see stunts THAT physical in a live sketch.
— Interesting premise.
— The audience seems to be more familiar with who Jane is playing than I am.
— A REAL spider on Garrett’s shoulder?
— Pretty exciting sketch so far.
— The random bear attack is funny.
— Overall, a crazy sketch that was pretty fun, helped by the usual reliable Michael Palin performance.
STARS: ***½


NEW YORK STATE WINES
Honker & bums (PEA) & (GAM) are wine critics; Patrick Moynihan cameo

   

— Another sketch with Garrett playing a subway wino? Didn’t he just do a character like this in the recent Elliott Gould episode?
— Another rare Peter Aykroyd showcase.
— I still keep hearing Dan Aykroyd’s voice every time Peter talks in a sketch.
— Hey, it’s Bill’s Honker character.  Perfect addition to this.
— Another Senator Moynihan twist?
— I got a good laugh from Garrett spitting out the wine after drinking it, which Moynihan also seemed VERY amused by. (last screencap above)
— I wasn’t crazy about the overall sketch, but it had some worthy individual parts.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Anything You Want”


THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW
surgery hasn’t helped celebrity lookalikes

    

— Bill’s Susskind impression seems to be different every time he plays him. I can’t judge the accuracy of Bill’s impression, having no familiarity with Susskind.
— The pre-Elvis surgery picture of Harry looking like Rod Stewart was hilarious.
— I love the out-of-place voice Jane is using as the Dolly Parton lookalike.
— Funny line from Jane about having “sections of [her] buttocks implanted in [her] breasts.”
— Hilarious make-up job on Tom Davis’ face.
— You can hear an audience member audibly say “Thank god” when Bill mentions Paul Simon breaking up with Art Garfunkel.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

— Lorne makes a very rare goodnights appearance. This is also the earliest episode I recall seeing him in a suit, which would later become his default look whenever he would appear on-camera.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The best episode of the disappointing second half of this season so far, which still isn’t saying much, as this episode was just average. Still, it was helped by all the energy of this being the 100th episode, and also helped by all the star-studded guest appearances. It also helps that the weaker sketches were kept to more of a minimum than in the last few episodes.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rodney Dangerfield):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss

Posted on

October 29, 1977 – Charles Grodin / Paul Simon (S3 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
having missed dress rehearsal, host is surprised to find that SNL is live


— Ah, yes, the famous premise of Charles Grodin missing the dress rehearsal.
— The concept of having an entire episode where the host doesn’t know how the show is run, doesn’t know it’s live, doesn’t know there’s an audience, etc. is one of the most creative and intriguing ideas the show would ever do, and would go on to be one of SNL’s very few “conceptual episodes” that deviates from the format of a normal episode.
— I remember seeing the syndicated 60-minute version of this episode way back in early 2002, and despite going into the episode with eager anticipation after hearing so many things about the big running premise, I recall being underwhelmed by the result of it. We’ll see if that opinion changes after this current viewing, 16 years later.
— John: “He doesn’t smoke dope; he’s just not one of us.”
— I liked the joke of everyone acting like it’s tragic that Charles forgot to get a gift for Garrett.
— An overall great way to kick off tonight’s premise.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— The jumbotron montage has been modified once again. For starters, the SNL logo is completely different, and I remember this being the logo they would go on to use for the rest of the season.
— The guests’ names are in the same font as the new SNL logo.
— A new animated graphic of the NBC logo appears in a rolling ball throughout this.
— New cast shots.
— In Garrett’s shot, he does the same “suspiciously hiding a seemingly-stolen handbag while innocently smiling at the camera” bit he does in the montage from the preceding two episodes. BTW, I can’t help but find it kinda racist that they gave the “stealing a handbag” bit to the one black guy in the cast.
— Laraine’s shot is a little strange. Not only does she not do anything beside stare stone-faced at the camera, but her shot is noticeably a few seconds shorter than the rest of the cast’s.

   


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

 
— Hmm, bright light bulbs surrounding the stage floor. I wonder if this is just for a guest performance tonight, or if it’s a now part of the overall look of the homebase stage.
— A continuation of the cold opening, with Charles not knowing there was going to be an audience.
— I liked his comment about how this “looks like a really cute show”.
— Wow, this was short.
STARS: **½


UPDATE PROMO
Weekend Update reporter DAA works overtime, but doesn’t accomplish much

  
— Another plane commercial with Dan.
— A Weekend Update commercial!
— I got a good laugh hearing Dan announced as an “award-winning newsman”.
— Funny reveal of the typewriter a sleep-deprived Dan is using not having any paper.
— Another surprisingly short segment.
STARS: ***½


RETURN OF THE CONEHEADS
neighbors (BIM) & (GIR) investigate Coneheads’ odd Halloween treats

   
— I remember seeing this when I was much younger, probably in one of SNL’s Halloween compilation specials. Back then, I recall loving one part where the Coneheads give trick-or-treaters an inappropriate gift, though I can’t remember what exactly it was.
— The audience went nuts at the beginning when one of the Coneheads entered.
— Ah, a 6-pack of beer. So THAT was the hilariously inappropriate gift I was trying to remember.
— After growing back a slight mustache in the last two episodes, Dan has gone clean-shaven again.
— Overall, this was a more straightforward installment compared to the extensive preceding Coneheads sketch where they travel back to their home planet, but this was still very strong and and one of the more memorable Coneheads installments.
— Knowing how hugely influential SNL was in the 70s, I bet self-made Conehead costumes were a hot trend among SNL fans that Halloween.
STARS: ****½


CHUCK’S FILM
host’s long-winded set-up leaves little time for chase scene clip

 
— The clip getting cut off before anything interesting happened in it, and Charles’ reaction to that is fairly funny.
— Another short sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


CONSUMER PROBE
Irwin Mainway promotes some unsafe Halloween costumes

   
— LOL at Jane’s character being named “Joan Face”. Also, a rare change of pace not seeing Jane play a talk show host with her own name.
— Great to see Irwin Mainway back, after his classic debut in the previous season’s Christmas episode.
— As usual, some very funny dangerous toys so far, especially Invisible Pedestrian.
— Jane has started a coughing fit that she seems to be having trouble getting out of.
— I liked Jane indignantly saying that “Johnny Human Torch ” is nothing more than oily rags and a lighter.
— I like how at the end when the camera panned above the set and into the audience, you can see the Weekend Update set directly behind this sketch’s set. That’s also interesting since this sketch’s only two performers are also the two Update anchors.
STARS: ****


ANYONE CAN HOST
BIM plugs Anyone Can Host Contest while MOD disqualifies entries


— Is this gonna be a sequel to Bill’s famous “I don’t think I’m making it on the show” piece? Bill’s dressed in the exact same outfit he wore in that sketch. And judging from the huge pile of letters on the desk, I guess this is going to be him reading fan mail. Why is O’Donoghue there, though?
— Oh, this is actually an Anyone Can Host follow-up segment.
— O’Donoghue deadpan-edly calling out the minor flaws of some of the postcards (“smudged corner”, “uneven margins”, “typing error”, etc) is really funny.
— Bill to viewers: “Lorne Michaels is willing to take a chance on an unknown, just like he did with me. Heck, this time next year, you can have my job.” LOL, did Bill really think he was still in danger of getting fired? He’s been doing undeniably well so far this season, and has come a long way from his awkward days as a newbie in season 2. I’m sure viewers came to like him by this point. Eh, I’m probably looking too much into what was simply a funny throwaway line.
— I like how Bill ended this with his smarmy, playful “get out of here, ya knuckleheads!” catchphrase that we’ve been hearing a lot this season. It’s almost become a personal game for me to predict when he’ll say it in sketches/Update segments where he either plays himself or a character like himself.
— I don’t usually rate these Anyone Can Host segments where it’s usually just Lorne or a cast member straightforwardly explaining the rules, but this one actually had a lot of humor in it, as well as a funny performance from both Bill and Michael, so……
STARS: ***½


SAMURAI DRY CLEANERS
Futaba’s antics cause host to break character

 
— Futaba!
— I like Charles ruining the sketch with his constant little fourth wall-breaking comments while Gilda keeps trying to shush him.
— I got a good laugh from Charles actually reading John’s fake Japanese gibberish off the cue cards
— Good ending with a frustrated John angrily destroying the table with the sword after his sketch has been ruined.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
NBC Dancing N hands DAA a filler bulletin as an excuse for dancing
BIM criticizes one-man theater for being cheap
silent DAA mimes news stories for silent film buffs
FBI agent (GAM) refutes claims of Jimmy Hoffa’s skeleton being found

     
— I liked the opening bit with Pardo reading “Jane Curtin” backwards (“Enaj Nitruc”).
— Another review from Bill “now get out of here, ya knuckleheads” Murray.
— Some funny lines here and there, but overall, Bill’s done better commentaries that this. Also, the bit with him telling bad ant puns seemed out-of-character for his Update role.
— Loved the “News For the Silent Movie Buff” segment. Dan may have been considered by many to be a poor Update anchor (I’m personally still up in the air about him; he had a disastrous second Update, but he hasn’t been TOO bad yet in the other Updates so far, despite occasional flashes of awkwardness), but this silent movie bit was something he was absolutely PERFECT for. It also reminded me of some of the random fun side bits that Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey would do in their Updates decades later.
— Is this Garrett’s first appearance of the whole night?
— I liked the “the baby is holding his own” punchline to Jane’s news story about fetuses experiencing sexual stimulation in the womb.
STARS: ***


SIMON & GARFUNKEL
host as Art Garfunkel & musical guest try to do “The Sound of Silence”
Art Garfunkel [real] halts host’s pitiful “Bridge Over Troubled Water”

   
— Haha, oh my god at Grodin in that Garfunkel wig.
— I like Grodin defending his not knowing lyrics by saying he’s learning them as they go along.
— It’s over already? This wasn’t quite as funny as I wanted it to be.
— Oh, wait, now Grodin’s starting another song after Paul walked off.
— Him singing the wrong lyrics to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is hilarious, especially the random bad attempt at a high note.
— Interesting that they’re actually replaying audio of what he just sang.
— Hmm, the real Art Garfunkel has shown up.  Doesn’t he actually host later this season?  Can’t imagine how that episode went.
— That was great, with Garfunkel bluntly saying “Chuck, hand it over” and Grodin shamefully pulling off his wig and handing it to Garfunkel.
— Great ending to an overall solid sketch. I really liked the way all of this built up.
STARS: ****


THE KILLER BEES
host’s unpreparedness ruins skit about trick-or-treating Killer Bees
JOB & GIR confront host about his absence at rehearsals

   
— Another example of Grodin breaking the fourth wall and Gilda shushing him while John and the others try desperately to keep the sketch going.
— This also keeps alive the general recurring theme of Killer Bees sketches always getting “ruined” by something.
— I liked Grodin over-questioning the logic of the Bees and starting a chain reaction of the cast members themselves also questioning it.
— I really liking John’s passionate “I’m a professional” rant. Not quite as funny as his angry rant to Rob Reiner in the Bees sketch from Reiner’s episode, but it’s still good.
— Funny how Grodin keeps moving his head along to the flailing antennae on John’s head while John’s ranting seriously.
— Love how John’s rant ended with him declaring Grodin “the lamest host we’ve ever had”.
STARS: ***½


BROWNIE
young girl Judy Miller (GIR) pretends to star in her own television show

   
— The famous Judy Miller sketch! I didn’t know that was in this episode. Then again, I think this ended up becoming a recurring sketch, so who knows if this is even the version of the sketch I’m thinking of (the one that’s often shown in highlight reels and compilation specials like “The Women of SNL”).
— Gilda is adorable and eerily dead-on as this hyperactive bouncy child character, and it’s a lot of fun to watch her throughout this.
— Okay, there’s the well-known part with her repeatedly throwing herself against the door, which I guess proves this IS the version often shown in specials. BTW, I remember hearing she broke a rib doing that. I always wondered if that’s true or not.
— Jane as the off-camera mother yelling at Gilda to quiet down throughout this is adding a very realistic feel to this already very accurate, true-to-life piece.
— Overall, a wonderful sketch, and an excellent sample of so many things that made Gilda a beloved performer.
STARS: ****½

PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL OF FOOTBALL
The Professional School of Football can make you a pro athlete, says GAM

  
— I almost thought this was going to be some kind of follow-up to that Ambassador Training Institute commercial from season 1.
— The repeated “groin injury” option in the multiple choice questions is kinda funny and reminds me of the “Mesopotamia” running joke in the ATM bank sketch from season 2. That one was definitely funnier, though.
— Overall, this was forgettable filler. Garrett’s had a long streak of unimpressive solo sketches these last two seasons.
STARS: **


AUDIENCE CAPTION

 
— Haha, funny use of tonight’s running premise, by having a confused Grodin spotted in the audience. Reminds me of when they did that with Gilda in the episode where she was being “phased out”.


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


HIRE THE INCOMPETENT
host speaks on behalf of incompetents like Roseanne Roseannadanna (GIR)
host finally gets to sing his song about his feelings about life

   
— Bill’s dopey testimonial about making grocery bagging mistakes is really funny. “Eggs bottom, cans top.”
— This feels like Laraine’s first appearance of whole night, until I remembered there was a Coneheads sketch earlier. Geez, Laraine was even more underused tonight than Garrett, and that’s saying something. When it comes to airtime in this cast, those two seem to be the low man on the totem pole.
— The debut of Roseanne Rosannadanna! Knowing she would go on to become a hugely popular Weekend Update-only character, it feels weird seeing her as an unnamed random character among other unnamed random characters giving testimonials in a sketch.
— Also, it’s interesting how we got the debut of two of Gilda’s most beloved characters in the same night.
— The Rosannadanna testimonial has been the funniest part of this sketch so far, and it’s making me kinda look forward to her future Update appearances. I just hope I don’t get as sick of her as quickly as I got sick of Emily Litella’s frequent appearances. Rosannadanna’s an inherently funnier character, IMO, so I don’t see myself getting TOO fatigued from her.
— I remember the aforementioned 60-minute syndicated version I saw of this episode abruptly cut this sketch off right after Grodin’s befuddled facial reaction to Gilda’s testimonial. I guess that edit was made for time reasons?
— Grodin insulting himself as a host, then stopping and saying “Wait, I’ve never seen that cue card before” made me laugh a lot.
— Grodin’s intentionally bad short song was pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

 
— Tonight’s running premise concludes with Grodin revealing they were just kidding and John (jokingly) brushing him off with a “Yeah, whatever” type of attitude.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— I mentioned earlier that in my previous viewing of this episode in early 2002, I was underwhelmed by how the whole “Grodin missed dress rehearsal” running premise turned out. I’m not quite sure what 17-year-old me was thinking back then, because I enjoyed the concept MUCH more tonight. It was pulled off well, was interesting to watch the fourth wall constantly break, and added a fun vibe throughout the show. There were also several strong, memorable sketches unrelated to tonight’s running premise (Coneheads Halloween, Consumer Probe, Judy Miller). All of these positive aspects add up to a very solid episode.
— It tickles me that some SNL fans actually think the whole gimmick with Grodin being lost on how to do the show was REAL.
— IIRC, the only other time an SNL episode would try a running meta-premise of “the host isn’t on the same page as the cast” is when Garry Shandling hosted in 1987. You could also argue the Jason Patric episode from 1994 made a slight attempt at that, but BOY did that particular one not turn out well at all.
— I can’t wait until the next “conceptual episode” SNL does later this season, with the Attack of the Atomic Lobsters in the Robert Klein episode. I’ve never seen it before, but have heard so many good things.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Hugh Hefner):
— a step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Ray Charles