Tag: Roseanne

Posted on

December 3, 1994 – Roseanne / Green Day (S20 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

PRESS CONFERENCE
at a press conference, Jesse Helms (MIM) expands his presidential threats

— Feels a little weird seeing Mike playing Jesse Helms, since he isn’t usually cast in roles like this and I’m more familiar with Darrell Hammond’s later take on Helms.
— Some good lines here, and I’m finding Mike’s performance to be fun.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Roseanne’s rants against Hollywood are certainly getting big audience reactions, but it’s not making me laugh all that much. There are a few laughworthy barbs here, though.
STARS: **


HHT
Rerun from 9/24/94


USAIR
USAir employees talk about the airline’s improved flight safety measures

— A lot of laughs from all of the safety changes that Kevin lists off.
— For some reason, the little detail of Farley’s character’s surname being Manley makes me laugh.
— Elliott’s whole testimony is hilarious.
— Some really solid satire throughout this sketch.
STARS: ****


A WOMAN EXPLOITED: THE MADONNA & TOM ARNOLD STORY
parallels to host’s life in Tom Arnold (CHF) & Madonna (JAG) TV movie

— I recently learned that this sketch is an amalgamation of two different TV movies airing around this time, one being a Madonna movie and the other a Roseanne & Tom Arnold movie. Until finding out about that, I used to wonder what the hell was with this sketch’s random pairing of Madonna and Tom Arnold.
— For some reason, the way Janeane’s Madonna looks reminds me a little of future cast member Mark McKinney’s Chicken Lady character.
— So far, this sketch is not working for me at all. Not even Farley’s usually funny Tom Arnold impression is doing much to elevate it.
— The intentionally overlong Johnny B. Goode number felt unnecessary.
— Okay, we get it, Roseanne. You hate Tom Arnold and think he has a small penis. As if she hadn’t already spent more than enough time in the monologue making those points.
— The physical fight at the end between Roseanne’s Rosie O’Donnell and Farley’s Tom Arnold fell was just plain dumb and fell completely flat.
STARS: *½


RESCUE 911
rude operator (host) answers emergency calls in Philadelphia

— I used to wonder if Roseanne’s phone operator character in this is supposed to be the same one she previously played in the great Metrocard sketch from her season 16 episode. It probably isn’t, but either way, I’ve always felt this sketch pales horribly in comparison to the Metrocard one.
— Elliott’s useless role is one of the biggest wastes of his talents this season.
— Man, this sketch is falling REALLY flat. This has a really dead atmosphere and is lacking so many things that made the Metrocard sketch so strong.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “When I Come Around”


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS to striking athletes- “entertainers lack marketable skills- I know”
ACLU representative Naomi Green (JAG) stands up for prisoners’ rights
ADS plays guitar & sings a Hanukkah song about celebrities that are Jews

— There’s what would go on to be a legendary Norm Macdonald Weekend Update joke, regarding a Kenny G Christmas album: “Hey, happy birthday, Jesus, hope ya like crap!”
— Norm’s Update has been starting hot tonight, with a string of hilarious jokes. Considering he’s only been doing Update for three months so far, it’s very impressive how quickly he’s hit his stride as an anchorperson. Such an improvement over how blah Update tended to be during the preceding season when Kevin was in his final year as anchorperson.
— David’s giving his typical season 20 half-assed performance that I always hate, but his commentary has some laughs, especially the meta bit about how his request for a raise resulted in the president of NBC asking him a Dick Clark’s Receptionist-esque “And you aaaarrrrreeee…?”
— Not sure what to think of Janeane’s overall commentary, though I guess it had a pretty funny ending. I especially liked Norm’s “You’re really giving me the creeps” response to her.
— Yet another Norm Macdonald Update joke tonight that would go on to be a classic: the “Yippie! Jerry Rubin died last week” one.
— Speaking of classic, here comes one of Adam’s most popular guitar songs of all time.
— Feels a little odd seeing Adam doing a guitar song in an Update NOT anchored by Kevin Nealon.
— Adam sounds even shakier than usual during his pre-song spiel.
— A particularly strong song from Adam, and there are a lot of really classic, charming, and memorable lyrics about which celebrities are Jewish. It’s no surprise to anyone who’s familiar with me that my personal favorite lyric is “But guess who is: all Three Stooges”.
— According to GettyImages, there was an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal where Kevin played some kind of character (pic here).
STARS: ****½


SKIMPY’S FROZEN YOGURT
weight-conscious (host), (ELC), (LAK) investigate chemical-laden yogurt

— A rarity this season to see a very female-oriented sketch.
— Michael’s voice and accent sounds so much like a voice and accent that Phil Hartman once used in a sketch, but I can’t figure out which sketch I’m thinking of.
— For once tonight, Roseanne’s actually putting effort into a performance and looks happy to be there.
— The ladies’ performances are good, but not much here is making me laugh all that much. I did get a laugh just now from Michael listing off Advil among the ice cream ingredients.
— That’s the ending of the sketch? The payoff felt weak to me.
STARS: **½


CIVIL WAR MEMORIES
high school dropouts talk about Battle for Charleston

— Tim’s testimonial is kinda funny.
— Hey, Jay’s Good Morning Brooklyn character makes a random appearance. And hey, he’s still not funny.
— The idea of a ridiculously inaccurate version of the Civil War is pretty funny in itself, but this sketch isn’t being executed very well.
— Ugh, I see Mike is continuing his annoying streak of playing broad Asian stereotypes every week.
— Ellen’s story about her whole ass hanging out made me laugh, as well as the subsequent drawing shown of that incident.
STARS: **


MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES
of host’s multiple personalities, psychoanalyst (NOM) prefers the whore

— Surprisingly, this is Norm’s first sketch appearance of the whole season. After consistently being a bright spot of sketches in the rough second half of season 19, it’s odd how he’s been kept out of sketches the following season, a season that REALLY could’ve used his sketch-saving abilities.
— I’m aware that this is a sketch version of a stand-up routine that Norm used to do. This would also later be performed in a Norm Macdonald comedy album.
— I love Norm’s dissatisfaction when Roseanne cuts short her oral sex details to act as a little girl.
— A huge laugh from Norm flat-out asking “Lemme talk to the whore, is she around?”
— So many laughs from Norm’s lines and reactions, such as trying to convince Rosanne’s murderous personality to kill the librarian personality.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Geek Stink Breath”


FUNNY STRANGE
Funny Strange shop owner (CSE) envies twin’s (CSE) novelty store success

— Finally, after being wasted and misused in so many sketches so far this season, Chris Elliott gets a sketch to showcase the oddball brand of humor he’s known for.
— The little debate between Farley and Elliott over whether plastic puke is funny strange or funny ha-ha is cracking me up.
— I like the disturbing, odd turn with Elliott’s character meeting up with his twin and killing him (resulting in a great maniacal laugh from Elliott). I also, for some reason, like how the audience has no idea what to make of this scene.
— Not sure the ending with Kevin and his “twin” was needed.
— Overall, this won’t end up being among my favorite Chris Elliott oddball sketches of this season, but I found it enjoyable and I like that the show took a chance on something this bizarre and audience-alienating.
STARS: ***½


LOCK-UP WITH BOBBY BLAKE
Bobby Blake’s (LAK) women’s prison talk show; Rip Taylor cameo

 

— The very underused Laura Kightlinger gets her very first opportunity to play the lead comedic character of a sketch.
— A fairly interesting premise, but I’m not caring much for the execution so far, and I feel Laura’s coming off kinda bland.
— It is nice to have another rare occurrence tonight of a sketch centered around the neglected female cast, but I wish the sketches were better. This particular sketch is more of an interesting novelty than outright funny.
— Very random Rip Taylor cameo at the end.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— I’m not too crazy about this episode as a whole. There were some good and memorable things, but I had a meh feeling towards a lot of stuff, and the first two lead-off sketches were particularly rough (The Madonna & Tom Arnold Story and Rescue 911). I also felt Roseanne’s overall performance tonight was a step down from her previous two hosting stints, and she came off a little too obnoxious at times tonight, to say nothing of her excessive Tom Arnold jokes.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Turturro)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin

Posted on

February 22, 1992 – Roseanne and Tom Arnold / The Red Hot Chili Peppers (S17 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
New Hampshire primary taught George Bush (DAC) that “You’re pissed!”

— I’m getting a lot of laughs from Dana-as-Bush’s very funny various ways of explaining to us that he got the people of New Hampshire’s message.
— Great part with him finally revealing on a sheet of paper what the message from New Hampshire was: “YOU’RE PISSED!”
— Kiddie Dan Quayle to Bush: “You’ll beat Buchanan, won’t you? He’s ugly!”
— A very funny little part after Kiddie Quayle leaves, with Bush speculating a “Bush/Buchanan” ticket before saying “Nah!”
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
hosts find that they have no secrets about themselves left to expose

— Tom Arnold’s looks have changed quite a lot since his cameo just a year earlier in Roseanne’s season 16 episode. Roseanne herself looks quite different too. (side-by-side comparison below)

— A funny part where after Roseanne says they’re already gaining back all the weight they lost from the diet they talked about on Oprah, Tom says “So did Oprah, though.”
— Feels strange in retrospect hearing a mention of a now-obscure talk show called Sonya Live among the many names of talk shows that are still well-remembered today like Oprah, Donahue, and Larry King Live.
— Now they’ve mentioned another now-obscure talk show, The Paul Rodriguez Show, though judging from Roseanne and Tom’s jokes, that show was considered an embarrassing joke even back then.
STARS: ***


DICK CLARK PRODUCTIONS
Dick Clark’s receptionist keeps Roseanne & Jesus (PHH) waiting

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— Like last time, David’s getting a lot of laughs from his questioning the importance of who the clients are and his obliviousness to any kind of pop culture.
— I love Roseanne going head-to-head with Dick Clark’s receptionist in a snark-off.
— Great part with Julia pouring her heart out to the receptionist regarding being Dick Clark’s long-lost biological mother, only for it to be revealed that the receptionist was on the phone the whole time and didn’t hear anything she said.
— Now this already-strong sketch turns truly epic, with Phil randomly appearing as Jesus, which gets a great audience reaction.
— A lot of laughs from Dick Clark’s receptionist doing his usual questioning routine to Jesus of all people. I also love Phil’s calm-but-slightly-taken-aback facial reactions.
— Kevin to Jesus, regarding the receptionist: “Can’t you do anything?” Jesus: “I’ll give him one more minute.” Receptionist: “Threatening me with eternal damnation won’t get you in any faster.”
STARS: *****


COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda & friend Liz (Madonna) praise Barbra Streisand [real]

— Linda Richman officially becomes recurring, and they’ve now dropped the “Coffee Talk with Paul Baldwin” title and have officially begun titling this sketch “Coffee Talk with Linda Richman”.
— Despite this only being her second appearance, Linda Richman is already getting big audience cheers during her opening statement in tonight’s sketch. I guess this shows how hot tonight’s crowd is.
— We get a mention of Linda Richman’s daughter Robin, which is an inside reference, as Mike Myers based the character of Linda Richman off of the mother of his then-wife named Robin.
— A very random Madonna cameo.
— I like Roseanne a lot in this. Even just the look of her character is cracking me up.
— Two minutes into this sketch, and Roseanne has been providing my ONLY laughs, though I do kinda like the details and realism that Madonna’s bringing in her characterization (which is supposedly another inside reference, as Madonna’s character is reportedly based on her own publicist).
— The self-deprecating part with Madonna’s character calling Madonna a tramp was okay if cliched.
— I got a big laugh from Roseanne randomly making a very loud “CCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!” sound with her throat while cleaning out her ear.
— Here comes the reason this installment of Coffee Talk is famous, and the moment that makes this fairly tepid and overlong installment worth sitting through: Barbra Streisand randomly showing up out of nowhere at the end. A memorable and legendary SNL moment, especially since neither Madonna nor Roseanne were told beforehand that Streisand would appear, and thus, their stunned reactions you see are 100% genuine (Roseanne in particular goes WILD and completely drops character), which helps make that moment so classic. Mike, on the other hand, was informed of Streisand’s cameo beforehand, but only a few minutes before the sketch started. He reportedly had just enough time to call his Streisand-obsessed mother-in-law and tell her to get down here.
STARS: ***


TALL TALES OF THE RECESSION
the story of the Fast-Firing CEO (Tom)

— A bit odd how Tom Arnold is just NOW making his first sketch appearance of the night.
— Fun performance from Dana, and I like the sound effect they keep playing whenever he cracks his whip.
— I got an unintentional laugh from a technical error where they accidentally cut to a brief shot of a devil (Rob) sitting down at a restaurant table while Dana’s introducing the scene to us. This gaffe would later be edited out of reruns.
— The use of Rob as the devil really makes one yearn for Jon Lovitz’s Mephistopheles character. Rob’s performance here is bland and comes off lame compared to what Jon’s Mephistopheles would’ve brought to the sketch. They’re even having Rob wearing what appears to be Jon’s old Mephistopheles costume!
— Another unintentional laugh, this time from Dana’s whip almost knocking off his hat one of the times he cracks the whip.
— Overall, Dana was the only thing providing any real laughs in this sketch. The actual meat of the sketch, the CEO scenes with Tom, were dull and fell flat.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stone Cold Bush”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Grumpy Old Man has no use for Winter Olympics innovations

— Feels a bit weird seeing Grumpy Old Man in a Kevin Nealon-anchored Update for a change. This ends up being the final appearance of this character, as well as the only time he ever appears outside of a Dennis Miller-anchored Update.
— The usual funny stories from Grumpy Old Man, especially the one about using corpses as skiis and how one of the Winter Olympics events in his day was compressing your lips to a freezing metal pole.
— Kinda surprised Grumpy Old Man’s commentary is over already. Felt kinda short.
— Very strong night for Kevin overall. Lots of great jokes from him.
STARS: ****


DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg welcome new Delta Delta Delta sorority sister (Roseanne)

— This sketch officially becomes recurring (I’m saying that a lot tonight). Can’t say I’m thrilled to see these characters back.
— Very interesting seeing Roseanne playing against type as a valley girl-esque character.
— Boy, am I already sick of the overuse of a running bit in these Delta sketches, where one of the girls says something serious and then immediately follows it up by pointing out something trivial and irrelevant (e.g. “Your hair looks so red”, “Do I have lipstick on my teeth?”, etc.). I know that’s an accurate spoof of this type of ditzy college student, but hearing it being said after almost every single line is not funny to me.
— Despite Roseanne playing against type, I see they let her get in a typical Roseanne-esque line just now, by suddenly saying “I gotta go use the can; I gotta let one rip!”, which I admit kinda made me laugh just because of the contrast between that and the Delta Delta Delta girls’ personality.
STARS: **


A STAR IS BORN
Roseanne’s career crashes after Tom rides her coattails

 

— Victoria, who I’ve lately been starting to kinda forget is still in the cast, is just NOW making her first (and only) appearance of the night. Then again, this has been a VERY light night for most of the cast in general, possibly due to a combo of having two hosts and a gigantic cast. Chris Farley doesn’t even appear AT ALL tonight.
— I love the method Dana’s Larry Roman uses to come up with the stage name Tom Arnold.
— As usual, the Larry Roman character is making some funny comedic analogies. I especially liked “He’s pullin’ you down faster than Wilt Chamberlain’s pants!” However, the “He’s gotta go like June Allyson after a freakin’ six-pack!” one was reused from a Weekend Update commentary that Larry Roman did earlier this season.
— Dana makes Roseanne break character and laugh (fifth screencap above) right as she’s about to deliver a dramatic line before exiting.
— I’m cracking up at Roseanne badmouthing various actresses during her drunken “acceptance speech”, especially her line “Kirstie Alley, get a chin!”
STARS: ***


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart dislikes sister’s (Roseanne) abusive ex (Tom)

— A laugh from Stuart mentioning the title of his poorly-received recent episode, “Whining is Anger Coming Through a Small Opening”.
— Roseanne plays against type once again tonight, this time as a timid character.
— Some good laughs from Stuart listing off all the terrible things that Tom did to Roseanne.
— Stuart to Roseanne: “Jodi, it’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the world.”
— Good part with Tom beating the hell out of Stuart with the padded bat. We also get a great visual afterwards with Stuart’s hilariously messed-up hair after the beatdown.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Under The Bridge”


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the most dangerous animal in the world


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, but doesn’t measure up to the two great episodes that preceded this. After those two episodes, tonight had a feeling of averageness. However, we did get a few really memorable moments tonight, such as Phil’s Jesus in the Dick Clark Productions sketch and Barbra Streisand’s cameo in Coffee Talk. Of the two hosts, Tom Arnold was merely okay while Roseanne fared better and had a bigger presence. It was also refreshing to see Roseanne play against type a few times tonight, which I don’t think she did at all during her first hosting stint in the preceding season, even though that was the better of the two episodes she’s hosted so far at this point.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Priestley)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
John Goodman, in our second consecutive episode where the host comes from the same then-running sitcom (“Roseanne”). I don’t think there have been any other times in SNL history where two consecutive episodes were hosted by co-stars of the same then-current TV show.

Posted on

February 16, 1991 – Roseanne Barr / Deee-Lite (S16 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
army general Mr. Subliminal briefs the press about the Gulf War

— Second episode in a row with a cold opening starring Kevin as someone giving a military briefing to press reporters, and both openings also have an intro from Phil setting up the appearance of Kevin’s character. In my early days of watching reruns on Comedy Central, I used to get these two cold openings confused for each other all the time.
— Good to see Kevin doing his subliminal routine in the cold opening slot again this season.
— Overall, while Kevin’s subliminal lines in tonight’s opening wasn’t as consistently strong as his ones from the Tom Hanks episode and no particular lines tonight stood out, they were still reliably funny as usual.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Adam Sandler’s photo from his debut in last week’s montage (first screencap below) has been changed to a new pic (second screencap below).


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Fun part with her excitedly announcing she’s officially overexposed.
— Great self-deprecating line from her at the end about being an “insecure ego-driven megastar who cannot deal with rejection”.
— A pretty high-energy monologue overall.
STARS: ***½


METROCARD
operator (host) & customer (PHH) remember a call for help

— A lot of laughs from Roseanne giving a comically out-of-place Roseanne-esque performance as the phone operator, with her blunt comments throughout her stories.
— Very funny contrast between the tone of Phil and Roseanne’s testimonials, with my favorite part being Phil kindly recalling a harsh comment from Rosanne telling him what he can do with a personal check as “She gave me several options.”
— Supposedly, there was some kind of bad technical error during the live broadcast of this. While the version I’m reviewing of this episode is live, it’s a Canadian west coast airing, where they apparently fixed whatever the bad technical error in this sketch was.
STARS: ****½


MISERY II
DAC’s biggest fan (host) makes him keep Church Lady alive

— Dana announces he’s retiring Church Lady, which is a promise that he’d end up keeping for the rest of his SNL tenure.
— The camera does a casual reveal of Jon Lovitz sitting next to Dana in the car, which receives absolutely no audience reaction. It may be because they already saw him sitting there, but it’s funny to imagine that it’s because Jon’s cameos have become so commonplace that the audience has no reaction to them anymore.
— I like Jon asking if he can take over Church Lady.
— Perfect casing of Roseanne.
— Absolutely hilarious visual of Dana’s banged-up legs.
— Am I crazy, or whenever Roseanne enters and exits the room, you can see the back of Jon Lovitz standing in the hallway (screencap below)? Why is he there? Waiting for his cue to enter at the end of the sketch?

— Great visual of a reluctant Dana dressed as Church Lady when the camera cuts back to the bedroom scene.
— The scenes with Lorne in his office are very good. I loved the part with him saying he doesn’t need Dana’s characters or impressions anymore because he has the next big thing: a character who calls people by a bunch of nicknames, and as Lorne gives an example of that, you realize he’s talking about Richmeister. Considering the last two episodes featured Richmeister’s first two appearances, and now he’s being mentioned in this sketch tonight, this shows how much they were really trying to push that character and/or how quickly popular he became.
— I love Dana using his Church Lady catchphrases in an angry manner when trying to kill Roesanne (“Isn’t THAT special?!! Isn’t THAT convienient?!?”).
— Dana: “Jon, I thought you were dead.” Jon: “ACTING!”
— Great ending with Jon fulfilling his dream to play Church Lady.
STARS: ****½


SALLY
host & Tom Arnold [real] respond to TV movie

— Another good use of Victoria’s great Roseanne impression, as well as a welcome return of Farley’s Tom Arnold impression.
— Feels a little weird seeing Tom Arnold so fat here.
— Once again, Jan is really good at doing the Sally Jessy Raphael overdramatics.
— The end of the restaurant scene was priceless. This is the first of two times in the calendar year 1991 where Victoria Jackson gets humped on a restaurant table during a sketch. A hint on what the second sketch is: it’s a very famous one that features a whole bunch of Italian characters.
— I love Farley’s demented “I! DON’T! TAKE! NO! CRAP! FROM! NO! BODY!” yelling during the dramatic close-up of him kicking a photographer to death.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “World Clique”


WEEKEND UPDATE
propaganda tool Iraqi Pete (ADS) spouts anti-American sentiments

— Adam Sandler gets his first-ever big role, and his performance here as Iraqi Pete is freakin’ priceless, made even funnier by the chorus of audience boos throughout the segment.
— Excellent delivery from Dennis during his long-winded set-up of a joke about a character from Thirtysomething dying.
STARS: ***½


PAT
(host) fails to figure out whether androgynous Pat is a man or a woman

— Pat officially becomes recurring. I believe according to the “Live from New York” book, it was Roseanne’s idea to bring the character back, as she was a fan of the first Pat sketch and asked Julia if they could do another installment of the sketch.
— Julia’s wearing less padding than she wore last time she played this character.
— I like the mysteriousness of Pat’s answer to Roseanne saying accounting is such a male-dominated field: “Why do you think I took this job in the first place?”
— Like last time, there’s some good laughs from Pat’s gender-unspecific answers to questions asked by others.
— Funny appearance from Dana as the equally androgynous Chris.
STARS: ***½


A PRESIDENTS’ DAY REMEMBRANCE
Abraham (PHH) vs. Mary Todd (host) Lincoln

— A big laugh from how Mike’s dignified set-up of a typical evening with the Lincolns is casually followed by a scene with them in an insane, wild fight. Phil’s loud outbursts during that scene are especially hilarious.
— Funny how an unfazed Mike casually continues speaking to the camera while the Lincoln’s fight gets carried over to right next to him.
STARS: ***½


HAPPY FUN BALL
Happy Fun Ball comes with a bunch of scary-sounding disclaimers

— Here’s a Jack Handey classic and one of my all-time favorite SNL pieces.
— Priceless contrast between the playful tone of the early scenes with the kids and the serious disclaimers that take over the commercial afterwards.
— Some of my favorite parts of the disclaimers are the long list of symptoms one might suffer from Happy Fun Ball, the mention of Happy Fun Ball being dropped from war planes onto Iraq, and of course “Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.”
STARS: *****


IRAQI PETE
Iraqi Pete further eggs on the audience; TV Guide “cheers” SNL for him

— Another hilarious goofy villain-esque performance from Adam as this character.
— We get another TV Guide Cheers & Jeers ending. This one was okay.
STARS: ****


COMEDY KILLERS
stand-up comics on a game show about audience turn-offs

— Great concept.
— Some good laughs from the list of categories on the board.
— A particularly strong part with Roseanne’s self-referential story about doing a jokingly bad rendition of the National Anthem.
— I’m loving Kevin’s delivery throughout this, especially his reading of the example sentence “I hope you get rectal cancer” and the way he said “Ted Kennedy: not a respected figure.”
— The lightning round with Roseanne is fun.
— Funny reveal that the greatest comedy killer of all time is the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Power of Love”


VICTORIA’S SECRETS
VIJ tells all about her dumb blonde image

— A creative and different setting.
— Victoria’s revelations are providing some solid amusement. This has an almost Deep Thoughts-esque feel.
STARS: ***½


OPPOSITES ATTRACT
movie about a millionaire (MIM) & a prostitute

— This feels very different from what you typically see in this era.
— Good disgusting make-up on the prostitute.
— I liked the lobster/crabs joke during the dinner table scene.
STARS: ***


WHITE TRASH HISTORY MINUTE
how tuna noodle casserole was created

— During the opening shot of a bookshelf, one of the book titles seen is “The Big Picture by A. Whitney Brown.”
— Rosanne’s constant slaps to Farley’s head are fairly funny. Not much else to laugh at here, though.
— An overall weak way to end the show.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A mostly very strong episode, and had some really memorable pieces, particularly MetroCard, Misery II, Happy Fun Ball, and Comedy Killers.
— The aforementioned Canadian west coast live airing I reviewed of this episode was missing a fake ad for McIntosh Jr. (“The power to crush the other kids”).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kevin Bacon)
— a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin