Tag: snl

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December 1, 1990 – John Goodman / Faith No More (S16 E7)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Church Lady & mother (host) gang up on Saddam Hussein (PHH)

 

— This ends up being the final Church Chat sketch during Dana’s tenure as a cast member.
— Funny advertisement at the beginning with Church Lady’s Canned Ham.
— Funny “I’m going to keep it” bit regarding Saddam’s hat, as Church Lady’s way of imitating Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait.
— Great inclusion of John Goodman as Church Lady’s mother.
— A lot of laughs from Church Lady and her mother’s detailing of marines’ “bulbous buttocks” alternating back-and forth between aligned and askew during their desert training.
— Excellent sequence with Church Lady and her mother ganging up on Saddam and beating the hell out him, complete with cartoonish sound effects.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host does an impression of his newborn daughter Molly

— When talking about how much his life has changed since hosting SNL just a year ago, he mentions Tom Arnold constantly firing and rehiring him from the show “Roseanne”. Is that true?
— I liked his bit about still having the pregnancy weight after the birth of his baby.
— His impression of his baby is very funny.
STARS: ***½


BAD IDEA JEANS
— Rerun


MISTER
people in (host)’s store are referred to by their annoying traits

— Funny reveal of John and Julia’s trait-based insulting names towards each other turning out to be their actual names.
— I like how the names are carrying over into other people at the store, particularly Farley’s substitute repairman character being named “Mr. I-Don’t-Have-To-Do-a-Good-Job-Because-I’m-Just-Filling-In”.
— Phil’s outlandish police report at the end was funny.
STARS: ***½


WEDDING DAY
Keith Richards (DAC) helps ease Mick Jagger’s (MIM) wedding day jitters

— Mike’s Mick Jagger impression is very funny and spot-on. Great Keith Richards from Dana too.
— It’s always interesting seeing Mike and Dana paired up in non-Wayne’s World sketches.
— Some really funny lines.
— Great touch with Keith’s tears at the end.
STARS: ****


PLAYER-WITH-YOURSELVES CLUB
Telly Savalas (PHH) touts Player-With-Yourselves-Club wanking privileges

— Hilarious reveal of the concept.
— Phil is priceless in this as Telly Savalas.
— Savalas: “Unlimited Kleenex. I’m talking two-ply, baby!”
— Savalas: “All the latest videotapes cued up to the good parts, baby, ‘cuz players don’t have time to fast-forward!”
— Loved Phil’s delivery of “Ohhh, yeah!” at the end.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Epic”


THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP
controlling moderator McLaughlin (DAC) has all the answers

— I believe this ends up being the final occurrence of a sketch appearing in between the first musical performance and Weekend Update slot.
— The debut of a sketch that I’ve always loved from this era.
— I’m enjoying the hell out of how fast-moving this is, made even funnier with Dana’s McLaughlin frequently cutting off the panelists’ answers, and occasionally telling them “Wrong!” (though he’s not doing the latter as much as he would in future installments).
— Haha, this is killing me, especially the increasingly insane questions. This is a riot.
— Yet another aspect I love about this sketch is the nicknames McLaughlin gives to the panelists, especially the one long-winded name he gives to Jack Germond.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
DAS likens Iraq attacking Kuwait to his older brother picking on him

 

— David Spade in his very first Update commentary as himself.
— David’s overall dolls commentary was decent, though nothing memorable and very different from the type of Update commentaries that he would typically do later on.
— I loved Dennis’ friendly noogey-ing of David after his commentary ended. It’s interesting seeing how Dennis interacts with all the new kids in this season’s cast whenever any of them do an Update commentary, especially considering this ends up being the only season Dennis works with them.
STARS: ***


CHEW
flow of dinner table conversation is interrupted by the need to chew food

— Funny realistic premise with the timing of dinner table conversations constantly getting delayed as the people at the table take the time to chew their food before answering a question they were asked.
— A good laugh from John hesitating to insert food in his mouth while making sure nobody is about to ask him a question, only for him to immediately be asked a question by Kevin when finally inserting the food in his mouth.
— Loved John vengefully turning the tables on Kevin by asking HIM a question as HE’S eating.
— The look on Rock’s face while doing the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing is particularly funny.
— Hilarious when Farley does the waiting-to-chew-before-speaking thing even when recovering from the Heimlich Maneuver.
— It’s amazing how they’re able to mine this many laughs out of a simple premise like this.
STARS: ****


WAYNE’S WORLD
Madonna’s Justify My Love video is on at Garth’s house

— Surprisingly, this is the first time Wayne’s World has appeared all season. Wonder why they waited this long, considering the huge popularity of this recurring sketch.
— Also strange that this is buried so late in the show, though the reason for that is because they’re going to air a racy Madonna music video that MTV refused to play.
— Wayne: “Madonna is such a babe… she’d give a dog a bone.”
— Love Wayne and Garth’s commentary during the Madonna music video. Some of the funniest lines include “There’s Prince!”, the reference to the famous “Three Men and a Baby” urban legend of a ghost appearing in the background, and “Look at the unit on that guy!”
— Nice to see John reprising his cop character from a previous Wayne’s World sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “From Out of Nowhere”


DAVY CROCKETT
Davy Crockett (host) doesn’t know what to make of his bookish son (MIM)

— Pretty funny nerd characterization from Mike.
— I laughed at the cutaway to Phil’s puzzled face during Mike’s long-winded intelligent spiel (second screencap above).
— The result of the overall sketch wasn’t particularly interesting, though not particularly terrible either. The sketch had a strange charm that made it a little more likable than it normally would be.
STARS: **½


PAT
(KEN) tries to figure out the sex of androgynous co-worker Pat (JUS)

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Viewers at the time probably had a hard time telling who that was playing Pat in this sketch, especially considering how new Julia Sweeney is at this point. The mystery is answered during the goodnights that follow this sketch,  where Julia still appears in her Pat costume, but sans the wig, glasses, and eyebrows.
— Feels a little odd in hindsight seeing a Pat sketch without the opening credits and theme song. That wouldn’t be introduced until the third installment.
— This being the first time Pat has ever appeared, Julia’s characterization is coming off funny and fresh. I also like how the voice is a lot less high-pitched and whiny than it would be in later installments.
— Some really funny fake-outs with it seeming like Pat’s going to answer a question that will reveal Pat’s gender, only for Pat’s answer to be something gender-unspecific.
— A good laugh from the reveal of Pat’s ex-fiancee having the unisex name Chris, as well as Chris being involved with someone with the equally-unisex name Terry.
— Pat: “I guess it’s that time of the month.” Kevin (thinking THAT reveals Pat’s gender): “Oh, okay.” Pat: “Bills.”
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

— This is Adam Sandler’s first episode as a writer. He will begin making uncredited appearances in bit roles very soon.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very solid episode. Aside from the Davy Crockett sketch, everything worked for me, and several of the sketches were particularly strong. We also got a memorable debut of two sketches that would go on to become recurring (McLaughlin Group and Pat). Much like his first time hosting, John Goodman did another great job as host, though he seemed a little underutilized at times tonight.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Dennis Hopper)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Tom Hanks joins the Five-Timers Club

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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

November 10, 1990 – Jimmy Smits / World Party (S16 E5)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) emphasizes that Mario Cuomo has a foreign-sounding name

— Love Dana-as-Bush’s ways of demonstrating how down his approval rating has gone.
— Some good laughs from him emphasizing how un-American Mario Cuomo’s first name is.
— Memorable part with him using infrared night vision goggles, especially him getting scared by Little Dan Quayle sneaking up on him with night goggles of his own.
— Interesting how they let the child actor playing Quayle (Jeff Renaudo) deliver “Live from New York…” this time.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— Season 16’s growing cast continues to increase in size, as Julia Sweeney and David Spade are added to the cast tonight as featured players, the former of whom is a new SNL hire and the latter of whom was already working on SNL as a writer and had made many uncredited onscreen appearances.


MONOLOGUE
DOP provides a Spanish translation of host’s story

— Nice energetic entrance from Jimmy Smits.
— Pretty fun idea of Don Pardo translating Jimmy’s dialogue into Spanish.
— Boy, this bit ended up running out of steam and dying off pretty fast. At least they seemed to be fully aware of that.
STARS: **


CHIA HEAD
an organic alternative to traditional baldness countermeasures

 

— Priceless and very memorable concept.
— I love them showing the process of Kevin planting his about-to-grow hair, as if it’s perfectly normal.
— The testimonials are all very funny, especially Rock’s.
STARS: *****


GAME CHALLENGERS
(host) competes to reclaim Native American artifacts

 

— Pretty funny how one of the contestants is a Native American coming to reclaim the Indian artifacts that are being presented as gameshow prizes.
— Funny reveal of the skeleton on display being Jimmy’s great-grandfather.
— As usual in his portrayal of gameshow hosts, I love Phil’s overly-cheerful demeanor in this.
— Heavy reliance on Don Pardo tonight, between the monologue and now him being held hostage from off-camera in his announcer’s booth at the end of this sketch.
STARS: ***


SPANISH PRONUNCIATION
NBC News employees overdo their Spanish pronunciations; Bob Costas cameo

 

— This is a fleshed-out, sketch version of a commentary that Victoria did on Weekend Update a year earlier, where she kept using a heavy accent when pronouncing the names of Spanish nations.
— Dana is particularly funny at doing the Spanish pronunciations here.
— Decent Bob Costas cameo.
— Jimmy’s angry outburst at the end was good.
STARS: ***


SIMON
while in the tub, neglected English boy Simon (MIM) shows his drawings

— This Mike Myers character makes its debut.
— I like the opening announcer’s passing mention of the show having been preceded by 5 hours of The All-England Sheepdog Trials from Bridlington.
— Good theme song.
— I’m enjoying Mike’s characterization and unique pronunciation of certain words (particularly “draw-rings”).
— I like the New York hotel window drawing with the window washer blocking the view.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Way Down Now”


WEEKEND UPDATE
in Central Park, JAH interviews New York Marathon last-place runner (CHF)

— A very rare Update appearance from Jan, though as usual, it’s not behind the Update desk.
— The marathon runner commentary is featuring a very early display of Farley’s extreme energy. Unfortunately, there’s not much for him to work with here in terms of material. A fairly tepid Update commentary.
— Dennis, in a meta comment about Farley after the marathon runner commentary has ended: “At least we didn’t see his ass this week.”
— Dennis goes on a jokingly xenophobic-esque rant, but it fell flat for me.
— I’ve been noticing lately that Dennis’ trademark arm-swipe when scribbling off the sheet of paper after his “I… am… outta here” tagline hasn’t been as energetic as usual this season. A sign that he’s starting to get burned out as an Update anchor, which unfortunately ends up only getting worse as this season progresses.
STARS: ***


FIRST DATE
(host) is frustrated by ditzy (JUS)’s short attention span & bad stories

— Julia Sweeney gets her very first big showcase, right in her first episode.
— Feels strange in hindsight seeing Julia playing such a ditzy character like this, considering this is VERY different from the roles she’d end up typically being cast in for most of her tenure.
— Not caring for where this sketch has been going so far.
— Okay, I did chuckle at the part just now with Jimmy demonstrating to Julia the proper way to tell a story, after all of her bad attempts.
— Ha, I loved Julia’s abrupt “I gotta go” immediately after hinting to Jimmy that she wants to sleep with him.
— For a sketch that dragged and didn’t make me laugh much, this had an actual funny ending. Not sure it was worth sitting through this entire sketch to get there, though. Not the greatest way for Julia Sweeney to make a first impression, which I hate to say, as I like Julia as a performer and have the benefit of hindsight to know that she goes on to do some good things on the show.
STARS: **


THE DARK SIDE
Nat X (CSR) discusses race with host & Gerry Cooney (KEN)

— Two sketches in a row starring a new cast member. Cool.
— Loved the opening line from Phil’s voice-over: “A man so black, he goes to funerals naked.”
— The set is a bit different from how it would look in subsequent installments of this sketch. There’s no window behind Nat X in this one.
— I love the idea of this character for Chris Rock, and he’s giving a strong performance. This sketch comes off so refreshing to see on SNL after the lack of urban humor during the late 80s era.
— Great line about how “the man” made the black jellybean the worst tasting candy on earth.
— I liked the Top 5 list, even if this one kinda pales in comparison to some of the later ones.
— Nat X to Gerry Cooney: “This the only time you can get THIS close to a black man without gettin’ ya ass kicked!”
— I liked the number total shown of how much money white people lost betting on Cooney.
— Something seemed to go wrong at the end of the Gerry Cooney interview. There was a long awkward pause, and then the ending Nat X theme music was cued up, but played way too loud, causing Rock to have to practically SHOUT his lines over it as he wraps up the show.
STARS: ***½


DOORMEN
doormen (ROS) & (KEN) discuss building tenants behind their backs

— Wow, THREE sketches in a row with a new cast member in a lead role. I love it!
— This would go on to be a semi-recurring sketch. Rob Schneider and Kevin’s characterizations and interplay in these sketches are fun, and have always kinda reminded me of the characterizations and interplay between Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest in those Willie and Frankie (the “I hate when that happens” characters) sketches from season 10.
— After the initial reveal of the comedic hook, this overall sketch didn’t go anywhere too interesting and ended with kind of a flat feeling. I liked this sketch more for Rob and Kevin’s chemistry and delivery than for the material itself.
STARS: **½


MANHATTAN MOBILE HOME PARK
(host), (VIJ), (CHF) live in a mobile home in NYC, with some difficulty

— I absolutely LOVE the setting of this with everything in the home being sideways. Something tells me Conan O’Brien is the writer behind this, and not just because he ends up making a brief appearance at the end (though that DOES kinda help my theory).
— Odd technical error just now, where they accidentally cut back to the establishing shot of the mobile park while Jimmy was in the middle of speaking.
— Another blooper, this time a funny one: Victoria’s release of the vacuum she was holding causes its handle to lightly bump onto Jimmy’s crotch.
— What the…? Is that freakin’ CHING CHANGE as the delivery boy?!? Oh, god.
— The overall sketch ended up being kinda average, which is a little disappointing considering how great it could’ve been with its creative setting. This fizzled out a little towards the end, especially with Dana’s god-awful Ching Change character hijacking the sketch.
— This sketch would later be removed from reruns and be replaced with a Schiller’s Reel.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Ship of Fools”


DETECTIVES
(host)’s clever-sounding verbal reversals irritate fellow policeman (DAC)

— Jimmy’s habit of reversing verbs in Dana’s statements to sound “deep” and philosophical are increasingly funny.
— I like the sudden “I’m going to have to kill you” turn.
— Funny casual delivery from Farley with his “Killed your partner, huh?” line.
— I love the ending with Farley’s “Let’s let a bite get us something to eat” and the enlightened “Ah!” face that he and Dana make in unison afterwards.
— A short and sweet sketch. I don’t think this is a well-liked sketch among SNL fans (every review I’ve ever read of this episode gave this sketch a low rating), but I personally have always dug this sketch.
— SNL would later use a similar premise in a 1998 sketch with Jimmy Fallon as the ghost of John Lennon speaking to fans at a Lennon Memorial.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very, very average episode. So average, that it was forgettable. Almost nothing stood out as great, and most of the show just hovered around the “okay” range. Barely anything to remember in this. I will say I did like the fact that the newer cast members got a lot of focus tonight, especially in the post-Update half of the show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Patrick Swayze)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Dennis Hopper

Posted on

October 27, 1990 – Patrick Swayze / Mariah Carey (S16 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Dirty Square Dancing- at a hoe-down, (host) & (JAH) do all but go down

— Great sudden reveal of the “Dirty Square Dancing” title.
— Hilarious dirty lyrics from Phil and dirty moves from the dancers, especially the “lift your dress up over your head” and “stick your face in your partner’s crotch” ones.
— I like how they kept this overall cold opening short and sweet.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— After appearing in lots of uncredited bit roles since the homestretch of the preceding season, writer Rob Schneider joins the cast as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host sings “All I Need Is A Girl” & dances with wife Lisa Niemi [real]

— Nothing much at all to say about this overall monologue. It was very light on humor and mostly focused on the dancing between Patrick and his wife, but it was at least charming.
STARS: **½


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
Franz has unexplained feelings for host

— We haven’t seen these characters in a while.
— Excellent turn with Franz developing feelings he doesn’t understand for Patrick Swayze.
— Hans’ high-pitched deliveries of his various “What do you mean you didn’t notice–” questions are making me laugh.
— Classic part with Franz’s fantasy sequence of Patrick horseback riding and eventually being joined by Franz.
— Hans sneaks in a “Ja, that’s the ticket” while wrapping up the sketch.
STARS: *****


GHOST
Ghost romance sours when Sam (host) sees Molly’s (VIJ) disgusting habits

  

— Victoria doing increasingly disgusting things is very funny.
— Patrick is also helping sell the material with his funny grossed-out reactions.
— I love the casting of Rock as Whoopi Goldberg’s character from Ghost, especially how Rock barely has to change his voice to sound like Whoopi, as his natural voice is already close enough. In fact, I’d say Whoopi actually has the deeper voice of the two.
— One of Victoria’s overall best performances during her SNL tenure.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
Sam Walton (PHH) offers $100,000 to anyone who opposes a tax hike

— Meh, a forgettable and bland message that not even Phil could make all that interesting.
STARS: **


SUPER FEUD
Latino crooners (host) & (DAC) one-up each other on album

— I love the melody the songs are being sung in.
— Dana’s accent is hilarious.
— Dana and Patrick’s increasingly blasphemous accusations of each other through song are hilarious, especially Dana claiming Patrick stuffs his trousers “with a plastic peeeeniiiiss” and how it “fell out in Liiiiiimaaaa”.
— Very fun sketch.
STARS: ****½


TAX AD
rescinding previous deal, Sam Walton (PHH) now offers chance to win a hat

— Unlike the first one, this one has an actual funny message with Phil’s Walton realizing he couldn’t possibly pay out the insane amount of money he offered in the first ad.
— His new offer being a raffle where the winner receives Walton’s hat is pretty funny.
— Classic unscripted moment right now: when Phil’s Walton is concluding his message and telling us to let him worry about things, a VERY loud off-camera crash is suddenly heard from somewhere in the studio. Phil looks towards the direction of the crash with a hilarious frozen open-mouthed smile (second screencap above) and says “Thank you”, and then tells us “Well, you just let me worry about THAT too!” An excellent save from Phil that receives huge applause.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vision of Love”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB warns that not voting in elections can only make things worse

 

— Loved the soundbyte of a knocked-out-by-Evander-Holyfield Buster Douglas saying “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”, made even funnier by the fact that it’s then-writer David Spade doing the voice in that soundbyte.
— A. Whitney, on what the future generation will inherit: “If voter turnout is no better than it usually is, there’s a good chance they’ll also inherit our congress… or should I say, inherit the wind.”
— I love Dennis doing multiple jokes about a suggestive-looking photo of Dan Quayle taking the snap from a football player.
— Speaking of David Spade earlier, according to GettyImages, he had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he apparently played some kind of Russian (pic here).
STARS: ***½


CHIPPENDALES
sexy (host) & flabby (CHF) compete for a job as a Chippendale dancer

 

— Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to witness a star being born. Not only is this a very popular and legendary sketch, it’s also a very important sketch, as it’s Chris Farley’s official breakout moment as an unproven featured player who’s only in his fourth episode.
— I’ve always liked the little detail with Patrick and Farley’s characters being named Adrien and Barney, respectively.
— Farley is incredible to watch during his hilarious dancing here, especially when you’re aware of this being a groundbreaking moment for the then-newbie. His comical physicality, his fearlessness, etc. are all on FULL display for the very first time. I can only imagine what it was like in 1990 to watch this sketch live and witness this new kid completely and unexpectedly steal the entire show in this manner.
— All that stuff about Farley’s dancing being said, they would later show the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns (which is the version of this sketch that everyone today is familiar with), where Farley’s dancing is even funnier. As awesome as the live version of this sketch is, Farley’s not QUITE as unleashed in his dance moves as he is in the dress rehearsal version (I wonder if he was suffering from live TV jitters, considering how new he is at this point).
— Besides the main joke, one aspect that helps make this sketch work so well is how the judges are treating this competition so ridiculously seriously, as if it’s truly a difficult decision to choose between Swayze and Farley.
— I love the camaraderie between Farley and Patrick throughout this sketch, especially during the backstage scene.
— Funny touch with Farley unsuccessfully trying to change the judges’ minds by starting to open up his robe while slowly beginning to break out into another dance.
— Sweet, charming ending with Patrick’s voice-over epilogue.
STARS: *****


THE TONIGHT SHOW
guests are Susan Dey (JAH) & Arsenio Hall (CSR)

— Good to see the return of Jan’s Susan Dey. So many dead-on and funny details in her vocal imitation.
— Rock’s Arsenio is a riot right from his entrance.
— So strange to think there was a time when Arsenio’s show was predicted to eventually overtake the Tonight Show in popularity. All I can say in hindsight is: Ha!
— I really like Dana-as-Johnny-Carson’s reactions to hearing how out-of-touch and unhip The Tonight Show has become lately.
— A good laugh from Phil’s Ed McMahon having no problem admitting he would stay on if Jay Leno took over.
STARS: ***½


WHITE TRASH BED AND BREAKFAST
reviewer (DAC) visits the trailer park clan

   

— Catchy opening theme song. This late 80s/early 90s era is so damn good at creating jingles, even for one-off sketches like this.
— Jan, on her bedroom: “I shared it with four husbands.” Patrick: “Mama, give it a rest.” Jan: “Oh, you’re just mad cuz none of ’em was your daddy!”
— Great redneck performances from the cast and Patrick.
— I like Kevin and Rob Schneider’s entrance as strange twins.
— Very funny part with Mike coming in with a dead dog and putting it on the table (where Dana’s character is trying to eat), only for Patrick to sternly order Mike to “put him in the sink!”
— Wild ending with the Phil/Patrick fight on the table.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Vanishing”


MOUSE TRAP SEMINAR
seminar helps people who don’t quite grasp the concept of a mouse trap

— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing the entire first half of this fantastic sketch that I’ve always loved.
— Very funny little bit with Farley sheepishly and slowly lowering his raised hand in reaction to Kevin indirectly answering his dumb question before he’s even asked it (a gag that Farley would later reprise the following season in a famous sketch with Jerry Seinfeld as a history teacher).
— I’ve always found Dana’s look in this sketch to be odd and random. Why the dark skin and wig combo? Why give him such an oddly specific, detailed, almost-ethnic look for a generic, supporting, Caucasian role like this?
— Writer Bob Odenkirk’s brief walk-on gets ruined when the crab hanging on his nose IMMEDIATELY falls off by accident (third and fourth screencaps above). If you watch Odenkirk as he exits the scene, he can be seen shaking his head in disappointment. Reruns would replace his portion of this sketch with the dress rehearsal version where the crab stays on his nose during his entire walk-on.
— I love Dana trying to grab at the image of cheese shown on the screen projector, and Kevin having to inform him “This is only MOVIE cheese”.
STARS: ***** (And that’s only based on my memory of this sketch as a whole. The incomplete version I watched just now is too short to rate accurately.  With its first half missing, this sketch sadly loses some of the context that makes it a masterpiece.)


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An incredible episode. The legendary Chippendales sketch was, of course, this episode’s centerpiece, but it was surrounded by plenty of sketches that were very memorable and strong in their own right. An overall almost flawless, very impressive, and incredibly fun episode.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Steinbrenner)
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jimmy Smits hosts. We also finally get the addition of a third female cast member.

Posted on

October 20, 1990 – George Steinbrenner / The Time (S16 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
in a dream, host manages the Yankees & plays every position on the field

— I like Victoria and Kevin’s little comments about how peaceful George Steinbrenner looks when sleeping.
— Very funny concept with George being every position on the Yankees.
— A lot of fun visuals throughout this, especially the convincing shot of an entire dugout of players with Steinbrenner faces (which used to kinda creep me out the first few times I saw this episode in Comedy Central reruns).
— The dress rehearsal version of this cold opening had George dreaming a completely different scenario; something to do with him giving a speech at Yankee Stadium. A video of this dress rehearsal cold opening (along with various other cut dress rehearsal sketches from this season) is/was available online at, I think, NBC.com, but I’ve been having trouble finding it lately. If anyone can find it and give me a link, I’d be very thankful.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Funny opening announcement from George: “I bought the Cincinnati Reds.”
— Him listing off things he won’t do since he’s not an entertainer isn’t that funny, though I did like his line “I’m not gonna catch a bullet in my teeth… I hope.”
STARS: **


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Middle-Aged Man counsels (JAH) on whether her husband is having an affair

— Good to see this back.
— Love the addition of Chris Farley as Middle-Aged Man’s sidekick Drinkin’ Buddy, as well as the explanation that Middle-Aged Man gives as to what the difference between him and Drinkin’ Buddy is: “I have a life.”
— A good laugh from Middle-Aged Man’s response to Jan telling him she’s had the same hairstyle for years: “What are you, Betty Rubble? Change it!”
STARS: ***½


CARL’S QUIK-STOP
convenience store owner (host) can’t bring himself to fire any employees

— Very memorable sketch with George playing a boss with an aversion to firing people because “it’s not in my nature”. A great self-deprecating way of George satirizing his infamous reputation.
— I’m loving how George is going on and on about how asinine it would be to fire people at the drop of a hat (“Only a JACKASS would run his business that way”, etc.)
— Great ending line from Phil: “There goes the opposite of a horrible man.”
— One of the best “host plays a character who’s the exact opposite of themself” sketches SNL has ever done.
STARS: *****


SLAPPED BY BEAVER TAILS
guests relate run-ins with angry dam dwellers

 

— Funny opening animated title graphic.
— The video of Victoria getting slapped on the face with a beaver tail provided a pretty good laugh.
— I didn’t get the whole bit with Phil’s cowboy character misunderstanding the show’s title.
— The sketch is over already? Not sure where else they could’ve taken this, but this felt underwritten.
STARS: **½


WINSTON-MCCAULEY FUNERAL HOME
Winston-McCauley Funeral Home has a no-necrophilia guarantee

 

— Hilarious concept of a spokesman guaranteeing their employees will never have sex with the dead body of your loved one, made even funnier by the soft, professional presentation of this ad.
— Great scene with Mike getting busted when he’s about to have sex with a dead woman.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jerk Out”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR believes boxing prowess is proportional to discrimination from whites
Roseanne (VIJ) & Tom Arnold (CHF) explain National Enquirer lawsuit

— Starting off tonight’s Update with an awful lot of corny “misinterpreting a picture” jokes.
— Second episode in a row with a Chris Rock Weekend Update commentary.
— Loved Rock pointing out how “the lower you go on the social ladder, the better you fight.”
— Chris Rock: “I feel so sorry for the Indians, because we took… well, we didn’t take, YOU people took their land.”
— Rock’s overall commentary was fantastic, even better than his one from the preceding episode. He’s carving out a great niche for himself with these stand-up commentaries he’s been doing on Update.
— The Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary is funny so far, and Farley’s Tom Arnold impression is a riot.
— There’s the famous moment of this commentary with Farley flashing his asscrack, the very first display of his fearlessness as a performer.
— Dennis, addressing the aforementioned asscrack flash after the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary has ended: “Did I just see what I think I saw? It was like I was above the Grand Canyon in a helicopter.” In the “dress rehearsal bloopers” section of Chris Farley’s “Best Of” DVD, they show a portion of the dress rehearsal version of this commentary (which includes Farley’s wig falling off at one point) where Dennis has a different comment about the asscrack flash: “Did I just see the new guy’s asshole?”
— Something seems to have gone wrong with the news screen after the Roseanne/Tom Arnold commentary has ended. The pictures that’s been shown on the screen since then look strangely enlarged (it’s noticeable during the last two above screencaps of Donald Trump and the New Kids on the Block, respectively).
— Dennis’ deconstruction of the “brooding” member of New Kids on the Block was fantastic.
— Dennis: “In a ceremony at City Hall this week, the stench of urine was named New York’s official smell.”
— After a bad start, tonight’s Update ended up being a strong one for Dennis;  his best in a while.
STARS: ****


ATTACK OF THE COLOSSAL KILLER LINCOLN
budget impass unleashes evil statue (PHH)

— Very funny sudden turn with the Lincoln statue biting off Dana’s head.
— Jan’s exaggerated “Eeeew!” in reaction to the aforementioned head-biting incident makes me think that she and Dana are supposed to be playing the same teen couple they played in the similarly-titled Attack Of The Masturbating Zombies sketch from the preceding season. In that one, Jan kept saying “Eeeew!” throughout the sketch in the same manner as she did here, and Dana wore the same wig he wears here.
— Excellent premise.
— Entertaining footage of Killer Lincoln destroying the city.
— Phil’s grunts as Killer Lincoln are reminding me of his Frankenstein.
— I really like how we’ve been seeing plenty of the new guys Rock and Farley throughout tonight’s episode.
— Killer Lincoln’s whimper during Rock’s sad story was really funny.
— Good turn with Tom Davis entering as a giant Thomas Jefferson.
— I like the random “Oh my god, there’s busload of Japanese tourists out there!” turn with obvious stock footage from a Godzilla movie.
— Hilarious death scene with Killer Lincoln getting impaled by the Washington Monument.
STARS: ****½


ULTRA SLIM-FAST
LOM & ALF explain to host why he’s among dictators in a fake Slim-Fast ad

— Wow, Chris Rock continues to get more and more airtime tonight. His accent as Idi Amin is very funny.
— Great turn with George stopping the sketch to question why he’s paired with ruthless dictators.
— Lorne: “Most people don’t know Jerry Reinsdorf. They know Pol Pol.” George: “Sure they know Pol Pot – he killed a million people!”
— George: “Idi Amin – he ATE people!” Lorne: “Actually, I think that was Bokassa.” So many lines in this sketch are tickling the hell out of me.
— Good part with Al Franken and Lorne coming up with an obviously false explanation of why George is paired with evil dictators.
— Very funny touch with George being given a pointy dictator hat.
— According to GettyImages’ dress rehearsal pictures from this episode (you can view the whole collection here), Saddam Hussein was played by Phil in dress rehearsal (pic here). I wonder if the reason they had Kevin play him during the live show is because it took quite a while for Phil to remove his Lincoln statue make-up from the preceding sketch.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Chocolate”

— At one point during a restaurant act that’s performed during the song, Morris Day removes the platter covering his dinner, sees a plate of chicken, and says an uncensored-but-hilarious “Where the fuck this chicken come from? I thought I ordered ribs!” The expletive would later be muted out in reruns.


WHAT WAS I THINKING?
Shelley Long (JAH), Walter Mondale (DAC), host

— A lot of laughs from Phil grilling Jan’s Shelley Long over her decision to leave “Cheers”.
— I liked Jan’s Long timidly answering “yes” to the question of if she ever asked the “Cheers” producers if her Diane character can come back.
— Funny Walter Mondale voice from Dana, especially how he keeps pronouncing “I know” as “I knoo”.
— Great part with Phil going into excessive detail of how Mondale is the only candidate in history to run on a platform of higher taxes.
— For some reason, I always laugh at the little touch with a graphic of Mondale’s name randomly showing up on the bottom of screen during one long pause he makes before saying his usual “I knoo”.
— Love the casual reveal of George having women’s breasts, as well as Phil’s response to that being “I’ll get right to the obvious question……. why breast implants?”
STARS: ****


PAYING FOR DINNER
(host) insists on paying for fancy meals- it makes the others look bad

— Victoria’s ditzy lines are not really working for me here.
— This sketch is pretty dead so far and isn’t going anywhere interesting.
— You can tell Jan tried to save the sketch just now, with her comical emotional outburst, which was the first real laugh I got here.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? This felt kinda pointless.
STARS: *½


COMPLAINT
host hits on female reporter (JAH) complaining about a sexist ballplayer

— Funny reveal of George in his underwear.
— Some of George’s flirtatious comments to Jan are kinda funny.
— Another overall sketch that ended up being unusually short, didn’t go anywhere too interesting, and felt fairly pointless.
STARS: **


THE VISION OF VAN GOGH
by TOS- astigmatism yielded most famous art

— The montage of appalled reactions to the painting made me laugh.
— Decent payoff with the result of Van Gogh getting glasses leading to him painting bizarre, goofy animal art.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An enjoyable episode. While there were a few misfires and underwritten material (especially towards the end), most of what was good in this episode was great, including some particularly memorable instances of George Steinbrenner poking fun at himself. Speaking of which, George was a very good sport as a host and didn’t do too badly for a non-actor.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Susan Lucci)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Patrick Swayze

Posted on

October 6, 1990 – Susan Lucci / Hothouse Flowers (S16 E2)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Victor Kiam (PHH) introduces Classic Bitch & Lezbo electric shavers

— A freaking hilarious reveal of Phil’s Victor Kiam advertising a Classic Bitch Shaver.
— I also like how he’s making a passing mention of the controversy he was in the news for (offensive remarks he made about a female reporter who was sexually harassed in the New England Patriots locker room), which gives context to viewers like me watching this very topical cold opening decades later. Though I feel that this cold opening is funny even if you have no knowledge of what it’s parodying.
— Phil’s delivery in this is priceless.
— Another funny advertised product, with the Lezbo Electric Shaver.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Emmy-less host sees the statuettes everywhere in a nightmarish flashback

 

— I liked the bit with Susan talking about All My Children’s unsuccessful attempt at a live audience.
— Very funny casual reveals of various cast and crew members at SNL having an Emmy. A great way to parody Susan’s famous long Emmy-less streak at the time.
— I’m loving the increasingly-inappropriate uses of Emmys, especially the one handyman having a toolbelt full of them, writer/pre-castmember David Spade using them to eat corn on the cob, and various people partaking in an “Emmy Fight”.
STARS: ****½


LIVE WITH REGIS & KATHIE LEE
host & martial artist (MIM)

— Dana and Jan are fun and dead-on in their imitation of Regis and Kathie Lee’s chemistry and banter.
— Funny clip of Regis’ cameo on All My Children.
— Amusing how Susan’s interview ends with her barely having said a word while Regis did all of the talking.
— Dana as Regis: “I’m outta CONTROL!”
— I like the little touch with Phil-as-Frank-Gifford’s smiley stare into the camera during his entire appearance at the end.
STARS: ***


ALL MY LUGGAGE
at the airport, (host) gets bad news about her baggage

 

— Hilarious idea for an All My Children parody.
— I’m loving the soap opera-esque overdramatic treatment of lost luggage.
— Susan is selling this PERFECTLY. Excellent supporting work from Kevin and Phil as well.
— This sketch has one of the biggest audience reactions I’ve ever heard on SNL. The audience is practically SCREAMING throughout this, especially during the sudden reveal of Susan now being in a church.
STARS: *****


GREAT LOVE STORIES
unconventional couples describe how they met

— Jan’s battery acid-burned face is a funny visual.
— Interesting structure to this sketch.
— Chris Farley’s facial expressions in this are hilarious.
— Chris Rock: “I dropped my towel and said ‘Step up to the mike’.”
— I’ve always found Rock’s oversized suit in this to be odd. My guess is that since he’s supposed to be a football player in this, they put him into such a big suit to make him look buff, considering his natural build is way too skinny to be convincing as a football player.
— Mike’s jovial delivery of “They murdered my girlfriend in her sleeping bag and abducted me!” is funny.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Give It Up”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mr. Subliminal explains the MPAA’s new NC-17 rating
CSR explains the differences between crimes committed by blacks & whites
Grumpy Old Man complains about hair dryers, Minoxidil, condoms

     

— Strange moment where Dennis pauses for a while in between jokes and then says to the off-camera cue card guy “That joke’s odd” and then says to the camera “A little behind-the-scenes editing there.” I wonder what the “odd” joke was that we apparently never got to hear.
— Mr. Subliminal’s commentary explaining movie ratings was short and sweet.
— Ah, our very first Chris Rock Weekend Update commentary, something that will end up becoming a nice go-to for him throughout his SNL tenure.
— I’m loving Rock’s various examples of how the crazy, outlandish murders you see on the news is always committed a white guy, while blacks commit more generic crimes.
— Rock’s overall segment was another short and sweet commentary in tonight’s Update.
— I loved the meta joke with Dennis comparing a hood-wearing Ku Klux Klan member to Beldar Conehead.
— A rare Dennis Miller Update with THREE guest commentaries. Maybe that’s why Mr. Subliminal and Chris Rock’s commentaries were each fairly short.
— A particularly classic Grumpy Old Man story about how condoms in his days were just rabbit’s skin wrapped around privates, tied off with a bungee cord. Probably my favorite Grumpy Old Man “In my day…” story ever.
STARS: ***½


GAME BREAKERS
manipulative Erica Kane (host) wins; Gene Rayburn cameo

 

— Jan is basically playing her Marge Keister character (who we haven’t seen in a long time), but she has different hair and was introduced under the suspiciously-similar name Margaret Fletcher.
— Some good laughs from Phil’s various ways of helping Susan cheat, much to Jan’s frustration.
— Great escalation to this out-of-the-ordinary gameshow sketch, with Phil and Susan’s rapidly growing relationship getting to the point where they’re now naked under bed covers with each other on the gameshow set.
— The fake gameshow sponsors are KINDA funny, but nothing special. This is where Jack Handey’s skills for creating memorably bizarre fake sponsors would’ve been welcome.
— A rare onscreen Don Pardo appearance!
— Good sudden cameo from Gene Rayburn, and his angry delivery here is making me laugh.
— The last two minutes of this come off a bit sloppy, including an accidental early camera-switch to Siegfried & Roy (played by Dana and writer/pre-castmember David Spade) before they’ve even been introduced. All of this would later be fixed in reruns, by using tighter editing.
STARS: ****½


WOMANHOOD
(host) is proud when her 12 year-old daughter (VIJ) gets her first period

— Writer/pre-castmember Rob Schneider makes his first appearance of the season, after appearing in lots of bit roles in the homestretch of the previous season. Both he and fellow writer/pre-castmember David Spade’s promotion to featured player is coming VERY soon.
— I used to think the lack of eye contact between Jan and Victoria during their conversation in this sketch was a sign of the infamous real-life negative tension between them, but after having just reviewed all of the preceding seasons of Jan and Victoria’s SNL tenure, I now realize that their “tension” in this sketch is just part of their characters. I’ve come across a good number of sketches in the past few seasons where Jan and Victoria (and for that matter, Nora Dunn and Victoria) have no problem having friendly interactions with each other while in character. They’re very professional at hiding their behind-the-scenes clashes. I’ve even seen some instances during the goodnights where Victoria and Jan/Nora happily hug each other.
— Susan inappropriately telling everyone that Victoria is currently having her period is providing some good laughs.
— Susan’s supposedly touching speech to Victoria at the end had some very funny subtly cruel lines.
— Well-done piece overall.
STARS: ***½


I WILL NOT CRY
(MIM) vows not to cry when his office holds a going-away party for him

— Mike’s about-to-cry voice sounds like his future Linda Richman character’s voice whenever she gets “verklempt”.
— Mike’s character has an Eisenhower mug? Did Conan O’Brien write this sketch?
— The sudden gunshot off-camera was funny, and further makes me think Conan wrote this. The “a character walks off-camera into another room and then a gunshot is suddenly heard, implying that they’ve committed suicide” gag would later be used in a “Nanny Greenwood” sketch that Conan would co-write as a guest writer in the Catherine O’Hara episode from season 18 (this was two seasons after Conan left the writing staff). The gag was also later used regularly in those recurring “Cloppy”(?) sketches (starring a talking horse) that used to appear on Conan’s Late Night show on NBC.
— I liked Mike telling Phil’s Jesus “As, well, YOU are my witness, I will not cry.”
— Not sure how to feel about this overall sketch. I used to kinda hate this sketch, but I found myself being more tolerant of it during tonight’s viewing. However, I still didn’t laugh all that much and the sketch had a very oddly-quiet feel (the unresponsive audience didn’t help).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Can See Clearly Now”


THE SOUND OF MUSIC
M.C. Hammer’s (CSR) version of The Sound of Music is Broadway-bound

— Very funny concept.
— Of the critic reviews, I loved the one saying “So bad, I walked out twice”. I also like how Ebony Magazine provided the only positive review.
— Hmm, something seemed to go wrong. After the critic reviews are shown, we strangely get half a minute of Chris Rock just silently continuing to dance onstage to the same repetitive “Can’t Touch This” beat, and then he eventually walks offstage and the sketch just… ends. Very awkward. I wonder what went wrong.
— This sketch would later be removed from reruns (further proving that something DEFINITELY went awry during this sketch), though I forget what it’s replaced with. Perhaps a “Deep Thoughts”, a segment that actually doesn’t debut until the second half of this season, but gets added into some of the reruns from the first half of this season.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

— Susan points out the amazing crowd we had tonight by saying “What an audience!”
— We’re only two episodes into this season so far, and Chris Rock has already gotten a lead role in two sketches (2 Live Crew Party and The Sound Of Music), has gotten his own Update commentary, AND gets to stand front-and-center next to the host during both goodnights. Meanwhile, the other new guy, Chris Farley, has only been in two sketches total so far (Twin Peaks and Great Love Stories) – both of them only being supporting roles, and spends both goodnights being hidden somewhere in the back of the stage where you could barely see him. All of this probably made SNL fans back in 1990 think that out of Rock and Farley, Rock was going to be the breakout SNL star and the far more successful cast member. As we know now, the EXACT OPPOSITE ended up happening.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Solid episode. While the quality trailed off towards the end with the last two sketches, everything before that worked, and there were some particularly strong and memorable segments, especially the monologue and All My Luggage. Things were also helped by the audience’s wild energy throughout the show.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kyle MacLachlan)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
George Steinbrenner

Posted on

September 29, 1990 – Kyle MacLachlan / Sinead O’Connor (S16 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) uses animal metaphors to communicate with Iraqis

— Bush address cold openings seem to be the go-to for season openers and season enders lately, starting with the season 14 finale.
— Nice touch with the Iraqi subtitles on the bottom of the screen.
— Dana’s Bush is getting the usual good laughs.
— A particularly funny spiel from Bush right now regarding entrails becoming food for hogs.
— A pretty good laugh from Bush’s awkward “goodnight” at the end of his address.
— Interesting deviation from the usual Bush address cold openings, with us now being shown an Iraqi panel doing an analysis of Bush’s address.
— Jan’s voice here is really funny.
— Good bit at the end with Phil plugging an upcoming airing of a Kojak episode.
— The Bush half of this cold opening would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— New montage!

— Don Pardo’s mic isn’t working at first when he begins saying “It’s Saturday Night Live!”, causing us to hear him only saying “Live!”
— Despite this being the 16th season, they’re still using the 15th anniversary SNL logo from the previous season, presumably because the calendar year 1990 is technically still the 15th anniversary of SNL’s debut. They eventually stop using the anniversary logo as soon as we enter the 1991 half of this season.
— Chris Farley and Chris Rock have been added to the cast as featured players.
— Speaking of featured players, for the first time ever, there are two separate categories of featured players. The featured players in the first category (which is where Farley and Rock are credited) each have a live-action shot in the montage and are credited every week, whereas the featured players in the second category only have a still photo shot in the montage and are only credited sporadically.
— I love this overall opening montage, even though it’s pretty non-descript compared to some other SNL montages (particularly the 1988-1990 one that preceded it). I may be biased towards this montage because I was exposed to it a lot during my early SNL fandom days of watching Comedy Central reruns.


MONOLOGUE
host gets in trouble after casually revealing who killed Laura Palmer

— Kyle says “I don’t know if they’ve done this before” when he announces he’s going to open up the floor to questions. I think this is indeed the very first time a monologue had “audience members” asking the host questions, unless I’m forgetting something. Considering how often this trope would go on to be used over the years and become a monologue cliche, it’s surprising that it wasn’t first used until 16 seasons into the show’s run.
— Hilarious how casual Kyle is about revealing who Laura Palmer’s killer is, as if it’s no big deal.
— Absolutely priceless part with a howling mad David Lynch screaming cartoonish insane gibberish to Kyle over the phone, accompanied by a picture of Lynch.
— When Kyle runs to and from the control room, you can see him pass by a mini-set where the dancing Statue of Liberty from Dennis Miller’s Weekend Updates is (it’s to Kyle’s left in the screencap below).

I’m a bit surprised to find out that SNL apparently does that dancing Statue of Liberty WU intro shot live every week, instead of just pre-taping a shot that they can use in every episode.
STARS: ****½


BAD IDEA JEANS
denim wearers don’t realize the folly of their decisions

— The frequent cutaways to a “Bad Idea” screen is adding even more humor to the already-funny bad decisions the guys announce.
— My favorite bad ideas are writer Bob Odenkirk’s kidney donation one and writer David Spade’s condom/Haiti one.
— Funny little reveal at the end that the guys are unwisely playing against a black team.
STARS: ****½


SPROCKETS
Dieter & (host) watch Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos

— Love this Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos deviation from the usual Sprockets format.
— Hilarious intro sequence to Germany’s Most Disturbing Home Videos, with the screaming guy’s moving upper teeth.
— Dieter, to Kyle MacLachlan’s character: “You are beautiful and angular, and if you were a gas, you would be inert.”
— Dieter: “I am so full of anticipation that my genitals have sucked up into my body cavity.”
— There’s the birth of Dieter’s now-famous “I am as happy as a little girl” bit.
— The disturbing videos are all very funny, especially the guy puking after getting kicked in the crotch and the reveal of a corpse’s face being covered with “ants ants ants”.
— Kyle’s bizarre dancing in the background during the “Now’s the time on Sprockets when we dance” bit is hilarious.
STARS: ****½


TWIN PEAKS
Dale Cooper (host) ignores clues pointing to Leo (CHF)

— Some funny random lines from Kyle’s opening recorded note, especially the line about injecting insulin after eating a whole bunch of donuts.
— Chris Farley’s very first line on SNL already gets a big laugh: “I’m ready to do my time; get me a beer!”
— Chronologically going through SNL’s timeline during this SNL project of mine, it always feels both unusual and exciting whenever I see a new cast member making their debut, especially when it’s a cast member who you’re aware goes on to be very popular, like in Farley’s case.
— Phil’s crying dance is hysterical.
— Excellent part with Victoria’s ribbon-wrapping mouth bit.
— A particularly classic part after Jan’s initial exit, where Kyle is told he won’t be hearing from the Log Lady “because there’s only two women left on Saturday Night Live and we already used them both up”, a great meta joke that gets big applause from the audience. A clever way to address the lack of a third female cast member.
— The aforementioned meta bit is immediately followed by a comically out-of-breath Jan running in as the Log Lady anyway.
— Very funny ending with Mike as the backwards-speaking dwarf.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Three Babies”


WEEKEND UPDATE
one-man mobile uplink unit ALF is lost in the Saudi Arabian desert

— Ha, Dennis got a haircut! His trademark 80s mullet is gone! (though it gradually grows back over the course of the season)
— Great use of One-Man Mobile Uplink Unit Al Franken in a Saudi Arabian desert.
— Funny gruesome make-up on a dehydrated Al’s face.
— Hilarious ending to the Franken segment, with a vulture pecking at an unconscious Al’s face.
— Dennis: “Can you believe Washington mayor Marion Barry got off? It’s surprising, because I’ve heard that when you do that much blow, you can’t get off.”
STARS: ***½


2 LIVE CREW PARTY
white record execs give Luther Campbell (CSR) lyric suggestions

 

— It feels so refreshing to finally see a black cast member after the four-year drought from 1986-1990.
— Funny use of Akira Yoshimura as a 2 Live Crew member.
— Phil’s suggested “Do it in the butt” lyrics are very funny, especially the smile on his face during it.
— Jan’s suggested lyrics are very funny as well, as is Mike’s bad attempt at beatboxing during it.
— I love Chris Rock’s whole “A bitch bitch here and a lick lick there” spiel when complaining about the lyrics people have suggested to him.
— Kyle’s angry “lick my blood” rant is PRICELESS.
STARS: ****


ALL THINGS SCOTTISH
Stuart Rankin’s son (host) doesn’t want pop’s All Things Scottish store

 

— A big night for Mike Myers tonight. I guess this is a by-product of Jon Lovitz not being in the cast anymore.
— The debut of All Thing Scottish, though Mike’s Stuart Rankin character already made its debut in a Weekend Update commentary from two seasons earlier. Unlike there, he’s sporting the gray hair that people today remember him as having,  though he’s missing the glasses from his first and future appearances.
— “Our slogan is: If it’s not Scottish, it’s CRAP!”
— Nice touch with the bagpipe door chime whenever a customer enters the store.
— I love how Victoria’s claim that Irish and Scottish are the same thing sends Stuart Rankin into an angry tantrum, going as far as pulling out a map to show Victoria the difference between Ireland and Scotland.
— Kyle, when complaining about how disgusting Scottish food is: “It’s like all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare!”
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance”


GEORGE & FRANK
Frank Sinatra (PHH) gives George Michael (DAC) advice about fame

— The debut of Phil’s Frank Sinatra impression. He’s wearing a lot more make-up here than he later would.
— This would also be the final appearance of Dana’s George Michael impression while Dana was in the cast (it would later be brought back in some of Dana’s cameos and hosting stints). I guess this sketch can be considered a passing of the torch regarding the Michael and Sinatra impressions. Either way, I’m liking this pairing of them.
— Even in its first appearance, Phil’s Sinatra is coming off fantastic here, and he’s having so many good lines.
— George Michael’s sudden “Would you look at my butt?” request to Frank Sinatra is hilarious.
— More laughs from George going on about how old Frank’s butt is.
— Great ending.
STARS: ****


THE CATTLE SONG
k.d. lang (host) & lonesome cowboys sing about cattle’s ultimate fate

— I like the sudden “And they’re gonna lose their heads and die” lyric, after how gentle the song lyrics were beforehand.
— Some good laughs from them detailing the disturbing cattle slaughtering process through song.
— I’m enjoying how this song is actually kinda getting strangely touching towards the end.
— Great reveal at the end that Kyle was playing K.D. Lang all along.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong start to the new season. This episode was flawless, and most of the sketches were great. Kyle MacLachlan was also a very solid host and fit in the show perfectly.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1989-90)
about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Susan Lucci

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May 19, 1990 – Candice Bergen / The Notting Hillbillies (S15 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
in light of budget deficit, George Bush (DAC) says “no huge new taxes”

— Second season finale in a row with a Bush address as the cold opening. That’s also how this season began.
— Some great laughs from Bush demonstrating the budget deficit with hand gestures.
— He’s cracking me up with his drawn-out hesitance to announce the news that he’s going to raise taxes.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host is the focus of a Las Vegas-style production number praising “Candy”

— Some pretty good laughs from her bragging about how she doesn’t need SNL as a comedic vehicle anymore now that she has “Murphy Brown”, and from her regretting her promise to host this season after turning down an appearance at SNL’s 15th Anniversary Special.
— Interesting and entertaining turn with the big production number, even if it’s not laugh-out-loud funny.
STARS: ***


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
jealous Toonces abducts & impersonates (host)’s gifted driving cat Spunky

— I liked the cutaway to Toonces’ jealous reaction to Spunky’s good driving school grades.
— Not much to say about the overall sketch, but it was executed well, featured some very funny visuals involving the cat puppets, and was the usual solid and fun Toonces piece.
STARS: ****


SINGLE MEN IN THEIR THIRTIES AND EARLY FORTIES
loser Craig Talbert (JOL) to women in thier 30s- “lower your standards”

— I’ve always considered this sketch Jon’s last hurrah, as it’s his final big role as a cast member.
— I’ve always had a bit of a theory that this is supposed to be the same character that Jon played in the Girl Watchers sketches with Tom Hanks. Much like those sketches, Jon’s character here has a unibrow, is wearing the same shirt he wore in at least one of the Girl Watchers sketches, and has the same laid-back and overly-confident demeanor.
— Pretty funny “lower your standards” advice to women.
STARS: ***


THE TONIGHT SHOW
guests are Jay Leno (KEN) & a 92 year-old woman (JAH)

 

— Kevin’s Jay Leno impression is very funny and spot-on.
— Nice old make-up on Jan.
— Loved Phil-as-McMahon’s “Hey-o!” after Jan’s old lady character says she has no sexual drive.
— Some good laughs from the comically mundane nature of the old lady interview.
— Good part with Carson and McMahon forcing the old lady to sing.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Railroad Worksong”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB examines why racial tension in NYC continues to be a problem

— I liked Dennis’ random Hammertime bit, with him wheeling his chair back-and-forth to mimic M.C. Hammer’s dancing, and then saying a very un-hip “You can’t touch this!” to the camera.
— I’m a little disappointed that A. Whitney broke his tradition of directing his season finale Update commentaries to that year’s graduating class. He had been doing that in every season finale since he first joined the show (not counting season 13, as that had no official season finale thanks to a writers’ strike)
— A. Whitney: “Last week, a mob attacked a white attorney because he was defending someone accused of killing a black man, and that’s wrong. He should’ve been attacked because he’s a lawyer.”
— A. Whitney, on the hardships of black people nowadays: “I can’t even imagine how it must feel to pick up the paper in the morning and read that Al Sharpton has just appointed himself your spokesman.”
— An overall average Update to end the season, accurately symbolizing the slight step down that Update has taken this year in general.
STARS: ***


WAYNE’S WORLD
a fantasy summer romance with Garth’s mom Hillary (host)

— First time in a while where this sketch appeared in the post-Update slot.
— Loved the meta part during the movie reviews, where Garth’s review of Dana Carvey’s “Opportunity Knocks” only consists of him saying “Sucked!” after Wayne gave it a positive review.
— Nice callback to Phil’s now-forgotten Beev character from the early installments of these sketches.
— The fantasy sequence is very fun.
— Wayne: “I like my coffee like I like my women: milk and two sugars.” Mrs. Algar: “What does that mean?” Wayne (deadpan): “I don’t know.”
— In the live version I’m watching of this episode, during the “I guess it was all a dream… or was it?!?” bit, there’s a VERY distracting technical error regarding a displayed graphic of the Wayne’s World logo.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love You Too Much”


ONCE UPON A TIME
(MIM)’s sheep turds cheer up unhappy queen (host)

 

— Writer Rob Schneider gets his obligatory bit role of the week.
— And now Schneider’s fellow new writer/future castmate David Spade has shown up in HIS obligatory bit role of the week.
— Geez, Nora is JUST NOW making her first appearance of the night (and her first appearance since “the incident”), this late in the show, and in what ends up being a small role. The only other time we’ll be seeing her later tonight is in an even smaller role during the 10-to-1 sketch. She got shafted BIG TIME in this episode, and I doubt it’s a coincidence. I’ve always had a suspicion that this was the “punishment” the show gave her for what she infamously pulled the previous week.
— Mike is pretty funny as Slow Ned.
— I have no idea what to say about this sketch anymore. It’s starting to get pretty gross and low-brow, which is KINDA funny in this setting, but eh, I dunno. Not too crazy about this as a whole.
STARS: **


SHE DOES IT ALL
executive (host) insists on handling all menial office tasks herself

— Funny turn with Candice’s boss character asking the employees “Now can I get anyone some coffee?” immediately after sternly chewing them out.
— Uh-oh. As soon as Nora comes running into the office, in her second and final small role of the night, there’s a sudden cut to a black screen in the copy I’m watching of the live version of this episode. The screen stays black for almost a full minute (I kid you not), while no audio can be heard. Then we get a screen showing the local station ID for a while (this is Detroit’s NBC affiliate, for anyone wondering), making it obvious that the affiliate is experiencing major technical difficulties. Poor Nora. This WOULD have to happen during what ends up being her final SNL appearance.
— Okay, the sketch has finally come back on, right when Victoria is in the middle of speaking. We missed a funny line from her where, from what I remember in past viewings, she says something about having worked at the office for an entire year without doing a single thing.
— Oh, come on! Now the sketch gets cut off with ANOTHER sudden cut to a silent black screen. What the hell is going on at Detroit’s station?
— Okay, the technical difficulties thankfully ended up being brief this time.
— This is the perfect role for Candice Bergen.
— An overall decent sketch… from what I saw of it. It’s a shame that those huge technical difficulties had to happen during the final sketch of the season. Speaking of which, it’s a bit disappointing that THIS is the sketch SNL ends the season with. There’s nothing wrong with this sketch in itself, but couldn’t they have ended the season with something special or more exciting? Maybe even another Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein musical piece, considering this would’ve been the last opportunity for Jon to do one.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

 

— They must have a lot of time to kill, as these goodnights are lasting longer than usual, long after the credits finish scrolling.
— Nora’s getting more screentime during these goodnights than she did during any of the actual sketches she appeared in tonight. Speaking of which, she’s looking kinda emotional during these goodnights. She must be aware that this is the end for her.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, though felt too average for a season-ender. Besides Wayne’s World and maybe Toonces, nothing stood out as particularly great to me, and the final two sketches of the night were a forgettable way to close the season. There was also a strangely low amount of sketches in this episode, with there being only two full sketches pre-Update, and three full sketches post-Update. Overall, not the most exciting way for a season to end, but I can’t complain much as I still enjoyed a lot of the show.
— This would end up being the final episode for Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn. Jon had a particularly great tenure, going from being the savior of the troubled season 11 to still standing out as an incredibly valuable and consistently funny player during the great ensemble from seasons 12-15. Nora’s tenure ended with a whimper, but that doesn’t take away from what she added to the show for most of her run. She was a very reliable and dependable player, basically being to this cast what Jane Curtin was to the original cast. While some of Nora’s comedy didn’t quite land with me, I can still appreciate what she was going for with it.
— Season 14 was a very tough act to follow, yet season 15 impressively held its own. Consistency-wise, however, I feel this season doesn’t quite measure up to season 14. Season 14 had amazing consistency where it managed to avoid having ANY disappointing episodes, and season 15 seemed to be heading in that same direction at first, but ended up hitting some speedbumps in the second half with two fairly weak episodes (Quincy Jones and Andrew Dice Clay), two kinda forgettable episodes (Debra Winger and Corbin Bernsen), and a decent-but-too-average season finale (Candice Bergen). There was also a bit of a drop-off in the quality of Dennis Miller’s Weekend Updates, which went from being consistently strong to becoming kinda shaky at times, a decline that unfortunately carries over into next season’s Updates. Overall, however, season 15 as a whole had incredible highs. I also love how this season took more chances with doing more creative and absurd sketches (the material in the Robert Wagner episode is a prime example of this), which is the type of comedy that defines part of what I love about this SNL era in general. And, hey, what else can you say about a season that had now-legendary SNL hosting regulars John Goodman, Christopher Walken, and Alec Baldwin all making their debut?


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Andrew Dice Clay)
a step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1988-89)
a very slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 16 begins, with host Kyle MacLachlan. We initially start out with only two new additions to the cast, but over the course of the season, there will be MANY more new additions to the cast, slowly transitioning the show into a new direction while still initially keeping a lot of the qualities that made the 1986-1990 years so phenomenal.

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May 12, 1990 – Andrew Dice Clay / The Spanic Boys, Julee Cruise (S15 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
host gets the It’s A Wonderful Life treatment from Mephistopheles

— Nice fake-out at the beginning with a Pat Stevens title card showing up, only to have the sketch’s usual voice-over (Mark McKinney) say “The Pat Stevens Show will not be seen tonight”.
— I really like that they’re opening the show with a meta sketch, immediately addressing the controversy regarding the boycotting of the show.
— Another “It’s A Wonderful Life” parody this season, even using the same bridge set they used in the last parody.
— Good joke about Dice’s fanbase still being in high school.
— Dice: “Man, look at all those homeless people. Did I have any effect on THEIR lives?” Mephistopheles: “No! (muttering) Idiot.”
— Another funny use of Dana’s Frank Zappa (another infamous host), this time having him hilariously go off on an anti-censorship rant that we’re told lasted for 70 minutes.
— Very surprised at the gag revealing that Nora was crushed by Sinead O’Connor’s amplifier, which even gets enthusiastic applause from the audience. I admit to getting a laugh from the gag, but I feel bad. I mean, the woman is still employed on the show at this point, and they’re doing a mean-spirited gag like this about her?
— Funny exchange after Mephistopheles brings up the name Jon Lovitz. Dice: “That Liar guy?” Mephistopheles, in an offended manner: “Wasn’t his ONLY character…”
— Great devilish smile from Jon as Mephistopheles after saying “Live from New York…” (screencap below)

STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— It sure feels odd seeing Nora Dunn still being credited and announced in tonight’s opening montage (I assume they left her in for contract reasons). IIRC, this is later lampshaded during the goodnights where Don Pardo’s voice-over comically addresses his confusion over the fact that he still had to announce Nora during the opening montage. As usual for Don Pardo’s goodnights voice-overs, that would later be removed in reruns.


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up & announces he’s donating his pay to Comic Relief

— I admit to getting a laugh right at the beginning with Dice’s first words being a loud and hammy “HOW ARE YA!” and then following that up with “That’s about all I can say tonight.”
— Things go awry fast as a group of protesters in the audience are suddenly heard loudly heckling Dice.
— I’m a little torn on what to think of Dice’s responses to the hecklers. On one hand, he impressively handled it with complete ease (then again, he probably has a lot of experience dealing with hecklers), but on the other hand, his “clever” comebacks to the hecklers were pretty cringeworthy (e.g. “Just ’cause I don’t wanna go out with ya, pal, doesn’t mean that I don’t dig ya!”).
— The whole heckling portion of this monologue would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version, which goes along more smoothly without any audience interruptions. SNL would experience a very similar heckling incident two years later during Sharon Stone’s monologue (which would also be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns). For any of you readers wondering why Sharon Stone, of all people, would be heckled, I’ll go into more details when we reach that episode.
— Dice’s bus joke had a bad and baffling punchline. I did kinda chuckle at him punctuating it with a half-assed “Bada-bing!”, which sounded like even he was aware how bad his joke was.
— Interesting ending with him announcing he donated his SNL pay to the homeless, since he wasn’t able to appear at that night’s Comic Relief special.
STARS: **


DICEMAN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY
host’s employment agency offers jobs dealing with illegal activities
TV Guide “jeers” SNL for the sketch

 

— Funny brief appearance from Jon.
— A laugh from Dice offering Kevin a job as a crack dealer.
— This is starting to kinda drag.
— Okay, I finally got another laugh, from Dice offering Kevin a job where he just has to hold a guy while a thug beats him up.
— Mike’s threatening delivery of the line “The man wants his MONEEEEEYYYYYYY!!!” absolutely slayed me. The fact that it was followed by tense silence from the studio audience (I guess due to the fact that a non-comical fight scene had just occurred) makes it even funnier to me, for some reason.
— We get another TV Guide “Cheers and Jeers” sketch ending this season, leading us into a funny brief scene with Dana as a ranting Adolf Hitler spouting off Dana Carvey catchphrases (e.g. “Isn’t that special?”, “Wouldn’t be prudent”) among German gibberish.
STARS: **½


COOKING WITH THE ANAL RETENTIVE CHEF
anal-retentive Gene & his mother (JAH) prepare to make ladyfinger cake

— Nice addition of Jan as this character’s mother, to commemorate Mother’s Day.
— Good callback to the tape dispenser cozy that Phil’s character showcased in an earlier Anal Retentive Chef sketch.
— The negative tension between both characters is pretty enjoyable, though this sketch is turning out to be a little too average. Perhaps they’ve gone to the “chef” well a little too often for this character. I liked it when they kept changing his occupation in each installment.
— This would end up being the last time we ever see this character of Phil’s. They were actually going to bring both him and his mother back in the following season’s Kevin Bacon episode, but the sketch got cut after dress rehearsal. IIRC, in the Shales/Miller “Live From New York” book, there’s a story from Jan about how during that Kevin Bacon dress rehearsal, she broke out into emotional tears shortly before the Anal Retentive Chef sketch started, because Rockefeller Center had been receiving terroristic bomb threats or something like that (this was during the Gulf War). As she was crying, Phil went over to her and comforted her, giving her the courage to go ahead with the sketch.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Spanic Boys perform “Keep On Walking”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Annoying Man previews a free symphonic concert held in Central Park
Michael J. Fox (DAS) discusses his planned sequels to Casualties Of War

— This is the very first Weekend Update that opens with a dancing Statue of Liberty during the Update intro sequence, which would go on to be a tradition for the remainder of Dennis’ tenure as anchorperson. When I was younger, I used to think most of Dennis’ Updates had that dancing Statue of Liberty intro. I was surprised to later learn that it wasn’t introduced until the end of his penultimate year as anchorperson.
— Ha, while I have no idea what was up with Annoying Man taking a red ball thing and squeezing it under his neck while screaming twice (does anyone know what exactly was he doing?), it had me laughing so much.
— Annoying Man’s zit-popping sequence was hilariously gross.
— Hmm, this is unfortunately another Update this season where Dennis is relying on a few too many corny “misinterpreting a photo” jokes for my likes, though not too much so in tonight’s case.
— I liked the meta joke about Andrew Dice Clay being the first male enrollee at an all-women’s college that’s now gone co-ed.
— Writer David Spade gets his first big onscreen SNL role, playing Michael J. Fox in his own Update commentary. Since the audience would’ve had no idea who David Spade was at this time, as this is a good while before he gets added to the cast, I have to wonder what was going through their minds during this commentary. Were they all wondering “Is that Carvey???”
— Fantastic Michael J. Fox impression from David.
— I liked David-as-MJF’s random “Mallory?” at the end of the commentary, as a Family Ties reference.
— Dennis’ Pepsi joke completely bombed.
— Good ending to this Update with Dennis making a mock announcement that he’s going to boycott next week’s Candice Bergen episode (“And I think you know why”).
STARS: ***


DAD, WHAT’S SEX?
(host) uses slang to teach son (MIM) about birds & bees
(PHH) of Planned Parenthood critiques language used in “Dad, What’s Sex?”
TV Guide is tricked into giving SNL “cheers” for “Dad, What’s Sex?”

— I got a pretty good laugh from Dice’s line to Mike about “popping a boinger or two”.
— The muting-out of dirty words during Dice’s sex talk is coming off VERY sloppy in the live version I’m watching. Instead of only muting the dirty words, they mute almost the entire sentences he says them in, which is hurting the joke. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the rerun version of this episode, so I have to ask: do they censor the dirty words in that version, and if so, how? Do they add bleeps over the dirty words instead of just sloppily muting them out?
— Heh, now the timing of the word-censoring has gotten even worse, with them not muting the word “poontang” in time. NBC censors must’ve been sweating over the fact that “poontang” got out on the air uncensored in 1990.
— Cute ending with Mike jokingly asking Dice about the Mets.
— Ah, we get a rebuttal from Phil as a Planned Parenthood member.
— Phil’s suggestions for naughty word substitutes are very funny, especially his use of the term “the silk igloo” as a euphemism for the vagina.
— The TV Guide “Jeers” bit at the end was awful. It made no sense and fell completely flat.
STARS: **½


TALK RADIO
deejay Tony Trailer’s commentary cuts into songs, ads, guests

— This is using the same joke as the last appearance of this character, which was fine as a one-off sketch but I’m not sure lends itself well to a recurring sketch.
— Never mind, it turns out there’s an actual escalation to the joke this time, with Kevin going so far as to interrupt non-music things like a George Carlin comedy album excerpt, an Emergency Broadcast Test, and the report from his guest Victoria.
— For some reason, Victoria’s appearance here is where I start to really notice Nora’s absence tonight. Having an episode with only two female cast members is something I have to get used to, as we’re going to be seeing it for quite a while early on in the following season (and it even gets briefly addressed in a certain famous Kyle MacLachlan-starring sketch), before Julia Sweeney gets hired in November.
— Is that Spade I hear as one of the callers?
— Funny read-off statement from Kevin: “Sorry about last night, but those were my sister’s panties.”
STARS: ***


PROTEST
JAH reveals she’s been giving a lackluster performance to protest host

— Nice, well-deserved applause for Jan after introducing herself. The applause is especially coming off nice to hear after the amazing episode Jan just had in the preceding episode (Alec Baldwin).
— Funny reveal that Jan’s subtle way of protesting tonight’s host is by not giving 100% in the sketches.
— Amusing turn with Jan trying to take advantage of this extra time by breaking out into a Sweeney Sisters-esque song.
STARS: ***½


COOL MITE
tiny troublemaker (host) tells buddies of his latest exploits

   

— Another uncredited appearance from writer Rob Schneider. We’re clearly at the beginning of a transition into the many big changes we’re soon going to gradually see over the course of next season.
— This sketch feels like a precursor to the Tiny Elvis sketches from the early 90s. Considering Rob Schneider would play the title character in the second of the two installments of that sketch (the first installment had host Nicolas Cage playing the character) coupled with the fact that Rob has an onscreen role in this Cool Mite sketch, I have to wonder if he’s the writer behind both Cool Mite and Tiny Elvis.
— The scene with Victoria was executed too awkwardly.
— The dog attack was the first actual laugh I got from this sketch.
— I like Phil’s brief appearance as a wiseguy cop.
— When Cool Mite is supposed to suffer a second attack from the dog, the dog apparently misses its cue, resulting in dead air and leaving Dice to awkwardly break the fourth wall by ad-libbing in character “Hey, where’s the dog? It’s supposed to bite me!” SNL would later fix this in reruns by showing the dress rehearsal version of this portion of the sketch, where the dog attacks Cool Mite on cue.
— Weak sketch overall.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Julee Cruise performs “Falling”


RIDICULOUS BULL
Jake La Motta (host) asks brother (JOL) to beat him up

— Jon’s been getting tons of airtime tonight (serving as a sad reminder that we’re in the homestretch of his SNL tenure).
— A fairly thin, one-joke sketch, but I’m kinda enjoying the escalation of the type of objects Dice requests to be hit with, and I actually feel Dice’s performance is complimenting the material nicely. This sketch has a type of silliness that you often hear me say I always love to see in this SNL era.
— I like the looseness of the sequence with the sledgehammer.
— In the recording I’m watching of this episode, the visual quality of this sketch is strangely choppy and wonky. It causes a particularly bad glitch at one point during the part where Jon is asked by Dice to hit him with the microwave; the glitch causes us to miss a joke where Jon’s character was seemingly going to address the anachronism of a microwave being available in this old-timey setting. Jon began incredulously saying “Microwave?!? It’s 194–”, but whatever 1940s year he was going to say suddenly got cut off as the scene abruptly jumps to him walking over to pick up the microwave.
STARS: ***


PROTEST
KEN says his lack of inclusion in sketches is his protest of host

— After Kevin introduces himself, you can hear one sole audience member try to start a round of applause like Jan got earlier, but it doesn’t take because Kevin immediately continues speaking.
— Funny reveal of Kevin refusing to appear in all but three sketches tonight, which he feels would make more of a statement against tonight’s host than Jan’s making.
— I was expecting a little more from this overall piece, but this was a decent display of the type of humor that Kevin is always great at selling and making relatable.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— As no surprise, this was a pretty meh episode, especially for this era’s standards. I didn’t HATE this episode like I’m sure some people do based on their general dislike of Andrew Dice Clay (I personally have never had an opinion of him either way; I’ve always been completely neutral towards him), but I wasn’t crazy about the episode either. It began strongly with the meta cold opening, but immediately went downhill starting with the monologue and, despite some highlights here and there in the remainder of the show, the episode as a whole never fully took off. Aside from the cold opening, there was nothing in this episode that I feel stands out as strong, and we got a higher number of tepid material than we’re used to seeing this season. As for Andrew Dice Clay himself, much like my feelings of the episode, I didn’t HATE him as the host, but I didn’t exactly laugh all that much at him either. One problem I had is that he never stepped out of his comfort zone; he basically just played himself all night. He could have at least TRIED to play against type in one sketch, by comically doing a character that’s pretty much the exact opposite of his famous stand-up persona.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Nora Dunn returns to the cast for what ends up being her, and Jon Lovitz’s, final episode, which itself ends up being the final episode of the 1986-1990 renaissance years. Season 15 comes to an end with host Candice Bergen, the second consecutive host to have the word “dice” in their name.

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April 21, 1990 – Alec Baldwin / The B-52’s (S15 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) talks about the environment & licks glaucoma drops

— Wow, Dana’s Bush is coming off even funnier than usual, which is saying something. He’s more animated than EVER here.
— Classic part with him intentionally letting his marijuana-laced eyedrops drip into his mouth, causing him to become high and launch into a hilarious “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” quote.
— Overall, one of the best Bush cold openings SNL has ever done.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host charms the audience by posing for the camera until VIJ stops him

— Despite this being his first time hosting, Alec already receives tons of huge and wild applause at the beginning of this monologue.
— Much like John Goodman and Christopher Walken’s respective debut earlier this season, it’s going to be fascinating in hindsight to watch Alec Baldwin’s first hosting stint, as it’s so hard now to imagine there was ever a time where he had no prior experience on the show.
— At times, young Alec Baldwin’s voice sounds different from what we’re now used to hearing from him.
— Alec’s various ways of charming the audience are priceless, especially when the camera does a very slow pan from his shoes to his face, and when he pops his head out from behind the drapes.
— Already, he’s coming off as the perfect host.
STARS: ****½


GREENHILLY
Mr. Cherrywood (host) kisses (JAH), (VIJ), (NOD), (PHH), dog

— I like the randomness of how Jan and Alec’s chasing a bird out of the house immediately leads to a sudden romantic pause (complete with background music) and make-out session with each other. Maybe because I know what’s coming…
— Excellent escalation to the kissing, with it eventually reaching the point where Alec’s make-out partners include Phil and a dog.
— Speaking of the part with Alec making out with a dog, that has always reminded me of something that happens in a later Alec Baldwin sketch: Rookie Cop from season 20, where a chain reaction of vomiting eventually leads to a dog vomiting as well, much like how a chain reaction of kissing in this Greenhilly sketch eventually leads to a dog being kissed. I’m not sure, but I could swear they even use the exact same dog puppet in both sketches, possibly proving that the Rookie Cop writer(s) intentionally threw in the dog part as a subtle callback to Greenhilly. Just a theory of mine; I can’t really confirm yet, but when I eventually review Alec’s season 20 episode, I’ll put up a side-by-side comparison of the Rookie Cop dog puppet and the Greenhilly dog puppet.
— This overall piece was the perfect first sketch for Alec, immediately showcasing his willingness to do anything on the show.
STARS: *****


THE ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS ONE
biker (host) fights against pollution

— Hey, it’s David Spade! (first screencap above) He was a new SNL writer at this time, and his bit role here is his very first appearance on SNL.
— And hey, now Spade’s fellow new writer Rob Schneider has appeared! (left side of the second screencap above) This is the first of many uncredited bit roles we’ll be seeing Schneider and Spade appear in for the remainder of this season and early next season (Spade will even get to star as Michael J. Fox in a Weekend Update commentary in the very next episode), before both men eventually get added to the cast a few episodes into next season. I guess starting them out as just writers while letting them make plenty of uncredited on-camera appearances is Lorne’s way of trying them out to see if they have what it takes to be cast members. Lorne would soon do the same to Adam Sandler when he joins the writing staff in December of next season.
— Hilarious Marlon Brando voice from Alec.
— Funny reveal of the tough biker gang being so ecologically concerned.
— Very funny story of why Alec’s Brando talks the unique way he does.
— I liked the passing mention of Victoria’s mother having fallen into a PCB vat.
— Wow, HUGE cheering from the audience when Alec’s Brando makes a then-topical reference by saying he’s going to the Earth Day concert in New York. Ha, one particular audience member says an exuberant “Alright!” so audibly that you would think he was mic’ed. At least that’s how it is in the live version I’m reviewing of this episode. Reruns may have mixed down the audience’s reaction during this part of the sketch.
— IIRC, in the “Live From New York” book, Alec mentions how he had to fight to keep from cracking up at the end of this sketch when Phil delivers a comically dramatic “Take me with you!” to him. You can’t see any visible amusement on Alec’s face during that part, though.
STARS: ****


THE GARBO I KNEW
the Greta Garbo (JAH) James O’Brien (host) knew really wanted to be alone

 

— Some laughs from Jan-as-Garbo’s obsession with wanting everything she owns to be alone.
— A fantastic and classic sequence with Jan using charades to hint Alec on what to say over the phone.
— It’s Rob Schneider again! I remember when I first saw this episode as a teenager, in a 60-minute Comedy Central rerun in 2000, I was baffled when I saw Schneider show up in this sketch. At the time, my knowledge of SNL’s history was still in the developmental stages, but I had enough SNL history knowledge to be aware that Schneider didn’t join the cast until the following season, which is why I was so confused when I saw him in this sketch. I wasn’t aware that he was a writer this season, so I was left wondering if he was originally an extra the show hired just for this sketch and that it somehow eventually led to him being added to the cast the following season. (For anyone wondering why teenage me didn’t have this reaction to Schneider and David Spade’s appearance in the preceding Environmentally Conscious One sketch, that sketch wasn’t included in Comedy Central’s 60-minute version)
— I love the ending reveal of Jan hiding on a high chandelier. How did they get her on there so fast in a live sketch?
— Surprised they ended this sketch pretty early. Maybe it’s best they kept this short and sweet, though I personally could have watched Jan’s charades routine for an infinite amount of time.
— This is one of two sketches responsible for making teenage me fully recognize Jan Hooks’ greatness during my aforementioned first viewing of this episode on Comedy Central. The second sketch appears later in this same episode.
STARS: *****


ONLY IN NEW YORK
Joey Adams (PHH) jokes while wife Cindy (NOD) gossips

— Fairly funny opening theme song by Phil and Nora.
— Greta Garbo passed away that week? Oh, so THAT’S why they did the preceding sketch.
— Phil’s jokes throughout this are cracking me up.
— I particularly loved Phil’s delivery of “One guy says ‘Hey, Pete, how’s it going?’, Pete says ‘SHUT UP!!!‘”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Cosmic Thing”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ten feet away from the newsdesk, KEN reports audience reaction to the bit
arrogance & ignorance are the biggest threats to the government, says AWB
DEM displays the hottest new toy- New Kids On The Chopping Block dolls

— Funny how during the audience’s VERY long, energetic applause at the beginning, Dennis has enough time to take a sip of water.
— Good to see Kevin’s “News From 10 Feet Away” segment back.
— Tonight’s very energetic crowd is particularly responsive during Kevin’s observations of the audience’s “disappointment” over his segment.
— Funny part with Kevin turning this commentary meta by making a mock-complaint about his lack of airtime.
— Dennis’ running gag where he has a disapproving reaction whenever a new “Ernest” movie comes out continues tonight, with SNL going all-out on this one by dimming the lights to a dark red tint and playing the song “This Is The End” while Dennis simply says into the camera “The horror.”
— Loved Dennis’ “Eartha Day” joke.
— A. Whitney: “Why did we go to the moon? Nobody knows. Maybe JFK wanted to impress one of his secretaries.”
— A. Whitney: “There are 25 million illiterates in this country alone. Every day, vast numbers of them give directions at service stations.”
— Good side segment with Dennis demonstrating the “New Kids On The Chopping Block” dolls.
STARS: ****


THE NUDE TALK SHOW
(JOL) follows his dream & makes The Nude Talk Show a cable access success

— Nice details with the look of Jon’s character. In fact, I’ve always found his look to be so oddly specific that I have to wonder if this sketch is a parody of something I’m not familiar with.
— I love the awkwardness of Jon pitching his idea of a nude talk show to executives.
— Alec’s stern warning to Jon, regarding doing a nude talk show: “Remember one thing: it’s gonna be your ass out there.”
— Among the TV shows listed on the ratings board is “Dukakis After Dark”, a reference to a famous one-off sketch from the previous season. There’s also a listing of a show called “The Insane Idiot”, which would later be used as part of the title to a sketch with Harvey Keitel showing off a collection of descending-size deer heads, though the title similarity there may just be a coincidence.
— The interview with Jan is really funny.
— The audience is sure loving Al Franken’s Al Goldstein impression. He’s cracking me up too, even though I have no familiarity with the real Al Goldstein.
— I love Victoria’s scene as The Brooklyn Swami.
— Very nice ending.
STARS: *****


DINER
sexual tension is thick as waitress (JAH) takes (host)’s breakfast order

— Here’s the second sketch from this episode where Jan impressed the living hell out of teenage me when I first saw this episode on Comedy Central.
— Phil and Kevin are hilarious as the dopey customers.
— Jan, regarding Alec: “Look at him, sittin’ on that stool like he’s doin’ it a favor!”
— All the back-and-forths between Jan and Alec are freakin’ terrific.
— Jan’s ability to switch moods at the drop of a hat when immediately going from speaking to Phil & Kevin to speaking to Alec is great.
— Alec’s parting words to Jan: “You shouldn’t give away your pie with breakfast. Makes you look cheap!”
— An overall absolutely fantastic sketch. After my first time seeing this overall episode on Comedy Central, I officially became a Jan Hooks fan. Whereas I had no real opinion of her before being introduced to this episode (aside from being impressed by her in the season 14 sketch with her as newly-former First Lady Nancy Reagan being dragged out of the White House), this episode led to me paying close attention to her whenever I caught an SNL rerun with her from that point on, and more often than not, I would be very awed and entertained by her talents and performances. As a result, she ended up becoming one of my all-time favorite cast members.
— Clearly SNL themselves recognize what a fantastic night Jan had in this overall episode, between The Garbo I Knew and this Diner sketch, because this is the episode that NBC would wisely choose to air on “SNL Vintage” as a tribute to her a few days after she passed in 2014.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Channel Z”


MIDDLE-AGED MAN
Middle-Aged Man Ed Miles (MIM) helps out with (host)’s impotence problem

— The debut of a short-lived but memorable Mike Myers recurring character. Funny idea for a superhero character.
— I sure like that theme song.
— As usual, solid character work from Mike here.
— I like the mention of Middle-Aged Man’s father, Retired Man (who we’ll later meet in an episode hosted by George Wendt), as well as the line about how the only difference between Middle-Aged Man and his father is Middle-Aged Man knows how to hook up a VCR.
— Another good line, this time about how Middle-Aged Man’s grandfather used to be known as Retired Man but is now known as Dead Man.
— I’m enjoying Middle-Aged Man’s various “quit lookin’ at my gut” warnings.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Wow. Just wow. This was pretty much what a perfect SNL episode looks like. Tonight’s show was a masterpiece, and it’s very easy to see why it would end up winning an Emmy (or was it just nominated?). Not only did every single segment in this episode work, but just about every single one of them was great, and a good number of them stand out as true classics. It also doesn’t hurt that we had a very hot crowd in the audience tonight, adding a lot of energy to the atmosphere. It’s great that Alec Baldwin’s hosting debut turned out this amazing. Right out of the gate, he came off as a true pro who already knows exactly how the show works, and he got good laughs in every sketch, even ones where he played a straight man. One of the most impressive hosting debuts ever seen on SNL.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Corbin Bernsen)
a big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Unfortunately, the feel-good vibes in the Baldwin episode I just reviewed do not last, because our next episode is one mired in infamy. Controversial stand-up comedian Andrew Dice Clay hosts, prompting a boycott not only from the episode’s originally-scheduled musical guest, Sinead O’Connor, but also from one of the show’s own cast members, one Miss Nora Dunn, who’s relationship with the show would not be the same as a result.