Tag: Steve Martin

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January 31, 2009 – Steve Martin / Jason Mraz (S34 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OBAMA REMEMBERS
amidst economic woe, Barack Obama (FRA) brings up happy pre-term memories

— We have officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline.
— (*groan*) This is going to be a looooooong four years with Fred as SNL’s resident Obama impersonator during Obama’s first term.
— I kinda like the conceit of Fred’s Obama occasionally turning to a side camera and fondly reminiscing about his big inauguration, and I feel it’s one of the very few times that Fred’s Obama portrayal has ever showed any hint of a personality.
— A pretty good laugh from the “Read Other Side” writing being on both sides of the page given to Obama by the now-former President Bush.
— We get a sudden and random interruption from Jason’s always-funny Joe Biden, which, like I said in my review of the cold opening from this season’s Paul Rudd episode, seems to be an admission from SNL that they’re far more confident in Jason’s portrayal of Biden than they are in Fred’s portrayal of Obama.
— I like how Fred’s Obama follows Jason-as-Biden’s exit by telling us, in regards to his vice presidential pick, a deadpan “I couldn’t pick Hillary. I just couldn’t.”
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Steve Martin’s getting his usual laughs from his trademark Steve Martin-y humor, even if there hasn’t been anything noteworthy here so far.
— The clapter-inducing Bush-bashing bit, albeit brief, feels a little out of place for a Steve Martin comedy monologue.
STARS: ***½


CHEWABLE PAMPERS
Chewable Pampers short-circuit the food cycle in an eco-friendly manner

 

— I find the concept of this mildly chuckleworthy for a quick cheap laugh, but I can’t ignore the similarities this has to the Earthies commercial from the season 17 Jeff Daniels episode. Maybe the similarities are just a coincidence.
— Aside from Gas Right and North American Savings, has every single pre-taped commercial so far this season featured Kristen in the lead role? It sure feels like it. Not only that, but in all the Wiig-starring commercials this season, Jason seems to always play her glasses-wearing husband.
— After watching this whole thing just now, this feels like a slightly funnier variation of the aforementioned Earthies, but a much-less-funnier sister commercial to Litter Critters.
STARS: **½


SUPERBOWL NIGHT OUT
Neil, Jean, fellow uptight co-worker (host) view the Superbowl on Ecstasy

— Great to see the return of these introverted co-workers characters for the first time in two seasons. This ends up being their final appearance.
— Something about the dopey, hokey delivery Steve’s using here isn’t working for me, especially in comparison to most of the other hosts who’ve appeared in these sketches.
— A big laugh from Kristen’s innocent reaction to Bill’s crude “Why don’t you sit on my face?” suggestion.
— Funny bit regarding Ecstasy in a plastic bag labeled “Mints”.
— The sudden turn with the introverted co-workers having a conversation about what raunchy things they’re going to do later is paling in comparison to the ones from the previous installments of this sketch. However, I did laugh out loud at Will’s mention of a “three-story denim vagina” just now.
STARS: ***½


LASER CATS! 4 EVER
host abets extension of the feline sci-fi franchise

— Our annual Laser Cats edition of the season. Always a treat to see the yearly appearance of this short.
— I like Lorne’s silent “Aww, dammit”-type facial reaction when realizing he’s about to be shown yet another Laser Cats video.
— Steve’s out-of-place executive producer credit photo was pretty funny.
— I love the little bit with Bill moving around individual words on an invisible screen to put together a message that was sent to him and Andy.
— Some amusing background sightings of cameramen and average joes accidentally entering the shot.
— Cool reveal with Bill and Andy’s respective half-necklace.
STARS: ****


ISSUES
Clarence Jernigan’s (KET) guests are insufficiently body-aware

— Oddly enough, SNL already had a fictional talk show sketch titled Issues – a recurring one, in fact, involving Jim Breuer and that night’s SNL host playing potheads interviewing a professional played by Ana Gasteyer.
— A cheap initial laugh from Steve entering the sketch with womanly breasts.
— This is basically Kenan Reacts: The Sketch. The famous “Kenan Reacts” routine is funny in small doses, but not when an entire four-minute sketch is centered around it. None of the other comedic aspects of this sketch are doing all that much for me, either.
STARS: **


MADOFF INVITES
Bernie Madoff (FRA) can’t get anybody to come to his Superbowl party

— Ugh, the return of Fred’s Bernie Madoff impression, after that awful Weekend Update commentary he did in the preceding episode.
— Did Fred change the voice of his Madoff impression? In this sketch, Fred’s basically doing his “smug middle-aged Jewish guy” stock voice that he’s used in certain other roles, but I remember him using a drastically different and more generic voice for Madoff in the preceding episode.
— Where the fuck is the joke in this sketch? I’m currently about halfway through this sketch, and I have yet to get so much as a single CHUCKLE from the endless amount of phone calls Fred’s Madoff is making. Absolutely nothing is happening in this sketch. Why am I supposed to be entertained by a sketch centered around Madoff making non-comedic, uninteresting phone calls to people he’s swindled in the past? And, I highly doubt this, but if this is supposed to be some kind of half-baked attempt at the type of slice-of-life sketches that the original SNL era usually nailed so well, then all I can say about the execution of this attempt is: OOF.
— Geez, this sketch is so hollow-feeling and quiet that, just now, you can even hear off-camera footsteps from somewhere in SNL’s studio.
STARS: *


STEVE AND THE LADIES
the crush CAW, KRW, MIW, ABE have on host inspires them to sing about him

— Ooh, a backstage sketch. At this point of SNL’s run, it feels rare and refreshing to see a backstage sketch anymore, and it’s very fitting that they’re doing one with Steve Martin.
— So nice to see the underused Casey Wilson getting so much focus as herself and interacting with the host as himself.
— Feels kinda odd but interesting seeing all of the then-current female cast members paired together as themselves in this manner. However, something also feels a little sad about that in hindsight, knowing the future that awaits Casey, Abby, and Michaela’s respective SNL tenures, and how they’d never overcome Kristen’s dominance. And it feels disheartening to realize that if this sketch had instead appeared even just half a year later, 50% of the female lineup in the sketch would’ve been completely different from the one in tonight’s version.
— I got a good laugh from Casey’s comically exaggerated ending note when she and the other female cast members were singing in harmony.
— Nice ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Yours”


WEEKEND UPDATE
unrepentant Rod Blagojevich (JAS) is on the way out but is still feisty

Angelina Jolie (ABE) asks SEM if the Octomom might have any extra babies

David Paterson (FRA) badmouths upstate New York & all of New Jersey

— Good to see a Weekend Update commentary from Jason’s short-lived-but-fun Rod Blagojevich impression.
— I’m really liking Seth’s deadpan interplay with Jason’s Blagojevich.
— A predictable but funny ending to Jason-as-Blagojevich’s poem, with what inappropriate word he’s about to use to rhyme “Blagojeviches” with.
— A reminder of when Octomom was all over the news around this time.
— A very sudden appearance from Abby as Angelina Jolie right in the middle of Seth’s Octomom joke.
— Great make-up and facial prosthetics on Abby. Her resemblance to Jolie is downright uncanny.
— An overall brief but funny Angelina Jolie bit with Abby.
— The return of Fred’s very polarizing David Paterson impression.
— I fully admit that Fred’s Paterson is cracking me up even more tonight than he did in his prior appearance. Fred’s portrayal of and dialogue as Paterson simply work for me, what can I say? And his line, “I haven’t heard so many people screaming at me since I TOOK THAT ARCHERY CLASS!”, has stuck with me over the years.
— Hmm, this Paterson commentary is going on awfully long.
— We get a variation of the “a blind Fred Armisen wanders around in front of the camera after his Update commentary is over, interrupting an Update anchor’s joke” routine, with Fred’s Paterson following his Update commentary by slowly sliding his chair in the wrong direction behind Seth, interrupting Seth’s joke. Unlike the “wandering around in front of the camera” routine, which is obviously scripted, I almost wonder if this chair gag is an ad-lib on Fred’s part, but probably not.
STARS: ***


MAKE-UP COUNTER
make-up salesman’s (host) dumb wife Trina (KRW) bothers him while he works

— I laughed at the reveal early on that Casey’s trying on all this fancy make-up just for a Dunkin Donuts interview she’s about to go to.
— OH MOTHERFUCKING NO. We get the debut of Kristen’s character Trina, a.k.a. the “Thomaaaasss!” lady, a character I and a number of others consider to be the absolute bane of Kristen’s repertoire of recurring characters (which is certainly saying something), and THE #1 quintessential example of how poorly-written, one-note, and irritating a lot of Kristen’s recurring characters tend to be.
— Ugghhhhhhh. Two minutes into this sketch, and it is soooooo unbelievably bad so far. If you told me Kristen was thrown out there with literally NO written material at all, I’d believe you 100%, as that would explain so much about her performance in this sketch. (I’d believe you if you told me that was also the case with Kristen’s character in the Quiz Bowl sketch from this season’s Michael Phelps episode.) This Trina character is just a whole bunch of NOTHINGNESS. Very bad and annoying nothingness at that. Feels like a very amateurish, poorly-written imitation of a typical one-note Mo Collins recurring character from MADtv. (Funnily enough, Mo Collins did have a MADtv recurring character named Trina, though she was nothing like Kristen’s Trina.)
— It’s shocking to me that something THIS underwritten made it on the air. Besides Kristen’s (polarizing) big farewell piece from the end of her final episode as a cast member, you probably can’t find a bigger example of the extreme favoritism Lorne showed towards Kristen than the fact that this Trina sketch made it on the air, because there’s no fucking way I can see a character THIS slight, THIS material-less, and THIS painfully unfunny making it on the air if it starred a less popular performer.
— As I said in a previous review, Kristen would later disclose in an interview that she herself couldn’t stand this Trina character, and would eventually ask the writer of these sketches, Kent Sublette, to stop writing them (as well as another Wiig recurring sketch Sublette wrote, but I can’t remember which). To me, that speaks volumes, and is one of the reasons I eventually stopped putting the main blame on Kristen herself for the bad sketches she’s given too often in the second half of her SNL tenure. In more recent years, I’ve grown to truly appreciate Kristen’s many talents and strengths as an actress and SNL cast member, but when she, in her SNL tenure, performs D.O.A. crap too often, combined with how frustrating it can get in this second half of her tenure seeing SNL over-utilize and, at times, mis-utilize her at the expense of some of her talented castmates, it can be easy to forget how damn good Kristen generally is.
— When Steve asks Casey to please not tell anybody about the absurdity she just witnessed from Trina, I like Casey’s delivery of her response: “I feel like I will. Just being honest.” With that and the amusing Dunkin Donuts throwaway line that I mentioned earlier, Casey has provided my only two laughs in this entire sketch, but not even those two laughs are enough to make up for how mind-numbingly bad the rest of this sketch is.
— Steve’s ending line, after Trina has left: “Wow. That’s the best I’ve ever seen her.” Such a lame punchline. However, the second (and, thankfully, final) installment of this sketch with Gerard Butler next season has a somehow even dumber punchline.
— Overall, I personally feel this was, no exaggeration, one of the worst SNL sketches I have EVER seen. This was so bad that, back when it originally aired, even the staunchest Kristen Wiig defenders hated it. Speaking of the reception this sketch got back when it originally aired, I remember how, between the debut of Gilly in the preceding episode and the debut of Trina in tonight’s episode, not to mention certain other bad (to me back then, at least) characters Kristen had done shortly before this point, I finally reached my official boiling point towards Kristen back then and became harshly anti-Wiig for the remainder of her SNL tenure, which, in turn, would cause me to be unfairly dismissive towards a lot of the actual good things Kristen would do during that stretch of her tenure. In more recent years, I’ve softened on my stance on Kristen, and, as I said above, I’ve gained a lot of respect and appreciation for her talents and strengths as an SNL cast member, and thus, in regards to the downsides of her SNL tenure, I now put the blame more on the writing she was given and the way SNL tended to mis-utilize her talents at times. But no matter how much my newfound respect for Kristen may continue to rise, nothing in a million years will ever make me tolerate the absolute worst recurring characters of her repertoire, least of all Trina.
STARS: *


STEVE MARTIN: “LATE FOR SCHOOL”
accompanied by his band, host plays banjo & sings “Late For School”

— Hmm, a very interesting change of pace for this SNL era. I like how this segment feels like a throwback to early SNL eras. In fact, this definitely feels like a segment Steve would’ve done on the show back in the 70s.
— I like the way the home base stage is decorated during this, especially the gate in the background. That gate would later re-appear on SNL’s home base stage during the famous Goodnight Saigon sketch with Will Ferrell at the end of this season.
— A catchy simplistic melody to this song.
— Interesting how, at the end, after the performance has concluded and the audience is applauding, Steve and his band then proceed to play the show to commercial. Even more interestingly, Jason Mraz did the same thing at the end of his first musical performance earlier tonight. Must be a theme in tonight’s episode.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


FOREFATHERS OF THE GAME
old-time quarterback Billy The Gun (host) carried a firearm on the field

— I’m loving the format of this, and it’s being executed very well. I also love how accurate it is in recreating the typical atmosphere and look of this type of documentary/profile on an old-time football player.
— Most of the performers look very amusing in their grizzled-old-man makeup and facial expressions. I especially love Bobby’s facial expressions here.
— The name of Will’s character, Jack Snad (a funny name in itself, especially when seeing a graphic of it displayed below Will’s amusing grizzled-old-man facial expressions), makes me wonder if this sketch was written by whoever writes Kristen and Will’s Jackie Snad/Clancy T. Bachleratt sketches (country singers who sing about stuff like spaceships/toddlers/Model-T cars/jars of beer).
— Great use of Steve, which is more than I can say for some of the other sketches tonight.
— Bill’s delivery is particularly excellent in this sketch.
— An overall fun and very strong piece.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Colbie Caillat [real] perform “Lucky”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as weak an episode as I had remembered. Aside from two horrible sketches (one starring Fred Armisen and one starring Kristen Wiig, which sadly seems fitting, as some online SNL fans seem to consider those two performers to be the usual culprits of the worst sketches from the 2009-2012 years), there wasn’t much for me to hate in this episode, and there were a few strong highlights. However, this still felt a little underwhelming for a Steve Martin-hosted episode. And given the fact that this ends up being his final hosting stint (as of 2020), this wasn’t the most deserving way for an SNL hosting legend like him to go out. If he had to retire from hosting, I feel that his pretty solid and special-feeling season 31 episode would’ve been a better note to end on. Either way, I at least now have the honor of saying I’ve reviewed every single Steve Martin episode of SNL ever. For whatever that’s worth, that feels like a special accomplishment for me in the context of this SNL project of mine.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Forefathers Of The Game
Steve and the Ladies
Laser Cats! 4 Ever
Superbowl Night Out
Monologue
Weekend Update
Obama Remembers
Chewable Pampers
Issues
Madoff Invites
Make-Up Counter


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Rosario Dawson)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bradley Cooper

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February 4, 2006 – Steve Martin / Prince (S31 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

THE SABOTAGE OF BALDWIN
host prevents Alec Baldwin [real] from tying SNL record; Kelly Ripa cameo

— Quite a random and rare way to start the show, with an entirely pre-taped cold opening. Yet another sign that SNL is moving into the virtual age. Given the fact that this is Steve Martin’s big return to hosting after a 12-year hiatus, along with the fact that this starts with him and Kelly Ripa, of all people, on a date with each other, the pre-taped format of this gives it an epic, special feel that I like.
— Funny touch with the Viagra clock.
— I love Steve’s reaction when hearing that Alec Baldwin is hosting SNL tonight and will tie Steve’s hosting record.
— A funny and very Steve Martin-y bit with the limo and taxi.
— Alec, while looking at himself in a mirror: “It’s your night, big guy. The night we crush that little clown monkey.” Also, immediately after that great one-liner, we get a fantastic tilted shot of the NBC Studios sign (the sixth above screencap for this sketch) that may have possibly been the inspiration for the final shot in the new SNL opening montage that’s introduced the following season (I’ll do a side-by-side comparison shot in my review of the following season’s premiere).
— Always fun to see two (or more) SNL hosting legends appear together in the same sketch.
— Great shot of Steve walking down the SNL halls with Alec tied up in a rug.
— I love the bit with Lorne panickedly saying “We can’t find Alec Baldwin. Somebody call Tom Ha–”, then getting cut off by a punch to the face from a passing-by Steve.
— Solid ending with Steve throwing Alec out of the window onto the Rockefeller Center skating rink.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host’s Viagra kicks in while welcoming MAR back from maternity leave

— Some good laughs from Steve constantly correcting himself on the date that the story he’s telling of the first time he hosted took place.
— I love the various photos of Steve with the original cast, comically cropped to only show a very small portion of the cast member in each photo with him.
— Great callback to the Viagra clock from the cold opening.
— Nice way to acknowledge Maya’s return from her maternity leave. It doesn’t feel as odd as I expected it would to see her back, given the fact that she was away for so long that I had forgotten all about her and it felt like she officially left the show, but maybe it doesn’t feel so odd because she’s not playing a character here.
STARS: ***½


A TEDDY BEAR HOLDING A HEART
a teddy bear holding a heart is the minimally-thoughtful Valentine’s gift

— I really like the visual quality of this commercial.
— Hilarious reveal of the “thoughtful” Valentine’s gift being a simple little teddy bear holding a heart, after such a big set-up from the female voice-over. Speaking of the female voice-over, I’m really enjoying her work here. Is that Paula Pell who’s voice I’m hearing?
— Lots of laughs from the many exaggerations this commercial is making.
— Great ending spiel from the voice-over about how this gift is “available literally almost everywhere”, including “I’m guessing wherever you buy milk.”
STARS: ****½


OPRAH
(host)’s memoir is as full of lies as James Frey’s

— Okay, now it feels a little odd to see Maya back, since she’s playing a role here instead of herself.
— I like the quivery-voiced “Oh, my god!” from an unseen Oprah audience member in response to something drastic Maya’s Oprah reveals.
— Funny look for Steve’s character.
— Steve’s constant contradictions about the honesty of his book is pretty funny, and a good use of Steve’s typical delivery.
STARS: ***


DON’T BUY STUFF YOU CANNOT AFFORD
Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford, says (CHP) to debtors (host) & (AMP)

— Very solid concept, and a great execution and exaggeration of the “complicated” concept of not buying things you can’t afford.
— Great reveal from Chris of the Don’t Buy Stuff You Cannot Afford book being only one page long.
— For some reason, it feels a bit odd hearing Bill do a voice-over at this early stage of his SNL tenure. Maybe it only feels weird because Chris is still on the show.
— I remember MADtv doing a sketch like this a little later. I can’t remember which sketch it is, though, but I remember it being pretty good in its own right. If anyone in the comments section can remind me which sketch it is, thanks in advance.
STARS: ****½


HAMAS PARTY
lucrative gig at Hamas victory celebration creates moral dilemma for host

— Heh, Bill keeps pressing his fake mustache with his hand. Not sure if that’s just an intentional mannerism of his character, or if he’s trying to prevent his fake mustache from peeling off.
— I love Fred’s quivery-voiced emphasis of the word “Israel” when telling Steve about “your well-known hatred of the state of Israel”.
— Fun performances from Fred, Bill, and Seth, but I’m not crazy about this sketch itself.
— Another well-delivered word in this sketch, with the way Bill said “broke-ish”.
— I also love Bill’s delivery just now when quoting Steve’s “Excuuuuuuuuse me” catchphrase before he, Fred, and Seth exit.
STARS: **½


TWO INCHES
(host) & (WLF) converse while standing two inches apart in kissing position

— A good laugh from how the loving way Steve and Will walk up to each other in slow-motion makes you think they’re going to randomly kiss, only for them to just get really close to each other’s faces and hold a normal, friendly conversation.
— A funny unpleasant turn Steve and Will’s conversation takes.
— Our very first Andy Samberg-less Digital Short.
— I’ve seen several online SNL fans over the years say this Digital Short could’ve and should’ve been performed as a live sketch, given that fact that there wasn’t anything about it that required it to be pre-taped. While I certainly don’t mind this as a Digital Short, I can see where those SNL fans are coming from. This indeed would’ve been fun and refreshing as a live sketch. That being said, one thing that this short benefits from by being pre-taped instead of live is the well-done way Will and Steve’s positions are filmed, including the nice camera angles from various distances.
STARS: ***½


QUICK ZOOM THEATER
camcorder-sponsored drama employs unnecessary zooms

 

— A sketch that seems questionable for the first minute or so, but then halfway through, it suddenly takes a fun turn with all of the (intentionally) botched camera zoom-ins.
— Very funny ending with Steve being forced to run up to and away from the camera when it fails to zoom in on him.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fury”


WEEKEND UPDATE

— I remember the bit with Amy quickly leaving the Update desk to have an abortion offended one online SNL fan, because they misinterpreted the off-camera sound of Amy’s car taking off for being the sound of Amy actually getting her abortion. Wow.
— This Update is over already??? This is by far one of the shortest Updates in recent memory, and also featured no guests. Certainly no complaints from me regarding SNL’s decision to keep a Fey/Poehler Update very brief and get it the hell out of the way so we can get more sketches. Also, it could be said that this is the last Weekend Update to this day, 14 years later in 2020, to not have ANY guest commentaries, though one could certainly make that argument about the Update from the episode that Maya hosts in 2012, and I’ll explain why when I review it.
STARS: **


SUPER BOWL NATIONAL ANTHEM
Aaron Neville (HOS), Aretha Franklin (KET), Dr. John (JAS) at Super Bowl

— Blah, Horatio’s Aaron Neville has gotten old by this point.
— Kenan In A Dress alert. Oh, and in typical Kenan Thompson fashion, he’s playing this role in the exact same generic sassy manner he plays almost every black woman.
— We at least get Jason as Dr. John, which is a funny impression. I love the voice he’s using here.
— Did Kenan just crack up at his own line just now? Don’t tell me Horatio’s unprofessionalism is rubbing off onto other performers.
— Kenan’s Aretha Franklin requesting a stool to “rest my titties on” is….certainly something.
— I like Jason’s Dr. John returning with a gift that he had just “won and/or stole”.
— Speaking of Horatio’s unprofessionalism, he predictably cracks himself up during his own singing of the national anthem. (*sigh*) Only a handful of episodes left until Horatio is finally the hell out of here.
— Overall, despite a funny performance from Jason, this sketch was fucking terrible.
STARS: *


BACKSTAGE
with Alec Baldwin [real] & JIF on stand-by, LOM trumps (host)’s demands

— A fun idea for a backstage sketch in a Steve Martin-hosted episode.
— Great little detail with Steve wearing his Five-Timers Club robe.
— Funny cutaway to an injured and brain-damaged Alec.
— Random Jimmy Fallon cameo.
STARS: ***½


PRINCE SHOW
Prince’s personal chef (host) & Drew Barrymore (KRW)

— I’ve grown to strongly dislike these sketches, but at least we’ve gotten a long gap between these past two installments. We get an even longer gap between tonight’s installment and the very next one, which is, mercifully, the final one.
— You’d think the only reason they’re doing this sketch tonight is because the real Prince is going to appear in it, but as we know now, he’s nowhere to be seen in the sketch.
— There’s our inevitable instance of Maya and Kristen appearing onscreen together for the very first time. Doesn’t feel as weird to me now as I expected. It sure felt weird to me back in 2006, though.
— Kristen’s doing an absolutely spot-on Drew Barrymore impression, which is even funnier coming just one episode after the real Drew Barrymore made a cameo on Weekend Update.
— There’s the sequence with Fred’s Prince singing into his own mirror reflection, which absolutely seemed like a set-up for a Prince walk-on, but nope. It’s official: they’re just taunting us at this point.
STARS: **


STATE OF THE GALAXY 2145
George Q. Bush’s (WLF) State Of The Galaxy address rings familiar in 2145

— Very fun concept of a futuristic State of the Union, complete with an intro from Brian Williams 3000 and a Chris Matthews hologram.
— Funny line about how, even in the year 2145, they’re still “very close to capturing Osama Bin Laden”, which is even funnier in retrospect, given that tonight’s episode, in 2006, is only five years before Osama actually would be captured.
— Will’s Bush threw in a “We’re workin’ hard” just now. You know those words from Will’s Bush are poison to my ears after that dreadful first Bush/Kerry debate sketch from the preceding season.
— Rachel makes her first appearance ALL NIGHT in a very brief gag at the end of this sketch. The reason for her lack of airtime tonight is because she was sick for most of this week.
STARS: ***½


THE TANGENT
(FRA)’s endless anecdote spans a whirlwind movie career

— Fun to see two Digital Short shorts in the same night, and it gives this Steve Martin episode even more of a special feel.
— Solid format to this short, and there’s some fun cameos.
— Speaking of cameos, Scarlett Johansson’s “cameo” makes it obvious that this short was filmed the then-recent week she hosted SNL (and I believe this short had gotten cut after dress rehearsal from her and Peter Sarsgaard’s respective episode), though even with this short being aired outside of her episode, her appearance blends in well with all the other cameos in this short.
— Conan! And seeing his old Late Night set always makes me feel wistfully nostalgic.
— Chris’ performance and delivery as the movie exec is great. I especially like him, when upset, bluntly telling Fred “This is the problem: your movie ate (*bleep*) at the box office.”
STARS: ****


SURFERS
uncool (host) is incredulous upon learning of his ouster from surfer club

— Oh, no. I recall this sketch being DREADFUL.
— A mild chuckle from Steve asking “Even you, Dragon?” to Jason a second time, just a few seconds after he already asked him that during his whole “Even you, (insert surfer name here)?” sequence. Unfortunately, that’s the only thing I’ve found even remotely amusing in this sketch so far.
— Seth exasperatedly saying “Oh my god” in reaction to Steve’s nonstop questioning matches my attitude during this horribly tedious sketch. This is awful.
— Overall, wow. Even with the aforementioned mild chuckle I got from one part, this was indeed a really bad sketch. Not even Steve could save it. In fact, it made him look really lame as a performer; the kind of lame that reminds me of the claim some people make that Steve has “lost it” as a comedian in his older age, which I only agree with in certain cases, like in those Pink Panther movies. He’s been mostly solid in tonight’s episode.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest & Tamar [real] perform “Beautiful, Loved & Blessed”

— A noteworthy little moment: Prince humorously ends this performance by saying “Superstah!” while doing the Mary Katherine Gallagher hand gesture.


NATURALLY CRAFTING
(RAD) wants wreathmaker (host) to spend the night

— I remember this being another really bad sketch, but we’ll see.
— At least Rachel still gets a lead role tonight, even in her limited availability this week. You can tell here that she’s indeed still recovering from an illness, as her voice sounds kinda hoarse.
— Good performances from Rachel and Steve, but I’m not caring much for the material itself.
— I did get a laugh just now from Steve hornily asking Rachel “Midge, are those boiled wool mittens?” and Rachel seductively responding “Hand-loomed.”
— Meh, didn’t care for the ending of this.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not as strong as I had remembered, but this was still a pretty enjoyable episode overall. The first half of this episode had quite a number of really great things, but the quality dropped off quite a bit in the second half, especially during the last two sketches. I like how this episode had kind of a special and out-of-the-ordinary feel, which was fitting for Steve Martin’s long-awaited return as a host after 12 years. And Steve was as fun of a host as expected, for the most part.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Peter Sarsgaard)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Natalie Portman

Posted on

September 24, 1994 – Steve Martin / Eric Clapton (S20 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

CLINTON AUDITIONS
CHF, DAS, CSE, ADS, TIM audition to replace Phil Hartman as SNL’s Clinton

— As this starts in a straightforward manner with Farley doing an actual impression of Clinton, I’m sure the audience is thinking to themselves “Wait, what? Farley is SNL’s new Clinton?!?”
— Ha, Farley quickly puts an end to the aforementioned audience thoughts by transitioning his Clinton impression into his Matt Foley shtick.
— I love the eventual reveal that we’re watching auditions for SNL’s new Clinton. Very fun.
— Nice way to introduce Chris Elliott to SNL. I like the Letterman mix-up with Elliott incorrectly addressing Dave Wilson as “Hal”, then explaining “Sorry, I’m new here.”
— Funny W.C. Fields bit from Elliott, even if the audience doesn’t seem sure what to make of it (which is a reception that Elliott will probably have to get used to during his SNL tenure).
— Farley, David, and Adam’s respective Clinton impressions just being them doing their familiar shtick is a clever way for them to poke fun at themselves for how one-note they had gotten by this point in their SNL tenures. I’d also like to think this is SNL’s way of addressing the fact that without Phil Hartman, the remaining cast is made up of too many people who are personalities instead of natural-born sketch comedy show leaders. This self-deprecation still doesn’t make up for the fact that the tired Farley/Spade/Sandler shtick and the oversaturation of personalities in the cast is going to be a huge problem this season. This cold opening, as great as it is, feels like unfortunate foreshadowing of that.
— Adam’s guitar-playing seems sloppy, for some reason.
— Even though it was stupid as hell, I admit to cracking up at Adam’s imitation of Clinton’s walk.
— Hilarious ending bit with Tim cutting off his attempt at a Clinton impression to dejectedly ask “I’m not gonna get this, am I?”
— Reruns of this episode would use the dress rehearsal version of most of this cold opening, up until Tim’s part.
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— After four long seasons of the same opening montage, we FINALLY get a new one.

— The theme music has also been changed, making this the first time since way back in 1985 where new theme music was introduced.
— SNL’s 20th anniversary is commemorated in the logo in a similar style to the 15th anniversary logo from seasons 15 and 16.
— Norm Macdonald has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— The new additions to the cast tonight are repertory players Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo, and featured player Laura Kightlinger. The fact that Lorne is resorting to already-known names like Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo, in addition to the preceding season’s late addition of Michael McKean and this season’s later-to-come addition of Mark McKinney, shows that Lorne must be trying to spice up an ailing SNL by taking a page out of Dick Ebersol’s season 10 playbook.
— When newbie Laura Kightlinger’s picture comes up, Don Pardo seems confused, pausing for a bit, then starting to say “L–” before immediately cutting himself off, pausing once again for a good while, and then finally saying her name after her picture isn’t even onscreen anymore. I wonder if the reason for all of that awkwardness and hesitation is because Don wasn’t quite sure how to pronounce the unconventional last name “Kightlinger”. Years earlier, he had a similar issue when trying to pronounce new cast member Danitra Vance’s name in the first episode of season 11.


MONOLOGUE
while bombing on-stage, host steps outside himself to see what went wrong

— Funny line from Steve about how the only reason he was asked to host the premiere is because Tom Hanks and the then-new young movie star Jim Carrey passed.
— During Steve’s story about trying to get to first base with a 17-year-old girl while watching a movie, a story that you assume is from Steve’s youth, I like the reveal that the movie he and the girl were watching was the then-recently released Lion King.
— Funny and unique turn with Steve stepping outside of his own body to question what’s going wrong with his monologue.
— The whole pre-taped sequence with Steve coming up with his monologue idea and pitching it to various people at SNL is pretty fun. I like Lorne’s dryness when advising Steve on which kind of soup to go with.
STARS: ***½


HHT
brain pains can be detected with the H.H.T. home headache test

— Michael in his first of several Phil Hartman-esque commercial spokesperson roles this season.
— A pretty funny ad, overdramatizing headaches and treating the detection of them like an extensive pregnancy test.
— Michael isn’t bringing the straitlaced humor to his spokesperson role that Phil would’ve. For example, Michael’s ending line “Because what’s worse: having a bad headache, or not knowing if you have a bad headache?” was delivered so blandly straight that it got no absolutely reaction from the audience, leading to an awkward silent pause from them before applauding, whereas I know Phil would’ve delivered that same line in a more humorously straight manner that would’ve elicited some laughs.
STARS: ***


THE SIMPSON TRIAL
Court TV covers the trial of O.J. Simpson (TIM); Brian Austin Green cameo

— Our first of MANY sketches this season based on the epic O.J. Simpson trial.
— Some awfully long pauses from Laura Kightlinger before she says some of her lines.
— The bit with Tim-as-O.J.’s facial expressions alternating between grimacing and smiling, based on various things he’s hearing, started out funny but is going on too long.
— Michael-as-Robert Shapiro’s whole O.J./Rodney King analogy was worth a good laugh.
— Ha, Kato Kaelin. The audience loves the visual of David as him.
— Brian Austin Green’s absolutely pointless cameo is laughably terrible. And I love how there’s absolutely no audience reaction to him until the very end of his scene, where the audience applauds as he makes his exit.
— Something else I find laughably bad: the non-attempt to make Tim’s Al Cowlings look any different from his O.J., both of whom end up just looking exactly like Tim Meadows in different clothes. They couldn’t have been bothered to at least put a wig on either of Tim’s impressions?
— And here’s yet ANOTHER thing I find laughably bad, though this is a much more minor point: during the Tim-as-Al-Cowlings testimony, when the camera is on Michael’s Robert Shapiro, a Tim Meadows stand-in who looks NOTHING like Tim can be seen sitting where Tim had been sitting as O.J. earlier in the sketch. (the stand-in is on the lower right corner of the screencap below)

I love how they went through the pointless trouble of hiring a Tim Meadows stand-in who ends up not even being in most of the camera angles. They might as well have just had nobody occupying the O.J. seat during Tim’s Al Cowlings bit.
— Like so many things in this sketch, the whole Al Cowlings “dammit” bit is going on way too long. And why in the world do we need TWO scenes with him, both consisting of the exact same joke?
— Needless to say, this overall sketch did not work much for me. When I’m getting more laughs from unintentionally laughable bad things than from the actual intended comedy, there’s a problem. Not a promising sign for the season when the lead-off sketch turns out like THIS.
STARS: **


STEVE MARTIN’S PENIS BEAUTY CREME
host lists some of the uses of his all-natural penis beauty cream

— Very funny reveal of what the product is.
— Steve is perfect for this, and his delivery is really selling this material.
— Great line from Steve, giving directions to rub the penis cream “for several minutes up to a half-hour”.
— The visual alone of Chris Elliott in that wig is worth a good laugh.
— Elliott’s testimonial is very funny, especially his line about cans of turtle wax.
— I liked Kevin’s straitlaced delivery of the line “made especially for the johnson”.
— Yet another great line, this time about how the cream will be shipped to you in a plain brown wrapper with the words “NOT PENIS BEAUTY CREAM” stamped on it.
STARS: ****½


TOTAL BASTARD AIRLINES
Total Bastard Airlines employees demonstrate more of their rude behavior

— Oh, no, looks like season 19’s bad habit of bringing back solid one-off sketches that have no business being a recurring sketch has carried over into the beginning of this season.
— Jim Downey’s opening voice-over is just a knock-off of the one he did at the beginning of the first installment of this sketch.
— Seeing Ellen in that wig and uniform makes me think of her Zoraida character.
— This sequel is TERRIBLE so far, and a gigantic step down from the classic first installment. Absolutely none of the “buh-bye” jokes are working, and the audience clearly shares my opinion, as they are absolutely dead during this.
— Is the “Nancy” character who David brags about having worked with supposed to be the character who Helen Hunt played in the first installment?
— Even Adam and David’s exchange is a poor knock-off of their exchange in the first installment. The “I want you to tell me you’re a woman” bit between them tonight is DREADFUL.
— Very poor utilization of Steve Martin.
— I’m noticing now that you can hear only one audience member laughing throughout this, and it’s a wiseass-sounding, almost Burt Reynolds-esque “Naa-haa” type of quick laugh.
— The armpit hair bit with Janeane Garofalo and Steve was just dumb, but I’m ashamed to admit to kinda laughing at Steve’s snarky delivery of “Whatever happened to your Lady Schick?”
— Jesus Christ, the song-and-dance ending was freaking AWFUL. And what was the point of Adam and Farley returning to the scene just to dance like idiots? Are you kidding me, SNL?
— Overall, one of the worst follow-ups to a classic sketch in SNL history.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’m Tore Down”


WEEKEND UPDATE
LAK shares some life lessons she’s recently learned
Gil Graham (ADS) reviews concerts that he wasn’t able to get in to see

 

— I’m very excited to enter the Norm Macdonald era of Update.
— One thing I don’t care much for is how the new Update set is using a gray color scheme. It makes it look too much like the Kevin Nealon-era Update set.
— Norm, during his intro: “And now, the fake news.”
— Wow, Norm’s anchorperson delivery is quite different here from how it’s remembered nowadays. It sounds much more professional in this first outing, like you can tell he’s trying to sound like an actual anchorperson. It’ll be interesting to see over the course of this season how his delivery gradually goes from “faux anchorman” to “just Norm being Norm”.
— Laura Kightlinger doing some stand-up on her first episode.
— Laura’s overall commentary wasn’t all that great, but I did get a few laughs, especially the story involving the Big Boy Restaurant icon. Her delivery in this overall commentary wasn’t bad, but the commentary had some flashes of dark humor that I wanted her to go further with.
— I loved Norm’s “King enjoyin’ a hoagie!” ad-lib in response to the “Elvis/sandwich stamp” photo.
— The joke about a lady who spilled McDonalds coffee on her lap is one of the very first jokes tonight that has the type of Norm edge that would later go on to define his Updates.
— Here comes the debut of a short-lived Adam Sandler character that I’ve always hated.
— Two minutes into Adam’s Gil Graham commentary so far, and I surprisingly haven’t been hating it as much as I did in the past. It’s still kinda weak and is going heavy on Adam’s tired goofy voice shtick, but I’ve been getting a few chuckles from some of his stories.
— Okay, the Gil Graham commentary is now starting to go on a little too long.
— Pretty funny flub after the Gil Graham commentary has ended, where Norm mistakenly addresses him as “Adam Sandler” before correcting himself and making some humorous ad-libs.
— Our very first utterance of Norm’s soon-to-be-famous theory: “Germans love David Hasselhoff”.
— And thus ends Norm’s very first Update. A pretty good debut, but understandably felt kinda empty compared to what would later go on to be considered a typical Norm Macdonald Update. There will definitely be lots of growth and improvement from him over the course of this season.
STARS: ***


THE RON WOOD SHOW
the interviews consist of incoherent mumbling

— I liked Mike’s Ron Wood impression as a supporting role in the American Sportsman Today sketch from the preceding season. But with him now being placed front and center in his own sketch, the mumbling joke with him has gotten old very fast. Him interacting with equally-unintelligible celebrities isn’t make this any better.
— Steve looks pretty unrecognizable as Leon Redbone.
— A laugh from how Farley looks as Gerard Depardieu.
STARS: *½


BUCK DANIELS
(MMK) sings song about country musician Buck Daniels’ (host) tragic life

— A fairly interesting-seeming format.
— Over a minute into this sketch, and I ask: where is the entertainment supposed to be coming from? There has been no intentional comedy so far, from what I can tell, nor does the sketch have anything else interesting going for it.
— Okay, now there have been a few scattered attempts at humor, like Ellen punching out Steve, but it’s not working.
— Poor Michael McKean. His guitar-playing and musical narration skills are fine, but between the preceding season’s god-awful Poker Billy sketch and this weak Buck Daniels sketch, those skills have not been utilized well so far during Michael’s SNL tenure.
— I got a laugh from the random appearance of Adam as Jackie Mason in bed with Steve. Adam does a better Jackie Mason impression than some might expect.
STARS: **


NUT-RIFIC
an ad agency comes up with confusing jingles for the Nut-Rific candy bar

 

— I like Elliott’s cheesy delivery while eagerly pitching his commercial idea.
— My god, the overly simplistic premise of “nut” sounding like “not” is lame as hell. Are you kidding me, SNL? This feels like something out of a kiddie show.
— Farley’s somewhat goofy performance doesn’t fit his straight man role in this sketch at all. He also seemed to crack himself up after one of his lines.
— Not even Elliott’s emotional outburst off-camera is making me laugh.
— And the sketch goes on and on and on and on…
— Okay, I finally got a big laugh, from how the good-sounding “It’s just got more nuts” jingle turns out to be for a psychiatric institute. It only took about FOUR MINUTES for this sketch to get there.
— Didn’t care for the “nutsies” ending.
— Speaking of the “nutsies” ending, when the singers all hold out their hand in a Nazi salute, Jay Mohr can be seen staring ahead at something in an oddly fixated manner. In Jay’s SNL book, there’s a backstory about that: he had heard a rumor earlier that week (from Chris Elliott, I think) that Steve Martin wears a toupee, so Jay spent the end of the sketch staring at Steve’s hair in an attempt to tell if it’s a toupee or not.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Five Long Years”


SUPER SPORTS TOURS
join a bunch of striking baseball players on a cruise

— Oh, god, I thought some of the previous sketches tonight were too one-joke, but this puts those to shame.
— I want to like this in a “Sideshow Bob rake scene”-type of manner, but this is completely lacking that kind of funny.
STARS: *


BABIES
(CHF) & (JAG) get defensive because they feel their baby is inferior

— (*groan*) Tonight’s theme of repetition continues, as Farley keeps saying “I blame myself” over and over and over, which is doing nothing to make me laugh.
— I will say that I do kinda like Farley’s mock-dramatic performance in this sketch.
— The premise isn’t bad, but the execution is not working all that well.
— Aaaaand there goes Farley’s obligatory unnecessary screaming outburst. Dammit, he almost made it through a sketch tonight without resorting to his tired typical antics.
— Pretty lame ending.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— (*sigh*) Yep, the signs for trouble are already there. Actually, this season premiere had a promising start in the first 20 or so minutes. Ignoring the overlong and tepid O.J. Trial sketch, we got a very fun and meta cold opening, a pretty solid monologue, an okay fake ad, and a great Penis Beauty Creme sketch. The horrid Total Bastard Airlines reprise seemed to be the turning point where this episode fell apart and never recovered. Aside from Norm Macdonald’s Weekend Update debut, there wasn’t a single thing I liked tonight after the Total Bastard Airlines sketch showed up. And the post-Update half of the episode was pretty much a wasteland of one-note sketches that were either D.O.A. or had a somewhat promising idea but came off half-formed. Overall, definitely a sign of what to expect this season.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1993-94)
a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Marisa Tomei

Posted on

December 14, 1991 – Steve Martin / James Taylor (S17 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
the cast is inspired when host sings “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight”

— Already starting off good with Farley doing his Chris Farley Show shtick to Steve when reminiscing about some of Steve’s classic sketches.
— Steve Martin, regarding the King Tut costume: “This was back when the show meant something.”
— Excellent turn with Steve breaking out into a song about not phoning it in tonight.
— I’m enjoying spotting the sets for tonight’s sketches all through the studio.
— I love seeing Julia removing her Pat wig and glasses.
— Tim making fun of his own lack of airtime is great (“I don’t have any liiiiines, I’m not in the shooooow…”).
— Hilarious song from Farley about not getting liquored up tonight.
— This is getting more and more fun as more and more cast and crew members join in.
— Lorne lip syncing to an operatic voice is priceless.
— Here’s what puts this cold opening over the top as truly epic, with the leg-kicking chorus line onstage at the end, involving Steve and the the entire cast. Just seeing that really makes you fully realize just how LARGE this season’s cast is.
— Even the “Live from New York…” ending has a good laugh, with Steve blanking in the middle of the tagline and having to be shown on a cue card what to say.
— Overall, an absolutely perfect and legendary cold opening. One of the best in the show’s history.
STARS: *****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Some good laughs from Steve listing off the supposed names of the newer cast members: Ramone, Tina, Biff, Frosty, and Spunky.
— I loved him detailing his method of pulling down on genitalia as a way of giving people an autograph.
— This went downhill with the “Father of the Bride” story, which just led up to a photo of Steve in a wedding dress that didn’t really make me laugh much and wasn’t worth the long set up. Our first sign of trouble for tonight’s episode.
STARS: **½


SCHMITTS GAY
— Rerun from the Michael Jordan episode


SUCKERPUNCH
(host) delivers blows to contestants without warning

 

— Pretty funny concept.
— Okay, after about a minute, this is already starting to get old.
— I like Kevin flinching in anticipation of a punch whenever Steve comes anywhere near him.
— The sound effect when Ellen punches Kevin is played a few seconds too late. Steve ad-libs “Beautiful delay on that”, which receives a big audience reaction. SNL would later replace this portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— I like Ellen’s prize being a wallet she stole from a knocked-out Kevin.
STARS: **½


DOORMEN
doormen (ROS) & (KEN) fantasize about wearing building tenants’ panties

— The return of a forgettable sketch from the preceding season’s Jimmy Smits episode.
— The premise is slightly funnier than the first installment of this sketch, but this is still nothing great. Like last time, I’m enjoying this more for the entertaining way that Kevin and Rob play off of each other than for the material itself.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what a human snail shell is made of


THE ENERGY BROTHERS
lack of material defines The Energy Brothers’ (CHF) & (ADS) comedy

— During Steve’s intro, I liked his line about the Energy Brothers changing the face of comedy in the 90s just like he did “in the late 70s and first four months of 1980”.
— Well… that Energy Brothers bit certainly just came and went with no real laughs. Adam and Farley’s energy was fun, but this was just randomness with no payoff… which I guess was the point, but it wasn’t funny to me.
— Boy, aside from the classic cold opening, tonight’s episode has not been off to a good start.
— In Farley’s “Best Of” special, during a montage of his pratfalls from various sketches, you may recall seeing one particular clip where Adam is on top of Farley’s shoulders and they’re running around the home base stage screaming, then they both fall down (screencap below).

That appears to come from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch. I wonder why Adam and Farley didn’t do this during the live version.
— On a similar note, one of GettyImages’ pictures from the dress rehearsal version of this sketch shows Adam swinging on a chandelier (pic here), which is another thing that didn’t happen in the live show. It appears that SNL either shortened or re-wrote most of this sketch between dress rehearsal and the live show. I wonder why, as the dress version actually looks a little more fun.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Stop Thinkin’ About That”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ADS spent his Disney World vacation in his hotel room & at McDonald’s

— Funny brief bit with Kevin demonstrating freedom of speech by yelling a whole bunch of crazy nonsense, ending with “Your grandmother’s underwear!”
— Adam’s commentary is a rehash of an earlier travel review he did on Update.
— Like the last time he did this travel commentary, you can tell Adam is nervous.
— Unlike when he rehashed his one-sided dinner conversation Update piece, Adam’s travel piece tonight isn’t all that great and should’ve been left as a one-time thing.
— Okay, I did like the odd turn just now during Adam’s commentary, with him going into a deep hypothetical of what he would do if he were Mayor McCheese.
— Pretty strong night for Kevin overall. Lots of good jokes from him.
STARS: ***½


THEATRE STORIES
British actors & Mickey Rooney (DAC) talk about the past

— This soon-to-be-recurring sketch makes its debut.
— Very funny characterization from Mike here. Lots of funny little quirks in his mannerisms.
— Julia’s demented character is providing some good laughs.
— Dana’s washed-up Mickey Rooney is a riot.
— Just now, Steve said “…a certain, as the French say, I don’t know what.” Mike, who obviously wrote this sketch, would later reuse that line in one of the Austin Powers movies (I think the second one).
— Very funny part with Steve revealing he soiled himself just now during his story.
— Overall, we finally got an actual FUNNY sketch tonight. Reruns of this episode move this and, I think, one of the sketches from later tonight to the first half of the show, while moving the Doormen and Energy Brothers sketches to near the end of the show where they belong. Clearly, SNL realized how poorly they arranged the first half of this episode in the live show.
STARS: ***½


LIVE WITH REGIS & KATHIE LEE
Joy Philbin (JUS) & host sidelined

 

— It feels a little sad and bittersweet seeing pictures of Jan Hooks as Kathie Lee during this sketch’s opening credits. I didn’t fully realize until now how much I miss Jan in the cast.
— The usual funny angry ranting from Dana’s Regis.
— Okay, after a while, I don’t like how this sketch is focusing way too much on Regis’ angry rants. It’s basically becoming the only joke. The previous Regis and Kathie Lee sketches had actual material around his rants. This sketch is missing a lot without Jan’s Kathie Lee there to bounce off of Dana’s Regis. Julia as her replacement, Joy Philbin, has no chemistry with Dana and is being given NOTHING to work with (even if that’s the point).
— Adding to this sketch’s laziness, now they replay a clip of Dana-as-Regis’ “All My Children” cameo that was originally aired in the preceding season’s Susan Lucci episode. Why was this necessary tonight?
STARS: **


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on which part of a child’s face says it all


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Shed A Little Light”


GRANDMA PUGGA
(BEC) & (CHF) visit cat fur-covered apartment of his Grandma Pugga (host)

 

— A pretty good laugh from the initial reveal of the cat hair-covered apartment.
— Funny disgusting visual of cat hair on the meal Farley and Beth are eating.
— An overall fairly thin sketch, but provided enough laughs.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on what tears families apart


COWARDS
CHF’s case of nerves spurs host to a Patton-esque coward-slapping spree

 

— Bah, a weak one-joke bit. Steve just going around calling everyone a coward and slapping them isn’t that funny, especially considering we already had a fairly tepid sketch earlier tonight with him punching everybody.
— The way some of the extras that Steve slaps are dressed seem to be a reference to the previous episode. There’s an extra wearing the same alien makeup and shiny outfit that Dana wore in the last episode’s Dick Clark’s Receptionist sketch and there’s a black extra dressed as Santa, much like Hammer in the last episode’s Tales From The Barbecue sketch. (comparisons below)

— Okay, I did get one laugh just now, when after Steve got slapped by Phil, a slap sound effect played when Steve tapped his own helmet in shock.
STARS: *½


THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
Nat X has some words with Michael Jackson (CSR)

— Phil’s voice-over intro saying “A man so black, he urinates oil” was hilarious.
— During Farley’s appearance as Sandman, he’s noticeably out of breath. Considering this sketch aired right after the Cowards sketch, with no commercial break in between, Farley must’ve had to go through a VERY hasty costume change from his army outfit to his clown outfit & makeup, and then had to rush to the set of this sketch while it was in progress, which would explain why he’s so out of breath here. He’s been having a very busy night in general, appearing in a prominent role in most of the sketches.
— Much like the Nat X sketch from the Steven Seagal episode, you can see Rock covering his mouth and trying not to laugh when Farley’s Sandman is reading a child’s letter in a hokey voice.
— Good bit with Nat X saying he sympathizes with Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer because the discrimination he received is similar to that of black people.
— Nat X: “Boy, I haven’t had that much fun since I was breastfed by Chaka Khan.”
— Seems to be a lot of instances tonight of cast members mistakenly speaking into the wrong camera, as Rock does that here after the “White Man Cam” segment, and Dana did it during one of his rants in the Regis and Kathie Lee sketch.
— The second episode in a row where Rock’s Michael Jackson impression appears, this time in obvious pre-taped form. Interesting how Chris Rock is basically interviewing himself here.
— Understandably, there’s some timing issues with the MJ pre-tape, as Rock is having some difficulty finishing his live Nat X dialogue in time before pre-taped MJ responds to him.
— When Rock’s MJ says that his controversial car-smashing scene in the “Black or White” music video didn’t hurt anyone, I liked Nat X responding “Didn’t hurt no one??? That was my car!”
— Despite the laughs, this overall sketch wasn’t one of the better or more memorable Nat X installments. It was still decent enough, though.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Baby James”


SEASON’S GREETINGS
CHF, Tarzan, Frankenstein sing “Feliz Navidad”

— Wow, Farley’s busy night continues. He’s been ALL OVER tonight’s episode.
— The return of the traditional Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein holiday greetings. I love the very random addition of Farley as himself replacing Jon Lovitz’s Tonto. This was the perfect way for them to work around Lovitz’s departure.
— This is great as always, made even more entertaining by seeing a comically uncomfortable and fidgety Farley singing in same broken English that Tarzan, Tonto, and Frankenstein always sing in.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Interestingly, right after the preceding Season’s Greetings sketch ends, they immediately go into these goodnights with no commercial break or Steve Martin bumper picture in between. Very rare for this to happen; it probably hasn’t occurred since the original era. I wonder if tonight’s Season’s Greetings sketch was going to be cut for time and James Taylor’s third musical performance was planned to be the last segment of the night (as that’s usually the case in the late 80s/early 90s years whenever a musical guest gets three performances), but then they realized they still have juuuuust enough time right before the goodnights to squeeze in the Seasons Greetings sketch.
— For some reason, when the scrolling credits are only halfway over, they suddenly stop running while the goodnights continue on. Must’ve been a technical error… or perhaps everybody in the control room got up and immediately took off for their Christmas break a little too early. The latter obviously isn’t the case, but it IS pretty funny to imagine.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A surprisingly subpar episode. Sure we got the classic Tonight Song cold opening, but look past that and you’ll see lots of material that was tepid and some that was overly average. Very ironic how after a cold opening where Steve and the cast sing about giving it their all tonight, we end up with an episode that had an air of tiredness to it. (Maybe the approaching Christmas break is to blame) There were only a few solid highlights in this episode, and overall, this was disappointing for a Steve Martin-hosted Christmas show in a great season like this. I’m one of the many SNL fans who used to be guilty of highly overrating this episode just because of the cold opening, until a December 2007 airing of this episode on NBC led to a live discussion of it on a (now-defunct) SNL messageboard I was a member of, and a lot of people in that live discussion made good points on how surprisingly weak a lot of this episode’s material was. That opened my eyes and made me realize that this episode is far from the classic that I had previously deemed it to be.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Hammer)
a step down (Who’da guessed in 1991 that M.C. freakin’ Hammer would host a better SNL episode than Steve Martin?)


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 1992, with host Rob Morrow

Posted on

May 20, 1989 – Steve Martin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S14 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives status report on good & bad of his term so far

— Dana-as-Bush’s constant “Not enough in-for-ma-tion” are really funny.
— A good laugh from his example of the “work” he’s done during his days in office so far being repainting, floor-sanding, etc.
— We get our very first Dana-as-Bush utterance of “Not gonna do it”, though he delivers those words in a straight manner tonight. Over time, he famously exaggerates it to “Nah gah dah”.
— Another overall solid Bush cold opening, with another early display of soon-to-be-famous Bush-isms.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
time stands still while (host) & (GIR) go “Dancing In The Dark” {rerun}

— Oh, boy, this is gonna be a bit tough to get through…
— You can tell by Steve’s voice that he’s fighting back tears as he speaks, which is really getting to me.
— Steve mentions how the people you get to work with at the show is what always brings you back to SNL, which is a classy set-up to an encore presentation that’s now being played as a tribute to the beloved Gilda Radner, who passed away earlier this same day.
— Great to see this incredible Dancing In The Dark sketch again, and it’s coming off poignant in the context it’s being shown in tonight.
— Since I already reviewed Dancing In The Dark when covering the episode it originally aired in (the legendary Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode from season 3), I’m not going to say anything else here for the remainder of the encore presentation. I just want to sit back and enjoy the sketch while reminiscing emotionally about how it was practically yesterday when I was reviewing the original era and got to enjoy regularly covering various great Gilda Radner performances.
— A very nice extended applause break after the encore presentation has finished playing.
— Steve: “You know, when I look at that tape, I can’t help but think how great she was and how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you.”
STARS: not sure if I should rate this, but I’ll give it a ***** for its classiness


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
world’s most perfectly pumped-up man (host)

— Hmm, a change of pace with the smoky intro at the beginning of this.
— A priceless visual of Steve in that insane muscle costume.
— Funny hearing Steve doing the Hans and Franz accent. Hearing him do that reminds me of a little of his Festrunk Brothers voice from back in the day.
— Good ending bit with Steve’s struggle to clap his hands in unison with Hans and Franz.
— At the end of the previous season, I stated that I was already getting tired of Hans and Franz after only one season, and that I don’t find their act all that funny anymore. Thankfully, THIS season made me come around on them. They had a fairly strong year, and it also helps that they weren’t overused like they were the previous season.
STARS: ***½


TAMMY WYNETTE SINGS THE CLASSICS
with “Stand By Your Man” lyrics

— Hilarious how Jan’s singing the same lyric, “Stand by your man”, to the melody of various classical songs. The part with her doing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is particularly funny.
— Excellent performance from Jan here.
STARS: ****½


TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
he can drive, just not very well

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Very funny visual of the obvious cat puppet steering the wheel.
— There’s the very first instance of what would go on to define these sketches: “Toonces, look out!” (*cut to stock footage of a car driving off a cliff*)
— Wow, the sketch is over already? I’m surprised how short and simplistic this first Toonces installment was.
— Oh, never mind, there’s an extra scene now, with a “preview” of next week’s Driving Test episode.
— An overall solid first installment.
STARS: ****


TO MY LOVE
host recites an ode that details what he needs from his woman

— Plenty of great one-liners so far, especially the random “To walk beside me when I want to look like I’m not gay.”
— Another particularly good one-liner with “To make me horny when I’m not horny, and to watch me fall asleep.”
— This is in a similar vein to his classic A Holiday Wish sketch. This even has a similar darkly-lit fancy setting.
— Great ending with his missing wedding ring.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Runnin’ Down a Dream”


WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB tells the class of ’89 to stick it to Noriega with crack boycott

— As always, I love that they’re continuing the tradition of every season finale having an A. Whitney Brown commentary where he addresses that year’s graduating class. We never got to see him do one for the class of 1988, though, since that season got cut short by a writers’ strike.
— A. Whitney, to the class of ’89: “You can be sure ‘the education president’ feels bad that so many of you are functionally illiterate. Not as bad as he’d feel if you had an abortion, but still…”
— Good ending to A. Whitney’s commentary with him calling for a nationwide crack boycott in every high school and junior high to get Manuel Noriega out of office.
— Dennis: “Do you know how personally ungrounded I feel living in a world where Ricky Schroeder has changed his name to Rick?”
— Oh, so THIS is when news started getting out about Rob Lowe’s now-infamous sex tape with a minor, which Dennis says Lowe probably only did “to divert our attention away from that Oscar thing”, which is now the third dig SNL has got in at Lowe’s horrific Snow White opening number at that year’s Oscars.
— After the last two Updates in which Dennis’ jokes weren’t as strong as usual, he had a nice return to form tonight with plenty of great jokes.
STARS: ****


THE NEW CONEHEADS
LOM previews new issue-oriented Coneheads skits; Timothy Busfield cameo

   

— Though they haven’t made it clear yet why they’re doing this, seeing this sketch brings back great memories of how much I enjoyed reviewing the original Coneheads sketches back when I covered that era. That was one of my favorite recurring sketches from those years.
— The casting of Phil and Nora as the new Beldar and Prymaat makes sense, because in several ways, Phil and Nora are this cast’s version of Dan and Jane.
— Nice touch with Victoria having a trendy clock hanging on her head.
— All Coneheads in unison, when asked where they’re from: “France. Yeah that’s the ticket. We’re from France.”
— Good mock-serious segment with Lorne announcing the New Coneheads are coming to SNL next season, tackling serious issues of our time.
— Funny detail of a cone-shaped mirror that Phil’s Beldar looks into.
— The Thirtysomething parody scene was okay, though incredibly dated nowadays. (Speaking of which, we’ll be coming to another possibly-now-dated Thirtysomething parody in the following season’s premiere that I’ll be covering tomorrow) The camera angle and positioning of the actors was strange (last screencap above), but I’m guessing that’s just spoofing the staging in the real Thirtysomething.
— Amusing ending to the letter of approval from Dan Aykroyd, plugging the upcoming Ghostbusters 2.
STARS: ****


GET TO KNOW ME
JOL says “Get to know me!” like DOP & host did; Paulina Poriskova cameo

— Good to see a more fleshed-out, sketch version of Jon’s famous Weekend Update routine.
— A rare on-camera Don Pardo appearance!
— Phil’s Lee Iaccoca impression is very funny.
— I love Steve’s manic delivery in this, as well as his line about how he used to be a two-bit comic with an arrow stuck through his head, “and now I’m starring in Parenthood directed by Opie!”
— Pardo leaning into the shot while gleefully exclaiming “I’m on TV!” is priceless.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Fallin'”


SPROCKETS
Dieter’s lover Heike (NOD) reviews the performance of a clown

— Hmm, the monkey on a pedestal is front-and-center next to Dieter right at the start of the sketch. The monkey is usually farther away from Dieter, and is usually not revealed until about halfway through the sketch.
— This is the first time where Dieter’s guest is an equally-weird German instead of an American being weirded out by Dieter.
— “Your story has become tiresome.” Never have I been more happy to hear those words, as Nora’s long-winded story was honestly starting to kinda get on my nerves before Dieter cut it off with the aforementioned catchphrase.
— Dieter’s “Touch my monkey” pleas are now starting to have the over-the-top delivery people now remember, rather than the deadpan low-key delivery he used for it in the first installment.
— I found tonight’s overall installment surprisingly underwhelming. Nora’s character didn’t work for me, and this sketch didn’t have much else going for it. Felt empty for a Sprockets sketch. I’ll just chalk this up to a case of Early Installment Weirdness and assume this is the result of these Sprockets sketches still trying to find their voice.
STARS: **


SIDES
host demonstrates his good & bad sides, photographically speaking

— Hmm, from my past viewings of the rerun version of this episode, I swear I recall Steve performing this sketch on the home base stage. However, in the live version I’m currently watching, he’s performing it on the New Coneheads set. They must’ve later replaced this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Out of this and the Ode To My Love piece from earlier tonight, I wonder which one was originally slated for the monologue slot before Gilda passed.
— I love how he names each side of his face after famous Mels.
— Nice touch with him exiting the scene with his good side facing the camera.
STARS: ****


SMOKERS CABLE NETWORK
Smokers Cable Network news anchors present items related to tobacco

— The sunrise stock footage played during the Smokers Cable Network opening title (screencap below) looks like the same sunrise footage they’d later use in the opening titles of the Stuart Smalley sketches.

— I like Nora’s rating system.
— Al’s brief segment was hilarious.
— Steve’s entire commentary just being him horribly coughing his way through his unintelligible speech was pretty funny.
— I wasn’t expecting much from this overall sketch at first, thinking it would be a pretty flimsy bit, but it ended up being executed well.
STARS: ***


HAVE A BITCHIN’ SUMMER
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein say goodbye for the summer

— Good intro from Steve announcing that, to commemorate the last show of the season, Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein will sing a goodbye song.
— Haha, “Have A Bitchin’ Summer”.
— Good touch with Tonto blowing a whistle mid-song.
— I recall someone on an SNL messageboard once pointing out that during the close-up of each of the three performers as they’re singing, they all look as if they had been crying shortly before this sketch started (because of Gilda’s passing, maybe?). However, watching the sketch now, I’m not noticing that at all. There’s no visible moistness under any of the guys’ eyes or anything like that.
— Funny and oddly charming as always. Nice way to end the season.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

— Steve: “I wanna thank all my guests, the most beautiful woman in the world: Jon Lovitz…”
— We get a nice mention from Don Pardo’s voice-over that the show’s next live broadcast will be SNL’s 15th anniversary special in late September (a week before season 15 begins), the beginning of a tradition of SNL holding a big anniversary special during some of their milestone years.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong finish to the season, completing a perfect streak of no episodes that I found supbar this season. We got plenty of great sketches tonight, some really memorable moments, and a heartfelt Gilda Radner tribute in the monologue.
— Season 14 as a whole was PHENOMENAL. The quality of most the episodes was very high, the consistency was very impressive, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no episodes at all that I wasn’t satisfied with. Every single episode worked for me, which is pretty much unheard of for an SNL season. Even my favorite seasons that I’ve reviewed earlier in this SNL project of mine (seasons 3, 4, and 10) each had at least one or two episodes I was disappointed by, and the same goes for my favorite seasons from later on that I haven’t covered yet. In addition to the high quality of season 14’s episodes, this fantastic cast was also firing on all cylinders and performing some of their greatest work, and the show also benefited from the mid-season addition of Mike Myers, who quickly began to make his mark with his stable of distinct and funny characters. All-in-all, I would argue that this is SNL’s greatest season of all-time.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Wayne Gretzky)
a slight step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1987-88)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 15 begins, with host Bruce Willis

Posted on

October 17, 1987 – Steve Martin / Sting (S13 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Ronald Reagan (PHH) clubs Robert Bork (JOL) a la The Untouchables

— Interesting build-up.
— From what I remember hearing, this is a parody of a scene from the movie The Untouchables, which came out that same year. I’ve never seen the movie myself, though I’m familiar with the original TV series from the 60s.
— The little-known debut of Dana’s George Bush impression. He kinda does a nasal voice here as well as a bit of a hand mannerism, but it’s nothing like how his Bush would later famously go on to be.
— Good sequence with Phil’s Reagan brutally beating Jon’s Bork with a bat.
— I liked Jon’s “It’ll take more than that to make me quit” after the bloody beatdown.
— Decent way to start the season, if not the most exciting way.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— It’s the same montage from last season.
— Kevin Nealon has been promoted from a featured player to a main cast member, and has gone from having just a still photo in the montage to now having a moving shot like the main cast members. (screencap below)

— The featured players, guests, and SNL Band’s still photos are now shown in black-and-white instead of in color.


MONOLOGUE
host’s big dance number “I Bite Down Hard” is shot from the waist-up

 

— While the home base stage is still the same from last season, there are some minor changes, mainly the removal of those pipe ladder-looking things (not sure what they were) on the left and right ends of the stage.
— Some really funny typical Steve Martin humor here.
— Interestingly, when talking about SNL, he nicely mentions the fact that “all the regulars are back; none of them were fired”, which must’ve been a big deal at the time considering the frequent cast turnover the show experienced from seasons 10-12.
— I liked the gag with a cue card error leading Steve to pronounce tonight’s musical guest as “Stingy”.
— We get a mention that there’s a technicians strike going on. What is it with so many strikes affecting season 13 anyway? Unlucky number 13?
— Hilarious how his song is randomly titled “I Bite Down Hard”.
— Great sequence with him dancing around the stage while the camera stays in one place the whole time due to the aforementioned technicians strike. I mentioned in earlier reviews that Steve’s style had mellowed down by the mid-80s, but in this I Bite Down Hard number, he’s coming off as his wild 70s self.
— And now the musical number has gotten even funnier with the use of obviously fake legs on the bottom of the screen.
— Overall, one of my favorite Steve Martin monologues.
STARS: ****½


GARY HART
Gary Hart’s effect on women- “You can’t get him out of your mind”

— At first, the dramatic camera angles and the use of Jan had me thinking this was going to be the famous Calvin Klein Compulsion commercial, but this instead turned out to be about Gary Hart. Good reveal. I guess the Compulsion ad doesn’t debut until later this season.
— I love the cinematography and music in this.
— Pretty good ad overall.
STARS: ***½


COMMON KNOWLEDGE
correct answers are those given by high school seniors

— Funny reveal that the answers were determined by high school seniors.
— I like Nora finally catching on to how the game is played.
— Dana’s hair has really grown out over the summer.
— The lightning round part is really good.
— A good laugh from the consolation prize being a yearly subscription to TV Guide.
— An overall strong and memorable gameshow sketch.
STARS: ****


SLIDE WHISTLES
slide whistle sound effects reflect thoughts of daters (VIJ) & (host)

— I’m liking this premise.
— LOL at Frank Stallone being one of the celebrities Steve’s company represents, which of course results in a down slide whistle sound effect from Victoria.
— Very good aversion with a neutral slide whistle sound effect being played when Victoria is confused over two of the celebrities Steve has mentioned.
— The orthodox bit with Jan and Jon was hilarious.
— Great ending reveal of Steve’s height.
STARS: ***½


THE NFL TODAY
during players’ strike, George Plimpton (DAC) has success
Sip-N-Save Beer’s You Make The Call- very many men on the field penalty

— What are those velcro sounds I keep hearing throughout this? Is that coming from Kevin’s mic?
— Dana’s George Plimpton impression is hilarious.
— Funny part about female football players, especially the picture of the old lady shown as one of the players.
— This sketch was good overall, though I didn’t like it quite as much as the NFL Today sketch from the previous season.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “We’ll Be Together”


PERMISSION TO SPEAK FREELY
officers of a ship regret giving underlings permission to speak freely

— Steve immediately going off on a heated, insult-filled rant towards Jon when given permission to speak freely is really funny.
— Haha, Steve is getting so into his rant that at one point, he visibly spits on Jon’s face by accident, which gets a very funny reaction from Jon.
— Wow, that’s it? I’m very surprised by how short this was. Probably a good thing, though, because this might’ve gotten old if it kept going on any longer.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
ALF exposes Bruce Babbitt’s [real] abuse of supermarket express lanes
VIJ sings “I Am Not A Bimbo” & dances on the newsdesk

 

— Dennis’ 80s mullet is looking more 80s than EVER this season.
— I see Dennis is continuing his running gag from last season where he uses a random unrelated punchline about George Steinbrenner firing Lou Pinella.
— Hmm, Al Franken eager to start a political scandal by exposing skeletons that politicians have in their closet. Can’t help but notice the unfortunate irony there.
— Interesting and pretty funny video with Al interviewing Bruce Babbit and then showing a videotape of Babbit causing trouble at a supermarket.
— Our very first instance of a Victoria Jackson Weekend Update song.
— Ah, it’s the classic “I Am Not a Bimbo”, probably Victoria’s most famous SNL song.
— Nice effortless catch from Dennis when Victoria kicks her skirt off into the air while standing on the desk.
— A fantastic overall song from Victoria.
STARS: ****


ADVENTURES IN THE LOST REALM
a dinosaur takes its time eating (JOL)

— The use of obvious dolls and puppets to represent Jon being eaten by a dinosaur is fairly funny.
— I like some of the cutaways to Phil and Steve doing and talking about trivial things during Jon’s slaughtering.
— Didn’t care for the ending.
STARS: **½


BULLETS AREN’T CHEAP
thrifty James Bond (host) battles musical guest

— I love this concept of Steve playing James Bond.
— Great use of Sting as a Bond villain.
— Why do the lights keep briefly dimming intermittently?
— Is Victoria playing herself? She was addressed by her own first name for some reason. Speaking of Victoria, she’s surprisingly been getting tons of airtime tonight. I’m not used to seeing her so prominent in an episode.
— Loved the Scorpion conversation between Steve and Sting.
— The close-up of Steve’s hand pouring the champagne back into the bottle during the lovemaking scene was a strong ending.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Little Wing”


PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
the musclemen (DAC) & (KEN) insult viewers

— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Interesting how this debuted as a 10-to-1 sketch, which shows they definitely had no idea how big these characters would become.
— The opening “Pumping Up With Hans & Franz” title graphic (first screencap above) is different from the one that would later be used in these sketches.
— Weird not hearing the usual big audience response when they first utter the phrase “We want to pump… (*clap*)… you up.”
— Strange seeing them in red outfits during the videotape clip.
— Overall, this was very generic compared to future installments of this sketch. Just from watching this inaugural installment, you’d never guess that these characters would go on to be so huge. Judging this inaugural installment on its own merits without comparing it to future installments, it was just okay but nothing special at all really. Kinda felt like a typical 10-to-1 sketch. These characters would definitely improve over time.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid season premiere. Very smooth-feeling too, where you can tell the show and cast had really found their stride after last season. Nothing was particularly terrible tonight, and we got at least four memorable segments with the monologue, Common Knowledge, Bullets Aren’t Cheap, and Victoria Jackson’s I Am Not a Bimbo song.
— There’s a story about how this is the only episode in SNL history to not have a dress rehearsal.  Supposedly, right when this episode’s scheduled dress rehearsal was to begin, a fire broke out in a nearby studio, forcing Studio 8H to be evacuated. SNL had to cancel the dress rehearsal, and that combined with the evacuation left the SNL cast and crew distraught.  (Sorta adds on to what I said earlier about this season being unlucky number 13) The live show later that night reportedly went on at Steve Martin’s insistence.  However, I once read an online post from an SNL fan who claimed that story is mostly false.  Said fan was supposedly an audience member for this episode’s dress rehearsal and explained that, while it’s true that a fire indeed broke out in a nearby studio right before dress rehearsal and forced an evacuation, the dress rehearsal still went on after everyone was allowed back into 8H.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1986-87):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Sean Penn

Posted on

December 6, 1986 – Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, and Martin Short / Randy Newman (S12 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
stumblebums KEN, CHC, Steve, MAS attend meeting at the Gerald Ford Clinic

— Funny premise here, between a Gerald Ford Clinic and a Stumblebums Anonymous meeting.
— Hilarious entrance from Martin Short.
— I like how each host enters in a clumsier fashion than the last, culminating in an impressive long stretch of physical stumbles from Chevy. When it comes to doing the stumblebum routine, I see Chevy’s still got it at this point.
— Overall, a short but sweet opening, and a fun way to introduce tonight’s three hosts.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
a confident Steve proclaims “I’m Me!” as he marches through the studio

   

— For the first time this season, after the opening montage ends, we’re shown two NBC pages opening the backstage doors that have the SNL logo on them (screencap below), which leads into the camera zooming towards the home base stage as the host(s) makes their entrance. This would go on to become a regular thing for pretty much the remainder of this season, I believe.

— Boy, it’s an amazing sight, seeing these three guys onstage hosting together.
— Chevy mentions his recent rehab stint, which Dennis Miller previously hinted at during his sign-off in the season premiere’s Weekend Update (“Good luck, Chevy; you are in our thoughts”).
— Great bit with Martin trying to forcefeed painkillers to a reluctant Chevy.
— Steve wistfully mentions he hasn’t stood on this stage in a long time. Indeed, aside from a cameo at the end of an Eddie Murphy-hosted episode from 1982, this is Steve’s first hosting stint since way back in the original era. I can only imagine how excited SNL fans in 1986 must’ve been when hearing the news that Steve was finally making his hosting return. Until this point, it was probably assumed that Steve was taking the Buck Henry stance of retiring as a host to remain loyal to the original cast.
— LOL at Martin humorously shoehorning his great Katherine Hepburn impression into his pep talk to Steve.
— Some aspects of Steve “It’s Me” song, especially the solo from stage manager Joe Dicso and the visual of the cast marching behind Steve as he goes around the studio, remind me so much of a certain famous “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” musical number he would later do in his 1991 hosting stint.
— Funny part with Steve encountering a lookalike in the audience doing Steve’s 70s shtick, complete with an arrow-through-the-head prop.
— Love how in Lorne’s brief appearance, he just deadpan-ly asks “Are you about through, Steve?”
— Overall, wow, what an incredible monologue. While I found it kinda strange how it eventually just turned into a big-ol’ Steve Martin showcase halfway through, leaving the other two hosts in the dust, I’m not complaining because the Steve Martin showcase was very fun, Chevy and Martin each got their individual moment in the spotlight early on, and the overall monologue was fantastic. I loved the extensive staging of this whole thing.
STARS: ****½


MASTERMIND
away from the cameras, Ronald Reagan (PHH) is a dynamic, effective leader

— The debut of Phil’s Ronald Reagan impression. Out of the many people who’ve portrayed Reagan on SNL, I’ve always considered Phil’s take to be the quintessential version.
— Great Reagan make-up on Phil, giving him the face wrinkles, turkey neck, and everything. We’ve come a long way from Randy Quaid’s Reagan impression just the year before, where the only thing the make-up people did was just slick his hair back, which did NOTHING to help his non-resemblance to Reagan.
— There’s the famous turn after Nora leaves, where Phil’s “doddering” Reagan is immediately revealed to actually be a brilliant, complex, stern man in charge.
— Amusing seeing Dennis with his trademark 80s hair greased down into a normal, neat style. (third-to-last screencap above)
— I absolutely love how when being told he has to take a photo with a girl scout, Phil’s Reagan angrily responds “DAMN!” and “This is the part of the job I hate!”
— Haha, now he’s speaking in fluent Arabic over a phone speaker.
— We also get the debut of Dana’s hilarious Jimmy Stewart impression. For some reason, I hadn’t remembered that part of this sketch.
— Overall, a masterpiece. This is among some of SNL’s greatest political satire, and Phil was amazing to watch here. Definitely one of his all-time best performances, which is really saying something.
STARS: *****


COUCH CUSHIONS
(CHC)’s sofa search for the channel changer turns up missing valuables

— I’m liking the increasingly absurd and excessive number of things found in the couch cushion, especially the black bananas.
— And now this has gotten even funnier with the skeleton of the family dog.
— Funny random Paul Williams cameo as the latest thing found in the couch. [ADDENDUM: According to commenter Jurb, that was actually Marc Shaiman playing Paul Williams.]
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Longest Night”


THE EGGSHELL FAMILY
a cautious clan deals with an incoming phone call

 

— Funny how the family appears to be playing Scrabble, considering Scrabble letters are one of the things found in the couch during the Couch Cushions sketch.
— Not sure how to feel about this sketch so far.
— Yeah, I’m not liking where this has been going.
— Some awkwardness from Steve during the sketch-ending audience applause. It looked like he mouthed an out-of-character “What was that?” to Martin. I’d like to think that was Steve second-guessing the material he had just performed, because boy did I not care for this sketch. This just didn’t work, despite the performers’ best efforts.
STARS: *½


A HOLIDAY WISH
Steve delineates increasingly-selfish Christmas desires

— A very famous piece that’s often included in SNL’s annual Christmas compilation special.
— Loved the line “First would be the crap about the kids…”
— Hilarious line about an extended 31-day orgasm.
— Very funny how overly complicated the wishes are getting, and how he’s debating with himself which wish he should put first.
— Overall, a true classic, and a very quintessential Steve Martin piece.
STARS: *****


WEEKEND UPDATE
co-anchor CHC tracks Ronald Reagan’s rapidly-declining approval rating
DEM’s Iran-Contra See n’ Say refuses to incriminate itself
press secretary Tommy Flanagan bluffs about Iran-Contra

— Oh, we get the return of Chevy at the Update desk, this time being Dennis’ co-anchor.
— Hilarious punchline from Dennis about comedian Gallagher still being a jerk.
— Chevy’s Reagan approval rating poll bit fell completely flat.
— Ha, and just now, Dennis acknowledged the same thing I pointed out above, by sarcastically saying “Thank you, Chevy; exciting story there.”
— God, Chevy and Dennis’ “chemistry” is painfully awkward. Dennis’ hip 80s, self-aware, meta style clashes terribly against Chevy’s old-school, professional, mock-straitlaced style. Doesn’t help that Chevy’s not exactly on his game in tonight’s Update.
— The “Congressional Subpoena See-and-Say” bit initially seemed like a promising idea, but didn’t work in its execution.
— Yet another Tommy Flanagan appearance.
— Flanagan’s line about his mistress being Jeane Kirkpatrick was the only real laugh I’ve gotten in his commentary so far.
— Flanagan’s overall commentary was pretty lackluster. It’s beyond obvious that this character is past his prime, and even the studio audience didn’t seem as into his bit tonight as they usually are.
— Chevy’s coming off a little marble-mouthed at times, which I’ve noticed often seems to be the case in a lot of his guest appearances on SNL (the biggest example being his disastrous season 5 hosting stint, particularly his legendarily horrific performance in the “You Can’t Win” gameshow sketch). It’s strange, because his delivery was usually so clear and calm back when he was a cast member.
— Funny ad-lib with Dennis saying (regarding him and Chevy) a tongue-in-cheek “How’s that for witty banter between us?” At least he seems to be fully aware of the awful chemistry between him and Chevy.
— Ugh, stop with the cutaways to the approval rating poll.
— While I want to appreciate the fact that Dennis is having fun with his and Chevy’s clashing styles, it’s cringeworthy seeing Dennis doing his trademark high-pitched laugh and head-bobbing during Chevy’s straitlaced jokes.
— Overall, this Update was a freakin’ mess. While there were a few funny news jokes from Dennis, all of his side gags fell flat, the Tommy Flanagan commentary was the same old tired stuff we’ve been seeing ad nauseam from this character, none of Chevy’s bits worked at all, and the “chemistry” between both anchorpersons was an experiment gone terribly, terribly wrong. Overall, easily the weakest Dennis Miller Weekend Update I’ve covered so far.
STARS: **


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
Corazon Aquino (JAH) isn’t interested in girl talk

— Wow, I’m surprised they waited this long to have Pat Stevens make her first appearance of the season, considering how oft-used she was last season. Unlike with Tommy Flanagan, SNL seems to be aware that they need to severely dial back the frequency of Pat Stevens’ appearances.
— The pre-interview portion of tonight’s installment didn’t work for me at all. Just felt like Pat Stevens was treading the same old ground she’s already covered before.
— Pat asking Jan’s Aquino about the 3,000 pairs of shoes is pretty funny.
— I loved Jan-as-Aquino’s facial reaction to being asked how her husband (who was assassinated years ago) is currently doing.
— Overall, some laughs, but by this point, this recurring sketch feels like it’s run its course. That probably doesn’t end up being true in the long run, because I recall there being some funny installments in later episodes to come (e.g. the Barbara Bush/Kitty Dukakis interview with Phil and Jan).
STARS: **


HALSEY & ROARKE, BRITISH CUSTOMS
British customs agents (Eric Idle) & (DAC) inspect suspicious items

— ERIC IDLE! Very random but awesome.
— While this sketch is in a not-too-late time slot in the rerun version I’m watching, this originally aired as the final sketch of the night, which is INSANE. Why in the world would you bury a freakin’ Eric Idle cameo at the end of an episode?!? SNL probably would’ve been better off saving his cameo for a more conventional episode, because I feel like the novelty of having Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Chevy Chase all hosting together caused Eric Idle’s big cameo to get lost in the shuffle and become an afterthought on SNL’s part.
— This sketch is pretty funny so far, and I like seeing Eric and Dana teamed together.
— Funny how they believed Martin’s very obvious lie.
— Overall, a decent sketch, though it started feeling a little one-note after a while and wasn’t as great as an Eric Idle-starring sketch should’ve been.
STARS: ***


THE DEVIL & ED GRIMLEY
Mephistopheles comes to Ed Grimley’s apartment to steal his soul

— Ed Grimley!
— I like how his mere mention that it’s time to play the triangle receives audience applause in anticipation.
— Haha, and there goes Grimley’s hilarious triangle dance.
— Great sudden inclusion of Jon’s Mephistopheles. I always like when recurring characters from different eras meet.
— Nice touch with one of the relatives Grimley mentions being his Uncle Basil, which is the character Howard Cosell memorably played in the final Ed Grimley sketch from Martin’s tenure as a cast member.
— Fantastic turn with Grimley using his framed Pat Sajak photo to ward off Mephistopheles.
— An okay ending with Grimley and Mephistopheles doing the triangle dance together.
STARS: ****


CHURCH POTLUCK LUNCHEON
Church Lady & Minister Bob (CHC) act superior at a potluck luncheon

— Good change of pace seeing Church Lady outside of the Church Chat setting.
— Church Lady has some really funny comments to Victoria.
— Yes!  We get the debut of Church Lady’s priceless superior dance, which is a riot.
— Good turn with Jan showing up drunk and bitter towards Church Lady.
— Certain aspects of this sketch strangely remind me of future cast member Nancy Walls’ first Gail Lafferty sketch (the bake sale character who constantly threatened other ladies with an ass-kicking) from 10 years later. Both sketches even look like they have the same set, and both sketches even have a walk-on from the host playing a minister (Chevy in this sketch, Tom Arnold in the Gail Lafferty sketch).
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Roll With The Punches”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fairly solid episode, though not quite as strong as I was expecting with this spectacular trio of hosts. The biggest highlights of this episode were phenomenal (monologue, Mastermind, A Holiday Wish), but there were a few things that REALLY didn’t work for me (The Eggshell Family, Weekend Update, portions of The Pat Stevens Show), and the overall show didn’t feel like the classic it should’ve been. Still, I can’t complain much because I certainly enjoyed most of the show.
— The three hosts came off very fun and it was nice seeing them blend in with this cast during the sketches. It was particularly good to see Steve Martin on the show again after such a long hiatus, as his return reminded me of how much fun I had reviewing his frequent episodes from the original era. Sure his style by this point in the mid-80s has noticeably become more toned-down and mellow than this manic style from the 70s, but he’s still as funny and reliable as ever. I’m glad he goes back to being a frequent host after this episode. I’d also like to add that Chevy Chase came off a little more likable tonight than he usually does in his hosting stints. I’ve never heard any backstage stories about him acting nasty towards this season’s cast like he’s acted towards other casts, so I’d like to think that recently coming out of rehab humbled his ego and kept him in check for a while. Maybe the fact that he had two people co-hosting with him also had something to do with that.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Robin Williams):
— a slight step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Steve Guttenberg

Posted on

May 17, 1980 – Steve Martin / Paul and Linda McCartney, 3-D (S5 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
via satellite, Father Guido Sarducci waits outside McCartneys’ London pad

   

— I liked Don Pardo’s opening “Day 122 of Paul McCartney without marijuana” announcement.
— Only Jane at the Update desk? Where’s Bill?
— From what I’ve heard about this episode, Father Guido Sarducci really IS being broadcast live from London for this episode.
— Ha, Sarducci rocking the 1980 Bo Derek braids and beads.
— Sarducci throwing stuff at Paul McCartney’s window to wake him up is fairly funny.
— Tonight’s LFNY is said by a random English milkman! One of the very few LFNYs in SNL history that was uttered by an unidentifiable person.
STARS: **½


MONOLOGUE
host talks about his ideals in the form of “What I Believe”

 

— Who were those two guys seen running off the home base stage right before Steve made his entrance? (screencap below)

— I loved Steve slow-strutting his way onto the monologue stage while the theme music was still playing.
— Is it just me, or is this the third monologue where he announces in a mock-serious voice that he’s “getting out of the comedy business”? I know he definitely said it in his monologue from earlier this season, and I think he said it in one of the previous seasons as well.
— Loved his random line about “Uncle Todd, who waves his penis”.
— His “What I Believe” speech is great and has so many hilarious random one-liners.
— Overall, one of the funniest monologues Steve has done so far.
STARS: ****½


REAL INCREDIBLE PEOPLE
not-very-exotic citizens are on display

     

— I’m assuming this is a take-off of the then-popular show “That’s Incredible!”.
— Very delayed entrance from Bill. He looks funny in that wig and mustache, though.
— Ha, all five of these people are the HOSTS?
— Hey, it’s Akira Yoshimura, playing a character with his real name.
— Humorous how the “incredible” things about the people on display are just mundane, everyday things like eating sushi and reading before bed.
— Lots of fantastic energy from the five hosts.
— LOL at the hosts’ amazement over a man having “very dark brown skin”.
— Good part with the fake audience members being interviewed.
STARS: ****


THUGS
(GIR) & (JAC) clean up the mess made by their sons during a home invasion

   

— The way Bill and Steve busted into the apartment at the beginning had shades of X-Police.
— Bill and Steve are hilarious as the goofy robbers.
— Funny turn with Gilda and Jane showing up as the robbers’ mothers to clean up the mess their sons made during their robbery.
— Jane’s sudden gunshot at Harry genuinely made me jump.
— I loved the part with Gilda and Jane forcing Laraine and Harry to lean forward….. so they can fluff the pillows behind them.
— Overall, a decent sketch, but it kinda dragged in the middle when Jane and Gilda were cleaning up the place.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
3-D performs “All-Night Television”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci sings a Beatles medley to get McCartneys’ attention

   

— Funny bit from Bill at the beginning, with him randomly asleep on the desk during Pardo’s intro.
— I’m getting tired of this season’s running segments with Father Guido Sarducci waiting to interview someone. They already did this earlier this season with him trying to interview Nixon.
— Sarducci singing a medley of Beatles songs over the bullhorn is going on WAY too long.
— Oh, man, the Sarducci segment is how they end Update tonight?
— During Jane’s sign-off, Bill’s not there at the desk. Guess this is yet another Update this season where he had to duck out early to get in costume for the next sketch.
— Overall, a blah Update. An unusual amount of Bill and Jane’s jokes fell pretty flat, and the long Sarducci segment killed any remaining momentum.
STARS: **


THE HOMINIDS
caveman (BIM) feels threatened by more-evolved (host)

     

— Great caveman make-up job on the performers, especially Bill. I now see why Bill had to duck out of Update early, as it must’ve taken several minutes for the make-up people to give him that caveman look.
— Interesting voice on Gilda.  I’ve never heard her sound like that before.
— Bill’s loud scream after walking on the fire was hilarious.
— Laraine bluntly saying “You make me wet” to Steve was a riot. I’m surprised the censors would allow that in 1980.
— Fitting how Steve’s the only one talking in a normal non-caveman speech pattern.
— Pretty funny ending with Bill repeatedly slamming a boulder into a sleeping Steve.
STARS: ***½


LONDON REMOTE
Paul & Linda McCartney dodge Father Guido Sarducci’s marijuana questions

  

— Ugh, Father Guido Sarducci is STILL trying to wake McCartney up. I’m so over these segments.
— Hey, Paul McCartney has finally shown up!
— Double ugh at Sarducci asking Paul “If you could be any animal, what would it be?” It wasn’t funny when he asked that question to Nixon earlier this season, and it ain’t funny now.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul & Linda McCartney perform “Coming Up” in music video

   


REAGAN DINNER
Ronald (HAS) & Nancy (JAC) Reagan have dinner with some reporters

 

— Harry’s Reagan impression looks very different from the last time he played him, and he’s wearing a ton of make-up this time. I guess it’s true that Harry was really the very first SNL cast member to make a big deal about going out of his way to look like the celebrities he impersonates, something that upcoming cast member Joe Piscopo would take to even further extremes in the next SNL era. A huge contrast to the very early SNL days of putting little-to-no effort to make people like Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd look like the politicians and celebrities they play.
— Weird seeing Jane as Nancy Reagan. I never knew she played her.
— This sketch is very quiet so far.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? Wow, what was the point of this? This was very dull, fell really flat, and I got almost no laughs from it. A waste of Harry’s Reagan impresion.
STARS: *½


STRETCH MARKS
bitter loneliness in aging Patti Caldwell’s (GIR) album

   

— The “Stretch Marks” title is already making me like this sketch.
— Gilda’s lip-syncing is really obvious.
— Never mind, I guess the blatant lip-syncing is intentionally part of the joke, since Gilda now seems to be going out of her way to make some parts of her singing look very out-of-sync.
— The “F-U-L-L-F-I-L-L-M-E-N-T” song was hilarious.
— Overall, a very funny sketch and a great Gilda showcase, the latter of which feels almost rare at this late stage in Gilda’s SNL tenure. She’s surprisingly been fairly quiet this season, I guess due to spending so much time doing her one-woman stage show “Gilda Live!” throughout this season.
STARS: ****½


DEER CROSSING
buck (host) & doe (GIR) wait for traffic to let up at a deer crossing

   

— I like the idea of this.
— What the hell kind of animal is Garrett supposed to be dressed as?
— Oh, he’s a cow, I see.
— It’s over already? Well, that certainly went NOWHERE. The idea of the sketch was cute, but absolutely nothing interesting happened in it. I didn’t laugh a single time. It ended up being another sketch tonight that left me asking myself “That’s it? What was the point of that?”, much like the Reagan sketch.
STARS: *½


GOODNIGHTS
crew breaks down location for London satellite shoot

   

— According to Steve, they have a lot of time to kill.
— Laraine doesn’t look very happy. I’ve noticed that about her in several goodnights this season, actually.
— For some reason, the scrolling ending credits are in a yellow font tonight instead of the usual white font.
— I love the cutaway to the SNL crew in London putting away their equipment.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A very up-and-down, inconsistent episode. Some things were very strong, some things were terrible. Actually, come to think of it, the show started out really well, as most of the pre-Update material was good and featured some great energetic performances. The inconsistency of the night seemed to start halfway through the episode, where even Update was pretty flat. There were two solid sketches after Update (Stretch Marks and The Hominids), but some of the weaker sketches in that half were some of the most laughless flops the show has had in a while.  And it goes without saying that I could’ve done without so much Father Guido Sarducci throughout the show.
— This was Steve Martin’s final time hosting during the original SNL era. I’m gonna miss seeing him working with this cast, which to this day still remains the cast he had the best chemistry with.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bob Newhart):
— about the same


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
(*sigh*) It’s the end of an era, folks. Buck Henry hosts the original cast’s final episode.

Posted on

October 13, 1979 – Steve Martin / Blondie (S5 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


MISCELLANEOUS
NBC is “Smart As A Peacock”


COLD OPENING
a doorman (GAM) turns away clergy at a Pope John Paul II (host) tour stop

     

— What was with the flashing “This Is Not A Repeat” disclaimer on the bottom of the screen?
— Oh my god, Garrett has a beard this season. And a very thick, graying one at that.
— I liked Jim Downey’s line about dry-cleaning a wine stain on the Pope’s outfit.
— LOL at Bill as “Monsignor Eldini”, a variation of his Jerry Eldini character.
— The audience immediately applauds Gilda’s walk-on.
— I’m surprised Steve’s appearance ended up being so short, but overall, this opening was a decent way to start the season.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— So far, this appears to be the same as season 4’s montage, though there’s some subtle differences right from the opening shot, where we get a new zoom-in on the old shot of the Statue of Liberty.
— We will eventually get a brand-new montage this season, but it’s not until mid-season.
— For the first time in SNL history, the theme music has been modified. I feel like I’m in the minority, but I’ve always preferred this season’s theme music to the original one from the first four seasons. It’s more catchy, I like the energetic drumming, and I especially LOVE the guitar-strumming in the last quarter of the theme.
— Ah, now there’s more significant differences in the montage; I’m seeing several new shots now.

 

— Weird seeing Jane as the first cast member announced, with Aykroyd and Belushi gone.
— The cast shots are the same from last season, except they each have a new background design of little squiggly lines.

 

— There’s no featured players credited yet at this point of the season; I guess we’re getting them a little later on. Anyone familiar with this season knows that a countless number of writers would be promoted to featured player status this season, plus a brand-new cast hire: Harry Shearer. Despite not being credited yet, I’ve heard that Shearer does make his on-camera debut tonight. I’m eager to see him. When you get so used to seeing the same 70s cast season after season, it can get exciting seeing SNL finally add someone new to the cast. I felt that same excitement when Bill Murray made his debut a few seasons earlier (and like Shearer, Bill also went uncredited in his first episode).
— By the way, with no featured players credited and with Aykroyd and Belushi gone, the cast tonight consists of only FIVE PEOPLE. That’s pretty crazy.


MONOLOGUE
host dances as the SNL Band plays “Stompin’ At The Savoy”

      

— A new home base stage! This is the third consecutive season premiere where they’ve changed the home base, and from what I remember of this season, we’re getting yet ANOTHER new home base at some point mid-season.
— Steve demonstrating male model poses is fairly funny.
— I like Steve getting mad at the SNL Band for randomly drowning him out.
— Steve’s eventual dancing to the music is great.
— Cool strobe lights effect.
— Overall, that was awesome.
STARS: ****


CRAIG’S TRAVELER’S CHECKS
use Craig’s (JID) Travellers’ Checks- he never leaves his apartment

   

— I really like this idea, and Jim Downey is perfect for a role like this.
— Overall, a solid commercial.
STARS: ****


SPANISH TUTOR
Spanish tutor (host) visits (BIM) & (GIR) to give a free language lesson

    

— Bill’s deadpan responses to Steve are making me laugh.
— Right now, Bill looks like he’s trying not to crack up at Steve.
— Overall, this sketch was a little too long and drawn-out for my likes. There were a few highlights, mostly from Bill, but I don’t feel it was a great idea to place this as the lead-off sketch of the season.
STARS: **½


THE VANDALS
a juvenile delinquent Vandal’s (ALF) pranks victimize a Centurion (host)

     

— Hey, is that Harry Shearer doing the opening narration?
— I got a big laugh from the opening prank from a giggling Franken and… uh, who’s that with him? Another writer, perhaps?
— Funny premise.
— Loved Garrett’s delivery of his “your sandals take the cake” line.
— Okay, here’s the point of the show where Aykroyd and Belushi’s absence is starting to be felt. We’re seeing a whole bunch of male writers and extras in this sketch to make up for the lack of male presence in the cast.
— Franken’s pretty funny as the disgraced vandal, and Bill is hilarious as his angry dad.
— Speaking of Franken and speaking of the felt absence of Aykroyd and Belushi, isn’t there a story that Franken was late on his cue to enter this sketch because he was distracted thinking about how great his role would’ve been for Belushi? I didn’t notice any late entrance from Franken here, though. Am I thinking of a different sketch?
— I liked the sudden turn with Steve ordering his assistant (Tom Davis) to kill and behead the family right after they have exited the scene.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Dreaming”


RISE
Rise spray lifts host & Buck Henry [real] above restroom germs

   

— Liked Steve’s line “Your seat will never make contact with THEIR seat.”
— The visual of Steve slowly rising above the stall is pretty funny.
— A bearded Buck Henry cameo!
— Why no audience response to Buck? You’d figure they’d go nuts over the visual treat of seeing the two most frequent hosts of this era appearing side-by-side in a sketch together.
— Buck actually looks pretty cool with a beard.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
Father Guido Sarducci talks about merchandizing linked to the Pope’s tour
Father Guido Sarducci announces the Find The Popes In The Pizza Contest

       

— Weird seeing Bill with much shorter hair this season than usual.
— What’s that red flash on the Lilian Carter picture? (second screencap above)
— Bill getting caught singing “16 ounces in just one calorie” was random but funny. I assume what he was singing was a then-current commercial jingle.
— The “James Earl Ray/scratch-and-sniff greeting cards” joke was hilarious.
— When complaining about the Pope not getting paid for the use of his picture on t-shirts, Father Guido Sarducci says “First they did it to Mr. Bill, now the Pope”, which gets a great audience reaction. What was the Mr. Bill mention referring to?
— Sarducci has some pretty funny comments about the records put out by various popes.
— I love the whole “Find The Popes In The Pizza” contest.
— Overall, a much-better-than-usual commentary from Sarducci.
STARS: ***


GREAT MOMENTS IN ROCK HISTORY
with Carole King (LAN) lost in “You’ve Got A Friend,” (host) gets stabbed

     

— LOL at Steve suddenly getting mugged by Garrett out of nowhere.
— Garrett’s new graying beard makes him look more believable in a shady role like this.
— Ha, this is hilarious with a bleeding Steve’s ignored pleas for help while Laraine sings on.
— The “Call out my name” part was really funny.
— Steve’s frozen facial expression when dead is cracking me up.
STARS: ****


THE DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW
witnesses say Hamilton Jordan uses cocaine

   

— They put a lot more make-up on Bill than the last time he played Susskind.
— I still can’t get used to Garrett’s new beard. He probably doesn’t keep it for long, anyway.  Besides, how’s he gonna play any of his frequent drag roles with that big ol’ beard?
— Jane’s character is introduced as Audrey Peart Dickman, which is the name of one of SNL’s staff members from that time. This is actually the second time they’ve used that name for a Jane character, after a season 1 Weekend Update from the Chevy era where Jane played a guest commentator (in one of Chevy’s usual “make goofy faces behind a commentator’s back” bits).
— Is that red I keep seeing on Steve’s palms? Must be leftover fake blood from the preceding sketch.
— Not a very good sketch overall, and I can’t find anything to really say about any of the actual content of it.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Hardest Part”


THE BOLSHOI BALLET
Russian security ventures on-stage to prevent Bolshoi Ballet defection

   

— Harry Shearer! I’m happy to see his on-screen SNL debut.
— Right off the bat, Harry’s already proving to be an adept live performer, with his straight-laced “Thank you” ad-lib after one person in SNL’s audience randomly applauded in the middle of his speech.
— Gilda’s appearance makes me realize we haven’t been seeing much of her tonight. I had heard about her lack of airtime this season and how exhausted she often comes off, due to her filming her one-woman show/movie “Gilda Live!” during the course of the season.
— Boy, this ballet act is weird, but kinda funny so far.
— I like Jane in this.
— Steve’s palms are still looking really red-ish.
— Overall, this was well-performed, but I got kinda bored with it halfway though. This was nowhere near as funny as I initially thought it was going to be.
STARS: **½


THE ALL NEW MR. BILL SHOW
by Walter Williams- Mr. Hands foils retooling

       

— *groan*
— After being inundated with these in the back half of the previous season, this is the last thing I wanted to see on the season premiere.
— Hmm, the “All-New Mr. Bill”.
— These injuries are so predictable so far.
— The lighter fuel and magnifying glass bit is actually kinda funny.
— I did like the disco ball dropping on Spot at the end, especially the simple “thump” sound effect they used.
— Overall, I admit to kinda liking the format of this one and there were a few parts of the short I found okay, but I still found it hard to even chuckle at most of the Mr. Bill injuries, considering how burned out I’ve become on the redundant humor in these.
STARS: **½


WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?
tourists (host) & (BIM) wonder- “What the hell is that?”

   

— Ah, I instantly recognize which memorable sketch this is going to be. This has always been one of my favorites.
— Hmm, I don’t remember this having background music. The music is adding an interesting touch to this.
— Steve’s already funny in this, but Bill is making it even better doing his “talking out the corner of the mouth” routine.
— Such a unique sketch, and Steve and Bill are doing a great job making so much out of such an intentionally-meager setting.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

 

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Yep, the cracks are definitely starting to show. As I expected, I’m seeing instant signs of a decline in quality this season.
— This episode had its moments, including a creative closing sketch that’s one of my all-time favorites, but tonight had too many underwhelming parts for a season premiere in this era. There was also a bit of a sad feeling, as this episode is pretty much officially the beginning of the end for this era.
— The show also has a noticeably different feeling post-Aykroyd/Belushi; without them, tonight had a pretty empty aura and it feels strange seeing so many on-camera writers scrambling around, trying to pick up the slack. Bill Murray had a strong night, though, and I am looking forward to seeing him as SNL’s new utility guy this season. I also can’t wait to see more of new hire Harry Shearer.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1978-79):
— a fairly big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Eric Idle

Posted on

November 4, 1978 – Steve Martin / Van Morrison (S4 E4)

Sketches are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
Jimmy Carter (DAA) tries to convince us that “inflation is our friend”

— Dan: “Our economic system is screwed, blewed, and tattooed.”
— I liked Dan’s casual order over the phone to “roll off some of them 20s”.
— Yet another good line from Dan: “I believe the watchwords for the 80s should be: ‘let’s party’.”
— Overall, a pretty solid presidential address opening.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host gives trained animal BIM crackers for performing various stunts

     

— Haha at Steve making his entrance with his head in a vice.
— Heh, he’s not even aware of his head being in a vice, and wonders why he has a headache.
— Loved his bit about how he doesn’t smoke marijuana at dusk because that’s when “the little fat man would come”.
— Pretty funny with Steve treating Bill like a trained dog.
— Wow at the part with Bill successfully jumping through the fiery hoop. How’d he learn how to do that?
— After this and Steve’s last monologue with the magician routine, Steve and Bill have developed into nice little comedy team. And it’s a testament to Bill’s talents that he’s able to hold his own in a Steve Martin monologue back when Steve was in his prime.
STARS: ****


ELVIS PRESLEY’S COAT
live in concert, Elvis Presley’s Coat sings his greatest hits

   

— Ah, I’ve always heard about this fake ad.
— A pretty funny concept and good execution.
STARS: ***½


WHAT IF?
impact on WWII of flying Eleanor Roosevelt (JAC) is considered

   

— Hmm, Jane’s not the host this time like she was in the previous “What If” sketch.
— Some technical issues at the beginning: Steve’s microphone sounded muffled for a while, then there was a weird abrupt jump cut to Laraine when she wasn’t even saying or doing anything. It kinda looked like something was edited out there. (I’m watching the DVD version of this episode)
— The dramatization scene is okay so far; an improvement over the weak Napoleon/B-52 one from the first “What If” sketch.
— Eleanor Roosevelt flying while being bombed was a funny visual.
— Another technical error, with the camera randomly cutting to a shot of mail letters while Garrett was in the middle of speaking. I’m guessing that mail shot was supposed to be used later in the sketch for a mailbag segment, like the first “What If” sketch had.
— Yep, there’s the mailbag segment.
STARS: ***


THEODORIC OF YORK, MEDIEVAL JUDGE
medieval judge Theodoric of York tries (LAN) on devil-consortion charges

     

— Ah, I can already tell from the set and costumes that this will be our Theodoric of York sequel.
— Love Gilda’s performance as “Brungilda”.
— Boy, is Bill’s pig loud.
— Bill’s sudden scream when walking on hot coals made me laugh out loud.
— The audience applauds Belushi’s entrance.
— Very funny part regarding which body part of John’s will be cut off for committing adultery.
— This is the second time Theodoric of York has killed Jane’s daughter Laraine.
— Overall, not as classic as the original installment of this sketch, but this was still very enjoyable.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


WEEKEND UPDATE PREVIEW


WEEKEND UPDATE
Diana Ross (GAM) sings “Over The Rainbow” during an interview with BIM
BIM dons a “Stop The Shah!” mask & goes on about fascist knuckleheads
on-screen “Kill The Illiterates” text scroll contradicts JAC’s commentary
JOB’s comments about voter apathy grow into a rant about drug use

         

— A memorable “sponsored by” bit at the beginning with “Colonel Lingus; the southern fried chicken that takes a lickin’”.
— Not even a full minute into Update, and we’re ALREADY launching into another edition of Bill Murray’s Celebrity Corner.
— Oh my god at Garrett as Diana Ross.
— The Diana Ross segment was pretty funny, helped by Bill’s amusing interviewing skills.
— Bill’s “Stop the Shah!” mask bit was funny in how random and ridiculous it was.
— Loved the scrolling anti-illiteracy disclaimer during Jane’s rant defending illiterates.
— Strangely, a “coming up next” caption gag accidentally shows up onscreen when John begins his commentary. (screencap below) There seems to be quite a lot of technical errors in tonight’s episode.

— John makes another reference to his friend Steve Beshakis.
— And there’s the “but nooooo!”
— John’s rant has especially gotten funny when it turned to the topic of Mongolian hash.
— Overall, a solid Update; much better than the subpar one from the last episode.
STARS: ***½


FESTRUNK BROTHERS
while cruising in a bar, the Festrunks hit on (GIR), (LAN), (JAC)

    

— Oh, the Festrunk Brothers! Haha, they showed up out of nowhere, after the first minute of this sketch made me think it was going to be centered around Jane, Laraine, and Gilda as single ladies. Nice fake-out there.
— LOL at the Festrunks’ vibrating sex toy machine (a drill with a feather duster attached to the bit).
— Loved Steve’s comment about his and Dan’s “crispy” chest hair.
— Overall, another great Festrunk Brothers sketch.
STARS: ****


NERDS / HOSPITAL
Charles Knerlman & Todd fight over Lisa while visiting her in hospital

      

— The sketch begins with Garrett looking like he’s playing his character from the Nerds Science Fair sketch.
— Yep, it’s a Nerds sketch. Interesting setting for them tonight, in a hospital room.
— Mrs. Loopner: “Introduce me to your nice young negro friend.”
— Good to see the return of Steve as “Chaz the Spazz”.
— Funny fight between Todd and Chaz.
— Garrett in drag TWICE tonight??? Good lord, SNL writers…
— Hey, wait a minute! We saw Garrett earlier in this same sketch playing a male character! How’d he get changed so fast into a woman?
— Sweet ending with Gilda’s Lisa bringing out her teddy bear for comfort.
STARS: ***½


LOOKS AT BOOKS
author of Mauled (DAA) gives common-sense bear advice

   

— Hmm, I wonder if Jane playing the host in this sketch is the reason Steve took over her place as the host of tonight’s earlier “What If” sketch. They probably realized it would’ve been too redundant to have Jane play two talk show hosts in the same night… yet somehow, we’re NOT supposed to think it’s too redundant to see Garrett in drag twice in the same night???
— Haha, oh my god at Dan’s mauled face.
— That’s the whole sketch? Wow, that was literally only one minute long. Reminds me of very early season 1, back when the show regularly did quick little sketches (e.g. “Victims of Shark Bite” from SNL’s very first episode ever).
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE


RESTAURANT
waiter (DAA) annoys host & GIR with his impressions of them

 

— I like Dan quoting & referencing Steve and Gilda’s various catchphrases and characters.
— Whoa, the sketch abruptly gets cut off right when Steve’s in the middle of angrily telling off Dan’s character. The show must’ve run out of time. The preceding musical performance from Van Morrison also awkwardly ended while his song was still in progress.
STARS: N/A (incomplete sketch)


GOODNIGHTS

  

— Steve, while still on the set of the last sketch, announces that “we’ll finish this sketch on the next show I’m on in February; we had a technical problem tonight.” What was the technical problem? I did mention earlier that there seemed to be an unusual amount of technical errors popping up throughout the show.
— Also, IIRC, Steve never did end up hosting in February of this season. In fact, I believe the next time he hosted was the premiere of season 5, when Dan was no longer in the cast, which means they never got a chance to finish the cut-off sketch. Also, it’s kinda sad to come to the realization that tonight’s episode was the last time Steve would host during the Aykroyd/Belushi era. I had no idea earlier tonight that I was watching what would end up being the final Festrunk Brothers sketch (not counting their later cameos in recent decades).

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A consistently good episode, despite what happened to the last sketch. While it goes without saying that tonight couldn’t hold a candle to Steve’s legendary preceding episode with The Blues Brothers, this was still an enjoyable show in its own right. I wouldn’t call anything in this episode a classic, but every sketch worked and nothing got a rating below three stars. I also like how the recurring sketches that were used tonight placed the characters in brand-new settings (Theodoric of York as a judge, Festrunks at a bar, Nerds in a hospital room).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Frank Zappa):
— a huge step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Our second consecutive episode hosted by an SNL favorite; this time, it’s Buck Henry