Tag: The Neville Brothers

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December 15, 1990 – Dennis Quaid / The Neville Brothers (S16 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives Saddam Hussein a preview of the sounds of war

— Dana’s adding a lot of funny new little touches to his usual hand gestures as Bush.
— Great line about the simple lesson America learned from Vietnam: “STAY OUT OF VIETNAM.”
— Love the part with him doing imitations of various types of falling bombs.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— SNL would later replace both the theme music and monologue with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— A good laugh from Quaid demonstrating how his uncontrollable smile cost him a part in the movie “The Last Temptation of Christ”.
— Didn’t care for the ending, with his “I know what’s in tonight’s show, and frankly, we’re in trouble” joke. His iffy delivery of it didn’t help either. I wonder if that’s the reason why reruns of this episode show the dress version of this monologue. IIRC, he delivers that line a little better there.
STARS: **½


A DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY CHRISTMAS
album of holiday songs for troubled clans

 

— Here’s an absolute classic that’s deservedly been aired in many SNL Christmas compilation specials.
— So many laughs from the dysfunctional song lyrics, especially how they’re being delivered so cheerfully. I also like the various song titles that are scrolled by.
— And there goes my favorite part of this classic sketch, with Dana repeatedly singing the lyrics “Leave me alone, please go away, I’m doing fine, just go away” to the tune of “Carol of the Bells”.
— According to GettyImages, Jan didn’t wear a wig during the dress rehearsal version of this sketch (pic here). I can see why they ended up giving her a wig for the live show, as it makes her look much more convincing as a mother to Julia, Victoria, Mike, and Dana than how she looked with her real hair.
STARS: *****


SALLY
narcoleptic hunks (host), (PHH), (MIM)

— Despite the fact that she’s supposed to be playing one of the cheering ladies in the audience, Julia has a strangely unenthusiastic look on her face throughout this sketch, as if something was bothering her. She also keeps looking up at herself in the monitor for some reason.
— Not too great of a premise, but I did laugh at Phil falling out of his chair as he dozed off.
— The audience member in the black dress who asks a question (last screencap above) is Mike Myers’ then-girlfriend and future (ex-)wife.
— I liked Jan’s Sally Jesse Raphael getting overemotional when mentioning Mike’s character never having finished school.
— Jan as Sally: “I gotta admit, this is getting a little tiresome.” Is that meta commentary there? Because that line sums up this tepid sketch pretty well.
— I think the scene with Kevin as a narcoleptic exotic dancer is going on slightly longer in the live version I’m watching than it does in the rerun version.
STARS: **


EX-BOYFRIEND
members of (VIJ)’s family still adore her ex-boyfriend (host)

— Looks like the same kitchen set from the previous week’s Gross-Out Family sketch.
— Very good reveal of Kevin and Jan being the parents of Quaid’s ex-girlfriend, after the set-up of this sketch made you think they were HIS parents.
— Writer/pre-castmember Adam Sandler gets another early onscreen role, and almost steals the whole sketch as the little brother.
— Loved Quaid’s blunt “No” answer to Victoria after she pours her heart out to him (complete with background music) when asking if they can get back together.
— Victoria’s comical crying outburst (last screencap above) right before running out of the kitchen cracked me up.
— Great ending with the parents’ love for Quaid getting to the ridiculous point where they now decide to let him run the family business.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Brother Jake”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Annoying Man shows DEM how to make a coffee cake
Grumpy Old Man rails against shopping malls, Christmas carols, safe toys

— The photos of an angry George Bush (first two screencaps above) shown during Miller’s opening joke were a riot.
— Ha, Jon Lovitz making a cameo for the second episode in a row!
— Miller, when complaining to Annoying Man about his various habits: “The most annoying thing of all: you and Lovitz quit the show and then you’re back every damn week!”
— Great ending to the Annoying Man commentary, where Miller asking him how he’s able to sometimes use a dignified deep voice is answered by him exclaiming a Master Thespian-esque “ACTING!” I also noticed that right afterwards, Jon says “Goodbye, everybody, goodbye!” in his Evelyn Quince voice (his character in the “Tales of Ribaldry” sketches).
— Dana seems PARTICULARLY animated in tonight’s Grumpy Old Man commentary.
— Some truly great stories from Grumpy Old Man tonight, particularly how Christmas carols in his day only consisted of people screaming gibberish at the top of their lungs until they coughed up blood, and how children opening up Christmas presents in his day would immediately result in them either bursting into flames or losing a limb.
STARS: ***½


TALKING THROUGH TOUCH
Ernie Hitchens (MIM) & other massage students have personal problems

— Good characterization from Mike, even if he’s not particularly making me laugh here.
— Kevin’s eagerness to “touch” other couples is providing some good laughs.
— Loved Phil’s teeth-gritted delivery of “Let’s be careful not to piss around.”
— I like Farley’s pained groaning during his massage.
STARS: ***


MUSTANG CALHOUN
renegade pilot’s (host) reckless stunts aren’t limited to airplane tricks

— I love the cutaways to Quaid whooping like a maniac in the cockpit.
— Absolutely hilarious how the reckless actions Quaid is doing in the cockpit now involve him investing in shares, putting tin foil in the microwave, etc.
— More and more as it progresses, this sketch is getting freakin’ priceless. Phil’s angry outbursts in reaction to hearing what crazy stunt Quaid is now doing are killing me as well.
— This sketch would later be moved to the first half of this episode in reruns, which I definitely understand. One of my personal favorite sketches, even if it’s probably not widely considered a classic.
STARS: *****


SPROCKETS
Dieter sings Silent Night; Bavarian TV stars (host) & (CSR)

— Dieter: “I have become so jaded that someone should strike at my genitals with a toffee hammer.”
— I like the picture shown of each guest’s TV show, such as “Black American With a Gun”.
— After getting many big opportunities to shine in his first few months on the show, this is clearly around the time where Chris Rock’s airtime has taken a turn for the worse. He hasn’t had a lead role in weeks by this point and it’s starting to feel kinda rare to see him in any sketches (in fact, he didn’t appear AT ALL in the previous week’s Tom Hanks episode).
— I loved Rock’s angry delivery of “I’d whip that ASS!”, as well as his line about being the only black man in Germany.
— An overall disappointingly average Sprockets installment.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “River of Life”


SCHILLERVISION THEATRE
1952 holiday special is full of ads

 

— The human hair yarmulke ad was worth a good laugh.
— The mall Santa whiskey ad was okay.
— I usually can appreciate Schiller’s knack for recreating 1950s TV, but this overall film was a little meh. Kinda uninteresting and forgettable. A weaker version of the Schiller film from the Dennis Hopper episode a few weeks earlier, and I wasn’t even crazy about THAT one.
STARS: **½


THE SPECIALTY SONGS OF CAL MCLANE JR.
a jingoistic country album

— The idea was initially fairly funny, but this has gotten old fast and the redundancy of it isn’t working.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— An average episode. There were a few fantastic pieces, but a lot of the show was merely okay, and a few parts were pretty disappointing. I can’t complain too much overall, but this was unmemorable for a Christmas show. One can’t help but wish that the previous week’s far superior Tom Hanks episode was the Christmas episode of this season.
— With this being the one-year anniversary of me starting this ‘One SNL a Day’ Project, I just want to say that it’s been an amazing journey so far. It’s been such a fascinating experience chronologically going through SNL’s timeline episode-by-episode on a daily basis. This was a HUGE task to take on; in fact, when I first started this project, I had an undisclosed slight feeling of uncertainty and worry, not knowing if I would be able to commit to the project like I wanted to. Cut to a year later, and I’m now so proud to see how successful the project has been. It’s hard for me to believe the fact that it’s already been a full year since I’ve started this project, and the fact that I’ve gone through so many SNL episodes and eras in such a short amount of time. I’m also very proud and appreciative of the large number of followers and regular commenters that this project has gained. I look forward to continuing this incredible ‘One SNL a Day’ journey.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
We enter the year 1991, with host Joe Mantegna

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February 22, 1986 – Jay Leno / The Neville Brothers (S11 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
SNL executive producer Tommy Flanagan gives host a tour of the studio

 

— I’m already laughing from the start at Leno’s very 80s-looking outfit.
— Our first Mike the Dog sighting of the night. Only in season 11 would you have weirdness like a freakin’ dog being credited as a special guest.
— Second cold opening in a row to feature Tommy Flanagan.
— Fun way to show a tour of SNL’s backstage.
— The background Abe Lincoln that always appears in SNL’s backstage sketches actually gets acknowledged here, with Tommy Flanagan telling Leno that the Lincoln is a liar.
— I’m really enjoying the visual of Flanagan and Leno walking through the sets of various sketches that we’ll be seeing later tonight.
— Bad lighting at the end, where Jon’s face is completely obscured by the shadow of an Orbiter camera seat. (last screencap above)
— A decent cold opening, overall.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host does stand-up about TV shows, celebrity endorsements, Charles Manson

— Really good bit about the intelligence level of dating game show contestants.
— I liked the comment about a cup of coffee being a sedative to David Bowie.
— This stand-up routine is getting pretty long.
— At the end, the camera pans up to the SNL Band on the home base stage’s rooftop as they play the show to commercial. I believe this is the very first time in SNL history where a commercial break was preceded with a shot of the SNL Band playing, which would soon go on to be a regular thing starting next season. Pre-commercial shots of G.E. Smith rocking out on a guitar is one of many things that would define the late 80s/early 90s years of SNL.
— Overall, as someone who’s had a strong hate for Tonight Show-era Jay Leno, I was surprised to find myself actually laughing during this stand-up monologue. Looks like Leno actually used to be pretty funny in his pre-talk show-hosting days.
STARS: ***


TARGET EARTH
aliens from a less-advanced civilization act tough

— Robert’s probably overdoing it a bit with the smug facial expressions, but I’m liking his and Jay’s snide, entitled delivery as the aliens.
— I’m getting an unintentional laugh from the Ronald Reagan picture hanging on the office wall in the background, as it’s the same Reagan picture that Howard Hesseman famously mooned (and encouraged viewers to moon) in his February 1983 monologue.
— I love Randy getting angry about the two aliens’ smug attitudes when Nora and Dennis bring him to the realization of just how uncivilized the aliens’ planet really is.
— Jay and Robert’s mentions of their “advanced” civilization has some really funny lines, especially their “sophisticated network of dirt roads” and the “awesome power of our muskets!”
— The ending came off a little too drawn-out.
— An overall pretty solid sketch, and I liked all the funny details in the writing.
STARS: ***½


DINNER WITH MIKE
Mike The Dog [real] has dinner with an old friend (RAQ) in a restaurant

— Here’s our obligatory Mike the Dog-starring sketch.
— Strange but kinda interesting having a sketch featuring a dog in a co-starring role. He’s doing a pretty good job hitting all his cues.
— The bit with Randy receiving a doggy bag was kinda funny, but I’m really hard-pressed to find stuff to laugh at in this sketch so far.
— Overall, this just didn’t work for me. At best, it was more cute than funny. At worst, it was kind of a waste.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Big Chief”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers try “Living In America” during a flu outbreak
AWB says that there are no good guys in the Iran-Iraq war

— Loved Dennis’ bit about the total number of electoral votes Walter Mondale received in the 1984 elections.
— Here’s our obligatory pointless Weekend Update Dancers segment of the week.
— I’m starting to realize that while I love Dennis’ style, sometimes his jokes and one-liners are so fast-paced and random that before they can register with me, he’s already moved onto the next joke. It’s been happening quite a number of times tonight.
— A still-not-credited-as-a-featured-player A. Whitney Brown’s Big Picture segment officially becomes recurring in this episode.
— Loved A. Whitney’s one-liner about Iran wanting Iraq to change its name to “Boot-Licking Lackey of the Degenerate She-Devil”.
— I believe A. Whitney’s talk about Saddam Hussein is the very first time Hussein has ever been mentioned on SNL. You can tell by the way A. Whitney described him here that he wasn’t too well-known in the U.S. at the time.
— An overall good Big Picture commentary, though I didn’t find this one to be quite as strong as A. Whitney’s first one from a few episodes ago.
STARS: ***


STAR SEARCH
uppity spokesmodel (NOD); (DEM) & (JOC) do Olympia Cafe skit

— Looks like the same set they used in the Miss Pregnant Teenage America Pageant sketch from the Dudley Moore episode.
— When Randy’s Ed McMahon mentions some of the former Star Search winners, Sinbad was the only name I recognized. I never knew that Star Search was where Sinbad got his first big break.
— Interesting use of Terry.
— Too bad Terry’s scene ended up being weak.
— Funny visual of Randy’s Ed McMahon eating from a can of Alpo dog food. Other than that gag, however, I’m not caring for his McMahon impression at all.
— I got a good laugh from the meta bit with the “coffee shop” play turning out to be a blatant knock-off of SNL’s famous Olympia Cafe sketches from the original era. This was made especially funny by Dennis using his typical Dennis Miller delivery when cheesily spouting off the Olympia Cafe catchphrases (“No Coke, Pepsi” etc.).
— Jon’s overly-Jewish stand-up routine feels like something Billy Crystal would’ve done the previous season.
— Here’s the part of the sketch I remember the most from my past viewings: Damon Wayans as “The Angry Comic”. Also, it’s good to actually see Damon in a sketch for what feels like the first time in a while. I’d better enjoy Damon while he lasts, as tonight’s the last episode before a certain infamous incident in the next episode that gets him fired.
— Damon: “(sternly) A funny thing happened on my way down here tonight… I killed three white people!”
— Great blooper with the off-camera rimshot delay causing Damon to start cracking up, which he amusingly tries to hide by turning away from the camera (last screencap above).
— Love how Damon’s intimidating stare at the graphic of the judges’ scores instantly changed them into perfect scores.
— LOL at Damon telling Randy’s McMahon what exactly he plans to do with the prize money.
— Overall, a mostly weak and overlong sketch that Damon completely ran away with during his portion (which offers yet more proof that Lorne was foolish to eventually fire him). Other than him, this sketch didn’t have anywhere near enough laughs to justify its long length.
STARS: **


EVIL TWIN
mustache lets host become his evil twin “Wayne” when (JOC) won’t put out

— Some laughs from Jay displaying so much sensitivity to Joan.
— Decent reveal of Jay’s mustached “evil twin” just turning out to be an act.
— A surprisingly very short sketch overall. Not even sure what to think about it as a whole. I liked what it contained, but it felt like it was too short for its own good. I think it would’ve benefited from being more developed.
STARS: **½


STAND-UPS
a veteran comic (host) visits the observational stand-ups backstage

— Good to see the return of these characters.
— Interesting addition of Dennis to the group this time. By the way, Dennis has been getting tons of airtime tonight, which is surprising as it’s usually pretty rare to see him outside of Update.
— One of the comedy club’s promotional posters seen in the background showcases stand-up comedian Carol Leifer, which is an inside reference as she’s actually an SNL writer this season.
— Funny reaction from Damon after he flubbed his “unanswered mysteries” line.
— Great lines about Fred Flintstone’s feet.
— I like Jay as an old-school comedian talking about the differences between comedy in the old days and comedy today.
— Overall, another good installment of this sketch, though this felt like it was missing something without Tom Hanks, who was so damn good in the first installment.
STARS: ***


MAN BEAT
Lyle Alzado (RAQ) supervises (RDJ) during ad for Man Beat magazine

— What the heck IS this?
— No idea what to think of Terry’s flamboyant desk secretary character, though it’s getting a good audience reaction.
— Overall, yeah, I’m not sure what this sketch was going for, other than a whole bunch of implied homoeroticism.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Midnight Key”


THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BIFF AND SALENA
shy Biff (JOL) & Salena (JOC) talk to each other in her diner

— Boy, here we see Joan doubling down on the slow, mentally challenged-sounding voice that she’s had a bad tendency to rely on at times this season.
— So far, I have no idea what I’m watching, nor what to make of Joan and Jon’s characters.
— Okay, the ending “Ow!” “Sorry” exchange between Joan and Jon made me laugh.
— Overall, I have very mixed feelings about this sketch. On one hand, I can now see that this was attempting a sentimental, charming, softer piece, which I appreciate, but on the other hand, I couldn’t help but see unfortunate implications with these two characters, who came off “special”.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not too great. There was at least a higher number of good sketches than the last episode had, but there were still too many weak pieces and, like the last episode, no sketches stood out as particularly great. I’m also not crazy about how the show ended with two baffling, hard-to-figure sketches (Man Beat and Biff & Salena).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jerry Hall):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Griffin Dunne