Tag: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

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May 15, 2010 – Alec Baldwin / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S35 E22)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

OIL SPILL PRESS CONFERENCE
Tony Hayward (BIH) lists absurd ideas to stop Deepwater Horizon oil spill

— I love Jason’s little “We’re baaaaaack” early on.
— I’m really enjoying the accent Bill’s using.
— Some decent laughs from the absurd ideas of how to stop the oil spill, such as “Dolphins With Mops”.
— Bill’s delivery of the line “we will get back to do what we do best: robbing you blind at the gas pump” made me laugh, and deserved a better audience reaction.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host shunts Steve Martin-on-tape [real] & gives SNL commencement address

— Our obligatory Betty White mention, with Alec Baldwin mentioning in a jokingly bragging manner that he’s hosted 14 times more than Betty.
— Alec mentions he’s now tied Steve Martin in number of SNL hosting stints, and we get a welcome callback to the famous SNL “rivalry” between Alec and Steve.
— Second monologue in these past five episodes to have a Steve Martin cameo.
— Another Betty White reference, with Steve humorously thanking Facebook Mexico for campaigning for him to appear in this monologue.
— I like Steve re-activating the TV monitor he was on that Alec had just turned off.
— Interesting premise of an “SNL commencement address”, which is very fitting for a season finale.
— Meh, Alec’s commencement speech is kinda losing me.
— Okay, I did like the Charlie Sheen twist just now at the end of the commencement speech.
— When telling us Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are here, Alec doesn’t follow it with the usual “Stick around, we’ll be right back” final words. The monologue instead just ends without him saying it.
STARS: **½


GREAT DAY
coked-up (ANS) blithely wrecks his life; Tom Petty cameo

— Already some big laughs right from the start of the song performed by a coked-up Andy.
— A great “HEY, GET THE (*BLEEP*) OFF ME!!!” outburst from Andy when one of the backup dancers innocently taps him on the shoulder.
— This already-funny song has now gotten even more hilarious when the tempo has gotten much faster in an insane way.
— Good way to include both the host and musical guest.
— A priceless shot of Andy suddenly saying “OR WAS IT?!?” into the camera with a cartoonishly demonic face and voice.
STARS: ****½


ARIZONA EVENINGS
incompetent bucktoothed script supervisor Starfish (KRW) ruins soap opera

— Meh at the reveal of this new wacky Starfish character (who thankfully never goes on to become a recurring character). From the traits we’re seeing of Starfish so far, she seems way too typical of Kristen’s general characters.
— An AWFUL main joke with Starfish repeatedly interrupting the filming by walking into the shot or blocking the camera with various things.
— Was that “ending” even an ending?
— Overall, I found this sketch to be completely laughless. Even typically weak Wacky Wiig Showcase sketches like the Don’t Make Me Sing sketch from earlier this season had some merits, unlike this Starfish sketch.
STARS: *


SWIM TEAM AWARDS
coach (host) disses his swimmers at a high school sports awards banquet

 

— (*sigh*) Will Forte’s final appearance as a cast member. And it’s only a very brief, non-comedic role at the beginning of this sketch, which is also his ONLY appearance all night. Geez. I’m aware that it wasn’t known by SNL at the time that this would end up being Will’s final episode (I believe, a week or so later, Will would say in an interview for the movie MacGruber that he’s planning on returning to SNL for another season), but still, this is an extremely disappointing way for such a strong and reliable 8-year veteran to spend his final episode.
— Some funny insults from Alec towards each swim team member he presents an award to.
— Very typical that Fred would be cast as the character of this sketch who’s accused of being gay.
— I love the little exchange between Alec and Jason.
— Another good exchange, this time between Alec and Kenan.
— A fairly interesting way to get the entire cast to appear in a sketch, one-by-one, even if most of them aren’t being truly utilized here, as most of them are given nothing noteworthy to do. I always like when a season finale has a sketch that uses the entire cast, though I prefer said sketch to air at the end of the show.
STARS: ***


BIRTHDAY COOKOUT
at her 14th birthday party, non-juvenile Bedelia worships her dad (host)

— Good to see the return of this solid slice-of-life character of Nasim’s. Also nice to see this sketch appearing in a much earlier spot than it did in its first installment earlier this season.
— At the beginning of this sketch, Alec accidentally calls Nasim’s Bedelia character “Belinda”.
— Between the first installment of this sketch and tonight’s installment, it’s interesting how Bedelia’s parents are played by the two leads of the show 30 Rock (Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin).
— Bedelia to her father: “Heard mom doesn’t want anymore kids. You gettin’ snipped?”
— A funny inappropriate and unsettling compliment from Bedelia about how her dad’s new fit shape has probably carried over into the bedroom.
— This sketch ends in basically the same way the first installment of this sketch did, with Bedelia meeting her male counterpart, but I like this installment’s ending better, as it doesn’t have Bedelia’s male counterpart being played by Justin Freakin’ Bieber, who’s overexposed presence in that episode soured the ending of that night’s Bedelia sketch for me.
STARS: ****


PRENIVA
Sally Field (ABE) recommends Preniva after fomenting bone loss fears

— A very solid Sally Field impression from Abby, and it’s good to see Abby front-and-center in a rare showcase.
— Abby’s Sally Field, after disclosing some harrowing facts about bone loss: “Are ya bummed yet?”
— I like Abby-as-Field’s ending line, “I’m not f(*bleep*)ing around, you guys”, delivered in a suddenly stern manner.
STARS: ***


GRADY WILSON’S INTIMATE & INTERNATIONAL
Greek (host) & Grady Wilson partner for sex DVD

— I feel like I’m finding Grady Wilson’s sex moves less and less funny with each passing installment of this sketch.
— At least Alec’s humorous Greek accent is providing some chuckles to the otherwise fairly stale feel of these sex move demonstrations. His delivery of “I poke you” during the Facebook scene is especially funny to me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Should Have Known It”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Snooki (BOM) is ready for Jersey Shore’s summer excursion to Miami

Stefon isn’t able to think of mainstream attractions for NYC travelers

unrehearsed Garth & Kat preview their outdoor summer concert series

— Bobby’s always very fun as Snooki, managing to make both the tired man-in-drag trope and some of the hacky orange jokes work.
— I absolutely love Bobby-as-Snooki’s legitimately funny explanation for why her nickname is Prison Jumpsuit: “Because I’m bright orange, and once I’m on you, you really start to question the life decisions that led you to this point.”
— Showing what an instant hit Stefon’s first Update appearance was, SNL already brings him back just two episodes later, and he already gets HUGE cheers from the audience upon his entrance tonight. He’s broken out and has become a beloved character a lot faster than most Update characters.
— One of the bizarre club features Stefon mentions is a cat from a bodega. Knowing that John Mulaney writes these Stefon pieces, that bodega mention reminds me of a Bodega Bathroom sketch that I heard Mulaney would later star in and (I assume) write himself in one of his hosting stints, as part of a series of musical epics that traditionally appear in Mulaney-hosted episodes. (I can only go by what I’ve heard on online SNL boards, because, remember, I’ve been on a still-ongoing hiatus from watching new SNL episodes since December 2018, and thus, the only one of those musical epics from Mulaney-hosted episodes that I’ve seen is the first one: Diner Lobster.)
— My favorite bizarre club features mentioned by Stefon in tonight’s commentary are Germfs (German Smurfs) and D.J. Baby Bok Choy.
— Oh, are you kidding me? In an Update with Stefon, SNL instead chooses to have fucking GARTH AND KAT close this season of Update out?!? Get this mess off my screen.
STARS: ***


TIMECROWAVE
meals cooked in the Timecrowave can disrupt the space-time continuum

— After a very-straightforward-though-subtly-funny first minute-and-a-half of this sketch, this has started to get really amusing and fun with all the history-altered differences in Alec and Kristen’s respective physical appearance each time the camera cuts to an individual close-up of them.
— The second consecutive segment tonight with Bobby in drag. Amusingly, his fingers noticeably still have a faint tinge of orange left over from his Snooki makeup on Weekend Update.
— A hilarious background gag with Nazi flags now appearing on the houses seen through the background window.
— Alec has begun accidentally delivering his long spiel right now into the wrong camera.
— I love the creepy ending with the giant cat outside the window, and how the giant cat meows in an unsettling slow, deep voice.
STARS: ****


WHISTLE IF YOU CAN
in a 1952 movie, (host) humanizes a hooker (JES) before re-debasing her

— This ends up being Jenny’s final SNL appearance as a cast member before getting fired that summer, but at least this final appearance of hers is a co-starring role. Rather surprising in hindsight that she, a one-season featured player not known for doing all that much on the show, gets a big showcase in what ends up being her final episode while Will, an established veteran, got nothing but a bit role tonight (even though it wasn’t known at this time that neither Will nor Jenny would return the following season).
— After a season of some iffy performances and occasional gaffes, Jenny’s actually giving a very solid performance here. This fact is bittersweet in hindsight, as it makes you wonder what might’ve been if Jenny had been given a second season to continue the growth she’s showing as a performer in this sketch.
— A big laugh from the twist with Alec’s blunt “Gertrude….give me a handjob” request, after his tender and heartwarming treatment of her.
STARS: ***½


SNIPERS
snipers (JAS) & (KET) don’t know if (host) wants them to take the shot

— Jason playing another character from his real-life hometown of Kansas City, I see.
— Alec’s performance is pretty fun here so far.
— The conceit of this sketch just doesn’t work, especially when you can very easily tell what supposedly-unintelligible thing Alec is yelling (“Taayy the shaaahhh” = “Take the shot”).
— What the hell just happened? Alec seemed to mistakenly jump ahead of the script before realizing his mistake: he got on top of Jason’s body as if he was about to begin to do something, but then he laughed out of character, immediately got off of Jason, and then rolled over to Kenan to do the part of the sketch that he was apparently supposed to do. Jason’s facial reaction to this blooper was kinda funny.
— Alec has now mistakenly started saying his “God, you must be addicted to doing squats” line to Jason too early, before he even got on top of Jason’s body (the latter of which explains why Alec mistakenly got on top of Jason’s body at the wrong time a little earlier in the sketch, as mentioned above). Some of this sloppiness in Alec’s performance isn’t helping the weak script of this sketch.
— All of Alec’s occasional homoerotic lines towards Jason and Kenan are just unnecessary, but that’s season 35 for you.
— A very lame twist with Alec revealing that his yells of “Taayy the shaaahhh” actually meant “Stand by”, because, as he explains, “I’m inconsistent”. Blah.
— This ends up being our final sketch of the season? Disappointing.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Jefferson Jericho Blues”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A better season finale than I remember, which I guess is fitting, given the fact that this season as a whole was not as bad as I and certain others had remembered. (I’m aware that, in my recent review of this season’s Zach Galifianakis episode, I provided a link to an old 2010 review of mine that contained a huge rant about how supposedly “bad” this season was, as I wanted to give you readers an idea of how this season was perceived by me and certain others back when it originally aired, but here’s a different link to another long rant of mine about the “bad” quality of this season, in my end-of-season wrap-up from my original 2010 review of this Baldwin season finale [the rant can be seen in the last large group of paragraphs at the end of the review].) For the most part, Alec Baldwin was good tonight, but this certainly wasn’t one of his more memorable hosting stints, and he also seemed a little sloppier than usual, noticeably making some Gabourey Sidibe-esque flubs throughout the episode.


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


RATED SEGMENTS RANKED FROM BEST TO WORST
Great Day
Birthday Cookout
Timecrowave
Whistle If You Can
Swim Team Awards
Preniva
Oil Spill Press Conference
Weekend Update
Monologue
Grady Wilson’s Intimate & International
Snipers
Arizona Evenings


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Betty White)
a slight step down


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


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2008-09)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 36 begins, with host Amy Poehler, and four new additions to the cast

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April 10, 1999 – John Goodman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S24 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

BACK TO LYING
ruefully-truthful Bill Clinton (DAH) tries reverse psychology on Kosovo

— Very funny concept of how Clinton has learned from his actions about the current war in Kosovo that he should never tell the truth and should always lie.
— Darrell is really milking the audience reactions to his Clinton thumbs-up and lip-biting moves, even moreso than usual.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host can’t convince audience members that the show isn’t a rerun

— Great turn with Paula Pell as an audience member interrupting the monologue to ask John “Is this a rerun?”
— I can see how they came up with the idea for this monologue, because not only has John hosted many times, but Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have also musical guested many times, often in episodes hosted by a Goodman-esque frequent host (Buck Henry, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, and later on, Alec Baldwin). Thus, John Goodman/Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers definitely would’ve sounded to people in 1999 like a host/musical guest lineup that already occurred.
— I love how they’re going even further with this, by now having Paula hold up a fake newspaper that states this episode is a rerun from 1991.
— For the record, 1991 is the ONLY calendar year in the 90s that John hasn’t hosted in.
— Another Jimmy Fallon monologue walk-on that receives a good audience reaction, again showing how quickly popular he’s become in just his first season as a featured player. This ends up being Jimmy’s only appearance of the entire night, by the way. He had a Weekend Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he and Tom Petty perform a guitar song together.
— I love how Jimmy further confirms this episode is a rerun from 1991 by saying “I was in 8th grade when it first ran.” A funny exaggeration of Jimmy’s youthfulness as a cast member. (In real life, Jimmy was actually 17 in 1991.)
— Another dress rehearsal tidbit: Lorne’s walk-on in this monologue originally had him in a brown wig and t-shirt, to make it appear even more as if this episode is from 1991 (even though Lorne hasn’t had brown hair nor wore t-shirts onscreen since the 70s), but in the live show, he instead enters this monologue in his usual suit and gray hair.
— One oversight in this overall great monologue: how do they not involve Tim Meadows in any way? After all, he’s the only person in this then-current 1999 cast who was also in the 1991 cast. They definitely should’ve done something with that in this monologue. He could’ve walked on and casually asked John “Hey, ready to do the next sketch?”, and Paula Pell or Tina Fey could’ve blurted out “See, there’s Tim Meadows! That proves this is a rerun from 1991!”, and John could’ve responded “But Tim’s still in the cast now!”, which Paula or Tina could’ve responded to with a deadpan “Really?” as yet another SNL joke about how surprisingly long Tim has been on the show.
STARS: ****½


ADULT LITERACY PROGRAM
(host) brings high school antics to adult literacy class led by (TIM)

— John: “Do we have to know this for the test?” Tim: “(in a blunt, deadpan manner) Uh, no. You have to know this to know how to read.”
— Not a particularly hilarious character that John is playing, but his performance is making this work. Tim is also a great straight man to him.
— Boy, SNL sure loves doing sketches this season that end with a text crawl. I lost count of how many sketches in this season have ended with one.
STARS: ***


SHAUN MONDAVI VINEYARDS
self-styled wine heir’s (WIF) vile liquid further ires stepfather (host)

— A solid concept that Will is selling well.
— Will’s grimacing and groaning whenever he takes a sip of the wine are slaying me, especially when he starts really going all out on it.
— A very funny reveal of the wine coming in a Mountain Dew soda bottle with a shoddily-made wine label taped onto it.
— Great turn with Will’s angry stepfather crashing the commercial and giving Will a mean-spirited reality check.
— John: “This isn’t wine! It’s tequila, Five Alive, and those little marshmallows you put in cocoa.”
— Heh, does John’s character realize that calling Will’s character a son of a bitch in front of someone who’s both Will’s mother and John’s wife is technically calling his own wife a bitch?
STARS: ****½


CNN
lightweight magazines provide basis for serious reportage

— Pretty funny turn with this ad going from legitimate examples of hard-hitting news coverage to coverage from very light magazines like Cat Fancy and Highlights.
— Funny cutaway to John as a “bear”.
STARS: ***½


WRAP IT UP
(host) strongarms complaints about his incompetent gift wrapper son (CHK)

— Kattan’s horrible wrapping of Tim’s gift is pretty funny, especially when he tries to make the wrapped gift look like a swan.
— Bizarre sketch so far.
— Odd how this is the second consecutive live sketch with John playing a violent father.
— Funny little touch with Kattan randomly snipping off a small part of the flowers with a pair of scissors after destroying the flowers during his bad attempt to wrap a ribbon around them.
— Now this already-bizarre sketch is getting even more bizarre with Kattan’s thought bubble of a popsicle.
— John’s beatdown of every customer that has an unsatisfactory reaction towards Kattan’s gift-wrapping has some shades of that sketch from the season 20 finale where Chris Elliott, Morwenna Banks, and Chris Farley fatally beat up any customer that showed any kind of disrespect towards their folksy ways.
— I like how Kattan’s thought bubble about kitty cats is just another popsicle, this time with a cat’s tail.
— Overall, boy, was this one weird sketch, but it made me laugh enough.
STARS: ***


HELLO DOLLY
hucksters prefer collectibles to real-life youngsters

— John’s forehead is looking sweaty in this sketch.
— The Poopsie Daisy doll is funny, especially the gourmet jelly beans in the back of the doll’s soiled diaper, which John and Ana gleefully eat.
— I love the African-American “Dignity” doll.
— Like the last time they did this sketch, we’re getting some funny disturbing details about John and Ana’s troubled personal lives throughout the sketch. I especially like Ana’s casually-delivered line about how when she was pregnant with her second child, there was a good chance it was going to come out looking like the African-American “Dignity” doll.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
TRM explains the meaning of acronyms appearing on current fashions
Colette Reardon surveys prescription drugs available to treat allergies

— Ah, a good old-fashioned “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke, feeling like a nice throwback to the Dennis Miller era of Weekend Update, back when Quayle’s dumbness was a frequent target.
— Tracy Morgan makes his obligatory one appearance of the night. Would it kill SNL to use this man in more than one sketch in an episode?
— Tracy’s FUBU-esque acroynms for various things are all funny, especially the one for Timberland boots (the sixth above screencap for this Update). However, Tracy’s delivery is kinda stumbly throughout this commentary.
— Man, Colin looks so stifled in these last few Updates, now that he’s been (presumably) forced by NBC to refrain from muttering ad-libbed remarks towards the audience after his news jokes. In these last few Updates, you can tell when he wants to make an ad-lib after certain jokes but restrains himself.
— In these last few Collette Reardon appearances, I’ve pretty much run out of things to say about her, but she continues to amuse me.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Swingin'”


SPRINGTIME SANTA
a boozy & unpleasant Santa (host) unwinds at home during the offseason

— A North Pole/Santa Claus sketch in April? How random.
— John is solid as a belligerent, obnoxious Santa involved in a domestic argument with Mrs. Claus.
— A lot of funny tension in his sketch caused by Santa’s attitude.
— When Parnell and Cheri make their exit as the elf couple after spending their entire appearance standing on their knees to give off the illusion that they’re tiny elves, you can see both of them beginning to stand up on their legs before getting off-camera.
— Funny ending, re-dubbing footage of the original “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” stop-motion movie.
STARS: ***½


HAPPY SMILE PATROL
kid show stars’ ugly fate told by news bulletins aired during the program

— Here comes a favorite of mine.
— I love the news anchor’s (Parnell) disturbing details on the death of Kattan’s character.
— More and more laughs from the increasingly unsettling details of law troubles the Happy Smile Patrol actors have gotten in. I especially love the dark detail of Cheri’s character using a razor blade to cut a male victim’s throat to the spine (yeesh!) while he was climaxing during oral sex that she was giving him. Holy hell.
— Parnell is, of course, perfect in his role as the anchor breaking all of these special reports. The disturbing details he’s reading off are made that much funnier by his straitlaced delivery.
— Overall, a masterpiece.
STARS: *****


VH1
Behind The Music- bowling alley attendant Bun E. Carlos (HOS) thinks back

— Pretty funny reveal of Horatio’s Bun E. Carlos now being an attendant at a bowling alley.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Room At The Top”


CATHOUSE COMPUTER SYSTEM
embarrassed john (host) endures bordello computer system learning curve

— Good premise with the incongruity between the prostitutes and their savvy computer knowledge.
— I got a laugh from the little part with Cheri telling Horatio “You go upstairs and heat up the wax.”
— Funny southern accent from Cheri. It reminds me a bit of her future “Simma dah nah!” character Nadeen, who debuts the following season.
— And now, Cheri’s character has flat-out said “Now everybody SIMMA DAH NAH!” Yep, Cheri is definitely playing a prototype of her Nadeen character.
— Hilarious casual walk-on from Will in S&M gear, and the uncharacteristically friendly voice he’s using when helping the ladies with their computer trouble.
STARS: ***½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A much better episode than I recall it being. Until now, I had always deemed this episode to be the first of a two-year slump that John Goodman’s SNL episodes were in. However, I’ve come away from tonight’s viewing feeling it was actually a pretty good episode. (Goodman’s next episode from season 25, on the other hand? Oof. We’ll see if that one is the dud I remember it being.) This continues this season’s perfect streak of not having any episodes that I find outright bad. There were a few really strong pieces tonight, including one absolute masterpiece (Happy Smile Patrol), and no sketches that flopped for me.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Drew Barrymore)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Posted on

September 28, 1996 – Tom Hanks / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S22 E1)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

ABC ELECTION COVERAGE
with no votes cast, ABC News declares Bill Clinton’s (DAH) re-election

 

— Good to see Tom Hanks reprising his Peter Jennings impression from the famous 1988 Presidential Debate sketch.
— Very funny announcement from Tom’s Jennings that Bill Clinton has won the election, a month-and-a-half early before voting has even taken place.
— Cheri’s Ross Perot impression is always good for a chuckle.
— I believe this is the first time we ever see Darrell’s Clinton giving a sly thumbs-up, which would go on to become one of his iconic trademarks.
— I love the part with Clinton gloatingly going into detail about the fact that he did inhale.
— A good laugh from Norm’s Dole crashing through the railing and falling into the crowd, as a reference to what happened to Dole in real life during, I believe, a campaign rally.
— I like Mark as Al Gore just coming in, saying into the camera “I’m Al Gore”, and then immediately leaving, which would go on to become a running gag these next two seasons.
— Though I’m still kinda laughing at it, they keep repeating the Dole falling bit over and over, which feels pretty unnecessary and one-joke.
— Pretty funny bit at the end with Jennings sternly stopping Perot from saying “Live from New York…”
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— The montage is the same as the one from the preceding season.
— The SNL logo zooms into the screen differently than it did in the preceding season’s montage.
— Similar to how season 8 used the same opening montage from season 7 but changed each cast member’s photo, this season’s re-used season 21 opening montage changes each cast member’s photo. Here are some side-by-side comparisons between some cast members’ season 21 and season 22 montage photo:

— The new cast members added to the show tonight are Ana Gasteyer and Tracy Morgan, both joining as repertory players.

As of 2019, Ana and Tracy are the last-ever cast members to immediately join as repertory players. Every new cast member since then has joined as a featured player, which is apparently some kind of rule that started after season 22.
— Chris Kattan has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.


MONOLOGUE
host reads the Oscar acceptance speech he didn’t get to use

— Tom addresses the fact that it’s been a while since he last hosted and he acknowledges the upswing in quality SNL has gone through in the new era, by saying “It’s wonderful to come back to Saturday Night Live now that it’s decent again” and mentioning that he avoided the show like the plague “back when it sucked”.
— Some good laughs from Tom bragging about how Nicolas Cage can’t relate to winning two Oscars in a row.
— Tom’s unused acceptance speech is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½


BIG BRAWN
Big Brawn Feminine Napkins get their super-absorbency from wood pulp

— Great visual of Will as a giant lumberjack.
— Hilarious reveal of a feminine napkin made from wood.
— A very funny part with Molly gleefully singing the lyric “It’s like a big friendly lumberjack between your knees!”
STARS: ****


THE ROXBURY GUYS
the antics of (host) & fellow Roxbury Guys land them in the slammer

— Well… I see SNL didn’t waste any time in bringing back this smash hit sketch from the preceding season’s finale. However, it’s a given that no matter how hard SNL tries, none of the subsequent Roxbury Guy sketches will ever come close to measuring up to the Jim Carrey one.
— I love the brief “Stayin’ Alive” turn.
— The urinals scene is worth a good laugh.
— Pretty funny ending with Chris’ character receiving his comeuppance by getting bumped back and forth by male prisoners.
— Overall, despite this paling in comparison to the preceding Roxbury Guys sketch and despite how wasted this sketch felt on Tom Hanks, I still found this pretty fun.
STARS: ***


HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
Goat Boy’s brays punctuate his nostalgia show

— Goat Boy officially becomes recurring and is put into a new format that, like the last one (in which Goat Boy sang 80s hits during an album promo), involves 80s pop culture.
— Jim is still cracking me up as Goat Boy, but man, I can already tell this character is going to get old fast in this format. I’d prefer it if SNL had just left him as a bizarre one-off character after his debut.
— During the Andrew Ridgeley interview, I like the sudden cutaway to Goat Boy sucking on an upside-down baby’s bottle.
— This sketch is feeling pretty repetitive, and is going on a little too long for such a thin concept to the Goat Boy character.
STARS: **½


PING-PONG TOURNAMENT
Craig & Arianna are cheered by a visit from the Spartan Spirit (host)

— Hoo, boy. Tonight’s episode is starting to destroy me with all the recurring characters appearing up front, even if I can understand the need for SNL to do this after a long summer break. However, I’m watching these episodes on a daily basis, so I don’t have the benefit of having a long summer break in between these last two Cheerleaders sketches. Sitting through a different Cheerleaders sketch two days in a row is pretty brutal.
— Oh, man. I thought Tom was kinda wasted in the Roxbury Guys sketch, but that’s NOTHING compared to his appearance in this Cheerleaders sketch. It feels sad seeing him in such an out-of-place small role in such an overused recurring sketch.
— After the last two preceding Cheerleaders sketches, with Teri Hatcher and Jim Carrey, in which the sketches had an actual fleshed-out premise and told a story, we’re unfortunately back to the Cheerleaders sketches only consisting of Craig and Arianna simply doing various cheers for most of the sketch before being briefly interrupted by someone.
— One positive thing I’ll say is that I always love the song choice we get at the end of every Cheerleaders sketch while Craig and Arianna do their “perfect cheer”. Tonight, we get Salt-N-Pepa’s very catchy “Push It”.
STARS: **


TV FUNHOUSE
“It Takes Two To Tango” by RBS- Ace & Gary are The Ambiguously Gay Duo

— Yes! We get the debut of a brand-new SNL segment: TV Funhouse! It feels refreshing to see a new animated segment on SNL, for the first time in ages.
— What better way for TV Funhouse to debut than with an Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon?
— Already a huge laugh early on from Ace and Gary’s penis-shaped car.
— Nice animation in this cartoon.
— All of the suggestively homoerotic actions between Ace and Gary are priceless.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
MTV personality Kincaid’s (ANG) commentary comprises retro TV references
Kerri Strug [real] & brother Kippy (CHK) remember the Atlanta Olympics

— Norm has new Weekend Update theme music, which I believe would go on to be used for the remainder of his tenure as Update anchor.
— An odd brief technical gaffe when Ana Gasteyer’s commentary begins.
— Ana Gasteyer in her very first SNL appearance, getting her own Update commentary as a character that would go on to be recurring.
— At first, Ana’s Kincaid commentary started getting tired to me pretty fast, but now, her character is getting so increasingly ridiculous that it’s making me laugh. And Ana is doing a good job going through all the various pop culture references in rapid-fire speed.
— Norm does his first-ever “You guessed it: Frank Stallone” joke, which would go on to be a running gag in his Updates.
— A somewhat memorable Update commentary now begins with Kippi and Kerry Strug.
— Chris is doing a good imitation of Kerri Strug’s chipper high-pitched voice, but the commentary itself is only okay at best. It’s not doing much for me.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walls”


THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO
missing link Mr. Peepers (CHK) wreaks havoc on panel

— As always, a spot-on Leno impression from Darrell, and I especially like the accurate imitation of the type of bad, corny jokes Leno typically does on the Tonight Show.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Mr. Peepers looks dirtier than I remember him looking in future appearances.
— As I said at some points in the preceding season, I’m going to approach the debuts of most of this era’s biggest and soon-to-be most annoying recurring characters by treating their respective first installment as a standalone sketch and pretending that I’m unaware it’s the first of a series of sketches.
— Between Weekend Update and this sketch, Chris is getting quite a lot of showcases tonight.
— Some great physical work from Chris here, and his characterization is cracking me up.
— I like the part with Tom trying to get Mr. Peepers to say “Jay Leno”.
— A huge laugh from Mr. Peepers humping Ana’s Andie MacDowell.
— Much like Goat Boy, I just know I’m eventually going to get very tired of Mr. Peepers when he becomes recurring, but for now, I’m enjoying him. I’d put him on the long list of SNL characters that would hold up better if they never became recurring.
STARS: ***½


CREATIVITY TEST
creativity test giver (TIM) tries to pull an original idea out of (host)

— I’ve never seen this sketch until now, and I’m very eager, because I’ve heard some really great things about this.
— Some good laughs during the word association test where Tom’s only way of “changing” the words Tim says is by simply pluralizing them.
— This feels like the first sketch all night that’s utilized Tom well.
— I’m enjoying all of the quirks of Tom’s character.
— I absolutely love Tom’s disturbing, lengthy detailed description of what he sees in the ink blot card, complete with background music. This is fantastic.
— Overall, this sketch definitely lived up to the hype.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel Dream”


CLASSIC SING-ALONG WITH THE DRUNKEN ASSES
album has tunes for happy hour

— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing most of this sketch. I don’t have enough time to dig up a full copy of this sketch, so I’m just going to have to give it an incomplete review. From what I remember of this sketch in past viewings, I recall finding it decent, though I’ve always kinda looked at it as a poor man’s version of the classic Irish Drinking Songs sketch, even if that’s probably not a fair comparison.
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that during the “Saying things you can never take back” part of this sketch in the live version, Will drunkenly tells Tim “You’re one of the good ones.” In the rerun version of that part, I believe Will instead drunkenly tells everyone “I have male and female genitalia!”
STARS: N/A


BRIEF HISTORIES
cannibalism wasn’t the only Donner Party hardship

— Hmm, interesting-seeming segment, especially with the use of nothing but black-and-white still photos and a voice-over to tell the story.
— Overall, a slow build-up, but eventually gave me some decent laughs, and they got me with the surprising “Also, they had to eat each other” twist at the end.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a great season premiere. Some of the returning bits from the preceding season didn’t work for me tonight (Cheerleaders, Goat Boy), and it felt like there wasn’t much in this episode that wasn’t characters we’ve already seen before or characters we’ll eventually be seeing ad nauseam. I also didn’t like the way Tom Hanks was utilized for most of the night. The man is an SNL hosting legend, but you’d think this writing staff didn’t know that, considering how often tonight he was relegated to just playing second fiddle to recurring or soon-to-be-recurring characters. The great Creativity Test sketch was the only time all night where Tom was allowed to fully thrive. It’s too bad that this ends up being the only time he’d host in this era, and it’s also too bad that this would begin an odd tradition where he only hosts every ten years (1996, 2006, 2016). Back to tonight’s episode, among the things I did like was the introduction of new miscellaneous segments that gave this season premiere a different feel from the preceding season: TV Funhouse and Brief Histories, though IIRC, the latter ends up only being a very short-lived recurring segment. TV Funhouse, on the other hand, ends up becoming a huge and important part of SNL for years to come.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1995-96)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Lisa Kudrow

Posted on

November 19, 1994 – John Turturro / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S20 E6)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

IT’S A WONDERFUL NEWT
Richard Nixon (host) shows Newt Gingrich (CHF) a liberal future

 

— The debut of Farley’s Newt Gingrich impression, which isn’t so much an impression as it is just Farley in a wig. Still, at least it’s a subdued, mature role that keeps Farley restrained for once this season.
— John Turturro’s Richard Nixon impression is great and fun. Considering how rarely hosts appear in cold openings and the fact that John looks unrecognizable here, I wonder if SNL fans at the time were racking their brain trying to figure out which cast member that is playing Nixon.
— Interesting and very biting political satire, with lots of harsh digs at Gingrich. The political humor here has a sharpness that feels atypical of this season.
— Very funny reveal that Hillary Clinton is the president, sending Gingrich into a long horror scream of “noooooo!”.
— A quote Gingrich’s wife reads from Nixon’s book: “Every time a bell rings, I get poked in the ass with a pitchfork.”
— Overall, a very promising start to tonight’s episode.
— This ends up being Farley’s only appearance all night.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
LOM rigs a Quiz Show to let host do SNL instead of Joey Buttafuoco [real]

— Pretty fun premise.
— The overly simplistic questions themselves aren’t the funniest, but John and Kevin are making this work.
— Joey Buttafuoco?!? Joey Fucking Buttafuoco?!? Is SNL kidding me with this cameo? Only in season 20 would you see something like this.
— I love how poorly Mike is hiding how genuinely uncomfortable he is talking to Buttafuoco. I’m sure it’s stuff like this that had Mike wondering at this point of his SNL tenure “Why the hell am I even still on this show?”
— Kevin: “Lorne Michaels, the producer, is a (blank).” Considering the ire that lots of people had towards SNL at this time in 1994, I’m sure there’s some colorful words some of them would have inserted into that blank in Kevin’s statement.
— Lorne being shown feeding John the answer, “genius”, is funny.
STARS: ***½


EYCH
Rerun from 5/14/94


CHRISTOPHER WALKEN’S CELEBRITY PSYCHIC FRIENDS NETWORK
Celebrity Psychic Friend Gary Busey (MMK) joins Christopher Walken (JAM)

— The return of this great sketch from the preceding season.
— Michael’s Gary Busey impression is cracking me up.
— What was with the interaction between Walken and Busey?
— Boy, so far, this has not been working anywhere near as well as the first installment of this sketch. And so many lines are falling flat.
— Interesting inclusion of John as Walken’s similar-talking brother.
— John’s Walken is okay, but I’m not liking it as much as Jay’s impression. I’m hearing too much of John’s real voice in there.
— This overall sketch was a very poor excuse for a follow-up to the great first installment. Should’ve left that sketch one and done.
STARS: *½


SHARING THE PHONE
(JAG) repeatedly hangs up the phone before (host) gets a chance to talk

— Nice slice-of-life premise, especially for this season’s standards.
— Ehh, as much as I like the slice-of-life aspect, it turns out that I’m not crazy about the execution of it so far. It’s being performed a little TOO straight to be comical, and is suffering too much from season 20’s typical habit of taking one joke and repeating it over and over for four minutes.
— Oh, god, this sketch ends in one of the worst possible ways, with a cutaway to Mike doing his Asian stereotype routine for the second goddamn week in a row, this time dragging along Spade with a stereotypical Asian routine of his own.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You Don’t Know How It Feels”


WEEKEND UPDATE
publicity has gone to the head of self-styled superstar Judge Ito (MIM)
after much prodding, David Hasselhoff [real] confirms NOM’s German theory

— Here comes Mike “Honorary Asian” Myers bringing his Judge Ito impression to the Update desk.
— I know a lot of people are tired of Mike Myers by this point of his SNL tenure (I certainly am too), but I’m actually finding this out-of-the-ordinary characterization of Judge Ito to be fun.
— I remember when Comedy Central used to air this episode, they edited out a small portion of the Judge Ito commentary where he dances on the Update desk to the song “I Got the Power”. Music licensing issues is obviously the reason for that edit.
— Norm is on fire with a lot of his jokes tonight.
— A visit to the Update desk from one of Norm’s favorite subjects, David Hasselhoff.
— I absolutely love Norm’s various frustrated ways of trying to get Hasselhoff to say Germans love him. This is a classic segment.
STARS: ****½


TAXI DRIVER, THE MUSICAL
Robert DeNiro (host) stars in the musical version of Taxi Driver

— John’s Martin Scorsese impression is a riot.
— I like that we’re seeing two different impressions from John in one sketch. He’s been showcasing a lot of impressions tonight in general.
— Nice performances, but the musical numbers are getting increasingly boring to me and contain no apparent humor.
STARS: **


BAND SHOT
musical guest plays guitar while his doppelganger (DAS) mumbles along


STOP THAT
(host) mimics his show’s guests until they get annoyed & leave

— Here comes a sketch that I’ve always considered a big guilty pleasure. The sketch is very stupid and childlike, but John is so damn fun in it and makes this material hilarious to me. I always love watching this.
— This sketch is a great use of the energy that we’ve been seeing from John throughout tonight’s episode.
— Even Farley’s southern accent over the phone cracks me up.
— I love how John is even imitating non-talking sounds, such as a phone dial tone and Kevin’s guitar playing.
— Solid bit with a returning Elliott getting revenge by turning the tables on John, only for John to do a turnaround on him.
STARS: ****½


JAMAICA
tourism-dependent Jamaicans (ELC) & (TIM)- “go ahead, treat us like dirt”

— A good showcase for two underused performers (especially Ellen).
— A lot of funny lines from Ellen and Tim’s joy in being treated poorly by tourists.
STARS: ***½


DR. IRA RESNICK
Ira Resnick (host) doubts credentials of fellow dentist Josh Levine (CSE)

— Ehhh, this whole thing just came and went for me, without giving me any real laughs.
STARS: *½


THE MOVIE CLUB
brothers (host) & (ADS) recommend tapes to rent

— Adam makes only his second and final appearance tonight. A surprisingly very light night for him, Farley, and Spade. Considering how stale and shtick-y all three of them often come off this season, not to mention how heavily all three of them tend to get associated with the awfulness of this season, their lack of appearances tonight is probably a good thing.
— I like the pairing of Adam and John here.
— Adam seems to be playing a variation of his Audience McGee character. His character here has the same look and is using a similar voice.
— Pretty dull sketch so far.
— Overall, yeah, I wasn’t crazy about this, even if there was a bit of a goofy charm (something that Adam pulled off much better in his earlier seasons).
STARS: **


DR. JOSH LEVINE
Josh Levine’s retaliatory ad- “Ira Resnick uses unsterilized instruments”

— Okay, the idea of showing a series of political-type attack ads between two dentists is funny, but man, the execution of it is BORING. I feel like an actual good season of SNL would’ve done more with this idea and made these ads work.
— Poor Chris Elliott has been wasted on a lot of weak stuff so far this season. I’m eager to reach the point in this season where they finally start letting him do sketches with his oddball brand of humor.
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Honey Bee”


DR. IRA RESNICK
more Ira Resnick mudslinging- magazine & hygienist age, novocaine use

— This one is a little funnier, mainly for the “I won’t feel you up when you’re unconscious” line at the end.
— A fourth installment of this runner, starring Tim as an additional rival dentist, didn’t make it on the air due to the show running long. It would later be inserted into reruns of this episode.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Certainly an improvement over the notoriously dreary episode that preceded this, though I still didn’t find this episode to be all that great. The show started out well with a strong cold opening and a good monologue, but then tapered off afterwards with a lot of meh sketches dominating the remainder of the night. Nothing particularly horrible tonight, though, and there was a brief upswing in quality with the Stop That and Jamaica sketches. Also, Weekend Update was particularly strong. John Turturro was a fantastic host who added a fun energy to the show, gave committed and funny performances, had some shining moments, and even made some of the weaker material more tolerable. You can definitely put him on the list of “SNL one-timers who deserved to come back”.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sarah Jessica Parker)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Roseanne

Posted on

October 12, 1991 – Kirstie Alley / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S17 E3)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
senators question Clarence Thomas (TIM) & give him some harassing tips

— Some good opening laughs from Kevin doing a rundown to Ellen’s Anita Hill of all the unpleasant topics they discussed during her part of the hearings.
— Boy, that is some awful-looking hair on Kevin’s Joe Biden. But I suppose the same can be said about the real Biden’s hair at the time.

— I love the cutaways to the senators all murmuring to each other in an impressed manner whenever Tim’s Clarence Thomas unintentionally gives them advice on how to pick up women.
— Very big audience reaction to the hilarious reveal of Phil playing Ted Kennedy. I also loved his question “Were you, ah, drunk at the time?”
— Dana is PRICELESS as Strom Thurmond.
— Oh, god, please don’t make me address the elephant in the room regarding what an uncomfortable coincidence it now is that Al Franken was cast in a sketch about senators giving sexual harassment tips.
— I like Al’s Senator Paul Simon harping on how his bowtie hurts his chances with women.
— Great walk-on from Rock as Long Dong Silver.
— Nice to see Rock deliver his very first “Live from New York…”.
— A classic cold opening overall.
STARS: *****


OPENING MONTAGE
— In the original live East Coast broadcast of this episode, Don Pardo’s timing is wildly off throughout the entire opening montage. He announces everybody’s names either way too late or way too early. He especially has a rough time during the long list of featured players. When the shot of Tim Meadows comes up, Pardo completely blanks and just stays silent during the shots of the next few featured players (Sandler, Schneider, Spade). Then after the shot of David Spade, Pardo tries to catch up by quickly spitting out “Adamsandlerrobschneiderdavidspade” in rapid succession without taking a breath, leaving out poor Tim. The version I’m reviewing of this episode is the West Coast tape-delayed “live” airing from that night, in which they replace Pardo’s botched announcing with his flawless announcing from dress rehearsal.


MONOLOGUE
host & Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Kelsey Grammer [real]

 

— Huge, and I mean HUGE audience reactions to the succession of cameos from Kirstie’s “Cheers” co-stars, who each pop out from a random place in the studio and join in on Kirstie’s singing of the “Cheers” theme song. Very infectious energy here.
— With George Wendt’s cameo here, his cameo two weeks earlier in the Super Fans sketch from the season premiere, and his hosting the preceding season’s finale, he has been appearing on SNL a LOT around this time, more than some of the actual cast members (especially David Spade, who’s been almost completely invisible so far this season).
— I like Ted Danson’s callback to the memorable sketch he got to do with live pigs when he hosted.
— I love the running bit with Kelsey Grammer constantly being ignored when explaining to his co-stars that, unlike them, he’s never hosted SNL.
— A lot of good laughs from Kirstie’s irritation over her co-stars taking over her monologue duties by reading off her concluding lines.
— Great ending with Kelsey taking pleasure in standing alone onstage and concluding the singing of the “Cheers” theme song.
STARS: *****


LONELY CHOICE
Lonely Choice Dinners are frozen entrees for women without relationships

— Siobhan Fallon finally gets her first big showcase.
— This is a lesser-known fake ad from this era (especially since it was cut from the 60-minute version that Comedy Central used to always air of this episode), but this is being executed nicely with a good subtle approach and a solid spokesperson performance from Siobhan.
— Some funny details in the visual of the TV dinners, especially the two big sleeping pills on top of one of the meals, and the giant Oreo cookie.
— I like the meal titles shown on the pile of dinner boxes (last screencap above).
— Funny ending slogan from Phil’s voice-over: “We’ve taken the ‘difficult’ out of ‘difficult and sad’.”
STARS: ***½


IL CANTORE
overamorous Italians serve the Kirpatricks (host) & (KEN) at a restaurant

— The restaurant set being used in this sketch would go on to be familiar, as it would be frequently used in a number of sketches from later this era, including the season 18 sketch with Kevin Kline as an uncontrollably farting Italian celebrity and the Pepper Boy sketch from Dana Carvey’s season 20 episode.
— The Italians’ overly-affectionate actions towards Kirstie are hilarious.
— Dana’s actions towards Kirstie are getting particularly funny, especially him licking all over her face.
— This sketch has now become an absolute riot, with Dana being seen humping Victoria on a restaurant table in the background while Kirstie remains completely oblivious to it. This is the other sketch I was talking about in my review of the preceding season’s Roseanne Barr episode, where I said that episode contained the first of two times in 1991 where Victoria Jackson gets humped on a restaurant table during a sketch.
— This sketch is getting more and more outrageous as it goes along. I love it.
— Strong ending with Kevin and Kirstie thinking they’ll experience more civility at a nearby Greek restaurant.
STARS: *****


IT’S PAT
androgynous Pat receives birthday greetings from parent Francys (host)

— Julia Sweeney’s birthday was earlier that week (October 10), which is probably what inspired the idea of this sketch.
— Julia’s Pat voice seems to get increasingly higher pitched and whinier with each passing sketch this character appears in. I personally prefer the low-pitched voice Julia used in the first two Pat sketches.
— I like a confused Chris Rock entering the scene while dumbfoundedly saying “Your mothe– your fath–” over and over when trying to tell Pat that a parent of Pat’s has arrived.
— Speaking of Rock, something about the way he’s dressed in this sketch really emphasizes his extreme skinniness.
— Great turn with Kirstie entering as Pat’s equally-androgynous parent.
— Kirstie’s really good at imitating the Pat giggle.
— Despite my earlier mention of not liking Pat’s whinier voice as much as Pat’s lower pitched voice from earlier installments, I got a good laugh just now from Julia’s over-the-top delivery of the line “I want you to hear the MADNESS!”
— Good ending with Pat’s co-workers singing a variation of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”, with the lyrics awkwardly altered to be gender unspecific.
— I’m surprised this didn’t end with them cutting to the usual closing credits sequence with the Pat theme song. Wonder why they didn’t do that here.
— One of the more memorable Pat sketches overall.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on saying “puke” at the dinner table


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Into the Great Wide Open”


WEEKEND UPDATE
CSR says Clarence Thomas is guilty of nothing more than bad pick-up lines
VIJ’s erudite term limits commentary turns out to have been ghost-written
Phil Perry (ROS) voices athletes’ thoughts during baseball highlights

— When talking about Anita Hill, I liked Rock asking “Isn’t that the same woman who was caught smoking crack with Marion Barry? Someone should do a check.”
— Some okay lines from Rock, but his delivery here is stumbly and this commentary isn’t as good as his Update commentaries usually are.
— Surprisingly, this is Victoria’s first Update commentary as herself in over a year. She didn’t do any in season 16.
— A weak and obvious punchline to Victoria’s commentary, with her admitting she didn’t write the intelligent speech she just delivered.
— Some good laughs from Rob’s sportscaster getting out of hand with his voicing athletes’ thoughts during sports clips, especially when he starts resorting to bad stereotypical ethnic voices.
STARS: ***


THEIR EYES WERE ON THEIR BREASTS!
female aliens distract male earthlings

— The spaceship the aliens are standing in front of is the same spaceship that would later be used in a notorious season 20 sketch involving Deion Sanders and an accidental mooning from Farley. The scenery behind the spaceship appears to be the same in both sketches too.
— Solid concept.
— Kevin has been in tons of sketches tonight.
— Funny brief walk-on from Farley.
— I love the cutaways to each of the three scientists staring intensely at the aliens’ eye breasts.
— The questions the scientists ask the aliens are really funny. I especially like “When you get older, does your vision sag?” and “Can you see better when it’s cold outside?”
STARS: ***½


COFFEE TALK WITH PAUL BALDWIN
Linda Richman (MIM) & (host) are big Barbra Streisand fans

— Though they’re still using the “Coffee Talk with Paul Baldwin” title, we get the debut of Linda Richman, filling in for an ill Baldwin. Very rare for SNL to suddenly revamp an already somewhat-established recurring sketch in this drastic manner. I can’t think of any other time in SNL history that this has happened, but perhaps I’m forgetting some examples.
— Phil’s performance as Kirstie’s husband is funny and is adding good realism to the scene.
— Linda Richman is certainly a more fleshed-out character than Paul Baldwin, and we’re immediately seeing all of what would go on to be Linda Richman’s trademarks, including her Barbra Streisand obsession, her describing something as being “like buttah”, her speaking Yiddish, her getting verklempt and instructing us “Tawk amongst yuhselves… I’ll give you a tawpic…”, etc.
— Overall, while I didn’t laugh all that much aside from Phil’s lines, I didn’t hate this sketch. After recently sitting through the one-note Paul Baldwin-hosted Coffee Talk installments, in which New York accents was literally the only “joke”, this Linda Richman debut came off oddly kinda refreshing to me. However, I know my lenience towards Richman will not last much longer the more I’ll have to sit through these sketches, especially when we arrive at season 19 where the character appeared ad nauseam.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Kings Highway”


PSYCHO DIVORCED MOTHER
(host) damns phone company & cable company to Hell

— Great reveal of the title “Psycho Divorced Mother” after the opening scene where Kirstie snapped at her two kids.
— Kirstie going off on an insane rant to nobody about the phone company is providing some good laughs.
— I absolutely loved Kirstie’s raspy-voiced delivery of “Damn you to HELL, cable company!”
— Kirstie has gotten so into her psychotic characterization that it sounds like she almost dropped an MF-bomb just now, during her cable company rant. She begins to say “Die, mother–” but then immediately cuts herself off.
— Wow, this sketch was quick.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on cutting down screaming trees


LOOK WHO ELSE IS TALKING ALSO
possessions of James (DAC) & Mollie (host)

— I loved the line from the Tom Davis-voiced dog, saying “I get lucky every night… because I can lick myself.”
— The usual very funny John Travolta impression from Dana.
— I liked the ending with the talking condom and diaphragm.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on how a child can look like a deer


GOODNIGHTS
MIM kills time by leading a round of “O Canada”

— These particular goodnighs are very unique. There’s A LOT of extra time to fill before the ending credits scroll by, so we’ll be seeing lots of comical vamping for time. According to what I once heard, the reason the show has so much time to fill here is because a sketch was removed at the last minute, with nothing scheduled to replace it. Supposedly, the removed sketch was a parody of the then-current William Kennedy Smith rape trial, and SNL apparently was worried that sketch would be too much in an episode that already had a parody of the Clarence Thomas sexual harassment hearings as the cold opening.
— Speaking of sexual harassment and rape trials, during part of her goodnights speech, Kirstie brings up how there’s so much in the news lately about sexual harassment allegations going on and then thanks the people at SNL for not sexually harassing her, at which point several of the guys onstage jokingly lunge at her and grab her breasts (and no, Al Franken was not among the guys who did that, for anyone wondering).
— Mike Myers has now been brought to the front of the stage and tries to lead everyone in a round of “O Canada”, only nobody else onstage seems to know the words, so they just laugh and try to clown around with Mike while he’s doing his best to continue the song.
— This is so fun seeing the natural goofy, loose antics of the cast as themselves, which feels so rare to see in this period of the show. It was much more common during the original era and even the early 80s.
— About halfway through the scrolling ending credits, everybody walks off the stage one-by-one, leaving only the SNL Band, who continue to play the goodnights theme music on a now-empty stage.
— It’s amazing how long these goodnights are STILL going on, long after the scrolling credits have finished. This is beautiful, and really makes you appreciate the goodnights theme music.
— It sounds like the band was starting to play the rarely-heard official ending notes of the goodnights theme right as the Broadway Video and NBC Productions vanity cards started showing up, but unfortunately, in the recording I’m watching of this episode, the tape seems to cut off right at that moment and goes to another recording. Too bad; I started getting goosebumps at hearing those ending notes. I believe the only two other times in SNL history where we get to hear the official ending notes of the goodnights theme are the ice-skating goodnights of two episodes: Candice Bergen from 1976 and Kevin Hart from 2017.
— Reruns of this episode shorten these goodnights extremely. All the vamping for time before the ending credits roll are removed, as is the SNL Band’s extended playing after the credits finish rolling. To fill in the extra time left by the removal of those moments, reruns add in a cut dress rehearsal sketch called “I Love Lucy: The Lost Tapes”. It’s obvious that sketch was made sometime later in the season, because future cast member Melanie Hutsell is in it playing Ethel.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode. The first half in particular was absolutely amazing, being dominated by all-time memorable pieces. There was also a high energy in the air throughout the episode to go along with the fine quality. The cast’s unique time-killing antics during the very extended goodnights only added to this episode’s special feel.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jeff Daniels)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christian Slater

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

February 19, 1983 – Howard Hesseman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S8 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

DISCLAIMER
DOP relays host’s request that home viewers have a camera ready

— Heh, this is ALREADY making me laugh.


COLD OPENING
cast tries to talk host out of doing controversial anti-Reagan monologue

 

— Good premise with the cast begging Howard not to go through with the controversial monologue he has planned.
— Eddie complaining about Howard’s piece being too hostile towards the president gave me an unintentional laugh, given the fact that, just a few episodes earlier, Eddie did an anti-Reagan commentary on Saturday Night News, calling the president a sleazeball and encouraging viewers to write a letter protesting his refusal to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday.
— Heh, and now Howard himself pointed out the irony of Eddie’s complaint about Howard’s hostility towards the president, by responding “Oh, great, advice from Mr. ‘Kill the White Man’.”
— This is doing a good job of hyping up the monologue and keeping the audience in suspense, even though I personally am already aware of what the monologue’s big reveal is going to be.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host says “Join me- take photo of yourself mooning Reagan, send it in”

   

— Here we go, Howard’s heavily-hyped monologue…
— Funny unscripted moment with a woman in the audience being heard yelling “Hey, Johnny Fever!” (or was it “Play Johnny Fever!”?).
— Haha, Howard’s big reveal is that his monologue is going to be him “dropping trou and mooning the president of the United States”.
— A brief callback to his “dead Belushi” jokes from the monologue he did earlier this season.
— He invites viewers at home to join in on the “media moon-in of President Reagan”, by taking a picture of themselves mooning the TV set when a Reagan picture will show up onscreen, and then mailing their mooning photo to SNL so they can announce the results. LOL, this is great. I can’t believe SNL is doing something like this.
— The audience is going fucking WILD now that Howard’s about to start his mooning.
— We can’t see Howard doing the actual mooning while the camera is showing a close-up of a Reagan picture, but the audience reaction seems to indicate that Howard is indeed exposing himself right before their eyes.
— The ending of this monologue appears to have been abruptly cut off in the copy of the episode I’m watching (an old recording of a Comedy Network rerun from Canada).
— Overall, a terrific and uproarious monologue. In the three episodes he’s hosted, Howard has shown a true knack for doing fantastic monologues that know how to get the audience really into it.
STARS: ****½


SLEEPY BOY 2000
— I already covered this in my review of the Robert Blake episode. This was actually originally aired in tonight’s episode and was later added to the Blake episode in reruns.


GAS STATION
near Graceland, (EDM) receives Elvis’ soul after being hit by a car

   

— Robin’s exaggerated overbite is a funny little detail.
— Eddie thinking he’s Elvis is a pretty funny premise.
— I’m liking Eddie’s Elvis-esque singing of “Jailhouse Rock” while the other performers wildly dance.
— Felt like this overall sketch could’ve gone more places that it didn’t.
STARS: **½


MAD MAGAZINE THEATRE
Windbags Of War characters bash own TV-movie

     

— Oh my god, is that Joe under all the heavy make-up as Alfred E. Neuman?
— Haha, not only is it INDEED Joe, but he appears to be playing Neuman as Tom Snyder, which is really cracking me up.
— This whole scene with Joe is absolutely hilarious so far.
— Who is Gary doing an impression of? His portrayal seems so specific.
— LOL at Eddie randomly entering the scene as Kunta Kinte.
— Feels weird seeing Brad playing a character like this. This has to be the most deep I’ve seen him go into character.
— Very fast costume change for Eddie, playing two different roles in one live sketch.
— An overall fun silly sketch, and an accurate parody of Mad Magazine’s style.
STARS: ****


WEST HEAVEN
by Judith Jacklin Belushi- a musical farewell to JOB

       

— A film from John Belushi’s widow, Judy, as a tribute to the recently-deceased SNL legend.
— Did I just see John’s brother Jim (who we’ll soon be seeing joining the SNL cast next season) standing next to John in one picture? (fifth screencap above)
— Very nice background music throughout this.
— Overall, this was beautifully done, presenting a touching montage of personal pictures that show a softer side of John that audiences rarely got to see. Considering the strong affinity I’ve recently developed for the original cast when covering their era in my SNL project, this film really got to me personally.
STARS: N/A (not a rateable segment)


THE A-TEAM
Mr. T (EDM) says “watch the A-Team” but Rex Reed (JOP) says it’s no good

— An interesting snapshot of a time when The A-Team was a brand-new series.
— Another entertaining display of Eddie and Joe’s always-fun chemistry.
— Funny line from Joe’s Reed saying Mr. T looks like Tina Turner on steroids.
STARS: ***


SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
John Hinckley’s affinity for presidents is documented back to Ike
Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer ponders more mysteries of the universe
Seymore P. Higgins (TIK) clears up misconceptions about George Washington

       

— The montage of John Hinckley in the background of various presidential pictures from over the years was veering dangerously close to coming off like one of Brian Doyle-Murray’s dreaded “long photo montage” bits from last season’s SNL Newsbreaks, but this one ended up having a decent payoff with Hinckley supposedly being conceived in a hotel in the background of an Eisenhower picture.
— Another overall good Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer commentary, especially his “What does a snake use for genitalia?” question.
— Brad’s humorous description of Jerry Lewis was funnier than the actual punchline of the joke.
— I feel dumb for saying this, but I didn’t get Brad’s joke about a Chinese-children-having Mayor Ed Koch getting married again an hour after his wedding. Are frequent marriages a Chinese stereotype?
— What the–? Tim in ANOTHER commentary tonight, as a different character this time? Wow, I know Tim has been a Saturday Night News staple this season, but it’s a VERY rare case to see someone doing two separate commentaries as two different characters in THE SAME edition of SNL’s news segment. The only other instance I can recall of this is Chris Kattan during the Weekend Update in a Jeff Gordon-hosted episode from season 28.
— At the beginning of this commentary, Tim is still seen wearing his mustache from his earlier Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer appearance, then he quickly pulls off the mustache in a hurry. I can’t tell if that was a genuine blooper or an intentional joke. I’m leaning towards the latter, judging from the exaggerated way Tim removed the mustache.
— Brad’s hand can be seen reaching from off-camera to fix Tim’s tipping-over hat while Tim’s in the middle of speaking to us.
— Haha, Brad adjusts Tim’s hat once again. Is this an intentional meta bit or an ad-lib?
— After a while, Tim finally just throws his unstable hat aside.
— Boy, Tim’s commentary seems to have gone completely off the rails. Everything in this is hilarious, though, from the bloopers to the ad-libs to Tim’s humorous scripted dialogue about George Washington.
— Ha, now this has gotten even funnier with Tim flat-out throwing off his entire wig and revealing his Havnagootiim Vishnuuerheer bald cap to the camera.
— Tim’s overall commentary was a riot. I love how much he and Brad were having fun with it. One of the biggest highlights of any Saturday Night News this season.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Change of Heart”


HOLIDAY INN
room service theatrically serves Marvin & Celeste a Fiesta Cheese Platter

   

— This is the second time they’ve done a Holiday Inn sketch in a Howard Hesseman-hosted episode, after that funny Holiday Inn horror movie trailer sketch from his season 5 episode.
— Another return of Tim and Mary’s mousy couple Marvin and Celeste.
— I like Julia’s squeaky-voiced “Arriba!”
— Brad seems to be stretching his acting chops throughout tonight’s episode, playing the type of roles that we usually never see him in.
— Heh, this sketch is getting pretty crazy.
— The pairing of Brad, Julia, and Gary makes me wonder if this is another Practical Theatre Company piece, with Howard Hesseman playing Paul Barrosse’s role. Probably not, though. After all, who would’ve played Tim and Mary’s roles in the stage version of the sketch?
— Funny throwaway line from Hesseman about Tito Puente.
STARS: ***


MY DATE WITH DION
in the salon, Dion Dion & (MAG) tell each other about their nightmares

— Interesting voice on Mary. I’ve never heard her sound like that before.
— The return of Eddie’s Dion Dion character, this time showing him working at a salon, a setting that would soon become regular part of his sketches. Is this going to be the introduction of Joe as Blair, Dion Dion’s equally-flamboyant co-worker?
— Eddie’s naked Rastafarians line was pretty funny.
— Hmm, I guess Joe isn’t going to be in this sketch after all. When in the world does his Blair character make his debut? After being fairly familiar with the Dion Dion/Blair sketches from my past viewings of this era years ago, it feels weird seeing Dion without Blair.
— Decent sketch overall.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Waiting”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— While a step down from Howard Hesseman’s terrific episode from earlier this season, this was still a pretty solid show. Most of the material was good, there were fun moments to be had, and the show never really bottomed-out. Even Saturday Night News was passable. There was also a great energy to the first quarter of the episode that put me in a really good mood.
— It’s a shame that this ends up being Howard Hesseman’s final hosting stint. Judging from the two episodes he’s hosted this season, it seemed like he was on his way to becoming the Buck Henry/Steve Martin/Elliott Gould of the Ebersol era. Why’d they stop getting him after this season?
— My version of this episode ran for only 1 hour and 3 minutes, which is a few minutes shorter than a typical episode from this era. Something must’ve been removed from my copy, but I don’t know what. [ADDENDUM: Looking at the episode guides, my copy of this episode is missing a sketch called “The Laughing Buddha” and a rerun of the “The Khaddaffi Look” commercial from season 7. Strange that they would re-air the latter THIS season; after all, isn’t the jingle in it sung by the recently-fired Christine Ebersole?]


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Beau and Jeff Bridges

Posted on

November 10, 1979 – Buck Henry / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (S5 E4)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars


COLD OPENING
saving Fred Silverman’s life in the Korean War wrote host’s ticket to SNL

   

— Funny beginning with anti-Buck picketers outside the studio. While it may have just been a joke here, it’s something SNL would later experience in reality when a certain now-president hosted in 2015.
— Wow, SNL’s really going all in tonight on this era’s traditional gag of Buck never getting any respect at the show.
— The war story about Buck had a great Fred Silverman twist.
— Jane finally gets her coveted first solo LFNY.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
security guards protect unfazed host from a mob that’s sick of seeing him

   

— Haha, security guards are on stage upon Buck’s entrance.
— Good bit with the audience constantly heckling Buck. Again, that’s something that would later become a real-life concern for SNL regarding the monologue when Trump hosted.
— I almost thought the guy who was stopped from angrily rushing the stage was Belushi, just based on his voice, before I remembered Belushi’s not on the show anymore.
— I love how Buck is oblivious to all the hate.
— The shot of the outside picketers tearing apart a dummy of Buck was fairly funny.
STARS: ***½


HARLEY’S BRISTOL CREME
rebuffed (GIR) settles on sharing Harley’s Bristol Cream with Honker

   

— Gilda’s rejected phone calls are fairly funny.
— I like how Gilda’s increasing desperation has now gotten to the point where she’s resorting to yelling out the window for a random guy.
— HA, great ending with the random guy who Gilda called up to her apartment turning out to be Bill’s Honker character!
STARS: ****


THE MYSTERY OF TOAD ISLAND
inbred residents have amphibian traits

   

— Oh my god at Laraine’s neck suddenly bulging like a frog’s. That caught me completely off-guard, and looks almost TOO realistic.
— After the initial shock has worn off, I don’t think I like where this sketch is going.
— Okay, yeah, I DEFINITELY don’t like where this is going. One of those thin-premised sketches where the humor fizzles out early right after the initial joke is revealed.
— Overall, boy, did I dislike this sketch. Why was this chosen as the lead-off sketch of the night?
STARS: *½


MATCHMAKER NERDS
Lisa & Todd try to get Marshall & Enid to go on a date

     

— It took the audience a few seconds to really get the “Todd works out with his right arm a lot” joke.
— The return of Buck as Todd’s dad, a character that was really funny last time he appeared.
— The Expo 67 story of how Buck lost his wife was pretty funny.
— Loved Todd’s frustrated reactions to his dad sending Lisa and Enid to the chess tournament.
— Overall, the usual solid Nerds sketch.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Refugee”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Jack Van Arks (ALF) defends the chemical industry with mundane facts
footage depicts enormous response to Find The Popes In The Pizza Contest
Father Guido Sarducci picks Find The Popes In The Pizza Contest winner

       

— What’s with Bill slowly moving the desk phone & phone wire during Jane’s first joke?
— Refreshing to see the debut of a new Update character. I can’t say enough how much Update is in desperate need of new characters at this point in the show’s run, considering the small range of recurring guests they keep cycling through every damn week.
— I almost thought at first that this was going to be Franken’s infamous roach-killing bit I’ve always heard about, but I think that’s actually in the following week’s Bea Arthur episode.
— Franken’s reaction to drinking H2SO4 cracked me up.
— A follow-up to the “Find the Popes in the Pizza” contest.
— Funny line from Sarducci about the SNL mailman not knowing what to do with a letter he found for Belushi.
— Overall, a good conclusion to the Popes/Pizza contest.
STARS: ***


BAD CLAMS
(GAM) & (YVH) feed Lucille Ball (GIR) rancid seafood

   

— Yes! Here’s a sketch I’ve always been dying to see, after hearing how great and weird it is.
— It feels strange seeing Yvonne Hudson with so many lines. This is probably bigger than any role she would ever get during her future Featured Player days the following season, where (from what I heard about that season) she was literally a glorified extra.
— I love the sudden shift from typical morning show banter to “Now who’s gonna eat these bad clams?”
— What an inexplicably insane concept.
— I always love the raspy voice Gilda uses as modern-day Lucille Ball.
— Gilda making her Catatonic Colleen face when eating the bad clams.
— Great little moment with Gilda doing the famous “Lucy cry” while having her face endlessly stuffed with the clams.
— This is pure craziness.
— Overall, that definitely lived up to all the hype I’ve heard over the years. Perfect length, too.
STARS: *****


HOW TO TALK TO YOUR GRANDPARENTS
record album helps youngsters get gifts

   

— Not too sure about this concept.
— Okay, I kinda like the part with the scrolling list of topics covered in the album, done in the same way commercials list off songs in a music album they’re advertising.
— Overall, eh, the humor was relatable, but this pretty much did nothing for me.
STARS: **


LIFE AFTER DEATH
by TOS- “take a number, be seated” experience recalled

  

— Is this film a rerun?
— Yep, they showed this one before. And I remember not caring for it the first time. Not one of Schiller’s better films.
— Is it just me, or were the graphics on the bottom of the screen that displays each testimonial-giver’s name and cause of death not there last time they aired this film?


SPECI-PAK
Speci-Pak carrying case keeps severed body parts fresh on way to hospital

     

— Buck coughing up a chunk of a mysterious internal organ was a great laugh.
— Ha, the above-mentioned coughing-up bit being followed by Bill’s “How often does this happen to you?” is great.
— Gilda cutting off her finger is another big laugh.
— This is humorously disgusting so far.
— Interesting device. I like this creative premise.
— Bill is fine as the pitchman, but man, just think of how fucking great Aykroyd would’ve done pitching this product.
STARS: ****


LOVE CONTRACT
during prenuptial talks, lawyers (host) & (HAS) break up (BIM) & (LAN)

   

— So once again, Harry Shearer DOES end up making an appearance after all, despite not being credited in the opening montage tonight. This is the second episode in a row that has happened. Why did they begin crediting him in the Eric Idle episode’s opening montage, only to take him out of the next two episodes’ montage, despite the fact that he’s appeared in noteworthy roles in both episodes?
— This has a clever, interesting premise.
— Bill’s ridiculous pet names for Laraine are pretty funny.
— I like the twist with Jane suddenly appearing as Bill’s other fiancee.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Do Me Like That”


DRIVING
(host) scares (JAC) & (GIR) during a desperate drive home for the toilet

   

— I’m already liking this sketch a lot, right from the frantic beginning with Buck angrily driving fast.
— Haha, good reveal that the reason for Buck’s panicked driving is because he simply has to go to the bathroom.
— Gilda’s reaction to Buck running over a rabbit was very funny.
— LOL, hilarious ending.
— Overall, wow, what a great little 10-to-1 sketch. Something about this sketch had a feeling that is atypical of this SNL era; I dunno why, but I think it has more of an early 80s Ebersol era feel.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS
cast chases host from studio after he wears out his welcome

     

— Why is Garrett dressed in that afro wig and outfit? Was a sketch cut at the last minute?
— Fantastic continuation of tonight’s cold opening and monologue by having the cast angrily chasing Buck off the stage and beating him down backstage. Probably one of my new all-time favorite goodnights gags the show has ever done.
— We get a very extended goodnights afterwards, with the last minute of this just showing the SNL Band jamming out on the goodnights music. Probably one of the longest the goodnights music has ever been heard in an SNL episode.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fun episode, and easily the best one of this underwhelming season so far. I got a lot of enjoyment from this episode, especially the “protesting audience” storyline early in the show and all the creative, inspired premises that appeared after Update (particularly Bad Clams).


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Russell):
— a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Bea Arthur