Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Calvin Klein Cream Pies- Andie (JLD) tries on a pair
— Yet ANOTHER Calvin Klein Jeans parody on SNL.
— I recall hearing that the “Andie” that Julia’s playing here is actually a young Andie MacDowell, which would explain the curly hair and southern accent.
— This uses the exact same twist from last week’s Calvin Klein Jeans parody, with Julia suddenly getting a pie smashed into her face during her rambling. Doesn’t come off as funny this time, since we already just saw it being done. Was the gag really necessary to repeat?
— I do like how she got hit an additional time while in the middle of saying “Live from New York…”.
STARS: **
MONOLOGUE
hosts’ dialogue is like the corny banter of award show presenters
— This is an accurate parody of bad, unfunny awards show banter. However, the problem is, this parody is just as unfunny as the real thing.
— Overall, a waste of DeVito and Perlman. I’m not too crazy about the way tonight’s episode has been starting so far.
STARS: *½
MISTER ROBINSON’S NEIGHBORHOOD
the products of sleeping around show up
— Loved Eddie hinting at what’s in the basket by asking viewers, as a riddle, “What’s black and Puerto Rican and has my eyes?”
— The part with “bastard” being the Word of the Day is funny, and has an interesting backstory from writer Kevin Kelton about how they weren’t allowed to say the word “bastard” on air, so they worked around it by having Eddie just point to the word on the board and ask viewers “Can you use this word in a sentence? Cab drivers can!”
— Overall, one of the stronger installments of this sketch in a while, with a good change-of-pace premise and lots of funny lines from Eddie.
STARS: ****
CRAZY EDELMAN
discount psychiatrist Crazy Edelman (JOP)- his prices are insane
— Yet another “Crazy Eddie” parody from this era.
— This is a hilarious and clever twist on the usual type of “Crazy Eddie” commercial, by having the pitchman of the “insane” ad be an actual psychiatrist. Great performance from Joe as well.
STARS: ****
WHAT WOULD FRANK DO?
Dion Dion wins on Sinatra’s (JOP) game show
— This sketch was inspired by a phrase that Joe was infamous backstage for always telling the writers (“Frank wouldn’t do that”) whenever a script they handed him for a Frank Sinatra sketch contained something that he felt was inaccurate to the real Frank.
— Ha, Eddie’s Dion Dion character is one of the contestants.
— Eddie’s hysterical excitement over both hearing what his prize is (Sinatra singing to him) and seeing Sinatra show up is very funny.
— This was pretty good overall, and a unique approach for a gameshow sketch.
STARS: ***
SMALL WORLD
It’s A Small World riders panic when their boat breaks down in the tunnel
— Mary Gross plays yet ANOTHER nun.
— Eddie’s Vietnam comment was pretty funny.
— I love how increasingly insane and dark this sketch is getting.
— Nice touch with the dolls in the background being heard chanting “One down, four to go” after Tim gets killed off.
— Good use of frequent SNL extra Andy Murphy as a robot Grover Cleveland.
— I’m really enjoying the part with the spooky-sounding voice of an un-thawed Walt Disney on the loudspeaker forcing the main characters to sing “Mickey Mouse”.
— I like how as the sketch ended, they revealed how this sketch was green-sceened.
STARS: ****
ODYSSEY OF A PAPERCLIP
why mom warns “you don’t know where it’s been”
— The educational film-esque presentation of the paperclip’s ridiculous journey started out a little slow, but I like how increasingly disgusting it’s now getting.
— The ending fell kinda flat, though I did like the little touch of them playing a deadly gunshot sound effect when Gary decides to use the paperclip as a toothpick after being warned not to.
STARS: **½
SPANISH CLASS
a teacher (Rhea) insists that all in-class conversation be “en Espanol”
— Was Joe’s late entrance at the beginning a real mistake? He adds a “sorry” to Rhea as the teacher, which came off like an ad-lib.
— The “yo/joe” bit with Gary was funny.
— Eddie’s great in his walk-on.
— This sketch is kinda reminding me of a more well-known French Class sketch that Alec Baldwin would do 10 years later.
— Decent ending.
STARS: ***½
BOOK BEAT
a stalker’s (Danny) works appear to have a common theme
— I like the unflattering picture of Mary (I think) on the cover of the “Candidly Debra” book.
— An okay surprise ending with Danny getting shot by Debra from the audience, though something about that part felt like it could’ve been a little better.
— Quick sketch.
STARS: ***
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
fired newscaster (JLD) cries sexism, is unaware of her facial expressions
GAK’s review of Never Say Never Again focusses mostly on the Bond Girls
Dr. Ruth Westheimer (MAG) blames teen pregnancies on media influences
— Brad’s random “Still to come” bit threw me off at first, making me mistakenly think he was throwing to a mid-news fake ad like Weekend Update often used to do after a “Still to come” bit back in the first two seasons.
— Heh, WTF at Julia’s brief random crazy face just now?
— Oh, I see what Julia’s going for.
— Julia’s overall commentary was actually pretty funny. While the humor was really broad and basically a mug-fest, Julia pulled it off really well, especially the good comic timing she displayed when she kept seamlessly going back-and-forth from a deadpan, serious delivery to a goofy voice & face. Considering how often she’s gotten stuck in dull straight roles during her SNL tenure so far, it was refreshing to see her doing something like this.
— Interesting seeing Gary doing a commentary as himself.
— Gary increasingly demonstrating how much skin the Bond Girls showed in the latest Bond movie is funny, and I love how overly into it hes getting.
— Brad’s corny “Bingo was his name-o” joke about Reagan made me groan like crazy.
— Mary’s Dr. Ruth commentary about too much sexual messages on TV has taken a confusing turn just now. She’s started griping about Ronald Reagan’s Big Macs, McNuggets, and McMuffins. What in the world does Reagan have to do with those things?
— Interesting big blooper, where Mary actually stops in the middle of her commentary to point out (while still speaking in character) that she’s being informed by off-camera crew members that something’s wrong with the way her clip-on mic is applied. I had been wondering why I kept hearing fuzzy sounds from her mic throughout her commentary. Great ad-libs from Mary in response to all of this.
— I’m glad Mary’s Dr. Ruth commentary didn’t end with the usual finger-in-hole gesture gag they ended all of her previous commentaries with.
— Hmm, no commentary from Tim Kazurinsky tonight, ending his 10-episode streak of appearing in every edition of Saturday Night News.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Wanna Dance” & “Electric Avenue”
AUTOGRAPH HOUNDS
autograph seekers (TIK), (Rhea), (Danny) compare notes; Dick Cavett cameo
— I like the character work that Tim’s doing here.
— Random Dick Cavett cameo.
— I admit, Cavett’s sarcastic response to being asked “Anyone in there?” was funny, as was Danny’s dismissive attitude towards him.
— Strange moment at the end of Cavett’s scene. First, the audience began applauding as if his scene had ended, even though he was still onstage, then he asked Danny “Why do you guys always have those ear-flap hats?”, which was apparently an ad-lib judging from Danny’s genuinely taken-aback reaction. Then Cavett takes off Danny’s hat and wears it on his own head as he exits the scene, resulting in a funny outraged “He took my hat!” response from Danny.
— A pretty good sketch overall, with funny characterizations from each of the main performers.
STARS: ***
THE AMOS ‘N ANDY SHOW
this new version features (EDM) & Andy Rooney (JOP)
— Another sketch crossing over Andy Rooney with an old TV show. It wasn’t that funny last time they did it (“The Honeyrooneys” sketch from two seasons ago), and this one is making me laugh even less. It doesn’t help that I’ve never watched “Amos ‘n Andy”, though I’m aware of the basics of that show.
— This overall sketch was pretty much a dud.
STARS: *½
MASTERPIECE HUMOR
the final episode of “A Kangaroo Walks Into A Bar”
— Pretty funny concept for a “Masterpiece Theater” parody.
— The big gag with the miniseries conclusion turning out to just be a four-second silly punchline after Tim gave such a dignified, lengthy intro to it didn’t work for me.
— Something about the fancy ending credits that’s being scrolled by onscreen is really tickling me.
STARS: **
BODY GUARD
mourners attack a negligent bodyguard (ROD) at a politician’s funeral
— Not sure what to think of this sketch so far. It’s awfully redundant.
— The cast is really committed in their performances, though, which is the only high point I’ve been able to find in this.
— I didn’t get the ending with Brad.
— A terrible one-joke sketch overall.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Living on the Front Line”
GOODNIGHTS
— Eddie, seen with his girlfriend around his arm, interrupts Danny’s goodnights speech to tell him he’s getting married.
— Another big announcement, with Danny informing us that “Jimmy” Belushi will be joining the cast in next week’s episode.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Kind of a strange episode, in that it started very rough with a cold opening that was just a lazy rewrite and a dull monologue, before suddenly getting really strong for a while with a string of very solid sketches and inspired premises, then the quality slightly lowered down to a decent level and stayed there until it died off badly with the weak final three sketches of the night. A varying episode as a whole, but the funny and inspired highlights of the night still make it an overall pretty enjoyable show.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Brandon Tartikoff):
— a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
John Candy