Month: March 2019

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May 24, 1986 – Anjelica Huston and Billy Martin / George Clinton & The Parliament Funkadelic (S11 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Hands Across America participants won’t let one-legged runner (RAQ) pass

— After not laughing much for the first minute or so of this, I’m liking Randy’s sudden entrance as a one-legged runner.
— Randy introduces himself as Kevin Brennan, which also happens to be name of a future SNL writer from season 25 who would do occasional A. Whitney Brown-esque political commentaries on Weekend Update.
— I like the running theme with a different person responding “What, those bums?” when being told Hands Across America is supporting the homeless.
— Randy’s overall presence added some laughs, but his scene ended really poorly and awkwardly.
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— For the first (and last, obviously, since this is the season finale) time this season, Al Franken is credited as a featured player.

— Damon Wayans is back as a featured player! Despite being fired two months earlier for an incident in the Griffin Dunne episode, Damon was brought back by Lorne tonight for one night only, to perform some stand-up. In the “Live from New York” book, Damon theorizes that the reason he was allowed back is because “(paraphrased) deep down inside, Lorne loves a rebel.”


MONOLOGUE
backstage, Billy tells Mephistopheles (JOL) & Anjelica that he’s changed

— Anjelica’s joke about the Academy Award “curse” leading to her hosting SNL tonight appears to be yet another self-deprecating joke about SNL’s poor quality this season.
— Throughout his talk with Billy Martin, Anthony annoyingly keeps clearing his throat. I’ve noticed in the last handful of episodes that he has a bad habit of doing this throughout sketches.
— Out of the two performers on my screen right now, it says something that the one with zero acting experience (Billy Martin) is coming off more comfortable on camera than the one who’s an actual actor and paid cast member of a sketch comedy show (Anthony Michael Hall).
— For some reason, I liked Billy going “You again?” upon seeing an evilly-laughing Mephistopheles show up.
— Overall, a decent set-up to tonight’s running storyline between Billy and Mephistopheles.
STARS: ***


THE PEOPLE’S SECOND CHOICE AWARDS
Ed McMahon helps honor runners-up

   

— Bah, this isn’t funny to me. Just a long screen crawl of many celebrity names, with not enough funny ones thrown in.
— Okay, I kinda got a laugh just now from one of the sponsors being “Big boned girls who don’t speak much at first”, accompanied by a picture of two girls.
STARS: *½


MOMENTS OF DOUBT
(RAQ) & (Anjelica) silently worry about uncertainties

— I like Anjelica’s random thought about if she put the car keys in the ceramic chicken.
— The dog’s obviously-fake bark provided a laugh.
— Overall, I kinda liked the format of this sketch, but felt the inner thoughts should’ve been funnier.
STARS: **


GLAMOROUS DRINKING
a sketch pulled from last week’s show excessively glamorizes drinking
liquor council spokesman’s (RAQ) rebuttal- drink a lot, but not too much

— Interesting intro from Lorne.
— I kinda like the detail of Billy’s oversized drinking glass.
— This sketch hasn’t been working too much for me so far. While I’m liking the idea of the comically absurd levels of alcohol glorification seen throughout the piece, I feel the sketch is coming off fairly dull.
— Okay, I’m interested in this sudden turn, with Randy as a spokesperson for the National Council of Liquor and Spirits offering a rebuttal to the sketch.
— I’m getting some pretty good laughs from Randy’s lines, especially him advising us to “drink, drink, drink, and then just before it gets really bad, stop…. and then maybe start drinking again.” Funny dialogue here, helped even more by Randy’s usual reliable delivery.
STARS: **½


ACTORS ON FILM
Jimmy Chance & Ashley Ashley extol the virtues of Top Gun

— The return of this unnecessary recurring sketch that should’ve been left a one-off in the George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode.
— That’s it? The sketch is over? This didn’t work for me AT ALL. I enjoyed the first appearance of these characters in the aforementioned Wendt/Coppola episode, and though they suffered diminishing returns in their second appearance in the Oprah Winfrey episode, I still got some laughs there (mostly just from Robert). But this third appearance completely washed over me. I didn’t even get so much as a chuckle from this.
STARS: *


HALLMARK
Maerose Prizzi (Anjelica) reads some Hallmark Organized Crime Cards

— I think I recall hearing this is a character Anjelica previously played in a movie, but I can’t remember which movie it is.
— An overall simple but pretty funny sketch with some laughs from the mafia greeting cards that Anjelica read off.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs medley including “Let’s Take It To The Stage”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ALF gives an update on his decade & asks viewers to go see his new movie
AWB talks about the ill-educated, flag-waving class of 1986
Weekend Update Dancers & Father Guido Sarducci honor Statue of Liberty

— Dennis mentions that 6 years ago behind this very desk, Al Franken declared the 80s the Al Franken decade (actually, that happened 7 years ago, not 6, but that’s a nitpick), which leads us into an appearance from the man himself.
— Good to see the return of the old running gag with Al periodically saying “me – Al Franken” while a graphic of his name is displayed.
— A laugh from how the naked pictures of Al’s children have censor bars over private areas. Also, one of the pictures is of Al’s then-baby son Joe, who we’ll be meeting on the show three years later in the final episode of 1989, in a memorable Update commentary where Al passes the Al Franken Decade torch and declares the then-approaching 90s the Joe Franken Decade.
— Now Al has gotten to the main point of his commentary, which is just him plugging his and Tom Davis’ upcoming movie One More Saturday Night. Some laughs over Al going into excessive and desperate detail on which theaters are showing the movie. Feels a little weird watching this in retrospect, though, knowing what a flop the movie would end up being.
— I really liked A. Whitney’s line about illiterates who can’t read USA Today, which makes him wonder “Maybe they’re the ones who are writing it.”
— A. Whitney’s overall commentary had some really witty backhanded comments about the intelligence level of the graduating Class of ’86.
— After a two-episode break, we get an unwelcome return of the Weekend Update Dancers, in what will thankfully end up being their final appearance ever. This time, they’re changing things up by rhythmically acting out a Father Guido Sarducci-read story about the Statue of Liberty.
— Hey, this Weekend Update Dancers appearance is actually kinda making me chuckle in a weird way, just for the humorous incongruity between their dancing and Guido Sarducci’s narration.
— Funny post-Weekend Update Dancers visual of Dennis in that headdress.
— I liked the “knock knock” bit Dennis did to commemorate the end of this season. Stuff like this shows why I’m so glad he made Weekend Update fun again this season, after the dire condition it was in the previous five seasons.
STARS: ***


LESBIAN PICK-UPS
both (JOC) & her fiance (RDJ) are picked up by lesbians in a bar

— Nora plays her very first of what I recall being quite a number of lesbian roles over the course of her SNL tenure.
— I’m getting some good laughs from Nora’s confident determination in proving to Joan she’s just as good for her as any man is.
— Pretty funny turn with Joan easily being persuaded in going home with Nora.
— I had liked where this was going, but it petered out for me during the whole bit with Robert and Anjelica.  Cute ending, though, with them romantically slow-dancing their way off the set.
— I think portions of this sketch is replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. I’m reviewing the live version of this episode, but from my recollection of the rerun version, there was an abrupt cut in this sketch during Robert’s reaction to finding out his girlfriend walked off with a lesbian, as if something was inserted from dress rehearsal around that time.
STARS: **½


BOCCE BALL MY WAY
Father Guido Sarducci shows how in instructional video

— Fairly funny premise with Father Guido Sarducci hosting an instructional bocce ball videotape. And there’s something about the words “bocce ball” that just sound funny in Sarducci’s accent and voice.
— Wait, that’s it??? It’s over already? Nothing even happened in this! Okay, the scrolled list of topics covered on the tape was kinda amusing, but this overall piece could’ve been pretty funny if it actually went somewhere.
STARS: *½


BACKSTAGE
Mephistopheles tries to intimidate Billy & tempts him with alcohol

— For the second time this season, a non-Tommy Flanagan recurring character of Jon’s briefly breaks out into a Tommy Flanagan voice when telling a lie. Hmm. But, hey, to be honest, I’d take this over a full-fledged appearance of the overused Flanagan.
— Haha, when trying to tempt Billy, Mephistopheles mentions how “glamorous” liquor is, as an amusing callback to the Glamorous Drinking sketch from earlier tonight.
— Boy, this ended awkwardly as HELL. Something seemed to go wrong after Mephistopheles exited the scene. Anthony showed up afterwards to literally do NOTHING but awkwardly pause as if he or Billy forgot what to do next, and then the sketch just ended. What the hell? I guess that’s what happens when you do a live scene where the only two performers are a non-actor and an 18-year-old non-comedian.
— Speaking of Anthony, are these backstage sketches the ONLY things he’s going to be in tonight? He hasn’t appeared in character during any actual sketches in this episode. I should be thankful for that.
STARS: ***


DAMON WAYANS
DAW does stand-up about racism & how he won childhood insult contests

— During her intro, it sounds like Anjelica butchered the pronunciation of “Wayans”. Reminds me of Betty Thomas messing up Joel Hodgson’s last name when introducing his stand-up segment in the season 9 finale.
— Great to see Damon back on SNL. Also, his grown-out hairstyle here looks better than the shorter, receding hairstyle he had throughout the season.
— The watermelon bit was hilarious, and I loved Damon’s white redneck imitation.
— He mentions growing up with a clubbed foot and having to wear orthopedic shoes, which reminds me of an autobiographical animated series he would later star in during the mid-90s titled Waynehead, which aired on the WB network. (Any other 90s kids besides me remember that show?) The show was about Damon’s childhood in the inner city, and he was memorably always shown wearing a big-ol’ black shoe with a metallic brace due to his clubbed foot.
— I liked Damon enacting his child self telling his mother that his orthopedic shoes “look like Herman Munster shoes, mama.”
— I feel bad for laughing at his imitation of a mentally-handicapped bully, because it’s very un-PC by today’s standards.
— Great ending to the “dirty dozens insult contest” portion, where Damon delivers a hilarious and impressively wordy, long-winded, run-on insult without messing up.
— Overall, a very solid stand-up segment from Damon as expected.
STARS: ****


BOOK MINUTE
(DAV) reads real-life nursery rhymes for inner-city children

— I love Danitra’s character name in this: Aquanetta Feinstein.
— Good premise with Danitra presenting her own nursery rhymes for inner-city children.
— Some of these cruel nursery rhymes are really funny, especially the “Humpty Dumpy Dead” one.
— This ended on kind of a weak note with the repetitive string of “now he dead” endings to various stories.
— Overall, despite the weak ending, this was a pretty solid sketch and Danitra always seems to excel in these one-person talking-to-the-camera sketches.
STARS: ***½


MOVIE THEATRE
loud talk of Patti LaBelle (TES) & aunt (DAV) irks moviegoers

 

— I groaned SO LOUD at Terry’s entrance as a blackface Patti LaBelle.
— Earlier this season, I excused Terry’s previous appearance in blackface drag when he played Diana Ross in that Pee-Wee Herman Thanksgiving Special sketch, but THIS is way too damn much. His Patti LaBelle characterization is racially stereotypical as all hell, and if his make-up were any darker, it would LITERALLY be the color black.
— Also, why place this sketch immediately after two solo performance pieces each starring a black cast member (Damon’s stand-up segment and Danitra’s Book Minute sketch)?
— Oh, geez, as if this sketch hadn’t ALREADY lost me, now we’re resorting to the “black people being loud in a movie theater” trope, one of the most cliched, unfunniest, hackiest comedy premises imaginable.
— I also don’t feel too comfortable with this general premise of white people being annoyed by the behavior of black people. I can’t help but see unfortunate implications there, which is made even worse by the fact that one of said black characters is played by a white performer.
— Overall, ugh, this sketch was fucking TERRIBLE in every way possible. Hands down, one of the worst sketches of the whole season, which is really saying something considering the quality of this year.
— I’d like to think that even Billy Crystal would shake his head at this sketch, but nah, that’s probably giving him too much credit.
STARS: *


MY FRIEND
LOM fires Billy after he shows up drunk for a Colonel Sanders sketch

 

— I like the mysteriousness of Joan’s many descriptions of her friend.
— Funny Colonel Sanders reveal. Billy looks completely unrecognizable in that costume. I can only tell it’s him by the voice.
— Good breaking-the-fourth-wall twist with Billy being drunk and causing the sketch to get derailed.
— An upset Lorne enters the scene, calls Billy out on his unprofessionalism, and fires him on the spot. I can’t help but picture this being exactly what it looked like (only with R-rated language) when Lorne fired Damon Wayans on the spot in real life after Damon’s impromptu “gay cop” routine earlier this season.
— The repeated joke throughout tonight’s episode with Mephistopheles laughing himself into a coughing fit is getting old, and is another cliched joke that’s been done to death in comedy.
— Pretty solid sketch as a whole, and another nice continuation of tonight’s running storyline.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs medley including “Do Fries Go With That Shake”


FIRE / GOODNIGHTS
Billy creates a cliffhanger by setting season-ending cast party ablaze

 

— Okay, here comes the most famous part of the episode, and one of the most famous parts of the whole season.
— LOL at some of these cast members being so pumped for next season, when you know in retrospect that most of them ain’t gonna be there.
— Hilarious reveal with Billy outside the cast’s room, setting it on fire.
— Oh, here comes what is by far the most well-remembered part of this whole piece…
— And there it is: upon realizing that if Billy sets the cast on fire, they wont be able to do the show next season, Lorne enters the smoky room as if he’s going to rescue the whole cast, only to exit a few seconds later with season 11 savior Jon Lovitz as the only person he’s brought out, telling him “Go down to my limo, sit there and wait for me”, and then Lorne just lets the rest of the cast continue to burn in the room! Mean but classic.
— Haha, and then to add a cherry on top of the cake, Lorne leads SNL’s writers into the burning room. The writers here are portrayed as the same three comically preppy, mega-whitebread characters who showed up as the writers in the That Black Girl piece from the Francis Ford Coppola episode earlier this season.
— I’m getting some unintentional amusement from the cheesiness of the really cheap-looking fire graphic that’s being superimposed onto the bottom half of the screen.
— Right now, in the live version I’m reviewing of this episode, there’s a big difference from the rerun version: when the camera cuts to Anjelica Huston and the musical guest all on the home base stage ready to start the goodnights, you can hear VERY LOUD mic’ed running footsteps coming from off-camera, which is actually a delayed Billy Martin rushing towards the home base stage to make his entrance. Billy’s delayed entrance and overly-loud mic’ed footsteps result in a very long awkward pause from a nervously-laughing Anjelica, who then proceeds to comically ad-lib a “cut” gesture to someone off-camera. Billy then finally shows up in burnt, smoky clothing.
— Love the classic visual of the cast burning in the smoky, fiery room while text is displayed onscreen asking “Who will survive? Who will perish? Tune in October 11th”
— Good touch with a question mark being added at the end of every single name in the scrolling ending credits.
— Funny seeing the cast ham it up among the smoke and flames.
— Overall, what an amazing, unique way to end a season, while also acknowledging the troubles of this particular season.
STARS: *****

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— The Billy Martin/Mephistopheles running storyline was fun, and we got an absolutely classic conclusion with the cast being set on fire as a season-ending cliffhanger. However, other than those, plus Danitra Vance’s Book Minute sketch and Damon Wayans’ stand-up routine, this episode was actually a little on the underwhelming side. A lot of sketches were just meh and fell pretty flat with me, and then there was that horrid Patti LaBelle sketch. For this season’s standards, however, tonight was probably one of the more passable episodes by default.

— Needless to say, most of the cast ended up getting dumped over the summer. The only cast members who would be brought back next season are Jon Lovitz (of course), Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, and featured player A. Whitney Brown. I’d say Lorne definitely made the right call bringing back those four. Jon and Dennis in particular had a very strong year and probably made lots of viewers back then hopeful for SNL’s future.

— Going through the departed cast members one-by-one, in order from my least favorite to most favorite:

    • Anthony Michael Hall being brought in as an SNL cast member was a mistake, plain and simple. He turned out to be an extremely ill fit for the show, came off green as a live performer, gave us lots of awkward moments, had a bad tendency to mug the camera and overact, and had one horrible excuse for a recurring character (Craig Sundberg, Idiot Savant). While Anthony had a few okay-ish moments here and there, they were nowhere near good enough to redeem him. He, hands down, gets my vote for one of SNL’s worst cast members of all-time.
    • Robert Downey wasn’t much better, but he did have his occasional moments where he actually showed potential and cracked me up. I especially liked his two big showcases in the George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode, particularly the bizarrely-funny Confrontational Suitcase Monologue piece.
    • Joan Cusack was a little better than I expected her to be. While I can’t think of many times she actually made me laugh, and she had a bad tendency to sometimes rely on a mentally-challenged-sounding slow delivery as a strange acting choice, she was usually always pretty good at the thankless task of playing normal, straight roles in sketches. She also showed a few flashes of charm, especially in the Unconditional Love sketch from the Tony Danza episode. Still, I can’t really say I would’ve wanted a second season of her, especially if it would’ve prevented the hiring of Jan Hooks.
    • Terry Sweeney often provided some pretty good laughs for me, though his tendency to constantly do drag could be a bit much the times he played multiple women in a single episode. Despite being reliable for some laughs, I don’t think I would’ve wanted Terry to come back next season. His seemingly very limited range might’ve gotten old in a second season or so.
    • Danitra Vance wasn’t used too much, but she was usually always very solid whenever she was given a chance to shine. I especially enjoyed so many of her solo pieces throughout the year. It’s too bad her dyslexia issues made it difficult for SNL to write for her, because out of all the fired cast members this season, she’s the only one who I actually would’ve wanted to come back next season (not counting Damon Wayans, as he was already fired earlier in the season and was only brought back in tonight’s season finale as a one-time thing).
    • Randy Quaid had a really good year. In my past viewings of this season when I was younger, I used to unfairly dismiss him as a poor man’s predecessor to Phil Hartman (much like how Michael McKean is always dismissed as a poor man’s successor to Phil Hartman). However, watching and reviewing this season these last few weeks has given me a whole new appreciation for Randy’s SNL stint. He was a very solid and underrated utility player this season, was reliable even in some of the weaker sketches of the year, and was usually always good for providing laughs in comedic roles. All that being said, I wouldn’t have wanted him to come back next season. Why? Simply because we wouldn’t have gotten Phil Hartman. Sure Randy was a strong leader this season, but when it comes to doing utility work on SNL, NOBODY compares to Phil.

— Season 11 as a whole lived up to its poor reputation, even if I didn’t find its quality to be QUITE as horrible as legend has it. There was a noticeably higher number of weak sketches than a typical SNL season, as well as a lacking number of truly strong sketches. The first several months of the season, however, were mostly up-and-down rather than flat-out bad, and surprisingly had a slightly higher number of good episodes than poor ones. For a while, that made me start to wonder if this season isn’t all that deserving of its reputation as one of the Infamous Three Seasons of SNL. However, a turning point occurred with the mid-season Jerry Hall episode, which started a string of weak episodes that made me feel I had officially reached the true badness of season 11. The season never fully recovered after that. There were very few good episodes in the last few months of the season. Aside from the experimental George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola epic, even the better episodes from the last few months of the season weren’t too great. On the other hand, aside from Teri Garr, the worst episodes of this entire overall season were merely bad; not frustratingly awful like the worst episodes of the two other Infamous Three Seasons (seasons 6 and 20). In fact, if I were to rank the Infamous Three Seasons from least worst to absolute worst, my personal ranking would be: season 11, season 6, season 20. This may be subject to change when I eventually review season 20.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jimmy Breslin):
— a moderate step up


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1984-85):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
A retooled season of SNL debuts with a fantastic cast of mostly-new hires, kicking off an era that turns out to be a huge renaissance for SNL

Posted on

May 17, 1986 – Jimmy Breslin / Level 42, E.G. Daily (S11 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
AMH & manager Tommy Flanagan at weigh-in for upcoming bout with Marvin Hagler [real]

— A fairly funny premise of Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Anthony Michael Hall being paired against each other in a boxing match.
— I liked Dennis warning Anthony “Two minutes in the ring, you could come out like Jerry Lewis.”
— Here’s our obligatory weekly Tommy Flanagan appearance, this time showing up as Anthony’s manager.
— Flanagan’s Marvin Hagler/Marvin Hamlisch mix-up made me laugh.
— God, I hate whenever a sketch gives Anthony Michael Hall the excuse to ham it up and overact, and this cold opening is a prime example.
— In my copy of this episode, there seemed to be an abrupt cut to the ending with Hagler segueing into his delivery of “Live from New York…” (where he proceeds to mistakenly look into the wrong camera at first). Also, why did the screen strangely look enlarged and blurry during that shot? Is that shot a dress rehearsal insert?
— Speaking of Hagler’s “Live from New York”, he does a slight variation of the usual tagline, saying “I’m live… in New York… on Saturday Night!” Interestingly, this is the second episode in a row where someone did that type of twist on the LFNY tagline; Paul Simon opened the last episode by saying “We are live from New York on a Saturday Night.”
STARS: **


OPENING MONTAGE
— There’s a misconception in many SNL episode guides that Marvelous Marvin Hagler is a co-host of this episode. Not sure what started that, as Hagler is VERY CLEARLY announced as a special guest in this opening montage. I guess we can file this with other similar misconceptions such as Chevy Chase supposedly being the host of the final season 6 episode, there supposedly being no host in the 100th episode, Funky 4 + 1 More supposedly being the billed musical guest of the Deborah Harry-hosted episode, Dan Aykroyd supposedly being a co-host of the John Goodman-hosted episode from season 20, and Buster Poindexter supposedly being the billed musical guest of the upcoming Sigourney Weaver-hosted season 12 premiere. (There’s probably other similar misconceptions I’m forgetting at the moment)
— Also, if Hagler really HAD been the co-host tonight, the odd pairing of him and Jimmy Breslin wouldn’t be TOO unusual for this season, as the back half of this season has developed a strange habit of randomly pairing together two hosts who have absolutely no connection to each other (George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola, Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon, and the upcoming pairing of Anjelica Huston and Billy Martin).
— Instead of being credited as a special guest like he usually is on SNL, Sam Kinison is credited as a featured player in tonight’s opening montage. What the…? Does this mean Kinison technically counts as an SNL cast member, even if it’s just for this one episode? I guess not, but the way he was credited tonight would make you think so. Heh, who knew Sam Kinison was once part of the SNL cast?


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Pretty random choice for SNL to get a journalist/author to host. I wonder if this is because they were having trouble booking guests at this point due to the season’s infamous quality.
— He’s already coming off pretty funny with his New York-ish blunt remarks.
— Good callback, with him likening hosting SNL to a childhood story he told earlier in this monologue about his choir teacher.
— Overall, a good monologue. I was surprised at how likable and relatable he came off here.
STARS: ***


REAGAN’S COMMAND
a USA sub has Kaddafi in its sights, but Ronald Reagan (RAQ) can’t act

— First time we’ve seen Randy’s Reagan in what feels like a pretty long time. I also believe this ends up being the last time we’ll ever see his Reagan.
— A few laughs from the devil and angel Reagan heads advising Reagan.
— Though probably a cliched gag nowadays, I liked the Jeopardy theme playing when Randy’s Reagan is in deep thought, trying to figure what to do.
— I find it amusing that Gaddaffi strangely hasn’t moved from his spot in three long hours.
— Seems to be some timing issues throughout this sketch.
— This sketch started losing steam and dying off towards the end, though the ending was okay.
STARS: **½


MIDDAY WITH JENNIFER HICKS
advice from Bond villains Goldfinger (host), Blofeld (JOL), Largo (RAQ)

— The set-up of this whole thing with a talk show host interviewing three guests together reminds me of the Late Show with Joan Rivers sketch that we just saw in the last episode. However, I’m loving the idea of tonight’s sketch much more, with the three talk show guests being James Bond villains.
— Not sure, but I think the cat that Jon’s holding is the same fluffy white cat who’s been appearing in various sketches starting way back in season 5’s Canadian Wizard of Oz sketch with Elliott Gould.
— I like how Jimmy Breslin’s using his natural voice and how humorously out of place it is for his Goldfinger role.
— A lot of laughs from the villains’ tips on what not to do when dealing with James Bond.
— Ha, Joan actually points out how Goldfinger is missing his German accent, which he offers a pretty funny explanation for.
— A really solid sketch overall.
STARS: ****


KNOCKOUTS
Marvin Hagler’s [real] tips for the knocked out- breathe, don’t twitch, say “Las Vegas”

— Boy, this was a quick segment that just came and went. Marvin’s tips on what to do if he knocks you out were only okay at best; not anything particularly good.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Level 42 performs “Something About You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
unlike phony Chernobyl footage shown on other broadcasts, the real stuff
DEM shows pictures from Hitler’s WWII photo album

— The Chernobyl “footage” being an old black-and-white silent film was just okay, but felt like a gag that was pulled off better other times.
— Good visual bit with the Pope’s 1987 tour jacket that Dennis displays.
— I loved Dennis’ random bunions/Jerry Lewis telethon one-liner.
— Very funny joke with Dennis likening Sylvester Stallone’s acting “range” to that of Larry Stork on F-Troop.
— The Hitler photo album bit didn’t work for me.
— I absolutely LOVED the meta-ness of Dennis’ punchline to the story about The Love Boat being canceled: “If there was any justice in the universe, Chevy would’ve read this story 10 years ago.”
— No guest commentaries in tonight’s overall Update. Thankfully, we also got no appearance from the Weekend Update Dancers, for the second week in a row. Only one more episode left this season before the Update Dancers are gone forever.
— Quite a hit-and-miss Update overall tonight, but the hits made it worth it.
STARS: ***


LONE WOLF MCCORD
the crybaby renegade cop (RAQ) decides to quit

 

— What’s with the audience’s applause when Jon walks on at the beginning as a generic unnamed character?
— I’m already getting a good laugh from Randy’s entrance, with his whispery tough-cop voice.
— Funny turn with Randy dropping his tough attitude and breaking out into childish tears in the locker room because “the commissioner yelled at me!”
— Pretty funny reaction when Randy finds out his nickname among his fellow cops is Lone Wolf McCord
— Haha, I love the part with Jimmy breaking out into a badly-sung guitar song to cheer Randy up.
— Overall, a very well-executed sketch.
STARS: ****


SAM KINISON
Sam Kinison [real] does stand-up about Chernobyl & the bombing of Libya

— Sam gets his own badass theme music upon his entrance this time, which is new.
— Some laughs from him talking about how President Reagan is nonchalantly handling the Libya situation.
— This stand-up material is pretty hit-and-miss so far, but it’s nice to see Sam not doing YET ANOTHER stand-up set about bitter relationship issues.
— Uh-oh, I spoke too soon. Now he’s launched into the usual “marriage is hell” subject. This could have some laughs, though.
— Pretty funny bit about the devil giving married men a tour of hell.
— Another mention of SNL recently getting renewed for a 12th season. After bringing that up here, Sam laughs at all the naysayers who thought the show would get canceled, and then does a great victory dance.
— This overall stand-up segment was a little below Sam Kinison’s usual standards. He REALLY seemed to double down on his trademark screaming outbursts tonight, as if he was using them to hide the lack of actual funny material in this piece. Don’t get me wrong, I usually always crack up at Sam’s screaming outbursts, but not when he does it every 10 damn seconds. The outbursts are funnier when they’re used a little more sparingly to emphasize the points he makes.
STARS: **½


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
driving exercises; Pulitzer winner host walks off

— Oh, god, here comes this sketch making its 3,820th appearance of the season.
— Nora demonstrating how steering a wheel can be done as a rhythmic exercise routine is okay.
— Just now, something got muted out at the end of Jimmy’s line where he defends himself by summing up all the work that he does. It looked like the censored words might’ve been “for god’s sake”. I’m guessing it was a no-no to say that on TV back in those days.
— I got a laugh from Nora’s line about poverty being so sad because “there’s nothing we can do about it”.
— Haha, I loved Jimmy abruptly walking off the show mid-interview while asking “What moron got me onto this show?” I wish the interviewees in these sketches had that type of attitude more often, but maybe that’s just because I’ve recently begun to kinda sour on these sketches due to their extreme overuse.
STARS: **½


TORNADOVILLE
between twisters, Tornadoville residents (RAQ) & (AMH) chit-chat

— Decent visual with that hanger sticking out of Anthony’s head.
— What the HELL is up with Anthony slowly looking around with a dazed facial expression when Nora makes a joke about how she won’t be able to recognize him without the hanger in his head? (second-to-last screencap above)
— I initially liked the premise, but the sketch has really not been working for me so far.
— This is yet another instance where I can tell season 11 is up to its old tricks of sweetening audience reactions in reruns. The audience’s laughter sounds SO canned and unnatural in portions of this sketch.
— I kinda like Nora’s mock-dramatic speech about living in a place without having to worry about various tornado-related annoyances. I think I’m just desperate to find something to like in this dull-as-hell sketch.
— The whole “I was born in that house over there” bit fell REALLY flat, not helped by typical bad Anthony Michael Hall delivery. (Thank god I only have one more episode to put up with him)
— I think in the original live airing, this was the lead-off sketch of the night right after the monologue. I can definitely see why they moved this to a late time slot in the rerun version I’m reviewing.
STARS: *½


ASSEMBLY
at school assembly, Cabrini Green sings a song to prevent teen pregnancy

— Strangely, this begins with Nora randomly playing Pat Stevens AGAIN tonight, introducing Cabrini Green in a school assembly. What the hell???
— First time we’ve seen Danitra all night. In fact, it feels like quite a lot of the cast has barely gotten anything to do tonight. Terry Sweeney hasn’t appeared in this episode AT ALL. Guess the writers didn’t have any drag roles available this week.
— The name of Cabrini’s back-up singers, The Mell-O White Boys, is actually from Danitra’s real-life off-Broadway stage show “Danitra Vance and the Mell-O White Boys”. I’m assuming the two Mell-O White Boys members onstage in this sketch are the same ones from Danitra’s stage show.
— The musical number is okay if nothing particularly great, and I liked the part where Danitra REALLY got into her singing.
STARS: ***


A MESSAGE FROM JODY HAGLER
flight attendant Jody Hagler (Marvin Hagler) says “I’m no boxer, leave me alone”

— I like the amusing detail of Marvin Hagler’s brother being a flight attendant.
— That’s it? The whole sketch just turns out to be him asking people to leave him alone? This was even more pointless than the last “A Message from Marvin Hagler” piece!
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
E.G. Daily sings “Say It, Say It” as Biff watches

— Hard to believe this is the same woman who would later go on to be a voice actress in some of my childhood favorite animated series from the 90s, most famously doing the voice of Tommy on Rugrats.
— Throughout the performance, Jon Lovitz is randomly seen in the background, inside the home base stage’s theater booth.
— And now he’s come out from the booth and becomes part of the performance, joining E.G. Daily in a little dance before leaving. He appears to be playing his Biff character from the Biff & Salena sketches. A really random though fun idea to include him in this musical performance. Did Jon and E.G. have some kind of pre-SNL connection? Perhaps they knew each other from The Groundlings or something?


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A fairly up-and-down episode, with a few more downs than ups, especially once we got to the last 25 minutes of the show. Some of the ups were surprisingly strong for this season (Midday With Jennifer Hicks, Lone Wolf McCord), while the downs were the usual tepid season 11 material. I will say that Jimmy Breslin gave the episode a bit of a boost, as he was a surprisingly fun and likable host.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon):
— a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
The troubled season 11 comes to an end, with hosts Anjelica Huston and Billy Martin, and featuring an epic season-ending cliffhanger regarding the future status of the cast

Posted on

May 10, 1986 – Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon / Ladysmith Black Mambazo (S11 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Paul performs “You Can Call Me Al”

— We start off with a straightforward musical performance.
— Feels weird seeing an SNL episode beginning in this manner, but it’s not the first time Paul opened the show with a musical performance. The first time he did it was a special case, though, as that episode in general consisted almost entirely of musical performances.
— Interestingly, we get a slight variation of the usual “Live from New York…” tagline, with Paul announcing “We are live from New York on a Saturday Night.”


MONOLOGUE
Catherine’s Dynasty rivals Alexis (TES) & Dominique (DAV) have a catfight

— In hindsight, it’s good that Catherine’s going into a lot of detail about what she does on the show Dynasty, as I’m sure there’s a lot of modern-day viewers who have no idea who Catherine Oxenberg is.
— Terry’s Joan Collins portrayal is pretty funny.
— I got a laugh from Terry’s Aunt Jemima insult towards Danitra’s character.
— Not caring for most of the Terry/Danitra physical fight, though it was kind of a nice touch with them crashing through breakaway glass on one of the doors on the home base stage.
STARS: **½


GERALDO RIVERA OPENS THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
Geraldo Rivera’s next stunt

— A funny parody of how Geraldo Rivera’s then-recent televised opening of Al Capone’s vault infamously turned out to be a bust.
STARS: ***


PRISON
prisoners (Paul) & (JOL) try to escape despite being shackled to a wall

— I got a big laugh from Paul’s asinine idea of Jon melting down the iron bars with heat from his eyeballs.
— Haha, I love the repeated visual of Paul straining to attack Randy while being held back by the chains.
— Some more really funny asinine escape plans from Paul and Jon.
— An overall solid sketch.
STARS: ****


THE LATE SHOW WITH JOAN RIVERS
Roger Vadim’s ex-wives fight back

— Until now, I had forgotten that I heard about Joan Rivers having a short-lived late night talk show in this era, competing against Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.
— Two drag roles for Terry in one night. At least this appears to be a better vehicle for his Joan Rivers impression than the way it was bafflingly shoehorned into that Cleveland Vice sketch earlier this season.
— The only thing Randy’s Ed McMahon impression seems to consist of here is increasingly-exaggerated “ho ho ho” laughter, which made me laugh early on but is running out of steam fast.
— Is that a bespectacled Don Pardo who has randomly walked into the scene at the very end, during the sketch-ending audience applause? (screencap below) What was THAT all about?

— Didn’t care too much for this sketch overall.
STARS: **


THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
Paul’s hell is Muzak versions of his music

— They surprisingly haven’t done this sketch in a quite a while, after overusing it in a consecutive string of episodes around the midpoint of the season.
— A lot of the Floating Head’s demonstrations are falling flat in tonight’s installment, but I laughed at the demonstration with him putting a cigarette out with his tongue.
— Joan flubs her line, mistakenly addressing young Paul Simon as “Seymour” before mentioning an Uncle Seymour who’s upstairs.
— I kinda like Robert’s badly-rhymed Uncle Seymour song.
— Good to see the return of Jon’s Mephistopheles character.
— Funny “So am I” response from Mephistopheles when young Simon and Garfunkel reveal to him they’re Jewish.
— In hindsight, it’s interesting seeing Paul Simon playing himself in a scene taking place in a then-much later year that has now long since come and gone (2010).
— I love the gradual reveal that Paul’s hell is staying eternally stuck in an elevator while being tortured by musak versions of his songs.
— Overall, I found this sketch more interesting than flat-out funny, but it was entertaining either way.
STARS: ***½


DIRK LANDERS
former CIA operative (RDJ) is offed by stranger (Catherine)

— Fairly amusing cheap opening credits.
— Very funny how after such a lengthy opening credits sequence setting up the premise of the show, the episode itself turns out to be a very quick scene that immediately ends as soon as the main character is all-too-easily shot dead.
STARS: ***½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Mouse Trap board game helps DEM explain what happened at Chernobyl
AWB chides the Soviet Union’s policies on Chernobyl & Afghanistan
for Mother’s Day, DEM reads an excerpt from Oedipus Rex

— Funny in retrospect hearing the then-new network FOX being mentioned as “Rupert Murdoch’s fledgling fourth network.”
— I love Dennis using the Mouse Trap board game to demonstrate the then-recent Chernobyl disaster.
— Dennis delivers a random “Back to you, Dennis” “Thank you, Dennis”. Why are we reusing old Brad Hall bits all of a sudden?
— I like how it’s become a recurring thing for Dennis to do random one-liners about Nell Carter’s weight.
— Surprised to see an A. Whitney Brown commentary tonight, as he wasn’t credited in tonight’s opening montage for some reason.
— Tonight’s overall Big Picture commentary wasn’t one of my favorites from A. Whitney, but this featured some funny comments about radioactive gas and Soviets.
— Good bit with Dennis’ Mother’s Day present to his mom being him reading a disturbing excerpt from an Oedipus story.
— Nice part with Dennis announcing that SNL (despite its many troubles and cancellation worries this season) was renewed this week for a 12th season. This gets a good amount of audience applause. Also, this reminds me that I remember hearing season 12 was originally only picked up for 13 episodes, because a wary NBC wanted to wait and see if the retooled version of SNL that season was a success before giving it the usual full 20-episode order. So I guess we can say that if season 12 hadn’t turned out to be such a hit, SNL would’ve officially been canceled somewhere around February 1987, which is around the time the 13th episode of that season aired.
— Yay, we went through this entire Update with no appearance from the Weekend Update Dancers!
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul & musical guest sing “Homeless”


BEVERLY HILLS
producer Tommy Flanagan swaps falsehoods with an “actress” (Catherine)

— After having a break from him in the last episode, Tommy Flanagan goes back to being overused.
— I did like Flanagan’s Taiwan/Out Of Africa bit just now.
— Overall, this was pretty standard Flanagan stuff that’s been suffering diminishing returns lately, but I did like the nice chemistry between Jon and Catherine.
STARS: **½


BRIM DECAFFEINATED
drowsy waitress (NOD) recommends Brim Decaffienated to sleepy (RAQ)

— Is this offering ANYTHING other than frequent yawning from Nora and Randy?
— (a few minutes later…) I guess not. Overall, this was a waste.
STARS: *


PENN AND TELLER
Penn & Teller [real] execute strait jacket escape during Casey At The Bat

— Surprised to see Penn and Teller appearing for the second episode in a row, but I’m not complaining about seeing more of these guys, especially considering the lack of quality this season.
— Ha, great reveal of a spiked platform that’s now under an upside-down dangling Teller.
— Quite funny seeing Teller’s unsuccessful frantic attempts to free himself while Penn is reading.
— Hilarious part with Penn comically speeding up his reading as Teller is finally starting to untie himself.
— LOL, that overall trick was great. An improvement over Penn and Teller’s appearance in the last episode.
STARS: ****


A MOTHER’S DAY MESSAGE
half-audible (JOC) stresses “moral values”

— What… the… hell??? Is the joke here supposed to be Joan occasionally silently mouthing random parts of her sentences? How is that even remotely funny?
— Overall, YIKES. The audience’s silence said it all. How did something like this make it on the air?
STARS: *


TROJANS
— Rerun


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
Paul performs “Graceland”


GOODNIGHTS

— This is coming off kinda awkward. Why aren’t Paul or Catherine saying the usual goodnights speech? They’re just standing there smiling silently as the audience applauds.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A pretty forgettable episode. There were some things I liked in the first half, though most of them weren’t anything particularly great. Then the show got REALLY rough in the second half where, aside from a solid Penn & Teller segment, we got a mega-overused recurring character (Tommy Flanagan) and horribly-written sketches where the only “joke” (if it can even be called that) was people repeatedly yawning or silently mouthing random parts of their sentences.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tony Danza):
— a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jimmy Breslin

Posted on

April 19, 1986 – Tony Danza / Laurie Anderson (S11 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
RAQ’s Vietnam tale scares gung-ho AMH & RDJ out of wanting to go to Libya

— Robert and Anthony’s committed attitudes towards joining the army are pretty funny.
— I like the turn this is taking with the sudden darkened lighting and ceiling fan shadow as Randy’s telling his war story.
— Good reveal that Randy’s disturbing war story just turns out to be a screenplay he’s working on.
— Pretty solid cold opening overall.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host tells a few jokes & tap-dances to “42nd Street”

— Meh at the gag with Tony’s Italian family turning out to be the entire studio audience.
— This overall monologue was all over the place and had no focus. Tony came off likable enough, though.
STARS: **


LYNDON LA ROUCHE THEATRE
Henry Kissinger (ALF) & host conspire

— A lot of funny lines during Randy’s intro, especially his mention of “the evil homosexual Henry Kissinger” as well as “the most evil man of the 20th century: Walter Mondale.”
— Good use of Al Franken, and nice to see his Kissinger impression back from season 5.
— Amusing interactions between Al and Tony.
— On paper, I would think Joan as a goofy Queen Elizabeth is a case of bad miscasting, but she’s actually giving a surprisingly funny performance in this role.
— Jon’s childlike portrayal of Prince Charles is a lot funnier than his more straight-laced take on him from the season premiere.
— Overall, a pretty fun sketch with a lot of silly humor. Felt uncharacteristic for this season.
STARS: ***½


30 COUNTS
a 30-second count rule prolongs a bout between boxers (AMH) & (host)

— The 30-second count premise is pretty funny.
— I’m really enjoying Jon’s performance as the fight commentator.
— Some good laughs from how Tony’s training video package keeps getting abruptly cut off whenever the fight is ready to continue.
— Decent sketch overall.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Baby Doll”


BIG TIME PROFESSIONAL GOLF
upcoming matches are promoted wrestling-style

— A lot of sports sketches so far tonight.
— The premise of a golf promo being presented in a WWF-esque trash-talk manner was initially pretty funny when it started with Randy’s promo, but it’s losing its humor with the subsequent promos by other golfers.
— Could’ve done without Anthony’s overly-hammy performance, even if this sketch called for it.
STARS: **


UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
(JOC)’s pillow talk checks whether (host) loves her unconditionally

— Some laughs from Tony’s goofiness in his romantic sweet-talking to Joan.
— Haha, I’m really liking all of Joan’s oddly-specific scenarios when asking Tony if he would still love her if she had certain oddities about her.
— Interesting turn with Joan making it seem like she’s been cheating on Tony.
— Overall, a funny, well-written, and charming sketch, and Joan gave her second surprisingly strong performance of the night.
STARS: ****


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers demonstrate the IRS tax-time “Kiss”
Babette gets excited while discussing the use of French airspace
satellite feed shows Rock-’em Sock-’em robots aping Spinks-Holmes fight
DEM demonstrates his unique talent- holding a 45 rpm record with his lips

 

— Already a good laugh right from the beginning, with Dennis starting Update with “Welcome to all, unless of course you happen to be French, in which case, go to hell.”
— (*groan*) After mercifully getting a break from them in the last episode, here we have the return of the pointless Weekend Update Dancers.
— Nora’s overall Babette commentary tonight was an improvement over her underwhelming first one from earlier this season. Her acting out an increasingly-heated romantic phone conversation between America and France was fairly entertaining, well-performed, and had a decent payoff.
— The Larry Holmes/Leon Spinks boxing “clip” turning out to just be a video of Rock’em Sock’em Robots felt like a gag straight out of Joe Piscopo’s playbook.
— Tonight’s overall Update had too many average jokes from Dennis, though he ended on a good note by randomly demonstrating how he’s different from other newsmen by doing a silly mouth trick with a 45 rpm record.
STARS: ***


NANCY’S WORKOUT
Nancy Reagan (TES) demonstrates her fitness regimen to trainer (host)

— I like Terry’s walk as Nancy, which appears to be a new addition to his impression.
— Some good lines about Barbara Bush.
— Fun turn with Terry’s Nancy exercising/dancing wildly to the songs “Maniac”, “I’m So Excited”, etc.
— Another amusing visual, this time with Terry’s Nancy successfully lifting a huge barbell.
— Pretty fun sketch overall.
STARS: ***½


PENN AND TELLER
Penn & Teller [real] perform serpentine version of sawing-a-woman-in-half

 

— Funny reveal that Penn and Teller’s “lovely female assistant” is a live snake.
— Whoa at the announcement that they’re about to snip the snake in half.
— LOL, holy hell at the snake bleeding when being cut in half. No idea how Penn and Teller are pulling off that illusion, but I’m impressed.
— I’m surprised this has ended already. This was a lot shorter and simpler than Penn and Teller’s usual acts, but it was still pretty entertaining even if not as strong as their usual work.
STARS: ***


MASTER THESPIAN
Master Thespian tells about the time he performed for the Queen

— The appearance of this character makes me realize that we refreshingly haven’t seen Tommy Flanagan at all tonight, for the first in a LONG time.
— Some good stuff here as usual so far, especially the part with Master Thespian acting out being hit.
— Much like the Penn and Teller segment that preceded this, I’m surprised by how short and simple this overall sketch ended up being, just featuring Jon as the only performer, speaking directly to the camera the whole time. Jon gave a strong Master Thespian performance as usual, and there were laughs to be had, but this installment was very unmemorable.
STARS: ***


WACKY GLUE
the extreme adhesive properties of Wacky Glue outlast spokesman (RAQ)

— This is actually a rerun from one of the first few episodes of this season, but I never got a chance to review it back then since it was cut from my copy of that episode.
— Great reveal with the skull of a now-dead Randy STILL having the board glued to it.
— Overall, this was pretty solid and I liked the way it escalated and how we were shown Randy’s character through the decades.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Day The Devil”


THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BIFF AND SALENA
at bar’s open mike night, Biff gains confidence to do “butt dancing” song

— Uh-oh, the return of these baffling characters from the Jay Leno episode.
— Nice use of G.E. Smith and T-Bone Wolk at the beginning.
— Pretty funny song from Danitra.
— Even without having seen the live version of tonight’s episode, I can tell the rerun version I’m watching of this sketch is definitely using the typical season 11 practice of sweetening audience reactions. The canned laughter in certain portions of this sketch is quite obvious. There’s no way the real audience is laughing THAT much at some of this material (like when Biff introduces himself onstage and dedicates his song to Salena).
— A surprisingly good singing voice from Jon, and it’s somewhat impressive he can sing that well while still doing that overbite thing with his teeth that he always does as this Biff character.
— Fun turn with the Butt Dance musical number that Jon’s performing.
— Overall, an improvement over the previous Biff & Salena sketch. Not much on laughs here, and the first half was slow, but the sketch became entertaining once the Butt Dance number started.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Not bad for this season’s standards. While this wasn’t a particularly strong episode by any means, the sketches had a fun vibe, two of them featured better writing than we’re used to seeing this season (Unconditional Love and Lyndon La Rouche Theatre), and there was a low amount of flops. For any normal season, this would just be a run-of-the-mill average episode, but for this season, it was pretty good.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Oprah Winfrey):
— a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Catherine Oxenberg and Paul Simon

Posted on

April 12, 1986 – Oprah Winfrey / Joe Jackson (S11 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
slave DAV tells LOM to beat host for refusing black stereotype material

— Lorne asking Oprah why she’s not in costume for the Aunt Jemima sketch is funny, though I was recently told that an Aunt Jemima sketch was supposedly an actual idea that Al Franken legitimately pitched to Oprah earlier that week. Good lord.
— Ha, during Oprah’s listing-off of stereotypical characters she refuses to play, I got a good laugh from one of them being Refrigerator Perry.
— A very funny walk-on from Danitra.
— A great laugh from Danitra blunty suggesting “Beat her!”
— Good ending with Oprah exiting the room while holding a beat-up Lorne in a headlock.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
Tommy Flanagan gives host an Oscar that belongs to Walter Brennan

— Funny opening line from Oprah about the Academy Awards.
— Unsurprisingly, she’s coming off comfortable in front of a live audience.
— Here’s our obligatory weekly Tommy Flanagan appearance, which now makes this the FIFTH consecutive episode he’s appeared in. This really shows how desperate this season is for a hit. Again, I like Tommy Flanagan, but will this EVER stop?
— Flanagan’s “How would YOU know?” response to Oprah was clever.
— Oprah’s attempt at a Tommy Flanagan impression was kinda cringeworthy, despite her best efforts.
STARS: **½


JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP’S LOOKIN’ AT AMERICA
Lookin’ At America through John Cougar-Mellencamp’s (RDJ) eyes & hair

— The first-person POV shot with Mellencamp’s bangs obscuring part of his vision didn’t make me laugh all that much.
— Not much of a joke here. This is coming off pretty meh.
STARS: **


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
host gives some tips on how to run a talk show

— At least they put this frequently-used sketch on a bit of a hiatus after the previous installment.
— The audience is pretty quiet so far. Pat Stevens’ pre-interview segment wasn’t as funny as some of her previous ones have been.
— Overall, the brief hiatus unfortunately didn’t do the Pat Stevens Show sketches any good, as they still continue to suffer diminishing returns. Despite a few good simple-minded statements from Pat as usual, this was an overall dull installment and a few too many parts of the interview portion felt like a genuine interview.
STARS: **


CABRINI GREEN
(host) finds out that daughter Cabrini Green is pregnant

— For some reason, I like hearing Nora doing an “urban” voice. I don’t recall her using that voice ever again for the remainder of her SNL tenure.
— Funny how Cabrini Green uses a knock-knock joke to break the news to her mother that she’s pregnant.
— Oprah as the stern mother has a lot of funny lines in this, especially her remarks about Cabrini’s boyfriend.
— Overall, this had a softer, more slice-of-life approach than the usual Cabrini Green sketches do, and this came off pretty enjoyable, helped by how Danitra and Oprah’s performances gave it a nice sense of realism.
STARS: ***


WEEKEND UPDATE
RDJ & AMH use fart noises to review William F. Buckley’s book High Jinx
DEM crosses Kaddafi’s line of death on the Weekend Update map
AWB talks about Kaddafi & European responsibility for terrorism

— Dennis starts tonight’s Update by telling us Alfred Hitchcock has a cameo somewhere in tonight’s newscast, so “see if you can pick him up”. No idea if that’s legit or just one of Dennis’ usual random one-liners. The studio audience seemed to take it seriously.
— Oh, no, here comes a notoriously bad Anthony Michael Hall/Robert Downey commentary.
— We’re one minute into Anthony and Robert’s commentary so far, and all I can say is: Are these two freakin’ KIDDING me with this?!? A book review consisting of frequent random fart noises. THAT’S the big joke. How in the world does something like this make it on the air?
— Considering what a surprisingly strong night Robert and Anthony each had in the preceding George Wendt/Francis Ford Coppola episode, it’s sad that they had to follow that up with THIS, which is serving as an unfortunate reminder of why I’ve generally been disliking both of them this season.
— I used to compare this Downey/Hall commentary to the typical juvenile antics that Chris Farley and Adam Sandler developed a bad tendency to over-rely on in the infamous season 20 (and even season 19, for that matter), but now, the more I think of it, I think not even Farley and Sandler at their sophomoric worst would do this piece that Downey and Hall are doing.
— For some reason, I did kinda get a kick out of seeing Dennis address Robert and Anthony under the nicknames “Bob” and “Mickey”.
— After Robert and Anthony exit, Dennis makes a great ad-lib to the camera: “Hard to believe, but I think the boys wrote that themselves”.
— Another great ad-lib from Dennis, this time remarking “The Line of Death is right around my neck” when the clip-on mic on his tie unexpectedly pulls him back as he’s walking over to the Weekend Update map to show us where the Line of Death is located on it. Dennis is just so damn good at making clever quick ad-libs for any situation on Update.
— Loved Dennis’ Warren Beatty joke.
— Dennis, regarding the famous Superbowl Shuffle video: “I don’t think I’ve seen choreography that stiff since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.”
— I believe this is the first time a Dennis Miller Weekend Update has ever had more than one guest commentary.
— I liked A. Whitney summing up the invasion of Grenada, explaining “It didn’t take a whole lot of military strategy to knock over a fruit stand with two aircraft carriers.”
— A. Whitney’s overall commentary tonight was the usual solid Big Picture piece, with a lot of funny comments about the French.
— Yes! We managed to get through this entire Weekend Update without seeing a single trace of the Weekend Update Dancers, for the first in a long time.
— Now that Update’s over, I have to ask: where was the Alfred Hitchcock sighting? I guess it really WAS just a random Dennis one-liner.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Right & Wrong”


THE WART HOG
world’s greatest detective (RAQ) wins Most Grotesque award

— Haha, good make-up job on Randy. Surprisingly, I think this is the first time we’ve seen Randy all night, by the way. I wonder if that’s because it maybe took a long time to apply that warthog makeup on him.
— Speaking of Randy’s warthog makeup, I once read an online post years ago from someone who recalled watching this episode when it originally aired, and that person claimed that Randy inexplicably didn’t wear the warthog makeup in the original airing of this sketch, rendering the premise of the sketch completely pointless and nonsensical, and resulted in a confused and silent studio audience. Supposedly, the version of the sketch seen in reruns (which I’m reviewing) is from dress rehearsal. All of those claims should probably be taken with a grain of salt, however. Unfortunately, it’s hard to confirm whether that person’s recollection is correct or not, as a copy of the live broadcast of this episode has been difficult for SNL collectors to obtain.
— Pretty funny and interesting turn with Randy being taken off the set to another set in the studio where there’s a World’s Most Handsome Man Contest randomly taking place, which he’s entered in to prove his non-grotesqueness.
— I cracked up at Randy’s bizarre, exaggerated angry gesturing and vocalizations towards Robert and Don Novello just now.
— Geez, that ending freeze-frame close-up of Randy looked kinda nightmare-inducing. (screencap below)

— The closing “Wart Hog” theme song (which almost sounds like it’s being sung by Oprah, though I don’t think that’s her) that’s being played during the scrolling ending credits kinda reminds me of the various closing theme songs that Bill Murray would sing for various Franken and Davis-written sketches back in the original era (e.g. Mercy Killers, The Micro-Dentists, First He Cries, etc.) I wonder if that means this Wart Hog sketch is also a Franken and Davis-written piece.
— Overall, this wasn’t quite as funny as I had remembered it being. While I still appreciate the creativity and absurdity of its premise, as well as the random World’s Most Handsome Man Contest turn, something about this sketch came up a little short for me, though I’m not sure what exactly.
STARS: **½


I PLAY THE MAIDS
DAV sings “I Play The Maids” to document lack of good black actress roles

— Here’s one of Danitra’s more well-remembered pieces of the season.
— Great visuals of famous maid roles played by black actresses over the years.
— Overall, a very well-written and well-performed song, making a good point about the typecasting that black actresses face. I also liked the sentimental feel of this piece.
STARS: ****


ACTORS ON FILM
The Color Purple awed Jimmy Chance & Ashley Ashley

— The return of Nora and Robert’s actor/critic characters from the last episode. While I actually liked their previous appearance, we definitely didn’t need this back so soon.
— I laughed at Robert’s line just now, regarding The Color Purple: “I saw it, it changed my life, I saw it again, it changed it back.”
— Some funny lines during the whole “smoking is acting” part.
— Overall, I liked some of the lines, and Robert’s delivery as this character always makes me laugh, but this sketch was a step down from these characters’ last appearance and SNL probably would’ve been better off just keeping these characters a random one-time thing in the Wendt/Coppola episode.
STARS: **½


CRAIG SUNDBERG, IDIOT SAVANT
Craig Sundberg, Idiot Savant helps create a high-strength alloy

— OH, NO. Why are we seeing THIS awful character again?
— Boy, tonight’s installment of this sketch is dead so far. The studio audience is (understandably) very silent.
— For the second episode in a row, we get an Akira Yoshimura sighting, and he even has a good amount of dialogue this time.
— This has to be the most un-Terry Sweeney-esque performance I’ve ever seen Terry Sweeney give.
— In my review of the first installment of this sketch, I likened this Craig Sundberg character to the type of character Pete Davidson typically plays nowadays. I now think it’s Pete’s Chad character who I was specifically thinking of when making that comparison. The way Craig Sundberg often responds with a slow-witted “Right… sorry” reminds me so much of Chad’s slow-witted “Okay” catchphrase.
— Man, this sketch is going on pretty long. At least the first Craig Sundberg sketch was mercifully short.
— Overall, boy, this sketch was TERRIBLE. Even worse than its first installment. I couldn’t find a single redeeming factor in this overlong piece.
STARS: *


THE CUTE SHOP
The Cute Shop is filled with stuffed animals, but it’s actually a trap

— Okay, I wasn’t sure about this sketch at first, but this is suddenly taking an interesting turn with Joan secretly bringing out two soldiers.
— Heh, now this sketch takes yet another interesting turn with Oprah turning out to be an undercover cop and proceeding to free hostages who were being held captive in the back room.
— Overall, it was fun to watch this progress, with all the unexpected dark twists they kept throwing at us.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Soul Kiss”


ONE SHOE EMMA
prince (DEM) brings waitress One-Shoe Emma (DAV) what she’s been missing

— Nice to see Danitra getting so many showcases in tonight’s episode. This has to be by far the most airtime she’s ever gotten in a single episode. Kinda sad that all it took for that to finally happen was SNL getting a black female host, which means Danitra will probably go right back to being underused as usual in the remaining episodes this season.
— Pretty strange premise so far.
— LOL at Dennis entering the scene randomly dressed as a prince, and playing him in a very casual Dennis Miller-esque way.
— Randy’s dimwitted character is getting some good laughs from me.
— Overall, I’m not entirely sure what to make of this sketch as a whole. It did have a charm to it that I kinda liked, but for an absurd-premised piece, I wanted this to go in an even weirder direction than the one it ended up taking.
STARS: **½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— After the amazing experimental Wendt/Coppola episode, we’re unfortunately back to the usual season 11 mediocrity. There were some highlights, but a lot of the show was pretty underwhelming. I do commend the fact that tonight’s episode had several creative, oddball sketch premises, but most of them didn’t fully live up to their potential.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Tony Danza

Posted on

March 22, 1986 – George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola / Philip Glass (S11 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
LOM tells cast that NBC has brought in Francis to direct tonight’s SNL

— I believe this is our very first Lorne appearance of the season, making this the first time we’ve seen him on camera since season 5.  It’s funny how much his general look has drastically changed since the original era.  Back in those days, he was very young-looking, always dressed in casual clothes, and looked like an average joe.  Half a decade later, he’s gray-haired, wears a suit all the time, and looks like a typical network exec.
— Nice way to introduce tonight’s big storyline of Francis Ford Coppola being given full control of the show.
— Dennis is the only cast member absent in this.
— When Terry delivers his line “That raving egomaniac, he’ll ruin the show!” in a particularly effeminate, over-dramatic manner, Anthony can be seen uncontrollably cracking up and then trying to hide it.
— Funny line from Lorne about being forced into a supervisor role before moving full-time into wrestling, which I assume is a reference to Dick Ebersol producing “Saturday Night Main Event”, a wrestling program that NBC would sometimes air in SNL’s timeslot this season during some of the weeks SNL didn’t have a new episode.
— Though some of the cast members ask if there’s going to be a “Live from New York…” tonight, this cold opening ends without one being officially delivered. I believe that makes this the only time (as of 2019) in Lorne’s reign as producer where an episode didn’t kick off with an official “Live from New York…” or any variation thereof.
— Overall, a pretty straightforward cold opening setting up the running premise for tonight’s episode, though there were funny little jokes thrown in there.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— We get a special opening montage for tonight’s unique episode.

— The moody, feature film-esque beginning of this montage gets a good initial laugh from the audience.
— There’s no Don Pardo announcements. The names of the guests and cast are just superimposed over a darkened wide shot of SNL’s studio, while a soft, dramatic music score plays (which I recall reading somewhere is being performed by tonight’s musical guest Phillip Glass). Also, the cast is interestingly listed “in order of appearance”.


MONOLOGUE
Francis directs George & audience on how he wants the jokes to work

— Adding to the unique feel of tonight’s episode, the main camera angle on George throughout this monologue is an undershot, which is a nice change of pace from SNL’s usual camera angle during monologues.
— Here’s our first Francis Ford Coppola appearance of the night, humorously interrupting George’s monologue to make him re-tell a joke.
— Hilarious that Francis is instructing the audience to go back and remember something funny from their childhood, so they’ll laugh at George’s re-telling of his joke.
— Great exaggerated audience reactions during George’s joke re-telling.
— Interesting ending to George’s monologue portion.
— I liked Terry flat-out calling this season a “sinking ship”.
— Here, Terry establishes himself as Francis’ assistant for the night, a role he ends up playing for the rest of the show, which means he doesn’t appear in character during any of the actual sketches.
— Very nice segue, with the camera crane that Francis is seated on being moved over into the next sketch.
STARS: ****


THE HONEYMOONERS: THE LOST EPISODES
Ralph (George) punches Alice (NOD)

— You can hear an off-camera stagehand whispering “Nora” right before Nora turns towards the door to greet George.
— Strange blooper where George enters through the wrong door, and humorously tries to make it seem like it was part of the sketch.
— Not too sure I like George’s Ralph Kramden impression. The voice sounds too forced.
— Boy, this sketch has a lot of weird flubs and miscues so far.
— Anthony Michael Hall as Norton? Ooookay, THAT’S strange casting.
— Ha, holy hell at George’s Ralph actually punching Nora’s Alice, knocking her out cold.
— This overall sketch ended up petering out towards the end after the punch, and felt very underdeveloped.
STARS: **


COMMERCIALS
Tommy Flanagan as Grant Tinker gives Francis the OK to go commercial-free

— Wow, they actually interrupted a real Tic-Tac commercial when the show goes to a commercial break.
— This is now the FOURTH consecutive episode to feature Tommy Flanagan, and his fifth appearance in the last six episodes. Pretty insane. It’s a good thing I have a fondness for this character, because otherwise, I’d be driven out of my damn mind having to see this character day-after-day while doing these daily reviews. I remember how crazy I was driven during my coverage of season 1 when Gilda Radner’s Emily Litella appeared on Weekend Update for about FIVE consecutive episodes at one point, doing the EXACT SAME SHTICK each time (which I never found all that hilarious to begin with).
— Some laughs from Tommy Flanagan acting as head of NBC Grant Tinker, though his lines are pretty basic so far. The general overuse of Flanagan this season has made me go from finding his humor hilarious to now finding it just decent. However, he still hasn’t reached Emily Litella levels of groanworthiness.
— The ending felt very abrupt, as if the recording I’m watching cut this off prematurely.
STARS: ***


CAMERA CONTROL / MYSTERY PLAYHOUSE
Francis’ bad camera switches screw up a Mystery Playhouse sketch

   

— When Francis asked director Dave Wilson for a favor, I liked Dave’s suck-up delivery of “Anything, babe!”
— Another great line delivery, with Terry’s incredulous “I can’t believe you just said that to Francis”.
— Fun premise of Francis’ impromptu decision to control the camera cuts for a sketch.
— LOL at all the (intentional) bad camera switches, always cutting to the wrong shot whenever anyone says something.
— Haha, now the botched camera cuts are humorously causing us to miss a crucial moment where the murder weapon and killer are revealed.
— Very funny piece overall.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lightning”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers express the Marcos scandal as “What You Need”
believing it was a comedy, JOC slams Out Of Africa for not being funny
Francis doesn’t want DEM to do a satellite interview with Pinochet

 

— For the first time ever, a Dennis Miller Weekend Update opens with a rock song as the theme music, though I don’t recognize this particular tune.
— Dennis’ opening joke about bad newspaper headlines felt like it was in the spirit of Tim Kazurinsky’s Salute to Journalism commentaries from back in the day.
— Dennis’ joke about McGruff the Crime Dog paying for his bitches was fucking hilarious.
— (*groan*) Here’s our obligatory pointless Weekend Update Dancers segment of the week.
— Hmm, tonight’s Weekend Update Dancers segment is more elaborate than usual.
— Feels weird seeing Joan in her own Update commentary.
— Joan’s commentary isn’t really working for me. The main joke of a person complaining about a dramatic movie not being funny feels like something I’ve already seen other times.
— I didn’t get Dennis’ post-Joan-commentary joke about how Joan’s movie reviews “can be heard on WOR radio, but not as often as they used to be”. That got a pretty good audience reaction, but flew right over my head.
— Interesting how the Francis Ford Coppola running storyline is even carrying over into THIS, with Francis interrupting Dennis’ satellite interview with Pinochet.
— Dennis: “I find it real tough taking artistic direction from a guy who came up with Rumblefish.”
— We get a reminder to send in entries for the Pinochet Countdown contest that Dennis introduced in the last episode. Does anything ever become of this particular contest, or does it end up fizzling out?  I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the latter, considering SNL’s dire ratings this season.
STARS: ***


THAT BLACK GIRL
Francis interrupts That Black Girl- he wants more realism from set & DAV

— I like Francis interrupting the sketch to ask for it to have more squalor and grit, and telling Danitra to act more like a real black girl.
— Hilarious gag with SNL’s writers turning out to be three preppy, mega-whitebread guys. We’ll be seeing them again later this season, during the epic “Billy Martin sets the cast on fire” season-ending cliffhanger.
— Terry: “(to the writers) Why do you write so poorly? Just a question.”
— Love the gritty turn the now-revamped That Black Girl scene has taken.
— Wow, fantastic mock-dramatic intense monologue from Danitra. Great use of her performance skills.
STARS: ****


FISH MARKET
fish market owner (George) tries to unload a mistakenly-delivered whale

— I’m already laughing right from opening shot of a sign that reads “Mmmm…. Whale!”
— Also a great visual of the giant whale in the store.
— Very good performance from George, in his desperation to sell that whale.
— I love the part with George trying to bribe Nora’s cop character by offering her the blowhole of the whale, as if that’s something desirable.
— Good reveal that the reason the store was delivered a whale is because “whole shipment” was misread as “whale shipment”.
— An Akira Yoshimura sighting! Always fun seeing him pop up on SNL.
— Kind of an awkward ending.
STARS: ***½


ACTORS
Jimmy Chance (RDJ) & Ashley Ashley (NOD) link last skit to Francis’ ego

— Nice random interlude, with the preceding whale sketch being immediately followed by this “critique” of it.  Fast costume change for Nora, by the way, who was last seen very recently as a cop in said whale sketch.
— I’m really liking Robert’s delivery in this.
— Lots of funny lines from Robert here, especially during the part where he’s intensely detailing his days as Francis Ford Coppola’s caterer, adding at one point “I kept his donuts well-jellied!”, putting particular emphasis on the last part of the sentence, which always tickles me to no end whenever I watch this episode.
— This overall piece was a lot better than I had remembered. Nora and Robert both did very accurate and fully-realized characterizations of this type of pretentious actor, and Robert in particular gave me some good laughs.
STARS: ***


GHOST OF THESPIANS PAST
ghost of Master Thespian visits Francis & asks to be in the grand finale

— There’s been a running joke all throughout tonight’s episode of how to pronounce “Coppola”. Master Thespian gets in a particularly amusing mispronunciation of it here.
— An interesting different use of Master Thespian.
— A mention of how SNL is hanging by a thread, as a reference to the possibility of SNL soon getting canceled.
— Overall, not particularly hilarious, but this featured the usual strong Master Thespian performance from Jon, and it was a decent way to set up the grand finale we’ll be seeing later tonight.
STARS: ***


VIETNAM SKETCH
Francis nearly quits when AMH gets shot during a too-real Vietnam sketch

— Robert running out into the field with a blaring radio and IMMEDIATELY getting slaughtered was hilarious, as was Randy’s only response to that being “Hmm, must’ve heard him comin’”.
— Excellent breaking-the-fourth-wall turn with the performers dropping character because Anthony has gotten shot “for real”.
— Ha, I like Francis proudly revealing he’s using live ammunition in the sketch to give off a sense of realism, not even being aware of how insane that is for a sketch comedy show.
— I’m loving Anthony’s angry yelling at Francis. Some really funny lines from him there, including “You were NEVER my age!” and “Nobody cares about realism anymore; this is the 80s!”
— Wow, very nice dramatic rant from Randy to Francis.
— Great tracking shot of a depressed Francis walking past some of the sets from tonight’s earlier sketches and then walking down the long hallway backstage, all while we hear his inner monologue.
— Lorne’s delivery of “Nobody knows what the finale is; you didn’t tell us!” made me laugh.
— Overall, this has always been one of my favorite parts of this episode, and I really like how extensive this all felt.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Rubric” as Koyaanisqatsi scenes are shown


CONFRONTATIONAL MONOLOGUE
RDJ is upset that JOC is also doing a suitcase confrontational monologue

— LOL, such a random, bizarre idea, and it fits tonight’s experimental episode perfectly (though I recently found out this was actually cut from the Jay Leno episode earlier this season).
— Haha, Robert spouting off a string of insane, nonsensical one-liners is fucking hilarious. I especially howled at “I know why whales beach themselves…. SPIDERMAN TOLD ME!!!”
— Between the Actors piece earlier in this episode and now this sketch, I’m surprised by how much Robert is actually making me laugh throughout tonight’s episode.
— Pretty funny turn with Joan casually interrupting the scene to do the exact same thing Robert’s doing.
— A dangerous-seeming part just now, where Robert’s intentional tipping-over of himself caused him to land right on the very edge of the stage, where he could’ve easily fallen head-first off the stage by accident. Who knows; maybe they had padding on the floor below just in case.
STARS: ***½


GRAND FINALE
Francis’ grand finale pays tribute to live television & Studio 8H
bartenders ALF & TOD serve beer to finale non-participant George

— Ah, here it is; our hyped-up grand finale.
— Wonderful part with Master Thespian detailing to us the illustrious history of Studio 8H while various clips are played on a chroma-key screen behind him.
— Master Thespian randomly breaks out into a Tommy Flanagan voice for a brief moment when telling a lie. It’s fairly funny seeing Jon’s two biggest recurring characters overlapping, but BOY is this season hellbent on shoving Tommy Flanagan down our throats.
— Here’s what’s always been my absolute favorite part of tonight’s whole episode: the camera doing a very impressive tracking shot of the entire studio, showing a different cast member at each set from tonight’s earlier sketches while NBC’s “Be There” jingle plays. This is all absolutely BEAUTIFUL.
— We now interestingly go to an outside-the-studio sequence with George Wendt at a bar, somberly watching SNL’s grand finale on a TV screen.
— Hey, it’s Franken and Davis randomly appearing as bartenders. First time in years we’ve seen either of them appear on the show.
— Davis: “How’d you like doing the show?” Wendt: “The horror… the HORROR!” Franken: “How do you think we feel? We’re the producers.”
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

— Oh, I love this deviation from the normal goodnights, showing George out in the street trying to hail a cab while the usual ending credits scroll by and the goodnights music plays.
— Hmm, even the goodnights music has a more tender, sentimental sound to it than usual tonight.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Wow! What an episode! Definitely one of the most creative and daring things SNL has ever attempted, and it definitely payed off. I loved all the unique things they did throughout the show (even the musical guest was an unconventional pick that fit this episode perfectly), all the format-breaking, all the commitment to the “Francis Ford Coppola directs the show” storyline, etc. The episode was so fun to watch and had such a nice flow; even the few normal sketches that had no involvement from Coppola were solid (well, except for The Honeymooners, but even that had a fun vibe). This just might be one of my personal favorite SNL episodes ever, and it also goes without saying how this episode was leaps and bounds above most season 11 episodes. Even some of the weaker cast members like Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey had their best night of the season in this episode (Robert especially).
— Considering how much SNL was in danger of cancellation at the time, I get the feeling they quietly intended this to be a potential stealth “last episode ever” just in case NBC indeed ended up pulling the plug on them sometime between this and the next episode. In hindsight, that gives this episode a bittersweet feel. Of course, as we know now, SNL ended up being fine, but honestly, if this HAD turned out to be the final SNL episode ever, it would’ve been a pretty fitting way to end the series. In particular, that grand finale at the end of the episode would’ve brought nice closure to SNL’s run.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Oprah Winfrey

Posted on

March 15, 1986 – Griffin Dunne / Rosanne Cash (S11 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Tommy Flanagan clears up rumors about SNL’s poor ratings & reviews

— This is now the THIRD cold opening in a row starring Tommy Flanagan, and his fourth appearance in the last five episodes. Man, they’re definitely hurting for popular characters this season.
— This is the first time SNL is openly acknowledging how poorly-received this season has been.
— Several good laughs from Flanagan’s false claims of how well SNL’s ratings and reviews have supposedly been, only for him to hesitate when having to go into details of those ratings and reviews.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— After making a few uncredited Weekend Update appearances earlier this sesaon, writer A. Whitney Brown finally receives his first credit as a featured player tonight.


MONOLOGUE
host plays the “Wipeout” drum solo with only one hand

— Pretty funny gag with a chunk of Griffin’s hair coming out when he casually brushes it back with his hand while claiming he’s not nervous.
— Strangely, after only a minute, he makes it seem like this monologue is already ending, by announcing tonight’s guests (Roseanne Cash, Penn & Teller), but I’m aware that this monologue ends up going on for a lot longer.
— I got a pretty good laugh from the reveal of the giant pit stains on Griffin’s shirt.
— Was that a freakin’ rimshot I just heard after the aforementioned pit stain reveal? What the hell?
— Anthony Michael Hall makes his first SNL appearance after a two-month hiatus from the show while filming the movie “Out of Bounds”.
— Griffin doing the drum solo from “Wipeout” by musically patting his hand on a surfboard is cracking me up. It’s one of those “so dumb, it’s funny” things.
— Geez, only one sketch in, and Anthony Michael Hall is ALREADY reminding me why I was so happy we got a break from him the past two months. His mugging during Griffin’s hand-drum solo is pretty damn bad. And honestly, Terry’s facial expressions here aren’t much better.
STARS: ***


FERDINAND MARCOS MALACANANG PALACE LIQUIDATION SALE
Double R & son stage Ferdinand Marcos Malacanang Palace Liquidation Sale

— Another Double R sketch this season.
— I’m liking the overly-specific odd-sized clothing that Randy’s hawking.
— As usual, some laughs from Robert’s goofy character.
STARS: ***


MR. MONOPOLY
lawyer Mr. Monopoly (JOL) uses game cards to help his client (host)

— Ah, here an infamous sketch.
— And there goes the reason why this sketch is infamous: Damon is rebelliously playing his cop role in a stereotypical gay manner (basically doing the same voice he previously used in his Beverly Hills Cop appearance and would later use in the famous Men On Film sketches on In Living Color), when the character was just supposed to be played in a generic straight (both figuratively and literally) way. In the “Live from New York” book, there’s a whole backstory as to why Damon decided to do this. He was already not too crazy about having to perform this sketch in the first place, as he realized during read-throughs that it was a weak one-joke bit. During the dress rehearsal that Saturday, Damon and Randy’s cop characters in this sketch were dressed in trendy Miami Vice-style clothes. After the sketch ended, Lorne came up to Damon and complained “The sketch isn’t working; you look like a pimp!” Astounded over the fact that Lorne was apparently blaming him for the sketch not working, Damon had finally had ENOUGH. Damon’s growing frustrations with working at SNL had finally reached its boiling point, and he decided that he would sabotage the Mr. Monopoly sketch by rebelliously changing his cop character into a big-ol’ gay stereotype during the live show, which ended up adding confusion to the sketch, as Damon’s character being flamboyantly effeminate makes no sense concerning the scene. Needless to say, Lorne was EPICALLY PISSED. Upon exiting the sketch after it was over, Damon was confronted by Lorne, who absolutely WENT OFF on him in a heated, expletive-filled rant that ended with him basically telling Damon he’s fired. Despite this, Damon still gets to perform in a sketch later tonight and even appear during the goodnights (where I recall him just standing alone in the back the whole time while staring down the camera with an unhappy facial expression).
— Okay, after all that, let’s get back to the actual sketch at hand…
— It’s a testament to Randy Quaid and Griffin Dunne’s professionalism that they aren’t letting their confusion over Damon’s changed characterization register on their faces.
— The reveal of Jon entering the scene as Mr. Monopoly was ruined by the opening theme song, which already gave away the main premise. Jon’s entrance would’ve worked better without that spoiler.
— I did like Randy’s line just now about growing up in a house on Baltic Avenue.
— It feels kinda funny watching Damon at the very end of the sketch while the jolly Mr. Monopoly theme song is playing, when you’re aware Damon’s about to get epically chewed out by an angry Lorne.
— This overall sketch didn’t do much for me, though Jon gave a good performance as usual. Damon wasn’t exactly wrong in his assessment of this being a weak sketch, though I feel it wasn’t as one-joke as he claimed.
STARS: **


YOU BET YOUR FINGER
a malfunctioning mini-guillotine butchers (host)

 

— I’m already chuckling at the initial sight of the tiny guillotine that’s placed next to Griffin.
— Haha, hilarious part with the guillotine’s first premature drop. Griffin’s reaction had me DYING.
— Okay, it’s not necessary to repeat the gag of the guillotine prematurely falling over and over again. Hey, Damon, I think THIS is the one-joke sketch you were looking for.
— Our second Bruce McCulloch sighting of the season, seen in a still photo as a recent winner happily holding up a hand of missing fingers.
— Randy’s “give me a high three” line to Griffin was funny.
— Overall, despite some laughs, there weren’t enough variations on the repeated falling guillotine gag to keep it from running out of steam.
STARS: **½


BAD SEED
Nancy Reagan (TES) counters her daughter’s tell-all with her own book

— What was with Terry’s unnatural-looking silent book-reading at the beginning? Was that an intentional joke, or just bad acting on Terry’s part?
— What the hell? Just now, someone passed by right in front of the camera, briefly blocking our view of Terry.
— Fairly funny reveal of the “Bad Seed” book title directed towards Nancy Reagan’s daughter.
— I like how Steven King is randomly a co-writer of the Bad Seed book.
— Overall, some funny lines, but too many parts of this were kinda slow and dull.
STARS: **


BUON GIORNO IRELAND BUON GIORNO
Gianni Tucci (DON) doesn’t sing Ireland’s music in the original language

— Don Novello has a really nice singing voice, though he appears to be lip-syncing to a pre-recorded track of his own voice.
— Uh, where exactly is the joke here, besides the basic premise of an Italian singer doing Irish songs (which isn’t THAT funny)?
STARS: *½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hold On”


TWO JONES’ CABLE INSTALLERS
the “brothers” can get you a special deal

— Here’s the aforementioned sketch that Damon still gets to perform despite being fired.
— Damon’s hobo-from-In-Living-Color-esque voice in these Jones Brothers sketches always cracks me up.
— Wow, I thought Anthony’s camera-mugging during the monologue was bad, but THIS takes the cake. Anthony’s awful facial expressions throughout this sketch are just plain ANNOYING, as well as distracting.
— Overall, the writing itself was fine enough, but damn, couldn’t Damon have just done this sketch by himself, or at least have had a more competent scene partner than Anthony Michael freakin Hall?
STARS: **½


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers are “Addicted to Love” over Ivy League sex scandal
AWB discusses whether giving $100,000,000 to the Contras is a good idea
DEM removes Central America from the Weekend Update map with a chain saw
Pinochet Countdown Contest- viewers guess when the Chilean leader will go

— Dennis’ whole mini-commentary about the Miranda Ruling was great.
— (*groan*) Here’s our obligatory pointless Weekend Update Dancers segment of the week.
— A. Whitney Brown’s overall commentary about the Contras had his usual funny quips and sarcastic statements. I especially liked the velvet paintings comment.
— An absolutely fantastic bit with Dennis chainsawing Central America off the Weekend Update map in the background. Unique, groundbreaking things like this just show why Dennis was such a breath of fresh air as an anchorperson after the endless string of dull, interchangeable anchorpersons that preceded him the previous five seasons.
— Interesting announcement of a “Pinochet Countdown” contest, where viewers will try to predict how long Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet will last. SNL continues to get self-deprecating humor out of their own troubled state this season, with Dennis amusingly explaining the contest is only good while SNL is still on the air, “so you might wanna get on that pretty soon”, and then adding “See who lasts longer: Pinochet or Saturday Night Live”. This really makes you realize how strong the possibility was of NBC canceling SNL before the end of this season. (In fact, I believe it’s mentioned in the “Live from New York” book that NBC president Brandon Tartikoff briefly DOES end up deciding to cancel SNL a little later this season, somewhere around the time of the Oprah Winfrey-hosted episode, before having a change of heart and immediately un-canceling the show) That feeling is even more evident in the very special next episode (you’ll see which episode that is at the very end of this review), where they REALLY double down on the “SNL is a sinking ship this season” sentiment and the whole episode has a “This may possibly end up being the last episode ever” undertone… but I’ll go into more details about that in my review of that episode.
STARS: ***½


YOU CAN PICK YOUR FRIENDS, YOU CAN PICK YOUR NOSE, BUT YOU CAN’T PICK YOUR FRIENDS’ NOSES
(host) is chided for trying to pick (RAQ)’s nose during panel discussion

— I’m already getting a laugh from the opening reveal of the title alone, as well as the ensuing dignified atmosphere of the show.
— Hilarious close-up of Randy speaking while Griffin’s finger enters the shot, slowly reaching toward’s Randy’s nose.
— More laughs with Griffin now using some kind of grabber device to try picking Randy’s nose.
— Jon as the stern host suddenly having a mood change and attempting to pick Randy’s nose himself was kinda funny, though it bombed with the audience.
— An overall very silly sketch that really tickled me in its execution.
STARS: ***½


PENN AND TELLER
Penn & Teller [real] demonstrate VCR-based card trick you can do at home

 

— Penn: “(to Teller) Do you watch Saturday Night Live?” (*Teller grabs throat and makes gagging face*) I see we’re getting MORE jokes about SNL’s dying state this season.
— Funny trick with Penn as a preacher on the TV screen revealing the card.
— I’m really enjoying the carefully-detailed explanation of how viewers can do the VCR card trick on their friends.
— Overall, the usual solid Penn and Teller piece.
STARS: ***½


BUSINESS BEAT
panelists are literal examples of workplace cliches

— Danitra is just now making her first appearance of the night, pretty late in the show. Feels like we see less and less of her with each passing episode lately. It’s a shame SNL doesn’t know what to do with this talented woman.
— Right off the bat, Danitra messes up the title of the show and then saves herself by making a bit out of it. I’m guessing her real-life dyslexia is what causes these frequent line-misreadings that I’ve been noticing from her quite a bit throughout this season.
— The workplace items on display aren’t particularly funny so far. There haven’t been any real laughs yet.
— Okay, Griffin’s kicking device initially made me chuckle, but even that portion of the sketch ended up petering out after a while.
— At the end, Dantira did a good job continuing to play off of her title flub from the beginning of the sketch, making it seem natural, but this overall sketch itself was a waste.
STARS: *½


TEA AND SYMPATHY
undead (host) receives counsel from his old girlfriend’s mother (JOC)

— This has an okay premise, but the execution isn’t coming off well so far.
— This is when I start to realize Nora Dunn hasn’t appeared in tonight’s episode AT ALL. Joan’s character in this sketch feels like a role that Nora would’ve fit perfectly. From my past viewings of this episode, I recall Nora being completely M.I.A. all night. Does anyone know what happened to her that week?
— Now we get a walk-on from a female extra playing Joan’s teenage daughter, and she even gets a little bit of dialogue, making it even more obvious that Nora Dunn isn’t in the building tonight. Any other week, I’m sure this sketch would’ve had Joan playing the daughter role that the female extra played while Nora would’ve played the mother role that Joan’s playing.
— Overall, they had a promising idea with this sketch, but couldn’t back it up with good writing, resulting in the sketch just coming off dull and forgettable. A letdown.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I Don’t Know Why”


GOODNIGHTS

— Ah, there’s Damon’s aforementioned camera staredown, though he doesn’t look quite as pissed-off as I had remembered. (you can see him in the background on the right side of the screen in the last screencap above)

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— In my past viewings of this episode, I used to think it was absolutely TERRIBLE. Like, “one of the worst SNL episodes ever” levels of terrible. Back then, I considered this episode a perfect representation of this troubled season as a whole, and felt the episode also came off just sad (which wasn’t helped by the overabundance of self-deprecating jokes about the poor state of this season and how close the show is to getting canceled). Watching this episode again just now, I see it wasn’t quite as horrible as I had remembered. There were a few more highlights than I gave the show credit for in my past viewings, most of the bad sketches weren’t as trainwreck-y as I had recalled, and all-in-all, this is certainly not what I would now consider “one of the worst SNL episodes ever”. That being said, this was still a BAD episode. After a decent beginning with the cold opening, monologue, and Double R sketch, it didn’t take long for mediocrity to take over the show. However, there was at least a nice upswing in the middle of the show, where we got three solid consecutive segments (Weekend Update, You Can’t Pick Your Friends’ Noses, and Penn & Teller), though that was of course immediately followed by a string of more weak sketches.
— The most interesting thing about the whole show still remains Damon Wayans’ Mr. Monopoly/gay cop incident. It’s a shame that we would end up losing Damon over something like that (though he does end up getting invited back for the season finale, to perform a stand-up segment), especially considering how he’s been one of the very few cast members this season who’s consistently been reliable for laughs. If Lorne hadn’t fired him, one has to wonder how he would’ve fared had he carried over into the next season’s fantastic revamped cast.
— This has been the third subpar episode in a row. A few episodes ago, I said even though I see the many problems of this season, I felt this season has had more good episodes than bad so far. However, I now seem to have officially reached the point where the badness of this season is in full swing.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jay Leno):
— a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola. One of the most fascinating, conceptual, format-breaking episodes in SNL history, with a running premise of Coppola “directing” the show.

Posted on

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

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

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

 

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


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

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


TARGET EARTH
aliens from a less-advanced civilization act tough

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


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

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


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Big Chief”


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


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

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


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Midnight Key”


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

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


GOODNIGHTS

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


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Griffin Dunne

Posted on

February 15, 1986 – Jerry Hall / Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble (S11 E10)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Rolling Stones manager Tommy Flanagan & host in a bar; Mick Jagger cameo

— Amusing story from Tommy Flanagan about how he and Mick Jagger were in Vietnam together.
— Funny how Mick Jagger is getting involved in the lying, making up a story to Jerry about why he was late coming home one day.
— Overall, a pretty good Tommy Flanagan cold opening.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— The theater doors behind Jerry look to be in a darker color than they’ve usually been this season.
— And the monologue is over already. This was a very brief, nothing monologue with weak humor. Also, I kinda hate the strange way this ended with Jerry saying “Stevie Ray Vaughan is here and he’s funky… Sam Kinison is here and he’s funny.” That was an unusual way for the ending of a monologue to address tonight’s guests, and has always come off to me like SNL was desperately trying to drum up excitement in what they were aware was a dying season.
STARS: *


THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
Maggie The Cat (host) desires gay (TES)

— (*sigh*) The THIRD episode in a row with this recurring sketch.
— I liked the bit with the Floating Head (Randy) beginning to count to infinity, only to finally stop when a gun gets pointed at his head.
— Terry’s avoidance of Jerry’s sexual advances, and the hints he’s frantically dropping about his sexuality are pretty funny.
— Surprising hearing Terry proclaiming “I’m a f*g with a capital ‘f’!”
— Overall, despite some laughs, this wasn’t one of my favorite Limits Of The Imaginations, though it was still a step up from the dull one in the last episode with Ron Reagan.
STARS: **½


MODELS AGAINST THE WILDERNESS
host & Brooke Shields (JOC) in plane crash

 

— Some laughs from the cheap plane toy model used to represent the plane the characters are riding in.
— Terry’s funny as Brooke Shields’ chain-smoking mother
— An okay walk-on from Randy as a gravelly-voiced Bob Guccione.
— Overall, another sketch tonight that, while having some individual funny moments, wasn’t great as a whole and fell short of the strong epic sketch they probably wanted this to be.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Say What”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers ask “How Will I Know” about Anatoly Shcharansky
sex kitten Babette (NOD) talks about her trip to Manila

— As a fan of classical comedy teams, I love how the theme music used for the opening of tonight’s Update was the Laurel & Hardy theme.
— Good random Dennis Miller one-liner: “Boy, that Nell Carter is a big woman, isn’t she?”
— (*groan*) The Weekend Update Dancers bit officially becomes recurring tonight. Should’ve just kept this a random one-time thing.
— Something about the Weekend Update Dancers segment caused something to go wrong with Dennis’ mic. (Maybe it was his dancing in his seat that messed up his mic) Right after the WU Dancers leave, Dennis makes a comment to the camera that’s completely inaudible, and then apparently, a boom mic is now being used to pick up his dialogue for the remainder of this Update.
— The debut of Nora’s French sex kitten character Babette.
— Nora’s overall commentary didn’t do much for me, though her characterization was good. Can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing more of this character in future episodes.
STARS: ***


MASTER THESPIAN
unrequited love for co-star of jungle movie (host)

 

— I got a laugh from Master Thespian’s giddy “Oh, happy day!” during his opening journal writing.
— I think there’s a part in the “Live from New York” book where Damon Wayans (who’s nowhere to be seen in tonight’s episode and didn’t receive his usual featured player credit in the opening montage) talks about how he refused to appear in this sketch because they wanted him to just stand in the background as a barely-clothed jungle native, holding a spear and having no dialogue. This is probably one of the many things that added to Damon’s growing frustrations working at SNL, which soon reaches its boiling point two episodes later when Griffin Dunne hosts.
— Very memorable part with Master Thespian secretly telling the camel “Be prepared to improvise!” Such a classic little Jon Lovitz moment.
— I liked Master Thespian’s misguided “You’re too kind” after Jerry’s comment about his big thunder stick.
— Jerry’s delivery of “I was… ACTING!” was pretty cringeworthy, and resulted in eerie dead silence from the audience (which I believe would later be “fixed” in reruns by using the typical season 11 practice of sweetening audience reactions).
— Weak ending, though I did kinda like the visual of Master Thespian following the camera off the set as it’s backing away.
— Overall, there were some good highlights from Jon in the first half, but this sketch died off very badly in the second half.
STARS: **½


SAM KINISON
Sam Kinison [real] does stand-up, sings “love song” to former girlfriend

— What was with the drawn-out, awkwardly silent beginning after Sam made his entrance?
— Boy, this is slow so far and the audience is DEAD.
— I liked Sam’s weird vocalization after saying he loves women.
— Okay, this is finally starting to take off, especially with his outburst when acting out waking up next to his wife.
— I caught a near f-bomb from Sam before he caught himself and cut himself off.
— Interesting turn with Sam now launching into a love song.
— Haha, the “love song” turning out to be an entirely screamed rant with angry, violent “lyrics” after such a tender set-up was probably an obvious joke but still made me laugh out loud.
— Overall, some good laughs, but there were some really rough patches in the first minute or so, and I’m starting to get tired of how all of Sam’s SNL stand-up pieces seem to mostly focus on bitter relationship issues.
STARS: **½


LINE OF DEATH
Kaddafi (JOL) threatens (host) & (NOD) after they cross his line of death

— Not too funny so far, though I like Jon’s amusing delivery of his lines.
— Wow, that first soldier’s dive into the “water” looked fake as hell.
— I got a pretty good laugh from how after the first soldier drowned, Jon’s Kaddafi told the two women that he’ll now send a soldier who can actually swim.
— The nice sight of Jerry Hall’s bare legs throughout this sketch has been one of the very few things keeping my interest.
— Overall, a very forgettable, sluggish sketch, and the lack of audience reaction gave it a hollow, dead feeling (which I’ve been noticing quite a lot throughout tonight’s episode, actually).
STARS: **


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
host shows how to hang upside-down & maintain looks

— ANOTHER recurring sketch that’s making an appearance for the third episode in a row. Man, this season is really hard up for recurring sketches to bring back.
— Also, what’s this doing on so late tonight? The prior installments of these Pat Stevens sketches have always been in the first half of the show.
— Pat Stevens’ opening demonstration with the blindfold wasn’t as funny as some of her previous demonstrations in earlier sketches.
— A strange but kinda-interesting turn with the interview now being conducted with Nora and Jerry hanging upside-down. Was the idea for this inspired by Penn and Teller’s famous upside-down act in the last episode?
— Jerry is clearly amused by this upside-down interview, as she’s laughing through her lines.
— This overall sketch was one of the lesser Pat Stevens installments. There just wasn’t much to laugh at here, and Jerry didn’t really add anything. This recurring sketch definitely seems to be suffering diminishing returns now that they’ve been overusing it so much lately.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Change It”


SORE TOE
hammer, snapping turtle, soup threaten to worsen (RAQ)’s sore big toe

 

— Funny visual of Robert wildly swinging the hammer around on the floor, narrowly avoiding Randy’s sore toe.
— Boy, Joan’s slow southern accent is awful.
— Some awkwardness during the close-up of Jerry telling Randy the soup’s ready. It appears that Joan mistakenly jumped ahead of the script and started saying her next line too early while Jerry was delivering her own line.
— Pretty funny blooper with Joan having to turn the wandering turtle around to face the correct direction when we’re supposed to believe it’s staring at the sore toe.
— More unintentional laughs from Jerry’s real-life difficulty in setting up the rickety table after one of its legs accidentally come off.
— The “Your father has hung himself” ending was weak (though I remember the ensuing audience applause being a lot more abrupt in the rerun version than in the live version I’m reviewing). Poor way for an otherwise amusingly silly sketch to end.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A weak episode with a lot of underwhelming sketches, and nothing standing out as particularly strong. We also got unusually subpar installments of some usually good recurring sketches that the show has begun to over-rely on lately (Master Thespian and Pat Stevens). As I mentioned a few times throughout the review, the episode also had a dead feeling during several spots, with the lack of audience reactions.


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Ron Reagan):
— a big step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jay Leno

Posted on

February 8, 1986 – Ron Reagan / The Nelsons (S11 E9)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
parents are at Camp David, so host engages in White House Risky Business

— The line about George and Barbara Bush was pretty funny.
— Fun Risky Business turn with Ron.
— A good laugh from the cutaway to an exterior shot of the White House showing a stick figure of Ron dancing in the window.
— An overall energetic way to start the show.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— I liked his opening ad-lib “You haven’t lived until you’ve hyperventilated on live television”.
— Pretty funny with him pointing out he’s supposedly the second most powerful person in the world.
— Overall, while nothing special, this was a decent enough monologue.
STARS: ***


WHERE YOU’RE GOING
— Rerun


THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
Little Richard (DAW) says everyone steals his ideas

— Pretty funny with Pat demonstrating how holding a magazine picture against your forehead can boost your mood.
— Another good use of Damon in a Pat Stevens sketch.
— Damon’s Little Richard impression seems like it could be better, but he’s giving a good performance.
— Pretty funny claims from Damon’s Little Richard that everybody steals his  ideas.
— What was with Damon’s Little Richard lifting Nora’s skirt up a little to sneak a peek while she had her eyes closed?
— Wow, the “ending” (if it can even be called that) was very abrupt.
STARS: ***


DALKON SHIELD TROUT LURE
defective Dalkon Shields make great trout lures, says (RDJ)

— An okay concept.
— Overall, this was short and to-the-point, but I didn’t find it to be anything too great, and this was another example this season of Robert Downey’s youth making it hard for me to buy him in a mature role like this.
STARS: **½


BACK TO THE FUTURE
host goes Back To The Future to Hellcats Of The Navy set to unite parents

 

— I’m already laughing right from the beginning, with the “A Take Your Oscar and Shove It Production” screen card shown during the opening credits.
— A really good laugh from Terry’s Nancy Reagan walking on as a drab, hair-in-rollers housewife.
— Nice touch with an “Exposition (listen carefully)” subtitle showing up on the bottom of the screen.
— Love Jon’s Doc Brown impression.
— Okay, the occasional subtitles are getting to be a bit much.
— I like Terry-as-Nancy’s Nicky/Nike mix-up regarding Ron’s name.
— Okay, the occasional subtitles are back to being funny again, with a “Cheap joke” subtitle shown during the bit about President Geraldine Ferraro being impeached.
— Pretty funny segment with Ron convincing his dad to become a republican.
— Loved the ending with Danitra angrily throwing Ron out of the house.
— Overall, I enjoyed this a lot. I liked the epic feel, the performances were strong, and this came off as a surprisingly well-written and well-thought-out sketch for this season’s standards. The lengthiness of it didn’t bother me.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walk Away”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Weekend Update Dancers say “When The Going Gets Tough,” oil prices fall
AWB puts Uranus, Angola, the Contras into The Big Picture

— Funny beginning with Dennis delivering a loud “Wake up, babe!” message to Ronald Reagan through the TV screen.
— Very interesting audience reaction to the Aquino/Marcos joke, which of course Dennis gets a great ad-lib out of.
— Oh, no, the debut of the Weekend Update Dancers, which would go on to become a recurring bit this season, and I recall always hating it in my past viewings of this season.
— I ended up finding tonight’s Weekend Update Dancers debut surprisingly okay as a silly one-time segment, but I am dreading seeing this in pretty much every Update for the remainder of the season.
— A not-yet-credited-as-a-featured-player A. Whitney Brown makes his Weekend Update debut.
— Interesting introduction A. Whitney gave his “The Big Picture” title in this.
— Really good line from A. Whitney about Contras asking for financial aid when they don’t even have a country.
— A. Whitney had another great line just now, saying the global village is as interrelated as an Appalachian coal town.
— An overall great debut of A. Whitney’s The Big Picture segment, already featuring the smart and witty political commentary that I’ve always remembered from his Update appearances over the years.
— Classic bit at the end with Dennis being amazed that President Reagan is 75 and has access to the button, leading into a memorable quip about how “my grandfather’s 75 and we won’t even let him use the remote control for the TV”.
— An overall exceptionally strong Update. Dennis seemed really “on” tonight.
STARS: ****


PENN AND TELLER
upside-down Penn & Teller [real] do tricks big-name magicians can’t match

— Oh, I’ve always loved this particular Penn and Teller appearance.
— Having seen this bit before, I know why the audience is immediately laughing at the seemingly-normal initial sight of Penn and Teller, though I’m sure home viewers who were watching this live were confused about the laughter.
— This segment has great rewatch value even knowing what the surprise ending is going to reveal.
— I love the constant “Are we live? Yeah!” call-and-response.
— And there’s the great upside-down twist at the end. Perfect reveal. I remember the first time I saw this, the upside-down reveal blew my mind and then had me going “Oh, that explains EVERYTHING.”
— Overall, this has always been my favorite out of all of Penn and Teller’s SNL appearances.
STARS: ****½


THE LIMITS OF THE IMAGINATION
family & friends fail to recognize (host)

— Another one of these?
— I didn’t get the part with the Floating Head (Randy) demonstrating how he “can make you grow older”. All Randy does there is just smile cheesily at the camera. (screencap below) Was there a special effect failure during that part or something?

— Hilarious bit with the Floating Head chewing on aluminum foil to send us “screaming into the night”.
— I liked Jon’s “Stand back, I’ve got a gun… and I know where it is too” line.
— I usually enjoy these Limits Of The Imagination sketches, but I wasn’t crazy about this overall one. The intentionally bland, mundane twist just made the sketch come off… bland and mundane.
STARS: **


SHAKESPEARE IN THE SLUMS
Flotilla Williams (DAV) explains Romeo & Juliet using ghetto terminology

— Here’s the type of solo sketch where Danitra usually comes off at her best.
— Strong characterization from Danitra here.
— She has a lot of funny interpretations of Romeo & Juliet dialogue, and she’s going a good job going back-and-forth from dignified Shakespearean speak to ghetto speak.
— I liked the “I don’t know what that part mean” non-translation.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Do You Know What I Mean”


DAVID’S DATE
(JOC) is upset with her boyfriend David’s (JOL) Woody Allen obsession

— Good Woody Allen voice from Jon.
— I really liked Jon’s Joseph Goebbels comment about Joan.
— Overall, while nothing particularly special, I found this to be okay as a 10-to-1 piece. I seem to be in the minority, as none of the reviews I’ve read of this episode over the years liked this sketch.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— A solid episode, and definitely one of the best of the season. Most of the sketches tonight were good, some were memorable, and Ron Reagan did well for a non-actor and also came off likable.
— So far, this season has had more good episodes (Herman, Lithgow, Hanks, Moore, Reagan) than bad (Madonna, Chase, Garr, Stanton). This season IS still somewhat young, though, and the number of bad episodes will probably have quite a significant increase as this season progresses, but so far, this is shaping up to be the least worst of SNL’s “Infamous Three Seasons”. While I found season 6 to not be quite as horrible as its reputation, it was still weak, and though we haven’t reached season 20 yet in my SNL project, I’m VERY familiar with that entire season and I’ve always found it to be WRETCHED.


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


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW:
Jerry Hall