Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
cast watches as host walks a tightrope between World Trade Center towers
— The visual of the Pee-Wee toy model spinning around was really funny.
— It’s amazing how wildly the audience is reacting to every little thing in this, though their energy is infectious.
— Overall, a very simple and short cold opening, but it worked with Pee-Wee.
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— Don Novello and Dan Vitale have been added to the credits as featured players
MONOLOGUE
host wears various types of big shoes & dances to “Tequila” & “Fever”
— Very energetic beginning with Pee-Wee making the audience give him a standing ovation.
— Love the “I’m in your living room!” part.
— The “nicknaming the audience” bit is too repetitive, but still cute.
— Oh, here’s his famous Tequila shoe-dancing bit.
— Him awkwardly trying to do the Tequila dance in the big high-heeled shoes is a pretty funny visual.
— Good part with him badmouthing his movie’s biggest competition, Back to the Future.
— An overall very fun, charming, and energetic monologue. Paul Reubens has such an impressive way of captivating audiences with this character.
STARS: ****
SAY NO TO THE ARMY
(AMH) says “no” to Army despite (RDJ) & (Bruce McCulloch) peer pressure
— Young Bruce McCulloch!
— Meh at the “say no to the army” twist, after such a long build-up. I know I’m in the minority, but I never cared for this ad. I’ve always felt the army twist was weak.
— I did find this ad well-filmed, though, perfectly capturing the look and vibe of then-contemporary mid-80s anti-drug PSAs.
STARS: **
LOCKER ROOM
(RAQ) is interested in a hooker, but he can’t figure out how to tell host
— Pee-Wee’s various bad, far-fetched guesses as to what Randy’s trying to hint at him are quite fun.
— Good ending.
STARS: ***
PEE-WEE’S THANKSGIVING SPECIAL
Brooke Shields (JOC) & Diana Ross (TES) on host’s Thanksgiving Special
— Fun idea.
— Oh my god at the initial sight of Terry as Diana Ross.
— I admit, though, Terry is actually really funny in this role.
— It’s often said that you can see former cast member Robin Duke in the studio audience during Terry’s Diana Ross number. I’ve never been able to spot her during my past viewings of this sketch, but let’s see if I have better luck this time.
— Ah, THERE’S Robin! (you can see her in the bottom row of audience members in the third screencap above) Feels weird seeing her in this context, but it’s nice to see her on SNL again in any capacity.
— Hilarious brief scene with Anthony and Robert as Hall and Oates. Probably the first time all season Anthony gave me a legitimate laugh.
— This sketch wasn’t as long as I had remembered it being.
STARS: ***½
THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
dealing with runway drool; depression expert (RAQ)
— This has ALREADY become recurring after only one episode.
— Good part with Nora showcasing various faces in the Italian magazine. Nora has a way of making the littlest things she says as this character funny.
— Even better part with Nora’s “drool on the runway” demonstration.
— Some good laughs from Randy’s overly depressed demeanor. His facial expressions alone are really cracking me up.
STARS: ***½
DIE FOREIGNER DIE!
a gun-filled Sylvester Stallone & Chuck Norris movie
— LOL at the title of the film.
— I like the hyped-up, fast-paced vibe of this.
— The scrolling list of foreign nationalities who will be killed in the film has some laughs, especially “Indians [both kinds]”.
STARS: ***
JAIL CELL
cellmates Tommy Flanagan & host trade fibs while waiting to be bailed out
— Probably the role I most remember Dan Vitale for, which still isn’t saying much as it’s the usual type of un-noteworthy role he was always stuck with. This sketch probably contains most lines he ever had in a single sketch, however.
— Tommy Flanagan is another character tonight making its return after debuting in just the last episode.
— I like how Pee-Wee’s joining in on the false storytelling.
— Good part with Flanagan saying “I saw that accident” in response to Pee-Wee’s obvious made-up story about an accident.
— Funny how Pee-Wee is now filling in the blanks in Flanagan’s story, which is reminiscent of the Willie and Frankie sketches that Billy Crystal and Christopher Guest did the previous season.
— Overall, probably one of the more memorable Tommy Flanagan sketches ever.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
footage of Nancy Reagan & Raisa Gorbachev at Wardrobe Limitation Talks
DEM critiques David Bowie & Mick Jagger in “Dancin’ In The Street” video
Father Guido Sarducci declares schism- he’s People’s Catholic Church pope
— Troll Dolls existed in 1985? I thought they weren’t around until my childhood in the 90s, where they were EVERYWHERE.
— The Cherry Coke joke got a very interesting reaction from the crowd.
— I love the various ways Dennis always plays off the audience’s reactions.
— Very promising idea of Dennis deconstructing the Jagger/Bowie “Dancing In The Street” music video.
— I absolutely LOVED Dennis’ overall “Dancing In The Street” takedown, which is probably the most Dennis Miller-esque we’ve seen Dennis in his SNL tenure so far.
— Father Guido Sarducci makes his first Weekend Update appearance in years.
— Sarducci’s whole People’s Catholic Church bit is fairly funny. This is where we get his (temporary) name change into Maurice, which ends up carrying over into a later episode from this season.
— The bit with Sarducci explaining individual pieces of the pope costume is kinda dragging, though there’s some laughs from the portion with him talking about the female version of the costume
— I liked Dennis telling Sarducci he wants to be known as “Pope Shecky”.
STARS: ***
DINOSAUR TOWN
host looks for a mouse in a bottle of Coke to save (RAQ)’s Dinosaur Town
–Funny how Randy’s sarcastic, half-hearted suggestion to find a bottle of Coke with a mouse in it is being taken so seriously.
— I’m enjoying the silliness of this whole sketch.
— LOL at Damon’s performance as a pimp. Though I have to ask, what’s with this season constantly pairing Damon and Anthony together as urban characters?
— I liked the line from Anthony trying to compensate for the lack of a Coke containing a mouse by offering similar oddities: a Big Mac with some car keys in it, and a cream soda bottle with a cigar butt.
— Terry as an exec professionally displaying a suitcase containing “a million billion zillion “ dollars is pretty funny.
— Overall, charming execution of such a silly idea. This was another sketch that could only work in a Pee-Wee Herman-hosted episode.
STARS: ***½
LOVE LETTER
host’s love for his teacher Miss Patterson (JOC) is reciprocated
— Pee-Wee’s passion in this is pretty funny to watch.
— Wow, strange but interesting turn with Joan’s dark “love” monologue.
— An overall nicely done sketch with a softer tone. Easily Joan’s best performance so far this season.
STARS: ***
PREGNANCY TIPS
Cabrini Green gives expectant mothers tips on smoking, alcohol, drugs
— Another sketch with Danitra’s Cabrini Green delivering a message from the home base stage.
— Pretty funny premise, advising expectant mothers on what kind of cigarettes and booze their fetus will prefer.
— This ended up being another unusually short Cabrini Green sketch, but it was still pretty good for what it was.
STARS: ***
MONEY MAGNETISM SEMINAR
Hal Fisher’s (RAQ) Money Magnet Method- real estate & motivated sellers
— Randy is dead-on in his portrayal of a shady real estate promoter, but there haven’t been ANY laughs in this sketch so far.
— Okay, the comment just now about mentally incompetent people made me laugh.
— Robert’s look in his initial walk-on made it seem like his segment was going to have promise, but it ended up not containing any comedic lines.
— Overall, what exactly was the joke of this sketch? They might as well have just played a tape of a real get-rich-quick seminar, and the result would’ve been almost exactly the same.
STARS: *½
GOODNIGHTS
host & cast sing & dance to “Sex Machine”
— A great deviation from the normal goodnights, having Pee-Wee and the cast dance to Sex Machine.
— Ha, right before the goodnights cut off early in the live version I’m reviewing, you can see an uncooperative Damon ducking out of the musical number by leaving through the doors on the stage. I guess he’s the Norm Macdonald of this season when it comes to having an aversion to participating in full-cast musical numbers.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— Our first successful episode of the season. This episode was very fun, no doubt due to Pee-Wee Herman, who gave the show a huge boost. One of those rare experimental episodes, where letting the host take over the show and make it their own actually works. The overall episode had plenty of solid and memorable pieces, despite a (very) few glimpses of the weak writing we’ve often been seeing this season, like that baffling seminar sketch at the end.
— The musical guest’s performances were removed from the copy I reviewed of this episode, which is why there were no mentions of them during my actual review.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Chevy Chase):
— a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW:
John Lithgow
According to Wikipedia, troll dolls were one of the United States’ biggest toy fads in the early ’60s.
Interesting to see the show hosted by a fictional character once again. Is this and Father Guido Sarducci’s host stint in Season Nine the only two times the show has done that? Or are there others to come?
You could argue Andrew Dice Clay kind of was hosting as a fictional character.
Garth Brooks also hosted once and did his alter ego as the musical guest which made people go WTF lol. Odd part was it was the only time he sung the entire episode, it reminds me of this one.
Shame Queen Ida got cut out here as it’s one of the more unique and inventive booking decisions SNL’s ever done. It’s as weird as Sun Ra or Captain Beefheart was. It’s my favorite of the three barely over Beefheart, the audience was way more into them.
I guess this made for some vindication for Paul after getting declined for Gottfried in 1980. I still say he shoulda hosted a few more times he coulda done some good stuff as himself. Still one of the best all time shows imo and easily the 1985 season’s best. Granted I enjoy the Lithgow show as much.
The pilgrim in the Thanksgiving sketch is played by Phil Hartman, a year before he joined the cast.
No, the pilgrim isn’t Phil… Phil’s not in the sketch at all.
Phil was in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.” Jan Hooks was also in “Big Adventure” as well. I would have loved to have seen Pee-Wee back on SNL with Phil and Jan in the cast.
Hey there! I’ve been trying to track down the “Say No to the Army” sketch for a while now. Last year I went on a deep-dive through the late Jonathan Demme’s career, and that was one of a handful of things he directed that I couldn’t track down. Could you give me any leads, or point me to your source on how you watched this episode, that sketch specifically?
I would have loved to have seen Pee-Wee return to SNL as host when “Big Top Pee-Wee” came out. It would have been cool to see him interact with the 1986-90 cast. That also would have been even better than seeing him with the 1985 cast.
R.I.P. Dan Vitale.
Vitale put out some crazy info in an interview before he died.. turned out the hosting choice this week was between Pee Wee and George C Scott of all people. Still one of the oddest host choices I’ve heard of.
They definitely made the right choice here. Reubens was jamming at this point in time and coulda made anything good. The cast badly needed someone who was very good at the process to teach them and build them up and he did. They all performed well.
It woulda been a nightmare if they picked Scott. He was very stubborn and ill and he woulda probably been too mean for the cast to deal with. It woulda been as bad of a behind the scenes show as Chevy. But it woulda been fun to watch none the less.
RIP Paul Reubens.
This was hurts. Big part of my childhood.