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