Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
George Bush (DAC) gives status report on good & bad of his term so far
— Dana-as-Bush’s constant “Not enough in-for-ma-tion” are really funny.
— A good laugh from his example of the “work” he’s done during his days in office so far being repainting, floor-sanding, etc.
— We get our very first Dana-as-Bush utterance of “Not gonna do it”, though he delivers those words in a straight manner tonight. Over time, he famously exaggerates it to “Nah gah dah”.
— Another overall solid Bush cold opening, with another early display of soon-to-be-famous Bush-isms.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
time stands still while (host) & (GIR) go “Dancing In The Dark” {rerun}
— Oh, boy, this is gonna be a bit tough to get through…
— You can tell by Steve’s voice that he’s fighting back tears as he speaks, which is really getting to me.
— Steve mentions how the people you get to work with at the show is what always brings you back to SNL, which is a classy set-up to an encore presentation that’s now being played as a tribute to the beloved Gilda Radner, who passed away earlier this same day.
— Great to see this incredible Dancing In The Dark sketch again, and it’s coming off poignant in the context it’s being shown in tonight.
— Since I already reviewed Dancing In The Dark when covering the episode it originally aired in (the legendary Steve Martin/Blues Brothers episode from season 3), I’m not going to say anything else here for the remainder of the encore presentation. I just want to sit back and enjoy the sketch while reminiscing emotionally about how it was practically yesterday when I was reviewing the original era and got to enjoy regularly covering various great Gilda Radner performances.
— A very nice extended applause break after the encore presentation has finished playing.
— Steve: “You know, when I look at that tape, I can’t help but think how great she was and how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you.”
STARS: not sure if I should rate this, but I’ll give it a ***** for its classiness
PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ
world’s most perfectly pumped-up man (host)
— Hmm, a change of pace with the smoky intro at the beginning of this.
— A priceless visual of Steve in that insane muscle costume.
— Funny hearing Steve doing the Hans and Franz accent. Hearing him do that reminds me of a little of his Festrunk Brothers voice from back in the day.
— Good ending bit with Steve’s struggle to clap his hands in unison with Hans and Franz.
— At the end of the previous season, I stated that I was already getting tired of Hans and Franz after only one season, and that I don’t find their act all that funny anymore. Thankfully, THIS season made me come around on them. They had a fairly strong year, and it also helps that they weren’t overused like they were the previous season.
STARS: ***½
TAMMY WYNETTE SINGS THE CLASSICS
with “Stand By Your Man” lyrics
— Hilarious how Jan’s singing the same lyric, “Stand by your man”, to the melody of various classical songs. The part with her doing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony is particularly funny.
— Excellent performance from Jan here.
STARS: ****½
TOONCES, THE CAT WHO COULD DRIVE A CAR
he can drive, just not very well
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Very funny visual of the obvious cat puppet steering the wheel.
— There’s the very first instance of what would go on to define these sketches: “Toonces, look out!” (*cut to stock footage of a car driving off a cliff*)
— Wow, the sketch is over already? I’m surprised how short and simplistic this first Toonces installment was.
— Oh, never mind, there’s an extra scene now, with a “preview” of next week’s Driving Test episode.
— An overall solid first installment.
STARS: ****
TO MY LOVE
host recites an ode that details what he needs from his woman
— Plenty of great one-liners so far, especially the random “To walk beside me when I want to look like I’m not gay.”
— Another particularly good one-liner with “To make me horny when I’m not horny, and to watch me fall asleep.”
— This is in a similar vein to his classic A Holiday Wish sketch. This even has a similar darkly-lit fancy setting.
— Great ending with his missing wedding ring.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
WEEKEND UPDATE
AWB tells the class of ’89 to stick it to Noriega with crack boycott
— As always, I love that they’re continuing the tradition of every season finale having an A. Whitney Brown commentary where he addresses that year’s graduating class. We never got to see him do one for the class of 1988, though, since that season got cut short by a writers’ strike.
— A. Whitney, to the class of ’89: “You can be sure ‘the education president’ feels bad that so many of you are functionally illiterate. Not as bad as he’d feel if you had an abortion, but still…”
— Good ending to A. Whitney’s commentary with him calling for a nationwide crack boycott in every high school and junior high to get Manuel Noriega out of office.
— Dennis: “Do you know how personally ungrounded I feel living in a world where Ricky Schroeder has changed his name to Rick?”
— Oh, so THIS is when news started getting out about Rob Lowe’s now-infamous sex tape with a minor, which Dennis says Lowe probably only did “to divert our attention away from that Oscar thing”, which is now the third dig SNL has got in at Lowe’s horrific Snow White opening number at that year’s Oscars.
— After the last two Updates in which Dennis’ jokes weren’t as strong as usual, he had a nice return to form tonight with plenty of great jokes.
STARS: ****
THE NEW CONEHEADS
LOM previews new issue-oriented Coneheads skits; Timothy Busfield cameo
— Though they haven’t made it clear yet why they’re doing this, seeing this sketch brings back great memories of how much I enjoyed reviewing the original Coneheads sketches back when I covered that era. That was one of my favorite recurring sketches from those years.
— The casting of Phil and Nora as the new Beldar and Prymaat makes sense, because in several ways, Phil and Nora are this cast’s version of Dan and Jane.
— Nice touch with Victoria having a trendy clock hanging on her head.
— All Coneheads in unison, when asked where they’re from: “France. Yeah that’s the ticket. We’re from France.”
— Good mock-serious segment with Lorne announcing the New Coneheads are coming to SNL next season, tackling serious issues of our time.
— Funny detail of a cone-shaped mirror that Phil’s Beldar looks into.
— The Thirtysomething parody scene was okay, though incredibly dated nowadays. (Speaking of which, we’ll be coming to another possibly-now-dated Thirtysomething parody in the following season’s premiere that I’ll be covering tomorrow) The camera angle and positioning of the actors was strange (last screencap above), but I’m guessing that’s just spoofing the staging in the real Thirtysomething.
— Amusing ending to the letter of approval from Dan Aykroyd, plugging the upcoming Ghostbusters 2.
STARS: ****
GET TO KNOW ME
JOL says “Get to know me!” like DOP & host did; Paulina Poriskova cameo
— Good to see a more fleshed-out, sketch version of Jon’s famous Weekend Update routine.
— A rare on-camera Don Pardo appearance!
— Phil’s Lee Iaccoca impression is very funny.
— I love Steve’s manic delivery in this, as well as his line about how he used to be a two-bit comic with an arrow stuck through his head, “and now I’m starring in Parenthood directed by Opie!”
— Pardo leaning into the shot while gleefully exclaiming “I’m on TV!” is priceless.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Fallin'”
SPROCKETS
Dieter’s lover Heike (NOD) reviews the performance of a clown
— Hmm, the monkey on a pedestal is front-and-center next to Dieter right at the start of the sketch. The monkey is usually farther away from Dieter, and is usually not revealed until about halfway through the sketch.
— This is the first time where Dieter’s guest is an equally-weird German instead of an American being weirded out by Dieter.
— “Your story has become tiresome.” Never have I been more happy to hear those words, as Nora’s long-winded story was honestly starting to kinda get on my nerves before Dieter cut it off with the aforementioned catchphrase.
— Dieter’s “Touch my monkey” pleas are now starting to have the over-the-top delivery people now remember, rather than the deadpan low-key delivery he used for it in the first installment.
— I found tonight’s overall installment surprisingly underwhelming. Nora’s character didn’t work for me, and this sketch didn’t have much else going for it. Felt empty for a Sprockets sketch. I’ll just chalk this up to a case of Early Installment Weirdness and assume this is the result of these Sprockets sketches still trying to find their voice.
STARS: **
SIDES
host demonstrates his good & bad sides, photographically speaking
— Hmm, from my past viewings of the rerun version of this episode, I swear I recall Steve performing this sketch on the home base stage. However, in the live version I’m currently watching, he’s performing it on the New Coneheads set. They must’ve later replaced this sketch with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— Out of this and the Ode To My Love piece from earlier tonight, I wonder which one was originally slated for the monologue slot before Gilda passed.
— I love how he names each side of his face after famous Mels.
— Nice touch with him exiting the scene with his good side facing the camera.
STARS: ****
SMOKERS CABLE NETWORK
Smokers Cable Network news anchors present items related to tobacco
— The sunrise stock footage played during the Smokers Cable Network opening title (screencap below) looks like the same sunrise footage they’d later use in the opening titles of the Stuart Smalley sketches.
— I like Nora’s rating system.
— Al’s brief segment was hilarious.
— Steve’s entire commentary just being him horribly coughing his way through his unintelligible speech was pretty funny.
— I wasn’t expecting much from this overall sketch at first, thinking it would be a pretty flimsy bit, but it ended up being executed well.
STARS: ***
HAVE A BITCHIN’ SUMMER
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein say goodbye for the summer
— Good intro from Steve announcing that, to commemorate the last show of the season, Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein will sing a goodbye song.
— Haha, “Have A Bitchin’ Summer”.
— Good touch with Tonto blowing a whistle mid-song.
— I recall someone on an SNL messageboard once pointing out that during the close-up of each of the three performers as they’re singing, they all look as if they had been crying shortly before this sketch started (because of Gilda’s passing, maybe?). However, watching the sketch now, I’m not noticing that at all. There’s no visible moistness under any of the guys’ eyes or anything like that.
— Funny and oddly charming as always. Nice way to end the season.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
— Steve: “I wanna thank all my guests, the most beautiful woman in the world: Jon Lovitz…”
— We get a nice mention from Don Pardo’s voice-over that the show’s next live broadcast will be SNL’s 15th anniversary special in late September (a week before season 15 begins), the beginning of a tradition of SNL holding a big anniversary special during some of their milestone years.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong finish to the season, completing a perfect streak of no episodes that I found supbar this season. We got plenty of great sketches tonight, some really memorable moments, and a heartfelt Gilda Radner tribute in the monologue.
— Season 14 as a whole was PHENOMENAL. The quality of most the episodes was very high, the consistency was very impressive, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were no episodes at all that I wasn’t satisfied with. Every single episode worked for me, which is pretty much unheard of for an SNL season. Even my favorite seasons that I’ve reviewed earlier in this SNL project of mine (seasons 3, 4, and 10) each had at least one or two episodes I was disappointed by, and the same goes for my favorite seasons from later on that I haven’t covered yet. In addition to the high quality of season 14’s episodes, this fantastic cast was also firing on all cylinders and performing some of their greatest work, and the show also benefited from the mid-season addition of Mike Myers, who quickly began to make his mark with his stable of distinct and funny characters. All-in-all, I would argue that this is SNL’s greatest season of all-time.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Wayne Gretzky)
a slight step up
HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1987-88)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 15 begins, with host Bruce Willis