Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
The Tonight Show- Johnny Carson (DAC) interviews VIJ & Nancy Reagan (JAH)
— The first of what will be several Johnny Carson Tonight Show sketches in this late 80s/early 90s era. This is also the debut of Dana and Phil’s Carson and Ed McMahon impressions.
— Already, Dana and Phil’s impressions are coming off memorable, and I like the part with them going on and on about Victoria’s weirdness.
— I got a laugh from the bit with Jan’s Nancy Reagan refusing to shake McMahon’s hand, even if I don’t get why that happened.
— Carson’s reaction to Nancy’s “She was just a bitch!” outburst was really funny.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
police surround the stage after a home viewer identifies criminal host
— I like how after James claims that the psychos and weirdos he’s known for playing in movies are not really him, we immediately cut to home viewers and cops watching the show on TV and recognizing James from crimes he’s committed.
— Great touch with a police report ticker showing up on the bottom of the screen.
— Love how further and further this is escalating, with us now seeing Lorne in the control room sending a SWAT team out to the studio, but not before worried telling them “I just can’t take the chance you might shoot Dana Carvey.”
— Funny how James is now bringing a very reluctant Nora Dunn up to the stage.
— An overall fantastic monologue. Great use of James’ creepy onscreen persona and I love how they went all-out for this.
STARS: ****½
YARD-A-PULT
get rid of garbage by flinging it into someone else’s yard
— Hilarious concept. I’ve always found this commercial to be a quintessential example of how great SNL’s fake ads in this late 80s era were.
— I’m getting a lot of laughs from the visual of the Yard-a-Pult flinging dog droppings, car batteries, air conditioners, and the like into the neighbor’s yard.
— An absolutely priceless ending with the family’s dead dog being the next thing that’s flung into the neighbor’s yard.
STARS: *****
DRACULA ’89
Dracula (host) screens (JAH), (VIJ), (NOD) for AIDS risk factors
— A very good gradual, subtle reveal that Dracula is worried about contracting AIDS from his victims’ blood. Only in the 80s could a sketch like this exist.
— Dracula’s reaction to finding out that Victoria lived in Greenwich Village was really funny.
— The Keith Richards reveal was hilarious.
— I love the sequence with Dracula going through the extensive trouble of bringing Nora’s blood to a doctor to have it tested.
STARS: ****
PRIMETIME LIVE
Sam Donaldson (KEN) & Diane Sawyer (JAH) banter awkwardly
— I always love Kevin and Jan’s Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer impressions.
— Some good laughs from the bad banter between Donaldson and Saywer at the beginning.
— I like how they keep cutting to live footage of empty places where nothing interesting is going on.
— Funny repeated bit with Donaldson overemphasizing that the show is indeed live.
— Good part with Donaldson’s interview with Dana’s Kirk Cameron just turning into Donaldson complaining about the quality of this season of Growing Pains.
— Hmm, Dana’s Kirk Cameron brings out a little girl who he says will be a new Growing Pains cast member, which Donaldson replies to with a cynical “Oh, sure, let’s just wheel in another cute kid every time we can’t think of a good plot.” SNL predicted the future with that, as just a year later, Growing Pains really DOES end up trying to spice up the show’s declining quality by adding a new child actress to the cast.
— I love the “Are you coming on to me, Ms. Sawyer?!?” bit with James.
— Hilarious part with Donaldson randomly blurting out “Diane, you’re a stinky whore!” as yet another attempt to prove the show is live.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Last Worthless Evening”
WEEKEND UPDATE
VIJ reports from Costa Rica after practicing her Spanish pronunciation
AWB offers views on Ronald Reagan accepting money from Japan for speaking
DEM & Dennis Miller (DAC) recite the Weekend Update oath
— Victoria’s commentary was okay. The premise of overemphasizing the Spanish pronunciation of words like Nicaragua and Costa Rica would later be turned into a full-fledged sketch when Jimmy Smits hosts next season.
— I loved Dennis just screaming in horror in response to an announcement that Corey Haim is releasing an “A Day in the Life Of”-type video of himself.
— A. Whitney seems to be doing an Update commentary in almost every single episode this season so far. Usually, he appears more sporadically than that.
— I really liked A. Whitney’s description of what he imagines the Ronald Reagan Library will be like.
— Great ad-libs from Dennis while reapplying his fallen clip-on mic after angrily spitting on the news screen during his negative review of a bear movie. After taking a long time reapplying his mic, Dennis adds “All that for the bear joke?”
— Interesting bit with Dana as Dennis Miller helping the real Dennis reaffirm his Weekend Update oath. Dana’s “repeating” of the oath is a riot, especially his comments about Zsa Zsa Gabor.
STARS: ***½
FALLING IN LOVE
by TOS- reunited (JOL) & (VIJ) sing & plummet
— Hmm, here’s a Schiller’s Reel I’m not familiar with.
— Oh, wait, I do kinda remember this. The visual look of this film seems vaguely familiar to me.
— Is Schiller going for a “Love Is A Dream” knock-off with this? Hmm.
— After playing out like a serious film for the first minute-and-a-half, this suddenly takes a comedic turn with the wind blowing Jon’s tie into his face while he’s in the middle of singing romantically. That was pretty funny.
— Another comedic turn with Jon and Victoria falling off the balcony, which wasn’t all that funny to me. I did get a laugh from the shot of the piano player quickly chugging down two glasses of wine while Jon and Victoria were falling.
— Overall, not one of Schiller’s best or most memorable films.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Boys of Summer”
THE RAVEN
Tonto, Tarzan, Frankenstein recite “The Raven”
— I always love these, and this particular one is coming off even funnier than these usually do.
STARS: ****½
VENTRILOQUIST
club owner (PHH) suggests changes to (host)’s inane ventriloquist act
— Funny opening bit with Jan’s bad singing.
— I like how an upset audience is beginning to walk out on James’ non-stop repetitions of “No, you’re the dummy!” with his ventriloquist doll.
— I love Phil’s characterization here. I can’t think of any other time I’ve seen him do a voice or character like this.
— Hilarious how the “big change” James makes to his act just turns out to be merely adding a monocle to his dummy while still endlessly repeating the same “No, you’re the dummy!” shtick.
— Decent ending.
— Last time I saw this sketch years ago, I remember finding it absolutely TERRIBLE. I dismissed it as a surprisingly horrid one-joke sketch from this otherwise great era of SNL. After watching this sketch again just now, I found it to be a lot better than I previously did. I can appreciate what they were going for with this, and James and Phil both gave fantastic performances that made the material even better.
STARS: ***½
HELMSLEY SPOOK HOUSE
— Rerun… from three seasons ago, oddly enough. Guess they’re just repeating this particular commercial because it’s around Halloween again. Or maybe also because Leona Helmsley was in the news for being in jail at this time (as spoofed in the great “The Big Bitch BullDyke Bustout of ’89” sketch a few episodes ago).
THREE DUDES HOLISTIC AUTOMOTIVE
Three Dudes Holistic Automotive gives a New Age approach to car care
— Pretty funny premise, and funny performances from Dana, Jon, and James as idiot surfer-type guys.
— For some reason, this kinda reminds me of the Two Guys Who Are Lawyers sketch with Dan Aykroyd and Fred Willard, from back in season 4.
— I like the listed-off car enhancements that the Three Dudes’ service offers.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong episode, particularly the first half of the show. I also loved James Woods as the host. Though he seemed kinda underused, he delivered greatly with every performance and had a vibe that reminded me of other great oddball hosts SNL has had over the years (particularly Steve Buscemi). James is definitely on my list of one-timers who should’ve hosted much more.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kathleen Turner)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Chris Evert