Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Church Chat- Church Lady & niece (host) criticize Marla Maples (JAH) & Donald Trump (PHH)
— Fred Savage is already off to a strong start here with his great performance and dead-on Church Lady imitation as her niece (named Enid, like Church Lady herself). I remember I first saw this episode in a Comedy Central rerun and, not knowing in advance who was hosting this episode, I spent this entire cold opening thinking that was an actual little girl playing Church Lady’s niece, until the opening montage came on afterwards and I saw that Fred Savage was billed as the night’s host.
— Funny demeanor and posture on the couch from Jan’s Marla Maples.
— Marla Maples: “Donald [Trump] and I are just good friends.” Church Lady (sarcastically): “And Enid is just a little boy in a dress.”
— Phil’s Trump wig is even funnier-looking than usual tonight.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Wonder Years narrative documents host hitting puberty while on-stage
— Very funny use of Fred’s Wonder Years adult voice-over, though it’s clearly not Daniel Stern doing the voice here.
— Fred’s adult voice-over, regarding SNL: “It was February 1990, just a few months before the show was finally canceled.”
— Great concept of Fred panickedly going through puberty mid-monologue.
— Hilarious reveal of him having very thick chest hair. With that, he could’ve been a guest on the Eye On Chest Hair sketch from the last episode.
STARS: ****
GUN SAFETY
results of leaving (host) home with gun demonstrate firearm safety don’ts
— Just getting this out of the way right now: I really don’t want to address the elephant in the room, regarding how uncomfortable it is in hindsight to see Phil starring in a sketch like this. I’d rather just watch and enjoy the sketch as best as I can, the way it was originally intended to.
— Some good laughs from all the supposedly child-proof places the father says he has the gun and bullets hidden.
— Funny turn with Fred using the gun to threaten his father after his father tells him he’s grounded.
— Another funny sudden turn with the mother also having a gun, and using it to stop Fred from controlling his father with his gun.
— Hilarious part with the father hiding the gun in the box of cereal.
— Great fourth wall-breaking bit with Kevin at the end.
STARS: ***½
THE PAT STEVENS SHOW
guests are neglected daughter Missy (VIJ) & host
— This recurring sketch makes its first appearance in an entire year, and this also ends up being the last time this sketch ever appears.
— Interesting seeing Pat Stevens’ daughter.
— Pat’s dismissive attitude towards her daughter is pretty funny.
— A good laugh from the daughter’s whiny “I wanna go live with my dad” answer to Pat’s question.
— This overall sketch was a decent way for Pat Stevens to go out.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Pump Up The Jam”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN reports audience’s displeasure with News From 10 Feet Away bit
Annoying Man’s magic tricks include chewing foil & scraping a chalkboard
irate audience member (RBS) concludes KEN’s News From 10 Feet Away
Grumpy Old Man dislikes bottled water, athletic footwear, amusement parks
— I love the concept of Kevin’s “News From 10 Feet Away” segment.
— A lot of good laughs from Kevin’s comments about the audience’s reactions to his segment, detailing their growing frustration over this bit going on “far too long”.
— Annoying Man chewing a ball of aluminum foil was really funny.
— I liked the audience groaning loudly as soon as Annoying Man brings out the ol’ chalkboard & fork once again.
— Loved Dennis’ meta comment to us about Jon Lovitz after the Annoying Man magic trick commentary ended: “I’ll tell ya what the best trick is: that he’s gotten that on three times.” Though to nitpick, this is actually the FOURTH time Annoying Man has appeared (believe it or not).
— Some unintentional laughs from Dennis badly stumbling through his intro to Kevin’s “News From 10 Feet Away” follow-up.
— Good ending to Kevin’s commentary with him suddenly getting knocked out with a bat by an irate audience member. I’m surprised the audience didn’t respond all that much to that part.
— Lately, it feels like Grumpy Old Man and Annoying Man are the only two recurring Update guests we’ve been seeing these last few months.
— The usual hilarious griping from Grumpy Old Man, especially his story about drinking dirty water that contains chunks of hairy crud.
— Tonight’s overall Update was a good comeback for Dennis, after the surprisingly subpar quality of his last two Updates.
STARS: ***½
IMAGINARY FRIEND
(host)’s parents pressure him to develop a more creative imaginary friend
— Love the cutaway to Phil’s angry stone-faced facial reaction (second screencap above) during the young girl’s bragging about her imaginary friend.
— A big laugh from how Fred’s made-up descriptions of his new imaginary friend turn out to just be Beethoven’s life story.
— I like the inane seriousness that Phil and Nora are taking Fred’s inability to come up with a creative imaginary friend. Phil is particularly great in his overly-intense sternness.
— Good ending with Fred badly making up an imaginary friend by looking around the gym for details.
STARS: ***
SHUTTLE LAUNCH
Space Shuttle countdown is repeatedly stopped due to launch pad wanderers
— Already starting off hilarious with Lassie randomly being under the about-to-launch rocket, and Dana & Kevin panicking over that.
— When seeing Hitler under the rocket, I love Dana’s cheesy delivery of “I’d like to fry him!”
— I’m loving the increasing silliness of the people who show up under the rocket. This type of silly sketch epitomizes what I love about this era of SNL.
— Funny part with Dana and Kevin being torn on whether or not to launch the rocket when Dan Quayle and Mikhail Gorbachev are under it.
— Loved the fake-out with the Invisible Man supposedly being spotted under the rocket but it just turning out to be a prank.
— Haha, Dana and Kevin eagerly pressing the launch button as soon as they spot Donald and Ivana Trump under the rocket comes off even funnier in hindsight nowadays… at least in Donald’s case.
STARS: ****½
LOTHAR OF THE HILL PEOPLE
on a hunt, Lothar Of The Hill People prepares son (host) for manhood rite
— Much like Pat Stevens, this is another recurring sketch tonight that’s making what would end up being its final appearance.
— The men rejecting Fred’s clever idea just because it’s new and unfamiliar was pretty funny.
— A lot of good lines all throughout this sketch.
— Nice sudden return of Fred’s Wonder Years adult voice-over from the monologue.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get Up!”
HOOKED ON SUSHI
by TOS- Japanese restaurant literally lures (KEN)
— Interesting seeing Kevin starring in a Tom Schiller-made film noir spoof, though I can’t help but be reminded of another Tom Schiller-made film noir spoof: the great Java Junkie film from season 5. I’m sure this will be going in its own direction, though.
— Great turn with the restaurant waiters reeling in Kevin like a fish.
— Hilarious dark ending with a dead, chopped-up Kevin being on display as a meal.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A consistently good episode, with nothing I disliked. Unlike some other episodes with a child host, I didn’t feel that the restraints on the type of humor SNL can do hurt the show too much tonight. Even the most “kiddie” sketch of the night, the imaginary friend sketch, was enjoyable. And for a 13-year-old host, Fred Savage did a great job tonight and handled himself incredibly well, coming off much more at ease than some adult hosts that SNL has had over the years.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Rob Lowe
If SNL finding new heights in the late 1980s wasn’t enough, this single episode proved that SNL would be around for decades to come.
From 1975 to 1990, although there was SNL material that all generations could love, it was a show marketed specifically to baby boomers. Sure, there were some younger-than-average cast members now and then, like Julia Louis Dreyfus, Robert Downey, Micheal Hall, etc., but they’re forgotten in context; and Eddie Murphy was 19, but he was a special case. With few exceptions, even into the 1990s, guests and cast members were just getting older. Not to mention new competition from “Kids in the Hall” and “In Living Color.”
But having Fred Savage and Technotronic on the show together in early 1990 (teens that year know what I mean) effectively begins the transition of SNL’s market to a whole new generation.
This is the first episode I remember actually watching the live broadcast (I’m not 100% sure, but this was probably it) . I was a big fan of Wonder Years so I remember the monologue being really funny. I also thought it was so cool to have someone around my age host the show!
Amusingly, this is the second of three straight hosts that would appear in the Mike Myers film Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Amusingly, this is the second of three out of four straight hosts that would appear in the Mike Myers film Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Good eye! And Robert Wagner from Austin Powers hosted earlier in the season. AND Ed O’Neill and Christopher Walken hosted in between; both would appear in another Myers sequel, Wayne’s World 2
As with some other hosts around this era, this was the best time for Fred Savage to appear – within a few years he would have likely been put into a series of crude sketches about shock value topics, or completely sidelined. I also appreciate that they didn’t give him any of the “humor” that Drew Barrymore got in sketches like the one where she killed ET, which mostly just made me wince.
I remember the sketch with Victoria Jackson as the daughter but didn’t remember until seeing your review that she was Pat Stevens’ daughter. It seems like a very different approach from most Pat sketches. Victoria was usually at her best in these types of roles – I think she had one sort of like this the next season when Susan Lucci hosted. Anyway, I always liked Pat, so I’m glad you were able to enjoy the last one.
My main memory of Lothar of the Hill People will always be the theme song. SNL has had some fantastic voiceover people, and still does to this day (Beck, Cecily), but no one can ever compare to Phil Hartman.
I have to wonder how many back in 1990 were talking about how much they hated the musical guests and remembering when “real” music was on the show…
Recently found a copy of the Comedy Central rerun. So I’ll run down the differences starting with BiziLady from Ed O’Neil / Harry Connick Jr. being added. Update, Lothar of the Hill People and Hooked on Sushi are not in the 60-minute version.
Church Chat: The dress rehearsal version is used. The letter from Dwight L. McPherson is different. Dress: “Last night, I dreamed you were killed by Islamic terrorists which led me to think” “Who will fight Satan when you’re gone?”. Live: “I hate you and think your show is garbage!” The amount of mugging for the camera doing Church Lady mannerisms that Dana and Fred do is lessened in the live show. Enid holds the newspapers during the spelling bit in dress whereas Church Lady holds them for the live show. Hartman’s Trump smiles and flashes a peace sign at the camera when exiting during dress, while he just angrily walks off in the live show.
Monologue: The live version is used. Savage says the line “It’s like drinking a Pepsi” a reference to him starring in a Pepsi commercial that first aired a month ago during Super Bowl XXIV, a shortened version of the commercial airs twice during the live episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGPaFne3axM
Gun Safety: The audio is probably tweaked in the rerun. The live audience sounded much more into this than the rerun, there is extended applause going into the transition to the epilogue in the live show.
Pat Stevens: Once again, the audio levels differ. Most notably in the live version, you can hear the exchange between Pat & Missy over the theme tune at the end that you can’t hear in the rerun.
Pat: Where’s your retainer?
Missy: Oh yeah right! Like I’m really gonna wear a retainer on television
Imaginary Friend: What’s really strange about the subdued audio in the rerun is that normally it’s the other way around with the rerun having laughter added. Phil’s reaction shot that Stooge mentions gets no reaction in the rerun.
Rosie Perez is one of Technotronic’s dancers for their performance of “Get Up”. Around a month later she’s hired as the choreographer for In Living Color.
Would love to see Rosie Perez host SNL. I think she would be great. I don’t know why the show hasn’t her on as a host years ago.
Wasn’t this show the first time Technotronic showed the real lead singer on vocals instead of the woman from the “Pump Up The Jam” video?
I believe Technotronic performed on Arsenio with Ya Kid K (the real singer, who is awesome) a few weeks before this, but yes.
Fred’s monologue is being narrated by Robert Smigel (aka Triumph the insult comic dog).
I had forgotten that space shuttle launch sketch. I agree it’s sort of representative of this era’s very skilled use of one-joke silly sketches that are super funny due to the escalation in silliness, something that that the show got away from.
The Space Shuttle sketch was written by Jack
Handey according to Dana on the Fly on the Wall podcast. It had been cut from the Walken episode a few shows before this.
Nowadays, the Grumpy Old Man character could be called “43-year-old commenting on YouTube videos” .