Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
The McLaughlin (DAC) Group- Pat Buchanan (PHH) returns to the panel
— Here’s what ends up being the final McLaughlin Group sketch.
— I’m liking all of McLaughlin’s questions being about Pat Buchanan’s failing presidential campaign.
— Buchanan: “The campaign isn’t actually over.” McLaughlin: “WRONG! It was over weeks ago, you just haven’t been notified.”
— All of McLaughlin’s mockery towards Buchanan’s campaign is really funny.
— Here’s an epic moment that I’ve never been 100% sure is a genuine blooper or a scripted part of the sketch: when Dana’s McLaughlin asks how to start the show, Mike answers with the usual “Live from New York…”. As Dana’s McLaughlin tells Mike “WRONG!”, the drummer in the off-camera SNL Band is heard beginning to play the SNL theme music when it isn’t time yet. After the drummer cuts himself off when realizing his mistake, Dana looks in the SNL Band’s general direction (last screencap above) and yells a particularly loud “WRONG!!!”, which gets a huge audience response. A priceless moment that does seem like a real blooper, but I’ve never seen it confirmed if it actually is real or not.
— As usual, Dana’s McLaughlin starts the show with something other than “Live from New York…”, this time with a simple “Start the shoooowww.”
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
to prevent typecasting, host briefly shows her vulgar & stupid side
— Her doing a “vulgar yet stupid” dance, then immediately regretting it was only okay, but nothing particularly great.
STARS: **½
ACTION CATS
feline accessories give kids a new way to play with pets
— Not exactly sure where the hilarity is supposed to be coming from, as this is coming off more cute than funny. Though as a cat lover, I can kinda appreciate the cuteness.
STARS: **
LISA PONGRASIC, VERY PREGNANT UNDERCOVER COP
(CHF) & very pregnant undercover cop (host) execute a drug bust
— The beginning of this, with Phil as a police chief chewing out Mary’s cop for her renegade actions, reminds me of the beginning of the Tenelli: One Man Army sketch with Steven Seagal, which began the exact same way and with Phil in the police chief role.
— Good reveal of Mary being pregnant.
— Pretty fun opening credits sequence.
— Dana plays yet another Scarface-sounding criminal.
— This is the second episode in a row where Rock plays a character named G-Love. In the last episode, it was the name of his character in John Goodman’s Teen Dermatologist sketch.
— Great shocked look on Farley’s face during the freeze-frame ending after Mary reveals “My water just broke.”
STARS: ***½
LYLE, THE EFFEMINATE HETEROSEXUAL
even Lyle Billup’s wife (JUS) & daughter (host) think he’s a homosexual
— Surprisingly, this is the first time they’ve brought this sketch back since its debut three years earlier in a Chris Evert-hosted episode from 1989. This has got to be one of the longest a sketch took to become recurring.
— They’ve altered the opening title sequence to insert Julia in Chris Evert’s place as Lyle’s wife and to add Mary in as an additional daughter.
— Like last time, Dana’s giving me a lot of laughs as this character.
— Very funny part with Lyle receiving an unwanted raunchy stripping telegram from Tim.
— A great lengthy “Whaaaaaaaaaaaa???” from Lyle at the end when even his wife asks him “Aren’t you gay?”
STARS: ****
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on dealing with unwanted Thanksgiving food
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” & “Hold On”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Denise Swerski gives beauty tips for brides-to-be
Cajunman gives his predictions for the NCAA basketball tournament
— Here comes what ends up being the biggest showcase Beth will get during her short-lived SNL tenure.
— Beth’s bad makeup tips and accompanying pictures are pretty funny. Nothing particularly hilarious, but decent.
— Surprisingly, Cajunman does an Update commentary for the second episode in a row.
— Adam has really found his groove as Cajunman by this point, and there’s a lot of funny lines with him here, especially when he realizes he lost all his money betting on NCAA games. I especially like him saying the punishment he’ll receive for not paying a loan shark will be “castra-shown”.
— Kevin mentions gay activist groups protesting the homophobic portrayal of lesbians in the then-new movie Basic Instinct. Little does SNL know at this time that they’ll soon be dealing with some members of those gay activist groups in person, heckling the monologue when a certain Basic Instinct star hosts the very next episode.
STARS: ***½
DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg don’t like how the real world has changed alumna (host)
— (*groan*) Didn’t they just do a Delta Delta Delta sketch two episodes ago? I guess I wouldn’t complain if I actually liked this recurring sketch. After all, I had no complaints about Cajunman appearing two episodes in a row.
— I noticed something very odd: Mary has played a character named Lisa in every single sketch so far tonight (Very Pregnant Undercover Cop, Lyle The Effeminate Heterosexual, and now this). What in the world??? Is this intentional? An inside joke?
— I begrudgingly admit to getting a laugh from Melanie’s delivery of “The real world…. is sooo… scary” in that valley girl-type voice.
— For some reason, when Mary answers the phone, she quickly whips off her left earring and tries to hide it from the camera before holding the phone up to her left ear. Why did she do this?
— Interesting moment with the now-speechless Delta Delta Delta girls not joining Mary in the cheer they all did together earlier, due to being disturbed by hearing her use her “work voice” while speaking on the phone. That added a kinda-deep, slice-of-life factor to this.
— Overall, I found this slightly more entertaining than the usual Delta Delta Delta sketches, even if that’s still not saying much.
STARS: **½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on helping children develop a lucky feeling
MONSTER SPRAY
the makers of Monster Spray prey on kids’ irrational nighttime fears
— The usual great utilization of Phil’s comedic pitchman skills.
— During a close-up of Phil, the actor playing the little boy can be seen sneaking off the bedroom set behind Phil when stagehands have replaced him off-camera with a dummy.
— Another blooper during another close-up of Phil, where a crew member’s head can be seen accidentally entering the shot (screencap below).
— I love the turn this took with the demonstration of what will happen to a kid without Monster Spray, where we’re shown a monster tearing the kid’s head off and sucking the blood that spurts out from the kid’s now-headless neck. Hilariously gruesome and tasteless.
STARS: ****
WHO SHOT ME?
inner-city school teacher (KEN) tries to figure out who’s shooting him
— I loved Tim’s “Every time you get shot, you blame me!”
— This sketch has a certain silliness that’s working for me, especially with the casual treatment of Kevin’s back repeatedly getting shot by the students, which is being treated as if the students are merely throwing something at him.
— It’s hard to tell what exactly went wrong, but there’s a weird gaffe during the part where Rock’s character apologizes for reloading his gun. This would later be fixed in reruns by replacing that small portion of the sketch with the dress rehearsal version.
— When Mary’s character arrived, Kevin called her Ms. M, but after she has now left, Kevin refers to her as Ms. Ketchum. What’s up with that? At least he didn’t call her Lisa.
— Fairly weak ending with a whole bunch of gunshots being heard going off at Kevin during an exterior shot of the school. Reruns of this sketch actually alter this ending a bit: after the sound of a whole bunch of gunshots, audio is added in of Kevin asking a mildly irritated “Okay, who did that?”
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Free Your Mind”
COLOSSEUM EVENTS COMMITTEE
Colosseum events committee brainstorms ideas for gladiator contests
— Second episode in a row with a sketch taking place in Roman times, after the sketch about plotting Caesar’s death in the John Goodman episode.
— I’m loving the very absurd proposed ideas for Colosseum events (e.g. a battle of amputees fighting each other with their own amputated limbs).
— I like them unknowingly coming up with the idea of what we know today as baseball, but with a twist that the batter gets beaten as he runs around the bases, and when he gets to home base, he gets crucified.
— Solid ending.
STARS: ****
MILLION DOLLAR ZOMBIE
by TOS- (VIJ) uncovers Ed McMahon’s (PHH) dungeon
— Victoria “Oh, that’s right, she’s still in the cast” Jackson’s diminishing presence this season continues, as this pre-taped film ends up being her only appearance all night, meaning she doesn’t make any live appearances in this episode. At least her part in this film is a lead role, though.
— A great and creative use of Phil’s Ed McMahon impression.
— Fantastic part with McMahon being taken down by seeing a cross with Jay Leno’s picture (second-to-last screencap above).
— Great use of Phil-as-McMahon’s “Hey-ooooo!” catchphrase after he gets stabbed to death.
— Overall, the usual solid and creative Schiller film.
STARS: ****
MONEY FOR BOOZE
(PHH) thinks that money given to panhandler (CHF) might be spent on booze
— I’m always a sucker for sketches with an interesting, unique format, such as this one with the heavy use of thought bubbles and pre-taped voice overs to carry along the storyline.
— I only have the rerun version of this sketch available, and it appears to be a mixture of live and dress rehearsal, as halfway through this sketch, there’s suddenly some subtle changes in both Farley’s appearance and the lighting of the scene (side-by-side comparison below).
My guess as to why they inserted portions of the dress rehearsal version of this sketch in reruns is because there were probably some timing issues with the displaying of the thought bubbles during the live airing.
— Funny turn with the thought bubble of Phil drinking a giant glass of wine when he’s contemplating keeping his money for himself.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
— Future regular writer Fred Wolf receives what I believe is his very first “Additional Sketch By” credit tonight. No idea what it was that he guest wrote in this episode. Maybe it was the Monster Spray sketch, since it involved spurting blood at one point, which would go on to be one of the trademarks of typical Fred Wolf sketches.
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty good episode, if not particularly memorable. There were a few weak spots, but we got some solid stuff as usual, and good creative ideas in the post-Weekend Update half. Mary Stuart Masterson has to be one of the most underutilized hosts in this era. She only appeared in four sketches (and, as pointed out earlier, three of those four sketches had her playing a character named Lisa) and of those four sketches, only two of them were significant roles (the Very Pregnant Cop and Delta Delta Delta sketches). She was also nowhere to be seen during the last 15 minutes of the show (not counting the goodnights, of course). You’d think Phil Hartman was the host tonight with how heavily he was utilized throughout the episode, especially with how he carried a majority of the post-Weekend Update half.
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
about the same
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sharon Stone