Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
The Tonight Show- late walk-ons ruin Johnny Carson’s (DAC) last show
— Phil as a drunk Ed McMahon is hilarious.
— I absolutely love the taped farewell messages from other talk show hosts, with Kevin as Jay Leno rambling about how Carson’s retirement is great for him (Kevin’s voice constantly changing pitches throughout that speech kills me), Rock-as-Arsenio-Hall’s deep, intense philosophizing as the camera slowly zooms into his mouth, and Dana reprising his impression of his former castmate Dennis Miller, ranting about how badly his talk show is doing.
— Adam’s David Brenner impression is cracking me up.
— I like the insane turn this has taken during Carson’s final minute on the air, with a tiger cub going wild and peeing all over the place while attacking David Brenner, before being wrestled by drunk McMahon.
— According to GettyImages, Victoria (who’s final night on the show is tonight) was cut after the dress rehearsal version of this sketch, playing herself performing a ukulele song (pic here). Farley was also cut playing who appears to be Marlon Brando (judging by what it says on whatever that thing is he’s holding in his left hand in this pic) (another pic here).
STARS: ****½
OPENING MONTAGE
— The only second-category featured players (i.e. the featured players who only receive a still photo in the opening montage and are only credited occasionally) who are credited tonight are Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell, but reruns of this episode would add in Robert Smigel, presumably because he appears in a Super Fans bit later tonight.
— A very minor note, but it’s something I’ve always found strange: around the middle of this episode’s theme music, G.E. Smith’s plentiful guitar-playing suddenly stops for a long time before eventually continuing towards the end. I wonder what happened there.
MONOLOGUE
after denying ego problems, host plays guitar & sings a song about SNL
— A rare occurrence of G.E. Smith being heard speaking on camera, when handing a guitar to Woody.
— Some good laughs from Woody’s constant stopping before singing, to assure us of how his fame doesn’t affect him.
— His SNL tribute song is funny with its lyrics that’s repeating everything he just said about SNL before launching into the song.
STARS: ***½
ACTION CATS
— Rerun from the Mary Stuart Masterson episode.
TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF
(host) encourages grotesque-bodied beachgoers to take off their shirts
— I like how the body reveals are starting off conventional with Woody’s body, then gets just slightly odd with Farley being Farley, and then is getting flat-out grotesque starting with Kevin’s insanely hairy body.
— Adam’s phallic outie belly button is an absolute riot, as is Tim’s snarky one-liner as a passerby: “Can I put a bun and mustard on that thing? I’m gettin’ kinda hungry.”
— Woody’s encouragement to each guy after they take their shirt off is making me laugh, like him asking hairy Kevin “Did Burt Reynolds just ask me a question?” (though that line was kinda drowned out by audience laughter).
— Farley’s spastic gesturing while playing catch football with Kevin causes Woody to break.
— Considering Dana’s real-life infamous botched heart surgery from the late 90s, his character in this sketch having had heart surgery is eerily prophetic. That being said, I love the particularly disgusting visual of his transplanted baboon heart being outside of his chest.
— Another great snarky one-liner from a passerby, this time with Siobhan asking a feminine breasts-having Mike “Didn’t I see you on the cover of Juggs Magazine?”
STARS: ****½
SPROCKETS
(host)’s EuroTrash theme park is a rebuttal to EuroDisney
— They did a Sprockets sketch last time Woody hosted SNL, but his character in tonight’s Sprockets is different from the one he played last time. For some reason, I kinda love the name of the character he’s playing tonight: Graus Grek (which was used in an earlier Sprockets sketch as a name that Dieter mentioned in passing).
— I like Woody’s bizarre wig.
— The pictures that Woody’s displaying of his EuroDisney alternative, EuroTrash, have some funny pictures, especially the Diseased Bear Jamboree.
— I love the part with Dieter going on about what a Fred Flintstone fanatic he is.
— This ends up being the final Sprockets sketch in its normal (if it can be called that) format during Mike’s tenure as a cast member. All future Dieter appearances during Mike’s cast tenure are outside of the typical Sprockets format.
STARS: ***½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on having “impressions” during a math test
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Save The Best For Last”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Super Fans offer tips to Knicks fans on what to do after the Bulls win
Operaman sings about Ross Perot, L.A. riots, Mark Messier, Johnny Carson
— Very interesting seeing the Super Fans appear on Update for a change. However, it appears George Wendt was too busy this week to cameo (which is funny since his Cheers co-star is hosting tonight). Feels odd seeing the Super Fans without a “lead character” like Wendt or Joe Mantegna.
— I loved Smigel’s disparaging comment on what a Knick is: “It’s what a New York man gets when he shaves his leg before going into a Greenwich Village bar.”
— Operaman officially becomes recurring, only two episodes after making his debut.
— Fantastic biting satire with Operaman singing about President Bush sleeping during the L.A. Riots.
— Another great part during the Operaman commentary, with him lamenting “El chin-o” (Jay Leno) replacing an about-to-retire Johnny Carson. I like that SNL’s not afraid to take shots at Leno tonight after he had just cameod on the show a week earlier.
STARS: ***
DELTA DELTA DELTA
Pam, Di, Meg don’t want to give their notes to Sigma Chi frat brothers
— Here comes what ends up being the final installment of this sketch (though Melanie’s character would end up making a “cameo” in the very first Gap Girls sketch next season).
— Boy, am I glad I’ll never have to hear that annoying-as-hell catchphrase “Delta Delta Delta, can I help ya help ya help ya?” anymore after this episode.
— David’s constant sotto-voced attempts to persuade Beth are kinda funny.
— I found this overall installment to be really meh and mostly unnoteworthy. A step down from the surprisingly semi-tolerable preceding installment from the Mary Stuart Masterson episode.
STARS: **
COWBOY SONG
lonesome cowboys sing about how they’re proud they’re not minorities
— Another recurring sketch making its final appearance tonight. This sketch debuted the last time Woody hosted.
— I’m getting a lot of “That is SO wrong” laughs from the cowboys’ bigoted lyrics about minorities and “girl-boys with big ol’ girl vaginas”.
STARS: ****
BACKSTAGE
Zoraida confuses host’s Cheers & White Men Can’t Jump roles with reality
— (*groan*) This character again…
— Ugh, this routine with her confusing hosts’ fictional characters with real life is BEYOND tired by this point.
— An overall particularly tepid, by-the-numbers Zoraida installment. No redeeming factors at all here.
— While I was never all that crazy about this character’s routine to begin with in her debut in the season premiere, it’s amazing how quickly they milked it dry over the course of just one season.
STARS: *
FRANK GANNON, P.I. P.I.
politically incorrect P.I. looks into abortion clinic vandalism
— Good to see this character officially become recurring, though we end up never seeing him again after this episode.
— Frank Gannon assuming the “Baby Killers” graffiti was the abortion clinic’s real sign was hilarious.
— Lots of funny offensive, bigoted (I seem to be using that word quite a lot tonight) assumptions from Gannon throughout this, especially his theory that young black men from the L.A. Riots looted the abortion clinic and stole the files so they can know the names and addresses of all the loose women in the neighborhood.
— I like the addition of Woody as Gannon’s rookie assistant, Rudy.
— The close-up of Gannon’s dopey, cocky grin into the camera as Ellen is getting arrested is great (second-to-last screencap above).
— It’s Victoria’s final episode as a cast member, and she’s JUST NOW making her first appearance, in the last 20 minutes of the episode.
— I love Victoria’s tearful “You’re an idiot!” to Gannon at the end.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “The Comfort Zone”
THE SENSITIVE NAKED MAN
The Sensitive Naked Man attends a baseball game with his son
— Much like Frank Gannon, this character makes his second and last-ever appearance. Seems to be a lot of characters unknowingly taking their final bow tonight (Delta Delta Delta, Singing Cowboys, Frank Gannon, Sensitive Naked Man, Sprockets sorta… too bad Zoraida’s not one of them).
— I got a laugh from Rob thinking he’s ridiculed by his son’s friends just because he’s a social worker.
— An overall surprisingly forgettable installment of this sketch. The ending especially came off weak, and the sorta-reveal of Rob’s bare behind fell flat. This overall installment doesn’t hold a candle to the far-superior installment from earlier this season.
STARS: **½
BAD EXPECTANT MOTHER
(VIJ) unwittingly sets examples of what expectant mothers shouldn’t do
— Much like Jan Hooks in the preceding season’s finale, I’m glad they gave Victoria the 10-to-1 spot in this season finale even if I’m not 100% sure if they knew at the time that she’s leaving (though the fact that she gets to stand at the front of the stage during the following goodnights suggests they possibly were indeed aware).
— I liked Woody’s line about it being safe for Victoria to drink Irish coffee because “the alcohol and caffeine will probably just cancel each other out”.
— A lot of big laughs from Victoria doing a succession of actions that pregnant women should never do, such as sniffing glue, putting her belly in the microwave when trying to fix it, etc.
— A great cutaway to a pre-taped Jon Lovitz revealing that the sketch was based on his mother when she was pregnant with him, and then plugging his upcoming FOX special.
— An overall strong note for Victoria to go out on. One of her best sketches ever.
— In reruns, SNL moves this sketch up to a much earlier timeslot in the first half of the show. I can kinda see why, but I like this better in the 10-to-1 slot, as this is Victoria’s last show, and it’s also a solid way to close the season. (Reruns place the underwhelming Sensitive Naked Man sketch in the 10-to-1 slot, which is a pretty poor way to close the season)
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid season finale, even if it doesn’t measure up to the two fantastic episodes that preceded it. Despite tonight’s episode being weighed down by a few recurring characters I dislike (Delta Delta Delta and Zoraida), there was still plenty of good material in the show. We also got a surprisingly large amount of delightfully offensive, un-PC material in the post-Update half, such as Cowboy Song, Frank Gannon P.I. P.I., and Bad Expectant Mother.
— Tonight ended up being the final episode for veteran Victoria Jackson and first-year newbies Siobhan Fallon and Beth Cahill. Victoria’s tenure ended with a very forgettable final year for her, as she was gradually phased out (hell, as mentioned earlier in this review, she didn’t even appear in her final episode until the last 20 minutes) and did very little of note in the second half of the season. Overall, though, I feel Victoria’s SNL tenure as a whole was pretty good. While she was very limited in her range and does not measure up to the fantastic work of most of her original late 80s castmates, I appreciate what she brought to the show, especially on Weekend Update during the Dennis Miller era. And she had a likability about her that made her lack of range more forgivable. Siobhan Fallon and Beth Cahill are both interesting cases, given their short time on the show. I feel Siobhan showed a lot of potential in her somewhat-limited airtime and also had a professionalism that I liked. However, she did sometimes have a tendency to kinda overact in her delivery during some walk-on roles. I feel that overall, she definitely deserved a second season, but supposedly, the reason she was dropped was because her strong religious beliefs caused her to turn down the more “un-clean” roles she was offered on the show (I was told that the “Their Eyes Were On Their Breasts” sketch was one of them), which apparently was frustrating for the writers. Beth Cahill is difficult to assess, given her extreme lack of airtime and generic roles she was usually stuck in. I did find her Denise Swerski character to be decent, but other than that, I’ve always felt Beth usually had kind of a blandness to her as a performer. But again, it’s hard to tell, considering how little she was used and how non-descript her roles typically were. She deserved a second season just to see if she would’ve gotten more of a chance and developed, but that probably wouldn’t have happened much in season 18, with a still-gigantic cast and a slowly-increasing Boys Club mentality. I could go on about how unfair it is that the very limited and occasionally very annoying Melanie Hutsell got to stay over either Siobhan or Beth, and I do feel that way, but I’ve been a little more lenient on Melanie in this SNL project than I’ve been in the past (anyone who remembers the standalone 1990-1994 reviews I did on SNL message boards back in 2010 would know that). During this SNL project, I’ve found myself having more recognition of and appreciation for Melanie’s non-annoying moments. I’m not sure how much longer that’ll last, considering I recall her performances being consistently bad two seasons later during her final year (season 19).
— Season 17 as a whole was yet another in a long line of strong seasons. As much as I absolutely love the preceding season 16, I think I enjoyed season 17 slightly more as a whole. I felt this season had even bigger highs than season 16, and had impressive stretches of solid consecutive episodes at various points of the season. And the historically gigantic cast strangely helped give this season a fun feel to me, especially the times the show would go out of their way to work all or most of the cast into sketches (e.g. Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight, Partridge Family vs. Brady Bunch, History Class).
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Tom Hanks)
a mild step down
HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1990-91)
a very slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Season 18 begins, with Nicolas Cage as host, and a slightly smaller cast
In retrospect, I can see why Hutsell got more seasons–as annoying as she could be, she did stand out this season more than Fallon and Cahill (Jan Brady is arguably funnier than anything those two did this season). Both Fallon and Cahill would have done better in other eras that were more advantageous for female cast members (which, at this point, was, er, almost never).
It’s interesting that both Victoria Jackson and Fallon left at the same time when both were apparently extremely religious and right before an era when the show gets even more off-color. On the other hand, Victoria almost never had any issues playing kind of off-color roles during her tenure. I thought she had a crucial role in the late 80s cast as the seemingly naive, kooky member of the female cast, but that dynamic fell off as her other cast members left.
I think Delta Delta Delta might have been better if they went for a more slice of life feel as college students rather than trying to create catch phrase spouting characters. Then again, this was the wrong era for that.
Does anyone know, what saved Spade from the chopping block? The receptionist sketches are great and he’ll come into his own next season (Hollywood Minute, Gap Girls), but it wouldn’t have been unexpected if he got cut after this episode.
Wasn’t Spade also a writer? Was he writing stuff that he just didn’t appear in?
90-91 is probably a stronger season overall, but I also prefer 91-92. I think the host selection is better for a longer period of time (the second half of the season in particular has a great mixture of old favorites and surprisingly strong first-timers), and there are a number of sketches that “pop” – they stay in your head for decades. The handling of recurring characters and of high-concept pieces are also on a strong level this season – they try a lot of things and so many of them just work. This season is juggling all the balls in the air and somehow managing to catch most of them.
I think the focus on newer cast members also helped. There’s a certain underlying sadness in 90-91 as Jan is phased out, Dennis is clearly sick of being there, and Jon returns over and over to essentially remind people (along with Nora, who is not there, but whose departure still hovers over the season) that the old gang never got the goodbye they should have gotten.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Melanie Hutsell, as this was one of the eras I watched live. I can see now that she didn’t have much of a range, and I probably wouldn’t have kept her over Beth Cahill, but I can see why they did. She had a popular recurring character and she was one of the cast members responsible for some big, loud laughs in the audience. She was also willing to throw herself into sketches.
Beth Cahill would have been at home in the Doumanian era, or Ebersol (maybe more than poor Robin Duke ever was). She was a strange fit for Lorne Michaels-produced SNL I’m still glad that we got her for a season, as she was a subtle and incredibly likeable presence.
When I was a kid, Siobhan stood out for me – her mugging and goofy moments were fun, and something I wasn’t used to seeing from female cast members at the time. She also happened to have big roles in sketches I got a kick out of (like Delta Delta Delta and the Showtime at the Apollo sketch). I remember being disappointed she wasn’t on the next season as she really fit the show for me. All these years later, I get it, especially due to the religious aspect, but I still enjoy her work…and hearing Don Pardo say “SIOBHAN FALLON!” as she stops and grins at the camera still puts a smile on my face.
One nice thing about Beth/Melanie/Siobhan is they didn’t seem to have any of the rivalries of some past female casts. Melanie said in a piece a few years later that she was incredibly upset to know they had been fired. I’m glad that your blog has helped to introduce their work to new viewers as the ladies of the early ’90s are just so ignored/forgotten. And I’m also glad that all of them made it out before things got really ugly for women in 94-95.
Back at this time, Victoria was one of my favorite cast members. I had no idea of any of her issues. Learning about those, and seeing them in such an ugly fashion in recent years, is one of the sadder experiences for me as a fan of the show. It’s difficult to separate that Victoria from the woman we saw onscreen, but I try. Onscreen, she was funny, sweet but never saccharine, and she was so full of verve. There’s never been a woman like her on the show – before or since. She was the perfect complement to Jan and Nora, and to the general tone of the late ’80s, which could have easily become just a little too esoteric without the daffier touch she brought. The show just wouldn’t have had the incredible comeback it did without her. That cast was perfect, top to bottom. And that includes Victoria, whatever happened behind the scenes we only know about through anecdotes, or whatever sad, pathetic and nasty things have happened since.
I agree with many of your points. I think the 1991-1992 season is helped by the fact that the show seems to get more and more comfortable as the season goes on with a younger, larger cast. There’s a real sense of trying new things and going for a different style of comedy than in years past. As you pointed out, some of the more offbeat or surprising hosts this season also do very well for themselves–Michael Jordan and Jason Priestley, in particular, but there’s not really a clunker in the bunch (even Chevy Chase is okay!). I don’t fully remember, but I feel like next season’s hosts are solid too. It’s not until 1993-1994 where things start to get dicey in that regard.
Good call that Cahill has an Ebersol era vibe to her. From what I’ve read she got along with the Farley/Sandler/Spade crew which honestly would have helped her as they gained more power the next few seasons. Wasn’t there a rumor she dated Farley this season? Pretty sure that was incorrect as I think Farley was dating Lorne’s assistant, believe her name was .Erin. Anyone always kinda liked her and I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority that I didn’t mind Hutsell. She seemed to have decent chemistry with the bad boy cast
I also adore Victoria, now more than ever, as a great talent and a very lovely lady. I think there was some question about whether she was truly dumb or if it was just an act and I think this is precisely the reason she was so interesting. She was a comedic performing artist in the Andy Kaufman mold and she deserves greater credit for this. I’ve always liked her on the show, but now I realize I pretty much enjoy every moment she’s on the screen.
Btw, David Letterman curator Don Giller compiled Victoria’s appearances on his show and they’re great of course.
The Letterman compilation video is no longer available sadly. Does anyone have an alternative source? I’m curious to see more interviews with Victoria. She’s very hard to figure out as a person, the story of her life is very interesting.
I remember disliking Melanie more when I was a kid but started to appreciate her more when I watched these seasons in more recent years. A lot of her characters were of the “supposed to be annoying” variety, which can sometimes be a tricky thing to sell without coming off as annoying yourself. She kinda reminded me of a not quite as good versatile of Kelly Coffield who was on In Living Color at about the same time.
Oh I loved Kelly Coffield. She was one of my favorites back then and her leaving ILC is one of the reasons I barely bothered with the last season (Kim Wayans leaving was the other). I do think that Melanie’s delivery is more reminiscent of ILC ladies – not only Kelly, but also Alexandra Wentworth.
I guess I’m in the minority here, but the preceding season (90-91) is where I think the second golden era ends. This year, the cast is too big. Nealon is weak on Update. And whether it’s talent or material or both, the 91-92 season begins a terrible era for women on the show that isn’t corrected until the days of Oteri and Shannon (and later, Gasteyer). The sketches are very hit and miss for me this season and the only show that works for me top to bottom is the Jason Priestley episode. Happy that other people like it, but in hindsight, the warning signs of season 20’s awfulness are first spotted in this season.
No, even though I like this season, you have a lot of good points. I also think that the giant cast begins some very unfortunate tendencies that still persist today–during the “second golden era,” there wasn’t really featured players aside from specialty performers like A. Whitney Brown. As more new cast members come in, the more they want hits immediately and the best way to do that is be loud, broad, and throw in recurring characters. This leads to some funny stuff and some dreck.
The warning signs are definitely there (probably most prominent in the Sharon Stone episode), but I tend to think of this season as a calm before the storm as certain key elements aren’t in place. There are still a decent amount of women in the cast; Matt Foley hadn’t appeared yet; Myers hasn’t fully lapsed into mugging; the oppressive Farley/Sandler and Farley/Sandler/Spade dynamics hadn’t really been heavily featured yet; Spade’s scene-killing sneering and bitterness were also not on display. I definitely see why you’d prefer 90-91 though. I just think 91-92 is easier to watch overall, as 90-91 has a certain sadness through it for me.
All this negativity toward this era is interesting to me. This season has the largest female cast the show would have for over 20 years. It didn’t really know what to do with them, but I wouldn’t say this season is hostile towards them. The cast was way overstuffed and they went with the hitmakers to stick around, which left Fallon and Cahill on the outside. And honestly, the 92-93 season is probably the best of the era. They have some absolute monster episodes that season and I’m excited for Stooge’s coverage. It was a male-dominated era which is too bad, but to be fair, the male cast WAS stacked. People may be trying to call all the telltale signs of the 94-95 season, but I think the departures of Smigel and Hartman are the key straws that broke the camel’s back.
I like the discussion on Victoria. This will sound mean, but she’s the best “weak link” in the show’s history. Neither an energy drag nor a rally killer, Victoria was instead just a very specific type in a world of dynamic performers. But she was a strong performer nonetheless and the show utilized her effectively. Up until this last season, that is, where she kind of disappeared, but as this episode attests, even here she had some very strong moments.
They do a Sprockets when Mike hosts in 1997, that’s in the normal talk show setting.
I know, Dkrom. As I said in the review, I was only talking about the ones during Mike’s tenure as a cast member.
It seems this episodes’ installment of “The Sensitive Naked Man” may actually be the go-to when yalling about this sketch. I remember seeing this one featured on The 101 Most Unforgettable SNL Moments on E! back in 2004 and “Weird Al” Yankovic said he did not remember this sketch as he’s had that part of his brain surgically removed.
I loved the cold open EXCEPT for one thing: the panicky imitation of Dennis seemed awfully mean coming from a friend (Dana). I don’t imagine it impacted their relationship, but as a viewer I thought it just made Dennis look really pathetic — and for no reason. He left on good terms and was putting on a good show. His real troubles wouldn’t start until Leno’s producer started puling shenanigans, right? Dana’s previous, smooth-but-snarky imitations on WU were far better (and more accurate).
Oh, it gets worse, though – “Cooking with Dennis Miller” is not far away…
Yeah. I agree. Dana’s impression here of Dennis Miller is a little too mean-spirited for me to find funny.
Farewell to Victoria Jackson. Victoria is a difficult one for me to assess. On the one hand, she was a unique performer that shined in very specific and limited roles. On the other hand, because she was so limited, she was easily the “weak link” in many of the sketches she appeared in. But ultimately, I liked her.
She was a little too one-note, but certainly served an important role in SNL’s late 80s renaissance that she should be recognized for. But it’s not surprising at all that she has never returned to the show. Although, I did love her appearance in the 25th anniversary (I’m wondering…whatever happened to me?)
Also farewell to Siobahn Fallon and Beth Cahill. They never really got a chance to make an impact on the show. Siobahn tended to mug and ham it up a bit (similar to her guest appearances in Seinfeld as Elaine’s roomate), I don’t care for her too much and was not sad to see her go honestly. I would have liked to have seen Beth stick around for another season or so, but what little she did this season was not too incredibly impressive. So it makes sense that Melanie stuck around (who hit a chord with the audience thanks to her Jan Brady) instead of Beth. Melanie, of course her mugging and hamminess was worse than Siobahn, so she’s not my cup of tea. But I’ll admit she would make me laugh from time to time. She was usually too over the top for me.
Here we go folks, the five star sketches of the 91-92 season:
Scmitts Gay (Michael Jordan)
Bill Swerski’s Super Fans (Michael Jordan)
Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley (Michael Jordan)
Cold Opening (Kirstie Alley)
Monologue (Kirstie Alley)
Il Cantore (Kirstie Alley)
Dysfunctional Family Feud (Christian Slater)
Campaign ‘92 (Kiefer Sutherland)
Kiddie Metal (Kiefer Sutherland)
Leevi’s 3 Legged Jeans (Linda Hamilton)
Massive Headwound Harry (Linda Hamilton)
Hidden Camera Commercials (Linda Hamilton)
Monologue (Macauley Culkin)
The Love Toilet (Macauley Culkin)
Cold Opening (Steve Martin)
Partridge Family vs Brady Bunch (Susan Dey)
Dick Clark Productions (Roseanne and Tom Arnold)
Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (John Goodman)
Monologue (Jerry Seinfeld)
Stand Up And Win (Jerry Seinfeld)
History Class (Jerry Seinfeld)
Permanent Positions (Jerry Seinfeld)
The Lenny Wise Show (Jerry Seinfeld)
Sabra Price is Right (Tom Hanks)
Mr. Belvedere Fan Club (Tom Hanks)
25 sketches! Blowing past the previous season’s with ease. Is THIS the best season up until now? I know I have it up there, though 25 seems like a lot. All I’m saying is that Stooge REALLY likes that Jerry Seinfeld episode. Not saying what I wouldn’t give five stars to, but I’d find a way to get the First Black Harlem Globetrotter and Bob Swerski’s Quiz Masters on here.
As a companion piece to Carson’s list, here’s an Honorable Mentions list compiled of all the sketches I rated four-and-a-half stars this season:
Monologue (Michael Jordan)
The First Black Harlem Globetrotter (Michael Jordan)
The Tonight Show (Jeff Daniels)
The Chris Farley Show (Jeff Daniels)
Apex Novelty (Jeff Daniels)
The Chris Farley Show (Linda Hamilton)
Hosting Alone cold opening (Macaulay Culkin)
Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer (Macaulay Culkin)
Lenin’s Body (Rob Morrow)
Harrassment Trial (Susan Dey)
Art Museum (Susan Dey)
The Arsenio Hall Show (Jason Priestley)
Star Trek Convention (John Goodman)
Unforgivable (John Goodman)
Wayne’s World (Sharon Stone)
Passover Seder (Jerry Seinfeld)
She Turned Into Her Mother!! (Tom Hanks)
The Tonight Show (Woody Harrelson)
Take Your Shirt Off (Woody Harrelson)
Here are the average ratings for Season 17:
*may not represent review’s perception*
1701: 7.7 (Michael Jordan)
1702: 6.6 (Jeff Daniels)
1703: 7.7 (Kirstie Alley)
1704: 7.0 (Christian Slater)
1705: 7.7 (Kiefer Sutherland)
1706: 7.6 (Linda Hamilton)
1707: 6.4 (Macaulay Culkin)
1708: 6.6 (Hammer)
1709: 5.8 (Steve Martin)
1710: 6.9 (Rob Morrow)
1711: 6.1 (Chevy Chase)
1712: 7.5 (Susan Dey)
1713: 7.3 (Jason Priestley)
1714: 6.4 (Roseanne and Tom Arnold)
1715: 6.9 (John Goodman)
1716: 6.8 (Mary Stuart Masterson)
1717: 5.9 (Sharon Stone)
1718: 8.9 (Jerry Seinfeld)
1719: 7.9 (Tom Hanks)
1720: 6.6 (Woody Harrelson)
Best Episode: 1718 (Jerry Seinfeld)- 8.9
Worst Episode: 1709 (Steve Martin)- 5.8
Season Average: 7.0
Wow. 8.9 has got to be the highest rating for an episode so far!
I think it is, beating the 8.8 for Tom Hanks/Keith Richards
I’m curious what Vax Novier’s list of average ratings would look like if it was ranked from best episode to worst, so I’ll do it below:
1718: 8.9 (Jerry Seinfeld)
1719: 7.9 (Tom Hanks)
1701: 7.7 (Michael Jordan)
1703: 7.7 (Kirstie Alley)
1705: 7.7 (Kiefer Sutherland)
1706: 7.6 (Linda Hamilton)
1712: 7.5 (Susan Dey)
1713: 7.3 (Jason Priestley)
1704: 7.0 (Christian Slater)
1710: 6.9 (Rob Morrow)
1715: 6.9 (John Goodman)
1716: 6.8 (Mary Stuart Masterson)
1702: 6.6 (Jeff Daniels)
1708: 6.6 (Hammer)
1720: 6.6 (Woody Harrelson)
1707: 6.4 (Macaulay Culkin)
1714: 6.4 (Roseanne and Tom Arnold)
1711: 6.1 (Chevy Chase)
1717: 5.9 (Sharon Stone)
1709: 5.8 (Steve Martin)
For fun, here are this season’s episodes ranked from best to worst based on the “Immediate Post-Show Thoughts” that I wrote in my reviews:
Jerry Seinfeld
Michael Jordan
Kirstie Alley
Linda Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Susan Dey
Jason Priestley
Kiefer Sutherland
Rob Morrow
Christian Slater
Woody Harrelson
Hammer
John Goodman
Mary Stuart Masterson
Chevy Chase
Jeff Daniels
Sharon Stone
Roseanne and Tom Arnold
Macaulay Culkin
Steve Martin
Victoria Jackson doing some very hacky stand-up a couple years ago. Her attempt at doing an Asian accent is cringeworthy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pSx-xh479Cs
This was not a good period for women. I’d say Ellen Cleghorne grew as a sketch performer as the years went by. Other than Pat, Julia Sweeney did nothing of note but play bland wife/secretary or news anchor roles. Melanie Hutsell probably makes me laugh the most. I’m one of those people that can get past the weird faces and cue-card reading and admire her zany performances.