Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
COLD OPENING
Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton greet oddballs & (Giorgio Armani)
— I love Rob’s psychotic, secretive spiel about his “notes” that he’s handing to Phil’s Clinton.
— Kevin just walking on and responding to Clinton’s greeting with “You black son of a bitch!” was priceless.
— Farley is dead-on in his imitation of trash-talking wrestlers.
— Funny segment at the end, with Clinton’s formal apology to the prime minister of Italy for the rough treatment he received by the White House guards when being mistaken for a crazy person.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
Obi-Wan Kenobi (PHH) counsels host on what to do on-stage
— Some good laughs from Phil as a Obi-Wan Kenobi giving Luke advice, and Luke constantly pointing out how ill-conceived this idea is. This is being executed well.
— I love the part with the “audience member” (writer David Mandel) suddenly yelling “You suck!” to Luke, and Obi-Wan then advising Luke to “kick his ass and take his wallet”.
— I got a big laugh from Phil pointing out how much Luke is bombing in his monologue (“I’m the only thing getting any laughs!”).
STARS: ****
CHAMELEON XLE
— Rerun from 11/14/92
THE TAMPON PRINCE
Prince Charles (DAC) abdicates to be Camilla Parker-Bowles’ (JUS) tampon
— The BBC1 station ID at the beginning is the same one used in the recurring Simon sketches.
— Good makeup and prosthetics on Dana’s Prince Charles.
— Very funny announcement from Prince Charles that he will live as a tampon in Camilla Parker Bowles’ “trousers”.
— I love how they’re actually showing the tampon transformation process.
— Mick Jagger’s delivery as the butler is priceless and has gotten a great audience reaction.
— Dana’s angry “I can’t walk away, I’m a tampooooonnnn!” outburst cracked me up.
— This ends up being Dana’s final lead role during his tenure as a cast member, as tonight is his last show. He appears in one more sketch later tonight, but it’s just a supporting role.
STARS: ***½
YARD BOY
dumb yard boy (host) doesn’t catch older woman’s (JUS) sexual overtures
— Odd how Luke is just now making his first sketch appearance of the night. I guess they couldn’t find a role for him in the preceding lead-off sketch.
— Very good characterization and delivery from Julia here.
— Despite Julia’s solid performance, this sketch hasn’t been going anywhere too interesting and feels kinda quiet for a sketch placed this early in the show.
— The ending with Phil made me laugh.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Thing”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Operaman sings about gays in the military & other current events
Mick Jagger (MIM) & Keith Richards (musical guest) debate censorship
— A much lighter-colored suit than usual for Kevin tonight.
— The usual funny news items from Operaman, especially the one about Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the one making fun of the “horror” of Al Gore’s dancing.
— This is the first Operaman commentary to end with roses being thrown at him from off-camera, which would go on to be a tradition for his commentaries.
— In retrospect, it sure is something nowadays to see an old Update joke making fun of cellphone users, where the punchline is that most people don’t care if people who use cellphones die.
— A very memorable Point/Counterpoint commentary right now, with Mike doing a dead-on and funny Mick Jagger impression while Mick does a dead-on and funny Keith Richards.
— I recall once hearing that this is the very first time in SNL history that a musical guest ever appeared on Weekend Update. [ADDENDUM: Not including musical guests who are also hosting that night.] If that’s true, then it’s surprising that it took SNL 18 years for that to happen, considering how many occurrences we’ve had since then of musical guests showing up on Update. Hmm, come to think of it, have there been many occurrences of that? It feels to me like there is, but now that I’m thinking about it, barely any examples are coming to mind. There IS Paul McCartney in the very next Update, though (plus the Update from the 2010 episode he’s a musical guest in).
— The “Mick, you ignorant slut” line was a great callback to SNL’s Point/Counterpoints from the original era.
STARS: ***½
MAGIC FISH TOWN MEETING
dwindling population of wish-granting magic fish is topic of town meeting
— Here comes a sketch that I’ve always loved. The oddball, creative humor is right up my alley, and this is a great ensemble piece for the cast. I’m curious who wrote this sketch. Jack Handey?
— I love the brief cutaway to a silent, big brain-having Al Franken. Actually, is that Al Franken? (the fourth above screencap for this sketch) I’ve always assumed it was him, as it looks like him to me, but it’s hard to tell with that makeup, and SNL Archives doesn’t list him in this sketch. The fact that Tom Davis is seated next to him kinda supports my theory that it’s Franken.
— The randomness of Mike pulling on his ear with one hand while spanking his behind with his other hand as he’s casually speaking cracks me up.
— Hilarious part with a regretful, long erection-having Adam asking if there’s a magic fish that can undo a wish.
— Phil’s head exploding out of nowhere during his poignant speech is a freakin’ riot.
— After the aforementioned head explosion, the shot of Julia standing up and asking “Who did that?!?” would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version (and rather sloppily, might I add). The reason for this dress rehearsal substitution is because in the live version of that shot of Julia, you can see a glimpse of somebody trying to hide from the camera in the window behind her, while holding an unidentifiable object (screencap below).
STARS: ****½
SNL HALFTIME SPECTACULAR
Michael Jackson (CSR) lip-syncs during the SNL Halftime Spectacular
— Quite a laugh from hearing Don Pardo imitate the Wayne’s World catchphrase “Not!” while announcing the (fake) sponsor Wayne’s World Potato Chips (a product that I’m almost surprised didn’t become a real thing, considering Wayne’s World’s huge popularity at the time).
— Wow, this is a VERY out-of-the-ordinary, unique piece for SNL. I absolutely LOVE how they’re going all out on this extensive, ambitious piece, exploring the entire studio. Very fun.
— Great touch with the Richmeister and Pat mascots.
— A lot of laughs from the blatantly lip-synced Michael Jackson song medley, with Rock’s MJ having a hard time keeping up with the rapid song changes.
— Now this is getting even more extensive and fun with the audience participation, involving audience members revealing a flipcard message.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Tear Me Up”
HIGH SCHOOL LIARS CLUB
contestants bluff to impress fellow students
— Right out of the gate, there are a lot of sloppy minor issues with this sketch: 1) The gameshow board is oddly already showing all the questions that are going to be chosen later in the sketch, instead of revealing those questions one-by-one as they’re each chosen. 2) One of the numbers covering a question on the board is sloppily hanging off, as if it were literally just pasted on in a hurry right before airtime. And 3) the usually-flawless Phil Hartman actually makes a big gaffe at one point while he’s reading the categories off the board.
— Not caring much for how this sketch has been going so far. Most of the contestants’ lies aren’t doing much for me. I do like Adam’s lies, especially how most of them randomly involve Canada, and when he resorts to stealing David’s police-station-burned-down excuse at one point.
— Another blooper: when the camera is supposed to zoom into the question on the board that states “How did you get to party with Van Halen?”, we instead see a number covering the question. I’ve never seen the rerun version of this sketch, but I’m betting it’s replaced with the dress rehearsal version to hide all of the sloppiness in this live version.
— The back-and-forths between David and Rob are funny.
— Does Farley have a sore throat? Something about his voice here sounds kinda hoarse to me.
STARS: **
SASSY’S SASSIEST BOYS
Russell Clark (PHH) with impudent heartthrobs
— Interestingly, this sketch is starring the exact same four lead performers from the High School Liars Club sketch that preceded this (Phil, Luke, David, and Adam), and they’re even playing the same type of role they each played in that sketch: Phil as the show’s host, and Luke, David, and Adam as the three young guests.
— Phil’s many “Sassy!” variations into the camera are consistently funny. This is a premise that could’ve gotten old FAST, but Phil’s performance is so funny.
— Good Christian Slater voice from David.
— Adam is hilarious as young, Marky Mark-era Mark Wahlberg.
STARS: ***½
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the need for plane crash-site security
QUEEN SHENEQUA’S DARK MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY
Super Bowl XXVII folly
— An awkward brief pause after Ellen introduces herself as Queen Shenequa, as if she were expecting a big response.
— Well… this sketch sure came and went. This ended up being a really weak piece and it fell flat. Another failed attempt at giving Queen Shenequa her own sketch.
— This was actually originally going to be the first of a three-part sketch tonight, but the second and third parts got cut after dress rehearsal. In the second part, the “dark moment in black history” that Queen Shenequa focused on was her friend taking back a cheating boyfriend who gave her a stolen diamond ring. In the third part, the “dark moment” focused on John Amos leaving the sitcom Good Times.
STARS: *½
SAYING GOODBYE
country boy (host) tells folks (MEH) & (PHH) goodbye before leaving home
— The audience is howling at Melanie throughout this sketch.
— I absolutely love Phil’s voice in this so far.
— Damn, Phil is giving one hell of a performance.
— Speaking of Phil, he’s been having a VERY big night in general. He’s appeared in literally almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH in tonight’s episode, with most of his appearances being lead roles, in which he anchored the sketches like the consummate pro he is. And even in some of his smaller roles, he made a positive impact (e.g. the Yard Boy sketch). This episode is a great microcosm of Phil’s utmost importance as “The Glue” of SNL.
— Overall, wow, this was a wonderful slice-of-life, dramatic, emotional piece, in an era where sketches like this had pretty much become extinct. Phil was PHENOMENAL here, and Luke and Melanie were both very solid in their own right.
STARS: ****½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, though I’ve always felt it comes off really average compared to the strong episodes that it’s surrounded by around this point of the season. Watching and reviewing the episode just now, my opinion of it is a bit higher than it used to be, even if it’s still not a particularly great or memorable episode. I appreciate how the second half of the episode contained a few interesting, creative, out-of-the-ordinary pieces (Magic Fish Town Meeting, SNL Halftime Spectacular, and Saying Goodbye), all of which I found to be strong.
— Farewell to Dana Carvey. Right out of the gate early in his SNL tenure, he had possibly the strongest first episode an SNL cast member has ever had, and played a pivotal role in helping SNL do an instant huge turnaround after the troubled season 11. He would go on to have a fantastic run and would become an SNL legend, as well as being in my personal list of top 3 favorite cast members of all time. Even though SNL prepared us for his departure by phasing him out to an extreme degree during his last few months on the show, I’m still going to miss being able to review him regularly.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Harvey Keitel)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin / Paul McCartney