Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
INAUGURAL SPEECH
Rudolph Giuliani’s (KEN) son Andrew (CHF) upsets NYC mayoral inauguration
— A funny contrast when the footage of the real Giuliani and his son crossfades to a shot of them being played by Kevin and Chris.
— Chris’ various actions are a funny spoof of how Giuliani’s son acted at the real inauguration.
— There’s practically no material in this cold opening, but Chris is impressively milking every possible laugh out of such a thin piece and and is actually making it very memorable.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host is less than thrilled to be on SNL; LOM asks him not to be a downer
— A notorious monologue. I’m a bit conflicted, as I really want to like Jason Patric’s dryness here, and he (or should I say, whoever wrote this monologue) isn’t wrong about some of his criticisms of the then-current state of the show, but geez, the man is not coming off well at all here, and it feels wrong for an SNL episode in an increasingly less-than-stellar season to start in such a dour manner. A funnier host more skilled at deadpan, snarky humor would at least sell the anti-SNL attitude thing much better and give it an amusing feel instead of a sour feel.
— Jason riffs on the fact that going backstage to talk to Lorne is an overused, cliched monologue trope, and he adds “Let’s run this device into the ground together” (which is a funny line that, again, would’ve killed had it been delivered by someone more adept at snarky humor). Hmm, I think he’s picking on the wrong monologue trope. Considering the trend of the monologues this season, he should consider himself damn lucky they aren’t having him take questions from the audience.
— I kinda smiled at him explaining to us that, unlike hosts who like to run back to the home base stage after a backstage scene, he’s just going to take his time. Again, I’m conflicted on this monologue. Part of me strangely kinda loves this idea of a host using their monologue to deconstruct SNL’s bad cliches, but the wrong host is delivering it.
— Oddly, at the very end of this monologue as the SNL Band starts playing the show to commercial, Jason walks back to the home base stage’s entrance doors behind him and starts to open the door, only to pause, turn back and run past the camera to get changed backstage. What was that all about? Reruns of this monologue hide this by fading out early when Jason stats to head towards the home base stage’s entrance doors.
STARS: **
THE NFL ON FOX
John Madden (CHF) & Luke Perry (host) anchor at halftime
— Funny start with the “90210”-style opening credits for NFL on FOX.
— Boy, Chris is doing the world’s worst John Madden impression ever heard.
— The joke of Jason’s Luke Perry only speaking in moody “90210”-esque one-liners has gotten old fast.
— I’m really liking Julia’s Peg Bundy impression. Considering how badly underused and misused Julia has been this season (and it only gets worse the next few months), often being relegated to small straight roles, it feels refreshing to actually laugh at a performance of hers.
— The Deion Sanders/Kim Wayans scene is freakin’ terrible.
— Minutes later, they’re still running the unfunny Luke-Perry-says-deep-one-liners joke into the ground.
— Boy, talk about terrible, the jokes for Jay’s Don Rickles are cringeworthy. In his SNL book, Jay blames the audience’s silence during his portion of this sketch on the fact that they couldn’t recognize him under that heavy makeup (he mentions in that part of the book that he could hear a girl in the audience ask “Is that Spade?”). Sorry, Jay, but I think the audience was dead because your lines weren’t funny and your Rickles impression didn’t work.
— I kinda like what Adam’s going for with his Richard Lewis impression.
— The “Melrose Place” scene with Phil’s Jimmy Johnson is yet another scene in this sketch that’s falling flat.
— Reruns show the dress rehearsal version of the “Melrose Place” scene. Phil’s wig in that version is a bit different, and the scene goes on a little longer, at one point featuring Sarah Silverman’s Heather Locklear leaving and Phil’s Jimmy Johnson saying something to himself while in deep thought.
— Mercifully, this bore of a sketch has ended. This overall sketch just plain didn’t work, which is a shame considering the format itself was fun and had promise.
STARS: *½
THE ROAD TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Don Lapre’s (DAS) word truncation scheme
— Good to see David’s Don Lapre impression back. I’ve always liked tonight’s Don Lapre sketch even more than the one from the preceding season’s finale.
— The “airport schmairport” bit is funny.
— This is the first time all night where a Jason Patric performance is actually working for me (and will probably end up being the only time all night, from what I remember of the rest of this episode).
— Lots of funny little lines all throughout this sketch.
— I love the dark humor of Phil’s prisoner character cheerfully revealing he’s going to be executed by “leath injecsh”.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “No Rain”
WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal commentary on excessive criticism of Bill Clinton
— Not crazy about the jokes so far.
— WTF?!? In the copy I’m watching, right as Kevin begins his Subliminal Commentary, the audio suddenly cuts off and is randomly replaced by audio from a freakin’ Empty Nest episode. I kid you not. I’m aware that this is a local NBC affiliate error.
— Jesus, it’s now almost a minute-and-a-half later, and even long after Kevin has ended his Subliminal Commentary and has moved on back to news jokes, the Empty Nest audio has yet to stop. One of Kevin’s jokes I missed involved him flinching in fear from a picture displayed of Jesse Jackson on the news screen. Wonder what that was all about.
— Finally, the Empty Nest audio has ended.
— Great joke from Kevin about Latoya Jackson not being nominated for a Grammy because there’s no category for “crappy”. I recall hearing an opinion that this seems like an Update joke that Norm Macdonald would’ve done the following few seasons, and I can definitely see that. He would’ve sold the punchline even better than Kevin did.
— No guest commentaries tonight?
— Despite a few good jokes and a funny weather map bit, I found this to be a rough Update as a whole and it had a fairly dead atmosphere in some portions, not helped by the lack of a guest commentary, giving this Update even more of an empty, dead feel. The bizarre Empty Nest audio gaffe also didn’t help things, though that’s certainly not Kevin nor SNL’s fault.
STARS: **
MR. INTENSE
Mr. Intense (host) goes to a party & does the hokey-pokey
— I’m currently a little over a minute into this weird sketch, and I have no idea what to say so far, except point out that I haven’t laughed a single time.
— Okay, I can definitely see why Mr. Intense naming off each of the Seven Dwarves in his typically intense, dramatic manner is supposed to be hilarious, but this sketch is another example tonight of something Jason Patric’s doing that would actually be funny if it were given to a more capable host. Imagine Christopher Walken performing this sketch’s material.
— What’s up with Kevin’s overly broad performance? It seems out of place for the tone of this sketch.
— As if this sketch wasn’t already off-putting enough, what the bloody hell was with the fourth wall-breaking ending? Not only was it terrible, but it seemed to be a weird continuation of the “I don’t want to be here” storyline of Jason’s monologue earlier tonight. If this is the show’s way of doing a meta Charles Grodin-type running gag throughout an episode, then this is sad. (Actually, what they’re going for is probably more comparable to what they did with Garry Shandling, but the point still stands) If you’re going to attempt what the Grodin episode beautifully did, you need to be much more clear about it and show far more commitment to the concept. Don’t establish the concept in the monologue and then wait half an episode later to do a half-assed continuation of it, only to never speak of it again for the remainder of the episode.
STARS: *½
COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Richard Simmons [real] gives diet tips by singing Streisand
— (*sigh*) Fourth appearance of this sketch in just ten episodes so far this season…
— Hmm, a Richard Simmons appearance. At least he’s providing a distraction from the typical Coffee Talk dullness.
— Simmons is adding a fairly fun vibe to this. His energy is welcome, considering the lethargic atmosphere throughout tonight’s episode.
— Another positive thing about this Coffee Talk sketch is that it has thankfully cut down on the use of Linda Richman’s catchphrases that never make me laugh.
STARS: **½
WHERE’S THE REST OF ME?: THE FABRICE STORY
a hand model (host) copes after losing a finger
— It’s taken two minutes into this sketch for me to get my first laugh, with the whole bit involving Norm giving a rundown on the casualties from the car accident. Great use of Norm’s trademark delivery style.
— Mike seems to be playing a bit of a Dr. Evil prototype here, especially the pinky-in-the-mouth mannerism. Or maybe he’s just doing a variation of his behind-the-scenes Lorne Michaels impression, but then again, that’s what Dr. Evil supposedly is.
— This is the second consecutive episode with a long movie-like sketch involving many scene and set changes, after Sally Field’s I Want My Baby Back sketch. I usually love this type of sketch, but it didn’t work for me much in the Sally Field sketch and it’s DEFINITELY not working for me in this sketch.
— Adam’s line was chuckleworthy, providing only my second (and probably final) laugh of this overlong sketch.
— God bless Phil for trying to save this sketch like the consummate pro he always is, but I’m afraid it ain’t workin’ here.
— The montage of Jason having success with his stump-fingered hand is actually charming in itself, but is going on too long for something not intended to be funny in a sketch that’s already been long and has been failing in its attempts to be funny. In a better sketch, I would’ve loved that montage.
STARS: *½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Paper Scratcher”
THE HERLIHY BOY DOG SITTING SERVICE
Mr. O’Malley & (host) beg “let him sit”
— Here’s our latest victim of season 19’s bad habit of making recurring sketches out of stuff that have no legs as a recurring sketch and clearly should’ve remained a solid one-off. And did we really need to see the return of this particular sketch only TWO EPISODES after it debuted?
— Chris is mining some laughs out of this material, but the gradual buildup to his eventual angry screaming rant isn’t being pulled off anywhere NEAR as well as it was in the memorable first installment. This is coming off as a pale and clumsy imitation.
— All I can say about Jason’s random psychotic-ranting character is: WTF?!?!
— Herlihy Boy’s begging eventually getting to the point where he now tells us “Let me be your dog” is worth a good laugh.
— I love how Chris immediately cuts off his “Let the boy be your dog” screaming rant to ask Herlihy Boy in a low-voiced, sensible manner “Tim, I’m not sure what we’re going for here” and “Have you thought this through, Timmy?”
STARS: **
SKI LIFT
while riding a ski lift, (host) has a strange conversation with (KEN)
— Kevin: “Boy, if I had a nickel for every time somebody asked me that, you’d be a dead man, Tony.”
— Finally, a sketch that’s actually making me laugh a lot. This is a very silly sketch that Kevin is perfect for. I’m loving his string of off-beat, disjointed, unsettling one-liners.
— Unfortunately, Jason Patric as this sketch’s straight man is yet ANOTHER example tonight of a role that would’ve worked better with a different host. Thankfully, though, this sketch is making me laugh so much to the degree that Jason’s less-than-stellar straight man performance isn’t hurting it much.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very rough episode as a whole, and probably the weakest one I’ve reviewed in quite a long time. There were certainly still some really solid highlights tonight, but they were few and far in between, and a lot of the stuff in between was pretty brutal. While most of the writing did the show no favors, a good chunk of the blame for the lousiness and lethargic atmosphere of this episode goes to Jason Patric, who had a baffling presence, wasn’t funny for the most part, and killed the energy of a lot of pieces. And the half-assed Charles Grodin/Garry Shandling-type conceptual theme they seemingly were going for him was a huge flop.
— Tonight’s episode, the first one of the second half of this season, has really set the tone for the remainder of this season, as we’ve entered what turns out to be a sharp downhill slide in the show’s quality that eventually leads into the infamous season 20. While the first half of the season we’re in wasn’t too great itself, so many things about this season has changed starting with tonight’s midpoint episode; even the look. Have you ever noticed how drastically different the visual appearance of the second half of this season is compared to the first half? That’s always stood out to me, even in the days when I was originally exposed to this season in 60-minute Comedy Central reruns.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Sally Field)
a fairly big step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sara Gilbert
I’m never fully sure what the deal with Jason Patric was. I never heard any horror stories about him as a host and in some of the sketches anyway he’s trying pretty hard. I’m assuming he has kind of a dry, serious personality, and the writers thought they could make this into a joke, but I think this falters because 1. he’s not super adept at pulling that off, 2. the writing isn’t very good, and 3. it’s not like Jason Patric has a known persona or anything–if that had been Walken or Malkovich doing the monologue, we and the audience would have understood immediately what they were going for.
The monologue is something that would also be funnier in a better season (although this season hasn’t gone off the rails yet)–I hate the lazy SNL trope of pointing out how bad they are in a weak season.
I remember reading somewhere how the NFL sketch is a time capsule of how people viewed FOX as a trashy network that lucked into grabbing the NFL. I’m also amazed that someone can screw up a Madden impression. And just looking at the picture, I don’t know how anyone can think that’s Don Rickles–it actually looks more like (modern day) Terry Bradshaw to me.
The Rickles makeup reminds me of the ghoulish prosthetics they have routinely put on Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon in the last few years, which makes the attempts at political impressions instead seem like some kind of offbrand horror film. As mentioned we have another of those on the way with Tim Meadows.
I absolutely hated the FOX sketch. It just felt like sneering from people who had never even watched the network – that weird elitism that sums up this period of SNL even though themselves were increasingly reliant on incoherent screaming, rape jokes, and vomit. Most irritating to me was that they seemingly didn’t know (or care) that Kim Wayans wasn’t even at the network anymore. That whole segment was just awful – it was essentially just “lol don’t black people talk funny,” with Farley having to stare right into the camera as they were talking so we’d get the ‘joke.’
On top of that, Jason Patric’s Luke Perry impression just ended up seeming strange and seemingly pasted in from something else entirely. The sketch wasn’t funny in the first place but you could kind of feel the audience tense whenever he started again.
Finally someone agrees with me about how terrifying Kate McKinnon looks whenever they have her play a man. I wish they’d stop it.
Norm has specifically pointed out Jason Patric as a particularly rough host. He also talked about Bill Pullman ruining a sketch of his, which we will witness in a couple seasons.
Good analysis here, Stooge. I agree that a lot of what’s here really could work with a less charmless host. The key to ya big weird energy is properly harnessing it. Patric only manages to do that once during the kinda-classic Don Lapre sketch. One piece of credit I’ll give this troubled era is that they could still get some big hits with bad hosts. Though that streak will be coming to an end shortly.
Love the cold open here, my favourite use of Farley and my favourite CO of the season. I love it when he’s just being a rambunctious kid.
I saw this episode live on NBC and yep, it contained probably the deadest audience reactions I’d seen on SNL since Season 6. The next episode (Sara Gilbert) has the infamous Bryant Gumbel “what were you thinking?” sketch – god bless him, Tim Meadows tries, but I literally felt anxiety watching it, it was that bad!
Pretty sure Sandler and Norm wrote the ski lift sketch
Yup. They mention it in Nealon’s episode of “Norm Macdonald Live.”
Watching the late-S19/S20 episodes is a pretty interesting experience because of just how lazy the writing feels and how low-energy the performances feel. Aside from the 10-to-1, every sketch was either a retread of a previous sketch, a bomb, or both.
Even if they *did* decide to do an episode-long runner where Patric doesn’t want to host, I feel like it still wouldn’t work because his criticisms were too close to what people were actually thinking about the show at the time. It’d be like when they doubled down on the complaints about the endless cameos in the Tina Fey show from 2018.
Also, I’m curious as to what exactly the visual shift between the two halves of this season is? I notice a bit of a difference but I can’t put my finger on what specifically has changed.
NBC site has the full Weekend Update from this ep with correct audio if you wanna hear what you missed:
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/update/2868151
I’ve also noticed how the 1994 half of this season has a whole different feel than the 1993 half. The visual look has definitely changed, but as others have said, not really sure what it is. Even seeing Deep Thoughts pop up in 1994 and 1995 seems out of place as opposed to December 1993 and earlier.
The ’94 half also makes the phasing out of beloved Phil Hartman more apparent (except for the Nancy Kerrigan and John Goodman episodes, where he’s in plenty of sketches). His lack of screentime is especially noticeable in the next two episodes.
In Jay’s book he mentions that they got new cameras at one point during his tenure and employees from the camera company were running around the studio making sure they were set up right.
I think this is the first episode to use the new cameras because the picture quality is noticeable different than the episodes before it.
FOX getting the NFL was a huge, huge story at the time. They were still seen as a joke as a network to a degree because they were relatively new. Yeah that sketch hasn’t aged well. It was cut from the CC 60 minute version of this episode
The cold opening is really good. It is a thin premise but Chris does a fantastic job and his able to get a ton of laughs from it. There was a lot of outrage when SNL portrayed Chelsea Clinton…did SNL get any complaints about portraying Giuliani’s son like this? Anybody know?
And then that monologue hits us…ugh. It’s a downer. Starts the show on the wrong foot. I see what they were trying to do, and I agree that a better host would have done a better job at it…but…it’s just not funny. Self-depreciating humor usually goes over well on SNL…but this just didn’t work.
The Herlihy Boy sketch in this show is a disaster. It doesn’t work AT ALL. First of all they messed up the premise, the first one had the great escalation of the boy wanting to just watering the plants all the way to staying in your bed. The escalation of things the boy wanted to do in this sketch was odd. Feeding the dog escalating to wanting to put shorts on the dog…? I guess the bit at the end about wanting to be a dog was OK, but it’s not a funny premise. Second, Adam’s delivery is also nowhere good as it was in the first sketch. And finally, and worst of all, Jason Patric’s addition to the sketch makes absolutely no sense. His performance is really awkward as well. It’s interesting to hear the recognition laughter when the sketch starts up…but then it gets pretty scarce and quiet as the sketch goes on. This was a really bad follow-up.
The only sketch I liked this episode was David Spade as Don Lapre’s shortening words to save time. Once again, it’s a pretty thin premise. But everyone does a good job with it. And it’s funnier than it should be. Chris and Phil’s performance really sells the bit.
I agree with you Stooge, a bad episode and begins the downward slide to the awfulness of Season 20. Hate to see this happen, but it will be fun to read your reviews the next couple of weeks. It’s kind of like watching a train wreck. Not pretty, but strangely fascinating and you can’t look away. 🙂
Norm MacDonald was giving an interview about the worst host he dealt with. He said Patric. He was like, “I know comedy. Jackie Gleason was my grandfather (true)” Norm said in the interview I guess the fruit falls far away from the tree.”
The Sara Gilbert ep has the most iconic (and funniest) Gap Girls sketch, but the only things I remember from the CC repeat many moons ago is the monologue and first sketch are really lame.
Jason Patric doesn’t fit any of the bad host checkmarks – you don’t hear about him being rude or unpleasant, or demanding – but there’s just something offputting about him as host. A strange energy. You can feel it from the monologue on.
Other than not having any use for the cold open, I agree with most of your ratings. The exception is the Mr. Intensity sketch – it started shaky but once they got to the part where he was going on about how he was like Jerry Seinfeld and wanted to do the hokey pokey, I thought Patric’s dead vibe was finally clicking into a positive place. Then it was ruined by the needles breaking of the fourth wall – something SNL was too guilty of in these seasons.
I’m genuinely just flummoxed by this Coffee Talk installment. While I do agree with you that Simmons’ energy helped to lift the usual cliches, I’ve rarely seen a major recurring character just completely hijacked by a cameo of someone who was already seen as a big joke by this point. And this is when SNL was trying very hard to be cool and edgy. I have nothing against Richard, but let’s just say I never thought I’d be watching him do a half-dozen Streisand parody songs for 3-4 minutes. I also have to wonder if this is setting a record for how many times a recurring character appears per episodes? I think you have to go back to the ’70s for this many repeats, and that was usually on WU.
In the mid-90s “SNL: the First 20 Years” book, Myers disclosed that Coffee Talk was his favorite sketch to perform. He even wrote the screenplay for a Coffee Talk film around this time with the same collaborator who would later work on the Austin Powers films – it was bought, but never produced (c. 1995)
I could maybe see Coffee Talk working as a Broadway show, like Oh Hello!, but as a movie?
Also, thanks for reminding me about the First 20 Years book. My library has a copy and I should probably check it out in time for the Alec & Kim episode.
I’ve seen this episode a ton because in my teen years I taped it off the late night re-runs.. this was before DVD sets and what not so my options were limited lol. As a result maybe I have a case of stockholm to this episode or something because I’ve re-watched it a ton.
I honestly think they were trying to do a meta show with Patrick because it very much feels like it to me. They musta decided to use his intense nature to theme the show around, and it both succeeded and failed. He was a lot like his dad in terms of his intensity but unlike his dad he wasn’t a likeable guy.. not the best move. Much like the Grodin show it failed in that way. From the best I could find he got along with everyone okay, Norm crapped on him but Rob raved on him, he claimed he was one of the guys and went and played basketball with them. That sells me on the whole meta thing. He also acted cool with everyone in the credits and complimented them, it didn’t feel fake to me. He wasn’t a Frank Zappa in that way.
I’m more familiar with the re-run but I also have the live show.. the NFL on Fox skit’s miles different. The re-run version’s somewhat funny, they edited it down a little and cut some of the rough parts out. The scene with Hartman and Silverman’s actually better in the dress as they melodramatically make out instead of just a short peck on the cheek, it makes it funnier. Sandler’s Richard Lewis is hilarious though.. sounds a lot like him. That’s why I always enjoy it.. they also moved it until after update and start with the infomercial first, smart.
The worst skit for me is the Coffee Talk segment, darn if that’s not punishment to sit thru. Having Simmons come on was a nice surprise (the crowd going crazy is one of the loudest I’ve ever heard on SNL,) but the whole singing bit the two do is like torture. I’ll never forget when I first watched it in the day, my VCR couldn’t fast forward so I had to suffer thru it, never again. I started using mute thanks to that skit lmao.
I don’t mind the Herlihy boy skit honestly, it’s not as bad as everyone says. It didn’t really need a sequel but it works enough due to how random it gets. Sandler just asks for random stuff and Farley has no idea to sell it and Patrick goes loony, it’s gold. The hand model skit’s weird as hell but Mike’s douchy European guy makes it work for me.. besides Coffee Talk it’s not that bad a show, I’ve seen worse. But is it great? Heck no.
My late night copy has a solid minute of the band playing the theme at the end.. it’s a beautiful listen.
I’d never seen the NFL on Fox sketch till just now… Mohr-as-Rickles’ lines are atrocious (agreed) to the point that when he actually uses a real Rickles line (“where would we eat on Sunday”), the audience has already tuned out. With the prosthetics he actually looks like Leonard Tepper, a sweet old man who was used in the late 90s/early 00s on Letterman for Larry Bud/Calvert-style segments. I agree Sandler’s Richard Lewis is great (but the audience must not have noticed after the Rickles bit killed so much energy).
Is that Farley as the Bee Girl? If so, that means he plays three children in this ep (two of them only very briefly).
Well see, now my head is spinning with ideas for how a Coffee Talk movie could work NOW. It could be a nice homage to SNL’s glory years, especially as the show reaches its 50th year (which, for better or worse, is an accomplishment.)
It would need to have a great deal of the living SNL stars from that era (Meyers, Carvey, MacDonald, Spade, Sweeney, etc.) as well as folks from the following “golden era” of 95-02 (Ferrell, Morgan, Shannon, Fey, Poehler, Fallon, etc.) and a few folks from the modern era too (McKinnon, Thompson, Hader, Sudeikis, Bryant, Strong, and so on.) Maybe get some OG folks too (Akyroyd and Curtin, for sure.)
The plot would have to be 75% serious for the movie to work. No overplayed catchphrases, no hammy performances. I’m sure Meyers tried to take Coffee Talk: The Movie in a slapstick funny direction like Austin Powers, and — woof — that would probably have been a slog. I would love to see Linda Richman in a more mellow and dramatic way, existing along with all of the side characters in her life. (I like what Stanko mentioned about Oh, Hello; that show was a rapid fire jokefest, but it had heart and a little drama. That’s what made it work!)
The movie could also pay tribute to some of SNL’s long-gone stars (Belushi, Hooks, Farley, Hartman). I see a scene where Linda, after a tough show, picks up a picture of Farley and calls him her son, and has a tender moment of reflection of what her life has become since his passing…
Clearly I’m going down a rabbit hole here. Somebody call Lorne!
Right at the end of the NFL on FOX sketch, you can hear Farley say “Goddamn” because he, too realized that the sketch was insufferable.
Can anyone more descriptively nail down what the visual difference is? Is it lighting? I can’t really explain it, but I feel like the lighting and candles on the home base stage look different.
I don’t know the exact models of cameras they’ve had in 8H, but I think the first time they were upgraded after ‘75 was between seasons 10 and 11. And then the second time was during the Christmas hiatus in season 19. (And many times since then of course).
If you compare the Sally Field episode’s monologue to this one, you will notice that the picture is sharper with the new (Patric) cameras, and the lighting is more even. It was brighter with the previous (Field) cameras, and there was more contrast. Overall, the picture is more natural (smoother might be a better word) after the upgrade. It looks closer to what we’re used to now, and wouldn’t surprise me if these same cameras were used right up until the switch to HD.
The visual difference is that it looks crappier and more low-budget.
I think they were going for a meta thing with Jason did not come across that way and the FOX sketch is bad it just goes on too long.
In Road to Self-Improvement, Spade ends in the sketch with a “buh-bye.” I wonder how much he was saying that before Total Bastard Airlines.