Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
INSIDE POLITICS
USA Bosnia policy prompts a conservative anti-war rally
— A great cross-eyed look from Nancy as Bobbie Batista.
— Darrell’s Jesse Helms impression is hilarious.
— Funny premise of republicans holding a 1960s-esque protest against the war in Bosnia.
— Good bit with Koechner’s Phil Gramm singing Imagine but questioning every lyric.
— A laugh from Buchanan burning his Blockbuster Video card because he has no draft card.
— Solid ending with the slow-motion war fight, and how it comes to an end when Helms sticks a flower into barrel of one of the soldiers’ guns.
STARS: ***½
MONOLOGUE
audience likes gimmicky ER-reject character Swabby (DAK) more than host
— Nice energetic entrance from Anthony Edwards, literally leaping out from the door.
— Koechner is hilarious as Swabby.
— A pretty good laugh from Anthony losing his patience and rudely telling Swabby to get the hell out of here.
— Will and Cheri are reprising their characters from the Dole/Gingrich airplane cold opening from just one episode ago.
— Bad lighting during Will and Cheri’s part, causing a boom mike shadow to cover most of Will’s face (the third above screencap for this monologue). For this reason, this portion of the monologue would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns.
— I like the running gag with the increasingly un-ER-like medical shows that audience members mistake Anthony for being on.
STARS: ****
GRIMALDI CLASSIC CREATIONS
Grimaldi’s Nativity scene baby Jesus annoyingly cries throughout holidays
— The absolutely bizarre and indescribable sound the Baby Jesus device is making is priceless. I love the smile Koechner slowly looks up at Nancy with when the Baby Jesus sound begins.
— Some really amusing shots of the now-restless family being irritated and unhinged by the Baby Jesus sounds.
STARS: ****½
THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Joe Pesci (JMB) abuses Sharon Stone (NAW) & other guests
— After struggling badly so far this season, the underused Jim Breuer finally gets his breakout sketch. And what’s more, it’s placed as the lead-off sketch of the night, showing that SNL has a lot of confidence in this.
— Great Joe Pesci voice from Jim.
— Something I’ve never understood about Jim’s Pesci impression is his wig. Why give his Pesci a full head of hair when the real Pesci had a receding hairline at this time?
— Pesci’s whole angry rant to Nancy’s Sharon Stone is fantastic.
— The visual of Anthony as Macaulay Culkin is hilarious. I’m also loving his performance.
— Pesci to Culkin: “Hey, you know what was funny? When you died in that movie My Girl. I laughed my ass off!”
— Spot-on Jim Carrey voice from Mark.
— Pesci, when Carrey calls his show “smokin’”: “Smokin’, how? Smokin’ like my ass after some Mexican food?”
— Man, Jim is performing the hell out of this sketch.
STARS: ****½
NIGHTLINE
Dr. Greene (host) & other doctors argue about health care
— Good concept with all of the ridiculous fictional doctor guests.
— Pretty fun sketch so far.
— When Dr. J and Doc from Snow White are introduced, the chyron of their names that’s displayed on the bottom of the screen mistakenly includes the name “Doc Martens”.
I’m guessing that at dress rehearsal, a pair of Doc Martens boots was “interviewed” alongside Dr. J and Doc from Snow White, and then at the last minute during the live show, SNL decided to cut the Doc Martens portion of the sketch, but forgot to remove its name from the chryon. (In the above screencap, you can see the arm of an unoccupied chair to the left of Doc from Snow White.)
— I like Tim’s angry “Damn, Ted!” at the end of his speech.
STARS: ***½
WEDDING RECEPTION
Mary Katherine Gallagher acts inappropriately at a wedding reception
— Mary Katherine Gallagher officially becomes a recurring character. Of all of this character’s installments from over the years, this is one of the very few that I’m not all that familiar with. I know I’ve seen this installment before, but I have no memory of it.
— With this being only the second Mary Katherine Gallagher installment, the trademark putting-hands-under-armpits-and-then-sniffing-them routine, which was introduced in the first MKG installment, has been temporarily changed to her putting her fingers in her ears, looking at the earwax, then flicking and licking it.
— Molly’s really hammering home this character’s awkwardness, even moreso than in the first installment of this sketch. However, I’m not finding this installment as funny so far.
— Overall, I wasn’t crazy about this installment. There were a few laughs, but with this being only the second MKG appearance, you can tell they’re still experimenting with this character, and this installment felt unmemorable compared to most MKG installments. That’s probably the reason why I had no memory of this sketch before tonight’s viewing.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE
NOM’s very nervous brother Gary (DAK) tries to tell some newsy jokes
— This is the second consecutive Weekend Update using the opening theme music that would go on to be Norm’s regular Update theme, so I think it’s safe to say they’ve finally settled on it after experimenting with many different opening themes earlier this season.
— Yes! We get the debut of Norm’s brother, Gary Macdonald, played by Koechner. This has always been one of my favorite Koechner SNL bits from his short-lived tenure.
— Koechner is very good at getting laughs out of his character’s very awkward uncomfortableness.
— I love how Norm reveals Gary Macdonald’s paper just says “God, don’t let the fear swallow me whole.”
— Koechner has been knocking it out of the park these last few episodes with some great original characters.
— Particularly huge cheers this time for Norm’s weekly “O.J. is a murderer” joke.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “I’ll Stick Around”
THE NASTY
singer G-Dog’s (TIM) psychosomatism causes him to rethink his raunchy hit
— The opening exchanges between Will and Anthony are really funny.
— I love the voice Anthony is using in this. He’s hilarious here.
— The debut of Tim’s short-lived and underrated recurring character G-Dog.
— Funny opening line from G-Dog: “Yo, Phil, somebody ate my Skittles, man.”
— The family-friendly variation of the “Let’s Do The Nasty” song is pretty funny, especially the “Do The Handshake” dance.
— Hmm, a meta turn with Tim as himself waking up in bed and revealing the sketch was a bad dream. I don’t think this sketch was anywhere near bad enough for SNL to get all self-deprecating about. In fact, I had actually been enjoying the sketch.
— Good ending with Lorne’s shifty-eyed look.
STARS: ***½
SPADE IN AMERICA
DAS relives a barroom father-son Thanksgiving reunion
— Spade’s childhood anecdote about receiving a Nerf football from his dad and sarcastically responding “Wow, it’s two colors. You spoil me, ya prick” was told by him on the show before, in a Mother’s Day Weekend Update commentary he did back in season 17, as I mentioned in my review of it.
— Spade In America has had a lot of interesting changes of pace these last few installments, and tonight we get another one, with him re-enacting an entire conversation he recently had with his father. Great touch with the dimmed lighting during this re-enactment.
— I’m enjoying Spade’s storytelling skills here, as well as the way he’s constantly going back-and-forth between the voices of himself and his father. Speaking of which, I like the voice Spade’s using for his father.
STARS: ***½
TURNING POINT
(MAM) interviews a slightly loony Princess Di (host)
— The debut of Cheri’s Barbara Walters impression.
— Wow, Cheri’s Barbara Walters sounds nowhere near as good as it would eventually go on to sound later in Cheri’s tenure. I guess it took her some time before she was able to nail the voice.
— Oh. My. God. Anthony’s look as Princess Diana is EERILY dead-on. Uncanny.
— I’ve been saying this all throughout this episode review, but Anthony is really funny in this sketch.
— A lot of funny actions from Anthony’s Diana, especially her using her foot to flirt with Mark’s Martin Bashir, and her revealing she’s had a chip planted in her head.
— Now Anthony’s Diana is humorously singing a bizarre little ukulele song .
— Great sketch overall.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “For All The Cows”
THE HULK HOGAN TALK SHOW!!!
Hulk Hogan’s sub (WIF) attempts a serious show
— The ridiculously endless Hulk Hogan Talk Show theme song cracked me up, made even funnier by how its immediately followed by Will as an average joe just straightforwardly saying “Hulk Hogan is on vacation. I’m your guest host, Phil Tobin.”
— The awkward back-and-forth transitions from Anthony’s traumatic story to the Hulk Hogan show’s usual segments are okay, but I’m disappointed to see that they’re nowhere near as funny as I had remembered. In fact, they’re starting to get a little tired after a while. I think in past viewings, I only loved this sketch for the ridiculously long opening theme and the subsequent reveal of Will as the guest host.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Even though this episode is not a classic, I’ve personally always considered it to be a really fun episode and a prime example of what a refreshing turnaround this season is from the infamous preceding season. After reviewing the episode just now, that opinion still holds up. This was a solid episode that was indeed fun, and had a lot of good sketches that I’ve always remembered well, even if some of them aren’t particularly great. Adding to the fun feel of this episode was Anthony Edwards, who was a very game host and gave some really funny performances, especially in the Turning Point sketch.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Laura Leighton)
a step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
David Alan Grier
I feel like the Schwimmer, Leighton, and Edwards episodes are a good contrast from last year–these were all TV stars (from hit shows, mind you) and perhaps not the hottest properties in the world to host, but unlike last year, the material doesn’t wear them down, there’s a ton of energy, and they all do really well (Edwards in particular is surprisingly amazing).
I wouldn’t have wanted Spade himself per se to keep doing these in season after season, but the idea of a cast member who basically does a one-person experimental thing each week would be interesting.
Also how could they cut Doc Martens like that???
Most of the guest host choices aren’t THAT obscure for the time period. Madeline Kahn strikes me as the odd one out for 1995-96 given she’s there to promote Nixon, and her most recent TV work at this point – CBS’ New York News – sells itself on “this’ll finally break Mary Tyler Moore’s typecasting” and is already dead by the time Kahn hosts.
Mostly, SNL sticks to promoting the “hot” TV shows this season (ER, Friends, Melrose Place), but it’s not too far off the depth chart from the obvious A-listers. I give Mariel Hemingway a pass due to CBS overselling Central Park West to the point of delusion that season. Not even Raquel Welch could buoy THAT thing.
I imagine Lorne probably thought “Doc Martens” was overkill after dress rehearsal – too bad, because it would have been hilarious!
I love this episode. One of my favorites of that era. And between this and the Tarantino episode, a sure sign that this new era was already blossoming into something weird, energetic, and special. From here on out I loved almost every episode for the next two years.
The Hulk Hogan Talk Show is a personal favorite of mine. Back in the 90’s I used to run a website called “Will Ferrell’s Greatest SNL Moments” and that was a sketch I used to pimp out all the time as a great one of his that very few people had seen. I know you don’t like it as much as I do, but to me that’s one of the most perfect representations of this season. Just odd non sequiturs, a weird premise, and places where it randomly just goes super dark for no reason. And of course Will trying his best to hold the whole thing together. I think it’s incredible.
And I will always say that Grimaldi Classics is maybe my all time favorite fake SNL commercial. It’s so funny.
By the way, to this day, my wife still says that Gary MacDonald is her all time favorite Weekend Update correspondent. Tell me again why they stupidly fired David Koechner?
Yes, a really fun episode, yes, a great hosting performance from Anthony Edwards…but for me, this episode is “the one where William, the drummer for the Foo Fighters, grabs Anthony Edwards’ ass during the goodnights”. Yeah…suffice to say, the Foos got a new drummer by the time they played SNL again.
And tomorrow comes the ep with the legendary “the weatherman is DEAD” sketch.
This is a good episode. Jim Breuer gets his big break (and I’m pretty sure this is what kept him around past this season). Joe Pesci Show is great (maybe a little too long), but very funny.
The Christmas ad is also hilarious. Just outstanding. That sound!…LOL
Gary MacDonald is also great, I also like the randomness of Swabby during the monologue. Why, oh why, did the show fire Koechner at the end of this season? Absolutely undeserved.
The funny thing is Norm has always said he pegged Koechner as the guy who would run away as the breakout of the season and was the guy Norm has always maintained was the funniest of the new cast, always heard the stories about Norm always forcing Dave to “do Gerald” (the T-Bones character) for him around the office because Norm got such a kick out of that character. I say “funny thing” about it because as we found out many years later (I believe the first time I heard it was on Koechner’s WTF interview?) that Don Ohlmeyer was the guy who went above Lorne’s to fire Dave, thats right, same guy who would fire Norm a couple years later.
Can’t wait for “Wake Up and Smile” in the next episode!
I remember Norm’s brother being my favorite character from the “new cast” at the time, for years I forgot the character was supposed to be Norm’s brother and just always referred to him as the “no” guy. I remember being particularly bummed when the next season started and realzing a few episodes in that Koechner was gone because it meant no more of that character.
Around the late 90s Spade had a short lived (VERY short lived, I think it only lasted like 2 or 3 episodes before it was pulled) cartoon series based on his life growing up as “trailer trash in Arizona” and the main character was that same impression of his dad.
Had to do a quick google search because I couldn’t remember the title for the life of me, Sammy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_(TV_series)
Adam McKay revealed on Twitter recently that “Hulk Hogan Talk Show” was one of the first sketches he wrote to make the show (he had been pitching it since his first week as a writer)
One of those episodes I remembered parts of (the G-Dog sketch, Diana, Swabby, Update) and did not remember most of the rest. Maybe I only saw the CC version.
Anthony Edwards was a great host, threw himself into everything, and as with Gabriel Byrne and Tarantino, they trusted him enough to give him his own standout sketch, which he made even better. It’s a shame that real life circumstances mean this Diana impression won’t be known, because it’s a whole lot of fun.
The Swabby concept is the type of monologue that annoys me, as it just feels like they have no real faith in the host of the week, so I was kind of amused that the whole thing was badly off in timing and had obvious technical errors.
David Koechner was absolutely wonderful as Norm’s brother, but I came away thinking this type of performance – which is so rich and character-driven rather than going for the most obvious laugh – flew in the face of where NBC wanted SNL to go at this time, which was very quick, easily remembered chuckles.
Shout out to Nancy Walls for the debut of her Bobbie Batista, one of her more memorable roles. The cold open itself felt different and fun.
And, as I said in my other comment, they should have had either Nancy Walls or Molly Shannon as Princess Diana in the Diana sketch instead of Anthony, even though Anthony did a good job with the role.
Both Nancy Walls and David Koechner, especially Koechner, are definitely somewhere in the Top 10 among the most underrated cast members of all time. Gail Matthius and Christine Ebersole would probably be among them as well.
I believe Pesci’s appearance is based on how he looked in My Cousin Vinny with a full head of (fake?) hair, much like how Mark’s Jim Carrey impression is based on Ace Ventura.
Yeah I’d agree on that, a lot of Pesci’s most known roles around this time he’d usually wear a hairpiece that looked like Jim’s wig in that sketch. Though I was probably thinking it was based a little more on his look in GoodFellas than Vinny.
I’d like to have seen the Doc Martens. Also my favorite sketch was G-Dog, Do the Nasty was based on “This is How We Do It” but the ending didn’t fit fully.
Regarding the Turning Point sketch, as great and, shall I say, kinda sexy as Anthony Edwards’s impression of the late Princess Diana was, why couldn’t they get one of the three women to play the Princess in this sketch? I know that Cheri already had a role in the sketch, albeit in a seperate scene, but it would have been excellent, not to mention very sexy-looking if either Nancy or Molly played Princess Di in this sketch. In particular, having either of them, especially the modern-day Mrs. Carell (Nancy) play footsie with Mark McKinney’s character would, to put it mildly, be a sight to behold. Seeing Nancy Walls Carell rub her pantyhose foot against Mark’s leg would probably give a certain part of me a rise of sorts!
You need a cigarette, Mike?