Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
ABC ELECTION COVERAGE
with no votes cast, ABC News declares Bill Clinton’s (DAH) re-election
— Good to see Tom Hanks reprising his Peter Jennings impression from the famous 1988 Presidential Debate sketch.
— Very funny announcement from Tom’s Jennings that Bill Clinton has won the election, a month-and-a-half early before voting has even taken place.
— Cheri’s Ross Perot impression is always good for a chuckle.
— I believe this is the first time we ever see Darrell’s Clinton giving a sly thumbs-up, which would go on to become one of his iconic trademarks.
— I love the part with Clinton gloatingly going into detail about the fact that he did inhale.
— A good laugh from Norm’s Dole crashing through the railing and falling into the crowd, as a reference to what happened to Dole in real life during, I believe, a campaign rally.
— I like Mark as Al Gore just coming in, saying into the camera “I’m Al Gore”, and then immediately leaving, which would go on to become a running gag these next two seasons.
— Though I’m still kinda laughing at it, they keep repeating the Dole falling bit over and over, which feels pretty unnecessary and one-joke.
— Pretty funny bit at the end with Jennings sternly stopping Perot from saying “Live from New York…”
STARS: ***
OPENING MONTAGE
— The montage is the same as the one from the preceding season.
— The SNL logo zooms into the screen differently than it did in the preceding season’s montage.
— Similar to how season 8 used the same opening montage from season 7 but changed each cast member’s photo, this season’s re-used season 21 opening montage changes each cast member’s photo. Here are some side-by-side comparisons between some cast members’ season 21 and season 22 montage photo:
— The new cast members added to the show tonight are Ana Gasteyer and Tracy Morgan, both joining as repertory players.
As of 2019, Ana and Tracy are the last-ever cast members to immediately join as repertory players. Every new cast member since then has joined as a featured player, which is apparently some kind of rule that started after season 22.
— Chris Kattan has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
MONOLOGUE
host reads the Oscar acceptance speech he didn’t get to use
— Tom addresses the fact that it’s been a while since he last hosted and he acknowledges the upswing in quality SNL has gone through in the new era, by saying “It’s wonderful to come back to Saturday Night Live now that it’s decent again” and mentioning that he avoided the show like the plague “back when it sucked”.
— Some good laughs from Tom bragging about how Nicolas Cage can’t relate to winning two Oscars in a row.
— Tom’s unused acceptance speech is pretty funny.
STARS: ***½
BIG BRAWN
Big Brawn Feminine Napkins get their super-absorbency from wood pulp
— Great visual of Will as a giant lumberjack.
— Hilarious reveal of a feminine napkin made from wood.
— A very funny part with Molly gleefully singing the lyric “It’s like a big friendly lumberjack between your knees!”
STARS: ****
THE ROXBURY GUYS
the antics of (host) & fellow Roxbury Guys land them in the slammer
— Well… I see SNL didn’t waste any time in bringing back this smash hit sketch from the preceding season’s finale. However, it’s a given that no matter how hard SNL tries, none of the subsequent Roxbury Guy sketches will ever come close to measuring up to the Jim Carrey one.
— I love the brief “Stayin’ Alive” turn.
— The urinals scene is worth a good laugh.
— Pretty funny ending with Chris’ character receiving his comeuppance by getting bumped back and forth by male prisoners.
— Overall, despite this paling in comparison to the preceding Roxbury Guys sketch and despite how wasted this sketch felt on Tom Hanks, I still found this pretty fun.
STARS: ***
HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
Goat Boy’s brays punctuate his nostalgia show
— Goat Boy officially becomes recurring and is put into a new format that, like the last one (in which Goat Boy sang 80s hits during an album promo), involves 80s pop culture.
— Jim is still cracking me up as Goat Boy, but man, I can already tell this character is going to get old fast in this format. I’d prefer it if SNL had just left him as a bizarre one-off character after his debut.
— During the Andrew Ridgeley interview, I like the sudden cutaway to Goat Boy sucking on an upside-down baby’s bottle.
— This sketch is feeling pretty repetitive, and is going on a little too long for such a thin concept to the Goat Boy character.
STARS: **½
PING-PONG TOURNAMENT
Craig & Arianna are cheered by a visit from the Spartan Spirit (host)
— Hoo, boy. Tonight’s episode is starting to destroy me with all the recurring characters appearing up front, even if I can understand the need for SNL to do this after a long summer break. However, I’m watching these episodes on a daily basis, so I don’t have the benefit of having a long summer break in between these last two Cheerleaders sketches. Sitting through a different Cheerleaders sketch two days in a row is pretty brutal.
— Oh, man. I thought Tom was kinda wasted in the Roxbury Guys sketch, but that’s NOTHING compared to his appearance in this Cheerleaders sketch. It feels sad seeing him in such an out-of-place small role in such an overused recurring sketch.
— After the last two preceding Cheerleaders sketches, with Teri Hatcher and Jim Carrey, in which the sketches had an actual fleshed-out premise and told a story, we’re unfortunately back to the Cheerleaders sketches only consisting of Craig and Arianna simply doing various cheers for most of the sketch before being briefly interrupted by someone.
— One positive thing I’ll say is that I always love the song choice we get at the end of every Cheerleaders sketch while Craig and Arianna do their “perfect cheer”. Tonight, we get Salt-N-Pepa’s very catchy “Push It”.
STARS: **
TV FUNHOUSE
“It Takes Two To Tango” by RBS- Ace & Gary are The Ambiguously Gay Duo
— Yes! We get the debut of a brand-new SNL segment: TV Funhouse! It feels refreshing to see a new animated segment on SNL, for the first time in ages.
— What better way for TV Funhouse to debut than with an Ambiguously Gay Duo cartoon?
— Already a huge laugh early on from Ace and Gary’s penis-shaped car.
— Nice animation in this cartoon.
— All of the suggestively homoerotic actions between Ace and Gary are priceless.
STARS: ****
WEEKEND UPDATE
MTV personality Kincaid’s (ANG) commentary comprises retro TV references
Kerri Strug [real] & brother Kippy (CHK) remember the Atlanta Olympics
— Norm has new Weekend Update theme music, which I believe would go on to be used for the remainder of his tenure as Update anchor.
— An odd brief technical gaffe when Ana Gasteyer’s commentary begins.
— Ana Gasteyer in her very first SNL appearance, getting her own Update commentary as a character that would go on to be recurring.
— At first, Ana’s Kincaid commentary started getting tired to me pretty fast, but now, her character is getting so increasingly ridiculous that it’s making me laugh. And Ana is doing a good job going through all the various pop culture references in rapid-fire speed.
— Norm does his first-ever “You guessed it: Frank Stallone” joke, which would go on to be a running gag in his Updates.
— A somewhat memorable Update commentary now begins with Kippi and Kerry Strug.
— Chris is doing a good imitation of Kerri Strug’s chipper high-pitched voice, but the commentary itself is only okay at best. It’s not doing much for me.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Walls”
THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO
missing link Mr. Peepers (CHK) wreaks havoc on panel
— As always, a spot-on Leno impression from Darrell, and I especially like the accurate imitation of the type of bad, corny jokes Leno typically does on the Tonight Show.
— Ladies and gentlemen, we have a major recurring character debut!
— Mr. Peepers looks dirtier than I remember him looking in future appearances.
— As I said at some points in the preceding season, I’m going to approach the debuts of most of this era’s biggest and soon-to-be most annoying recurring characters by treating their respective first installment as a standalone sketch and pretending that I’m unaware it’s the first of a series of sketches.
— Between Weekend Update and this sketch, Chris is getting quite a lot of showcases tonight.
— Some great physical work from Chris here, and his characterization is cracking me up.
— I like the part with Tom trying to get Mr. Peepers to say “Jay Leno”.
— A huge laugh from Mr. Peepers humping Ana’s Andie MacDowell.
— Much like Goat Boy, I just know I’m eventually going to get very tired of Mr. Peepers when he becomes recurring, but for now, I’m enjoying him. I’d put him on the long list of SNL characters that would hold up better if they never became recurring.
STARS: ***½
CREATIVITY TEST
creativity test giver (TIM) tries to pull an original idea out of (host)
— I’ve never seen this sketch until now, and I’m very eager, because I’ve heard some really great things about this.
— Some good laughs during the word association test where Tom’s only way of “changing” the words Tim says is by simply pluralizing them.
— This feels like the first sketch all night that’s utilized Tom well.
— I’m enjoying all of the quirks of Tom’s character.
— I absolutely love Tom’s disturbing, lengthy detailed description of what he sees in the ink blot card, complete with background music. This is fantastic.
— Overall, this sketch definitely lived up to the hype.
STARS: ****½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Angel Dream”
CLASSIC SING-ALONG WITH THE DRUNKEN ASSES
album has tunes for happy hour
— Unfortunately, the copy I’m reviewing of this episode is missing most of this sketch. I don’t have enough time to dig up a full copy of this sketch, so I’m just going to have to give it an incomplete review. From what I remember of this sketch in past viewings, I recall finding it decent, though I’ve always kinda looked at it as a poor man’s version of the classic Irish Drinking Songs sketch, even if that’s probably not a fair comparison.
— This sketch would later be replaced with the dress rehearsal version in reruns. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that during the “Saying things you can never take back” part of this sketch in the live version, Will drunkenly tells Tim “You’re one of the good ones.” In the rerun version of that part, I believe Will instead drunkenly tells everyone “I have male and female genitalia!”
STARS: N/A
BRIEF HISTORIES
cannibalism wasn’t the only Donner Party hardship
— Hmm, interesting-seeming segment, especially with the use of nothing but black-and-white still photos and a voice-over to tell the story.
— Overall, a slow build-up, but eventually gave me some decent laughs, and they got me with the surprising “Also, they had to eat each other” twist at the end.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a great season premiere. Some of the returning bits from the preceding season didn’t work for me tonight (Cheerleaders, Goat Boy), and it felt like there wasn’t much in this episode that wasn’t characters we’ve already seen before or characters we’ll eventually be seeing ad nauseam. I also didn’t like the way Tom Hanks was utilized for most of the night. The man is an SNL hosting legend, but you’d think this writing staff didn’t know that, considering how often tonight he was relegated to just playing second fiddle to recurring or soon-to-be-recurring characters. The great Creativity Test sketch was the only time all night where Tom was allowed to fully thrive. It’s too bad that this ends up being the only time he’d host in this era, and it’s also too bad that this would begin an odd tradition where he only hosts every ten years (1996, 2006, 2016). Back to tonight’s episode, among the things I did like was the introduction of new miscellaneous segments that gave this season premiere a different feel from the preceding season: TV Funhouse and Brief Histories, though IIRC, the latter ends up only being a very short-lived recurring segment. TV Funhouse, on the other hand, ends up becoming a huge and important part of SNL for years to come.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1995-96)
a mild step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Lisa Kudrow
Yeah, after being absent for a few season, Hanks was severely underused in this episode, and the episode as a whole felt like a rehash mishmash. In fact, I’d say this season doesn’t really kick into gear until we got to the stretch of alumni hosts, and then remains a well-oiled machine through the end of the season.
…Or so the Germans would have us believe.
That particular Ace & Gary first aired on The Dana Carvey Show earlier that year, which I guess was going to be a regular segment on there if it lasted. Seems some of that Carvey Show staff carried over onto SNL at the start of the season, with Smigel, and briefly Colbert for the first half of the season. They also reused the Carvey’s same Charles Grodin and the Tom Brokaw/Gerald Ford sketches which both first aired on TDCS, I guess they figured the show was so underwatched, nobody would notice when they did it again on SNL.
Always wondered if Jim Breuer helped Tracy get onto SNL. They were pretty tight prior to SNL, both were on that other early 90s urban sketch show that wasnt In Living Color (what was it called? Uptown Comedy Club i wanna say?) Jim was kinda like the shows Jim Carrey token white guy. Tracy used his “Biscuit” character as part of his SNL audition, which was his big character on that show. I think he tried to get it onto SNL a couple times that first season, but it kept getting cut.
Thanks for finding that. I never knew they were on a show together…never knew of that show at all.
All those Dana Carvey Show sketches you’re discussing were from the unaired episode. That’s why they were used on SNL
Oh yeah I guess you’re right regarded Grodin and Brokaw, I didn’t see those on there until years later when the DVD came out. But I definitely remember first seeing Ace & Gary on there before it aired on SNL. Freakin’ loved that show, should’ve lasted so much longer than it did.
This one brought back lots of memories of how I felt at the time – tired recurring characters, hosts not being used properly, and most of all, a very generic feel. I guess I will get used to it as we’ll be getting variations of this tone for the rest of the decade, to increasingly diminishing returns. With that said, there are positives – less likelihood of outright bad episodes, and it’s a comfortable, cozy (if very loud) atmosphere for people to zone out for an hour and a half. There were still a few attempts at different styles, mostly buried at the back of the episode. TV Funhouse will go on to at times be the only good part of episodes once we reach the Tina Fey/Dennis McNicholas/Andrew Steele headwriting eras.
Interesting contrast seeing Hammond’s Clinton and Cheri’s Perot together. Even at this early stage, the former feels so clinical and dead – that lip bite and the endless thumbs up, seeking audience approval on automatic pilot. I did not laugh and I will likely not be laughing at any of the interminable reprisals over the next few decades. Cheri’s Perot (admittedly benefiting from only making a few appearances) is much more of a live wire and draws you into the character.
Ana’s Kincaid showcase was a pretty good example of performance winning out over a thin character. That she was able to be so confident in her very first episode is really something.
Kattan’s Mr. Peepers is an impressive physical performance, but I’d say the only sketch that is worth watching is the one with The Rock.
I did appreciate the inkblots sketch, Tom did very well, but it felt sort of out of place with the rest of the night.
I wonder how viewers felt at the time about Tom giving an Oscars speech 7 months after the Oscars aired. This made me wonder if the people who speculated that he was meant to host in season 21 were right.
Here are promos from the episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KlFADpv464
Wow, Wings was still on the air in 1996! I had completely forgotten it lasted that long . Pretty sure this was its last season. And a guest spot from Jenny McCarthy. Who would have her own
MTV sketch show and NBC sitcom within a year of this airing
I agree about Hammond. He’s a good impressionist but he’s far from the funniest and his Clinton impression was lackluster. At least in his stand up, Hammond also comes off like a very bitter guy which I guess is accurate. It’s subtle but the bitterness does come through in his on-stage persona.
Wow, I can’t believe Hanks has only hosted two more times after this (and I remember finding the 2006 episode really weak). Luckily, he bounced back in 2016.
I think this episode plays better as a season premiere, getting all the top recurring characters out there. That said, the recurring sketches are weak reprisals of better stuff (Roxbury), a questionable format choice (Goat Boy), and a step back in terms of content (Cheerleaders), and all three seem like something you would expect a non-comic host to be in.
Also it looks like Molly replaced Ana in the live version of the last sketch
Was Kincaid supposed to be a take on MTV’s “Alternative Nation” host Kennedy? (nowadays oddly enough, shes a FOX News regular) Thats what I’ve always assumed anyway.
I’m pretty sure she was. I could be wrong, but I think Kennedy’s time in vogue was already coming to a close. Much like Cinder Calhoun, though, Kincaid provided a pretty definite timestamp for her era.
Jim’s story of how he came up with Goat Boy always cracked me up.
I agree with whoever said this episode works best as a season premiere. I remember it being pretty well received at the time. The show had a bunch of hit recurring characters going on and people would have been waiting all summer to see them come back again. So I never had any problems with this episode. It was a nice little 1-2 punch with the Carrey one at the end of last season.
And I know you aren’t as high on it as I am, but I freaking LOVED Kippi Strug. I remember laughing so hard at that. Especially because we’d been hearing Kerri’s little chipmunk voice in interviews all summer. It was a surprisingly mean spirited take on 1996’s America’s Sweetheart, and I could not have loved it more. My wife and I still laugh at the whole “I said a little prayer!” “You said a little prayer?” exchange.
And Mr. Peepers was amazing the first time. Of course, diminishing returns killed that one like it kills all recurring characters, but that was one of the best bits of physical comedy I had ever seen on SNL up to that point. Kattan had a really strong first couple of episodes here during his SNL tenure. He started off great. People forget that.
I thought Kerri was a good sport to go along with it; I agree it was well-performed by Kattan.
This is probably the only time Norm seems genuinely amused by Kattan. (Chris also brings this up in his recent book.) Norm cracks up while interviewing the Strugs, and even exits the desk imitating Kippi’s hobble. Still early in Kattan’s tenure, so I wonder when their tension increased backstage.
Love Kattan as Kerri Strug’s brother. Just hilarious. Chris Kattan really did knock it out of the park as soon as he came onto the show (Roxbury Guys, Suel Forrester, Mr. Peepers, and his performance as Kippy Strug), it’s no wonder he stuck around as long as he did. I’m not sure when he became insufferable to me…probably around the 15th Mango sketch…? 🙂
Rather interesting in hindsight seeing that the main animator of the AGD segment is Tom Warburton, who later went on to create one of my favorite cartoons, Codename: Kids Next Door.
Here’s the original animatic for the TV Funhouse intro:
I feel they missed an opportunity to do a Bill Brasky sketch here. Seeing as how most of the other installments featured legacy hosts like Alec Baldwin and John Goodman, I think Tom Hanks would’ve fit in well as one of the drunk businessmen.
I wonder if Adam and Will contemplated writing one for this episode but ultimately decided against it so that it wouldn’t suffer from the diminishing returns many other recurring sketches face.
Ah, Saturday TV Funhouse. I’m ashamed to admit that I have watched nearly every episode and I JUST realized that the ‘Come back with my show’ guy was supposed to be Lorne Michaels.