Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
LARRY KING LIVE
Ross Perot (DAC) & other third-party candidates
— Feels very odd to see Will playing Larry King, especially knowing that Norm takes over the impression later this season and would do a definitive take on him.
— A welcome sight to see Dana’s Ross Perot impression back.
— Will’s Larry King impression is reminding me a lot of Kevin Nealon’s impression of him.
— A funny bit from Perot about how we all love the visual of dictators.
— Hmm, Mark playing an insignificant role who’s lines always get cut off by a more popular performer. Sadly, this is unintentionally a spot-on representation of Mark’s time on the show this season.
— Chris playing a candidate from the Female Circumcision Party is really funny.
— While Dana’s Perot is making me laugh as usual and is selling this as best as he can, this cold opening is going on pretty long for something that’s thin on material.
STARS: ***
MONOLOGUE
DAC & his recurring characters sing “I Like To Be These People For You”
— Wow, that has to be THE longest ending note the SNL Band has ever played at the end of an episode’s theme music.
— I like Dana saying “I got wig hair, man!” when pointing out how unkempt his hair looks from the quick change he went through between the cold opening and monologue.
— Dana’s doing such a great job making funny little ad-libbed asides towards the audience. I had forgotten how great he is at improvising like that.
— A funny “I’m in denial” aside from Dana right after he claims he’s hosting because he currently has a hit show on ABC that follows Home Improvement.
— I absolutely love Dana’s song featuring various popular SNL characters and impressions of his. Very fun.
— The song gets even funnier when it gets to the point where Dana starts falsely claiming that among his SNL characters are Mr. Uneven Sideburns (a non-existent character), Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat, and Cheri’s Cheerleader character.
— Wow, what a visual of Dana dancing with all of his characters. Impressive special effects on SNL’s part.
STARS: ****½
HEY, REMEMBER THE 80’S
George Michael (DAC) & Joseph Hazelwood (MAM)
— Not excited to see this sketch become recurring.
— At least we get the return of Dana’s George Michael impression. Interesting seeing his George Michael have a more modernized look compared to the 80s version of George Michael that Dana used to always play.
— Boy, Jim seems to be going PARTICULARLY heavy on the goat-braying sounds in tonight’s installment. Sorry, Jim, but it’s not making this tepid material any funnier.
— Some laughs from George Michael going on about the power of his butt.
— A big laugh from Goat Boy biting into George Michael’s butt when hearing a high-pitched tone from it.
— A wild, out-of-control melee with Goat Boy going nuts with the prod that he snatches away from the scientists. Decent way to end this sketch. That ending and the aforementioned bit with Goat Boy biting into George Michael’s butt are ALMOST enough to save this entire sketch.
STARS: **½
THE BARBARA WALTERS SPECIAL
Elizabeth Dole (ANG) lauds her husband
— An interesting Ana Gasteyer showcase.
— I love Cheri-as-Barbara-Walters’ delivery of “Will somebody get me a towel? I’ve just been doused with a bucket of southern comfort!”
— Cheri’s Barbara Walters is developing more and more into the version that SNL fans today are familiar with.
— Ana’s Elizabeth Dole trying to get more and more comfortable throughout the interview (slipping into fuzzy bunny slippers, unbuttoning her skirt, drinking beer, etc.) is providing pretty good laughs. This sketch is a solid early use of Ana.
STARS: ***½
BROKAW PRE-TAPES
Tom Brokaw (DAC) pre-tapes news to cover Gerald Ford death contingencies
— A very popular SNL sketch, one that I hear was originally performed on Dana’s short-lived ABC show.
— There’s Dana-as-Tom-Brokaw’s first utterance of a line that would be ingrained into the brain of hardcore SNL fans: “Gerald Ford dead today…”
— The increasingly outlandish death scenarios for Gerald Ford are priceless. Some of my favorite Ford death scenarios are overdosing on crack cocaine, eaten by wolves, and strangled to death by Richard Nixon’s corpse.
— During the aforementioned “eaten by wolves” part, I love Brokaw adding in the detail “He was delicious”, then when Brokaw questions why he said that, the off-camera director responds “He’s a former president, Tom. What are you saying, he’s not delicious?”
— The director telling Brokaw “Fine, we’ll get Stone Phillips to do it” reminds me that SNL would later do a sketch in a bit of a similar vein to this with Rob Lowe as Stone Phillips taping various intros for Dateline NBC.
STARS: *****
WEEKEND UPDATE
Joe Blow talks about decadent behavior he witnessed in Yankee Stadium
— A rare miss for an O.J. joke from Norm. I’m not even sure how this particular one was even supposed to be funny.
— Joe Blow makes his first appearance of the season.
— Did Colin lose weight since season 21? He looks thinner here.
— As always, some really funny ranting from Joe Blow. I especially love him detailing the odd way he and his brothers used to eat hot dogs when they were kids.
— Okay, we now get a better O.J. joke from Norm.
— I like the oddly awkward way tonight’s Update ended, as if Norm was surprised this was the end of Update.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Been There Done That”
CHURCH CHAT
Church Lady judges O.J. Simpson (TIM) & Madonna (MOS)
— Church Lady makes her SNL return for the first time since Dana publicly announced his retirement of her on SNL in February 1991. Feels nice to be able to review a Church Chat sketch for the first time since season 16.
— Fun to see Church Lady interviewing more modern (for 1996) celebrities, which is something that’s always interesting to see whenever Dana brings this sketch back in his post-cast member days.
— Decent song at the end.
STARS: ****
BOB DOLE’S TIME TUNNEL
the future visits young Bill Clinton (DAC)
— Fantastic concept. I love the idea of this sketch.
— Wow, it feels weird seeing Dana playing Bill Clinton on SNL.
— Hilarious visual of Norm’s Dole dressed as a hippie.
— Interesting seeing Dana’s young Clinton and Darrell’s modern Clinton side-by-side.
— Funny ending with a callback to Chris’ Female Circumcision Party candidate character from the cold opening.
STARS: ****
HALLOWEEN
Rita Delvecchio receives trick-or-treaters & battles Halloween pranksters
— I always like this Rita Delvecchio character. There’s a realistic, slice-of-life aspect to her that I enjoy.
— A meta turn, with two trick-or-treaters dressed as SNL’s Spartan Cheerleaders, which shows what a huge part of pop culture those two characters had become. This portion of the sketch gets even more meta with Cheri’s Rita saying in regards to the Cheerleaders “If I see that freakin’ skit one more time, I’m gonna put my foot through the TV”, echoing the complaints of some SNL fans (including myself).
— The Madonna bit is pretty funny.
STARS: ***
JOHNNY CARSON AND PHIL DONAHUE: THE RETIREMENT YEARS
retirees Phil Donahue (DAH) & Johnny Carson (DAC) look for latter’s keys
— A fun use of Dana’s Johnny Carson and Darrell’s Phil Donahue, and it’s interesting seeing them in a normal setting, outside of their usual talk shows.
— As usual, some great run-on ranting from Darrell’s Donahue.
STARS: ****
RUSSELL & TATE
attorneys Russell (TIM) & Tate (TRM) have the means to get you your money
— Nice to see Tim and Tracy paired together for the very first time. This is also Tracy’s very first really meaty role in a live sketch.
— Some really funny lines from Tim and Tracy regarding how they’re gonna “git’cho money”.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— The first strong episode of the season. This was as solid and fun as a Dana Carvey episode can be expected to be. Almost every single sketch was enjoyable, several were great, and one was a true classic (Brokaw Pre-Tapes). Even the weakest sketch, Hey Remember The 80’s, was slightly more tolerable than the usual installments of it.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Pullman)
a big step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
The second of five consecutive episodes hosted by a former cast member. This time, it’s Chris Rock, with special guest Dana Carvey (yes, you read right).