Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NIGHTLINE
Madonna (ANG), Debbie Reynolds (CHO), Courtney Love (MOS)
— This is the first time Darrell’s Ted Koppel has appeared all season, which is surprising, considering the frequency of his appearances in the preceding season.
— Interesting seeing Cheri playing Debbie Reynolds outside of a Leg Up sketch.
— Funny little part with Darrell’s Koppel scoffing at the Golden Globes when it’s compared to the Oscars.
— A good throughline with Molly’s now-straitlaced Courtney Love slowly relapsing to her former self over the course of the sketch.
— Maybe it’s just me, but Ana seems kinda miscast as Madonna.
— A big laugh from Debbie Reynolds telling Madonna “Nice try, venereal girl.”
— I love the part with Darrell’s Koppel going on about the pleasure he got from fantasizing about Carrie Fisher in Return Of The Jedi.
— A dark but funny cutaway to Madonna having hanged herself.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
CHC brings his alleged family on-stage after thanking them for their love
— Seems like we’re in for another genuinely sentimental Chevy Chase monologue, like his last one in season 21 where he gave a heartfelt reminiscence of getting ready for the first SNL episode’s cold opening.
— Ah, we end up getting a comedic turn with Chevy’s obviously-fake family joining him onstage. A mildly funny gag, but wasn’t worth such a long, serious set-up.
STARS: **½
HOME SECURITY DECOYS
Rerun from 10/19/96
CLINTON’S ITINERARY
petty money-making ventures dominate Bill Clinton’s (DAH) itinerary
— Funny opening visual of Darrell’s President Clinton chowing down on some pancakes in the Oval Office.
— Very funny part with Mark having paid five dollars to “kick Clinton in the ass”.
— I believe Tim’s small appearance would later be removed in Comedy Central’s 60-minute version of this episode. No idea why, unless they just needed to trim a few extra seconds to get the episode down to 60 minutes.
— Chevy is pretty sloppy with some of his lines here.
— Funny part with a Thailand real estate agent wanting Clinton to wear an S&M outfit.
— Solid turn at the end with Nom’s Bob Dole temporarily taking over as the president.
STARS: ***
O.J. SIMPSON PUNITIVE AND COMPENSATORY DAMAGES TELETHON
O.J. Simpson (TIM) emcees telethon to raise money for civil suit damages
— A funny opening announcement of the line-up of guests (e.g. The Banana Splits, Herb of Peaches & Herb, etc.).
— This is the only time I can think of where Will ever plays Harry Caray outside of Weekend Update and the “Space: The Infinite Frontier” sketches.
— Harry Caray’s trombone-playing is cracking me up.
— I like Tim’s O.J. threatening a phone caller by bluntly asking “How’d you like it if I come over there and cut your head off?”, then turning to the camera and casually saying in a light-hearted manner “But seriously, folks…”
STARS: ***½
BIRTHDAY MEDLEY
Marty & Bobbi sing a coming-of-age medley at niece’s 16th birthday party
— The Culps officially become recurring characters.
— As usual, I’m being tickled by Will and Ana’s opening banter and statements to the off-camera audience.
— Funny hearing Will singing “Lay, Lady, Lay”, considering a sketch he would later do with Robert Duvall the following season, in which Will sings “Lay, Lady, Lay” to Duvall as a hospital patient.
— As always, a fun and amusing medley of Will and Ana singing operatic-sounding versions of hit songs. I especially like them singing the theme from “Rocky”.
STARS: ***½
SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT
20th anniversary re-release of Smokey & the Bandit contains a Yoda scene
— Funny fake-out at the beginning, where the opening narration made you think they were talking about the original Star Wars movie, only for it to turn out to be another 1977 movie: Smokey And The Bandit.
— A laugh from Yoda randomly being shown as one of the truckers.
— Overall, this was decent, but forgettable and too brief. I wanted this to go further.
STARS: ***
CHARLIE ROSE
Goat Boy, Cow Man (CHC), others discuss legal system
— Oh, that’s right, Chevy Chase is tonight’s host. The last sketch he appeared in was so long ago that I almost forgot this episode even had a host.
— Goat Boy’s shtick has now gotten to the point where I’m completely stone-faced during it.
— On a similar note, Chevy as “Cow Man” is doing absolutely nothing for me.
— Boy, the combo of Goat Boy’s braying and Cow Man’s moos is grating on my ears. It doesn’t help that Chevy is putting zero effort into his performance.
STARS: *½
WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ thinks that Bill Clinton’s infidelities should be no big deal
— One of my all-time favorite offensive Michael Jackson jokes from Norm, with the punchline being that MJ’s three-day-old son is such a chip off the old block that he’s already molesting a one-day-old boy.
— They seem to be making it a regular thing for Colin to do Update commentaries as himself with a graphic of celebrity pictures being displayed next to him.
— An overall pretty good commentary from Colin tonight.
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lakini’s Juice”
7 ACTION NEWS
news anchor (CHC) returns to the desk following a credibility breakdown
— What was with Chevy’s random mumbly, half-assed pronunciation of “Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers Circus”? Was that yet another instance of Chevy’s long-standing habit of trying to make a “funny” bit out of a flubbed line? (*groan*)
— This sketch isn’t doing much for me so far. I blame Chevy’s performance. This seems like the type of sketch that 1970s Chevy Chase could’ve gotten some laughs out of, back when he was in his prime, but not 1990s Chevy Chase, who is beyond checked-out.
— An interesting, out-of-the-ordinary casting of Colin as a news station boss.
— Overall, blah. Didn’t care for this sketch.
STARS: *½
PLAYING FIRST DATE
Zimmermans (CHK) & (CHO) spice up their marriage by playing “first date”
— The debut of Chris and Cheri’s sex-crazed couple, the Zimmermans.
— I’m getting some laughs from Chris and Cheri constantly censoring themselves on saying “fuck” during their dirty talk to each other.
— Good characterizations from Chris and Cheri here.
— An oddity about this first Zimmermans sketch is that the Zimmermans are alone. Part of what makes the subsequent installments of this sketch work is that each of them have another married couple for the Zimmermans to play off of.
— Good twist at the end with it being revealed that the Zimmermans have a baby in the other room and were merely playing “first date” with each other. By the way, the aspect of the Zimmermans having a baby would be dropped from all subsequent installments of this sketch.
STARS: ***
FITTING ROOM PEEPHOLE
department store employees (WIF) & (CHC) peep at (MOS) in dressing room
— Interesting casting of Norm in a normal straight man role.
— During his excited exclamations while peeping on Molly, I love Will saying at one point “Heeeey, Macarena!”
— A few laughs here and there, but this sketch isn’t anything great so far. Even Norm’s straight man performance isn’t making me laugh quite as much as I expected it to.
— While a cheap gag, I did kinda laugh at the ending with Will and Chevy agreeing to let Will peep on Chevy trying on a women’s bathing suit.
STARS: **
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Heropsychodreamer”
CHOPPER 4
newsstand owner Andrew (MAM) is obsessed with fog-penetrating Chopper 4
— This is remembered by a number of SNL fans as a rare Mark McKinney season 22 showcase, and possibly the last great SNL sketch he ever does where he plays an original lead character.
— Great voice and characterization from Mark.
— (*groan*) I see they’re having Chevy do his old “constantly calling people by the wrong names” routine, which stopped being funny ages ago.
— Mark’s bizarre Chopper 4 obsession is getting big laughs from me.
— Funny stock footage ending of Mark happily riding inside a Chopper 4 that he stole.
STARS: ****
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A pretty “meh” episode. Some good stuff, but I was not crazy about this episode as a whole. I’m having a hard time even remembering a lot of the sketches I just watched. A big part of the reason for the “meh” feeling of this episode is Chevy Chase, who came off even more disinterested and bland as a host than he had ever been prior to tonight’s episode, and that’s saying something. It also didn’t help that things weren’t too pleasant behind the scenes during the week of this episode. Chevy’s notorious habit of pissing off the SNL cast and staff whenever he comes back to host came to a head this week, in an incident during rehearsals in which he reportedly smacked Cheri Oteri in the head when she flubbed a line. I believe this is widely considered to be the straw that broke the camel’s back in regards to Lorne’s tolerance for Chevy’s asshole-ish behavior, as this would end up being the final episode that Chevy would ever host, though he would still make occasional cameos.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Neve Campbell)
a step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin
I’d have to go down the list but I believe that with this final hosting episode, Chevy never had a single return where he wasn’t checked out or completely out of it. Despite being one of the funniest cast members ever in his short time on the show, he just squandered that so quickly after he left.
Chevy sucked the air out of the room with every guest host appearance, unless he was working off Steve Martin and Martin Short. I believe that this was the episode responsible for Will Ferrell later referring to him as the worst guest host he’d ever worked with.
IIRC, Will was also one of the first people to blow the whistle on Chevy’s horrible conduct as he immediately notified Lorne after hearing about the abuse Cheri received from him.
Is Chevy the single worst SNL host of all time? For lifetime achievement he’s got to be up there. I can’t remember enjoying one of his return appearances even once. What a waste of talent he turned into.
Of the Five Timers Club, he’s got to easily be the worst, right? There’s people I don’t find particularly funny (Melissa McCarthy), but seem well liked and I recognize are good hosts if you like that kind of humor. Chevy seems to be the only semi-regular host who is disliked and didn’t actually turn in good episodes.
I don’t think Chevy is the worst host but he wouldn’t have been given so many chances if he hadn’t been an original castmember.
Fair enough if you’re putting Chevy towards the bottom of that list, but my vote for worst member of the Five Timer’s Club is Jonah Hill. I still can’t wrap my head around how that one happened.
Jonah Hill as a five-timer doesn’t really bother me. He has a recurring character that generally works and he’s been a part of a handful of unique and entertaining sketches. In fact, I’d rank the five-timers thusly:
1. Alec Baldwin (17) – Hosted in a ton of eras delivering classics (90, 93, 06) and near-classics (98, 11) all along the way. His Trump garbage doesn’t sully his hosting legacy.
2. Christopher Walken (7) – Less prolific, but no less-than-very good episodes. One major recurring character paired with a ton of classic sketches.
3. Tom Hanks (9) – The MAN during his early shows. A killer run of episodes. His returns in 96 and 06 were far less impressive, but 16 was a nice step up. Characters galore. The best host during the show’s best era.
4. Steve Martin (15) – Achieved icon status in the 70s in tandem with the show, even if some of those episodes are are a tad overrated. Returned in grand fashion in the 80s, but tapered significantly in the 90s. The 06 and 09 episodes are eh.
5. Buck Henry (10) – Mr. Consistency in the 70s. Buck’s episodes run together, but in the best way possible. No incredible episodes, but no duds either. Who else could pull off Uncle Roy?
6. John Goodman (13) – Mr. Consistency in the 90s. His mid-90s run is especially impressive, though Goodman often feels like a warm body in some of the episodes.
7. Ben Affleck (5) – Likely not a popular pick, but a self-effacing and engaged host that I always enjoyed. His first 04 episode is a classic. In fact, I think only his 2013 episode is less than very good.
8. Dwayne Johnson (5) – A novelty in his first episode, but bona fide by his last. The best sign of a good host is if you could reasonably compile a Best Of special based on their sketches. The Rock has probably landed that within just five episodes.
9. Tina Fey (6) – Tina’s cool with me and has done some fine fine episodes and some classic sketches, though the middle portion of her episodes are kind of a blur to me.
10. Will Ferrell (5) – Haven’t watched the new one yet, but Will still knows how to bring it. Don’t think the nostalgia act is needed though.
11. Drew Barrymore (6) – Hosted as a child, so that one is a write-off, but she got really good as she kept returning and delivered a truly wall-to-wall great episode in 07.
12. Elliot Gould (6) – Hosted the show’s first truly great, self-sufficient episode. Relaxed and dorkily cool, Elliot was the ideal host of the 70s. Each subsequent episode after his first is a minor step back, however, resulting in an iffy 80-81 premiere.
13. Bill Murray (5) – A ball of energy, Bill brought the heat in 1981 as the original cast’s first defector. Some good episodes after that, but it always felt like something was still being left on the table.
14. Candice Bergen (5) – Hosted a couple decent-ish SNL Mach 1 episodes in 75, but helmed an all-timer in 76. Feel free to skip her 80s return though.
15. Melissa McCarthy (5) – A revelation in her first episode. A repetition for the next three. Her fifth episode was a step up though.
16. Jonah Hill (5) – Not a stalwart, but each of his episodes have yielded strong-ish sketches and he has a recurring piece that actually works pretty well.
17. Justin Timberlake (5) – As self-satisfied as he is talented. His first episode is strong, and his next two have their highlights, but he resorted to the greatest hits malaise faster than any host in the show’s history. Beloved by a newer generation, though.
18. Paul Simon (5) – Lorne’s buddy. His 75 episode is a music special and his 80 episode barely even counts as a hosting appearance (the debate rages on). His 87 episode is fabulous and he appeared in a turkey costume once a decade earlier. But yeah, the loosest definition of a five-timer.
19. Danny Devito (6) – Everybody rightly loves Danny, but I don’t think he has hosted a truly worthwhile episode. Some fun sketches, but no sustained excellence.
20. Scarlett Johannson (5, soon to be 6) – Dating the head writer. Never a bad host, but always stunned she got more than one episode. Just, why?
21. Chevy Chase (8) – A nostalgia act. Still had some heat on his fastball in 77-78, but was a flop sweating mess by 79. If his episodes have any highlights, they have nothing to do with Chevy.
Carson, generally agree with that list although I probably would rank McCarthy more towards the bottom. Personal taste I guess. She’s obviously ultra talented but her humor just doesn’t do it for me. Scar Jo’s eps. have been more boring than bad per day
* per say
Ranking McCarthy is tricky, because I find her generally likable and can definitely see how she would have been a hit on SNL, but I’d also say that 60% of her episodes are outright bad. I don’t quite blame her though. It was likely the writer’s stopped working those weeks and just forced McCarthy to vamp her way through very thin premises.
Whoa, did not know that about Chevy allegedly smacking Cheri. Not cool, not cool at all.
I was never a big fan of the Zimmermans, although I guess they have value from a performances POV and as a way of gauging the evolution of censorship. I vaguely recall the Heather Graham installment including an allusion to Chris going down on Cheri.
Chevy Chase pretty much pissed away his A-list status by 1997, albeit not as bad as the film he promotes, Vegas Vacation (with the National Lampoon branding excised thanks to J2 Communications running both brand and magazine into the ground). You’d think with a host mainly there for nostalgia, Chase keeps the backstage drama to a minimum, but no.
It’s why I don’t understand why he later appears as a member of the Five-Timers Club. Why does SNL want to draw ATTENTION to a collection of disinterested and/or wasted episodes? Thanks to this episode, one can legitimately call Chase a lolcow and justify the insult.
Just now realizing Marks Chopper 4 guy is the same voice he uses for his Superstore character now.
Smacking Cheri Oteri in the head is uncalled for, but Chevy could totally redeem himself if he returned to the studio these days and smacked Cecily Strong in the head!
Or just not hit anyone, and you’re an asshole?
Thank goodness this is Chevy’s last hosting stint.
The evils of opioids.
I wish I knew what happened to Chevy after he left the show that made him like this. I understand he was difficult backstage even during seasons 1-2, but at least he was still funny on-air. That said, his first hosting stint (1978) and the one in ‘86 were pretty good. And my theory is this: he felt he had something to prove to Belushi and Aykroyd (and the cast) on his first return visit. And for the one in ‘86, he was newly sober and also didn’t want to be outshone by Steve Martin/Martin Short. All the other times, he expected to be hailed as a comedy genius, and everyone else is beneath him.
On a related note, it has always bothered me that he’s not listed as “host” for the season 6 finale… he was more involved and prominent there than, say, George Carlin in episode 1. Or certain other hosts who did a weak monologue and not much else aside from generic straight roles
I think Chevy significantly drags down the 86 episode (that Update bit – yeesh), but his 92 and 95 are generally fine.
Well, the fact he didn’t do a monologue possibly had something to do with Chevy not being listed as a host (and he didn’t intro the musical guest that night, either…)
The worst part of Chevy hosting is how much energy he drains out of sketches. Most of what he has here is already flat anyway, or his role is too small to get in the way, but the anchorman sketch could have been much better with a different host. Why not save it for Baldwin? Seeing him ruin a good sketch with his complete lack of effort is just depressing.
Speaking of depressing, I just can’t take the Zimmermans. Another Kattan caricature.
The Nightline cold open was a good idea, padded out a little too long. I did like Molly’s Courtney and the slow impending meltdown. Ana’s Madonna is just sort of there (good punchline though). Cheri’s Debbie Reynolds never bore any resemblance to the real Debbie and really wasn’t all that funny.
The Clinton sketch feels like Jim Downey’s voice, and doesn’t match Hammond’s portrayal. It’s very heavy politically, while Hammond mostly stuck to smirk smirk, thumbs up thumbs up, lip bite lip bite. The main amusement is in the supporting work, like Mark McKinney kicking him in the backside.
Speaking of not working, the OJ stuff really was so played out by this point, but I did enjoy the telethon sketch. Harry Caray is always a gem, but Tim also gives a very commanding performance. (and what a surprise Chevy is kept out of this one entirely given his struggles to perform a sketch)
The first high point of the episode was Colin Quinn’s Update piece. Sharp, clearly delivered, and not just a garbled attempt at the everyday-man’s-perspective that Colin often relied on. He makes some great points, especially the bit about Faye Resnick. I am going to miss seeing Colin getting to do all this stuff and not be stuck as anchorman.
Second high point was the Mark McKinney sketch. So great to see him get a showcase for his whimsical talents and it works so well, even Chevy doesn’t get in the way. I just didn’t notice so much of this material at the time, buried under all the shouting. I’m glad I can appreciate it now.
I can’t help but think that there could’ve been at least five people at this point in time during this particular season that could’ve hosted other than this asshole. He had no energy whatsoever to do any sketches. Add the annoyance of Mark McKinney, who I absolutely love except for the chopper 4 sketch. Chase’s notoriety backstage has long been that way since the 70s. I personally feel that right after he left in 1976, he should have stayed gone. I really can’t think of anything notable that he would’ve been remembered for except for the first season of NBC‘s Saturday Night. He is, without question number one on my most hated Saturday Night Live cast members of all time. The only reason I sit through his episodes, are because I want to have every single episode in SNL history in my collection. I would happily sit through some of the worst episodes back to back than watch anything that this dick wad ever hosted. If you look at all of his prior hosting’s or guest appearances, his cocky and arrogant looks on his face disgust the ever loving shit out of me.
Five-Timers Individual Rankings:
6.8 – Chevy Chase/Queen (8.01)
6.8 – Three Amigos/Randy Newman (12.06)
6.6 – Chevy Chase/Billy Joel (3.11)
6.5 – Chevy Chase/Lisa Loeb (21.02)
6.1 – Chevy Chase/Robbie Robertson (17.11)
5.9 – Chevy Chase/Marianne Faithfull (5.10)
5.9 – Chevy Chase/Live (22.13)
5.5 – Chevy Chase/Sheila E. (11.02)
Pretty funny his “highest rated “ episode by this metric is the one he is not physically present for.