Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NIGHTLINE
vindicated Heaven’s Gaters party aboard the comet-trailing UFO
— Will is absolutely priceless as Marshall Applewhite. A perfect role for him.
— A good laugh from Tim’s shoutout to his “homies” at the Deep Space Nine fan club.
— I love the part with Applewhite saying he regrets “the castration thing”.
STARS: ****
MONOLOGUE
host reads some not-very-prescient entries from his ’80s diary
— I like Rob’s way-off predictions about the future of his co-stars from “The Outsiders”.
— Some other laughs from Rob’s diary entries, such as him regretting not getting the part of the movie “Mannequin”.
— What was Rob’s “Youth for Dukakis rally” reference all about? Did something infamous happen there?
— I’m surprised this overall diary reading didn’t have any digs at Rob’s infamous sex tape scandal.
STARS: ***½
KEDS
unlike Nike-wearing Heaven’s Gaters, level-headed Christians prefer Keds
— Wow, SNL airing footage of actual dead bodies?
— The Keds twist at the end was fantastic.
STARS: ****½
THE JOE PESCI SHOW
Robert DeNiro (COQ) helps beat up celebrities
sheepish JMB & COQ hear criticism from Joe Pesci & Robert DeNiro [real]
— Colin is no Alec Baldwin when it comes to impersonating Robert DeNiro.
— Kattan playing David Spade? Oh my god.
— During the beginning of the Spade interview, I like Colin’s DeNiro saying “Where’s the fat guy? I like the fat guy.”
— Another good line from Colin’s DeNiro, saying “Buh-bye” while stomping Spade on the floor.
— Rob’s Eric Roberts voice is freakin’ priceless, and I’m enjoying his dialogue.
— A very famous sudden appearance from the real Pesci and DeNiro.
— I absolutely love Pesci’s calm-but-tense, slow-paced rant to Jim and Colin.
— One of SNL’s better instances of the familiar trope of “cast member gets confronted by the celebrity they’re impersonating”.
— Robert DeNiro to Colin: “Who are you supposed to be?” Colin: “Colin Quinn, Remote Control?”
— Overall, this would’ve been absolutely perfect as the final installment of this sketch, but we somehow still end up getting one more installment of this sketch, in the following season, showing that this era doesn’t know when to quit with recurring characters.
STARS: ****
FOOD, SEX, OR CARS?!
game show contestants choose among id-pleasers
— A gameshow sketch that I’ve always loved.
— The various choices for food, sex, or cars are getting increasingly hilarious as the sketch progresses.
— Fun pacing to this sketch.
— A particularly funny part with Will’s choices being a circus peanut, Bea Arthur, and a Dodge Dart, which Will responds to with “I don’t wanna eat, have sex, or drive any of those things.”
STARS: ****
GOTH TALK
teens Circe (MOS) & Azrael (CHK) rue their anachronistic lot
— This sketch makes its debut.
— A good timely sketch for this period.
— Funny characterization from Chris, and I especially like his line about working at Cinnabons.
— I love Jim as Chris’ douchey brother. What’s up with his weird belt, though? (screencap below)
— The “scary” video from Rob as The Beholder is very funny, and my favorite part of this sketch.
STARS: ****
TV FUNHOUSE
“X-Presidents” by RBS- Richard Nixon helps save Al Gore from aliens
— This feels like the first time in quite a while that they’re airing a TV Funhouse.
— As usual, we get some really funny badass one-liners from each president confronting a villain. I especially like Bush’s “Read my lips: your ass is grass” and Reagan’s “Just say no… to pissing me off.”
— I like the assistance the X-Presidents are getting from a reanimated Richard Nixon.
STARS: ***½
LESBIAN PROGRAMMING
NBC exec (MAM) & Mickey The Dyke introduce Ellen-inspired lesbian shows
— The lesbian-friendly programming changes are providing some laughs.
— We find out that Cheri’s Mickey The Dyke character’s real name is Michelle Russo. (If it was mentioned in an earlier sketch she appeared in, I didn’t notice.)
— I particularly laughed at the show titles “7 Lesbians and a Lesbian” and “Crazy About Muffy”.
— Interesting line at the end about NBC still not being ready to embrace male homosexuality.
STARS: ***½
WEEKEND UPDATE
— And there’s the famous moment of tonight’s Update: Norm uncontrollably goes “blaaagh” in the middle of a joke, then mutters “Fuck was that?”, trailing off at the end of that sentence when realizing he just said the f-word on live TV. It takes the audience a few seconds to realize it, but when they do, they wildly applaud. Norm responds to that by saying “Ahh, my farewell performance”.
— Much like a blooper in the Update from the then-recent Sting episode, we get another wrong camera shot while Norm’s in the middle of telling a joke, though unlike last time, this gaffe ends pretty fast and doesn’t distract Norm.
— Norm signs off at the end by saying, as a reference to his f-bomb slip earlier, “Maybe we’ll see you next week.”
STARS: ****
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Wannabe”
PERSPECTIVES
black major leaguer (TRM) explains Jackie Robinson’s import
— This is probably the earliest spot this sketch has ever aired in an episode.
— So far, tonight’s Perspectives installment has been one great line after another, with so many hilarious foolish statements from Tim’s Lionel Osborne, such as him asking Tracy what was it like to play with Jackie Robinson, asking Tracy if there were any other black players before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, and saying Tracy will be pumping gas if he doesn’t have a good season.
— A very solid straight man performance from Tracy.
— I particularly love Lionel Osborne jovially saying “Baseball fever, catch it!” after Tracy somberly mentions that Jackie Robinson’s family received death threats on a daily basis.
— Very funny ending with Lionel asking Tracy if he can come back as a guest in tomorrow’s episode and Tracy immediately responding with a stern “No.”
STARS: ****½
LA POLITICA NON CORRECTO
Hispanic panelists discuss issues irreverently
— Always interesting to see a sketch being performed entirely in a foreign language.
— This is perfectly capturing the essence of some of the shows typically seen on Spanish networks.
— A rare instance of Darrell actually being very funny in a non-impression role.
— I love how one of the panelists is randomly Scarface.
STARS: ***
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Say You’ll Be There”
RANT
waitress Janet Blaum’s (ANG) weak insults hamstring her labor uprising
— Geez, is this Ana’s first appearance all night? Then again, she may have been one of the non-speaking cult members standing in the background of the cold opening. If so, I didn’t notice.
— Ana’s awkward, poorly-censored, corny rant is hilarious. I especially cracked up “You are a… gigantic… manager!”
— Okay, Ana’s rant is going on longer than it needs to and is getting a little less funny, though it’s still providing laughs.
— I like Will and Jim’s amusement and mocking towards Ana’s questionable word choices.
STARS: ***½
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A strong and memorable episode, and the best one in a while. There was a good number of really solid sketches in this episode, plus some well-remembered moments, such as the Pesci/DeNiro cameo and Norm Macdonald’s accidental f-bomb.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Mike Myers)
a mild step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Pamela Lee
Your third and fourth points about the monologue are related. That’s where the sex tape joke was.
Not-so-fun fact: The rerun of this episode was interrupted (at least on the East Coast) with the news of Princess Diana’s car accident. I remember, because I was watching it live.
I might be wrong, but didn’t the Spice Girls performances receive some sort of infamy? Like they didn’t sound all that great live?
Looks like Jim’s wearing the kind of belt weightlifters use to keep from throwing their backs out.
Also, not going to lie, I would actually watch “Crazy About Muffy.”
Yep! My brother and I were ten and my dad let us stay up late to watch the Spice Girls on SNL. Instead we stayed up all night watching Princess Diana coverage.
I’ve always loved this episode. That Keds commercial was one of my favorite fake ads of the 90’s. And Food, Sex or Cars was great. I still quote it all the time.
I never really cared for this installment of The Joe Pesci Show (I could be alone with Andy Breckman on that one), mostly because they were plugging the “surprise” cameo by Pesci and DeNiro on Top 40 radio stations all week and it ended up looking, to my eyes, like the rest of the sketch was underwritten to meet that goal. At the very least, it’s not in league with the Baldwin, Carrey and Spacey installments. I think it’s also been said that they intended for Baldwin to reprise his DeNiro impression, but he was unavailable and so Quinn was cast at the last-minute. I don’t even remember Kattan playing Spade, and for that I’m quite grateful.
I think Andy was more upset that his brother’s, writer David Breckman, only sketch that season to make to make it pass dress was cut for time in this episode because the Joe Pesci sketch ran long; according to the Live From New York book.
It doesn’t do much for me either. The material before the cameo is poor and the cameo itself is overextended. The main quality comes from Joe Pesci’s performance, nothing else. Still, this is the best de Niro ever was on SNL.
I don’t think Rob was doing anything of note during this time. It was arguably the low point of his career (well maybe aside from a few years after the sex tape). This seemed like Lorne giving one of his friends a boost by allowing them to host.
Of course in a few years he gets the West Wing and Austin Powers…
And I also remember some controversy with the Spice Girls performing but can’t recall the specifics
Found the controversy of the Spice Girls –
“Back when platform boots and blonde highlights were all the rage, the Spice Girls’ SNL performance was the underwhelming act worth griping about. The disparity between their live vocals on “Wannabe” (which were more shouting than singing) and the abruptly perfect melody of the chorus drew speculation that the girls used a backing track to save the act.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/lana-del-rey-sinead-oconnor-and-more-worst-snl-performances-videos
He was in Tommy Boy and the first Austin Powers which would be released a few weeks after this episode. He was also in the flop
Mulholland Falls a year before.
Tommy Boy was 2 years earlier though. Austin Powers was a brief cameo. Things didn’t start to turn around again till West Wing
To back up my point Rob was doing a bunch of direct to video crap during the mid/late 90s. Yeah was close to becoming an 80s punchline but he turned it around
Haha, one of my favorite forgotten Ana Gasteyer characters. I remember an interview with her over the summer of that season (on Conan maybe?) mentioning that was her favorite character of hers and something she tried to get on all season and she hoped to do a couple more in the new season, guess that didn’t pan out.
The first Goth Talk was a classic, loved Rob Lowe as The Beholder. they seemed to get a lot less funny over time. I think the Jim Breuer-less installments were especially forgettable.
Always wished Rob Lowe hosted more after the 90s, he was one of those hosts you’d never expect would do so many funny impressions and characters each time.
I remember the later Goth Talks being very badly overacted. This one was a pleasant surprise. The tension Jim Breuer brings to the sketch helped. Considering how many sketches of this era had a quasi-homophobic undertone to the writing, it was also interesting to see the homophobic elements put out there so overtly.
I love Ana’s work but this is one of those types of comedy pieces I have a hard time watching – the type with people who just keep embarrassing themselves. I had a similar reaction to that sketch where Kirstie Alley was in a talk show audience.
Somebody beat me to the “Youth For Dukakis” explanation.
“Lesbian Programming” and the stills from “Update” take me back to what a Really Big Deal it became when Ellen DeGeneres officially came out. It’s difficult to capture the mood of 1997 in these times, but back then it was kind of a Big Thing and caused something of a stir. Another reason why SNL is valuable to a historian: you can witness people reacting in more-or-less real time to these kinds of events.
“Perspectives” – There really was a Jermaine Allensworth with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1997. I was an off-and-on viewer during this time and not that familiar with the newer cast members, so when this aired I thought the real Jermaine Allensworth was being interviewed.
I wonder what the real Jermaine Allensworth thought of being portrayed on SNL. He was a relatively obscure player (his career stats weren’t that bad, but he only played in MLB for four years), but I guess it was easier to randomly pick a guy that wasn’t well-known as opposed to someone like a Ken Griffey, Jr. that would require an actual impression.
@Cameron: I too remember thinking it was an interesting choice and wonder what the real Allensworth thought of it. He was a known name – the ’97 Pirates were a young team that surprised a lot of folks – but not a superstar like Griffey where you have to nail the impression. (We’ll see them do Griffey without Griffey in the “Baseball Dreams” sketch in late 1997, which did have several real major-leaguers of note therein.) It seems sort of random, but Tracy (who did resemble Allensworth in passing) sold it well enough that it fooled me, anyway.
Speaking of sports imitations, the next episode has a NASCAR-related sketch where Colin Quinn does a Dale Jarrett who isn’t quite Dale Jarrett, but since NASCAR as a cultural presence in 1997 was not what it would become a few years later, they could get away with it.
Happy Thanksgiving, Stooge (and everyone else too).
This is a decent episode. Nothing great (although Perspectives is a delight as always) but nothing bad. I’ve always found Rob Lowe offputting, but he’s a solid enough host. The monologue is a good reminder that we were already headlong into ’80s nostalgia by 1997 (really it started around 1996). We’ve remained there for over 20 years.
I was surprised at how many pieces they had covering the Heaven’s Gate story – a shift back toward being so openly about the news of the day, I guess. I was even more surprised they got that Nike ad through. Can’t see that happening these days.
Good to see poor Mark get another LFNY before he goes.
Too soon to have another X-Presidents but it’s watchable, anyway.
Modern SNL probably would have had the Spice Girls host, which I wouldn’t have minded too much – Mel B, at least, was a real presence.
The lesbian sketch (which was a clever idea and well-executed by Cheri and Mark) missed a trick by mentioning ER but not mentioning that they already had a lesbian character at this point (Maggie Doyle).
Did they remove the Bauhaus as the Goth Talk opening music in all the Comedy Central edits? Seems like they rarely got any of the music rights cleared in those 95-00 hour edits they picked up in the early 2000s. Would be a shame, wouldn’t feel the same with the generic soundalike music.
Lowe recently addressed the sex tape, which emanated from the convention that officially nominated Dukakis (arguably the modern major party presidential nominee least likely to be associated with the phrase “sex tape”).
https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-rob-lowe-sex-tape-regrets-20191023-ocjdhxba2jduhjobhh7hccpkym-story.html
When he hosted later in 1997, Rudy Giuliani specifically called out Jim Breuer during the pitch meeting, praising his Joe Pesci impression. …explains why they did one more after what should have been this final installment. (A relief, though they should’ve used the “character” in less talk show rehashes and more like when he interrupts Sly Stallone’s music intro in the next premiere,)
This re-aired during the summer I started becoming obsessed with SNL. I remember watching the Princess Di news interrupting the “live rerun”, and always associate this episode with her death. With that, the plentiful Heaven’s Gate material, Goth Talk, Norm’s fuckbomb, and reanimated Nixon, this episode has several spooky undertones.
Unfortunately, the version of Weekend Update that’s online mutes out Norm’s F-bomb! Boo!!!!
I love Janet Blaum’s rant. I wish I could find the video online somewhere. The transcript claims she says “wo not” but I’m sure I remember her saying “won’t not” and then Rob Lowe mocking “WON’T not?”