Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
OPRAH
Marv Albert (NOM) discusses his unusual sexual practices
— It’s noteworthy that this is the very first live SNL episode to have an NBC station bug in the bottom corner of the screen, as can be seen in this review’s screencaps.
— A laugh early on from Tim-as-Oprah’s “I lost 20 pounds!….aaaaand I gained 35” announcement when talking about her summer.
— A humorous way to tackle that summer’s Marv Albert scandal.
— Yet another great celebrity impression from Norm.
— Oprah: “Here’s the difference between you and me, Marv: I like to eat baklava, baby back ribs, and back bacon. But you like to eat back.” Marv Albert: “Yessss! And ASS!”
— Marv Albert: “Usually when I eat pizza, I do not have a FULL ERECTION!”
— Yet another funny line from Marv Albert, with his “It’s great to have the support of Rod!”, which is more funny for Norm’s delivery of it.
STARS: ****
OPENING MONTAGE
— New montage.
— Yikes. SNL, what are you doing with this montage? This is just plain bad. The graphics are overly simplistic and boring, and this has the distinction of being the only SNL opening montage to not show any New York City scenery. SNL opening montages and NYC scenery should go hand-in-hand. Overall, this is easily the worst opening montage in SNL history, in my opinion.
— I recall hearing that there was a new Ed Sullivan Show commercial at this time that the style of this SNL opening montage seemed to be inspired by. I’m curious to see that Ed Sullivan commercial for myself, just to compare to this opening montage.
— The new theme music isn’t bad, though, and the fast tempo of it fits this montage well. Speaking of the new theme music, it’s actually different from the one that would soon go on to be regularly used for this montage.
— Colin Quinn has been promoted from featured player to repertory player.
— After debuting a year ago, TV Funhouse now has the honor of being credited in the opening montage, being billed as “A Cartoon by Robert Smigel”, which feels like a nice throwback to how the opening montage in season 1 used to credit “A Film by Albert Brooks”.
MONOLOGUE
trainer Mickey (JMB) advises host- “less Cop Land, more Rocky”
— Jim’s impression of Burgess Meredith’s Mickey character from “Rocky” is cracking me the hell up, though I’m aware that some SNL fans at the time considered it a bit tasteless, considering Burgess Meredith had recently passed away.
— Funny walk-on from Tracy as Mr. T (wearing the same camouflage pants Tracy wore as Mike Tyson in the cold opening).
— A fun, energetic turn this monologue takes at the end when Sylvester allows himself to go full-on Rocky.
STARS: ***½
XEROX ASSJET 790
the Xerox Assjet 790 photocopier is optimized for office hijinks
— Every time I’ve seen this commercial in the past, I’ve always howled at the part where Will as the spokesman asks us, in regards to a sophisticated copier, “But can it copy your ass?” as Jim is seen in the background accidentally crashing ass-first through the copy machine. During that part, you can hear screaming laughter from a woman in the audience.
— It’s Colin Quinn’s first episode as a repertory player, and he makes his ONLY appearance of the whole night in a brief, silent role in a pre-taped ad. Geez. An early sign of the huge struggle for airtime Colin is going to have in the first half of this season, before he gets the Weekend Update anchorperson gig mid-season when Norm gets canned.
— A particularly funny feature of the Assjet, with the butt-shaped bucket that you place your ass onto.
— A very funny and solid execution of a juvenile premise.
STARS: ****
NEW CAR
Rita Delvecchio is excited when husband (host) brings home a new Cadillac
— I’m kinda surprised they’re leading off the season premiere with this, but I’m not complaining, as I always like this character and find her to have more depth than most of this era’s recurring characters.
— Interesting how we now get to see Rita Delvecchio’s husband for the first time ever.
— The car alarm saying “Back away from the freakin’ car” in a monotone goombah voice made me laugh way more than it should’ve.
— I like Rita’s anger over Molly having ridden in the new car first.
— We get a Frank Stallone reference from Sylvester.
STARS: ***½
ACCIDENT
car wreck victims (NOM) & (ANG) slam host’s career when he comes to help
— Here comes one of my all-time favorite Norm Macdonald sketches.
— Seems to be a car theme in tonight’s sketches so far.
— Great premise of a dying Norm calling out Sylvester on his bad movies.
— I got a huge laugh from Norm’s sudden yell of “GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I just remembered ‘Staying Alive’!”
— I particularly love the part right now with Norm snarking on the ridiculous premise of “Over The Top”, involving Sylvester arm-wrestling for the custody of his son (I can’t even describe that movie’s premise with a straight face).
— Sylvester’s a good sport to allow this sketch.
— Will, to Sylvester: “The man is injured and he happens to think ‘Tango & Cash’ is jackass, so you hit him?!?”
— Norm, in a panicked, half-conscious manner: “Stop… Stop… Stop… Or My Mom Will Shoot sucked.” I also love Sylvester begrudgingly repeating to everybody “He said ‘Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot’ SUCKED!!!”
— A priceless ending with Will finding a copy of “Rambo” in Norm’s possession, only for it to turn out to be a porno titled “Rambone”.
STARS: *****
THE ROXBURY GUYS
Roxbury Guys take Rocky (host) on the town & teach him how to dance
— Meh, this sketch again, although having this installment be a crossover with “Rocky” has promise and might add some new life to this recurring sketch.
— This is the third consecutive sketch tonight to involve a car. Just a random little thing I’ve been noticing.
— I like the turn with Rocky’s “I can’t dance!” outburst.
— Sylvester’s performance is fun, and is helping to make this sketch more tolerable than most of the latest Roxbury Guys installments.
— Not sure what the point is of Rocky being joined by a large group of kids dressed as the Roxbury Guys. Seems corny to me. Maybe this is just SNL’s way of showing how much the popularity of the Roxbury Guys sketches has been taking the nation by storm, much like how a Halloween sketch that SNL did in the preceding season involved, at one point, two trick-or-treating kids dressed as the Spartan Cheerleaders. Is there a “kids dressed as Mary Katherine Gallagher” sketch that SNL eventually does, to complete the trifecta?
STARS: ***
INVESTIGATION
Janet Reno (WIF) mulls Clinton fund-raising charges; Richard Jewell cameo
— I have to laugh at how the real Richard Jewell showed up just to punch Will’s Janet Reno in the gut and then immediately leave.
— I am kinda liking the montage of Reno in deep thought at various locations.
— This overall sketch felt a little weak and seemed kinda underdeveloped compared to other Janet Reno sketches.
STARS: **½
TV FUNHOUSE
“Fun With Real Audio” by RBS- flatulence dominates Casablanca outtakes
— I can appreciate a well-done fart gag, but man, this cartoon is NOT working for me and is very one-note.
— That’s it? The cartoon is over? I was hoping this would take an unexpected turn. Overall, this is, by far, my least favorite TV Funhouse to air up to this point.
STARS: **
WEEKEND UPDATE
Cinder Calhoun sings “Sausage of Pain” to protest existence of hot dogs
though Richard Jewell [real] has been cleared, NOM is still suspicious
— The audience reactions to some of Norm’s jokes are pretty delayed.
— Did I just hear Norm say “flemale” instead of “female” during the WNBA joke?
— Ana’s Cinder Calhoun character, who made her debut in an ensemble sketch the preceding season, now makes her first Weekend Update appearance, with a bit of a different physical appearance.
— Good characterization from Ana here.
— A pretty good laugh from the little touch with Cinder Calhoun’s accented pronunciation of the word “Latina”.
— Funny “Sausage of Pain” song from Cinder.
— Boy, Norm could not look any less interested during this Cinder Calhoun commentary.
— Another Richard Jewell cameo.
— Meh, this Richard Jewell commentary isn’t too funny, but I am liking Norm’s delivery throughout it.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL GUEST INTRO
Joe Pesci (JMB) is upset with host for stealing his co-stars
— A nice deviation from SNL’s usual straightforward musical guest intros.
— I like Jim’s Pesci complaining about being in the movie “8 Heads In A Duffel Bag” “with freakin’ David Spade ova here”.
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Alright”
THE COMPUTER STATION
Orange Julius holdover (host) waits on customer (WIF) in computer store
— Already a laugh right from the start of this sketch, with Sylvester entering with a disheveled, seedy look.
— A hilarious off-beat characterization from Sylvester, who’s doing a great job in this role.
— Will is equally great, doing a terrific straight man as usual.
— So many funny lines from Sylvester, especially him confusing a vending machine for a computer.
— Interesting new hairstyle from Tim this season, which eventually grows into long dreads over the course of these next few seasons.
— I love Tim trying to convince Will to buy the vending machine just to appease Sylvester.
— Very funny ending with Sylvester at Orange Julius.
STARS: *****
THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS
— After being away for two seasons, Deep Thoughts returns, under the new title of “The Lost Deep Thoughts”. Feels weird hearing someone other than Phil Hartman doing the voice-over intro for this.
PLANET HOLLYWOOD
at Planet Hollywood opening, fans (JMB) & (TRM) eventually tick off host
— Tons of camera-mugging from Jim here, reminding me of his mugging-directly-at-the-camera performance in that old lady sketch he did in the Tom Arnold episode from season 21.
— Tracy has noticeably lost weight over the summer, beginning a gradual transformation that we’ll be seeing these next few seasons until we get a thin Tracy in his last three seasons.
— Tracy, when meeting Sylvester: “You better than Gumby, dammit!”
— Tracy is really funny in this. Jim’s making me laugh too (yes, even his direct-to-camera mugging), but Tracy’s performance is standing out to me.
— I like Jim telling Sylvester “I gotta say……. I thought you were bigger, man!”
STARS: ***½
LOU’S LOVELY DAUGHTERS
homely (ANG), (MOS), Maria (CHO) need men
— A hilarious look for Cheri’s soon-to-be-recurring character Maria, and I like how she’s spending most of the sketch just silently staring at the camera.
— I love the voice Darrell’s using as the caller.
— A pretty good laugh from Maria’s accordion-playing.
— Good reveal of one of the daughters being pregnant (and smoking a cigarette to boot).
STARS: ***
MORE SONGS I REWROTE TO HONOR DEAD PEOPLE
Elton John’s (WIF) album features More Songs I Wrote To Honor Dead People
— A laugh from Elton John’s Jimmy Stewart tribute song being a sloppily-altered version of the song “Daniel”, titled “Your Name’s Not Daniel”.
— Wow, after only about 40 seconds, this sketch suddenly gets cut off by a commercial break right when Will’s Elton John started launching into another song. The show has obviously run out of time, forcing them to abort this sketch mid-progress. This sketch got cut off so early that I have to wonder what in the world made SNL think they had enough time to perform the full sketch. Why not just air a pre-taped fake ad in this spot instead?
— I believe they would later show the full version of this sketch in reruns, but I’m not 100% sure, as it’s been ages since I’ve last seen the rerun version of this sketch.
STARS: N/A (incomplete sketch)
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A good start to the season. There was a bit of a slump in the middle of the show shortly before Weekend Update, but the show as a whole was enjoyable and contained two personal favorite sketches of mine (Accident and The Computer Station). I’m also glad that, aside from Roxbury Guys, this season premiere didn’t go overboard with overexposed or soon-to-be-overexposed characters the way the preceding year’s Tom Hanks-hosted season premiere did.
— Sylvester Stallone kinda surprised me with how good and funny of a host he was. I liked him a lot in this episode.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1996-97)
a slight step up
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Matthew Perry