March 7, 1998 – Scott Wolf / Natalie Imbruglia (S23 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

LARRY KING LIVE
Bill Clinton’s (DAH) accusers appear via satellite

— I love Molly’s Monica Lewinsky greeting Darrell’s Bill Clinton as “Lefty”.
— Colin makes his very first sketch appearance since becoming Weekend Update anchor two months earlier.
— I’m liking the increasingly large number of accusers that Norm’s Larry King is introducing.
— Though she’s made a few onscreen appearances prior to this, this is the first time in this SNL project that I’ve noticed a Tina Fey sighting on my own without having it pointed out to me after I’ve posted my review of an episode. She looks so baby-faced in this (the second-to-last above screencap for this cold opening).
— A very funny split-screen shot of all the accusers speaking in unison. I also like the shocked look on Darrell-as-Clinton’s face immediately after that.
— Good part with Larry King sternly cutting off Clinton’s attempt to use “Live from New York…” as a way of getting out of yet another jam.
STARS: ***½

MONOLOGUE
host & audience members (DAH), (JMB), (CHO) share New Jersey roots

— Feels a little odd seeing Darrell in this type of role. Jim, on the other hand, is tailor-made for this role.
— An overall short and simple, but decent, monologue.
STARS: ***

T.G.I. FRIDAY’S
T.G.I.Fridays star server (host) coaches trainee Mary Katherine Gallagher

— I like Will’s stern T.G.I. Friday’s boss saying “Maybe that B.S. flies over at T.J. McWhiskers, but not here.”
— I remember the first time I ever saw this sketch, it was in a Comedy Central rerun shortly after I first started getting into SNL. The Mary Katherine Gallagher movie Superstar had recently opened, which I saw commercials for pretty frequently. Having no idea that the movie was spun off from SNL and having no idea that tonight’s Mary Katherine Gallagher sketch originally aired a year-and-a-half before the movie came out, I sat through this sketch thinking that SNL was doing a spoof of Superstar. I had no idea the same actress who I saw playing MKG in commercials for Superstar was the same one playing MKG in the sketch I was watching.
— A fairly refreshing setting for Mary Katherine Gallagher, who we also refreshingly haven’t seen in quite a while.
— Quite a lot of fairly big non-impression roles for Darrell tonight.
— A new addition to MKG’s usual sniff-hands-after-putting-them-under-armpits routine, with her doing a random boob-squeeze on herself afterwards.
— I love the very random food combo items the customers order off the menu, such as Lucky Charms-coated shrimp.
— A laugh from MKG presenting Ana and Darrell with a plate of spaghetti after falling butt-first onto it on the floor.
— When a male extra is helping MKG off the floor after her pratfall through a restaurant table, I love how the extra slowly tips over out of his chair, which he humorously doesn’t even seem phased by.
STARS: ***

THE CELINE DION SHOW
“the best voice in the world” Celine Dion (ANG) upstages divas

— The debut of Ana’s Celine Dion impresion. I’m not too crazy about the lazy idea of giving her her own talk show sketch, a tired go-to SNL trope for celebrity impressions.
— Very funny Celine impression from Ana, and she’s leading this sketch well.
— A laugh from Cheri’s Mariah Carey saying “I’ve got a very nice ass” when answering Celine’s question “What’s new with you?”
— Though it’s a typical man-in-drag gag, Tim’s look as Erykah Badu is funny.
— A good line that Tim’s Badu sternly delivers to Ana’s Celine: “That don’t go down smooth in Baduland, honey.”
— Nice touch with the SNL Band being shown playing the Celine Dion Show theme music after the sketch ends.
STARS: ***½

PARTY OF FIVE
a black guy (TRM) gets involved with Bailey (host) & clan

— I only have very vague memories of watching Party Of Five a few times as a kid in the 90s. I’m assuming Will is playing Matthew Fox’s character, Molly is Neve Campbell’s character, and I can definitely tell Cheri is Lacey Chabert’s character.
— Funny visual of a hospital gown-wearing Will laying in a hospital bed right in the middle of the kitchen, of all places.
— I love how Tracy’s first exit is immediately followed by the family standing in confused silence, then asking “Who was that?!?”
— Tracy is solid in this. Between the Loews sketch in the preceding episode and now this sketch, SNL finally seems to be getting the hang of how to properly utilize Tracy.
— A very funny detail of Tracy eating a slice of pizza in one of the pre-taped interstitial shots of him driving a car in a hurry.
— The ending was dumb, but cracked me up anyway, especially with the panicked look on Tracy’s face when running in front of the green-screen.
STARS: either ***½ or ****, I can’t decide yet

WEEKEND UPDATE
COQ gives his thoughts on how interns should be treated
COQ makes an analogy between Iraq diplomacy & peer group politics
heavy metal singer Gunner Olsen (JMB) fashions the news for young viewers

— We open with Colin doing another straight-to-camera stand-up-style breakdown of a news story.
— Colin’s straight-to-camera breakdown ended up being solid.
— I love Colin’s offensive two-part Puerto Rican flag joke, though he almost ruined it with an awkward long pause before the first punchline. He clearly needs to work on his delivery.
— The debut of a short-lived Jim Breuer character: Gunner Olsen.
— A dead-on and funny rock star imitation from Jim.
— The concept of Gunner Olsen singing various news stories in a heavy metal style while his lyrics are captioned on the bottom of the screen feels like a poor man’s version of Adam Sandler’s Operaman, only with the music genre being heavy metal instead of opera, and SNL doing away with the graphics of photos that were typically displayed next to Operaman. Actually, I can picture Adam Sandler himself playing this Gunner Olsen character as well. Jim even sounds kinda Sandler-esque when singing in a higher register.
— Some unintended cracking up from Jim in reaction to the audience’s enthusiasm.
— Despite the similarities that this Gunner Olsen commentary has to Operaman, I am loving Jim’s performance and energy here.
— Wow, Jim even does a stage dive off of the Update desk at the end of his commentary. Damn, he went all out as this character.
— An overall decent night for Colin. The traditional news jokes he did were a little better than usual, and he had his usual solid straight-to-camera stand-up-style news breakdowns here and there. Jim also added great energy with his commentary.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Torn”

THE 3RD ANNUAL REENACTMENT AWARDS
dramatic re-creationists get their due

— A fairly funny concept, but I’m wary of this sketch, as SNL has a poor track record with their award show sketches.
— I like Tim’s acceptance speech.
— Cheri and Ana are great at selling the awfulness of typical award show banter.
— Who in the world is that playing John Crane (the second-to-last above screencap for this sketch)? I guess it’s just an extra, but I almost thought it was a cameo from some celebrity that I’m not familiar with.
— During Scott’s Tommy Lee musical number, I like the cutaway to stock footage of a celebrity in the audience (not sure who it is) watching with a deadpan facial expression while his finger is resting on his lips.
— Overall, this sketch wasn’t as bad as I was worried it would be, but I still wasn’t too crazy about this.
STARS: **½

EAST LAKE CINEMA
host & Party of Five are old news to Titanic-obsessed Craig & Arianna

— Much like Mary Katherine Gallagher earlier tonight, we get the Spartan Cheerleaders in a fairly refreshing setting. However, something about their appearance in this sketch feels sad. Like perhaps these characters are officially past their prime by this point. (And I know that quite a lot of people would say I’m being way too generous by saying it took this long for the Cheerleaders to finally reach their official expiration date, but hey, while doing these reviews, I surprisingly haven’t been hating the Cheerleaders quite as much as I expected to. These sketches are often more tolerable and charming than I feel people give them credit for.)
— I think part of the reason for the aforementioned sad, pathetic feel of this particular Cheerleaders sketch is because it’s airing so late in the show. I can’t think of any time prior to this that a Cheerleaders sketch was buried so late in an episode. SNL is clearly aware that these characters are dying.
— Arianna: “You know what we need to do?” Craig: “Finally experiment with each other sexually?”
— Overall, not horrible, but yeah, a definite step down from the usual Cheerleaders fare.
STARS: **

ISSUES
on break from BYU, Jeff’s cousin (host) tokes for the first time

— Wow, tonight’s episode has, by far, the largest number of lead roles that the invisible Jim Breuer has gotten all season. It’s like SNL finally remembered he’s in the cast.
— The return of this sketch reminds me of a funny negative comment I once read in an old SNL review that was written back when this episode originally aired: “If I promise to rent Half-Baked when it’s on video, will they stop letting Jim Breuer play potheads?”
— Why is the guest in these Issues sketches always played by Ana?
— At least the concept of Scott being unfamiliar with how it feels to be high is taking this sketch into a somewhat different direction from the first installment.
— Overall, not bad. No big loss, though, that this ends up being the final appearance of this short-lived recurring sketch.
STARS: ***

THE LOST DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY

GUITARISTS
coeds (CHO), (MOS), (ANG) fall for duelling troubadours (host) & (CHK)

— A laugh from Chris mumbling his way through the portion he doesn’t know of the song “Danny’s Song”.
— Another laugh from Chris, this time when he acts like he’s going to sing a song based on the name of Cheri’s character, Diana, only to inexplicably break out into the song “Gloria”.
— I like the girls turning against Chris when he sings an original song they don’t know.
STARS: ***

BREATH SPRAY PLUS
Breath Spray Plus trades purse clutter for potential safety hazards

— They must be airing this as last-minute time filler, as it’s rare to debut a new fake ad at the end of an episode.
— I love the shot of Will laying down while screaming in an alley after getting his eyes sprayed with mace from Ana’s Breath Spray Plus.
— A lot of laughs from the increasingly complicated directions for the spray’s dual-action switch settings.
STARS: ****

GOODNIGHTS

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IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A blandly average episode. Not bad, but very forgettable, especially the post-Weekend Update half. Nothing was particularly terrible in tonight’s episode, but nothing stood out to me as great either, besides the Breath Spray Plus commercial thrown in at the end of the show and maybe the Party of Five sketch.

MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Garth Brooks)
a step down

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW
Julianne Moore. It’s also Norm Macdonald’s final episode.