Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars
NBC SPECIAL REPORT
Dick Cheney (DAH) rides a Tomahawk missile flying toward Baghdad
— Funny visual of Darrell’s Dick Cheney casually sitting on an airborne missile while snacking on a Lunchable mini-pizza.
— Cheney: “It’s nice to have a missile this size between my legs.”
— I could do without Darrell’s Cheney speaking on the phone to an unseen President Bush. It just brings attention to this new season’s lack of Will Ferrell, as well as the fact that SNL seemingly hasn’t found a new Bush impersonator yet. Actually, the original cold opening of this episode in dress rehearsal had Darrell debuting a Bush impression, but his impression reportedly bombed so badly that it got cut after dress and SNL had to scramble for a replacement cold opening. This Dick-Cheney-on-a-missile piece was originally a Weekend Update commentary at dress rehearsal, with Tina delivering basically the same dialogue to Darrell’s Cheney that Parnell’s Tom Brokaw is doing here in the live version. And getting back to the Darrell’s-Bush-bombing-at-dress-rehearsal thing, the very next episode has SNL giving the Bush impression to a certain other cast member (you’ll see who when I review the episode, if you don’t already know who it is), but SNL would end up going back to the Darrell-as-Bush route the following season. Geez, as you can see, SNL’s attempt to replace Will Ferrell’s Bush impression is ALREADY getting extremely troubled and convoluted. And if the notoriously horrible Bush impression that Darrell would do on the air the following season is the improved version of his original Bush impression from tonight’s episode’s dress rehearsal, you really have to wonder just how fucking bad that original version of his impression was.
— Cheney telling Bush over the phone that he refuses to ask Saddam to say “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell” kinda made me laugh, just because it’s always funny in retrospect to be reminded of those Dell computer commercials from this time period. The following week’s episode will have a whole Weekend Update commentary about it.
— That’s it? This cold opening’s over already? This was unusually short and, despite a few highlights, fairly unremarkable for a season premiere cold opening. This definitely would’ve been more fitting as an Update commentary. Parnell’s Brokaw felt increasingly tacked on as this cold opening went on, and they eventually flat-out stopped cutting to him during the last minute or so of this, making it even more obvious that he wasn’t part of the original script.
STARS: **½
OPENING MONTAGE
— Same montage from the preceding two seasons. However, quite a number of changes have been made to the motif, including the removal of the scrolling SNL logos on the letterboxed top and bottom of the screen, and a new addition of a neon screen filter effect being used in all of the shots (some screencaps of the latter below).
— The initial shot of each repertory player (before their full name is displayed on the bottom of the screen) is now accompanied by their first name scrolling across the screen.
— When the cast members’ full names are displayed on the bottom of the screen, the font used for their names in the preceding two seasons’ opening montage has now been replaced with a new font. This new font strongly resembles the one used for the cast’s names in the season 23 montage (some side-by-side comparisons between season 23 and season 28’s name fonts below).
— Horatio Sanz’s shot from the preceding two seasons’ opening montage (first screencap below) has now been replaced with a new shot (second screencap below).
— Fred Armisen and Will Forte have been added to the cast tonight.
MONOLOGUE
feuding Justin Timberlake (host) & Britney Spears (AMP) stage a dance-off
— Good part with Matt Damon giving us examples of some of the big news stories over the summer that he wished he could’ve spoofed on SNL. I especially love his vocal impression of Mike Tyson.
— Pretty funny brief appearance from Maya as Justin Guarini from that summer’s hit new show, American Idol.
— Very interesting turn with Matt walking to the set of a sketch while talking about his favorite story of the summer that he’s about to perform a sketch about: Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s “angry dance-off”. A rare case of a full-fledged sketch being performed within a monologue.
— I find it questionable that THIS is the summer story that SNL (or Matt) has chosen to do an entire sketch about in this monologue. Matt and Amy are executing this well enough, but I just don’t have much interest in this type of material. In retrospect, this is the early stages of this SNL period gradually starting to rely way too heavily on the type of pop culture that I just don’t care for, not even in spoof form, similar to my recent complaints in the preceding season’s Kirsten Dunst episode about SNL spoofing the Hilton Sisters long before America at large even knew who the Hilton Sisters were.
— A laugh from Amy’s Britney saying “Oh, ya’ll, that makes my boobs hurt!”
— Pretty funny visual of Matt’s Justin doing The Robot to the song “Gloria”, of all things.
STARS: **½
NRA
the NRA says “happy hunting season” as the AFLAC duck is shot
— Two priceless and unexpected turns: the first being the Aflac duck showing up out of nowhere, and the second being Jimmy and Horatio’s hunter characters violently shooting the Aflac duck to bits. The latter had me howling.
STARS: ****½
BRIAN FELLOW’S SAFARI PLANET
porcupine & pot-bellied pig cause anxiety
— Not a bad choice for a lead-off sketch of the season, even if I know they’ll never top the last Brian Fellow sketch from the preceding season’s The Rock episode. It’s great that the once-notoriously-underused Tracy Morgan has now gotten to the point where SNL can confidently star him in the lead-off sketch of a season. A good early sign of how reliable Tracy will be this season.
— And now, here’s a bad sign of things to come this season: Horatio’s ALREADY a giggly mess for no apparent reason, only one live sketch into the season.
— Some good laughs from Brian Fellow confusing Matt’s normal description of the porcupine for dirty talk. I particularly like Brian saying “Hopefully, we’ll bleep that on the West Coast.”
— Funny turn with Brian randomly asking Matt, for no apparent reason, “Why does that pig hate Jewish people?”
— I love Brian Fellow casually mentioning an uncle of his named Kool-Aid.
STARS: ***½
NRA
the NRA says “take the safety off” as AT&T shill Carrot Top (SEM) is shot
— Another funny turn in these NRA ads, with Seth suddenly showing up as Carrot Top, spoofing Carrot Top’s AT&T commercials.
STARS: ***½
SPRINGSTEEN CONCERT
Denise misses her chance to go “Dancing In the Dark” with musical guest
— A given for this recurring sketch to appear in a Matt Damon episode.
— I like the passing mention of Matt’s character having gone out with Denise’s mom in the past.
— As expected, Matt is giving a very solid performance in this sketch.
— Why is Bruce Springsteen being represented by the arm of a body double? After all, Bruce himself is there at SNL tonight. He couldn’t be bothered to make a little walk-on during a sketch?
— I love how Springsteen (or his body double, rather) is unsuccessful in his attempt to lift Denise onto the stage, because, as Sully puts it, “He can’t lift the juggs!”
— In the middle of the preceding commercial break, when this sketch was shown being set up, one of the cast members heard being called by the stage manager to take their place for this sketch was Seth. However, Seth ended up not being seen anywhere in the overall sketch. So why was he called during the commercial break? Or was that him playing Springsteen’s arm in this sketch? If so, that may be the oddest utilization of a cast member in SNL history.
STARS: ***½
NUTRI-QUICK
Nutri-Quick Meal On-The-Go suppositories anally nourish busy workers
— A good laugh from the initial visual of the ridiculously huge anal suppository.
— Funny visual of Parnell stiffly walking away with his butt tightly clenched, after he’s taken the suppository.
— Meh at Jeff’s big tagline being an intentionally groan-worthy “Let’s just say I put my lunch… up my butt!”
— Strangely, the audience doesn’t applaud at the end of this.
STARS: ***
HANNIBAL LECTER GOES TO MICHIGAN STATE
Hannibal Lecter (host) in pre-prequel
— A pretty strong Hannibal Lecter impression from Matt, and a decent premise, showing Hannibal’s freshman year of college.
— I got a good laugh from Horatio cutting off Hannibal’s unsettling rant with “Just answer your message, asswipe.”
— The reveal of Hannibal sitting on the toilet during his current rant could be seen coming from a mile away.
— Some of these scenes are falling very flat with the audience, including the aforementioned toilet scene.
— I like the ending scene with Hannibal singing the WKRP In Cincinnati theme song.
STARS: **½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Lonesome Day”
WEEKEND UPDATE
Red Sox fans SEM & host give Yankee fans tips on how to cope with losing
Venezuelan comedian Fericito (FRA) says JIF should employ a catchphrase
— During Jimmy’s smallpox joke, his delivery of the “big pox” punchline groaner and the way he stared down the camera afterwards with a deadpan facial expression were VERY Norm Macdonald-esque.
— Decent commentary with Red Sox fans Seth Meyers and Matt Damon giving tips to Yankees fans on how to cope with the Yankees being eliminated from the playoffs.
— The audience’s (initially delayed) uproarious negative reaction to Matt’s “You still have the Jets” comment is pretty funny.
— I like the whole “married to a black bear” bit between Jimmy and Tina. I’m seeing improvement in Jimmy’s Update performance this season. IIRC, over the course of both this and the following season, we’ll be seeing Jimmy gradually surpass Tina as the better anchor, though that also partly has to do with Tina gradually going downhill.
— Tina’s Ziggy joke bombed hard with the audience, though judging from her ad-lib afterwards, she had been expecting that reaction.
— Nice to see Fred Armisen getting an Update commentary in his very first episode.
— While I’m not laughing all that hard at this Fericito commentary, Fred’s performance is fun, and it’s very impressive how much he’s commanding the stage and working the audience in his very first SNL appearance. I remember being so taken by this when this originally aired.
— A good callback to Fericito’s earlier advice to Jimmy, with Jimmy following up his next joke with an “I’m just keeediiiing!”
STARS: ***½
DAMONS
Dr. Matt Damon (CHP) complains to namesake host about being overshadowed
— I love Parnell’s understated bitterness when recalling how he had his identity as someone named Matt Damon ripped away from him when the actor Matt Damon became popular.
— Very funny reveal of Tracy’s name being Ben Affleck.
— All the quick name rundowns when Parnell is introducing everyone are well-done and funny.
— A good random bit with Dean’s name being Dr. Julius Irving.
— Parnell’s over-excited attitude when finding out he’s cured cancer is a nice and rare display of Parnell going over the top.
— Solid sketch overall.
STARS: ****
VERSACE POCKETS
the extravagant way to enjoy a microwaveable meal
— A good out-of-the-ordinary setting for Maya’s Versace impression.
— It’s pretty funny listening to the audience gradually realize Horatio is playing Rosie O’Donnell, who wasn’t introduced by name (unless I missed it).
— Matt’s doing a very funny spoof of Axl Rose’s then-recent MTV VMAs performance, right down to imitating Rose being so out of breath after his performance.
— Maya’s Versace performance in this overall sketch seemed a little more low-key and half-hearted than usual. Even her usual trademark angry yell of “Get out” at the end was simply spoken in a monotone manner tonight. I prefer her more absurdist, cartoonish, fun take on Versace in the preceding season’s Hugh Jackman episode.
STARS: ***
TV FUNHOUSE
“The Smurfette Show” by RBS- blue sprite behaves like Anna Nicole Smith
— A random but promising idea to do a hybrid of The Smurfs and the Anna Nicole Show.
— A pretty well-done and accurate spoof of the trashy Anna Nicole Show, while also doing a spot-on imitation of The Smurfs’ animation and cliches.
— Nice touch having Jim Cummings do the voice of Gargamel.
— This overall cartoon kinda lost its luster for me towards the end, and should’ve concluded a little sooner.
STARS: ***½
MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “You’re Missing”
SEX ROBOT
(host)’s government-funded sex robot project has come to naught
— I love that Parnell’s been experiencing increased airtime tonight, now that Will Ferrell is gone. I remember that this and (especially) the following week’s episode both had me convinced at the time that Parnell was taking over as SNL’s new utility star, and was going to get Ferrell levels of airtime on a regular basis. (*sigh*) If I only knew better…
— A very funny random throwaway joke with Darrell’s name being General Mills.
— Good reveal of the “important” project that the government is expecting from Matt turning out to be a sex robot. I’m surprised that reveal didn’t get a better audience reaction.
— Solid fake-out with Amy turning out to be a real woman and not the sex robot.
— The actual sex robot just being a trash can with a gloryhole is hilarious.
— Kattan has only made two appearances in this entire episode, both appearances of which were just small supporting roles that anyone could’ve played, which already shows how pointless it was for Kattan to return for another season.
— I love Parnell’s line about “the question mark suit guy from those commercials” (Matthew Lesko) being the bane of the government’s existence. This sketch is featuring a lot of the kind of absurdity that I love.
STARS: ****
DR. PHIL
Dr. Phil McGraw (JER) offers wacky counsel to guests on his show
— A then-rare occurrence of Jeff starring in a sketch.
— Jeff is a great impressionist in general, but I’m not too impressed by his Dr. Phil here. The voice isn’t anywhere near deep enough. His performance itself is pretty good, though.
— A pretty good laugh from the very brief “Take your top off” scene between Dr. Phil and Maya.
— Will Forte (who words cannot express how excited I am to reach the tenure of) gets his very first laughs from me in this SNL project of mine, with the sullen, deep voice he’s using as Santa Claus, and his general deadpan demeanor here, the latter of which is adding a nice subtle touch of absurdity to this Santa role. And the whole back-and-forth between him and Jeff’s Dr. Phil is consistently cracking me up.
— Jeff’s goofy, chipper smile into the camera at the end kinda bombed with the audience. I remember it being pointed out on an online SNL board back then that Jeff had a look on his face during the goodnights that seemed like he was aware his sketch didn’t go over too well with the audience.
STARS: ***
THE WAR ON IRAQ
new reality series is coming soon to NBC
— A lot of pre-taped fake ads in tonight’s episode.
— An okay premise with presenting The War On Iraq as a cheery sitcom promo. And as always, Parnell’s professional voice-over adds a lot to the humor.
— Parnell’s voice-over, on one of the things to expect from this show: “Mustaches. Lots and lots of Tom Selleck mustaches.”
— Surprised this is over already. Felt like this had potential to be taken a little further.
STARS: ***
GOODNIGHTS
IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Not a bad season premiere, which is kinda surprising, given how this season will end up turning out. I can still see some early signs of trouble for this season, though. Tonight’s cold opening and monologue didn’t get this season premiere off on the best foot, and, as I kept pointing out throughout the review, the audience was strangely unresponsive to several parts of the show, something that would go on to be a recurring theme this season (especially in the very next episode). Most of tonight’s sketches were still good, though, including a few stand-outs in the post-Weekend Update half. Matt Damon was a solid host and fit well in SNL’s format.
MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS EPISODE, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS
HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (2001-02)
a slight step down
My full set of screencaps for this episode is here
TOMORROW
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Fred and Will are interesting types–a lot of their humor tends to be humor is somewhat untraditional, almost anti-comedy in a way. Forte did a lot of absurdist, crazed premises, while Fred seemed particularly taken with the idea of “bad performance”–so many of his characters are like bad actors/comedians/stand-ups. I like Forte more than Armisen, but they offered a distinctive comedic style to SNL that was good to see for the most part (although Fred especially unleashed some real crap on the show).
I get kind of a vibe in this first post Ferrell episode like the show is throwing some darts at the wall and seeing who emerges as a top performer–a lot of folks get lead roles, which is nice to see.
I believe then-new writers Slovin & Allen wrote the Damons sketch.
Ohhh right, we have a truly limp SMG episode coming up, don’t we?
Will Forte is apparently one of the few people that Lorne actively tried to get on the show. I remember hearing Will didn’t want to do it when they first asked him in 2001. I feel like Lorne’s affinity towards him becomes noticeable pretty soon, as he let him get a ton of insane stuff on the air.
It seems like Lorne was hoping Forte would be a suitable replacement for Ferrell. While they both have that insane and aggressive energy, Ferrell was a good utility player whereas Forte kind of exists in his own little weird corner.
I’ve often wondered if Forte and Kristen Wiig remind Lorne of his Laugh-In days and of the world of sketch comedy/variety in general that he grew up seeing. They both would have killed in that era.
I remember Bruce was supposed to do a third song “My Hometown” at the piano. Did he get cold feet, or did they run out of time? I find it hard to believe that they would bump Bruce for more sketches, but the pacing of the final 20 minutes is off a bit.
I remember thinking it was a bummer that this was the E Street Band’s first SNL appearance and the band only got one song.
Matt Damon is another of those rare-ish hosts who hosts a while apart and somehow their second show is better than their first…not sure who the others would be. Karen Black, and maybe Daniel Craig?
I remember how early Fred came out of the gate – the first time I saw Fericito I thought it was great fun. Unfortunately, as often happened with Fred, he never knew when to quit.
Will started out more slowly, but I quickly grew to just absolutely love him (especially since, much as I also loved Parnell, it was fairly obvious not long into this season that the show just didn’t know what to do with him). Knowing now how nervous he was and how much he struggled in his first years as a cast member makes me appreciate him even more. When I quit watching around 2004 or so, my only regret was knowing I wouldn’t get to keep seeing Will (if only Youtube had been around then with easily available sketches…).
Seth really did look like Carrot Top.
I’m surprised Ben Affleck didn’t cameo in the Boston Teens sketch (then again I can’t remember how often Matt ever cameo-d in his episodes).
The attempts to jazz up the credits just make me wonder why they didn’t shoot an entirely new opening – budget? Three seasons of poor Maya Rudolph looking shocked at the camera. They’d finally get a pretty decent update next season, but sadly Jeff Richards’ abrupt exit kind of ruins the flow.
The Anna Nicole Show was one of the most depraved, dehumanizing programs ever broadcast. Making fun of it could be amusing for a moment, but as shown here, it soon just turns into something sad and grimy.
Matt only made one appearance prior and that was in the Gwyneth Paltrow episode. SNL wasn’t that much into celebrity cameos, unfortunately that soon change in S29.
Forte even compels me in talking about his minor first SNL sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrSXATAoSHQ
(Also, did it irk anybody else in Matt Damon’s second hosting on Dec 15 2018 he mentioned his first hosting was Armisen’s first episode but not Forte’s !?!? and it ruined an otherwise wonderful and poignant monologue for me…..)
Yes, that was annoying. I wondered if they assumed newer viewers had no idea who Will was as he hasn’t made 500000 cameos like Fred does. Lorne still works with Will so I wish that had meant he made more appearances or even hosted, but maybe he doesn’t want to anyway, I don’t know.
Just a small technical thing I remember: The bumper going into the first commercial break is the same style used in the previous season (I believe it was the shot of Yankee Stadium) and is replaced with the current season style in reruns.
I know Will Forte was a screenwriter before SNL. He wrote for 3rd Rock from the Sun and That 70s Show and some other things but what exactly was Fred Armisen doing before SNL? How did he come onto Lorne and Marci Klein’s radar?
He said he’d done a pilot for a Bob Odenkirk sketch show which meant he had a tape ready to submit, and it caught Klein’s eye.
Yeah, the show was called Next! The tape of the show was being passed around in 01-02. Here’s the second episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMNuHLuDjJ4
I also remember Armisen being in a filmed portion of the Mr. Show tour in 2002. He was playing Ferecito. I saw it the same night as the Sarah Michelle Gellar episode. It was weird seeing an SNL character that had just debuted a week prior. I met Kevin Nealon that night, who was beyond nice to me, just hanging out and chatting with me like we were on a hike.
Just before SNL, Fred also used to have these regular segments they used to show between movies on the now defunct HBO Zone channel where he was doing Tom Green style segments of missing with people on the streets as different characters. A lot of the mentally challenged characters he used to do on the show probably wouldn’t fly so much today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJzeNDlKiIk
And there was this. I believe it was this SXSW short film he made in 98 that started to get him attention in the comedy industry. He basically made it because he was bored while hanging around SXSW while he was still a touring musician with different bands. I think Bob Odenkirk was one of his first big supporters.
He was a guy I started seeing here and there just before SNL. I remember his Premium Blend being a stand-out character piece, which he ended up doing as a character in his second episode as the “Safety Guy”.
This first year Armisen was on SNL, I never knew of his previous work, the first outside appearance I caught him in was the Wilco documentary “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” when he opened for the band as Ferecito (guessing the year before…).
Quick sad note:
This was my first of two failed attempts in 8 overall shows of getting into the LIVE show as a standby. 2 days in NYC just to go back to my hotel 2 blocks from 30 Rock and watch the episode is a tad heartbreaking for a big fan like me.
Anyway, from start to finish, it’s a solid episode. The cold open yes, was a reworking of a WU segment, BUT I’m glad they did it this way and not with Hammond’s only God awful impression of GW Bush. (keep in mind, I am a massive Darrell Hammond fan. In fact he’s one of my favorite cast members of all time.)
For the Sully & Denise sketch, I thoroughly agree and have said this since the first time I watched the episode, that Bruce Springsteen could’ve easily made a cameo in the sketch. There was no reason to have a random persons arm reach out for Denise. If you look closely as you rewatch the sketch, Matt Damon rushes out of frame to get ready for the next sketch.
The Hannibal Lecter goes to college sketch was very well written and executed. I enjoyed the trio of the Forte/Meyers/Sanz frat boys.
In the Versace pockets sketch, Matt Damon does INCREDIBLY impression of Axl Rose. I remember the first time I watched it and I laughed my ass off.
Here’s Fericito on “Late World with Zach” about a year before SNL: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ5bP7tuYak&list=PLAvr-ddq0OQIiBWtWb3rYyNdAL4nAlMkU&index=17&pp=iAQB