Tag: Dennis Hopper

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
after Easy Rider, Billy (host) & Captain America (DAC) regroup

— Good premise so far, showing the two main Easy Riders characters exiting a clinic after a clip is shown of what happened to them at the end of the movie.
— The debut of Phil’s great Jack Nicholson impression.
— Loved Phil-as-Nicholson’s delivery of the line “Maybe we should vacate these environs and motor north to Gotham.”
— Hopper’s motorcycle tricks in front of an obvious greenscreened background are fairly funny to watch.
STARS: ***

MONOLOGUE
(no synopsis available)

— Much like in Robin Williams’ monologue earlier this season, the regular home base stage is blocked by the brick wall that’s usually only reserved for this season’s musical guests. Still don’t understand why.
— Some funny drug jokes at the beginning.
— Wow, this is over already? This was extremely short and had very little focus on humor. It was basically just him mentioning how he’s clean and sober.
STARS: **½

CHURCH CHAT
Jenny Baker is defensive; host talks about his wilder days

— Funny line flub with Church Lady mistakenly pronouncing “Jessica” as “Jessikey” and then excusing herself for having “a little Satan” in her mouth.
— Didn’t care at all for the way Victoria’s interview ended.
— Some good laughs from Church Lady’s description of an orgy.
— The insane clip shown from Blue Velvet cracked me up.
— Overall, not one of the best Church Chat sketches and felt slower-paced than most installments, but this was still enjoyable, and the Hopper interview had a likable, fairly fun vibe.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Crying” & “Pretty Woman”

FRANK BOOTH’S “WHAT’S THAT SMELL?”
Judd Nelson (JOL) is the champ

— Very funny concept for a gameshow sketch, and a nice use of Hopper’s Blue Velvet character.
— I’m already laughing at Jon’s Judd Nelson impression just from his look.
— Jan’s Tammy Faye Bakker detailing a hallucination of hers, culminating in her declaring “Demonic sweaters, I rebuke you!” is a blatant and inferior re-write of her classic rant about demonic raisins in the Church Chat sketch she appeared in. As I said in a recent review, I always hate when SNL takes something that got a big laugh the first time and then basically re-do the exact same material, beat-for-beat, hoping lightning will strike twice.
— I’m getting a kick out of all of Hopper’s angry outbursts throughout the sketch.
— What an insane ending. I love it.
STARS: ***½

WEEKEND UPDATE
Oliver North’s lawyer Tommy Flanagan says his client is innocent
AWB shows the class of ’87 how to juggle all their concerns & commitments

— Nice callback to the Nancy Reagan/Riddler joke from the previous episode, by showing an actual picture of Nancy as The Riddler this time.
— I guess I can’t complain about the appearance of Tommy Flanagan, as this IS the first time we’ve seen him in a while, compared to how frequently he was used last season. Also, from what I was told by a commenter on this site, this ends up being Flanagan’s last appearance for TWO years.
— Interestingly, Flanagan starts to say his usual “That’s the ticket”, but cuts it off and instead says “Isn’t that special?” A sign that Church Lady had eclipsed Tommy Flanagan in popularity this year.
— Flanagan’s overall commentary had some laughs, but yeah, the routine is still coming off fairly tired. I’m looking forward to that two-year break from him.
— I like how it’s becoming a yearly tradition for A. Whitney Brown’s season finale Big Picture commentaries to focus on that year’s graduates.
— Interesting change of pace with A. Whitney using several balls as a visual to make his point.
— Wow, it’s impressive to see A. Whitney successfully juggling several balls.
— At the end of this Update, during his end-of-season sign-off, Miller takes a picture of us viewers by snapping a flash photo at the camera. Didn’t Bill Murray get in trouble for doing the same thing in the final Weekend Update of the original era? Unlike in his case, however, Miller’s photo flash doesn’t leave a burn mark in the middle of the screen.
STARS: ***

PROBLEM DRINKERS FROM OUTER SPACE
alcoholic aliens land in Washington

— Some amusing stock footage of a flying saucer drunk-driving.
— I remember once reading a review that pointed out Hopper’s drunk voice in this sketch sounds like a bad Bill Cosby impression. I can’t unhear that while watching this now.
— Good reveal that the alcohol-loving aliens have two livers.
— Overall, ehh. While there were some highlights as pointed out above, and Phil’s delivery was funny, this overall sketch was too slow for my likes and it dragged.
STARS: **

THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY
Sam Donaldson (KEN) leans in chair

— Funny seeing this open with a shot of the Capital Building, considering the preceding sketch (Problem Drinkers From Outer Space) ended with stock footage of a flying saucer crashing into the roof of the Capital Building.
— Phil’s David Brinkley voice is making me laugh.
— In the live version I’m watching of this episode, the first instance of Kevin leaning back and almost falling out of his chair was marred by a camera delay where they cut to Kevin too late. I’m assuming this is fixed in the rerun version.
— This is a really silly, one-note sketch, but it’s making me laugh.
— I like how when asked if he’d be willing to switch chairs with Sam Donaldson, Dana’s George Will sternly responds in that stiff George Will delivery “No. This is my chair, I’ll sit here.”
— How are they pulling off this effect with Kevin’s chair repeatedly bouncing on the edge without actually falling over?
— I liked Jon’s “You gotta admit, that was amazing” in response to one of Donaldson’s near-falling-overs.
— Overall, a decent sketch despite the very thin and dumb premise. This had the type of Kevin Nealon silliness that I always like; the type of humor that very few people other than him can sell. I’m sure he wrote this sketch himself, as it felt like his style.
STARS: ***

CANNIBALISM INTERVIEW
questions posed during job interview check whether (host) is a cannibal

— A good laugh from Kevin’s first sudden cannibalism question to Hopper, as well as Hopper’s speechless reaction.
— I like how the cannibalism questions are hinting at sinister plans the execs seem to have.
— An overall okay sketch, though I felt it had potential to be even funnier. This feels like the type of sketch that, if it were done a year or so later when this SNL era fully hit its stride, would’ve been a brilliant absurd sketch that would be a cult favorite among comedy nerds like me. As the sketch stands, it was merely adequate and felt like something was missing.
STARS: ***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Dreams”

LAST CHANCE
mechanics (host) & (JAH) beat investment broker (PHH) at his own game

— I got a laugh from Hopper’s bad “investment broker/broken car” joke.
— Hopper’s “If you see us gettin’ smaller, it’s because you’re leavin’” line got a good audience reaction.
— Overall, another sketch tonight that was merely okay. Not particularly hilarious or memorable, but had a nice charm to it.
STARS: ***

SWEENEY SISTERS
Liz & Candy Sweeney sing a medley to say “goodbye” for the summer

— Who was that doing the opening voice-over introducing the Sweeney Sisters? The voice didn’t sound familiar at all. Strange that they didn’t use Don Pardo for that.
— A different set up for the Sweeney Sisters, and I like this meta premise with them saying goodbye to this season of SNL.
— During the medley, I especially liked how they segued from The Trolley Song to So Long Farewell.
— Great screechy long note from Jan at the end.
— Overall, an entertaining and fitting way to end a season. I always appreciate any time SNL ends a season with something special and meta like this, instead of just ending a season with a normal generic sketch.
STARS: ***½

GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS:
— An average season-ender, and it actually felt kinda underwhelming. While there’s not much in the episode to really complain about, this wasn’t the most exciting way for a solid season like this to end. Most of the sketches tonight were merely okay and rarely rose above that level. Even Church Chat was just average. Almost nothing tonight stood out as really strong, and there’s not much about this episode that I’ll remember in the future. Considering this was both a season finale and a third-consecutive-live-week episode, maybe the people at SNL were understandably a little burned out and eager for their summer vacation.
— Season 12 as a whole was a very good inaugural year for this SNL era. This season did a fantastic 180 from the poor quality of the season 11; in fact, I’d call this the best rebound year in SNL history. This season also provided a good amount of classic moments, and we got an excellent new cast that puts a lot of other SNL casts to shame. All that being said, this season was not quite as strong as this era would later get. There were some things about this season that come off a bit odd and maybe even a little questionable compared to later seasons in this era. That’s understandable, as the tone of this era wasn’t set in stone yet; they were finding their voice this season.

HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Garry Shandling):
— a step down

HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1985-86):
— a huge step up

My full set of screencaps for this episode is here

TOMORROW:
Season 13 begins, with host Steve Martin