Tag: Season 18

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May 15, 1993 – Kevin Kline / Willie Nelson and Paul Simon (S18 E20)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton deal with Bob Dole (DAA) differently

— Nice to see Dan Aykroyd returning as Bob Dole. Between him and Jan Hooks, I love that we’re getting a cameo from two SNL greats (and two of my personal favorite cast members of all time) from two completely different eras.
— Hillary claiming that she’s the co-president of the United States is hilarious.
— Dan’s delivery of his lengthy dialogue throughout this is freakin’ fantastic. Since it’s been quite a while since I last reviewed his SNL era, I had kinda forgotten how brilliant he is at delivering fast-paced dialogue.
— I’m enjoying the way Jan and Dan are playing off of each other.
— The negative tension between Hillary and Dole is really funny, eventually building up into a big fight between them. During that fight, I love Dole telling Bill “I’m doing something you should’ve done a long time ago.”
STARS: ****


OPENING MONTAGE
— When announcing special guest Jan Hooks, Don Pardo mistakenly says “Special musical guest……….(long pause as he realizes his screw-up)……….Jan Hooks!”


MONOLOGUE
Audience McGee figures out that KEN is impersonating host on-stage

— An interesting approach here, with Nealon entering as Kevin Kline, which is a nice change of pace for a monologue.
— Good reveal that Kline got the idea of having Nealon impersonate him from his new movie Dave.
— I love a confused Audience McGee standing up and going “I don’t know what the hell’s going on here!”
— The back-and-forth bickering between Nealon and Audience McGee is giving me good laughs.
— Great ending with Rob and Rock entering as musical guests Paul Simon and Willie Nelson. I especially love the double-take Kline does when seeing Rock.
STARS: ****


MMMPH?
board game lets players give semi-verbal hot & cold signals

— I’m kinda conflicted, as there’s a charm to this, but at the same time, I’ve always felt this is a fairly bland and unmemorable commercial, especially when compared to SNL’s many memorable fake ads from this era.
STARS: **


ROME
otherwise-suave Italian’s (host) flatulence ruins encounter with (JUS)

— This sketch has always held a special place in my heart for reasons mentioned at the end of my review of the Sabra Price is Right sketch here.
— The look Farley gives Kline and Julia after the first fart sound is heard is great.
— A priceless casual look on Nealon’s face as he stands behind Kline while Kline lets out a very long fart outside the car.
— I love the subtly displeased look on Phil’s face after greeting Kline.
— The flambé bit was hilarious.
— Interesting how some of the veteran writers who’s last episode is tonight (Christine Zander, Bonnie & Terry Turner) are all appearing in this sketch, most of them in speaking roles. Speaking of which, I recall once hearing years ago that the reason Christine Zander and the Turners left SNL is because they were fed up with how Adam Sandler was getting more and more airtime with his brand of goofy comedy. I can’t remember where I heard that and I have no idea if it’s true, so please take it with a grain of salt.
— I love Kline’s line about how he’s already done his time in hell, and that statement immediately being followed by a particularly loud fart from him.
— Excellent touch at the end of the sketch with Kline wiping a tear off his face.
— Overall, it’s amazing how what was essentially a fart-joke sketch turned out to be so strong. The fart humor was pulled off surprisingly well, featured an excellent performance from Kline, and contained many genuinely funny moments and gags. And as I hinted in my recent positive comments about the much-hated Rookie Cop sketch, I usually have an affinity for sketches that involve multiple scenes and sets. It gives sketches that epic, movie-like feel that I personally love.
— I recall hearing that the reason for the epic, movie-like feel of this particular sketch is because it was originally written for an SNL sketch movie that never ended up getting made. I don’t know most of the details about it, though.
STARS: ****½


HOW TO FIND FINANCIAL FREEDOM WITH DON LAPRE
Don Lapre (DAS) tells How To Find Financial Freedom with a 900 number

— Very funny Don Lapre impression from David, and he’s giving a solid performance.
— A lot of funny lines from David’s Lapre, made even more amusing by his delivery.
— A good laugh from the random reveal of a broken-off lawn dart stuck in the back of Tim’s head.
— A funny overall sketch, though I feel it pales a little in comparison to a later Don Lapre sketch the show does in next season’s Jason Patric episode.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Graceland”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Bennett Brauer delineates the reasons why he’s ill-suited for TV
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about the royal family scandal
Hollywood Minute- DAS dishes celebrity dirt during end-of-season wrap-up

— Bennett Brauer becomes recurring, which I’m sure most SNL fans at the time never would’ve predicted would happen.
— Some of Bennett Brauer’s air-quoted unpleasant revelations of himself are even funnier than last time. The one about how he “pops his whiteheads with a compass used in high school” especially had me howling.
— Kevin’s subliminal editorial tonight was pretty forgettable. I really hate to say it, but I think I’ve officially gotten tired of Nealon’s subliminal routine. He’s relied on it awfully heavily this season, and there were times it suffered from diminishing returns.
— Boy, a lot of tonight’s Update jokes are falling flat. You can tell Nealon’s aware of that, because he keeps ad-libbing little addendum one-liners (e.g. “Something to think about”) whenever a joke receives a tepid audience reaction.
— This Hollywood Minute commentary that David is currently doing was cut after dress rehearsal from some of the last few episodes.
— David does a joke about former SNL writer Conan O’Brien, jokingly quoting him as saying “When I sent in the sweepstakes envelope, I had no idea I could win!”, referring to how unknown Conan was to the general public at this time when he was announced as David Letterman’s replacement as host of Late Night. After mentioning having worked with Conan in the past, David says a tongue-in-cheek “It’s good to see someone from Saturday Night Live finally make it!”
— David’s overall Hollywood Minute commentary tonight was solid as usual. My favorite comments were about Latoya Jackson and the particularly mean-spirited but funny crack about Whoopi Goldberg.
— A weak Update for Nealon overall tonight, and an underwhelming way for him to end the season. The two guest commentaries at least salvaged this somewhat. I can’t help but see Nealon’s rough night as an unfortunate precursor to how burned out he will often be on Update next season, IIRC.
— Believe it or not, there was an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which Rob played his Orgasm Guy character giving a sports commentary.
STARS: **½


THE JUICE
Hub’s Gyros workers travel to Mount Olympus to get more juice

— Speaking of things that SNL fans at the time never could’ve predicted would become recurring…
— As utterly ridiculous as the idea of bringing back this meta, intentionally repetitive one-off sketch seems, there’s something so silly about the idea of this becoming recurring that it’s hilarious to me.
— Something I always notice in this sketch: at the beginning as Melanie plays a customer receiving a tray of food, she almost slips on the floor as she exits the shot. If she had slipped and fell down, that would’ve been so embarrassing, not to mention a huge mess, considering she was carrying a full tray of food and a drink. By the way, why was she cast in such a tiny, useless role anyway? That’s the type of role that, in this era, would normally go to an extra or writer. I have to wonder if this particular role originally was given to an extra or writer, but then SNL re-cast Melanie in the role after dress rehearsal when realizing all her non-pre-taped appearances were cut after dress (including another “Tori” sketch, in which Melanie’s Tori Spelling talks about graduation), and they didn’t want her to get shut out of this season finale.
— Rob’s reaction after tasting the bad juice is really funny with him saying, among several things, “Juice is rancid” and “I throw up”.
— I like how this is now going in a completely different direction, with the employees traveling to Greece for better juice.
— Phil sounds like he’s doing a Greek version of his Ed McMahon impression. He even enters saying “Ha ha ha ha! YES!”, which is one of his catchphrases as Ed McMahon.
— Great meta turn with Mike complaining about being in a really idiotic sketch, Adam asking him “You can’t believe characters were brought back, eh?” (the latter of which probably echoes how the audience felt), and Rob promising never to do this sketch again.
— Now this has gotten even better with Lorne entering, doing the “You like-a da (insert thing here)” routine, and pointing to a sleeping Tim and saying “Shh, don’t wake Timmy.”
STARS: ****


SHMEE
youngster’s (CSR) magical bee (CHF) thwarts a burglary attempt

— This was cut after dress rehearsal in the Kirstie Alley episode from earlier this season.
— Funny theme song and title sequence.
— I love Rock’s little kid voice in this.
— I’ve always considered this to be a sister sketch to Phil’s Egg Man sketch from the Kathleen Turner-hosted episode in season 15, but apparently that sketch wasn’t written by the same person who wrote this one. Egg Man is admittedly better-written than this Shmee one, but I’m enjoying the intentionally low-budget silliness of this Shmee sketch anyway. There’s kind of a “So bad, it’s good” quality to this.
— Ellen’s line about how “I’m-a cook that bee; we gonna have us some bee puddin’!” cracked me up.
— Adam’s delivery of “Dat bee is bad news!” before bolting always cracks me up whenever I watch this sketch, and is my favorite part of this. It sounds like he was using the same voice he’d later use in the Captain Jim & Pedro sketches from next season.
— This overall sketch ends up being Rock’s final sketch as a cast member. At least it had him in a lead role, which he should be happy about, considering how often SNL has wasted him in forgettable small roles.
STARS: ***


DR. FRANKENSTEIN
(host) doesn’t get gist of Dr. Frankenstein’s (PHH) reanimation theory

— Boy, this is going NOWHERE once you realize the only joke of the sketch is Kline constantly saying he doesn’t follow what Phil is saying. That wasn’t even funny to me the first time Kline said it, yet they’re repeating it ad nauseam.
— Phil is giving it his all as always, but this sketch is D.O.A.
STARS: *


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guests perform “Still Is Still Moving To Me”


CRIMINAL ENCOUNTER
by TOS- con (CHF) & victim (ROS) undergo mediation

— I love the tone and atmosphere of this.
— Farley’s listed-off bad excuses for committing his crime are making me laugh (e.g. “I had a lot of laundry to do that night”, “The cable was out”). I also like Tom Schiller’s host character calling out Farley on an inconsistency in his bad excuses (Schiller: “You told me you were an orphan!” Farley: “Well, there’s another reason.”)
— Rob is cracking me up with his detailing of how he’d love to stick an iron bar into Farley’s head and then twist it until his head pops off “like a champagne cork”.
— Strong performances from both Rob and Farley. I like how we’re seeing a much more serious, low-key side of Farley in this.
— The turn with Farley unexpectedly asking Rob for a dance is both hilarious and touching.
— Funny epilogue screen crawl at the end.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS
colleague (RBS) convinces Audience McGee that reruns are OK

— Oh, I love this. A unique deviation from the usual goodnights, with Audience McGee interrupting to ask what are SNL fans to do during SNL’s summer break.
— Great turn with Robert Smigel interjecting as another Audience McGee-like audience member. Considering this is Smigel’s final episode (and I believe he’s the writer of all of Audience McGee’s appearances), this is a great subtle sendoff to him.
— An overall inspired and very fun way to end the season. Anytime SNL does something special and meta for the final sketch of a season (or final goodnights of a season, in tonight’s case), I’m happy.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid season finale, though not quite as strong as I’d expect the finale of a big season like this to be. Still, we got some very good pieces tonight, including an epic lead-off sketch and a fun deviation during the goodnights. Kevin Kline was oddly invisible for a host, only appearing in three sketches all night (not including the monologue), one of them just being a small supporting role, and even in his own monologue, he barely did anything (which was the premise, I know, but still…). Makes me wonder if perhaps he had to do so much press for his movie Dave throughout this week that it left him little time for rehearsals, so SNL had to work around that by writing a lot of sketches that didn’t include him.

— As mentioned earlier, this ended up being the final episode for Chris Rock and occasional featured player (and regular writer) Robert Smigel, the latter obviously jumping ship to join his former SNL writing mate Conan O’Brien’s soon-to-start Late Night show. It’s a shame Chris Rock’s tenure wasn’t very successful, especially knowing the big fame he’d achieve post-SNL. His SNL tenure actually started off fairly hot early in his first season, and the urban humor he immediately brought to the show was a nice breath of fresh air from the complete absence of black representation during SNL’s late 80s era. Unfortunately, a few months into his first season, it started becoming obvious that the show was beginning to struggle to find ways to use him, a struggle that would sadly continue for the rest of his tenure. Despite that, he did have occasional hits, especially his Weekend Update commentaries as himself, in which we got to see early glimpses of the type of brilliant stand-up comedy that would go on to define his post-SNL career. There’s not much to say about Robert Smigel as a featured player, as he was only an occasional performer who didn’t make too big an impact onscreen. Despite that, he did display solid voice skills in his character work, and his short-lived recurring Hank Fielding “The Moron’s Perspective” commentaries on Weekend Update this season were always good. Smigel’s departure leaves far more of an impact in the writers’ room, where he was a very important part of the show for years. As a writer, he contributed greatly to the show and deserves credit for being partly responsible for the high quality of SNL’s writing in the late 80s and early 90s. His departure (as well as a few other solid veteran writers like Christine Zander and Bonnie & Terry Turner) hurts when you’re aware of how downhill SNL’s quality will go in the upcoming season 19.

— Season 18 as a whole was fantastic. In fact, in my early years as an SNL fan, this used to be my absolute favorite season. Some years later, that went away as I took on a more neutral standpoint by considering all of the 1986-1993 years to be equally my favorite. Then in more recent years, season 14 became my definitive favorite season (especially after covering it fairly recently in this SNL project). However, having now just reviewed the entire season 18, I’m reminded of why I used to be so big on it. While it still doesn’t dethrone season 14 as my definitive favorite, I have so much love for it. The many highs of this season were spectacular and very memorable, and there’s a good number of standout phenomenal episodes. It says something that in the first half of this season, the occasional absences of THREE of the most popular members of the repertory cast (Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, and Chris Farley) still didn’t hurt the season’s quality, nor did the mid-season full-out departure of Dana Carvey. And despite the fact that you can definitely see early glimpses of the type of juvenile humor that would unfortunately plague the next two seasons, the difference is that the writing of them was usually solid here. All-in-all, to me, this season is the peak of the early 90s era.


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


MY PERSONAL CHOICE OF “BEST OF” MOMENTS FOR THIS ENTIRE SEASON, REPRESENTED WITH SCREENCAPS (Note: These picks were hastily made off the top of my head and will naturally be missing some deserving sketches. I don’t have enough time to do full, thought-out “Best Of” picks for this whole season)

   


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Christina Applegate)
a mild step down


HOW THIS OVERALL SEASON STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING SEASON (1991-92)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 19 begins, with host Charles Barkley. After being spoiled by the long stretch of great seasons from 1986-1993 (probably the longest consecutive run SNL has ever had without a subpar season, though I would also make an argument for 1995-2002, which also happens to be the same amount of years as 86-93), I’m sure it will feel a little weird for me to enter the downhill slide that is season 19.

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May 8, 1993 – Christina Applegate / Midnight Oil (S18 E19)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Coffee Talk- alone & farklempt Linda takes calls on Mother’s Day

— A few minutes into this and I haven’t really been getting any real laughs, which is business as usual for me when watching these Coffee Talk sketches.
— Okay, I did like Linda Richman’s line just now about calling a half-Episcopalian half-Jewish person a “pissy-jew”.
— This is the first Linda Richman-hosted Coffee Talk sketch to feature no guests.
STARS: *½


MONOLOGUE
during her week in NYC, host visited malls instead of unique attractions

— A fairly lazy and one-joke premise. Christina is at least coming off likable, though.
— I do like the ending with her pointing out how the studio has the shape of a mall.
STARS: **


NERF CROTCH BAT
Nerf bats & missiles are OK for use with crotch, the pure stuff is not

— A priceless concept that’s being pulled off hilariously.
— As a 90s kid, this brings back a lot of childhood memories of the real Nerf commercials from this era. This spoof is perfectly capturing the look and feel of those commercials.
STARS: ****½


FOCUS ON BEAUTY II
Cher (host) loves Lori Davis’ (CHF) no-alcohol spray

— For some reason, the VERY early 90s-sounding music used as the Focus On Beauty II theme cracks me up.
— I have no familiarity with Lori Davis, but Farley’s performance as her is fantastic. This is just the first of two well-known Chris Farley performances in tonight’s episode. I’m sure you can guess what the other one is.
— When the ladies are asked if they use hairspray, I liked Melanie’s “I use it… but I hate it.”
— The ladies’ constant failure to understand simple things they’re learning from Farley’s Lori Davis is really funny.
— There’s the memorable part with Farley’s Lori Davis running her hands through her hair in fake slow-motion.
— Hartman’s now stealing the sketch with his very funny stilted, uncomfortable delivery as the scientist.
— I love the disappointed “No” from Phil Hymes (SNL’s lighting designer) when asked if there’s any alcohol in the sample that was sprayed in his mouth.
STARS: ****


SAN LUIS OBISPO EXPERIMENTAL THEATER
The Backwards Romance- the events in (PHH)’s play are anti-chronological

— A big audio glitch at the beginning, which causes us to not hear anything until shortly after Phil has started speaking.
— The bizarre premise of a backwards play, with all the action and dialogue being done in backwards order, is right up my alley.
— Phil’s interjections with him eagerly explaining various aspects of the play are cracking me up. I love his gleeful over-enthusiasm.
— Hmm, the sudden non-backwards ending of the play didn’t really work for me, nor did Phil’s explanation for it. I wanted the backwards stuff to go on further and continue getting more and more bizarre.
— Pretty good bit at the end with the preview of an upside-down murder mystery play.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Truganini”


WEEKEND UPDATE
ADS plays guitar & sings “I Love You Momma,” KEN also tries a few verses

— The graphics for Kevin’s Christian Right joke got screwed up really badly, causing the joke to make no sense and die with the audience.
— Adam gives us yet another charmingly goofy Update guitar song with silly lyrics. This song isn’t as well-remembered nowadays as his preceding two Update songs (The Turkey Song and Red-Hooded Sweatshirt), but I’ve still always liked this a lot. And the “I love you, maaaaaamaaaa” chorus is very catchy.
— A blooper happens during one part of Adam’s song, where he stops mid-lyric because he’s having a hard time reading that lyric off the cue-cards. This blooper is coming off more charming than unprofessional, though I find it odd that Adam wouldn’t already know the lyrics of this song by heart considering he (presumably) composed it himself.
— As always, I love Kevin’s participation during Adam’s song, especially him imitating Adam’s high-pitched singing whenever he says words that end with “ama”.
STARS: ***½


THE GAP
Kristy & Lucy help orient a new employee (host) at The Gap

 

— It’s fitting that this recurring sketch is appearing in a Christina Applegate-hosted episode, especially given the theme of her monologue earlier tonight.
— Feels a little weird seeing Farley playing his second drag role tonight.
— I liked David’s “Don’t play God, alright?” line to Christina.
— Rob’s Donut Hut character always cracks me up.
— Loved the part with David’s recalling of a phone conversation delivered entirely in Spanish.
STARS: ***½


MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
motivational speaker Matt Foley (CHF) warns two teens about using drugs

— Oh, here we go, folks…
— When it’s mentioned that the cleaning lady found a bag of pot, I loved Christina’s only response being “She didn’t smoke it, did she?”
— Immediately, mere seconds after his entrance as Matt Foley, Farley is already killing me.
— So many memorable lines from Matt Foley throughout this. I’m especially partial to “Well, la-di-FRICKIN-da!”
— Now comes the classic turn where David and Christina begin visibly cracking up helplessly, David in particular. This is definitely one of the best and most famous examples of breaking on SNL. Supposedly, there’s an interview Christina did shortly after Farley’s death where she talks about this sketch at one point when being asked about working with Farley, and she mentions that at rehearsals, Farley was more toned-down in his Matt Foley performance and didn’t perform the character quite as over-the-top and high-energy until the live show, which would explain why David and Christina keep losing their composure.
— Farley is amazing to watch throughout this sketch. He’s also throwing in so many priceless touches into his characterization. His arm movements when miming running while saying “How can we get back on the right track?!?” is something that particularly always kills me in this.
— I love Phil’s slowburn facial reactions to the things Matt Foley yells in his face throughout this.
— The part with Matt Foley crashing through a breakaway table actually wasn’t in the script, nor did Farley’s scene partners expect it. It was added to the sketch before the live show in an attempt to make Farley’s scene partners crack up. The reactions you see from them when Farley crashes through the table are 100% genuine. David’s reaction is interesting: he initially leans forward in concern while covering his mouth in shock, apparently thinking Farley truly did crash through a real table and hurt himself, and then David cracks up when realizing it was just a gag. Even the usually-professional Julia Sweeney breaks a bit. Of all the non-Farley performers, Phil is the ONLY one who doesn’t break during that part, proving once again how amazing that man is.
— Great ending with the family fearfully gathered together in a circle, concluding an absolutely legendary Chris Farley sketch that is probably tied with Chippendales as his most defining SNL moment.
— Part of the reason this sketch worked so well is that it wasn’t all that common at the time for Farley to scream his way through sketches (yet), and thus, him doing it in this sketch came off fresh and somewhat unexpected. I’ve always believed that the strong reception this sketch received is what would unfortunately lead to SNL’s upcoming gradual over-reliance on Screaming Chris Farley Sketches the following two seasons.
STARS: *****


YOU BET YOUR LIFE
Bill Cosby (ADS) babbles his way through the game show

— Oh my god at Adam’s Bill Cosby… uh… impression.
— This has always been one of my favorite Stupid Adam Sandler Sketches. So many things about his Bill Cosby impression make absolutely no sense, including the coherency of his dialogue, but it’s hilarious to me. Adam is fun here at puling off gibberish sentences and making them seem perfectly normal.
— You can tell Tim is genuinely amused by Adam throughout this, as he keeps visibly stifling his laughter, which is starting to become a theme tonight.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “My Country”


HANGIN’ WITH MTV
G-Spot members (TIM) & (CSR) sing “All I Wanna Do Is Suck Your Big Toe”

 

— I’m loving the melody to this Big Toe song.
— The comedic lyrics are hilarious and well-written. Rock especially has some funny ones, like the “suck on my Tic Tac” one, him mentioning how he doesn’t mind a corn on a toe because he loves the “extra meat”, and his whole “this little piggy” bit.
— Rock taking his shirt off when getting REALLY into the song is hilarious. My god, is he skinny.
— The pre-taped foot clips shown during the song are adding to the humor.
STARS: ****½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


CASTING AGENCY
an actress (host) gets some worrying warnings just before an audition

— I’m loving Kevin’s increasingly disturbing descriptions of the people who Christina will be auditioning for. This is the type of sketch that I always refer to as a quintessential Kevin Nealon sketch. He always excels at this kind of humor and dialogue.
— Great ending, and I loved the frozen stare on Christina’s face as Kevin is walking her into the audition room.
STARS: ****½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Despite a slow, unpromising start with the cold opening and monologue, this ended up being a very strong and memorable episode, with a legendary centerpiece (Matt Foley) and a high number of really solid sketches surrounding it. I’ve always felt this is an episode that well-defines SNL’s early 90s era, and I think there are other people who share that same viewpoint.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Kirstie Alley)
a slight step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Season 18 comes to an end, with host Kevin Kline. It’s also the end of the road for Chris Rock and occasional featured player Robert Smigel.

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April 17, 1993 – Kirstie Alley / Lenny Kravitz (S18 E18)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
SNL’s recurring characters sing “Fire Bad” for post-Rodney King unity

— Very fun concept of some of this era’s biggest recurring characters coming together in a We Are the World-esque unity song.
— I absolutely love the way the many different recurring characters are being incorporated into this, how their individual lyrics about unity pertain to their known traits, and how we’re seeing the characters paired off in twos.
— You can really see just from this cold opening what a fun and memorable era this is for recurring characters.
— For some odd reason, Rock’s Nat X is blatantly lip-syncing to a completely different voice. I have no idea why they’re doing that, but it always cracks me up whenever I watch this. In the live version I’m currently watching, you can kinda hear Rock’s real voice singing under the lip-synced voice. I believe that would later be muted out in reruns.
— Very interesting and fitting how Wayne and Franz are paired together, considering they’re two characters that can’t be performed regularly anymore after Dana Carvey’s departure. (That being said, Mike does later attempt a Garth-less Wayne sketch the following season, in a Melrose Place parody)
— I love Rob’s big solo as Richmeister.
— Very catchy song, especially the chorus.
— Great ending with Tim as himself lampshading the fact that he couldn’t participate in the musical number because he doesn’t have any recurring characters, then receiving compensation for that by getting to deliver his very first solo “Live from New York…” (which you can tell he was thrilled to do).
STARS: *****


MONOLOGUE
castmembers pretend to be host’s Cheers co-stars to make her feel better

— When mentioning how emotional it was recently taping the final episode of Cheers, Kirstie mentions losing her voice, which seems to be her explaining why her voice sounds so hoarse tonight. To be honest, her voice has always sounded kinda raspy to me, though.
— A fantastic callback/parody of Kirstie’s previous monologue, with the SNL cast now impersonating Kirstie’s Cheers co-stars, resulting in a gradually disillusioned Kirstie.
— Funny detail with Farley nailing George Wendt’s distinctive walk.
— Another funny detail is Phil’s dead-on imitation of Kelsey Grammer’s smile.
— Hilarious visual of Adam as Rhea Perlman.
STARS: *****


CHAMELEON XLE
Rerun from 11/14/92


LA CANTORIA
the overamorous Italians attend to vacationing Kirpatricks in hotel room

 

— Much like the monologue, this is another follow-up to a classic piece from Kirstie’s first episode. I like how this follow-up to the Italian Restaurant sketch is now taking place in a hotel.
— Last time they did this sketch, Dana Carvey played the leader of the Italian employees. Tonight, due to Dana’s departure, Rob’s character seems to have taken over as the leader. Rob’s doing a strong job in this role.
— Mike’s character looks completely different from how he looked in the first installment of this sketch. In the first installment, he didn’t wear a gray wig or glasses, instead just having his real hair greased back and wearing a fake tipped mustache.
— Rob seemed to mistakenly say “I come back” way too early, as he ends up staying for a good while after saying it, and then he later repeats the line right before he actually does leave.
— Like last time, the Italian employees’ perverted amorous actions towards Kirstie are a freakin’ riot, as are Kevin’s outraged reactions.
— Kevin happily singing to himself in Italian while eagerly disrobing when getting ready for his and Kirstie’s lovemaking is cracking me up.
— Hilarious entrance from Adam in a meat bikini.
— Great continuity with Kevin now recognizing the employees from the Italian restaurant.
STARS: *****


THE MONTEL WILLIAMS SHOW
audience member’s (host) comments fall flat

— Things seem to be looking up for the criminally-underused Tim Meadows lately, between his big role here, his getting to say “Live from New York…” earlier tonight, and his many co-starring roles in the preceding week’s Jason Alexander episode. IIRC, his sudden upswing in airtime doesn’t last, though.
— Ha, I like how Farley’s entrance receives a wolf-whistle from someone in the talk show audience.
— I cracked up at Rock’s delivery of “That’s like saying ‘I just ate my next door neighbor, but I don’t consider myself a cannibal’!”
— The main joke with Kirstie’s failed attempts at witty one-liners is only okay, but nothing special. The other aspects of this sketch are actually funnier to me.
— The subject matter of the Phil/Melanie/Farley portions of this talk show reminds me of a Ricki Lake sketch the show would later do in the Bob Newhart episode from season 20. I swear Farley even wears the exact same shirt in both sketches, except that in tonight’s sketch, he’s wearing a blazer over it.
— “The Jane Pratt Show”? They keep mentioning that throughout this sketch. It must’ve been a daytime talk show that, unlike The Montel Williams Show, went on to completely fall by the wayside, as I have absolutely no memory of it.
— This overall sketch started fizzling out for me towards the end.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


BACKSTAGE
Zoraida annoys host by confusing Cheers with real life

— Something odd and funny I’ve always noticed about this sketch: at the beginning, as stage manager Joe Dicso is walking Kirstie backstage, you can see Farley initially following them, then making a startled face at the camera when he realizes he’s walked too far and isn’t supposed to be on camera, then he embarrassedly exits the shot in a hurry.

That has always looked like a genuine blooper to me, but I once read a theory that it may have been part of the script as a background joke, as perhaps the reason for Farley’s startled face and his exiting the shot in a hurry is because he spotted Zoraida and didn’t feel like dealing with her usual nonsense, so he quickly bolted. That is an amusing and plausible theory, but I feel like if that were part of the script, they would’ve made it more obvious and noticeable.
— (*groan*) This character again. At least they waited a pretty long time since Zoraida’s last appearance, which was in the Joe Pesci episode all the way back in October. Tonight ends up being the final full-fledged Zoraida sketch (not counting her appearance in next season’s So Long Farewell, a musical piece pairing together various recurring characters much like tonight’s cold opening). Ellen wanted to do a Zoraida sketch in next season’s Sally Field episode, but if you read Jay Mohr’s SNL book, you’ll know that Sally Field had a less-than-pleasant response to Ellen pitching that sketch to her.
— Oh, gee, what a surprise: Zoraida is confusing the host’s TV character for reality once again.
— Okay, I’m actually laughing at Zoraida going on about how her so-called stupid boyfriend makes love like “a big dumb, stupid animal”.
— Ha, when talking about how the Cheers actors are now going to be out of a job, I loved Zoraida’s line “That fat guy Norm, he’s around here all the time”, obviously referring to George Wendt’s many SNL cameos in this era.
— I like Kirstie getting sassy and actually standing up to Zoraida, unlike how most hosts blandly put up with her nonsense until eventually walking off in frustration.
— Overall, this was surprisingly one of the more tolerable Zoraida sketches. A decent way for the character to go out.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Are You Gonna Go My Way”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Nipsey Russell (CSR) recites a poem about the Rodney King verdict
Operaman sings about Marla Maples, Grateful Dead, Demi Moore, Rodney King

— This may be the earliest an Update commentary occurred during a Kevin Nealon-anchored Weekend Update. Kevin was only about a minute into tonight’s Update when he introduced the first guest.
— Rock’s overall Nipsey Russell commentary was merely okay. It did have a pretty fun atmosphere, though.
— Operaman’s overall commentary was solid as always, even if there weren’t as many noteworthy bits tonight as these Operaman commentaries usually have.
STARS: ***½


ORIGINALS
new employee at make-up counter (host) tends to customers (JUS) & (MEH)

— David’s little “You should model; I am serious” aside to Julia’s old lady character made me laugh.
— I liked David inhaling a bottle of tranquilizer makeup to calm himself down after getting worked up.
— A few minutes into this sketch and I’m now realizing that David has been providing my ONLY laughs so far.
— Okay, I got some laughs just now from Kirstie’s many backhanded comments to poor Melanie.
— Another chuckle during the Kirstie/Melanie scene, with Kirstie telling a walking-away Melanie that she can be a runway model, then saying “…at LaGuardia” under her breath.
STARS: **


BAD TASTE SKETCHES
disclaimers fail to warn viewers about sketches involving vomit

— A good laugh from how immediately after Phil’s warning that the scene we’re about to see doesn’t contain sex with animals or vomiting, the scene ends up being a trashy hillbilly scene that features exactly what Phil claimed we wouldn’t see.
— The sudden vomiting from increasingly unlikely people is cracking me up, especially when it happens with Phil. Sophomoric, yes, but I feel this material is being executed well, even if it can be seen as an unfortunate harbinger of the following two seasons being dominated by bad, tasteless, juvenile humor. At least this sketch is self-aware, though. Speaking of harbingers and the following two seasons, this sketch has always felt to me like a precursor to another sketch featuring a chain reaction of vomiting: the notorious Rookie Cop from season 20, a sketch that you might be surprised to learn that I actually… like. Yes, I fully admit it, at the risk of getting stones thrown at me. That sketch is very hard to defend, as it epitomizes some of season 20’s many problems, but I’ve just always found that particular sketch stupidly funny, and I like the ridiculous escalation in how complex and extensive the structure was, both in how it featured many different scenes involving various sets and how it utilized the entire cast one-by-one. Obviously, I’ll go into more detail when I eventually cover that episode.
— Getting back to this sketch, I enjoyed the ending with Adam and his pig wife.
STARS: ***½


CARRIAGE RIDE
Toonces chauffeurs disaster-bound 19th-century women (host) & (JUS)

— I like the format of this sketch, with the succession of happy news Kirstie and Julia reveal to each other being a future historical tragedy, with each reveal being accompanied by eerie foreshadowing music.
— Great sudden reveal of Toonces, in yet another inspired and random “cameo” from him at the end of a sketch. This ends up being Toonces’ final SNL appearance ever. It’s been fun covering all of his appearances over the last few seasons. I’ve always appreciated his sketches.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Always on the Run”


STOP THIS CRAZINESS!
Susan Powter’s (host) videos center around revenge against her ex-husband

— This was originally supposed to air in the Miranda Richardson episode from earlier this season, but got cut after dress rehearsal. In it, Richardson played the Susan Powter role.
— I kinda like the idea of the gradual tape-within-a-tape-within-a-tape reveals, but the sketch itself isn’t doing anything for me.
— Kirstie is fine in her performance, but I can’t help but wonder if Miranda Richardson pulled off this role better in her unseen dress rehearsal version of this.
— Farley and Melanie’s testimonials fell flat for me.
STARS: *½


WHILE THE CITY SWEEPS
by TOS- a variety show by & for janitors

— Very fun sudden turn after the last of the business personnel leaves, with the building’s night staff putting on a variety show for each other.
— Rob is absolutely fantastic in the lead role here. This film is always one of the first things that come to mind whenever I think of how underrated Rob’s SNL tenure is.
— Farley’s lip-syncing of a baritone Roll Out The Barrel is killing me.
— I love the emotional, melancholy ending after the variety show has concluded.
— Overall, Tom Schiller does it once again with yet another excellent film that was entertaining, charming, and had heart. This is one of my personal favorites of his Schiller Reels.
STARS: *****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Another very solid Kirstie Alley-hosted episode, even if this one wasn’t as consistently strong as her first episode. Still, the highs of tonight’s episode were VERY high and memorable, especially within the first 15 minutes, which helped give the overall show a fun vibe, despite some things falling flat.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Jason Alexander)
a mild step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Christina Applegate

Posted on

April 10, 1993 – Jason Alexander / Peter Gabriel (S18 E17)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill Clinton (PHH) makes an Indecent Proposal to Boris Yeltsin (CHF)

— Great sudden Indecent Proposal twist with Phil’s Clinton making an offer for a night with Boris Yeltsin’s wife, Naina.
— I got a laugh from the reason Phil’s Clinton gives to Mike’s George Stephanopoulos for his indecent proposal to Yeltsin: “I’m gonna give him the money anyway. Might as well have some fun.”
— Julia as Naina, in her accent: “It’s not my soul, it’s just my wagina.”
— I like the fact that this is the second consecutive episode with the underappreciated Julia Sweeney getting to say “Live from New York…”.
STARS: ***½


OPENING MONTAGE
— The theme music would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version. Same goes for the following monologue.


MONOLOGUE
host dresses like Peter Pan & performs a static version of “I’m Flying”

— Pretty fun performance from Jason during the musical.
— Amusing turn with a disenchanted Jason stopping the musical, being “flown” over to Lorne, and Lorne being raised on a mechanical platform so he can be higher than Jason.
STARS: ***


JIFFY EXPRESS
Rerun from 10/24/92


WOODY ALLEN FAN CLUB
Woody Allen’s legal troubles are discussed at a meeting of his fan club

— Jason being cast as a Woody Allen-sounding fan seems very fitting.
— Good Woody Allen voices from all the guys. Jon Lovitz would’ve been perfect for this sketch if he were still in the cast (or available for one of his many cameos in this era), as he had a lesser-known recurring character in his early seasons who was basically the same as these Woody Allen fans in this sketch.
— David’s character is named Andrew Breckman, after frequent SNL writer Andy Breckman. I don’t know if this means he had a hand in the writing of this sketch (I don’t think he’s credited as a guest writer this week).
— The fan club members’ various ways of downplaying Woody’s problems are pretty funny.
— I like the ending with Jason doing a Woody Allen-esque direct-to-camera message.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


HUB’S GYROS
workers at Hub’s Gyros talk about (host)’s affinity for “the juice”

— A lot of things about the look of this sketch bring the original era’s Olympia Cafe sketches to mind. Even the layout of the restaurant set is kinda similar to Olympia Cafe’s set.
— Ha, there goes the first utterance of the soon-to-be-immortal line “You like-a the juice?”
— Robert Smigel’s accent in this sounds similar to the voice he would later use for Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
— The ridiculous, endless repetitiveness of this is increasingly funny when you’re aware this is meant as a meta spoof of one-joke, catchphrase-driven sketches.
— I love how this has now gotten really meta with David entering the scene and asking the Hub’s Gyros employees for the sketch to finally end, and all the characters lampshading how unbearably repetitive the sketch is. I especially love Smigel’s line “Audience is getting pissed off.”
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Steam”


WEEKEND UPDATE
unattractive Bennett Brauer (CHF) explains why he’s an audience turn-off

— Farley debuts a new Update character: Bennett Brauer, which would go on to be a fairly well-known character of his.
— Funny format of the Bennett Brauer commentary, with his increasingly unpleasant revelations about himself while using air quotes. The quote about “not using silverware when eating” especially got a good laugh.
— Kevin’s “This just in” bit about the Rodney King jury verdict was awful. Not only was it not funny, but what the hell was with Kevin’s delivery? Judging from his awkward, hesitant delivery, it sounded like even he had no confidence in the material.
— David had a Hollywood Minute commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal, which is surprising considering the popularity of the segment. Judging from the description I read of this cut Hollywood Minute, it’s the same one that would later make it on the air in this season’s finale.
STARS: ***


FOOD UNION
grocery store employees (host) & (ROS) try to find sanctuary during break

— I’m enjoying the escalation of this, with the increasingly smaller and less-convenient break rooms.
— Canteen Boy officially becomes recurring, making a random small “cameo” in this sketch.
— I’m actually liking Canteen Boy better in this small appearance than I do in most of his own sketches.
— Solid ending with the crawl space break room, and Rob having his ear chewed by a mouse.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


WEAK CRIME BOSS
mob boss (host) repeatedly errs by having thugs release (TIM) prematurely

— I loved Phil’s delivery of “Remember this YOUNG PUNK?!?” when he and Kevin bring Tim into Jason’s office.
— Funny turn after Jason initially tells Kevin and Phil they can leave, with Tim immediately beating Jason up.
— Great performance and character work from Jason.
— Okay, the repetitiveness of this sketch was funny to me for a good while, but is now starting to get tired to me towards the end of this.
— Overall, not a particularly great sketch, but I didn’t hate this anywhere near as much as I used to. There was a silliness to this sketch that kinda worked, and this was well-performed by most of the actors involved. However, I will never understand why this sketch is included in this season’s “Best Of” compilation special. What were they thinking?!?
STARS: **½


IGNORANT PROPOSAL
stakes lowered considerably in all-black version

— Wow, two consecutive sketches tonight with the criminally-underused Tim Meadows in a co-starring role. A huge rarity for him in this era.
— I like that we’re getting two different Indecent Proposal parodies tonight.
— Rock’s insistent line “If you don’t sleep with him, I will” was funny.
— Wait, now it’s revealed that Rock is playing Eddie Murphy? Boy, is that a weak impression of Eddie.
— Ellen playing Mary J. Blige here is amusing, considering Mary J. Blige was a musical guest on the show just two episodes earlier.
STARS: ***


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


TALES OF IRONY
three vignettes fail to contain any real ironic element

— I love Jason’s intense, over-dramatic performance as the host.
— Jason’s understated confused reaction to the spaceship vignette is cracking me up.
— The increasingly bad examples of irony in the vignettes are really funny, as are Jason’s increasingly baffled, frustrated reactions.
— I got a big laugh from the ending with Jason bitterly tearing a sheet of paper apart and angrily chewing it.
STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “In Your Eyes”


BLACK COWORKERS
changing traits make (host) repeatedly misidentify new black co-workers

— Wow, THREE co-starring roles tonight for Tim. I love it.
— I’m being amused by the direction this is going in, with Tim and Rock constantly switching places or changing appearances, causing Jason to constantly confuse them for each other, which they get offended by.
— Funny line from Tim about how Jason is a balding white guy with a blazer, so “I guess that makes you Bob Hope”.
— I love the randomness of Ellen deciding to take a nap right at the table, of course leading Jason to mistake the “D” shaved in the back of her hair for Tim’s hair.
— I’m enjoying how the silliness is escalating even further, with Tim, Rock, and Ellen now having their names changed to African names when Jason has briefly stepped out once again.
— When Jason returns after the aforementioned African name changes, I love David’s panicked gestures when trying to prevent Jason from saying the black co-workers’ old names.
— Good ending with Jason’s direct-to-camera message (the second sketch tonight to end with Jason doing that) pleading with viewers not to hurt him or set his house on fire after the upcoming Rodney King verdict.
STARS: ****


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— Though this wasn’t one of the more standout episodes of this season, it was a quietly solid show. I appreciate a lot of the original premises we saw all throughout this episode. There were no recurring sketches at all (Hub’s Gyros doesn’t become recurring until later this season); just a night filled with a lot of mostly-good premise-driven original sketches. Jason Alexander was a very solid host, and it makes sense how good he was at playing different characters and how well he worked in SNL’s live format, considering all of his stage experience.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Miranda Richardson)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Kirstie Alley

Posted on

March 20, 1993 – Miranda Richardson / Soul Asylum (S18 E16)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
androgynous Pat sings “The Crying Game” for host & Stephen Rea [real]

— Yet another fantastic, creative usage of Pat. This Crying Game setting is particularly fitting for this character.
— I like Miranda Richardson’s various reaction shots during the song.
— This ends up being the final full-fledged Pat sketch (not counting Pat’s future appearances in recurring character group pieces like So Long Farewell from Phil’s final episode, or Recurring Characters For Unity from a little later this season), despite the fact that there’s still a little more than a year left in Julia’s SNL tenure. I recall once reading an interview with Julia years ago in which she explained that when she signed on to do a Pat movie somewhere around this time in early 1993, she didn’t get Lorne’s permission first. Lorne was not happy when he soon found out, and as a “penalty”, he forbid Julia from doing any more Pat sketches on SNL. In retrospect, that’s probably a good thing, as it caused Pat to bow out while the character was still funny, instead of eventually fizzling out like several popular recurring characters tend to do towards the end of their run.
STARS: ****


MONOLOGUE
host sings like Marilyn Monroe & tries to ingratiate herself with USA

 

— Great performance from Miranda during her musical number so far, with a lot of funny little comedic touches from her.
— I love how this is now starting to really get fun as the musical number really kicks into high gear and has Miranda doing a wild range of different things, featuring participation from male cast members.
STARS: ****


GREEN & FAZIO (PART 1)
Rerun from 10/10/92


THE RAIN PEOPLE
actor (PHH) frustrates (host)’s attempts to complete an emotional scene

— Very funny characterization from Phil here.
— Phil’s various ways of screwing up the scene are increasingly funny. I also love the growing-but-understated frustrations from Mike and Miranda.
— Phil’s adding so many funny dopey little touches to his characterization, such as him sitting in an eager listening posture when Miranda’s about to disclose to him a traumatic childhood memory of hers.
— Miranda’s over-the-top hysterical crying during the final, successful take of the movie scene is cracking me up.
— Hilarious turn with Phil stealing Miranda’s traumatic childhood memory during his Oscar acceptance speech, resulting in an outraged Miranda.
— An overall excellent sketch. Very funny, well-structured, perfectly performed, and stands out as some of Phil’s greatest SNL work.
STARS: *****


BAD NEWS
after WWII soldier (MIM) recovers, nurse (host) gives string of bad news

— I’m getting so many laughs from the bad news Miranda breaks to Mike in response to every positive thing Mike brings up.
— Priceless entrance from Rob as a three-legged Hitler.
— The frying pan bit at the end was great.
— An overall fantastic and strongly-written sketch with wonderfully bizarre British-style humor. This felt unusual and refreshing to see on SNL. Miranda herself must’ve had a hand in writing this, knowing her background in British comedy.
STARS: ****½


GREEN & FAZIO (PART 2)
Rerun from 10/10/92


EAGER & JONES
heterosexuals Eager (CHF) & Jones (TIM) sing duets as if they were gay

— As I mentioned recently, this sketch was originally cut after dress rehearsal from the Harvey Keitel episode.
— Amusing concept, and the songs and performances from Farley and Tim are a lot of fun.
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Somebody to Shove”


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about David Koresh & Branch Davidians
Hanna-Barbera paid ROS to discuss the educational merits of cartoons

— Kevin’s subliminal editorial on David Koresh was okay, though no subliminal lines stood out to me as particularly noteworthy here.
— A great blooper just now during Rob’s commentary: Rob says a line regarding tomato juice that makes no sense, then he makes a face showing that he’s aware something was wrong with the line he just read, then he saves himself with a great “That’s what it said” ad-lib, referring to the cue-card. Rob then gets Kevin involved in the ad-libbing by asking him to back him up. All of this gets a huge audience reaction.
— Rob’s whole cartoon commentary is a lot of fun.
— Rob claiming Elmer Fudd originated the Ride of the Valkyries tune reminds me of that Jeremy Irons “Looney Tunes Classics” sketch from two seasons earlier.
— Ellen had a commentary cut after dress rehearsal in which she played the president of the Eddie Murphy Fan Club being saddened by Eddie’s recent wedding, eventually launching into a song she wrote called “Eddie My Love”.
STARS: ***


MTV SPRING BREAK U.K. ’93
VJs get roughed up by British hooligans

— Adam is very funny in his imitation of the insufferable Pauly Shore.
— David’s Denis Leary is making me laugh.
— One of the various times throughout this sketch that the British hooligans knock Adam’s Pauly Shore to the ground and pile on top of him, Adam seems to forget that he’s supposed to say something to the camera, as the camera holds on a lengthy close-up of him exiting the pile while oddly not saying anything or even acknowledging the camera, resulting in long awkward silence until the camera cuts back to Mike’s Prince Andrew.
— An odd coincidence about Duran Duran being impersonated in this sketch is that Duran Duran was the musical guest on SNL that exact same Saturday exactly 10 years earlier (March 19, 1983).
STARS: ***½


RUSSELL SIMMONS’ DEF MAGIC SHOW JAM
foul-mouthed illusionists

— Hilarious concept right out of the gate.
— A dead-on parody of Def Jam Comedy.
— The overall sketch was short and sweet.
— When Rock later hosts in season 22, they do another Def Jam Comedy parody that’s a spiritual successor to this sketch, titled Russell Simmons’ Def Emergency Room Jam.
STARS: ****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Black Gold”


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


DIETER’S DREAM
whorenun (host), shemale Susan, Marv Albert [real] inhabit Dieter’s Dream

— When Dieter is first shown in the studio audience at the beginning of this, you can hear a female audience member excitedly say “Oh, [inaudible] Sprockets!” when recognizing Dieter.
— A very creative different usage of Dieter. This dream format is a lot of fun.
— Ha, a random Marv Albert cameo!
— I love how this film is turning the weirdness of the already-weird Sprockets sketches up to a full 11.
— Susan the Shemale: “I want to poke out your eyes and make love to your skull.”
— The Electric Company-esque “whorenun” bit is absolutely priceless.
— I love the twist on the usual “touch my monkey” bit.
— Overall, I could not have loved this film more. This has got to be my absolute favorite Dieter appearance ever.
STARS: *****


JACK MCMANUS BAR
spineless pub owner (CHF) remembers celebrities taking advantage of him

— I’m not caring much for the repeated joke of Farley’s celebrity encounter stories always ending with him cowardly backing down on his bossy treatment of the celebrities.
— I am liking the way Farley is carrying this. His fun performance is making this weak material a little more tolerable for me.
STARS: **½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fantastic episode; one of the strongest of this great season. Aside from the last sketch, there was a consistent high quality throughout the night, we got a lot of standout great sketches, and nothing besides Weekend Update got below a three-and-a-half star rating. Miranda Richardson was a very strong and skilled host who blended perfectly into SNL’s format, which is no surprise given her aforementioned comedy background. U.K.-born hosts like her who are mostly known for doing serious roles but have any kind of comedy background usually always make for strong SNL hosts.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (John Goodman)
a fairly big step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Jason Alexander

Posted on

March 13, 1993 – John Goodman / Mary J. Blige (S18 E15)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Richard Laymer chats with David Koresh (MIM) in the Waco compound

— I like that SNL’s doing a parody of the infamous David Koresh/Waco incident going on at this time.
— Ha, Richmeister makes yet another sudden appearance in a completely unrelated sketch. I always appreciate how they occasionally put him in different situations like this.
— Some good cracks from Richmeister about Koresh’s multiple wives.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
host & The Bravados [real] sing “So In Love”

— I like John proudly proclaiming he’s hosting during the Storm of the Century. There is something strangely kinda exciting about a live SNL episode airing during one of New York’s worst storms in history.
— When John says he wanted his fourth monologue to be special, you can hear a woman in the audience saying “You ARE special”, which John reacts to by looking towards the audience with a funny, sly smile.
— Funny line from John about a fellow passenger on the train volunteering to help kill SNL’s writers.
— The overall acapella song with The Bravados was fairly charming, though this isn’t one of John’s better monologues.
STARS: **½


WILSON COUNTERSINK FLANGES
for those with requisite technical knowledge

— I’m getting laughs from the increasingly fake-sounding, incomprehensible technical jargon, especially when it comes from Phil’s professional delivery.
— Good ending tagline about “lost prantkens”.
STARS: ***½


BIG BUDDIES
Bear (host) finds that Ox (CHF) has taken over as brain’s (ROS) protector

— Pretty funny turn with John’s burly jock finding out Rob’s nerd has made a new burly jock friend.
— The awkwardness of the forced banter between Farley and John is cracking me up.
— I like John repeatedly banging his head against the wall while saying “stupid” over and over for an absurdly long time, even if I’m not sure it was intended to be funny.
— I love the ending photo montage of John with his new nerdy friend, and then us seeing both of them happily pictured with the Farley/Rob duo.
— An overall solid, cute, and charming sketch, though something so quiet and not intended to be laugh-out-loud hilarious feels kinda odd as the lead-off sketch of an episode.
STARS: ***½


LET’S TALK AND TALK AND TALK AND TALK AND TALK ABOUT MOVIES
Soylent Green director (host) talks about his less successful sequels

— Some pretty funny random humor right out the gate with the show’s absurdly long title and Julia’s name being Mabel Blaster.
— Even before we’ve gotten to the real comedic meat with the Soylent Green sequels, the initial straightforward clip of Phil’s Charlton Heston in the original Soylent Green cracked me the hell up.
— The look on Kevin’s face while screaming at the end of the Soylent White clip is very funny.
— I’m loving the increasingly ridiculous sequels, made funnier by Phil’s memorable over-the-top utterances of “Soylent (insert thing here) is made out of people! It’s peeeoooopppplllleeee!!!” Contrary to some criticisms I’ve heard about this sketch, I feel the repetitive nature actually works well in this context.
— If you know me, you’ll know I loved the Soylent Stooges line.
— Looks like a clip titled Soylent Beef Kabobs was cut after dress rehearsal. During the Soylent Green II clip towards the end of this sketch, there’s a technical gaffe where a graphic on the bottom of the screen states the title “Soylent Beef Kabobs” (screencap below), before quickly disappearing and being replaced with the correct “Soylent Green II” title graphic.

STARS: ****


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Reminisce”


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN interviews newly-crowned Storm Of The Century (CHF)
old codger Buster Jenkins (CSR) blames spaceships for the huge deficit
Sleepyhead (ADS) eventually gives editorial on Yeltsin’s near-impeachment

— Farley’s Storm Of The Century character mentioning El Nino among several storms reminds me of the famous El Nino/Weather Channel sketch Farley would later do in his 1997 hosting stint. This Storm Of The Century commentary actually kinda feels like a precursor to that El Nino sketch, as both involve Farley playing a personification of a storm.
— Farley’s overall commentary was surprisingly really forgettable and just came and went.
— I’m getting good laughs from Rock’s old man character ranting about “them damn spaceships”. He’s also making some other funny absurd comments throughout this, especially him asking where are women going to pee in space, and him saying that a space helmet costs “A lot… and 18 cents”.
— Adam, who has recently become sure-fire Weekend Update gold, tries a new Update character: Sleepyhead.
— Ehh, the overall Sleepyhead commentary ended up not working. Adam’s usually good at pulling off this kind of goofy concept, but this was a swing-and-a-miss and was probably funnier in theory than in practice. I can definitely see why Sleepyhead never ends up becoming a recurring character.
STARS: ***


HOW’D YOU DO THAT?
guests tell origins of accidental disfigurements

— Funny visual of John entering the scene with long flat fingers and a towel hook stuck in his chin.
— I’m enjoying this sketch, but something about it feels oddly quiet. Maybe because each guest is entering with no entrance music or audience applause, for some reason.
— I love Rob as a plastic surgeon detailing how he can fix the guests’ disfigurements. When he’s giving Phil details, I like the goofy smile on Phil’s face.
— A particularly priceless entrance from Farley. Great makeup job on him.
— When being asked if there’s anything he can do to help Farley, I love the cutaway to Rob just grinning and smugly saying “No!”
STARS: ***½


CRUISE
while on a cruise, Linda Richman & (host) talk about all the great food

— (*groan*) Really, SNL? Two consecutive episodes with Linda Richman? However, at least we’re seeing her outside of the Coffee Talk setting this time. It’s usually nice when we get rare instances of recurring characters being taken out of their normal setting.
— While I appreciate the more slice-of-life aspect they’re going for here, the conversations between Linda Richman and John’s character are not interesting me and are making this sketch feel long. I’d probably be more into this if I actually liked the Linda Richman character.
— Okay, I finally did get one chuckle, from Linda Richman’s startled reaction to John’s Roman Catholic/Jewish fake-out bit.
STARS: **


BLOCK PARTY
partygoers pretend to believe eccentric loser Canteen Boy’s (ADS) stories

— Adam tries out yet another new character tonight, though this is one that actually ends up becoming recurring.
— This particular Canteen Boy sketch was actually originally going to be performed earlier this season in the Danny DeVito episode, but got cut after dress rehearsal.
— Canteen Boy constantly using Canada in his obvious false stories feels like a callback to the High School Liars Club sketch from earlier this season, where Adam played a character who also kept using Canada in his lies.
— I got a laugh from Canteen Boy’s speechless, subtly panicked reaction to being asked if he’s worried someone will switch the water in his canteen when he’s sleeping.
— I like John’s obnoxious ways of messing with Canteen Boy’s head. I can picture Danny DeVito pulling off this obnoxious role well too, in the unaired original version.
— Despite some laughs, I wasn’t all that crazy about this sketch as a whole. I’m of the opinion that the Canteen Boy character is only remembered by SNL fans today because of the famous scoutmaster sketch with Alec Baldwin. The other sketches Canteen Boy starred in were never anything special, in my opinion.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Thing”


TURKISH STOREKEEPER
once again, Turkish (ROS) is the target of (host)’s anti-Arab sentiments

— I’m liking the escalation of this sketch in the constant flashbacks. Like the Let’s Talk(x5) About Movies sketch from earlier tonight, this is another sketch where the repetitive nature actually works. And there’s something that tickles me about the fact that SNL’s stagehands have to constantly change the broken window, the “I’m not from Iraq/Libya/Iran” signs, and Rob’s facial hair all throughout this sketch. Aside from one instance early on in this sketch where there’s an accidental glimpse of the window being replaced behind John, the stagehands are doing a seamless job with all these quick changes.
— Good ending with John’s character, who has just made good with Rob’s Turkish character, being oblivious to the “U.S. Plane in Turkey Skyjack” headline on the opposite side of the newspaper he’s reading, and Rob trying to keep him from seeing it.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY


TO BE SURE, IT’S TIME TO ROCK!
traditional Irish singers try rock classics & rap on new albums

— An enjoyable and solid concept, with the incongruity between the singers’ old-timey Irish singing style and the popular rock songs they’re performing.
— Nice little touch with the Irish version of Born To Be Wild spelling “born” as “bourne”.
— The Irish versions of I Can’t Get No Satisfaction and Should I Stay Or Should I Go are particularly funny.
STARS: ****


THE MAN WITHOUT A SHOUT
tragedy spurs (host) never to raise his voice

— There’s a gaffe early on where it takes a stagehand two tries to break the window with a ball, then he visibly walks right past the camera. Or was that intentional?
— Not too bad of a concept of us seeing how John’s refusal to ever raise his voice negatively affects his life.
— The resulting sketch as a whole didn’t do much for me. I did like John and Julia’s acting in this, but the execution came off fairly meh and forgettable.
STARS: **


GOODNIGHTS
musical guest’s mother [real] joins her on-stage

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— There were some fairly solid things throughout the night, and two things that I felt highly about (Let’s Talk(x5) About Movies and To Be Sure, It’s Time to Rock), but I dunno, this episode as a whole had a strangely quiet, kinda forgettable feel. Even some of the good sketches had an oddly quiet vibe. Not bad an episode overall, but not one of season 18 nor John Goodman’s more memorable episodes.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Bill Murray)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Miranda Richardson

Posted on

February 20, 1993 – Bill Murray / Sting (S18 E14)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Beverly Hills residents question Bill Clinton (PHH) about his policies

— Amusing detail of Kevin-as-Michael-Eisner’s Mickey Mouse tie.
— Sting’s Rod Stewart impression is really funny.
— Impressions aren’t usually Farley’s strong suit, but I like his Rob Reiner.
STARS: ***


OPENING MONTAGE
— Father Guido Sarducci is credited as a featured player, for the first time since season 11.


MONOLOGUE
BIM talks about the good vibes of the past week as the truth scrolls by

— As always, a fun, energetic entrance from Bill.
— I appreciate Bill pointing out names of familiar faces from the original SNL staff who are still working there today.
— It’s the classic Buck Henry screen crawl monologue gag! I love that they’re doing this for a Bill Murray monologue, as it truly makes it feel like a throwback to the old days.
— I always like when Bill speaks in what I call his “Bill Murray-isms” (it’s a little hard to describe, but he just has a certain distinctive way of wording things).
— A lot of laughs from the screen crawl refuting every positive thing Bill is saying about then-modern-day SNL. The “He made Kevin Nealon cry” disclaimer especially got a huge laugh.
— Great how Bill is doing a very Nick the Lounge Singer-esque rendition of I Will Always Love You, which is nice compensation for the fact that we’re not getting a Nick the Lounger Singer sketch tonight.
STARS: ****


HIBERNOL
long-term cold & flu medicine lets (CHF) sleep through sickness

— Great visual of the oversized cup of medicine.
— Strong concept for a fake ad, and I like the graphic showing the colds and flus coming and going through Farley’s body as he sleeps through the winter.
— Very funny visual of Farley waking up with his hair, beard, and fingernails all being long.
— Overall, the early 90s era knocks one out of the park again with yet another very memorable fake ad.
STARS: ****½


THE WHIPMASTER
a not-so-proficient actor (BIM) takes over the title role

 

— Hilarious reveal of Farley with red marks all over his face after Bill’s repeated attempts to whip the cigar out of his mouth.
— Lots of funny instances of Bill’s unskilled whipping.
— I love Phil’s reaction to getting whipped in the crotch.
— Very funny bit with Bill using his whip to knock down an obvious dummy of Julia.
— Nice touch immediately after this sketch, with G.E. Smith and the SNL Band being shown playing an instrumental version of the Whipmaster theme song.
STARS: ****


FREQUENT FLYER
Frequent Flyer (BIM) gives unsolicited tips to his fellow passengers

— Second sketch in a row with Bill playing a character with his own theme song.
— Some trivia: this sketch was cut from the preceding week’s Alec Baldwin episode, where the Frequent Flyer character was played by Phil. Alec played the role that Mike is playing here.
— Bill’s getting laughs from his constant tips to fellow passengers. Not a hilarious concept, but Bill is solid in this role and is making this sketch work. I can’t help but be curious how Phil’s unaired version of this character compares to Bill’s. I’m sure Phil pulled off this role well in his own right.
— I like the ending with Frequent Flyer even giving tips to a terrorist hijacker.
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You”


WEEKEND UPDATE
moron Hank Fielding gives perspective on Bill Clinton’s economic address
Father Guido Sarducci reviews Groundhog Day & relates a recurring dream
Hollywood Minute- Steve Martin [real] gives DAS his comeuppance

— After getting cut after dress rehearsal many times since his first appearance earlier this season, Robert Smigel’s Hank Fielding character finally makes it on the air again.
— I haven’t been enjoying tonight’s Hank Fielding commentary quite as much as the first one, but there are still laughs from this, especially him naming Gomer Pyle as an example of gays in the military.
— I like the idea of Father Guido Sarducci doing a review of Bill’s new movie Groundhog Day.
— Much like a lot of his commentaries from the past, tonight’s Guido Sarducci commentary is going on a really long time. However, he’s cracking me up throughout this one, with a lot of funny little comments.
— David’s Hollywood Minute is providing the usual laughs, especially the comment about Stevie Nicks. However, I didn’t get David’s “I don’t care what he said, I never touched the freak” quote when Brooke Shields’ pic came up.
— A memorable Steve Martin appearance during David’s Hollywood Minute, even if it is the type of “sneaker-upper” bit (I think that’s what it’s called, when a celebrity makes a “surprise” appearance to confront a cast member making fun of them) that would go on to be a tired, corny SNL trope.
— We’ve gotten quite a number of nice throwbacks to the original era in tonight’s episode, between Bill Murray’s presence, a Buck Henry-esque monologue, a Father Guido Sarducci commentary on Update, and now a Steve Martin appearance.
— What was with Steve at the very end of this Update? After signing off, Kevin turns to Steve and tries to start a conversation, but Steve snubs him by rudely turning away with an arrogant look on his face. I’d like to think that was just Steve doing a “bit”, but it doesn’t make any sense in this context.
STARS: ***½


MEN’S JAZZ ENSEMBLE
Tommy Two-Step (BIM) readies men’s jazz dancing ensemble for big show

— The pre-taped rehearsal montage is pretty fun.
— A good laugh from the ending of Bill’s inspiring story, where he reveals he puked into the orchestra pit.
— I love the goofy gleeful looks on Farley and Mike’s faces during their simultaneous choreography at front of the stage during the big show at the end of the sketch.
— An overall charming, cute, and enjoyable sketch, even if it wasn’t intended to be all laugh-out-loud funny. The next time Bill hosts in 1999, they do a sketch that feels like a spiritual successor to this, in which Bill is the leader of an all-male group of Knicks City Dancers performing for an unruly crowd. Unfortunately, I recall that sketch being really weak, though I haven’t seen it in ages, so maybe my opinion will change when I eventually cover that episode. I used to think that episode in general was surprisingly pretty wretched for a Bill Murray-hosted show, but now that I’m thinking back on it, I can recall a number of pretty solid things from that episode.
STARS: ***½


COFFEE TALK WITH LINDA RICHMAN
Linda & neighbor (BIM) discuss the year’s Oscar nominations

— Funny line about how Barbra Streisand deserves an Oscar just for keeping her nose.
— Bill’s character discussing that year’s Oscar nominees makes me have a disappointed realization that we didn’t see Bill do his trademark Oscar picks tonight. It would’ve been a treat to see that again.
— Overall, I kinda liked Bill’s characterization, but this sketch as a whole kept me largely uninterested, as usual for Coffee Talk.
STARS: **


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Love Is Stronger Than Justice”


I’M CHILLIN’
today’s mother joke & a plug for Bitch Come Running cologne

— First time this recurring sketch has appeared all season. This also ends up being the last time we’ll ever see this sketch during Farley and Rock’s tenure as cast members (not counting when they bring the sketch back in Rock’s season 22 hosting stint, in which Jim Breuer replaces Farley’s character).
— A big laugh from the sponsor Bitch Come Runnin’ Cologne.
— I liked Farley’s line “Marky Mark ain’t nothin’ but Vanilla Ice in his drawers.”
— Very funny confused look that Rock gives Farley after Farley namedrops Gertrude Stein.
— Rock unfortunately stumbled over his delivery of the Mother Joke of the Day.
STARS: ***½


MCDONALD’S
to get free food, Honker poses as meat inspector testing for tainted beef

— Always nice to see Bill’s lesser-known Honker character.
— Bill’s delivery as this character always consistently cracks me up, especially the way he just now repeatedly said “salt” with his mouth full of food.
— Honker’s scheme to getting free food is pretty funny.
— During Ellen and Rob’s grossed-out reactions to Bill jamming a thermometer into the burger’s “rectum”, I liked Rob repeatedly saying “Shouldn’t have done that!”
STARS: ***½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Every Breath You Take”


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A fairly solid episode. There were no real classics, but this was a fine and consistently good episode (minus Coffee Talk). Bill Murray was a great, fun, laid-back, and expert host as always, and it’s always interesting seeing him work with different casts whenever he comes back to the show.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Alec Baldwin)
a mild step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Our annual John Goodman episode

Posted on

February 13, 1993 – Alec Baldwin / Paul McCartney (S18 E13)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
after Dateline NBC anchors admit ethical lapses, Toonces drives them home

 

— Funny line from Julia’s Jane Pauley about Dateline being a cheap knock-off of 60 Minutes.
— I like how the NBC mishaps the anchors are apologizing for are getting more and more ridiculous.
— Reruns of this episode use the dress rehearsal version of this cold opening (you’ll see why later in my review of this opening). One big difference between the live and dress version is that the live version I’m currently watching doesn’t have the meta bit with Mike’s Stone Phillips apologizing for SNL’s crass comments about Chelsea Clinton in a recent Wayne’s World sketch (during that apology, Mike gets in a dig at himself by mentioning that the Wayne’s World sketch starred an overrated performer). SNL’s director apparently didn’t receive notes that that portion of this cold opening was removed after dress, because there’s one point where, after one of Julia-as-Jane-Pauley’s news items, the camera mistakenly cuts to a close-up of Mike’s Stone Phillips as if it’s his turn to tell the next news item, but he’s just sitting silently while an off-camera Julia is the one doing the next news item.
— Odd moment where, as the Dateline show is fading to black, Julia is heard mistakenly saying her “Well, that was pretty painless” line way too early, when she’s supposed to say it a minute later when she and Mike are shown in the car.
— Toonces! First time we’ve seen him since late last season. They’re clearly phasing him out by this point, as this is among his final stretch of appearances, each of which feature him only making a surprise appearance towards the end of an unrelated sketch.
— After the car crash, there’s a malfunction with the chroma-key screen behind the car, as it isn’t showing any scenery.
— I love the idea of Toonces meowing “Live from New York”, though even that had technical issues. The audio of Toonces meowing LFNY fails to play when the LFNY subtitle appears on the bottom of the screen, then the meowing starts playing too late right as the SNL theme music begins.
STARS: ***


MONOLOGUE
host generously tips cast & crew to get special backstage treatment

— Fun monologue with Alec going around the studio thanking and bribing various crew and cast members for their efforts. I love how Alec is smoothly navigating through this monologue with total ease, showing how extremely comfortable he had become as a regular host by this point.
— Fantastic how during Lorne and Paul McCartney’s conversation, we get a clever reference to Lorne’s famous Beatle Offer sketch from the original era. The studio audience seemed to miss the reference because they were too busy going “Woo!” at the mere sight of Paul.
— When Alec returns to the home base stage, you can see a section of a football field laid out on the floor in front of the stage (you can also see it on the floor in the second above screencap for this monologue). This is leftover from the preceding episode’s SNL Halftime Spectacular sketch.
STARS: ****


THE CLUCKIN’ CHICKEN
Rerun from 11/21/92


THE MIMIC
(JUS) hires self-proclaimed master of 1000 voices (host)

— I like the 1960s aesthetic to this.
— Paul McCartney as a butler is actually a clever reference to the preceding week’s also-legendary and also-English-accented musical guest Mick Jagger playing a butler in a Prince Charles sketch. Unfortunately, this reference is lost on a lot of viewers nowadays, as the Prince Charles sketch has kinda faded into obscurity over the years (partly because it was cut from Comedy Central’s old 60-minute version, and partly because I don’t think it’s available online) while this Mimic sketch is very well-known and fondly remembered by SNL fans.
— Great opening title sequence.
— This sketch is an excellent display of Alec’s comedic talents. His horrible, cartoonish-sounding imitations of Julia’s character and her husband are hilarious.
— I love how Alec is now doing bad imitations of miscellaneous sounds, such as bird-squawking and pier noises.
— Funny turn with Alec revealing it was him who made the phone call to Julia recommending him to her.
— Classic ending with Alec telling the butler in a McCartney-esque voice “But, Jamison, you can’t throw yourself out, I’m you!”
STARS: *****


THE CHRIS FARLEY SHOW
CHF asks musical guest some dumb questions

— Here comes a legendary Chris Farley classic that would go on to be among his most defining SNL moments.
— Farley’s usual routine of “You remembeeerrrrr when…”s, pulling his hair in anger after making a faux pas, and asking the guest off-topic questions are coming off particularly charming in this installment.
— I love Paul actually having to clarify to Farley that the “Paul is dead” thing was a hoax and that “I didn’t really die”.
— Wonderful part with an excited Farley silently mouthing what appears to be “Awesome! Fuckin’ A, man! Fuckin’ A!” to the camera, in response to Paul’s answer to the question about the “The love you take is equal to the love you make” lyric.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Get Out Of My Way”


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about early days of Bill Clinton’s term
ADS sings an ode to his “Red Hooded Sweatshirt”; Linda McCartney cameo

 

— Kevin’s subliminal editorial contains the usual good laughs, especially the subliminal lines about J. Edgar Hoover being an example of a strong woman in the White House, and Hee-Haw being the right forum for Bill Clinton.
— WTF? Why did a picture of George Burns randomly show up on the news screen briefly during Kevin’s news item about a Dallas Cowboys parade? That gaffe caused the Cowboys parade joke to completely bomb with the audience.
— Oh, NOW I see why a George Burns picture mistakenly showed up, as the aforementioned Cowboys parade joke was followed by a mention of George Burns’ birthday.
— Adam’s guitar songs officially become a recurring Update segment.
— Nice topic for Adam’s guitar song tonight. Much like his preceding Turkey Song from earlier this season, the lyrics here are very fun and charmingly goofy, though I appreciate how this one is actually telling a coherent story and isn’t just a collection of random, non-sequitur lyrics.
— The obligatory participation from Kevin during Adam’s song is particularly great here, with the intermittent close-ups of Kevin looking into the camera to say some of the brief lyrics (e.g. “dip dip dip”, “sham-a-lam-a-ding-dong”).
— And now, the “audience” participation is making this song even more fun, especially with Paul and Linda McCartney’s involvement.
— Between these guitar songs of his and his smash-hit Operaman commentaries, Adam has recently become Weekend Update gold.
— An interesting tidbit about the Red-Hooded Sweatshirt song: it was originally going to be performed in the Harvey Keitel episode from earlier this season, where instead of being a Weekend Update commentary, it was going to be a standalone sketch in which Adam performs the song on, I’m assuming, the home base stage. That version of the song also obviously didn’t feature participation from Paul and Linda McCartney. Also in that version of the song, Adam set it up by saying he feels bad that the preceding week’s episode (Danny DeVito) used the word “ass” about a dozen times, so he wants to sing about something nice: his red-hooded sweatshirt.
— I loved the audience’s “Ohh!” response to Kevin’s “And now, for the lighter side of the news” one-liner when a picture of Michael Jackson shows up on the news screen.
— Very nice touch at the end of this Update, with Kevin working “dip dip dip” into his usual “I’m Kevin Nealon, and that’s news to me” sign-off.
STARS: ****


FRANCAIS
French teacher (host) makes sure students’ inflection matches his

— A lot of laughs so far from each student eventually catching on that Alec wants them to say their French phrases in the same goofy, gleeful inflection that he’s using. Farley’s attempt at the inflection is particularly priceless.
— Adam’s very Adam Sandler-esque over-the-top gibberish when repeating Alec’s French phrase was hilarious.
— Surprisingly, this is Phil’s first appearance all night (not counting the Cluckin’ Chicken repeat), and it’s just a small role at the tail end of this sketch.
— Very funny ending with Alec getting the crap beat out of him when trying to correct real Frenchmen’s language.
STARS: ****½


SOAP OPERA DIGEST
TV doctor (host) mispronounces medical terms

 

— Funny mock-dramatic entrance from Phil, who has a great soap opera-esque look in this. I think that’s the same wig he wore in another memorable soap opera parody, All My Luggage from two seasons earlier.

— By the way, this ends up being Phil’s final appearance tonight. An episode with Phil only having two measly walk-on roles, both being in sketches buried after Weekend Update, is unheard of (at least until the upcoming season 19, where we’ll sadly see Phil often pushed to the side), especially considering how particularly heavily he dominated the preceding week’s episode, appearing in almost every single sketch in a lead role. Maybe SNL felt he needed a breather after that? He was in several cut dress rehearsal sketches from this episode, one of them having him in a lead role that will later be recast with host Bill Murray in the following week’s episode (I’ll reveal which sketch that is when I review that episode).
— Alec’s hot streak tonight continues, as we get another all-time memorable performance from him here. His various medical mispronunciations are great. I especially love the “ay-nal cay-nal” (anal canal) one. The premise itself isn’t particularly amazing, but Alec is absolutely perfect for this material and this is a quintessential example of how his dry, serious delivery can make certain dialogue hilarious.
STARS: *****


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Biker Like An Icon”


THE GAP
Gap employees Kristy & Lucy both think (host) is their guy

— This sketch officially becomes recurring.
— I like how there’s nice continuity, with Mike’s character referencing his appearance in the preceding Gap Girls sketch, as he makes a passing mention of the baggy outfit the Gap Girls convinced him to buy in that sketch.
— Adam and David’s catty comments early on in this sketch are cracking me up.
— Tim’s character makes a passing mention of Tater Junction, which is where a future Gap Girls sketch takes place in (the famous one with Farley’s “Lay off me, I’m starving!” moment).
— The fast-paced back-and-forths between Alec and Adam during their conversation are really well-delivered and entertaining.
— Farley’s Gap Girl character makes her debut here.
— Rob’s Donut Hut character is very funny, especially the bitchy looks she constantly gives the other girls.
— Overall, an improvement over the first Gap Girls installment.
STARS: ***½


NAKED WOMAN THEATRE
(host) responds to complaints the show has received

— Alec’s dignified delivery while defending the show’s random use of naked women is fairly funny, but this sketch is nothing particularly great, especially compared to most of what preceded it tonight.
— I absolutely love the way this ended, with Alec’s host character seguing into the following Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley sketch by saying viewers in other parts of the country will see that instead of the Naked Woman Theatre play that’s about to take place. Feels like a nice throwback to times when the original SNL era would segue from one sketch to another in this manner.
STARS: **½


DAILY AFFIRMATION WITH STUART SMALLEY
Stuart deconstructs some Valentine’s Day cards

— It’s nice to see more and more of a glimpse into Stuart’s personal life, as he now mentions recently getting out of a toxic relationship with someone named Dale.
— I’m getting some good laughs from Stuart deconstructing Valentine cards and relating them to issues like co-dependency.
— The ending was actually sweet and heartwarming, with Stuart detailing how he’s going to send himself a bouquet of roses with a sentimental note to show himself some much-needed appreciation.
STARS: ***½


THE BODYGUARD: THE SERIES
David Hasselhoff (host) & Patti LaBelle (ELC) in The Bodyguard TV series

— Funny concept of a David Hasselhoff/Patti LaBelle-starring Bodyguard TV series.
— Eh, I’m not caring too much for how the Alec/Ellen scenes are turning out.
— The testimonial quote from Jay Leno is priceless (the third above screencap for this sketch), and serves as a reminder that the infamous late night war between Leno and David Letterman was taking place around this time. Funny thing is, the Leno jokes in this sketch still remained relevant decades later during the 2010 late night war between Leno and Conan O’Brien, which is when I first saw this sketch.
— I like how the ending of this went further with the Leno bit, with Kevin popping in as him and smugly bragging “I got to stay!”
— According to GettyImages, Mike Myers had a part cut after the dress rehearsal version of this sketch where he plays an assailant shooting Alec’s Hasselfhoff (pic here).
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Hey Jude”

— Funny to think that while this absolutely legendary performance is going on, Al Franken is somewhere in the studio stealing jeans from the Gap Girls set, as he would later disclose in the “Live from New York” book.


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A phenomenal episode, and one of the best and most memorable of this early 90s era. So many things to rave about in tonight’s episode: there were lots of classic moments all throughout, there was a long streak of sketches receiving a four or five-star rating from me until we got towards the end of the show, and the overall episode had a very fun and charming vibe. To say nothing of what Paul McCartney’s mere presence brought to the show. While a lot of hosts would get overshadowed by such a heavy dosage of McCartney throughout an episode (Paul Rudd knows what that’s like), we thankfully had Alec Baldwin as tonight’s host. Alec, who had already proven himself twice as a fantastic host before tonight, gave what I personally feel is his strongest hosting performance of all time in this episode, enhancing every single sketch he was in with masterful performances and having some of the most memorable roles of his SNL hosting stints.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Luke Perry)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Bill Murray

Posted on

February 6, 1993 – Luke Perry / Mick Jagger (S18 E12)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
Bill (PHH) & Hillary (JAH) Clinton greet oddballs & (Giorgio Armani)

 

— I love Rob’s psychotic, secretive spiel about his “notes” that he’s handing to Phil’s Clinton.
— Kevin just walking on and responding to Clinton’s greeting with “You black son of a bitch!” was priceless.
— Farley is dead-on in his imitation of trash-talking wrestlers.
— Funny segment at the end, with Clinton’s formal apology to the prime minister of Italy for the rough treatment he received by the White House guards when being mistaken for a crazy person.
STARS: ***½


MONOLOGUE
Obi-Wan Kenobi (PHH) counsels host on what to do on-stage

— Some good laughs from Phil as a Obi-Wan Kenobi giving Luke advice, and Luke constantly pointing out how ill-conceived this idea is. This is being executed well.
— I love the part with the “audience member” (writer David Mandel) suddenly yelling “You suck!” to Luke, and Obi-Wan then advising Luke to “kick his ass and take his wallet”.
— I got a big laugh from Phil pointing out how much Luke is bombing in his monologue (“I’m the only thing getting any laughs!”).
STARS: ****


CHAMELEON XLE
— Rerun from 11/14/92


THE TAMPON PRINCE
Prince Charles (DAC) abdicates to be Camilla Parker-Bowles’ (JUS) tampon

— The BBC1 station ID at the beginning is the same one used in the recurring Simon sketches.
— Good makeup and prosthetics on Dana’s Prince Charles.
— Very funny announcement from Prince Charles that he will live as a tampon in Camilla Parker Bowles’ “trousers”.
— I love how they’re actually showing the tampon transformation process.
— Mick Jagger’s delivery as the butler is priceless and has gotten a great audience reaction.
— Dana’s angry “I can’t walk away, I’m a tampooooonnnn!” outburst cracked me up.
— This ends up being Dana’s final lead role during his tenure as a cast member, as tonight is his last show. He appears in one more sketch later tonight, but it’s just a supporting role.
STARS: ***½


YARD BOY
dumb yard boy (host) doesn’t catch older woman’s (JUS) sexual overtures

— Odd how Luke is just now making his first sketch appearance of the night. I guess they couldn’t find a role for him in the preceding lead-off sketch.
— Very good characterization and delivery from Julia here.
— Despite Julia’s solid performance, this sketch hasn’t been going anywhere too interesting and feels kinda quiet for a sketch placed this early in the show.
— The ending with Phil made me laugh.
STARS: **½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Sweet Thing”


WEEKEND UPDATE
Operaman sings about gays in the military & other current events
Mick Jagger (MIM) & Keith Richards (musical guest) debate censorship

— A much lighter-colored suit than usual for Kevin tonight.
— The usual funny news items from Operaman, especially the one about Bill and Hillary Clinton, and the one making fun of the “horror” of Al Gore’s dancing.
— This is the first Operaman commentary to end with roses being thrown at him from off-camera, which would go on to be a tradition for his commentaries.
— In retrospect, it sure is something nowadays to see an old Update joke making fun of cellphone users, where the punchline is that most people don’t care if people who use cellphones die.
— A very memorable Point/Counterpoint commentary right now, with Mike doing a dead-on and funny Mick Jagger impression while Mick does a dead-on and funny Keith Richards.
— I recall once hearing that this is the very first time in SNL history that a musical guest ever appeared on Weekend Update. [ADDENDUM: Not including musical guests who are also hosting that night.] If that’s true, then it’s surprising that it took SNL 18 years for that to happen, considering how many occurrences we’ve had since then of musical guests showing up on Update. Hmm, come to think of it, have there been many occurrences of that? It feels to me like there is, but now that I’m thinking about it, barely any examples are coming to mind. There IS Paul McCartney in the very next Update, though (plus the Update from the 2010 episode he’s a musical guest in).
— The “Mick, you ignorant slut” line was a great callback to SNL’s Point/Counterpoints from the original era.
STARS: ***½


MAGIC FISH TOWN MEETING
dwindling population of wish-granting magic fish is topic of town meeting

 

— Here comes a sketch that I’ve always loved. The oddball, creative humor is right up my alley, and this is a great ensemble piece for the cast. I’m curious who wrote this sketch. Jack Handey?
— I love the brief cutaway to a silent, big brain-having Al Franken. Actually, is that Al Franken? (the fourth above screencap for this sketch) I’ve always assumed it was him, as it looks like him to me, but it’s hard to tell with that makeup, and SNL Archives doesn’t list him in this sketch. The fact that Tom Davis is seated next to him kinda supports my theory that it’s Franken.
— The randomness of Mike pulling on his ear with one hand while spanking his behind with his other hand as he’s casually speaking cracks me up.
— Hilarious part with a regretful, long erection-having Adam asking if there’s a magic fish that can undo a wish.
— Phil’s head exploding out of nowhere during his poignant speech is a freakin’ riot.
— After the aforementioned head explosion, the shot of Julia standing up and asking “Who did that?!?” would later be replaced in reruns with the dress rehearsal version (and rather sloppily, might I add). The reason for this dress rehearsal substitution is because in the live version of that shot of Julia, you can see a glimpse of somebody trying to hide from the camera in the window behind her, while holding an unidentifiable object (screencap below).

STARS: ****½


SNL HALFTIME SPECTACULAR
Michael Jackson (CSR) lip-syncs during the SNL Halftime Spectacular

— Quite a laugh from hearing Don Pardo imitate the Wayne’s World catchphrase “Not!” while announcing the (fake) sponsor Wayne’s World Potato Chips (a product that I’m almost surprised didn’t become a real thing, considering Wayne’s World’s huge popularity at the time).
— Wow, this is a VERY out-of-the-ordinary, unique piece for SNL. I absolutely LOVE how they’re going all out on this extensive, ambitious piece, exploring the entire studio. Very fun.
— Great touch with the Richmeister and Pat mascots.
— A lot of laughs from the blatantly lip-synced Michael Jackson song medley, with Rock’s MJ having a hard time keeping up with the rapid song changes.
— Now this is getting even more extensive and fun with the audience participation, involving audience members revealing a flipcard message.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Don’t Tear Me Up”


HIGH SCHOOL LIARS CLUB
contestants bluff to impress fellow students

— Right out of the gate, there are a lot of sloppy minor issues with this sketch: 1) The gameshow board is oddly already showing all the questions that are going to be chosen later in the sketch, instead of revealing those questions one-by-one as they’re each chosen. 2) One of the numbers covering a question on the board is sloppily hanging off, as if it were literally just pasted on in a hurry right before airtime. And 3) the usually-flawless Phil Hartman actually makes a big gaffe at one point while he’s reading the categories off the board.
— Not caring much for how this sketch has been going so far. Most of the contestants’ lies aren’t doing much for me. I do like Adam’s lies, especially how most of them randomly involve Canada, and when he resorts to stealing David’s police-station-burned-down excuse at one point.
— Another blooper: when the camera is supposed to zoom into the question on the board that states “How did you get to party with Van Halen?”, we instead see a number covering the question. I’ve never seen the rerun version of this sketch, but I’m betting it’s replaced with the dress rehearsal version to hide all of the sloppiness in this live version.
— The back-and-forths between David and Rob are funny.
— Does Farley have a sore throat? Something about his voice here sounds kinda hoarse to me.
STARS: **


SASSY’S SASSIEST BOYS
Russell Clark (PHH) with impudent heartthrobs

— Interestingly, this sketch is starring the exact same four lead performers from the High School Liars Club sketch that preceded this (Phil, Luke, David, and Adam), and they’re even playing the same type of role they each played in that sketch: Phil as the show’s host, and Luke, David, and Adam as the three young guests.
— Phil’s many “Sassy!” variations into the camera are consistently funny. This is a premise that could’ve gotten old FAST, but Phil’s performance is so funny.
— Good Christian Slater voice from David.
— Adam is hilarious as young, Marky Mark-era Mark Wahlberg.
STARS: ***½


DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY
on the need for plane crash-site security


QUEEN SHENEQUA’S DARK MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY
Super Bowl XXVII folly

— An awkward brief pause after Ellen introduces herself as Queen Shenequa, as if she were expecting a big response.
— Well… this sketch sure came and went. This ended up being a really weak piece and it fell flat. Another failed attempt at giving Queen Shenequa her own sketch.
— This was actually originally going to be the first of a three-part sketch tonight, but the second and third parts got cut after dress rehearsal. In the second part, the “dark moment in black history” that Queen Shenequa focused on was her friend taking back a cheating boyfriend who gave her a stolen diamond ring. In the third part, the “dark moment” focused on John Amos leaving the sitcom Good Times.
STARS: *½


SAYING GOODBYE
country boy (host) tells folks (MEH) & (PHH) goodbye before leaving home

— The audience is howling at Melanie throughout this sketch.
— I absolutely love Phil’s voice in this so far.
— Damn, Phil is giving one hell of a performance.
— Speaking of Phil, he’s been having a VERY big night in general. He’s appeared in literally almost EVERY SINGLE SKETCH in tonight’s episode, with most of his appearances being lead roles, in which he anchored the sketches like the consummate pro he is. And even in some of his smaller roles, he made a positive impact (e.g. the Yard Boy sketch). This episode is a great microcosm of Phil’s utmost importance as “The Glue” of SNL.
— Overall, wow, this was a wonderful slice-of-life, dramatic, emotional piece, in an era where sketches like this had pretty much become extinct. Phil was PHENOMENAL here, and Luke and Melanie were both very solid in their own right.
STARS: ****½


GOODNIGHTS

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A decent episode, though I’ve always felt it comes off really average compared to the strong episodes that it’s surrounded by around this point of the season. Watching and reviewing the episode just now, my opinion of it is a bit higher than it used to be, even if it’s still not a particularly great or memorable episode. I appreciate how the second half of the episode contained a few interesting, creative, out-of-the-ordinary pieces (Magic Fish Town Meeting, SNL Halftime Spectacular, and Saying Goodbye), all of which I found to be strong.
— Farewell to Dana Carvey. Right out of the gate early in his SNL tenure, he had possibly the strongest first episode an SNL cast member has ever had, and played a pivotal role in helping SNL do an instant huge turnaround after the troubled season 11. He would go on to have a fantastic run and would become an SNL legend, as well as being in my personal list of top 3 favorite cast members of all time. Even though SNL prepared us for his departure by phasing him out to an extreme degree during his last few months on the show, I’m still going to miss being able to review him regularly.


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

 


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Harvey Keitel)
a step down


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Alec Baldwin / Paul McCartney

Posted on

January 16, 1993 – Harvey Keitel / Madonna (S18 E11)

Segments are rated on a scale of 1-5 stars

COLD OPENING
musical guest inaugurates happy Bill Clinton (PHH) a la Marilyn Monroe

— Pretty fitting casting of Mike as Barbra Streisand, given the Coffee Talk sketches.
— We’ve officially arrived at a new presidency during SNL’s timeline. The Clinton years are gonna be quite a doozy for SNL.
— Ellen’s Whoopi impression is cracking me up, even if I feel she’s not nailing the voice.
— A lot of laughs from the cutaways to the Clinton family’s differing reactions to Madonna’s Marilyn Monroe-esque singing, with a horny Bill, an upset Hillary, and a confused Chelsea.
— I love Bill making the “call me” gesture to Madonna while hugging Hillary.
— Regarding the ending with Madonna revealing she was directing her sultry singing towards Chelsea, I’m kinda surprised SNL would go there after the then-recent controversy over their comments about Chelsea in a Wayne’s World sketch.
— Madonna messes up when saying “Live from New York…”, instead saying “Live from S–” before cutting herself off, pausing for a second, and then saying it correctly.
STARS: ****½


MONOLOGUE
host thinks musical guest’s fans are there to see him

— At times, Harvey’s voice reminds me a bit of future cast member Colin Quinn for some reason.
— A simple premise, but there are some decent laughs from his obliviousness to the excitement being for Madonna, not him.
STARS: ***


JIFFY EXPRESS
— Rerun from this season’s Christopher Walken episode


BATHROOM ATTENDANT
fancy restaurant bathroom attendant (KEN) makes (host) self-conscious

— I love the realization when it’s gradually revealed that Kevin’s a bathroom attendant.
— A quintessential Kevin Nealon premise, as he’s always great at pulling off this type of concept.
— The awkwardness of this situation is providing lots of laughs. I’m also liking some of the little things like Kevin tearing off pieces of toilet paper in advance.
— Hilarious how Harvey is trying to use the newspaper to hide himself from Kevin.
— Chris Farley returns from his second rehab stint of the season, only to make a quick 3-second walk-on at the end of this sketch, which ends up being his ONLY appearance of tonight’s episode. Odd. I used to wonder if perhaps he got out of rehab just a day or so before this episode, and this was the only sketch they could manage to throw him into on such short notice, but then I learned he was in a few cut dress rehearsal sketches from this episode, including a now-well-known Eager & Jones sketch (Farley and Meadows as a musical duo who sing as if they’re gay) that will make it on the air later this season.
STARS: ****½


TRANSIT WORKERS
mush-mouthed transit workers produce unintelligible subway announcements

— Harvey’s completely unintelligible speech over the subway intercom is a hilarious spoof of how hard it is to understand the muffled announcements made over subway intercoms. As someone who grew up in New York, this sketch brings back childhood memories of often being baffled by those muffled announcements in New York subways.
— Great reveal of Harvey’s casual speak being just as muffled as his intercom voice, along with his co-workers.
— Ellen’s muffled speak in particular sounds hilarious when it’s heard over the intercom.
— I love the confused look on Tim’s face during Ellen’s intercom announcement.
— Funny PSA from an equally-muffled-voiced spokesman played by Phil.
— This sketch was kept the right length for a premise like this.
STARS: ****½


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Fever“


WEEKEND UPDATE
KEN gives a subliminal editorial about Bill Clinton’s inauguration
CSR discusses racial stereotypes, declares “yakoo“ as new anti-white slur
Hollywood Minute- DAS reviews 1992 celebrity news & recent movies

— I recently said that I wonder if the best days of Kevin’s subliminal routine are far behind us, but I feel his subliminal editorial tonight on Bill Clinton’s inauguration was his strongest in a while. The best subliminal terms in this one were Joey Buttafuoco, McNugget, and one-term.
— Funny how so many people in the audience just responded “Oooooh” to Kevin’s joke about the Clintons keeping daughter Chelsea chained up in a dungeon below the White House.
— I like Rock’s mini-rant about wishing there were more positive stereotypes for black people.
— Rock’s suggestions for a new racial slur against white people are okay. His use of placards for each slur is bringing back memories of Tim Kazurinsky’s Dr. Jack Badofsky commentaries from 10 years earlier.
— Tonight’s overall Hollywood Minute surprisingly felt a little below par for David’s standards. A number of his slams tonight didn’t hit as hard as usual. He still had some funny comments here, especially the one about Cindy Crawford’s attempt at singing in a recent commercial, and him about to do a joke about Madonna, only to nervously refrain when remembering she’s at the show tonight.
— Much like the preceding episode, Robert Smigel had an Update commentary cut after this episode’s dress rehearsal in which he reprises his Hank Fielding “Moron’s Perspective” character giving an analysis of Bill Clinton.
STARS: ***


IT’S PAT
(host) tries to figure out the gender of fellow castaway androgynous Pat
Audience McGee intercedes to maintain androgynous Pat’s aura of mystery

— I love Harvey’s diary entry about he and Pat having had sex 8 times and him STILL not knowing what gender Pat is.
— In interviews, Julia has famously talked about how she was once approached by a female fan who said she knows Pat’s a woman, because of the way Pat’s head was positioned in tonight’s sketch when sharing a kiss with Harvey. Turns out that was just a natural, subconscious move from Julia and wasn’t intentional for this character.
— Yet another Pat sketch with a refreshing twist, as we get a great fourth-wall break with Audience McGee putting a stop to Pat’s big gender reveal. I especially love McGee bringing up NBC’s pending loss of Cheers and David Letterman as reasons why we need Pat.
STARS: ****


BUSH’S SWAN SONG
George Bush (DAC) cleans out desk & talks with Dan Quayle (Jeff Renaudo)

— Damn, where ya been, Dana? This is the first time we’ve seen Dana in THREE episodes, and this ends up being his ONLY appearance of tonight’s episode, in a sketch buried in the back half of the show. Geez. Lately, it’s ALREADY been starting to feel like Dana’s officially left SNL. He only has one episode left before that happens.
— I love how Bush’s only response during a phone call he receives is a frankly-delivered “Bomb ’em. I’m still the president; bomb ’em good.”
— Nice premise for the final Bush sketch of his presidency. I’m loving all the wistful reminiscing from him here.
— Very funny prank Bush leaves for the about-to-take-over Bill Clinton, involving the removal of the device inside the oval office phone’s mouthpiece.
— I love the big ball of foil Bush rediscovers.
— Jeff Renaudo, the child actor who regularly plays Dan Quayle, has really grown since the last time we’ve seen him. Dana’s Bush even mentions how tall he’s getting.
— I’m liking how Dana’s Bush is particularly goofy and giddy during certain parts of this sketch.
— I usually DESPISE that Tomorrow song from Annie, but given the nature of this sketch, the song actually feels fitting and heartwarming in this context.
— Overall, a solid final Bush sketch that was both funny and bittersweet. This actually would’ve been really fitting as Dana’s final SNL sketch. It could’ve been his official sendoff. Unfortunately, as we’ll see, his actual final episode turns out to feature no special sendoff pieces for him at all. It’s just a run-of-the-mill episode for him. A shame.
STARS: ****


UNFROZEN CAVE MAN LAWYER
Cirroc tries primitive act in Mexican court

 

— Speaking of final sketches, this ends up being the final Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer sketch during Phil’s tenure as a cast member, not counting the one they would later do when Phil hosts in season 21.
— As usual, some nice bizarre fake sponsors at the top of the sketch. I especially like how one of the sponsors is the planet Xylon, made funnier by the announcer’s cheerful reading of the planet’s warning to us earthlings: “Change your ways or we’ll come there and destroy you!”
— An interesting change of pace for this recurring sketch, with this installment taking place in Mexico City and all the dialogue being delivered in Spanish.
— I’m enjoying how the Spanish version of Cirroc’s usual “Your world frightens and confuses me” speech to the jury comically has a few select English words thrown in.
— Rob’s mostly serious speech went on for a long time, but I liked his use of air quotes when saying “shakes” and “shimmies” during his Spanish dialect.
— This sketch ended on a really empty, weak note with Cirroc just silently smiling into the camera. And why was there no “preview of next week’s episode” scene at the end, like these sketches usually end with?
STARS: ***


MUSICAL PERFORMANCE
musical guest performs “Bad Girl“
musical guest tears up a photo of the “real enemy“– Joey Buttafuoco


AN INSANE IDIOT AND HIS COLLECTION OF DESCENDING-SIZE DEER HEADS
an insane idiot (host) shows his collection of descending-size deer heads

— I love that we get two back-to-back oddball Jack Handey sketches tonight (not counting Madonna’s musical performance in between).
— The increasing absurdity of this sketch is fantastic, especially when the descending-size deer heads start getting less and less deer-related, such as a mouse with deer horns glued to it, and an ant along with its three eggs.
— Harvey is executing this really well. There’s probably not many hosts who could pull off such a bizarre premise this well all by themselves in a solo sketch.
— Great reveal of the sketch’s title at the end. I like that they waited until then, because if they had displayed the title right at the beginning, I feel that the randomness of this sketch wouldn’t have worked quite as well.
— This overall sketch has always been one of my personal favorites, and some of Jack Handey’s best work.
STARS: *****


CAB
(MIM) & (JUS) get alternating orders to get in or out of (host)’s cab

 

— Ha, they’re not even attempting to make that street backdrop look real.
— I’m getting some laughs from the ridiculous back-and-forths with Harvey repeatedly letting Mike and Julia in his cab, then sternly ordering them to get out over every little disagreement.
— Funny how even Phil’s cop is getting into the “get in/out of the cab” act.
— Pretty funny ending, though the studio audience took an unusually long time to applaud.
STARS: ***


GOODNIGHTS

— For some reason, the scrolling credits abruptly stop halfway through, even as the goodnights continue. The same thing happened in the preceding season’s Christmas episode hosted by Steve Martin.

IMMEDIATE POST-SHOW THOUGHTS
— A very strong episode, and the best in a while. Not only did every single sketch work for me tonight, but a lot of them were particularly great. This is usually always one of the first episodes to automatically pop up in my mind whenever I think about how strong this particular season is.


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


HOW THIS EPISODE STACKS UP AGAINST THE PRECEDING ONE (Danny DeVito)
a step up


My full set of screencaps for this episode is here


TOMORROW
Luke Perry hosts, and we get Dana Carvey’s last hurrah