Saturday Night Live Season 17 Reviews - Best Ofs, Worst Ofs

Saturday Night Live Season 17: The Best And The Worst

Best Cold Open

And my vote for best cold open of all time goes to The Tonight Song from the Steve Martin episode.  The entire cast gets together to sing a song about how much they are going to try tonight, if only the rest of the episode lived up to this.  As for the other greats this season, nobody screams "Live from New York..." like Dana Carvey and he was at the helm of my other 4 favorites.  The Tonight Show from the Jeff Daniels episode had Johnny Carson letting loose and showing his true feelings to Jay Leno.  The Tonight Show from the season finale had Johnny's last show get interrupted by David Brenner and a white tiger.  Then there's The McLaughlin Group which is one of my personal faves.  We got it twice, once in the Christian Slater episode where the real John came in to shout nonsense and again in the Mary Stuart Masterson episode where John mocked Pat Buchanan for his recent presidential run.

Worst Cold Open

I guess you gotta be careful what you wish for.  I always ask for cold opens where they get the self referential sketches out of the way early.  Such was the case in the Susan Dey episode when we opened with an L.A. Law sketch.  Bad news, Susan went to make copies and came face to face with The Richmeister.

Best Monologue

Jeff Daniels did a silly dance after getting a pep talk from Dana in my favorite of the season.  Mary Stuart Masterson also did a silly dance to show her goofy and vulgar side.  Sharon Stone recreated her infamous Basic Instinct scene.  Macaulay Culkin also got self referential as he started his monologue in a studio by himself as the cast and crew flew to Paris.  Finally, John Goodman showed some clips from his upcoming movie, The Babe.

Worst Monologue

I have never been a fan of Roseanne or Tom Arnold and the two of them hosting together was far from my favorite episode of the season.  Their monologue was especially painful to get through as they talk about all their tabloid headlines.  Christian Slater's monologue suffered from poor timing as he walked through multiple sets of the cast, crew and studio audience watching the World Series.  Then there's the singing monologues.  Chevy Chase lip-synced Greatest Love Of All for some reason.  Kiefer Sutherland sang How To Handle A Woman, also for inexplicable reasons.  Finally we have Hammer who sand 2 Legit 2 Quit and welcomed home the American hostages.  I'm sure after enduring a horrific ordeal, the thought that Hammer is happy you're home is the same as a hug from your loved ones.

Best Commercial Parody

Schmitt's Gay is a commercial parody that any SNL fan of this era is familiar with as it's appeared on many best of compilations.  I was also familiar with Unforgivable where Natalie Cole sings with other dead people like Mama Cass, Sammy Davis, Jr. and both the young and fat Elvis.  Monster Spray is a commercial I had never seen until doing this recap and it has become my favorite commercial of all time.  I also loved U.S. Fon where caller ID can help you identify scam callers but can also lead to your murder.  Finally, I included Chris Rock's White Person's Guide To Surviving The Apollo, just because it made me laugh and I got a kick out of Rob Morrow performing white guy/black guy jokes.

Worst Commercial Parody

The only one I disliked all season was Tayster's Choice Spermicidal Jelly from the Sharon Stone episode.  This was a direct parody of a real commercial but with spermicidal jelly replacing coffee.  The joke didn't really work for me the first time, and then they repeated it twice more.

Best Sketch

There were a number of sketches from this season that I had never seen and a couple of those became my favorite sketches of all time.  Such was the case with Mr. Belvedere Fan Club from the Tom Hanks episode where obsessed fans share their misplaced affection for their favorite TV star.  I also loved Boss & Janitor from the Susan Dey episode where Dana and Mike keep changing places in an office.  Also from that episode were Harassment Trial where a lawyer introduces a man's very large anatomy into evidence and Partridge Family Vs. Brady Bunch where the casts of two 70s TV sitcoms face off in a musical battle.  Massive Head Wound Harry is such a classic that I'm surprised it was only done once, knowing how SNL loves to beat ideas into the ground.  Good thing they didn't for this one because they got it perfect the first time.  Two from the Sharon Stone episode make my list, Sex Games where her and Kevin Nealon get lost in their bedroom role playing and Hitting On Women where Sandler and Farley try to hit on Sharon at a bar only to be topped by Jon Lovitz.  My 75 Kids has John Goodman forced to care for the children he birthed through artificial insemination in a sitcom.  Lenin's Body is a fun piece of absurdity where Rob Morrow buys the corpse of Vladimir Lenin in a get rich quick scheme.  Finally, from the season finale I put Take Your Shirt Off on my list where beach goers remove their shirts to reveal strange deformities.  The line "The sun feels good on my baboon heart" is something I've been repeating on a daily basis.

Worst Sketch

Remember how great the opening of the Steve Martin episode was?  Remember how crappy the actual show was?  Sketches like Suckerpunch where Steve punches people, Cowards where Steve slaps people and The Energy Brothers where Farley and Sandler run around and scream made it one of my least favorite episodes of the season.  The Susan Dey episode was all around great except for The Arakawa Group where Mike, Phil, Dana and Rob all played panelists on a Japanese talk show.  There's not much to say about Their Eyes Were On Their Breasts! from the Kirstie Alley episode, you can probably write the sketch yourself based on the title.  The Life And Times Of Johnny Hildo starred Jason Priestley as a teenager with an unfortunate last name.  Permanent Positions from the Jerry Seinfeld episode felt like a lame Whose Line Is It Anyway? game.  Christian Slater tried to order hot wings in the slowly paced Ron's Wings 'N' Things.  Macaulay Culkin seemed to be reading his lines at gunpoint in his episode, most obvious in Young Superboy.  Finally, from the Rob Morrow episode, Insults had the cast saying nasty things to each other in a friendly way then left us with an ending that barely qualifies as a punchline.

Best Recurring Sketch

I did not like It's Pat last season.  I felt that the joke was mean to a certain group of the population.  This season they played up the absurdity of the character and gave us 4 decent installments.  The Basic Instinct parody in the Sharon Stone episode being my favorite.  This season gave us the first two incarnations of The Chris Farley Show, one of my all time faves, as well as the first two appearances of Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer and Theatre Stories as well as 4 more appearances of Bill Swerski's Super Fans.

Worst Recurring Sketch

Once was plenty for Richard Laymer, who we saw 4 times this season, and Linda Richman, who we got twice.  I also could have done without Lank Thompson in his 3rd appearance, this time teaching black men how to be handsome.  Frank Gannon, P.I. P.I. was a sketch I didn't like from last season that they brought back to see if it was still unfunny.  Finally, Live With Regis And Kathie Lee only made one appearance this season, in the Steve Martin episode.  It was one of my least favorite recurring sketches from last season and they brought it back without Jan Hooks, replacing her with Julia Sweeney as Regis's wife.

Best Musical Guest

When I heard that C+C Music Factory was going to be a musical guest I was less than enthused but their two energetic performances livened up the show.  Almost positive the first performance was lip-synced but it was still fun.  I'm also pretty sure that En Vogue weren't singing live but it was damn fun to watch.  Robbie Robertston was a high point of the Chevy Chase episode.  Same for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers who rocked the pretty abysmal Kirstie Alley show.  Finally, Bonnie Raitt was terrific in the fairly lame Christian Slater episode.

Worst Musical Guest

Instead of calling these the worst, let's just call them my bottom five, because I didn't hate Skid Row or Public Enemy, they just weren't my taste in music.  Color Me Badd is also a band I didn't care for but I'm not the target audience for early 90s boy bands.  The only one I disliked was Hammer who had three songs in the episode he hosted one being Addams Groove which is an unlistenable song.  Finally, I was surprised I didn't like Tin Machine.  I'm a big fan of David Bowie but this side project did not get my toes tapping at all.

Best Weekend Update Desk Piece

Adam Sandler knew the secret to getting your face recognized.  Go on Weekend Update where you can just deliver your style of comedy straight to the people.  He had a one sided Thanksgiving dinner with his family and showed off his Halloween costumes like Crazy Spoon Head and Crazy One Armed Man.  Chris Rock talked about Martin Luther King Day and Rob Schneider talked about going door to door with an environmentalist message.  Finally, Queen Shenequa had 4 appearances this season, all well written pieces but I'll include her Mother's Day message with Ellen Cleghorne's real life daughter as my favorite of the bunch.

Worst Weekend Update Desk Piece

What the hell was Jay Leno doing here?  He came on to do some lame jokes about the L.A. riots but we all know he was really just shamelessly plugging his new gig as host of The Tonight Show.  Chevy Chase co-anchored Update when he hosted and did a rambling piece about breast implants.  Chris Farley had a rare miss this season when he talked about St. Patrick's Day.  David Spade had 2 lackluster pieces behind the desk this season and Victoria Jackson had 4.  Three times she did the same bit where she pretended to be stupid and in her final appearance she sang a song about her new fiancee, a cop.

Best 10-1 Sketch

The final sketch of the night brought us the first appearance of Dick Clark Productions and Dick's snarky receptionist.  It also gave us Schiller's Reel - Hidden Camera Commercials where Farley went berserk on a restaurant after his coffee was switched.  The Steve Martin episode ended wonderfully with Season's Greetings From Tarzan, Chris Farley And Frankenstein where the three monosyllabic characters sang Feliz Navidad.  Minutes Behind from the Rob Morrow episode is a rare sketch that benefits from repeated viewings.  Then in the season finale we got Bad Expectant Mother where a pregnant Victoria sniffed glue, drank booze and stuck her belly in a microwave, only to reveal that this was footage of Jon Lovitz's mother.

Worst 10-1 Sketch

The Sharon Stone episode ended on one more commercial for Tayster's Choice Spermicidal Jelly, a sketch I didn't find funny the first two times.  Jerry Seinfeld got to play his hero Superman on The Lenny Wise Show, a slowly paced sketch with only one joke.  Chevy Chase and Rob Schneider starred in a commercial for Kaufman's Big And Tall And Short And Small Sephardic Jew Men's Clothing Store, a sketch where they just kept repeating the name of the store over and over.  Look Who Else Is Talking Also was a fine idea on paper, and a prophetic glimpse of what that series of films would become, but they forgot to write any jokes.  Finally, The Ides Of March capped off the John Goodman episode where a bunch of Romans sat in a steam room plotting to kill Julius Caesar.

Best Host

I said it in my season 20 recaps as well, Jeff Daniels should host every season.  He's a great actor and a funny guy and both of his hosting stints have been terrific.  Tom Hanks is always solid and didn't disappoint in his 6th time.  Sharon Stone got typecast as the hot girl in all of her sketches but did so admirably.  Likewise, Mary Stuart Masterson was underused in her episode but was so good I wish that they brought her back.  Finally, Susan Dey was very loose and fun in her episode mocking both her stints on The Partridge Family and L.A. Law as well as just being game in all of her sketch appearances.

Worst Host

Athletes never make great SNL hosts and while Michael Jordan didn't ruin any sketches, he didn't elevate anything he was in either.  Likewise, musicians are usually not that great and Hammer clumsily read of cue cards when he wasn't delivering terrible songs.  Jerry Seinfeld was a big disappointment for me.  I loved his stand-up and his sitcom in the 90s but his style of humor just didn't mesh with the show.  I never liked Roseanne and Tom Arnold and their episode was exactly as bad as I would expect it to be.  Finally Christian Slater was just kind of boring.  He wasn't the worst the show has seen but he didn't display the best comic timing.  They had him back in season 19 and he once again proved that live comedy just wasn't his strong suit.

Best Episode Ratings

4 Stars - Mary Stuart Masterson / En Vogue
3.7 Stars - Macaulay Culkin / Tin Machine
3.5 Stars - Jeff Daniels / Color Me Badd
3.5 Stars - Linda Hamilton / Mariah Carey
3.5 Stars - Tom Hanks / Bruce Springsteen

Worst Episode Ratings

2.3 Stars - Christian Slater / Bonnie Raitt
2.4 Stars - Kirstie Alley / Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
2.4 Stars - Jason Priestley / Teenage Fanclub
2.4 Stars - Roseanne And Tom Arnold / Red Hot Chili Peppers
2.5 Stars - Jerry Seinfeld / Annie Lennox

Episode average for the season - 3 Stars

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A cast ranking from best to worst