Saturday Night Live Season 17 Reviews - Cast Rankings

SNL: Season 17

The Cast

From Best To Worst

Who would I save for next season

Dana Carvey

MVP

Kirstie Alley, Christian Slater, Chevy Chase, Susan Dey, Roseanne And Tom Arnold, Sharon Stone, Woody Harrelson

Best Moment

One of the all time greats of SNL and just a naturally funny guy.  Whether he's doing impressions of George Bush, Johnny Carson, John McLaughlin, Mickey Rooney or David Cassidy or creating a crazy original character like Garth Algar or Lyle, The Effeminate Heterosexual or if he's just being himself like in the Jeff Daniels monologue.  Dana is usually always funny.  I'll give my best season 17 moment to Massive Head Wound Harry.  It's a simple and stupid sketch idea that is enhanced by the live television aspect as Dana almost gets upstaged by a dog trying to eat the blood gushing from his skull.

Worst Moment

If there is a blemish on Dana's SNL resume it's the amount of times he played a foreign character for no reason.  We didn't get an appearance of Ching Change this season, thankfully, but he did play his character in Security Check from the Sharon Stone episode as an Indian man for no discernible reason, other than to put on a funny accent.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Yes.  Dana will be leaving the show halfway through next season, but you might as well hold on to him as long as you can.

Phil Hartman

MVP

Macaulay Culkin, Jason Priestley, Mary Stuart Masterson, Tom Hanks

Best Moment

If they erected a Mt. Rushmore for SNL, Phil's head should be front and center.  He rarely broke character or winked at himself.  He did amazing character work and made it look effortless.  This season introduced Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.  We also got plenty of Ed McMahon and he was always a great commercial pitchman like in Monster Spray and Phil Hartman Creations.  My favorite individual moment from Phil this season came in the Mr. Belvedere Fan Club sketch from the Tom Hanks episode where he played possibly the creepiest devotee to the TV butler.

Worst Moment

It's so hard to find a bad Phil moment.  You really have to go digging.  While nobody could have saved a sketch like Ron's Wings 'N' Things from the Christian Slater episode, I thought Phil could have given it an energy boost if he played his manager character with more humor.  He seemed to be coming down to Christian's level of commitment and the whole sketch moved at a snail's pace.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Yes.  Phil is another one who is always welcome.  If he wanted to hang around for 15 seasons, God bless him.

Chris Farley

MVP

Jeff Daniels, Linda Hamilton, Steve Martin

Best Moment

One of my all time favorites and, along with Phil Hartman, one of the two celebrities who made me cry when they passed.  This season gave us The Chris Farley Show and the Schiller's Reel where Farley attacked a restaurant when they replaced his coffee but I actually teared up watching him in The Tonight Song from the Steve Martin episode.  He took control of the stage and watching him here was watching a master at work.

Worst Moment

Also from the Steve Martin episode we got The Energy Brothers a 90 second sketch where Farley and Sandler screamed and rolled around on the floor.  I found this to be a total filler piece with absolutely no point.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Yes.  Farley was hitting his stride.  It's almost hard to believe that this is just his second season and he's already almost bigger than the show.

Kevin Nealon

MVP

Kiefer Sutherland

Best Moment

In his 6th season, Kevin continued to bring his low-key comedic sensibilities to the show.  Most of his pieces worked, like Sex Games in the Sharon Stone episode, Don't Get Me Wrong with Jeff Daniels, Who Shot Me? in the Mary Stuart Masterson episode and my choice for best Nealon sketch of the season, Phone Illiteracy from the Kiefer Sutherland episode.  All of these sketches seem like they were taken directly from Kevin's stand-up act and put into sketch form, and that's a good thing. 

Worst Moment

I almost chose his stint as Weekend Update anchor for his worst moment but while he's not my favorite, he was a step up from Dennis Miller's last season.  The only real moment I didn't like Kevin's performance came in the cold open from the Rob Morrow episode.  Cover-Up had Kevin talking to Phil as Oliver Stone about the conspiracy surrounding George Bush vomiting on the Japanese Prime Minister.  It was a very funny sketch but Kevin really brought the energy down when he stared in the camera and softly said "Live from New York...".

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Yeah.  He's been there a while so it wouldn't be a huge loss if he left but he's still a valuable member of the cast.  I also can't really see anyone better suited for Update, maybe David Spade or Al Franken.  Chris Rock would have been a fun choice that could have either been successful or a huge mistake, but it would have been interesting.

Julia Sweeney

MVP

None

Best Moment

I always liked Julia Sweeney.  It's Pat got played out and is showing signs of fatigue in this season but they still try to keep it fresh by putting Pat in new environments.  She never stood out too much from the ensemble but she always did good work.  I liked her this season when she would play old ladies like in Theatre Stories and David's Diner.  My favorite moment of hers also came from her playing an old lady, this time turning into one in She Turned Into Her Mother!! from the Tom Hanks episode.

Worst Moment

God love Julia Sweeney but she wasn't Jan Hooks.  Not to say Jan was better, she was just different.  Julia did her own thing and that's why I felt sad for her when they stuck her next to Dana in Live With Regis And Kathie Lee.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Yes.  You can almost forget she's there in such a crowded cast, especially since her most recognizable character doesn't resemble her at all, but she's definitely the funniest lady the show had this season.

Ellen Cleghorne

MVP

Michael Jordan, Hammer

Best Moment

I was really impressed with Ellen's first season.  She faded into the background in following years but season 17 was a star making one for her.  She came out swinging in the season premiere, making me take notice of her immediately in the Michael Jordan episode.  She also got 2 recurring characters in Queen Shenequa and Zoraida.  My favorite moment came in the John Goodman episode where she played Natalie Cole singing with dead singers in Unforgivable.

Worst Moment

Her Queen Shenequa pieces on Weekend Update were always well written.  I can not say the same about Crystal Blue Persuasion from the Susan Dey episode.  I didn't quite understand this character's voice and started drifting off while she was talking.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Yes.  This was a dynamite first season and I would be excited about what she brings next.  She was a good comedic actress and with the right material behind her she could have truly excelled.

Mike Myers

MVP

None

Best Moment

Wayne's World, Sprockets, Coffee Talk, Simon, Theatre Stories, All Things Scottish...  Mike Myers loved him some recurring characters and they either worked for me (Theatre Stories) or annoyed me every time they appeared (Coffee Talk).  He certainly connected with audiences and this was the year Wayne's World hit theaters, launching a number of SNL movies based on sketches.  I remember loving him on the show as a kid, because I loved everything on SNL at the time, watching his stuff now you can really see the sameness in his characters.  Take a European accent or a funny voice, add a catchphrase, repeat it as many times as possible.  The moment I was most impressed by Mike this season was when he played a corpse in Lenin's Body.  I'm not making a joke, his physical work was really good in that sketch.  Since he didn't have any lines in that one, I'll pick Boss & Janitor from the Susan Dey episode as my favorite Mike moment.  Him and Dana have good chemistry, as always, and this bit of silliness was one of my favorite sketches of the season.

Worst Moment

Much like Dana, Mike loved him some accents and The Arakawa Group has not dated well, for obvious reasons.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Personally, No.  Economically, Yes.  In hindsight, he probably could have left here as he just kept churning out the hits in subsequent seasons but you can't argue that he was a star of the show.  The applause that every Wayne's World sketch gets proves that.  He's not my favorite but I'm probably in the minority on that opinion.

Rob Schneider

MVP

None

Best Moment

Rob played sleazy very well and that was best used in Stand Up And Win from the Jerry Seinfeld episode where he, Adam and Dana all played hack observational comedians.  He also put it to good use in sketches like Bad Haircut Support Group and John Cabrizio Chevrolet Mazda Hyundai.

Worst Moment

I'd be completely fine if we never saw Richmeister again.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Sure.  He's another cast member who is hit and miss for me.  Sometimes he elevates a sketch and sometimes he annoys me but he's a quality sketch performer.

Chris Rock

MVP

None

Best Moment

Chris Rock was not the perfect fit for SNL.  He's a stand-up comedian with limited acting ability but he's a hilarious guy so that can get you pretty far.  In sketches he seemed to have a hand in writing he was great like Ernie's from the Sharon Stone episode or Chris Rock's White Person's Guide For Surviving The Apollo or The Dark Side, specifically when he pulled double duty playing Nat X interviewing Michael Jackson.

Worst Moment

I'm not saying something new when I deposit the theory that the SNL writers probably didn't write a lot of sketches that catered to their black performers.  I would always feel bad when Chris was thrown into a sketch just to play a black guy like in the John Goodman episode where he played a black teenager upset that he wasn't fitting in at his all white school in Anton Mesrobian, Teen Dermatologist.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Yes.  The show needed a voice like Chris Rock's.  I mentioned it earlier but if they just gave him a spot on Weekend Update every week to talk about whatever was on his mind that would have been fine with me.

Adam Sandler

MVP

Jerry Seinfeld

Best Moment

Adam really gained some traction in his second season, mostly on Weekend Update with characters like Opera Man and Cajun Man, who got a huge round of applause in his second outing.  His sketch appearances were few and far between, usually playing youthful characters or walk-on roles, but he was able to talk directly to the audience when he brought out his crazy Halloween costumes or, my favorite, when he had a one sided Thanksgiving dinner with his family.

Worst Moment

Same as Chris Farley, I did not understand nor like The Energy Brothers from the Steve Martin episode.  Maybe it was supposed to be anti-comedy, but it felt like the show was running short and they let Farley and Sandler run around for a minute and a half.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Eh?  I like Sandler.  He's a funny guy but I don't think anyone would have raised much of a fuss if he only lasted the two seasons.  We haven't yet gotten to the silly songs so he could have just as easily faded into obscurity rather than rocket to stardom.

Siobhan Fallon

MVP

Rob Morrow

Best Moment

Siobhan and Beth Cahill were the two main reasons I chose this season as I knew they were SNL cast members but had no idea what they brought to the show other than that they were the other two girls in the Delta Delta Delta sketches.  I now realize there's a reason for that, she didn't do much on the show.  One recurring character could have made the difference for her as I consistently liked her in all her sketch appearances.  My favorite being Chris Rock's White Person's Guide For Surviving The Apollo where she sang "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" and then "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going" to the harsh crowd.  She nailed both the lame white performance and the exuberant "black" performance.

Worst Moment

What's my least favorite Siobhan Fallon moment on SNL?  That's one of the stupidest questions I've ever pondered.  She didn't do enough to warrant such a decision.  If forced to pick something, I'll go with Lonely Choice.  Her performance was fine I just thought that the commercial could have gone a little further with what it was trying to do.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Yes.  If the choice was between her, Melanie and Beth, I'm going with Siobhan.  I felt she was the strongest actress and able to bring a more diverse line of characters.  There seemed to be a sameness with the other two.

Melanie Hutsell

MVP

None

Best Moment

I was very surprised that I ended up liking Melanie Hutsell this season.  The last time I saw her was in season 19 when she held the bottom spot in my rankings.  This, her first season, was much better.  We weren't getting a lot of Melanie Hutsell Face, possibly because she was used more sparingly, and she had some funny stuff.  She introduced her Jan Brady character on Weekend Update and then two episodes later brought her to a really funny sketch Partridge Family Vs. Brady Bunch in the Susan Dey episode.

Worst Moment

Again, picking my least favorite Melanie Hutsell moment this season is really just picking one of the handful of sketches she appeared in.  I'll go with Delta Delta Delta as I thought she was the weakest of the three girls in that sketch and they didn't need to bring it back as many times as the did.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Sure, why not.  The cast was light on funny women.  Melanie doesn't fill the Jan Hooks gap but she didn't do anything in this season to make me think she was a poor fit for the show.  That would come later.

Beth Cahill

MVP

None

Best Moment

Where as Delta Delta Delta was my least favorite Melanie moment it is my favorite Beth moment due to slim pickings.  She got a second recurring character this season with Denise Swerski but it's hard to remember her in any other sketches.

Worst Moment

Due to no fault from her, in fact I thought she was perfectly fine in the sketch, but Grandma Pugga from the Steve Martin episode was a stinker.  Her and Farley visited his cat lady grandma and they choked on cat hair for a couple minutes.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Meh.  Not a hard no but there was nothing this season that made me feel she would break out next year.  It's a bit of a shame as she seemed to be a decent actress she just lacked the bigness and broadness of the other women in the cast.

David Spade

MVP

None

Best Moment

There wasn't much to get too excited about from David on camera.  He did introduce us to his receptionist character in Dick Clark Productions but other than that, Spade sightings were few and far between.

Worst Moment

We haven't gotten into The Hollywood Minute yet so David's two appearances on Weekend Update were about a stampeding elephant and meeting his dad at a bar.  Both were pretty weak.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

Nah.  I went back to my season 16 cast rankings to see where he placed and he was third to last, ahead of only Sandler and A. Whitney Brown.  He seemed to have even less to do this season than his first.  Why keep him around when you have a bunch of white guys to fill the roles he could play and dump Siobhan Fallon?

Tim Meadows

MVP

None

Best Moment

The joke of Tim on SNL is that he stayed on the show forever without anything to show for it.  He brought this up at least twice this season in Backstage from the Chevy Chase episode and very memorably in The Tonight Song from the Steve Martin cold open.

Worst Moment

Without many options to choose from, I'll go with Lank Thompson: I'm A Handsome Black Man where Mike Myers teaches Tim how to be both handsome and black.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

No.  How did Tim Meadows last 10 seasons?  He got better eventually but he got paid for basically doing nothing for 6 years.

Victoria Jackson

MVP

None

Best Moment

I kept forgetting Victoria was part of this season.  She would pop up in a sketch and I would think, oh, Victoria's doing a cameo.  Then I would remember, no, Don Pardo reads her name every week.  Her 6th and last season gave us more of the same from her.  Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Victoria Jackson.  She was fine and filled her role on the show but there were people who were better at it.  I wouldn't have minded seeing Beth, Siobhan or Melanie take some of the roles she had this season.  She did make me laugh in the last sketch of the season.  Bad Expectant Mother had Victoria sniffing airplane glue, drinking and sticking her stomach in a microwave while pregnant.  Only later to reveal that she was the mother of Jon Lovitz.

Worst Moment

I could have picked any 4 of her Weekend Update appearances.  I also thought about when she played herself on The Tonight Show, where Johnny Carson told her that her act was getting stale.  Instead I went with her playing LaToya Jackson on The Dark Side in the season premiere.  I wonder how special guest Spike Lee felt about Victoria taking a role that could have gone to Ellen.

Would I Save Her From A Fire?

Nope.  6 seasons was plenty.  We've seen what she can bring.

Al Franken

MVP

None

Best Moment

I usually like Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley but his 4 appearances this season didn't do a whole lot for me.  I'm placing the blame less on Al and more on the guest stars, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Jordan, Macaulay Culkin and Roseanne And Tom Arnold.

Worst Moment

With limited on-screen appearances to choose from I gotta pick his lone Weekend Update piece where he talked about how rich he was.  It was either this or his Paul Tsongas impression.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

As a writer, sure.  He's been with the show since it started and his presence never bothers me.  As a performer, meh.  We saw enough Stuart Smalley this season that I wouldn't be upset if we didn't get any more.

Robert Smigel

MVP

None

Best Moment

As a writer, Robert penned some of the great SNL sketches including Bill Swerski's Super Fans which he appeared in 4 times this season.

Worst Moment

The only other thing he really showed up in was Sabra Price Is Right.

Would I Save Him From A Fire?

As a writer, most definitely.  As a performer, I wish he got that Adam Sandler deal where he could have transitioned to a full-time cast member.  Just based on his on-screen appearances this season, he's probably expendable.