Saturday Night Live Season 12 Reviews - Best Ofs, Worst Ofs

Saturday Night Live Season 12: The Best And The Worst

Best Cold Open

I always like when the cold open features the host and more than half of them this year did.  Robin Williams played Ronald Reagan having issues with his Earpiece during a press conference.  Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase all trip over things during their meeting at Stumblebums Anonymous.  Rosanna Arquette met with Tommy Flanagan in her Dressing Room as he masqueraded as Lorne Michaels to rehearse the 'neck with the producer' sketch.  My personal favorite was from the John Lithgow episode where Kevin and Dana played soldiers at the U.S. Embassy in Russia who were letting Russian women walk around freely in order to get some "fine Soviet fur".  While I didn't love Afterlife Styles Of The Rich And Famous where Robin Leach interviewed the recently deceased Liberace, I needed something to fill out my top 5.

Worst Cold Open

Most of these were topical, which don't hold up 30 years later and one was just stupid.  First the stupid one, which was probably my least favorite, Pagan Easter Special where John Larroquette and Nora Dunn host a special for Pagans celebrating the evil of the holidays that turns into Casey Kasam doing a sacrificial dance to the God of fire.  It sounds a lot funnier than it was.  As for the topical ones, there was Affair from the Valerie Bertenelli episode where Nancy Reagan and Don Regan share an uncomfortably long and awkward smooch, Oral Roberts University where God comes in the form of Charlton Heston to scorn the sinful minister, Iranian National Assembly where we see the Iran-Contra hearings from the Iranian side and Iran-Contra Hearings where Phil Hartman cries a lot on the stand.

Best Monologue

I always love the monologues that seem to have effort put into them.  Sometimes this leads to the monologue turning into a sketch like with William Shatner showing us a Star Trek convention or Mark Harmon showing us how he won Sexiest Man Alive over F. Murray Abraham.  Garry Shandling did some stand-up before going into a sketch that he fails to commit to.  Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short do some shtick, including trying to force feed Chase back pills, before Martin travels the audience to try and find himself.  The last one on my list is a more traditional monologue as John Lithgow tries to do a perfect show to receive the Robert Benchley award for humor but is quickly discouraged by a falling boom mic.

Worst Monologue

These monologues seem to have had no effort or thought put into them.  Starting with Willie Nelson just singing a song, which wouldn't be bad except for the fact that he's going to be the musical guest this episode as well.  Then Dennis Hopper just comes out and says he's glad to be sober.  Good for you Dennis, but you couldn't tell one joke?  Valerie Bertenelli tries to be funny but fails by going through her recent filmography credits.  Malcolm Jamal Warner does a sloppily rehearsed dance with Dana Carvey.  My least favorite just might be the first of the year when Sigourney Weaver brought playwright Christopher Durang on stage to talk about their love of Bertolt Brecht.

Best Commercial Parody

There were a lot of good ones this year including The Amazing Alexander who hypnotized the audience and critics to give him a good review for his commercial, Team Xynex which specializes in office equipment that makes you less productive, like copiers for your butt and Einsten Express which can send your packages back in time.  There was also The Fruiting, a horror movie trailer where fruit is terrorizing a family and my personal favorite The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue where special guest Paulina Parizkova talks about the joys of the annual issue subtly hinting that it's only good for wacking off.

Worst Commercial Parody

I usually have to stretch my definition of a commercial parody to fill out this category but the first commercial of the season made my list this year.  General Dynamics came right after the Sigourney Weaver monologue and I have no idea what the joke was.  They reran it in the Willie Nelson episode and I was equally confused.  Speaking of not understanding the joke, I didn't get what Asociacion Mexicana Del Rinon was about but that's mainly because it was in Spanish.  I also didn't understand what was funny about The New York Word Exchange where Phil Hartman told us how we can invest in words in the English language.  Hartman was selling the sketch but there wasn't really anything to sell.  I also thought Myowling Bible was pretty weak, a bible made specially for your cats.  Last on my list is The Michael Jackson Workout Tape from the Joe Montana/Walter Payton episode.  Payton plays the king of pop as a very effeminate stereotype and the joke never went past the fact that the athlete and singer have similar sounding voices.

Best Sketch

Some of these are pretty famous and have appeared on multiple best of compilations like Steve Martin's A Holiday Wish and the lost ending to It's A Wonderful Life.  From that same episode came Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise where the cast plays the cast of Star Trek aboard a revolving space seafood joint.  I was also already familiar with Ticket Line where Paul Simon meets fans on the street and The People's Court where Rosanna Arquette sues the devil before watching this season.  My favorites came from the surprises I discovered from episodes I either have never seen or hadn't seen since I was a kid and forgot about.  The Puppy has Dana Carvey as a jewel thief who acts like a little dog, It's A Girl stars Phil Hartman as a doctor who only delivers little girls, even if they are born boys and Sketch Artist stars Kevin Nealon as a police sketch artist with his own way of capturing faces.  As for my favorite of the year, it's a toss up between Amerida/Nightline from the Bronson Pinchot episode where a TV movie about Canada invading America segues into a round panel discussion about how stupid that sketch was and Support Group where Garry Shandling takes his therapy session to meet his mother.  I gotta pick Support Group as it was by far the most tasteless and funny thing I think I may have ever seen on the show.  Shandling admits to having sex with his dad before making out with his mother.  I can't believe they got away with this one.

Worst Sketch

Well, it wouldn't be a season of SNL without a couple of stinkers.  If I had to pick the absolute worst of the year it would probably be What's My Addiction? where celebrities guess what drug contestants are dependent on.  It offended me as a recovering addict but not because of its subject matter but because they undercut it with the serenity prayer.  You can either make fun of something or praise it, you can't do both.  That would be the worst if it wasn't for The Eggshell Family where members of the cast confuse indecisiveness with comedy.  Or maybe it would be Blind Man where a gay Steve Guttenberg tries to seduce a blind Jon Lovitz.  Oh wait, you know what was really terrible?  Laramie Vice where the cops from Miami Vice investigate crime in Wyoming for seemingly 3 hours.  Slave Drivers was also long and unfunny where Charlton Heston praises the people who whip the slaves in Egypt.  Another contender for worst of the season would be Very Smart Theater where we get Mark Harmon as Atilla The Hun wanting to make crafts instead of plunder, it was unfunny, pointless and, worst of all, incredibly long.  Love Connection had promise but was ruined by Sam Kinison screaming over everybody's lines.  The final three were less abysmal and just lame.  Salmon Spawning had Victoria Jackson and Mark Harmon as fish trying to mate, Redneck Tanning Parlor was a one joke sketch from the Willie Nelson episode and Valentine's Day was a laugh free sketch featuring Bronson Pinchot's Beverly Hills Cop character. 

Best Recurring Sketch

Leading the pack with 8 appearances was Church Chat.  While not always the best thing in the episode it proved consistently amusing.  The character got a little repetitive near the end but always elicited some laughter.  We got two appearances from Master Thespian this season which were highlights of their episodes.  Ed Grimley came back in the Martin/Chase/Short episode where he was visited by the devil.  Phil Hartman scored with his Donahue impression in 2 really funny and well written sketches.  My favorite of the year was a sketch I did not anticipate to be recurring.  Phil does an excellent Peter Graves impression and used that to host Discover, a show about science where Graves seems to be completely clueless. 

Worst Recurring Sketch

Wearing out their welcome from last season were Tommy Flanagan making appearances in 4 sketches and 2 Update pieces.  The character is funny but we saw him so much in Season 11 that I got tired of it real quick.  There's also Pat Stevens, a Nora Dunn character I never understood and never felt was humorous.  We saw her 4 times.  A character from last season I did not think would come back was Jon Lovitz's David, a Woody Allen obsessed man who lives his life like the director and talks to the camera about his relationships ala Annie Hall.  If it weren't for the obvious answer to the question "what was the worst recurring sketch of season 12?" then my answer would be Miss Connie's Fable Nook: The Adventures Of Koko, Mishu & Lebee.  We got this stinker twice where Kevin, Dana and Dennis prance around like idiots.  What makes it worse is Dennis Miller's seemingly resentment to the bit as he's laughing and constantly breaking character.  But the winner of this category was a given.  On 4 separate occasions Dana Carvey put on glasses and a bowl cut wig to play Ching Change in Pet Chicken Shop.  He's a Chinese man who sells chickens but doesn't want anyone to buy them because, as his catchphrase goes, 'chicken make lousy house pet'.  He frequently ends his sketches by singing a song from West Side Story.  I don't get this, it's not funny and it's really racist.

Best Musical Guest

Whoever booked the musical guests this season did their job well.  There was really only one that I couldn't stand and we'll get to that in a second.  I knew I was in for a treat with The Pretenders.  They are one of my favorite bands and their set was awesome, including Chrissie Hynde doing a duet with Buster Poindexter at the end of the night.  Roy Orbison did 3 songs in the season finale, all beautifully hypnotic.  I also liked Bruce Hornsby & The Range and their two songs.  Lone Justice is a band I had never heard of before watching this season and their set got me interested in checking out some of their stuff, they only had 1 album.  My favorite would have to be Anita Baker who just blew the roof off during her performances.  Her voice was angelic and her stage presence was incredible.

Worst Musical Guest

Ugh.  Timbuk 3.  I don't think this was a question of musical taste.  I think they were just a terrible band.  I found both of their songs unlistenable.

Best Weekend Update Desk Piece

Kevin Nealon took advantage of being a featured player and got his face on air a few times as a correspondent behind the Update desk.  He was just doing his stand up act but it was consistently funny.  His rambling commentaries peppered with jokes were always welcome.  Dana Carvey gets two of my spots with his impressions of Jacques Cousteau demonstrating the mating ritual of the napkin fish and Jimmy Stewart threatening to kick the ass of anyone who tries to colorize one of his films.  My two favorites came from the surprise guests, not that big of a surprise as Bill Murray was hosting when he came on with his Oscar predictions and Al Franken was a writer on the show when he came on to genteelly describe Ronald Reagan's procedure for his enlarged prostate.

Worst Weekend Update Desk Piece

I get it.  Dennis Miller is the only person to really command the Update desk since Chevy Chase so it makes perfect sense to throw Chase on as his co-anchor.  The whole experiment was just a little sad.  Chase couldn't keep up with Miller and you felt like he knew that and just started sitting back and laughing.

Best 10-1 Sketch

With Buster Poindexter or the musical guest taking the last spot of the night in most shows I had to scrounge to find 5 worthy sketches for this category.  Kevin Nealon got a few gems late in the show with Portrait Artist from the Mark Harmon episode where he played a Boardwalk caricature artist on his first day and Automobile Club Of America where he taught us how to read a road map.  I liked how this sketch came at the end of the Robin Williams/Paul Simon episode.  A very solid episode top to bottom and Kevin was able to get a really funny solo piece at the end.  The Sweeney Sisters closed out the season finale with a medley.  Jon Lovitz played a doctor who dreams of being an opera singer in the appropriately titled Opera Singer Doctor.  My final pick goes to Halsey & Roarke, British Customs where Dana and special guest Eric Idle play overly suspicious custom officers who inspect articles from passengers.  It had a very Monty Python feel to it.

Worst 10-1 Sketch

The first stinker came from the first episode where Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Durang did a Brecht Medley.  This was either unfunny or I didn't get it or both.  Of course Miss Connie's Fable Nook: The Adventures Of Koko, Mishu & Lebee takes a spot here as it closed out the Bronson Pinchot episode.  The end of the Willie Nelson episode gave us Truck Stop Cafe a more serious piece about a trucker slow dancing with a waitress.  The episode was already on the unfunny side and they closed it with an unfunny sketch.  Kevin Nealon ended the Charlton Heston episode with an apology for a sketch I didn't think was funny in the first place and had forgotten about with UNLV.  While not the worst, the most disappointing was SNL Memories from the Paul Shaffer episode.  He sang a song about the history of the show set to 'It Was A Very Good Year'.  It was cute but could have been a lot more clever and covered the more interesting parts of the show's history.

Best Host

You can't go wrong with bringing in 3 SNL vets on to the same show.  Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short all hosted to promote Three Amigos and each of them got a chance to shine.  Of course Bill Murray is gonna bring the goods.  Garry Shandling only appeared in a few sketches but the runner of him ending sketches by talking directly to the audience was a fun change of pace.  William Shatner had a grand old time poking fun at pretty much everything he ever did in his career.  My favorite of this season was my favorite of last season and that's John Lithgow who committed to every single character and brought a natural comic timing and professionalism to every sketch.

Worst Host

Well obviously I wasn't expecting much from Willie Nelson.  He's a singer, not a comedian.  It did stink that he had Danny De Vito as a special guest but headlined most of the sketches himself.  Had Danny hosted and Willie just been the musical guest it would have made the episode better.  Paul Shaffer also didn't bring a lot of funny to the sketches he appeared in despite being a credited cast member in season 5.  Valerie Bertenelli got stuck playing the random girlfriend parts for most of her show but didn't really do anything too memorable aside bring her husband along for a musical performance.  The worst of the season were Mark Harmon who was just kind of a dud, the writing of his episode didn't help matters, and Sam Kinison who appeared in a few clever sketches but screamed over everyone's lines the whole time to derail them.

Best Episode Ratings

William Shatner/Lone Justice - 4 Stars
Malcolm Jamal Warner/Run D.M.C. - 3.7 Stars
Bill Murray/Percy Sledge - 3.6 Stars
Robin Williams/Paul Simon - 3.6 Stars
Chevy Chase/Steve Martin/Martin Short/Randy Newman - 3.3 Stars

Worst Episode Ratings

Sam Kinison/Lou Reed - 2.2 Stars
Dennis Hopper/Roy Orbison - 2.2 Stars
Willie Nelson/Danny DeVito - 2.3 Stars
Steve Guttenberg/The Pretenders - 2.3 Stars
Paul Shaffer/Bruce Hornsby & The Range - 2.4 Stars
Mark Harmon/Suzanne Vega - 2.4 Stars

Episode average for the season - 2.8  Stars

Up Next
Season 12 Cast Rankings