Saturday Night Live Season 23 Reviews - Best Ofs, Worst Ofs

 

Saturday Night Live Season 23: The Best And The Worst 

Best Cold Open

 

A good half of the cold opens this year were political, which is to be expected, and Darrell Hammond's Clinton impression was always a hoot so the cold opens this year were pretty damn good for the most part.  The one that gave me the most laughs was based on a news story at the time but had enough absurdity that you could still enjoy it even if you were disconnected from the actual events.  Well Babies Tragedy, from the Nathan Lane episode, followed the media circus surrounding the first surviving septuplets as they all fell down a well.  We got visits from almost the entire cast playing reporters, parents, Geraldo Rivera and Baby Jessica all the while Will Ferrell gleefully portrayed Brian Williams relishing in the amount of exposure he was getting and getting ready to hunker down with bag of Snickers and a piss jar.  My other favorite came from the Chris Farley episode where Lorne Michaels gives the man Permission To Host.  When I watched this live at the time I loved it.  Now knowing that it wasn't exactly a joke makes it a little bittersweet but it's still great to see one of my comedy idols one last time.  Honorable mentions go to the 4 way call between Clinton, Monica, Saddam Hussein and Tim Meadows from the Garth Brooks episode and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski getting a psych evaluation before the Sarah Michelle Gellar show.

Worst Cold Open

So Mayor Rudy Giuliani wasn't the most comfortable performer but he looked downright Emmy worthy next to Colin Quinn as the two talked Backstage.  I couldn't tell who was glued to the cue cards more, the Mayor of New York City with no theater background or Colin Quinn, a guy who gets paid to perform on live TV.  Rudy dresses all flamboyantly and Colin has to teach him how to act like a real New Yorker, ugh.  Honorable mentions go to the Matthew Perry, Helen Hunt and Matthew Broderick episodes that just gave up and threw a recurring character in the opening slot with The Cheerleaders, The Culps and The Ladies' Man, respectively.

Best Monologue

The monologue shouldn't have as much impact on the show as it does but it can really affect the flow.  The cold open is usually disconnected from the episode so the monologue is really the first glimpse you get to see if they are trying this week or not.  A lazy monologue usually forecasts a lazy episode but a good one can set you up for a fun time.  The only exception to this rule this season was Roma Downey where the monologue was one of only two highlights from the episode.  Tracy comes out as Della Reese to help Downey show the cast God's way, including getting Will to stop shooting a porno backstage.  The rest of these came from solid episodes.  Steve Buscemi turned out to not be good at improv.  Samuel L. Jackson read his New Year's resolutions which mostly consisted of sticking it to the suckers and continuing to be a bad ass.  Chris Farley almost doesn't start the show since he's busy goofing off in a continuation of the cold open.  My favorite goes to Sarah Michelle Gellar and not solely because of the Norm appearance where he comes out smoking a cigarette and brazenly acknowledges the audience.  It was a well written piece of comedy where the cast keeps giving her elaborate gifts and she has nothing to give in return.  Gellar is really great in this and would continue to shine even in sub par sketches.

Worst Monologue

You want lazy?  How about when Jim and Tracy came out to discuss their love of Godzilla to Matthew Broderick.  Not only did it feel like shameless promotion for the upcoming film but all 3 were clumsily reading from the cue cards and had absolutely no chemistry.  Honorable mentions go to Brendan Fraser telling us his likes, New Jersey audience members interrupting Scott Wolf and Garth Brooks's psychedelic musical performance.  As for John Goodman, I'll get to him in a bit.

Best Commercial Parody

I like my SNL episodes to start with cold open, monologue, commercial but for some reason Breath Spray Plus came at the tail end of the Scott Wolf episode, a shame as it was one of my favorites.  A refreshing breath spray that is also a powerful chemical spray depending on which setting you have it on.  Graffiti came in the middle of the Rudy Giuliani episode where we see the mayor spray painting the word "sucks" under street artists's names.  The last three came in the traditional post monologue spot.  Flex from the Matthew Broderick episode is a very silly spot where Will, Tim and Chris turn into the Incredible Hulk after using a deodorant that contains human growth hormones.  Lemon Glow from the Brendan Fraser episode has Molly Shannon cleaning her house while openly talking about her sordid past.  We saw Xerox Assjet 790 twice this season, the first in the season premiere with Sylvester Stallone.  Easily my favorite of the season as Will presents an office copy machine designed specifically for printing out pictures of your butt.

Worst Commercial Parody

The Sarah Michelle Gellar episode not only had my least favorite commercial parody of the season but it repeated it twice and also contained my second least favorite.  An Important Message About Smallpox had the host, female cast and Chris Kattan dressed up as The Spice Girls to bounce around, scream nonsense and confuse me.  Then they repeated the same "gag" two sketches later with An Important Message About Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I don't understand the joke in either of these.  From the same episode we get Buffy The Vampire Slayer where Gellar, Will, Darrell and Jim play Elaine, Jerry, George and Kramer from Seinfeld but as vampires and vampire slayers.  A big waste of makeup and set dressing as they talk about vampire things in a Seinfeld fashion.  Did not work for me at all.

Best Sketch

It is really hard for me to pick an absolute favorite from this season as these 10 would all fit in perfectly in any Best Of compilation.  I really can't rank them so I'll go in chronological order.  From the season premiere we have Accident where Sylvester Stallone helps Norm after he crashes his car but Norm only wants to talk about Sly's bombs from his filmography.  Chris Farley dressed as a giant baby and ripped off Tim's arms in Sally.  Jon Lovitz played a retiring baker ready to get some tail in Dunkin' Donuts.  Saddam Hussein shouted his love for Mayor Giuliani on Nightline eventually leading to a date in the park between Saddam and Ted Koppel.  A bunch of baseball players came out of a kid's closet to drink beer and inspire a child in Baseball Dreams from the Helen Hunt episode.  Riding My Donkey Political Talk Show may be the weirdest, most bizarre and hilarious sketch Will ever got on the air and it lifted an all around weak Roma Downey episode.  Garth Brooks and the cast sat through endless trailers in Loews.  Will Ferrell posed nude for an Art Class in the Julianne Moore show.  Finally, two great ones from the Steve Buscemi episode, The Mad Tea Party where Buscemi as The Mad Hatter creeps out the rest of the guests and Stuff We Made where Steve and Jim show off their creations including a Scare-Jeff, a wallet wallet and a squirrel ghost skull bike for his dolls.

Worst Sketch

As I was going through the list of every sketch from season 23 there were a few that made me shudder as I thought back on them.  Claire Danes as a foul mouthed Tinkerbell, Greg Kinnear as a guy who likes to give high fives, Brendan Fraser as a rival to Xena, Warrior Princess, Jim Breuer as a stoned skier.  None of them top Cousin Fran a very annoying Cheri Oteri character that we thankfully only got once in the Roma Downey episode.  Fran treats everyone like crap and talks about how sad her life is.  This sketch makes you think about the worst person in your life to be around and makes you watch it on TV for an unbearable amount of time.

Best Recurring Sketch

This is the era of the recurring sketch.  Anything that gets a laugh is more than likely gonna come back later and repeat that same joke until it is never funny again.  Only a few never wore out their welcome with me.  The Ladies' Man first appeared in this season and while I always rolled my eyes as soon as the sketch started I soon found myself laughing and writing down my favorite lines from Leon Phelps.  Jeopardy! appeared twice this year and always delivers some silly laughs even though this season brought us some lackluster celebrity impressions like Matthew Perry's Michael Keaton and David Duchovny's Jeff Goldblum.  The Delicious Dish is another sketch where every time it starts I think, "This thing again?", but soon I find myself giggling at the awkward wordplay between Molly and Ana.  We got Will's Harry Caray 3 times this season, once as the host of his own space inspired talk show and twice behind the Update desk, most memorably calling Colin by the wrong name in his first outing.  While I was not a fan of Goth Talk the installment from the Steve Buscemi episode is a bonafide classic, introducing the world to Tony Baloney, the creepy janitor who isn't found of pants.

Worst Recurring Sketch

While Mary Katharine Gallagher, The Spartan Cheerleaders, Mango, The Roxbury Guys, The Culps, The View, Goat Boy, Joe Pesci and Mr. Peepers have already worn out their welcome, they usually provided at least one chuckle amidst the same old formula.  These 5 made me cringe the first time and never got better in future outings.  First we have Pretty Living and Molly's Helen Madden character where she just dances around and repeats catchphrases.  Molly also gave us Good Morning With Liza! where her not really present Liza Minnelli impression interviews random guests and spaces out.  Cheri Oteri brought out The Robin Byrd Show three times this season where her drugged out late night sex show host interviewed a random guest and sometimes, in the case of Sarah Michelle Gellar, demeaned the host into doing an unfunny strip tease.  Jim Breuer likes weed, thus we have Issues where Jim and a guest pretend to be high on a talk show.  Not since Spade In America has there been a segment late in the show that left me laugh free and confused as to why it existed other than Colin Quinn Explains The New York Times.  Just a poor excuse to let Colin compare current events to things in his life.

Best Musical Guest

The best thing about the musical guests in season 23 is that for the most part they were limited to one per performer.  Some of the bigger bands like Metallica and Oasis got two songs but does anyone really need to hear another track from All Saints or Portishead?  While there were some I liked more than others, all the musical acts ranged from fine but forgettable to good but forgettable.  That's why I'm giving the honor to Tenacious D who showed up late in the Matthew Broderick episode to rock our socks off.

Worst Musical Guest

Oh, my.  Elwood and Mighty Mack Blues performed 'Looking For A Fox' during John Goodman's monologue.  I'm wondering if hindsight is clouding my judgment of this.  I have seen the atrocity that is Blues Brothers 2000 so I know that no good can come of this.  However, I remember watching this in 1998 before I ever heard of Buster Blues and just thinking this was sad.  Nobody wants to see two big fat white guys sing blues music.

Best TV Funhouse

Robert Smigel's cartoons were usually fun little distractions but the two that had me rolling were The X-Presidents which we got in the John Goodman episode where Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush defeat Russian aliens who grow Ted Kennedy's head to an abnormal size before singing a song that reminds us the aliens and communists are one in the same and Titey from the Steve Buscemi episode.  I dare to say that Titey may be my favorite of all time as Disney has their take on the ocean disaster.  Remember that this was around the time Disney was doing Pocahontas, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Mulan so an animated Titanic complete with a singing Anne Frank and an iceberg sword fights was not completely far fetched.

Worst TV Funhouse

None of the TV Funhouse segments really stunk but the two weakest for me were Ah Lin, The Skater Man and George Clooney from the Roma Downey and Samuel L. Jackson episodes, respectively.  Both were done in a very fun animated style, parodying Speed Racer perfectly, but neither really had a lot of laughs to go with it.

Best Weekend Update Desk Piece

I'm pretty sure it's just a coincidence that my favorites all came from Norm's time behind the desk.  I don't think he had an influence on the desk pieces, except for Nathan Lane's Lou Costello where the two of them did an old school comedy routine together.  Harry Caray bridged the gap and appeared both with Norm and Colin.  Tommy Flanagan came back to the show to lie about what he's been up to.  Most of the time I find bringing back a character from yesteryear a little sad but Jon Lovitz kept it short and sweet, a quick little hey, remember me, here's the joke you used to like, now goodbye.  My personal favorite came from Tracy Morgan who poked fun at the fact that he's not on the show that much by introducing himself to America as 'The Other Black Guy' who smiles real big at the goodnights.  It was the first time I really took notice of Tracy and really the first time I realized he was on the show.

Worst Weekend Update Desk Piece

Tracy wasn't batting 1000 behind the Update desk though as I really did not care for Dominican Lou the super with an accent who bad mouths the guy who owns the building across the street.  The episode before Colin Quinn took over Update he appeared as a drunk correspondent, slurring words together because he had too much eggnog.  A frightening omen of what's to come.  For some reason we got Gunner Olsen twice, a lame Jim Breuer character who sang news stories as if they were rock and roll songs.  If you think the bit is funnier than that sentence, you would be wrong.  The worst of the season doesn't come from a cast member though, it's Richard Jewell the guy who was falsely accused of being the Olympic Park bomber.  It's never a good idea for a comedy show to give a comedy piece to someone who has never been on camera and this was no different.

Best 10-1 Sketch

Some episodes just have a final sketch of the night.  Some episodes have a 10-1 sketch, a beautiful piece of absurdity that wouldn't fit anywhere else in the show other than right before the goodnights.  Sketches like Shirtless Bible Salesmen from the Julianne Moore episode.  You can't lead off a show with something that stupid.  Nor could you start the show with Storytellers from the John Goodman episode where Will as Neil Diamond reveals that all his songs have dark and racist undertones.  Those are my two favorites but I also want to point out Weather Scope from the Chris Farley episode where he plays El Nino as a WWF wrestler, Tiger Beat's Ultra Super Duper Dreamy Love Show from the Sarah Michelle Gellar episode where the girls fan over teen idols and interview Jonathan Taylor Thomas's manager and Former Hosts Of Later Reunion where 15,000 hosts of the late night show come together to interview Bob Hoskins at the same time.

Worst 10-1 Sketch

These ones brought the show to a sad whimper.  Ex-Convict Santa from the Nathan Lane episode has Colin Quinn playing a department mall Santa and guess what?  His character has a thick Brooklyn accent and acts tough.  Never seen that out of Colin before.  Lay Lady Lay is a big mess of awkward as Will tries to comfort Robert Duvall by singing the Bob Dylan song.  Poolside Lovin' features Samuel L. Jackson wanting to have sex in a porno but Chris Kattan keeps saying his dad is dead.  The best joke of this sketch involves a dead dad.  Sketches with accents are usually comedy killers and Southern Gals from the Claire Danes episode was a real turd.  The worst of the season might just be Set Our Nanny Free from the Jon Lovitz episode.  The cast does a bunch of really weak musical impressions including Tim as Seal, Darrell and Tracy as Prodigy and, good lord, Colin Quinn as Elvis Costello.  Probably the most uncomfortable moment I have ever seen on SNL is Quinn staring blankly at the camera waiting for his cue in this sketch, then missing it, waiting again, then launching into the worst Elvis Costello impression I've ever seen.

Weirdest Trend

While not unwelcome, what was with the random old actor showing up as a special guest?  Dan Aykroyd made sense in the John Goodman episode as they were promoting a movie together.  But why did Robert Duvall show up for two sketches in the Garth Brooks episode?  Why was John Hurt playing the white rabbit in the Steve Buscemi episode?  And why bring in Bob Hoskins to play a pirate next to Greg Kinnear?  Duvall got a plug in for his film The Apostle, I can only assume Hurt was showing up to promote Love And Death On Long Island, but unless Hoskins was pimping his cameo in Spice World, I have no idea why he was there other than maybe it just sounded like a fun thing to do.  Out of the 3, I would have liked to see Bob Hoskins come back to host.  He only showed up in two sketches, one as himself, but he seemed to be having a fun time and he seems like he could have been one of those guys who while not known for his comedic roles could excel if he was given some oddball characters to play.

Best Host

Steve Buscemi might be my favorite host of all time.  He was great the entire night, got laughs in every sketch and even heightened stale sketches like Goth Talk, Judge Judy and Morning Latte.  Obviously Chris Farley and Jon Lovitz delivered the goods, having been stand out cast members before.  Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore were both funny and good actors the entire show, making me wonder why they never came back for a second go around.  Even in the weaker material they were given, they committed to every character they played.  Jackson even delivered laughs during a humdrum Mango sketch and Moore out shined Molly Shannon in a Pretty Living sketch by making her character more interesting.

Worst Host

There were a few boring hosts this season, like Matthew Perry, Scott Wolf, Helen Hunt and Roma Downey but only one really stunk.  Matthew Broderick was not only unfunny but dull.  In his defense, he wasn't given anything to do other than play second fiddle to a bunch of recurring characters, Helen Madden, The View, the sexually aggressive couple, Celine Dion, but there's a way to make it a little interesting.  You could have put a wet sack of flour on stage and it would give the same performance.

Best Episode Ratings

Steve Buscemi/Third Eye Blind - 3.9 Stars
Chris Farley/The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - 3.75 Stars
Julianne Moore/Backstreet Boys - 3.4 Stars
John Goodman/Paula Cole - 3.25 Stars

Worst Episode Ratings

Matthew Broderick/Natalie Merchant - 2.3 Stars
Scott Wolf/Natalie Imbruglia - 2.5 Stars
Greg Kinnear/All Saints - 2.5 Stars

Episode average for the season - 2.99 Stars
The slightest notch below average.  Not a bad season at all, just way too many recurring sketches to make it really interesting.  Outside of Norm getting fired there is really no difference between this season and the two that came before it or after.

Up Next
A cast breakdown of the season, from my favorite to Colin Quinn.