Classic SNL Review: January 31, 1987: Paul Shaffer / Bruce Hornsby and The Range (S12E10)

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RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** - Classic
**** - Great
*** - Good/Average
** - Meh
* - Awful

OPENING: HIP

  • Paul Shaffer tells Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn and Jon Lovitz not to worry about SNL being less hip than Late Night with David Letterman.

  • This was an alright excuse for SNL to poke fun at itself. The visual of Carvey, Dunn and Lovitz in giant baby outfits is funny, and There are a few good lines in Shaffer’s comparison between the Late Night and SNL audiences.

  • Written by Robert Smigel, with assistance from Jon Vitti and/or George Meyer.

***

MONOLOGUE

  • Paul Shaffer celebrates his SNL homecoming by performing a version of “Dirty Water” about the show.

  • I’m glad they tied in Shaffer’s history with the show here; it’s also kind of amusing to hear him refer to the “golden years” at this point in the show’s run, which I don’t think anyone would have expected to be a second golden age for the show at the time.

  • Funny little bit with G.E. Smith getting offended when Shaffer negatively compares the current band to his own era.

  • The musical number was fun; musical monologues can be hit-or-miss (more miss in recent years), but this worked, again due to Shaffer's new lyrics about the show, plus the presence of the go-go dancers.

  • Tony Garnier’s on bass again this week.

  • Written by Paul Shaffer, with assistance from Robert Smigel and others.

****

SHOW: WHAT’S MY ADDICTION?

  • Betty Ford’s (Jan Hooks) game show has celebrity panelists guessing what substances contestants are addicted to.

  • Some fun impressions in this one (Lovitz’s David Crosby has the funniest moments), though as a What’s My Line parody there really wasn’t much else aside from the subject matter of the sketch.

  • This was another sketch that the censors asked Lorne Michaels to edit out of repeats; again, Michaels refused, and this show wasn’t rebroadcast.

  • Written by Al Franken and Tom Davis.

***

SKETCH: SYNTHESIZER

  • Paul Shaffer provides the dramatic musical accompaniment to an unexpected visit from his girlfriend (Jan Hooks) himself.

  • I’m not too big on this one; the premise is very thin, and aside from a few of the stings Shaffer plays, there’s really not a whole lot that’s actually funny. I could also do without the overly cutesy ending where Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson come back in to sing along on “Saturday Night’s the Loneliest Night of the Week”.

  • Shaffer is playing a Yamaha KX5 MIDI controller; the song he plays at the beginning of the sketch is “Well You Needn’t” by Thelonious Monk.

  • It seems like Hooks nearly tripping on Shaffer’s cord is a genuine blooper.

**

COMMERCIAL: THE GRENADA EXPERIENCE

  • Time-Life’s multiple volume book set helps explain the very quick and easy U.S. invasion of Grenada in detail.

  • A parody of this specific commercial for Time-Life Books’ The Vietnam Experience series; it’s funniest if you see the real thing first just to get a sense of which beats in the commercial are being made fun of, but this whole thing was a good swipe at U.S. foreign policy.

  • Written by A. Whitney Brown

****

INTRODUCTION

  • Paul Shaffer reminds viewers to tune into Late Night’s 5th Anniversary special next week

  • Shaffer’s plug for the special makes sense when you consider it ran in the SNL time slot. His playing the opening to “The Way It Is” was a pretty interesting way to throw to the musical performance.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “THE WAY IT IS”

  • Bruce Hornsby and The Range play the socially conscious title track from their debut album; Hornsby has some particularly good playing during his two solos.

SHOW: THE PAT STEVENS SHOW

  • Pat (Nora Dunn) discusses hair loss and toupees with Paul Shaffer and Charlton Heston (Phil Hartman).

  • Pretty much an unremarkable Pat Stevens sketch, though it does get a boost when Hartman enters as Charlton Heston.

  • Written by Nora Dunn.

***

WEEKEND UPDATE

  • Best jokes: Koop/abstinence, syzygy, Boy George

  • Opening music: “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile)” by Van Morrison

  • Kind of a middling night for Dennis Miller; his joke about Edwin Meese was pretty much clapter bait, and there seemed to be an added reliance on props and video footage tonight.

  • Kevin Nealon’s Thoughtful Insight about post-football season depression had its usual amount of funny lines, though it really only got going at the new baseball rules.

***

SKETCH: CHINESE NEW YEAR

  • Wo Sun Ting (Paul Shaffer) ushers in the Year of the Rabbit with Ching Chang (Dana Carvey) and guest entertainment The Sweeney Sisters (Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn).

  • The first half of this was pretty cringeworthy, with not only Paul Shaffer doing an imitation of a Chinese person, but also a return appearance from Dana Carvey’s Ching Chang (who gets a little recognition applause for his catchphrase). Things improve somewhat with the Sweeney Sisters’ appearance, though this medley isn’t one of their more memorable ones.

  • The woman extra in the white couple being turned away from take out is Phil Hartman’s future wife and eventual killer, Brynn Omdahl.

  • Written by Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks and Marc Shaiman.

** 1/2

SKETCH: TICKET LINE

  • Woody Allen-obsessed David (Jon Lovitz) alienates his date (Victoria Jackson) while waiting in line for the premiere of Radio Days.

  • A sequel to last year’s “David’s Date” sketch; while I wasn’t too impressed with the first one, this had a little more going for it, particularly when Dana Carvey shows up as a similarly Woody-like friend of David’s, and when Jackson takes offense to David’s insulting comments about her intelligence. I also thought this had a stronger (and slightly more touching) ending.

  • The set repurposes some of the pieces of last year’s home base set, specifically the ticket booth and the door (the pattern gives it away).

  • Robert Smigel and Marc Shaiman can be seen among the people in line for the movie; I think I also see Brynn Omdahl and the bald guy who was in Chinese New Year with her. I think he was also one of the kickers in NFL Video Countdown last week.

***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “MANDOLIN RAIN”

  • The current single from The Way It Is; this performance has some nice mandolin playing from new member Peter Harris, as well as some extra flourishes during Bruce Hornsby’s piano solo, though his voice falters noticeably on the last repetition of the chorus.

COMMERCIAL: ASOCIACION MEXICANA DEL RIÑON

  • Cash-strapped Mexicans can sell their kidneys to rich Americans for money.

  • This sketch is done entirely in Spanish, though the gist of it is pretty obvious even if you don’t speak the language. That, as well as Phil Hartman’s performance, makes it work.

  • That little kid’s cackle at the end is really distinctive; it’s almost like an animal call.

***

MISCELLANEOUS: SNL MEMORIES

  • Paul Shaffer sings about Saturday Night Live’s ups and downs to the tune of “It Was A Very Good Year”, with Marc Shaiman on piano.

  • It’s fitting to have Shaffer do something like this on the show considering his history with SNL, and it’s also fascinating to watch considering that this is still relatively early in the run, at least as of the time of this writing. The ups and downs had already been chronicled in Hill and Weingrad’s Saturday Night by this point, but what really stands out to me was the line about Belushi (even more emotional impact considering he wasn’t even five years gone at the time), and the whole “we’re still here” aspect of the last verse, which at the time would have been more about the show still surviving rather than being the institution it would become.

  • It looks like Shaffer was caught off guard when the show returned after the Berkshire Place promotional announcement; the audience laughs and applauds a little.

  • I can hear a little laughter after the “Joe Piscopo sneaks in there too”; kind of sad considering that he was so big on the show only three years before.

**** 1/2

GOODNIGHTS

  • Paul Shaffer says coming back is the biggest thrill he’s ever had in his whole life, says all the women are pretty cute, and plugs the Letterman special again.

  • The go-go dancers from the monologue are on stage, and one of the black extras from the Ticket Line sketch comes on stage just before the studio feed cuts off.

  • Beginning with this show, the font for the “costumes furnished by Eaves-Brooks Costume Company” credit has changed.

Final thoughts: Not a particularly memorable show, aside from the nods to SNL past in Shaffer’s musical performances, as well as A. Whitney Brown’s Grenada Experience sketch. Shaffer wasn’t bad per se, but it did feel a lot like the show was having trouble booking that particular week and Lorne Michaels called in a favour and just got someone who already works in the building to be there. Most of the sketches were just fine, though Synthesizer was pretty flimsy (and again, had that cloying ending ), and the uncomfortable racial overtones of the Chinese New Year sketch put a pall over the Sweeney Sisters’ medley. I liked Bruce Hornsby and The Range, but even they had a little trouble that night.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

  • SNL Memories

  • The Grenada Experience

  • Monologue

SHOW LOWLIGHTS:

  • the first half of Chinese New Year

  • Synthesizer

MVP:

  • (tie) Paul Shaffer / A. Whitney Brown

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:

cast

  • Dana Carvey: 3 appearances [Hip, Chinese New Year, Ticket Line]

  • Nora Dunn: 4 appearances [Hip, What’s My Addiction?, The Pat Stevens Show, Chinese New Year]

  • Phil Hartman: 3 appearances [What’s My Addiction?, The Pat Stevens Show, Asociacion Mexicana del Riñon]

  • Jan Hooks: 3 appearances [Whats My Addiction?, Synthesizer, Chinese New Year]

  • Victoria Jackson: 4 appearances [What’s My Addiction?, Synthesizer, Ticket Line, Asociacion Mexicana del Riñon]

  • Jon Lovitz: 3 appearances [Hip, What’s My Addiction?, Ticket Line]

  • Dennis Miller: 2 appearances [Weekend Update, Ticket Line]

featured players

  • A. Whitney Brown: 1 appearance [The Grenada Experience]; 1 voiceover [The Grenada Experience]

  • Kevin Nealon: 2 appearances [What’s My Addiction?, Weekend Update]

unbilled crew, extras and bit players

  • Brynn Omdahl: 2 appearances [Chinese New Year, Ticket Line]

  • Marc Shaiman: 3 appearances [Chinese New Year, Ticket Line, SNL Memories]

  • Robert Smigel: 1 appearance [Ticket Line]

G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band

  • G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band: 1 appearance [Monologue]

guests

  • Paul Shaffer: 9 appearances [Hip, Monologue, What’s My Addiction?, Synthesizer, Introduction, The Pat Stevens Show, Chinese New Year, Asociacion Mexicana del Riñon, SNL Memories]

  • Bruce Hornsby and The Range: 2 appearances [“The Way It Is”, “Mandolin Rain”]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:

  • Not rebroadcast on NBC aside from a 2002 NBC All Night airing.

Known alterations:

  • The NBC All Night airing has a few edits to the addresses and phone numbers used in a few of the sketches. Relevant dialogue has also been edited.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.