Classic SNL Review: October 18, 1986: Malcolm-Jamal Warner / Run-DMC (S12E02)

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

OPENING: BARTLES & JAYMES

  • Frank Bartles (Phil Hartman) and Ed Jaymes (A. Whitney Brown) address viewers about the dangers of crack.

  • Like last week’s General Dynamics commercial parody, this was a take-off on the well known commercials of the time, but this one’s aged a little better despite being clearly tied to a specific time. Hartman’s delivery as Frank is great, and A. Whitney Brown gets some laughs as the silent Ed.

  • At the beginning, Hartman makes reference to the Mets losing Game 1 of the World Series, which aired earlier that evening on NBC and caused the show to be delayed about 40 minutes or so; next week’s show will also be notably delayed by a World Series game.

  • My copy of the show has a local New York anti-crack PSA starring Melle Mel and Van Silk

  • I wonder if the line about crack making you stupid was a requirement from NBC, who at the time was nixing drug references unless they were clearly anti-drug.

  • Written by A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: Mild audience sweetening. The portion where Ed doesn’t speak immediately after Frank says he would like to say a few words is removed and goes straight to the LFNY.

*** 1/2

MONOLOGUE

  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner explains that he’s an ordinary guy and wanted to do a dance until he realized 20 million people were going to watch him live. With Dana Carvey’s help, he gets his confidence back.

  • Warner is understandably visibly nervous but still comes across as affable; this really gets started when Dana Carvey comes on stage and starts doing some hilariously bad dance moves.

  • The song the band plays when Carvey starts his dancing is “Out Of Touch” by Hall and Oates, which band members G.E. Smith and T-Bone Wolk played on.

  • Rerun alterations: Minimal audience sweetening. Warner’s discussion of the World Series and the joke about the writers doing his book report cut.

***

COMMERCIAL: TEAM XYNEX

  • Team Xynex’s state-of-the-art equipment helps office workers goof off more quickly.

  • A quick-hitter with some good laughs from the professional-looking workplace shenanigans; the mid-eighties technology gives this some unintentional laughs watching now.

  • Written by George Meyer; directed by Matthew Meshekoff.

  • Rerun alterations: The beginning of the ad is no longer cut off. Audience laughter removed during chain letter. The outro bumper with the SNL Band playing “Soul Finger” removed.

*** 1/2

SHOW: DONAHUE

  • Phil’s (Phil Hartman) guests are two women (Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks) trapped in exploitive relationships and a psychologist (Nora Dunn) who gives insight.

  • The debut of Hartman’s great Phil Donahue impression; which immediately gives this sketch a strong start. Hartman carries this, but the whole thing is very well written and makes great use of the cast; Jackson, Hooks, and Kevin Nealon are particularly great at their roles, while Dunn’s lesbian psychologist gets the best line (“Any sisters at home like you?” to Nealon’s asshole audience member, after the other two women immediately express interest in him).

  • I like they had a shot of Rosie Shuster elbowing Nealon in the audience to set up their part later on in the sketch.

  • There’s a set visible in the background of Phil’s opening rant that says “Science Fair”; I’m guessing it was for a piece that ended up getting cut from the air show.

  • Who’s doing the voice of Phil’s ex-wife on the phone?

  • Written by Rosie Shuster, Al Franken, and Tom Davis.

  • Rerun alterations: Mild audience sweetening. Applause from the end of Team Xynex mixed over beginning. Some dead air removed before theme song and phone call, as well as a shot of the audience before the call. Nora Dunn’s first answer is from dress rehearsal, as well as the portion where Jan Hooks asks about dating members of the audience.

*****

SHOW: THE CROSBY SHOW

  • Theo Huxtable (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) dreams he’s in Bing Crosby’s (Phil Hartman) family, where problems are solved with pop’s belt in the library.

  • Another sketch carried by another excellent impression from Hartman. This has a good concept with some nice little touches (“White Christmas” as hummed by Nora Dunn and jazzed up as the show’s theme song) There are a couple of timing issues, though (particularly with the “Great and Poweful Cos” scene) and the ending was a little weak.

  • Without a black performer in the cast, the sketch has a cigar-waving extra’s hand and the superimposed picture of Cosby’s head coupled with Dana Carvey’s impression.

  • Some artistic liberties taken with this sketch (aside from the obvious one about David Crosby being one of Bing’s kids): in real life, Gary (whose book about Bing’s abuse came out three years before) was over 25 years older than half-siblings Mary and Nathaniel. As well, this sketch treats Cosby as essentially playing himself on The Cosby Show (who punishes his kids by doing his nightclub act).

  • Written by Phil Hartman and Robert Smigel.

  • Rerun alterations: Mild audience sweetening. Some edits during Great and Powerful Cos scene including dead air after “That was a long time ago” (including Jan Hooks corpsing), the line “Place your headphones on your head” (Warner reacts as he isn’t wearing headphones) and the very beginning of the floating Cosby head transition scene.

*** 1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: MARS BLACKMON

  • Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) discusses criticism of rap and says his old friends Run-DMC aren’t violent as they manhandle Lorne Michaels.

  • Not ratable, but an enjoyable way to get the audience hyped up for the performance, and the scene with Michaels was funny (“Yoke him!”).

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “WALK THIS WAY”

  • Run-DMC perform their major crossover hit from Raising Hell, although it sounds like only Jam-Master Jay (whose hyping really makes the performance) is performing live; the actual song sounds like it was either lipsynced or that they just didn’t turn on Run and DMC’s mics.

  • This, the first rap performance on the show during Lorne Michaels’ leadership (and first since Funky Four + 1 appeared in February 1981), also shows off what Paul Miller’s tenure as director brought to the musical performances, including a lot more hand-held camera work.

  • The musical guest stage is the home base set with a lowered storefront security gate in front.

  • Fun seeing the audience waving their arms in the air.

  • This is a shortened version of the song, which omits some of the intro before the guitar riff and the ending guitar solo.

  • Rerun alterations: None

WEEKEND UPDATE

  • Best jokes:7-Eleven/Satan’s Nosh, d-Con Spray

  • Opening music: “You Really Got Me (live)” by The Kinks

  • The Weekend Update title is now in a metallic font.

  • Dennis Miller doesn’t have quite as strong an outing as he did last week, but he still has a few good jokes and some funny reactions to the audience response or lack thereof (“Glad he said it, not me” after a joke about Woody Allen’s tax troubles with the punchline “We need the eggs” from Annie Hall only gets a few laughs).

  • Kevin Nealon does the first of his Thoughtful Insight commentaries where he digresses from cliché to cliché; this one has some good jokes in here such as cheating off of grocery lists, friends paralyzed from the neck up, and living each day like your last by spending three hours each morning making funeral arrangements.

  • Casey Kasem (Dana Carvey) drops by to answer a viewer letter about Eddie Fontaine, give the top three groups of the rock era (number one: Queen), and asks a trivia question about a non-existent band. Carvey nails the Kasem voice and cadence, which makes the material (especially the Fontaine story) even funnier.

  • Rerun alterations: Minimal audience sweetening. The last name “Fontaine” is muted (Don Pardo will also read a voiceover over the credits of the Joe Montana & Walter Payton show in January to advise that the Fontaine mentioned here is fictitious.)

*** 1/2

SHOW: INSTANT COFFEE WITH BILL SMITH

  • Big Bill Smith (Kevin Nealon) has local lounge singers Frannie (Jan Hooks) and Mary Ann (Nora Dunn) Sweeney on his morning show.

  • The debut of some major recurring characters, Hooks and Dunn’s Sweeney Sisters. Despite the different first names (Frannie and Mary Ann became Candy and LIz by their next appearance) and talk show framing device, they’re pretty firmly established here, from their regular gig at the Blarney Stone Inn Lounge, to their medleys (including “The Trolley Song” as their crowd-pleaser). What really makes this work, though, is the chemistry between the two.

  • It looks like the bit where Hooks spills her coffee was a real blooper.

  • Written by Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, and Marc Shaiman, who also appears on-camera as the Sweeneys’ accompanist Skip St. Thomas. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nealon also helped with the framing device.

  • Rerun alterations: none.

****

MISCELLANEOUS: PARENT-TEEN CONTRACT

  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner explains how he negotiated a more favorable version of an anti-drunk driving contract between parents and teens.

  • Warner’s very charming and a lot more comfortable here, which really helps this sketch. Pretty fun and relatable piece.

  • Rerun alterations: Band bumper swapped with the one from Old Hollywood (which airs immediately before this in the repeat).

***

GUEST PERFORMANCE

  • Sam Kinison does stand up about fans screaming at him, growing up, the drug war and televangelists.

  • Kinison’s best stand-up set on the show, largely because of the very pointed routine about televangelists, though on the whole it was because of the focus on other topics instead of his usual “marriage is hell” material.

  • This routine is also notable for two controversial parts that were censored for the West Coast and repeat airings: the first is Kinison doing a bit that wasn’t in rehearsal talking about the War On Drugs, the lack of pot availability, and the crack epidemic (“We’ll stop smoking crack if you give us the pot back!”); the second is Kinison’s joke (which the censors asked him to cut after dress) about the last thing Jesus actually said to anybody (*hammers stage with microphone “AAAAAAH!”). For the West Coast airing, the censors cut the picture and sound and showed a cast photo from the previous year. The repeat edit is more interesting: while the Jesus’s last words joke is just cut out altogether, the video remains for the longer drug bit but Kinison is muted, and only ambient noise from the studio is heard until the audience’s cheering for the routine.

  • At the end, Kinison rips open his shirt to reveal a T-shirt underneath with the cover art for his album Louder Than Hell and screams “Buy my album!”.

  • Rerun alterations: A bit of footage of Sam’s entrance cut. The words “drug war” muted in one of his lines, entire “crack and pot” routine muted (30 seconds), “Jesus Last Words” bit cut (10 seconds). Fade out cut earlier to remove bumper.

*** 1/2

SKETCH: OLD HOLLYWOOD

  • In 1947, studio boss Harry Meyer (Jon Lovitz) tells movie star Johnny O’Connor (Phil Hartman) that his career ended with the war.

  • Another classic, and more that the new cast members gave the remaining three from last year more to work with: Hartman and Lovitz reprise a trunk piece from their Groundlings days (which was also done at Hartman’s audition), and not only do they nail the old-timey delivery and back-and-forth patter, but Hartman manages to create a full personality for the slightly obtuse O’Connor.

  • Written by Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz.

  • Rerun alterations: A tiny bit of dead air cut after “I get 500 letters a day telling me the same!”

*****

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HIT IT, RUN”

  • Again, it sounds like Run and DMC are lipsyncing here, though this, but this is a decent performance otherwise.

  • The word “motherfuckers” is replaced with turntable scratching.

  • Rerun alterations: None.

SKETCH: CHALK FACTORY

  • Colin (Malcolm-Jamal) expresses doubts about following in dad’s (Dana Carvey) footsteps at Dover Chalk Works.

  • There are pieces of this I liked (if you pay attention to the script, there are some really well done jokes in there) and the set and costume design is pretty impressive, but as a whole this really doesn’t come off. Part of it was Warner’s performance here, but the biggest problem is that the sketch ends awkwardly and cuts to Buster Poindexter and the Banshees of Blue on home base after Carvey introduces Warner to the billiard chalk boss (Lovitz); I assume it was because the show ran long.

  • Written by George Meyer

**

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “HIT THE ROAD, JACK”

  • Buster Poindexter and Soozie Tyrell play this as a little bit of a sketch between the two; Poindexter’s performance is a little over the top for my tastes

  • Fun seeing Cheryl Hardwick and Leon Pendarvis on backing vocals.

  • Rerun alterations: Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s introduction is replaced with dress rehearsal. In the live show, he is still dressed in his costume (and chalk) from the previous sketch and stumbles on the name “Buster Poindexter”; in repeats, he is wearing the blue sweater he wore in Parent-Teen Contract.

GOODNIGHTS

  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner says “Thanks for coming, thanks for watching!” Sam Kinison screams. Nora Dunn comes onstage in a bathrobe. Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon pal around; Victoria Jackson and Dennis Miller chat. A. Whitney Brown is in his Ed Jaymes outfit.

Final thoughts: A very good show, and a great showcase for Phil Hartman, who has two classic sketches this week and carries two other strong pieces. Dana Carvey also gets a strong showcase during the monologue and Weekend Update, while Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn bring it in their first Sweeney Sisters piece. Malcolm-Jamal Warner was decent for a teenage host; a little awkward at sketch comedy but still a likeable presence in his few pieces. The possible lipsyncing detracts a bit from Run-DMC’s performance, but they helped bring the show into the hip-hop age.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Old Hollywood

  • Donahue

  • Instant Coffee with Bill Smith

  • Guest Performance

  • The Crosby Show

  • Bartles & Jaymes

  • Team Xynex

  • Weekend Update

SHOW LOWLIGHTS:

  • Dover Chalk Works

MVP:

  • Phil Hartman

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:

cast

  • Dana Carvey: 5 appearances [Monologue, Team Xynex, The Crosby Show, Weekend Update, Chalk Factory]; 1 voiceover [The Crosby Show]

  • Nora Dunn: 5 appearances [Team Xynex, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Instant Coffee with Bill Smith, Chalk Factory]

  • Phil Hartman: 5 appearances [Bartles & Jaymes, Team Xynex, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Old Hollywood]

  • Jan Hooks: 4 appearances [Team Xynex, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Instant Coffee with Bill Smith]; 1 voiceover [Old Hollywood]

  • Victoria Jackson: 2 appearances [Team Xynex, Donahue]

  • Jon Lovitz: 5 appearances [Team Xynex, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Old Hollywood, Chalk Factory]

  • Dennis Miller: 3 appearances [Team Xynex, The Crosby Show, Weekend Update]

featured players

  • A. Whitney Brown: 2 appearances [Bartles & Jaymes, Team Xynex]

  • Kevin Nealon: 4 appearances [Team Xynex, Donahue, Weekend Update, Instant Coffee with Bill Smith]

unbilled crew, extras, and bit players

  • Marc Shaiman: 1 appearance [Instant Coffee with Bill Smith]

  • Rosie Shuster: 1 appearance [Donahue]

G.E. Smith and The Saturday Night Live Band with Buster Poindexter

  • Lew Del Gatto: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Joe Delia: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Steve Ferrone: 1 appearance [Monologue]

  • Alex Foster: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Earl Gardner: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Tony Garnier: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack'“]

  • Cheryl Hardwick: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Tony Machine: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Leon Pendarvis: 1 appearance: [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Lenny Pickett: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Buster Poindexter: 1 appearance [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • G.E. Smith: 2 appearances [Monologue, “Hit The Road Jack”]

  • Soozie Tyrell: 1 appearance: [“Hit The Road Jack”]

  • T-Bone Wolk: 1 appearance [Monologue]

guests

  • Malcolm-Jamal Warner: 4 appearances [Monologue, The Crosby Show, Parent-Teen Contract, Chalk Factory]

  • Run-DMC: 3 appearances [Mars Blackmon, “Walk This Way”, “Hit It, Run”]

  • Sam Kinison: 1 appearance [Guest Performance]

  • Spike Lee: 1 appearance [Mars Blackmon]

REBROADCAST HISTORY

  • December 27, 1986

  • May 30, 1987

Known alterations:

  • Dover Chalk Works removed

  • “Horn Of Plenty” added

  • Audience sweetening:

    • Minimal to mild: Bartles & Jaymes, Monologue, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Weekend Update.

  • Edits: Bartles & Jaymes, Monologue, Donahue, The Crosby Show, Weekend Update, Guest Performance, Old Hollywood

  • Dress substitutions: Donahue (part), Intro to “Hit The Road, Jack”.

Repeat-only material:

FILM: “HORN OF PLENTY” - SPIKE LEE

  • Struggling musician Cecil (Branford Marsalis) busks on a Brooklyn street corner to make some money for his family.

  • This is actually not a comedic piece at all and is completely at odds with the SNL format. Nevertheless, it actually is really good, and is an interesting glimpse at New York City in the mid-1980s.

  • The corner where Cecil plays is the intersection of Fulton Street and Grand Avenue.

****

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.