Capsule comments on some SNLs I watched

I've been transferring some of my original broadcasts of SNL to DVD format, and I'm using the chance to watch some of these shows for the first time in years.  I thought I'd give some of my thoughts on some of them.

• Elijah Wood / Jet:  OK show, good host. This had Amy Poehler's first Hillary Clinton impression, one of Maya Rudolph's earlier Whitney Houston bits (not quite as exaggerated and mean-spirited as they would get), and Chris Kattan making his second cameo since leaving the show. Not as good as I remembered it, though.

• Jack Black / John Mayer:  Better than I remembered, still Black's weakest outing (2002 was probably his best though 2005 had Lazy Sunday and Spelling Bee). It's a shame they didn't do the Adult Students after this time. Wade Robson Project was kind of odd to have so early in the show (does anyone even remember that show now?) but Black saved a lot of the weaker material. Best sketch was Cat's In The Cradle, with Jack as the singer airing out childhood issues with his father (Horatio Sanz) while on stage, as new step-mom Shelley Long (Amy Poehler) points out she was on Cheers. I heard that was actually Jason Sudeikis' first aired sketch as a writer.

• Jennifer Garner / Beck:  The start of a four-show hot streak for an uneven season. Will Forte and Seth Meyers look like little kids in the monologue that Tracy Morgan steals by dressing as cupid ("You make me feel like the Lion King!"). Good early Fred Armisen stuff with the "Lights Out" sketch. Garner had good energy and presence in her sketches. Debut of Amy Poehler's cartoonish Michael Jackson impression, kind of a slap in the face for Dean Edwards who does a better job as one of the alien Michaels. Saddam and Osama was actually funnier than I remembered it. I used to be sick of Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz cracking each other up but I couldn't help but laugh at this one.

• Paris Hilton / Keane:  At the time I didn't think it was bad as it could be, but yeah, this was one that was even worse than I remembered. I couldn't help but think about Tina Fey referring to Hilton as "a piece of shit" on Howard Stern all through the episode. She always seemed to be doing that damn hand-on-hip pose in sketches combined with this air of doing the show a favor just by being there, which would be annoying enough without blatant gaffes (crossing between Chris Parnell and the camera during the closing of Merv The Perv, not hiding her real arm when holding a fake for a Barbie sketch). Aside from an American Idol sketch and a nerd phone-sex line, the sketches were pretty weak too. Cheapkids.net seemed to be Jim Downey's way of showing disapproval of the host (the audience seemed a little uncomfortable in those, because they veered a little close to dead baby comedy).

It's interesting to see some of these shows and then watch a new show where Seth Meyers, Fred Armisen and Kenan Thompson are still hanging around.  I'm also realizing Horatio Sanz was a much better cast member than I remembered.

Timekeeping post

My SNL reviews will begin again this week, and I will try to get Robert Urich, Blythe Danner and Daniel J. Travanti done as quickly as possible to make up for lost time.  I'll give a few teasers for each:

• Robert Urich's episode is notable for being the first broadcast after John Belushi's death, and the original airing had Brian Doyle-Murray give a brief tribute to him at the end of the show.
• Blythe Danner's episode is the first show where Christine Ebersole is Weekend Update co-anchor, and Mary Gross is moved to a recurring "bumbling correspondent" role.  We also get the first appearance of Eddie Murphy's Gumby.
• Daniel J. Travanti's episode starts a gimmick that was done a few more times over the Dick Ebersol period of SNL, where 1-900 numbers were given to the audience to vote on something: in this episode, it is to decide the fate of a lobster.  Next season's Drew Barrymore show would have a vote to determine whether Andy Kaufman be banned from SNL, and the Father Guido Sarducci episode from January 1984 would have the "Phone-in Democratic Primary".

I've been watching the new shows on the weekends, of course.  I see a good amount of promise from the new castmembers, but the show still has a lot of the problems of last year.  It's too early to write off the whole season, though, and they have been getting some good hosts (Jane Lynch was the best of the three), but I still see a lot of lame one-joke premises, unwelcome rehashes of previous sketches, lazy writing, and over-reliance on gross-out humor and using homosexuality as the joke. (Tangent: I know there've definitely been a few out SNL writers over the years, but it seems odd they've gone 25 years without an out gay cast member.  I don't advocate they hire someone just because they're gay, and I recognize the trap of pigeonholing, but perhaps it is time again.)  There's at least one good sketch per show, though, and even that Bjelland Brothers sketch from Bryan Cranston's show was so bad it was actually pretty funny.

I have to wonder what's dictating the direction the show's been going in the last year or so, though.  I want to be reminded why I liked Kristen Wiig instead of gnashing my teeth every time I see her on screen, and I want to not predict how the sketch is going to go in the first 15 seconds.   I doubt any of the SNL writers or cast will see this (they had to learn early on that us nerds on the Internet are nasty and don't like anything), and they're not writing or booking for my own personal "elitist fuck" tastes, but I really would like to know if the stronger material's just not playing with the right people or if, God forbid, this truly is the best they're capable of now.

I realize my blog's becoming nothing but SNL reviews and commentary so I'll just mention I've been watching Dollhouse season one on DVD.  Good show: it did take a few episode to find its bearings but I've finished through "Omega", and look forward to "Epitaph One" and the second season when it comes out this week.  Kind of a shame it didn't last but oh well, at least FOX didn't make Whedon retool it into Gleehouse or something like that.