Alec Baldwin / P.O.D.
April 20, 2002
OVERVIEW
Really excited to see Alec Baldwin hosting again. He's one of SNL's most frequent hosts, and he always does an excellent job. He's really funny in sketches just acting like his calm and subtle-humored self, but every once in a while, he'll play a really wacky and outrageous character, like Charles Nelson Reilly, the guy he plays in the Bill Brasky sketches, and "The Mimic". His absolute best episodes were the ones from 1992-93, 1996-97, and 1998-99.
(11:30) COLD OPENING: FOX News coverage of the Blake Murder Mystery
- Good to see a non-political opening for a change.
- Were Will and Ana playing the same reporters they played in the Channel 9 News sketch in the Britney Spears episode? They appeared to be, and they were wearing the same wigs.
- Darrell's Geraldo Rivera impression is quickly growing on me.
- I don't know why, but that picture of Robert Blake kept cracking me up.
- If anybody on SNL is going to do a Robert Blake impression anytime soon, I would nominate Chris Parnell to do it, he looks quite a lot like Blake.
- I hope they don't let Brian Fellow anywhere near THAT parrot.
- Coincidentally, I think the last time an animal said "Live from New York" was Toonces the Driving cat, which was in the episode that Baldwin hosted in 1992-93.
RATING: 4.5/5
(11:36) OPENING MONTAGE
(11:38) MONOLOGUE: Alec Baldwin
- I like how Baldwin always points out to the SNL Band at the beginning of his monologues.
- Darrell playing Gore again? I guess they're following up Baldwin's last monologue where Darrell played Clinton. Always good to see his Gore impression again.
- Darrell has carried the "laugh, then straight face" routine from Clinton.
RATING: 3.5/5
(11:42) COMMERCIAL: Classic Kotex Pads
- This is the first time in quite a while they've shown a repeat commercial, but this particular commercial just came on pretty recently. At least repeat one we haven't seen in a while, like the Herbal Essences commercial.
(11:43) SKETCH: Gay voice mail messages
- A good, simple and genuinely funny sketch.
- Funny how Ana just walked right on camera not even wearing anything to hide her pregnancy, as if she didn't even care.
- Dean makes his patented useless appearance of the nioh, wait, he did some other stuff later in this episode
RATING: 4/5
I'm glad they showed a commercial for the upcoming A&E special on SNL, I almost forgot about it.
(11:39) SKETCH: New Girlfriends
- Another good, original sketch.
- Tracy playing a woman = always funny.
- Maya's voice in this sketch sounded like an elderly version of Megan from the Wakefield sketches.
- Dean was really funny here. I'm glad he made another appearance.
RATING: 4/5
May 11, 2002 - Kirsten Dunst / Eminem
YESS!! I finally get a correct entry in the Guess the Hosts Contest other than Reese Witherspoon. 'Bout damn time!
(11:57) SKETCH: Ozzy
- This sketch had the same set used in the Blue Oyster Cult sketch with Christopher Walken, and the Hank Williams Jr. sketch with Chris Farley.
- I always enjoy it when Horatio does an impression of Ozzy.
- When Amy made that face when she was talking to the puppy, she looked exactly like Rachel. I swear, those two must've been separated at birth or something.
RATING: 3/5
(12:03) SKETCH/COMMERCIAL: The Cardinals
- A pretty funny parody of The Sopranos.
- Baldwin's closing line was hilarious and really sold the sketch.
RATING: 3.5/5
I wonder why they showed the stage being set for Weekend Update during the commercials tonight. They usually don't do that.
(12:08) WEEKEND UPDATE: Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey
- They've been showing Update before the musical guest performance a lot lately, which is good.
- Good to see Rachel playing Calista Flockhart again.
- Were they serious about Ally McBeal getting cancelled? I can't stand that show.
- Seth did a dead-on impression of Tobey Maguire, that's exactly how the guy acts. He also looked just like him.
- I like how somebody in the audience tossed the pencil back at Jimmy after he threw it in the audience at the end.
RATING: 3.5/5
(12:20) MUSICAL GUEST: P.O.D.
(12:27) SKETCH: The Luvahs' birthday party
- These characters still haven't fully grown on me yet (better yet, just dump them), but this sketch was a bit of a nice change of pace for these characters.
- Good to see Seth and Amy playing a couple again, after quite a while. They played couples all the time earlier in the season.
- The only consistent laughs I have in these sketches are Ferrell's back pain yells at the end.
RATING: 2.5/5
(12:34) COMMERCIAL: France
- Was that Maya as the voice-over?
- Short and to the point, which I like.
RATING: 3.5/5
(12:38) SKETCH: The Tony Bennett Show
- Baldwin did a good Tony Bennett impression.
- Nothing really to say about this sketch. You could tell we were nearing the end of the night.
RATING: 3/5
(12:45) TV FUNHOUSE: Anatominals
- TV Funhouse came on a lot later than usual, and it doesn't usually come on right after a commercial break.
- At least this ain't Fun with Real Audio, but why did Smigel even bring the Anatominals format back? This was basically the same thing as the Anatominals cartoon from last season's finale, and it took me a while to even realize this was a new one. And the Lorne segment wasn't anywhere near as funny as the first Anatominals one.
- I still think Smigel does a terrible impression of Lorne Michael's voice. I don't understand why Lorne just doesn't voice for his own parts in these cartoons.
RATING: 2/5
(12:51) MUSICAL GUEST: P.O.D.
(12:57) MISCELLANEOUS: My Big Thick Novel by Jack Handey
- BLAAAH..
(12:59) GOODNIGHTS
CONCLUSION: This doesn't rank this up there with the 92-93, 96-97, and 98-99 Baldwin classics, but this was still a pretty solid episode, and was at least better than Baldwin's show from last season. Baldwin did a great job as usual. And also, they were supposed to do an Inside the Actor's Studio sketch tonight, with Baldwin playing Charles Nelson Reilly again - where the hell was it? I was really looking forward to it, and after all the hype it got in the promos, I wouldn't expect it to be cut. They'd better do another Actor's Studio sketch in one of the next 2 shows. Overall Rating: 3.5/5
BEST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: Blake Murder Mystery; Gay voice mail messages
WORST SKETCH OF THE EPISODE: The Luvahs
MOST BIZARRE SKETCH: Nothing, really, but I guess Ozzy could qualify
LIVE BLOOPERS: Again, nothing really
WHAT WILL PROBABLY BE CUT ON COMEDY CENTRAL: 2nd musical performance; France commercial; TV Funhouse; The Tony Bennett Show; The Cardinals
CAST MEMBER COUNT DOWN
RACHEL DRATCH: 5 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, New Girlfriends, Ozzy, Weekend Update, The Luvahs)
JIMMY FALLON: 3 sketches (New Girlfriends, The Cardinals, Weekend Update)
WILL FERRELL: 4 sketches (Blake Murder Mystery, New Girlfriends, The Cardinals, The Luvahs)
TINA FEY: 2 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, Weekend Update)
ANA GASTEYER: 6 sketches (Blake Murder Mystery, Classic Kotex Pads, Gay voice mail, New Girlfriends, The Luvahs, TV Funhouse)
DARRELL HAMMOND: 4 sketches (Blake Murder Mystery, Monologue, New Girlfriends, The Cardinals)
CHRIS KATTAN: 1 sketch (The Tony Bennett Show)
TRACY MORGAN: 2 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, New Girlfriends)
CHRIS PARNELL: 5 sketches (Blake Murder Mystery, Gay voice mail, Ozzy, The Cardinals, The Luvahs)
AMY POEHLER: 6 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, Gay voice mail, New Girlfriends, Ozzy, Weekend Update, The Luvahs)
MAYA RUDOLPH: 5 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, New Girlfriends, The Luvahs, France [?],The Tony Bennett Show)
HORATIO SANZ: 2 sketches (Gay voice mail, Ozzy)
DEAN EDWARDS: 3 sketches (Gay voice mail, New Girlfriends, Ozzy)
SETH MEYERS: 5 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, New Girlfriends, Ozzy, Weekend Update, The Luvahs)
JEFF RICHARDS: 5 sketches (Classic Kotex Pads, Gay voice mail, New Girlfriends, Ozzy, The Cardinals)
I'm counting any cast member voices in the TV Funhouse cartoons from now on.
The stars of the night were Amy Poehler, Ana Gasteyer, Rachel Dratch, and Chris Parnell. Ana seems to always be used a lot whenever Alec Baldwin hosts, she and Baldwin have good chemistry together. Also, good and rare to see Rachel in a lot of sketches. I notice that Jeff Richards and Seth Meyers made quite a lot of appearances for featured players, which is good. As for the underused, Chris Kattan had only had 1 appearance, but I ain't complaining about that.
Wow, only 2 more episodes left. This season is going by really fast. This is turning out to be a really good season, I hope the new 2 shows keep it up.
I'm outta heah...