Sunday, June 16, 2013

Tom Hanks/Keith Richards - 10.8.1988

Pumping Up With Hans and Franz VI

Those wacky Austrian “bodybuilders” Hans (Carvey) and Franz (Nealon) briefly “clear the air” on the Olympic steroid controversy and explain why they don’t feel the need to take them. They also ridicule Greg Louganis’ diving performance and end by showing us what we might see had they participated in the Olympics.


This was a fine outing for the two musclemen, but not exactly their best. It wasn’t as good as the three other Hans and Franz sketches we would see later on in this season. The real highlights were Nealons’ washboard abs/Sears front loaders joke, Carvey’s out of nowhere landromat comment, the two berating Louganis and calling him “Stuganis” for no reason and of course, the soft focus, slo-mo Olympic profile/tribute.

Grade: B-

Montage

New season, new opening credits package. This features a series of blue tinted, monochromatic shots of the cast out on the town and various other oddballs and landmarks around New York.

While I do like the stylized casual grim decadence of this intro, I must say I prefer the one from the previous two seasons. Even though it had more of an overly pretentious feel to it than this one, I just liked all the shots of the cast in a mad dash to get to the 8H. [citation needed] It’s especially funnier if you imagine that they’re all running FROM something. I also liked the 90-94 package since I pretty much grew up with it, but these make them look unambitious. They still kind of pales in comparison to the strangeness that just jumps out at you form 86-90.

Monologue

Tom Hanks begins by walking out to briefly address the rumor that he is the “nicest guy in Hollywood”. As his monologue “ends”, he walks backstage and is tearfully thanked by Nora Dunn for researching her family tree and presenting it to her as a gift. Further playing into his “nicest guy” image, he walks into the control room to wish everybody good luck and consoles and angry Hartman berating the crew about his wig and wardrobe not being right for the debate sketch. Later, he calms a wild horse and his handler, (Conan O’Brien) settles a dispute between an NBC page (Bob Odenkirk) and two thugs without tickets and advises Keith Richards to check up on one of his ill band mates. Finally, Tom congratulates Dennis on Update doing well in dress and Dennis reminds him that he forgot to thank the audience for coming. Tom rushes on the stage while the debate sketch is being set up to thank each and every individual audience member.



This was great. Sprawling monologues that explore the whole studio are always fun even when they’re not big song and dance numbers. Hanks did a fine job of poking a little fun at his image even if he wasn’t being particularly self-deprecating here. This is also notable for being Conan O’Brien’s first and Bob Odenkirk’s second onscreen appearances since they were hired as writers, so great for them. Bob’s voice sounded noticeably different from the voice we all associate with him now. Hartman did a great transition from angry to peaceful. Keith’s cameo also made me chuckle and Hanks obliviously giving two thugs his hotel room keys was worth a laugh. Also, it’s worth noting that Tom named “Colin” as one of the audience members seeing as that’s also the name of his son. I wonder if that was intentional?

Grade: B+

First Citiwide Change Bank

A commercial for the only bank in America that specializes in just making change for its customers (and nothing else) features testimonials from Service Representative Paul McElroy (Jim Downey) and two satisfied customers (Hooks, Nealon).


This is a semi-famous fake ad and that reputation is well deserved. They took a subtly absurd premise and faithfully executed it exactly like an actual professional bank ad. This is also one of many parodies of the “real testimonial” ad tropes that were apparently big in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, but this one was the most successful and well-remembered. Downey’s laundry list of change combinations for any given amount of money was funny to listen to.

Grade: B+

ABC Campaign ‘88

ABC News presents coverage of the second of two debates presidential campaign of 1988 between Vice President George H.W. Bush (Carvey) and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis (Lovitz). The debate is moderated by Diane Sawyer (Hooks) and Sam Donaldson (Nealon) is the most prominent member of the panel. Nightly News Anchor Peter Jennings (Hanks) and Sunday Morning pundit David Brinkley (Hartman) also provide analysis as they are joined by VP hopeful Dan Quayle (Jeff Renaudo) and his wife Marylin (Dunn).

This was one of the more creative and ambitious debate sketches in terms of production value and of length (clocking in at nearly 14 minutes) and along with the 200 Bush/Gore debates it could be credited with starting the trend of SNL doing presidential debate sketches every four years (with 1996 being the possible exception that proves the rule…unless you count the Bob Dole Independence Day debate with Bill Pullman or the Clinton/Dole debate “Fun With Real Audio” Smigeltoon from that same episode). Still, this was one of the better and more memorable debate parodies. It had plenty of moments of satirical brilliance including Dukakis’s lift and “enraged” speech (although some of the absurdist comedic value of the lift has waned since Jon Stewart used one in his Bill O’Reilly debate last fall), the whole squabble over the logistics of time travel, Sawyer getting hit with popcorn, Donaldson hijacking the whole debate, Bush’s hedging “stay the course/thousand points of light” ramble followed by Dukakis’ disbelief that he’s “losing to this guy” and of course the bullet proof shield and Dukakis’ “American Dream” speech. Everyone pulled off great impressions. Carvey’s Bush is rather primitive here and has yet to evolve into the cartoonish form it would later take. The same could be said for Nealon’s Sam Donaldson. Lovitz seemed more concerned with getting Dukakis’ speech patterns and rhythms down rather than his voice, but he certainly looked the part most out of the cast so the role suited him. Hartman pulled off an accurate Brinkley and his bleak cynical depression was absolutely great. Having a child play Dan Quayle was definitely better in execution that it might have sounded on paper. It didn’t hurt that Renaudo looked the part. They were obviously going for a broader visual gag there and it seemed to be more of a political statement or a character choice than anything. Anyway, this was a great topical sketch to lead off with.

Grade: A-

Keith Richards performs “Take It So Hard”

Mr. Short Term Memory

Jeff Morrow (Hanks) was hit in the head with a falling pear from a tree and is now frustrating a waiter (Hartman) and his blind date (Jackson) at a restaurant with his goldfish-like memory span.


This was the first of three installments of Hanks’ recurring character. While it isn’t the best one, he still played it brilliantly and his timing was perfect. His constant treating Jackson like a stranger and berating the staff asking for menus, wine and poached salmon and “finding” his own wallet and watch were very funny. I also liked him being suddenly baffled to discover food in his mouth and arriving at the conclusion that the restaurant serves pre-chewed food. Hartman played off him brilliantly. I particularly liked when he said that the only dish they serve is poached salmon. Jackson didn’t really add anything other than being a straight woman here. Other than that, great debut!

Grade: B-

First Citiwide Change Bank II

Another ad for the change only bank, but featuring different testimonials from customers (Dunn, Hartman)

It’s usually fun when one sketch is continued later on in the show, but this was just more of the same. They still pulled this off as well as they did the first one in terms of verisimilitude. The highlights were Hartman’s testimonial about how the bank was able to give him change for five pounds in British currency despite not being able to convert it to US dollars and cents and Downey’s statement that they make money by volume.

Grade: B-

Weekend Update w/Dennis Miller (featuring Kevin Nealon and Sergei Akmudov)

Music Intro: Robert Palmer – Simply Irresistable
Best Jokes: Bentsen/Quayle, Pinochet running mate, finger quotes, Ben Johnson, NASA

Kevin Nealon reports from the “All Drug Olympics” in Bogota, Colombia. In this competition, all forms of drugs are legal and encouraged. Russian Weightlifter Sergei Akmudov (Hartman) goes for the world record, but ends up numbly severing his own limbs in the process.


Dennis had a great night and seemed to be enthusiastic and in good spirits, but there seemed to be an odd edit between the Bush/Iowa joke and the Tyson/Givens jokes in the reruns. If anyone has a copy of the original live airing, can someone tell me what if anything they edited out? SNL Transcripts doesn’t indicate this. It’s kind of interesting how the mere mention of Al Sharpton got boos from the audience until Dennis delivered the punch line. I wonder exactly what he did in the ‘80s to make everyone hate him. The “All Drug Olympics” bit was pure gold. It was a solid, ambitious premise that was executed flawlessly. It is very well known as it has been included on every Sports Extra special ever assembled and the Best of Phil Hartman and possibly because it was one of the first sketches to utilize fake blood for laughs early on in the show (the only other pre-90s one I can think of is Aykroyd’s French Chef…if anyone has any others, please feel free to reply) Hartman and Nealon were great acting as if something that would be horrifying in real life didn’t faze them and Nealon’s generic color commentary at the end was a great way to play into this. He was also funny listing all the substances Hartman’s character was on.

Grade: B+

Girl Watchers A Go Go II

Hanks and Lovitz hang out by the ladies room to catcall girls who they know will ignore them. Their friend Andy (Nealon) shows up with a girl, and he is quick to point out how she isn’t a catch.


This is the second installment of the classic Conan O’Brien/Robert Smigel penned piece and it was funny. Their constant “hello/goodbye” comments to passing women were great as was their pointing out each other’s glaring physical flaws and stating how socially undesirable they are. Nealon played well off them as well.

Grade: B-

Jew/Not a Jew

Bob Tompkins (Hanks) hosts this game show where waspy couples the Knutsens (Nealon, Jackson) and the Thompsons (Hartman, Hooks) must guess whether well-known celebrities are Jewish or not. During the break, a “You Make the Call” spot for Feldman’s Kosher Pickles is shown where Sandy Koufax’s Jewish heritage is called into question (Spoiler Alert: he’s a Jew).

This was the weakest piece of the night. It seemed like a funny premise on paper, but the execution seemed unambitious and lazy. Thankfully, it was rather inoffensive. Nothing really stood out to me except the cheesy theme song and Hanks explaining the rules. He played the game show host role well, but he couldn’t really do much to save this.

Grade: C-

“Big” Outtakes

Hanks on home base introduces outtakes from his summer hit that show how drastically different the film was from what he agreed to do. In this original version, Hanks stays in junior high and uses his size to bully the other children rather than move to New York, fall in love and get a big job with a toy company.

This was a funny, more realistic take on “Big” and a better way for Hanks to poke fun at his image. The highlights were his story about seeing “Big” on a plane and his constant tackling of the kid on the baseball field.

Grade: B-

From the end of the filmed piece, Hanks goes straight into introducing Keith Richard’s performance of “Struggle”.

Richards is a talented guitar player and his solo efforts seem underrated.

Pat Stevens Show XIV

On this model-centric talk show, host Pat Stevens (Dunn) has the contenders for first lady as her guests, Barbara Bush (Hartman) and Kitty Dukakis (Hooks) and discusses the Presidential race as if it were a Miss America pageant between the two wives.

I never cared that much for these Pat Stevens sketches, but the later installments had their moments as Dunn played off different “guests” and hosts. Aside from Hartman’s great deadpan as Barbara Bush (great stunt casting) the diet pill jokes and catfight at the end, nothing really stood out to me about this sketch. Thankfully, they kept this one short.

Grade: C-

Goodnights

Overall, this was one of the great season premieres. It really was a great sign that the show and this cast had fully come back into their own and made themselves relevant again.

Now, I’m going to list what segments got cut from Netflix. I thought I’d do this as a helpful viewing guide especially since they really butchered this season good.

Pumping up w/Hans and Franz, Monologue, “Last Temptation of Christ” joke from Update, Mr. Short Term Memory, Girl Watchers,

Now, my rankings of this episodes’ sketches form best to worst:

1. ABC Campaign ‘88
2. Weekend Update
3. Mr. Short Term Memory
4. Monologue
5. Keith Richards “Struggle”
6. First CitiWide Change Bank
7. Girl Watchers
8. Keith Richards “Take It So Hard”
9. Pumping Up w/Hans and Franz
10. First CitiWide Change Bank II
11. “Big” Outtakes
12. Pat Stevens Show
13. Jew/Not A Jew

Next episode will be hosted by Matthew Broderick with musical guest, the Sugarcubes. See you then! Hope you’re having a great summer so far!





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