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Saturday Night Live 2000
(premiere host: Rob Lowe)
A Review by Techtite
(10/07/00)
If anyone deserves opening night jitters, it's the SNL cast for this
latest season. Tim Meadows has left because of a prime time series, Cheri Oteri left
because of a series-in-the-works, and Colin Quinn left because...well, who
wouldn't? This, in addition to a
banal, more-political-than-funny opening skit on the Presidential debate,
didn't make me enter the show with a good feeling. Thankfully, as always,
there was that one, show-saving skit that made me laugh like crazy,
pulling the show from a thumbs-down rating...though just
barely!
On the plus side for the cast members still present (as well as at
least one new face), they each go up a notch in
the skit requirement categories. Finally, poor Rachel Dratch is
permitted to act like a decent character, in a sports announcer
sketch. Last year, this poor girl was forced to play little more than the alleged mutant
love child of Angelina Jolie and her brother...YUCK! This premiere
episode, she may
not have had many more skits, though at least she can go to parties from now
on, and not hang her head in shame when telling what skit she was in.
Some skits, however, were typical
of modern-SNL; typically bad!
The commercial parody of the week was for "Corn Chip Nail Tips."
What exactly were they trying to make as the joke here? I have to ask the
same question --shout it, actually-- when looking at Molly Shannon, and
Will Ferrell, in the airplane barroom skit. Talk about a skit that just
dragged on and on!
The whole show is saved, however, with a hilarious "Court TV"
parody, involving Jimmy Fallon as Shaggy of Scooby Doo. He and best pal Scooby
are guest commentators, based on their experiences with catching so many spooky-looking
criminals. Some Scooby fans might not like the dark humor when Scooby, to
save time in catching crooks over and over, advocates the "reath
renalty." However, the line Fallon (Shaggy) says afterwards is truly
classic : "Hey, Lady, like I thought this was America...and [anthem
starts playing softly in background] I don't wanna live in a country where
4 hippies and a talking dog can't have the freedom to catch fake ghosts
with the occasional help of Phyllis Diller and the Harlem
Globetrotters!" This is the type of bizarre humor that SNL had in the
days of coneheads and "Samurai Tailors," and it was the best
part of the show.
 The SNL news was a surprise, in that they have gone back to their old
format, of one male and one female "news anchor." Newcomer Tina
Fey provides half the news, while Jimmy Fallon pulls his weight yet again
on the show, as the new co-anchor. While the jokes weren't the best ever,
there isn't much you can do when the only news this past week wasn't
terribly funny; at least they delivered the jokes extremely well. Tina Fey
(shown at left) is a nice addition to the show, and it's equally nice to
see better use of Fallon, in a recurring skit. I look forward to future SNL news
skits this year with this comic duo at the news desk, especially with the
long-awaited return of Jane Curtain's classic farewell message,
"Goodnight, and have a pleasant tomorrow..."
The show even had more than a few signs that it really was taped
live! A
few minor line flubs were easily corrected, though the show itself
apparently was running overtime. While the opening credits implied that
the show would include a cartoon by Robert Smigel, it was not to be seen.
Given the burnout rating I gave for the most recent Smigel cartoons, I'm
not surprised that his was the skit they bumped. Still, talk about
insulting; the airport bar sketch is kept in, and Smigel's cartoon was
not. I'd say that this means the cartoon must've been really, really awful!
In the end, there were actually two skits that saved this show; the
Scooby skit, and the Olympic biography parody, showing Chris Kattan as an
"Olympic Comedian." His parents were shown cheering in the
stands; a male cross dresser, and a monkey! These two moments are like a
tiny, glowing ember, straining to bring back the brash, bizarre boldness
of SNL skit writers of the '70s and '80s. The 90's are over, and for
SNL that could be a very, very good thing. Time to throw kerosene on that
tiny ember, guys, and give the show back the oddball hilarity we used to
love.
| All text, Title
graphics, and pix not of reviewed product, are created by Techtite,
copyright 2000; all rights reserved. Screen captures of program
reviewed are discrete thumbnails, used only for the purpose of
review, and by no means represent any affiliation with Techtite and the distributors of that product. For further "legalese"
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Burnout
Near
Miss
Small
Crater
Large
Crater
Deep
Impact
