I feel like I need to set the stage a bit before diving into this review.
I’ve been a fan of Saturday Night Live since I was a young child, probably 8 or 9 years old, so around 1993-1994. My big sister Natacha would record the live broadcasts on Saturday night, and we would watch them on Sunday afternoon. Many jokes would go over my head, but I enjoyed the crew of comedians presented before me. This is where I discovered comedic legends such as Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, David Spade, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, and the list goes on. That cast is still the best cast in the show’s run in my eyes, not only because it’s the cast I remember from when I was a kid, but they were just SO good!
Now, as a fan of SNL, I’ve read many books and watched many documentaries / videos about the show. Of all the documentation I’ve consulted, one question would often be repeated: Who was the worst guest host in the show’s run? And the answer was always very consistent: Steven Seagal.
While promoting his film Out for Justice, Seagal hosted the 18th episode of the show’s 16th season, and I can tell you the stories here, or just leave you the links to check out for yourselves, but long story short: Cast and crew have told horror stories from the week Steven Seagal worked on the show. From not being a good sport and not being able to poke fun at himself to suggesting atrocious sketch ideas, Steven Seagal takes the cake as worst guest host in all of SNL’s history. Executive Producer Lorne Michaels has even removed the episode from rerun packages, which means that it hasn’t been televised since its live broadcast on April 20, 1991.
I had heard a lot about this episode over the years, and have seen clips of it in video reviews, but I just had to see the full, uncut episode for myself, and I knew there was a version of the episode floating around online, because the video quality of the clips was always consistent in every review I would watch. Obviously, the people making these reviews are all using the same source material.
I’m not too knowledgeable when it comes to downloading things, and I also have a massive fear of getting a computer virus. Luckily, I just happen to have a friend who’s a wizard when it comes to downloading content. I contacted him with the details of the episode I was looking for, and within minutes I had the infamous Steven Seagal episode of SNL waiting for me in my inbox. I couldn’t believe it! I was finally going to see the full episode featuring the worst guest-host of all-time!
Can it really be THAT bad? With a cast like that, it can’t be so bad, right? Well, I won’t jump ahead, so let’s get right into it…
PUMPING UP WITH HANS & FRANZ (COLD OPEN)
This was a very popular recurring sketch around this time. You’ve surely seen one or two pop up in SNL compilations over the years. Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon play Hans & Franz, two bodybuilders who happen to be the cousins of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they’ll never let you forget it. Their catchphrase was “We just want to pump… YOU UP!”.
As usual, Hans & Franz brag up their cousin, saying he has a big Summer blockbuster on the way. While it’s not mentioned, and judging by when the episode aired, I’m assuming they’re referring to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. They go on to say that this movie is going to blow all other action stars out of the water, and that none of them even compare to Arnold. Steven Seagal walks in behind them just as they happen to be making fun of him.
Hans: What about this guy, Steven Seagal?
Franz: Yeah, hear me now, but believe me later, Arnold could easily rip Steven Seagal’s skinny little arms off, and he could use them as dental floss.
They notice Seagal who tells them he doesn’t appreciate them making fun of him. He then challenges them to push their full body weight against his single pinky finger, to which of course they fail.
They come to the conclusion that Mr. Seagal is not a “girly man” after all. They briefly imagine themselves in full Seagal attire, ponytails and leather jackets, before snapping back into it and realizing they’d hate to use only their pinkies and put the rest of their muscles to waste.
This sketch starts out the show nicely and made me think to myself “Hey, maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”. Well, let’s keep watching, it’s still early in the show.
OPENING CREDITS
Whenever I review these old SNL episodes, I always like to take a minute and mention the opening credits, just to give my readers an idea of who the cast was around this time, and like I mentioned previously: This was, in my eyes, one of the best casts in the shows near-five-decade run. I mean, just look at these names…
STEVEN SEAGAL MONOLOGUE
The problem with this episode is quickly starting to present itself. Seagal has a very arrogant energy that’s obvious from the start. He’s also very dependent of the cue cards, making him fumble his words on many occasions.
At the end of this monologue however we see a different side of Seagal, as he takes out a guitar and sings a version of Carl Douglas’ Kung Fu Fighting with four back-up singers, among whom are cast members Tim Meadows and Chris Rock.
This is actually a fun bit as it’s the only moment where Seagal actually seems to be enjoying himself or shows any kind of emotion. Yes folks, Seagal actually smiles and seems to be having fun as he sings and looks to his back-up singers.
If he would have remained this way for the entirety of the episode, we might have had a great one, but sadly that’s not how it went down…
WINSTON MCCAULEY FUNERAL HOME (COMMERCIAL PARODY)
I’ve always enjoyed SNL’s commercial parodies, as they’re usually clever and funny. This one is neither of those things. This is in just plain bad taste.
Phil Hartman (wearing a white wig and looking like a mix of Henry Gibson and Timothy Leary) is playing a spokesman for Winston McCauley Funeral Home. Within seconds of the sketch beginning, he says this:
“Care. Compassion. Dedication. These are the things we can promise you at Winston McCauley Funeral Home. And there’s one more thing we can promise: That we will never have sex with any dead body.”
We even get a shot of Mike Myers as a funeral home employee who gets on top of a corpse and begins to undo his pants before being escorted out by security.
This sketch just caught me off guard, as that kind of humor seems so dark for that time. I would expect it from an episode in recent years, sure, but not from an episode from 1991!
However, I have to give props to Phil Hartman for being able to deliver such dialogue as if it was the most normal thing.
Since writing this review, I’ve discovered that this commercial parody is actually a “repeat”, and had originally appeared in the episode “George Steinbrenner / Morris Day & The Time” (S16E03), on October 20, 1990.
TENELLI: ONE MAN ARMY
This sketch starts out as a solid spoof of your typical Steven Seagal action movie. Seagal plays Nico Tenelli, a spoof of “Nico Toscani”, the character he played in 1988’s Above the Law (known under the title “Nico” in other countries).
The sketch starts out in a police office where Nico is getting yelled at by his captain (played brilliantly here by Phil Hartman) for basically breaking all the rules of the force. Seriously, Hartman’s performance is so convincing that I would have loved to see him play this part in an actual action movie.
Then we switch to Seagal. Remember when I said that he was very dependent of the cue cards and kept fumbling his words. We get our first glimpse of that here. He’s getting the words out, sure, but he forgets an important thing called “sentence structure”. As an example, one sentence goes as follows:
“I caught these guys with three kilos of cocaine. What do you think they were doing with ‘em? Making chalk for girls softball games?”
Except he reads it out as:
“I caught these guys with three kilos of cocaine what do you think they were doing with ‘em making chalk for girls… Softball games?”
Absolutely no punctuation.
As the sketch progresses, Captain Hartman takes Nico’s badge and gun, and sends him to do office work. On his way to his office, Nico shoves a hilarious Chris Farley, who makes fun of him for having to do office work. This will be another recurring theme of the episode: Seagal kicking the asses of everyone he comes across.
Once in his office, Seagal joins recuring character Richard the copy guy (Rob Schneider). In this series of sketches, Schneider always just sits there and annoyingly repeats the names of his colleagues who walk in to use the photocopier, coming up with different variations of their name. Only this time, Seagal is having none of it.
After Richard does his shtick, Nico brings him to the copier and smashes him against it. He then hangs him out the window by his feet.
That’s it. That’s the sketch. From this point on, we the audience are thinking “Okay, so this is no different than watching a Seagal flick. So, there won’t be any humor? We’re just gonna be watching him beat up the SNL cast for the next 90 minutes? Okay…”.
At least Schneider does his best here, but Seagal isn’t giving any of his co-stars anything to work with. He’s playing every character as straight as he does in his movies. The story goes that Seagal takes himself so seriously that he wouldn’t even dare poke fun at himself. The result is a very awkward episode of SNL…
ALL-STAR CELEBRITY TRIBUTE TO REGINALD LEE ADDAMS
After the Winston McCauley Funeral Home commercial parody, this is the second skit to not feature Steven Seagal.
Prior to seeing this sketch, I had very little knowledge of the Gulf War, mainly because I was five years old as it was going on. However, this sketch inspired me to do some research on it, and now I have more of an understanding of what went on.
The Gulf War had officially ended on February 28, 1991, so this sketch is a parody of an NBC Special Presentation where they are welcoming home American soldiers one at a time. In this particular special, hosts Tom Selleck (Kevin Nealon) and Barbara Mandrell (Jan Hooks) welcome Private First Class Reginald Lee Addams (Tim Meadows). The joke here is that each soldier gets their own special, as Selleck tells Mandrell: “But hang in there, because after this show, we’ll be 2/5 of the way through the A’s.“.
The special begins with the hosts airing a “personal” message for Private Addams from President George H. W. Bush (Dana Carvey). It’s quickly revealed that this was a pre-recorded message shown to all soldiers, but when the President has to say the soldier’s name, it cuts to a separately recorded clip of him saying “Private Reginald Addams”, in the most monotonous manner possible. It’s a pretty good gag, I gotta say.
Legendary actor Charlton Heston (Phil Hartman) is then invited to read a letter that Private Addams wrote to his best friend while stationed in the Gulf. The letter quickly gets into Private Addams’ loneliness, and… How should I put this? Masturbatory habits. After Heston finishes the letter, Private Addams, with a shocked look on his face asks who picked that letter, to which it’s revealed that Mr. Heston had picked it out himself.
The sketch is starting to feel a bit long already (we’re at the five-minute mark), but it’s far from over. The hosts then invite Kuwati Prince Falheed Al-Sabah (Rob Schneider) and his four wives to the stage, as he has a ‘gift” for Private Addams:
“In recognition of your efforts, a concrete step in the fresh water jacuzzi in my newly constructed Winter palace will bear you name.”
Finally, Tony Orlando (Mike Myers) and the Yellow Ribbon Dancers take the stage to sing a personalized rendition of Tie a Yellow Ribbon for Private Addams, and it appears as though they just pulled his information from his medical records…
I’m Private Addams and I’m back
I’m 24, five foot nine, and I’m black
I’ve got 20/30 vision, and my blood type is AB
I can’t wait to see my old friends at 320 East Boulevard… In East Saint-Louis!
When I watched this for the first time, I didn’t really find it all that funny, and thought it ran for WAY too long (roughly 7:30 minutes), but since watching it a few more times for this review, and having more of an understanding of the Gulf War, I can appreciate it more, and see the humor in it.
I’ve read that this sketch actually ran longer when they did it for the dress rehearsal, and it featured Chris Farley imitating stand-up comedian Louis Anderson. Farley’s impression got cut out for time, and never made it into the live broadcast of the show. I would love to see this version of the sketch, but I doubt it’ll ever see the light of day.
THE DARK SIDE WITH NAT X
In this recurring sketch, Chris Rock plays Nat X, host of a late-night talk show on the B.E.T. (“Black Entertainment Television”) network. For the duration of his show, Nat complains that “The Man” is bringing him down. That’s the sketch, and it’s actually pretty funny due to Rock’s stone-face performance.
The sketch begins with Chris Farley in a clown costume reading the “viewer mail” to Nat. It’s just fun watching Chris Rock trying not to break character while looking at Chris Farley in full clown attire.
As the sketch progresses, Nat welcomes controversial stand-up comedian Andrew “Dice” Clay (Steven Seagal) to his show. I must say, this is the one time in the episode where Seagal is not just playing himself, and is actually making an effort to play a character. He’s doing his best to do Dice’s Brooklyn accent here. Sure, it’s not that great, but at least he’s trying.
Nat gives Dice a hard time for his movie The Adventures of Ford Fairlane not performing well at the box-office. While holding up a VHS copy of the film, Nat says:
“Well I’m not saying it was a bomb, but last week the Klu Klux Klan tried to tie one of these under my car!”
When Dice finally says that he won’t be making movies for a while, Nat asks him: “Are you gonna go see a movie?”
This is where Dice should have said a hilarious comeback. The line should have been:
“Hey, I ain’t seen you in any movies. And what’s with the afro anyway? You look like Linc from the Mod Squad!”.
But instead, Seagal once again forgets a little something called “sentence structure” and reads it as:
“Hey, I ain’t see you any movies and what’s with the afro anyway you look like Linc from the Mod Squad!”.
This completely destroys the punchline, and what could have been a funny moment simply wasn’t. Delivery is everything, folks! Shortly after, Nat wraps up the show, but not before letting out this last quip:
“Hey Dice, maybe you’ll be in ‘Grease Part 3’.”.
This is definitely not the worst sketch in the episode. I’d even go as far as labeling it one of the best, mainly because Seagal is actually not taking himself so seriously for once. Now if only he could structure sentences…
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY (PART ONE)
Anyone who remembers these sketches know that they’re short and straight to the point. Usually lasting 15 to 20 seconds, this is just a quote deriving from Jack Handy’s observational sense of humor, read softly (I believe by Phil Hartman) while soothing music plays in the background, accompanied with beautiful scenery.
I could just post the quote here, word-for-word, but I’m going to give my readers the mission to try and track down this episode, that way the Deep Thought won’t be spoiled for you here, and you can laugh just as I did when I heard it.
MICHAEL BOLTON PERFORMS “LOVE IS A WONDERFUL THING”
I’m going to cut straight to the chase here and admit that I am not a fan of Michael Bolton’s music, therefore I fast-forwarded through both of his musical performances.
That having been said, while I don’t necessarily enjoy his music, I have much respect for Mr. Bolton as an entertainer, and I can confirm with you all that he has a much better sense of humor than Steven Seagal, which will be revealed later in this very episode.
WEEKEND UPDATE WITH DENNIS MILLER
There’s no better time to admit it than right now: I never cared much for Weekend Update when watching old episodes of SNL. It’s not the anchors or the writing, I think it’s just the news format. See, all through my youth, my dad forced us to watch the 6 o’clock news as we ate dinner, so I guess I developed this (for lack of a better word) hatred for anything news-like.
I know, you’re probably thinking “Well Jex, it’s not like real news. It’s all jokes and stuff.”, and I think that’s the other thing: When watching these old Updates, the jokes are so dated that you most likely won’t understand them if you weren’t following current events at the time.
However, I do like Dennis Miller as anchor, because he had that smooth-talkin’ attitude. Another highlight in this edition of Update is the correspondents he brings on.
Firstly, Kevin Nealon plays his recurring character, Mr. Subliminal, where he subtly slips his real thoughts in between words. In this case, he gives us a review of Nancy Reagon’s Unauthorized Biography by Kitty Kelley.
“Let’s face it: I don’t know how much of this book is true [100%], but if any, it’s good that we can get this information out of the closet [Merv Griffin]. I have to be honest with you though, I don’t know anyone else who would purposely go out and try to hurt someone [L.A.P.D.], and instead of hounding this very respectable couple [senile], that are no longer in public office [thank God], I think people like Kitty Kelley would do well to focus our attention on America’s real problems [Kennedys]. Now, let me tell you something: As for me [heterosexual], I will never, ever, recommend this book [see the movie]. Thank you, Dennis.”
Miller then brings out the SNL travel correspondent, a fresh-faced Adam Sandler, who recaps his recent trip to Greece. Sandler does what he typically does, which is ramble on and on without actually getting to any sort of point. It is fun to see him in his early days of SNL though, and while I know he’s supposed to be nervous in this sketch, he actuallty does look legitimately nervous (his hand movements are a big giveaway of this). You can’t fake that.
So to summarize this edition of Weekend Update: watch it for Mr. Subliminal and Adam Sandler, and skip the rest.
MUSICIANS FOR FREE RANGE CHICKENS
This sketch begins with Dana Carvey doing a spot-on impression of Casey Kasem, who tells a story about TV & radio personality Rick Dees and singer Lenny Kravitz going to an L.A. Bistro together to get a Ceasar salad. The chef told them that he can’t make a Ceasar salad because the eggs that are so vital to making the dressing do not come from free-range chickens. This event is what paved the way to this We Are the World type of song.
Remember when I gave Michael Bolton credit for having a sense of humor, and not taking himself too seriously? This is where that comes into play, as he joins the cast to sing about free-range chickens.
I don’t really have anything more to add here expect that this is a fun skit, and the impressions are all excellent.
DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY (PART TWO)
See paragraph for “Part One”.
JENNIFER’S DATE (A.K.A. “DADDY’S GIRL”)
This sketch had potential from the get-go. We have the living-room setting (which I associate to comedic gold, mostly because of the Matt Foley sketches), and we have Jan Hooks welcoming Chris Farley at the front door. Side note here: I find it so sad that both of these people are no longer with us.
Farley plays Doug, who is there to pick up Jennifer, who is off-camera getting ready for their date. Jennifer’s mother (Hooks) invites Doug to wait in the living room while Jennifer’s father (Seagal) keeps him company. As soon as Seagal walks into frame, all life is sucked out of this sketch. Once again, he’s playing the character as if he was in one of his serious movies, which totally ruins any kind of comedic rapport with his co-stars.
Seagal plays the over-protective father, and is asking all of the usual questions to Doug: “You have any plans?” and “In the middle of the night, I won’t get a phone call that your car broke down and that’s why you were late, or anything like that, will I?“.
This is so hard to watch, as the usually hilarious Farley is just unable to get any laughs due to Seagal’s lifeless delivery of his lines. Speaking of no laughs, that’s another thing that makes this sketch feel so awkward: the audience is not laughing, probably because they don’t know what to make of it. It’s supposed to be funny, but Seagal is being Mr. Serious Action Movie Guy!
Luckily, Rob Schneider enters the scene as Jennifer’s brother, Randy, and shows interest in Doug’s car outside. Seagal sends him out to go admire the car. Moments later, Randy comes back in and reports everything to Daddy Seagal. This was their plan all along.
“The left rear tire is a little warn, but he’s got a spare and the jack works. The oil’s okay, the pan is scuffed, but not leaking. The tie rods need new breaks.“
Once Schneider leaves the scene, the never-ending back-and-forth between Seagal and Farley continues, and Seagal opens his shirt to reveal a tattoo of an eagle on his chest. He goes on to say that he got it overseas when he was a paid assassin. Again, all of this is said in all seriousness as if he were in one of his movies. No humor to be found whatsoever.
Eventually, after what seems like FOREVER, Jennifer (Victoria Jackson) comes out, and this part was so cringe-worthy. Why? Because of the way Seagal looks and touches her. It’s not the way a father should look at a daughter, that’s all I’m going to say.
The sketch finally ends as Farley and Jackson head out on their date, and of course as the applause begins, Seagal gives Jackson a kiss on the cheek, and you can sense her discomfort with all of this. There are stories floating around about an inappropriate sketch idea that Seagal proposed during the week leading up to the show, revolving around Jackson. That all makes this even harder to watch.
This is probably the worst sketch here, but luckily we have two shining stars: Rob Schneider and Jan Hooks, the only performers that get a laugh during this endless sketch, but sadly even they can’t save it.
I’ve discovered that this sketch was originally done with actor Dennis Hopper playing the father character, during the dress rehearsal of the episode he hosted, five months earlier. The sketch was cut for time and didn’t make it to the live broadcast of the show. I’d love to see this version, as I’m positive it’s nowhere near as awkward as what we got here.
You can actually watch this one for yourselves, as it’s the only sketch from this infamous episode that’s available on SNL’s official YouTube Channel. Let me know if you find it as uncomfortable as I do…
MICHAEL BOLTON PERFORMS “TIME, LOVE AND TENDERNESS”
More of the same as performance #1, but with a different outfit.
BRACE STEELE: GREENPEACE PHOTOGRAPHER
I gotta say that I found this sketch a bit hard to follow, and that’s because it starts so abruptly on the copy I have. It feels as though the person who recorded this was cutting out the commercials, and when the show started again, they forgot to resume the recording for a minute or so. I tried to find the full sketch online, but with no luck.
It starts with a shot of Seagal wearing a denim shirt in front of a green screen that appears to represent a beach.
The narration says: “From that moment on, Brace Stone dedicates his life to fighting crimes against the environment. Under the tutelage of master photographer Yoshi Akiro, he is initiated into the mysteries of zen nature photography.”
We then find Brace and Yoshi (Mike Myers) in a dark room, where Yoshi educates Brace about the ecological crimes of major corporations.
Still not making much sense to me, the narration then says: “From that moment on, Brace Stone ceases to exist. He becomes Brace Steele, Greenpeace Photographer, using his camera to document crimes against the environment.”
It cuts to Seagal hiding in the closet of an Exxon boardroom, where a meeting is taking place and Phil Hartman is talking about the big oil spill of 1992 that they’re planning. As the meeting progresses, it’s revealed via a phone call that President Bush (Dana Carvey) is in on it as well.
Our “hero”, Brace Steele, jumps in and after a long confrontation, kicks everybody’s asses. We’re talking throwing people through doors and breakable furniture. Makes sense as to why half of the meeting attendees didn’t look familiar: They weren’t part of the cast, but rather were hired stunt men for Seagal to throw around.
The skit ends with Seagal looking straight into the camera and shouting: “THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU POLLUTE THE PLANET!”.
Cue the Howard the Duck font displaying the words “The End”.
I can’t remember ever seeing an episode of SNL that ends with a public service announcement, but here we are. Very, very strange, because we the audience are expecting a punchline, and there isn’t one. It’s just Seagal basically telling you that you’re gonna get beat up if you pollute. Hey, I’m all for being environmentally-friendly and all of that, but this just seems SO out of place.
GOODNIGHTS / END CREDITS
After what felt like a five-hour show, Steven Seagal signs us off with Michael Bolton by his side, and as soon as the credits start to roll, Seagal vanishes to the back, completely separated from the rest of the cast. Heck, at least Michael Bolton is all smiles and seems to be getting along with everyone. And that concludes the episode featuring “The Worst Host in The History of SNL”.
Look, full disclosure: I actually enjoy *some* of Steven Seagal’s earlier films (WAY before he became a straight-to-video embarrassment), so I do find it kind of cool seeing him do his thing and beat people up. However, this is Saturday Night Live, and you watch it to have a laugh and forget about your everyday worries. If I want to see Steven Seagal beat people up, I’ll pop in Hard to Kill or Marked for Death. This would have been a great opportunity for Seagal to show a different side of himself and make people laugh, but instead he showed the world that he has ZERO sense of humor and he refuses to poke fun at himself.
During his monologue, he stated: “It’s important for me to let you know that there’s a lot more to Steven Seagal than the martial arts.”. Well, he sure failed at proving that.
However, all that having been said, I gotta say that I don’t think Seagal was the only problem, as even the sketches he doesn’t appear in aren’t necessarily comedic gold. “All Star Celebrity Tribute” and “Musicians for Free Range Chickens” were okay, but I didn’t find them hilarious.
Would I recommend this episode to people? I would recommend it to die-hard SNL fans like myself for sure, because it definitely needs to be seen to be believed.
I highly encourage you all to check out these various interviews from cast and crew members, just so you can get the general idea of how difficult Seagal was to work with during his week at SNL…
FINAL SCORE: 2/5
Jex Russell - Pop Culture Nut 
7 responses to “Review | SNL: Steven Seagal / Michael Bolton (S16E18)”
The most epic review I’ve ever seen.
As we discussed offline, I had seen some of this episode before because after you described two of the sketches, I knew I had seen them before. EIther a “best of” tape, or my buddy Peter had taped this episode.
Peter was a Segal fan. I’d never seen a single one until I met Peter. In fact I was opposed to Segal because of the ponytail! I hated that thing.
Sit back and enjoy the weekend off — you earned it.
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Hey Mike, that’s cool that you remember seeing some of the episode before! Me, I’ve seen it too many times at this point, so I’m fine never having to watch it again. It was worth it for the sake of reviewing though, lol!
Dude, the ponytail is what set him apart from the other action stars 😉
Funny you say that though, because that’s what my father would refer to Seagal as: “La Couette” (French for “The Ponytail”), LOL!
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Wow, what a post, Jex… a “magnum opus”! I appreciate all the time and effort you put into this in-depth review.
I was never really much of an SNL fan though my sweety and I still love to watch the opening skits and Weekend Update as a habit, and acknowledge the many great talents that have cycled through the show since its inception.
Seagal sounds like he would have been a nightmare to work with as a host. The role needs someone who can poke fun at themselves and their cultural reputation.
Have a great weekend!
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Hey Steve! Haha yes, this one certainly took up a lot of my time to put together, but I’m glad with how it came out.
You’re right: so many stars have come out of SNL since it’s start in 1975. Can’t believe it’s going to be celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in just two years!
Yep, as can be seen from the interviews I linked: Nobody had nice things to say about Seagal during his visit at SNL. You’re absolutely right: SNL needs hosts who are laid back and can laugh at themselves. that’s why Tom Hanks and Steve Martin have both hosted the show NUMEROUS times, because they’re the kind of people the audience wants to see as hosts.
Thanks again for reading Steve, and hope you have a great week!
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Thanks, Jex, yes you should feel happy with it for sure. Great when a post makes you feel that way.
I hope you have an awesome rest of the week, too!
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I enjoyed reading this, Jex. I’m not very familiar with that era of SNL – my golden age was earlier (when Eddie Murphy was in the cast, around 1982-1983) but most of this cast is still familiar since so many of them went on to even greater fame and in some cases (mis) fortune. Dennis Miller doing the news also brings back memories since he joined the cast in 1985 and was on the show for quite a while including the time when I was still watching the show regularly or at least semi-regularly. I was in university during most of the era you’re talking about here (early ‘90’s) and most of the time didn’t even have a TV. I loved the part about your sister taping the show (and your dad calling Seagal “la Couette” because of his ponytail). I would have liked to have taped the show myself in the ‘80’s but my parents probably wouldn’t have approved and in any case my sisters and I always had problems figuring out how to use our VCR, and I don’t think we knew how to adjust the settings to record all channels (both UHF and VHF) which was important since we didn’t have cable or a dish. I seem to recall trying desperately to try to tape extra-long classic Doctor Who serials when they played on our PBS station during Sunday dinner (my parents would not let us watch TV while eating), but I don’t think we ever managed to do it. I also liked your section about the Gulf War. I remember that very well since I was draft age (registered in Selective Service) at that time, and it was the source of some anxiety in my age cohort back then. I was living and studying in the UK during the war (junior year abroad) and there were rumors flying around that either Saddam Hussein was going to unleash his secret army of international terrorists on all American abroad (even though it was more likely we would be collateral damage in an IRA attack) and stories that if the war over Kuwait wasn’t over very quickly we would all getting called up and made to report for active duty in the States and then have to fight a prolonged ground war in Iraq.
(Written from the fresh water jacuzzi in my newly constructed Winter palace – aka my rec room/basement library).
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Hey Henry! This is a comment just as I like it: Very detailed 😀
Wow, I can’t even imagine the stress and anxiety of being the draft age at that time. Luckily it didn’t get to the point of the prolonged ground war in Iraq, as they were fearing.
Thanks as always for reading and commenting, Henry! Have a great week!
P.S. Nice touch on the “Fresh Water Jacuzzi” bit 😉
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