Did Anyone Remember To Wake Up Billie Joe Armstrong When September Ended?

SNL Season 9 Finale Recap

Season 9 of Saturday Night Live ended with the final appearance of one of the major stars in the show’s long history. But enough about Brad Hall. What, did you think I was referring to someone else? Eddie Murphy had actually departed a few episodes before the season’s conclusion. Which meant that the year ended with a bit of ambiguity. Where would the show go without its signature star?

But first, there was an episode to get through, and this one had a total of 5 hosts. With so many people sharing the wealth, there wasn’t a lot for any one of them to do. Ed Koch only appeared in the beginning (no monologue as the 5 simply came on stage and waved) along with the closing goodbyes. It’s likely he also appeared in some of the material that was edited out of the Peacock stream. It was another unfortunate example of “I wish they would have splurged for the music rights” as The Cars were the musical guest. This was around the time of the release of Heartbeat City, so they were at their commercial peak.

2nd host Father Guido Sarducci only appeared in a pre-filmed piece as he acted as a man on the street reporter, asking absurd questions to people stopped at red lights. Host #3 Betty Thomas was also in only one sketch, as she and the 3 female cast members were students at a karate class. I was bracing myself for a potential offensive stereotype, but the instructor was not an actor in yellow face. Instead, Joe Piscopo, Tim Kazurinsky, and Gary Kroeger acted as the Three Stooges. Piscopo made for a passable Curly.

The cringe came in the cold open. Host Billy Crystal appeared as Sammy Davis Jr. along with Piscopo’s Sinatra. The premise was that Davis couldn’t understand why he wasn’t asked to be one of the hosts. Now, a Sammy Davis impersonation was long a part of Crystal’s act, and he did it well. You can’t really classify this as Jolson era blackface. It’s still uncomfortable to see a white comedian wearing so much shoe polish on his face. Crystal also appeared on Update (or as it was known in those days, Saturday Night News) as his Fernando character.

Which brings us to the 5th host, veteran news anchor Edwin Newman. He hosted the news portion, and later performed in a sketch with Jim Belushi. The premise of that was that it was a call-in show with literally one viewer, so the entire broadcast was meant to placate her. Newman was not exactly a name synonymous with comedy, but his deadpan demeanor worked well here.

The highlight of the week was a sketch that showcased Kroeger very well. JLD was looking at prospective mates at a video dating service, and Kroeger’s dentist, named Dr. Needleman, put up a big production.

There would be big changes made to the cast going into season 10. The only returnees would be Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Robin Duke, Brad Hall, Tim Kazurinsky, and Joe Piscopo would all leave. Piscopo deserves a mention. He’s fallen a bit off the radar as he’s spent recent years as an AM talk radio host. He was often accused of riding Murphy’s coattails, but his importance to the show should not be discounted. The most valuable cast member is often the skilled impressionist, and Piscopo was certainly that. Eddie Murphy made the show what it was in this era, but Piscopo was not far behind.

Season 10 would be an uncharacteristic year for the show. The cast was filled with some high profile all-stars, and the season contained so many classic moments. I’ll take a look at the unhosted season premiere during the first off week of the new season.

More MLB Playoff Discourse

As the playoffs move into its second week, there have been 2 prevalent talking points. The first is the debate over starting pitcher usage. For a while there it looked like we were getting an old school dominant performance Monday night. Zack Wheeler was on top of his game, holding the Braves hitless into the sixth inning. He was providing exact what we want to see, an ace performance from an ace starter.

It quickly fell apart, however. He gave up a massive 2-run homer to Travis d’Arnaud in the 7th, cutting the lead to one run. The bullpen went on to lose the lead, and the series is now tied at one game apiece. Yes, he was crushing until the lineup turned around a third time. As much as we all would love to revisit the days of Jack Morris or Josh Beckett, that third time through the order penalty strikes again. Wheeler was dealing, until he wasn’t. If even he couldn’t sustain his pace, what hope is there for pitchers who don’t have his track record? Prepare yourselves for more quick hooks over the next several weeks. History suggests that managers are more likely to focus on Wheeler’s start as a cautionary tale rather than look at how effective Jordan Montgomery and Nathan Eovaldi were in their starts.

On a related note, the Rangers becoming the first team to earn a spot in the LCS has good and bad elements. Good - as mentioned, to this point Bruce Bochy has trusted his starting pitchers to go deep into games and it’s paying off so far. Bad - the team has psyched itself up by playing Creed in the clubhouse. I swear, if this inspires a Creed comeback there will be heck to pay.

The playoff format has also come under question, as the top seed Orioles were swept out last night and the 2 seeded Dodgers are in danger of doing the same tonight. As a result there has been a boatload of chatter over the unfairness of the format. But that’s what comes with a small sample size. Look at it this way. A team that wins 95 games over the course of a season is still losing approximately 40% of their games. And some of those losses come against bad teams. It stands to reason that any team is in danger of slumping at the worst time and losing to an inferior team in a short series. A dominant NFL team can win 15 games in a season, not even the greatest MLB a team can win at that same pace.

It’s the nature of the beast; under this format there will never be a guarantee that a championship for the best team is an inevitability. If you want that guarantee, there’s only one solution - no playoffs, simply send the team with the best record from each league directly into the World Series. But who wants that? It would mean that the majority of teams will be eliminated from contention fairly early, and as a result fans would lose interest. And the reason Fox & Turner spend fortunes on television rights is for the inventory of postseason games. That well would dry up.

There’s no reason for handwringing. The system is what it is, and it is not going to change. We merely need to take it as a given that teams with great regular season records will be eliminated early on occasion and just sit back and enjoy the chaos.

Middle East Horror

It’s been difficult for me to know what to say about the terror attack in Israel. I’m fearful that anything I say could be misconstrued. Suffice it to say that whatever disagreement one may have with the Netanyahu government - and the description of his Palestinian policy as apartheid contains some accuracy - a terrorist response can never be justified. Hamas’s targeting of innocent civilians is a war crime and the stories that have come out concerning their brutality have been gut wrenching.

Sadly, the ongoing dysfunction of our government - more specifically from the one party that has little interest in actually governing - is as evergreen as it has been. Now might be a good time to have a Speaker Of the House. Because of Tommy Tuberville’s temper tantrum multiple leadership positions in our military are currently vacant. Rand Paul has held up several ambassador appointments, including the one in Israel. The idea that partisanship should be be set aside in a crisis is long gone, but it’s still striking to heat the chatter coming from the GOP. The talking points blaming the crisis on Joe Biden came out immediately.

And those talking points are nonsensical. The thought seems to be that the release of Iranian funds led to the attack and furthermore that our tax dollars paid for it. But Iran has not actually received any of those frozen assets yet. And it was their own money, not one cent of American money was sent to Iran as part of the prisoner exchange. Finally, just think about it for a minute. The Hamas attack involved quite a bit of planning. Even if Iran had already received some of these frozen assets, it would not be possible to have used any of that money to fund an attack this large.

The weekend was also the biggest stress test yet for the Elon Musk era of Twitter and it predictably failed. With the old system of verification having been dissolved, it’s practically impossible to differentiate legitimate news from disinformation. Furthermore, last week he removed headlines from news links, so unless a writer specifies that there is a link attached, it appears as if timelines are filled with random photos lacking context. At a time like this, it’s vital that there be a trustworthy news source to disseminate crucial information. Twitter is not that. And not enough news organizations have a strong enough presence on Bluesky yet to fill the void.

The situation is frightening. The best that I can do is offer all of the comfort and empathy I can to those who have loved ones in Israel and are fearful of their safety. May peace prevail.

Kevin McCarthy 2 - Electric Boogaloo?

As the realization grows that neither Gym Jordan nor Steve Scalise are likely to have enough support to become Speaker, there are already whispers that Kevin McCarthy could be an option as a compromise candidate. Perfect, no notes.

Closing The Book On This One

That’s all for now. Have a great day everyone, and we’ll talk again on Wednesday.