Season #50 Has Begun
SNL Recap
I’ll try my best to avoid fixating on this point too much. I’ve watched SNL long enough to know that Lorne loves to look through his Rolodex so that he can bring his famous friends onto the show at the expense of his actual cast. Never mind that the cast is so large that the opening credits last a long time, or that so many people are on stage for the closing goodbyes that I worry it will collapse under all that weight. It’s what Lorne prefers. So, the cold open, which ran for an agonizingly long 13 minutes, largely served to introduce the faces we’ll see between now and Election Day.
The sketch featured dueling Harris & Trump rallies, but what everyone wanted to see was who the veep candidates are going to be played by. First off came Maya Rudolph’s return as Kamala Harris & I have to say that I hadn’t noticed in her previous appearances how perfectly she has nailed Harris’s voice. She eventually introduced Tim Walz, played by… Jim Gaffigan! All complaints about outsourcing aside, that is perfect casting. But we weren’t done. She then brought out Doug Emhoff - played by Andy Samberg. I was less enthused by that one; there was nothing special he brought to the characterization at least on this first glance. Then it was time to check in on Trump, and much to our collective relief JAJ is still playing that role. As for JV Vance? That’s Bowen’s job. An actual cast member? Is that even allowed? Finally it went back to Harris, with yet another new Joe Biden; by my unofficial and probably inaccurate count Dana Carvey becomes the 56th different person to portray Biden. I’ll give him credit; he did a great job on both Biden’s gait as well as his propensity for leaning into the microphone and giving a loud whisper to a phrase he wishes to emphasize.
Jean Smart did a fairly solid job hosting; the writers seemed to have tailored a lot of the material for her, but a lot of it felt like everyone was still working out the cobwebs after a summer off. Not only were there few real laughs to be had, but it also felt like they were desperate to make jokes about people whose 15 minutes were quickly running out. Case in point was the Pyramid sketch. Among the celebrity panelists were Chloe as the Hawk Tuah girl (the charity she was playing for was herself) as well as Smart as the star of the Chimp Crazy documentary, complete with a creepy chimp puppet. The sketch even found a way to squeeze in the Olympic pistol shooter from Türkiye who gained fame with his casual, hand in pocket stance.
It was a bland enough episode that it was tough to choose a top sketch of the week, but I’ll go with the Scholastic Books one. Smart portrayed a writer of romance novels whose book sales were declining so she was hired to write a math textbook. The math problems were not the classic train leaving Pittsburgh ones, instead lots of heaving bosoms; decidedly inappropriate for students.
Otherwise there was a lot of OK stuff. In Update we got to see Devon as My Dips*** Mayor, trying to buddy up with Che. And Bowen played yet another bitchy character in an outrageous costume, this time beloved baby hippo Moo Deng. The Spirit Halloween commercial was well done; I loved the details such as the fact that the Taylor Swift costume was branded as Female Blonde Singer to avoid copyright infringement. I also got a chuckle out of the episode ending Real Housewives Of Santa Fe sketch, featuring helpless waiter Andrew trying to lay down comically oversized trays of sizzling fajitas in the midst of the arguing housewives.
As for my Employee Of the Week award, I’ll give it to Kenan. He did great work in that textbook sketch, and he portrayed Mark Robinson in the Pyramid sketch. Jean Smart gave it her all. She is enough of a pro to play her bits as drama, not as comedy. If only the material would have been better. (BTW Hannah Einbender briefly appeared to help Smart introduce the first song from Jelly Roll. No sign of Einbender’s mother.) Next week Nate Bargatze hosts for a second time. His stint last year, particularly the George Washington sketch, was one of the highlights of season 49.
The Hit King
Pete Rose is a tough guy to write about with honesty. His accomplishments on the field are self-evident, but so are the more unsavory aspects of his life and personality. I’m not even talking about the gambling issues that placed him on baseball’s permanent ineligible list. (This is semantics, but it’s inaccurate to call it a lifetime ban. He is not suddenly a Cooperstown candidate now that he has died; he is still banned. Just ask the descendants of Shoeless Joe Jackson.) There were credible statutory rape allegations made against him; his defense was that he thought she was 16, which met the Ohio age of consent, which is not exactly a compelling defense. He was 34 at the time of the alleged incident. Even if it was technically legal, yuk.
So, sorry, I can’t get past stuff like that. He was a historically great player, and a major star in a time when baseball players were still the most prominent athletes. Here’s a good example of his fame. Years ago I saw in interview with the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team discussing the making of Airplane! Much of the basic plot of the movie was lifted from a 1950’s melodrama called Zero Hour. The co-pilot was portrayed by Rams wide receiver Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch. ZAZ a thought it be fun to use a famous athlete in that same role, but have him be so famous that the other characters recognized him as himself. Pete Rose was originally cast as Roger Murdoch, but it took them so long to get the financing together that they shot the film during baseball season, and Rose was therefore unavailable. As a result, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was cast, he told the young fella how tough it was to drag Walton and Lanier down the court, and the rest was history. Rose did show a comedic flair in his work in commercials, I’ll still take KAJ any day.
He holds the all-time lead in games, at bats, and of course hits. All 3 of those appear to be close to unbreakable, and even beyond those gaudy career totals there is bold print all over his Baseball Reference page. And yet, his sins are unavoidable and the determination that made him such a great player is also one of the reasons why he was clinically unable to swallow his pride and simply admit guilt. There is a telling anecdote in this Jayson Stark obituary on Rose. Mike Schmidt and Joe Morgan helped arrange a meeting between Rose and Bud Selig. Rose could be reinstated if he would fess up and cease all gambling activities. He agreed and then went directly to an appearance at a Vegas sports book. His fate was sealed.
Dikembe
This one hurts. Dikembe Mutombo was a textbook example of the phrase “gentle giant.” A Hall of Fame player, 4-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, and a great humanitarian, Mutombo passed away from a brain tumor at the much too young age of 58.
A native of the Democratic Republic Of Congo, he first teamed up with Alonzo Mourning as part of a dominating front line at Georgetown before taking the NBA by storm. He is second all time in career blocked shots, many of which were punctuated with his signature “no, no” finger wag.
He just seemed to be a really likable guy; despite his imposing size and husky voice he appeared very genuine and pure. Cameras always caught him with some of the greatest open-mouthed looks of disbelief during the slam dunk contest. And the picture of his absolute joy after his Denver Nuggets became the first 8 seed to upset a 1 seed in the playoffs is one of the most iconic photos in league history.
His NBA career pales in comparison to the impact he made off the court. He used his visibility to improve conditions in several African countries, not just his native land. He worked with organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and Basketball Without Borders. He built a hospital in the DRC, and he financed several schools throughout Africa. The man was a giant, both figurative and literal. He will be missed.
12 Teams Enter Thunderdome, 1 Team Leaves
If Monday’s doubleheader was a hint as to what the postseason will give us, fasten your seat belts. My goodness, what a game #1 that was. I wouldn’t dare hazard any playoff predictions. It’s a cliche by now, but the postseason is truly a crapshoot. In such a small sample size, anything can happen. That’s even more the case this year. Not a single team managed to win more than 100 games in 2024; there are no real superteams at the moment. It will largely come down to who is hot and who has enough arms that are not completely gassed and can cobble together a representative pitching staff. The Dodgers are so bereft of healthy starters that Doug Rau and Claude Osteen are scheduled to start Games 1 & 2. I mean, were the Rangers & Diamondbacks the 2 best teams last year? No, but they were the ones that came through when it counted. (I will now pause to pat myself on the back for correctly predicting that neither of last year’s World Series clubs would return to the postseason this year. Feel free to ignore my other predictions that were not as accurate as that one.)
The wild card round is entirely broadcast on the ESPN range of networks, so Smoltz Season will not officially begin until this weekend. That is the time of year in which we have to listen to a month long lecture telling us that the product we’re watching is poor. Great way to promote the sport, MLB. On a lighter note I’m anxious to see who will win this year’s His Father Is The District Attorney Award! for the ad campaign or new TV show promo that runs so frequently that it grates on the nerves. Will anything top the ubiquity of AT&T’s What a Pro Wants ads with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander & Chet Holmgren that ran ad nauseam throughout the NBA playoffs? An anxious America awaits.
Our Long National Uniform Nightmare Is Over
Is Rob Manfred actually listening to fan complaints? Two big pieces of news came out concerning MLB uniforms for next year. First off, the issues that came up with these year’s uniforms have been addressed. As it turned out the supposed transparent pants worries were overblown, but excessive sweat was obvious. The uniforms are going back to the material that had previously been used, so we will no longer see a field filled with players looking like they are channeling Albert Brooks in Broadcast News. In addition, the names on the backs will revert back to the same large font size that had traditionally been used, and players will once again have more options they can use to customize the fitting on their pants.
But this is the best news - the hideously generic All-Star Game uniforms are going to be scrapped and the players will once again wear their own team’s uniforms in the game. I love that so much; it was wonderful to see the mosaic that resulted from the array of different uniforms on the field. Even if the game itself is a dull affair, at least it will be aesthetically pleasing.
50 Years Ago - Police Woman
As I have mentioned before, 1970’s TV was brimming with detective shows, most of which starred grizzled male leads. Police Woman was one of the exceptions, in more ways than one. There was a clear titling protocol to most of these shows; they contained the surname of the lead character. Not this one. Rather than calling it Anderson, or even Pepper after the lead’s nickname, it was Police Woman. It was if the producers patronizingly said, “it’s adorable that you won’t let your lady parts get in the way of being a police officer. We won’t even show you the courtesy of letting audiences know what your name is.”
Angie Dickinson starred as the titular policewoman, “Pepper” Anderson. I kid, but the show was a big deal to some extent. Premiering the same year as Get Christie Love, 1974 was also the year in which women were finally able to take out a credit card in their own name. Which is to say that it was unusual for a woman to have such a prominent role on a television show. She was part of the undercover division of the LAPD. If you’re asking, yes, her undercover assignments often required her to be scantily clad, or at least as scantily clad as network standards practices in 1974 would allow. It should also be mentioned that Dickinson was in her early 40’s when the show premiered. It bears repeating that for all the hurdles older actresses face today, back then a woman on the wrong side of 40 was practically considered to be Grandma Walton. Dickinson’s position was baby steps, but it was progress.
All that aside, it was typical police action show cheese of its time. It had the usual assortment of car chases, fist fights with bad guys (the male officers only), gruff bosses, colorful secondary characters, etc. It maintained one traditional double standard; Pepper did not have the extracurricular activity that most male cops and detectives would have; the strong implication that the hero was sleeping with the guest star of the week. We wouldn’t want audiences to question Pepper’s virtue, after all.
Closing Laughs
This brings us to the end of another day. I’ve tried to make this a happy place as much as I can, which is the main reason why I have largely avoided discussing current events here. So I’ll just remind everyone to look out for each other; we’re all in this together. See you all once again on Friday.
