Classic SNL Recap - Season 19 Finale
I’ll delve into this more in the next section, but this episode was Phil Hartman’s farewell. There was surprisingly little Hartman in this episode; he briefly appeared in the monologue and the camera focused on him during the closing goodbyes as he appeared to be struggling to hold back his emotions. There was also a late season addition to the cast. Michael McKean, who was likely hired to fill the Hartman gap, was now part of the show, meaning that all three core Spinal Tap members were SNL regulars at one point. McKean barely appeared in this episode; his role would be more prominent in season 20.
Heather Locklear - my second favorite TV Heather from the 1980’s - hosted the season finale at the height of her Melrose Place fame. There were 2 separate Melrose related pieces this week; the monologue presented several SNL cast members in Melrose type melodramatic scenarios. Later on, Mike Myers appeared as Wayne (sans Garth) watching a Melrose episode. He falls asleep which leads into a dream sequence in which he wakes up next to Locklear/Amanda and then encounters several other Melrose characters. This era of the show often had sketches of this type which would parody a popular TV show but rarely expanded much beyond seeing which SNL actor was assigned to each role. I did mildly chuckle at Wayne’s description of Billy & Allison as America’s least interesting couple.
Wayne wasn’t the only classic Mike Myers character to show up this week; Linda Richman was in the cold open, joined by Locklear herself as Richman’s landlady. The sketch needed to find a way to have Locklear leave early so that she could change out of her costume in time for the monologue. It happen when Linda gave her an extra Streisand ticket that she had; Locklear’s character was so verklempt over the gesture that she had to leave in order to compose herself.
The best sketch of the week is one that is not on YouTube, for understandable reasons. It was a home shopping network type show called Amazing Time Savers. Locklear’s host, perfectly vapid, introduced Myers selling a pasta maker that he had invented. I love pasta, but I never have the time to make it!” Myers’s appliance promises to make delicious pasta in only 5 minutes. And it’s so easy to operate. Locklear complains about how often manufacturers promise that their products are simple to use, but when she takes them home she finds that the instructions are too complicated. “Usually this easy instruction thing is a big lie. Like the Holocaust!” After a brief pause the phones start ringing off the hook, and every time she puts a caller on the air that caller begins screaming in response to the offensive remark. Locklear replies with such dead eyed racism that I almost believe this sketch is used in a training video for Fox News personalities. As the sketch goes on she proves to be an equal opportunity offender, throwing out slurs towards an assortment of ethnicities. The greatest element of the sketch is the way in which Myers’s character tries to hide in shame, showing the exact same body language that the real life Myers would use years later when Kanye West said that George W. Bush doesn’t care about black people.
Another good one was the sketch in which Locklear and Kevin Nealon flirted with each other across a crowded bar. Beginning with the standard blowing of kisses, they soon pantomime each other’s actions to increasingly absurd comedic effects. Well done.
Speaking of Nealon, although he returned to the show next year, this would be his finale as Update anchor. He was serviceable in the role; he never left much of a personal stamp. He mostly served as a conduit for corny jokes and as the presenter for the desk pieces. It would soon be Norm MacDonald’s time to shine. MacDonald pulled off something very tricky. He deftly rode the line of offensiveness, never quite crossing it. In particular he frequently told some pretty sexist jokes, but whereas Michael Che does that with an “ain’t I a stinker?” air of mischief, MacDonald felt more like a Don Rickles type. Listen to the tone of my voice and my deadpan expression, I mean no ill.
In his final desk piece before becoming anchor he was introduced as the Homophobic Correspondent, here to editorialize on Whitewater. He used the phobia part of the term literally, saying that he has nothing against gay people, he is just scared of them. He then went into his spiel, intermittently looking over at Nealon to accuse him of sitting too close.
Better was the 60 Minutes sketch, in which MacDonald perfectly portrayed Andy Rooney, stating how much he dislikes other people. He shows a large sack of letters that he has received from viewers, picking up each unopened envelope. “This one comes from Iowa. This one comes from Virginia. This one comes from WEST Virginia. I don’t know where this one came from.” The studio audience was laughing in awkward anticipation, wondering where this was going. The joke is that it wasn’t going anywhere. Norm MacDonald was simply going to spend several minutes of national TV time to read off the names of US states. Nothing more. The audacity would have made Andy Kaufman proud.
This was one of the sketches removed from the Peacock stream but the season ended with many of the actors performing as their most most famous characters singing a season ending song to the tune of “So Long, Farewell” which also served as their official goodbye to Phil Hartman. It was also a passing of the torch. With Nealon and Myers the only remaining members of the old guard, SNL was now firmly in the hands of a different generation. Season 20 was a painful year. At least the season premiere kicked off in the good hands of Steve Martin. Tune in for that recap next week.
Season 19 Exit Interviews
The end of season 19 was the first of 2 consecutive years which saw a massive cast exodus. This particular group of departures ranged from one & done to SNL legend status. Sarah Silverman was only on the show for one season, and although stardom was in her future she made only a very limited impact on SNL. When she came back to host years later she joked that her stage time was largely limited to appearing in monologues as an audience member in a Q&A segment. It wasn’t quite that severe, but she fell victim to the featured player syndrome of being given little to do. Her time would come, just not on SNL.
50 years of history means that the stray cast member can fall through the cracks, such as Melanie Hutsell. The show basically boxed her into playing one specific character type throughout her time. Her most famous character was Jan Brady, and many of her other sketches had her playing similar sullen, pouty faced teenagers or young adults. It’s hard to say if that was her sole strength, or if that was all that the show would allow her to do. Remember, this was a brutal era for female cast members. Whichever it was, it was nice to rewatch these episodes and be reminded of Hutsell.
Julia Sweeney was in a no-win situation. Talk about how tough it was for women during these years, there was a brief stretch in which she was literally the only female cast member. She was often regulated as the wife or girlfriend in a sketch in which her male co-star had the bulk of the funny lines. In addition, her most famous character was the androgynous Pat, a premise which has aged horribly. She did yeoman’s work for the most part, just without much of a splash.
There is a big difference in the perception of Rob Schneider now as opposed to then. In 2025 he is a prominent MAGA voice and a notoriously absentee dad. Before that he had a prolonged period in which he starred in some of the hackiest movies ever made. So many of them followed the same formula - his character would be magically transformed into someone or something else. One episode of South Park had a running gag promoting his latest movies. Rob Schneider is The Stapler! Rob Schneider is The Carrot! This phase of his career also inspired one of the most blistering putdowns ever seen, via the pen of Roger Ebert after Schneider had insulted a fellow film critic.
Despite all that he amused me in his SNL days. Sure, his recurring characters tended to be annoyingly one note. Sensitive Naked Guy. Orgasm Guy. But the Copy Machine Guy was relatable; I would suspect that most of us have worked with a dude like that. Someone who acts all superficially buddy buddy with you at work with a pet nickname, but probably didn’t know a thing about you. For a while there was that exact guy in my office; amazingly it had gotten to the point where he had so irritated my boss that she got him out of her hair by “suggesting” he work on a specific project in the room where the accounting department was located so that he could handle that task without any distractions. The kicker? The office copy machine was located directly next to the desk where he was temporarily situated. You guessed it, when I had to make copies I was greeted with “Steve-O! Makin’ copies!” Brilliant. That whole frat boy stage of SNL was one of my least favorite eras in the show’s history, but I will reserve at least a small amount of affection for Schneider’s contributions. (He also provided more than his fair share of uncomfortable ethnic stereotypes, so screw him for that.)
Whenever a popular performer leaves it’s all too easy to say that the show cannot possibly survive that departure, but in all honesty it’s rarely true. A show cannot last for 50 years without some resilience, so no one is irreplaceable. But some departures hurt more than others. Phil Hartman’s hurt. The generational change was almost fully complete; the Farley/Sandler/Spade group was now in full control. That’s not the only reason why season 20 was a rough go, but it didn’t help.
Whenever SNL hits a milestone anniversary year, it comes with various websites listing the show’s all-time top performers. I attempted to do one of my own rankings when the 40th anniversary came, but I found it impossible to do so. There are just too many to choose from. If pressed, however, Hartman would have to be way up there; top 5 maybe? It was his versatility that made him so valuable. He wasn’t only one of the most brilliant impressionists that the show ever had, he was equally talented as a character actor and as a straight man.
Because I watch 3 episodes per season for these recaps, I can luck out to the negative when it comes to the recurring bits that I get to see. In this instance I came up with a bad roll of the dice, none of the episodes in my rewatch from the Hartman years contained my single favorite character of his: Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. It never failed to make me laugh.
He continued to be a comedy treasure following his departure. He had already created the beloved Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure for The Simpsons, and he was part of the magnificent ensemble in News Radio, one of the most underrated comedies of the 1990’s, a show so wonderful that not even the presence of Joe Rogan could ruin it. Phil Hartman’s murder was such a gutting tragedy. Of the many comedy greats that have walked the halls of Studio 8H, he stood up with the best of them.
50 Years Ago - The Great Waldo Pepper
It fascinates me to see which pieces of pop culture remain in the public eye and which fade into relative obscurity. Society only has so much bandwidth, we can’t possibly preserve everything. Sometimes a movie that was quite popular 50 years ago eventually becomes forgotten. The Great Waldo Pepper was a sizable box office hit, #18 for the year. It starred one of the biggest movie stars of all time, Robert Redford, while still at the peak of his fame. The behind the camera talent featured mega names such as George Roy Hill, William Goldman, and Henry Mancini. The cast is filled with some of the more recognizable That Guys from the time, as well as several identifiable names: Susan Sarandon, Edward Herrmann, Margot Kidder, Bo Svenson. Despite all of that, I would suspect that few people under the age of 40 even are familiar with the movie.
Set in the mid-1920’s, Redford stars as the titular Waldo Pepper, a former WWI pilot. He makes a living flying in aerial shows, at first wowing the crowds with stunt work, eventually teaming with a former flying ace from Germany to recreate battles from the Great War. The tone of the movie is a mixture of whimsy and darkness; safety was not exactly paramount in stunt flying, so there were moments of tragedy found among the lightheartedness.
Although not based on a true story per se, the character of Waldo Pepper was an amalgam of three real life stunt pilots from the Roaring Twenties. There was depth to Pepper; while it’s true that he served in World War I he did not see any actual combat action, and that fact haunted him. It was a form of survivor’s guilt, performing in these shows gave him an opportunity to experience the combat that he missed out on in reality.
The Great Waldo Pepper was entertaining enough; it falls as step shy of reaching the level of many of the classic movies which made 1975 such a special year. This is yet another prime example of why Redford was such a superstar; few actors have ever commanded the screen as well as he has. This is not a must-see, but it’s a worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours.
Closing Laughs
Thank you one and all for continuing to support Tending the Herd. Have a great day and we’ll meet again here on Friday.
