TTH 6/4/25

Classic SNL Recap - Season 19 Premiere

We are now up to season 19. Following the departures of Dana Carvey and Chris Rock, all of the previous year’s featured players - Ellen Cleghorne, Melanie Hutsell, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, and David Spade - have now been promoted to the main cast. No new additions yet, although within a few weeks 3 newly hired writers would become featured players. They range from Norm MacDonald (yay! Major SNL legend) to Sarah Silverman (semi-yay! She had yet to fully find her comedic voice and was giving little to do in her sole year with the show) to Jay Mohr (Jay Mohr.)

Charles Barkley had the hosting duties for the premiere. Like most athlete hosts his line readings were stiff & awkward, unlike most athlete hosts he showed enough of a natural knack for comedy that he would be invited back multiple times. Unless you choose to count Dwayne Johnson as an athlete and not as an action movie star, no pro athlete is a member of the Five Timers Club. Barkley is the closest, having hosted 4 times so far.

The episode also demonstrates how remarkable his NBA career was. Among his achievements was that he was one of the league’s rebounding leaders year after year despite being undersized for a big man. He was officially listed at 6’6”, although most people say he is actually closer to 6’4”. During the closing goodbyes he was only the 4th tallest person on stage. Nirvana was the musical guest (as always the musical performance is not included on the Peacock stream but seeing that this episode aired in September 1993 I can’t help but notice that Kurt Cobain only had 6 months or so left to live.) In addition, RuPaul made a cameo appearance this week. Both Krist Novoselic & RuPaul are noticeably taller than Barkley, and although he stood on the back of the stage and not directly next to Barkley it certainly appears that Kevin Nealon is taller as well.

The showcase sketch of the week followed up on Michael Jordan’s hosting gig 2 years earlier. Charles Barkley, or Charles B to protect his anonymity, appeared on Daily Affirmations With Stuart Smalley. He was joined by his future Space Jam co-star Muggsy Bogues. Excuse me, Muggsy B. It wasn’t as good as Jordan’s visit, but it shows why Barkley makes for such a great host. He is willing to poke fun at himself and at his persona.

The cold open was an Oval Office address from Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton, selling details on his universal health care proposal, which at the time looked like it was a certainty to pass. Hartman’s take on Clinton was that of a rascal, and he had that devilish look in his eye as he was revealing the specifics. “Breast augmentation, covered. Breast reduction…. NOT covered!”

This had one of those pieces that I remember all these years later, but had not remembered the specific episode in which it appeared. Rob Schneider was the stoner proprietor of a store which specialized in selling artifacts from overseas. Whenever a customer would ask what a specific item is meant to be used for, he replied with the same response. “You put your weed in it.”

As much as people like to complain about SNL’s reliance on recurring sketches, it is nothing compared to the way it used to be. This episode constantly played the hits. It included an edition of Coffee Talk With Linda Richman, and the one desk piece on Update was another one of David Spade’s Hollywood Minutes. He had a summer of snark to catch up on. There was also an appearance from a repeat bit that I always hated: The Gap Girls. This one included a dream sequence in which they found themselves in the dressing room of the band Skid Row. The Skid Row portion of the sketch was pre-taped, so I will have to wonder if they and Nirvana were ever in the building at the same time at any point that week. Nirvana made the likes of Skid Row obsolete; there could have conceivably been plenty of tension had they crossed paths.

There was a faux commercial for a Big Tall & Black clothing store that Barkley owned, and the episode ended with a sketch in which Barkley coaches people on how to play donkey basketball. Yes, the stage was filled with live donkeys, yes, cast members were attempting to dribble basketballs while sitting on donkeys, and yes, Barkley had a difficult time holding it together. There was one other bit that I found fascinating, but not because it was all that funny. Nealon & Hartman played Larry King & Burt Reynolds in an episode of Larry King Live, with Julia Sweeney appearing remotely as Loni Anderson. This was when Reynolds and Anderson were going through a very public divorce, and the premise was that the 3 of them had taken truth serum and were all saying what they really thought. The sketch was noteworthy because in the years to come Larry King and Burt Reynolds would be 2 of Norm MacDonald’s best impressions, and as mentioned he was sitting in the writers room at this time.

This was a solid beginning to season 19, a big one because it would be the final season for Phil Hartman among others. I’m calling an audible for next week’s post. I generally next go with the midseason episode, but in this case the episode, hosted by Jason Patric must have gone heavy on licensed music that NBC Universal did not wish to pay for. The Peacock stream runs less than 30 minutes. Instead I will pivot and recap the following week’s episode, hosted by Sara Gilbert. See ya then.

Try Not To Break A Hip Whilst Battling The Demogorgon

Netflix has announced the release date for the final season of Stranger Things, and it will come out in 3 parts. That’s just as well, the last batch of episodes are supersized; attempting a binge would be overwhelming. 4 episodes will drop on November 26, 3 more on Christmas, and the grand finale on New Years Eve.

That means that the 5 seasons of the show will have been released over a span of 9 years. The Duffer Brothers never rushed anything; they took the time to make sure that things were ready. If I can channel the 1980’s in the way that Stranger Things does, the Duffers sell no wine before it’s time. However… season 1 was set in 1983, season 5 will be set in 1987. That’s an issue when it comes to the young actors who are now significantly older than the characters that they play.

Some of the actors can fake it better than others. Gaten Matarazzo and Sadie Sink both still look young enough that they can believably pass as high school students. Charlie Heaton falls on the other extreme. As early as season 1 he looked like he could portray Winona Ryder’s brother just as easily as he could be her son. He is written as to be older than the other core characters, so now his character is college aged. Even with that caveat he is practically a grizzled old man. That’s not to mention the Millie Bobbie Brown conundrum.

There is no delicate way to put it, but she is clearly an adult woman now. They tried their best to hide it in season 4, but giving her the season 1 buzz cut again can only do so much. I could mention that she has so obviously matured that Drake is no longer eager to slide into her DM’s, but I won’t go there. Stranger Things is not the first show that has had to deal with teen actors growing up and it won’t be the last. I’m just not sure how easy it will be to suspend disbelief and convince myself that this is supposed to be a group of high schoolers. Ah, who am I kidding. I’m all in, I can pretend.

Yup

In more TV premiere news, Hulu has finally announced an August 14 premiere date for the King Of the Hill revival. As is the case with most returns of beloved old series, I read the news with mixed feelings. Some anticipation, some worry. The best parallel I can think of would be the most recent Futurama revival. It’s fine enough, it’s just good enough to keep me watching it, yet I probably would not have had I not had so much built in affection for the original premise and characters. I don’t know if a new KOTH is necessary, but I’ll be there for it. In these troubled times we could always use a little Boomhauer.

The reboot will take place a few years after the original series has ended - Bobby is now a 21 year old, and Hank & Peggy are retired. The original voice cast is returning, and thankfully they are not going to replace Brittany Murphy (or Tom Petty for that matter,) from what I gather Luann is not a returning character. I do have one bit of trepidation.

Years ago an article in Entertainment Weekly on the show made the keen observation that Hank embodies the compassionate conservative that George W. Bush branded himself as. He didn’t always succeed, but he tried his best to make sense of a world which he no longer understood. The show should be able to maintain that aspect of his character, but at the same time they need to be realistic about what the current state of the world would have done to Dale’s brain. His conspiracy theories made for consistently great comedy back then, but the natural evolution of his ideology will have almost certainly turned him into a full-blown QAnon freak. I trust that Mike Judge can still make him likable. Fingers crossed.

The news about the premiere date dropped on the same day that we learned that voice actor Jonathan Joss, who portrayed John Redcorn, has been shot and killed in San Antonio. The original reports stated that the tragedy occurred during an argument with a neighbor. Horrible enough, but hours later Joss’s husband posted the details of the incident.

It’s horrifying, it’s heartbreaking, it’s enraging. No matter how many times we see evidence of how broken our society is, a story like this starkly reminds us of how far we have fallen. It’s sickening and disheartening to see that there are so many who are unwilling to let others live their lives, doubly so in the current atmosphere which gives the worst people permission to indulge in their worst instincts. Like so many, Joss & his husband were doing no harm to anyone. How terribly sad.

50 Years Ago - Born To Run

There’s a scene in High Fidelity in which John Cusack is asked to list his top 5 side 1, track 1’s of all time. Since my friends & I are huge music dorks just like the High Fidelity characters are, this is a discussion we have had more than once. I still find it tough to narrow it down to only 5, but it’s safe to say that Thunder Road is an easy choice. What an amazing song to kick off an equally amazing album, and Jungleland acts as a perfect bookend to close the record.

Bruce Springsteen’s third album is the singular most crucial moment in his career. It’s easy now to forget that he was at a crossroads. His first two records were not big sellers, as he was unable to expand his audience beyond the passionate following he had cultivated up and down the eastern seaboard. He was in danger of being dropped by Columbia Records if sales did not improve. Combine the pressure he was feeling with his perfectionist streak and the recording sessions lasted for a year and a half. At a time when artists were expected to put out a new record every year, this was a long wait for a singer still trying to establish himself.

The hype machine was in overdrive; Springsteen became the first rock musician to simultaneously appear on the covers of both Time and Newsweek. The hard work paid off, Born To Run brought his stardom to a whole new level. He has been a major figure in rock music ever since.

Part of Springsteen’s genius is that he has always allowed the themes that he covers in his songs to mature at the same pace as he has in real life. In 1975 he was in that period of adulthood in which he was still trying to figure out his place in the world. All he knew was that that place wasn’t here. In the title track he states that we gotta get out while we’re young, but to me the line which signifies his entire ethos in this stage of his life was the final line of Thunder Road - it’s a town full of losers. I’m pulling out of here to win.

That theme of escape is all over the record, as is his devotion to carrying on the rock history that inspired him. That is obvious with the Bo Diddley beat that he uses in She’s the One, as well as in the Wall Of Sound production techniques that transform the title track into a rock epic. Not for the last time in his career, that song would be misconstrued by older politicians having their “how do you do, fellow kids?” moment. There was a time when a New Jersey legislator introduced a motion to declare Born To Run the official state rock song of New Jersey. Dude, have you listened to the lyrics? (It did not pass.)

Most of the classic E Street Band lineup was now in place for this record. Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg joined during the sessions; Steven Van Zandt barely appears on the record but was a fulltime band member by the time they went on tour. Those marathon sessions played a large part in their becoming the well-oiled machine that they were. Bittan in particular really stood out, and Springsteen’s vocals in Backstreets were as raw and emotional as he had ever gotten. He sang that song as if it was the last song that he would ever sing. Overall, however, this was Clarence Clemons’ shining moment. From his prominent position in the cover photo, to his lyrical reference in Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, to his legendary sax solo in Jungleland, this was the high point of his time as an E Streeter.

This record’s legacy runs deep. It consists of only 8 songs, but at least 5 of them remain staples of the classic rock canon. As for the pressure he got from his record company to put up better sales numbers, this would be his first album to chart in the top 10, and the title track became his first top 40 hit. It only made it as far as #23; AM/Top 40 radio wasn’t quite ready for him yet. That would still have to wait a few years. But it’s safe to say that for all of the highlights that were found on his first 2 albums, it was with the release of Born To Run that Bruce truly became BRUCE.

Closing Laughs

What time is it, kids? It’s time to say goodnight. Unless you’re reading this in the morning. Whichever time you read, that is all for today. Have a great day, & I’ll be right back here on Friday.