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Our First Female Entrant Into The Five-Timers Club!!!

This ended up being a very fitting end to such a so-so season. Unfortunately, this episode was before the show celebrated the host's induction into the Five-Timers Club because it would have been much more exciting to see Candice Bergen excited to be a part of something big rather than joking about how she no longer needs the show now that she has an outlet to perform comedy on her show, Murphy Brown.

Luckily, she didn't stick to the hostile host performing out of protest routine for more than passing comment but as I've said in the past, this negative approach to hosting the show is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to watching SNL.

As for the rest of the night, though this was one of the better of the so-so episodes to make up the year, it still suffered from the same flat tone that made this season such a bore. Once again, I find this highly disappointing because I found this to be a season where they just barely missed the mark without ever getting to the point where any show was actually bad.

I really look forward to tomorrow's show because, as I keep saying, I think the biggest problem with this season is that there were barely any cast changes for five full years allowing everyone to settle into their comfort zone. I can't wait to see the cast members who do stick around get a boost of energy while welcoming in the new blood.

We'll see what happens and I can't wait to share my findings but until then it's now time to move on and share what I saw tonight, as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with another Special Message From The President Of The United States where once again, Dana Carvey as George Bush Sr. shares his half-assed accomplishments for approval from the citizens of America. This week, he is nervous because he has to break the bad news that he's going to have to go back on his, "No new taxes," promise from his presidential campaign. As always, this being the opening sketch it builds up to the announcement of, "Live from New York..."
Candice Bergen then officially opened the show with a monolog about her past visits and how she appreciated how SNL was her only outlet perform comedy. She then goes on to joke that she no longer needs the show now that she has Murphy Brown to fulfill her comedy needs, which as you know, the whole being too good for the show is one of my major pet peeves. Fortunately, she doesn't harp too long on about how she doesn't care about being there as she quickly shifts gears to perform a song and dance but her negative tone, joking or not has lowered my expectations.
Toonces the Cat Who Could Drive A Car returned for another installment of one of my favorite repetitive sketches this time Toonces and the family show Candice and her cat home videos from their family vacation which is pretty much just a compilation of car crashes. Candice then informs the family that her cat has also learned to drive which causes Toonces to get super jealous to the point where he chloroforms his new competition and takes his place in disguise to drive everyone off a cliff.
Single Men In Their Thirties And Early Forties was a sketch starring Jon Lovitz's Girl Watch A Go-Go character who has a message for women around his age about how they will have to lower their standards if they don't want to die alone since the dating pool in this age range is so lop side in the ugly man's favor.
We then got a parody of The Tonight Show where Johnny Carson interviews Jay Leno about how weird it is to have Jay fill in when he's gone instead of just airing repeats like they used to. After Jay leaves, Ed and Johnny continue to discuss how weird it is to have a fill-in host before introducing Jan Hooks who plays a ninety-two-year-old tuba player in an attempt to top the weirdness of Jay Leno's visit. Johnny then has to struggle to get her to say more than a word and eventually learns she has no idea how to play the tuba which led Ed to put the old bag in an arm-lock to force her to sing in an effort to save the interview.
The Notting Hillbillies then took to the stage to perform Railroad Worksong.
Once again, Dennis Miller gave us the news. This week, A. Whitney Brown dropped in for another Big Picture segment where this time he discusses racial tension in New York City thanks to the rising heat from global warming. He then went on to share some examples and insights about recent racial incidents within New York.
Wayne's World also returned for another installment where the two basement dwelling cable access hosts reviewed movies before they moved on to interview Candice Bergen who plays Garth's mom, where Wayne did nothing but flirt with his best friends mom and even shared a dream sequence where the two make out while Garth and his father are out of time for the summer.
The Notting Hillbillies then returned to the stage to perform Love You Too Much.
Once Upon A Time was a PBS style show where Dana Carvey played the host who sits in a fancy library and introduced the story of a bored queen from the Victorian era who is desperate to be entertained but is disappointed by even the best of the village's performers. We then meet Slow Ned, the village idiot who has a sheep turd that he is confident will win over the queen. We then went back to the castle where villager after villager fails to impress their ruler until sure enough Slow Ned shows up and the Queen is impressed by the turd.
She Does It All was a sketch where Candice Bergan plays the CEO of a major company but has no idea how to delegate to the point where she does everyone's work from typing up reports to pouring everyone else's coffee. She even goes as far as to wash the building's windows where she also has to save herself from falling to her death.
Finally, Candice Bergen closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

I sad to say that I'm happy for this season but with these three moments being the best of the night, I feel my excitement to move on is justified. First, I loved the Single Men In Their Thirties And Early Forties sketch because these are my people and I found it funny to hear Lovitz advice to women of our age to lower their standards to find love to cope with the dating pools lopped side. Next, I really liked She Does It All because it reminds me of how bad I am when it comes to delegation, only I let more stuff slide rather than do it myself. Finally, I was a fan of this week's Wayne's World because I'm still a fan of these characters and there was a funny dream sequence with the host.