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A Saturday Night Reminder Of My Thanksgiving Tradition!!!

Angie Dickenson is another one of these names from that time that I have heard forever and assumed I had a better grasp of her career only to find out that I just knew one or two films from their late life career where they play the mother or father to a character they would have been cast as, if only they were younger.

With Angie Dickenson, I guess I've always known her name because of her connection with The Rat Pack. Granted, I've never seen a single Rat Pack film but I'm sure that I've heard her name at least a few times when older people reference the group. I know for sure that even at a younger age I knew her for more than just that, but going by name alone, this is the first thing that comes to mind.

That said, even back when I was a huge movie fan, I have always been one of those people who knows actors/actresses as "That one guy/girl from that one movie," over strongly tying real world names with the fictional characters they portray. This is how I've managed to have a connection with Angie Dickenson that's been going on for over a decade and a half.

You see, back in 2001 where due to the fact that I wasn't living in my hometown with all of my roommates being locals, I had to come up with holiday traditions of my own while everyone I knew was off spending time with their family. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I woke from a drunken black out with a belly full of Single Man Thanksgiving Dinners and the title screen for the Duets DVD stuck on auto-repeat.

This was so strange to me that I've done it every year ever since. How doesn't this relate to Angie Dickenson you ask? Well, in the movie she plays Gwyneth Paltrow's mom who was knocked up and abandoned by Huey Lewis who returned to town for a funeral of a mutual friend and ends up taking his daughter to compete with him in a nationwide karaoke contest filled with actors who actually sing.

At first, I liked this movie for novel reason but as the years have passed and I've finally slowed down my drinking to where I can make it to the final scene before forgetting in real time what's happening, I've found that I truly love this film and can't wait to watch it again.

As soon as I put two and two together and realized this is where I really know Angie from, I let down my guard and was open to having fun because her opening monolog was rushed and short that I feared this was going to be an unfunny, almost retired actress with an introduction to a slump episode.

That's not to say that I like the episode more after making this connection but as soon as I saw Angie in a more entertaining role and not just on stage talking I found that I was entertained In fact, I didn't even go to her IMDB page to figure this out until we got to the first musical performance where I don't always pay 100% of my attention to what is happening on the screen.

So, now that I've worked out my history with Angie Dickinson, it's time to share what I saw while she was on the screen as I give you...

The Wicker Breakdown:

This week's show started with Gorbachev's Incompetent Translator where they played a real clip of Gorbachev addressing the press with Kevin Nealon adding a crazy translation for the viewers where he seems to be making it up as he goes. In the end, we find out this translator is working for the brand new FOX Broadcasting Network so he tries to clear things up leading to the announcement of, "Live from New York..."
Angie Dickinson then officially opened the show with a monolog about her love of high-risk roles which makes her excited to be the host of this live show. She then discussed her career for a second then quickly threw to the first commercial of the night. Between the content, delivery, and length of this introduction, I'm fearing this might be a slump show.
This was followed by a repeat of the Docu-Fresh ad that promises to, "Fight Constitutional Odor" of old paper. I'm not fully sure if this is actually a repeat or something that was added for re-airings because the sites I reference for sketch lists for the nights disagree as to whether or not this was a part of the original show but I'm keeping it just in case.
The Stewardess was a sketch where Angie Dickinson played the stewardess on a red eye flight who casually wakes up passengers to find out if anyone knows how to fly the plane. Luckily, everyone is so out of it that no one senses the danger, except for Jan Hooks who looks out the window to see something wrong only to get smothered to death in Angie's panicked effort to keep anyone else from catching on. Angie eventually finds a pilot but after talking to him for a bit it's easy to see that he's delusional as he claims to be the captain of the Star Ship Enterprise but he's the only potential hope.
This was followed by a parody of Donahue where this week, Phil Hartman played the white haired host talks to the wives of the two dominating world leaders from the time. Nora Dunn played Mrs. Gorbachev who was apparently very popular with the American public at that time due to the one going peace talks from the time. Jan Hooks played Nancy Reagan who experienced the opposite results and was unpopular with the people her husband ruled. The audience doubling down on this sentiment with nothing but good things to say about the Soviet wife while making Nancy look to be a monster.
Wedgie Fever! was a game show sketch with Phil Hartman as host, Victoria Jackson as a Vanna White style sidekick, and Jon Lovitz as the contestant who gets his underwear hooked up to a giant crane that rises a bit whenever he gets a wrong answer until he is eventually off the ground.
Buster Poindexter then took to the stage to perform Hot Hot Hot.
Once again, Dennis Miller gave us the news. This week, Victoria Jackson then dropped in to review Three Men And A Baby only to focus more on explaining her rating system than actually discussing the film. "Stephen King" also check in via satellite to discuss his prolific career and doesn't even take a break from typing to give a proper interview. A. Whitney Brown then dropped in for another Big Picture segment where he discusses what we do now that the Red Scare is over after out peace talks with the USSR.
This was followed by a sketch that took place at Angie Dickinson's Christmas party where anything that is said by any of the guest's triggers a Traumatic Memory from someone else in the crowd to where even the most mundane attempt at conversation isn't safe without nearing bringing a person to tear.
David Gilmour then took to the stage to perform Ah, Robertson, It's You.
Police Women was a sketch that was a bit of a parody of Cagney and Lacey where the Lacey character moves from New York to LA and has a hard time coping with Angie Dickinson's glamorous approach to policing, with looks and a smile seem more important than using your brains to solve a crime. At one point Angie sends Lacey for undercover work to catch a casting agent who is selling drugs and he finds her average looks so disgusting that he can't believe her undercover role but still gets her on the casting couch which allows her to find the evidence during his post-sex nap.
The Assimilated Jew's Hanukkah was a fake album pitched by Henry Kissinger filled with songs for those Jews who want to keep their faith while implementing Christmas into their lives.
We then went to a bar was Dana Carvey played a passive patron who steps in to save Angie Dickinson from a brute of a man played by Phil Hartman by drinking a fifth of booze in seconds turning him into a superhero named Drunk Man who is too drunk to have any fear to the point where he doesn't even notice when he gets shot.
Finally, Angie Dickinson closed the show by thanking the audience and saying her goodnights.

Just like the last few episodes, I found this viewing to be more entertaining than super funny, it was still good enough to make it super easy for me to find these three favorite moments of the night. First, I loved Wedgie Fever! because even though I'm now legitimately old I still find wedgies to be super funny and this sketch got me to laugh out loud. Next, I really liked the Drunk Man sketch because it reminds me of a movie that I wanted to write about an Avengers-like group made up of a group of super alcoholics. Finally, I was a fan of the Police Women sketch because there is a part where Lovitz gets to offensively offended about Nora Dunn's character's looks I couldn't help but laugh out loud for the second time of the night.