Classic SNL Review: February 21, 1987: Willie Nelson (S12E12)

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RATINGS SYSTEM:
***** - Classic
**** - Great
*** - Good/Average
** - Meh
* - Awful

OPENING: AFTERLIFE STYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS

  • Robin Leach (Dana Carvey) enters the Pearly Gates to visit Liberace (Phil Hartman).

  • The second cold opening in a row to feature Phil Hartman as Liberace in Heaven, but fortunately much more substantial than last week’s. A lot of this is because of the debut of Dana Carvey’s deliberately annoying Robin Leach; similar to his later take on George Bush, Carvey gets a lot of mileage out of exaggeration, and there are a lot of good knocks at just how annoying he really is.

  • Anytime Jon Lovitz shows up as Mephistopheles in that cheap devil costume is always good for a laugh, and the audience got a kick out of Leach being escorted to Hell.

  • Rerun alterations: None

*** 1/2

MONTAGE

  • The opening theme now has a prominent synthesizer riff that would be there for the next few seasons.

  • Danny DeVito is credited as a special guest tonight.

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “NIGHTLIFE”

  • Willie Nelson enters from the side door with his band The Family already on stage, and after a brief introduction from Nelson, they go straight into a fantastic performance of his melancholy 1960 song.

  • The SNL Band (with Tony Garnier filling in on bass again) plays in the alley set beside home base throughout tonight’s show.

  • Rerun alterations: Applause mixed out during the song’s conclusion so that it begins after they stop playing.

COMMERCIAL: GENERAL DYNAMICS (repeat of 10/11/86)

MISCELLANEOUS: GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH I

  • Party girl Audra Foley (Jan Hooks) flirts with a customer (Phil Hartman) at the diner.

  • A short bit, helped greatly by Hooks and Hartman’s spot-on characterizations.

  • I like the detail of Hooks’ wig being of a bad dye job with the roots showing.

  • Written by A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: This is shown as the second installment in the rerun, and the opening sequence is replaced with the shorter one. A brief second is cut at the beginning of the scene.

***

SKETCH: POLICE WIRE

  • A sting to catch a mob boss (Dana Carvey) exposes more skeletons in informant Angelo’s (Danny DeVito) closet than tax crimes.

  • A fairly straightforward premise, but there are some good laughs from DeVito’s increasingly uncomfortable reactions to the other mobsters (particularly when the Don brings up a particularly brutal murder of a policeman).

  • It does feel like the ending’s a little abrupt, but that’s preferable to stretching it out further.

  • Rerun alterations: None

*** 1/2

MISCELLANEOUS: GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH II

  • Thanks to dating a welfare mother with 7 kids, Clinton Johnson (Kevin Nealon) has it made.

  • Another short bit; a few more jokes in this one, as well as the Trans Am being a recurring element in this show’s runner.

  • Written by A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: Shown as third installment in reruns. “These Things” from 11/15/86 added over band shot.

***

SHOW: CHURCH CHAT

  • Danny DeVito, Ann Landers (Nora Dunn) and Willie Nelson visit the Church Lady (Dana Carvey).

  • If the last edition with Walter Payton and Joe Montana was the sketch coming into its own, this is one that really solidifies it. Not only are Danny DeVito and Willie Nelson clearly having fun here, but this is also the first edition that adds an echo effect to the “Could it be…SATAN?” catchphrase.

  • DeVito and Carvey have some fun back-and-forth in this installment, and I enjoyed the superior dance-off between the two.

  • Nora Dunn’s Ann Landers makes a return here, and has some really funny lines, particularly “Isn’t it silly to have plastic covers for your furniture and not your children?”.

  • The Willie Nelson segment was very sweet, with Nelson giving the Church Lady a present (which she excitedly opens) of a red cowboy hat and duetting with her on “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”.

  • Written by Dana Carvey, and Rosie Shuster.

  • Rerun alterations: None.

****

WEEKEND UPDATE

  • Best jokes: Bud McFarlane, feline AIDS, condom stocks, Oral Roberts

  • Opening music: “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors

  • Strong night for Dennis Miller, who also gets some fun bits like him pretending to be the Pope addressing his would-be assassin wrestling-style.

  • Victoria Jackson reviews the miniseries Amerika and shows off her gymnastics training by doing a handstand on the news desk, revealing stars-and-stripes underwear (which Dennis Miller salutes). This bit feels like the point where the show really starts to figure out how to use Jackson.

  • A. Whitney Brown returns for the second week in a row, this time putting glasnost in the Soviet Union and China’s population hitting one billion into The Big Picture. A stronger outing overall than last week’s.

  • Rerun alterations: Minimal audience sweetening.

*** 1/2

SKETCH: REDNECK TANNING PARLOR

  • Southern folk in the modern world still have red necks and arms thanks to Randy Galloway (Willie Nelson).

  • This was pretty slight, but there were some good sight gags here, and the characterizations give this a pretty lived-in feel to it.

  • Rerun alterations: None.

***

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “PARTNERS AFTER ALL”

  • A tender ballad from Nelson’s then-recent album Partners, featuring some nice piano playing from sister Bobbie Nelson, as well as a guitar solo from Grady Tate.

  • Who’s playing drums instead of Paul English (who's still onstage and joins in on the cymbals at the end)?

  • Rerun alterations: Slight remixing.

MISCELLANEOUS: GREAT MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH III

  • Carl’s (Danny DeVito) newest wife (Nora Dunn) is also his first cousin.

  • This one was the funniest of the three; particularly with the payoff about the Trans-Am. Unfortunately, there’s an error in the live show which botches the reveal of the two being first cousins (the graphic doesn’t come up).

  • Written by A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: Shown first in reruns, with longer introduction. A few seconds trimmed from the beginning of the scene. The last part of the scene and Willie Nelson’s outro is replaced with the dress rehearsal take.

*** 1/2

SKETCH: BAR

  • Tommy Flanagan (Jon Lovitz) tries to impress Willie Nelson at a bar.

  • Like the last installment, this one features Tommy at a bar with the host; this one’s a bit stronger, though, and has a nice callback to Church Chat, an easy rapport between Lovitz and Nelson, and a few more good lines than usual.

  • Written by Jon Lovitz and A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: Background music added to sketch.

*** 1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “THE BOYFRIEND SONG”

  • This charming duet with Willie Nelson and Victoria Jackson is also her best showcase on the show to date; it’s so loose and relaxed, and seems to capture her personality a little better than the more heavily scripted bits.

  • Nice touch with another mention of Church Chat at the beginning

  • There are some funny parts when Willie Nelson does his verse, as he seems to have a little trouble with his words and his cues, out of which Jackson gets a few extra laughs.

  • Written by Victoria Jackson and A. Whitney Brown.

  • Rerun alterations: None.

*** 1/2

SKETCH: TRUCK STOP CAFE

  • Waitress Anita (Jan Hooks) tells trucker Eddie Frank’s (Willie Nelson) his romantic overtures aren’t going to work on her again.

  • This semi-dramatic slice-of-life piece is definitely the highlight of tonight’s show. A lot of the credit belongs to Jan Hooks, who shows just how good of a character actress she was on the show, but the script was also very strong, punctuated with some very funny yet grounded lines.

  • It’s fitting that the Patsy Cline song Eddie Frank uses to break Anita’s resistance is “Crazy”, penned by Willie Nelson himself.

  • Written by Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner.

  • Rerun alterations: Audio fixed on Jan Hooks’s first line.

**** 1/2

MUSICAL PERFORMANCE: “BLUE EYES CRYING IN THE RAIN”

  • Nelson gets some recognition applause after he sings the first line of the Fred Rose song that gave him his first number one hit as a singer.

  • Nelson and the Family also performed this cut from the Red Headed Stranger album when they appeared on SNL in December 1977; this also ties into the movie based on the album that Nelson was promoting tonight.

  • Rerun alterations: Remixed; more reverb added, other guitars mixed louder in rerun.

GOODNIGHTS

  • Nelson and DeVito are both a little slow to realize that the show is back from break. Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson embrace, and the kid from Redneck Tanning Parlor is on stage.

  • Bonnie and Terry Turner are credited as guest writers.

  • The “old pardner”, Don Pardo, announces next weeks show with Valerie Bertinelli and Robert Cray before saying that he “better be moseying along.”

  • Rerun alterations: Don Pardo voiceover and audience noise mixed out.

Final thoughts: A relaxed but strong show overall. Willie Nelson mostly stuck to playing himself when he wasn’t singing, but gave the cast a lot of room to shine, while Danny DeVito’s presence also elevated tonight’s episode. It was a good night for the women as well, particularly for Jan Hooks, who gives one of her best performances in Truck Stop Cafe, and Victoria Jackson, who gets two good showcases tonight. As well, tonight’s show is an important one, as Bonnie and Terry Turner make their first contributions; the two would become important writers in this new era of SNL.

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Truck Stop Cafe

  • Church Chat

  • The Boyfriend Song

  • Police Wire

  • Weekend Update

  • Afterlife Styles of the Rich and Famous

  • Bar

  • Great Moments in the History of White Trash III

SHOW LOWLIGHTS:

  • None

MVP:

  • Jan Hooks

CAST & GUEST BREAKDOWN:

cast

  • Dana Carvey: 3 appearances [Afterlife Styles of the Rich and Famous, Police Wire, Church Chat]

  • Nora Dunn: 3 appearances [Church Chat, Redneck Tanning Parlor, Great Moments in the History of White Trash III]

  • Phil Hartman: 5 appearances [Afterlife Styles of the Rich and Famous, Great Moments in the History of White Trash I, Police Wire, Redneck Tanning Parlor, Bar]; 1 voiceover [Church Chat]

  • Jan Hooks: 3 appearances [Great Moments in the History of White Trash I, Redneck Tanning Parlor, Truck Stop Cafe]

  • Victoria Jackson: 3 appearances [Weekend Update, Redneck Tanning Parlor, “The Boyfriend Song”]

  • Jon Lovitz: 4 appearances [Afterlife Styles of the Rich and Famous, Police Wire, Redneck Tanning Parlor, Bar]

  • Dennis Miller: 1 appearance [Weekend Update]

featured players

  • A. Whitney Brown: 3 appearances [Police Wire, Great Moments in the History of White Trash II, Weekend Update]

  • Kevin Nealon: 3 appearances [Police Wire, Great Moments in the History of White Trash II, Redneck Tanning Parlor]

unbilled crew, extras, and bit players

  • Don Pardo: 4 voiceovers [Great Moments in the History of White Trash I, Great Moments in the History of White Trash II, Weekend Update, Great Moments in the History of White Trash III]

guests

  • Willie Nelson: 11 appearances [“Nightlife”, Great Moments in the History of White Trash I, Great Moments in the History of White Trash II, Church Chat, Redneck Tanning Parlor, “Partners After All”, Great Moments in the History of White Trash III, Bar, “The Boyfriend Song”, Truck Stop Cafe, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”]

  • Danny DeVito: 3 appearances [Police Wire, Church Chat, Great Moments in the History of White Trash III]

  • Family: 3 appearances [“Nightlife”, “Partners After All”, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”]

REBROADCAST HISTORY:

  • June 20, 1987

  • September 5, 1987

Known alterations:

  • Audio sweetening:

    • Minimal: Weekend Update

  • Edits: Great Moments in the History of White Trash I and III.

  • Dress Substitutions: Great Moments in the History of White Trash III (partial).

  • These Things (from 11/15/86) added.

Additional screen captures from this episode are available here.