The 1990s, Part II (1995–2000), Seasons 21–25
Barely Alive, It’s Saturday Night!: Can Lorne Michaels Revive SNL Before It’s Too Late?” is the question Tom Shales posed in an article that appeared in the Washington Post on August 20, 1995, a little over a month before the season 21 opener. Shales is generally sympathetic toward Michaels due to the bad press he received during season 20 (1994–1995) coupled with the interference by NBC executives (which Michaels downplays) and pressure to essentially reinvent the show. The article publicly eased some of the tension between Michaels and NBC, and, more specifically, Don Ohlmeyer, president of the network’s West Coast division, who expressed his support and faith in Michaels. At the same time, Ohlmeyer was equally candid in expressing his displeasure over certain SNL cast members who were in a “mad race to make movies” and treating SNL as “a part-time job between theatrics.”
The issue regarding cast members using the show as a springboard for their own film careers was addressed in the revised contract that went into effect with the new cast members for the 1999–2000 season. Previously, they were given a standard five- to six-year contract. According to the New York Observer, the new contract also gives NBC the power to take a cast member off a show after two years and put him/her into a sitcom. While a performer can pass on the first two show offers, he/she must accept the third. The contract for the sitcom can be up to six years. Technically, a performer could be under contract for a total of twelve years (six years on SNL + six years on a sitcom).
The second major change also gives NBC more control of a cast member’s film career. Cast members now have a three-movie option with SNL Films, a production company co-owned by Michaels, Paramount Pictures, and NBC. They will receive a nonnegotiable salary of $75,000 for the first film, $150,000 for the second film, and $300,000 for the third. The network can also pay a star a similar rate to say no to a movie being made by another studio. In the same article, Lorne Michaels didn’t seem to think the contractual changes were significant, describing SNL as still very “talent friendly,” and was optimistic that NBC would not be pulling cast members from his show to star on a sitcom. Still, anyone auditioning for the show for the coming season had to sign the contract, despite the protests of their agents.
Ohlmeyer also assured Shales that Michaels would be devoting less time to producing movies and be more focused on SNL. At the moment, he had two films in production: Black Sheep (1996) starring Chris Farley and David Spade and The Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy. Between 1992 and 1995, Michaels produced a total of six feature films: Tommy Boy (1995), starring Chris Farley and David Spade; Lassie (1994) (yes, that’s right, Lassie), and four comedies based on recurring SNL characters: Wayne’s World (1992), Coneheads (1993), Wayne’s World 2 (1993), and Stuart Saves His Family (1995). The glut of films based on SNL sketches, along with comedies starring SNL cast members, did not go unnoticed by the critics. In April 1995, Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers wrote: “With all the bile being spewed at Saturday Night Live for lowering its comic aim after 20 years on the air, one key act keeps getting lost: The movies featuring SNL cast members are much, much worse.”
To get back to the question posed by the title of Shales’s article, the answer is “yes.” Michaels was able to retool and revive SNL by making some changes and bringing in new writers and cast members. Surprisingly, two popular current cast members—Chris Farley and Adam Sandler—were both fired from the show. Many years later, Adam Sandler appeared on the final week of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to share the story of his exit from SNL and commiserate with O’Brien, a former staff writer on Saturday Night Live, who was recently given his walking papers from NBC along with a $33 million settlement and a $12 million severance package for his staff. Other cast members from season 20 who did not return include Morwenna Banks, Ellen Cleghorne, Chris Elliott, Al Franken, Laura Kightlinger, Michael McKean, Jay Mohr, plus two who left in the middle of the season, Mike Myers and Janeane Garofalo. Several of the new cast members—Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, and Chris Kattan—were Groundlings, while two others—Dave Koechner and Nancy Walls—were from Second City in Chicago. Jim Downey, who had been the show’s head writer since 1986 (season 12) and co-head writer with Fred Wolf for season 20, remained on the show as a staff writer, while Steve Higgins joined Wolf as the show’s new co-head writer. Ginia Bellafante reported in Time magazine that there was a major turnover in the writing staff—twelve out of seventeen writers were newcomers.
In the late 1990s, SNL also faced some late-night competition with the premiere of another sketch comedy show, MADtv (1995–2009), which aired on the Fox Network opposite SNL but started one half hour earlier. MADtv earned respectable ratings and enjoyed a fourteen-year run, yet it never posed a major threat to SNL’s ratings. Fox decided to pull the plug at the end of the 2008–2009 season when the show became too expensive to produce. Another competitor was shock jock Howard Stern, who claimed his new television The Howard Stern Radio Show (1998–2001) on CBS and in some areas on UPN was going to beat SNL in the ratings. Midway through its first season, the New York Times reported that while Stern did manage to attract more male viewers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four in seven or eight big-city markets, ultimately the self-proclaimed “king of all media” did not pose a threat because while SNL was available in 99 percent of homes in the country, Stern could only be seen in 61 percent.
SNL’s ratings did improve steadily between 1995 and 2000. According to the Hollywood Reporter, SNL posted its biggest May sweep audiences in six years, an average of 8.5 million viewers (May, along with November and February, are the most important months for ratings because they determine the rates charged for ads). The season finale on May 20, 2000 (25.20), hosted by Jackie Chan with musical guest Kid Rock, drew 9.4 million viewers.
The improvement in the show’s ratings over time can be attributed to improvement in the writing and a core group of talented cast members who started with the show during season 20, 21, or 22, many of whom remained with the show for five years or more: Will Ferrell (seven seasons), Ana Gasteyer (six seasons), Darrell Hammond (fourteen seasons), Chris Kattan (eight seasons), Cheri Oteri (five seasons), Tracy Morgan (seven seasons), Colin Quinn (five seasons), Molly Shannon (seven seasons), and Tim Meadows (ten seasons), who would leave at the end of the 1999–2000 season. This group, along with Jim Breuer (three seasons) and Norm Macdonald (five seasons), who were both gone after season 23, seemed more like a repertory company than a group of individual performers, much like the cast of the late 1980s (Carvey, Dunn, Hartman, Hooks, Jackson, Lovitz, Miller, Myers, and Nealon). A steady stream of ex-SNL cast members were invited back to host (in season 22 alone, seven out of twenty), plus Five-Timers Club members Alec Baldwin, John Goodman, and Tom Hanks.
One performer who was certainly a catalyst for breathing new life into SNL was Will Ferrell, whose comic persona is that of an immature, oversized kid who hasn’t reached that age yet when he becomes self-conscious and begins to care what others think of him. This is best illustrated by a classic sketch broadcast on the second show after 9/11 (27.2) in which Ferrell walks into a business meeting at work wearing a red, white, and blue speedo and half shirt as an expression of his patriotism.
Ferrell’s success can also be attributed to his creative collaboration with the other performers on the show, especially the women, with whom he played a series of loopy characters: the Spartan Cheerleaders, Arianna (Cheri Oteri) and Craig (Ferrell); hosts of Morning Latte, Tom Wilkins (Ferrell) and Cass Van Rye (Oteri); the Lovers, Virginia (Rachel Dratch) and Roger Klarvin (Ferrell); singing duo Bobbi Mohan-Culp (Ana Gasteyer) and her husband and accompanist, Marty Culp (Ferrell); hosts of Dog Show, Miss Colleen (Molly Shannon) and her husband, David Larry (Will Ferrell).
Another welcome addition to the cast was master impressionist Darrell Hammond, who filled a void left by Phil Hartman with his departure in 1994. For eight seasons, from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, Hartman was the go-to guy for impressions, including President Bill Clinton, from his 1992 election campaign to the middle of his first term. Hammond took over in time for the reelection campaign and played Clinton throughout his second term in office (1996–2000), which included the Starr Report, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and the impeachment hearings.
Memorable Moments, Characters, and Sketches
Mary Katherine Gallagher Auditions (21.4)
Mary Katherine Gallagher, the very nervous Catholic high school girl, made her SNL debut when she auditioned for St. Monica High School’s talent show. She recited a monologue from her favorite made-for-TV movie, A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story (1992), starring Meredith Baxter, and sang “You Ask Me If I Love You.” When she attempts a back flip, she crashes into chairs. But all her stumbling and falling down never stops little Mary Katherine from achieving her goal of being the center of attention.
In later sketches she competes to be Seventeen magazine’s Fresh Face (and wins by default) (21.14), and Clean Teen Deodorant Spokesman (24.7) (she sticks her hands under her arms and smells her fingers when she’s nervous, so there was no contest). When she’s not performing, she is upstaging her classmates in St. Monica High School’s production of West Side Story (21.18) and the St. Monica Christmas Choir’s holiday pageant (22.9). (See more in chapter 23.)
Arianna and Craig Buchanan Do the Perfect Cheer (21.5)
Arianna (Cheri Oteri) and Craig Buchanan (Will Ferrell) are wannabe cheerleaders who didn’t make the East Lake Spartan Spirit cheerleading squad, so they take it upon themselves to attend school functions involving competitions that don’t have cheerleaders.
They cheer at a high school chess tournament (21.11), a math competition (21.18), and ping pong (22.1) and bowling (22.6) tournaments. They are eventually seen cheering off campus at the local Hickory Farms (22.9) and in the maternity ward, where Arianna’s nemesis Alexis (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is giving birth (24.7). Their cheers are off-the-wall, and each sketch ends with “the perfect cheer.”
Oteri told Rolling Stone in a 1997 profile of the current cast why she likes Arianna and Craig: “One thing I like about them is, they’re losers, but they don’t know it. I would feel sorry for them if they knew they were outcasts. They have no clue, thank God.”
Although no one invited them, Spartan cheerleaders Craig (Will Ferrell) and Arianna (Cheri Oteri) lend their support to their school’s bowling team.
NBC/Photofest
Joe Pesci Hosts a Talk Show (21.7)
One of the underrated performers of the late 1980s was comedian Jim Breuer, who unfortunately played third banana to Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond. One of his memorable impressions was of Italian character actor Joe Pesci, who won an Academy Award for playing mobster thug Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas (1990). In his autobiography, I’m Not High, Breuer recalled how he used to make one of the interns at SNL laugh by imitating Pesci. He and staff writer Steve Koren envisioned Pesci as a talk show host who would invite actors, including some of his costars, onto his show. But Pesci acts just like Tommy DeVito. He is easily agitated (he shoots the kid holding the cue cards) and is abusive toward his guests, twisting their words around if they describe Pesci’s characters as “irritating” or a “lunatic.” He orders them offstage or gets violent, even smashing “pretty boy” Brad Pitt’s (David Spade) head in with a baseball bat. In his first appearance (21.7), Pesci welcomes two of his costars: Macaulay Culkin (played by guest host Anthony Edwards) from Home Alone (1990) and Sharon Stone (Nancy Walls), with whom he was currently starring in Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995). In later episodes he welcomes best friend Robert De Niro, played by Alec Baldwin (21.11) and, in a later sketch, by John Goodman (21.15); Frank Sinatra (Phil Hartman) (22.7); and Al Pacino (Kevin Spacey) (22.10). But a major coup for Breuer was to have the real Pesci and De Niro interrupt a sketch and show Breuer and Colin Quinn (as De Niro) how to hit someone with a bat. Equally entertaining is Breuer’s description of his meeting with the real Pesci, who was extremely intimidating as he started to question him about the racial slurs he was using in the sketch, etc. Breuer was apologetic and promised not to do the sketch again. Finally, Pesci said to him, “I’m just playing games with you, Jimmy. Busting your balls, Sheesh.”
March 23, 1996: The Roxbury Guys Go Clubbing (21.16)
The song “What Is Love” by Haddaway blares in the background as two brothers, Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug Butabi (Chris Kattan), in shiny suits stand by the bar thinking they look cool—and totally clueless. For more about the Butabi Brothers, see chapter 23.
Goat Boy Remembers the ’80s (22.1)
As his name suggests, Goat Boy is half boy, half goat—the product of an experiment conducted in a University of Chicago lab and Jim Breuer’s fertile and warped imagination. In his autobiography, I’m Not High, Breuer explained that the character of Goat Boy was a persona he created to get free drinks in a bar. In the middle of ordering a drink, he would start “bleating and rutting like a goat” (in his stand-up, Breuer describes how he was traumatized as a child by the goats at a petting zoo). The bartender figured he had Tourette syndrome and did not charge him. When Breuer mentioned the character to some of the writers at SNL, he was greeted with blank stares. But one writer, Tom Gianas, thought it would be funny if Goat Boy was a singer and pitchman for a CD of hit songs from the 1980s. Goat Boy’s debut (21.19) is in a commercial for a CD in which he bleats and ruts through songs like “Safety Dance,” “Let’s Dance,” and “I Can Dream About You.” In the season 22 opener (22.1), Goat Boy is the host of his own MTV show, Hey, Remember the ’80s, which featured celebrities from that decade like Family Ties’ Tina Yothers (Cheri Oteri) and Wham’s Andrew Ridgeley (Tom Hanks). When he starts braying excessively, scientists standing nearby calm him with electric prods. In addition to his own show, Goat Boy is interviewed by Charlie Rose (Mark McKinney) (22.13) and is reunited with his long-lost brother (David Duchovny) on Oprah (Tim Meadows) (22.20).
Mr. Peepers “Eats” an Apple (22.1)
The missing link between Homo sapiens and the animal kingdom, seventeen-year-old Mr. Peepers (Chris Kattan) has some physical characteristics of a human, but he moves and acts like a baby chimpanzee. He always appears to be in a frenzied state, which becomes even more frantic when he gets nervous or scared. His favorite things are apples, though he doesn’t eat them like a human; instead, he plows through them at rapid speed with his teeth and spits them out.
His SNL debut was with his trainer (Tom Hanks) on a parody of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2009–2014). Mr. Peepers later pops up in a series of parodies: Peepers and Trent (Vince Vaughn) try to get lucky in Vegas in Swingers (1996); Sex and the City’s (1998–2004) Carrie Bradshaw (Jennifer Aniston) picks up Mr. Peepers in a bar; and in an episode of Dawson’s Creek (1998–2003), Joey (Katie Holmes) falls for the new international student from the Amazon, Mr. Peepers. The best of the Peepers sketches involves his reunion with the father, Papa Peepers (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) (25.15)—it’s worth watching if only to see “The Rock” in red overalls sitting on top of a table plowing through an apple.
Marty Culp and Bobbi Mohan-Culp Serenade Us (22.5)
According to a chart of the most frequently seen SNL recurring characters (political impersonators not included), published in vulture.com in November 2011, topping the list for the years 1995–2002 are the married musical duo Marty Culp (Will Ferrell) and Bobbi Mohan-Culp (Ana Gasteyer). The couple made a total of twenty-one appearances (Mary Katherine Gallagher came in second with eighteen appearances, followed by the Spartan Cheerleaders with seventeen). The Culps are music teachers at Altadena Middle School (outside of Los Angeles) who also perform as a musical duo. Their clothes are out of style, and their medley of inappropriate songs tailored for a specific occasion is painfully bad. Bobbi sings every song in the same high-pitched operatic voice along with Marty, who accompanies her on the keyboards. At a Renaissance Faire, they sing “Medieval Woman” (25.20) (a parody of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Evil Woman”) and Sisqó’s “Thong Song.” For a Martin Luther King assembly (26.9), it’s a funk medley that includes Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music,” and DMX’s “Party Up.” Their other gigs include a Gore–Lieberman rally (26.5), O’Hare Airport during a blizzard (24.10), and, in their final appearance, an alternative prom for LGBT youth (37.21), with a medley that includes Adele’s “Rumour Has It,” “Super Gay” (Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass”), Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” and the gay anthem “YMCA” but with the initials “LGBT.”
Music teachers Marty Culp (Will Ferrell) and Bobbi Mohan-Culp (Ana Gasteyer) perform at a lesbian commitment ceremony.
© National Broadcasting Company (NBC)/Photofest
Let’s Play Celebrity Jeopardy! (22.8)
Created by Merv Griffin, Jeopardy! debuted on March 30, 1964, remained on NBC’s daytime schedule through 1975, and was revived again in 1978–1979 (as the All-New Jeopardy!). A nighttime syndicated version aired in 1974–1975. The current syndicated version, hosted by Alex Trebek, debuted in 1984. The Game Show Network ranks Jeopardy! #2 in its list of the 50 Great Game Shows (Match Game is #1).
The first Jeopardy! parody was Jeopardy 1991 (2.5), a futuristic version of the show hosted by Art F-114 (Steve Martin), with the show’s real announcer, Don Pardo, and contestants Danny M-125 (Dan Aykroyd), Laraine A-270 (Laraine Newman), and Lee P-413 (Chevy Chase). The categories include the standard subjects like “Medicine,” “Movies,” and “TV,” along with “Mutant Viruses” and “Nuclear Accidents.” The question and answers are absurd predictions about the future: name of the original Tidy Bowl man who won eight Oscars (Fred Miltonburg—that was his real name); legalized in 1983, it eased population (baby-killing); and with the recent news of Chase’s departure: “Comedian whose career fizzled after leaving NBC’s Saturday Night.” (No one knows the answer or seems to have heard of him.)
The SNL cast kept getting bigger. Top row (left to right): Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, Norm Macdonald, and Colin Quinn. Middle row (left to right): Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan, Molly Shannon, and Tim Meadows. Bottom row (left to right): Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri, and Jim Breuer.
NBC/Photofest © NBC
Twenty years later, Jeopardy! was revived by SNL in a series of sketches that were based on Celebrity Jeopardy!, a special edition of the show in which actors, writers, and television personalities compete to win money for their favorite charity. The concept actually dates back to the 1960s, though the first Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament with host Alex Trebek aired on October 26, 1992, and featured contestants Carol Burnett, Donna Mills, and Regis Philbin (Trebek assured the audience that the celebrities had not been briefed and did not even know the categories). For the record, Burnett won, but $10,000 was awarded to each celebrity’s respective charities. In 2010, former SNL cast member Michael McKean won the Jeopardy Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational Tournament, beating Cheech Marin—and Jane Curtin!
The winnings on SNL’s version of Celebrity Jeopardy! are rarely in the plus column as host Alex Trebek (Will Ferrell), with all the patience he can muster, tries to get through the game despite the stupidity of celebrity guests like Burt Reynolds (also known as Turd Ferguson) (Norm Macdonald) (22.8, 22.19, 23.2, 25.3, 34.22) and the vicious insults hurled at him and his mother by the salty-tongued Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond), who likes to purposely mispronounce the categories (“Famous Titties” instead of “Famous Titles”). Other SNL cast members who impersonated celebrity guests include Jimmy Fallon as Adam Sandler (24.4), French Stewart (25.3), and Hilary Swank (25.17); Amy Poehler as Sharon Osbourne (30.19); and Molly Shannon as Minnie Driver (23.20). Guest hosts have also contributed celebrity impressions of Marlon Brando (John Goodman) (22.19), Michael Keaton (Matthew Perry) (23.2), Jeff Goldblum (David Duchovny) (23.20), Tom Cruise (Ben Stiller) (24.4), Calista Flockhart (24.16), Tobey Maguire (Keanu Reeves) (25.17), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Lucy Liu) (26.8), Anne Heche (Reese Witherspoon) (27.1), and Björk (Winona Ryder) (27.20). The man himself—Alex Trebek—even made a very brief cameo on Will Ferrell’s last show to commiserate with Ferrell’s Trebek over the stupidity of the contestants and to tell Hammond’s Sean Connery, “Back off, Connery, I don’t have to take that from you” (27.20).
Attorney General Janet Reno Hosts a Dance Party (22.10)
Janet Reno was the first female United States Attorney General, serving during President Clinton’s first and second terms (1993–2001). She had a high profile during that time due to a series of events involving the Department of Justice, including the 1993 standoff between the FBI and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; and the Centennial Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Reno’s mannish looks and deep voice made her an easy target for female impersonators, including Will Ferrell, who first appeared as Reno alongside President Clinton (Darrell Hammond) (22.10). In the next episode, Reno hosted her own show, Janet Reno’s Dance Party, from her basement. Like American Bandstand, teenagers danced while Reno welcomed guests like President Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala (Kevin Spacey) (22.11), and New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (23.7). Reno herself proved to America she’s a good sport when she appeared on the final episode (26.10). When Ferrell asks Reno what she does when she’s depressed, she says, “dance!” “It was all her idea to come on the show,” Ferrell told Jeffrey Zaslow in an interview for USA Weekend magazine, “and I was impressed with her. She talked about how important humor is to our political process. She said that when she speaks at schools, the first question she’s asked is, ‘Have you seen the guy who plays you on Saturday Night Live?’ She tells them she loves [being lampooned]; it lets all the tension out of the room.”
Goth Talk: “Stay Out of the Daylight!” (22.17)
Goth culture, which originated in Great Britain within the postpunk music scene of the 1980s, spread to the United States, where its influence could be seen in fashion and youth culture. A stereotypical Goth teenager dresses in black and wears pale white make-up, black mascara and lipstick, and silver jewelry. Goths listen to punk, death rock music, and Gothic rock; read eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Gothic and horror literature, and watch horror movies. Like Wayne’s World, Goth Talk is a public-access television cable show broadcast on Sunshine State Cable Access (Channel 33) in Tampa Bay, Florida (hardly a Goth setting!). Hosted by Azrael Abyss (Chris Kattan) and Circe Nightshade (Molly Shannon), the show is shot in Abyss’s basement, though the dark mood is usually disrupted when Azrael’s older brother, Glenn (Jim Breuer), turns on the light. Azrael, who identifies himself as the “Prince of Sorrow,” welcomes viewers “to the show that explores the moody depths of the Goth lifestyle here in Tampa, Florida.” Their guests are fellow Goths with names like “The Beholder” (Rob Lowe) (22.17), Countess Cobwella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) (23.11), Baroness Blackbroom (Lucy Lawless) (24.3), and Hezabiah of the Dusk (Christina Ricci) (25.7).
Everybody Loves the Mango (23.3)
Another bizarre character from Chris Kattan is Mango, a male exotic dancer who becomes an obsession of everyone who comes in contact with him. His demeanor is effeminate, and he wears tight-fighting fuchsia hot pants and a beret—but he is a heterosexual who dances to support his wife (Molly Shannon) and children. He speaks with a pseudo-Hispanic accent and refers to himself in the third person (“If you start out using Mango, it will only lead to more Mango.”). Everyone who sees Mango—male and female, gay and straight—becomes obsessed with him, including a gang leader (Samuel L. Jackson) (23.10), Garth Brooks (23.14), David Duchovny (23.20), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (24.18), and Ellen DeGeneres (27.9). Like Will Ferrell, Kattan is fearless and will go to extremes to get a laugh.
The Delicious Dish, with Special Guest Pete Schweddy Balls (24.9)
Viewers received an early holiday surprise this season when Margaret Jo McCullin (Ana Gasteyer) and Terry Rialto (Molly Shannon), hosts of the National Public Radio talk show The Delicious Dish, welcome their guest, Pete Schweddy (Alec Baldwin), owner of his own holiday bakery, Season’s Eatings. Pete was on the show to talk about all the delicious treats sold at his bakery. “Well, there are lots of great treats this time of year—Zucchini Bread, Fruitcake,” he explains, “but the thing I most like to bring out this time of year are my Balls.” At this point all semblance of good taste goes out the window as the two hosts and their guest have an innuendo-laden discussion about Schweddy’s Balls. This sketch appears on many “Top 10 SNL Sketches of All Time” lists because of lines like “They’re bigger than I expected” and “I can’t wait to get my mouth around his Balls” delivered in that mellow, conversational NPR-style delivery by Baldwin, Gasteyer, and Shannon.
To honor the sketch’s place in American popular culture, Ben & Jerry’s named a new flavor of ice cream “Schweddy Balls,” which contains fudge-covered rum balls. But apparently not all women are fans of Schweddy Balls. Stephanie Reitz reported in the Huffington Post that supporters and members of the One Million Moms were pressuring Ben & Jerry’s to keep Schweddy Balls away from their children. Monica Cole, director of the organization, didn’t want to call the ice cream manufacturers out publicly because they didn’t want to give them any free publicity. The group also disapproved of another flavor, a variation of “Chubby Hubby” called “Hubby Hubby” to mark the legalization of same-sex marriage in Vermont.
Pete Schweddy returned to The Delicious Dish in spring of 2001 (26.16) to discuss his love of baseball stadium cuisine: popcorn, pretzel bread, and—his weiner.
Betty White (35.21) also joined in the fun when she appeared as Florence Dusty to show off her “Dusty Muffin.”
Good times.
Delicious Dish hosts Margaret Jo McCullin (Ana Gasteyer) and Terry Rialto (Molly Shannon) find Pete Schweddy’s (Alec Baldwin) balls bigger than they expected—and delicious (24.9).
Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet (24.19)
Tracy Morgan played few recurring characters—and his most popular was a guy named Brian Fellow, who hosted a show called Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet. Like Stuart Smalley, who is not a licensed therapist, Brian Fellow is not an accredited zoologist nor holds an advanced degree in the environmental sciences. As the show’s introduction tells us, Brian “is simply an enthusiastic young man with a sixth-grade education and an abiding love for all God’s creatures.” In his autobiography, I Am the New Black, Morgan describes him as a “gay, self-centered, paranoid host of an animal talk show” (emphasis his). He only has a sixth-grade education, so he’s hardly qualified to host a talk show (well, actually . . .). The “gay” aspect of his character is downplayed, though he is certainly a paranoid and a nitwit, thinking a bald-headed cat is going to shave him (28.19) and that seals like to go clubbing (29.7).
Saturday Night Live 25 (9/26/99)
SNL celebrated twenty-five years on the air with a prime-time special that followed the same format as its 15th Anniversary Special. Past and present cast members along with popular hosts like Tom Hanks, Candice Bergen, Paul Simon, and Lily Tomlin introduce clips from past shows. There are musical performances by the Eurythmics, Al Green, and, with an introduction by the Culps (Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer), the Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello (who sing “Radio, Radio”). The evening also includes moving tributes to Gilda Radner, John Belushi, and two additional beloved cast members—Chris Farley (by his friend David Spade), and Phil Hartman (by his castmates who started with him in 1986).
The special won a Primetime Emmy for “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special” and a Writers Guild of America Award.
Nick Burns, Your Company’s Computer Guy: “Move!” (25.6)
In a “20(ish) Questions” interview with Playboy magazine’s Eric Spitznagel, Jimmy Fallon revealed he was a computer science major until his senior year at the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York. His grades were low, so he switched to communications but never finished. He admits that he was pretty close to being like Nick Burns, the nerdy, snide company computer guy who is constantly annoyed at having to fix stupid computer problems caused by stupid people who don’t know how to do simple things like upgrade their software (25.6) or change the font on a spreadsheet (25.20). He has zero patience for the “dimwits” he works for so when he tells them how to do something and they can’t do it, he tells them to “Move!” from their desk so he can sit down at their computer. You need his help, but he is so condescending it’s hard to have him around.
In his final appearance, we learn that Nick is a chip off the old block when his dad (host Billy Bob Thornton) joins him on his rounds and enjoys insulting the employees.
On his way out the door, Nick stops and makes one last sarcastic comment: “Oh, by the way, you’re welcome!”