11-1-03 Host Andy Roddick and musical guest Dave Mathews...Cold Opening - Barbara Walters interviews Martha Stewart - Rachel Dratch, Amy Poehler Amy Poehler actually did a retrained Martha Stewart. I'll give bonus points for not having to see her usual face making. Dratch does an okay Barbara Walters, but I kept thinking she was doing an imitation of Cheri Oteri's impression than actually doing Walters. It wasn't bad though. There was not much to this. I didn't see the actuall interview, so I can't really judge I guess. Grade - C Opening Monologue - Andy Roddick, Finesse Mitchell, John McEnroe, SNL writers, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler SNL writers getting recurring characters? These two are actually funny, maybe they should just be on the show. McEnroe's appearance also livened things up a bit. Finesse Mitchell as Andre 3000 pushing the host right off the stage and taking over during the monologue was funny. Others may not agree, but if the host can't handle the monologue by themselves, I say throw in whatever works. Grade - B Commerical - Cryogenix - Chris Parnell, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Jeff Richards I don't know, but the SNL commercials are wearing thin on me. They just seem to be missing something. In this people want to be frozen in hopes of curing stuff we shouldn't worry so much about, liking receding hairlines and halitosis. I guess the concept was okay, but this was just lacking. Grade - C Morning Radio - Jimmy Fallon, Andy Roddick I liked that this sketch proves radio is the same in every city in the country. The idea of one guy doing all the voices of the so-called morning zoo was kind of clever. I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately I didn't laugh. Him humiliating the guest could have been done better, there were no really funny lines. Grade - C Battle of the Sexes - Andy Roddick, Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson, Finesse Mitchell, Darrell Hammond, John McEnroe 60 year old Billie Jean King challenges 21 year old Andy Roddick to a tennis match and naturally Roddick wins. I'm not sure where the surprise was in that. I kept thinking Billie Jean King would start winning in the final moments or something like that. Again McEnroe livens things up as a commentator on the event. Grade - C The Governess - Rachel Dratch, Andy Roddick, Chris Parnell, Amy Poehler Dratch plays a Mary Poppins like governess that wins over a rebellious 16 year old, played by Roddick. They could have went a little farther with one. Roddick is the defiany teenager, Dratch sings a little and suddenly he decides he likes her? This one didn't do it for me. Grade - D Show Commentary - Chris Parnell, John McEnroe McEnroe again, you would almost think he was hosting. He is actually funnier than Roddick, but I wonder why he is in it so much. From the previous sketch we go right to Parnell and McEnroe giving their thoughts on Roddicks performance thus far. This was funnier than the sketch we just saw. Grade - B Hall & Oates Play Office Party - Will Forte, Fred Armisen, Andy Roddick Armisen did a good Oates, he actually sounded just like him. Forte didn't sound much like Darrell Hall, but Armisen's harmonizing did make this sound a lot like the original version. The singing made this one kind of funny. Grade - B- Mr Williams and Roddick - Kenan Thompson, Andy Roddick The father of Serena and Venus Williams wants to adopt Any Roddick. I didn't find this one funny or interesting. Grade - D Musical Performance - Dave Mathews Grade - N/A Weekend Update with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon - Will Forte, Horatio Sanz The jokes were pretty standard, nothing really jumped out at me. Forte's political candidate Tim Calhoun returns as a presidential hopefull. I'm not a big fan of this character, but I did think the Shetland Midgets line was kind of funny. Horatio Sanz as Rosie O'Donnell was pretty good. I thought we were going to get more singing from Sanz, but Tina Fey cut it off. I'm not sure I got the whole thing with Fallon liking her and Fey not, but it was pretty funny. Grade - C+ Scott Joplin's Tennis Talk - Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers, Andy Roddick I'm surprised this is a recurring character. It's a pretty weird idea to have a time traveling Scott Joplin host a tennis talk show, but so far I haven't found it all that funny. The past, present and future Andre Agassi was an okay idea I guess. Grade - C- Merv the Perv - Chris Parnell, Andy Roddick, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch Looks like Parnell is trying to come up with a recurring character. This one has more potential than that talk show character he did last season when Jeff Gordon hosted. He did get some funny lines in. I actually think this would work better if it was a little more subtle. Like if he didn't announce to everyone that he was a "perv" and just started saying the same lines. I think that would be funnier. Grade - B- Musical Performance - Dave Mathews Grade - N/A Jock Talk - Seth Meyer, Andy Roddick, Jeff Richards, John McEnroe Football players hosting their own show. How many times on SNL are they going to do poeple hosting their own shows? There was Wayne's World (of course), Coffee Talk, Goth Talk, Wake Up Wakefield etc. etc. I don't think this one will become recurring, but who knows. I thought this was too obvious. Just the stereotypical dumb jocks talking about their football game, there really wasn't much to it. Grade - D News Music - Will Forte, Maya Rudolph, Andy Roddick I thought for sure Jock Talk would be the last sketch, but they managed to squeeze this one in. This was basically one joke. The overly dramatic news music keeps playing while the reporters are trying to talk. I'm pretty sure this has been done before. Grade - D Overall this episode was just kind of bland. |
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