Saturday Night Live's 37th season began on 11:30 PM on Saturday 9/24/2011 as scheduled. One of my favorite actors, the talented, Alec Baldwin hosted for the 16th time, which he stated in his opening monologue, beating Steve Martin's record. After a few short moments, Steve Martin joined Alec on stage to question him on using any drugs to enhance his performance. An expert on drugs was consulted where actor Seth Rogen appeared on stage. Cast members also appeared as Steve's "medical team" to take a urine sample from Alec to test it. Steve stopped the cast and began to sip and recite what he tasted in the urine which resulted in audience laughter. The three actors announced that Radiohead was there to perform.
Overall, it was a pretty engaging monologue, yet I felt that Steve really overshadowed Alec, which was temporary acceptable as Alec was ultimately allowed to shine in other sketches.
Mini review of each sketch: (W - watch it, FF - fast forward it)
1st sketch - political (as always) - poking fun at the GOP debate featuring the 6 candidates running for president - FF
Opening Monologue - W
2nd sketch - Red Flag perfume commercial - FF
3rd sketch - Susan Lucci "All My Children" - W
4th sketch - Costa Rica news delay - FF
Radiohead 1st performance - FF
Weekend update - FF
5th sketch - "Who's on Top?" game show - W
6th sketch - "Top Gun" screen test - W
7th sketch - Home dinner date with annoying daughter - FF
Radiohead 2nd performance - FF
8th and final sketch - TCM "Angels in the Trenches" - W
In summary:
Wins
- Opening Monologue, "All My Children", "Who's on Top?", "Top Gun" and "Angels in the Trenches"
Fails
- Radiohead. I was hoping to be entertained and was disappointed. Song and performance was very vanilla. Maybe they should have went with a band with more showmanship for the premiere.
- News Update surprising disappointed as well. Seth Myers and Alec Baldwin as Tony Bennett did not entertain
- Every sketch mainly featuring Kristen Wiig
- No Digital Short
