MISTER. FRED ROGERS
I'm glad to see that I'm far from being the only one who loved Mr. Rogers. It hit me pretty hard (probably harder than most) when he died on February 27. Being from the same area of Pennsylvania, it's a big blow when someone, especially someone as nice as Mr. Rogers, passes away. I met him, no joke, 20 years ago, and he was so kind, that he made other kind people I knew look not so kind. I've run into him and conversed several times between then and now, but despite not actually being the best of friends with him, he was always a friend to me, and I always respected him.
Now that he's gone, the world is a sadder place. Mr. Rogers will forever be considered one of my best friends. If there's anyone that deserves to go to Heaven, it's him.
"Any man's death diminishes me." - John Doone
Goodbye Mr. Rogers. We all love you and you will be missed by everyone.
THE BEST NEWS OF THE WEEK
Rescued POW Jessica Lynch returns home. She (along with her crew) fought for America and probably for Iraqi civilian freedom. She was captured in an ambush, and then rescued on April 1. She was in major pain, but during the raid, when she was rescued, I�m sure she felt a lot better when she knew that she was on her way home. While her rehab will take a very long time, Jessica being back in the United States feels like good news to me, and her family, who held several fundraisers on this story.
NCAA
SYRACUSE!!!!!!!! A team that�s not Pitt won the NCAA tournament! YAY! It was a great tournament; rather the championship game was awesome; the tourney sucked this year because I slipped after doing well with the upsets and what not. But the championship game featured two coaches who have never won the title before. That�s what made this past Monday�s game worth watching.
MY GAME
Someone who's won the game in the past, but not yet this season is the winner of this week's SNL PG. It's "unbelievable." Also, someone's strategic plan actually works, but will work even more when the Cold Opening, LFNY, and WU all don't backfire.
THE SHOW
Ray Romano is the star tonight. If SNL is smart, they would have let him write at least half of the stuff. Ray is funnier than the writers on the show. He also has a 7 year sitcom on the rival CBS, so he probably will not be writing for the show.
And now, the review
SADDAM
I�m going to give this a 75. It was a little above average, but the fact that it was one of those Maya voice-overs and they did this stupid Cold Opening twice resulted in lost points. Otherwise, Horatio's Saddam was predictable; it's probably going to be the last time we'll see it.
75/100
MONOLOGUE
Wow. I forgot who said this, but two monologues in a row? It wasn�t that good of a monologue, but Ray kind of indicated that. �I guess it�s time to do some jokes.� For a second, I thought his TV folks were going to show up again, and then I thought about the possibility of his real folks showing up again about how it�s wrong to be funny in the monologue. Then I remembered that this is 2003 and not 1999, and then I immediately thought of something else, and then I thought about how thankful I was about to become when the monologue ended. Well, at least it beats the �guys worshiping the female hosts� monologues.
70/100 = Original Score Plus 20 for this actually being a (solo) monologue
WHAT�S THE RUSH?
This soon-to-become recurring sketch wasn�t too bad, but what the hell was this doing at the top of the show? On my way out to the bars, I almost passed out seeing this. This reminded me of the sketch from the Lisa Kudrow episode from 1996 (Single And Lovin� It). It also reminded me of Cheri Oteri, which is the only reason as to why this soon-to-become recurring sketch wasn�t too bad.
60/100
GO BACK TO BED, WAKEFIELD!
Why is this on here again? Where was the plot? I hate to say this, but Jimmy Fallon�s presence would have actually saved this sketch! Yeah, we would have to live with the Jimmy/Sanz team and the Maya/Rachel team in one single sketch, but I just don�t see the reason for this being on today. How this made the live show is beyond me.
0/100
AND NOW HERE IS TONIGHT�S VERY SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST!
It�s crap. Crap. Crap. Mega crap. I�ll give it 60 points, because when was the last time the musical guest performance passed up the regular stuff that came before it? I�m not too familiar with Zwan other than the fact that [Spade]I liked them the first time I heard them�when they were called�The Smashing Pumpkins![/Spade] I�ll give it 80 points, because I sat through the show, needed some music, and I don�t know Zwan all that well to judge it all that well.
80/100 = original score plus 75 so that it doesn�t kill the overall rating for this show.
SATURDAY NIGHT NEWS
The jokes really didn�t make me laugh, but at least Jimmy was at his best tonight. That includes no cracking up (I think) after jokes, and a few jabs to the head writer of the show. Apparently, the penis joke was a little foreshadowing toward stuff that would make up for this �lackluster� show. Also, Seth Meyer�s commentary�wasn�t necessary.
67/100
THE RIALTO GRANDE
Normally this is around the part of the review in which I don�t care anymore. However, things were swapped tonight. All the good stuff came too late. Anyway, I like these sketches, and some of the jokes were pretty good. �You left your dentures in my pants! Hold! Hold! Release!� Of course, the female cast members make their 5-second appearances, and Assclown (Mr. Tina Fey) of course was there on the keyboard. But, Fred Armisen�s role is really what makes these things work. Despite that, this is one of Chris Kattan�s likeable characters.
100/100 = (Original Score � 86) * # of letters in tonight�s host�s �Heritage� + 9.
CNN
This is too damn funny to even comment. The role was dead-on, and it�s one of those parodies that focus on the preceding sketch. Welcome back, Darrell.
100/100
CONGRATS! YOU�VE BEEN FRAMED! (PHONE BOOTH)
And that�s just the beginning. Horatio getting shot should have happened long ago. Too bad Jimmy wasn�t in this, but you can only get so many great things. You had to have seen the movie to get this, but I can see how it might not have been hilarious either way. Also, this gets points thanks to Dean�s 10 seconds of episode fame (which is ten seconds more than what Chris Parnell, Jeff Richards and Will Forte managed to put in this week). The sketch ended at the right time, but there are several people who would have taken the hit over humiliating themselves.
93/100
BOO-YAH!
I think everything in today�s show (and then some) would have been made up had Tim Meadows made a cameo in this. Amy in the role was good enough, but a Tim Meadows appearance would have been worthwhile. I�m not sure what he�d do; maybe he�d pull a Steve Martin on Weekend Update and do nothing, but I�ll leave the possibilities to you guys. The bottom line is that the Chet Harper return was predictable; I probably laughed a bit harder this time, but it doesn't beat the Sports Center one.
90/100
MUSIC
It was it was not good. It didn�t suck either, because you don�t hear stuff like this on a daily basis, thanks to the TRL crap that�s more than overplayed.
69/100
CLUB TRAXX
See The Wake Up Wakefield �critique,� but replace some of the words and names. Can you believe that Rachel Dratch was the one who saved this sketch?!
80/100 = Original score * 2 because I�m almost done with the review
SADDAM�S SUCCESSOR
I think Fred is a good SNL player, and hopefully he won�t end up like Jerry Minor because the old castmember won�t die. But this sucked. I�d rather buy a Goat Girl CD and put it on Shuffle and Repeat than to see this again.
50/100
AVERAGE 71.85
The show was watchable. I probably would have reviewed it better had I been more attentive (and sober). I also must still be feeling the effects of last week�s hated spring forward time. I�ll probably touch it up when it airs again in the summer, or sooner than that. Based on the score, it was the best of shows, but I liked some of the stuff on the show. Anyway�when this makes it into SYN, the following will be cut:
PHONE BOOTH
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
RIO GRANDE
CNN
See you next time.
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