Bill recently graced us with his presence on January 9, 1999, to host Saturday Night Live, and we here think it's about damn time. I mean, has anyone seen the cavalcade of hosts for this show in recent years? Okay, let's not rank on the show like everyone else in America. Sure, SNL isn't the same as it was when Bill first debuted on it with FISHHEADS. If fact, I'm a little pissed that they didn't show the video this time around. But life goes on. Now, on with our story.
He
begins his monologue thanking Sissy Spacek to
death, and reminiscing about how he was in the audience in 1977 while she
was hosting the show at the height of
CARRIE's popularity--much to the disgust
of the regular cast. They heckle him, and mistake him for
Bill Pullman, and then proceed to get even with
him by dumping a bucket of pig's blood on him.
They laugh at him, as images of Spacek, Pullman, and flying cows dance in
his head, and a change comes over Bill. Suddenly, with maniacal flicks of
his now blood-drenched head he shuts all the studio doors and turns the firehose
on them.
The skits ranged from "eh" to "kick-ass". There were
only three really kick-ass skits, Titanic, Fedex and Extreme Hunting
with Ted Nugent. First, the "eh" skits. He plays a clerk at the airport
(good makeup btw), an agent in the
Fat
Albert sketch, a starship captian, a news anchor, and the like. Now,
for the kick-ass portrayals.
In the Titanic sketch, old Rose opens up citing all her lines,
and Bill adds his, but as she's about to leave, they ask her about the necklace.
She says it's a whole other story, and they're perfectly willing
to hear it. She begins it in her colorful way, and Bill stops her, saying
he's had all of the
hack
novel romance he can stand and would like some answers. She answers
that she's had it all along, and they proceed to go off on her and beat her
up. This is the coolest scene-one bitch-slaps her and gets her in a
headlock, Bill then pulls her away, puts pressure on her broken rib, and
repeatedly knees her in the stomach. At the end, James Cameron comes
on and does a bit, ending it by lighting a cigar with a hundred dollar
bill.
The next great scene begins by mocking the UPS-FedEx-US
Postal Service comparison commercials. To resolve the conundrum, they
"let the ladies decide," and proceed to start dancing suggestively. The
backdrop changes to a stripclub runway, and they proceed to dance for
the lady judge pulled from the crowd. Now UPS and FedEx dance well,
and USPS are terrible, but she still chooses USPS, much to their disgust.
Now what I don't understand is, why? I mean, I know I promised
to admire him for his mind only, but, oh my! Bill would have me
convinced that he was an exotic dancer. Talk about a difficult scene for
a heterosexual female fan to watch!
The Extreme Hunting scene was cool. Bill played Ted Nugent,
and very well, I might add-gutting mailbags and answering letters about hunting
fantasies. His guest was the artist formerly known as Prince, whom he proceeds
to shoot through the sternum from a distance with a high-powered
bow
and
arrow. Reminds me a bit of
Next of
Kin, where all these southerners execute the mob with bows and arrows
in the cemetery. He then proceeds to announce that next week's guests
will be Hanson. All in all, great sketch.
Oh yeah, and Beck sang something.
Notes:
1 Go to his site, and purchase the 20th anniversary video! And don't forget to check out our Fishheads page!
2Bill
worked on the set of Carrie when he first started
out. When he first began as a set
dresser with Roger Corman (thanks again to his dad), he met a lot of
up-and-comers, the most notable being a young wide-eyed Canadian by the name
of Jim Cameron, but also Sissy Spacek. So when her husband made CARRIE,
naturally she asked him to help out. In fact, you can see a sign in
the backgorund that says Paxton Street--put there purposely by the man himself.
What a character!
Just as a passing mention, if you're ever driving along the California highway, there is a real roadsign for Paxton Street that looks just like this computer generated one. A friend of mine sent me a picture of it--pretty wild. I'm still wondering what possessed him to hang out his car window to take it!
3This is a classic mistake. It happened to both Bills, but especiall around the time of TWISTER, when Bill was finally starting to get some big box office attention. He jokes about it in an interview, and mentions that they've worked together on BRAIN DEAD, which btw, also has his dad in the boardroom scenes! But what bugs me is that Pullman has hosted SNL before Bill. That's just not fair.
Hear
his comments! Requires RealPlayer.
4Not
to be overly-pickly, but they missed somewhat with the blood. If
you watch, you can see him step back to catch the brunt of it. Or maybe
he wasn't standing on his mark. Regardless, it's still evidence of
what Bill will do to get a laugh.
Want to skip the review and go straight to the pictures? Click here.
fans have visited since January 1, 1999.
© 1999-2000
Paxtonfan.com.
All rights reserved.