'Wasn't That Special' Season 25 Bonus Materials
As the Wasn’t That Special co-hosts watch each season of Saturday Night Live, they compare notes on each episode, chatting back and forth about both popular and long-forgotten sketches. Some of the topics they discuss make it to the final podcast; others are left on the cutting-room floor.
But for those of you who join at the Executive Producer level, you will have access to Christian and Scot’s behind-the-scenes notes, as well as bonus materials the co-hosts used to prepare for the episode.
Below is the Season Twenty-Five bonus notes section, with the clips coming next week.
So please help keep the podcast advertisement-free and upgrade to the Executive Producer level, which will keep these emails coming in the future!
Episode One: Jerry Seinfeld (Ep. Grade: 2.58 out of 5)
Christian: Picked up right where last season ended.
Scot: Huge drop in quality from the last Seinfeld-hosted episode.
Pat Buchanan (Parnell) & Donald Trump (Hammond) vie to be Reform Party candidate; Ventura (Ferrell) crashes meeting
Christian: Prescient right off the bat, with Trump as a presidential candidate. (Granted, he DID run, so they were just describing what was happening.) Buchanan calls him "a cheap hustler with barroom morals."
Scot: Some real second-rate impressions here. Oteri's Perot pales in comparison to Carvey. Parnell's Buchanan isn't even as good as Koechner's. Hammond's Trump is a work in progress. Is he a mobster?
Dillon/Edwards Investments - commercial
Christian: Ashamed at how hard I laughed when it took the turn.
Scot: clownpenis.fart is the web address. I'm somewhat scared to go there now. Just a single joke.
Action 8 News Watch - anchors Seinfeld & Gasteyer tease important stories
Christian: Goes on way too long. Could have gotten out of it by having one of them say one of the anchors of this show had contracted a deadly disease and they would report who it was later.
Scot: One decent idea driven into the ground. No escalation at all. - Nearly predicts the Takata airbag recalls.
Complaint Line - Ferrell calls 1-800-EAT-SHIT to report a bad driver
Christian: I have an affinity for sketches that creatively get around swearing.
Interrogation - Ferrell alternately beats (Seinfeld) & then nurses him back to health
Christian: The first real Sanz/Fallon laughing break.
Scot: Another Patch Adams joke - Jerry breaks in the middle of the "Alive! Dead!" stuff.
Episode Two: Heather Graham (2.45)
Christian: Graham was good, but it didn't translate into a better-than-average episode.
Scot: Weekend Update produced by Robert Carlock.
Moderate candidate - Hammond's Al Gore debuts - Ferrell as W - setting up head-to-head - moderate (Sanz) is born from DNA of the two of them
Christian: Always weird watching them try to get a handle on the candidates before their personas are fully formed.
Scot: Bush and Gore are the same! - Feels like a McKay (the liberal candidate is not left enough, just GOP-lite).
Monologue - Meadows, Ferrell, Parnell concoct ruses in order to expose themselves to Graham
Christian: Milwaukee's own Heather Graham. The first dick-in-a-box joke!
Scot: No one can think of anything else to do with an attractive host? - OK, lazy, but executed well.
The Ladies Man - Leon & Rollergirl (Graham) review four porno movies
Christian: The upward trajectory on these has ended - kind of treading water, but still very good.
Scot: First two sketches on each of the first two shows are recurring - No one cheers for Leon?? - Gene Siskel had died earlier in 1999.
Dog Show - Hosts leads a seance to summon Mr. Rocky Balboa’s dead mother
Christian: Out of steam, using the same jokes.
Scot: Molly’s only appearance of the night. She's also filming the live-action Grinch movie with Jim Carrey.
Episode Three: Norm Macdonald (3.04)
Christian: Andy Breckman had a sketch this episode. Did Kattan boycott? No Morgan (save for a cameo) and no Sanz. Gasteyer was thin before, but now seems emaciated.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia - Martha Stewart (Gasteyer) enjoys being rich after her company's IPO
Christian: Prescient having Martha Stewart on to talk stock advice, given what she went to prison for.
Scot: Nice change of pace with this one
Celebrity Jeopardy - French Stewart (Fallon), Burt Reynolds, Sean Connery (Hammond)
Christian: The tentpole Jeopardy sketch.
Scot: Please refrain from using ethic slurs - Turd Ferguson - Suck it Trebek - In many ways, THE Jeopardy sketch.
Crosstalk - the sexiness of unhealthily-thin women is championed
Christian: Rachel Dratch's first appearance, as Calista Flockhart.
Scot: Parnell doesn't quite nail Gregory, but he is so good at being the center of sketches like this one.
Larry King's News and Views - Part One
Christian: More Norm staring down middling jokes. By this time, he had to know this was a criticism of his style.
McMullins House - dentist (Norm) & wife (Oteri) fight on Halloween
Christian: Oteri is yelling. More contrast - people having adult fight while dressed as tooth and brush.
Scot: Pretty one-note and this insults usually would bother me more, but Norm pulls it off.
Newly-single Michael Jackson (Meadows) & Howard Stern (Fallon) at bar
Christian: Uncharacteristic of Meadows to blow a couple of lines.
Scot: Believe Stern's divorce was public just that morning.
Episode Four: Dylan McDermott (2.31)
Christian: Felt light on Will. A dud right after the best episode of the season so far.
Scot: McDermott was a pretty good host but the material was not there to support him.
The Practice - Bobby (McDermott) kisses his law partners & Ally McBeal (Dratch)
Christian: Dratch is now 2-for-2 in appearances playing Calista Flockhart. Got big laughs both times, which is weird given no one knows who she is.
Scot: I have no idea who 80% of those people are supposed to be - the show essentially is a Who Wants to be a Millionaire creation. When it wasn't following that show, no one watched.
McDermott humors former co-star Sanz's desire to play Santa Claus
Christian: Sanz has a constant expression like he can't believe he's on the show, which is kind of fun.
Scot: It's fine.
Gumbel's Office - Bryant Gumbel (Meadows) & Katie Couric (Oteri) fight, Matt Lauer (McDermott) is pained
Scot: "Bring it on, Oreo"? Whoa. - People cared a lot more about the morning TV wars back then.
Mango - after Mango gets shot in the butt, cop (McDermott) goes undercover as him
Christian: A shot at Norm! Also, the go-to move after a few recurring character appearances is to have a second one - like when they made more Mr. Peeperses.
Lotto Pick 4 Hospital -- lottery numbers are revealed during medical drama
Christian: Much better premise than execution.
Scot: Interesting idea. Echoes of that sketch that combined soap operas and the news.
Episode Five: Garth Brooks (2.73)
Scot: Molly still isn't doing much but Ana is everywhere.
Special NBC report on shooting at NRA convention
Christian: The only person who wrote this thinking it is funny believes the NRA is pro-mass shooting. Wouldn't all those guns in the HQ help prevent something like that from happening? Is it even worth taking this seriously?
Scot: It's bad. I watched this three times to try to get a handle on it. In the end, I think they had "Let's get the NRA!" as a theme and just went for it, without thinking about how or why or if it would be funny.
Mango interrupts monologue - Mango likes Chris Gaines
Christian: We really needed social media in 1999 to just crush Garth Brooks for his stupid ass Chris Gaines idea.
The Smurfs - live-action miniseries commercial
Christian: Prescient - there was a Smurfs CGI movie at some point after this.
Scot: Seems like the make-up and production on this had to be extensive.
Boston Teens - Hickory Farms job quest
Christian: Dratch and Amy Poehler used to work at the same Massachusetts ice cream place, Chadwick's (although at different times.)
Scot: I didn't mind this!
Express Flowers - Guy (Garth) can't figure out what message to write on flower card
Christian: See, more of this from Oteri!
Scot: Really good concept, actually. Everyone does a good job.
Garth will sell his soul for a hit song, but Lucifer (Ferrell) can’t deliver
Christian: Very best example of the "bad guy is a cool guy" formula.
Scot: Fully written and developed. Will makes the words funnier than they are. And a fantastic finish.
WXLU - ruinous newscast intro sequence devised by (Ferrell) has a kids show motif
Scot: Admit I guffawed at Tim telling everyone to simmer down as the first line - Feels like a McKay? Another Anchorman preview of sorts.
Christian: You stole literally everything I was thinking while watching this.