'Wasn't That Special' Season Fifteen 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 Fifteen 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: Bruce Willis 

Scot: Mike Myers still featured - what's a guy gotta do? - Dave Wilson is back!

Christian: Soft start to the season punctuated by a great Neil Young set. Almost no Lovitz or Victoria. Jan and Nora stand off to the side of the stage during goodnights.

Scot: There's a Johnny O'Connor sketch removed from re-runs - No Nealon either? (So weird super-talented people just disappear for stretches but now there's a need for a 22-person cast)

George Bush (Dana) back from vacation - "wouldn't be prudent at this juncture." Shows off bag of crack bought in the White House. Third prong for fighting drugs is a "secret prong." Says his sons are killers.

Christian: He's smoking now. Getting better every time.

Scot: The more hesitating nature of Bush's delivery is something new - prescient "bag of crack bought right here at the White House" - "secret prong" - "Bar's lived a full life. Ready to die."

Sprockets - Dana as Jimmy Stewart - reads Stewart's poems, "I feel emotionally obliterated."

Christian: More skewering the ironic love of low culture as if it is high culture. "Jimmy Stewart, you are a running sore, running from yourself, but your scab heals us all" made me laugh harder than anything in the past five seasons. "That poem pulls down my pants and taunts me."

Scot: Ok, this worked better, I admit. The clash of Stewart and Dieter.

The Anal Retentive Carpenter - vacuums as he cuts a board, etc.

Christian: Meh. These are basically the same jokes over and over.

Scot: "I never use my awl, but I need it there to keep the syntax correct." - Throwing out the wood is a complete replication of the food disposal. No surprises.

Wayne's World - first "extreme closeup" - coolest guy in school, Rick (Willis) is guest, unveils the word everyone will be using this year. (Sphincter.) Prank call on Wayne's mom (Nora) who keeps saying "sphincter." They call Jan a slut.

Christian: Pretty middling stuff.

Scot: Wayne & Garth now on same couch - Garth voice pretty much dialed in now - First “Schwing!” though not used in a sexual sense - "What a quisling!"

Bruce Willis - The Man and His Music

Christian: At least he's willing to make fun of his singing "career"

Scot: Here's the original spot - Passable, I thought. Some lyrics were pretty good.

Episode Two: Rick Moranis

Christian: Another dud. Carvey is in one sketch other than Hans and Franz, and he's just an extra. More Carvey erasure.

Scot: Everything feels off. A weird comedown from last season's consistent greatness. Is it too much to ask for a moderately amusing episode hosted by an SCTV alum? - Carvey and Victoria MIA again. Jack Handey is now "creative consultant" with Al Franken.

Moranis as Jackie Mason - first Giuliani mention?

Christian: It's good, but did people in 1989 even know who Jackie Mason was?

Scot: Caddyshack 2 had just come out in '88 - Wait, why is Jackie Mason giving a press conference?

Zsa Zsa Gabor in prison, Leona Helmsley (Nora) stands up for her. "The Big Bitch Bulldyke Bustout of 1989" - they tunnel out of prison and run into Jim Bakker. Join Tammy Faye on a cross-country trip where they rob a convenience store.

Christian: I mean, I guess it's good sketch for the women? Jan's Tammy Faye is good and it's topical.

Scot: Funniest thing in this sketch is Lovitz's order at the convenience store.

VJ, Dunn and Hooks treat Moranis like a little baby at the bar until he chokes.

Christian: Another feature for the women, even if it doesn't pass the Bechdel test.

Episode Three: Kathleen Turner

Monologue - Turner speaks with Victoria's voice.

Christian: Well timed and rehearsed!

Scot: Fun, a good idea!

Plug Away with Harvey Fierstein: Carvey comes on as Travolta - Kathleen Turner tries to seduce him as a challenge, Fierstein then hits on Lee Iacocca

Christian: Toooooooo...looooong.

Scot: OMG, this is 10+ minutes. - Turns out Lovitz isn't perfect after all.

"Egg Man" - Hartman as an egg that Turner has to talk to - her son is a Motley Crue fan, finds the egg and smashes it

Christian: Beastie Boys had a song called "Egg Man" on Paul's Boutique, which came out that same year. Coincidence?

Nealon and Turner on a date - compliment each other by saying how average each other is

Christian: A fine reflection on lowering expectations to find a mate.

Scot: Starts slow but builds momentum then wastes it on a ho-hum ending.

Deborah Norville (Turner) visits Jane Pauley (Hooks), Lovitz as Gene Shalit - tries to steal Pauley's job

Christian: Just "meh" with a pop of fun with Lovitz.

Scot: That extra looks *nothing* like Bryant Gumbel - The following Thursday, Pauley announced she was leaving Today.

Myers is Lank Thompson, Very Handsome Man - Conan O'Brien is a graduate of his very handsome man seminar

Scot: This feels like a Steve Martin bit.

Episode Four: James Woods

Christian: Lovitz all but invisible, Carvey and Myers still doing bit parts. Something had to be going on behind the scenes.

Scot: Carvey had just finished filming Opportunity Knocks (a great film). Was that making things weird? - Decent start here, limping to the finish.

The Tonight Show- Johnny Carson (Dana) interviews Victoria & Nancy Reagan (Jan)

Christian: Victoria got her start on television as a Carson guest, so it makes sense they would have her play herself.

Scot: Dana's Carson is a work in progress but Phil's Ed is fully formed.

Dracula '89

Scot: Good decision to allow the audience to figure out exactly what Dracula is doing - Same flying bat as the Lovitz Dracula mechanic sketch - Not a huge laugher but the kind of sketch that has been missing recently.

Primetime Live - Donaldson (Kevin) & Sawyer (Jan) banter awkwardly, then show "live" coverage of nothing happening, interview Dana as Kirk Cameron as Donaldson grills him

Christian: More Nealon one-note stuff; proving the show is live over and over and over.

Scot: Prescient! The next year Growing Pains does introduce a new kid to spice things up - I do like Sam proving its "live" - Drags a bit.

Falling In Love  - Schiller (Victoria and Jon sing)

Christian: Sure.

Scot: Thankfully, they've not yet had to use this as a tribute piece.

Club owner (Phil) suggests changes to Woods' inane ventriloquist act

Christian: If you think this sketch is good, then YOU'RE THE DUMMY.

Scot: Did Nealon write this?

Three Dudes Holistic Automotive gives a New Age approach to car care

Christian: The anti-Johnny Canal. A 10-to-1 sketch that bombs.