‘Saturday Night Live’ review: Alec Baldwin, Larry David, Tina Fey cameo in Tracy Morgan show (video)

“Saturday Night Live” aired an episode tonight featuring Tracy Morgan, or at least they did eventually. For some reason, there was a delay on the start of the show on NBC. We understand that there is plenty of hype around this episode, and thanks to that, there were probably plenty of people who were willing to wait until the cows came home for this.

Thankfully, the first sketch of the night made the wait worth it. Not only did you have a cameo from Tracy’s former “30 Rock” co-star Alec Baldwin pretending to be Democratic Presidential candidate Jim Webb, and then also Larry David appearing as Bernie Sanders. We’re not entirely sure David was doing an impression other than Larry David, but it’s still hysterical. This was one of the best cold opens in years just thanks to Larry alone. Alec was great, even if he did only have limited air time.

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Tracy Morgan monologue – We’re not going to say that this was necessarily a hilarious opening to the show, but it was a lovely “30 Rock” tribute and a nice reunion of most of the show’s primary cast. In addition to Baldwin, we also had Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, and Jack McBrayer all show up as their characters. A nice little nod to how many people are there for him and continue to be.

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Family Feud – This was a ridiculous premise: A real “Family Feud” taking place during an episode of the show. This was really silly but stuffed with a few good moments. The big highlights? Leslie Jones getting angry at Tracy’s character, and then also Kenan Thompson as Steve Harvey again.

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Brian Fellow returns – We don’t think necessarily that this anywhere near as good as some of the original sketches, but it was still really funny and a nice dose of “SNL” nostalgia. This is probably Tracy’s most iconic character, so seeing him again with a given.

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Fake Cocaine – The best thing about this commercial was that it was silly, over quickly, and then, we moved on to something else. The premise is simple: Fake cocaine to hide bowel movements at parties.

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Weekend Update – Really funny jokes, and the entire bit from Fey was pretty brilliant. Sure, we know some out there would’ve loved Amy Poehler as well, but we’re not going to beg for cameos thanks to how many we’ve already gotten over the course of this show. We admit that we enjoy Willie more than others, even if it was clear that Kenan was struggling to even get through one of his jokes as the character about the pumpkin.

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Sing-song sketch – This was one of the first times tonight we really started to think that Tracy struggled a little with his delivery and with his timing. It was vintage Morgan for the most part with some of the gross-out humor, but for one reason or another, the big payoff (one of the townspeople revealing a secret relationship) felt more awkward than funny.

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Dancing with Tracy – Apparently, Morgan’s character wants to do nothing other than dance. This was a cute little premise, heightened mostly by Taran Killam going along with it.

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Where’s Jackie Chan? – This sketch was completely and utterly silly. Therefore, we liked it more than we should have. We give most of the credit here to Jay Pharoah for his nutty impersonation of Chris Tucker near the very end. Random, but worthy of a laugh or two.

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Astronaut Jones – Hey, it’s another recurring Tracy character. We didn’t think that we would get this one! Very funny, and a lovely way to implement Demi in a sketch as well.

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Overall, this was a very funny show. We do think that it had some bumps in the road, but it was delightfully nostalgic and a lovely tribute to Tracy’s work. Grade: A-.

Want to get some other highlights from this season of “Saturday Night Live”? If you head over here, you can read our review and watch videos from last week! Also, you can sign up here to get some further TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)