Kristen Wiig - Lawrence Welk show with Melissa McCarthy (SNL Dooneese)

SNL starts out with a bang as Kristen Wiig gives us her most popular character that isn't potentially too annoying, Doonees on the Lawrence Welk Show.

Cold Opening - The Lawrence Welk Show

Melissa McCarthy ... Cousin Gert
Fred Armisen ... Lawrence Welk
Vanessa Bayer ... Toni
Abby Elliott ... Shirley
Steve Higgins ... announcer (voice)
Taran Killam ... Eugene Dooalotts
Nasim Pedrad ... Nancy
Kristen Wiig ... Dooneese

To celebrate the dawn of autumn, Lawrence welcomes Eugene Dooalotts and the talented Maharelle sisters to sing a song.



This episode is slightly different because often the host is the male singer. Taran Killam doesn't fight her off as much as usual because the focus is more on Melissa McCarthy's new Gert character who's apparently a strong beaver woman. =^)

Kristen has been Dooneese 6 times now (the first time was 10/4/08). Here's how often they've played...
08-09 season - 2 times
09-10 season - 2 times
10-11 season - 1 time
11-12 season - 1 time (so far)


Often the sisters get rotated. Despite a rotating female cast, Kristen's character is the glue that has held this skit together. Here's the tally:
Kristen Wiig as Dooneese - 6
Fred Armisen as Lawrence Welk (the only impression) - 6
Abby Elliott as Shirley - 3
Nasim Pedrad as Nancy - 3
Vanessa Bayer as Toni - 2
Casey Wilson as Nora - 2
Amy Poehler as Holly & then Janice - 2
Betty White as Mother - 1
Ann Hathaway as Janice - 1
Ana Gasteyer as Clara - 1
Maya Rudolph as Peggy - 1
Jenny Slate as Rhonda - 1
And then Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, and Tina Fey have appeared as Jugglettes.

They're beginning to run out of names for the sisters. =^)

Technically Anne Hathaway played the sister Janice on 10/04/08 (and Amy Poehler played Holly that episode), but on 5/8/10 Amy Poehler played Janice. So it could be that the sister Janice is the only character played by two different people. Or perhaps they ran out of names. =^)

Interestingly, they had the normal sisters take a break on the 5/8/10 episode with Betty White in order to feature all the legendary SNL ladies they had on hand in the skit... Amy, Tina, Ana, Molly, Maya, and Rachel (not sure why Amy didn't play Holly again).

It's early to tell for sure, but I'm going to toss in my hat that Melissa McCarthy will get an Emmy nomination for hosting this show. I think she nailed a solid show, showed some great characters, showed some stellar comedy chops, and is coming off an Emmy win this year (2011) for her show, Mike & Molly. What do you think?

I might update this opinion later as I go back and review more of this week's episode.

Enjoy!