conventions employed in the SNL Episode Guide

Here's a sample episode summary-
*******************************************************************************
97t  David Duchovny / Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page
...............................................................................

cold  Mulder (host) rebuff puts Janet Reno (WIF) in Krycek's (Nicholas Lea) arm
mono: host gets frustrated upon dropping a pick into his boyhood guitar
skit: (host) instructs Craig & Arianna at Paula Abdul [real] Cheerleading Camp
TOON: "A Hard One To Swallow" by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo seeks origins
show: Jeopardy!- Sean Connery (DAH), Minnie Driver (MOS), Jeff Goldblum (host)
song: musical guest performs "Come With Me"
news  Dominican Lou disregards Clinton & complains about rival super Wilfredo
news  unshaven & pantyhoseless Cinder Calhoun says "Unshackle My Legs"
skit: host is enraptured by Mango; cameos by John Goodman, Matt Lauer, Al Roker
show  Oprah (TIM)- Goat Boy is reunited with his brother (host)
COMM: Interbank will do much more than replace your stolen travellers' checks
show: From The Earth To The Area Around The Earth- a ho-hum Shuttle mission
FILM: Golords battle James Cameron & his army of Leonardo DiCaprio clones
MISC: The Lost Deep Thoughts of Jack Handey- on the use of baby traps


Each episode is identified by its...
season
(indicated by the last two digits of the year in which the season began)
|
| place within that season
| (show "a" is the season premiere, show "b" is the next one, then "c" etc.)
| |
| |  host(s) / musical guest(s)
| |  (if they're the same entity, the name of said entity is only listed once)
| |  |
| |  |
v v  v

97t  David Duchovny / Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page
Thus, the twentieth episode of the 1997-1998 season was hosted by David Duchovny, with musical guests Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page.

Each of the episode's segments is allocated a single 80-column line. The first four columns identify the segment type; column 5 indicates whether or not the segment is known to be included in the 60-minute version of the episode; column 6 is blank; columns 7-79 are used to describe the segment.


cold  Mulder (host) rebuff puts Janet Reno (WIF) in Krycek's (Nicholas Lea) arm
This segment is the cold opening. The parentheses are used to indicate actors in the segment (an absence of parentheses implies that the actor was more-or-less being him/herself). Here, Mulder is played by David Duchovny (throughout the Guide, the word host is reserved to identify the person hosting the episode), Krycek is played by Nicholas Lea, and Janet Reno is played by Will Ferrell (castmembers are identified by an all-uppercase three-letter castcode; see the Castmember Timeline for a complete list).
mono: host gets frustrated upon dropping a pick into his boyhood guitar
The colon (:) indicates that this monologue appears in the 60-minute version of the episode. Because host isn't surrounded by parentheses, David Duchovny was more-or-less playing himself. To be included in an episode summary, something "special" has to happen during a monologue (a routine delivered by a stand-up comic host, a bit in which someone besides the host is present, etc.).
skit: (host) instructs Craig & Arianna at Paula Abdul [real] Cheerleading Camp
The identifier [real] in the description of this skit marks a special appearance by Paula Abdul (if neither [real] nor the word cameo is present in a segment description, the actual real person wasn't on the show). Because the parenthetical actor marker is only used for the first appearance of a recurring character, the actors playing Craig & Arianna aren't listed (those characters first appeared in 95e).
TOON: "A Hard One To Swallow" by RBS- The Ambiguously Gay Duo seeks origins
This carTOON was directed by former castmember Rob Smigel (the TOON is capitalized to show that the segment was taped or filmed ahead of time, not performed live).
show: Jeopardy!- Sean Connery (DAH), Minnie Driver (MOS), Jeff Goldblum (host)
When space permits, the segment's title (Jeopardy!) leads its description. To qualify as a show, the segment must be specifically tied to the medium of television. Though this isn't the first instance of Darrell Hammond playing Sean Connery, the parenthetical actor marker is included (by my definition, portrayals of real people or fictional characters from literature / cinema / television / theater generally do not count as recurring characters).
song: musical guest performs "Come With Me"
This song is performed by Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page (musical guest is reserved, just like host is).
news  Dominican Lou disregards Clinton & complains about rival super Wilfredo
news  unshaven & pantyhoseless Cinder Calhoun says "Unshackle My Legs"
The volume of individual items from the news report rules out including them all, so only things like guest editorials and lengthy bits performed by news anchors are included as segments.
skit: host is enraptured by Mango; cameos by John Goodman, Matt Lauer, Al Roker
The presence of the word cameos indicates that John Goodman, Matt Lauer, and Al Roker appeared as themselves.
show  Oprah (TIM)- Goat Boy is reunited with his brother (host)
The absence of a colon after show indicates that this segment isn't included in the 60-minute version of the episode.
COMM: Interbank will do much more than replace your stolen travellers' checks
This COMMercial parody was produced ahead of time, as indicated by the all-uppercase segment type description. Fake commercials sometimes get rerun in subsequent episodes; the indicator {rerun} in a segment description denotes a verbatim repeat of something aired previously.
show: From The Earth To The Area Around The Earth- a ho-hum Shuttle mission
Another show segment.
FILM: Golords battle James Cameron & his army of Leonardo DiCaprio clones
Though not seen in this instance, descriptions of short FILMs often contain the title and director.
MISC: The Lost Deep Thoughts of Jack Handey- on the use of baby traps
Segments that don't fit into any of the other nine categories are labelled as MISCellaneous.
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