'SNL' Seth MacFarlane's Best and Worst Sketches (VIDEO) Recap

"Saturday Night Live" chose Seth MacFarlane to kick off the 38th season of the late night sketch show, and with good reason: the show needed someone with some charm and comedy chops to distract from the fact that both Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg are gone. So, why not choose the creator of "Family Guy" and the summer hit "Ted?"

The Opening Monologue

MacFarlane's opening monologue was bound to include a couple of things: voices from "Family Guy," and some singing. Sure enough, MacFarlane launched into a conversation between himself, Peter Griffin, Stewie and Quagmire, and then followed it up with a song featuring a whole bunch of impressions, including everyone from Woody Allen to Marty McFly.

Were the laughs cheap? Yes. But they were pretty big too, so you can't complain too much.

Weekend Update: Honey Boo Boo

The Best Host Sketches

MacFarlane had a few hits last night, but none were better than his impression of Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte. Lochte is a talented athlete, but not always the best or brightest speaker, and MacFarlane played it perfectly in this "Weekend Update" segment where he reviews upcoming TV shows. I just about lost it when he asks for juice.

Though it was a short one, MacFarlane's last sketch of the night was also pretty great, as he and new cast member Tim Robinson played Amish salesmen promoting their wooden spoons. The real joke, though, was in MacFarlane's reading of all the letters of the very long website URL, including "owl eyes" (that's two O's), "three-fingered hand" (that's an E) and "the river done took my son" (an S). It only gets more giggle-worthy as it goes.

The Best Non-Host Sketches

The cold open featured our new lineup of political impressionists, as Jay Pharoah took over for Fred Armisen as President Obama, Jason Sudeikis continued as Mitt Romney, and Taran Killam took on the duty of playing Romney running mate Paul Ryan. Pharoah had some good moments as an overconfident and pandering Obama, while Sudeikis' faux-pas-prone Romney was hilarious.

You didn't think that "SNL" would hesistate to mock Clint Eastwood for his chair bit at the RNC, did you? They took the route of an ad for Eastwood's touring show "Eastwood and Chair," showing clips of further bits from Eastwood's stage show with the empty chair. Some of the jokes about other invisible politicians were too easy (another Chris Christie fat joke?), but Eastwood singing "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" with the chair was terrific.