Sunday night, actor Jon Hamm delivered another expected performance of excellence in the second-season finale of AMC's Mad Men. But the night before, as guest host of NBC's Saturday Night Live, his excellence as a comic actor was much more of a surprise. And a delightful one.

SNL has been driven to dizzyingly high viewership levels this fall because of its razor-sharp opening skits, keyed to presidential campaign politics and featuring both wicked caricatures and knowing satirical jabs. But this past weekend, the opening sketch was the show's weakest in months -- yet the show itself was one of the strongest.

Part of that, with no disrespect, was due to the absence of Amy Poehler. She was absent with a valid doctor's excuse: she was giving birth that night. And the way she was saluted by her cast mates was a reminder that, no matter how venerable SNL gets, it's still a bunch of young kids putting on a show, with a bunker mentality that makes lots of very close friendships.

Seth Meyers, opening "Weekend Update" without his partner, explained at the top, with a huge smile, that Poehler wasn't there because she was having a baby. Then, to close the "Update" portion, Kenan Thompson and former SNL regular Maya Rudolph performed a singing shout-out, with the lyrics "We love you, Amy!" What a sweet moment.

As for Hamm as guest host, he was wonderful, too. His biggest surprise was a dead-on James Mason imitation (funny, in part, because who does James Mason these days?), but he also somehow managed to retain dignity and provide laughs in a commercial spoof that could have tanked big time: an ad for lunch meat you eat while sitting in a toilet stall, a rolled-out treat called Jon Hamm's John Ham.

Yes, he made that work somehow. And he was great, of course, as well as in his home element, dispensing Don Draper's dating tips, and starring in a Mad Men spoof that also featured castmates Elisabeth Moss (Peggy) and John Slattery (Roger).

Casey Wilson got a big laugh portraying Joan in a typically form-fitting dress, and the skit's only flaw is that Moss was denied an entrance of her own, to give her the attention and round of applause she deserved.

But no matter. It was a strong SNL -- and, the next night, a very strong Mad Men, which used the Cuban Missile Crisis to parallel deep shifts and unsettling feelings at Don Draper's work and home. It was a great weekend for John Hamm, and, no less so, for fans of quality TV.