The fall 2012 TV season is officially here, and tomorrow night, SNL returns from hiatus and kicks off Season 38. Even during its low points, SNL has given us plenty of incentives to tune in – cultural relevance, live television, pre-Tea Party Victoria Jackson. As we brace ourselves for this season, here are five reasons we’ll be glued to the TV on Saturday nights (or more likely, sit through 30-second ads preceding Hulu clips) over the coming months for network television’s oldest-yet-still-somehow-coolest late night comedy powerhouse:
"I remember getting in the elevator for my audition and there was a guy next to me who had a backpack full of props and wigs and things, and I went, 'Oh my god, that guy is so prepared, I have nothing, I have no props.' And that was Andy Samberg. And Andy Samberg said he was looking at me going, 'Oh, that guy has no props. He doesn't need props.' And that was the first time we met, was in that elevator." – Bill Hader on Fresh Airtalking about his SNL audition.
Bill Hader is returning to SNL next season as a sort of conquering king coming back to his castle. So, does he have anything big planned for his eighth season? Simply, no, as he told Entertainment Weekly:
"I’ve learned that any time over the summer I go, 'Ooh, I got something really good,' I’ll give it to the writers, and they’ll go, 'No.' Actually, the diplomatic thing is to say, 'That’s funny… Um, what if… we do the opposite.'"
I guess it would better to ask the writers what they're planning for Hader.
"When you’re here for seven years, the writers know what you’re good at, and also what [...]
Bill Hader told Vulture the amazing story of how Tom Cruise was a superhero. While they were shooting promos for the 2010 MTV Awards in LA, someone tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square. This was the first time Hader had been away from his new baby, so Cruise took it onto himself to make sure they knocked out two days worth of filming in 45 minutes that way Hader could get back to New York ASAP. Read the full story here. Say what you will about Cruise but this is a great story where a person with such an ability to influence can use his [...]
From July 12th to the 29th, comedians of all sorts will descend upon Montreal for the 30th Just For Laughs festival. Performers include: Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Bill Hader, Bob Saget, John Pinette, Lewis Black, Jim Gaffigan, Patton Oswalt (who will also be the keynote speaker), Wayne Brady, Mario Cantone, and The Muppets. Chelsea Handler will be there accepting and, if her reputation serves her correctly, celebrating, her Comedy Person of the Year award. Also, Key & Peele will be receiving the Breakout Comedy Star award and Hannibal "The Accolade Machine" Buress will be named the Rising Comedy Star. We should all go but we have to make sure [...]
You want to hang out with Larry David, right? So it should come as no surprise that a lot of people have signed on for Clear History, his semi-improvised HBO movie about a man named Nathan Flomm (David) who changes his identity to Rolly DaVore and moves to a small island off the coast of Massachusetts, after giving up 10% of an electric car company that eventually is worth billions. So who's signed on? Let's run them down:
Jon Hamm plays Will Haney, Flomm's handsome rival and boss at the car company.
Kate Hudson plays Rhonda, Haney's wife who has a special friendship with Flomm.
I feel like the Yo Gabba Gabba guy would totally show up at one of Stefon's hottest nightclubs. He has a certain "I went to a rave 15 years ago and I never left" vibe to him. Bill Hader, however, I don’t think he'd exactly fit in. Was he trying to chew that tequila? There you have him, Emmy voters.
Paul Ryan is Mitt Romney's VP pick. If you want what that means for the presidential campaign, you're in the wrong place. Go read about that stuff elsewhere! We don't have time for that fluff. Instead, we need to focus on the very important question that this news raises: who's gonna play him on SNL?
A few of the current dudes will almost definitely not be playing him: Fred Armisen, as he plays Obama, Jason Sudeikis, as he plays both Romney and Biden, and Keenan Thompson and Jay Pharoah because they are black and Ryan is white. Unless they are going in a really weird direction with this impression, [...]
There is something inherently sad about this video. Here are three four five four brothers who are genetically identical yet still they can’t all get along. It reflects a dissatisfaction both with one's family and one's self… Blah blah blah. Never mind! How great was it when he plays his guitar shirt? Super great! Regardless of how disheartening their relationship is, any universe that contains four Bill Haders is a great universe. This is the first installment in the Above Average web series The Front Desk. Below is a preview of what's to come.
Big shakeups are about to hit Dunder Mifflin. Paul Lieberstein will likely exit as showrunner next year, the better to focus on the Dwight-centric spinoff. Meanwhile, Mindy Kaling's absence to work on her new series seems inevitable after the casting of Ed Helms, Bill Hader, and Richard Schiff in the pilot. So in theory, next year could see the loss of: the showrunner, an influential writer, Dwight, Andy, Toby, and Kelly. That'd make for an empty Scranton office, all right. I know this show is good at adapting, but isn't it kind of time to close things out already?
On October 1, 2005 Bill Hader debuted on SNL, feeling lucky and surprised to be there. Now, seven years later, it seems like not much has changed. Hader might be entering his eighth season as the first male cast member since Eddie Murphy to be nominated for an Emmy for his performance on the show, but his attitude is still of the humble guy who was shocked even to be asked to audition for SNL in the first place. With the new season set to start this Saturday, September 15, Hader is not thinking if this will be his last year on the show or if the Emmy nomination [...]
Great journalism, TMZ reporter. So with Seth, who we already assumed wasn't going to do it, out of the race, we're basically back to Bill Hader and Taran Killam. Hader still seems like the most logical choice but as Meyers told Vanity Fair, they're still undecided:
“I don’t know. This is exciting, because obviously four years ago there was no argument that Tina [Fey] would play Sarah Palin. And now we’ve got a real horse race. There’s a lot of people, a lot of guys I know, working on their Paul Ryan right now…I’m just saying, there are a lot of guys going to barbershops right now, [...]
By far the most exciting surprise of this morning's Emmy nominations was that Bill Hader got a nod for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Hader spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about finding out: "It wasn't [on my radar]. It wasn't like, 'Oh yea! The Emmy nominations are coming out!'" He continued:
I got up early this morning with my daughter and my wife. We had breakfast. I checked my e-mail, nothing was there. Looked at my phone, everything was good. Hopped into the shower. When I came out, all of a sudden it was like 30 messages. My wife and daughter were gone so then I [...]
Now that we’ve looked at some of the highlights from the past season of SNL, let’s talk about the cast. One thing that often fails to get mentioned is the comedic powerhouse we have in the current ensemble. Save for an occasional low-drama tweak (Paul Brittain was let go from the show in February; Kate McKinnon added in April), there has been relatively low turnover throughout the past few seasons — a sign that Lorne is pretty happy with the way things are going. As he should be! Not since Phil Hartman have we seen performers so clearly suited for sketch comedy the way Kristen Wiig and Bill [...]
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