"I don't believe in nostalgia, so I would say it's more like that sprinklings of the past are good. It's not about the good old days. It's like, 'I want that back on my pizza.' And when you see Kurt [Loder], Tabitha [Soren], and Matt [Pinfield] together, they're like our superheroes. It's our superhero story."
-Fred Armisen to Vulture on reuniting an MTV VJ dream team for the new season of Portlandia.
Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein have lined up a roster of guest stars for the new season of Portlandia that puts other TV show guest list rosters to shame. EW reports that Season 3 (which debuts January 4th at 10) will feature guest stars like Roseanne Barr, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan, Armisen’s SNL cohorts Bill Hader and Bobby Moynihan, Juliette Lewis, Rose Byrne, George Wendt, British comedy Gods Matt Berry and Matt Lucas, Dinosaur Jr. founder J Mascis, Dirty Projectors, and tennis star Martina Navratilova, plus the return of Kyle MacLachlan, Jeff Goldblum, and Kumail Nanjiani, as well Chloë Sevigny in a recurring role as Fred and Carrie's [...]
For all you hipsters working on your collection of that quaint old video format – the DVD – be sure to go check out Portlandia: Season 2, which comes out today. In its second season, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen continue their dream of the 90s, with quirky artisan traditions – "we can pickle that!" – as well as escalating otherwise banal situations past any sensible point, like when Fred picks up the series Battlestar Galactica. Do like they do. Get the DVDs. Watch a marathon. Lose your job?
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
Earlier this year on January 21st, the Paley Center hosted a panel with the stars of Portlandia, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, moderated by [...]
"This feels like a pancake day."
It's been a little over four months since Portlandia's season two finale "Brunch Village," and Fred and Carrie returned on Friday for a slightly-longer director's cut of the episode followed by a 20-minute black-and-white faux documentary. Much of Portlandia's strengths and weaknesses stem from its reliance on wringing out a one-note joke for all it's worth, but the combination of having more airtime time to play with and the choice of depicting director Jonathan Krisel as the most finicky and self-absorbed Portland artist really proves how much this show practices what it preaches, or how much it loves what it parodies. For a [...]
