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Posts tagged as snl

SNL

Saturday Night's Children: Matthew Laurance (1980-1981)

by | May 21st, 2013

Saturday Night Live has been home to over a hundred cast members throughout the past 37 years. In our column Saturday Night’s Children, we present the history, talent, and best sketches of one SNL cast member every other week for your viewing, learning, and laughing pleasure.

While it's difficult enough to track down the stories of oft-forgotten SNL cast members, early eighties bit player Matthew Laurance poses an added level of complication: He's an identical twin to slightly-older brother Mitchell Laurance, who not only worked alongside him as an SNL staffer in the late seventies but also appeared on HBO's Not Necessarily the News from 1983-1990. The sibling rivalry [...]

Guides

Here's Everyone Who Was at Stefon's Wedding

by | May 20th, 2013

Stefon and Anderson Cooper's wedding on Saturday Night Live this weekend was jam-packed with appearances from characters and creatures Stefon had mentioned in previous Weekend Update reports. We freeze-framed our way through the scene to offer you this guide to all of Stefon's wedding guests. From Gizblow the coked-up Gremlin to DJ Baby Bok Choy, they're all here:

Promos

Watch Bill Hader's Last-Ever 'SNL' Promos with Host Ben Affleck

by | May 16th, 2013

Here's departing SNL cast member Bill Hader doing a bunch of promos for this weekend's SNL season finale alongside host Ben Affleck. Affleck's Bill Hader impression is solid gold.

Videolists

Videolist: Fred Armisen's Best 'SNL' Sketches

by | May 16th, 2013

Fred Armisen's departure from Saturday Night Live was announced today, and though the news came somewhat expectedly after Bill Hader's announcement on Tuesday, it's still sad to see one of SNL's strangest and most absurdity-driven players move on from the show. In the spirit of Fred's departure after eleven seasons, we've collected some of his most memorable characters and sketches, from the rambling Update frequenter Nicholas Fehn to his impressions of Liberace, Penny Marshall, Prince, and more.

Videolists

Videolist: Bill Hader's Best 'SNL' Sketches

by | May 14th, 2013

With today's news that Bill Hader is leaving Saturday Night Live after eight seasons as a wildly-popular cast member on the show, we've collected videos of Hader's best sketches for a nice look back at the excellent work he's done on SNL. From characters like everybody's favorite clubhopper Stefon to ancient reporter Herb Welch and dead-on impressions of Al Pacino, Alan Alda, and Vincent Price, they're all here. SNL has some awfully big shoes to fill next year.

Check out a ton of classic Bill Hader sketches below:

SEASON IN REVIEW

The Best of 'SNL' Season 38

by | May 21st, 2013

It snuck up on us, didn't it? The end of SNL Season 38 brought along with it key staff changes, among them the upcoming departure of head writer Seth Meyers and the immediate departures of cast members Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and (unofficially) Jason Sudeikis. Few people have shaped SNL over the past 8 years more than these men — Meyers with his leadership in the writers room and charm as Weekend Update host, and Hader, Armisen and Sudeikis as the cast's workhorses and loadbearing performers. Indeed, many pegged Season 38 as a "transitional year" in the wake of Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg leaving the show a year ago, [...]

Goodbyes

Jay Pharoah Confirms Jason Sudeikis's 'SNL' Exit on Twitter

by | May 20th, 2013

While it was officially announced last week that Bill Hader and Fred Armisen were leaving Saturday Night Live following this weekend's season finale and each of them received their own goodbye sketch, Jason Sudeikis is expected to depart too but the news isn't official yet. Fellow cast member Jay Pharoah revealed via Twitter yesterday morning that Sudeikis is leaving, writing "Hader, Armisen & Sudekis the talent of those three and just them as people in general will be missed but we will be strong and carry on.." Pharoah quickly deleted the tweet after posting it, which is a little weird, but it's archived on Favstar where it will live [...]

Politics

Jay Pharoah Did His Obama Impression for the President

by | May 16th, 2013

Saturday Night Live's resident Obama impressionist Jay Pharoah got to impersonate the President to his face this week. A source tells The NY Post that Pharoah performed the impression as a surprise at a fundraiser at movie producer Harvey Weinstein's house. "Steve Martin, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel did a skit pretending they worked at the White House, and started questioning if they were getting a directive from the real president," the source says. "Then Jay came in and imitated Obama right in front of him. The president was surprised, then started laughing." What's the point of even imitating a public figure if it's not in a comedy [...]

Goodbyes

Fred Armisen Is Leaving 'SNL' Too, Jason Sudeikis "Probably"

by | May 16th, 2013

Following Tuesday's news that Bill Hader is leaving Saturday Night Live, it looks like the show is losing at least one big cast member (if not two) following this weekend's season finale. An NBC source tells The Post that veteran cast member Fred Armisen is departing and that Jason Sudeikis will probably go, as well. Armisen has been at SNL for 11 seasons and Sudeikis for 8. Seth Meyers expected to leave in the middle of next season (December) to take over Jimmy Fallon's duties hosting NBC's Late Night, the show sure is losing a lot of cast members over the next few months.

With Hader, [...]

TV

Why NBC Will Regret Not Picking Up 'Mulaney'

by | May 13th, 2013

Late Friday afternoon, NBC announced that it has declined to pick up John Mulaney's sitcom, Mulaney. It was a surprising move, given that the highly anticipated and already buzzy show had Lorne Michaels as a producer and an incredible cast. Having seen a version of the script, and based on Brad's on-the-scene reporting, I can say that it was a good pilot and that the series had enormous potential. It's a shame that it won't be on NBC's schedule this fall. But in the long run, what NBC will really regret is not just picking up the show Mulaney, but adding John Mulaney to its primetime ranks.

[...]
Reviews

'SNL' Review: Ben Affleck and the End of an Era

by | May 20th, 2013

What a weepy week it was for comedy nerds. NBC packed a double-whammy of goodbyes, with The Office's poignant series finale last Thursday, followed by Saturday's season finale of Saturday Night Live and final episode to feature Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and (perhaps) Jason Sudeikis as regular cast members, which was announced only days before. It is indeed the end of an era, not just for the network, but for TV comedy as a whole, and we will talk plenty more about this changing landscape over the coming days, weeks, and months.

Unlike last year's farewell to Kristen Wiig, which had a best-of-Wiig vibe that unfortunately repeated itself a week [...]

things that will never happen

Bill Hader Doesn't Want a Stefon Movie

by | May 17th, 2013

With Bill Hader poised to leave Saturday Night Live after tomorrow's season finale, don't expect him to try to turn his most popular character from the show into a movie. Hader tells GQ, "There's no emotional through line. Sometimes people say to me 'I want a Stefon movie' and I'm like, you think you want a Stefon movie but then you'll see the poster for it and think, 'Wait, I don't want this.'" If only Bill Hader had been on the show during the '90s, when all of SNL's most popular characters got turned into movies, then he probably could have been pressured into making a Stefon movie and satisfying you [...]

Quotes

The Annotated Wisdom of Amy Poehler

by | May 16th, 2013

Amy Poehler has a pretty solid resume as both a comedian and a person. After spending time studying at Second City and iO in Chicago, Poehler moved to New York with friends Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Ian Roberts to found the Upright Citizens Brigade, which has since grown into the massive community of learners and performers of long-form improv and sketch that it is today. In more recent years, on her off time from her TV work on SNL and Parks and Recreation, Poehler and friends Meredith Walker and Amy Miles started Smart Girls at the Party, an online network to encourage and educate young women about [...]

Late Night

Seth Meyers Wants Amy Poehler to Be His First 'Late Night' Guest

by | May 14th, 2013

It was officially announced this week that Seth Meyers is taking over for Jimmy Fallon as host of NBC's 12:35am show Late Night on February 24th, 2014. When asked today who his dream first guest is, Meyers responded, "Amy Poehler." He added, "If that can't happen then we'll have real trouble getting guests!" So, it looks like Meyers's first show might be a reunion for the Weekend Update duo – as long as Poehler isn't too much of a big shot to do his show.

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