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 [...]
Now that Season 37 of Saturday Night Live has come to a close, let’s talk about some of the highlights from the past 22 episodes.
What struck me most about this season was the apparent hunger for new hit sketches. While the show’s tendency to recycle worn sketch premises lives on, Seth Meyers and his writing staff have eased back a bit from tentpoling the lineup with pieces from seasons past, occasionally striking gold with a new premise, and hustling to bring it back as soon as possible. J Pop America Fun Time Now, Drunk Uncle, Lord Wyndemere, Bein’ Quirky with Zooey Deschanel, Piers Morgan Tonight, and The Californians [...]
If your favorite part of SNL each week is the promos, than this is your finale. They even have Kristen Wiig in them, for what might be her last promos until she hosts the show in two seasons from now. Also, man did that wrinkly Australian fellow teach her a lot of sex stuff when she was a kid.
After Jimmy Fallon and Maya Rudolph’s spectacular stints hosting SNL earlier this season, I proposed (only somewhat facetiously) that all episodes should be hosted by former castmembers. Fallon’s episode was a gleeful trip down memory lane, complete with cameos by Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Rachel Dratch, and Horatio Sanz, and Rudolph’s might have been the highlight of the season, with the multitalented actress bringing the best out of the cast and crew to with her own masterful performance. I expected this episode would be the closing argument to my former-castmember-hosts proposition.
So was it? Sure, so long as I get another closing argument at some point.
Well, well, well, Will Ferrell's SNL promos are finally here. Expectations were high for this Saturday's episode and these promos confirm that they should be. Also, they confirm that I don't know anything about fancy brooches.
After the season finale 'SNL' on Saturday, a stage was set up at the 30 Rock rink for the afterparty, where the Foo Fighters (actually, their cover band alter ego "Chevy Metal") set up shop and played for a couple hours. They did a bunch of covers and invited a number of castmembers up to sing/play with them. Above you can see Kristen Wiig singing "I Love Rock n Roll" with help from Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg. Other songs included Will Forte singing some Black Sabbath, Amy Poehler singing "Bad Reputation" by Joan Jett and Fred Armisen playing drums on Cheap Trick's "Surrender." It was just like when [...]
This post is brought to you by Milk. Who needs imitations when you can have the real thing? Check out gotmilk.com. Workplace-centric sitcoms have been a TV fixture since the days of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, when it was discovered that basing a show around a group of oddballs who are forced to work together can be a successful formula for scoring laughs. As with most shows and movies, entertainment is the top priority, not realism, and that’s very much the case with the workplace comedy, where accurately depicting a job environment takes a backseat to amusing audiences.
Everyone has at least one movie or TV show they enjoy that no one else can stand, whether it’s a guilty pleasure or something the rest of the world is just wrong about. I recently rang up Sirius Radio host and Twitter luminary Jake Fogelnest to talk about the pieces of pop cultures that he enjoys that everyone else seems to hate.
Speaking as someone who lives in a neighborhood in which a lot of people wear tight pants, it's nice to think of a town where it is such a novelty that it's worth singing about. Also nice is dat a$$, as the video above confirms. Below are clips from the interview portion, where Will and Jimmy very seriously discuss the tight pants song, SNL, and Zach Galifianakis's tragic love of Bill Cosby. Will and his butt are in New York prepping for what will surely be a fantastic SNL tomorrow.
Saturday Night Live has been home to over a hundred cast members throughout the past 36 years. In our column Saturday Night’s Children, we present the history, talent, and best sketches of one SNL cast member each week for your viewing, learning, and laughing pleasure.
Despite Laura Kightlinger's fruitless year as an SNL writer and featured player, she's built up a pretty kickass comedy resume over the years, with credits as an actor, writer, producer, and director working with comedians like Roseanne Barr, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Jack Black, and Louis CK. With company like that, it's a surprise that Kightlinger's managed to fly so far under the radar, [...]
New York Daily News reports that Jason Sudeikis told a group of people at the SNL finale after-after-party "he wasn't sure about staying or leaving." It also notes that Jason was taken aback a bit by the special treatment Kristen Wiig received at the end of the finale. He reportedly left the set during the credits, possibly out of frustration and possibly out of sadness. If you watched the finale it seemed completely certain that Wiig would be leaving and Andy Samberg as well, as the closing line of "Lazy Sunday 2" reflected; however, Jason was mostly missing from the episode. Since he plays both Romney and [...]
When your show has become a cultural icon, I imagine it’s difficult to just be a “good comedy show.” SNL season finales carry a special burden — they must feature an appropriately iconic host (Steve Carell in 2008, Will Ferrell in 2009, Alec Baldwin in 2010, Justin Timberlake in 2011, and now Mick Jagger in 2012), end the season on a memorable note to keep people buzzing over the summer, and provide a proper send-off to any cast members that might be leaving the show. That’s all on top of being strong, stand-alone episode… a feat in and of itself.
This year’s finale seemed to prioritize two objectives — [...]
Saturday Night Live has been home to over a hundred cast members throughout the past 36 years. In our column Saturday Night’s Children, we present the history, talent, and best sketches of one SNL cast member each week for your viewing, learning, and laughing pleasure.
It's important to remember that before the dawn of the strong woman contingent that began with Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri, and Ana Gasteyer and peaked with Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and Kristen Wiig, female cast members were often underused, forgotten, or written off as either too ladylike or anti-ladylike to compete in the bro's-club chaos of early 1990s SNL. Siobhan [...]
Over the past two decades, Amy Poehler has amassed one of the most impressive resumes in comedy history. Not only did she play a significant part in America’s largest comedy institution, Saturday Night Live, she also co-founded the UCB, a venerable comedy institution in its own right and one that grows in influence every year. If those were Amy Poehler’s only accomplishments, it’d still be pretty damned impressive, but, for the past three years, she’s produced and starred in Parks and Rec, arguably the best sitcom on TV. Throw on top of that recurring roles on Arrested Development and Late Night with Conan (before it was a hit) and [...]
