Dakota Johnson makes her SNL hosting debut this weekend, and NBC just released the first promo reel featuring Johnson and Taran Killam, who is a big fan of Johnson's father Don from his groundbreaking work on Miami Vice.
SNL returns for its 40th season this Saturday, with host Chris Pratt, musical guest Ariana Grande, and pretty much the same cast — minus a handful of people we rarely saw in sketches anyway. Following a lackluster season, Lorne Michaels is now sticking with the tools he's got, replacing five departing cast members with only one newcomer — standup Pete Davidson — and promoting writer Michael Che to co-host Weekend Update. Meanwhile, Colin Jost will remain at the desk after taking on the job last February. It's a conservative approach, compared to last year's throw-everything-against-the-wall casting strategy, which resulted in a cast so overpopulated that some remained literal faces in the crowd at the season's [...]
With SNL's 39th season coming to a close, we're taking a look at the past season with a series of posts examining the highs, lows, and other memorable moments from the past eight months. Here, we look at the performers that make up SNL's current cast, including their overall contributions to the show, memorable roles, relative screen time, and prospects for returning next season.
SNL's 39th season was a crowded one. Record-breaking crowded, even. Six new hires, plus a seventh midseason, rose the total to 17, making the current cast the largest SNL has seen during its entire four-decade run, topping even the infamously bloated 1990-1991 season. That season only had [...]
SNL's Taran Killam was a guest on last night's Late Night, and he and Meyers discussed everything from a failed Jebidiah Atkinson joke to being on a pirate ship with Bobby Moynihan at Comic Con to his cut New Jersey birds show sketch "Boids" with Vanessa Bayer, which Killam agreed to perform in the near future on Late Night's upcoming "Second Chance Theater" segment.
In case you hadn't noticed, there have been a lot more music stars on SNL lately. Not merely performing as musical guests or popping up in a sketch here or there, as we've seen on the show every week, but pop stars getting booked as host in addition to their musical guest gig. What was once a rare event with triple threats like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake occasionally pulling double duty in the early 2000s (and once by Paul Simon in 1976) has now become a fairly common practice. The last three seasons have seen hosts + musical guests Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber, Bruno [...]
SNL's final episode of 2014 airs this weekend with host Amy Adams and musical guest One Direction, and NBC released the first round of promos featuring Adams and Taran Killam catching some holiday spirit thanks to some imaginary snow and the Rockefeller Christmas tree.
The new season of SNL is just around the corner, but that hasn't stopped Lorne Michaels from making another movie this summer. Variety reports that Michaels is producing Brothers in Law written by Cameron Fay with rewrites from SNL's Mikey Day and Taran Killam. Killam also stars in the film alongside Bill Pullman, Rachael Harris, Rita Wilson, David Wain, and Bobby Moynihan. Production started in Oregon this week, and the film is described as "having elements of Meet the Parents and What About Bob?" Funny or Die, Newsreaders, and SNL segment directors Matt Villines and Oz Rodriguez AKA Matt and Oz are co-directing the film together.
With SNL's 39th season coming to a close, we're taking a look at the past season with a series of posts examining the highs, lows, and other memorable moments from the past eight months. Here we recall some of our favorite sketches from the season — both live sketches and videos.
Season 39 of SNL certainly hasn't been the most popular among viewers, with its first half bogged down with criticism over the lack of diversity in the cast, and its second half attacked (often unfairly) for uneven writing under new head writer Colin Jost. Even though the show hired Sasheer Zamata (along with two black female writers), and the script [...]
We've reached the midpoint of SNL's 39th season — one that has optimistically been called a "transitional year," but one more commonly known as "the year the shit hit the fan with that whole black woman issue." Despite the fact that the bulk of the SNL coverage in fall 2013 has zeroed in on the show's diversity controversy, SNL has given us plenty of other things to talk about, from new cast members and emerging stars on the show, to surprise cameos and celebrity hosts who defied our expectations — in good and bad ways.
Unfortunately, few of those topics have gotten much ink in fall 2013 (outside of sites [...]
Kerry Washington is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend with Eminem, and since SNL's hosts this year seem to be chosen largely based on the cast members' crushes, this week it was Taran Killam's turn to not-so-subtly share his feelings. And also, to rap.
The seasons have certainly changed at Saturday Night Live. The show's 40th season began with an episode that hardly resembled a season premiere, with little pomp or circumstance over SNL's impressive four-decade lifespan, and in its place a straightforward night of comedy that reflected a show well adjusted to its new lineup. Nerves did occasionally get the better of the performers — especially first-time host Chris Pratt, who coasted on his signature goofy charm, flashing that Andy Dwyer "oops" face a few times – but overall the episode charged forward with a leaner (and more colorful) cast, and a greater confidence in its sense of humor.
We aren't out of the woods just yet, though. SNL's live sketches suffer [...]
SNL's Taran Killam recently shared his most memorable moment from season 39, which was getting to play one of the legendary Bill Brasky buddies alongside Will Ferrell, David Koechner, and Paul Rudd back in December. He also does a pretty spot-on impression of the beloved Reading Rainbow sound effect.
Here are this week's SNL promos featuring Taran Killam and first-time host Anna Kendrick. Killam and Kendrick jam-pack these four minutes with great concepts like monkey butlers, bacon bikinis, musicals, show tunes, and plenty of one-upmanship. Even though Kendrick doesn't seem to understand what SNL is, these promos hint that she's going to be great anyway.
Saturday Night Live cast member Taran Killam is taking his first steps into the comic world. The Illegitimates, the comic book series he's writing with Marc Andreyko, drops its first issue on Wednesday. The story follows the bastard children of a fallen James Bond-esque super spy who were the products of his one night stands and are now expected to form a new spy team together. Entertainment Weekly has a preview of the first issue up now.
