Just wanted to post a quick report about yesterday's late-afternoon Saturday Night Live panel. On the panel was (new TCA Career Achievement award winner) Lorne Michaels, Weekend Update anchor and co-head-writer Seth Meyers, and cast members Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte, and Casey Wilson.Given the comedy star power on stage, the panel was strangely unfunny. That's probably because Michaels answered most of the questions. Anyway, two pieces of news came out of this panel:
- SNL will run live 30-minute Thursday election specials in primetime starting October 9 and running until the election. The specials will feature Weekend Update but may also have sketches. There will also be a primetime "Presidential Bash" episode the night before the election.
- Michaels mentioned that Jimmy Fallon will air his show online for "five or six months" before it airs in Conan O'Brien's old timeslot, in order to give it a headstart in finding its creative legs. "We learned with Conan how brutal it was to find a show when it was on the air," he said.
A couple more notes:
- Amy Poehler will remain with SNL through her pregnancy. "Amy will be there until her baby is born, which hopefully will be just after the election, so that she can do everything she can," deadpanned Michaels. "But I think that she'll be with us through the election and as long as she can be and then I think she'll take, you know, the time before she jumps into everything, I think she'll want to spend some time with her child, I would assume." He said her departure would be a "big loss."
- Fred Armisen is working on his Obama impression. He was strangely quiet and evasive about the subject, but he did quip that he hasn't asked the writers about what they intend to do with the role in the Fall. "No, I just ignore everything. I run my own summer camp, anyways."
- I asked Andy Samberg if there was going to be any more "Laser Cats" in the future. "I think everyone hopes so," he joked. "We don't want to trot it out there if the material's not there. So we're just making sure it's quality. We don't want to just cash in. It's an integrity thing. Hopefully." Funny guy.
I may include a little more from this panel later today.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-21-2008 @ 1:43PM
Jimmy said...
Hmm ...
The election specials will be Darrell Hammond and Fred Armisen doing McCain and Obama for 30 minutes. Not funny. I hope they prove me wrong.
Fallon online? For five or six months? I've got one word for you, Jimmy: "Kidnapped."
Dear God, please no more Laser Cats.
Kristin Wiig should do one more season and bail. No sense in going down with a sinking ship.
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7-22-2008 @ 10:16AM
Ford said...
Why does everyone say the same thing about SNL that isn't based in reality? The show isn't "sinking"--what universe are you living in?
And sorry, but SNL *is* funny, and so are all of the people on it. I would love to see the complainers try to do any job, let alone a better one.
7-21-2008 @ 10:17PM
Jimmy said...
To clarify: I am an SNL fan, but I think Lorne is ruining the show. Nowadays, I watch mostly out of habit, but there are occasional glimmers of promise -- Kristin Wiig being one of them.
7-22-2008 @ 10:27AM
Ford said...
Why would Lorne be ruining the show? I guess it's all about what you expect the show to be, versus what it is. I think people are too hard on SNL. They place expectations on the show based on what it was in its first inception and expect it to be exactly the same (ignoring the fact that 30 years have passed and America has changed greatly). But audiences aren't the same anymore, they don't want the same thing. And I think SNL, as it always has, encapsulates what the American public (at least, the demographic that the show tries to cater to most) wants in specific moments of time.
I really enjoy the show--I think it's good-natured and funny (and occasionally absolutely hilarious). Seriously, these people are just trying to make you laugh in a very short period of time. So why do we feel the constant need to complain about it? It's almost perverse how many people love to complain about a fluffly sketch comedy show that is, 90% of the time, still pretty funny.
7-23-2008 @ 5:10PM
Ford said...
And I love Laser Cats, it's just good natured joking around not meant to be taken seriously and it appeals to a YouTube generation with an acute sense of irony. Laser Cats makes me smile (and the terrible dialogue makes me laugh).
7-21-2008 @ 2:01PM
Henry said...
I'm guessing the panel was unfunny because none of those people are actually funny.
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