AmyPoehler-related stories
Posted Jun 16th 2009 5:28PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free
For those of you not quite familiar with Peter Serafinowicz, take a few minutes to get to know his work (or
his Twitter, if that's what you're into, you social media nerd). He has worked on
Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and his own programs,
The Peter Serafinowicz Show and
Look Around You (
the first season is must-see). Fun fact: He also voiced Darth Maul. Double fun fact: He's married to Sarah Alexander, known for her various comedic roles in shows like
Green Wing and
Coupling.
So what happens when you take these two and throw them in with America's own comedy power couple, Will Arnett and Amy Poehler? Actually, I'm still not entirely sure after watching this video. See for yourself.
Continue reading Will Arnett and Pete Serafinowicz really like each other
Posted Jun 14th 2009 3:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Children, Reality-Free
I'll admit, I watched a lot of
Alvin and the Chipmunks when I was little, despite all its awkward 80s animation tendencies and general pointlessness. I even kind of liked it. When the Chipettes joined the gang, bringing even more high-pitched sass, I felt no need to cry shark-jumping (probably because the phrase had yet to be coined and I hadn't gotten to that
Happy Days episode).
The Chipettes animated on the small screen were kind of girly and cute. The Chipettes in
Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakuel are what you see before you die.
Continue reading The new Chipettes: What nightmares are made of
Posted May 30th 2009 11:55PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It's summer time and I can see you sketch comedy nerds are starting to get the shakes from
Saturday Night Live withdrawal. No worries, I've got some goodness to feed your short attention span and sketch comedy needs.
Here's a program that every self-proclaimed comedy fan should know. From 1998 to 2000, the
Upright Citizens Brigade television series ran for three seasons on Comedy Central, developing a solid cult following. The four stars, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser and Amy Poehler wrote and starred in the series, playing just about all the characters and giving us gems like
Ass Pennies, Spaghetti Jesus and little Girl Scout Cassie.
Continue reading Sketch Comedy Saturday: Upright Citizens Brigade
Posted May 17th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E23) Wow. Way to go, Will Ferrell. Maybe they should just bring back
Saturday Night Live alumni for season finales from now on, because this episode was spectacular. Ferrell brought back some old favorites and a slew of famous faces, from the familiar to the inexplicable, including Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway and Artie Lange. Here are some video highlights from the evening (Hulu vids are US only. Sorry, kids... you can also watch these videos
at NBC's website).
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Will Ferell/Green Day (season finale)
Posted May 9th 2009 12:50PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Reality-Free
Radner.
Louis-Dreyfus.
Poehler.
Fey.
Shannon.
Suffice it to say, the number of women who became famous on
Saturday Night Live before graduating to solo success is few and far between. Sure, Gilda Radner can be considered a pioneer in the art of sketch comedy. And
Julia Louis-Dreyfus undoubtedly honed her comedic skills before becoming a sitcom icon on
Seinfeld. And, yes,
Tina Fey can easily be considered a heroine to comedy nerds everywhere who have witnessed her climb from
Weekend Update anchor to
Mean Girls scribe to single-handedly decimating the vice presidential chances of one certain gun-wieldin', six-pack-totin' Alaskan governor.
But, sadly, the number of men who left Studio 8 for the superstardom of Planet Hollywood (not the theme restaurant) easily outnumbers the ladies. For every
Amy Poehler, there's a
Will Ferrell. And a Bill Murray. And a
Mike Myers and
Eddie Murphy and
Adam Sandler (although, to be fair, there's also a
David Gary Kroeger, A. Whitney Brown, and Charles Rocket for every Melanie Hutsell, too). (And for the record, no, you shouldn't recognize those names.)
Continue reading Why isn't Jan Hooks famous?
Posted May 8th 2009 1:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E05) Man, Leslie Knope is a dope. But Tom is the bomb! Okay, I'm sorry. There's no excuse for that kind of crap. Still, though, Tom was hilarious in his speech to Leslie's mother, who will always be
Jericho's Gail Green to me, at the banquet. Certainly it was smoother than Leslie's. But then Ron's speech of facts was better than Leslie's painful attempt at name-dropping.
It's amazing that Leslie and her mother are related, considering how vastly different they are. Her mother is shrewd and calculating, and clearly willing to muck around in the dirt to further her own agenda (i.e. a politician), while Leslie is an optimistic do-gooder who's more heart than smart ... oh crap, I did it again, didn't I?
Continue reading Parks & Recreation: The Banquet
Posted May 4th 2009 4:29PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Upfronts, Reality-Free
It looks like
NBC is going to expand Saturday Night Live's "
Weekend Update" segment with more half-hour specials, most likely on Thursday nights. Judging by the success of
SNL and its Thursday night election specials during the campaign season, this move isn't too surprising. Plus, this is a progressive step in reaching the network's ultimate goal, which seems to be filling the airwaves with as many former
SNL employees as possible. Actually, the next season of
Celebrity Apprentice is probably just going to be all the early-90s players that aren't doing movies right now. And Rob Schneider. That guy isn't doing anything.
Continue reading NBC thought you said you wanted more Weekend Update
Posted May 1st 2009 2:24AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Parks and Recreation
(S01E04) Just when you start to think that virtually everyone around Leslie and Ann are depraved jackasses, you learn new things. We continued to expand our explorations of the cast this week. There appears to be more to Ron than he would have us believe. Sure, he wants to come across as this anti-government, gruff hardass, but there's a heart in there. And Ann's boyfriend Andy? Well, he absolutely blew me away this week.
There was a certain perception of Andy that had been developed over the past three weeks, and as a guy it was all too familiar. But tonight he showed another side of himself, and it was sweet to see that there's more to him than making a mess and making Ann do everything for him. He genuinely cares for her. And he really went out of his way to try and prove that.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Boys' Club
Posted Apr 24th 2009 5:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E03) I know I said last week's episode was titled "The Reporter." That's what the online sources had and it was supposed to be the second episode. Instead, the scheduled third episode "Canvassing" was bumped up and that's what we saw as episode number two.
(Ed. note: I fixed the title on the previous post - Joel) This happens in TV land all the time, though it's odd to do it on a six episode series that has a sort of progression. Still, I should have been more vigilant and kept up with it. If I could just convince the upper brass at the networks to CC me on these kinds of decisions!
The only hint I got that these were aired out of order was early on this episode when Ann talks about how Leslie put together a committee in less than a week (which was in the first episode) and how this was her first experience with government. There was no mention of "last week" and the disastrous town hall meeting ... because technically it hasn't happened yet.
Parks & Recreation time travel! I guess it's just too tempting for the suits to futz with the air order of new series.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: The Reporter
Posted Apr 17th 2009 12:25AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
(S01E02) Tonight, we move forward on the next step in Leslie Knope getting that pit replaced with a beautiful park. Look at that,
Parks and Recreation doubles as a primer for how local government gets things done. It almost makes me want to get involved and make a difference in my community. Almost. It also makes me wonder about the quality of people in my local community. Somehow I can imagine people like Tom and Leslie working there.
It looks like things are going to move pretty slowly on this show, despite only a six episode run. I guess with the pit project being the only major plot, there's not much else to do. I hope they have a Plan B if they get picked up. All we got was the team canvassing the neighborhood to gauge reactions to the project and then an impromptu town hall meeting where everyone could voice their opinion. And that went about as well as you might expect; remember the last meeting Leslie ran.
Continue reading Parks and Recreation: Canvassing
Posted Apr 8th 2009 5:12PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free, Parks and Recreation
First there was talk of a spin-off of
The Office. Word was that Amy Poehler was attached. Then we got the notion that Rashida Jones may just reprise her role of Karen in that spin-off. And then it became
Parks and Recreation. The show follows the exploits of the Parks Department in a small city in Indiana. So our spin-off went from more office politics to ... well, politics. But Amy Poehler is here. And while Rashida Jones is on board, it's not as Karen.
Still, the comparisons are going to be inevitable. Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who are both key parts of
The Office team, created this show, it airs right before
The Office, and both are shot in that mock documentary style. Then you have Poehler's lead role as Deputy Director Leslie Knope. She appears to be as oblivious to the world that truly exists around her as Michael Scott is on
The Office, but more in a naively optimistic way than a narcissistic asshat way. As Jones' character Ann Perkins describes her: "She's a little doofy, but she's sweet."
Continue reading Parks and Recreation -- An early look
Posted Mar 23rd 2009 11:36AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, OpEd, The Office, Reality-Free
When I first saw the headline from this Nikki Finke
report on NBC's Parks and Recreation, the highly-anticipated collaboration between Amy Poehler and the folks who write and produce
The Office, I thought the story might be about set tension or significant rewrites or even those ever-so-useful "notes" from the network.
But it turns out that the article was about notes the network got as part of a "Consumer And Market Intelligence Research Summary." Basically, the pilot went through audience testing, and the test audience saw some problems. In the 12-page report (nine of which are charts and graphs, as Finke takes pains to point out), the test audience liked a lot of the pilot, but thought it dragged in parts, was too similar to
The Office in tone, that Poehler's character needed to have "more energy and enthusiasm," and that there are "there are no 'datable' men in the cast."
To that, I say: who gives a flying crap?
Continue reading Problems with Parks and Recreation?
Posted Mar 11th 2009 12:15PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Video, Animation, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities, Reality-Free
The fact that
Will Arnett may not actually be the father of wife
Amy Poehler's baby is just one of the shocking tidbits you learn from
Jason Bateman on the soundstage for
Sit Down, Shut Up,
Mitch Hurwitz's upcoming animated comedy in which he and Arnett both lend their voices. We heard about the
mini Arrested Development reunion almost a year ago, and while the series doesn't premiere until April 19th, FOX has given us a taste of what to expect.
The video is great because it's not even a preview of the show, nor does it talk about the animated series in any way. Instead, it's three minutes of Jason Bateman and Will Arnett talking about height, "hair hats" man boobs, and intelligence (or lack thereof). It's blatently aimed at rabid, drooling
Arrested Development fans who are clamoring for any smidgen of a hint of the show's former glory-- and it works.
Continue reading Amy Poehler is "surprisingly promiscuous" - VIDEO
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 10:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, The Office, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Casting, Reality-Free
The new NBC sitcom originally planned as a spin-off of
The Office and then simply became a spin-off by the creators of the American version of the show will now be known as...wait for it...
Parks and Recreation. The series co-stars Rashida Jones and will premiere in March.
While I have high hopes for any show that stars Amy Poehler, it is cutting it a little close to think of the name at this stage, since there is just over a month before the initial broadcast. Still, the name is better than the
previously proposed one,
Public Service.
Truthfully, the name is just a formality. If the show starts in March, then it will likely have a very shortened season to prove itself worthy of a second one. While Amy Poehler is an excellent comedic talent, one can only hope that the writers behind the show can use her abilities to the fullest.
Posted Jan 15th 2009 11:33AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, OpEd, The Office, TCA Press Tour, Casting, Reality-Free
For a variety of reasons, I decided to not go to the Winter edition of the TCA press tour. So far, my choice to stay in frigid Jersey has been justified; not much in the way of big news has come out of the tour, and it seems like the networks are very happy about that.
However, if I
was there, I would have apparently
received the pilot script to the new Amy Poehler-led sitcom that's being written and produced by the folks from
The Office, as Rob Owen of the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did yesterday. He revealed some details about what the show's going to be about, and they're... interesting.
The show will be shot documentary-style like
The Office. In it, Poehler plays Leslie Knope, who is, according to Owen, a "mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana." She works with a local nurse (Rashida Jones) to turn a construction site into a park, and has to battle the usual local-government nemeses at every turn, including those "traffic and noise" complainers and a town official (Aziz Ansari). All the while, she's followed by an intern (Aubrey Plaza) that she hopes to inspire.
Continue reading Details of Poehler's Office "spin-off" finally revealed
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