TVSquad

Which indie darling will be chosen to accompany the inevitable series finale montage of The O.C. on February 22nd? Stereogum knows. The show responsible for bringing Death Cab for Cutie into mainstream consciousness has dubbed neo-folkie Patrick Park the lucky recipient of this most coveted of pop culture moments. You can hear singer/songwriter Park's "Life is a Song" on MySpace. It will be available for purchase in July on Park's forthcoming album, and quite possibly on iTunes before that if The O.C. has anything to do with it.

Apparently, the folks at The O.C. weighed Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" and Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" before going with the LA-based Park's ditty. It's good to see them spread the love to a lesser known commodity. Congratulations, Patrick. You're destined for graduation mix CDs everywhere. Personally, I can't wait. There's nothing better than a tear-jerking montage accompanied by a certifiable indie hit. I give you as evidence E.R.'s Green Day "Time of Your Life" montage. TV this sappy - it has to be good.

After the unbelievable buzz that the "Lazy Sunday" video created, SNL had a lot riding on this, the first new episode of 2006. Save for the few mediocre sketches that we've come to expect, this was pretty good episode. Scarlett Johansson hosted (while she didn't mention it in her monologue, she's obviously promoting her new film Match Point) and she had some extremely funny moments. And just to clear it up now (for those of you who didn't see it) there was no Digital Short. But that's good because like anything on this show, if they overuse it then it gets old fast.

Cold Open - Interesting story about this. A good friend of mine works at NBC and every few weeks he gets to help with the audience duties at SNL. He was there last night and in case you couldn't figure it out, that Pat Robertson thing (while funny) wasn't supposed to open the show. He said there was a Hardball sketch which included Sudeikis as Tom Delay and Forte as Zell Miller but it died during the dress rehearsal so they cut it. The Robertson cartoon was supposed to be part of the "Darwin" bit that aired later but they squeezed it out and put it at the front of the show. Hard to believe that Hardball was that unfunny, but Pat Robertson claiming that Fred The Baker was killed because he desecrated bread and filled it with Bavarian creme was hilarious.

Saturday Night Live has lined up some pretty impressive talent to host the show this month. I'm sure the first host, Scarlett Johansson, will boost the ratings. Her appearance, on January 14th, coincides with the release of the first of two Woody Allen movies that she stars in. She seems like a gutsy gal, so hopefully the SNL writers can come up with some bold sketches for her. The band Death Cab for Cutie is scheduled to perform the same night. And on January 21 is Peter Sarsgaard, who has had supporting roles in Jarhead, Flightplan, Kinsey, The Skeleton Key, and was terrific in Zach Braff's Garden State. I can't find a whole lot about Peter's background on the internet-- I was wondering whether he had any experience in improv or stand-up comedy, but I can't tell. And, I'm not sure what his appearance coincides with since IMDB lists his last flick as Jarhead, which doesn't come out on DVD until March. The musical guest pairing up with Sarsgaard is The Strokes. Wouldn't it be nice if these actors could get some good sketches on SNL?