(S35E03) Drew Barrymore is energy. Pure, almost-scary energy. It's disorienting to watch when one is bleary-eyed and staring at a tiny TV in the wee hours of the morning, but this trademark makes for consistent television-viewing. While the quality of Saturday Night Live's writing may waver from episode to episode, every time Drew Barrymore returns, one can safely expect absolute enthusiasm and a palpable willingness to step back and laugh at herself.
All right, little Ms. "I Extra-Love Female Empowerment," prepare for me to work that ego.... Especially when one compares her to the typical "hot girl" host (see: Megan Fox's SNL premiere), Barrymore doesn't box herself in and offers a lot more opportunity for fun characters. Would someone like Fox ever be willing to bolo it up to play Nina Wilkes Booth? I doubt it.
Yesterday, Leno mocked "Cash for Clunkers" by mocking up a "Cash for Flunkers" video. Tonight he tapped the same well with a "Cash for Chunkers" joke. I guess that's common in the late night arena, but I've never been a fan of using the same exact set-up on different nights to get a different joke. Unless you acknowledge how weak it is when you do it.
Tonight's correspondent was The Hangover's Rachael Harris, who came on to show us the lost art of bartering in this tough economic times. Like most of the other correspondent segments, it had some funny moments, but it just seemed to go on forever.
Drew Barrymore is the first star to accept a challenge to test her green driving skills during Leno's show. She'll get behind the wheel of a high-powered electric car on Sept. 19, facing off against another Hollywood racer.
Leno recently told Access Hollywood, "The fun thing about it, there's a lot of people ... perhaps athletes and people like this who are not good talkers but would be fun in this sort of environment -- to see if Shaquille O'Neal is faster than Cameron Diaz."
He helped E.T. phone home, and now former child actor Henry Thomas will be appearing on CSIas a convicted murderer that is serving a prison sentence. You keep hearing about child stars who go bad, but judging by his IMDB profile, Thomas has managed to keep out of trouble and keep working.
I'm glad Thomas had a more normal childhood than his movie co-star Drew Barrymore. Of course, Drew ended up becoming a bigger name in show biz, but the business is fickle and this appearance could set Thomas into more visible roles. Wouldn't that be a hoot if Thomas and Barrymore appeared once more together in a television show or movie (besides reunion shows)? If he's not done raping the stuff he made 20 years ago, perhaps Spielberg could do a sequel to E.T.
On second thought, that's a really bad idea. Let's leave the past in the past.
(S05E06) The story for this week's episode was more involved, which is a good thing. A little plot goes a long way. When the plot gets too thin everything rides on the gags, and it is hard to pull off an episode with just gags. While the sex-ed story has been told many times, I liked the Family Guy take on it.
It gave them a good reason to bring out slutty Lois, and slutty Lois is usually pretty funny, like when she was trying to explain the wonders of sex to Meg. Or showing up for role-playing night dressed as Grimace? Good stuff.
(S05E05) I'm beginning to think of this as the Brian & Stewie show. Again this week, their story was much better than the Peter story. With Peter's injured hand, the setup was good, but it kind of headed downhill from there. The opening with Quagmire smuggling the fireworks into the country ("Yeah, that's just as fun."), Chris playing David Koresh and the heavy handed FBI agent, and Stewie ignoring Peter's missing fingers while asking for more juice was great. Finally something for Meg to do too.
Yesterday, Leno mocked "Cash for Clunkers" by mocking up a "Cash for Flunkers" video. Tonight he tapped the same well with a "Cash for Chunkers" joke. I guess that's common in the late night arena, but I've never been a fan of using the same exact set-up on different nights to get a different joke. Unless you acknowledge how weak it is when you do it.
Jay Leno is sure mixing it up on his new TV show. Mike recently reported that 
He helped E.T. phone home, and now former child actor Henry Thomas 
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