TVSquad

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with numbers 30-21, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the numerous stand-up comedians who became sitcom stars. In this installment we look at one particular TV comedy that made stars out of a number of actors and actresses.

I'm talking about NBC's Saturday Night Live. Since its premiere in 1975, the late-night sketch show has given us a slew of actors and actresses who have made the move onto both the big and small screen. Sometimes the move was towards more comedy, sometimes it was a switch to more serious roles, other times it was a little bit of both. And, while many of those who made it are still in the public eye these days, some of the greatest of those who came from Studio 8H had their careers snuffed out way too early.

The amount of those who rose to the top varied from cast to cast. Some casts, like the very first one, produced a whole slew of talent who went on to bigger and better things. Others, like the first casts from 1980-85 and the mid-1990s, produced very little in the way of big stars.

Eddie Murphy will star in the big screen remake of the popular series Fantasy Island.

I'll let that first sentence soak in. Ready? Okay, let's continue:

Murphy, much like in the Nutty Professor and Norbit, will play multiple roles in the adaptation of the series which starred Ricardo Montalban and Hervé Villechaize, ran from 1978 to 1984, and always creeped me the heck out when I was a kid. I'm not sure why it creeped me out, but it did. Hey, I was young and my parents watched it, plus I was kind of a wuss anyway. Maybe it was Montalban's accent.

In the original series, Montalban played Mr. Roarke, the caretaker of a mystical island where visitors could have any fantasy fulfilled, but there was always a catch.

Norbit screenwriters Jay Scherick and David Ronn are re-writing the script, and no director is attached to the project at this time.

[via Moviehole]

American Idol's oh-so-brutally-honest judge Simon Cowell wasn't always quite so brutally honest. In fact, back in the 1980s, Simon was so intimidated by mega-star Eddie Murphy, that he didn't have the nerve to tell him that the songs he had written were complete and utter crap.

Simon recalls how he went to Eddie's home, expecting it to be "just the two of us and one hi-fi." Instead, he found himself in "a recording studio with about 20 nodders; a nodder is someone who gets paid to agree with the person paying him."

Ex-Idol finalist Jennifer Hudson was awarded the 2007 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture during tonight's award show. Even though I don't particularly like film adaptations of stage productions (don't even get me started on how much I hated Rent or The Producers), I did enjoy Dreamgirls and was blown away by Hudson's spectacular performance (both her singing and acting were incredible). She not only holds her own in a film full of major stars -- such as Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy, and Jamie Foxx -- she pretty much steals the show.

Sad news to report on this Christmas Day. James Brown, the true 'Godfather of Soul' passed away earlier today at the age of 73 due to complications from pneumonia. Mr. Brown wasn't a television star, although he did appear in numerous talk, variety and award shows, but he was imitated and emulated by many other TV performers during his lifetime.

One such imitator was comedian Eddie Murphy, who would regularly add impressions of James Brown to his stand-up routines. This eventually fed into his appearances during his run on Saturday Night Live. The clip you'll see after the jump was from, I believe, one of his guest appearances on the show . . . after he left for movie stardom in the mid-80's. It's entitled 'James Brown's Celebrity Hot Tub'. There are no celebrities (other than a picture of Dr. Joyce Brothers sitting in the hot tub with Eddie/James). There's just Eddie performing an extremely good impression of James as he is about to get into the hot tub.

In my opinion, it is one of the more memorable skits that Eddie performed on SNL. You can see the video after the jump.

Finally! Former American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson has signed a record deal with powerhouse producer Clive Davis, who also has Aretha Franklin and Barry Manilow, along with other Idol winners, on his label. Hudson was on the third season of American Idol, where she was the sixth contestant (in the top 12) voted off the show. There was a lot of outrage after Hudson was ousted-- even Elton John weighed in and called Americans racist for voting Hudson off the show. Apparently it took a role on Dreamgirls, alongside Beyonce, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy--plus, some love from Oprah--to get Clive Davis' attention. I look forward to a Jennifer Hudson album. This girl has one hell of a voice, and a sassy attitude to match!

What can you say about Inside the Actor's Studio that hasn't already been said by a hundred parodies and humorists' impersonations? It will always be galling to hear hack actors talk about their "craft" and to hear James Lipton wax poetic about the farcial tour de force that is Half-Baked.

The show, however, is inspired precisely because it doesn't make the distinction between "movie stars" and "actors" in the way that most viewers do. It's like Charlie Rose meets Entertainment Weekly - celebrity journalism that aims for something higher.

Inside the Actor's Studio returns to Bravo for a new season on December 18th. In this outing of the 12-time Emmy-nominated series, James Lipton sits down with Eddie Murphy, Matt Damon, Forest Whitaker and Kyra Sedgwick. You can almost hear Lipton's careful intonation, "And, then, you turned your attention to outer space - from fat suit to space suit - with The Adventures of Pluto Nash."

Joining the ranks of Frosty, Rankin-Bass' Rudolph and Charlie Brown's lonely Christmas tree is everyone's favorite ogre Shrek.

DreamWorks Animation SKG will be producing an original half-hour holiday special for ABC. The special Shrek the Halls will feature the voices of the entire original cast - Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas.

We won't be seeing holiday-themed Shrek on the air until 2007. Why? Well, animation done right takes time, but so does building a lasting franchise. According to DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, the events of Shrek the Halls will pick up after the events of the yet-to-be-released third Shrek film.

I'm sure the Shrek special will be great, but can anyone really top a dentist elf, unhappy Yeti and misfit reindeer? Shrek is so postmodern in its sensibility that I'm sure it will be incorporating references to all the classic holiday specials anyway. It's the dawning of a hyper-referential pop culture Christmas.

The Boston Phoenix has another list (they've been doing this a lot lately), and this one lists what they think are the best and worst movie performances from Saturday Night Live cast members. While it's great to have Bill Murray number one, it's for Ghostbusters?! What about Lost In Translation? Or Stripes? Or Rushmore? How about Groundhog Day? (Same thing with Janeane Garofalo - they pick Wet Hot American Summer?)

Among the best: Eddie Murphy in Bevery Hills Cop, Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer, and Harry Shearer in This Is Spinal Tap. Among the worst: Eddie Murphy in The Adventures Of Pluto Nash, Adam Sandler in The Waterboy, and Jimmy Fallon in Fever Pitch.

OK, SNL fans, who's missing from this list?

Jennifer Hudson is looking great as one of the singers in Dreamgirls, a Broadway musical that Dreamworks is bringing to the big screen. The production company released some behind-the-scenes video on its website in which Jennifer is featured prominently. She plays Effie White, one in a trio of black female soul singers who cross over to the pop music charts in the early 1960s. While previous reports I cited back in November claimed that Hudson landed the lead in the movie, the behind-the-scenes video and the trailer tell a different story. I believe she is actually a supporting actor to big names like Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy. Hopefully Jen makes some good connections on this flick that lead to more opportunities in Hollywood. She was a feisty gal with a lot of fans when she was on Season 3 of American Idol.

[Via Pop Candy]