TVSquad

How are you? That's good. I just wanted to take a moment from your usual reading of sitcom/drama/reality stuff and tell you about some specials and documentaries popping up this month that looked rather interesting to me. I hope you think so, too. Here's what I found:

If you like music, PBS has two specials coming up you might like: Great Performances: We Love Ella! A Tribute to the First Lady of Song, and Paul Simon: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The Ella special, which features contemporary artists performing songs by iconic jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. The Paul Simon tribute will air on June 27, also at 9:00 p.m. Simon is the first songwriter to receive the prize, and will be honored during a ceremony featuring several singers, songwriters, and other people of note, including his former collaborator, Art Garfunkel.

I caught the video for Paul Simon's "Call Me Al" on VH1 Classic the other night, the one in which Chevy Chase lip syncs to the song, and it got me thinking about other funny music videos. I thought it would be a great idea for one of these "The Five" lists we bloggers love so much, and as I was racking my brain I realized I could just simply list five Weird Al Yankovic videos.

But no, Adam loves a challenge, so Weird Al is off limits. After the jump, check out the five videos I came up with, along with a little help from my pal Wild Bill. Throw down some of your own suggestions in the comments.

Let's rock:

(S31E19) This is one of those shows that no matter what I write in the following paragraphs, people are going to disagree with me. I really do think that as this season has progressed, it's gotten stronger. Early episodes in this season weren't as good and as readers have pointed out, I was far more critical of those earlier episodes. Well, there's a reason for that. I think they've steadily gotten better, save for the crappy sketch here and there and or the few horrible episodes we did get this season (Dane Cook was a huge disappointment). Last night's episode with Elaine... er, I mean Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say here. This was a solid episode with a few huge errors, the biggest in my opinion being a "Weekend Update" that ran in at just over 14 minutes. That's way too long.

Most people don't think of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an SNL alumnus; sure, it's been mentioned here and there, and she did participate in the various show retrospectives that aired last year. But, unlike Will Ferrel, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and any number of big names that came from the show, when you hear JLD's name, the first thing you think of is Seinfeld, not SNL.

That might be because Julia wasn't used all that much during her time on the show, which was from 1982 to 1985. That was especially true in the classic "Short - Crystal - Guest - Shearer" season of 1984-1985, as the star power of that year overwhelmed whatever semi-known cast member was left over from previous years. Pre-Seinfeld, JLD was probably on the SNL fame meter somewhere around the Melanie Hutsell level.