TVSquad

Just wanted to post a quick report about yesterday's late-afternoon Saturday Night Live panel. On the panel was (new TCA Career Achievement award winner) Lorne Michaels, Weekend Update anchor and co-head-writer Seth Meyers, and cast members Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte, and Casey Wilson.

Given the comedy star power on stage, the panel was strangely unfunny. That's probably because Michaels answered most of the questions. Anyway, two pieces of news came out of this panel:

• SNL will run live 30-minute Thursday election specials in primetime starting October 9 and running until the election. The specials will feature Weekend Update but may also have sketches. There will also be a primetime "Presidential Bash" episode the night before the election.
• Michaels mentioned that Jimmy Fallon will air his show online for "five or six months" before it airs in Conan O'Brien's old timeslot, in order to give it a headstart in finding its creative legs. "We learned with Conan how brutal it was to find a show when it was on the air," he said.

Yesterday we reported that Amy Poehler had been offered the lead on The Office spinoff (or not-spinoff, as the case may be). Today, Poehler herself is confirming the rumor. She tells the AP, "I can kind of confirm that I will be working in some capacity on that show," but goes on to say that "I don't really have any other details yet."

Poehler has been a castmember on Saturday Night Live since 2001and is currently the co-host of Weekend Update. She will remain on SNL through the fall, but with her baby due in October and now this new show, her role in the second half of the season is up in the air.

It's been a big week for Poehler, who in addition to the new job offer, also received an Emmy nomination this morning for outstanding actress in a comedy series for her work on SNL. Her husband, Will Arnett, also scored an Emmy nod, for his guest appearance on NBC's 30 Rock.

Need more Emmys scoop? Get reactions to the biggest Emmys snubs and surprises and see which celebrities sparkled on the Emmys red carpet last year.

Of the many achievements George Carlin had in his long career, one that gets underplayed a bit is that he was the guest host on the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live -- then called NBC's Saturday Night, thanks to Howard Cosell -- in 1975. Not a bad choice, I'd have to say; since the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" were only a part of that first episode (there was a lot of music and odd Muppets about ... the show took some time to find itself), they needed Carlin to carry a lot of the comedic load. And that he did, giving the audience a number of his best routines from that time period.

As a tribute to the recently-deceased comedy legend, NBC will air the entire premiere episode of SNL this Saturday night. For those who have never seen the premiere before (it's on a DVD set of the complete first season), it'll be interesting to see how different the first episode is from the SNL format they know and hate-love today. I'll be DVRing it; will you?

To give you a taste, the opening monologue -- an early version of Carlin's classic "Baseball and Football" routine -- is after the jump.

One of the most famous Saturday Night Live alums is returning to the show for a "best of" special. Mike Myers will host an evening of his best work in a primetime special. The comedian will introduce his most memorable sketches in front of a live studio audience. Some current SNL cast members will join him: Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig.

Mike Myers can also be seen in The Love Guru this summer. The film, which also stars Jessica Alba, introduces us to yet another Myers' character, the Guru Pitka.

I loved Myers' characters from Saturday Night Live. I'm sure we'll see Wayne Campbell, Dieter, Linda Richman (my personal favorite), and young Simon who likes to do drawings. Are you looking forward to a particular character or skit?

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Mike Myers will air on June 15 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

This past weekend (May 24) marked the fourth anniversary of the death of comic and writer Drake Sather. No one knows what goes on in the mind of someone who takes their own life, but this guy was brilliant and quite funny. Besides his great standup work, he was a writer and producer on NewsRadio (he also played Jimmy James' attorney in two different episodes of the show), and also wrote for such shows as Saturday Night Live, Ed, The Dennis Miller Show, Sammy,The Naked Truth, Empty Nest, and The Larry Sanders Show. He also wrote the movie Zoolander.

After the jump is a standup routine from Sather, filmed at the San Diego Improv in 1992 (split up into three different videos). It's actually rather amazing that a lot of funny bits and lines that I've used over the past 10 years came from Sather.

So sad, but his work does live on.

This award is for the show that was renewed for this fall that, damn it, should just be canceled already!

I'm sure when everyone read that line the first show that snapped into their heads was ABC's According To Jim, so I'm sure that's definitely going to be one of the nominees. Other shows I can think of putting in this category are NBC's Law and Order (please, the "ripped from the headlines" is used so much now it's almost like a parody of itself), NBC's The Apprentice (whenever a reality show goes to celebrity editions you know it's time to hang it up), NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly (really, this has to be one of the "who cares" shows on TV right now), and ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos (how many times can we see a dad hit in the balls?). I also thought of putting ER on the list but, since this fall is definitely the last season, it's at the bottom of the list for possible contenders.

What primetime shows do you think should be nominated? Maybe one of the CSI shows? I'm sure SNL will get some votes, though I don't agree.

(S33E12) To ensure a strong season finale, Saturday Night Live made a very smart choice to go with Steve Carell. He is an incredible comedic performer and his first hosting stint went pretty well, so I wasn't surprised to see him pull it off again this time around. Actually, this picture is from the first time Carell hosted. Is it weird that I've had it sitting on my desktop since then? Yes, probably. Anyway, the material was better than some of the other episodes', with a few spectacular highlights, including the hilarious digital short.

• At 8, FOX has a new Cops.
• TLC has two new episodes of Flip That House at 8.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
• BBC America has a new Robin Hood at 9, followed by a new Graham Norton Show.
• Cartoon Network has two new episodes of Naruto starting at 9, then a new Blue Dragon.
• At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• At 11, FOX has the season finale of Mad TV, then the season finale of Talk Show with Spike Feresten.
• At 11:30, NBC has the season finale of Saturday Night Live, with Steve Carell and Usher.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S01E7) Originally aired on April 30, 1996.

It's easy to forget just how funny this show was. It's not just that it had a bunch of funny material and a talented cast (including Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Robert Smigel), it's that the batting average for each show was damn good. There's more funny stuff in each 30 minutes of a Dana Carvey Show episode than in 90 minutes of Saturday Night Live or even SCTV. No dead moments to sit through. I'm not sure why this show was so short-lived (other than the fact that the first episode featured Carvey as President Clinton, suckling a bunch of cats on his teats). And ratings, ratings, blah, blah, blah.

It was actually kinda hard to pick a standout episode since so many episodes have a lot of great stuff. But I think the video after the jump has some classic moments.

(S33E11) I honestly was not worried about Shia LaBeouf delivering a less than stellar performance, as his first stint on Saturday Night Live showed that he works well with the cast and is naturally very goofy. With a funny guy like this, one can only pray that the writers use him as much as possible and work super-hard to give him embarrassingly crazy sketches. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Again. The writing was okay, but it did not do LaBeouf justice. Also, there seemed to be a strange flow to the episode, as the energy of sketches would start dying halfway through and eventually end on a really weird line. Let's hope the writers aren't already losing steam. They still have a season finale!

• FOX has the Sprint Cup: Dodge Challenger 500 NASCAR race all night.
• At 8, TLC has a new Flip That House, then a new Date My House.
• Nickelodeon has a new iCarly at 8, followed by new episodes of Naked Brothers Band and Dance on Sunset.
• At 9, CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show.
• Lifetime has the new movie Mom, Dad, and Her at 9.
• TruTV has a new Missing Persons Unit at 9.
• Also at 9: BBC America has a new Robin Hood, then a new Graham Norton Show, with guests Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers.
• At 10, CBS has a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• TLC has a new Moving Up at 10.
• At 11:30, NBC has a new Saturday Night Live, with guests Shia LaBeouf and My Morning Jacket.

Check your local TV listings for more.

With just two episodes left in the current season of Saturday Night Live, fans are eagerly awaiting news about the final host. Yeah? No? Just me? All right.

Well, Me, good news! We knew Shia LaBoeuf and My Morning Jacket would be taking on the May 10 episode in what will most likely be another youthful crowd-pleaser, but here comes word that the final episode will be hosted Steve Carell and musical guest Usher. Yeah, that ol' dream team. Both LaBoeuf and Carell will be on their second hosting stints and, if their first times were any indication, they will deliver strong performances. I mean, assuming the writing does justice to their comedic talent.

TV commercials are fairly easy to satirize. If you think about it, advertising is sort of ridiculous in the first place (a TV show is interrupted to ask you to buy toilet paper and gum?), so they're a natural for parody. There have been a lot of great parodies over the years, from shows such as Saturday Night Live and SCTV, and now Nerve has picked the 50 that they consider to be the best.

There are a lot of great choices, from SNL's "Colon Blow," "Schmitt's Gay Beer," and "Compulsion by Calvin Klein" to the Zoloft ad from Mad TV. One of my favorites is SNL's "Happy Fun Ball" spot, which was written by Jack Handey and included in his new book of essays What I'd Say To The Martians. It's a good list all around, though it's also one that I feel is missing a bunch of good ones, only I can't put my finger on which ones are missing at the moment.

The one they pick as number one is undoubtedly a classic, though I think it's overrated. I've always loved the one after the jump.

If you're at this site, that means you love television, and if you love television, you have some pretty strong opinions when it comes to its content, its history, its future. So let's fight about it.

After the jump are five opinions/ideas that I have. You're probably not going to agree with me on some of them (or any of them), but I think they're a great jumping-off point to get some arguments intelligent discussions going. Be warned that the following contains opinions that are probably going to tick you off and maybe even some that will make you think I've lost my mind.

(S33E10) Considering the fact that Ashton Kutcher has hosted the show two times previous to this, I expected a lot more sketches that would let him cut loose and go crazy. We already know that he can be a decent host, and I felt like they didn't use him to his full potential. I also fully understand that I'm simultaneously talking about the importance of range and Ashton Kutcher of That 70s Show and Punk'd.

That said, this episode was mediocre, but at least it was consistently chuckle-worthy. There were only one or two sketches that were a bit painful to get through.