The full joke went, "When we're in Wascilla (sic), it's chill, baby, chilla/In the bedroom with Todd, it's drill, baby, drilla." That's weird, Take out the "with Todd" and you've got an exact quote from Levi Johnston's MySpace page (that joke so would have killed in 2008).
(S35E06) There was a strange moment of nodding recognition at the end of the night, as I watched Jason Sudeikis and January Jones in the cloud-gazing sketch. Throughout, the man pauses to consider the woman's weird behavior and then concedes, "Ohh, you're a very pretty, pretty woman." Yup. That's pretty much how I reacted the entire night, especially during really bad sketches like the farting Grace Kelly (take a moment to think about that: Farting. Grace. Kelly.)
Jones was kind of a stiff host with not particularly daring material, but, goodness gracious, her real-life 50s Barbie prettiness was mesmerizing. Her performances in the mid-century instructional video and the aforementioned cloud-gazing sketch were the best of the evening, but that's not saying much since the rest of her appearances were strange and wooden. Even her good night felt like it had been programmed in and auto-tuned for maximum polite insincerity.
It was an eventful week in TV, especially for fans of Mad Men. This week, Jason Hughes and Bob Sassone join me to talk about the show's finale and what may be in store for next season. We also talk about:
Why November sweeps don't mean as much as they used to,
Another dip into our Ask TV Squad mailbag, where we discuss why we promote SlashControl and other AOL-related ventures,
Paul Mooney is well known to stand-up comedians for his own work and for writing for his longtime friend, Richard Pryor. Outside of that, though, his name recognition gets a little fuzzier. So for TV comedy fans, Mooney's new memoir, Black Is the New White, provides some great behind-the-scenes moments they should probably know.
There are a lot of heartfelt stories about Richard Pryor and Mooney's own personal life, but there is a lot of fun TV trivia, as well. Mooney talks about getting forced onstage by a couple of friends to do his first solo stand-up spot in the early 60s in San Francisco. Mooney is drunk and nervous, and winds up doing the act of a comic named Ronnie Schell, who would later co-star with Jim Nabors on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Mooney admits whenever he catches the show in reruns, he feels a little guilty.
(S35E05) I had to talk myself through being allowed to criticize Taylor Swift. Ever since Kanye West VMA outburst turned everyone in America into Swift's over-protective mom, she's been shown even more as an innocent country-inspired sweetheart. Every time she messed up in this episode, I felt the need to hold back any not-super-great remarks because, well, she's a teeny-bopper! Teeny-boppers are just kids goofin' around!
And then I have to pause and remind myself that she's almost 20-years-old, around the same age as Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Page when they first hosted and Abby Elliiott when she initially joined the featured players. Screw it, there's no need to hold back. Swift is a musician, so we can't expect her acting skills to be super-good, but the fact I keep thinking she's only 14 shouldn't affect anything else.
(S35E04) I remember sitting down and staring at Gerard Butler as he made funny, smarmy faces at the camera. And then I blinked, only to see Butler was thanking the cast and viewers for a wonderful show. I looked on the computer screen. There were half-remembered notes haphazardly tapped out at some point.
Somehow, I had jumped forward ninety minutes. Had I finally mastered short-term time travel? Or did I just watch an incredibly forgettable episode of Saturday Night Live? Probably the latter. However, I vaguely recall a destructive robot adorably struggling through a wall. If that was actually a dream and not real life, please don't tell me.
(S35E02) After that Jenny Slate f-bomb nonsense and Megan Fox's not terribly original hot girl material from the season premiere, it was exciting to see a really solid episode (and a star-studded one, at that). Ryan Reynolds did a fantastic job as host (snaps for his wavering voice during the porcelain fountains sketch and accent in SYTYCD), though he didn't have any major stand-out roles. Did I miss the memo that Lady Gaga wasn't just musical guest but co-host as well? Such a role is normally left up to Ryan Reynolds' giant biceps.
It's been a while since we've seen such consistently enjoyable writing in an episode. Usually, there's a distinct lull during the course of the 90 minutes, but I didn't feel it this time. Hopefully, this is a good indication of the rest of the season.
For those who missed it (or weren't on the east coast) on Saturday night, new SNLer Jenny Slate managed to do something in her first-ever sketch that hadn't been accomplished on the show in 28 years: she let loose with an f-bomb.
In the sketch, Slate and Kristin Wiig play biker chicks, and instead of saying "friggin'" or "freakin'" or any of the other substitutes they were supposed to use, Slate actually uttered the words "and I fuckin' love you for that." See the video below. The look on her face after she just realizes what she did is even more priceless than the f-bomb itself:
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
Yes, Saturday Night Live new girl Jenny Slate's f-bomb was the most thrilling part of the show's otherwise bland 35th season premiere. It's not like we've never heard that word before, and it's not like accidental verbal naughtiness has never happened on SNL (I still distinctly remember my extra-young self watching Cheri Oteri cringing as she contributed to the swear jar), but the pain still felt fresh with hot embarrassment.
This was partially due to the fact that it's just a generally bad thing to have happen on a player's first show (and in such a mediocre sketch, at that) but mostly because of this face that she made after she caught her boo-boo. Twitter exploded with people's camera phone pics of this one moment.
I'm sure she'd say she's too old for regular television work, or that she's having too much fun guest-starring on every television show and half of the movies, but I just can't get enough of Betty White on TV. With it coming out now that Betty White has signed for a guest spot on NBC's 30 Rock, she might as well start making room on the mantle for her latest Emmy.
After all, 30 Rock gets all the nominees for guest star in a comedy (though White did get nominated for My Name Is Earl this past year). Reportedly White would play herself, which works well considering the premise of the show. 30 Rock does amazing comedy with their guest stars, and when you get someone as brilliant and talented as White, can it be anything but perfect?
Luckily, White wouldn't have to compete for that Emmy with another hot prospect for the folks at 30 Rock. After his Emmy-winning turn hosting Saturday Night Live, why wouldn't they want to nab Justin Timberlake as well?
Some more sad news from Tinseltown. Movie star and recent television star Patrick Swayze has lost his 20 month battle with pancreatic cancer at his ranch in Los Angeles. He was 57 years old.
Barbara Walters will air the actor's final television interview in a one hour special titled Last Dance tonight at 10 PM eastern/9 PM central on ABC.
He's probably best known for his work on the big screen in movies like Ghost, Dirty Dancing and (of course) the timeless Road House, a movie that became a cult sensation for all the wrong reasons and helped birth the sense of humor of MST3K and Rifftrax'sMichael J. Nelson. But like all Hollywood actors, he made his presence known on the small screen, and his reach goes much further than his recent venture into cable drama glory with A&E's The Beast.
It's one of those tasks that may look easy on the surface, but becomes increasingly difficult as you try to do it, as evidenced by the efforts of our sister (heh) site, Lemondrop.com. Some of their staff tried to do the same thing and ended up with what looked like mutated twin brothers of the U.S. that their parents keep locked in the basement and feed a bucket of fish heads once a week.
But Franken's mutant power (his X-Men name would be "Sketchy") dates back farther than his recent days of pandering to voters in an election that made the Dade County, Florida recount look like a jelly-bean counting contest.
I don't know if U2 has the same kind of pull on the kids today as they have had on my generation through the years, but in my eyes this is a pretty significant "get" for one of NBC's marquee shows.
The two newcomers will reportedly be Jenny Slate, who has appeared in the "7th Floor West" series of sketches on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the Iranian-born Nasim Pedrad, who had a one-woman show called Me, Myself, and Iran at The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. Both have worked with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe. (Note: although several sources have said the new additions are official, NBC's publicity department is not confirming it, as of about 11 AM today).
Now, either Megan Fox will be hosting the premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 26th, or the Internets are just taking this unconfirmed story from Life & Style Weekly and running with it. I hope she does host it, and I hope they let her go unscripted in her monologue, because if there's one thing Fox does do funny, it's try and speak intelligently.
At least we'll get the chance to remember what an amazing actress she is. Don't get me wrong, I teared up several times at the depth of her portrayal of Mikaela Banes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. When she was climbing all over that motorcycle with her ass hanging out of this shorts (right), you could really feel an emotional connection to the anguish her character was feeling at the thought of her boyfriend leaving for college.
Actually, Fox may be an amazing actress. Certainly she must have elevated Hope & Faith to new heights because I didn't even know she was in it. At least she's hot. I'm sure that's what most of the sketches would focus on anyway.
Here's a shocker: something from Sarah Palin's memoir that hasn't been disputed. 
It was an eventful week in TV, especially for fans of 
Paul Mooney is well known to stand-up comedians for his own work and for writing for his longtime friend, Richard Pryor. Outside of that, though, his name recognition gets a little fuzzier. So for TV comedy fans, Mooney's new memoir, Black Is the New White, provides some great behind-the-scenes moments they should probably know. 
(S35E01) Alternate title for this post: "New girl's f-bomb overshadows Megan Fox's slammin' bod."
I'm sure she'd say she's too old for regular television work, or that she's having too much fun guest-starring on every television show and half of the movies, but I just can't get enough of Betty White on TV. With it coming out now that 
Some more sad news from Tinseltown. Movie star and recent television star 
The Internet's series of tubes were glowing red hot last week when a video surfaced of 
It looks like 
Several sources have been following up on a report on Sean McCarthy's 
Now, either 
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
The Prisoner -- An early look
