SethMeyers-related stories
Posted Oct 18th 2009 2:03PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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.
Continue reading Review: Saturday Night Live - Gerard Butler/Shakira
Posted Oct 11th 2009 10:29AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Drew Barrymore/Regina Spektor
Posted Oct 4th 2009 2:38PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: TV Royalty, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
(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.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga
Posted Sep 27th 2009 3:03AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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.
Jenny Slate, welcome to the big time.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Megan Fox/U2 (season premiere)
Posted Jul 31st 2009 9:00AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Amy Poehler is returning to Saturday Night Live ... sort of. She's not actually going to be on the show during its usual Saturday performance, but rather on
the Weekend Update Thursday spin-off. She'll be sitting behind the anchor desk with her co-host Seth Meyers.
Frankly, it's a good way to launch the second season of her NBC show
Parks & Recreation. Obviously, NBC is trying to copy the success of having Tina Fey do her Sarah Palin impression for a couple of Thursdays (and indirectly promote
30 Rock as a result).
I'm an Amy Poehler fan, so I think more of her on television is a good thing. I liked her back during her Upright Citizen Brigade days (and have seen her perform live several times with the troupe).
I only wonder how
Weekend Update Thursday will fare without a big media event like the last election to use as fodder. I'm sure they'll think of something.
Posted May 17th 2009 12:40PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E23) Wow. Way to go, Will Ferrell. Maybe they should just bring back
Saturday Night Live alumni for season finales from now on, because this episode was spectacular. Ferrell brought back some old favorites and a slew of famous faces, from the familiar to the inexplicable, including Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway and Artie Lange. Here are some video highlights from the evening (Hulu vids are US only. Sorry, kids... you can also watch these videos
at NBC's website).
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Will Ferell/Green Day (season finale)
Posted May 10th 2009 3:32PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E22) Justin Timberlake returned for his third turn as host and it was tough not to keep expectations pretty high. I mean, if an vengeful warlock were to suddenly put a crippling curse on his music career (like they do), Timberlake could definitely fall back on being a professional
SNL host. Yes, this would become a real profession, just for him.
As usual, some sketches fell a bit flat, but Timberlake's over-confident, hammy swagger made things a little more interesting. This particular episode also gave us another legendary musical Digital Short with Timberlake and Andy Samberg and a couple of all-around MILFs. It's tough to top a surprise appearance by Leonard effin' Nimoy, but "Motherlover" was certainly the highlight of the evening. Here are some other notable video moments!
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Justin Timberlake/Ciara
Posted May 4th 2009 4:29PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Upfronts, Reality-Free
It looks like
NBC is going to expand Saturday Night Live's "
Weekend Update" segment with more half-hour specials, most likely on Thursday nights. Judging by the success of
SNL and its Thursday night election specials during the campaign season, this move isn't too surprising. Plus, this is a progressive step in reaching the network's ultimate goal, which seems to be filling the airwaves with as many former
SNL employees as possible. Actually, the next season of
Celebrity Apprentice is probably just going to be all the early-90s players that aren't doing movies right now. And Rob Schneider. That guy isn't doing anything.
Continue reading NBC thought you said you wanted more Weekend Update
Posted May 4th 2009 12:22PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, The Apprentice, Law and Order, Saturday Night Live, The Office, Heroes, Pickups and Renewals, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Upfronts, Chuck, Parks and Recreation
There weren't a lot of surprises at
NBC's "In Front" presentation this morning. As already leaked,
Parks & Recreation,
Heroes, and
Southland have been renewed, joining the already announced
30 Rock,
The Office,
The Celebrity Apprentice,
Friday Night Lights,
The Biggest Loser and
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
There's still no word on
Law & Order's bid for a 20th season,
nor did they clarify the fate of Chuck, though insiders feel confident both will be back. Back on the bubble is
Medium, which was leaked as renewed last night, along with
My Name Is Earl. Their fates are a bit more murky, especially
Earl considering NBC is giving
Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" a prime-time berth, apparently launching NBC's Thursday night.
Continue reading NBC announces four new dramas, two new comedies to fall lineup
Posted Apr 22nd 2009 11:04AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Bill Hader and Seth Meyers (the latter of whom is the head writer for
Saturday Night Live) will be writing
Spider-Man ...
the comic book, not the next movie. Their single-issue story is called "The Short Halloween" (which I presume is a parody of a Batman comic story called "The Long Halloween") and will be in finer comic book shops on May 13.
This isn't the first time a comedy writer has written a comic book. I recall Gilbert Gotfried helping out with an issue of
Superboy and Patton Oswalt writing a one-shot
Justice League special, among others. While I don't think this will get the same level of publicity as
Barack Obama being on a Spider-Man cover, it's kind of cool to hear about. I wonder if Spider-Man will sing his own rendition of "Dick In A Box".
In short, comedians are huge nerds. But this is nothing you didn't know before.
[via ComicMix]Posted Apr 12th 2009 12:35PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E21) When it came to everything unrelated to jazz hands, my expectations for Zac Efron were pretty low. Then again, there was part of me that kept thinking back to Justin Timberlake's first time hosting; he was just another song-and-dance good guy but the enthusiasm and craziness he brought to his performances blew everyone away. Okay, so Efron didn't do as well as Timberlake, but as the evening progressed, Efron seemed to get a little more comfortable and delivered a not-too-cingeworthy performance. Consider that a massive victory.
Here are some video highlights from the evening.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Zac Efron/Yeah Yeah Yeahs - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 5th 2009 1:44PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E20) Seth Rogen returned to host for the second time to promote his new mall cop movie (yeah, I know). Unlike
last time, when there were one or two stand-out sketches, this episode didn't have any particularly memorable moments. However, there were Muppets, Mogwai and a thinner Seth Rogen involved, so maybe things weren't too horrible.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Seth Rogen/Phoenix - VIDEOS
Posted Feb 8th 2009 5:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E15) Bradley Cooper, who are you and what are you doing on
Saturday Night Live? I IMDb'd him before watching the episode and despite having seen many of his projects, I still couldn't attach him to anything. Is he best known for something? Or is
He's Just Not That Into You his big break-out? Well, regardless, his performance in this episode wasn't mind-blowing, but at least it wasn't cringe-worthy either (exceptions can be considered for the Christian Bale sketch). The writers didn't give him anything terribly exciting and in the end we were left with a pretty forgettable episode. Here are some video highlights.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Bradley Cooper/TV On The Radio - VIDEOS
Posted Feb 1st 2009 3:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E14) This episode marked Steve Martin's 15th time hosting and one millionth appearance on
SNL. My expectations are always a high for a returning show-favorite, as I picture the whole week of writing and rehearsals to be a wild, wild party praising the host and, between celebratory keg stands, they write bang-up material that uses the host to their full potential. Yes, it's my own fault for thinking like that because I'm inevitably let down, but every once in a while there's a hit. This episode was all right in general, but it certainly wasn't worthy of Steve Martin. Here are some video highlights from the night.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Steve Martin/Jason Mraz - VIDEOS
Posted Jan 18th 2009 1:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S34E13) I don't have much of an opinion on Rosario Dawson. I've seen a few of her movies, like
Clerks 2 and
Death Proof, but instead of blowing my mind with every film, she's left me in a state of indifference. I'm sure there are plenty of gentlemen here who strongly differ. Sorry, boys.
That said, Dawson did a pretty good job hosting this episode. The writing wasn't particularly exciting, but Dawson's delivery was smooth and very professional. Just like Neil Patrick Harris from the previous week, her enthusiasm was very evident and greatly appreciated. Here are some video highlights from the night.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Rosario Dawson/Fleet Foxes - VIDEOS
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