Posts with tag WillForte
Posted Jul 21st 2008 12:42PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

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.
Continue reading SNL's election coverage, and Jimmy Fallon will start online - TCA Report
Posted May 18th 2008 1:05PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Steve Carell/Usher (season finale) - VIDEOS
Posted May 11th 2008 11:58AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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!
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 13th 2008 12:26PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, The Daily Show, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(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.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Ashton Kutcher/Gnarls Barkley - VIDEOS
Posted Apr 6th 2008 1:20PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Video, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S33E09) The weird thing about Christopher Walken's legendary
Saturday Night Live performances is that they all suck. Seriously, think about it. His delivery is jaunty and weird, and when he's not awkwardly staring into the middle distance, he's just glaring directly at the cue cards. All these elements combined should throw him in the realm of the crappiest hosts.
... And yet he consistently pulls it off and makes even the worst sketches absolutely brilliant. How is that? Walken is just inherently awesome, I suppose. It's really the only logical explanation. This episode in particular was very poorly written; I'm sure most of the sketches look absolutely pathetic transcribed on paper. However, Walken's aforementioned jaunty awesomeness made it one of the best episodes of the season. He's done it again, folks. I expect a second "
SNL: Best of Christopher Walken" DVD is in the works.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Christopher Walken/Panic! At the Disco - VIDEOS
Posted Mar 3rd 2008 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Late Night, Saturday Night Live, Watercooler Talk, Celebrities

It wasn't April 1st so it couldn't be April Fool's Day. It was March 1st. Still, there she was, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton saying those famous words, "Live from New York, It's
Saturday Night Live."
In an unannounced and potentially savvy political move,
Senator Hillary Clinton, appeared on the NBC late night comedy and showed that she can laugh at herself. This surprise appearance, coupled with her agreeing to be on Monday's
Daily Show with Jon Stewart, can only help her in Tuesday's primaries in Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. It's pretty much desperation time for the Clinton candidacy and if Hillary wants to make it to the Denver convention with a chance to beat Barack Obama, she must win Texas and Ohio -- the big states -- decisively.
Continue reading It's Hillary, Live from New York, on SNL
Posted Oct 14th 2007 3:02PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: OpEd, Saturday Night Live, Episode Reviews
(S33E03) "Amy Poehler: 1986": I thought that this was a great choice for a cold open! A young, big-haired Amy Poehler being visited by a magical poster version of Jon Bon Jovi? Fantastic. In general, it was really cute and made me feel a little better about Bon Jovi's hosting abilities. I mean, not that it really mattered because he barely appeared in this episode, not counting the musical performances. Hey, whatever it takes to promote
an album, right?
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 17th 2006 9:02AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, Late Night, OpEd, Saturday Night Live
(S32E09) Justin Timberlake's first hosting gig was absolutely fantastic, so I had high expectations for this episode. Although it wasn't as funny as his first time, I was still very pleased with the result. Actually, Timberlake was better than most "proper actor" hosts. I have a feeling that he'll be returning to host many more times in the future. The man's already established a few recurring characters and I can see him becoming an
SNL favorite. Look out, Alec Baldwin, JT's on his way.
I was kind of surprised that there was no sketch, let alone mention, of the crazy overuse of the phrase "I'm bringing sexy back" and every imaginable variation of it. Heck, Timberlake didn't even perform it. Perhaps it was for the best, because I know "SexyBack" would have been stuck in my head for another ten weeks or so.
Continue reading Saturday Night Live: Justin Timberlake - VIDEOS