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.

(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.

(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!

(S02E14) "This smells like hill people milk!" - Kenneth, during the drinking contest

Is it just me or was the first part of tonight's 30 Rock a little ... lacking in something? It just seemed to me to be off a little bit, from the change in the opening (no opening scene before the credits, just straight to the credits then the start of the show immediately following) to the lack of really laugh out loud lines (except for Jonathan's singing "I Will Remember You" to Jack and making him a bizarre collage), it seemed to be rather pedestrian, for a 30 Rock episode anyway. Maybe it was because there weren't too many Jack/Liz scenes.

But then halfway through is picked up and got better.

(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.

(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.

(S33E08) Cold Open: No surprise here, the first thing to get mocked was the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal. Bill Hader's impression was spot-on, as always, and Kristen Wiig did a great job as the pained Mrs. Spitzer. The overall skit was all right, but I wasn't too quick to get my hopes up. After all, the post-strike episodes haven't been too hot, with the last two being particularly hard to sit through, and I wasn't sure how Superbad funnyman Jonah Hill would fare on live TV.

(S33E07) I was really hoping that this night would redeem Saturday Night Live from the crappiness of Ellen Page's episode, but, boy, was I disappointed. Usually, when an episode is weak, I just shrug it off, write a post about it, and move on. This time, I actually felt a bit of regret when it was over. "I totally could have been using that time to clean my room," I thought. Obviously, I wasn't particularly fond of this one.

I haven't seen Amy Adams in much apart from Talladega Nights and Enchanted and, even though both of these films left me feeling like I could have been using the time to clean my room, I was all right with Adams. Unfortunately, she looked super nervous throughout the episode and sped through her lines so quickly that she would sometimes use really bizarre inflection.

(S33E06) Let me preface this entire review by saying that I've seen Juno multiple times and greatly enjoyed each viewing. I think Ellen Page is a talented actress and Juno would not have been as successful without her. I'm saying this because I'm worried that my review of this episode might make it look like I'm part of the online Juno backlash.

Man, this was a terrible episode. The writing was weak, but Page's awkward performance(s) didn't help the situation. I found myself almost instantly annoyed with Page's voice. "There's going to be another hour and fifteen minutes of this?!" I thought during the monologue. It's like Page can't help but talk like a rough-around-the-edges teen in skinny jeans all the time. It makes me wonder if that's all she's going to be able to play in films. Perhaps she was just really nervous and it made he scream a lot. Either way, it totally made my ears want to bust out of my skull, home skillet. Honest to blog. Obviously.

(S33E05) Cold Open (CNN Democratic Debate): After seeing all those rumors about adding a new cast member to specifically play Barack Obama, I had resigned myself to seeing a new black guy. Hey, don't pretend you didn't think the same thing. In my mind, Fred Armisen never, ever entered into the equation, so imagine my surprise when Armisen popped up on screen next to Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton and was immediately identifiable as Obama. It was the ears and the super-serious look of concern, I think.

This sketch was all about the some members of the "unbiased" media's blatant negligence of Clinton. Yeah, the content was all right, but I spent most of my time trying to figure out if I liked Armisen as Obama. He had the look down, but only part of it. Obama's frowny face was pretty spot-on, but what about his signature grin? And the voice didn't work at all. Perhaps this will improve with time, because I don't think it's likely that Armisen expected this new role and didn't have much time to intensely study Obama's voice and mannerisms before the end of the writers' strike.

(S33E04) From Brian Williams' guest spots and cameos on The Daily Show, I already knew he was a surprisingly funny guy. He has an incredibly dry delivery and that level of newsman integrity paired with any remotely dirty joke is absolutely hilarious. That said, I still was not sure how he would deal with a live show. After all, even the funniest of comedians or most polished of actors can fall flat on their face when pressured with the threat of no edits, no do-overs.

I am very happy to report that Mr. Brian Williams did a spectacular job. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up joining the ranks of hosting gods Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin some day. His performance was crisp and professional, and I'm sure people that only know him from his news program were caught completely off guard. Too bad the writing this week was below average.

(S33E02) "A Message From K-Fed": I suppose it would have been tough to avoid covering the news about Britney Spears losing custody of her children to K-Fed, but was it really worthy of a cold open? The sketch managed to make me crack a smile, but I didn't even come close to laughing, which is disappointing because K-Fed is already inherently hilarious.

"Monologue": Seth Rogen shared the Saturday Night Live monologue that he's supposedly always dreamed of doing, complete with Bill Hader as Steven Segal. It was cute but, again, didn't get huge laughs. I could tell that Rogen wasn't going to be one of those guests who lose all sense of comedic timing and rhythm on live TV, though. Honestly, I would have been crushed if that was the case. Oh, and speaking of Rogen and Hader, I totally expected more of them working together. I was pretty disappointed by Superbad (sorry, Michael Cera, I still love you), but Rogen and Hader were great as a team, with or without McLovin.

(S33E01) "All-But-Certain-To-Be Next President" (Cold Open): This was a funny piece, but it didn't pack the punch I would have expected for a season premiere open. Oh! Hi, Darrell Hammond. Still here, huh? No, it's not a problem, man. It's just that you've been crashing here for a while and, well, you haven't really been doing much to contribute. And we've kind of been wondering when you'd be moving out -- Yeah, I guess your Bill Clinton voice is still pretty funny and I guess it'll come in handy some time in the near future. Okay, I suppose it's okay if you stay for a little while longer. Just try not to creep out the younger folks, okay?

With the announcer not cutting in until about halfway through the cast, it must have sucked to have such a slip-up this early in the episode. Was that even Don Pardo doing the voices for the cast intro? At first, it sounded like someone doing an impression of him.

NBC wrapped up its first of two days at the press tour at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel on Monday with a panel on Saturday Night Live.

A Q&A panel at TCA isn't complete unless a star or two is asked about his/her personal life -- either directly or indirectly. Andy Samberg deftly deflected an inquiry about his being associated romantically with ex-SNL host Natalie Portman.

Then, it was on to questions about the show...

(S32E20) I'm not a crazed Zach Braff fan, but I'm familiar enough with his work on Scrubs and Garden State. As the weird fantasy sequences in Scrubs have shown, Braff and the bizarre totally work. So, I was disappointed that he didn't play any outrageous characters in this episode. He was always playing some version of himself. Even in the "Prom Committee" sketch, when he had the chance to portray some completely out-there character, he played the Garden State kid with the Natalie Portman headphones. Oh, well. At least he didn't blatantly stare at the cue cards all night.

Also, there was so much Maya Rudolph love in this episode, it sort of felt like she was hosting. I wonder if this is a sign that she's planning on leaving after this season? This then leads me to wonder if Darrell Hammond, who only appeared two or three times in this episode, is ever going to leave.