TVSquad

We told you recently about Saturday Night Live's first new episode after the writers strike. The show will return this Saturday with host Tina Fey and musical guest Carrie Underwood. Now comes word that Maya Rudolph won't be on the show this weekend.

Rudolph still doesn't have a contract with the show. She almost left before this season started, but decided to come back. It now looks like that was only a temporary thing until they could get a contract hammered out. Producer Lorne Michaels says "I'm going to keep calling her until she changes her number," so the show wants her back. For the time being, her slot will be filled with Upright Citizen's Brigade troupe member Casey Wilson.

In other SNL news, the show will announce later this week who exactly is going to play Barack Obama in sketches. It won't necessarily be someone who is in the current cast. Michaels is also looking outside the show for someone to play the Democratic Presidential candidate.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams has two gigs this week: hosting the nightly news show and preparing to host Saturday Night Live this weekend, rehearsing and helping to write some segments. Some people say he's blurring the line between news and entertainment, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. And he's keeping a blog of how the week is going so far.

The Daily Nightly is one of the better network news blogs anyway, but these entries show Williams' funny side. After working one night, he actually had to go to 30 Rock and join the writers for their all-night writing session.

(S19E02) Mr. Burns: My boy, you are a star!

Homer: Whoo-Hoo!

Burns: An opera star!

Homer: Oh.

We're back to the silly in this week's episode of The Simpsons as another bodily injury gives Homer an advantage in life. I'm surprised that this is the second Homer-centric episode in a row. Usually, the producers are good at going around the Simpsons circuit to focus on another family member or the group as a whole from one week to the next. Maybe my surprise is due to the fact that I haven't been a regular on the Simpsons boat for the last few seasons.

Contrary to many, many reports that have been circulating this past week (including one from TV Guide's Michael Ausiello a few days ago), Maya Rudolph has indeed left Saturday Night Live. The news is confirmed by NBC.

This is too bad. Rudolph really grew on me over the years, and I loved many characters she did, including Oprah, Whitney Houston, Donatella, and one half of those Bronx women who host a local cable show. Funny, I always thought that Amy Poehler would be next to leave, following Tina Fey to a career in movies and her own TV show. But Rudolph has been on the show for several seasons and good for her with going on to the next thing in her life.

SNL's season premiere is this Saturday, with guests Lebron James and Kanye West.

Update: Actually, she changed her mind and is now staying.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb:

• Campbell Brown's new CNN show is going to premiere in February, not November.
• Former TV Newser editor Brian Stelter has a new TV blog at the NY Times site, TV Decoder.
• George Clooney had to go to the ER the other day.
• Jaime Weinman has some interesting trivia about Phyllis (and video from the show too).
• Cracked picks the 10 most deranged sidekicks, including Smithers from The Simpsons and Tattoo from Fantasy Island.
• Will Maya Rudolph return to Saturday Night Live when the new season starts next weekend?
• Buddy TV has an interview with Chicken from Survivor: China.

A sketch has surfaced over at FunnyorDie.com starring Conan O'Brien. It appears to be a sketch from the Saturday Night Live episode that he hosted in 2001. The sketch was cut from the live airing of the show and hasn't been seen until now.

While watching the sketch you get the feeling that it was something that he always wanted to do on his own show but could never fit it in. The premise is pure Late Night but the sketch is way too long and too involved to have worked on a talk show.

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...

(S31E19) This is one of those shows that no matter what I write in the following paragraphs, people are going to disagree with me. I really do think that as this season has progressed, it's gotten stronger. Early episodes in this season weren't as good and as readers have pointed out, I was far more critical of those earlier episodes. Well, there's a reason for that. I think they've steadily gotten better, save for the crappy sketch here and there and or the few horrible episodes we did get this season (Dane Cook was a huge disappointment). Last night's episode with Elaine... er, I mean Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say here. This was a solid episode with a few huge errors, the biggest in my opinion being a "Weekend Update" that ran in at just over 14 minutes. That's way too long.

(S31E18) There was a lot to like about this episode, but there was a lot that should never seen the light of day too. For Hanks' eighth outing at SNL host, I would have expected a bit more. We've already seen so much this season with episodes from other classic hosts like Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, that I was hoping maybe we'd get cameos from some of them. Another one of those "welcome to the club" sketches would have been funny... with those fez hats, cigars, and smoking jackets. Oh well, like I said, there was still plenty to like.

Cold Open - Politically charged as usual, the show opened with Bush and Cheney chit-chatting and discussing the current state of oil reserves and gasoline prices. Tom Hanks (as Senator Bill Frist) then shows up to tell the President about his new plan since his recent idea for a $100 gas rebate for all Americans did nothing except what the President described as "eat it." The entire conversation then evolved into some kind of infomercial where Frist was selling his new plan to Bush. As a token of the Government's thanks for allowing the drilling in Alaska, all Americans would now get $120, a free vacation to Busch Gardens, and two free Wonder Mops. Sounds like a deal to me... well maybe I'd do it if there were two re-fill shammies to come with the mops. What's that? There are two shammies? Sign me up!