Tag: Saturday Night Live (Page 4 of 6)

NBC continues the dumbing-down of America in earnest with…”A Very Gilly Christmas”

December 14, 2009 /

First, David Medsker sent a public memo to “Saturday Night Live,” pleading with them to stop Kristen Wiig from playing the most annoying characters imaginable, and although the show’s producers ignored him, the posting has received 76 comments to date, many of them completely behind Mr. Medsker’s position, so it clearly struck a nerve with readers. Then, two months later, John Paulsen got specific and called out Wiig’s then-new character, Gilly, as the unfunniest returning character ever. No word from the Wiig camp yet, but 65 readers have responded to it thus far, and while many of them are in full-on defense mode, it takes no more than a cursory glance at the comments to see that Mr. Paulsen is onto something with his premise.

* “Gilly should be put in juvenile detention.”
* “OMG, I want to break the TV when I see that stupid skit!”
* “Gilly keeps coming back for more and more and more and more and more. And it gets worse every time.”
* “The Gilly skits – and indeed, pretty much all the characters that Wiig does – are appealing to those lowbrow people who find catch-phrases funny.”
* “I know ‘to each his own’ and everybody’s taste is different, but I’m shocked that people are defending this really, really bad, really, really unfunny recurring character.”

And, of course, there’s my personal favorite:

“Like a fool, I kept watching, hoping the sketch could redeem itself somehow, that a punchline or a line delivery would come in making it somewhat funny. I mean, this is a comedy show, right? Right? But, alas, it was just painful. I have no idea what the audience was laughing at or why. Maybe SNL installed a live laugh track, or maybe they do pump in laughing gas. But what I saw no one could honestly find funny. NO ONE. Stock footage of starving children has equal comedic value as the Gilly sketch.”

To these discerning individuals, NBC is offering up the comedic equivalent of a lump of coal in their stocking on December 17th from 8 – 10 PM EST, when “Saturday Night Live” presents…wait for it…“A Very Gilly Christmas”!

The good news is that the two-hour special will include brand-new material with Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, along with favorite holiday-themed sketches from the 35-year history of “SNL,” including “NPR’s Delicious Dish and the Schweddy Balls,” Martin’ famous “Holiday Wish,” and Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s “D**k in a Box.”

The bad news: it will also include new Gilly material.

Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, News, Saturday Night Live, TV, TV Comedies

Halloween on the Small Screen: 31 Memorable Halloween Episodes

October 30, 2009 /

Too old to trick or treat but not popular enough to get invited to a Halloween party? Fortunately, we have the perfect solution to keep you in the spirit of the holiday while keeping your brain occupied enough to forget how uncool you are: a list of 31 great Halloween episodes from throughout TV history. It’s not a complete list, of course, and we’ve left out specials, so leave your complaints about the exclusion of “It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” at the door. Instead, just embrace the fact that we’ve found as many clips and complete episodes for your viewing enjoyment as we possibly could. You’re welcome…and Happy Halloween!

1. The Addams Family, “Halloween with the Addams Family”: The Addams family are all busy preparing for their favorite holiday, but their celebration is bolstered by a pair of bank robbers…one of whom is played by Don Rickles…who they welcome as trick-or-treaters.

2. The Andy Griffith Show, “The Haunted House”: Maybe it isn’t officially a Halloween episode, but it first aired in October 1963, and it focuses on Barney and Gomer trying to retrieve a baseball from a supposedly haunted house and finding some strange goings on inside. As far as I’m concerned, that’s close enough for jazz.

3. Angel, “Life of the Party”: Lorne throws a Halloween party for all the firm’s clients and employees, but during the gathering, his advice to his friends starts happening literally: Fred and Wesley get drunk after Lorne tells them to loosen up, Spike and Harmony dance the night away, Angel and Eve do the horizontal bop, and, Gunn, uh, relieves himself after being told to “stake out his territory.” Good times.

4. Beavis and Butthead, “Butt-o-ween”: It starts simply enough, with the guys trying to master the concept of trick or treating, first without costumes, then wearing Beavis’s “monkey sheets” and going as ghosts. Eventually, however, Beavis + Halloween candy = Cornholio. The equation was ever thus, and here it leads to a quest for more candy…and, y’know, some T.P. for his bunghole.


Bevis and Butt-head-Butt-O-Ween

Dreamer Neverending | MySpace Video

5. Beverly Hills 90210, “Halloween”: The stock line is that Halloween costumes allow a woman to bring out her inner slut, and when the gang from West Beverly goes to a Halloween party, Kelly’s seductive costume leads a college student to translate “no” as “yes.” It’s absolutely inexcusable, of course, but – whew! – you can’t say she doesn’t make an impression. Meanwhile, Brenda and Dylan go as Bonnie and Clyde, Steve is Zorro, and Donna comes as a mermaid, a move which seriously hinders her dance moves.

Watch the episode at CBS.com!

6. The Big Bang Theory, “The Middle Earth Paradigm”: Penny throws a great Halloween party, and she makes a pretty kitty, too, but it’s hard to top the meeting of the four Flashes.

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Curb Your Enthusiasm, External Entertainment, External TV, Saturday Night Live, South Park, The Office, TV, TV Action, TV Cartoons, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi, Video

Adam McKay has “The Goods”

August 27, 2009 /

You may not know Adam McKay by name, but you’ve almost certainly seen his work: the former “Saturday Night Live” writer has been virtually inseperable from Will Ferrell since the latter ankled “SNL” for a future in feature films, directing such comedy classics as “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” and “Step Brothers.” And that isn’t all — McKay and Ferrell’s production company, Gary Sanchez Productions, is responsible for a long list of films and television shows, including “Eastbound and Down,” “The Foot Fist Way,” and, most recently, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.” It’s that last project that has McKay making the publicity rounds these days, discussing the Sanchez-produced, Jeremy Piven-led comedy about a legendary car salesman.

Of course, with a resume — and list of upcoming projects — as intriguing as McKay’s, “The Goods” isn’t the only thing worth talking about, and during his recent chat with McKay, Bullz-Eye’s Will Harris made sure to pick his brain about a variety of topics, from how he and Ferrell met to the second season of “Eastbound and Down” to that oft-rumored “Anchorman” sequel. Which, McKay tells us, will happen…eventually:

We have a very clear idea for it, we want to do it, and we’ve talked to everyone, and everyone has said that they’re in, but everyone has schedules. Sadly, the second part after I say, ‘We’ll do it,’ is that it could be two or three years away.

With eight more episodes of “Eastbound and Down” on the way, it’s only natural to wonder how much McKay can spill about where the next season will take us — and just as natural for McKay to play it close to the vest:

Let’s see if I can give a clue without wrecking anything. I’d say the question for this season is, “Will Kenny return?” I don’t know, I don’t want to say anything. I don’t want to wreck it, because they have some cool ideas.

And that’s just scratching the surface of the interview. To read about McKay’s thoughts on the “SNL” years, his feelings about the impending DVD release of “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush,” what to expect from Jon Heder’s upcoming sitcom, and more, click on the image above or follow this link!

External Entertainment, Interviews, Movies, TV

Adam McKay talks “The Goods,” “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”

August 21, 2009 /

Anyone who’s a fan of Will Ferrell’s work will recognize the name of Adam McKay. The two have been in cahoots virtually since the day they met…which, as it happens, was the day they were both hired for “Saturday Night Live” (along with David Koechner, Cheri Oteri, and writer Tom Gianis)…and they’ve turned their collaboration on sketches like “Neil Diamond: Storytellers” and the ongoing saga of Bill Brasky into an partnership which has found McKay directing Ferrell in “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” and “Step Brothers.” It’s also led to a successful production company – Gary Sanchez Productions – which has brought us HBO’s “Eastbound and Down,” “The Foot Fist Way,” and, most recently, the used-car comedy, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.”

“The Goods” was kinda sorta buried at the box office by the competition, but Roger Ebert describes it as a “cheerfully energetically and very vulgar comedy,” adding, “If you’re okay with that, you may be okay with this film, which contains a lot of laughs and has studied Political Correctness only enough to make a list of groups to offend.” Hey, sounds good to me…and although McKay was doing the press rounds this week in what one presumes was an attempt by Paramount to kick up the buzz for the film a little more, he seems pretty comfortable no matter what the resulting numbers are this weekend.

“Regardless, we’re either gonna be a small little box office surprise or we’re gonna be a cult cable hit,” he said, with a laugh. “It’ll be one way or the other. But it certainly makes us laugh, so we’re happy about that.”

Producer Kevin Messick came to McKay and Ferrell with the script for “The Goods” with star Jeremy Piven already attached, and after giving it a read, McKay couldn’t have been more enthusiastic about the actor’s involvement.

“Oh, my God, if there’s ever a role that you’re going to have him play coming off the success he’s had as Ari Gold (in ‘Entourage’), it’s this role,” said McKay. “And we thought, ‘Well, we can do a rewrite on this, kind of gussy this up, get people we like in it, and sort of approach it through improv.’ Will and I had written a car-salesman script about five or six years before that, which Lorne Michaels tried to get made at Paramount, but it was a weird time over there, and we couldn’t get it made, and it was very frustrating. So we saw this script come through, and we thought, ‘Well, this is perfect.’”

Some may hear about the concept of this film and think, “Didn’t they already do this with ‘Used Cars’?” Although McKay is a fan of the classic 1980 Robert Zemeckis comedy and admits that it’s one of the reasons that the idea of the movie was so attractive to him, he estimates that 8 out of 10 people don’t even remember the film.

“It’s a film-fan movie,” he said. “I love it, of course, but it was so long ago. It’s kind of amazing that there really haven’t been many car-salesman movies since then. There was ‘Cadillac Man,’ but that wasn’t really about car sales. My favorite salesman movies are ‘Tin Men’ and ‘Glengarry Glen Ross,’ and that’s really what got us excited about it. If anything, ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ was a huge influence on this movie. Even though this movie’s raunchy and absurd and silly, that vibe is still very funny to us.”

And so, by many folks’ estimations, is “The Goods,” although – appropriately, given the subject of the film – your mileage may vary.

McKay is currently in pre-production for his next directorial effort, “The Other Guys,” but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have his eye on what project will be next on the horizon. He’s excited at the prospect of branching out beyond his usual realm, and in addition to the sci-fi satire, “Channel Three Billion,” he’s particularly chomping at the bit to get the ball rolling on the intriguingly-titled “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters,” from writer/director Tommy Wirkola.

“I love that movie,” said McKay. “That’s exactly the kind of shit where, like, it almost veers a little more toward Sam Raimi Land. Yeah, our production company, Gary Sanchez, is producing that. We saw ‘Dead Snow,’ the movie that Tommy did first, and Kevin Messick had Tommy come in, and he told us about this ‘Hansel & Gretel’ idea, and we were instantly, like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re doing that.’ And then he wrote an amazing script, so I’m as excited about that as anything we’re doing.”

Be sure to head over to Bullz-Eye.com next week for the full interview with McKay, where discusses the history of his collaboration with Ferrell, the status of “Anchorman 2,” and what we can expect from the second season of “Eastbound and Down.”

Entourage, External Entertainment, External Movies, Interviews, Movie Comedies, News, Saturday Night Live, Sci-Fi Movies, TV, TV Comedies

TCA Tour: NBC Executive Session

August 5, 2009 /

We just had NBC-Universal Executive Session, with Angela Bromstad (President, Primetime Entertainment) and Paul Telegdy (Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming and Production) taking the stage to answer our questions, and…you know, I’ve got to be honest: it was pretty underwhelming. No surprise: the first two words of the very first question were “Ben Silverman,” and his name remained a recurring theme for the remainder of the session. It also wasn’t a surprise that the topic of Conan’s ratings and the expectation for Jay’s ratings were brought up, but it was absolutely ridiculous that neither Bromstad nor Telegdy seemed prepared to handle the queries, instead either feigning uncertainty about the numbers, offering vague responses which signified nothing, or attempting to pawn the questions off to Jay’s panel this afternoon. This immediately came back to bite Bromstad on the arse when she was asked outright if she’d be on that panel (she won’t be), and it led to one critic offering a sarcastic apology for asking questions of the wrong people.

Here’s the extent of information that I was able to glean from the panel:

* Bryan Fuller’s latest departure from “Heroes” was dismissed as being due to the fact that he’s at a point in his career where he’s really wanting to create his own shows, so NBC is focusing on their development deal with him. As for “Heroes,” Bromdstad said that Fuller helped Tim (Kring) get back on track, helped everybody decide where they were going, and that the show is doing exceptionally well creatively.

* The start of “30 Rock” has been delayed due to Alec Baldwin’s movie schedule, which is why the network is kicking off “Community” in its timeslot. The 8 PM timeslot will therefore be filled with six Thursday night “Weekend Update” specials, three of which are currently on the schedule.

* We are assured that, despite the fact that some shows which were previously airing in the 10 PM timeslot are now being moved to 9 PM out of necessity, there should be no issue with their content in their new time periods.

* The network’s new zombie series, “Day One,” is being embraced due to the sci-fi success of “Heroes.” “It’s a genre we cannot ignore,” said Bromstad, though she admitted that it does tend to be a little more of a narrow genre. Her most notable comment on the matter, however, was the acknowledgment that the network is viewing “Day One” as a “big event” for the network…but not necessarily one which would return for a second season.

* There is always talk of doing another regular “Apprentice,” but according to Telegdy, the most recent “Celebrity Apprentice” had a ratings jump from the previous, so we probably shouldn’t look for it to happen any time soon.

* “Friday Night Lights” will not be back until summer 2010. “We just think that ‘Friday Night Lights’ is a sensational show,” said Bromstad, “but it doesn’t have the ratings to justify it on the fall schedule.”

* Regarding “Southland,” the network has “incredible passion” for the future, but its future depends on how it does in the fall. “We’ve made some creative adjustments,” said Bromstad. “I feel like they tried to do too much in the first six episodes – instead of letting the audience become more familiar with characters, they became too serialized – so the show will focus on Regina King and Ben McKenzie, the crimes, and how they come together.”

* RE: “Medium,” “It was definitely a show we were considering picking up ’til the very end, but we had to make choices creatively and financially.”

* RE: “Chuck,” “The great thing is that they’re on a great track collectively. We’ve got 3 or 4 scripts in already, and it is something we can move around, but right now it’s not scheduled to come on until March.” The series has a 13 episode pick-up, and it’s possible that it could be bumped up, but “these are just discussions we’re continuing to have.”

External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, Interviews, News, Saturday Night Live, TCA Blog 2009, TCA Press Tour, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

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