As you hear unofficial announcements of who will be working on Saturday Night Live this year, SNL has announced who will be hosting the beginning of their latest season.
Sept. 27th and Oct. 4th will see the return of Saturday Night Liveand they’re starting off with a bang by having Chris Pratt and Sarah Silverman host, respectively.
We think that might just make for two great episodes.
(via Splitsider)
Saturday Night Live has started the process of getting their new hires. For their first, they’ve made a fine choice in the very funny Alison Rich who you’ve probably seen in many a funny web video/sketch over the last few years.
For now, she’s only a writer, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see her as a full SNL cast member.
(via Variety)
While there’s time off from SNL, SNL’s Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan are back working with Lorne Michaels on a brand new film, Brothers in Law. The rest of the cast seems pretty solid as well with Rachael Harris, Bill Pullman, Rita Wilson, and David Wain.
Details as to the movie’s premise or plot are sparing, but we’d like to guess, just based of the title, that this would be the type of a movie that would have a great showdown with Step Brothers.
Yesterday, the one and only announced of Saturday Night Live, Don Pardo, passed away at the age of 96.
It really won’t be the same on SNL when we won’t hear the magnificent voice of Pardo calling out the names for an episode.
Here are SNL cast members offering their thoughts on his passing.
You might have heard that SNL cast member Brooks Wheelan was recently let go from SNL, but we would hope you know that Brooks is a really funny stand-up. In fact, that’s how he got noticed in the first place.
Now, he’s going on tour or “falling back (sorta)” to do that very thing that got him to a SNL audition.
From now through November, he’ll be stopping by Montreal, NYC, Amsterdam, Connecticut, Indiana, Seattle, LA, and St. Louis. Brooks says, “Go to my bad website for details.”
(via Deadline)
The contracts of Noel Wells and John Milhiser, much like Brooks Wheelan, were not renewed for the next season of Saturday Night Live. Nasim Pedrad is also leaving for Mulaney, which is making its series premiere this Fall on Fox.
With three cast members gone and the fate of the cast member who got bumped up from staff writer, Michael Patrick O’Brien, up in the air, one has to wonder if SNL will do a large casting overhaul for next season just like they did for this season.
Unfortunately, with such a big addition in casting for this past season of SNL, there were bound to be cuts and it’s sad to see the very funny Brooks Wheelan be the first one to go.
If you know Brooks and his story with Twitter and getting fired, we can’t wait to hear what might be the story behind this firing.
(via Deadline)
Following a solid showing by a one-off special, The Maya Rudolph Show is apparently in contention to go to series. It might be retooled in its structure perhaps, especially in regards to the balance between music versus comedy.
Still, it would be nice to see a fresh, new variety sketch show apart from SNL, even if Lorne Michaels is producing and many SNL alums including Rudolph herself are at the core of the show.
If this somehow gets Rudolph’s Prince tribute band Princess back on national TV, then we definitely hope this goes to series.
The Primetime Emmys Announced Their 2014 Nominees
Among the comedy nominees were:
Louie, Silicon Valley, Veep, Modern Family, Orange Is The New Black, Spoils of Babylon, Derek, Episodes, Girls, Parks and Recreation, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, SNL, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Key & Peele, Portlandia, Sarah Silverman, Billy Crystal, Inside Amy Schumer, Between Two Ferns, Children’s Hospital, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, “@midnight”, Archer, Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, South Park, Adventure Time, Phineas & Ferb, Robot Chicken, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Community, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
While not all of these shows got Outstanding Comedy Series, it’s great to see Silicon Valley get nominations in its first season (one of them being Outstanding Comedy Series), Key & Peele get the respect it deserves, and have things like Between Two Ferns also get nominated for an Emmy.
In their latest work together, The Skeleton Twins, SNL castmates Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play estranged siblings that reexamine why they’re estranged after surviving a near death experience.
From the trailer, there’s plenty of what seems to be what it must be like to hang out with Hader and Wiig. The Skeleton Twins comes out September 19th.
Maya Rudolph Is Now Joining Her Pals Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in The Nest
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler making a movie together is already exciting enough news, which makes Universal’s The Nest an already highly anticipated comedy.
Now that they’re former SNL cast mate Maya Rudolph has been added to the cast, The Nest will possibly be more fun when it’s already seeming that it will be a wire-to-wire fun movie. We wouldn’t be surprised if the cast for this will keep getting better and better.
Above Average’s latest web series features sketches from The Chicago Rats, Tim Robinson, Shelly Gossman and Mike O’Brien.
This particular sketch is a pretty good explanation with why you should not wing it in porn. Watch it here.
Basically, if you are unaware, Tina Fey is pretty amazing. Just from this interview at Late Night with Seth Meyers, Tina talks about rushing from one benefit to honor/roast Don Rickles with Amy Poehler, her predictions for the future of late night, dealing with her writers as a head writer at SNL, and, on top of all of that, being a mom.
Maya Rudolph’s Variety Show Special Premiering in May on NBC
Indeed, The Maya Rudolph Show is premiering on NBC on May 19th at 10PM and is set to have Fred Armisen, Chris Parnell, Craig Robinson, Kristen Bell and more. Musical guests such as Janelle Monae will be on the special as well making for what could be almost an SNL episode from 10 years ago.
Comedy Line-up for Bonnaroo 2014
Bonnaroo is not too far from now, specifically June 12-15th, and their comedy line-up is shaping up quite nicely.
TJ Miller, Hannibal Buress, Craig Robinson & The Nasty Delicious, Taran Killam, Rory Scovel, Neal Brennan, Seth Herzog, Emily Heller, and many more to be announced are set for Manchester, TN and should not be missed if you’re planning on going.
As evidenced by this Saturday Night Live promo of Louis C.K. eschewing the normal goofiness of SNL promos for something more along the lines of his FXx show, C.K. is returning for the second time to host Saturday Night Live.
We can’t wait. 11:30PM, this Saturday, NBC.
It’s unmistakable when you hearing the opening and closing theme of Saturday Night Live and immediately upon hearing it, you harken to the legendary sketch show. However, you hardly think of the band playing that theme and what they go through.
Flavorwire gives us a “real” inside look into that world, specifically when it comes to casting a bass player for SNL. Also, give a round of applause to Aimee Mann, Andy Kindler, and DC Pierson for this wonderful bit of “behind-the-scenes”.
Louis C.K. Returns to Hosting SNL Mar. 29th
The return of Louis C.K. to SNL is not only exciting to hear, but it’s timed to coincide with the return on Louie after a long hiatus this spring.
We can only wonder if there will be, like the last time he hosted, one sketch that he openly admits to not being into.
Lena Dunham to Host SNL on Mar. 8th
With this announcement of Lena Dunham hosting SNL next week and the Internet’s proclivity towards parodying Girls (SNL included), we are wondering how many Girls based/themed sketches there will be.
In fact, we’d wouldn’t mind if most of this episode would be a parody of Girls as done by its creator.
Fred Armisen to Release Singles by His Fictional SNL Bands
If Fred Armisen’s collection of singles from his fake bands from SNL works out, maybe he’ll put out another collection from all the fake bands “he was in” with Jimmy Fallon.
Hometown Heroes has its first single come out next month.
Colin Jost To Be New SNL Weekend Update Co-Anchor
Colin Jost will join Cecily Strong in co-anchoring Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update replacing Seth Meyers when Meyers heads to Late Night.
The shifting from Weekend Update host to Late Night host to host of The Tonight Show seems to be a last bastion of old school television especially considering that many of the newer late night shows are named just after the host.
Sasheer Zamata Joins ‘Saturday Night Live’ As New Cast Member
After the wave of criticism of the lack of diversity at SNL, then a sketch making fun of said criticism last year, Lorne Michaels “secretly” auditioned a group of black female comedians to be cast members.
Yesterday, it was announced that, from that group, Sasheer Zamata will be the newest cast member at Saturday Night Live. We hope that she kills it in her first episode.
Seth Meyers walking from the Saturday Night Live stage to his stage next door might not be the biggest surprise for his first promo of Late Night when he takes over Feb. 25th, but do realize that SNL, Late Night, and The Tonight Show will all be under the same roof.
We’re just saying, get ready for plenty of show crossover bits.
Watch the first promo for Late Night with Seth Meyers here.
Seth Meyers Might Have a More Streamlined Version of ‘Late Night’
If you’ve seen Seth Meyers in his tenure at SNL, you can make an educated guess that his taking over Late Night will be more than a little different than Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
According to Meyers in a recent interview, there will be less music and more sketches, which seems to be the new streamlined version of the late night talk show format that networks have been going for (The Pete Holmes Show, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, Nikki and Sara Live).
You’re probably curious as we are to see where Late Night with Seth Meyers will fit in with “@midnight” & Pete Holmes Show just ending along with Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on,
John Goodman, Paul Rudd, Jimmy Fallon/Justin Timberlake to Host Saturday Night Live in December
All we’re saying is that these are three upcoming episodes of Saturday Night Live set for December are ones you might want to plan to watch.
Perhaps, given the timing, there’ll be a great Inside Llewyn Davis sketch?