Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert Reunite for Random Dance-Off!

Here at We Like TV we have been carefully monitoring the ever-changing relationship between two of our favorite comedians/late night hosts: Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.  The two have been through it all, from best friends to eternal enemies, their friendship has certainly had its ups and downs.  The pair haven't done much together since their fun "Ivory and Ivory" duet back in February, and with the guests on last night's Late Night billed as just Mark Wahlberg and Poppy Montgomery, we certainly weren't expecting the two to reunite. But just as Jimmy finished his monologue and sat at his desk, Daft Punk's smash hit "Get Lucky" started to play. Seconds later, Stephen Colbert emerged for some random dancing with Jimmy, before vanishing just as randomly as he appeared. Check it out below:

Bob Saget and Jesse and The Rippers on Late Night!

We haven't been blogging much during these summer months due to the lack of our usual TV shows on air and the overall laziness that the heat has caused, but after watching this clip from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, we just had to dust off the old blog to post it.  In the clip, Late Night writer Arthur Meyer comes out during Bob Saget's interview to read him a fan letter he wrote him when he was just 8 years old.  The exchange is hilarious and we were laughing so hard we could barely breathe: 

And if that wasn't enough, in this "Backstage" internet-exclusive video, Bob Saget actually sits down with Arthur for an extended discussion, in which he reads through the letter again and actually answers each of the questions that were asked.  

And if that wasn't enough Full House nostalgia for you, on the follow night's Late Night the musical guest was none other than Jesse and The Rippers, the fictional band that Uncle Jesse sang in on Full House.  Check out Jesse and the Rippers singing a medley of their biggest hits below, featuring a cameo appearance by Bob Saget in the audience, and a surprise guest at the end!

And in case you need a reminder, here's the official music video of "Forever" (which lead off the medley) that originally aired as part of an episode of Full House.

Jimmy Fallon to Take Over The Tonight Show! And Seth Meyers Taking Over Late Night?

After weeks of speculation, it was finally confirmed that Jimmy Fallon will be the next host of The Tonight Show!  He will take over the position from Jay Leno in February around the time of the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Before the news was officially confirmed on Wednesday, Jimmy and Jay had a little fun with the rumors on Monday night's show:

Then on Wednesday  after the news broke, Jimmy could finally talk about it openly with his viewers.  He seemed truly gracious and excited about his new role:

As FalPals, we're of course very excited that Jimmy was given the prestigious job of hosting the legendary television institution that is The Tonight Show.  However, we are also a bit concerned. It's hard to forget what happened to Conan O'Brien, who like Jimmy, was given The Tonight Show after successfully hosting Late Night, only to be fired due to low ratings after a few short months.  While we're optimistic that it will work out better for Jimmy, since his comedy is a bit more broad than Conan's (and Jay Leno is now 5 years older and less likely to try to take the show back), The Tonight Show is more heavily scrutinized than Late Night, where Jimmy was free to do whatever he wanted.  Hopefully Jimmy's comedy translates to 11:30, and he'll host The Tonight Show for many years to come!

Jimmy taking over The Tonight Show also yields the question of who will take over as the new host of Late Night.  While no official host has been named yet, according to various reports online, SNL's Seth Meyers is in final talks for the job and is widely expected to accept the position.  This makes a lot of sense because like Jimmy, Seth has succeeded on SNL (both were Weekend Update anchors) and with Lorne Michaels serving as Executive Producers of both shows, it would be a very easy transition.  If Seth does end up taking the job, we will of course be sad to see him leave SNL, but he has been on the show for almost 12 years, so its certainly understandable that he'd want to move on to something else, and he certainly seems suitable for the role of Late Night host.  While he mainly serves as Weekend Update anchor on SNL, he's also the show's head writer, which means he would have a lot of great ideas for for material on his own show.  And though he hasn't appeared in many non-Weekend Update sketches lately, in his earlier years he frequently did many impressions (John Kerry, Anderson Cooper) and characters (The Needlers, David Zinger), which will come in handy for doing all sorts of topical bits.  But of course what matters most is how he does behind a desk talking to guests.  And as evidenced by his many appearances on Late Night, he's very funny and comfortable when talking on light night shows.  Here'a a clip of him talking to Jimmy Fallon on Late Night.  This aired the night of Hurricane Sandy and there was no one in the audience:

And if Seth is looking for a sidekick, we can think of no one better than his own brother Josh Meyers. Josh, who starred on SNL's competitor sketch series MADtv, has often appeared on Late Night with his brother Seth to play the Sibling Game.  The two clearly have great chemistry.

So will Seth take over Late Night from Jimmy?  Hopefully we'll find out soon! If he does, looks like we'll be watching 2 hours of TV every night!

Best Comedy Bits from Justin Timberweek on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Last week was "Justin Timberweek" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where Justin Timberlake was the interview guest on Monday and Friday's show, and he performed as musical guest each night of the week.  But in addition to that, Timberlake participated in many comedy bits, and as evidenced by his hilarious 5 times hosting SNL, Timberlake is great when it comes to comedy sketches.  

After kicking off the week with a two-part interview and musical performance on Monday night's show,  he did his first bit on Tuesday by joining the Ragtime Gals in a Barbershop Quartet version of his hit song "Sexyback":

Wednesday night's show contained two great bits. First, Justin and Jimmy impersonate Michael McDonald singing "Row Row Row Your Boat" in the round, only to be joined by the real Michael McDonald himself!

Later in the show, Jimmy and Steve Carell showed a clip of their Canadian soap opera "Jacob's Patience", where Steve made everyone in the cast use mannequin arms.  Justin Timberlake of course joined in as well:

TV Star Spotlight: Jenny Slate

It seems lately that Jenny Slate, the short-lived SNL star from the 2009/2010 season, has been popping up all over our TV screen. So we thought we'd take a look back at some of our favorite Jenny Slate TV appearances (plus one viral viral video sensation)!  Check it out:

We first saw Jenny Slate on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's recurring series 7th Floor West, a spot-on parody of The Hills.  Jenny played Jenny, an NBC page who Jimmy finds attractive and eventually hires to be his assistant:

That bit must have caught the eye of Lorne Michaels (who is the executive producer of both SNL and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) because shortly after that Jenny was cast on Saturday Night Live.  Though she only lasted one year, we were always big fans of her work on the show, especially her recurring character of Tina Tina Chanuse:

After leaving SNL, Jenny created the adorable viral video sensation "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On". Jenny co-wrote the film and voices the titular character of Marcel, a tiny shell wearing shoes.  The video was so successful (it has over 20 million views on YouTube) that it later spawned a sequel video and even a hardcover book.  Check out the original "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" and the sequel below:

Jimmy Fallon gets Quizzed in the Face!

Last Friday, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon reached a big milestone when it celebrated its 4-year anniversary.  To celebrate, they had a big show featuring a lineup of legends including Mariah Carey and musical guest Prince.  But our favorite part of the show was the short segment in between featuring one of our favorite new comics - Billy Eichner!

We've previously posted about how much we love the show Billy on the Street.  On the show, Billy runs around the streets of New York playing various games such as "Quizzed in the Face" or "For a Dollar" by asking strangers random pop culture questions for money.  Well on Friday's show, he decided to play a round of "Quizzed in the Face" with Jimmy Fallon, using his audience for the lifelines.  The results were hilarious.  Check out Billy's short interview followed by a rousing game of "Quizzed in the Face" with Jimmy Fallon below!

And in case you've never seen a real game of "Quizzed in the Face" on Billy on the Street, here's a clip from the show, featuring one of the best contestants in Billy on the Street history, Mr. Singh:

Catch Billy on the Street every Friday night at 10:00pm on FUSE!

Checking in with Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert's Friendship

Over the last year or so, we have been meticulously been keeping track of the very unique relationship between Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert.  First they were Best Friends Forever for Six Months.  Then they were Eternal Enemies for Six Months.  And then, things got kind of awkward.  (To see a detailed account of their relationship, scroll through our previous posts here.)  Last week Stephen  came onto Jimmy's show to discuss the current status of their friendship, and they ended up singing another great musical duet.  Check it out:

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Kevin Hart and Justin Timberlake to Host SNL (and LNJF)!

There was no new SNL episode last night, but we got two great hosts coming up:

3/2 Kevin Hart (with musical guest Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)

Comedian Kevin Hart will be hosting for the first time this Saturday, and we couldn't be more excited.  I've seen some of his standup on TV and he's definitely a very funny guy.  And while I haven't seen his breakout role in the film Think Like a Man, I have seen him in a few episodes of Modern Family, so I know he can act as well.  You never know quite know what to expect when someone hosts for the first time, but I got a feeling Kevin Hart will not disappoint.  Since most of his standup is too dirty for this site, here's a (very) short clip of Kevin Hart on Modern Family, followed by his SNL promo:

3/9 Justin Timberlake

The following weekend Justin Timberlake will return to SNL as he joins the prestigious "5-Timers Club" by hosting and performing as musical guest.    Justin Timberlake is one of the all-time great SNL hosts, probably the best host of the last decade.  When he first hosted almost 10 years ago back in 2003, he was primarily known as a music star.  His amazing hosting job on SNL really started his acting career, and today he's arguably more known for his acting than his singing (though he's now promoting his first album in 7 years).  When a bad SNL host is on the show, they'll often play a straight character opposite one of the cast members being funny. When Justin hosts, he's the funny one, and it really feels like he's part of the cast.  His hosting  also raises 2 big questions: First, will Andy Samberg return to the show to do a 4th installment of the "D*ck in a Box" Digital Shorts (5th if you include their short segment in the 100th Digital Short)?  Andy returned a few weeks ago to premier his new Digital Short "YOLO", so maybe he'll come back again?  Second, will Jimmy Fallon return to SNL to do the popular "Barry Gibb Talk Show" sketch?  They've done it every time that Justin has hosted so far, though when Jimmy hosted last year Justin couldn't make it due to scheduling.  It's also interesting to note that the real Robin Gibb, who Justin impersonates, passed away last year, so would it be in bad taste to do the sketch?  We'll find on March 9th!  Here's the first time they did "Barry Gibb Talk Show" back in 2003, followed by a new promo for the show:

Whether or not Jimmy Fallon makes an appearance on SNL, it looks like he'll be spending a lot of time with Justin Tiberlake!  The week following his SNL stint, from March 11-15, Justin will be the exclusive musical guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon every single night!  He'll reportedly also be an interview guest on Monday and Friday, and will most likely be doing all sorts of bits with Jimmy throughout the week.  The last three times Justin appeared on Jimmy's show, they've performed their now classic "History of Rap" medlies, so hopefully we'll get a new one that week!  Here's the last two  History of Raps combined in one epic video.  Hopefully we'll soon have a fourth!

Cosby Show Reunion on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!

Bill Cosby and Tempestt Bledsoe on The Cosby Show in 1984 (left) and on Late Night  in 2013 (right)

Last Friday night's episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon was a truly special show.  Whenever Bill Cosby is the guest, you know something hilarious will happen, but combine that with the fact that he was reunited with his old Cosby Show co-star Tempestt Bledsoe (who played his 2nd youngest child Vanessa Huxtable), and you get an unforgettable moment in television history.  Tempestt is currently starring on the NBC comedy Guys with Kids, on which Jimmy Fallon is a producer, so it was great to see her reunite with her former TV father.

After the monologue and "Thank You Notes segment, Bill came out on his own to talk to Jimmy solo. But after a few seconds at the desk, Cosby got up to address The Roots, and what happened next was both incredibly bizarre and hilarious:

As a side note, The Roots are known for their clever choice of walk-on music for each guest. For Cosby, the performed "Dad is great, give us chocolate cake". The song comes from one of my favorite Cosby stand-up routines called "Chocolate Cake for Breakfast", which you can watch here:

Jimmy Fallon and Billy Crystal bring back Who's on First

As a kid, I used to love watching old comedies with my dad.  And my favorite old comedy duo was without a doubt Abbot and Costello.  I still remember watching some of their great films like Buck Privates, Who Done It?, and Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein.  But my favorite Abbot and Costello bit was of course the classic "Who's On First" routine.  I used to own it on cassette tape and listen to it over and over, laughing each time even though I know what was coming.  In case you're one of the few people out there who've been deprived of watching this iconic piece of comedy history, here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Therefore, I was delighted to find out that Jimmy Fallon did his own take on the classic routine on Late Night last week, where we actually get to meet the players Who, What, and I Don't Know!  Check out the clip below, featuring some very special guests!

And as if that wasn't enough  for one episode of Late Night, later in the show Jimmy reprised his David Bowie impression (sans Tebow) to duet with Billy Crystal's famous Sammy Davis Jr. impression for a Christmas classic:

Happy Chanukkah from Jewey Fallon!

Happy Chanukkah everyone! Tonight is the first night of Chanukkah, so to celebrate I had this great idea post 8 Chanukkah TV clips, one each night for the 8 nights of Chanukkah!  But after a little research I realized that that was already being done on lots of other blogs like this one and  this one, so I guess it wasn't really that original.  And most of the clips they posted are the same ones I was gonna post (Adam Sandler Chanukkah Song, Rugrats Chanukkah, Friends Holiday Armadillo) because there sadly aren't many Chanukkah-themed TV clips out there to choose from.  

So I decided to scrap that idea and just do one special Chankkah post featuring a less mainstream clip that all the other blogs seemed to forget.  So to wish everyone a Happy Chanukkah, here's Jimmy Fallon's cousin Jewey Fallon from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!  Happy Chanukkah everyone!

Hilarious Fan Reaction to Jimmy Fallon and Mariah Carey Video!

In our previous post, I posted a clip of Mariah Carey and Jimmy Fallon singing "All I Want for Christmas is You" from Late Night earlier this week.  I enjoyed the performance, but clearly not as much as this guy!  On last night's show, Jimmy shared this YouTube clip of a British (and topless) Mariah Carey fan watching her performance with Jimmy Fallon for the first time.  It is hilarious.  Check it out:

And in case that wasn't enough for you, here's the full video:

Jimmy Fallon and Mariah Carey sing All I Want for Christmas is You!

I don't listen to much pop music, but I do have one song by  Mariah Carey on my iPod - "All I Want for Christmas is You".  Her rendition of the classic holiday song is just really fun to belt out in the car and really epitomizes the holiday season.  So when I saw that Jimmy Fallon was following up his viral classroom instrument rendition of "Call Me Maybe" with "All I Want for Christmas is You", I knew it would be great.  See for yourself!

In other Jimmy Fallon news, Jimmy just got nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for Blow Your Pants Off!  The Roots also got nominated for Best Rap Album for their latest record Undun!  Congrats to Jimmy and The Roots!

Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Lincaaaaah

Last night, comedian Louis C.K. made his highly anticipated appearance on Saturday Night Live as host of the show.  As we've previously posted, we're big fans of both Louis C.K. and his show Louie, and were really looking forward to seeing him host, although we did have some apprehensions about how he'd do in the role.  And as it turned out, he did a great job!  Louie really went all out and played lots of silly characters, did funny accents, wore ridiculous costumes, and had one of the longest and messiest make out sessions we've ever seen.  But our favorite sketch from the night was  the excellent Louie parody - "Lincoln"!  In the sketch, Louie did  a perfect parody of his hit show as Abraham Lincoln, complete with stand-up, women troubles, and a shot-for-shot remake of his show's opening theme.  While there is a Lincoln movie coming out next weekend, the subject of Abraham Lincoln was a bit random, but it still worked in the sketch.  Here's the  web exclusive Director's Cut (no, Louie surprisingly did not direct this) of "Lincoln", including a full minute of material that didn't make it on air! (See more Louie on SNL after the jump.)

My Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Adventure

Living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, I have been very lucky throughout Hurricane Sandy in that my building had no damage and I never lost power, cable, or internet.  My office did lose power however, so I've been out of work all week. And after 2 days of sitting in my apartment watching reruns all day, I finally decided to go out yesterday to explore the city. That's when I saw this tweet:

Longtime readers of this blog will remember that we attended a taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon back in 2009, but I've always been interested in attending Jimmy's monologue rehearsal.  I wondered what kind of jokes didn't make the cut, and if there were alternate punchlines for each joke that were tested by the audience's response.  So I decided to leave my apartment for the first time since the storm hit 3 days earlier and venture downtown to 30 Rock. (Of course the subways were still down, so I had to take a very slow downtown bus.)  I arrived at the NBC Store at 2:00, I asked for a ticket to Jimmy's Monologue Rehearsal, and I was told I got the last one, and was handed the following ticket:

I was so excited to have gotten the last ticket that I didn't read it closely and just headed off into Time Square to find some pizza to eat before I had to be back at 2:45. But when I checked back at 2:45 as I was told to do, I was informed that the ticket I had was not a ticket to the Monologue Rehearsal, but rather a Standby Ticket to the actual taping of the show!  (I should have been tipped off by the fact that it said "STAND-BY TICKET" on the top.)  The Monologue Rehearsal group had already left, so that was no longer an option, so I figured I'd stick around and test my luck on Standby to attend the show.  As I mentioned, I got the last ticket (number 150), so I thought my chances were pretty slim, but as it turned out there were a lot of no-shows (presumably due to the hurricane damage) so I ended up making it in!  I was given an actual ticket to the show, and eventually made it in to the studio!

Two Fun Men

As was the case before, the warm-up guy worked the crowd by making fun of the few people in Halloween costumes and gave us some ground rules for the show. Then The Roots came out and gave us a little pre-show concert, featuring a special performance from Two Fun Men.  Sadly, Higgins wasn't there, but head writer A.D. Miles filled in and announced Jimmy Fallon as he walked out and the show got started!.  It was a great show featuring Ryan Seacrest rapping, Bobby Cannavale doing Al Pacino, a fun Halloween video (which I realized was actually the same one they showed a few years ago), and a performance from the aforementioned Two Fun Men.  But best of all, I got to see a live performance of Jimmy singing "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet" as Bob Dylan! Here's a clip of the song.  When he runs up into the audience, you can see me in the crowd singing along!

Overall it was a great show and a lot of fun, especially since I had no intention of going when I woke up in the morning.  Maybe one of these days I'll actually make it to the Monologue Rehearsal, but until then I'll gladly settle for attending a taping of the full show.

Clip of the Day: Jimmy Fallon's Audience-less Show

As we mentioned in our post last night, Jimmy Fallon did his show last night from New York City with Hurricane Sandy quickly approaching to an empty studio audience. He started the show with a great cold open which started out on the unusually empty mid-town streets, and then walked his way into 30 Rock and up to his studio.  He then proceeded to do his monologue to an empty room, which contained only a few members of his crew providing some chuckles.  It was unlike anything I've ever seen, and it was pretty amazing:

Well actually, there was one guy in the audience, Mets Bucket Hat Guy, and as usual he was up for some crazy word association connections:

Tonight's Late Night episode, with guests Donald Trump and Andy Cohen (a very interesting pairing!) will have its usual studio audience.

In other news, the storm coverage has created some network programming changes for NBC comedies this week.  Tonight's Go On and New Normal, which were originally scheduled to air at a special time of 10:00 and 10:30 tonight, will not air on TV but can be downloaded on iTunes.  Our favorite Thursday night NBC comedy block has also been canceled this week, as NBC will be re-airing Monday night's episode of The Voice, since the storm coverage (and power outages) prevented many from watching it.  However, the 30 Rock episode that was originally scheduled for this Thursday night will actually air this week on Wednesday night (Oct. 31) at 8:00 (replacing what would have been the last episode of the already canceled Animal Practice) since it the second part of an election-themed episode and it wouldn't make as much sense to watch it next week after the election.

The Farm and Up All Night News!

Amidst the crazy storm going on outside, we actually have some big news stories for you.  First, the potential Office spin-off The Farm is officially not going to happen.  The proposed show was going to center around Dwight Schrute and his various Schrute relatives on the beet farm where they live.  An upcoming episode of The Office was supposed to act as a back door pilot, however before it even had a chance to air NBC has decided not to move forward with it.  The pilot is still planed to air as an Office episode later this season, but it looks like it will not become a show.  Rainn Wilson tweeted the following announcement:

In other NBC comedy news, Up All Night will undergo another major change this season.  The show, which recently underwent a transition by canceling Ava's Oprah-esque show within the show to focus more on family life, will now be transitioning from a single-camera comedy to a multi-camera sitcom.  I have never heard of a show changing from single-camrea to multi-camera before, so this should certainly be interesting.  The decision was apparently made as a result of Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph's recent SNL hosting stints, and seeing how well they do in front of a live audience.  The show will reportedly continue to be single camera until December, at which point it will go on a 3 month hiatus. (Perhaps Community will fill in this time slot???)  It will then return in April as a multi-camera sitcom, complete with a studio audience and laugh track.  While Up All Night has never done too well in the ratings (as is sadly the case with all other Thursday night NBC comedies), with 30 Rock and The Office ending this season (and the apparent cancellation of The Farm), it seems that NBC is trying its hardest to build Up All Night to be a future Thursday night anchor alongside Parks & Rec.  Hopefully this latest change will work!  Should be an interesting transition!

And a few minor hurricane-related TV tidbits.  All new prime time comedy shows for tonight have been canceled (including a new How I Met Your Mother), however Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will reportedly air tonight, without a a studio audience! After initially offering anyone who'd be in attendance a free point of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, he later (smartly) sent them all home to be safe.  The audience-less show is scheduled to air tonight on NBC at its normal 12:37am time slot with SNL's Seth Meyers as his guest!  Hope we keep power long enough to watch!  Stay safe everyone!

Clip of the Day: Tom Hanks does Slam Poetry about Full House

I know this is a few days old, but we finally had a chance to catch up on our Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and came across this clip.  This is probably the most random and crazy thing I've ever seen on the show.  It's Academy Award winning actor Tom Hanks doing slam poetry about the 90's sitcom Full House.  I have no idea why, but this actually happened:

Jimmy Fallon on iCarly!

iCarly is a popular show on the children's network of Nickelodeon.  While we're certainly not regular viewers, we have seen some episodes of the show, and it is actually pretty funny as far as children's shows go.  In fact, the show has many adult fans, including two of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's writers Mike DiCenzo (Mets Bucket Hat Guy) and John Haskell (Walter Kump).  Miranda Cosgrove (who stars as the titular character Carly) has often appeared on Late Night as a guest, and one time she even faced off with the two Late Night writers for some iCarly trivia:

Anyway, tomorrow night (Saturday 10/6) iCarly will kick off its final season with a special 1 hour episode featuring Jimmy Fallon as a special guest star.  Not only that, the iCarly gang will actually be appearing on Late Night within the episode, which will also feature Higgins, The Roots, and Jimmy's rival/animal trainer Jeff Musial!  And if that wasn't enough, rumor has it that Jimmy's old SNL buddies Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch will be appearing as well! Don't miss Jimmy Fallon on iCarly tomorrow night (Saturday 10/6) at 8:00 pm on Nickelodeon! Here's a trailer:

Also don't miss Jerry Trainor (Spencer on iCarly) as Jimmy's guest on Late Night tonight!

Jimmy Fallon and "Guys with Kids" Cast Perform History of TV Theme Songs

Last week, Jimmy Fallon had the cast of NBC's new comedy Guys with Kids (which Jimmy co-created and executive produces) on his show and the topic of TV theme songs came up.  The conversation then seamlessly transitioned into a full out "History of TV Theme Songs" medley with the four guys singing the theme songs to nearly all our favorite classic TV shows:

And here is what's sure to be the next great classic TV show theme song, the theme from Guys with Kids, sung by none other than Jimmy Fallon himself:

So be sure to watch Guys with Kids every Wednesday at 8:30 on NBC!  While we don't watch many multi-camera sitcoms anymore, as FalPals we had to give this one a chance, and it's actually pretty funny!  And it co-stars Tempestt Bledsoe, who played little Vanessa Huxtable on The Cosby Show!