TV Clip of the Day: Welch's Grape Juice Ads

Here at we like TV, one of our favorite shows is the Food Network show Good Eats. The show stars Alton Brown who in each episode uses humor and science to teach all about that episode's particular food. The show if educational, and funny, and all around quite entertaining to watch. However, today's TV Clip of the Day is not from Good Eats, but rather features Alton Brown. While watching TV earlier this afternoon, I was zoning out during the commercial when I thought I heard the voice of Alton Brown. I looked at the screen, and it was a commercial for Welch's Grape Juice, with a man wearing glasses who sounded very much like Alton talking about the scientific advantages of the special Concord grapes used in Welch's grape juice. While the man sounded like Alton, and bared a slight resemblance to him, he appeared different. On Good Eats, Alton Brown always had kind of messy hair, usually kind of spiky on his head, whereas in this commercial, his hair was slicked back and he looked completely different. I did some research and the Welch's Grape Juice guy was in fact Alton Brown, who just signed on to be Welch's new spokesman. So here it is, the new Welch's grape juice commercial starring Good Eats star Alton Brown:
(Ignore the first 10 seconds of the clip)


To see more of Alton Brown's Welch's ads, go to http://www.welchs.com/altonbrown.

TV Clip of the Day: Robots!

Today we have a great TV Clip of the day for you. (Have you noticed that we haven't been posting every day like we used to? Sorry about that. We're trying to post everyday, but we're also quite busy, so please bear with us. We'll still update this blog as often as possible). So, yesterday I was eating some take out Chinese food with A and we were listening to the Flight of the Conchords album entitled "Flight of the Conchords". This one song particularly been stuck in my head since then, so I thought I'd post it for you all. It's from the very first episode of Flight of the Conchords and the song is entitled "Robots". In the episode, Jermaine and Brett try to create a music video for their song, and this is what they come up with. The song is actually broken up into 2 parts in the episode. The first part is played during the episode, and the rest of it is played during the credits at the end. Both parts are here for you to enjoy:

SNL TV Parody of the Week

Today on the E! channel they were running a special called "101 Most Unforgettable SNL Moments". It's a few years old, so it didn't include any of the sketches from the past 5 years or so, but it was still a lot of fun to relive all those great sketches that you remembered from the past, and learning about other sketches from the 1970's and 1980's that I've never seen before. One of the old favorites that I love but forgot about was #63 on their list (although it would be much higher on my list!): Inside the Actor Studio with James Lipton. For those of you who have never seen the show, James Lipton hosts a talk show on the Bravo channel where he'll talk to an actor or actress for an hour or so about their various acting roles and learn about their acting styles and what advice they have for his acting students (who are in the studio audience). I have always enjoyed the show because unlike most talk shows like David Letterman or Conan or Ellen or any of those, the entire hour is devoted solely to the celebrity guest, and we really get to learn more about them as a person. However, James Lipton is a very interesting character, and often exaggerates how amazing the acting talent of some of his celebrity guests really are. And who better to impersonate James Lipton, then the great Will Ferrell. This sketch here features Ferrell's James Lipton interviewing Alec Baldwin as Charles Nelson Reiley. My favorite Inside the Actor Studio sketch is when he interviews Kate Hudson doing an incredible Drew Barrymore impression, but unfortunately I cannot find it online. (If you really want to see it, check out the SNL Best of Will Ferrell Volume 2 DVD. Volume 1 contains this Charles Nelson Reiley sketch.)

2 New SNL Cast Members!

After Amy Poehler left SNL a few weeks ago to have her baby, there were only 2 female cast members left on SNL (Kristin Wiig and Casey Wilson). While many speculated that a new female cast member would be hired to replace Amy, it was just announced that Lorne Michaels hired not 1, but 2 new female SNL cast members!

The first new member is Michaela Watkins, who comes from the improv comedy troupe The Groundlings, the same place where Will Ferrell, Maya Rudolph, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte, Lisa Kudrow, and Conan O'Brien got their start, so she's certainly in good company! Michaela has also been seen in her recurring role on the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine. Here is a clip of her on Old Christine:

The second cast member is Abby Elliot, who is the daughter of former SNL member Chris Elliot, who more famously played Amy's creepy brother Peter on Everybody Loves Raymond. He was very funny on the show, so hopefully she got his funny genes! Abby has done many shows at the Upright Citizen Brigade theater in Los Angeles, and is the voice of "hipster girl" on King of the Hill. Here is a collection of some characters and impressions that she does, which I imagine was her SNL audition tape:
(my favorite is Drew Barrymore at the end)

So, looks like 2 talented people! I can't wait to see how they do on SNL this Saturday night! Paul Rudd is hosting, so it's sure to be great! What do you think of the new cast members? Comment!

TV Clip of the Day: It's Supposed to be Fun!

Today's Clip of the Day comes from one of my favorite episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond entitled "It's Supposed to be Fun" (which I'm watching on TBS right now and inspired me to post this today). In the episode, Ray and the family watch their sons play basketball, and although Michael is a good basketball player, Geoffrey does not play too well, and Ray keeps making fun of him from the stands. After the coach and the rest of his family yell at him, Ray decides to give Geoffrey some positive reinforcement:
(My favorite part comes at 1:08!)

Raymond Trivia: At the end of this clip, when Ray sits on the bench, he sits with his real life children. The girl sitting next to Ally Barone is actually Ally Romano, Ray Romano's daughter, and the 2 boys he sits between are his real life twin sons, Matthew and Gregory Romano (which were the names of the twins in the pilot episode of the show, before they were changed to Michael and Geoffrey).

SNL TV Parody of the Week: The View

This week's SNL TV Parody of the Week is a sketch that aired just last week, parodying The View! The View has so many different and unique people on it, that it's such a great show to parody. This sketch features Kenan Thompson as Whoopi Goldberg, Fred Armison as Joy Behar, Kristin Wiig as Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Casey Wilson as guest host Jennifer Aniston, and host Ben Affleck as guest Alec Baldwin. What I loved about this sketch is that it not only made fun of the silly arguments that these people have on their show each week, but it also featuers some very unlikely celebrity impressions. Casey Wilson's Jennifer Aniston came out of nowhere, and was really great! I don't think I've ever seen a Jennifer Aniston impressoin, and she really nailed it. Also, I was very surprised to see an Alec Bladwin impression, since Alec Baldwin is so close to Lorne Michaels, having hosted the show 13 times in addition to starring on the Lorne Michaels-produced 30 Rock, so it was great to see that SNL wasn't above spoofing Alec Baldwin. So here it is, SNL's parody of The View:

Michael's Parodies on The Office

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about how my favorite song parodist is "Weird Al" Yankovic, and I posted the opening theme from his short lived CBS TV show. Well, while Weird Al may be my number one favorite song parodist, my second favorite would have to be Michael Scott from The Office. While most bosses focus on running a successful and profitable business, Michael's priority is always to entertain his employees and ultimately be well-liked. Throughout the series, Michael has sung some great song parodies, so please enjoy a collection of some of my favorites!

"Goodbye Toby", a parody of "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp


"Let's Get Ethical", parody of "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John


"Diwali", a parody of Adam Sandler's "Chanukkah Song"


"Lazy Scranton", a parody of the SNL Digital Short, "Lazy Sunday"

Borat on SNL

In my previous blog entry, I mentioned that I have been very busy this week. One of the main things that I was working on was an 11 page paper that was due yesterday for my Entertainment Law class on the legal implications of how Borat tricked innocent people to appear in his film. Now that the paper is over, I'm still in a Boraty mood, so I decided to post for you all Borat's appearance on SNL. Very nice!

I've missed you Blog

Hello blog. It's me. Remember me? Sorry it's been so long. I have had the busiest week of work and I just haven't had time for you. My sincerest apologies. However, the week is over and the weekend has arrived, so I'll make it up to you! I promise! Today, I will compensate for the lack of posts this week with many posts today! Hooray!

To start it off, we have some clips from this week's episode of South Park entitled, "About Last Night". The episode aired Wednesday night at 10:00, less than 24 hours after the election had ended, and managed to include the results of the election and almost exact replicas of Obama's victory speech and McCain's losing speech. (Is there a more proper term than losing speech?) Anyway, here it is, South Park's interpretation of "what happened last night" after the election:

Tim Gunn on Candidate Fashion

The beloved Project Runway mentor (and, in the season 5 finale, judge!) has commented in a Newsweek photo slideshow on the fashion choices of the candidates, their spouses, and other related political figures. I love Tim Gunn!

This has been a reminder to vote today!

Still haven't voted?

A few weeks ago, we posted a video featuring several TV and film stars sarcastically encouraging people to "not vote". Well, in case their reverse psychology wasn't enough to make you vote, here's a new group of film and TV stars, including Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, Zach Braff, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal reminding you one last time, to go out and vote! Today's the day! VOTE!

Sitcom Moms and Dads: Rachel's Mom

Marlo Thomas played Rachel's mother on the hit sitcom Friends, however Marlo Thomas was famous long before the show. Back in the 60's Marlo Thomas starred on her own popular sitcom called That Girl, which ran for 5 successful seasons (yes, she played the girl who the title refers to). The show was the first show to focus on a single woman who wasn't domestic or living at home, paving the way for such classics as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy Brown, and more recently, Sex and the City and 30 Rock. So now, enjoy an episode of That Girl starring Rachel's mom, Marlo Thomas!

Part 1:

Part 2:

And a short clip of Marlo Thomas on Friends:

Happy Belated Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Yes, I know I'm 4 days late. It's been a really busy weekend and I didn't have much time to blog. But, no worries, I didn't forget about you. So, even though Halloween is over and everyone's has shifted into November mode, we're going to revert back to Halloween mode, and enjoy this great clip from last week's episode of The Office and see what our favorite Dunder Mifflin employees dressed up as for Halloween!

SNL TV Parody of the Week-Muppet Show

For today's SNL TV Parody of the Week, we have something special for you. When most people today think of the Muppets, they think of the various Muppet movies, including the original The Muppet Movie, Muppets Take Manhattan, The Great Muppet Caper, A Muppet Treasure Island, Muppets in Space, and A Muppet Wizard of Oz, just to name a few. But the Muppets got their start in a TV series called The Muppet Show, which starred Kermit and all his Muppet friends in a variety type show, featuring a full Muppet audience, and one real celebrity guest host each week. Perhaps one of these days, we'll post a clip from The Muppet Show, but today, we have an SNL Muppet Show parody. (While not technically spoofing The Muppet Show, it's spoofing the Muppets performing a show, so that's close enough), so now, enjoy host Seth Rogen as Rowlf with the rest of the SNL cast as The Muppets!