A Familiar "Dana Carvey Show" Sketch

Last night, we watched the complete series of The Dana Carvey Show on DVD for the first time.  The 1996 sketch comedy show starred Dana Carvey shortly after he left SNL, and featured a supporting cast that included Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert before either were a household name.  The show also featured an impressive writing staff that included Louis C.K. (Louie), Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation), and Robert Smigel (SNL's TV Funhouse cartoons).  I had seen a few sketches online before, but never actually watched whole episodes.  The show only lasted 7 episodes before it was canceled, but the DVD set includes an 8th episode that never aired.  I got the DVD set for Chanukkah this year, so I was very excited to watch it.  

Unfortunately, the show hasn't aged very well, with lots of topical sketches about Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Ross Perot, OJ Simpson, and other old news stories to which we  didn't even get the references. Some sketches were kind of funny, but the show overall was rather disappointing, especially considering the all-star cast of actors and writers on the show.  Nevertheless, there was one sketch that really stood out to us.  The sketch featured a deleted scene from The Wizard of Oz which included the deleted character of "Dennis Blanchard", who wanted to see the wizard because he wanted a, well, I'll let you see for yourself:  (BTW, Steve Carell plays the Tinman and Stephen Colbert is the Scarecrow!)

The sketch stood out to us for a few reasons.  First, it aged much better than the others since it wasn't spoofing the forgotten headlines of 1996.  Second, it was actually pretty funny.  And third, it very closely resembled a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, which also featured a deleted character from The Wizard of Oz!  See for yourself:

Obviously the deleted character from both sketches are quite different, but still, the premise of a sketch about a deleted character from The Wizard of Oz is oddly specific.  Were the SNL writers inspired by the old Dana Carvey sketch?  Or did they both happen to thing of the same random idea?  We'll probably never know, but still, it's hard not to wonder...

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:

A Very Hey Arnold Christmas

Following our Chanukkah post, we figured it only be fair to post a clip for Christmas as well.  Unlike the case with Chanukkah, there are no shortage of great Christmas specials.  Nearly every great sitcom dating back to I Love Lucy has a great Christmas episode, and there are plenty of lists out there which will rank their favorite ones (like this one for example).  But as was the case with Chanukkah, we've decided to post a less mainstream clip that you probably won't find on every other TV blog on the internet.  Out of all the great Christmas episodes out there, our favorite one is actually from the 90's Nicktoon (Nickelodeon cartoon) Hey Arnold!.  The season 1 episode entitled "Arnold's Christmas" has the perfect blend of heart and humor that is rarely found in a children's cartoon.  To any child of the 90's, this is sure to bring back some great memories.  And to everyone else, you're in for a great treat.  And for all of you, I dare you not to tear up at the end.  Here's the episode in its entirety:

Hey Arnold!: "Arnold's Christmas"
Get More: Hey Arnold! Episodes,Hey Arnold!,Hey Arnold! Games

Merry Christmas to all those celebrating!

Our New Favorite Show: Billy on the Street!

Originally a web series on Funny Or Die, Billy on the Street has made it to the big(ger) screen on the Fuse network. Billy Eichner is a man with opinions who isn't afraid to yell at strangers and/or give them money when they can correctly answer questions and/or agree with him. But at his core, he's a man who wants answers, and wants them NOW. Never before has such urgency been applied to such low-stakes challenges ("for $1, name 3 white people"). He's also friends with some famous people that we like, which is nice. Here's a clip of him with Rashida Jones as well as a series of people on the streets of NYC who don't seem to know Rashida Jones nor watch Parks and Rec.

Billy On The Street 2nd Season Exclusive Clip with Rashida Jones from Rashida Jones

Golden Globe Nominations Announced! Our Official Picks!

Today the nominations for the 70th Golden Globe Awards were announced!  As you might expect, we care most about the TV comedy categories, so here are the nominations for each of those categories, and our picks for who we think should win!

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy

• The Big Bang Theory
• Episodes
• Girls
• Modern Family
• Smash

Sadly, many of our favorites like 30 Rock, The Office, Parks & Recreation, Community,  and Louie weren't nominated this year.  Out of the 5 that were, the only one we actually watch is Modern Family, so we'll have to vote for that one.  Modern Family is a truly hilarious show with an amazing ensemble made up of both adults and kids.  Modern Family won last year, so hopefully it wins again!  Here's a great clip from a recent episode with guest star Matthew Broderick, who gets mixed signals from Phil:

Best Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy

• Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
• Don Cheadle - House of Lies
• Louis C.K. - Louie
• Matt LeBlanc - Episodes
• Jim Parsons - The Big Bang Theory

As much as we love Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock, we're rooting for Louis C.K. Alec Baldwin has already won the award 3 times now (Matt LeBlanc and Jim Parsons have also each won) so it would really be nice to see Louis C.K. get some recognition.  While I'll readily admit that when it comes to acting, Louis doesn't have much of a range, he is really great at playing the fictionalized version of himself that he wrote for himself on Louie, as evidenced in this clip:

Drunk Uncle on 12-12-12 Concert!

While watching the epic 6 hour 12-12-12 Concert for Hurricane Sandy Relief last night, I was pleasantly surprised to see most of the cast of Saturday Night Live working the phone banks taking calls from donors.  This was a live concert on Wednesday night, and the SNL gang have a big show airing in just 3 days!  I figured they'd be busy writing and rehearsing with Martin Short, but there they were, volunteering their time for a good cause.  And as if that wasn't enough, then Seth Meyers comes out and introduces Drunk Uncle, and they do a full Drunk Uncle bit in the middle of the concert!  It was totally unexpected, and a great piece of comic relief following Kanye West's out-of-place performance.  It also goes to show what caring and generous people the SNL cast really are.  Anyway, without further ado, here's Drunk Uncle at the 12-12-12 Concert!

And don't forget, there's an all new Saturday Night Live this weekend with host Martin Short!  And fresh off his 12-12-12 Concert appearance, Sir Paul McCartney will be musical guest! Perhaps his new band-mates from Nirvana will make a surprise appearance???  We'll soon find out!  Here's some hilarious promos for the show!

And in case you want a little more Martin Short to hold you to Saturday, here's the very first appearance of the popular "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketch, featuring host Martin Short as on of my all time favorite comedians, Jerry Lewis!

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!

Jaime Foxx on SNL!

Last week, we posted about Jaime Foxx hosting SNL for a second time this Saturday night.  At the time, we couldn't find any clips of Jaime's former hosting appearance online, so we just posted a clip of him from his old sketch comedy series In Living Color.  But with Jaime hosting in just a few days, it seems that the good folks over at NBC decided to take this old Jaime Foxx sketch out of the vault for us to enjoy. So here's Jaime Foxx on SNL from his first time hosting back in 2000:

And now here's a new promo with Jaime Foxx and Jason Sudeikis for this weekend's show!

Pete Schweddy's Forgotten Return to The Delicious Dish

Last week, we enjoyed watching the SNL Christmas special on NBC, a 2 hour collection of the best holiday-themed sketches over the show's 38 year history (though it was quite heavily skewed towards the more current seasons).  Naturally, we have seen these classic sketches many times before, but it's always fun to watch them again nonetheless.  

The special included one of the greatest and most classic SNL sketches of all time- the infamous "Schweddy Balls" sketch, which featured Alec Baldwin as Pete Schweddy appearing on the NPR program "The Delicious Dish" to promote his ball-shaped holiday treats.  The sketch was ranked as the #3 greatest SNL sketch ever on the "E! 101 Most Unforgettable  SNL Moments" list and even spawned its own Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor! (Yes, I've had it.)  While the Delicious Dish sketch with Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon  has recurred 15 times throughout the show's history, it will forever be remembered for that one magical time that Alec Baldwin appeared as Pete Schweddy.

BUT, did you know that Pete Schweddy actually returned to the Delicious Dish a second time?  It's true!  After the enormous success of Schweddy Balls, Alec Baldwin reprised his character of Pete Schweddy to return to the Delicious Dish to introduce his latest culinary treat!  It's also interesting to note that this sketch aired shortly after Molly Shannon had left the show, so Rachel Dratch was introduced as as Ana Gasteryer's new co-host!  Check it out!

And in case you're one of the only people in the world who's never seen it (or you just want to watch it again), here's the classic "Schweddy Balls" sketch:

Danielle Fishel on The Soup!

After the big news came out that Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel will be reprising their roles of Cory and Topanga on Girl Meets World, I was hoping that it would mean that we'd get to see the two stars appear on talk shows to promote the new series.  And while that hasn't technically happened yet, we did get to see Danielle Fishel pop up on The Soup!  She appeared various time throughout the episode, including this clip of her as Lindsay  Lohan playing Liz Taylor:

Here's a behind the scenes bit (that didn't air on TV) of Danielle Fishel getting into character to play Lohan as Liz:

It was somewhat of a homecoming for Danielle to appear on The Soup.  From 2008-2011, Danielle hosted her own Soup-style show called The Dish on E!'s sister network Style.  The show was very similar to The Soup, but more focused on style and fashion than random reality shows.  Here's a clip of Danielle Fishel on The Dish discussing Bieber Fever:

While Danielle hasn't been on TV much since The Dish ended in 2011, she's been hosting a series of online videos in that same Soup/Dish style called "Last Night on TV" for MSN. Here's today's episode featuring Danielle's recap of last night's Parks & Rec and Glee.  It seems that this will be her last episode of the web series, so I guess she's decided to focus all her efforts on Girl Meets World full time!

In other Girl Meets World news, following Danielle's heartfelt blog post about the new show, her Boy Meets World co-star Rider Strong (Shawn) posted his thoughts over on his blog.  In the post he reveals, "At this point, I have no official involvement in Girl Meets World. There might be a chance to see some of the BMW cast in a guest spot, and I think it would be nice to find out where our characters have been all these years."  Sounds like he's open to appearing!  Hopefully "Uncle Shawn" will pop-up on GMW!

Jaime Foxx and Martin Short to Host SNL!

Only two Saturday Night Live episodes remain in 2012, and we now know who the hosts will be!

12/8 Jaime Foxx (with musical guest Ne-Yo)

After a short 2-week hiatus, SNL will return with actor/rapper/comedian Jaime Foxx hosting for his second time (he previously hosted back in 2000).  While I admit I'm not that familiar with Jamie Foxx's work, I know he has a strong comedy background from doing stand-up, starring on his own self titled sitcom, and starring on the sketch comedy series In Living Color.  He has also starred in many dramatic roles, including his Academy Award winning performance in 2004's Ray.  This proves that he's both a really funny guy as well as a very talented actor, which usually leads to a great SNL host.  I'm very excited to see how he does on the show, since I don't recall his first time hosting and can't seem to find any videos online.  I did however find this video of Jaime Foxx as his popular recurring character "Wanda" from In Living Color:

12/15 Martin Short (with musical guest Paul McCartney)

On December 15th, SNL's popular "Christmas Show", Martin Short will return to host for his 3rd time.  Short actually starred on SNL as a cast member during the 1984-1985 season, where he often played his popular character Ed Grimley (which he originated on the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV). He has since returned to the show to host once in 1986 alongside Chevy Chase and Steve Martin (with whom he was co-starring with in the hilarious Lorne Michaels-produced film Three Amigos!) and then once again on his own in 1996.    Joining Short on the show is legendary rock star Paul McCartney, who will be musical guest for the 4th time.  Paul has been known to show up in sketches when he's on the show, so I'm really looking forward to see what he does this time!  Should be a great show!  Here's Martin Short as Ed Grimley, Paul McCartney on The Chris Farley Show, and Martin and Paul together making a surprise cameo during a show hosted by Alec Baldwin in 2006 (the last time either man was seen on the show):

BEN SAVAGE & DANIELLE FISHEL OFFICIALLY JOIN GIRL MEETS WORLD!

IT'S OFFICIAL!  After weeks of speculation, Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel have officially signed on to reprise their roles as Cory and Topanga on the new Boy Meets World sequel Girl Meets World!!!  As we've previously reported, the new Disney Channel show will focus on their pre-teen daughter Riley, who will be a student in her father Cory's 7th grade class (he's now a teacher).  While original Boy Meets World creator Michael Jacobs has been in negotiations with the stars for weeks, it looks like they finally reached a deal!

In our In-Depth Analysis of Girl Meets World post, we said that our two biggest apprehensions about the show were:

1) If Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel weren't in it and they were replaced by other actors
2) That it would turn into a typical Disney Channel sitcom with know-it-all singing kids and dumb dopey parents with cheesy plot lines

So now we don't have to worry about #1.  And as for #2, I'm starting to feel a lot better about that as well.  Shortly after this news broke earlier tonight, Danielle Fishel wrote a heartfelt blog post, where she said:

I promise with the entirety of my heart that we will make GMW with the same honesty, innocence, and intelligence that you learned to expect from BMW.

The rest of her post shares the same sentiment, that they she and Ben debated about joining the show, but signed on because they were both really devoted to creating a special show in the vein of Boy Meets World. They really do care about the show as much as the fans do, and it looks like they'll do their best to preserve the legacy of BMW and make the fans proud.

So now my apprehensions are gone!  I'm really excited for this new show!  It's supposed to start filming in February, so hopefully it airs in the next few months!  Cory and Topanga are back!

Ben Savage Address Boy Meets World Sequel! (Kind Of)

We've been posting all the details we can find about the highly anticipated upcoming show Girl Meets World, a spin-off of the popular 90's sitcom Boy Meets World.  But the one big question that still remains unanswered is whether or not Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel will reprise their iconic roles as Cory and Topanga.  The creepers journalists over at TMZ stalked interviewed Ben Savage and asked him about the new show, as seen in this video:

While Ben Savage doesn't give us much information here at all, I take this as a good sign.  If he really wasn't interested in doing the show, I think he would have just turned it down.  But the fact that he's not allowed to talk about it leads me to believe that he's currently in negations with Disney and they're just trying to agree on his salary. And if that's the case, with all the buzz surrounding the show, I'm sure Disney will give Ben and Danielle whatever they need to keep them from walking away.  Hopefully we get official word that they're on board soon!

PS TMZ is the sleaziest show ever to exist.

Our Favorite SNL Sketch this Weekend That Never Even Aired

Usually, after Saturday Night Live airs each weekend, we post our favorite sketch or two and write about how great it was. This weekend however, we did no such post.  We just didn't feel that any of the sketches were blog-worthy in what was a somewhat mediocre show.  So instead of posting about my favorite sketch of the week, I was planning to write about my disappointment that a sketch that I wanted to see never aired at all.

Last week, The New York Times reviewed celebrity chef Guy Fieri's new restaurant in Times Square and gave it a hilariously horrible review.  And for the first time that I can remember, a restaurant review went viral and everyone was talking about it.  As soon as I read it, I immediately said "I can't wait to see Bobby's Guy Fieri talking about this on Weekend Update. This is gonna be great!".  And since that moment, I had been looking forward to SNL more than usual to see this inevitable sketch.  And yet, when the show aired and Weekend Update came on, there was no Guy.  The two Update guests were Jay Pharoah as Katt Williams and a surprise cameo by NJ Governor Chris Christie.  And while I enjoyed both appearances, I still couldn't figure out why SNL chose to air these two bits over Guy Fieri.  I was thinking maybe once they booked Chris Christie they bumped the Guy sketch, but why wouldn't they bump Katt Williams instead?  While it was a funny segment, far more people are familiar with Guy Fieri (who Bobby has hilariously impersonated many times before) and his his "review read 'round the world" than they are with comedian Katt Williams and his recent scandal.  I couldn't figure it out.  So I figured it must have gotten cut at Dress Rehearsal.  SNL's website often posts cut sketches on Sunday after the show, but when I checked the site on Sunday afternoon, while there was a cut sketch, there was no Guy Fieri.  Had SNL actually not written a Guy Fieri sketch at all?

                  The real Guy Fieri                                                    Bobby Moynihan as Guy Fieri on SNL

So I was planning to post about my anger over not getting to see Bobby as Guy responding to the review.  I was gonna  post an old Guy Fieri sketch to show how hilarious Bobby's impression was, and then hypothesize about what they could have done with the sketch   But then, out of nowhere, just as I had given up all hope, the Guy Fieri sketch actually appeared!  It apparently was cut from Dress Rehearsal and for whatever reason wasn't posted online until today.  And...it's just as great as I imagined it would be!  I still can't understand why this got cut over Katt Williams (or why they couldn't cut one of the other sketches to extend Weekend Update), but I'm just glad that the video exists and we finally get to watch Bobby Moynihan's hilarious Guy Fieri respond to the infamous NY Times Review.

So without further ado, here's the highly anticipated Guy Fieri sketch from Saturday Night Live:

And in case you're wondering how Guy actually responded to the review, here's his interview with Savannah Guthrie from the Today show:

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SNL Alum on New Normal!

After leaving Saturday Night Live, actors usually follow one of two paths: They either become a huge movie/TV star (like Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Jimmy Fallon, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, etc.) or they become character actors and pop up on various comedies in funny guest starring roles.  And while lately we've seen a lot of great guest spots from SNL alums such as Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon, Chris Parnell, Will Forte, etc., there's one who we really haven't seen in a while - Cheri Oteri. Therefore, you can imagine our surprise when she randomly popped up in this week's episode of the new NBC comedy The New Normal!  Check out Cheri Oteri's scene-stealing appearance on The New Normal below:

And for those of you who don't remember Cheri Oteri on SNL, she starred on the show from 1995-2000, and is probably best remembered for her role as Ariana in the popular recurring sketch "The Spartan Cheerleaders" opposite Will Ferrell:

Ellen Responds to her SNL Spoof

A few days ago we posted  about how one of our favorite SNL sketches from last weekend's show was the hilarious parody of the daytime talk show Ellen.  So after seeing Kate McKinnon's spot-on impression of Ellen Degeneres, we were of course curious to see how the real Ellen would respond.  Well, it turns out she's a fan!  Ellen devoted the whole monologue from one of her shows this week to talking about the sketch.  She even showed some clips from the show, some of which aren't even available online!  Check out Ellen's response to seeing herself parodied on SNL below:

Hopefully Ellen will have Kate McKinnon on as a guest soon so we can see the two Ellens together at last!  And in case you were wondering, yes, Ellen has hosted Saturday Night Live before.  Here's her opening monologue from when she hosted back in 2001:

Matthew Perry's Woody Allen Impression on Go On

Woody Allen may not be making headlines or have any movies coming out for a while, but for some reason he's all over TV these days.  Two weeks ago, we posted some clips from New Girl and Conan of characters doing Woody Allen impressions, and now we have another one!  On this week's Go On, Matthew Perry does his best Woody Allen to prove to Owen's mom that he's funny.  Check out the clip below:

If you're a hardcore SNL fan, you might be aware that this is not the first time Matthew Perry has impersonated Woody Allen.  Back when he hosted the show in 1997 (at the height of his Friends fame), he played Woody Allen in a sketch called "Good Morning with Liza!".  I've spent most of the night searching every corner of the internet for a video clip of this sketch, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.  I was however able to find this nice screen-cap of Matthew Perry as Woody Allen from the sketch:

If anyone can find a clip of this SNL sketch, please let us know!  And since TV characters impersonating Woody Allen seems to be the latest trend, we'll continue to post more if we see them!

SNL Parodies Les Miz with Anne Hathaway!

This past weekend Anne Hathaway hosted Saturday Night Live for the third time to promote her upcoming film adaptation of the classic Broadway musical Les Miserables.  When it was first announced that she would host, I correctly predicted that she would sing at some point, but I had no idea that she and the entire cast would do a Les Miz parody!  Les Miz is one of our favorite musicals (we saw it on Broadway together a few years ago and I had previously seen it "On My Own" before that) and the epic song "One Day More" is one of our favorite songs from the show.  Therefore, we really enjoyed SNL's parody of the song, which featured every single member of the cast performing together with Anne for her monologue:

And in case you're not familiar with Les Miz, here's a performance of "One Day More" from the recent 25th Anniversary concert performance (yes, that's Nick Jonas):

New "Girl Meets World" Details and an In-Depth Analysis of the "Boy Meets World" Sequel

Last week we posted  the breaking news that Disney Channel was developing a Boy Meets World spin-off sequel entitled Girl Meets World  focusing on the pre-teen daughter of Cory and Topanga.  Since we posted that announcement, the following additional details have been released:

• The show will focus on Cory and Topanga's daughter named Riley.  In the official casting breakdown, she's described as "13 years old, indelible personality, an adorable girl on the cusp of whatever comes next in life, and wanting to rush into it head first. She is fiercely loyal to her friends, and spends most of her time juggling the obstacles that life throws her way... there is no obstacle in this girl's world that can dampen her bright spirit and eternal optimism.""  (Sounds like a good enough protagonist for the show. I can kind of see a blend between the good-natured Cory and the over-achieving Topanga in this child.)
• Riley's best friend is named Maya, who is darker and edgier than Riley, but still a great friend.  (So they're re-creating the Cory/Shawn friendship.)
• Riley's older 14 year old brother is Elliot, a know-it-all who bosses Riley around.  (Clearly they're not re-creating the Cory/Eric relationship.)
• And the big surprise...Cory will be Riley's 7th grade history teacher!  Yes, Cory has become the new Feeny.  I guess Feeny's influence rubbed off on him and he decided to become a teacher himself.  And I'm sure this will create all sorts of comedy with Riley having her father as her teacher.  (By the way, William Daniels, the actor who played Mr. Feeny (who's now 85 years old), is still acting with a recurring role on Grey's Anatomy, so he might just appear on the show too!)
• Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are in still in talks to reprise their iconic roles as Cory and Topanga, but have not officially signed on yet.
• Filming is set to begin in February.

Lily Niksay now and on BMW

In addition to all that news, Lily Niksay, the actress who played Cory's little sister Morgan in the first two seasons (but was then replaced by Lindsay Ridgeway for seasons 3-7) reportedly wants to be a part of the new show, even though she hasn't been asked. Since Lily Niksay was replaced on Boy Meet World, I can't really imagine they'd go back to her playing Morgan on the new show.  If [Aunt] Morgan were to appear (in what I imagine would be a guest or recurring role), it would make the most sense for her to be played by Lindsay Ridgeway, who played Morgan when the series ended.

I'll give you a minute to let all of that sink in.

OK. Now, when I first read the news about this new show, I was so excited by the possibility of Cory and Topanga returning to my TV that I could hardly contain myself.  But now, it's been almost a week and I've had time to digest the news.  So let's fully analyze this situation.

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.)

Random Clip of the Day: Mayor of Portlandia on Sprockets

A few years ago, as a big fans of Mike Myers's Austin Powers movies, we decided to buy the "SNL Best of Mike Myers" DVD to see what Mike Myers was like earlier in his career on SNL.  We were already familiar with his popular sketches "Wayne's World" and "Coffee Talk", but a sketch that just came out of nowhere and was really random and hilarious was one called "Sprockets".  "Sprockets" is a sketch about a German talk show hosted played by Mike Myers's character Dieter.  In this particular edition of Sprockets, Dieter welcomes fellow-German Karl-Heinz Shelkar to show us Germany's Most Disgusting Home Videos.  We have seen this sketch many times on DVD, but we didn't realize until yesterday that the actor who plays Karl-Heinz Shelkar currently has a recurring role on one of our favorite shows!

Look familiar?  Why it's none other than Kyle MacLachlan, who recurs on the sketch comedy show Portlandia as the mayor of Portland!  Apparently he hosted SNL back in 1990 when he was famous for starring on Twin Peaks.  It was so surreal to see Kyle MacLachlan so young and German when we're more used to seeing him act like this:

Portlandia returns to IFC for its third season on January 4th (with a Holiday Special on December 14th), and yes, The Mayor will be back!

Boy Meets World Sequel????

Future Cory and Topanga from episode "Seven the Hard Way"

According to multiple reports, Disney Channel is developing a sequel to the popular 90's sitcom Boy Meets World to be entitled Girl Meets World focusing on the pre-teen daughter of Cory and Topanga.  (To those who need a refresher  at the end of the series Cory and Topanga got married and moved to New York.)  Original Boy Meets World creator Daniel Jacobs is behind the project, and he is currently in the process of trying to get Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel to reprise their roles of Cory and Topanga.  Boy Meets World was a large part of my childhood, and it would be truly amazing to see Cory and Topanga 12 years later raising a child of their own!  Hopefully Shawn, Eric, Feeny, and the rest of the gang will come back too, even if its just  as recurring guests.  We'll be sure to post updates on this developing story.  Hopefully this show actually happens!

SLIGHT UPDATE:
Danielle Fishel (Topanga) is being very coy about the news on twitter:

Clip of the Day: Zombie Woody Allen

While we may not always post about them, in addition to our favorite NBC comedies we do watch many non-NBC shows too.  One of those shows is the very funny FOX comedy New Girl, from which we found today's Clip of the Day.  As big fans of Woody Allen, we really enjoyed this short clip from this week's Halloween episode of New Girl, in which each of the roommates takes turns doing their best Woody Allen impressions in response to Jess's Halloween costume. 

UPDATED

And speaking of Woody Allen, here's another Woody Allen related TV clip from this week.  From Conan, here's Woody Allen's audition tape to direct the new Star Wars film:

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.

Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Renner to Host SNL!

NBC has just named the remaining two SNL hosts for November! After Louis C.K. hosts this weekend, the next two SNL hosts will be:

11/10 Anne Hathaway (with musical guest Rihanna)

Anne Hathaway will host for the third time on November 10th with Rihanna as musical guest (for the fourth time).  Anne Hathaway is a great host and I'm really looking forward to her returning to SNL.  Not only is she an Academy Award nominated actress for her dramatic work, but she's also great at comedy and is not afraid to get silly.  I assume she'll be promoting her highly anticipated upcoming musical film Les Miserables, so there's a good chance we'll get to see her sing.  Check out my favorite Anne Hathaway SNL sketch below, featuring Anne doing an amazing impression of (her Princess Diaries co-star) Julie Andrews.  Also, with Rihanna as musical guest, maybe Andy Samberg can return for Shy Ronnie? Unlikely since she didn't do it last time, but it could happen!

11/17 Jeremy Renner (with musical guest Maroon 5)

When I read that Jeremy Renner would be hosting SNL for the first time, I honestly had to Wikipedia him because I had no idea who he was.  Turns out he's an Academy Award nominated actor most famous for starring in The Hurt Locker, Mission Impossible, and The Avengers.  Believe it or not, I actually haven't seen any of these movies, or any movie he's ever starred in.  Therefore, I really don't know what to expect from him as SNL host.  I generally prefer it when comedic actors host the show, so I'm not really looking forward to this one, but he could surprise me.  We'll see.  Also, with Maroon 5 as musical guest (for the 4th time), maybe Andy will return this time to reunite with Adam Levine to do Iran So Far - Part 2?  Again, unlikely, but it could happen!

SNL Promos with Louis C.K.!

Like most of the world, we are anxiously awaiting this Saturday night's episode of Saturday Night Live with special host Louis C.K..  We have previously posted about how excited we are for the show, and now we have a new promo to give us a taste of what we can expect.  Only 3 more days until CK on SNL!

Community Gets Return Date!

Back when NBC's fall lineup was first announced last summer, the 4th season premier of Community was scheduled to premier on Friday October 19th.  However, as we previously reported, a few weeks before Community was scheduled to return NBC decided to delay the return indefinitely.  In the interim  the Greendale 7 released the following video:

   

Well, now it looks like October 19th will be on February 7th!  NBC is now announcing that the 4th season of Community will premier on February 7th in its old Thursday night 8:00pm time slot which will become available after the shortened final season of 30 Rock ends its run.  

It was also reported that the new white house comedy 1600 Penn (starring Book of Mormon's Josh Gad) will premier on Thursday January 10th at 9:30pm.  The following Thursday on January 17th, Parks & Rec will move to its new 8:30 time slot, taking over for Up All Night, which as we reported yesterday will be going on hiatus as it transitions to a multi-camera sitcom.  It seems like The Office will finish up its final season in its usual Thursday night at 9:00pm time slot. Here's a trailer for the new NBC comedy 1600 Penn:

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:

Arrested Development Reunion on Up All Night!

Up All Night staged a mini Arrested Development reunion this week as Tony Hale guest starred on the show as Reagan's dentist.  While he spends most of his screen time acting with Christina Applegate (Reagan), he does have a brief encounter with his Arrested Development co-star Will Arnett (Chris) which is just about as perfect as you could hope for:

Hale greeting Arnett's character with "What's up my brother!" was an obvious reference to his popular Arrested Development catch phrase "Hey Brother!".  Check out a supercut of all of Buster's (Hale's) "Hey Brother!" moments from Arrested Development below, many of which are directed at Will Arnett's character GOB.

Hopefully Up All Night can get David Cross or Jason Bateman or another one of Will Arnett's Arrested Development co-stars to come on next!  And we're only a few short months from Spring 2013, when Arrested Development season 4 will be coming out!  Steve Holt!

Stephen Colbert on The Office as Broccoli Rob!

Ever since the character of Andy Bernard was first introduced on The Office, he made it clear that a cappella was a large part of his past.  Here's a clip from the first episode of season 3, Andy's first appearance, where he talks about his time at Cornell at his participation in their a capella group "Here Comes Treble":

As the seasons have progressed and we've gotten to know more about Andy, we've learned more about his time with "Here Comes Treble", and all of his fellow "Here Comes Treble" buddies.  In this season 5 episode, Andy tells his fiance Angela (remember when they used to be engaged?) that Here Comes Treble will be performing at their wedding, and that the whole gang will be staying over at their house.  Here he lists them all by their college nick names:

Louis C.K. to Host SNL!

Louis C.K. on Parks & Recreation

At the end of the summer, I put together a list of 10 people I'd like to see host Saturday Night Live for the first time this season.  Guest Blogger Daniel made his own top 10 wishlist for new SNL hosts.  And now, six episodes in, one of these 20 individuals will finally be hosting.  Comedian Louis C.K. (from my list! Point: me) will be hosting the next episode of SNL on November 3.  Before this summer, I primarily knew Louis C.K. as Dave, Leslie Knope's cop boyfriend in a few episodes of Parks & Rec.  But this summer, after hearing a lot of buzz, we finally decided to start watching Louis C.K.'s hit TV series Louie, and we were hooked.  (When I say "start watching", I naturally mean we bought seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and watched them in succession before watching season 3 each week when it aired on TV.  We would never just start watching a show without watching from the beginning.  Obviously.)  I have been wanting to blog about Louie since we started watching it this summer, but I just didn't know what to say about it.  It's the most fascinating and unique show on television. There is literally nothing on TV like it.  It's a comedy, but it's not always funny.  Some episodes contain two short unrelated stories, while other stories take up one, two, or even three episodes.  Sometimes the show features Louis performing standup between each segment, and other episodes feature no standup at all.  The show usually begins with its opening sequence and theme song, but other times it's gone altogether.  The point is that Louie is no ordinary sitcom, just like Louis C.K. is no ordinary sitcom star.  For this reason, despite being a hilarious comedian, he might not make a great SNL host.

Clip of the Day: The Tracy Morgan Show!

While flipping through the channels this morning, we stumbled upon a show that we've often heard about but never seen.  A short-lived show that starred an  Emmy-nominated actor who currently stars on one of our favorite shows.  The show was The Tracy Morgan show, which aired for only 16 episodes after Tracy Morgan left SNL in 2003.  We're big fans of Tracy on 30 Rock and SNL, so we were very interested to see what his own sitcom would be like (with the knowledge that it was canceled after less than a full season).

And...we actually thought the show was funny!  Tracy was a bit constrained compared to his usual crazy Tracy character, but he still has the same comic delivery he delivers with all of his lines.  And best of all, the show starred Bobb'e J. Thompson as his son!  For those of you who aren't familiar with Bobb'e J., he is a hilarious child actor (who's actually 16 already!) who is perhaps best known for his role in the comedy film Role Models (starring opposite Paul Rudd, Sean William Scott, and Christopher Mitnz-Plasse).  He also has appeared in multiple episodes of 30 Rock as Tracy Jr., once again playing the son of Tracy Morgan's character!  

Check out a clip of Tracy and Bobb'e J. on The Tracy Morgan show below (this is from the episode that we actually watched) and then see Bobb'e J. as Tracy Jr. on 30 Rock below that.