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.

TV News Roundup: Community and Louie Delayed, Office's Angela Gets New Show

There's been a lot of interesting TV news stories coming out over the last 24 hours, so we thought we'd give you a quick rundown of what's going on.

First, NBC has announced that new seasons of Community (and Whitney, if anyone actually cares about that show) will not be premiering next Friday October 19th as originally planned, but will be returning at some as-of-yet unannounced date in the future.  We recently posted about how excited we were to see Community's new season, so this news naturally comes as a disappointment.  However, it may not be bad news after all.  Community was set to air in the horrible time slot of Friday night at 8:30, a night that most people are out and not watching TV, and after Whitney, the universally hated sitcom that no one knows why was actually renewed for a 2nd season.  If it came back next Friday, it would almost certainly fail, especially since NBC has been investing all their promotional money on their new shows like Go On and Revolution.  Since they're holding off on setting a return date, they can see how the current shows are doing, and use Community (and Whitney) to replace shows they decide to cancel.  One theory going around is that NBC might cancel the low-rated new comedy Animal Practice and replace it with Whitney (which would pair nicely with fellow-multicamera sitcom Guys with Kids) and possibly replace Up All Night with Community  on Thursday nights.  I've been watching Animal Practice, and it's my least favorite new show of the season, so I'd be fine with it getting canceled (this would also free up Crystal the Monkey's schedule, so she can return to Community as Annie's Boobs!).  However, I do enjoy Up All Night, so I hope it doesn't get canceled.  I just want to see Community back on the air as soon as possible, in a good time slot, without any of my favorite shows getting canceled.  Fortunately, it's not my job to figure out how to do that, so whoever is responsible for that decision, I hope you make it wisely.

In somewhat related news, the FX summer comedy Louie will be going on hiatus, and pushing its 4th season premier from summer 2013 to late spring 2014.  Creator/writer/director/editor/star Louis CK is the one who requested the delay, as he is busy traveling around the country with his annual standup tour, and wants extra time to write and film the 4th season of the show to make sure its not rushed and will be the best it can possibly be.  Once again, while we are disappointed that our new favorite summer show will not be back next year, we know that Louis really does put a lot of effort into keeping his show fresh and creative, and if waiting an extra year means we'll get a better end result, than I suppose its worth the wait.  And it's not like our summer will be completely Louis-free. He's set to appear in the next Woody Allen movie coming out next summer!

Lastly, we have some good news!  It looks like after The Office ends this season, Angela Kinsey might be following Mindy Kaling over to FOX.  FOX has reportedly ordered up a pilot produced by and starring Angela Kinsey (Angela on The Office) and Rachel Harris (The Hangover) entitled Dirty Blondes.  The show will be based on the two actresses real-life friendship, and how their friendship strengthens as they both go through a divorce.  While this is good news for Angela and it sounds like a great show, this seems to indicate that Angela will not be appearing on the proposed Dwight Schrute spinoff The Farm.  So if that's the case, does that mean that the two characters won't end up together?  Bad news for Dwangela fans. But then again, I'm sure she could make occasional guest appearances (as Mindy Kaling did on The Office earlier this season) so maybe we're over-analyzing this.  Congrats to Angela on the new pilot!

Portlandia Live!

As we've previously written about on this blog, we are big fans of the IFC comedy series Portlandia starring SNL's Fred Armisen and rocker Carrie Brownstein.  Therefore, we were very excited to attend a special event entitled "Portlandia Live" earlier today.  It was part of The New Yorker Festival going on in New York City this weekend, and was originally advertised as "Join Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein for an afternoon with the IFC show Portlandia featuring songs, sketches, and surprises, as well as a conversation with Margaret Talbot [writer for The New Yorker]".  As you might expect, we were very excited to attend this event and see what Fred and Carrie would do on stage!

We got there shortly before the show started, and were disappointed to learn that all of the good seats were taken, so we had to sit on the side where we couldn't really see their faces (hence the bad photos).  Then Fred and Carrie came out, along with co-creator/director Jonathan Krisel.  There wasn't really any songs or sketches as promised, but they did talk about some very funny topics and did some interesting things with the audience.   First, each of the three of them asked general questions to the audience and asked them to raise their hands if they agreed with their statements.  They then asked that for one response, they keep their hand raised, and asked more and more specific questions, until only one person's raised hand remained.  They then asked the three lucky winners to come up on stage, while they engaged in a funny discussion on what decade will be remembered as the greatest.  (The general consensus was the 1990's, as the main point of Portlandia can be summed up by episode 2 opening sketch "The Dream of the 90's is Alive in Portland".)  The three audience members on stage didn't really contribute much to the discussion, so we weren't really sure why they bothered to bring them up, but it was an interesting bit nonetheless.

We were then treated to an exclusive video of one of the sketches from the show's upcoming 3rd season.  The very funny sketch featured Fred and Carrie as the recurring characters Kath and Dave (the couple who freed the dog at the restaurant in season 1 and appeared in the "AO River!" sketch in season 2) as they tried to shoot a video of themselves in their backyard reviewing a tent kit as they put it together.  As you might expect, hilarity ensued.  It was great being one one of the first to get to see a piece of season 3, and we're really excited to see the rest of the season when it debuts in January!

After that, they did another interesting thing with the audience, where they asked the crowd if there was anyone there who was seriously thinking about moving to Portland.  A few hands went up, and after a few follow up questions, they narrowed it down to one person who actually has an internship lined up in Portland and is looking for a place to live.  A short while later, they asked the audience if anyone had a personal object on them that they'd be willing to part with, and after various audience members offered up many random things, the winning object was a ceramic cacao (a popular catchphrase from one of the show's most memorable sketches).  The owner of the ceramic cacao said that it was given to him as a gift since he sells chocolate.  Fred told him to sign the cacao, and then Fred, Carrie, and Jonathan all signed it as well.  They then auctioned it off to the audience, starting at $5.  The winning bid was for $100.  After the exchange was made, Fred announced that the money was going to the woman who was moving to Portland to help pay for her move.  He gave her the cash, and everyone applauded.

Next, the New Yorker writer joined them on stage, and asked them a series of questions. After she finished, they opened up questions to the audience.  As is usually the case with these types of things, we can never thing of anything to ask at the time, and then after it's over, we think of lots of questions we should have asked. ("I heard that there will be a holiday special airing this December, what can we expect to see?", "Lorne Michaels is an executive producer, how involved is he in the show?"  "Many of Fred's SNL co-stars have appeared on the show [Jason Sudeikis, Krisen Wiig, and Andy Samberg]. Did you ask them to appear or did they ask to be a part of it? Any other SNL stars lined up for season 3?")  Oh well, maybe next time.

Overall, while the event wasn't quite what we were expecting, it was great to see Fred and Carrie live in person as themselves, and the show was a lot of fun.  Really looking forward to season 3 of Portlandia in January!  Only 3 more months!

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!

Clip of the Day: Asian Jim

In last night's episode of The Office, Jim pulled one of his greatest pranks ever on Dwight.  And Jim wasn't even there to enjoy it.  (Or was he???)  

Check it out below!

The new season has been great so far and we can definitely notice the impact of Greg Daniels's return to the show.  Can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of the season!

Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner on Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars getting Coffee

Over the summer, we posted the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld's new web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.  In each episode, Jerry picks up a different comedian in one of his fancy cars and goes out for coffee, and humorous dialogue ensues.  Throughout the series, Jerry has talked to many comedians including Larry David, Rick Gervais, Michael Richards, and Alec Baldwin (who's not really a comedian) but there was one episode that really stood out above the rest.

In this particular episode, Jerry talks to two comedy legends: Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.  We've previously done a "Who Dat Ninja" segment on Carl Reiner, where we wrote about how Carl Reiner used to write for Your Show of Shows and then created the very popular TV show The Dick Van Dyke Show. 

Mel Brooks, who also wrote for Your Show of Shows with Carl, went on to create the hit spy-parody TV series Get Smart (which was recently remade into a movie starring Steve Carell) as well as many hit comedy films including Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, Robinhood: Men in Tights, and The Producers, which he recently turned into a huge hit Broadway musical.  Mel Brooks is also one of a few people to have achieved Tracy Jordan's dream of the EGOT*, winning 4 Emmys, 3 Grammys, 1 Oscar, and 3 Tonys.

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner became friends while writing for Your Show of Shows, and developed the famous "2,000 Year Old Man" routine while working together on the show.  The two men each had long successful marriages. Carl was married to Estelle Reiner, who delivered the famous "I'll have what she's having" line in When Harry Met Sally, which was directed by their son Rob Reiner. Mel was married to EOT winner Anne Bancroft (she could never get that Grammy), who is perhaps most famous for playing Mrs. Robinson in the classic film The Graduate.  Sadly however, the two women have recent passed away, Anne in 2005 and Estelle in 2008, leaving the men widowed and alone.  Therefore, the old friends decided to have dinner together every night, so they'd have someone to talk to.

Most episode of Jerry's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee just involve Jerry sitting down for coffee with a comedian, and that's exactly how this one starts out.  But after Carl tells Jerry about his nightly dinner routine with Mel, he eventually invites him to dinner that night, to experience (and record) what happens when these two comedy legends get together each night.  So here it is, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner on Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee:

And be sure to check out the official site for Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, which features some "Spare Parts" from the episode (short deleted clips) as well as other episode of the web series!

*4 Emmys: Outstanding Writing in a Variety Show for Sid Ceaser and 3 times for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy for Mad About You. 3 Grammys: Best Comedy Album for "2000 Year Old Man", Best Long Form Music Video for "Recording The Producers", and Best Musical Show Album for "The Producers". 1 Oscar: Best Original Screenplay for The Producers. 3 Tonys: Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score for "The Producers".

October SNL Hosts Announced!

The next 2 Saturday Night Live hosts have been announced!  So far, still no hosts from our New SNL Host Wishlist or Guest Blogger Daniel's New SNL Host Wishlist, but we're excited for these hosts none the less!  After previously announced Daniel Craig hosts SNL this Saturday night, here's who the next SNL hosts will be:

10/13 Christina Applegate (with musical guest Passion Pit)

Christina Applegate will be returning to SNL to host for her second time, after previously hosting almost 20 yeas ago back in 1993.  While we were hoping that Will Arnett would be the next Up All Night star to host following Maya Rudolph last year, we're very excited to see Applegate back on the show.  She's very funny each week on Up All Night, so hopefully her hosting stint can help boost the ratings for the struggling show.  Applegate has also appeared in many hilarious comedy films, most notably in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Bergundy opposite Will Ferrell.  Maybe Will Ferrell will make a cameo as Ron Bergundy to promote their upcoming Anchorman sequel coming out next year? When in Rome! Here's Christina Applegate's monologue from her first time hosting in 1993:

10/20 Bruno Mars

Up next will be singer Bruno Mars, who will pull double duty as host and musical guest.  Bruno Mars is an interesting choice as he doesn't really have much acting experience.  Although, I suppose I would have said the same thing about Justin Timberlake before his first time hosting, and he turned out to be probably the greatest SNL host of the past decade.  So who knows, maybe Bruno Mars will be great.  Or maybe he'll be unmemorable like other pop stars who've hosted lately like Taylor Swift or Katy Perry.  I guess we won't know for sure until October 20.  Either way, we're excited for the show and looking forward to see how he does!