‘SNL’ writer named creative director of Funny or Die
August 6, 2008
Funny or Die has tapped “Saturday Night Live” scribe Andrew Steele to serve as the creative director of the comedy website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay.
Steele will oversee development and production of a range of programming that Funny or Die is developing through its recent partnership with HBO (Daily Variety, June 11). Steele will also be tasked with keeping the original vid pipeline stocked for FunnyOrDie.com.
Funny or Die has been looking for a seasoned comedy writer to oversee its operations ever since it struck the deal with HBO, which calls for the company to develop 10 half-hours of programming for the pay cabler. Steele is a 12-year “SNL” vet who was one of three head writers on the show in recent years. He worked with Ferrell and McKay during their respective tenures on the NBC latenight mainstay.
- from Variety
SNL Gets Earliest Premiere Date In 33 Years — And Plans To Launch With Four Live Shows In A Row!!
July 20, 2008
From AICN:
NBC is not only planning four new primetime SNL specials launching in October (including a 90-minute affair airing Nov. 3), it’s scheduled the earliest season premiere in the show’s 33-year history and will mount four regular live shows four Saturdays in a row – a feat the franchise has attempted only twice before.
SNL, which has long typically launched its season within a week of Oct. 1, debuts this year on Sept. 13.
In all, NBC is planning to air 11 new SNL-branded dayparts in the 52 days spanning Sept. 13 and Nov. 3.
Emmy-nominated Comedy Powerhouse Starts an Extended 34th Season September 13 with Four Live Shows in a Row (Saturdays, 11:30 p.m.–1 a.m. ET)
Three Live Primetime Outings — “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday” — Begin Thursday, October 9 at 9:30 p.m. (ET)
“Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008″ to Air Day Before Election Day, Monday, November 3 at 9:30 p.m. (ET)
BURBANK – July 20, 2008 – Fresh from its six primetime Emmy nominations, NBC’s comedy institution “Saturday Night Live” will make an early return this fall to capitalize on the hotly contested Presidential race, extending its traditional 20-episode season to 22.
After making a splash this spring during the Democratic primaries, “Saturday Night Live” will return to the air with 10 new live broadcasts this fall with a Presidential Bash special prior to Election Day, Monday, November 3 (9:30-11 p.m. ET).
Dubbed “TV’s Funniest and Most Influential Political Player” by Entertainment Weekly, “SNL” recently featured appearances by Senators Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama and the show’s political sketches became talking points at the Democratic debates and in the media.
“‘Saturday Night Live’ always reflects what people are talking about. This is especially true during an election year,” noted Rick Ludwin, Executive Vice President, Late Night and Primetime Series, NBC Entertainment. “This fall, we’re giving the audience what they clearly want.”
“SNL” will make its 34th season premiere on Saturday, September 13, kicking off four live shows in a row, a rare practice that generated momentum for the show this past spring when the show returned after the WGA strike-imposed hiatus. All told, seven all-new “SNL’s” will air on Saturdays prior to the election.
In addition to the revved-up Saturday schedule, “SNL” is ready for primetime with “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday.” Three live primetime half-hours will air October 9, 16 and 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET. These primetime special editions will be anchored by the show’s signature “Weekend Update.” This marks a return to the NBC Thursday night lineup for “SNL,” which produced similar live “Update”-centered broadcasts in 2001.
Finally, on the eve of Election Day, “SNL” will present its quadrennial political special “Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008″ (Monday, November 3, 9:30-11 p.m. ET). The special will feature all-new material and a look back at some of “SNL’s” recent political satire including Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama and Amy Poehler’s Hillary Clinton as well as a selection of Presidential satire from Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford to Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush. In addition, in some cases, appearances from the actual candidates are featured in the special as in 2000 when the Presidential Bash boasted a sketch featuring candidates Gore and Bush.
Hosts and musical guests for the Saturday shows will be announced at a later date.
SNL’s Lorne Michaels receives Webby’s lifetime achievement award
June 10, 2008
The Webby Film & Video Awards took place here on Monday night with appearances from Lorne Michaels, Michel Gondry and Rosie Perez.
Michaels was on hand to pick up a lifetime achievement award for the role that “Saturday Night Live” has played in the development of online video. The “SNL” creator offered his take on the Webbys’ traditional five-word acceptance speech: “Five words is not enough.” “SNL” cast member and head writer Seth Meyers presented Michaels with the award.
- from THR
Knowing that the original SNL digital short, Mr. Bill, is back? Priceless.
June 3, 2008
MasterCard executives have found a new poster boy for the angst-ridden economy: Mr. Bill.
The small clay figure that appeared in “Saturday Night Live” short films three decades ago — being dismembered, pulverized and humiliated to his falsetto cries of “Oh, nooooo!” — will be the latest star of MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaign.
He is being revived as a debit-card holder who gets roughed up but keeps on going. The 30-second spot, to start airing next Monday, casts Mr. Bill as an urban professional on his daily routine:
Mr. Hands pours hot coffee on him (“coffee: $2”), a personal trainer launches him off a treadmill (“gym: $59/mo.”), and an opened briefcase flips him onto the windshield of a city bus (“briefcase: $120”).
Mr. Bill, rolling with endless punches, just enjoys the ride home: “Making it through the day: priceless.” A voice-over adds, “For whatever comes your way, there’s debit MasterCard.”
- From NYtimes
Blackface returns! Score one for racism.
March 21, 2008
A cultural memory of blackface: Burnt cork, red lips. Steppity-steppity-step, shuffle, slapstick. “Authentic” former slaves, dancing for the white folks. T.D. “Daddy” Rice, a white man in the cork and face paint, a national sensation in the 1830s, doing a dance he lifted from a Negro in Cincinnati. Fred Armisen is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on “Saturday Night Live.” Robert Downey Jr. plays a pompous white actor playing a black soldier in a Ben Stiller movie, “Tropic Thunder,” due out this summer. Chuck Knipp does drag as a black Southern woman, Shirley Q. Liquor, the “Queen of Ignunce,” in clubs and on video-sharing sites. Comedian Tracey Ullman dons face paint to portray a black security agent, Chanel Monticello, in her new series on Showtime. For better or worse, Ullman goes for it all. In the opening minutes of the March 30 debut of her show, “State of the Union,” a mockumentary about a day in the life of America, she plays an undocumented Bangladeshi doughnut maker, a Jamaican caregiver (whose elderly charge tells her to get “your black hands off me”) and a mid-market Latino TV news anchor. That’s a white actress going brown, browner and light brown in about three minutes of airtime. Downey, whose reps declined an interview request, talked to Entertainment Weekly recently about his role: “If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”
Via LATimes
“Bitch is the new black, but black is the new president, bitch”
March 18, 2008
After the jump…
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Pro-Hillary SNL is Offended!
March 12, 2008
Executive producer Lorne Michaels has long maintained that the show risks its comedy credentials if it appears partisan. So he is troubled by the recent chatter that the venerable late-night program has exhibited a pro- Hillary Clinton bent. “That’s a major concern,” Michaels said. “I can assure you that there’s no agenda, that there’s only a reaction to what’s going in the world.”
Via LATimes
Baby Mama Set for Tribeca Opener
March 5, 2008
“The Tribeca Film Festival announced today that the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama will open the festival April 23. The film, featuring “South Philly working girl” Poehler as the surrogate mother of well-to-do Fey’s child, was shot mostly in New York with the NBC/Universal infrastructure behind it; “There is no way we will not get to the premiere on time,” quipped producer Lorne Michaels in a just-distributed press release.”
Via the Reeler
Should make for a funny SNL this weekend
March 5, 2008
“Hillary Clinton wins Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island; Obama takes Vermont. John McCain clinches the GOP nomination. Mike Huckabee drops out. “
‘Live, from New York,’ it’s Hillary?
March 2, 2008
“Hillary Rodham Clinton took a break from the campaign trail to thank “Saturday Night Live” for giving her candidacy a boost — although she failed to get an official endorsement from the show.”
Video after the jump….
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SNL, The Office, Heroes, 30 Rock? Who’s coming back, who’s not? Get their fate after the jump…
February 13, 2008
