SNL Announces 2010-2011 Hosts

I don't know when this became an entertainment blog...but since it sort of has been lately, I thought I'd post some news about Saturday Night Live

While I'm sad Will Forte and Jenny Slate are leaving the show, the 2010/2011 season of SNL is shaping up to be a good one. The following people have been announced as hosts:

• September 25 - Amy Poehler will host the 36th season's premier with musical guest Katy Perry.
  
  
• October 2 - Bryan Cranston & Kanye West - I am so excited about this one. Every time I see Bryan Cranston interviewed on a late night show, I think, "He should totally host SNL!" He may be the Emmy winner for acting in a drama, but I also remember how funny he was on Seinfeld, King of Queens, and of course, Malcolm In The Middle.
  
  
• October 9 - Jane Lynch & Maroon 5 - It was bound to happen. She's been hysterical in everything she's done from Best In Show to 40 Year Old Virgin to Glee.
  
  
• October 16 - Justin Long & Owl City - I'm so happy Justin's not just known as The Mac Guy. He's never hosted, but he did a decent impersonation of Matthew McConaughey when his girlfriend and Going the Distance co-star Drew Barrymore hosted last season.
  
  
• October 23 - Emma Stone - She's very naturally funny and that's shown through in movies like Zombieland and The House Bunny.
  
  
• December 4 - Lindsay Lohan? - She's in talks to host again. If the VMAs were the start of her comeback, this may be a continuation of that. She's hosted three times in the past, in 2004 with Usher, in 2005 with Coldplay, and 2006 with Pearl Jam. She's been funny every time. Anybody remember the first Debbie Downer sketch?
  

NBC has also announced that new cast members include Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain, Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah.

MacGruber the Movie

Over the years, Saturday Night Live has produced some great films such as The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World. But, more often than not, SNL has turned some funny recurring sketches into really bad movies such as It's Pat, Stuart Saves His Family, Superstar, and A Night at The Roxbury. Oh and Blues Brothers 2000 and Wayne's World 2. I'll let you decide on Coneheads, Waterboy, and Ladies Man.

So, considering all of the funny sketches SNL has brought to us over the past few years, it is interesting to say the least that the next film to spawn from SNL is none other than Will Forte's MacGruber.

MacGruber is the series of short sketches in which Will Forte plays a MacGyver wannabe who always blows up the building at the end of the sketch. So, how do you make that into a movie?

SNL's Bill Hader talks about it in NY Mag where he reminds us that the characters don't die at the end of each sketch, "They just blow up." When asked how a series of sketches that run in length from thirty seconds to three minutes can become a full length movie, he says, "It's a really funny character. I don't think that's a stretch."

The cast will include Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillipe, and Kristen Wiig. No word yet on whether or not Richard Dean Anderson will appear in the film. We found out on SNL (and on the Super Bowl Pepsi commercial) that MacGyver is MacGruber's dad. Then again, MacGyver died in a MacGruber sketch. Or maybe he just blew up and died later in life.

We'll have to wait to find out. MacGruber the movie is set to release April 16, 2010.

SNL, Will Ferrell, and Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon" (The Sketch...well most of it...and only until NBC makes YouTube delete it...but anyway. Yeah.)

SNL, Will Ferrell, and Billy Joel's "Goodnight Saigon"

Prediction: Sales of Billy Joel's excellent "Goodnight Saigon" will increase on iTunes after the epic sketch on the season finale of Saturday Night Live with the full cast, Will Ferrell, Tom Hanks, Anne Hathaway, Green Day, Paul Rudd, Artie Lang, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Elisabeth Moss, and Norm MacDonald.

Here's the original. I'll post the sketch tomorrow if I can. Watch as much of the episode as you can find on Hulu or NBC.com because it was hysterical.

Fallon Scores Good Guests

On March 2nd Jimmy Fallon takes over NBC's Late Night, the show once hosted by David Letterman and (until last night) Conan O'Brien, on March 2. And his first week of guests look promising.

Robert DeNiro will be the first guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Musical guest that night? Van Morrison.

The New York Post says other week one guests include Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi and Santigold on March 3; Cameron Diaz and Billy Crudup on March 4; Serena Williams, Ludacris and Donald Trump on March 5, and Drew Barrymore and Mario Batali on March 6.

Perhaps the craziest and coolest thing about Fallon's "Late Night" is house band The Roots, who announced they have retired from touring to dedicate themselves fully to the show.

You may have noticed that many of the first week guests already have connections to Fallon. Barrymore costarred with him in Fever Pitch. Tina Fey was his Saturday Night Live castmate and co-anchor of Weekend Update. Several of the other guests hosted or guested on SNL. Cameron Diaz, a good friend of Jimmy, has hosted SNL several times and shined in his "Barry Gibb Talkshow" sketch with Justin Timberlake.

And of course there's this:

The Line

Comedy nerds unite. Seth Meyers of Saturday Night Live recently directed an internet minisode (there's a word that didn't exist last year) series starring Bill Hader (SNL, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Joe Lo Truglio (The State, Superbad), Jason Sudeikis (SNL, The Rocker) and many other recognizable faces.

The Line is about a group of movie geeks who wait in line for eleven days outside a theater in anticipation of the latest and final film in the (fictional) FutureSpace saga.

Check it out here.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

I've lamented on many occasions the lack of quality programming on television and the larger lack of well represented Christians. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip provides both. But despite its all-star cast and stellar writing from West Wing mastermind Aaron Sorkin, Studio 60 is in danger of camcelation by the numbskulls at NBC.

This is not the first show about a show to come around (Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore, Murphy Brown, The Ben Stiller Show), but it's one of the few times I've seen it really work. It's based on a Saturday Night Live premise and the writing makes me wish Sorkin would go to work for SNL.

Studio 60's breakout character is a Christian actress played by Sarah Paulson. Her character, loosely based on Sorkin's real-life girlfriend and Christian actress Kristin Chenoweth, is one of the finest portrayals of a Christian I have seen on network television. A Christian who is funny? What? Compare that to the new character--or should I say idiotic Christian stereotype--played by Busy Philipps on ER.

Watch the show tonight at 10 eastern/9 central on NBC. Then go here to sign a petition to keep it on the air.

Beck on SNL

Saturday Night Live is one of those traditions I can't seem to kill. Even when it's terrible I watch. Week before last it was just that. Last Saturday it was more good than bad but still not great. But the highlight was definitely Beck. He put on two of the best performances I have seen on SNL.

Both performance featured a replica set of the music stage with marrionettes for each member of Beck's band doing whatever the real members were doing. Classic. The second featured Beck on a small guitar with the rest of his band playing dinnerware.

I have found neither performance on YouTube or the like. However, Borat's hilarious intro (which reminded me of early SNLs with special guests like Andy Kauffman or Penn & Teller) is available here. Schwing?