saturday night live

[ono]

Didn't catch the live show this week.

I was too busy in New York City... watching the dress rehearsal...  8)

Sounds great.  There are no words, except ... "details, man."

[cine]

Sounds great.  There are no words, except ... "details, man."

When we arrived at NBC, we stood in the line to wait for our tickets and Lorne Michaels walked by. Then Brian Williams walked by shortly thereafter. After getting our tickets to go up to Studio 8H, we waited in the hallway to go into the studio. Lorne walked by again and I was coaxed into talking to him when he walked back down the hall. Several minutes later, he walked back down the hall and I said "Congratulations on the Mark Twain Award" and he smiled and said "thanks". Then Johnny Damon walked by and greeted everyone. I was gonna push him but you know, I have class and stuff.

We had amazing seats. We were second row in the balcony looking right down on center stage. We had a great view of every sketch except for two. Hammond came out and did some stand up before the rehearsal, which was funny. Don Pardo was pretty wired too, getting everybody pumped for the show. It was great watching the cast members stand around in a scene. When the band is playing as the crew is setting up preparing to shoot, the cast was fooling around and gesturing playing air guitar and such. Fun stuff.

There was a Halloween Party sketch that featured Riggle, Meyers, Dratch, Poehler, Forte, Finesse, Armisen, Horatio, Sanz, and Parnell. Fun sketch about an alcoholic (Parnell) who needs to get help. Forte is dressed as a dinner table. Little funny sight gags.

TV funhouse had a different ending in the dress rehearsal. The bloody McCain comes out and tries to finish his sentence only to be interrupted several times by the audience. As they boo, he pauses.. then theres silence. He turns to Bush and says "they hate you..." and then it fades to the credits and all you hear is "Four more years! Four more years!" Really great, eerie stuff.

They had a Taking Back the Streets with Victor Ramas (not sure on the last name). Maya Rudolph was the announcer for the show and Horatio played Victor. He has a self defense expert on the show (Winslet) who takes calls about what to do in intense situations. Victor kept slamming down her ideas by promoting the use of nunchucks. That was the joke of the sketch, so it was forgettable.

There was a Happenings! sketch featuring Chris Parnell as a flamboyant Tv host named Terry Funck. He's promoting a restaurant and Kate Winslet in an assistant. The joke of the sketch was Forte and Dratch coming out separately and pouring hard, chunky food into the buffet bins. It was disgustingly hilarious.

They ran a Kerry ad on women's rights. Blah.

The World of Scott Wainio returned as Scott is measuring a yard with tape. Cut to a wedding and Scott on a hill top yelling in a megaphone about how he's legally as far away as he needs to be from the bride. He starts playing the guitar for her and everybody leaves except one guy who applauds him and his efforts.

Weekend Update had all the same stuff except for Kenan Thompson as a fashion expert named Sherman Weens (a gayer looking Sisqo). He promotes Bush and Kerry fashion using Riggle and Finesse respectively. Pretty funny but I'm not surprised it was cut. When Forte did the Halloween song, Poehler was CRYING in her seat laughing at him. She loved it. They also cut a quick segment where Fey and Poehler dance to a video of Bin Laden and the mouth is moving to the tune of the Monster Mash. Kinda random but it was funny. Poehler also quipped about Damon after saying she wanted to marry him, "I wanna braid his hair!"

There was a Fred Armisen commercial on Mexican hamburger meat. And everyone who ate it turned into stereotypical Mexicans. I'm sure it'll show up sometime. It was funny.

There were two Bear City segments. One was a bear buying cigarettes from a gas station shop. The worker behind the counter is a panda (really funny racial undertones) and they couldn't understand each other when picking out the kind the bear wanted to buy. The next one was picking up females at school. Two female bears are sitting at the basketball court, one bear tries to impress them and another bear comes out of nowhere and pulls down his boxers. EmBEARassing. Oh dear. Anyway.

The last cut sketch featured Parnell (three time loser) and Winslet as a couple preparing to get a divorce. They need to tell Kenny about it so they call him in. Enter a freakish Harry Henderson-like creature with no arms, a really long unicorn horn, no nose, and a huge mouth (and the fact that its Forte speaking gibberish underneath is icing on the pumpkin cookie). The couple tell Kenny that they're going to work out a way for him to see them both now that they're splitting up. Kenny is pissed off and smashes EVERYTHING in the house. He bulldozes through all the china and everything else that was breakable. They calm him down, send him out and then they send in their son and daughter (Poehler and Dratch) to tell them they're the reason for the divorce and that they'll be living with Grandma at the nursing home. End of sketch.

The show was really fantastic overall. After we left the studio, we were walking around the hall in Rockefeller. All the people scattered around waiting to go upstairs for the live show are there. And who do we see standing with some friends of her's? Laura Linney. That was pretty cool.

WONDERFUL experience. The show lasted about 2 and a half hours total. We both loved it and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

[SiliasRuby]

We both loved it and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Who did you go with? Friend? Girlfriend? Relative?

[Bethie]

It was me. haha.  8)



Cinephile forgot to mention that we saw Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler walk past us in the hall after the show. Amy is so tiny in person.

Several minutes later, he walked back down the hall and I said "Congratulations on the Mark Twain Award" and he smiled and said "thanks".

He said, "Oohhhh, thanks" to you (you forgot the oohhh) in a I-cant-believe-someone-mentioned-that-to-me type of voice. It was awesome.

[Pubrick]

Who did you go with? Friend? Girlfriend? Relative?

It was me. haha.  8)

so, all of the above..

[MacGuffin]

Reality contest for 'SNL' berth

The always fierce competition among comics to land a gig on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" is set to become the basis of an unscripted series for the peacock. Sources said NBC is working on a reality-competition series fronted by "SNL" creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels. The project would chronicle a group of comedians vying for a grand prize that is believed to be a role on the long-running sketch comedy series. Michaels is expected to play a Donald Trump-like role, winnowing the pool of contestants until a victor is selected. Sources indicated that the project is eyed for a possible summer launch. NBC declined comment. Michaels got his taste of getting tough on reality series contestants in a "SNL" parody skit of NBC's reality hit "The Apprentice" last season, in which he took over Trump's role and "fired" cast member Jimmy Fallon. NBC already has a track record in turning talent searches into a successful reality series with "Last Comic Standing."

[modage]

lip syncing is totally underrated.

NOT LIVE FROM NEW YORK: Looks like today's pop acts rarely take the "live" in "Saturday Night Live" seriously. Just one week after Ashlee Simpson lip-synched on the show, Eminem was found guilty of the same offense, reports The New York Post.

"He was singing 'Mosh' and you could tell he was lip-synching," said a source. "The track was just a bit ahead of his lips and he put the mike down at one point but the track kept going."

Eminem's rep said he was merely trying to "duplicate the sound on his album. He had a vocal track on for double vocal effect on the first song, to make it more powerful. Lots of hip-hop artists do that. Tupac Shakur did it."

[Sleuth]

You guys are ridiculous, that's a backing track.  Who fucking cares anyway

[Pubrick]

Who fucking cares anyway

apparently SNL is a reputable establishment of high-quality entertainment.. or sum bullshit like that.

[tpfkabi]

60 Minutes this sunday will have backstage footage from the Simpson incident, apparently they were there doing a story on the show/live tv and it happened.  Can't wait.

did anyone catch this?
i was surprised at how much a say the celebrity host has in what sketches stay or go.

[ono]

I saw the 60 Minutes segment.  Some good insight for a relatively short segment.  Good for people who like SNL.  I could try posting it if there's anyone interested in seeing it.

[cine]

Please do.

[ono]

Okay, it is, but the quality is pretty poor (sound especially).  It was recorded in SLP mode, transferred to DV, captured, and then compressed.  It's 102.1 MB.  Right-click and "Save As" if you have any trouble downloading it.

[meatball]

It was me. haha.  8)

You two know each other?

Did you two meet off xixax?

[SiliasRuby]

It was me. haha.  8)

You two know each other?

Did you two meet off xixax?

If so, could this be the new hip place to meet wonderful singles who are into films...hmmm....Eh...maybe not.