Friday, September 23, 2011

JOEL MCHALE OR CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, ANYONE? With the 37th season of SNL debuting tomorrow night, Tara Ariano lists ten celebrities who have never hosted but should (and have something to plug) this year.  (My first addition was going to be George Clooney, but he hosted in 1995.) (Okay, we kinda did this post last year.)

Related: Complex.com has a brutally flawed slideshow of its picks for the fifty best skits ever.  (Essentially, it overvalues the past decade at the expense of the 1980s, and includes a bunch of things which aren't skits -- digital shorts, ads, Update appeances. Its #1 is the right character, wrong skit. And where's Jackie Rogers Jr's $100,000 Jackpot Wad?)

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:34 AM

    Old fart complaints:

    No "Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise"?

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/19313/saturday-night-live-star-trek-the-last-voyage-of-the-starship-enterprise

    No "The Pepsi Syndrome / Amazing Collosal President"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meghan9:41 AM

    Seriously, Jackie Rogers Jr's $100,000 Jackpot Wad still gets quoted in my house.  That skit was great.  Same with Chopping Brocolli.

    Rachel Dratch and Will Ferrel's lovahs sketches and some of Stefon's recent WU appearances are funnier than the Roxbury Guys.  And I will never get the appeal of MacGruber.  But the list does over-represent the aughts.  I feel like Gilda should be on there somewhere, maybe for her little Brownie girl sketch?

    ReplyDelete
  3. HE INTRODUCES THE ACTS! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meghan10:43 AM

    I just brought that up to my husband the other day, when Lovitz looks at the camera and says, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."  I can't remember what exactly it was in reference too, but another staple for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Benner11:56 AM

    I love the idea of Charlie Day, but I think Glenn Howerton would be even better.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I kinda want to talk about last night's episode and the McIlhenny interview with AV Club.  Maybe this weekend.  Rum ham.

    ReplyDelete
  7. kd bart1:29 PM

    No Richard Pryor/Chevy Chase Word Association ("DEAD HONKY")

    No Theodore of Yorke

    No Billy Murray as Nick, The Lounge Singer

    ReplyDelete
  8. Devin McCullen2:10 PM

    No Synchronized Swimmers? No The Guy Who Plays Mr. Belvedere Fan Club?

    The idea of Tilda Swinton guest hosting sounds so good that I know it would wind up disappointing me.  But do it anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Benner2:41 PM

    Haven't seen it yet, but the season 7 premiere was everything sunny can and should be -- Frank being deranged, Charlie in a cowboy outfit, Dennis being randomly indignant, Dee and Mac engaged in self deception, plus the return of Elvin from the Cosby Show!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Benner2:42 PM

    Brocktoon?

    ReplyDelete
  11. randy2:52 PM

    I mentioned this one a while back, but one of my absolute favorite sketches on SNL was The Sinead O'Connor Awards, in which O'Connor (Jan Hooks) gave awards to musicians that represented everything she hates about the music industry.  Her co-host was Paul McCartney (Dana Carvey gobbledegooking brilliantly), Mike Myers appeared as Phil Collins, Tim Meadows appeared as Tracy Chapman, Alec Baldwin (either his first or second hosting gig) appeared - brilliantly - as Bono, and Phil Hartman's Frank Sinatra gave O'Connor a piece of his mind.  I *love* sketches like that, where a large percentage of the cast appears (as celebrities or not), and just nails a scenario.

    There was also a brilliant commercial parody of Natalie Cole's Unforgettable, called something like "Unforgiveable: Natalie Cole sings with all her dad's dead friends."  (But it wasn't pre-taped, like most SNL commercial parodies.)

    And Molly Shannon hosting The Courtney Love Show, with Christine Baranski as Julie Andrews.

    And did anyone else love Lovitz's Hanukkah Harry as much as I did?

    And at least a dozen other things that I would have included instead of what they did.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Meghan4:13 PM

    The House of Buttofuoco always makes me laugh too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Eric J.4:21 PM

    So crazy it just might work idea to reinvigorate SNL: It's clearly time for Lorne Michaels to step away from the day-to-day running of SNL. His ironclad control of the show's sensibility leads to missed opportunities and stagnation (see Pharoah, Jay, and his staunch anti-improvisation, pro cue-card stance.)

    I think there's only one person who should take over from him: Conan O'Brien. He's got a history with the show, connections throughout the comedy and Hollywood worlds, a much looser, more modern sensibility, and this would be one of the few jobs that could provide a graceful exit strategy from TBS. The only question is whether he could work with NBC again, and that would probably depend on the precise executives he's reporting to. That could probably be worked out or finessed, especially with stories about Lorne personally asking him to come in and replace him.

    ReplyDelete
  14. There's something very Willy Wonka finds Charlie Bucket about that.

    I'll tell you who else could: Tina Fey, if 30 Rock closes up shop when Baldwin leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Eric J.5:37 PM

    I agree, that would be my second choice.

    ReplyDelete
  16. J. Bowman6:32 PM

    Omigosh, I found it! The video and sound are, um, grainy, but don't tell NBC this is here!
    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbbotr_jackie-roger-s-jr-jackpot-wad_lifestyle#rel-page-under-2

    ReplyDelete
  17. Adam C.7:55 PM

    This is...
    Chocolate babies?
    Right!

    No question that the Wad is one of the best ever.

    ReplyDelete
  18. kd bart9:17 PM

    How did they miss the Sinatra Group with Phil Hartmann as Sinatra, Chris Rock as Luther Campbell, Jan Hooks as Sinead O'Connor, Sting as Billy Idol and Mike Myers and Victoria Jackson as Steve and Edie. One of the finer moments on the show.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous2:52 PM

    The downside of the hilarity that was the first Debbie Downer was that it spawned a recurring character.

    Unless I missed it, "Prose and Cons" is, I think, a glaring omission.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I want to increase the specificity and suggest that Joel McHale must host with musical guest Childish Gambino.

    A new one and two to reiterate from last year--Rashida Jones, Nathan Fillion, and Elizabeth Banks.  And if Muppets were a Universal/Comcast property, I'd suggest Jason Segel, but given he's tied to other networks, maybe not so likely.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm not unconvinced the current regime at NBC wouldn't have handled the Conan situation differently, either by just paying off Conan his kill fee and never giving him the Tonight Show, or negotiating a deal that kept Conan in the NBC family (Conan/Chelsea Handler would be a solid 1-2 punch in late night for E!, and a late night comedy program could easily fit into the USA brand).

    ReplyDelete