Yearly Archives: 2010
Wait, Didn’t ‘SNL’ Do This Already? Like Twice?
EW reports that the lady ghosts of Saturday Night Live past will reunite on November 1 for “The Women of SNL,” a two-hour prime time tribute to such greats as Siobhan Fallon and Melanie Hutsell. But wait, didn’t they already do this in May? And then again two weeks ago? Well, I guess SNL has shown time and time again that it’s never heard the term “too much of a good thing,” nor the phrase “You brought back Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph for the Betty White episode last season and then again in this season’s premiere. Don’t you think that’s enough?” But we also know the show has no reservations about repeating itself.
Let’s hope the show, which will be comprised of old sketches as well as new material, will include some of these classics, and nothing with Gilly or Penelope or anything else terrible.
Vodpod videos no longer available. Vodpod videos no longer available. Vodpod videos no longer available.Nora Dunn, Ana Gasteyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Laraine Newman, Cheri Oteri, and Molly Shannon are also slated to return. However, no word yet on Ellen Cleghorne.
But all kidding aside, where’s Jan Hooks on that Murderer’s Row-esqe lineup? She was the best lady on there in the late 80s/early 90s and we’d love to see her go up against the youngins, sort of like when Rocky fought Mason “The Line” Dixon. And her appearances on 30 Rock weren’t enough to quench our Hooks-thirst, nor they did truly demonstrate her versatility.
Also crossing our fingers for Yvonne Hudson.
Filed under Flashback!, Saturday Night Live, Yvonne Hudson
‘The Office’: Who Are These People???
With a new The Office tonight, we wanted to repost, by itself, the Office then-and-now comparisons we included in last week’s recap. We felt it deserved its own moment in the sun.
The transformation of Dwight [in last week’s episode] reminded us of a troubling trend within the show itself. While this episode showed Dwight being made over into a glasses-less, monochromatic tie-free aristocrat, The Office has to some degree been making over Dwight and its other characters over the course of its run. Characters should grow and change and evolve, but it should always serve the story. However, if you look at the physical appearances of the actors, they look more glamorous and polished now than they did at the start of the series, and not necessarily because the characters have improved their style. It’s a concerning phenomenon, and we hope it doesn’t point to the actors themselves, the stars of the shows, objecting to the dour, depressing style that defined the early seasons of the show and its progenitor. Behold, a side-by-side comparison:
Like we said, characters change, that’s a given. Their looks, their hairstyle, their clothes, their personality all change. We want that. We don’t want static characters. That’s lesson #1. But, at the same time, it would be disappointing if the appearance of these characters is due in part to the actors’ vanity. Are we seeing Jim Halpert or John Krasinski? The UK original was known for its gritty look, an anti-network sheen, bordering on depressing. And the first two seasons of the American version adhered to this (albeit in a less severe form), allowing for somewhat schlubby characters and grubby visuals (as much as network TV allows). But over time that’s changed, and the show glistens now in a way it didn’t before. And in some respects the storylines and tone have changed as well, gussied up and simplified. Now the show doesn’t need to return to its original look, throw out the new wardrobe and ban make-up. But it needs to remember where it came from. And where it originally was going.
‘Survivor Nicaragua’ Unless You’re Bill Parcells, How Could You Think You’re a Better Coach Than Jimmy Johnson? AKA The Final Faces of Jimmy Johnson; Plus: Player by Player Odds!
Well, Survivor: Nicaragua just became a little tougher to watch every week. While we were initially skeptical of the inclusion of former NFL head coach Jimmy Johnson’s in the cast, we were quickly won over by his charm and gung-ho attitude. We still think it was a questionable decision by the producers, big picture-wise, but it enabled us to enjoy his positivity, humor and variety of faces every week. That is, until the Espada tribe made the curious (aka egregious, outrageous) decision to cut Coach Johnson, engineered by Jimmy T and Marty’s testosterone-driven need to prove that they can be a better leader (than a Super Bowl winning NFL head coach). Why Jimmy T felt threatened by Jimmy Johnson, or why he desired to usurp the leadership role when it makes more sense to let Jimmy J maintain the mantle and thus the pressure, is beyond us. And why Marty feels compelled to “accelerate” the game is even more baffling. Now they’ve put themselves both in the cross-hairs, while they could have let the bullseye rest on Coach Johnson. It was way to early for a power grab, and completely unnecessary, and they’ll likely realize this sooner rather than later. At least vote out the dude who can’t even walk (Danny).
But, for now, the damage is done and Jimmy J is gone. In his honor, our (perhaps) final Faces of Jimmy Johnson:
Continue: The sad final Faces of Jimmy Johnson. Then we rundown who’s left!
Filed under Analysis, Century 21 Reality, Lists, The Worst, Tribal Council
Boy, Vanessa Bayer Sure Looks Different on TV
Filed under Count Bleh, Makes You Think, Saturday Night Live
Breaking Badly: ‘SNL’ Weak Too
Well. That was that. We gave SNL the benefit of the doubt after a decent, if lazy, premiere, instead looking forward to the second show of the season as the real test. And, well, they pretty much failed.
As Alan Sepinwall noted in his tweets, it’s a shame that the show totally wasted Bryan Cranston’s immense talent. It’s not that he wasn’t in any sketches. And it’s not that he wasn’t good. He did everything he was asked to do to the best of his abilities. The problem was that the material was just uninspired, whether it was a retread or a weak stab at something original, it was all very stale. If this was them trying, then we’d hate to see them phone it in.
More: At least there was What’s Up With That? We never thought we’d say those words.
Filed under Analysis, Bad Humor, Saturday Night Live
My New Favorite Show: Don’t Cry For Me, Tony Danza
My new favorite show finally premiered this weekend, as A&E’s Teach: Tony Danza graced the airwaves after a year of waiting. And it did NOT disappoint.
And, as we surmised, we were actually drawn in by Danza, because he’s taking this so darn seriously (now, that is a good thing. The show would be no better than I Love Money if the celebrity teacher wasn’t taking his assignment in earnest). We knew that he would approach his role with a total commitment, but we didn’t anticipate that he would be so emotional, so nervous, so insecure and fragile. Here’s Tony Danza, star of screen, film and (tap) stage, former boxer, reduced to tears by a class of pimple-faced, metal-mouthed 10th graders. It was hard not to feel for him, but it was as equally difficult not to empathize with the students, most of whom clearly feel that they’re smarter than their teacher (and we all remember enduring a teacher or professor who was obviously overwhelmed and over-matched, if we weren’t smarter than the instructor then we were at least more savvy and aware ). But fortunately for Danza, and for the students, he’s not teaching math or science, or another subject where he could fumble the curriculum and critically damage their educational development. Instead he’s teaching English, where it’s equally important to learn how to express yourself as it is to read The Chocolate War. So, using his life experience, charisma, guile and tap-dancing skills, hopefully Danza can get his students to open up, to learn something about themselves. Certainly, this is going to be a journey for Tony, and we’ll along for it. The question is if his students will follow as well. He should probably start by screening Who’s the Boss?, because apparently only Chloe, who is “a big fan of the 80s” is truly familiar with his oeuvre (also, chill with the hand sanitizer, Mr. D!).
Looks thin though, doesn’t he? And where’s that coif we’ve come to adore? Does nothing stay the same?
‘The Office’: Mindgames & Makeovers
We won’t say that The Office is entirely back on track, but this week was definitely a marked improvement over the season premiere. While we were at first disappointed to see that they were going to carry over the Michael spanking his nephew storyline – or as Michael refers to it, “corporate punishment” – because we rejected the ridiculous premise, this episode showed that perhaps in this instance there will actually be consequences to Michael’s actions.
(one quibble, however: the dictum that Michael would need to complete counseling with Toby came at the end of last week’s episode, in the final closing segment usually reserved for gags or non-essential content (or, on Community, raps), so the veracity of the punishment was in question. We’re happy that they followed through with this plotline, but it shouldn’t have been introduced so offhandedly. But we digress…)
The Michael-Toby dynamic has remained relatively stable over the course of the series, and by returning to and exploring this relationship “Counseling” was a success, allowing Toby to obtain a small victory over Michael by tricking him through children’s games into opening up emotionally, and by permitting Michael to continue his crusade against Toby, but not because he harbors a completely unjustified vendetta, but because, in a way, Toby is his arch-enemy, the Joker to his Batman. “Counseling” sets them up as worthy competitors, not just petty rivals. And while we hate to belabor the point that we’ve made on this blog over and over again that defensive, vulnerable Michael = good, and horrible, viscous Michael = bad, this episode certainly follows that pattern and supports that argument.
Filed under Analysis, Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam, Good Humor
In Memoriam: Stephen J. Cannell
Fuck. That’s about all we can say about this one.
Back in the late 80s, pre-Simpsons, there were exactly two shows on Fox: Married with Children and 21 Jump Street. The latter was brought to us by the legendary Stephen J. Cannell. We were too young at the time to fully appreciate his already cemented TV legacy – creator of The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Greatest American Hero, Baretta, among others – but we knew that we loved his undercover cop drama, and we also grew to recognize the Stephen J. Cannell Productions logo at the end of his shows as a symbol of quality programming. In the 80s it ran neck-a-neck with “Sit, Ubu, sit,” for foremost production company tag, but we always found Cannell’s footnote to be the gold standard, a warm, fuzzy blanket, a comforting old friend. And when we heard that crescendo and saw the typewriter paper flying at the conclusion of later favorites like The Commish and Silk Stalkings, we knew we were in the capable hands of one of the all-time masters, a TV titan.
We’ll leave the in-depth retrospectives and the analysis of his influence on current television to the real critics, those who have a better appreciation for the breadth of his career. So we’ll just say thanks for the great stories and compelling characters, and we’ll always yearn to see you at your typewriter, finishing a script with a flourish.
Filed under In Memoriam, Jump Streets Ahead, Nostalgia Corner
Check Out Bryan Cranston’s ‘SNL’ Promos
Just kidding! Here they are. Just be thankful I didn’t mention this. Or this. Actually, you’re welcome for that last one.
Filed under Saturday Night Live, Seinlanguage
Jumped The Snark 