And here it is, Bill Murray's "Cinderella story" scene from Caddyshack.
A fresh presidential debate and the first Weekend Update to get two commercial breaks easily filled Saturday Night Live's first live primetime edition of Weekend Update Thursday. They did not allow any photomographical operations inside the studio, and I resisted all temptations, so the best you get is this evidence to prove what shall follow.
Things you didn't see:
Want to know how soon before broadcast they're talking about what will make it to air? The final meeting in Lorne Michaels' office broke up at 9:05 p.m., 25 minutes before the show went live, and after most of the audience had been seated.
Jason Sudeikis is great at loosening the pre-show tension and warming up the audience. "Welcome to Thursday Night Live, I guess?!" he opened, assuring us of some "nice surprises" before letting folks know that the debate sketch would open the show, and apologizing to the folks in the "left-field" balcony seats for having the worst view of said sketch.
We sat in "right-field" right above the presidential debate sketch, which meant we knew before the rest of the crowd and the viewers that Bill Murray would make a special appearance. Spoiler alert! Murray, already in NYC for a scheduled appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, only had a few blocks to travel after that taping to get to 30 Rock for SNL's TNL.
But first, before the show, Kristen Wiig sang Blondie's "One Way or Another" with Fred Armisen on guitar and the SNL band backing, and in case you're curious, some early work for the cue card guys. Just taking precautions?
Bill Murray and the rest of the cast took their places in the last two minutes before airtime, and Murray had fun with the two extras seated next to him by pretending to panic about being on live TV as a guy from the side counted down the final minute in five-second intervals.
Speaking of Murray, the cameras missed another chance to catch his reaction shots to Darrell Hammond's John McCain and Fred Armisen's Barack Obama, as he had the aforementioned extras hold him back as he pretended to lunge at the candidates for failing to back his beloved Chicago Cubs. You hear the audience laughing as the camera zooms in instead on Chris Parnell, who admirably played moderator Tom Brokaw.
Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers played off the debate sketch and its timing joke right before the start of Weekend Update, as Poehler suggested she'd tell the live audience a great story, and then...
Later, while Hall and Oates sang, Poehler bopped and danced from her chair throughout the entire song. So did we. Good stuff.
One unused set still sat off to the side, suggesting an old-timey study with leather chairs. Wonder who that was meant for, and whether we'll see it next Thursday, perhaps? The dress rehearsal audience knows part of that answer.
What you and I saw:
This live half-hour (22 minutes of airtime) edition of SNL opened with Tuesday night's presidential town-hall debate offering so many jokes itself, yet the show managed to poke fun at two of the most obvious moments -- McCain referring to Obama as "that one" turned into a recurring series of jocular references, as well as McCain wandering in front of the camera -- while zeroing in on another odd moment (time-limit answers) and ramping up the comedy around that. Textbook sketch comedy writing, as the premise accelerated into hilarity as two cast members read questions simultaneously, followed by Hammond and Armisen answering simulatenously (which was quite remarkable, considering their lines also read side-by-side on cue cards).
In Weekend Update, Poehler and Meyers seemed to hold their post-punchline poses longer than usual, to great effect in eliciting additional laughs. Kenan Thompson's financial expert, Oscar Rogers, also followed a textbook rule of comedy, which states that when you find a catchphrase that gets laughs, you keep returning to it, and returning to it. "Fix it!"
The other highlight of Weekend Update saw Will Forte rewarded from last weekend's effective song about the bailout vote with a bigger singing platform this time around, playing Hall to Armisen's Oates for a duet in which they differ on their presidential preferences. Having Armisen's Oates support McCain made sense for multiple reasons, not just because it allows him to play both sides, but also because Oates often was seen as second fiddle to Hall.
But heck, you can watch the entire episode online, right here! Well, after the jump...
Continue reading "Behind the scenes of SNL's Weekend Update Thursday" »
Sarah Palin is on my TV right now pretending to know something about foreign policy and defending her decision not to have a passport, which means we need to put up a new silly video. Banzai! How long do you think Mr. Shake Hands Man can shake hands with a man named Bill Murray? I'm guessing a long time...
The other big comedy news in Chicago over the weekend came courtesy of Bill Murray, who jumped out of a plane with the Army to kick off the Chicago Air & Water Show. The Sun-Times and Tribune each filed reports; the Tribune's CLTV also includes unedited videos from Army cameras of the entire skydive. He told one reporter this was the first time he'd worked directly with the Army since Stripes. He says the only thing that would make this jump better would be if he could land in Wrigley Field during the final game of the World Series. Who knows...maybe this October? And here is the AP's condensed report:
Today on Funny Or Die, NYC comedy duo Pete & Brian unveiled their latest short film, FCU: Fact Checkers Unit with Bill Murray. Let's play the clip, then talk with Pete and Brian about it.
Directed by Dan Beers. Written by Dan Beers, Peter Karinen and Brian Sacca
OK, boys. Explain yourselves.
Pete: "The three of us wanted to work together in some capacity so we decided to make a short together. Brian had the idea to make a CSI spoof...I think it was Brian's idea originally to do something about fact-checkers."
How did they rope Murray into it? Dan Beers had worked on "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" with him. "We faxed Bill a question asking if he wanted to be in it," Beers said. Apparently, that's how you get in touch with Bill Murray. As he added, "Bill doesn't have an agent or a manager or a publicist, which makes it difficult to get a hold of him." Wow.
Of all the comedy video sites out there, why Funny Or Die?
Pete said they've hosted Pete & Brian shorts in the past.
Brian: "One of the great things about Funny Or Die, because it's a selective site, the content is...good quality. The stuff there is generally pretty funny. And we respect what they post."
Bill Murray wasn't originally part of the concept, though.
Brian: "It was literally while we were writing it...Dan said wouldn't it be funny if we got bill murray in this..."
Pete: "Brian and I started nodding our heads vigorously...No, he was not part of the original concept at all."
Brian: "It was about Pete and I being fact checkers. Fact checkers taking their jobs way too seriously."
At nine minutes, it's awful long for an online comedy video. But they said it's more of a short film -- or even a pilot. Pete said the idea is to break out the FCU guys as a series, "whether that's a Web series or a TV series. We're also looking into developing it for commercial uses."
But no film festivals or comedy festivals, Pete said. "I don't think the short exactly has Sundance written all over it. And Brian and I had a different short that went to festivals already...from what I gather, the business has really changed a lot. When studios are going to film festivals, they're not going to the shorts programs and they're not making deals off of shorts...It is an experiment to deal with viewers' attention spans...We’re not calling this a viral video. We’re calling this a short film that we’re debuting online. We think the production value is a lot better than a lot of these videos...We didn't just pick up a camera and make funny faces."
Related: As far as I can tell, here are the lyrics to Bill Murray’s Chopsticks song..."Chopsticks I used when I got 'em at the takeout store when I went out for chop suey, They were chopsticks I used, they’re the chopsticks I chose to choose all my chopsuey, Chinese style! Chopsticks....that I chose to chew at the..."
