HBO might have led all networks in terms of wins at the 2009 Creative Arts Emmys, which were handed out Saturday night in Los Angeles and parts of which will be broadcast Sept. 18 on E!, but Lorne Michaels must be smiling more than a lit bit, too, as decisions on shows he executive produces brought home multiple Emmy statuettes of their own.
The Emmys agreed with Michaels' decision to bring Tina Fey back to Saturday Night Live to skewer 2008 Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, as well as multiple SNL cameos (and one hosting gig) by Justin Timberlake, awarding Fey and Timberlake with the Outstanding Guest Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series. As executive producer and the guy who helped give Jimmy Fallon a talk show, Michaels also decided to launch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon first as a blog before putting it on the TV, and the blog won the Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media. Special shoutout to Sara Schaefer (pictured), Jon Friedman and Cory Cavin for that! Not just because this means writing a comedy blog can win an Emmy, but especially because it did! And Michaels' other SNL spinoff that's not really a spinoff at all but a rather clever sitcom, 30 Rock, took home two Creative Arts Emmys, for Outstanding Casting and Outstanding Picture Editing.
Of course, 30 Rock is also looking to repeat its multiple wins at this Sunday's Primetime Emmys, to be broadcast live on CBS.
But before we get to that, let us toast the other comedians and comedy shows that earned themselves Creative Arts Emmys this year.
Among them: Chris Rock for his HBO stand-up special, Kill The Messenger (writing; picture editing, special) South Park (animated progam); How I Met Your Mother (art direction, multi-camera series); Pushing Daisies (art direction, single-camera series; costumes; makeup, single-camera); Californication (cinematography, half-hour series); United States of Tara (main title design); MADtv (makeup, multi-camera); Entourage and Weed (tied for sound mixing, half-hour); Chuck (stunt coordination); Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog (special class, short-format live-action); and The Simpsons (voice-over, for Dan Castellaneta as Homer Simpson).
Ellen DeGeneres getting hired by American Idol might have been the biggest news you heard overnight, but it wasn't the only thing happening in the past week in comedy news. To wit:
Mandi Bierly at EW's PopWatch talked to Bruce McCulloch about the new Kids in the Hall miniseries, Death Comes to Town, which has been filming in Canada. It'll air in January on CBC in Canada (and most likely sometime in 2010 on U.S. cable TV, once they get a deal done). Related: Mark McKinney has been blogging about it all on the Kids in the Hall Facebook page. Slightly related? Dave Foley has a series called "The Sensible Traveler with Bobby Fargo" that you can watch on Babelgum.
And if you'd like to hear me talk out of Alison Rosen's phone, and have two of New York's Funniest Reporters chit the chat, then tune in to the latest installment of The Daily Alison.
One of my favorite up-and-coming stand-up comedians is Hannibal Buress, a Chicago native who now lives in New York City. Last night, he killed it on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and this weekend, he'll be slaying audiences at my original "home" club in Seattle, the Comedy Underground. Go see Hannibal, wherever he is performing. You will laugh! A lot! I think he's one of the freshest, smartest voices in stand-up right now, and his laid-back vibe and insight reminds me a bit of Mitch Hedberg, in only the best ways. Here's his performance from last night's Fallon, with routines about apple juice, his name and more:
His website is still under construction. You can follow my coverage of Hannibal Buress, or follow him on Twitter @hannibalburess. Through the magic of technology, Buress and I happened to both be on Gmail last night when the show came on, and I've included a portion of our chat...after the jump...
While you, me and everyone else was watching the public memorial to Michael Jackson at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the world kept going. Or did it? Either way, time to get back to the rest of the world. And some comedy news. What have we missed?
If you want to hear me talk about comedy blogging, then tune in to this interview I did over the weekend with The Comedy Nerds podcasting duo of Dustin and Dan. Thanks, guys!
Bruno got "Brunoed" at the Sydney premiere of his movie by a restaurant chain?! Yes. Their video includes a shot of a stunned Sacha Baron Cohen. What hath he wrought? (YouTube)
Patton Oswalt shows his serious side as a rabid football fan who lives with his mom and calls sports/talk radio, and gets a serious comeuppance in the upcoming film, Big Fan. Watch the trailer! (YouTube)
Brian Stelter in The New York Times sees that our attention spans can handle longer online comedy videos, and he cites several comedy channels and series for his evidence (NYT)
Jay Leno won his NBC online name back from a cybersquatter (Reuters). And when his nightly primetime show debuts in September, he'll have a stage big enough to drive any of his vintage cars onto it for product placement glory (THR/Reuters). Now if only they could find some way to promote the show so you'd actually want to watch it. (NBC)
It's still perhaps a bit too early to issue a final verdict on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, although with more than 70 episodes in the can, it can be said that The Roots remain a great hip-hop band with a great sense of humor, that Jimmy Fallon also has surrounded himself with funny comedians to write for him, and that their taped bits are generally far funnier than the sketches and "game shows" they have Fallon do with and in front of the live audience, many of which fall flat. As for Fallon himself? Well, after seeing him live in Chicago last weekend at the Just For Laughs Chicago comedy festival, I have developed a new theory on what makes Jimmy Fallon work (and what's holding him back) as a performer and as a late-night TV host. (On a brief tangent, you probably didn't know -- I didn't -- that Jimmy Fallon ripped his pants during his show Saturday in Chicago, as he explained in this clip during Monday night's show)
Jimmy Fallon seems most at ease when he's pretending to be someone else.
That's it. It's that simple. Fallon is uncomfortable interviewing people he doesn't know, but it's not so much because he needs to learn that skill (though he really does), as much as it's because he has not yet figured out how to be at ease just being himself on camera. Here's what he told the crowd Saturday in Chicago: "I don't watch myself (at night on TV)...I'm not that much of an egomaniac," he said. "But I do TiVo myself...and watch it all on Sundays...(to see) how much I sweat during an interview." Any discomfort he has on-air behind the desk (and we all end up sharing as viewers) goes away, it seems, whenever he can slip into a character. Any character. And it turns out he has a lot of impersonations in his arsenal -- which, when combined with his musical talent, reminds you how he first got that SNL gig, and eventually his own NBC late-night showcase.
On Monday night, Fallon interviewed Nick Cannon with both of them doing Bill Cosby:
At Just For Laughs, he unleashed several more voices, including John Travolta, the Barry Gibb Talk Show (he really does love that sketch, incorporating it into an audience bit), Ty Pennington, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, Norm MacDonald, Yakoff Smirnoff, Mitch Hedberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Andrew Dice Clay, Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Steven Wright and Adam Sandler -- as well as musical parodies of Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, Green Day, Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse and a full medley of 1980s pop hits. Here is an edited version of most of that from Fallon's show the previous weekend in Bonnaroo (wearing the same plaid shirt and not-yet-ripped khakis he sported in Chicago -- his lucky outfit?), after the jump...
Or should I say, SNL #34.22 with Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Susan Sarandon, Patricia Clarkson, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, Leonard Nimoy and Ciara? After some time away, Saturday Night Live returned with a flurry of celebrity cameos, as if to remind us that to be culturally relevant, you need to not only watch this show, but also appear upon it.
But first. We opened cold with politics (and considering everyone in politics and the press was in D.C. celebrating at the White House Correspondents Dinner, it may be a day or two before they pick up on any of this). Will Forte as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announces the feds decided to issue a written test to banks in addition to the "stress test," but had difficulties coming up with a fair grading system. The result may be obvious, but the writers had more fun with the false answers some of the banks penciled in for the 50-question test. Watch:
Now then...onto the show. Justin Timberlake took his third turn as SNL host, but if you think he has been on much more than that, well, you're right, because Timberlake has made multiple cameos in the past year. He is so, so comfortable there. So comfortable, in fact, that as he sang his opening monologue, he had a quick comeback for a fan's shout-out, and hopped into the lap of...who was that, again? Guy looked liked a cross between George Clooney and Jon Hamm, without being either of them. Weird. Moving on. I think the cast of SNL gets as excited for writing for and performing with Timberlake as he does for joining them. How does this excitement translate into comedy?
The Webby Awards have announced their 2009 nominees in as many categories as they can get people to pay $295 to get considered for honors, so for what that's worth, here are the comedy-related nods:
In the Online Film & Video categories (links to videos included): Stickman Exodus (Atom.com) and 23/6's Get Your War On compete in animation; Rob Corddry (Childrens' Hospital) goes up against Sara Benincasa (Sarah Palin vlogs) and Lil' O'Reilly (Spike Feresten's talk show) in best individual performance; The Onion News Network vies with Funny or Die's Prop 8 musical number for best writing; Awkward Rap (CollegeHumor), episode four of Childrens' Hospital, "New Portable Sewing Machine Lets Sweatshop Employees Work On The Go" (Onion News Network), Paris Hilton responding to John McCain, and Prop 8: The Musical are up for best individual episode; Childrens' Hospital goes up against NBC's The Office, Comedy Central's online The Weekly Evils, Today Now (Onion News Network) and You Suck At Photoshop (My Damn Channel) for best series; The Onion also magically got considered for the actual news category for its election coverage; the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon crew got a nod in the variety category; and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is up for the mashup category.
Anthony Jeselnik was a last-minute addition to last night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and in doing so, became the first stand-up to perform on the show. Comedy trivia! Of course, Fallon's people knew Jeselnik was available, since he's a writer on the show, and he already has performed in front of the camera in a couple of sketches in the first month. If you've seen Jeselnik's half-hour Comedy Central Presents or his appearance on HBO's Down and Dirty with Jim Norton, you know what you're in for. Jeselnik said that three of his jokes got cut for time. What impressed me the most, however, was his opening line. Such a bold thing to say and yet it fits right in with his stand-up persona.
Related: Other Late Night sketches with Fallon and Jeselnik, after the jump!
Russell Brand is tonight's first guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. That's not what got my attention. This did, though. Minutes ago, Fallon typed this into his Twitter feed: "Trying a Twitter experiment around 6:00pm eastern time. Should be fun. Check in around that time." In other words, while he is taping his show for tonight. And here is this video message from Brand yesterday about wanting more Twitter followers by tonight's taping. Ergo, there shall be two celebrities, on your television late tonight, talking Twitter and Tweeting. You have been warned. As I type this, Jimmy Fallon's Twitter had 267,862 followers, compared to 84,003 for Russell Brand's Twitter.
Here is some more footage from Tina Fey's visit this week to NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Note to Tina: I'm pretty sure any Internerds watching you in this video already are watching 30 Rock every Thursday.
And here is the screen test Fey and Fallon did before breaking in together as a team on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update desk in September 2000. Does this make you nostalgic? The more things change, the more they stay the same, I say.
Settle down, everybody. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon debuted on NBC overnight, and we already knew that the show's debut would bring in higher ratings (2.3 rating, 8 share in metered markets, compared to Conan's final season average of 1.7, according to the network -- full ratings info available Thursday), that Jimmy Fallon would be nervous, that the crowd would be excited, and that all late-night shows will evolve into something else over time (see: Conan, Kimmel, Ferguson). So, again I type, settle down, everybody. Your reviews are not helping anyone really. Although, in the name of truth-telling, it should be acknowledged that some casual viewers tune in to the debut of any show and make snap judgments about whether to become regular viewers. For them, and for you, some thoughts.
Cold Open: Perfect. Just perfect. Opening cold (just like SNL), viewers still expecting to see Conan O'Brien indeed saw Conan O'Brien, packing up his things in what is now Fallon's dressing room, to literally hand the show off to him. And they get to make a jab about the fact that Jay Leno is not leaving.
Monologue: Fallon managed to handle the hyper teen audience with some ad-libs, proving Lorne Michaels right for telling Fallon to spend much of 2008 on the road in comedy clubs to prepare for heckling and all sorts of nonsense like this. The jokes themselves had some moments, too (Disclosure: I know of and am a fan of some of Fallon's writers, and could pick out a couple of their selections), but things really got interesting when the monologue segued into...
I have the power to see into the future -- or have a working Internet connection -- and can tell you how the host of the new Late Night with Jimmy Fallon wraps up his interview with debut guest Robert DeNiro. It involves their little-known film work together (read: sketch alert!), Space Train. What do you think, everybody? Good first effort? Want to see more? Tune in at 12:35 a.m. Eastern/Pacific and find out how the rest of Fallon's first Late Night goes with Justin Timberlake, The Roots and Van Morrison:
Probably more than a few folks raised their proverbial eyebrows when NBC announced that Robert DeNiro would be Jimmy Fallon's first guest when Late Night with Jimmy Fallon debuts on Monday, March 2. DeNiro long has held a reputation for being a tough interview, with more than a few magazine profiles about the actor focusing on just how difficult the process was. But the network recently released this clip that shows the two have sat side-by-side on camera before, when DeNiro popped in on the Weekend Update desk at Saturday Night Live in 2000. There's an element of the moment earlier this season when Mark Wahlberg confronted Andy Samberg about Samberg's Wahlberg impersonation. And yet. I'm not sure this helps as much as it harms, though, because yes, acting is involved here, but anyone who thinks Fallon gets too nervous in panel chats or laughs at himself just a little too much only will think, case closed.
If you had romantic plans on Valentine's Day, then, well, God bless you and your loved ones. But if you were like me, and had no one to share in the love and the forced romanticism of Feb. 14, then you were at the UCB Theatre in New York City for Jon Friedman's third annual heartbreak edition of his monthly Rejection Show. Actually, I saw quite a few couples in the audience clearly still dressed up from a night on the town and a fancy dinner, but whatevers. The show was great. Afterparty greater. And twas all for a good cause, celebrating the book release of Rejected: Tales of the Failed, Dumped, and Canceled, which Friedman edited. His introduction -- itself a rejection piece of sorts -- is ingenious. Several of the contributors (among whom include folks from Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, The State) took part in either the Valentine's Day party or an earlier book release this month at the Bell House. You should go to your nearest book store and/or online bookseller and get yourself a copy.
The White House transition finally happens in a week, but we're still a couple of months from the next transition in NBC late-night television, and Jimmy Fallon went to the Internets last night asking you to help him pick a font and layout for his Late Night with Jimmy Fallon logo. He already hired Sara Schaefer away from Best Week Ever to be his head blogger, so no, neither you nor I can apply for that. We can watch this video, however, and help Fallon pick out a logo:
The morning after NBC made it official, we all need to put the announcement of Jay Leno moving from late-night into primetime in 2009 into perspective.
First, realize and recognize that while Leno's fall 2009 show will air weeknights at 10 p.m. on the East and West coasts, he'll actually be on at 9 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones! When Leno told the press yesterday that 10:30 was the new 11:30 for many folks, he could have and should have said that for all of middle America, that long has been the case. Instead, when I heard Leno tell NBC Universal sibling show Access Hollywood (their studios are literally across the hallway from Leno's studio in Burbank) that “11:30 seems really late to most people,” what I heard translated as most people = old people?! That Leno asked NBC to do research (focus groups, anyone?) and found that his audience wanted to see him earlier, that only bolsters this circumstantial claim that Leno's ratings will fall outside the 18-49 demo.
Ah, ratings. In the just completed November sweeps season, Leno's Tonight Show averaged 4.9 million viewers (though only 1.7 million fell within the 18-49 age bracket), for a 1.3 rating and 5 share.
So I take one day off, and what happens? The Tribune Co. declares bankruptcy, NBC gives away the 10 p.m. weeknight primetime slot to Jay Leno in a desperation move, and oh, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon debuts online. In just a couple of minutes, we see Fallon is moving into Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, that he'll debut on TV in late-night on March 2, 2009, and that indeed, the house band is The Roots, as we suggested here earlier. I'm also hearing that young joke-writer Anthony Jeselnik is on board helping Fallon, so that's promising news (and seeing Jeselnik around NYC more often gives credence to that talk). So. Here's the debut video:
David Letterman has Paul Shaffer, Conan O'Brien has Max Weinberg, drummer for The Boss Bruce Springsteen, and now the new late-night TV host to come to NBC -- Jimmy Fallon -- will have The Roots by his side in March 2009. That's what this video interview alleges. And they've already begun work, it seems, as Fallon and The Roots shot some promotional footage earlier this month in Philadelphia. All we need now are those promised short webisodes to start appearing. But are you looking more forward to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon now? UPDATED at 2:30 p.m., Nov 18, EW reports NBC claims this is "not confirmable" yet, and video evidence has been removed (see below).
NBC officially unveiled the timeline it plans for shuffling Jimmy Fallon into late-late night and Conan O'Brien into Jay Leno's Tonight Show slot, which left Leno playing a cartoon version of a TV critic in disguise (pictured!) at the TV Critics Association tour yesterday.
That timeline? Jimmy Fallon begins not on TV, but online with nightly mini episodes this fall. Conan O'Brien will leave his Late Night slot in spring 2009, for Fallon to take over in March or April 2009. Jay Leno's final Tonight Show will be Friday, May 29, 2009. Conan O'Brien's first Tonight Show will be the following Monday, June 1, 2009. (Trade coverage via Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, plus the New York Times take here)
Lorne Michaels, who shepherded Fallon on Saturday Night Live and will serve as his executive producer, wants to ease Fallon into the game slowly. Perhaps he thinks letting Fallon experiment online on a nightly basis not only will let him get his hosting feet under him, but also tamper any early criticism of his TV debut. The media and fans alike bashed Conan in his early years, but he grew into the role and then some, becoming NBC's favorite late-night guy. The network already began construction on Conan's new West Coast set, and it's still unclear how many of his writing crew will move west with him. Which means it's still unclear what kind of show we'll get with Conan at 11:30/11:35 p.m. And what of Carson Daly? No, really, what of Carson Daly? I'm also not sure this timeline really serves as a vote of confidence for Fallon, either.
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