SNL Alumni Upcoming Gigs on HBO and NBC
SNL alumni Tina Fey and Will Ferrell are keeping busy this year. SNL alum Will Ferrell’s show, Funny or Die Presents, premieres at midnight this Friday, February 19th on HBO. Funny or Die Presents is a new half hour comedy series highlighting a mix of professionally created and user-generated content from Ferrell and comedy partner Adam McKay’s comedy video website. Ferrell and McKay along with HBO manage to merge TV with the internet with hilarious results.
Ferrell and McKay worked together as writer and director on Saturday Night Live in the late 1990s. Later, McKay and Ferrell teamed up in comedies like Step Brothers and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.
Ferrell and McKay co-created Funny or Die in 2007. “The whole concept of Funny or Die…was the idea that people could have a place to put up whatever they wanted to put up with no notes and no filter,” writer-director Adam McKay said. “The TV show came out of that same spirit.”
Upcoming weekly shows will include videos starring Zach Galifianakis, Wayne Newton, Don Cheadle, Zooey Deschanel, John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell.
Besides her usual gig on 30 Rock, former SNL head writer and cast member Tina Fey is set to host Saturday Night Live in April 2010. There is speculation she will reprise her famous Sarah Palin impersonation if the skit passes muster with Lorne Michaels. “It’s inevitable that we’ll try it, at least,” Fey said in an interview Tuesday.
“We’ll see if it makes it to air” the comedian said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. Fey’s impersonation of former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was a huge hit with viewers of SNL and during the 2008 campaign season, drawing huge ratings for the show. “It was the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me,” said Fey. “I’ve never had anything fall in my lap like that. Everything is usually me trying to convince the people of Earth that it’s OK for me to perform…that felt like the opposite.”
Viewers will remember Palin’s cameo on SNL appearing with Fey in October 2008. Palin stated in her book “Going Rogue” she grew up watching SNL, and would appear on the show again if asked.
TV viewers who watched Bryan Cranston as the father on Malcolm In The Middle know Cranston for his great comic acting. Proving with two best actor emmys that great comics also make the best dramatic actors, Cranston stars in Breaking Bad on AMC. If you haven’t seen the series yet you are missing great television. 
