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.
NBC appears to be in damage control after the Leno/O’Brien Tonight Show controversy. Leno provided an hour long interview Thursday on his side of the story regarding the changes at The Tonight Show and cancellation of his primetime one hour show on NBC. Winfrey had a long list of pointed questions to ask Leno, some apparently not easy for him to answer. Leno made it clear NBC screwed up and that he must take some time to improve his image since signing on to replace Conan O’Brien as host of The Tonight Show. Much of the interview centered around Leno’s side of the story, making him appear at times to be an uninvolved party in the NBC decision. At other times Leno’s focus seemed to be on the business and ratings side of television, giving the impression, emotions aside, it’s just business and this happens all the time in the television industry. Winfrey mentioned polls on the Tonight Show controversy on the Oprah Winfrey website skewed in favor of O’Brien approximately 80% to 20%.
Conan O’Brien issued an official press release statement today saying he will not accept the move of the Tonight Show to a 12:05 p.m. slot NBC planned in order to bring back Jay Leno as the Tonight Show’s lead in at 11:35 p.m. after the cancellation of Leno’s prime time show.
NBC announced today that Southland has been pulled from the schedule, two weeks before the second season premiere. Citing a “lack of available time slots” because it was too “dark and gritty” for 9PM, the show and its distributors are left hanging with six completed episodes and nowhere to go.
