TVSquad

Just wanted to post a quick report about yesterday's late-afternoon Saturday Night Live panel. On the panel was (new TCA Career Achievement award winner) Lorne Michaels, Weekend Update anchor and co-head-writer Seth Meyers, and cast members Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte, and Casey Wilson.

Given the comedy star power on stage, the panel was strangely unfunny. That's probably because Michaels answered most of the questions. Anyway, two pieces of news came out of this panel:

• SNL will run live 30-minute Thursday election specials in primetime starting October 9 and running until the election. The specials will feature Weekend Update but may also have sketches. There will also be a primetime "Presidential Bash" episode the night before the election.
• Michaels mentioned that Jimmy Fallon will air his show online for "five or six months" before it airs in Conan O'Brien's old timeslot, in order to give it a headstart in finding its creative legs. "We learned with Conan how brutal it was to find a show when it was on the air," he said.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

The original version of Star Trek has been a show with two faces. On the one face, it was a serious show that dramatized the good and glorious future we humans could have after we screwed everything up (though, with so many wars going on around the galaxy, how good and glorious could it be?). On the other face, at least to some, it was a campy science fiction show that featured poor special effects, bad acting, and tunics that really didn't hold up to space travel too well.

Since the show left the airwaves in 1969, that second face is the one that television shows throughout the decades have parodied. Whether it be the original series itself, or the subsequent movies, or the conventions that sprung up from this show that lasted only 79 episodes. Shows both animated and live-action have found ways to skewer the show's, and its fans', good intentions. After the jump you'll find a few examples of those parodies either to laugh with or be angry at.

Yesterday we reported that Amy Poehler had been offered the lead on The Office spinoff (or not-spinoff, as the case may be). Today, Poehler herself is confirming the rumor. She tells the AP, "I can kind of confirm that I will be working in some capacity on that show," but goes on to say that "I don't really have any other details yet."

Poehler has been a castmember on Saturday Night Live since 2001and is currently the co-host of Weekend Update. She will remain on SNL through the fall, but with her baby due in October and now this new show, her role in the second half of the season is up in the air.

It's been a big week for Poehler, who in addition to the new job offer, also received an Emmy nomination this morning for outstanding actress in a comedy series for her work on SNL. Her husband, Will Arnett, also scored an Emmy nod, for his guest appearance on NBC's 30 Rock.

Need more Emmys scoop? Get reactions to the biggest Emmys snubs and surprises and see which celebrities sparkled on the Emmys red carpet last year.

According to popular rumor, SNL star Amy Poehler is in talks to star in the spin-off series from NBC's The Office. If this is true, she'll be joining fellow SNL alumnus (and former Weekend Update co-anchor and co-star of the movie Baby Mama) Tina Fey as part of NBC's comedy prime-time line-up. No word yet on how Poehler's real-life pregnancy would affect this situation.

All I can say is: wow, what a fantastic choice. I've always been impressed with Poehler's work since she co-founded the Upright Citizen's Brigade (which is still going strong on both coasts). I've had the pleasure of seeing her perform comedy improv a few times and noticed how she is leaps and bounds more talented than most of the other people on the stage.

If anybody can lead a sitcom, it's Amy Poehler. If this news is true, I very much look forward to this spin-off and think it may be one of those rare cases in which the spin-off equals or is even greater than the original.

If there were a way to completely stop people on the Internet from saying, "Why do you keep watching this? Saturday Night Live hasn't been good since the days of Gildaphil Belushikroyd Normfeyrrell!", I would punch that button (or that person). Thinking a little more optimistically, there can always be better days ahead, for SNL is forever renewable, with an ever changing cast and crew. The thing that gets the fastest turn-over is the host, who has the opportunity to bring something new and exciting from week to week.

Now that the so-so 33rd season is over, I like to pretend everyone at SNL has kicked aside all the beach time and BBQ invites to plan something exciting for their return. Picking good hosts is an important part of having a successful season, so I've compiled my own list of nine people that must host, just in case SNL decides to re-work the entire show based on blog responses. I'm just covering all my bases, all right?

Of the many achievements George Carlin had in his long career, one that gets underplayed a bit is that he was the guest host on the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live -- then called NBC's Saturday Night, thanks to Howard Cosell -- in 1975. Not a bad choice, I'd have to say; since the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" were only a part of that first episode (there was a lot of music and odd Muppets about ... the show took some time to find itself), they needed Carlin to carry a lot of the comedic load. And that he did, giving the audience a number of his best routines from that time period.

As a tribute to the recently-deceased comedy legend, NBC will air the entire premiere episode of SNL this Saturday night. For those who have never seen the premiere before (it's on a DVD set of the complete first season), it'll be interesting to see how different the first episode is from the SNL format they know and hate-love today. I'll be DVRing it; will you?

To give you a taste, the opening monologue -- an early version of Carlin's classic "Baseball and Football" routine -- is after the jump.

One of the most famous Saturday Night Live alums is returning to the show for a "best of" special. Mike Myers will host an evening of his best work in a primetime special. The comedian will introduce his most memorable sketches in front of a live studio audience. Some current SNL cast members will join him: Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Kenan Thompson and Kristen Wiig.

Mike Myers can also be seen in The Love Guru this summer. The film, which also stars Jessica Alba, introduces us to yet another Myers' character, the Guru Pitka.

I loved Myers' characters from Saturday Night Live. I'm sure we'll see Wayne Campbell, Dieter, Linda Richman (my personal favorite), and young Simon who likes to do drawings. Are you looking forward to a particular character or skit?

Saturday Night Live: The Best of Mike Myers will air on June 15 at 9 p.m. on NBC.

One of the greatest -- and most resilient -- characters in the history of Saturday Night Live is making a comeback. Or maybe he's just taking a paycheck. Mr. Bill is the star of a new MasterCard debit card "Priceless" commercial. He's going to depict how even someone like Mr. Bill is tough enough to survive the rough financial times in which we live, just by using his MasterCard debit card.

The new 30-second commercials will begin airing on June 9, showing Mr. Bill as a typical guy heading in to work at the office. Naturally, along the commute, he stops for coffee and Mr. Hand scolds him accidentally. At the gym, he's catapulted off the treadmill. Later, an briefcase opens and launches him out the window. Naturally, through it all, Mr. Bill endures. Being made of clay has its pluses.

(S33E12) To ensure a strong season finale, Saturday Night Live made a very smart choice to go with Steve Carell. He is an incredible comedic performer and his first hosting stint went pretty well, so I wasn't surprised to see him pull it off again this time around. Actually, this picture is from the first time Carell hosted. Is it weird that I've had it sitting on my desktop since then? Yes, probably. Anyway, the material was better than some of the other episodes', with a few spectacular highlights, including the hilarious digital short.

(S33E11) I honestly was not worried about Shia LaBeouf delivering a less than stellar performance, as his first stint on Saturday Night Live showed that he works well with the cast and is naturally very goofy. With a funny guy like this, one can only pray that the writers use him as much as possible and work super-hard to give him embarrassingly crazy sketches. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Again. The writing was okay, but it did not do LaBeouf justice. Also, there seemed to be a strange flow to the episode, as the energy of sketches would start dying halfway through and eventually end on a really weird line. Let's hope the writers aren't already losing steam. They still have a season finale!

With just two episodes left in the current season of Saturday Night Live, fans are eagerly awaiting news about the final host. Yeah? No? Just me? All right.

Well, Me, good news! We knew Shia LaBoeuf and My Morning Jacket would be taking on the May 10 episode in what will most likely be another youthful crowd-pleaser, but here comes word that the final episode will be hosted Steve Carell and musical guest Usher. Yeah, that ol' dream team. Both LaBoeuf and Carell will be on their second hosting stints and, if their first times were any indication, they will deliver strong performances. I mean, assuming the writing does justice to their comedic talent.

TV commercials are fairly easy to satirize. If you think about it, advertising is sort of ridiculous in the first place (a TV show is interrupted to ask you to buy toilet paper and gum?), so they're a natural for parody. There have been a lot of great parodies over the years, from shows such as Saturday Night Live and SCTV, and now Nerve has picked the 50 that they consider to be the best.

There are a lot of great choices, from SNL's "Colon Blow," "Schmitt's Gay Beer," and "Compulsion by Calvin Klein" to the Zoloft ad from Mad TV. One of my favorites is SNL's "Happy Fun Ball" spot, which was written by Jack Handey and included in his new book of essays What I'd Say To The Martians. It's a good list all around, though it's also one that I feel is missing a bunch of good ones, only I can't put my finger on which ones are missing at the moment.

The one they pick as number one is undoubtedly a classic, though I think it's overrated. I've always loved the one after the jump.

I'm not here to argue for or against the comedic talents of current box-office champs Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. No, what I'm here to ask is: why do people dislike them so much? I'm not talking about people who just say that the two of them aren't funny; I'm talking about people who think that the two of them were the worst thing to happen to SNL, the comedy genre, and the entertainment world in general.

Case in point: this somewhat obtuse essay praising Poehler on Slate.com. In the process of reviewing Poehler's cartoon, The Mighty B!, writer Troy Patterson goes through some verbal gymnastics, like calling the ASSSCAT show she puts on at the UCB Theater "a Dadaist party trick," among other head-scratching terms. But what's interesting is the virulent reaction his review gets in the comments section.

File this one under "perfect freakin' timing."

Following a stellar weekend at the box office for the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler comedy Baby Mama (it won the weekend), comes word that Poehler is actually pregnant. According to People, Poehler and husband Will Arnett are due this fall. They've been hitched since 2003. In Hollywood, that's like being married for an eternity. Good for them.

Seriously, though, could this announcement have come at a better time? People are already buzzing about Baby Mama and now this. Her PR reps and agents must be salivating at the news. Maybe I'm jaded or overly negative, but I find it hard to believe that this wasn't a wee bit planned - the news, not the kid. I mean, c'mon. She's pregnant and she's in a movie where she's pregnant. If it tanks, announce the good news whenever you feel like it. But if it does well, which it did, then you've got one hell of a push for the film's marketing campaign.

[via AOL]

I've always been amazed at how analysts can project who's won the box office for the weekend before that weekend even ends. But I've never seen a box office champ predicted before the movie is even released. Apparently, though, that seems to be the case with the new movie from two of the funniest women on TV.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie Baby Mama, which stars SNL's Amy Poehler and 30 Rock's Tina Fey, will likely win the box office race this weekend. The film, which is being released today, has been garnering a lot of pre-release interest among 12-to-16 year-old girls, according to tracking surveys taken over the last few weeks. Huh? Didn't know stories about surrogacy were big with teenage girls. Is there something someone isn't telling me?