Last night there was an opportunity for a classic Saturday Night Live moment: Both Lady Gaga and Madonna agreed to appear in a sketch together. But somehow, SNL fucked it up grandly, instead giving us way too much Kenan Thompson (the most useless SNL cast member, in my opinion) in a poorly executed and entirely unfunny catfight scenario (though jesus does Madonna ever look good).
If these past two weeks of new SNL suggest anything, a serious creative lull is upon once again.
And a random SNL aside: Did anyone else know that Fred Armisen is engaged to “Mad Men”‘s Elisabeth Moss? And that Moss is a scientologist?
I spent my post-TIFF, pre-NYC weekend essentially lying beside my laptop for 48 hours catching up on television I missed. This included my sole reality television obsession (Project Runway), a catchup from a fantastic summer series that I caught on late to (Nurse Jackie), a new network television comedy series that has incredible potential (The Modern Family), my guiltiest of guilty pleasures (Gossip Girl), and three straight hours of missed “Mad Men.” All of it was glorious, but this scene from last week’s “Mad Men” took the overall cake. Its posted after the jump, and only watch it if you’ve already seen the episode and want to relive the moment. Otherwise, I insist you wait for it within context.
For the first time since I was a child, I made the glorious decision not to watch the Emmys. And really, all I would have wanted out of it was this… a gorgeous group shot of the cast and crew of “Mad Men” after their best dramatic series win:
I’ve always loved me some “Mad Men.” But I have to say these last two weeks - while keeping with its predictably meticulous and insightful writing, acting (seriously, give the young actress who plays Sally some special Emmy) and design - have seriously upped the hilarity ante. And most of it’s been care of Peggy’s attempt at becoming more loose (last week’s marijuana-fueled scenes ranked with “Roseanne” as one of TV’s funniest and most authentic pot-themed episodes). Here’s two spoiler-y clips from last night’s episode for your enjoyment:
Peggy’s prank call:
And one of my favourite scenes from “Mad Men” ever. Beautifully awkward and perfectly written. (with this one, skip to 3:51 for the scene, and again - don’t watch it if you don’t want to spoil things).
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(Excuse my tardiness in this entry - “Mad Men” doesn’t air in Canada so I have a wait a few days to be able to (totally legally, of course!) download it.)
A few weeks back, my brother and I were discussing our anticipation for the upcoming 5-episode “Seinfeld” reunion on the upcoming season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” He said to me: “I bet they will all be working on some Seinfeld reunion show that goes horribly wrong.” Sure enough, he was right. For next week’s Entertainment Weekly cover story, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards all discuss the upcoming “Curb” episodes, with Louis-Dreyfus calling it the “anti-reunion.” And while the show-within-a-show tactic might be predictable (signs of season five of “Seinfeld”), it remains one of the more anticipated things television has offered me in a long while. Here’s the part of the story EW has posted online:
Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer together again? Get out! It’s true—and this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly goes on the set with Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards, who joined old pal Larry David for the new season of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Over the last six seasons, viewers have come to expect the outrageous from Curb, Larry David’s comedic exploration of a man named Larry David. For season 7, the co-creator of Seinfeld decided it was finally time to reunite the gang from his old, pathologically revered NBC sitcom, who up until now had resisted the urge to re-emerge. The story line, which starts in episode 3, is sprinkled over five of the season’s 10 episodes as Larry recruits the cast, then plans and tapes the big Seinfeld reunion (viewers will see a few scenes of the Seinfeld reunion episode on Curb). David is cagey on plot details, and will only hint that “Larry attempts to get [his estranged wife] Cheryl back, and the Seinfeld reunion figures prominently in that.” Adds Louis-Dreyfus, “It’s the anti-reunion reunion, and I’d like to copyright that.”
When David approached Seinfeld about a reunion plot on Curb in spring 2008, the comedian wasn’t terribly worried about mucking around with the legacy of his beloved nine-season show. “The idea of working with Larry was just too overwhelmingly appealing to me, and [Curb] is such a great show,” he says. “There was a little part of me that said, ‘Do we really want to tamper?’…But to hell with it. How much damage can you really do?”
The first scene that the Seinfeld gang shot required them to immediately slip back into their old characters. “Just before we shot that scene, I said to Jerry and Julia, ‘I don’t know if I can be George. I haven’t tried him on in a while,’” recalls Alexander. “And it was freaky how it just came right back out.” Richards, meanwhile, dove in feet first. “I’d always kept Kramer’s shoes,” he notes. “Once I got those shoes on, and I’m standing behind the door of Jerry’s apartment, I was ready.” Being surrounded by the original sets also helped them get back in the mood: The Curb producers tracked down Jerry’s apartment and Monk’s coffee shop in a nearby warehouse. (Some home improvements were required, including replacing Jerry’s apartment door, which Seinfeld had taken as a souvenir.)
While this strange trip may not be the reunion scenario that fans expected, both Seinfeld and David agree that it’ll be the only one viewers will ever get. “As far as I’m concerned, we did do it, and in a better way than I ever imagined,” says Seinfeld. “This exceeded my expectations, so there’s no chance I would revisit it now.” And there’s plenty of other action in Curb’s seventh season: Look for appearances by Meg Ryan, Rosie O’Donnell, Elisabeth Shue (who scores a part in the Seinfeld reunion), Sherry Stringfield, Christian Slater, and Sharon Lawrence, as well as the return of Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and Richard Lewis.
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