What is your damage, Louie? Every time I watch you, I become simultaneously depressed about the state of the world/my life and thrilled that such an accurate depiction of this terrible truth is on television. Your flawlessness drives me crazy. In the immortal words of Angela Chase, “You’re so beautiful. It hurts to look at you.” You’re just too good. That is your damage. And damn you for making me watch Leno! READ FULL STORY »
Did 30 Rock executive producer Jeff Burditt just give us our first glance at Planty in the flesh? We won’t know for sure until after 30 Rock‘s seventh season premieres in October — but this picture Burditt tweeted today seems to indicate that Liz Lemon and Criss Chros have procreated.
But knowing 30 Rock, there could be all sorts of other explanations for why Liz Lemon is holding a baby. Such as:
1. It’s a callback to Season 1′s ninth episode, “The Baby Show,” in which Liz accidentally steals a coworker’s bundle of joy.
2. Liz rescued the kid from Jenna, who was jealous of its soft skin.
Image Credit: Greg Gayne/Fox
This Sunday (Aug. 26, 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) Fox will hold 10 nationwide advance screenings of its new comedies Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project, followed by a Q&A with the casts. I’ll be moderating the event here in Los Angeles, and EW.com will be live streaming everything right here in this post. So now you have to watch it and heckle me from behind your computers, in vain.
Image Credit: NBC
Jack Donaghy’s office hasn’t been the same since Maulik Pancholy, the actor who played his sycophantic assistant Jonathan, left for supposedly greener pastures — i.e. a co-starring role on NBC’s Whitney. Thankfully, Whitney‘s retooling and 30 Rock‘s imminent final season have created a perfect storm: TV Guide says Pancholy is ditching Whitney Cummings in favor of Tina Fey, as anyone given a choice between the two would. Let’s celebrate by talking about ourselves all the time!
I’m not prepared to deal with the fact that 30 Rock will end in 2013. But the news about Jonathan also got me pondering which other supporting characters I’d like to see pop up again during the show’s last year. Popular recurring faces like Will Arnett’s devious Devon Banks, Chris Parnell’s loopy Dr. Spaceman, and Dean Winters’ skeevy Dennis Duffy are basically guaranteed to reappear — but what about the folks who make a big impact without being marquee names? Here’s who I’m talking about:
Image Credit: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC
Community creator Dan Harmon is no longer running the NBC sitcom — but that doesn’t mean he’s stopped thinking about it. The ex-executive producer took to Reddit today for an AMA, or Ask Me Anything, with fans; unsurprisingly, most of the questions focused on the cult comedy he was fired from this spring.
Harmon gamely revealed his all-time favorite Community episode (season 2′s “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons”) and speculated about what might happen in the Harmon-less season 4 (expect Jeff to meet his dad). He also spent a lot of time carefully answering this query: “Who would win in a fist fight between all the cast?” Here’s Harmon’s exhaustive take:
Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBC
If a long-running sitcom announces its ending, but its fan base has already abandoned it, does it make a sound? We’ll find out this fall, when The Office returns to NBC for its ninth and final season.
Once and future showrunner Greg Daniels announced yesterday that Dunder Mifflin Scranton will close for good in 2013. The news was bittersweet: While it’s good to hear that NBC’s flagship comedy will get time to wrap up loose ends and craft a worthy finale, many fans think that finale is two seasons too late. The Office hasn’t been the same since Steve Carrell moved to Colorado near the end of Season 7, and an eighth year tarnished by go-nowhere storylines and weirdo Regional Manager-turned-CEO Robert California (James Spader) was by far the series’ lowest point.
Much like late-period installments of The Simpsons, latter-day episodes of The Office are still more amusing than much of what’s on TV, but newer shows like Community, Happy Endings, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family — the latter two of which wouldn’t exist if The Office hadn’t popularized the faux documentary format — have stolen the show’s buzz and its thunder. Because it’s a lot more fun to watch a series in its prime than it is to witness the slow devolution of something you once loved, it’s no surprise that a lot of once-devoted viewers have abandoned ship over the last year. (EW even stopped recapping it last year.)
Daniels’ announcement, though, changes everything. Well, maybe. READ FULL STORY »
You have watched him hump a dead moose, slurp milk straight from the source, and drop rhymes about the many whereabouts of his buttocks. What you haven’t seen Tom Green do is his own stand-up special. That changes tonight with the debut of Tom Green Live (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET/PT, repeats tomorrow and later this month). The 41-year-old comedian, who has been on tour for the last two years, offers up an hour-long, energy-strong Boston gig that covers such topics as texting, pornography, celebrity, and Saddam Hussein’s junk. The special is followed by a half-hour documentary titled The History of The Tom Green Show, which traces the journey of his bizarro “social experiment” stunt series from Canadian public access TV to MTV and beyond. EW decided to let Green run wild in this very post and promote this latest project… if he also apologized for a previous pop culture sin. Did he select Freddy Got Fingered, which he trumpets in his stand-up special as “the most critically reviled film in the history of cinema” to big cheers? Scroll down and drink up. READ FULL STORY »
Chris Rock hates YouTube. The comedian stopped by The Daily Show last night to promote his film 2 Days in New York and discussed his reluctance to perform stand-up in the era of YouTube. Rock thinks the platform deprives comedians of small-stage practice time and prevents them from ever re-telling jokes. ”It’s hard to go to the clubs cuz’ people [videotape] your sh– all the time, like before it’s ready,” he said.
Jon Stewart compared YouTube’s effect on stand-up to the adverse impact of television on vaudeville, and Rock concurred. Unlike musicians who are encouraged by fans to perform old hits, he said comedians are booed for repeating old material: “[Audience members say] ‘How dare you say the same funny thing you said last year!’”
Watch the video below (scroll to the five-minute mark, if you’re in a rush): READ FULL STORY »
Image credit: Jason Kempin/WireImage
Robin Williams, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher, and Aziz Ansari are among the comedians who will bring laughs to this year’s New York Comedy Festival. The city’s most historic venues, including Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theater, will be booming with laughter from Nov. 7-11.
Kevin Hart’s return to the festival will put him in a select group of comic legends — including Bob Hope, George Burns, and Eddie Izzard — to headline at Madison Square Garden. “I can’t even find the words to describe what I’m feeling right now!,” Hart said in a press release. “I’m honored to join a group of comedians that will go down in history because of their performances at The Garden! God is good!”
Adam Carolla, Patton Oswalt, Marlon and Shawn Wayans, Rob Delaney, Jim Gaffigan, Artie Lange and Brian Regan will complete the all-star line-up.
For ticket information, visit www.nycomedyfestival.com.
Read more:
Emmy Watch: Aziz Ansari talks Tom’s Oh-no-nos list
Casting Net: Kevin Hart signs on to Brat Pack remake ‘About Last Night’
Ricky Gervais says NBC wants him back for Golden Globes
Image Credit: Jim Spellman/WireImage.com
Hotly following on the heels of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Ricky Gervais is trying his hand at a web-only series.
Writing on his blog today, Gervais announced a new Internet project he’s been working on with frequent collaborator/victim Karl Pilkington entitled Learn English With Ricky Gervais. While there are no actual details yet of what the webisodes entail, we bet they’ll more than likely follow the comedy-disguised-as-factual entertainment that his most recent series, An Idiot Abroad, pioneered.
READ FULL STORY »
