nowandlater

I totally got your reference because I remember Wahlberg going on Kimmel pretending to be upset, setting up his cameo days later.

There was an article in Slate yesterday on how decades of jokes about Michael Jackson on SNL and Leno, etc, have helped normalize his behavior and laugh it off. I kind of got the same vibe with the opening sketch...it seemed like R. Kelly was just trying to act crazy to move the news away from the allegations (kind of like Brett Kavanaugh), and SNL was kind of abetting that. https://slate.com/culture/2019/03/michael-jackson-jokes-snl-chappelle-katt-williams.html

This was the Cardinals' last victory in Green Bay:

It's amazing how Davis Webb, who the New York Giants drafted in the 3rd round last year as a potential successor to Eli, is connected to 3 of the most talked about QBs in recent weeks. (Webb is now on the Jets practice squad, by the way.) In 2013, Webb beat out fellow freshman Baker Mayfield for the starting job at Texas Tech, prompting Mayfield to transfer. In 2014, Webb got injured late in the season. So freshman Pat Mahomes took over as starter and never gave up the job. In 2016, Webb transferred to Cal to replace Jared Goff as QB. It's a small world. (Also, Goff was recruited to Cal by Jeff Tedford, who also recruited Aaron Rodgers to Cal. Tedford was David Carr's offenisve coordinator at Fresno State -- where he got to know David's younger brother, Derek Carr.) Oh, and I agree with the Witten criticism. ESPN and "Tess" touted him as being really, really great. And boy he's terrible. I mean, really, he's the best guy? And not some other guy with experience?

For the record: Filming ended in November, according to this interview with Hurwitz. http://ew.com/tv/2018/05/17/arrested-development-creator-stars-season-5/ The allegations first came out on Nov. 8. http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/jeffrey-tambor-sexual-harassment-amazon-1202610285/ I recommend this article about what Bateman means by "family" https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/jason-bateman-arrested-development-interview-family Also this article explains why the guys thought it was utterly normal to stick up for Tambor instead of comfort Walter: https://slate.com/culture/2018/05/arrested-development-interview-the-cast-is-a-boys-club.html

Their breakup was reported last Wednesday. http://people.com/tv/pete-davidson-confirms-split-cazzie-david/ For those who don't know, they met when her dad first hosted the show. Cazzie is currently working on an Amazon series. Speaking of Pete, what do y'all think of him? When he first joined the cast, James Andrew Miller said he could be the next Adam Sandler. Four seasons later, I'm not seeing it. Is he that useful to SNL? It was odd (or not so odd) the way he got hired, thanks to Bill Hader's recommendation,.

I've heard countless interviews conducted by Howard Stern in which he posits that the weeks must be grueling. And cast members do say it's grueling. And it must be grueling. BUT...they only have 21 production weeks a year. That means 31 non-production weeks. (They probably start working a few weeks before the season? Does anybody know?) I've recalled interviews where Bill Hader was flying in for the table read on Wednesday then driving to Connecticut Thursday and FRiday, then doing the dhow on Saturday (this was because he was working on the Larry David movie Clear History. Bob Odenkirk was recently on Kevin Nealon's YouTube hiking show. And he said he'd fly to Chicago between the table read and Saturday, which just seemed bizarre. I don't want to belittle what those 21 weeks entail. Because then it would be like those people who don't want to give teachers a raise because they only work 9 months a year. It must be a lot of work. But I would think that for somebody like Kenan, who doesn't seem to have any non-SNL alumni stuff going on, that it would be a piece of cake to do the show by now.

Kenan turned 40 on May 10 and on that day People published an interview with him saying he's not retiring anytime soon. http://people.com/tv/kenan-thompson-isnt-retiring-snl/

It is interesting that they couldn't find somebody to portray Meghan Markle.

A few weeks ago, before Donald Glover hosted, I searched Google to see if there are any images of him and Tina Fey together -- since after all, she gave him his big break on 30 Rock after he graduated from college. Yet there are no pictures of them together, at least publically, which is odd. Well, finally, I have a picture of them together:

Yeah, she called the cops and filmed extensively... Thus becoming a meme:

I used to be against all the celebrity cameos ...until last night. I couldn't imagine the cold open topping itself without all the cameos. It's just amazing. That sketch already is approaching 3 million views on YouTube (the meet the parents sketch maxed out at 4.5 million).

Wait... so Darrell Hammond reads the opening twice every week?!?!? He used to tape in from Los Angeles, before moving back to New York. (And Don Pardo used to tape it from Arizona). Which begs the questions: 1) Why don't they just pretape the opening credits. Why does it have to be read live? Why does it have to be read live twice? 2) Why does he have to do the whole cast intros every week? Can't he just do it once, and he edit in that week's guests? http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/09/27/darrell-hammond-was-snls-best-donald-trump-and-its-best-impressionist-ever-so-what-went-wrong/?utm_term=.786d999507b3

I mean, at first sight, John Mulaney hosting is sort of self-indulgent. He's not that big a star, unless you watch the IFC Awards or late-night shows or are a comedy or SNL junkee. But having Mulaney host is one of those invigorating things that could really inspire the whole cast. Mulaney seemed to be doing even more web extras than any previous host this season. And the show was indeed really creative. Re: Stiller and De Niro: At first, I was annoyed. Mueller and Cohen could be huge stories over the next year or years, and are De Niro going to be able to come back every week. Will somebody else take their spot? But I kept rewatching the cold open on YouTube, because it was really inspired casting since they look like dead ringers to Mueller and Cohen.

Conan hosted 17 years ago ... http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/conan-obrien-monologue/n11449?snl=1 And showed off his chest....