BobH

It was an uneven episode. There was a lot of stupidity, as detailed in the podcast. I was amazed the civilian did as well as she did in the final round, given some of the pop culture gaps her celebs obviously had. If she had been quicker to pass on a few things there were clueless on (if they made it clearer to her that they were clueless) she might still have won. Five for five this season on singing with the band, multiple times on this one. I kind of liked the package game, especially since it looked fun to play, but it does need some tweaks to actually be good TV. Maybe some sort of chyron scroll of the names as they come out, a graphic of how many boxes each celeb is holding and how many are right? Or is expecting any sort of post-production work on the episodes asking too much? I mean, they have time, given it's years between filming and airing each episode. I did expect Parnell to be better, so that was disappointing. The Lacheys were surprisingly good (until her on the final round), but that's because the only thing I know him from is the "Stay out of it, Nick Lachey" quote that they kept playing on The Soup.

I thought this one was pretty good. None of the celebrities were overly annoying (Matt Iseman might have been if we hadn't had some other recent examples, and it seems obvious he was encouraged to do a few of the things like the Ninja Warrior intro for Jane). I agree with the podcast that Gabby Douglas was a bit weaker in the gameplay (probably cost her contestant the win with a few bad plays in the final game), but I'd invite everyone back. Didn't like the new drawing game (or pretty much any drawing games). I did think it was a bit of strange conceit that Jane has an art gallery (with paintings, not sculptures) in her backyard, but I liked the game. Four for four this season on celebrities playing with the band coming back from a commercial. Guess that's definitely a thing they think people like...

Have they done at least one "panelist sings/plays with the band" coming out of a commercial break every episode they season? I guess that's a thing they think people want to see. I didn't much like the backyard game this episode. Just a little too goofy, not really challenging (I think each team only missed one or two, so it hardly affected the score), and not really challenging questions, although I did like the basic premise of the question portion. Never care for "Song Sung Wrong", I'm okay with "Casting Couch" and "Lend a Hand", though neither are high on my list of favourites, and nothing in these examples changed that. Don't like splitting the final competitive round with a commercial break (and only running four games), hope that isn't typical of the season (knowing they've all long since been filmed and are probably running in random order). Like Tara, I mostly know Lauren Ash from Never Not Funny guesting, and I liked her, so I was glad she did well in the final round. I was afraid that Natalie Morales would be picked from the other team, which would have been a lot of red clothing on the screen. The contestant picked the same two I'd have gone with, so glad that worked out.

Also saw it in Canada, no spoilers, but looking forward to the podcast for reactions to a few things, especially the ridiculous "backyard" game.

Yeah, agreed on the general consensus on Hardwick. Just too much, in all the wrong ways. And also said as a one-time regular listener of his podcast, who now needs an extraordinarily compelling guest to click the download button. Mediocre episode for the most part, except for a pretty well played bonus round, marred somewhat by Hardwick's couch-jumping antics (which also spoiled the ending when it was included in the opening montage). It was weird that they only did the one round of Back-to-Back. Both teams weren't that good at Where You Going. Pop Quiz I could do without. Couldn't get anything in the backwards song thing. I'd probably like Hold My Balls if they could refrain from the "clever" ball jokes, and had more challenging questions. One laugh I did get, when Xzibit sat down with his one-handed driving pose, I immediately compared it to Hardwick's 10-and-2 pose and thought of the old Simpsons scene where Homer is watching a black stand-up comparing black and white driving poses ("It's true! It's true! We're so lame"). And then Xzibit made that comment about how he's black so that's how he drives.

Glad the show is back, and doubly glad the podcast is back with it, and coming out so promptly. I kind of groaned in the opening when they showed the new "backyard" set, and some of the game snippets they showed from future episodes look a bit ridiculous, but I was pleasantly surprised with the ball pit variation on "Smash the Buzzer". I could have done without all the "ball" single entendres in the one wholly new game, "Hold My Balls", but the game wasn't too bad.

Maybe just because I've been watching a lot of it lately, but Doctor Who is pretty variable. Not just in the long run (where you pretty much have 100% turnover in cast and crew every few years) but even within seasons you can have some of the most poignant and thoughtful science fiction ever on TV within a few episodes of absolute gibberish.

Gotta be a special level in hell for the sudden infliction of the Jeremy theme on our ears. God, I watched some awful TV as a kid...

Craig's "I will be the clue giver" announcement gets more elaborate every season. I wonder what it'll be by season 10? Some sort of special effects extravaganza, maybe a cirque de soleil type performance, live in-studio fireworks...

I'd steal the TARDIS. Although a cornballer is tempting, too...

I'd forgotten how good that Phil Hartman "Reagan as mastermind" sketch was. But I'd still give the nod to Hartman's Clinton, especially the early McDonald's sketch, as best president. In fact, a lot of my top SNL moments are Hartman. "The Sinatra Group" is a strong contender for favourite sketch ever, especially among strictly "live" pieces (there are a lot of times my favourite bits are pre-tapes, from Albert Brooks to TV Funhouse to Lonely Island). I also irrationally loved "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer".

I usually like Rachel, but I wish she could be more free to be critical of her own network sometimes. Seriously, Matt Lauer was a terrible choice, and if any other network had aired the forum with a moderator like that she'd have been far more critical. But I understand, she can't really question her own bosses judgement in any direct way. That path leads to Olbermannian exile...

Co-sign on the words of praise for KEY & PEELE. I've been re-watching episodes on my tablet at the gym for the last few weeks, and they hold up to third and fourth viewings, and make the time just fly by. I like sketch shows, but was mostly resigned to the fact that a 50% hit rate was pretty good for even the best of shows, but frequently I like every single sketch in a K&P episode, and there are very few I choose to skip. Even stuff you think would grow old, like the valet guys talking movies, they find new twists on (I still can't hear Mel Gibson's name without thinking "racist ass Melly Gibsons"). And the production values are just stunning, even down to adjusting the aspect ratio (extra wide-screen for action movie parodies, 4x3 for fake old TV shows). I didn't realize the director of KEANU also did most of the K&P episodes. I'll definitely be checking that out. Also, thanks for adding the encoded chapter breaks to the mp3 file. Very useful.

So they're scheduling a single new episode of the show in the middle of the summer, and on the same night as the final night of the DNC? Does NBC care about this show at all?

I'll be that guy and point out that HELLO, LARRY wasn't a THREE'S COMPANY spin-off. It was one of the string of McLean Stevenson's post-MASH flops (I'm surprised they didn't have his ghost appear in AFTER-MASH...).

Haven't had a chance to watch the show recently, and have a bunch on my DVR, so I don't know if this one was new or not, but I just saw one where Weird Al Yankovic came about a half-second from having a perfect first round, and he probably could have made up that half-second if he didn't make a joke about Craig in the middle of the round. Pretty good. He definitely goes on the list of dream celeb players to have on one of these kind of shows.

Looks like we're getting new episodes again, given Craig's greyer hair and the reference to Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Don't seem to any format changes that I noticed. I will say, "Lululemon" is a completely unfair final round clue. I can't recall ever hearing the name and looking it up just now don't even recognize the logo.

Definitely one of the better episodes of the show. All the celebrities seemed to be happy to be there and good in at least a few of the games, but not immune from sometimes amusing foul-ups, but not usually attributable to sheer stupidity like other celebs. Both civilians were pretty good too, and I liked most of the games, and even those I usually don't like had a few good moments thanks to the personalities of the players. Great final round, both Greg and Yvette worked well together, and the civilian was pretty good at guessing quickly and passing quickly when he knew it wasn't something he'd get right away, instead of getting hung up on it like some players are.

That was a bad beat on the final round. Started off really good, I was sure they were going to go all the way, and then the one-two punch of Eva Mendes and Danica Patrick hit. Really don't like Scary Poppins, but the rest of the games were okay. Iliza was definitely the best player, if a bit too hyper. Brandon Routh was good too, but so quiet I kept forgetting he was there. Which is something I wish I could do with Molly, Brooke and Shemar...

Absolutely co-sign on many of the comments in this episode, from the dopiness of Molly and Brooke, the hamminess of Shemar, the great-but-loud gameplay of Iliza, the very good-but-quiet gameplay of Brandon and the overall awesomeness of Laverne. And yeah, Eva Mendes is a tough one to get on her actual credits. Maybe "Latina actress, blank Longoria" to get Eva, but I'm not sure about how to get the last name. Sam Mendes isn't the type of director with a big public profile. Yvette Nicole Brown next week? Yay.

I don't think they can do "rhymes with" clues in that round, at least not directly. If you get the civilian to say "Carrie Bradshaw" you can probably say "same last name, rhyming first name", but that's such a convoluted route that you'd be better off passing, instead of risking "Mary", "Barry" and "Larry".

Man, these episode titles... Wouldn't "If it ain't Brooke, don't fix it" be marginally better, if you had to do that joke. Or how about "The Cox Crows Three Times"? "The Moore You Know"? "Hello Molly"? "Routh and Ready"? "Schlesinger's Cat"?

I wouldn't be able to get Terry Bradshaw with any clue up to and including his initials. Louis CK is pretty tough, since both his shows had variations on his name, and not really any other name characters. Chris Hardwick and Howard Stern are both kind of niche, I'd get them, but I know a lot of people wouldn't. Edward Snowden is tough, even though he's in the news a lot (maybe even more when this was taped a few months ago), but he's not really the kind of "celebrity" your head is tuned to for this kind of game. One or two of these types of names are to be expected in any round of the game, but five of them seemed a bit much. Especially three in a row, which really seemed to throw the civilian.

Came here to post the same thing. Some of those final round names were impossible, it seemed much harder than any previous episode, and I give them credit for getting as many as they did. Other than that, average episode. I'm sure we'll hear about Jane's singing in the podcast, but the other games were okay, and I don't think anyone was totally embarrassing, but I was kind of only half watching while doing something else. I don't think I like this new time-slot.

Ah, I was wondering about the "season finale" thing you guys had mentioned, since I think there are a few clips in the opening for episodes that haven't shown yet. Thanks for the clarification. Though it looks like they've got it at 10 o'clock, which is fine for me except that it means we're pretty unlikely to get a podcast out the same night. That was definitely one of the worst final rounds ever. When you can't get Madonna as the first clue in two seconds (Amy Schumer is opening for her? That's your first clue?) you know it's going to be a tragedy unless there's a Ciara-like switch flipped in someone's head.