The Late Late Show - Corden's First Episode

The new host of The Late Late Show is James Corden and his first episode aired last night. You can watch it here.

Although I've stated it many times, I'll mention again how a late night talk show can't be assessed based on the first episode - it's a marathon not a sprint, and boy is it a long marathon. He had the big comedy piece with loads of celebrities and it went well (see below) but he's not going to have that every night. And his first guests were Mila Kunis and Tom Hanks... he will also not have those guests every night.

That aside, how was the first episode? It was good. The monologue was short but heartfelt - he thanked his predecessor Craig Ferguson but didn't thank Craig Kilborn or Tom Snyder (more on that later). The guests were obviously good. He has Reggie Watts as his band leader. He has no desk and they actually had both guests come out at the same time. It's unclear whether that's going to be the norm or whether that's just for the first show.

The second comedy piece (see below) was also very good. One gets the feeling that they'll be going for the kind of comedy pieces that go viral on youtube instead of the usual "desk" routines (well, there's no desk, so...). Again though, you won't have Tom Hanks every night.





I love the fact that they went with a Willy Wonka/Golden Ticket reference, I'm a big fan. But there's something strange and coincidental about that. When Craig Kilborn's first episode as host was about to air, this is one of the commercials that aired:



And this wasn't the only one, it was a whole campaign of several different commercials. There was even one with Vince Vaughn that you can watch here.

It's the same show so why do I think it's strange and coincidental? Well Corden didn't thank Craig Kilborn for starting/continuing the show. Seems like if he was even slightly aware of the show's past, he would have done that.

The Tonight Show - Piccolo Girl

This is one of those "feel good" clips that you can send to your grandma or aunt. I won't explain who the Villanova Piccolo Girl is because it's already in the clip but she sits in with The Roots for the night.

Movie Review: Saturday Night (2014)

Saturday Night (2014)

Filmed in 2008, premiered in 2010 and officially released in 2014, I'm surprised that I had never even heard that this movie existed until today.

"Saturday Night" is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows the cast and crew of "Saturday Night Live" for the production cycle of one episode (one week). The host (John Malkovich) is introduced on Monday and from that point they have 5 days left to write and produce an hour and a half of  live television.

This movie is exactly what I was expecting and exactly what I wanted. You always hear the lore of SNL - about how the writers stay up all night to try to squeeze out sketch ideas, how sketches can be killed by one bad rehearsal, how no one can memorize the lines because rewrites are happening right up to the time of going live - but you ONLY hear about it, there's never been a way to see it up close. In fact, most of the inner workings of SNL seem to be pretty well shrouded in secrecy. This movie really takes you inside and places you in the middle of everything that's happening.

Directed by James Franco, the film is extremely low budget but I get the feeling that that has more positives, in this case, than negatives. For one thing, I think a full documentary crew would be seen as too intrusive to the show and wouldn't be allowed access to begin with - better to have a few people with handheld cameras. But it also helps to shed the weight of being "a documentary". I don't need an interview about what Chevy Chase did in 1976 and I certainly don't need the backstory of how the show began. The movie is simply: how are these people going to get a show to air this week? Will it be funny? And the handheld cameras, unsteady as they may be, suit the stressful, hectic feeling perfectly.

7/10.

This movie is very hard to find (I thought) except that while writing this review, I found it's on Hulu. That was easy. You can watch it (with commercials) here.

Continue? - The Ken Burns Tetralogy

One of my favorite recurring bits on Continue? is when they spoof Ken Burns documentaries. Below are all four times they've done it. All of which were edited by Josh Henderson.

First is one of my favorite episodes all-time, "Sammy Sosa Softball Slam" which parodies "Baseball". Also the ending (which I won't spoil) is so great.



In "Super Conflict" they tackle "The Civil War" (though there might be some "The Great War" in there) and it's another excellent ending.



This is probably the weakest episode, "Rising Zan". Also probably "The Civil War" though the music is from "Baseball".



"Guerilla War" doesn't reference any specific Ken Burns documentary, it's more of an amalgam. But Ken Burns does have a documentary called "Vietnam" due to be aired next year. This episode is notable for the fact that it's the first appearance of any other character other than Granola Daniel.

Tonight Show - Will Ferrell is Little Debbie

Uhhh.... well.... I guess, Will Ferrell is Little Debbie.

IMDB 250

In addition to the current IMDB Top 250 list, the IMDB website also created several historical lists across the history of their existence. They take a snapshot of what the IMDB 250 looked like at the end of the year 2002, for instance, and call it the Top 250 2002.

If you've watched all the movies on a particular list (and you have an IMDB account), they'll award you the "badge" for that list. This is what my profile looks like as of today:

2015 Cardboard Classic

The rules of the Cardboard Classic are simple: make a sled using only cardboard and glue. And yet, ever year the sleds get more and more creative and impressive.

And yet for how funny and crazy the event is, it seems to me to be the best kept secret going. I would think this thing would be "known" by now. I would think that each year's video would be another viral sensation. As of now, this video has only 467 views. I don't mind being in on a secret, I'm just surprised.

I Was with Coco

Todd Levin is a former writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. He wrote an article for GQ about what it was like during the Conan/NBC debacle called "I Was with Coco. It's pretty interesting but not a ton of new information... Read it in full here.

Mr. Belvedere Update

In this week's episode of "Mr. Belvedere", the writers decided to go dark. I mean, there's "a very special episode" dark and then there's "ALF's Christmas Special" dark. This was borderline "ALF's Christmas Special".

So, in the episode, Wesley is hanging out in an old folk's home. I don't know why, I missed the beginning. I'm guessing the reason he was there was that it was in the script. But then an old woman gives him money. Ok. But then the old woman accuses him of stealing the money. What's the deal?

It's time for a dramatic monologue from the special guest star. "I think I have Alzheimer's Disease.", she says but doesn't care to find out for sure. But then what happened with the money? Well, by accusing him of stealing, Wesley won't like her anymore and so won't have to suffer through her long, slow descent into madness and death. Yeah, it's much better to make a child feel guilty and give him the feeling that he let you down before you died.

Fortunately for little Wesley, this plan doesn't reach completion. Some time later, he finds out what she did and why and goes back to visit her in the home. Wesley's a really memorable guy, and love conquers all, so it's time for the happy ending that the 80s deserve. Wesley goes back to the home only to find that not only does she have no idea who he is, but she also isn't even able to function as a human being anymore. Time for Mr. Belvedere (Brocktoon) to take him home.

And that's it. Have fun, kids.

Well... technically, that isn't entirely true. The show still ends with Brocktoon writing in his diary and they have him looking particularly silly drinking tea out of one of those beer-dispensing plastic helmets. But it feels like an empty gesture and the credits roll to a dour rendition of the theme song with a particularly mournful clarinet. "We might just live the good life yet", I mean, that one old lady from the episode definitely won't but, you know, we might.

Conan in Cuba

Conan became the first person to film an entire late-night talk show in Cuba. The whole episode is nothing but remotes so it's obviously great and worth watching. You can watch the whole episode here.

But, for what it's worth, I thought I would post my favorite segment. This woman's attitude is priceless.

Continue? - Kid Dracula

The Continue? Guys and Dom play "Demon Castle Special: I'm Kid Dracula", a nintendo game that was only released in Japan. They struggle to reconcile the great gameplay with the varying levels of racism.