Tag Archives: TV

06.13.13
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The points don’t matter

I am so excited about next month’s premiere of a revived version of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

I’ve been a fan of the show, an improv comedy showcase, ever since episodes of the original British version ran on Comedy Central.

Here’s a typical episode from the British version. I’ve embedded part 1, or you can find the whole thing in tabs by clicking here. As you can see, three of the four comics are North American. The UK version started with mostly British comics, but as time went on Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops and Colin Mochrie started to appear more often:

Eventually, when Ryan Stiles was working as a supporting player on Drew Carey’s ABC sitcom, the two of them became involved in bringing “Whose Line” to the U.S. Drew was the host of the U.S. version; I liked him well enough, but I will always love Clive Anderson’s dry wit the best of all. Drew Carey started the show by telling you that the points he awarded to the players after each game didn’t matter. Clive Anderson would never have spelled something like that out; you had to figure out yourself that this wasn’t really a competition and that the points were just another comedy bit.

Originally, Ryan and Colin were to be the two regulars and the other two seats were to rotate, but Wayne Brady became such an immediate hit that he was immediately added as a third regular, leaving only one seat for the pool of guest performers.

Here’s a typical episode from the U.S. version, linked here and with the first part embedded below:

“Whose Line” had the unenviable task of competing with “Friends” on Thursday nights, and eventually with “Survivor” as well. But it was cheap to produce. At one point, when there was a threat of a writer’s strike, the cast and producers were asked to produce two years’ worth of the show in a few months, and they did. Eventually, the show ran its course on ABC, but it was rerun for years on the cable channel ABC Family.

One secret of the show is that they overshoot – for a half-hour episode, they shoot 90 minutes or two hours of material, and then they cherry-pick the games that turn out the funniest. The British version was a little more open about this and would sometimes run compilation episodes throwing together segments that turned out well but were cut from their respective episodes simply due to time. The closest the American version came to this was a few “Too Hot for Whose Line” specials, which ran at a later hour and included slightly more risque material which had been cut from episodes due to content.

I’ve also read that Wayne Brady is given a short list of musical styles or impressions that he might be called upon to do at a given taping. That doesn’t help him improvise lyrics, of course, since he doesn’t know what a song is about until the game is announced (and often until an audience member shouts out some sort of suggestion). But he can at least have some idea musically of where things might go.

There have been numerous attempts, many of which I’ve blogged about here, to recapture the show’s magic. These included:

  • “Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show,” with many of the “Whose Line” regulars, in which the participants played improv games and then animators were brought in after the fact to augment the skits with whimsical backgrounds, props and so on.
  • “Drew Carey’s Improv-A-Ganza,” a Las Vegas-based improv show.

Both of these suffered because they had more than four performers on a given episode. I think the four participants-plus-host on “Whose Line” worked a lot better. With six or seven performers, there’s less chance for trash talk, callbacks and running gags.

  • “Trust Us With Your Life,” from the producers of the original show, was shot in the UK even though it was being made for a US audience. It had Colin, Wayne and Ryan but was hosted by Fred Willard. The premise was that Willard would interview a celebrity guest, getting them to tell stories from their early life or career, and then those stories would be re-enacted by the cast in the form of improv games. I liked it, but it was a little gimmicky – and Willard got into legal trouble right around the time the show aired.

There were also improv shows that had no direct connection to “Whose Line,” such as “Thank God You’re Here,” in which a comic performer was thrust into an unfamiliar scene on a set he or she had never seen before. One of the other improv performers already on stage immediately says “Thank God you’re here,” and that begins the scene. Jim Henson’s son even tried to launch an improv show for puppet performers, called “Puppet Up,” which aired as a special on, if I recall correctly, TBS.

Some of these other shows had fun moments, but none could ever capture the exact formula that made “Whose Line” such a success.

Now, “Whose Line” is being re-launched by The CW, the minor broadcast network formed from the remnants of UPN and the WB. Ryan, Colin and Wayne are all going to be regulars – although the preview clips at the new show’s web site seem to imply you might not have all three there every week, since some clips feature more than one non-regular. Aisha Tyler will host instead of Drew Carey. You may or may not know the name, but she’s been on a million shows you’ve seen, with extended guest stints on “Friends,” “CSI” and “24,” among others. She was also a host of “Talk Soup,” the predecessor to “The Soup,” and as a cartoon voiceover artist she’s the female lead on one of the funniest shows on TV, “Archer.”

I have high hopes that this show – which brings back the original producer – will succeed where some of the other efforts have failed. I’m really looking forward to it.

C Don Ladd liked this post
05.15.13
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Harmon on religion

I’m not necessarily recommending that you go and listen to Dan Harmon’s “Harmontown” podcast, because it can be a little profane, and there’s a lot about Harmon’s humor that some people might take the wrong way. But I thought one segment of it was interesting this week.

Harmon, for those who aren’t familiar, is the creator of, among other things, the TV show “Community,” which he ran until the end of last season. He was fired by the producers after various situations including a public feud with one of his stars, Chevy Chase. Chevy eventually left the show this season, even without Harmon around to feud with. That’s not to exonerate Harmon completely; even the description for the podcast describes him as “self-destructive.”

Harmon is not, by his own admission, a religious man. But one theme of “Community” under his watch was tolerance and co-existence among those of different beliefs. The show features a Christian character, a Jewish character, and so on, and there were some episodes that specifically dealt with how they could be friends while holding different beliefs about the world. The Christian character, Shirley, is sometimes portrayed a little stereotypically, but she’s also portrayed with a lot of sympathy.

But Harmon and his podcast co-host, Jeff Davis (whom some of you may remember as an occasional cast member on “Whose Line Is It Anyway”) have no particular love for outspoken atheists like Bill Maher, whom they consider just as dogmatic, unthinking and harmful as some of the worst believers. They have an interesting conversation (joined by comic Kumail Nanjiani) about some of what offends them on both sides – the anti-scientific bent of some fundamentalists, but also the arrogance of some scientists towards others, including other scientists, who choose to believe that some aspects of life are beyond science. Many of the Richard Dawkins class of militant atheists point to various holy wars, inquisitions and so on as proof that religion is harmful, but Harmon says that they’re more about humanity than about religion – and if religion disappeared, those same abuses would go in in the name of some other cause. (“South Park” made much the same point, in an episode set in the future where Dawkins has managed to eliminate religion but where two different atheist organizations are fighting a holy war for supremacy over some arcane point.)

By the way, Harmon responds to the rumor floated last week that he might return to the show now that it’s been picked up for a fifth season and now that Chevy is gone. There’s apparently no such plan in the works. At one point, weeks ago, when the show’s fate was still in question, someone from the studio made a very informal inquiry to Harmon’s agent about whether Harmon would be willing to come back. At the time, Harmon suspects, the studio might have been brainstorming tactics to get the network to renew the show. But nothing ever came of it, and now that the show has already been renewed without Harmon he doesn’t expect there to be any real offer.

Anyway, I’ve warned you that there are aspects of the podcast you might find offensive. But if you want to listen, here’s the web site.

04.30.13
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Andy Dick

I was one of the estimated  3-5 people who watched “The Ben Stiller Show” in its original run on the FOX network. Although it won an Emmy, it was the lowest-rated show on network TV at the time. I thought it was brilliant, and looked forward to it every week. It was a sketch comedy show, in which Stiller (who’d had an even lesser-known show on MTV) was joined by Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and Andy Dick. Here are the opening credits:

All four of the stars went on to bigger and better. Stiller, of course, became a movie star. Garofalo has found fame in a number of different areas, from movie star to political pundit, and was great on “The Larry Sanders Show” on HBO. Odenkirk and one of “The Ben Stiller Show”’s other writers, David Cross, created what may be the second-greatest sketch comedy show of all time (behind “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”), “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” which also aired on HBO. Dick was on a hit sitcom, “Newsradio,” but even before the death of co-star Phil Hartman sent that show on a sad march to cancellation, Dick was already starting to get into legal trouble for substance abuse and for other charges, including indecent exposure and sexual abuse.

Dick’s troubles have been comic fodder. Chris Kattan used to impersonate Dick occasionally on “Saturday Night Live,” having the comedian say outrageous and embarassing things as if he were high or drunk. As recently as this Monday, David Letterman’s Top Ten list was “Top Ten Things You Don’t Want To See In An Online Dating Profile,” and number one was “Twice, with Andy Dick.”

I’m an occasional follower of “Dancing With The Stars,” although I don’t claim to be able to appreciate the nuances of dance and often just have the program on as background noise while doing something on the computer. When I first heard that Andy Dick was going to be in this season’s cast, I was skeptical.

But as soon as the very first episode, I was impressed. You can’t fool yourself about your ability to judge people through a TV screen, especially on a reality show where the producers are skilled at portraying people as angels or demons. But I’ve really been won over by Andy Dick. He really does seem to have a sense of what he was, why it was wrong, and what the stakes are for his family as he tries to make his way in the sober world. I immediately started rooting for him.

As admitted, I’m not necessarily one to be able to judge the nuances of dance. I don’t usually vote, and I have to admit that when I do vote it’s sometimes because I like the contestant. A few seasons back, a disfigured Army veteran named J.R. Martinez – an authentic American hero, who serves as a motivational speaker and advocate for other disabled veterans – was in the finals against one of the Kardashians and the former host of one of the sleazier and more voyeuristic daytime talk shows. According to the judges, J.R. was a worthy finalist – but even if he hadn’t been, he could have sat in a folding chair for three minutes and called it a dance routine and I would still have voted for him. (Happily, I was not alone – he won.)

Each season on “Dancing With The Stars,” there’s a sympathy contestant – someone who, based solely on the judges’ scores, would have been eliminated in the first or second week, but who sticks on for a while based on audience goodwill. One year it was Cloris Leachman, for example. You couldn’t help but root for her. Eventually, as the field narrows and the serious dance followers have fewer options among which to choose, the serious vote overcomes the goodwill vote and the axe finally falls.

Andy Dick was more serious about the competition than most such “sympathy contestants,” and did get some occasional respect from the judges, but this week his luck ran out. Last night he and his dance partner, Sharna Burgess, tried to recreate a dance routine so familiar and classic even I recognized it. As soon as Andy came out wearing that yellow vest, I thought, “He looks like Gene Kelly in the ‘Broadway Melody Ballet’ from ‘Singin’ In The Rain.’” Sure enough, there was Sharna, posed with her leg up and Andy’s straw hat teetering on her shoe just like Kelly’s hat teetered on the toe of Cyd Charisse. Whoever had the idea that Andy would look good trying to imitate Gene Kelly was really, really mistaken. That was a huge miscalculation and resulted in abysmal scores from the judges. It may very well have been responsible for sending Andy home tonight. I’d been watching a repeat of “The Dust Bowl” on PBS tonight, but I turned over just in time to hear them call Andy’s name as the contestant going home.

All of the eliminated DWTS contestants seem to be good sports, and Andy Dick was no exception. I really felt for him, though. I’ve never struggled with substance abuse (except food), but I have friends who have, and I’m in awe of the way they have to face each new day. Andy really seemed to want to do well in this competition. Host Tom Bergeron mentioned in Andy’s exit interview that Tom’s been peppered with questions about, and support for, Andy wherever he goes. I hope that’s what Andy will take with him, and I hope he uses this experience, and the new connection he’s made with the public, to go on to something productive, and funny. He’s got the talent to be a great entertainer.

04.27.13
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The first one is free

Turner Classic Movies aired “Reefer Madness” the other day, and I’d never seen it, so I DVRed it. I went to watch it today, and I had gotten as far as the opening credits when, looking something up online, I discovered that the RiffTrax live version of it is available for free on Hulu. That sounded like much more fun than just watching the movie.

To backtrack: You may remember one of the funniest TV shows of all time, “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” which aired for seven seasons on Comedy Central and then three on Sci-Fi (now SyFy). It made fun of really bad movies; three characters silhouetted in the lower-right corner of the screen would deliver a non-stop stream of jokes and commentary over the top of the movie.

MST3K, as the fans called it, was eventually cancelled, but two different groups of its alumni produce MST3K-like projects, online, for DVD and for live shows. Series creator and original host Joel Hodgson (his character name was Joel Robinson) and several MST3K creators who moved away from the show’s home base of Minneapolis have Cinematic Titanic, while second host Mike Nelson and his co-stars from the last few years of the show have RiffTrax.

Cinematic Titanic produces its mocked movies direct to DVD. RiffTrax also puts out some DVDs, but they primarily produce audio tracks of commentary which you can download from their web site and synch up with the target movie as you play it from your own DVD (or a rental, or Netflix). This means that Mike, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy don’t have to get the rights to the movies, since the movie itself isn’t part of what they’re selling. They can make fun of even recent, big-budget movies which wouldn’t have been accessible to MST3K (and which aren’t accessible to Cinematic Titanic). They even make fun of a few *good* movies, just for the heck of it.

Both groups do live shows, where a movie is screened for a theater audience while the cast members deliver their commentary live and in person. The live shows are simulcast to other theaters across the country and then turned into DVDs as well. RiffTrax actually does some of its live shows from the Belcourt Theater in Nashville, although I’ve not had the chance to go to one yet.

“Reefer Madness” was one of those RiffTrax live shows. It starts, as did some of the best episodes of MST3K, with short subjects before they get to the actual movie.

Now that I know some of the RiffTrax stuff is on free Hulu (as opposed to the paid Hulu Plus), I’ll be checking some more of it out. Meanwhile, if you want to check it out … here you go!

04.06.13
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Beautiful downtown Burbank

In the late 1980s, I worked a couple of nights a month as a volunteer for a telephone crisis line. I was on the night shift. Early on in the evening, even if there were no incoming calls, I would be occupied making outgoing calls to shut-ins who had signed up to receive a daily check-in, how-are-you-doing telephone call. (If we could not reach the shut-in, we had the number of a family member whom we could contact to make sure everything was OK.)

Once those scheduled calls were done with, however, there was time to kill whenever the phone wasn’t ringing. I either did not have cable or did not have many channels at the time, and so I was delighted to discover that Nick At Nite, in its very early days, had edited-down reruns of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” airing at 10 p.m., which was right around the time I got done with my scheduled calls. I remembered the show being on when I was young; I got to watch it a few times, but my parents I think were a little suspicious of letting me watch it too much. (Although if you watch the clip I’ve embedded below, you’ll see none other than the Rev. Billy Graham saying that the family that watches Laugh-In together … really needs to pray together.)

Since that time, there’s been a retrospective that airs every now and then on public TV, but I can’t find any channel that carries the show, nor does it seem to be available on Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Instant Video. Which is a shame; I’d love to see it again.

 

03.30.13
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Don’t be tardy, be TARDIS

Tonight is the season premiere of “Doctor Who,” a show about which I blog frequently. If you still haven’t discovered it yet, this might be a good time to jump in. (BBC America has a suggested hashtag, #newtowho.) I know I’m a broken record on this, but I’ve loved this show ever since college and I enjoy blogging about it.

“Doctor Who” is a British institution, as familiar over there as Superman or Mickey Mouse here in the states. It’s the story of The Doctor (“Doctor Who” is the title of the show, not necessarily the name of the character), a human-looking alien, of a race called the Time Lords. He travels through space and time in a vessel called a TARDIS which is phone-booth-sized on the outside but enormous on the inside. He’s usually accompanied by one or more traveling companions, and tonight’s season premiere begins a new era of the show with a new sidekick. More about that in a moment.

“Doctor Who” premiered in 1963, and (trivia fact) its premiere was the first entertainment program to air after the BBC ended its extended coverage of the Kennedy assassination. That means it will celebrate its 50th anniversary later this year, amid much hoopla. The original show ran until about 1989. It started running on some American public TV stations during the science fiction craze that followed “Star Wars,” and I first discovered it while a college student in Oklahoma in the early 1980s.

“Doctor Who” was considered a children’s show when it first went on the air, and it sort of grew up with its viewers in its original run. It still has a whimsy and sense of fun that owes a lot to its kid-vid roots.

There was an attempt to bring the show back in 1996 as a British/American co-production, and a TV movie was produced, airing here on the FOX network. But it flopped. The BBC brought the show back on its own in 2005, and it’s been on ever since.  The new version aired on Sci-Fi (now SyFy) for a few years but is now on BBC America. You can also find it, along with episodes from the original version, on Netflix.

Unlike “Star Trek” or some other long-running TV shows, “Doctor Who” hasn’t relied on new generations or do-overs to give it longevity. It’s basically the same continuity, with the same character, running all the way back to 1963. But the main character has been played by 11 different actors.

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When original star William Hartnell quit the show in the mid-1960s, the BBC wanted to keep it going, and the producers invented a plot twist that probably wouldn’t have passed muster if the show had been aimed at adults. They simply established that Time Lords, when subjected to extreme physical trauma, could regenerate themselves, creating a new body. Each new incarnation is still The Doctor, with all of his memories, but may have subtle differences in personality or outlook caused by the transformation. (Every so often, the joke gets made that another British icon – Bond, James Bond – must also be a Time Lord.)

Hartnell (far left in the collage above) was white-haired and grandfatherly, but suddenly The Doctor, now played by Patrick Troughton, had black bangs and was considerably more energetic. There were seven different Doctors in the show’s original run. The most famous here in America was Tom Baker, with his curly hair, droopy eyes and long, multi-colored scarf, because his episodes were the ones that started showing up first during that post-“Star Wars” period. The last Doctor from the original show, Sylvester McCoy, appeared in the first few minutes of the TV movie, providing continuity with the old show, before regenerating into Paul McGann, who would have starred in that ill-fated revival. When the show was relaunched in 2005, Christopher Eccleston played the role, followed by David Tennant and the current Doctor, Matt Smith.

The traveling companions are an important part of the show. Of course, they also give an excuse for cheesy exposition – The Doctor delights in showing Earthlings the sights, throughout space and time. He explains to them, and by proxy to us the viewer, any critical pieces of information.

Matt Smith started the show with Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) as his traveling companion, joined eventually by Pond’s fiance, then husband, Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). They left the show, in heartbreaking fashion, at the end of its last regular season.

timthumbThe new companion, Clara (Jenna Louise Coleman) was introduced during an episode last season and then introduced more fully during the Christmas special that fell between the two seasons. In both each of those appearances, she was killed – leading the Doctor to wonder who she is and how she can be reincarnated time and again throughout history. I suspect that question will be a running theme this season, but hopefully she’ll get to stick around a little longer at a time. She’s not Kenny from “South Park,” after all. (Or is she? That would be an interesting crossover.)

Anyway, the start of a new season might be a good chance to try the show out if you’ve never seen it before. It’s a wonderful mix. Some episodes are funny, some terrifying, some heartbreaking. There was a wonderful episode where The Doctor and Amy try to change the fate of Vincent Van Gogh. There are also recurring villains – notably the Daleks, salt-shaker-shaped cyborgs predating R2-D2 by 15 years; the Cybermen, who were like the Borg long before Jean-Luc Picard was a gleam in Gene Roddenberry’s eye; The Master, a sinister rival Time Lord; and the Weeping Angels, an invention of current executive producer Steven Moffat, murderous statues who can only move when no one is looking at them.

The season premiere, “The Bells of Saint John,” airs tonight at 7 p.m. Central (8 Eastern) on BBC America. Check it out.

03.21.13
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Jaypocalypse 2

Much of the coverage of the rumor that Jay Leno will be replaced in 2014 by Jimmy Fallon, seemingly confirmed by the all-knowing, all-seeing Bill Carter of the New York Times, has centered on the “Groundhog Day” aspect. Didn’t they try to replace Jay with a younger host just a few years ago? And didn’t it work out badly?

Well, this time may be quite different.

First, a confession: I’m a long-time fan of David Letterman, a long-time fan of Conan O’Brien, a fan of Jimmy Fallon, and I haven’t cared for Leno ever since he got “The Tonight Show” and lost the edgy humor he used to have as a guest on “Late Night with David Letterman” on NBC. I find him bland, uncreative and unfunny. It was his hardball manager, the late Helen Kushnick, who was responsible for some behind-the-scenes maneuvering that helped contribute to Johnny Carson’s retirement and which unfairly denied Dave the right to compete for the job that even Johnny thought was rightfully his. But Leno bears some responsibility.

That doesn’t mean I’m not a tiny sympathetic to Leno. My brother loaned me Carter’s book “The War For Late Night: When Leno Went Early And Television Went Crazy” over the holidays, and I still have it. Leno was forced in 2004 into agreeing to the 2009 handoff to Conan O’Brien, and it’s easy to understand why he would feel somewhat miffed about having to give up the job while still number one in the ratings. He probably feels the same way in 2013. And Carter’s book reveals that it was the NBC executives, as much as Leno, who orchestrated bringing Leno back to “The Tonight Show.”

But, as I said, I think things may work out differently this time. Here are a few reasons why:

* Jimmy Fallon is not Conan O’Brien. As funny as I think Conan is, it’s clear that O’Brien, a former editor of the Harvard Lampoon, is in some ways an acquired taste. To his artistic credit, and his professional harm, he made little attempt to make his comedy more mainstream or accessible when he moved from “Late Night” to “The Tonight Show.” Good for him, and for viewers like me who like him. But in retrospect, and after reading Carter’s book, I think Conan’s argument that he’d have eventually been able to bring up “The Tonight Show”’s ratings isn’t that compelling. It may be that Conan is always going to play to a certain niche audience, even if I’m part of the niche.

Fallon, on the other hand, has a style of humor that is naturally more accessible. I still think he’s funny, and creative, and with a lot more imagination than Leno, but I think his personality plays better to a broad audience. (Capital One probably wouldn’t be using him for commercials otherwise.)

* Lorne Michaels will be involved. When David Letterman left NBC, the network turned the “Late Night” franchise over to the creator and executive producer of “Saturday Night Live,” and it was he who personally recruited O’Brien (over a lot of network skepticism) and then did the same for Fallon. Conan elected not to have Lorne’s production company involved when he moved west to host “The Tonight Show.” I probably wouldn’t have either, but in retrospect leaving Lorne behind may have hurt Conan in the long run. Carter’s book shows just how toxic the relationship between Conan and some of the NBC executives became, and in an alternate timeline Lorne might have been an important mediator between the two – holding the network execs at bay and finding ways for Conan to be more accessible without compromising his comedic vision. Fallon will have Lorne Michaels running interference for him with the NBC executives, and that counts for a lot. Also, Fallon will reportedly do “The Tonight Show” from New York, as in the days of Steve Allen, Jack Paar and the first decade of Johnny Carson. That will keep him under Lorne’s watchful eye.

* The landscape has changed. Although Jay Leno is beating “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” even in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic, Kimmel’s move this year to direct, head-to-head competition with Jay and Dave has been relatively successful, and NBC executives reportedly feel that he’ll eventually draw away more and more of the younger viewers unless they strike back by putting a younger-skewing host into play. Dave probably has a few more years at CBS, and I’m not sure CBS would be willing to try a much-younger host in that time slot right now anyway. (I suspect that when Dave hangs it up, they’ll just give @CraigyFerg the job.)

Yes, Johnny Majors may be a great coach, but he’s near the end of his career, and we have to think about the future, and we’re afraid we’re going to lose Phil Fulmer, who is obviously our guy for the future, so we’re going to unceremoniously push Johnny aside and get Phil into the head coach’s office before we lose him to someone else.

I’m just blithering, of course, and restating points made more elegantly by others elsewhere. But as a fan of all but one of the late night hosts, I thought I needed to jump into the fray.
03.06.13
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… and Joan Collins as Alexis

I haven’t watched “Duck Dynasty” yet, although I have several friends who enjoy it. Unfortunately, I already watch “The Soup” Wednesday nights at 9, and “Nadia G’s Bitchin’ Kitchen” started a new season tonight as well.

Anyway, in honor of my friends who enjoy the show, here’s something “The Soup” came up with, in cooperation with several of the show’s actual stars. I posted it to Facebook the other day, but I don’t think many people saw it. By word of explanation, Chris Hardwick is included because of his connection to “The Soup” — he’s a friend of the show — which is why you have no idea who he is.
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Nita Wright liked this post
03.02.13
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One more Saturday Night

I remember when there used to be original programming on network TV on Saturday night – “The Carol Burnett Show” aired on Saturday nights for a while, and so did “The Golden Girls,” and “The Love Boat,” and “Fantasy Island,” and so on. But as viewing habits changed, and cable programming increased, Saturday viewership declined, and now the networks largely program Saturday night with reruns of shows that aired earlier in the week, and sometimes with news programming.

Tonight, and I can’t recall noticing this in the past, NBC has an edited-down “Saturday Night Live” rerun from earlier in the season airing  from 9-10 (Central), not long before tonight’s original SNL episode at 10:30. This seems an unusual choice, but perhaps NBC thinks that the prime time rerun will serve as promotion for the original episode.

VH1 already airs two recent prior-season reruns on Saturday night, so if you were so inclined you could have watched three hours of SNL reruns tonight, as a warmup for the original episode.

Is that promotion or overkill? I’m not sure. NBC has also been rerunning the documentaries about the various eras of the show’s history on Sunday nights.

The VH1 reruns, and NBC’s prime-time rerun, are all edited from the original 90 minutes down to 60. Since almost every SNL episode contains some gristle, this usually makes the 60-minute episodes seem more entertaining, even if they lack the urgency and topicality of the live episode. In this case, though, it’s not as if we’re comparing different eras of the show; I don’t know which seasons VH1 has the rights to air, but most of the episodes they actually run are recent enough that the episodes include many of the same cast members.

Interestingly enough, the 60-minute reruns on VH1 alter the show’s original running order by putting the musical guest after Weekend Update, while the 60-minute rerun on NBC tonight had the musical guest right before Update, just as it is in the live show. (In any case, the 60-minute versions generally have only one of the musical act’s two performances.)

SNL, of course, has the continual problem of competing with its own cast. Depending on your age and demographic, what you consider the show’s “golden age” was derided, on its original airing, as unfunny and unworthy of comparison with the original Not Ready For Prime Time Players. In one sense, nothing can compare with that original cast, if only because they were unlike anything else on network television up to that time. But even the original cast had unfunny episodes and bad sketches. The show has had its ups and downs ever since, but even the worst seasons have some funny stuff, and even the best seasons have misfires. It’s the nature of putting together 90 minutes of original comedy in one week’s time. And, since SNL usually seeks to reach the youth market, as codgers like me get older we’re less likely to get all of the cultural references. That’s as it should be. I still remember the first time SNL had a host that I not only wasn’t familiar with but hadn’t even heard of. And for someone who is sometimes over-saturated in pop culture, that’s saying something. Anyway, it made me feel old.

I’ll be interested to see if NBC keeps up the prime-time SNL experiment.

02.16.13
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The Mind of a Chef

If you’ve been missing Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, and are waiting for the premiere of his “Parts Unknown” this spring on CNN, you may be interested in another show – executive produced by Bourdain, narrated by Bourdain, but not about him or featuring him on camera.

“The Mind of a Chef”  is a travelogue food show with Chef David Chang interacting with other chefs each week – as the name implies, it tries to explore a chef’s thinking, how he or she looks at food and cooking, and so on. It airs on weekends on your local PBS station, but you may have to look for it in the listings or your DVR guide.

 

Watch The Mind of a Chef – Preview on PBS. See more from PBS.