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Twitch's 48-hour 'Saturday Night Live' marathon begins May 17th
Twitch is no stranger to TV show marathons, but it's venturing into uncharted territory this week. The livestreaming service is partnering with NBC on a 48-hour Saturday Night Live marathon starting May 17th at 6PM Eastern. The wall-to-wall run on the TwitchPresents channel will include a mix of classic and recent sketches going back to the series' very beginning, including a few from SNL season finale host Tina Fey. Twitch hasn't provided the full list of sketches as we write this, but it's guaranteed that Bruce Dickinson (yes, the Bruce Dickinson) will make an appearance.
Amazon Echo gets its own 'Saturday Night Live' skit
How do you know when a gadget has become part of the American cultural zeitgeist? When it gets its own Saturday Night Live routine, apparently. The comedy show ran a skit (US-only) on May 13th pitching the "Amazon Echo Silver," an imaginary smart speaker aimed at the "greatest generation." Not surprisingly, that means lots of stereotypical jokes about seniors: the Silver is extremely loud, repeats itself and will answer back if you say any name that sounds even vaguely like Alexa. Naturally, you can only order it with a check or money order.
The Netflix effect: SNL to air fewer commercial breaks
Honchos at NBC have told Ad Age that Saturday Night Live is going to show fewer commercials from next season. The 42nd year of the long-running sketch show will lose two whole ad breaks compared to the current season. That time will be handed back to producer Lorne Michaels to fill with the stated intention of making it "easier to watch the show live." In exchange, the channel will let six companies pay to create "branded original content," that harnesses SNL's cadre of writers and performers. We're not sure how much paid-for programming will change the show's slightly subversive tone, but as long as Kate McKinnon's free to be Kate McKinnon, we're not sure we care.
'Saturday Night Live' created the perfect 'hoverboard' ad
If Amazon's push to throw out unsafe hoverboards wasn't enough of a wakeup call for you, this Saturday Night Live sketch might make you think twice about picking one up. The gadgets, which exploded in popularity this year, also have a tendency to, well, catch fire. Airlines have already banned them, and US officials are also looking into how safe they are. The big problem seems to be cheap batteries used by some hoverboard manufacturers. If you're looking to get one, just be sure to do your research.
Schwing! 'SNL' app adds AirPlay and Android support
Since it launched in February I've been a pretty big fan of the Saturday Night Live app, and the latest update should make it quite a bit better. Now there's native iPad support (hooray!) in addition to it being available on Android devices. NBC's also gone back and remastered some of the old sketches, added around 400 more (including some of the late Phil Hartman's "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" bits) and tossed AirPlay support in so you can watch the clips via an Apple TV. Curiously, Chromecast beaming is still missing in action, but at least now you can text the new Church Lady emoji to let a pal know they're speeeecial.
'Saturday Night Live' app puts 40 years of sketches on your iPhone
Practically everybody has at least one favorite Saturday Night Live sketch. Whether you lean more toward Wayne's World than Father Guido Sarducci, Brian Fellow or Stefon, though, now you can stick 'em all in your pocket with the SNL app for iOS. As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the application features over 5,500 sketches from the show's four-decade run, you can search for sketches by cast member or character and even catch a handful of full-length recent episodes. With a good chunk of the show's run on Netflix, asking why you should download this is perfectly reasonable. Well, for starters the free app is a much more approachable way of jumping into the show's considerable history -- especially compared to how Yahoo Screen handles clips.
James Franco's 'Saturday Night Live' documentary is coming to Hulu Plus
While James Franco's Saturday Night Live documentary has been around for a few years now, it was never released for mass consumption. According to the Oz the Great and Powerful star himself, the behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce the show in the span of a week will begin streaming this Friday on Hulu Plus. The 90-minute Saturday Night film chronicles the December 6, 2008 episode hosted by John Malkovich that featured musical guest T.I. Until this week, Franco's project had only seen limited showings at festivals. [Photo credit: Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
What's on your HDTV: 'Gotham', 'Scorpion', 'Sleepy Hollow' and 'The Blacklist'
Welcome to the fall premiere season. We're welcoming back familiar shows like Key & Peele, Person of Interest, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory, as well as some of last year's holdovers like Sleepy Hollow, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Brooklyn Nine-nine and The Blacklist. So what about this year's newcomers? First up tonight is Gotham, an interesting Batman prequel, along with CBS' first attempt at a hacker drama/action show called Scorpion (CSI: Cyber starring Luke Perry and Bow-Wow aka Shad Moss will debut in midseason). ABC will tie the new comedy Black-ish to its long-running hit show Modern Family, and on Amazon we'll get the next block of episodes for its new show Transparent. The How I Met Your Mother complete series boxed set arrives on Blu-ray, along with a 25th anniversary edition of Ghost in the Shell, and FIFA 15 on almost all videogame consoles. Oh - and on Saturday Night Live you can expect Star-Lord himself Chris Pratt. Hit the gallery or just look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen tries out Google Glass for real (video)
There's a good chance that you, like us, enjoyed a certain Saturday Night Live sketch recently in which Weekend Update's newly branded tech correspondent Randall Meeks gave his raw impressions of Google Glass -- using a prop made of plastic and attached to a pair of sunglasses. There was a lot of shouting, twitching and, for us at least, laughing. Meeks is played by the incredibly talented Fred Armisen, also well-known for IFC's surreally hilarious Portlandia. In reality, we learned, Armisen had never used Google Glass. That was a situation we were happy to fix.%Gallery-188167%
Yahoo snags exclusive rights to Saturday Night Live's archives starting September 1st (update: clips only)
Yahoo may have failed in its bid to acquire Hulu last year, but CEO Marissa Mayer announced it's snagged rights to show something the streaming site has been known for: Saturday Night Live. The deal with Broadway Video will give Yahoo exclusive online access to archived SNL content from 1975 through 2013 including show clips, "select" musical performances, behind the scenes and dress rehearsal clips. Yahoo will also have non-exclusive access to show current season Saturday Night Live clips in the US and a license to distribute library show clips internationally. Beginning September 1st, those archived clips will be pulled from other internet video platforms (presumably Hulu and Netflix -- update, see below) for one year. The press release (included after the break) indicates Broadway and Yahoo will celebrate the partnership at Yahoo!'s Digital Content NewFront event on the 29th. We'll see if there's more to learn about Yahoo's ever-evolving media strategy then. Update: The devil is in the details, and it appears that while Yahoo does have exclusive access to the SNL "clips" archive, that is not the same as full episodes. While that may seem arbitrary to the layman, what it means in effect is that later this year you'll still be able to stream full episodes of SNL on other online services -- just not clips.
SNL's Black Friday doorbuster ad promises waxed floors and fire hazards galore
We all know that there's nothing funny about actual injury or death caused by a stampeding crowd rabidly in search of cheap TVs. There is, however, plenty to laugh at in the video below from the most recent Saturday Night Live. The mock Black Friday ad for Mega-Mart includes all the post-Thanksgiving hallmarks of consumerism we've come to love: super cheap electronics, scary-looking shoppers and a sales rep who sounds an announcer at a horse race. Enjoy the full video below.
Saturday Night Live pokes fun at interstitial app advertising with 'Rescue Dogs 3D'
Monetizing your mobile phone app is all well and good, but there's a certain category of apps that should really just charge upfront. This message has been brought to you by Rescue Dogs 3D -- in theaters Friday. Video after the break.
Found Footage: SNL parodies Steve Jobs again
Saturday Night Live (SNL) has done a great job of satirizing Steve Jobs and Apple over the years, and the tradition continued last week. "Undercover Boss" is a TV show in the states that has big business CEOs perform their company's entry-level jobs. SNL expanded the idea to Undercover Celebrity Boss, and featured Steve Jobs as the first target. In the clip after the break, watch "Steve" explain to an employee that the trash can he's filling, which he calls the iTrash, "...holds over 35 gallons of trash, and plays music." There are other "celebrity bosses" in the clip (Martha Stewart is especially funny), but it's Steve that got our attention. Good job, SNL! You can watch the video after the break. [Via iPhone Savior]
SNL: Google phone to challenge iPhone by "making calls"
Saturday Night Live's 'Weekend Update' with Seth Meyers joined the fray of people who were sick of AT&T's poor network reception: "It was reported this week that Google would soon launch its own cellphone as a challenge to the iPhone. Also a challenge to the iPhone? Making phone calls." While Saturday Night Live hasn't been funny for years (IMHO), and the joke was rather feeble, this is further cause for embarrassment from Apple and AT&T and just additional fodder for Verizon's case as to why they should have the iPhone. [via Engadget]
Poor iPhone reception graduates to SNL 'Weekend Update' joke status
"It was reported this week that Google would soon launch its own cellphone as a challenge to the iPhone. Also a challenge to the iPhone? Making phone calls." Cue uproarious applause. Update: Video after the break! Thanks Michael! Update 2: In typical SNL fashion, the video has been pulled from YouTube. Keep an eye out for a Hulu berth!
New SNL title sequence and segments shot using Canon EOS 7D, 5D Mark II
Sure, we'd heard of indie flicks and rumors of studio films being shot on Canon's EOS 5D Mark II, but DSLR video just got a big kick into the mainstream: Saturday Night Live's new opening title sequence was shot using an EOS 7D. SNL director of photography Alex Buono saw that Dublin's People short and was so impressed that he switched over -- and what's more, he's even using the 5D and 7D to shoot various segments, like the faux-mercial for "Bladivan" embedded below. That's a big win for this new breed of video cameras -- and while we're stoked to see new tech take over the old, we're also patiently waiting for someone to start a site dedicated to identifying jelly-motion on network television. [Thanks, Malkmus]
SNL does multitouch comedy to perfection with CNN's 'Magic Map'
Saturday Night LIve's Fred Armisen takes CNN's "Magic Map" to its logical -- and hilarious -- conclusion. What would happen if New Hampshire got moved down to Mexico? Two more pics after the break, and video hopefully coming soon.Update: Country... we've got video.
HDTV Listings for September 29, 2007
What we're watching: Saturday Night Live kicks off a new season tonight with special guest Lebron James, also keep an eye out for re-airs of several pilots you might have missed earlier in the week. Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Dude, Get Your Own campaign expands to television
Sony has unveiled more details on its ambitious "Dude, Get Your Own" advertising campaign for PSP. The promotion will focus on PSP's ability to play games and multimedia and should proudly showcase PSP's new, lower price. According to Sony, a television commercial will be airing now through the end of May on a variety of shows targeted specifically to teens. PSP fans will want to tune in to shows such as King of the Hill (FOX), South Park (Comedy Central), Adult Swim (Cartoon Network), the NBA Playoffs (TNT), Saturday Night Live (NBC), and WWE Smackdown (CW) to catch the new ads.Online ads can also be found on IGN.com, Gamespot.com, ESPN.com and Maxim.com. Additionally, Sony plans to send promotional materials through direct mail. Later this week, Sony will be launching a new "Dude, Get Your Own" website, which will go into further detail about PSP's capabilities. (Hopefully, they'll create a new educational video, unlike the one featured here.)This aggressive stance from Sony is certainly appreciated. There are too many myths about our handheld that must be dispelled: hopefully, this advertising campaign will make others experience the system and join the PSP Fanboy ranks.
HDTV Listings for March 24, 2007
What we're watching: Late night, we've got NCAA Women's Basketball tourney games to look forward to, and an appearance by Peyton "Cut that Meat!" Manning on Saturday Night Live.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
