Ben Affleck hosted Saturday Night Live: “It’s been alright, I’ve had a lovely night with you”

Ben Affleck - SNL Ben Affleck was saddled with a big responsibility as the host of the final episode of Saturday Night Live season 38. Though it was his night to be officially inducted into the Five Timers club, there wasn’t much hoopla made about it. In fact, other members didn’t show up for the introduction like they did for Justin Timberlake a few months back. Rather a great Bobby Moynihan and Affleck’s terrific wife were on hand to celebrate the evening. The reason there wasn’t much made about Affleck was because the night belonged to Bill Hader and Seth Meyers, both of which have officially decided that Season 38 would be their last as part of SNL. Also, without it being said, it was a set up for Fred Armisen’s swang song as well.

Affleck is hot off winning a best picture Oscar for the movie Argo and has really grown into his own as a director, it was perhaps this newfound skillset that has allowed him to realize what is needed and where, allowing for him to be well aware of the fact that it wasn’t necessarily his night and happily took a backseat to the other big moments unfolding. In the end he helped put out an enjoyable show that was funny, a celebration, at times sad, and complete 180 from last week’s surprisingly bad Kristen Wiig hosting turn.

Top off the booking of Kanye West as the musical guest just a few weeks before he drops his 6th studio album Yeezus this June, the night couldn’t have much more anticipation and thankfully enough it delivered on all points. Writers, cast,Affleck and West all brought their ‘A’ game, and we got ourselves one of the best episodes of the season.

Since Bill Hader is the consummate utility man, he would no doubt be put in situations where he could show off one last time. While it will hopefully not be the cavalcade of annoying returning charracters we saw last week, we’d most definitely see some of his favorites like Herb Welch and without a doubt, there was no way we would not get a sendoff for Hader’s most popular character Stefon. Fun fact for you, while Stefon did make his debut as the city nightlife correspondent on Weekend Update in 2010, his SNL debut was in a random and somewhat forgettable sketch in 2008 alongside that night’s host… Ben Affleck! Read the rest of this entry

2013-2014 TV watch: NBC’s greenlights, renewals, and cancellations

In advance of the upcoming television upfronts and the ending of the 2012-2013 television season, many networks are in the middle of confirming pilots, cancelling shows, and renewing others. Rather than you sifting through all the noise, we’re going to come up with some cheat sheets to what’s happening to your favorite, and non-favorite comedy on television. Let’s break down each TV network for you. Check out the new comedies that might catch your eye, your favorite shows that are returning, and the ones cancelled to be forever gone into dark TV abyss.

Here’s what’s going on with NBC. Read the rest of this entry

Let’s watch some Ben Affleck ‘Saturday Night Live’ preview clips!

The 38th season of Saturday Night Live comes to an end this weekend. Along with Bill Hader’s time as a cast member and perhaps others? So it’s a bit fitting that he tape these promos with Ben Affleck. Let’s watch ‘em shall we?

The cast of ‘The Office’ says their goodbyes

Tonight,The Office will air it’s final episode in it’s 9th season forever. So there’s going to be a plenty of goodbyes and perhaps, maybe we’ll even find out who the Scranton Strangler is.

Here are some videos of the cast saying goodbye to the show from the main characters and the secondary ones. The clips are long and has much of the cast telling their their favorite stories from the last 9 seasons. There’s tears of course so watch at your own risk. Yep, everyone gets a good cry on. There’s also lots of Steve Carell talk but no Steve Carell in the clips, but hey! They got Roy. Read the rest of this entry

Are Armisen and Sudekis out at ‘Saturday Night Live’ as well?

Amid the news that Seth Meyers and Bill Hader’s departure from Saturday Night Live a new report in the NY Post citing an “NBC insider” revealed that Fred Armisen’s time is also up and Jason Sudeikis is likely to make the jump as well at the end of this season. While speculation like this happens at the end of every season, this happens. A show like SNL that always addresses the zeitgeist of a nation, so change is always inevitable. It will have a very different look and feel next season no doubt.

NBC and the clearing out of its ‘Meh’ sitcoms

Guys with Kids NBC is cleaning house for it’s comedy programming in what could easily be called the season of the “meh sitcom.” While the network greenlit a lot of new sitcoms and brought them to air, nearly all of its freshman programming didn’t get any traction with viewers. Within the last 24 hours NBC dropped the axe on Matthew Perry’s Go On, as well as other freshman comedies Guys with Kids and 1600 Penn add on to the early cancellation of Animal Practice. All of which could be considered mediocre at best. There’s also still no word on The New Normal.

Sophomore sitcoms Up All Night and Whitney were also given the heave-ho. While Up All Night had a great cast, it was tinkered with from the start. Making a larger character for Maya Rudolph who was hot off the success of the movie Bridesmaids. Then more tinkering during the off season making it more a family show. Then the announcement of making it a multi-camera show finally lead to the departure of one of its stars, Christina Applegate. It’s been cancelled for a while, it was just made official now. Read the rest of this entry

Cool thing to buy this week: ’30 Rock’ season 7, the final season

30 Rock Season 7 This week the outrageous seventh season of everybody’s favorite TV series, 30 Rock hits stores! Though it is still sad that the show had to come to an end, and we think we gave the show the proper send off it deserved here, it doesn’t mean that you can’t relive all of your favorite moments from the series’ final and terrific season.

From Tracy Jordan’s shocking medical news, Kenneth’s new girlfriend, Jenna’s surprise wedding, Lemon’s princess Leia wedding to Chriss Cross and baby adoption, plus Jack’s business crossroads.

Season 7 wrapped up an excellently written series of comedic content that was as consistently great as any other great sitcoms that came before it. So, get working on your night cheese and pick it up today and complete your 30 Rock collection! Read the rest of this entry

Here is Sony’s plea to save ‘Community’

Community’s production company, Sony made a, “Save Community” reel encouraging people to watch it live this Thursday night, which is the season finale and possible series finale of the show. The show, as all fans know has had its series of ups and downs. It barely got a 4th season, lost its showwunner/creator, and it’s biggest star departed the show near the end of shooting season 3. Like the network it airs on, the show has struggled for ratings for a while now, but this also creates an upside in that NBC is losing a lot of comedies this year with the ending of veteran shows like The Office and 30 Rock. It’s also struggled with new comedies with Animal Practice, The New Normal, 1600 Penn, Up All Night, and Whitney all either being cancelled or looking like longshots for renewal, NBC needs some comedy winners to fill it’s dominant Thursday night comedy timeslot. Community has a small but loyal following and their enthusiasm is one of the few things the network has going for it at the moment. So if you like Community, watch it live this Thursday. Or all the animated web .gifs, #sixseasonsandamovie hashtags, and Alison Brie fanpages are all going to go away. Which I’m pretty sure at this point make up at least 65% of all the content on the Internet.