Results tagged “fey”

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Just when we thought we were out of the bad place with “30 Rock”, the worries start anew.

Okay, so last night after a rousing episode of “Lost” (oooh, it’s getting so good again), we sat down to watch “Thank God You’re Here”. The show originally aired in Australia where it was the most successful new show in 2006. Parts of it were painful to watch and parts of it – well – parts of it weren’t so bad. We thought Chelsea Handler was okay, taking the easy way out sometimes with her...

NBC is counting on a new rhyme to advertise its Thursday night lineup, “Comedy Night Done Right”. It’s not quite as catchy as "Must See TV," and it sounds a bit …simple, but Vince Manze, President and Creative Director of The NBC Agency says, “It has all the great ingredients: It says there's a night of comedy and, of course, it rhymes.” The lineup includes "Scrubs," "My Name is Earl," "The Office" and "30 Rock."...

A provocative new piece by Devin Gordon in Newsweek sets out to explain why, in his view, TV is better than movies. The way he sees it, TV programming is now "bigger and bolder" than what's on display at the local theater; Hollywood has gotten lazier and more predictable, while TV has become sharper and more agile. Ira Glass claims, "The people working in television right now are the Shakespeares of the medium." (Is he...

Its concept isn't much of a stretch: Fey plays Liz Lemon, head writer of a late-night comedy sketch show (!) called “The Girlie Show.” Everything is going just fine until a new network VP (Alec Baldwin) is brought in to vamp up ratings. Idea #1 is to bring loose-cannon star Tracy Morgan, err Jordan, onto the show since he appeals to the missing demographic of “males between 18 and 49.” And Dratch plays a cat wrangler.

Five Second City theaters around the country, including Chicago, will now serve as a comedy testing ground for NBC/Universal TV as part of a two-year deal. NBC writers will be allowed to visit any Second City theater to see performances of scripts they have in development or watch as characters they’ve created get workshopped for the best way to deliver a funny catchphrase that everyone will be sick of in six months. NBC will also...

The wait is over folks. The final cast for “Saturday Night Live” has been announced. There were a few surprises (Chris Parnell is gone? Seriously? He was just getting good), along with Horatio Sans (no surprise there). Horatio is a friend of Chicagoist, a damn funny guy, and has one of the dirtiest minds we’ve ever known, but sometimes, the kid just laughs too much at his own jokes. We hope he comes home though; Chicago hasn’t been the same without him.

We here at Chicagoist have taken an improv class, or two, or twenty. We actually made most of our friends through these classes, and were just young enough to get caught up in the politics of it all.

Saturday night was the 25th anniversary celebration of the Improv Olympic, we mean, the IO theater. Held at the Chicago Theater and hyped for months, the bill was rife with comedic talent. IO has schooled some of television and film's biggest stars, and they were all coming home to wish IO and its living founder, Charna Halpern, a happy birthday. (Del Close -- who helped Charna found IO when she split from Second City --...

Chicago is funny. Everyone knows that. We've got Second City, the Improv Olympic, and we lay claim to Dan Aykroyd, Alan Alda, Tina Fey, Dan Castellaneta, Bill Murray as well as many other famous comedians and writers. To commemorate our funniness, head over to the 8th Annual Chicago Improv Festival. It starts tomorrow and has guest performers from SNL, MADtv, The Daily Show and Anchorman, to name a few. In all, there will be about...

Did everyone catch Conan O'Brien last night? The Cone Zone is on vacation, so it was a rerun. But the second comedy sketch, after first guest and former Second City member Tina Fey - that's a lot of firsts and seconds there - had a particular relevance and hilarity to Chicagoans. It involved a couple from the Chicago 'burbs � one of them being Conan writer Kevin Dorff, a cast member alongside Fey at Second City � instructing Conan how to get to their house with complicated directions. The joke, about navigating Chicagoland highways and local streets (with real-life shout-outs) was pretty much lost on the New York audience, but Chicagoist had a good laugh at its expense. Catch the rerun at 5 on Comedy Central today. And for plenty more Chicago-exclusive jokes, see Doors Open on the Right at Second City.

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After 6 years, Jimmy Fallon announced that he is leaving Saturday Night Live. Although NBC hoped that he would renew his contract, Jimmy had made it clear that he wanted to move on, so his departure was not a surprise. Chicagoist, being the dork nerds that we are, especailly liked Jimmy's portrayal of Nick Burns, the unfriendly computer tech guy. Of course we also loved him on Weekend Update. We wonder who will now sit at the newsdesk next to Tina Fey. It may be selfish, but we would love to see one of our Second City comedians get the position.