iO veteran and former Chicago-based funny-man Paul Brittain is reportedly leaving Saturday Night Live—right now. He just became a feature player this season, but now he won't even appear in this week's episode with Channing Tatum. more ›

How many SNL: Weekend Update commentators does it take to properly mock a Chicago strip club's charity toy drive? more ›

Fey wrote a blurb about Steve Carrell, chosen by the magazine as one of its "Men of the Year," when she shares an anecdote from when the two filmed Date Night that harks back to their Chicago improv days and late nights with a pan of deep-dish. more ›

Whenever Hollywood feels like phoning one in, retreading successful territory in the form of a sequel or a reboot are two of the safest routes. On the heels of the sacrilegious news that a Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie will happen without Buffy creator Joss Whedon, we caught wind of a sequel to "Mean Girls"--sans writer Tina Fey. more ›

30 Rock is coming out with a soundtrack (?!) and we have the lead-off "single" from the collection, "Lemon's Theme." Built off an rant that breaks into a sung intro by Tina Fey, the song then gets handed over to the tinkling chimes and golden pipes of none other than Christopher Cross! We're a sucker for just about anything Second City alum Fey does, and as usual she takes a concept that should be cringe inducing and injects it with a dose of the sublime. Download the single! more ›

Before she created 30 Rock or even wrote and starred on Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey was a member of Chicago's Second City group, which means she definitely knows her deep dish from her thin crust. In a new 30 Rock web exclusive, Fey reads a letter from a future Columbia College Chicago student, and answers the question: "What are your favorite restaurants in Chicago?" Fey lists off the Athenian Room on Webster, the Golden Apple diner, and then stirs up a bit of a Chicago sandwich debate by remarking that she likes Jimmy John's better than Potbelly. Gasp! more ›

• Police are still investigating an overnight crash on the Southwest Side that killed three women.
• Mayor Daley is pushing forward on a plan to expand Internet access to "under-developed neighborhoods."
• A closer look at local activism against Arizona's controversial SB 1070.

This, my friends, is a very important week for LGBT folk. And no, it has nothing to do with National School Bus Safety Week, Open Access Week or Canada's (very important) National Infection Control Week also slated for this week. This, instead, is a week dedicated to you non-gay friends of the very same "gay magic" Tina Fey described last week on Letterman. more ›

Second City Alum Tina Fey and her outstanding comedy 30 Rock got a whole lot of love from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences today when the show earned a whopping 22 Emmy nominations, the most of any show this year. Fey also garnered another nomination for Lead Actress in a Comedy and her Sarah Palin imitation grabbed a Guest Actress nomination. What other Windy City connections got nominations? more ›

Ah, Tina Fey, you always make us laugh. And, in this clip from last week's episode of 30 Rock, she also gives a shout-out to her former home, Chicago. more ›

A big Chicagoist congratulations to Second City alum Tina Fey, who brought home some more hardware at last night's Golden Globes by taking home awards for Best Actress (Television - Comedy or Musical) and Best Television Series (Comedy or Musical), both for 30 Rock. [Alec Baldwin also won, giving the show three awards in all]. And leave it to Fey to find a hilarious way to tell the haters on the interwebs to "suck it" without sounding like she's whining. more ›

Ah, 30 Rock, one of our favorite shows - and, hey, it features a few Second City Chicago alums, including Tina Fey and Jack McBrayer. And now, it's been crossed with one of our favorite shows as kids, the incomparable Sesame Street. The mash-up happened earlier this fall but just now caught our attention [via TVgasm]. more ›

Oh Lord here we go. The highly-anticipated “sex show” finally premiered on Monday, and we were all ready to cover our ears from Oprah’s awkward interjections of anatomical misnomers. But we admit, we sold Oprah a little short on this one. What we assumed would be a “vajayjay” festival was actually an intelligent and frank discussion about the state of sexuality in America and what we can do to improve it. Apparently there’s no time like the present, since according to Oprah’s guest, sex therapist Dr. Laura Berman (pictured right), a whopping 1 in 5 couples are in sexless marriages. If avoiding that fate isn’t enough to get you bouncing around the bedroom, consider what else we learned: sex can make you look 7-12 years younger, make your immune system 33% stronger, cause a 50% decrease in heart disease, lessen stress, insomnia, and even relieve menstrual cramps and headaches. Sign us up! Guests Tom and Debra, who win the most courageous couple on the planet award, joined Oprah to discuss their sex life dropping to absolute zero. The pair braved cameras for a few sessions with Dr. Berman, who gave them some handy tips. First, Dr. Berman encourages couples to share fantasies, but in an environment of safety and trust. That means you can’t judge your partner when he asks you to dress up as a Ninja Turtle and spank him. For women specifically, look at your vulva and identify the parts. “Love your vulva,” she told us. Ok, so there was one cringe-worthy moment. more ›

We mentioned earlier this week the potential mind-blowing Tina Fey/Sarah Palin appearance tonight on the premiere of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update Thursday. SNL's audience has increased almost 50% since last year, in part due to Fey's uncanny Palin. Fey + Palin + Thursday night = ratings gold. So we thought we'd bust out our Great Detective Kit, try our hand at being sleuth-y, and see if there is any weight to the rumors... more ›

Bill Zwecker has been following the story of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin possibly popping up on SNL one of these days to have a little fun with former Second City star Tina Fey and Fey's Palin impression. Says the Z-Man, "I'm hearing some sort of Palin tweak of Fey's American Express commercials is in the works. While next weekend's 'Saturday Night Live' will be a rerun, it is possible Palin could appear Thursday on the first of NBC's 'Weekend Update' specials in prime time." Well, that'll be interesting, as Fey has no love for Palin, saying at the Emmy Awards, “I want to be done playing this lady November 5th." more ›

The best part about DVR-ing ABC’s 60th Primetime Emmys last night was that you could fast forward through Josh Groban’s embarrassing theme show montage and could rewind and re-watch the Gervais/Carell game of comedy chicken. Cheers, technology. more ›

Last night's season premier of SNL was lackluster and sluggish ... except for the opening sketch, which was sheer genius. Second City-alum Tina Fey lived up to the hype and gave a stinging impersonation of VP wannabe Sarah Palin. Fey looked so much like Palin, in her blazing red jacket and stacked hairdo, that the perfectly flat accent (shades of Fargo?) and the smarmy smiles were like icing on the cake. more ›

Yes, our Thursday night sitcom dreams might come true. Oprah is in final talks to guest star on NBC's this fall. Rumor has it that she is slated to appear as herself in the season's second episode to air November 6. Further speculation notes that she will be playing all her scenes opposite Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and it that her story would also play into a feud between Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) and Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski). After Tracy Jordan hosted the Source Awards as Oprah, and Liz Lemon declared Oprah to be her religious adviser (above), we hoped it was only a matter of time before Ms. Winfrey herself made an appearance. more ›

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

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... more ›

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."... more ›

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... more ›

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. more ›

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... more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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 --... more ›

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... more ›

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. more ›