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Season Finale: Steve Carell/Usher

Everyone was in such a good mood this week. I feel like the writers and cast are happy with the way things turned out this year. I know I am. Steve Carell was great as always and it was extra cool to have his wife (and ex-SNL cast member) Nancy Walls in the monologue. We had many of "The Office" cast around during the show. We see them pretty often and some of our writers have gone on to work for that show, so they are kind of like an extended family.

Usher was unbelievable. How does somebody dance like that? I talked to him in the hallway. I was like "How do you do it? You must rehearse every minute of the day."
He just smiled and said that he didn't! "It's just natural, the same way you guys do what you do."

I loved that Ricky Gervais was there too. Man, I am really name dropping. What do you call that on a blog? Blogdropping? Nameblogging?

I took some photos during rehearsals and the show:

Thursday at the re-write table. That's James Anderson on the left. Jason is probably laughing at something I said which I'm sure was very funny. Check out the framed photos of different sketches on the wall.

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Blocking for the cold open. Jim Downey up front reading the sketch. Lorne talking to Mike Shoemaker, one of the producers. Wally holding cue cards. Steve up in the monitor.

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Right after Amy and I shot the "There Can Only Be One" piece, I took this of the playback monitor.

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Louie putting on Bill's prosthetic fat face.

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I still have some more episodes to write about that I skipped over. So I'll do that soon. Thank you!

Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket

My favorite memory of this one was watching Kenan do that "Scared Straight" character. He did it at the read-through on Wednesday and right away it killed me. Oh my god it made me laugh. He pronounced 'sit down' like "thiddaaown!"

It was great to have Shia back for the second time. I asked for a DVD of the newest Indiana Jones and totally did not get one. The Game Show sketch was so much fun too. I took a picture from my phone during rehearsal. It's the view from where I was sitting:

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That's Wally holding the cue cards. Bryan Tucker and John Lutz are two writers who played the ambulance guys. I wanted to take more pictures but I got caught up in getting ready for the show. I'll take more the next time.

That Hillary cold open was added late in the week. It's cool seeing it now on all the news shows. I just watched John Edwards watching it on Larry King. I've been playing the newest Grand Theft Auto game a lot recently so I enjoyed getting to do one of the characters with Bill on Weekend Update. I've been into that game since the "Vice City" version a few years ago. I mean really into it. It takes me about a year to complete each one.

It's always a little sad on the last week of the season. I feel like everyone loves being there, and the heavy schedule allows me to ignore everything else in my life. Summer is the time for facing all of that! But the cast does hang out with each other on the off weeks, and I think we are starting a month earlier in the fall.

Thanks to everybody who wrote a nice comment by the way!
Fred

Christopher Walken/Panic at the Disco

I still get the feeling of "omg that's totally Christopher Walken" when he is on the show. He's amazing and really pays attention to every word in a sketch. He treats it all with care.

This was a little bit of a crazy episode in that things really changed from the dress rehearsal to the live show. It happens from time to time and once it's set, it all makes sense. I think that element of unpredictability helps with the energy of the show too.

On Thursday I was walking around the 17th floor (where we do all the writing) and I saw all of this tin foil in the hall. Then I saw Kenan walking around in a top hat followed by an animal wrangler holding a bunch of cute little pugs. I sometimes still can't believe this is a work place.

The cast had a great time doing the Walken Family Reunion sketch. It was especially fun at the read-through, hearing everyone's version of Christopher Walken. The read through, which we do on Wednesdays, is when we read the sketches that everyone wrote. It's kind of like a radio play and there is some pretty incredible material.

A few people have asked me about this character I do on the show, Nicholas Fehn. The political comedian who comments on newspaper headlines. I have a friend who sometimes can't finish one sentence. So it's a little bit of him. I just wanted to try something where a person who claims to have a lot to say doesn't ever actually say anything. Or does he?

Also, I was going to try to add something to this blog where I take pictures of things around the studio on my camera phone. I haven't gotten to it yet but hopefully I will soon.

Thank you!
Fred

Ellen Page and Wilco

I loved this episode. So many surprise guests and one of my favorite bands ever.

Ellen Page was great to have around. Easy going and friendly and was up for doing anything. I thought she was so good in everything too.

As I look at photos from this episode (thank you new and improved SNL site!) I remember that I really enjoyed this one. Watching Virginiaca from my dressing room, I was laughing all the way through. And that digital short! I have watched that online over and over. It's somehow scary and insanely funny at the same time.

Having Hillary Clinton there was just unreal. It's a different level of excitement when a political figure makes an appearance. She was so nice and seemed very happy to be there. The people on her staff were super cool as well. I still can't believe it happened.

Vincent D'Onofrio's appearance was surreal in another way in that I see him on TV all the time. I love how he confronts criminals in the last five minutes of "Criminal Intent" and I liked being two feet away from him doing that in the cold open.

Will Forte sounded SO much like Brian Williams in that sketch btw, didn't he? He told me that he happened upon that by accident over the summer. He was trying to do this other voice and all of a sudden realized "Hey...that sounds like Brian Williams!"

Wilco were amazing and it meant a lot to me that they were there. The band are old friends of mine and I used to work for Jeff Tweedy's wife at a club she owned in Chicago. Jeff used to play there all the time, so seeing him on the SNL stage while his wife and kids were backstage was amazing to me. And yes I am name dropping.

The Peter Pan sketch was so much fun, but man we must have rehearsed that a million times. The way it was shot was complicated, so we had to get it right for the cameras. Everyone in the cast gets punchy when we have to do that. I wish you could see how we pass the time when we are standing on the set around waiting for another rehearsal.
Very immature stuff.

Okay, thanks!

Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood

Hi! I am so happy to be back at the show. Everyone here is. Right after it was announced that we were going back to work, Seth and Amy set up a last minute get together at a bar downtown. It was a such a good feeling to see everyone. The writers, the crew, people from every department. Nobody was shy about embracing each other and openly saying "I missed you!" Even though it was a difficult time during the strike, many of us kept in touch and hung out. There was a lot of texting. Most of them started out like this: "Hey! How are you? Are you in NY or LA?".

The first day back was interesting in that it seemed like no time had passed at all. My office was as messy as I had left it. I found a chocolate bar on my desk that should have been thrown out ages ago. There was a thin layer of dust on it. But I ate it. Right there.

Why do I do things like that? Please don't tell anyone.

It was great to have Tina as our first host. She's amazing to work with and is really good at coming up with endings to sketches. That's something I find so hard to do. I like coming up with ideas and characters, but endings are always a puzzle for me.

There were a lot of people backstage for the live show. Agents, friends, family. I was so grateful to be back that I didn't mind it being crowded.

Some memories from the week:

Meeting and working with new cast member Casey Wilson. She is so talented and sweet. I'm looking forward to more.

Mike Huckabee and his family were at the show on Saturday. They were super nice and friendly with everyone in the cast. I got to talk to him a little bit about his bass playing.

Steve Martin working on the monologue with Tina. Watching them fine tune it right up until the broadcast. I never take those moments for granted.

Hearing Bill do his incredible Daniel Day Lewis impression from his dressing room.
After the "Celebrity Apprentice" sketch, I had to run to the next set. But I could hear Andy doing that guy with the question mark suit in the distance. I laughed out loud every time.

Getting to play Senator Barack Obama. Jim Downey wrote a brilliant piece about the media and the debate from that week. I can't say enough about Jim. My reaction when I read his sketches for the first time is "oh yeah! It IS like that!" Then I feel like a dummy for not realizing those things earlier. Also, I'm always psyched to do a sketch with Amy. Anyway, about Senator Obama, we did makeup tests on the Thursday before the show. Our head makeup guy Louis Zakarian put it all together. We tried to do as little as possible so that it wasn't too distracting. He glued in these little plastic pieces behind my ears to make them stick out a little. The makeup test, which is pretty much just me standing in front of the cameras for a while, went well. So, thank you Louis!

And thank you for reading this. See you next week!
Fred

Brian Williams/Feist

Brian Williams/Feist

The mood at work this week was dominated by the looming writer's strike. We also tried to ignore it a little so that we could at the very least write a good show.

Brian Williams is I guess what you'd call a friend of the show. His studio is right downstairs and he comes up to see the show with his family frequently. He is a comedy fan for sure and very naturally funny. Before the pitch meeting on Monday he was already asking about doing a "Bronx Beat". His role as a news anchor never went away though. There were some dramatic events that were going on in Pakistan and he was constantly being briefed about it during the read- through and rehearsals.

Horatio Sanz was written into a few pieces and it was so great to have him around. We have this joke we do when we see each other. We act like ex-cast members way way in the future, making a teary speech at a 75th anniversary reunion show.

Having Barack Obama there was incredible too. He was super polite and friendly and I noticed that he was laughing at the sketches. That cold open went through many changes before it aired. That costume party one. There were different politicians in it and different endings. There are changes right up to the minute they go on air. I loved Darrell as Clinton playing "Mystery".

Everyone including myself was really happy to see Feist perform. Brian Williams is a fan of hers too. We watched every rehearsal of those two songs. It was one of my favorite musical performances so far. Those banjo players are from NYC. I don't know why I'm telling you this. Maybe I'm bragging that I know them or something.

I want to explain that iPhone ad. It was done as two pieces, one with me, and one with Jason Sudeikis. We wrote them together and with Brian Tucker, one of our writers. Jason's had a really funny ending and was scheduled to air after a few sketches, but the show ran out of time.

This week we aren't doing a show because of the writer's strike. There is plenty to read about it online. It's been pretty dramatic and everyone at the show would love nothing more than to be back at work. Hopefully that can happen soon.

Seth Rogen show

Seth Rogen show

Second show of the season. Really fun all around. Seth Rogen is a really good laugher. He's got this laugh that I can't type out how it sounds. But it's cool. It seemed like he was having a great time all through the week.

I'm really happy that I got to do Gene Simmons. I've been watching his reality show recently and have been kind of obsessed with trying to do him.

In that sketch where Kristen and Seth played brother and sister, I could not look at Kristen when she was dancing. The look on her face was way too funny to me and I didn't want to laugh, so I just focused on the wall behind them. In the dress rehearsal version, we all jumped out of the window.

Bill was amazing as Animal in that Muppets sketch. When we did it at the read through table, he already looked and played just like him. We tried many different versions of makeup and wigs. The more we put on our faces, like fake noses and blue paint, the less we looked like the Muppets. So a lot of it was stripped down.

When Will was shooting MacGruber, he was made up at one point to look like he had plastic surgery. He ran by me in the hall and I was so freaked out! He looked like such a crazy version of himself.

For that sketch where Seth plays a farmer who is experimenting with a new crop, the cast had to change positions really quickly in between the videotape transitions. It's a funny moment because Gena, our stage manager, screams/whispers "Repo! Repo! Repo!". The hushed emergency tone of it makes me laugh for some reason.

Okay, thanks!