When we want news about Saturday Night Live, there’s only one person we go to… Cindy Adams! The New York Post gossip columnist reports via TV Tattle that Sarah Palin will indeed be appearing on the next new edition of Saturday Night Live, set for Oct. 25. According to Ms. Adams, it's a “done deal” and “sketches are already being written.”

The latter claim sounds a little off to us. Does anyone actually think the Saturday Night Live writers prepare anything two weeks in advance? Having watched the show for our entire lives, we can say pretty firmly that it doesn’t seem like they do.  read more »

It turns out Seth Meyers was right. Despite some last minute innuendos by Lorne Michaels, Governor Sarah Palin did not appear on Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Thursday (could they squeeze a few more days into that title?). Instead, the first of three planned prime-time SNL specials featured appearances by former cast members Chris Parnell and Bill Murray.

While it's always nice to see Mr. Murray, who played an audience member during the opening Presidential Debate skit, the 30-minute show was a microcosm for a lot of SNL's recent failings. Again, a major character in a keystone sketch had to be farmed out to a former player.  read more »

For those of you who were looking forward to seeing Governor Sarah Palin lampoon her nemesis and expert mimic, Tina Fey, on Weekend Update Thursday, the special prime-time election edition of Saturday Night Live which premieres this week, we have some bad news for you. It's not happening.

SNL head writer Seth Meyers spoke with Newsday's television blog The TV Zone and put the story to rest, for now: "Of those specific rumors [that Sarah Palin will appear], there's no truth. We do have an open door policy, but there's nothing specific yet, but our window of opportunity is before the election.  read more »

Perhaps the failing economy benefiting someone: Saturday Night Live continued its ratings renaissance over the weekend, a surefire sign that no one is going out and spending money on Saturday nights. Or maybe everyone just loves Tina Fey.

The Anne Hathaway-hosted episode was seen in 7.4 percent of the Nielsen households, up 23 percent from last week and a whopping 42 percent from a year ago. The numbers were only slightly lower than the Saturday Night Live season premiere, making this weekend's one of the highest rated editions in six years.

Of course everyone who tuned in did so to see Ms. Fey's so-good-it's-now-clichéd Sarah Palin impression during an 11-minute opening skit (embedded above) about the Vice Presidential debate.  read more »

Doesn't it seem like we hear news about a famous actor or actress guest starring on 30 Rock at least once a week? The latest to join the Emmy winning show is actress Salma Hayek, who has been signed up for a two-episode stint at the behest of Tina Fey. Apparently Ms. Fey wanted Ms. Hayek so badly that she called the actress personally to get her to sign on. Ms. Hayek is joined by Oprah Winfrey, Steve Martin, Jennifer Aniston, Leighton Meester, Blake Lively and Will Arnett as celebrities who will be trekking over to Rockefeller Center at some point this fall.

Meanwhile, in other Tina Fey news... Our crush will reportedly be appearing on tomorrow's Saturday Night Live winking and golly-gee'ing her way through playing Sarah Palin in a skit about the Vice Presidential debate. No word yet on who will play Senator Joe Biden (might we suggest Jason Sudekis, with his clenched jaw demeanor), but supposedly actress Queen Latifah will be taking on the role of debate moderator Gwen Ifill. And if that's still not enough to get you to DVR SNL, maybe host Anne Hathaway and musical guest The Killers will do the trick.

Here's a question that we found ourselves asking during the laborious season premiere of Saturday Night Live: after an entire summer off, this is the best they can come up with?

With the exception of the hilarious cold open, a press conference with Hillary Clinton (Amy Poehler, with clenched jaw perfection) and Sarah Palin (Tina Fey, predictably hilarious), the season premiere felt like a dress rehearsal. There wasn't one skit that followed even worth cracking a smile over. As one of our friends, who texted us a little after midnight, so eloquently put it: "Wow, this is awful."  read more »

Whether the Sarah Palin VP-pick ultimately pays off for John McCain remains to be seen. But for one group of Americans, Gov. Palin's sudden arrival on the national scene promises to be an instant boon: comics!

Judging from what's already made its way to YouTube  (haven't you seen this, this or this?), the moose-hunting hockey mom is in for a ribbing. So who will Saturday Night Live pick to play the small screen version of Sarah Barracuda?

We checked in this afternoon with Mr. Michaels' office in New York to get some answers, and according to Marc Liepis, a spokesperson for the show, the cast is still working on it.

They won't have to crash anything too fast either: the first new episode is slated for a week from Saturday. Here's hoping they have an easier time than they did with Barack Obama .

A funny thing happened to Saturday Night Live during its 33rd season. After a few years of languishing as the television version of punching a clock, it became culturally relevant again. And as loyal viewers who still DVR the show week after week with the hopes of finding some hilarity when we re-watch it on Sunday mornings, we admit that we don't totally understand why.

Sure, we love the cast; they're an appealing and likeable group of future character actors destined to appear in Judd Apatow movies and NBC sit-coms from now until the end of time. But there isn't a breakout star among them, as far as we can tell.  read more »

Lorne Michaels told reporters Sunday that he plans to premiere Jimmy Fallon as the new host of Late Night on the internet. He plans five or six months of webcasts prior to the 2009 debut of Mr. Fallon's version of the show, according to TV Week.

The Observer interviewed Mr. Michaels about preparing Mr. Fallon for the dubious taks of replacing Conan O'Brien last May:  read more »

George Carlin hosted the very first episode of SNL on Oct. 11, 1975. NBC will honor him by airing that premiere episode this weekend while HBO plans on playing specials of more than 30 years of his comedy shows starting this week.

Mr. Carlin's SNL episode featured the “Not Ready for Primetime Players,” including Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner. Musical guests were Janis Ian and Billy Preston, and Andy Kaufman made an appearance too.

According to a transcript of the show available here, Mr. Carlin "wanted to wear a T-shirt, but the network wanted him to wear a suit.  read more »