"Saturday Night Live" writer John Mulaney is an excellent standup comedian and Comedy Central is premiering his new hour-long special tonight at 10pm. It's a must-watch, definitely the best hour of TV tonight. We ask the man how it came about in this interview. more ›

"2011: The Adult Industry in Photos" is a candid look back at the past twelve months at a business that is headquartered in the San Fernando Valley. more ›

Yes, we opened with a balls joke, but, to be fair, Saturday Night Live started it. Now the skit in question is being paid tribute with Ben & Jerry's latest special edition flavor, Schweddy Balls. The rumor first surfaced earlier this summer, and TIME confirms the delicious news today. more ›

Girls just want to have fun! The raunchy comedy goes XX with Bridesmaids. Saturday Night Live alumni Maya Rudolph & Kristen Wiig headline the Judd Apatow production, which also stars Rose Byrne (Get Him to the Greek), Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls), Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911) & Ellie Kemper (The Office). Wiig also co-wrote the screenplay with Annie Mumolo (both are Groundlings graduates) and director Paul Feig's resume includes accomplished, hilarious femme dramedies Weeds & Nurse Jackie. more ›

Nokia Theatre was packed Tuesday night for a one-off chat and Q&A at which Steve Martin and Tina Fey expanded on highlights from her new book "Bossypants." What was billed as a summit of two comic writers with recently released books was more of a casual three-way love fest between Martin, Fey and the audience, which laughed and applauded with near-absurd frequency. more ›

He's "Billy Madison," with some "Anger Management," issues: Actor Adam Sandler, who rose to fame as a "Saturday Night Live" cast member and in top-grossing comedy hit films was honored today with the 2,431st star embedded in Hollywood's iconic Walk of Fame. more ›

Fred Armisen's new TV project, "Portlandia," premieres tomorrow (Friday) night at 10:30pm on IFC. We had the chance to speak with Armisen about his new show about some weird denizens of this Pacific Northwestern town as well as reminisce about the post-punk music scene of the early 1990s. If you're a fan of sketch comedy, improv, or "The Kids In The Hall," you should check out Portlandia. Please read what Fred has to say. more ›

This weekend we will have to deal with more than our regular cadre of zombies, bootleggers, and serial killers as Saturday night will feature Robert "Bobby" De Niro hosting "Saturday Night Live." De Niro has hosted "SNL" in 2002 and 2004 but do you remember any sketches he was in? He seems to have loosened up a little bit from what we can see in the above promos so we're hoping that the writers will fully take advantage of the opportunity. more ›

Yeah, it's the weekend, so there's no TV Junkie. Instead, may we offer this (one time only) TV Drunky, dedicated to tonight's momentous television moment. We love Betty White here at LAist, and are beyond thrilled that the 88-year-old television veteran is going to serve as host of Saturday Night Live tonight. more ›

L.A. Theatre Works presents Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan through Sunday, reuniting Mark Brokaw, who directed the Off Broadway premiere, with original cast members Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hamilton and Missy Yager. The performances will be recorded at the Skirball to air on LATW's syndicated radio theater series, “The Play's The Thing,” which broadcasts weekly on public radio stations nationwide (89.3 KPCC here in LA). Playwright Kenneth Lonergan will be in attendance at the performances on Friday night and Sunday at 4 pm. Tickets: $20-$48. more ›

The TV highlight of the week occurred last night with the appearance of CNBC's Jim Cramer on "The Daily Show". Jon Stewart trotted out several video clips of Cramer pontificating about how to game and mislead the markets and how rewarding it is to do so. A lot of footage was cut in order to fit the show's 1/2-hour format so if you missed the airing and/or want to see the entire interview, you can get it all at "The Daily Show". more ›

After watching tonight's finale of Mad Men, we don't know how we will make it until next season. Jon Hamm hosted Saturday Night Live last night. Maybe SNL's Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women will help us get through the long wait or even get lucky. more ›

For some reason one of the entries for this evening didn't make it into yesterday's Weekend Edition post and that is the Pick O' The Night: more ›

LAist has had a regular column about television for almost two years now - we're not saying it's a good column, but it's been very regular, which is something to think about as you get older. While Los Angeles has been a mecca of film for the last 75 years or so the migration of TV production to Los Angeles didn't really begin until 50 years ago. For the most part, TV, like radio, started in New York City (please, no snarky comments about Philo T. Farnsworth inventing TV in San Francisco) where all the major networks are still based along with MTV, Comedy Central, HBO, and it's where more than 100 TV shows are produced. more ›

The TV Junkie is in New York City and will be at the above SNL taping! more ›

• Newly elected state speaker, a Democrat named Karen Bass who was raised in Los Angeles, has made friends on both sides of the aisle, the LA Times said. She is the first African-American to assume the top spot and has some pretty lofty goals, including providing healthcare and improving education. Wait, those are things EVERY politician should be doing.
• Of course, by now you know all about the L.A. Marathon. But you may not have heard that the Los Angeles Fire Department treated 73 participants; transporting 23 of them to area hospitals. None of the injuries were life-threatening, they said.
• What's one of the best part about Spring Training? Rumors! The Daily News reports that Nomar could play a "handful of games" at shortstop this season. Just four more weeks until Opening Day.
• The blood in my veins is Dodger Blue, but the color of my face when driving to games is sometimes red. So, I applaud the City Council for at least broaching the possibility of public transportation to Dodger Stadium late this week.\
• An El Segundo woman warded off an attacker last night with pepper spray as he pinned her to the ground straddling and fondling her. She reached for the pepper spray and ran away, gagging and coughing.
• But her weapon of choice would not have worked if she was a reporter at the Daily News. Yesterday, we told you that the Daily News laid off 22 staffers earlier in the week. Today, the list of the fireds was published. The deceased includes Alex Dobuzinskis, a great reporter who covered Glendale and Burbank and the News' lone Washington D.C. reporter.
• The newspaper business is not the only one hurting these days. Nearly 1,600 teachers could lose their jobs as Orange County's 28 school districts scramble to find ways to cut from their operating budgets amid a mounting state budget crisis.
• Is Hillary Clinton being subversively endorsed by Saturday Night Live? Last week, SNL feature a skit parodying the media's "love affair" with Barack Obama and last night, they had Clinton on the show getting two minutes of free campaign air time. SNL has not officially endorsed Clinton, but should media outlets allow candidates a free shot at advertising? If NBC allowed Obama two free minutes, don't you think the Clinton camp would be the ones needing a pillow?

Thirty years ago today, Elvis Costello pissed off his record company and got himself banned from Saturday Night Live when he scrapped "Less Than Zero" several bars in and led the Attractions through this incendiary version of the then unreleased "Radio, Radio". Declan MacManus and Lorne Michaels have since made ammends, but this remains one of the greatest musical performances in the history of SNL. more ›

Dear PBS, eff you and your dumbass Doo-Wop shite - I'm sick of it! Grasping at straws here, no decent movies on tonight either, frickin' TCM has Show Boat (again) and IFC has Sid and Nancy (again). more ›

MUSIC: Machine Project is back with an evening of experimental folk music mix. The evening features the sounds of Ryan Fuller, Julie Carpenter, Laura Steenberge, Ruthann Friedman, rickyricky, Pilar Diaz, Pawko and Marshweed. more ›

So, yeah, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Superbad are the big releases this weekend. Honestly, I liked both movies well enough, but neither deserves the #1 slot in the weekly rundown like Battlestar Galactica: Razor does. Since new episodes of the best show on television won't air until March 2008, we'll have to make do with this 2-hour movie that follows the adventures of the Pegasus after the treacherous Cylon attack against the... more ›

What could make a hilarious skit on Saturday Night Live starring Maya Rudolph is real, completely serious material created by author, lecturer, motivational speaker and TV host Alexyss Tylor. With nuggets of wisdom like “All penises are not created equal,” Tylor has been hosting a cable access show in Atlanta about sexuality with her mother. Although Tylor dominates most of the show, watch for what her mother has to say during discussions on cold... more ›

From RobertGoulet.com we hear this very sad news that was posted yesterday:

Robert Goulet, the legendary star of stage, screen, television and recordings, was pronounced dead at 10:17am today. He had been suffering from a rapidly progressive pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that is most often fatal. Most treatments are ineffectual. The only successful treatment is lung transplantation. Mr. Goulet had been in intensive care at Cedars Sinai since October 14, 2007. more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list what happens each day during the week that leads to the show being on the air Saturday night. Have favorite clips of your own? Submit them here. Today's clip is a Spartan Cheerleader skit featuring Will Farrell and Cheri Oteri. Saturday: *... more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list what happens each day during the week that leads to the show being on the air Saturday night. Have favorite clips of your own? Submit them here. Today's clip is a medley of Chris Farley dance moves. Friday: * The show is... more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list what happens each day during the week that leads to the show being on the air Saturday night. Have favorite clips of your own? Submit them here Today's clip features the "Dick in a Box" music video that became a cult hit... more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list what happens each day during the week that leads to the show being on the air Saturday night. Have favorite clips of your own? Submit them here. Today's clip features a best-of medley from Mike Meyers.Wednesday: *All scripts get a read-through. *... more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list what happens each day during the week that leads to the show being on the air Saturday night. Have favorite clips of your own? Submit them here. Today's clip features Eddie Murphy as Mr. Robinson. Tuesday: * Starting in the afternoon, anywhere... more ›

Saturday Night Live premiered this week in 1975. Actually it was originally called NBC's Saturday Night until NBC retitled its show in 1976 to Saturday Night Live. Huh, learn something new every day. Today's clip features John Belushi from one of the first famous characters brought to life on SNL. In honor of their anniversary, LAist is going to show a clip from the show each night this week at midnight and also list... more ›

There’s something for everyone in LA theatre scene this week: old stuff, new stuff and stuff that’s just out there. Canned Peaches in Syrup The Furious Theatre Company presents this post-apocalyptic comedy, where two tribes of humans remain: cannibals and vegetarians. “Can star-crossed lovers Rog and Julie cross tribal lines?! Can Rog's taste for flesh be suppressed?! Can Julie deny her parents' "meat is murder" mantra?! And, who exactly is Blind Bastard? A lone can... more ›

Grab a beer friends, we survived the week. I still got hours of junk Tivo'd that I'm supposed to watch but on the calendar it says it's Friday and that's a great thing. Late night TV is super busy tonight, check it out: a free Paris Hilton, Michael Douglas, Seth Myers, Jenny McCarthy. Also, LeBron James is on SNL tomorrow - have a great weekend. more ›