Last night SNL took aim at Los Angeles with its soap opera spoof "The Californians." It poked light fun at the stereotypical vain, dizzy blondes who guzzle white wine, invite guests to sit in Mexican country-style chairs and won't stop talking about how to avoid traffic or which Coffee Bean offers validation. more ›

A tanker trunk carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline exploded into flames on the 134 freeway this evening. Video and photos from the scene show that the blaze was pretty epic while it was raging, but when NBC LA aired footage of the fire, Angelenos really could not care less. more ›

When it comes to Lana Del Rey, haters gonna hate. Her fans, on the other hand, will melt into a weepy mess when they get to meet their idol in the flesh. Del Rey gave a concert at Amoeba on Tuesday, and—despite being panned by tastemakers like Brian Williams and Juliette Lewis for her performance on SNL—the fans turned out. more ›

"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 ›

Tonight we have the much-awaited premieres of "Portlandia" & "Todd Margaret" on IFC; Sunday is owned by Showtime's "Shameless," "House of Lies," & "Californication" --- Like Foo Fighters? Dave Grohl will be on "After Lately." --- + My report from the "Portlandia" premiere. more ›

Joe Bodolai committed suicide in an LA hotel sometime over the weekend and I'd like to challenge the vast comedy and entertainment community to step up and honor the man that gave so many chances to so many people who are now successful in LA today. more ›

Joe Bodolai, a former writer for NBC's "Saturday Night Live," was found dead in a hotel room in Hollywood. TMZ reports that "cops recovered a bottle of antifreeze and Gatorade in the hotel room ... and it's likely his death was due to consumption of the toxic chemical." more ›

We get a double dose of the fantastic Steve Buscemi this weekend: hosting "Saturday Night Live" and doing his regular gig as Nucky Thompson on "Boardwalk Empire." --- Sneak clip of "After Lately" + TV news & The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for your weekend. more ›

Emma Stone's 2nd turn at hosting "SNL" had a bright moment or two but it left us wanting more. --- "Dexter" may have lost us with recent developments, how about you, are you die-hard to the end? --- More Weekend Wrap-Up + The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Last night's "Walking Dead" premiere broke basic cable records all but ensuring a 3rd season. --- #SNL disappointed for a 2nd week in a row. --- "Sons of Anarchy" gets a 5th season. --- "After Lately" back in Nov. --- More news & The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Who can resist Schweddy Balls? It turns out One Millions Moms can. The conservative Christian group complains that Ben & Jerry's new SNL-referencing ice cream flavor "Schweddy Balls" is not appropriate for the little ones. more ›

In celebration and anticipation of the forthcoming carnage of Shark Week, please enjoy today's themed video lunch. Knock knock. Who's there? Candygram. more ›

Weekend highlights include Tina Fey's return to "SNL" for a hosting gig, the wonderful Amy Sedaris on "Bob's Burgers," and do-not-miss episodes of "Game of Thrones" and "The Killing." --- Check out the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan and the listings that we busted our ass to do for you. more ›

Please review our TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for tonight. With NBC scheduling reruns instead of new episodes for this Thursday night we're trying to absorb as much comedy as we can between now and this weekend. --- "SNL" will have Zach Galifianakis return as host on March 12. --- "Community" season finale will include Josh Holloway from "Lost." --- Reminder: "Onion Sports Dome" is now on at 8pm on Comedy Central. 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 ›

The big highlights for the weekend are Ricky Gervais HBO special and Jeff Bridges hosting "Saturday Night Live," both of which occur on Saturday. --- Calls-To-Action: It's been a week and a day since "The League" season finale and there's no word from the FX network about renewing this great show. more ›

As we approach Christmas we'll see fewer new episodes of new programs and that is fully in evidence with tonight's available lineups. Be sure to see our Must-See Plan for tonight as well as the full listings for your options. --- Tell us what you thought of the "Dexter" finale. --- "SNL" had 2 Pauls - how'd they do in your opinion? This coming weekend features Jeff Bridges and Eminem. --- The 2nd edition of our podcast is up - let us know what you'd like to hear in it. 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 ›

We knew that Scarlett Johansson was to host this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" (with musical guest Arcade Fire) but we didn't know it was to be for the 3rd time (she's only 25). We remember that she wasn't the best of guest hosts the last time she did it or are we confusing her with (yet) another mediocre guest host? Do you think she has the chops to be one of the most repeated female guest hosts for "SNL"? Obviously Lorne Michaels likes her but is there no other voice of reason there? See the promo clip at the end of this post. more ›

If you've watched TV over the past 20 years, chances are you've seen a lot of Bob Odenkirk's work. He's been a writer on "Saturday Night Live" (Chris Farley's "Matt Foley, motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river" is one of Odenkirk's "SNL" creations), he was the co-creator and co-host with David Cross of HBO's incredible "Mr. Show with Bob and David", and after acting and writing his way through scores of other shows he's been an integral part of the last two seasons of AMC's "Breaking Bad" as Saul Goodman, the sleazeball lawyer who will do anything for his client. more ›

Last night we observed an interesting phenomena as Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) learned of tweets by "Entertainment Weekly" columnist Michael Ausiello (@MichaelAusiello) announcing the cancellation of her show "Romantically Challenged" (@RomChallenged). Officially, ABC has said nothing (as of 11am Pacific today) about canceling "Romantically Challenged" - it would be interesting to know who Ausiello talked to at ABC if the star of the show doesn't know her fate. more ›

In case you missed Betty White's appearance on "SNL" Mashable's got all the clips including the dress rehearsal skits that didn't make it to the live broadcast. The show was also a reunion for former regulars including Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. The Facebook movement to get White on the show as host resulted in hype that ensured the largest "SNL" audience since the fall of 2008 (remember their election surge?). 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 ›

Weekend Highlights: Saturday - We've eagerly been anticipating Betty White's hosting of "Saturday Night Live" since we reported on it in March. She was great on Jimmy Fallon last night and we feel pretty confident that the comedy veteran will have elicited the best writing and performances the "SNL" crew can muster. more ›

"Lost" Spoiler Alert: We could write about "Lost" all day, every day and not come close to the amount of theories the uber-pundit megafans seem to spew 24/7 so we won't even try to compete but last night can't pass without us saying something about it: holy shit. Is it good news or not that the "Lost" series finale will now run from 9-11:30pm on May 23rd? Does this extension mean that we will "lose" everyone? more ›

Weekend Edition Some great things are happening on TV this weekend, namely the return of "Party Down" to Starz tonight - we've seen the first 1/2 dozen episodes and it's a lot of fun - the addition of Megan Mullally, which we initially feared, is actually fantastic! Tomorrow marks the premiere of HBO's film, You Don't Know Jack, with Al Pacino portraying Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian, and it's an incredible film... more ›

Somebody please confirm for us that they also thought the Ryan Phillippe/Ke$ha edition of "Saturday Night Live" was a bit of a chore to watch. Certainly, the Shake Weight DVD commercial was very funny (see embed at end of post), but the rest, other than some moments during Weekend Update, felt somewhat lacking. What did Phillippe contribute other than a pretty face - and doesn't Ke$ha's "Your Love Is My Drug" sound more than a little derivative of "Tik Tok"? more ›

Weekend Edition The National Association of Broadcasters convention opens this weekend in Las Vegas and one of the biggest topics at the show will be 3D TV. While we don't have a problem donning some uncomfortable plastic shades for a couple hours in the movie theater, we really wonder if photos of the American family enjoying a night of television will feature them with giant... more ›

Weekend Edition more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Community", "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Archer", "The Sarah Silverman Program", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" (Willie Mays), Letterman (Elizabeth Banks/Benicio del Toro), Fallon (John Lithgow, Kings of Leon) more ›