Roger Catlin | TV Eye

Walken It Off

It was Christopher Walken’s 100th appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” he said. Actually it was only his seventh, but, he said in his monologue, "I count the reruns."

And he is undeniably a funny figure, who was therefore used in just about every skit (save for the last minute Hillary Clinton one in the opening that wasn’t that funny and a Larry King-Jimmy carter one later about how the latter writes too many books).

No revival of the cowbell skit this time. But he played a creative type directing a production of "Grease" in which he wanted to clean up its slang. Later, in maybe his best sketch, he played a co-worker who lavished a little too much affection on a co-worker in a going away event.

In each sketch he imbued his character with a nervous creepiness in which the tone of his voice becomes the thing of humor. To this end, it didn’t matter that he read just about every line from a cue card. You became used to his looking off at the side of the stage rather than the actors with hom he sould have been interacting.

And as much fun as it must be to have someone of Walken’s capabilities on the show, it almost didn’t matter eventually what he said. The biggest moment of excess was a Walken family reunion in which just about every cast member came on and got to do a Walken impersonation.

It didn’t matter that a sketch about a gardener who put eyes on his plants wasn’t funny, only because Walken was doing it. They depended on him to keep it funny anyway.

It’s almost a reflex for him. But maybe too much of one. He was funny when he announced the band Panic at the Disco.

Another guest on “SNL” named Chris Saturday was our own Sen. Dodd. He was featured having dinner with show producer Lorne Michaels when they are approached by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader about their latest “Laser Cats” adventure. Dodd and Michaels agree to watch and because it’s in 3-D they have to don the cardboard glasses, which made for a good visual. By the end, Michaels had left and Dodd pretended he had liked the video, but ultimately admitted he did not.

Bad Timing with Bill Maher

They say humor is tragedy plus time.

But even after 40 years have gone by since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., it still may not be time to make jokes around it. Especially not on the anniversary.

Bill Maher tried to do so anyway on his Friday night HBO show, noting first the number of political figures commemorating the day.

All the politicians were trying to make a tribute. Many of them were in Memphis. Hillary Clinton made a speech. John McCain made a speech -- he was at the motel in Memphis. Elliott Spitzer was also there... Not to honor Dr. King, [but]  just because it was a motel.

He thought they weren't laughing much because they forgot who Spitzer was. He forged on:

Hillary said she attended out of respect for Dr. King's civil rights work. And also because she feels some allegience to a fellow sniper victim.

Noting that McCain was a bit heckled in his speech, Maher said "he also said 'Don't yell at me I'm not a movie screen.'

The monologue on "Real Time with Bill Maher" was altogether a bad way to cap the day's memorials.

Kimmel's 1,000th

Jimmy Kimmel reached a benchmark he probably never thought he'd make Thursday, with his 1,000th episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

"Before tonight's show, the only thing I had ever had 1,000 of was McNuggets in my stomach, so this is big," he said in his opening monologue.

For the occasion, he stretched his show to what used to be a common length of late night talk shows but is virtually unheard of now: 90 minutes. It put him head to head for once against the main competition, the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Show with David Letterman." But to do so, he had to pre-empt "Nightline" at 11:35 p.m. for the first time.

"It feels good to pre-empt them for a change," Kimmel says, like a guy whose had it happen to him more than once. "If it goes well, we may keep pre-empting all the way through 'Good Morning America' tomorrow. We might even bump 'Regis' if I feel like it."

Stretching the show didn't mean he had the star power to fill it. On his guest roster were only Eva Longoria-Parker and Richard Simmons, with Kid Rock as musical guest, replacing the originally scheduled Mighty Mighty Bosstones. 

To fill, he had a few clips from earlier shows, usually as they were coming in from long commercial breaks. Mostly, he filled his extra half hour with the kind of time-killer talk shows used during the writers' strike: animal trainers. In this case one was used for a game show in which the sidekick and parking lot attendant Guillermo was blindfolded and had to guess what animal was on his head. He kept guessing things like chicken, cat and snake, but he had a toucan, chinchilla and tarantula on his head.

So Jimmy's got 1,000 shows under his belt and Guillermo has a chihuahua on his head (the only animal he accurately guessed).

McCain Visits Letterman

David Letterman was in the middle of his jokes about Sen. John McCain in his monologue Tuesday. You know the ones that almost sound like random non sequitirs but generally play to the candidate's age:

• He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys.
• He looks like the guy who can’t stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing.
• He looks like the why who goes into town for turpentine.
• He looks like the guy who has has wiry hair growing out of new places.
• He looks like the guy who points out the spots they missed at the car wash.

Then McCain walked out to interrupt. "Hey Letterman. you think that's funny?"

And he proceeded with his own list about the host, doubtless written by the same staff:

• You look like a guy whose laptop would be seized by the authorities.
• You look like a guy caught smuggling reptiles in his pants.
• You look like the guy who the neighbors later say, 'he mostly kept to himself.'
• You look like the night manager of a creepy motel.
• You look like the kind of guy who likes to get in a hot tub and watchhis swim trunks inflate.

Is this how the presidential campaign is going to play out? On whose delivery of comic lines is better?

Well, the senator, listed as main guest of the show, returned later to do a more formal sit-down. Coming out twice, he got two Paul Shaffer songs: "Soldier Boy" and "You're Still a Young Man" (and during the commercial break: "Rollercoaster").

It was on Letterman's show, keep in mind, where McCain first formally announced his candidacy a year ago. So with that sense of ownership, the host spent a lot of time asking about the time the campaign was fizzling -- old news at best. McCain for his part kept things entertaining, bringing with him lines old and new to use out.

It was after the break, Letterman broke out the issues, starting with the economy, then after another break, Iraq and the world's standing in the world.

Letterman seemed a little agitated by the war talk. In one camera shot, he appeared to be a head taller than McCain when sitting. An outsider wouldn't easily guess which one were running.

McCain didn't hang out to catch the incongruous musical guest, Cat Power, who sang a remake of her own "Metal Heart."

The Other Barack Impersonator

Took advantage of a "Saturday Night Live" rerun to switch to "MadTV" to see how their own post-strike season is going. Pretty good, it turns out. While "SNL" gets all the attention for being a cultural bellweather, "MadTV" often has much more energy and is a little more hip, delving into hip-hop culture with an ease that "SNL" still finds uncomfortable.

For all the attention "SNL" has received over its Barack Obama impersonation (eventually done by Fred Armisen), there’s been relatively little about Mad’s solution to the problem. Keegan Michael Key nails it with his voice and a lanky body. (I'm not as convinced by the nose and ears).

Anyway, his skit this week was a speech that broke into his rapping salute to Oprah, to the tune of FloRida's "Low"

She helped me burn through a bunch of states
Picking up a zillion delegates
Told me what to say at those debates
I'm going to make her my running mate

The fast-moving episode began with a skit about "Juno II" (on the same night the Ellen Page-hosted "SNL" was rerun) and had funny skits about a governor talking about his own infidelity and the faith of his "middle-aged wife," and a takeoff of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" with stars from George Takei to Wolf from "American Gladiators" to Kid of Kid n Play.

Their HIllary impersonator, Nicole Parker, appeared in a skit whose complete title honestly was "The Depressed Persian Tow Truck Man who just picked up Hillary Clinton and, come on, this has to be the lowest point of her career, sitting in a tow truck next to a hairy Persian man whose odor is a combination of Turkish tobacco, lab stew and Ralph Lauren's Chaps cologne."

(He's apparently a recurring character).

Host-Elect Comes to Visit

"Hey, Conan O'Brien is on tonight," Jay Leno reminded his audience, midway through his monologue Thursday, adding, "Hey, is it '09 already?"

It was the only mention of the impending "Tonight" takeover by the host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" that comes in 2009, which seemed so far in the future when it was announced in 2004.

Now the biggest change in the "Tonight" show since Johnny Carson stepped down is within sight, in a matter of several months. But the visiting O'Brien didn't mention it at all. Nor did he seem to be sizing up the Burbank studio for his own uses (possibily because he's moving his studio to Universal Studios).

It was sort of a strange appearance. O'Brien seemed subdued when he came out and once on the couch, it seemed the camera was entirely on him and never on Leno as the host drew out what sounded like stock stories about the fake Conan recipe in Good Housekeeping, a story about his hosting the Oscars in 2006, and Jerry Lewis' appearance on his show even longer ago, in 2005. There was a story, too, about someone who tried to pitch a comedy idea as he ran along in New York one day. That could have happened some time this century as well.

O'Brien can make any of these stories funny for his exaggeration of their drama or by dwelling on odd sounding words. But they all seemed like old bits carefully gleaned by producers earlier in the day.

If Leno were on edge at all about this upstart soon to take over his show, it was only when he constantly made fun of whatever accent or funny voice O'Brien tried on to tell a story. "Oh, was he a pirate too?" he'd say. Or: "Was he also The Wicked Witch of the West?"

O'Brien was doing his corporate duty by showing up dutifully like this, leaving his own show a rerun from last year. But it must have been hard for him to sit there invisibly through the next guest, Anderson Cooper, and not say anything.

The New Last Chore for 'Idol' Cast-Offs

The latest humiliation for those voted off "American Idol," after the final song, after the annoying teleconference, comes the following night when they appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

The apparent deal with "Idol," which will apparently deliver every cast-off through the end of the season on the late night show, began Thursday with Chikezie Eze, the first of the Top 10 to be eliminated Wednesday.

He didn't get to do an interview, which is at least what the "Survivor" cast-offs used to do on "Late Show with Dave Letterman."

Nor did he get to sing. He didn't even get to sit down.

Instead, he had to do a little "skit" with Leno, structured in the format of those Geico ads where the "normal person" has his story enhanced by celebrities. In this case it was the Pips, who sang, danced in formation and wore ugly suits to echo his standard answers.

It was a little painful. But I guess it gives singers extra motivation not to be voted off. 

Colbert to Philly

"The Colbert Report" will be going to Philadelphia for a week in April 14-17 to report on the impending primary there, the host announced Monday.

He said someone in his audience would go to cover the events, only to find he was the one with a special Golden Ticket under his seat.

"I have to pack the Continental Congress basics," he said. "My powered wig, my musket and of course my codpiece."

"Our coverage will be fair and balanced," Colbert promised. "We'll put an end to those ugly rumors that Obama is a Muslim ...and start some ugly rumors that he is a Quaker."

Spitzer Trumps Hillary on 'SNL'

Leave it to the Eliot Spitzer scandal to knock Hillary Clinton off the opening skit slot on "Saturday Night Live" for the first time since its return following the writers strike.

Bill Hader was just right as Spitzer – that same low, assured tone, the same frowning expression from the podium turned confessional, maybe a bit too much hair on top of his head.

And Kristen Wiig was perfect to play his wronged wife, trying to put on a brave face, and just this side of sticking out her tongue. Yet the whole skit – an elongated ad for a new TV lawyer venture defending the most embarrassing charges – was a little flat; low key without being subtle, stretching out a little too long with not enough material. Sometimes "SNL" thinks it’s enough just to ape a topical situation without putting much time into adding some funny spin to it.

The revelation of the show, though was Jonah Hill as guest. He’s just the right guy, in girth and similarly oversized personality and versatility in skits to take the slot originated by John Belushi and covered later by Chris Farley (and never quite filled by Horatio Sanz).

It’s as if the breakout star from "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" went about his career the opposite way – usually guys like him gain a following on "SNL" for a few years before branching out into movies.

Instead, he stepped down from movies to host.

They should find a way to make him a permanent member. As unenthused as he was in introducing Mariah Carey’s almost laughably thin songs (both about feeling her body and remarking on her jeans), he was in almost every skit and did well.

Maher Abdicates

What a bad week for Bill Maher to be off.

After a week tailor made for his humor -- the New York governor resigns after a tryst with a high-end prostitute -- here was an episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher" in a wrong time: from way back, Super Tuesday week, where his first jokes were about the economic stimulus package.

He could have had more than a field day with such material. He could have turned over the whole show to it.

As it was, we were left to hear about Mitt Romney dropping out of the Republican race.