Fred Armisen

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Fred Armisen: TV Guide News

SNL: A Stop on the Campaign Trail | Roush Dispatch | 3/2/2008
In only two weeks on the air, Saturday Night Live is back in its sweet spot, right where it wanted to be during the long strike hiatus: smack-dab in the center of today’s political dialogue. Barack Obama made a cameo in the last episode before the strike, Mike Huckabee showed up for an aw-shucks appearance in the middle of last week’s Weekend Update, and this week, in an opener that’s likely to become part of the all-time SNL archives, it was Hillary Clinton’s turn. She who... read more
The TV Weekend: Oscars and SNL | Roush Dispatch | 2/25/2008
It was Oscar's 80th birthday, but it only felt like Sunday night's show went on for 70 years. (Official count: three hours, 20 minutes.) It’s an annual ritual, beating up on the annual Academy Awards broadcast for being too long, bloated, boring. That can especially be a problem when the show is as free of surprise as this year's was — true, Marion Cotillard's victory over Julie Christie for best actress was unexpected (though well earned), and I loved her gracious and giddy speech... read more
Cheers: SNL's Barack Obama Speaks! | Cheers & Jeers | 2/24/2008
Cheers to Saturday Night Live for pulling out all the stops with its first post-strike episode. Fred Armisen's Barack Obama impression was surprisingly subtle: The hardest part, Armisen tells TV Guide exclusively, was "figuring out the volume of his voice. It seems to be a combination of loud and not so loud at the same time. Even when he is being emotional, there is a calmness to him." SNL scored big with delightful cameos from Obama Girl, Steve Martin and Gov. Mike Huckabee (whose future may... read more
30 Rock: The Height of Hilarity | Roush Dispatch | 11/16/2007
Every week, after laughing myself silly at the warped lunacy of 30 Rock on Thursday nights and then being greeted by the stubbornly low ratings on Friday morning, I’m more than ever convinced that this inspired comedy is the new Arrested Development. (And not just because it’s a dark-horse Emmy winner, also taking home the best-comedy trophy after its first season.) Here’s another cult classic that is apparently too off-kilter to be more than an acquired taste, unfortunately... read more
SNL Digital Short Nixed Due to Music Clearance Snafu | Today's News: Our Take | 10/2/2007
Andy Samberg's latest (if a bit protracted...) Saturday Night Live digital-short gem, a ballad directed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been pulled from NBC.com, the Peacock's official YouTube channel and other sites where it had surfaced, reportedly because it did not clear a musical sample from the group Aphex Twin, says NewTeeVee.com. The clip featured Samberg, with an assist from Maroon 5's Adam Levine, serenading Fred Armisen's (sometimes dress-wearing) dead ringer for the... read more