Molly Shannon and Selma Blair
Joining NBC's successful Thursday-night comedy block isn't easy for any new show, but Kath & Kim (8:30 pm/ET) has had a particularly tough go at it in a year when all of NBC's comedies (including 30 Rock, The Office and My Name Is Earl) have posted decreased ratings. But with a full-season vote of confidence from the network, Kath & Kim is forging ahead with, among other storylines, wedding plans. Join us for a little girl talk with executive producer Michelle Nader and stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, who tell us how they interpreted the Australian original, their own celebrity crushes and what it takes to be considered a "good eater" on camera.
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Molly Shannon and Tina Fey
In their oral history of Saturday Night Live, Live from New York, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller revealed an unfortunate legacy of sexism. Many of the show's female writers and cast members, chief among them Nora Dunn, told of difficulty in getting skits on the air and of generally being taken seriously by their male counterparts. That was then… and now six prominent alumnae will back on the tube this fall in five successful returning shows and one promising newcomer. (Also, a series of six special all-politics Thursday episodes of SNL begin October 9 at 9:30 pm/ET on NBC.) In the meantime, let's check in with these smart, talented women.
After the jump, see who made our list of today's most successful female
Saturday Night Live veterans...
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Zachary Levi by John Shearer/WireImage.com
Coming to your local NBC station and online outlets soon: Adorable Chuck star Zachary Levi hosting a sneak peek at the network's new and returning series for fall.The 30-minute special, The NBC Primetime Preview, will include an exclusive backstage look at a full spectrum of NBC Universal shows (including titles from USA, Sci Fi, Bravo, UniHD, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen and Sleuth). It will also draw viewers in by the boatloads (they hope) with appearances by Christian Slater of My Own Worst Enemy; Molly Shannon and Selma Blair from Kath & Kim; and stars from Heroes and The Office. The special is set to blow your minds beginning Aug. 30 and running through Sept. 28. Are you excited for some sneek peakage, or do you think this is just a transparent ploy for early buzz? — Erin FoxRelated• Christian Slater Talks about His New Jekyl and Hyde Show• What Would Dwight Schrute Watch?• The Office's Phyllis and Stanley Dish about Next Season
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Further proof that Kathy's big mouth (you know, the one that I love so much) does indeed get her into trouble: we got to learn this week that Kathy has been re-banned from The View. Kathy’s been banned from a lot of shows, but, per Kathy: "This is my first re-banning." Seems executive producer Bill Geddie wasn't quite ready...to forgive Kathy for something she included in her recent Bravo special Kathy Griffin: Straight To Hell. For those who missed it, Kathy hilariously recalled her conversation inside the View hair & makeup room before her last appearance where the discussion was K-Y Jelly and other lubricants. Babs Walters allegedly said: "I prefer Astroglide." Apparently, sharing makeup room conversations with TV viewers is a no-no, so Kathy was re-banned from appearing on The View. As Stockard Channing so eloquently put it as Rizzo in Grease, "Some people are so touchy."So, even though her gig at Madison Square Garden was sold out, Kathy still wanted to do some press w...
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Selma Blair by Jim Spellman/WireImage.com, Molly Shannon by Eric Charbonneau/ WireImage.com
NBC has ordered six episodes of Kath & Kim, its U.S. version of the hit Aussie sitcom about a fortysomething divorcée (played stateside by Molly Shannon) and her self-absorbed daughter (pout queen Selma Blair). What's significant here is that a pilot for K&K hasn't even been shot; instead, NBC Entertainment/Universal Media Studios cochair Ben Silverman made the call based on the original series' success. Citing NBC's new plan to produce far fewer pilots, Silverman tells Variety the K&K sitch "exemplifies how we are changing the process by ordering shows that we believe in and greenlighting them straight to series. We are confident that this proven international hit will effortlessly translate to American audiences."Worst case, he says, "Watch 30 Rock." (The preceding joke was stolen from Ausiello.)
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Some things we know:• Ned is Chuck’s boyfriend• Emerson’s ok with lying by omission (well, and outright lying)• Ned cleans when he’s upset• Dilly really does stutter when she’s upsetThere was a lot going on in tonight’s episode. We had the arrival of rival small business Balsam’s Bittersweets Taffy & Sweet Emporium and not one but two murder cases. And, of course, Ned’s confession to Chuck at the end of the episode. Let’s start with the highly anticipated (at least by me) arrival of Molly Shannon’s Dilly Balsam. Well, I guess I should really start with the arrival of Mike White’s Some Guy. I loved how he came into what would shortly be known as The Pie Ho to talk about the arrival of the new candy shop. Ned, Olive, and Chuck do the neighborly thing and offer a welcome gift in the form of one of Ned’s delicious and pungent pies. The only problem is that all the customers love the smell of the pie so much t...
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Molly Shannon, More of Me
The very funny Molly Shannon pulls off comedy and romance, playing an overwhelmed career mom in the fanciful Lifetime movie More of Me (Saturday, Nov. 17, 9 pm/ET). We recently chatted with the actress, who's in the midst of an incredibly busy year of her own.
TV Guide: Tell us about the film.Molly Shannon: It's about a [working] mother. She has two children, she is married — she's really busy and wishes that there was more of her to go around. She starts to lose it with the pressure to be everything [and] ends up literally splitting into three versions of herself.
TV Guide: Is this a character you can relate to? Shannon: Oh my god, yes. You think you can do it all... easier said than done. I'm an actress and also a mother of two toddlers. It's a real balancing act.
TV Guide
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Molly Shannon by John Sciulli/WireImage.com
Saturday Night Live alumna Molly Shannon is set to star as Kath in Kath & Kim, NBC's pilot adapted from an Australian comedy. The role of the daughter has yet to be cast, says the Reporter.... Sopranos shrink Lorraine Bracco has joined the Lifetime pilot Long Island Confidential, playing mom to a female detective (Alison Elliott).... Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T's real-life (and astoundingly proportioned) wife, Coco, will play the widow of a dead wrestler in an upcoming episode of the Peacock procedural, says the New York Daily News.
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Molly Shannon by Theo Wargo/WireImage.com
How's this for a perfect arrangement: Pushing Daisies has landed Molly Shannon for a multi-episode arc. Sources confirm to me exclusively that the delightfully kooky ex-SNL cutup will play Dilly Balsam, the owner of a saltwater-taffy emporium that just so happens to set up shop across the street from the Pie Hole. She's slated to first show up during November sweeps. OK, if you weren't planning on watching Daisies before, certainly this brilliant piece of casting did the trick, right? Riiiiiiiight?
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Jennifer Morrison in The Murder of Princess Diana courtesy Lifetime Entertainment
Lifetime's fall slate, as revealed at the TCA summer press tour, includes a Friday-night block of reality programming: the returning Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead, followed by the new competition series America's Psychic Challenge (the winner is the one who knows they've won before it begins...?).The cabler also set air dates for The Murder of Princess Diana (starring House's Jennifer Morrison; Aug. 25) and Custody (starring James Denton and Rob Morrow; Sept. 8), while More of Me (with Molly Shannon times three) and the miniseries The Gathering (with Peter Gallagher and Jamie-Lynn Sigler) get fall bows.
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