Excellent. Don't leave your house, don't sleep, don't shower...just watch all three seasons straight through and report back. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I haven't seen a single episode of this show. I've always felt like I should check it out because I love Alyson Hannigan. But I don't do well with sitcoms. I always feel like I can see the jokes coming from a mile away. But I think I may be missing out on a phenomenon if I don't check this show out. So many people (people whose opinions I respect) love it. This is silly, but I think I was also partially turned off by the name of the show. Not quite as bad as Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place though...

But I don't do well with sitcoms. I always feel like I can see the jokes coming from a mile away. But I think I may be missing out on a phenomenon if I don't check this show out. I don't usually do well with sitcoms, either. I hate most of them and only watched Friends when I was having a stressful day and needed just to not think. But this show is different. I know it sounds like something every fan on earth says about their favorites, but I gotta say-- the acting, the directing, the editing (and continuity, OMG) is really amazing. A good example of unexpected humor was with last week's episode. I won't go into detail because of spoilers, but the set up to a joke was funny and ending up being more hilarious because the resolution was completely unexpected. If it doesn't hook you in at the beginning, try to keep going. My boyfriend tried to get me hooked with the first three and I was like, "Meh." But then I discovered NPH and realized he's amazing, so I gave it another shot and fell in love.

There really is something kind of special and definitely impressive about how well the show is crafted around this big story with all the complex details and timeline and mythology they have to deal with. Very cool. Though the idea that Ted is occasionally an unreliable narrator is probably a good fall back for them. There are definitely some weak episodes scattered around all three seasons, but even the "bad" ones are fun. btw, Alyson Hannigan announced today that she's pregnant and due in the Spring. I would think they'd hide it because the alternative would be a kid or a tragedy. Probably best to work around that one, but who knows. Congrats to her, though.

One of my favorite episodes is "Mary The Paralegal". Sandy reading the paper, Yosemite Sandy, Marshall putting things in Sandy's hair...awesome.

I'm recording Jon Hamm's SNL for later viewing, but I stopped what I *was* watching just in time for the "Mad Men" sketch. Awesome. Elisabeth Moss and John Slattery showed up, which was a nice bonus. And while I don't care much for the two A-Holes (in spite of loving Wiig and Sudeikis) marrying them with "Mad Men" was perfect. And Hamm's Don Draper speech was fantastic. I haven't seen a good TV spoof on this show in ages (and it doesn't even seem like they try to make host-appropriate spoofs anymore), but this one reminded me of the good ol' days of something like the great "Twin Peaks" sketch. No clue how the rest of the show is going to play out, but I was surprised by how much I genuinely liked that bit. And I love that the audience went kind of nuts the second the logo came up.

Wait! What Twin Peaks sketch?! How did I ever miss that?! *wanders off to search YouTube* ETA: FOUND IT! Brilliant! I became a little verklempt when Phil Hartman appeared. And Chris Farley as Leo! Those were the days, man. *drowns in nostalgia*

I love and miss Phil Hartman so much. And that sketch rules. I wish that these older episodes were online in their entirety. I love Kyle's opening monologue where he takes questions from the audience and reveals, very matter of fact, that Shelley the waitress killed Laura Palmer. And back to tonight: I'm a few hours behind, I guess, because Amy Poehler had her baby. Congrats to her and Arnett, but...it kind of makes me sad that that's the end of her SNL run. Not that she couldn't come back a billion times like Tina or Maya tonight or Lovitz, like, all the friggin time, but still. And more Jon Hamm praise: he's rocking it in the Vincent Price sketch. He should be on every week.

I really do think that the early nineties were the golden age for SNL --well, the golden age for my generation at least. I appreciate the talents of Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph, but I just think that so much of the writing on SNL is hit or miss these days. When I was in college we used crowd around the dorm television on Saturday night to watch it. No I only watch it if I'm bored.

Amy had a baby boy, according to People.com his name is Archie Arnett. I love Phil Hartman and I also love Will Ferrell. I can watch those Celebrity Jeopardy sketches all day long. Hartman was also brilliant on the Simpsons. Such a shame :(

The "Mad Men" sketch is up on hulu now: http://www.hulu.com/watch/40973/saturday-night-live-a-holes-pitch-meeting He was fantastic in that!! And that "in Butts" sketch had me on the floor. He was awesome in that bit! That's usually the kind of sketch I don't laugh at it because the people performing it can't really do anything with it other than the obvious. It's a lame joke. But, he killed. The realization at the end? I loved it. I know that he's apparently tight with the UCB crowd and he probably has even more experience with this type of thing than I assumed he did, but he surprised me. He's one of the best hosts they've had in forever, as good as the Baldwins and Hankses of the world. I have to go back and watch a couple of sketches from the beginning that I wasn't watching during, but from what I saw he was just fantastic. OMG, Coldplay's back on. And they're playing "Yellow." Life. Is. Complete. That show was pretty much a Coldplay concert with a few sketches thrown around it, no? At the end when he said "and Coldplay!!!" I was like "are you fucking kidding me?". They sounded great, though. I really do think that the early nineties were the golden age for SNL --well, the golden age for my generation at least. It's kind of tough because I think that my favorite seasons as well as the seasons that might have had some of the best stuff were the 88-92 or 3. But, then I look at the other dates and I remember when I was younger than that, during the early to mid-eighties, sneaking up late with the sound turned down low watching those casts, there might be more. Then I look at dates and realize that there was really great stuff much later, too. I sort of wonder sometimes if I would have thought the Red Hooded Sweatshirt was as funny as I did if it wasn't something that we all talked about in the homeroom the following Monday. With the exception of a few seasons that were genuinely awful, it seems like there are redeeming moments throughout. I think that the Dennis Miller years of Weekend Update were my favorites, but then I think about some of the Norm stuff and I'm torn again. The weird thing about the current cast is that the ones that I love I tend to love independently of this show. I loved Amy long before she went on SNL and I wasn't a big fan of Hader until he hooked up with Apatow. I enjoyed Sudeikis on the show, but I really started liking him after "30 Rock". So, it's kind of a weird cast they've got there now. I want to watch them, but I want to watch them because I like *them*, not necessarily because I like their work on the show. Probably the really disappointing thing about them is that I've been watching pretty regularly for the past year (with some here and there the year before, but mostly Tivo and Dump type situations) and there are only a couple of non-political sketches that I could name as being the least bit memorable and one of them was last night with the "Mad Men" bit. Before that, *maybe* the Mary Poppins sketch and before that I probably have to go back to Amy Poehler and Drew Barrymore's "Dakota Fanning Show". Without even having to think, I could name fifty sketches from the late eighties/early nineties.

Okay, the first person who can find the "in the butts" sketch online for me wins a prize.