TV Talk

Summer TV Tour: NBC's Update

As you all know by now, cutie-pie, smart-as-a-whip, funny as all get-out, Tina Fey won’t be returning to Saturday Night Live in the fall so she can concentrate on starring and producing her new show, 30 Rock.

Fey said it wasn't easy to leave the only work home she's known the last nine years. “I know I’ll never ever not be there in some way<" she said. "I’m never not going to call up with an opinion or show up on hiatus wanting to write a sketch.�

Lorne Michaels, SNL’s executive producer, who will still work with Fey on her new series, said he’ll miss his head writer. “If you’re asking if I’m happy about (Fey leaving), no,� he said. “But I think it was time for Tina to do her own show.�

As for who will co-anchor ‘Weekend Update’ with Amy Poehler, Michaels has no idea right now. “We’re going to do a bunch of tests, as we’ve done pretty much every time we’ve had to make a transition,� he said. “We’ll do that in September and decide then what we think the best approach is.�
***
Looks like “The Hoff� is getting the last laugh.

Although David Hasselhoff is a big recording star in such far away lands as Germany, he’s often been reduced to a punchine here in America. In Click, Adam Sandler's new movie, Hasselhoff got punched a lot. But The Hoff is attracting a new generation of fans as one of the judges on America’s Got Talent, NBC’s wacky talent competition that’s part The Gong Show and all silly.

The former Knight Rider star admits he’s never received his true props in the States.

“I’m a big punching bag,� he said, stating the obvious. “I just kind of go with the flow. But my success has brought me so much. My biggest success and my biggest achievement for me personally was Broadway (in which he starred in Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical). It wasn’t being a pop singer.�

The Hoff said he’s just been offered to host the European Music Awards as well as to sing the show’s opening song. That’s a big deal in Europe, I guess. He proudly mentioned that he has a new song called Jump in My Car that could hit the Top 10 in London.

“If it breaks over here, fine,� he said.

He’s also developing – are you ready for this? – David Hasselhoff: The Musical.

We weren’t sure if The Hoff was joking or not.

He wasn’t.

“I was offered to go on tour in Australia starting last December with just a concert and then they came up with the idea for (the musical),� he said.

Fans are probably already lining up to buy tickets. In Germany, that is.
***
It’s nice to see that Aaron Sorkin hasn’t lost his sense of humor.

The West Wing creator was in rare form during his Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip panel. In the show’s pilot, Sorkin takes a not-so-subtle dig at such reality shows as The Apprentice and Fear Factor even though he admits he’s never seen them.

“I guess I can guess what they’re about,� Sorkin said. “They’re also two shows which vocationally I’m going to have a problem with because they’re unscripted.� I do think that television is a terribly influential part of this country and that when things that are very mean-spirited and voyeuristic go on TV, I think it’s (like) bad crack in the school yard.�

The room howled in laughter. You may have heard Sorkin has had a few drug problems in the past.

“Why did I used that word?� he wondered aloud, smiling broadly.

Later, Sorkin added, “Seriously, I will go person to person, giving each $100 if we can just get the crack quotes out of the paper.�

Sorry, Aaron. Ain’t gonna happen.I

In fact, the crack gag was a recurring theme throughout the hilarious session.

Matthew Perry, who plays a brilliant Sorkin-like writer hired to revive a dying late-night sketch show, got in on the fun when someone asked what it was like playing his boss on TV.

“I think it’s mostly like bad Vicodin in the school yard,� Perry cracked, referring to his own drug problem.