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'Saturday Night' Still Alive And Kickin' And Ready For The Fall Political Follies

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 12, 2008

"Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels says there's a good chance that presidential candidates Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama will show up on one or more "SNL" shows before Election Day.

It's a close race, and both men have a sense of humor. Also, McCain is an "SNL" veteran, having hosted the show in 2002. And both candidates made guest appearances last season.

"In the 2000 election, both Al Gore and George Bush showed up for our election special," Michaels recalled during an interview session with TV critics in July. "I think no matter how rough we allegedly are on someone, the candidates are always happy to be there. I don't think anyone takes it personally."

If the real candidates don't make it, "SNL" will have Darrell Hammond as McCain and Fred Armisen as Obama. Look for them when the 34th season gets under way at 11:35 p.m. Saturday on NBC.

And who will play Sarah Palin? Michaels told The Associated Press this week that it will go down to the wire. It would be a hoot if "SNL" alum Tina Fey could do it.

Because last season was cut short by the writers strike, Michaels says the cast and crew are pumped up about coming back, especially with a hotly contested political race to provide material.

NBC has ordered 22 live shows (up from the usual 20), including seven consecutive live outings beginning Saturday. Olympic swimming star Michael Phelps is the first host.

In addition, there will be three half-hour "Saturday Night Live: Weekend Updates" in prime time on Oct. 9, 18 and 23. "The Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash" will air Nov. 3, the day before the general election.

Hammond, 52, is the longest-running cast member in the show's history, having joined in 1995. No one doubts that he can pull off McCain.

Armisen, 41, a former drummer in the Chicago punk band Trenchmouth, joined SNL in 2002 and got the Obama assignment by default (no one else was available) last season.

His Obama was not well-received by critics. Some questioned why SNL didn't find a black comic to play the role. Armisen in his deadpan delivery told critics that he grew up on a hippie commune where "things were pretty loose."

"My dad told me we don't really know who my mother is, so she can be one of many races," he said. He says he has been working on his Obama and most of his family and friends "have been kind" about his portrayal.

Michaels says Obama has been hard for impressionists because he hasn't shown enough of those defining personality quirks to hang a parody on.

"I think he's still defining himself, and he is primarily cast as heroic," Michaels adds. "But sooner or later, everyone does something to irritate us."

He recalls that during the 2000 election, Hammond's Gore didn't resonate with viewers until just before the election. "And he already had been vice president for seven years," he says.

COCO CHANEL: One night last week I stumbled on the 1963 Billy Wilder comedy "Irma la Douce," in which a spirited young Shirley MacLaine plays a sweet Paris prostitute opposite Jack Lemmon as a man smitten by her charms.

On Saturday at 8 p.m. on the Lifetime network, MacLaine, still spirited and now 74, is back in a Paris setting playing a real-life character in the bio-film "Coco Chanel."

MacLaine has aged gracefully, and in an interview this summer, she said that she identified with the late fashion designer.

"I think we're both colorful," she says. "I think we're both rude. I think we're both spontaneous; we have talent, and we can't hold our opinions in."

The three-hour film covers Chanel's rise from a childhood of poverty in the 1890s to her career as a fashion designer. MacLaine plays her from 1954 on.

The woman who gave us the original "little black dress" and Chanel No. 5 has some tragic love affairs, but she was still working when she died in 1971.

TUNE IN TONIGHT

20/20, 10 p.m., ABC

ABC anchor Charles Gibson has an exclusive interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

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