Willie Simpson

Tag: NBC

  • 23 Year Old Michael Jordan With David Letterman

    I just tuned into the fabulous new documentary on the 1992 Dream Team, the magical group of Olympic All-Stars led by Michael Jordan.  If you grew up as a kid in the 90s like I did, Michael Jordan was the closest thing to experiencing Babe Ruth.  It didn’t matter what team you were a fan…

  • Eddie Vedder, Emilio Estevez, Adam Sandler Shooting SNL Promos in 1994

    Making a television show is difficult, especially one like Saturday Night Live where all the content is written and produced a week in advance before live airing.  From the looks of this video, making an SNL is a long an tedious process.  Here, they are just making a promo spot, and even though this video…

  • Twenty One, The Quiz Show Scandals

    A movie I always loved was Quiz Show, the 1994 film directed by acting legend Robert Redford.  The movie is about the infamous practice of game show rigging that went on in the 1950s, especially at NBC with their hit show “Twenty One.”  Proclaiming to audiences that the questions to the answers were kept in…

  • Andy Kaufman on Letterman

    Many people refer to these days as the golden age of comedy.  With tons of late night comedians, stand-up super stars, box office comedy blockbusters, and comedy nerds running rampant, its easy to buy into that hype.  Well, it might be the case that comedy is bigger then ever, but there probably isn’t one comedian…

  • David Letterman's First Late Night Show Ever

    On February 1st, 1982 David Letterman launched the Late Night Show on NBC.  As you can tell by its overly dramatic and irony fueled science fiction opening, Dave was far ahead of his time.  Understanding David Letterman’s genius is partly based on knowing what a clear cut revolutionary comic visionary he was.  Not only was…

  • Conan O’Brien’s First Show

    I’ve been all over the world the past few weeks, from Maine to New York, to San Francisco to Seoul, and now to Sydney.  It’s been a whirl wind of adventure and excitement, but on all those long plane trips, I had to keep my mind occupied with something.   Luckily I had Bill Carter’s…

  • Ben Stiller and Bruce Springsteen, SNL and the Ben Stiller Show

    Saturday Night Live is really hit or miss this days, mostly miss, but sometimes, when they get a guy in there who knows sketch comedy, like Ben Stiller, they can hit a few home runs.  That was case the other night when Ben revived his classic impression of Bruce Springsteen from his cult hit “The…

  • Seinfeld, The Movie!

    Some of the best running gags on Seinfeld were the fake movies the gang was always seeing.  Rochelle, Rochelle, Death Blow, Checkmate, and Sack Lunch all come to mind, but it all begs a larger question, what would a Seinfeld movie look like?  Well, luckily some genius on the internet has no shortage of ideas. …

  • Seinfeld, Michael Jackson, and Montages

    Youtube is kind of awful.  I found some absolutely golden clips from “Seinfeld” that I’d love to post and do intensive analysis of, but nearly all of the clips are disabled for embedding.  Luckily, I have found a few killer scenes that have escaped the clutches of the youtube machine for now.  They’ll probably be…

  • Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind (Live)

    I’m not ready to leave this concert from May 23rd, 1976 at Hughes Stadium.  For this segment, Bob is leading his band through a scorching rendition of “Idiot Wind,” another track from Blood on the Tracks.  This live version is especially nasty the way Dylan just bashes his electric guitar and snarls every lyric.  The…