The American Family Association (AFA) has decided that the time has come for them to take their fight for decency into the grocery aisles.  Their target?  Schweddy Balls.

Announced a mere two weeks ago, the Saturday Night Live inspired ice cream has already hit store shelves (I’ve tried it, I liked it.)  One Million Moms, a sub-division of the AFA, has issued a statement against the new flavor and its “vulgar” nature.

In the past, Ben & Jerry’s has released controversial ice creams, like a special edition of Chubby Hubby called Hubby Hubby last year which celebrated gay marriage. It seems that offending customers has become an annual tradition for Ben & Jerry’s.

The ice cream is being released in a limited batch, which means it will be distributed nationwide but only for three or four months. If it proves popular, another batch might be forthcoming, but we hope not.

Ben & Jerry’s spokesman Sean Greenwood replied to the call for the protest:

The name is irreverent, but we’ve always been about having some irreverence and having some fun … We’re not trying to offend people. Our fans get the humor.

As per their usual modus operandi, the AFA is making a call for action that you should protest against Ben & Jerry’s, and as with just about everything this group does, I just have to shake my head.

This group takes offense at just just about everything under the sun, and as per usual there is next to nothing to get worked up over.  They get offended by “Schweddy Balls” as they don’t want kids asking for it.  What makes them think kids will know what the heck it means?  How about if they ask questions you just say it’s named that because there are balls of sweets in it.  If you don’t make a big deal out of it, they won’t even think twice about it.  However, this group is positive that the smallest thing will cause children to turn into perverted savages.

You know what?  It’s an ice cream.  Get over it.  How about you get worked up over something serious in this world that presents a real danger to children such as the lack of exercise, falling grades and in general how to get by in this world.  But no, by all means, ignore actually spending time with your children and instead spend your time writing useless letters over the name of an ice cream.  That is the perfect use of your time.

Ben & Jerry’s has teamed up with Broadway Video, the company behind Saturday Night Live, to release a new “limited batch” ice cream flavor for the holidays named, “Schweddy Balls.”

For those of you unfamiliar with the sketch – you can see it at the bottom of this post, sorry to those of you outside of the U.S. – it ran several years ago when Alec Baldwin was guest hosting, and in my book, it is one of the funniest sketches to ever run on the show.

The “Schweddy Balls” flavor will be a “limited batch” flavor meaning that it will be available nationwide, but only for three to four months.  Should it prove to be popular, it could come back again, but it will depend on sales.  Even if you don’t get the joke, it actually sounds pretty tasty: Vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum with fudge covered rum & malt balls.

Speaking with Ben & Jerry’s Alec Baldwin said, “For a long time, I thought that ‘Here Lies Pete Schweddy’ would end up on my tombstone.  Now, thanks to Ben & Jerry’s, the goodness of the Schweddy family recipe won’t go with me to the great beyond.”   He went on to add, “It is immortalized here, right now, and it’s an ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s and Schweddy. Two great names in American dessert, together at last.”

Ana Gasteyer who also starred in the sketch said of the unique honor, “The Schweddy Balls sketch was a personal favorite from my SNL run, so I am pleased as holiday punch that Ben and Jerry’s has taken it upon themselves to share the Schweddy Family recipe with the world. As a person and a performer, I am a sucker for holiday balls. And I have no doubt this ice cream will cause many to scream ‘Good Times.’”

Personally, I’m calling my local grocery store tomorrow to make sure they will be carrying Pete Scweddy’s family recipe ice cream.

Saturday Night Live Japan debuted last week, and to be quite frank, it’s almost creepy.

Readers of this blog know I’ve followed Saturday Night Live since its very first episode. Through the bad years and the good, I’ve been there, and I have no plans to ever tune out because it’s just a part of my life now.  However, what I didn’t know was that foreign versions have been launched in France and Spain.  This came as a bit of a surprise to me, and I only learned of those two because the news came out that Saturday Night Live Japan was going to air its first episode last weekend.

Considering the peculiar sense of humor of the Japanese, I wasn’t quite sure how the show would translate, but then I saw the opening credits.

They got Don Pardo, the voice of the American SNL since the first episode to do the cast read? Epic! Not to mention that the opening shots are filmed in the exact same style as the American credits, which is also fairly cool.  From what I heard about the rest of the episode, the humor was much more slapsticky than the American version, which holds more true with your usual Japanese style of comedy.  It could also somewhat harken back to the early days of our version, but my suspicion is that it is much about about what the Japanese are used to.

The biggest difference?  Their version will only air once a month.  Yikes.

Justin Timberlake returned for his fourth time hosting Saturday Night Live, and, yes, the “Dick In A Box” guys came back for this third video.

Last time Timberlake was on SNL, we got “Mother Lover“, a sequel to the original “Dick in a Box” sketch.  Andy Samberg and Timberlake were spotted earlier this week filming a scene with Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson, pretty much guaranteeing us a third video of these characters who are apparently stuck in the 1990′s.

Joining in on the fun this time was the episode’s musical guest, Lady Gaga.  While I didn’t find it quite as funny as the previous two installments, after multiple viewings it has definitely grown on me.  I present you with, 3-Way (The Golden Rule).

(please note: this video is sure to be going up and down for a while, I will continue to replace it as often as I can for viewers outside of the United States)

NBC has announced the dates for its slate of season finales.

Almost as important as learning when shows will return in the fall is finding out when the finales will air.  Before heading into the summer, it’s always nice to know when those characters you love will finally grace your screens.  Thus far only NBC has announced it’s end dates for this season, and with good reason since the earliest date clocks in on April 4th for Harry’s Law.

Now comes the fun of waiting for the fall announcements.

• 30 Rock, Thursday May 5th (10-10:30 p.m.)
• America’s Next Great Restaurant, Sunday May 1st (8-9 p.m.)
• Chuck, Monday May 16th (8-9 p.m.)
• Community, Thursday May 12th (hour-long episode from 8-9 p.m.)
• Harry’s Law, Monday April 4th (10-11 p.m.)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Wednesday May 18th (10-11 p.m.)
• Outsourced, Thursday May 12th (10:30-11 p.m.)
• Parenthood, Tuesday April 19th (10-11 p.m.)
• Parks and Recreation, Thursday May 19th (hour-long finale from 10-11 p.m.)
• Perfect Couples, Thursday May 5th (8:30-9 p.m.)
• Saturday Night Live, Saturday May 21st (11:30 p.m.-1 a.m.)
• The Biggest Loser, Tuesday May 24th (9-11 p.m.)
• The Celebrity Apprentice, Sunday May 22nd (9-11 p.m.)
• The Event, Monday May 23rd(9-10 p.m.)
• The Office, Thursday May 19th (one-hour finale from 9-10 p.m.)
• Who Do You Think You Are?, Friday April 8th (8-9 p.m.)

We’ll see how long this stays up on YouTube, but seeing as it is posted by the actual guys, hopefully for good.

The Lonely Island guys are like a sub-group inside of Saturday Night Live, with the best known of the three being Andy Samberg. This group is responsible for the majority of the Digital Shorts that show up on the series, and they were involved with the infamous “Mother Lover” video for a ways back.

While they’ve done numerous videos for the show, this one struck me as a bit funnier than most, and I’m not sure why.  Possibly the very random John McEnroe cameo?  The looks of disgust from Blake Lively and Jessica Alba?  Who knows, but it got me chuckling which is rare for Saturday Night Live these days.

About five years ago I wrote a post about how stripped down DVDs really tick me off.  Some of the examples I pointed to was how Northern Exposure and Quantum Leap seasons had been released without their original music, both shows that relied heavily on songs to set the tone, because studios didn’t want to pay for the music rights.  Well … the music rights problem is just getting worse.

From 2006 to 2009, Broadway Video released a season of Saturday Night Live a year, except for 2008 which had two releases. Every December you could count on another season of the show popping up, and for me they were coming out at just the right pace so as they didn’t break the bank. The first five seasons were my priority because they had the strongest writing, but I planned to continue as I am a life-long fan of the show, even in the terrible seasons (even the horrible Julia Louis-Dreyfus seasons of 1982 to 1985).  However, there is no season six coming out this year, so I looked around for some info.

… stupid music rights.

It appears that the cost of including the musical performances in each season has just gotten to where Broadway Video can no longer afford to release them.  Series producer Lorne Michaels feels that the music is as important as the sketches, and I can’t say I disagree, so it was decided to bring the season sets to and end.

While this saddens me won’t get to the prime Eddie Murphy years, or the always fabulous Phil Hartman/Jan Hooks sketches, I tip my hat to Broadway Video for sticking to its guns of releasing the shows in their complete form.  Many other shows have just passed over the music to get something out of it, and this has left consumers with inferior products.

I’ve also been waiting on the third season of Third Watch, and it apparently is also being held up as the studio tries to work out music licensing issues.

My question is why music companies want so much for their music?  Unfortunately these shows were all around before DVD sets really took off, so home video releases weren’t covered in the original licensing.  Now, instead of getting at least something for the music, it appears record labels are asking for more than they would if it had been settled at the outset, so everyone loses due to good old greed.  You either get a product that is not in its original form, so the record labels lose, or you get no product at all and that causes the video companies, the record labels and the consumers to all lose.

I’m not saying that the music labels should just give their work away, but at least take a reduced rate.  The argument could be made on the Saturday Night Live sets that people are buying it for the music because there have been some famous performances (Simon & Garfunkel reuniting, Elvis Costello changing songs after his ban had already started), but do you think anyone is picking up Third Watch for the music?  No, they aren’t.  So, instead of getting at least something for the music, the companies want the full boat and everyone loses.

Wake up record labels, you can have a dollar, or you can have nothing.  It’s your call.

The nominations for the 2010 Primetime Emmys are out, and like some sort of idiot, I decided to run the entire list … yes, even “picture editing”.

The most nominated series is Glee with 19, followed by Mad Men at 17.  The most nominated show though was HBO’s mini-series The Pacific with a whopping 24, however a boat load of those were in the technical areas.  Here is a breakdown of some of the shows with the most nominations.

24 Nominations
The Pacific

19 Nominations
Glee

17 Nominations
Mad Men

15 Nominations
Temple Grandin
30 Rock
You Don’t Know Jack

14 Nominations
Modern Family

12 Nominations
82nd Annual Academy Awards
Lost
Saturday Night Live

9 Nominations
Dancing With The Stars
Georgia O’Keeffe
The Good Wife

8 Nominations
Nurse Jackie

7 Nominations
The Amazing Race
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Return To Cranford (Masterpiece)

6 Nominations
American Idol
The Kennedy Center Honors
Life
Two and a Half Men

5 Nominations
The Big Bang Theory
Damages
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
The Special Relationship
True Blood
The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Concert
24

In the most amusing turn of events, The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien earned four nominations, while Jay Leno earned none for his primetime disaster or his return to The Tonight Show.

Overall the big winner this year is HBO with 101 nominations, but that still ranks as only its third highest year for nods.

Nominations are behind the “Continue Reading” link, and my apologies to those of you right now reading via RSS …

Continue Reading ->

Well, Saturday Night Live did it, they had 88-year-old Betty White host for the first time ever, and the results?

Best.Episode.In.Years!

Not only did Ms. White just kill it, we got to see the return of former SNL female cast members who are now moms.  This included Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph and Molly Shannon who all popped up through out the night. At first it seemed like this might be a way to take some pressure off Betty White, but that woman was in almost every sketch.  Kudos to her.

Overall this was the strongest episode in years, and I was in physical pain from laughing so much when it was over.  This season has been so-so at best, but this episode was truly one for the archives.  I’ve pasted all the available clips below, enjoy.

To those of you outside of the United States, my apologies you can’t watch these. Blame NBC/Hulu, not me. Due to the number of videos in this post, I’ve also cut it so those on the front page of the site don’t have to go through all of them loading.
Continue Reading ->

Another year has come to close, and has become tradition around here, it’s time to take a look at the top 10 posts for the past year.

First off, a huge thank you for the amazing growth this blog experienced this year.  In 2008 I saw growth I didn’t think could be topped with unique visitors growing by almost 600%, and page views growing by almost 700%.  I really didn’t think I could grow much more, but this year saw unique visitors grow by 325% and page views by 293% … I am floored.

My traffic is certainly not in the major leagues by any stretch of the imagination, but for a personal blog, it’s darn good.  I have no clue how I will continue this growth, but we’ll just have to see how things go.

Without further ado, here are the top 10 posts.

Saturday Night Live – Mother Lover – Last year saw the Who Is The Best James Bond? post bring in more traffic than the entire blog did in 2007.  Well, it happened again this year with Saturday Night Live – Mother Lover bringing in more traffic than the entire blog did in 2008.  Even without it in the equation, this year was still up, but boy did this post help out.  If you don’t know what the post is, just go and look, you’ll laugh.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Robot Pictures – Apparently when you can’t see the robots clearly in the movie, you turn to the Web for pictures of the robots so you know what the heck you were looking at.

47-Year-Old Susan Boyle Wows The Judges On Britain’s Got Talent – Ah, Susan Boyle.  She drove enough traffic to this site that I opened up SusanBoyleFandom.com.  She was an amazingly inspirational story, and said a lot about society and its perceptions.

And We Have The First Teacher Sex Scandal Of 2009 – Christine McCallum had the dubious honor of being the first of many teacher sex scandals I wrote up in 2009.  It was a busy year for teachers that didn’t know how to behave themselves.

Who Is The Best Star Trek Captain – Proving once again that you can come to SeanPAune.com for answers to the questions that keep you up late at night.  My selection for the order of the captains wasn’t too popular, but that is my right as the owner of the site to say things that not everyone agrees with.

Teacher Arrested For Texting Naked Photos To Student – Christy Lynn Martin, a 32-year-old teacher from St. Petersburg, FL was arrested for texting a 14-year-old student with naked photos of herself.  She is the second teacher to win a place on my top 10 posts of the year.

Vince Shlomi, The Shamwow Guy, Arrested For Beating A Hooker – Yes, the Shamwow guy hits women … and this apparently interested a lot of people.

Teacher Sarah L. Tolzien Accused Of Sex With 16-Year-Old – The third teacher to make the list of top 10 posts.  I really wish there were no teacher sex scandals to write about to be honest.

Student Teacher Lindsay Massaro Arrested For Sex With An Eigth Grader – Yes, another teacher … scary isn’t it?

Deadliest Catch Season 5 Premiere Brings More Questions Than It Answers – After the season premiere of Deadliest Catch season 5, it really looked like one of the main boats had sunk.  Luckily the boat didn’t sink, but people sure were curious after the episode aired.

Did you have a favorite post of the year I did?

Scattercast is 65 … WOO-HOO is it retirement time yet?

- Okay, yes, the SNL DVD set rant was probably a bit much, I admit it.

- Christopher Columbus is finally being treated properly by schools … about time.

- Okay, seriously, someone explain to me why Meghan McCain wearing a tank top is such a horror? (Warning: If you don’t feel you can deal with a man talking bluntly about breasts, but in a none sexual way, you may want to skip this episode)

- A brief follow-up to the whole FTC Guidelines (PDF link) debacle.

- An even briefer discussion of ebooks.

Here’s

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for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

I really wish DVD releases would just stick with a design through a logical stopping point.

I just picked up Saturday Night Live season 4 on sale, and while moving all of my TV show DVD sets to a new shelving unit, I popped it in its rightful place next to Saturday Night Live season 3 … and immediately cursed.

When I had received the set from Amazon I thought something felt “off” about it, and I was right.  Not only is the package of a cheaper material, it’s shorter.  I can understand wanting to save money, but couldn’t you have waited until a more logical changing point like season 6 (no original cast members remained after season 5)?

Other series have done this to me over the years, and it has always been annoying.  You like some uniformity to your sets, you like them to look like they belong together, but then they change up the appearance with no rhyme or reason, and you’re stuck.  The worst case of this was when the X-Files went from their original “fat packs” to the “slim packs” in the later seasons.  They were so radically different that it made them difficult to store together at all, let alone look nice.

So, feel free to change packaging when there is a major shift in the show, like when Simpsons season 1 – 5 had one look, and with season 6 they went on to another design.  That was fine, that made sense, this just seems random, and an obvious grab to save a few cents at the expense of the consumer who pays the same price for each season, and now has a totally random looking shelf.

Think about these things video companies, it will make your customers feel a lot less slighted.

(And, yes, I am aware only season 1 is unwrapped … I’m getting to the others eventually.)