It finally happened – Jay Leno (hopefully) went off into the sunset and blog favorite Jimmy Fallon took over the reins of The Tonight Show. I’ve only been able to see one show so far, but I’ve been pleased with what I’ve seen. He seems to be keeping the same general show that he had when he was doing Late Night, which I think is a good thing. I’ll just be happy when he finally takes over his real time slot – starting the show at midnight to accommodate the Olympics is just late enough that I can’t justify staying up to watch it live. I cannot tell you how nervous I was watching the first show of his Tonight Show tenure; I think I would have been less nervous if I was up there telling jokes.
But the succession in late night isn’t the only thing that has been going on in the world of pop culture; despite the long shadow that the Olympics has shined over the landscape, a lot has been happening in the last two weeks. While you’ve been busy watching curling, I’ve been compiling all the links that you might have missed. So here’s your biweekly cheat sheet on some of the stories that you might have missed:
- In honor of the man of the hour, here are 39 facts about Fallon. Please note the mention of College of St. Rose, which I drive by every day on my way to work.
- See a 17 year old Jimmy in his first stand up performance:
- Here’s Jimmy’s Saturday Night Live audition:
- The Tonight Show is off to a good start with 7.1 rating.
- Joan Rivers broke her decades long ban by appearing on The Tonight Show during Jimmy’s first show.
- What does Conan think of all this? Classy as always:
- Showtime has renewed Shameless and House of Lies.
- This perk alone is worth becoming president – Obama has requested advance episodes of True Detective and Game of Thrones.
- Jon Heder will play Jane Kaczmarek’s son in a FOX pilot.
- A Fraggle Rock spinoff is coming to Hulu.
- This has real potential: Gillian Flynn and David Fincher are teaming up for an HBO series.
- I love this profile of Mr. Rogers from Esquire.
- Indy darling Greta Gerwig has signed on to star in the HIMYM spinoff.
- Cee Lo Green will not be returning to The Voice.
- Ellen Page gave a moving coming out speech at the Human Rights Campaign conference.
- Well this will be awesome – The Simpsons are doing an all-LEGO episode in May.
- Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon are fans of Mean Girls.
- Chris Pratt and Danny McBride are rumored to be in talks for a Knight Rider movie.
- The Rock’s football series at HBO has been picked up to series. HOORAY!
- Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) wrote a movie for Kanye West. SOMEONE NEEDS TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN!!!!
- I did surprisingly terrible on this Oscar quiz.
- A start date and a title for John Oliver’s new show at HBO have been announced.
- Stephen Colbert is now the First Lady of France:
His logic is flawless.
- Revenge is getting a graphic novel prequel.
- For those about to rock, AC/DC are working on a new album.
- There is an Adventure Time cookbook.
- FOX’s Gotham just got a hell of a lot more interesting with the addition of Donal Logue and Benjamin McKenzie.
- Topher Grace has launched a blog.
- Romany Malco will star in Kevin Hart’s ABC pilot.
- What would a Sons of Anarchy video game look like?
- HBO has renewed Getting On.
- Of course, I love this infographic guide to dating Seinfeld:
- There will be a mini-Seinfeld reunion on TV Land’s Kirstie, which is still not enough to get me to watch Kirstie.
- Y’all know I love Jerry, but his claiming that The LEGO Movie stole one of his jokes is some pretty weak sauce. Twitter landed some good burns however.
- Check out Walter White’s Facebook Look Back video:
- A woman was jailed for failing to return a VHS copy of Monster-in-Law nine years ago. That is not a movie worth going to jail for.
- Adam Brody and Leighton Meester allegedly pulled off a secret wedding.
- TBS ordered a pilot from Conan, starring comic Jimmy Pardo.
- Will there be a surprise villain in the new Captain America movie?
- Will Ferrell launches a female-focused film and TV production company.
- This is a potentially fascinating development – are Jared Leto and Lupita Nyong’o dating?
- ABC has cancelled Ravenswood.
- Leonardo DiCaprio’s “atrocious singing voice” cost him a role in Moulin Rouge.
- There is just so much to love in the Kraft mac and cheese ad:
Vanilla Ice as a stock boy? TOTALLY believable.
- Stevie Nicks has written some Game of Thrones inspired poetry.
- Karen Gillan (Doctor Who) will star in the ABC pilot Selfie.
- Rose McIver will replace Kiernan Shipka in Lifetime’s follow up to Flowers in the Attic, Petals on the Wind.
- Richard E. Grant and Anna Chancellor will appear on the next season of Downton Abbey.
- Jim Parsons will host SNL.
- Fred Armisen will be the band leader on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
- Here’s a look at Meyers’ first week of guests. The revamped Late Night debuts next week.
- Haley Joel Osment will be in the Entourage movie.
- John Travolta has allegedly had meetings about playing a Bond villain in the future.
- Berlin has a Big Lebowski themed bar.
- Prepare to have your mind blown: The mom of the creator of the show Terriers (R.I.P. – gone too soon) owns the terrier that won the Westminster Dog Show.
- Lots of people will return for Pitch Perfect 2.
- Cristin Milioti has landed a pilot at NBC.
- Comedy legend Sid Caesar passed away. See Conan and Mel Brooks pay tribute:
- We also lost Shirley Temple when she died at the age of 85. I had to laugh at her (unexpected) response to being asked to appear on The Simpsons.
- Alyson Hannigan has already line up her post HIMYM project.
- I don’t think that the reboot did that well at the theater, but here’s 26 things that you might not have known about the original Robocop.
- I’m bummed that this Sherlock exhibit isn’t coming to the area.
- I was so sad to hear about the passing of John Henson, puppeteer and son of Jim Henson.
- CBS is considering another CSI spinoff.
- James Franco is making a movie about the making of The Room.
- Norman Reedus will star in a sci fi thriller Air, produced by Robert Kirkman.
- EW rounds up the references in The LEGO Movie.
- If you enjoyed the movie as much as I did, you’ll get a kick out of The LEGO Movie “blooper” reel:
- Ride Along 2 is happening.
- Alec Baldwin will guest star on Law & Order: SVU.
- Aaron Paul momentarily was laying low, but now he’s back to his awesome self, hanging out at the Cheers bar in Boston.
- David Crosby underwent heart surgery and has postponed his tour.
- The final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be on Netflix.
- John Leguizamo joins The Good Wife.
- Karen O will perform at the Oscars.
- They are going to reboot Stephen King’s IT.
- CBS has announced the midseason premiere dates for new shows Bad Teacher and Unforgettable.
- See Will Arnett read school closings as Batman:
- The metal band And Still I Rise features two actors that were on Days of Our Lives.
- Pushing Daisies may become a musical.
- Scrubs may also head to Broadway. TV shows aren’t cancelled – they just become fodder for musicals.
- You can stream Beck’s new album over at NPR.
- After a lot of hullabaloo and speculation, Vanity Fair has decided not to run their Gwyneth Paltrow article.
- Amazon has renewed Alpha House for a second season.
- A visual guide to who owns the movie rights to various Marvel characters:
- The star of the National Geographic reality show, Snake Salvation, died from a snake bite. That’s some M. Night Shyamalan stuff right there – who saw THAT coming?
- A full list of the BAFTA winners (aka the British Oscars).
- Someone created a YouTube channel where they remove Michelle from episodes of Full House.
- See Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Ryu from Street Fighter in this clip from The Pete Holmes Show:
- In a desperate attempt to stay relevant, VH-1 has ordered a naked dating show.
- Chicago’s WGN is developing a series about the later years of Eliot Ness.
- TNT has cancelled Mob City.
- Channing Tatum has a bust of Matthew McConaughey. I absolutely need one of these for my living room.
- If you are caught up on Game of Thrones (or don’t mind spoilers), check out this wedding cake inspired by the show.
- Elaine Stritch dropped a F-bomb on The Today Show.
- Mary-Louise Parker may be returning to the small screen.
- The guys behind Catfish are adapting the YA novel Nerve.
- Nike will make the power laces featured in Back to the Future.
- Ben Affleck and Matt Damon make fun of each other for charity.
- I still can’t decide how I feel about Drake, but his temper tantrum about the cover of Rolling Stone doesn’t add to the plus column.
- Conan O’Brien is bringing his show to Dallas in April. Might be time to plan a visit to the Big D.
- Michael Keaton confirms that he is in talks for Beetlejuice 2.
- 30 Rock’s Katrina Bowden has joined TNT’s crime drama Public Morals.
- Check out this Parenthood/Friday Night Lights crossover on this NBC webseries:
- A movie about the Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy romance is in the works.
- I think my desk needs some of these new action figures from The Goonies, Pulp Fiction and Back to the Future.
- Cameron Crowe’s next movie will be released at Christmas.
- Stephen King will release a new book in November.
- Comedian Gabriel Iglesias will bring The Fluffy Movie to theaters this summer.
- An interview with the creators of the video game featured in Her.
- Esquire has a story on The Warriors.
- While I’m still very bummed about Derek Jeter’s retirement, you have to admit that his dating history is pretty dang impressive:
- Even I am not immune to the charms of the Jamaican bobsled team and their theme song.
- Wait – it THIS what I’m missing by not watching the Olympics? A Swedish skier paid tribute to ODB by yelling “Wu-Tang is for the children.” I may have to reconsider my hardnosed stance.
- If for some reason you want to learn the dance from the beach episode of Girls, there’s a tutorial for that.
- Ron Howard is in talks to direct The Jungle Book.
- Tumblrs of the week: 90s Figure Skating and Shoshi Games.
- Will Forte’s pilot has been picked up to series by FOX.
- J.K. Rowling is writing another book as Robert Galbraith. Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose?
- The Murder, She Wrote reboot may be dead (ha!), but Octavia Spencer already landed another pilot.
- If at first you don’t succeed……Charlie Sheen is engaged to a porn star. What could possibly go wrong? For those playing along at home, this will be Sheen’s 4th trip down the aisle.
- Well that didn’t take long – Insane Clown Posse and their Juggalos have already been kicked out of their prospective Gathering site.
- A&E has ordered more episodes of Wahlburgers.
- Jay Leno once appeared on an episode of Good Times. It was his first acting gig.
- Black Widow will have a larger role in Avengers 2.
Trailers:
- The first Guardians of the Galaxy trailer debuted last night:
- Jake Gyllenhaal has a dual role in The Double:
- A teaser for the 2nd season of Inside Amy Schumer:
- Tom Hardy in Locke:
- Christopher Meloni in Surviving Jack, a new sitcom at FOX:
- A trailer for the second season of Orange is the New Black. I can’t wait!!
- John Cusack in Drive Hard
- Nicolas Cage in Joe:
- An extended trailer for the Spanish language version of Breaking Bad:
I’d watch that.
- The Purge: Anarchy:
- A teaser trailer for the new season of Veep:
- Bob Casale of Devo has passed away.
- This Game of Thrones puzzle is pretty badass.
- Simon Cowell is a dad.
- Dylan Minnette and Jack Black will co-star in the Goosebumps movie.
- A chef in Detroit has made a menu based on Radiohead’s Kid A.
- Mark McGrath, Judd Hirsh and Vivica A. Fox have joined the cast of Sharknado 2. That makes me sad for Judd Hirsh.
- Bethany Frankel’s talk show was cancelled.
- Community’s Joel McHale will host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
- Christina Aguilera is engaged.
- Katherine Heigl is the latest celeb to turn to crowd funding to finance a project.
- Rosie Perez discusses her feud with Jennifer Lopez in a new memoir, which is the first I’m hearing of a feud with J Lo.
- I’ve got my doubts about this one – Lifetime is developing a movie about Jesus’ lost early years.
- Lifetime has also ordered the dystopian thriller The Lottery to series.
- A Pixar artist turned 25 classic R-rated movies into family-friendly drawings.
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogan are re-teaming for a Christmas movie.
- Julianne Moore and Zach Galifianakis have joined Ellen Page in Freeheld.
- Ralph Waite from The Waltons has passed away.
- Comedy Central has revealed what comedians are getting half hour comedy specials in 2014.
- The CW renewed a bunch of shows.
- Nick Jonas has joined DirecTV’s MMA drama.
- A mini Full House reunion will happen on ABC’s The Neighbors.
- Do with this info what you will – Martha Stewart’s celebrity crush is Christian Bale.
- Matt Groening lists his favorite 10 episodes of The Simpsons.
- Madonna has launched a skin care brand.
- Lil Kim is going to be a mom.
As always, we wrap up with the mashups and supercuts
- I don’t even want to tell you how long I played this Sesame Street/Street Fighter game.
- The same goes for Sesame Street’s answer to Flappy Birds – Flappy Bert.
- Time created a supercut of all of Hollywood’s highest grossing movies.
- I love this New Orleans style cover of Guns N Roses “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
- This year’s best movie nominees recreated in LEGOs.
- This couple breaks up – using 154 movie titles:
- A supercut of hit songs from 2000, which appears to have been a very dark time for music:
- A supercut of cats in movies:
- As a former Greek, I was amused by this The Wolf of Wall Street parody, The Wolf of Phi Psi:
- And finally, Billy Ray Cyrus has redone Achy Breaky Heart as a hip-hop jam. For reals, people: