Subject: Saturday Night Live

• Main Street Improv

  8 p.m. Thursdays

  January 2, 2003

• Mr. Saturday Night

  Darrell Hammond makes a good impression at the Laff Stop

  June 23, 2005

• Drenched in Blog: Why the Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special Creeps Me Out

  In 1988, few things were as cool or innovative on Saturday mornings as Pee-Wee's Playhouse. Each week, we screamed the secret word, connected dots, watched old weird-ass cartoons and saw Saturday Night Live star Phil Hartman play a surly sea captain. The show was something five-year olds and hungover twentysomethings could all enjoy. But the Christmas special that came that holiday season is beyond understanding even 20 years on. Not until Drenched watched it again a few years b

  December 12, 2008

• Slideshow: Snakes on an Album

  One of the songs slithering around Rocks Off's head lately is "Snake Farm," the title track to grizzled Hill Country troubador Ray Wylie Hubbard's 2006 album, where the singer and a comely employee of the ramshackle reptile house between San Marcos and New Braunfels get it on amongst the other tongue-flicking creatures. That set him wondering how many other musicians the legless vipers have inspired, both musically and visually, and it turns out quite a few others have snakes on the bra

  December 22, 2008

• The Best Pop Culture Gifts of 2008

  There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who wear fake reindeer antlers during the Christmas season and those that don't. I am the former. What. You thought I would be the latter? Just because I love to make fun of crap? Honestly, what kind of pop culture writer would I be if I didn't take the time to celebrate the season of giving? Mostly giving crap, but I digress. This year has given me, Miss Pop Rocks, a lot to be thankful for. Brit Brit's comeback, for one, has freed me t

  December 25, 2008

• Press Picks

  September 15, 1994

• A Few Rejected Inaugural Ball Theme Songs

  Eminem feat. Dr. Dre & 50 Cent, "Crack A Bottle" The Good: Many bottles will be popped during tonight's festivities, we imagine, if not quite as many models. Also, the ongoing partnerships between this trio of rap titans says something about the present state of race relations in this country, right? Or about how while people are no longer the sole exploiters of assorted cultural traditions? The Bad: Fitty's already got a head as fat as Epcot Center; no need to inflate it any further. The

  January 20, 2009

• The Lonely Island: Incredibad

  April 9, 2009

• T.I.

  March 12, 2009

• Malt Shop Burger at Cheeburger Cheeburger

  January 29, 2009

• Damon Wayans

  The star of In Living Color and Saturday Night Live is back onstage

  November 13, 2008

• Single File

  October 23, 2008

• Teenage Anarchy

  How The Nightfly learned to stop worrying and love Ashlee Simpson

  April 28, 2005

• The Wedding Singer

  The Adam Sandler film comes to the stage, sans Sandler

  May 8, 2008

• No Drama for Baby Mama

  Neither Tina Fey nor Amy Poehler seem the least bit invested in their surrogate mommy comedy

  April 24, 2008

• Raheem DeVaughn

  Love Behind the Melody

  February 14, 2008

• The Bourne Ultimatum, December Boys, Interview, Undead or Alive

  December 13, 2007

• The Girl Next Door, Ford at Fox, Saturday Night Live: The Complete Second Season, The Wire: The Complete Fourth Season

  December 6, 2007

• Seasons in the Sun

  September 6, 2007

• They Killed the Dog

  August 30, 2007

• A Little Finesse

  January 26, 2006

• DVDs

  Cannibal Corpse

  May 31, 2007

• ¡Ask A Mexican! Contest!

  January 25, 2007

• A Masterpiece on Canvas

  December 7, 2006

• These Dogs Still Hunt

  October 26, 2006

• Our top DVD picks for the week of May 23

  May 25, 2006

• Now Dirtier than Ever

  January 26, 2006

• Walking Paradox

  The dazzling Evita makes a stop in Houston

  September 15, 2005

• Fringe Benefits

  Main Street Theater revives the precursor to Python

  June 30, 2005

• Hail to the King

  SNL writer-comedian T. Sean Shannon pays tribute to a local comic legend: his brother

  December 16, 2004

• Rotation

  Handsome Boy Modeling School, Molotov and Rufus Wainwright

  December 9, 2004

• The Joy of Cooking

  Las Nuevas Tamaleras is a corny kitchen comedy

  November 11, 2004

• What Was That?

  Horton hears a Who in Seussical

  June 24, 2004

• Bears in Bed

  SNL writer T. Sean Shannon stands up for himself at the Laff Stop

  May 27, 2004

• Mates of State

  Team Boo (Polyvinyl)

  November 13, 2003

• The Music The

  If you want poetry, read a book

  November 13, 2003

• Free Will

  Another SNL vet may be the next Bill Murray. Seriously.

  November 6, 2003

• The Shannon Brothers Family Christmas

  Thursday, December 19 through Sunday, December 23

  December 19, 2002

• Fallon Fast

  Saturday Night Live's prime player is rapidly outgrowing television's small screen

  August 22, 2002

• All in the Family

  The Shannon Brothers reunite in the name of comedy

  December 13, 2001

• No Laughing Matter

  Cheerleader proves that gay "recovery" therapy is still too controversial a subject for comedy

  July 27, 2000

• I'm Crushing Your Head!

  The Kids in the Hall

  February 3, 2000

• Geek Orthodox

  Superstar's Shannon makes a strangely affecting nerd

  October 7, 1999

• Weekend Update

  Comedian Colin Quinn

  August 26, 1999

• Aftermath: New York Dolls & Black Joe Lewis at the House Of Blues

  Photos by Daniel Kramer Aftermath is not going to purport to know what the New York Dolls were like live, in their Thundered and Killer-ed heyday of kitsch and campy kiss-offs. We weren't even in Pre-K when Buster Poindexter was singing "Hot Hot Hot" on Saturday Night Live. But for chrissakes, they couldn't have been this awkward and stunted. (Thanks, YouTube.) It can't be age, because folks like Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop are of an age when "one should know better" and they still look like

  June 5, 2009

• The Night a Well-Aimed Shoe Ended Smashing Pumpkins' Houston Goodwill

  Today Rocks Off is starting a recurring series of local music urban legends; not so much 'urban legends' in the sense of oft-repeated stories that turn out to be false - though those are fine too - but actual legends: events and incidents that get talked about so much they become a part of local lore. Know something that we should look into? Email chris.gray@houstonpress.com.​In November 1993, Smashing Pumpkins were about to break big. The band had just released its second LP, Siamese Dream, a

  August 25, 2009

• Jay Mohr

  September 3, 2009

• The Week In TV: Seriously. You Need to Watch Community

  I know you think the only event of note last week in TV Land was the sad departure of Tom DeLay from Dancing With the Stars. But Dazzle Me Dreamy's punk out was only the beginning. NBC canceled Southland, which is officially the first victim of uber-hack Jay Leno's primetime talk show. Granted, the cop show wasn't stellar, but it was consistently good; it was basically The Wire: Lite with prettier and whiter people. But it had solid stories, and more importantly, it was the kind of quasi-su

  October 12, 2009

• Cap'n Kittens and Friends

  October 22, 2009

• The Pogues

  October 29, 2009