Saturday Night Live/Brian Williams/Feist

Brian Williams/Feist
Season 33, Episode 3
Airdate	November 3, 2007
Production Number	1495
Written by	Seth Meyers Andrew Steele Paula Pell (head writers) Doug Abeles James Anderson Alex Baze James Downey Charlie Grandy Steve Higgins Colin Jost Erik Kenward John Lutz Lorne Michaels Matt Murray Marika Sawyer Akiva Schaffer Robert Smigel John Solomon Emily Spivey Jorma Taccone Bryan Tucker
Directed by	Don Roy King
← 33x03 Jon Bon Jovi/Foo Fighters	33x05 → Tina Fey/Carrie Underwood
Saturday Night Live — Season Thirty-Three

Brian Williams/Feist is the fourth episode of the thirty-third season of Saturday Night Live, and the six hundred thirty-first episode overall. It is the first appearance for both the host and musical guest. It is also the first time in which a sitting major network news anchor hosted the show.

Guest Stars: Brian Williams (Host), Feist (Musical Guest)

Special Guests: Horatio Sanz (Bill Richardson), Barack Obama (Himself)

Digital Short Guests: Matt Lauer (Himself), Al Roker (Himself), Bono (Himself)

Episode Breakdown

• Clinton House: Following the last Democratic presidential candidate debate, Hilary Clinton (Poehler) is hosting a Halloween party which all of the candidates are invited to. John Edwards (Forte) mistakes Clinton for a witch, although she insists that she's dressed as a bride. Bill Clinton (Hammond) was supposed to be dressed as a groom so that everyone knows that they're married, as if they didn't already, so he dressed as Mystery from The Pickup Artist instead. Other candidates are also around, like Bill Richardson (Sanz) dressed as Al Gore trying to angle for Clinton's running mate position and Chris Dodd (Hader) and Joe Biden (Sudeikis) who are both dressed as SpongeBob Squarepants and believe that they cancel each other out. Also around are Mike Gravel (Armisen) dressed in a straight jacket "costume" and Dennis Kucinich making out with his surprisingly attractive wife (Wiig), a sight which causes Bill to comment that he wouldn't be regretting that marriage after 30 years. Finally Barack Obama cameos and says that he'll never compromise his position and will always be himself, even if it's Halloween—a veiled attack on Clinton's changing stance on several issues.
• Brian Williams' Monologue: Williams, along with the rest of America, wonder aloud if this is "really a good idea." Williams claims that he though that he was following in a tradition of respected newsmen who have been on the show before him. Williams wasn't informed until the dress rehearsal that those newsmen were just cast members doing impressions, so he called Ted Koppel for advice. And when Koppel returns his call in two weeks, he'll probably say that he should get out now. But, instead he says that he's going to try to shed his stiff image and relax, although when he's talking about relaxing and being spontaneous, a box above his head lists what he'll be doing.
• Maybelline for Men: Bill shows up with a 12 pack of beer for his friends watching a football game, but they're all put off by the fact that he's clearly wearing makeup. He tells them that it's makeup for men and that it's hardly noticeable, since that's what it says on the box. After hearing that the box said something like that, they believe him and start using the makeup themselves.
• Bronx Beat - Paul: Betty Caruso (Poehler) and Jodi (Rudolph) host a talk show in Long Island that starts out with them talking about Jodi's irritable bowel syndrome and the weather changing. They introduce their guest, a Bronx firefighter named Paul (Williams) who has been going around to schools to inform kids about fire safety. They start getting onto tangents about how a person started the fires in San Diego and how glad they are that Halloween is over. Despite all this Paul stiffly tells them that they shouldn't try to grab anything if there were a fire and tries to keep on topic. Eventually, the hosts start hitting on him which turns to the hosts discreetly talking about being "in charge of your own pleasure." The hosts leave Paul in charge of finishing the show so that they can go drink instead.
• Riley's Way Finale: During the filming of the final episode of Riley's Way, a high school drama on The CW, three teenager characters (Thompson, Poehler, Samberg) talk about how graduation is just the beginning. Principal Jefferies, played by Barry (Williams), is supposed to come in and give some advice and say "Class dissmissed." Because of a technical glitch, they have to do the scene again, but in the break one of the actors lets slip that there's a spin-off called Riley's Way: The College Years which Barry won't be in because he's so overbearing and off putting even though he was in Quantum Leap. In the next take, Barry angrilly breaks character and ruins the scene by calling one student fat, one gay and simply telling the last to go to hell. They cut and Barry tries to get the director to write him into the spin-off, but Paul (Sudeikis) dismisses it as being unrealistic. He tries to write in his own transfer by appearing in the next take saying that he never got his college degree, but he's shot down. He tries one more time with an impassioned speech about Leap and the director decides to rewrite it so that Jeffries is killed off and replaced with the guy who killed him, originally a PA marking scenes (Hader).
• Publisher's Clearing House: Cheryl Wright (Wiig) is about it award $15 million to a man named Carl Bacon (Williams), but when she announces that he's won the prize to him on live television he's less than enthusiastic. Wright tries to off-set his lack of excitement with her own, but he still won't do much more than scowl, eat an apple and talk in a monotonous tone of voice. Dismayed by his lack of reaction, Wright shows clips of previous winner reacting to nudge him towards getting excited, but it doesn't work. After the montage, someone delivers a pizza to Bacon and he's more shocked about the free cheesy bread than the check.
• SNL Digital Short - Brian Diaries: Williams explains that because people wonder what it's like to be a news anchor, he allowed a camera to follow him around in a typical day. He starts that day out by standing outside of NBC's studios until somebody recognizes him. He then exercises in by wearing rollerblades on a treadmill, eats lunch in a roped off section of the NBC cafeteria and leaves a message to someone saying how great they are and how much he loves them. After the call, he throws pennies at Al Roker and Matt Lauer from his office and meditates about being cooler than Bono. Afterwards, he watches "his favorite newsman" (himself) on TV before doing the news and checking his voicemail. The voicemail, naturally, has the message he left to that unspecified person earlier.
• 1234: Feist song.
• Weekend Update:
  • Roger A. Trivanti (Armisen) tries to give perspective on the WGA Strike by giving the studio head's perspective on the matter. He complains about writers calling poverty when they make $200,000 per year at the most. He says that his $20 million isn't that much money and isn't nearly enough money compared to formerly getting entire houses filled with money. He also complains about how there isn't money in the $29 of profit they make from DVD production to pay the writers more. He says that he'll have to fly first class and not insulate his pool house with gold bars thanks to concessions in strikes. He finishes by wishing that all writers get "ass cancer and die."
  • Barbara Birmingham (Thompson), the Update nanny, gives commentary on Halloween and complains about how the most popular costume for girls was apparently that of a whore. She says that kids are pushing freedom of expression too far because when she was growing up the only costumes they had were "milkman" and "slave." Meyers says that slave isn't a costume and Birmingham tries to attack Meyers but she calms down to plug her book, "Daddy's Little Whore: A Damn Shame" and attack Meyers again when he says that Gimbells closed 10 years ago.
• Larry King Live: Larry King (Armisen) interviews J.K. Rowling (Poehler) about her announcement that Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books, is gay. She responds to detractors by saying that it was once obvious in the movies that Dumbledore was a homosexuality, but the scenes had to be cut. Several of those clips are shown, including Minerva McGonnigal (Wiig) trying to get Dumbledore (Hader) to go to the Quidditch match, but he just laments over getting a "booty owl" from his ex-boyfriend Jerry Shanks. Another scene shows him depressed over how fat he is and how he saw Shanks at a gay bar in Hogsmeade. A final scene shows him at the gay bar hitting on men, despites McGonnigal's protests. After the clips, King comes to the conclusion that all wizards are gay, although Rowling insists that wizards aren't real. He also says that Dumbledore would probably be a Magic Polar Bear in gay terminology and that whether or not wizards are real is a topic for another show.
• iPhone: A man (Armisen) stars in an iPhone commercial talking about how, during dinner with his wife, he got a phone call from a girl he's seeing on the side. Thanks to iPhone technology, she's in his address book under the name of the violin player for Dave Matthews Band and he can zoom in on the picture of her butt that she sent him. He can also erase the conversation before he gets back to the table, so his wife will never know. He comments that the girl is French-Canadian, was in Circe du Soleil and the things she does with her body makes him wish he could leave his wife.
• Drexel Democratic Debate: At the site of the last Democratic debate at Drexel University, Williams is prepping the candidates for the placement of the candidates. He explains that they're all placed due to the drawing of lots, except for Clinton since the media has already decided that they wnat her to win. While Clinton and Williams are conducting a pre-debate interview in another room, the remaining candidates try to plot against her. Edwards (Forte) suggests that Richardson (Sanz) claim that she's anti-Hispanic, Biden (Sudeikis) suggests that Edwards sue her, although there's no reason. Kucinich asks if they can talk about his bill to start a "Federal Department of Cat Outreach" and Mike Gravel, who isn't in the debate at all, says that he's going to try to deck her if he gets a chance. He also suggests that they kidnap her. Surprisingly, they all decide to go along with Gravel's kidnapping plot, but that falls apart when someone (Wiig) tells him that he's not in the debate off screen and he goes on a shooting rampage. They all then decide to just try to be polite but firm in the debate and hope that they aren't portrayed as sexist bullies. Of course, they are.
• I Feel It All: Feist song.
• NBC News Intro: In a meeting with several executives for NBC News, one executive (Poehler) says that they can't make traction with the younger demographic. Another executive (Hader) suggests that Mo Rocca do a nightly blog report, but it's shot down by a yes man (Sudeikis). The decide that they need to focus on the intro first and foremost. Williams brings in a band known for doing jingles called Dunnam and Kirk (Armisen, Samberg, Wiig, Forte, Rudolph) with throws out several ideas, all of which flail, especially the rap and the song that was clearly just the theme from Frasier. Williams asks them what they did with his idea, but the executives didn't pass it on. He insists and the decide to go with his idea for a new opening: a James Bond parody with a theme song that keeps repeating "Watch out world, here comes the Williams" while Williams beats up villains and girls dance in the background.

Notes

"Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!"

• Barack Obama as himself.

Music

• "1234," performed by Feist: The first song performed in the episode by musical guest Feist was "1234" off The Reminder. The song was only moderately popular before it gained prominence by being attached to an iPod Nano commercial. The mainstream breakthrough pushed her download rate to 6,000 downloads per week and pushed the album nearly into the Billboard 200 Top 10.

• "I Feel It All," performed by Feist: Feist's second performance was of "I Feel It All," another song off The Reminder. The song is less well known that "1234" or "My Moon, My Man," which was also used in a commercial. It is expected to be named as a new single from the album or, at least, to be licensed to another commercial.

Trivia

The Show

• Milestone: This episode marks the first time that a network news anchor has hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. This isn't Brian Williams' first appearance on the show, however. He last appeared in a short mid-commercial sketch on the season premiere of season 32. The joke was that Williams assumed that he would get the anchoring gig on Weekend Update and was angry when Seth Meyers got the job.
• Cut Sketch: In the dress rehearsal, there was a second iPhone sketch featuring Jason Sudeikis that was cut in favor of another sketch. The sketch starred Sudeikis as the owner of a store who happens to enjoy punching cops. He explained that with the iPhone, he's free to punch a cop and run to the nearest bar where he can figure out an escape route from there. He also says that the iPhone also gives him access to his videos on YouTube and some tunes to listen to while he's coming off of his meth high. When he finishes the ad, he's chased away from the backdrop by a couple of police officers. The sketch was later leaked to Gizmodo.com. This sketch replaced the Armisen iPhone sketch in reruns.

Behind the Scenes

• Stopping Point: This was the final episode before the WGA strike shut down production on the series. As a result of the strike the announced new episode with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson hosting and musical guest Amy Winehouse did not happen as it was scheduled.
• Hacked: The iPhone which appears in the parody commercial is actually a hacked version of the phone. Conspiracy theorists figured that it was NBC harboring ill-will towards Apple connected to their recent pull out from iTunes, but in the end it turned out to just be the only way to show all of the icons on the phone without having to show a particular service provider.