When our parent's generation watched “Saturday Night Live”, they tuned in to see skits with Eddie Murphy, John Belushi and many other talented comedians emerging in the early ‘80s. Our generation watched SNL to see Jimmy Fallon sing a hilarious holiday song, play Jarret the stoner and co-anchor "Weekend Update" with Tina Fey.
Jimmy Fallon was a part of the SNL cast for six years, but in 2004 he said goodbye to the critically acclaimed sketch comedy show to pursue an acting career. He obtained minor roles while still on the show in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" and the miniseries "Band of Brothers," produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. In the films "Taxi" and "Fever Pitch," Fallon was the lead actor alongside Queen Latifah and Drew Barrymore.
But Fallon found that his true calling was hosting. Fallon hosted the MTV Movie Awards twice and the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002. As of March 2009, Fallon has found a permanent hosting gig on his own show, "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," airing at 12:37 a.m. on NBC Monday through Friday. Fallon puts his own spin on pop culture parodying "Twilight's" Robert Pattinson and TV shows such as “Glee” and “Lost.” He invites audience members to freestyle with The Roots and compete for the best spit take (what is just what it sounds like — literally spitting water in each others’ faces.)
Although Fallon has a popular show on his hands, he has also received one of the most sought after hosting gigs in the industry. The comedian and host extraordinaire is hosting the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards this Sunday. The Emmys, which honor the best TV programming of the year, will air live at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Fallon chatted on the phone with an Eagle reporter about his newest hosting gig.
"You get to see new people you've never heard of,” Fallon said in an interview with The Eagle. “It's a real fun, exciting event and I'm just so psyched to be hosting it. I'm very happy."
But Fallon is not letting his excitement get the best of him — he is taking his duties as a host very seriously.
"We're going to do something different this year at this Emmys that no one's ever done,” Fallon said. “We're going to do the exact same show that Neil Patrick Harris did last year word for word."
Fallon is taking on a tough feat, as critics love to slay a bad awards show host. Fallon's outlook is staying positive and confident.
“It's a tough gig,” he said, “but you can't really do it for the reviews. I mean, I'm hosting my show [and] I think we're almost on our 300th show. So that's what I do for a living. I host."
Fallon and NBC are playing with the traditional award show format this year by utilizing one of the top social media websites, Twitter. Through Fallon's personal page (@jimmyfallon), fans of the nominees and Jimmy alike are given the opportunity to write introductions for 15 Emmy presenters. If the tweet is funny, Fallon will read it live during the show. Fallon has used Twitter on his own show multiple times and wanted try it out on the Emmys.
"We thought this was a pretty cool idea because this technology hasn't existed before in the past,” he said. “Now Twitter's out there and it's happening so I think it could be a good thing. [And] you know just as well as I do, old people love to tweet."
Fallon does not seem to be nervous or fazed about hosting the Emmys. However, he confessed his biggest challenge is looking good.
"Keeping my weight down [is the hardest part],” he said. “I got Spanx made. Tom Ford made my Spanx this year. If you were going to ask me who I'm wearing that's what I'd say."
Although Fallon is keeping his skits a secret, he plans to have fun and do what he does best.
"I'm going to definitely embrace all the fun, interesting things that happened in television this year —which I think was a great year — whether it be the new shows like ‘Modern Family’ and ‘Glee’ or the shows that are going away like ‘Lost’ and ‘24’ and ‘Law and Order,’" Fallon said.
Fallon has come a long way in his career and hopefully hosting the Emmys will only take him higher. With his own show getting great ratings and winning two Emmys of his own — one for “Late Night’s” website and another for editing — Fallon is having a fantastic year. And who knows? Maybe after he rocks the Emmy stage he will return to SNL and grace the show with a holiday song.
thescene@theeagleonline.com.
