The first ever episode of Saturday Night Live aired on this date, back in 1975—so it's time to say Happy Birthday to Lorne Michaels & Co. (may we suggest some Schweddy Balls?). Recently, we revisited the early days with these audition tapes, and below, you can check out scenes from Season 1. Here is host George Carlin's opening monologue from the first night, which he begins, "Thank you! Talk about a live show! It's nice to see you, welcome, and thanks for joining us—live. Um.. I'm kinda glad that we're on at night, so that we're not competing with all the football and baseball. So many, man.. And this is the time of year when there's both, you know?" more ›

Today would have been Michael Jackson's 53rd birthday! The King of Pop died in 2009, and since then there has been an annual celebration in Brooklyn around the time of his birthday—but alas, his year's has been postponed (due to weather, of course) to a yet to be determined date. So while we wait, let's look back at some of our favorite MJ moments. Check out the videos below, and here's a look at MJ in NYC (also: never forget that time he went on a post-9/11 road trip with Marlon Brando and Liz Taylor). more ›

In the Golden Era of Netflix, the good old-fashioned video rental store is dying out—but alcohol might help! Williamsburg movie shoppe Videology (who gave us their Staff Picks a few weeks ago) is adding a bar and screening room, in the attempt to convince customers that there's more to life than instant streaming. They do say bars are recession-proof! more ›

MTV is finally doing something right, they're bringing back 120 Minutes, the show that should have formed the network that eventually turned its back on music for Snooki. Anyway, it's sort of making a comeback. Today we received a press release that it will return to MTV2 as an on-air monthly show later this year, and as a weekly online show called 120 Seconds (attention spans have changed) on MTV Hive beginning tomorrow. more ›

As you know, every two-bit political hack hankering for a taste of the limelight is wallowing in sanctimonious fauxtrage over the Islamic center planned for downtown Manhattan, commonly misidentified as the "Ground Zero Mosque." Today, as the audience shouted "Shame!" the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to deny landmark status to the building that will be torn down to build the 13-story community center, which is now called Park51 (the address is 45-51 Park Place). But one of the project's planners is trying to make peace with the opposition by promising to include a memorial for 9/11 victims. That ought to defuse everything. more ›

In the wake of the infamous undercover pimp/prostitute videos that got the community outreach group ACORN in such hot water in September, the group hired Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger to conduct an internal investigation. The results are now in, and ACORN's CEO Bertha Lewis calls it "part vindication, part constructive criticism and 100% roadmap to the future." Harshbarger says he "did not find a pattern of intentional, illegal conduct by ACORN staff involved; in fact, no action, illegal or otherwise, was ever taken by any ACORN employee on behalf of the videographers. Instead, the videos represent the byproduct of ACORN's longstanding management weaknesses, including a lack of training, a lack of procedures and a lack of onsite supervision." Well, that settles that, right? more ›

The embattled community organizing group ACORN is filing a lawsuit today in Maryland District Court, accusing individuals behind an embarrassing series of hidden camera videos of violating state law by recording employees' conversations without permission. Similar to the videos recorded in ACORN's Brooklyn offices, the Maryland video shows workers giving inappropriate advice to two filmmakers (left) posing as prostitute and pimp seeking assistance in getting a house for a brothel. Alan Schwartz, general counsel for Acorn, accused the fake pimp, James O’Keefe, of "trying to destroy an organization whose principal purpose is to help poor people." more ›

MTV is finally canceling their TRL (Total Request Live) series, after rumors have been circulating about its demise for over a year. Variety reports that the show, which has had a long shelf life as is—lasting over a decade—"will depart in mid-November with a two-hour Saturday-afternoon special. Its departure will coincide with the return of another music vid-themed show, Feedback New MTV (FNMTV)." The screams in Times Square have been slowly fading since the show's beginning, but will they now be muted forever? more ›

NYC TV's New York Noise just returned with a slew of new episodes for their 8th season. The show has been on the air for 4 years, having quickly become an institution for music fans and a place for bands (local and otherwise) to showcase their videos. more ›

MTV is getting all old school and reporting on relevant music! The channel traveled all the way to Brooklyn for a piece on bands closely associated with the Todd P scene. Best of all, they declare Manhattan's LES dead! Not a great way to promote their new vLES, we suppose. more ›

Check out this cool video from Good Magazine that illustrates the cost of advertising in very common NYC places, such as subway stations, street lamps, and Starbucks coffee sleeves. Yes, you'll feel a little used, but then you'll remember how someone drew a mustaches on all the subway posters and feel better.
more ›

We have lots of videos to get you in a Halloween state of mind while you undoubtedly are suffering from a sugar crash after too much office candy. First up, IntoTheBox has a scary New York story with a real estate twist (after all, what's scarier than Manhattan real estate?!) -- travel to Confucius Plaza on Bowery and Canal, here. more ›

WNYC's Brian Lehrer recently spoke to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly about Giuliani's stance on gun control, as well as his own views on a national gun control policy. more ›

While hosting a live edition of "Real Time With Bill Maher," a number of 9/11 conspiracy theorists began to shout statements and questions at Bill Maher and guest Chris Matthews. When studio security was slow to respond, Maher left the set himself to remove the disruptive audience member. Other conspiracy theorists continued to interrupt the program by shouting from the audience. Maher yelled back, "This is not a debate. This is a debate between [him and his guests onstage]. You're in the audience. Audience comes from the Latin, 'to listen.'" more ›

As we mentioned this summer, Anderson Cooper briefly left CNN for GNN! That's the Grouch News Network for those not Sesame Street-savvy. Here's his hard hitting interview from a trash can (if anyone has a better quality video let us know!)... more ›

News of Norman Mailer’s hospitalization broke today; the cantankerous and influential author is suffering from severe respiratory problems following a collapsed lung. His children have been keeping a bedside vigil in the critical-care unit of Mt. Sinai Hospital, where Mailer is reportedly still in fighting spirits, thumb-wrestling and cracking jokes. (The Post has more, while New York Magazine looks at the illness in the context of his recent ruminations on spirituality in a new book, On God.) more ›

Recently, IFC News was at the Walter Reade Theater for a New York Film Festival Press Conference for the Brian De Palma film Redacted, where the director was found defending his edit. At the end of the film disturbing images are shown in a montage sequence, photographs that Brian De Palma says "all exist on the internet." That may be so, but Magnolia Pictures owner Mark Cuban doesn't want them on the big screen. more ›

This past weekend David Byrne biked to Town Hall for his “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” event. The night began with the audience viewing his helmet-cam footage of his journey there, and eventually he biked right up on the stage. Streetfilms was there and reported:

Of course our MC for the night, Mr. Byrne, who has been using a bike for transportation for 30 years, pedaled to the theater. In fact, the night started with helmet cam footage he shot as he biked thru Times Square to the venue. Some Byrne-musings which drew the most applause/ laughter as he navigated the entanglement of peds, cars, and street furniture included: “...once you get used to it, riding thru the city gives you a nice jolt of energy“, “42nd Street would make a nice pedestrian mall“, and probably the biggest laugh-getter, “if this was a bike lane, there would probably be a truck from New Jersey parked in it.”

For some reason, Norwegian comedians thought that City Councilman James Oddo would be a perfect target for their program, "Rikets Rost." Oddo, a Republican and the minority leader in the Council (he's recently supported legislation such as banning aluminum bats and giving the Department of Transportation the authority to name streets), apparently consented to the interview because the request was to discuss presidential politics. more ›

The Onion News Network has a parody broadcast on what would happen if country music stars challenged Al-Qaeda to "just reduce New York City to a pile of rubble," saying it wouldn't affect them much. The challenge comes in the form of a patriotic number called "Bomb New York." more ›

Those geniuses at Fallon London are at it again for Sony BRAVIA. First they had the bouncing balls in San Francisco, then the tower of paint in Glasgow, and now bunnies on the streets of Manhattan. Fair warning - if for some reason you're scared of bunnies, don't watch this video. The advertisement, titled "Play-doh" features 200 plasticine bunnies hopping around and a large 30 foot bunny in Thomas Paine Park in Lower Manhattan. more ›

SNL is back! Not sure if the exclamation point is necessary, but their 33rd season kicked off this past weekend with some good stuff. LeBron James was host and Kanye West was the musical guest -- West actually showed up in a good sketch, though oddly enough not this musical one. The below is a ballad to the President of Iran called "Iran So Far" delivered by Andy Samberg and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. "You can't deny there's something between us. I know you say there's no gays in Iran, but you're in New York now, baby!" more ›

Here's some Saturday afternoon cuteness. We're hoping for a day when pandas can come to NYC, but we suppose panda paperwork takes a while.
more ›

New York's municipal cable channel NYC TV is making its shows available on demand for online viewers. This could be the biggest workplace timewaster ever invented, because we love shows like "Secrets of New York," "Cool in Your Code," and "$9.99." NYC TV has revolutionized municipal TV in the last few years by departing from standard public access fare and presenting well-produced, interesting programming that offers a lot to both New York newcomers and lifelong residents alike. more ›

In 1982 Matt Dillon hosted a film on the history of the amusement park (in particular roller coasters) called Wild Rides. He discusses a lot of the Coney Island rides, and there's some great old footage -- check out that "human pool table"! We'd be interested in seeing some numbers on how many people got injured on rides during this time. more ›

Obama Girl is back, not digging dudes with iPhones, and crushing on some U.S. soldiers. The latest video salutes the troops, and Ben Relles, creator of BarelyPolitical.com, says "this time, humor isn’t the primary goal. Our ambitions are a little bit higher and a little bit different. We wanted to do something that was honoring the troops but also honoring the wives and husbands and girlfriends." more ›

As Led Zeppelin announced last week that they would play a reunion show in London, those outside of the UK wonder if they'll embark on a worldwide reunion tour. The one-off show is in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, and will include John Bonham's son Jason on drums. more ›

Isn't it sweet (or cliché) when you go to a baseball game and the jumbotron flashes a marriage proposal? It's such a nice personal event that the couple is sharing with thousands of other people. While we secretly hope that someone says no, this prank proposal at Yankee Stadium takes things to a whole new level. Some background: two College Humor guys have been engaged in a "Prank War" starting earlier this year. The cruelness of the pranks has escalated as they continue and this one might be the meanest one. more ›