Paul Allen Wood Shaffer is a Canadian singer, composer, actor, author, comedian, and musician who served as David Letterman's musical director, band leader, and sidekick on the entire run of both Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015).
Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actress. She has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Maya Rudolph is an American actress and comedian. Born in Gainesville, Florida, and raised in Los Angeles, she is the daughter of singer Minnie Riperton and composer Richard Rudolph. In 2000, Rudolph became a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL). During her tenure on the show, she played supporting roles in the films 50 First Dates (2004), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Idiocracy (2006).
David Roger Johansen is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, and for playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in Scrooged.
Jason Schwartzman is an American actor and musician. Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film Rushmore, and has since appeared in six other Anderson films: The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), The French Dispatch (2021), and Asteroid City (2023). He also has co-writing credit on The Darjeeling Limited.
Scrooged is a 1988 American Christmas fantasy comedy film directed by Richard Donner and written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue. Based on the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Scrooged is a modern retelling that follows Bill Murray as Frank Cross, a cynical and selfish television executive who is visited by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve intent on helping him regain his Christmas spirit. The film also stars Karen Allen, John Forsythe, John Glover, Bobcat Goldthwait, Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Michael J. Pollard, and Alfre Woodard.
Amy Poehler is an American actress and comedian. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade. The group moved to New York City in 1996, where their act became a half-hour sketch-comedy series on Comedy Central in 1998. Along with other members of the comedy group, Poehler is a founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live sketches, organized alphabetically by title. The referenced date is the date when the sketch first appeared.
"I Saw the Light" is a song written and performed by American musician Todd Rundgren that was released as the opening track from his 1972 album Something/Anything? In the album's liner notes, Rundgren states that he intended the song to be the hit of the album, and copied the Motown tradition of putting hit songs at the beginning of albums.
Miley Ray Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She has been recognized for her evolving artistry and hailed as the "Teen Queen" of the 2000s era. She is also cited as one of the few examples of a child star with a successful music career as an adult. As the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, she emerged as a teen idol at age 13 as the lead character in the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana (2006–2011). As Hannah Montana, she achieved success on the Billboard charts with two number-one soundtracks and a US top-ten single.
A Very Special Christmas 7 is a collection of Christmas songs covered by current artists. The compilation album is the seventh in the A Very Special Christmas series of albums. The album was released on November 23, 2009, and proceeds from the sales benefited the Special Olympics.
Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas Music Tale is a 2013 Christmas television special produced by Done and Dusted for NBC. Directed by Hamish Hamilton, it stars Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, William Shatner, Jay Leno, Matt Lauer, Danica Patrick, Heidi Klum, Ken Jeong, Jai Rodriguez and Morgan Bastin. It is a musical comedy pastiche loosely based on Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol where Clarkson's character learns the true meaning of Christmas, accompanied by the music of her sixth studio album Wrapped in Red.
"Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special" is a three-and-a-half-hour prime-time special that aired on February 15, 2015, on NBC, celebrating Saturday Night Live's 40th year on the air, having premiered on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. It is produced by Broadway Video. This special generated 23.1 million viewers, becoming NBC's most-watched prime-time, non-sports, entertainment telecast since the Friends series finale in 2004. It is the third such anniversary special to be broadcast, with celebratory episodes also held during the 15th and 25th seasons.
"Alone on Christmas Day" is a song written by Mike Love and Ron Altbach for American rock band the Beach Boys. Intended for a potential Christmas album, their 1977 recording was left unreleased. In November 2015, Mike Love rerecorded the song as "(You'll Never Be) Alone on Christmas Day" and released it as a single. The next month, a version by French rock band Phoenix featuring Bill Murray was released.
Maya & Marty is an American television variety show that premiered on NBC on May 31, 2016. The series was co-hosted by comedians Maya Rudolph and Martin Short, and produced by Lorne Michaels. The show features various comedy sketches, musical performances, and celebrity guests. Kenan Thompson was also a regular, as was Mikey Day. Though not listed as a series regular, Steve Martin appeared in three of the show's six episodes; Jimmy Fallon and Sean Hayes each appeared in two episodes.
A Christmas Sing with Bing was a series of transcribed radio hours hosted by Bing Crosby and broadcast on Christmas Eve for eight years from 1955 to 1962. The first edition of the program was released as an LP by Decca Records in 1956. Insurance Company of North America was the broadcast sponsor.
Paper Kite Productions is an American film and television production company founded by actress and producer Amy Poehler. It is known for producing the series The Mighty B!, Broad City,Difficult People, Making It, Russian Doll, and Duncanville.
Let It Snow is a 2019 American Christmas romantic comedy film directed by Luke Snellin from a screenplay by Kay Cannon, Victoria Strouse and Laura Solon, based on the young adult novel of the same name by Maureen Johnson, John Green, and Lauren Myracle. It was released on November 8, 2019, by Netflix.
Klaus is a 2019 animated Christmas adventure comedy film written and directed by Sergio Pablos in his directorial debut, produced by his company The SPA Studios and distributed by Netflix. Co-written by Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney, and co-directed by Carlos Martinez Lopez, the traditionally animated film stars the voices of Jason Schwartzman, J.K. Simmons, Rashida Jones, Will Sasso, Neda Margrethe Labba, Sergio Pablos, Norm Macdonald, and Joan Cusack. Serving as an alternate origin story of Santa Claus independent from the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra and using a fictional 19th-century setting, the plot revolves around a postman stationed in an island town to the Far North who befriends a reclusive toymaker (Klaus).
