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A friend of mine kept giving me hell for not watching Iconoclasts on the Sundance Channel. This went on for several weeks before I broke down and watched it (a process that will likely repeat itself later this week when I finally realize ignoring Rome won’t make it go away). Having watched two episodes it turns out Iconoclasts is, in fact, a pretty good show. The series is currently in reruns, which is nice for people like me who want to catch up.

The show takes two celebrities who may be friends or may be acquaintances and then brings them together so that they can gush over the phenomenal career of the other. It’s a lot of, “You’re a genius!” “No, YOU’RE a genius!” This sounds tedious, and maybe it is, but it doesn’t hurt that most of these people actually are geniuses… or at the very least “fairly creative.”

The first episode I watched featured Quentin Tarantino and Fiona Apple, which is kind of like watching a conversation between the ADHD kid from junior high talking to the prom queen (hmmm, actually, that’s exactly what it was like). I can’t say that I learned anything (though the image of Quentin Tarantion and P.T. Anderson hanging out in a living room sounds almost too intense for words), but it was fun to watch.

The second episode, however, brought together Lorne Michaels and Paul Simon, two champions of their respective fields. Watching Lorne Michaels interact with people who don’t look to him as god (or dad) is endlessly fascinating and reminds us that, yes, there’s a reason he’s still running the show. He converses with a bone-dry sense of humor where you don’t really get the joke until the moment has long past.

As an obsessive SNL watcher (and sometimes fan), listening to Michaels restores one’s faith in the importance and cultural significance of the show. Sure, it hasn’t been dangerous in a generation, but the sheer presence of a 90-minute LIVE telecast almost seems out of place (though perhaps it is to Michael’s fault that the series has been so polished for so long most people wouldn’t believe that it is, in fact, actually happening NOW).

And then of course there’s Paul Simon, who I loved in Annie Hall, and who — get this! — is also a singer songwriter… and hilariously funny.

I keep hearing about the Maya Angelou/Dave Chappelle episode, but it has yet to rerun now that I’m looking for it. It’s suppose to be the proverbial bees knees.

I just watched this week’s SNL. A friend at work had said it might have been the single worst episode he’d ever seen. Having now seen it myself, I’m more or less convinced that he either must have been drunk or high. Saying it was the best of the three that had aired this season is no stretch. Saying it was the best episode in years is a little more debatable. Either way, it was funny, and most of the props should be delivered to the feet of host John C. Reilly, who was perfect.

It also didn’t hurt that Will Ferrell showed up in the monologue. The celebrity pop-in has been done to death over the past five years, but Will Ferrell’s presence is too good to dismiss. He seems to be the only person in the production’s recent history that gets it, and by “it” I mean the idea that the show, at its core, is about the performance. The writing, even when its on, is rarely a wonder, but when things work, its because a cast-member is pushing him or herself (and the material) to the limit. On this notion is what Will Ferrell built his career (and fortune), and this week Reilly delivered. He was in almost every sketch, and frequently the comic lead, not just the straight man. It was quite refreshing. Maybe not “golden-era” quality, but funny nevertheless. Bully to you Mr. Reilly. Bully to you.

In related news it looks like the first complete season of Saturday Night Live will be coming to DVD. WNBC will occasionally show episodes from this season early on Sunday mornings here in New York. They’re fun to watch. Not exactly as funny as one would expect (or remember), but there’s something about watching them as historical records that is endlessly fascinating. So keep a look-out, I’m sure it’d make a great stocking stuffer (Mom).

It seems like last week there there was so much television being watching by yours truly I barely had an opportunity to report back with my thoughts (and without thoughts, we really don’t have much of a website). So here are, more or less, my notes on a week’s worth of programming:

Friday Night Lights (Tuesdays 8pm NBC) - Inexplicably placed on a Tuesday, Friday Night Lights is being put into my regular rotation because its one of the few shows I’ve seen on network television that doesn’t shy away from the racial and economical issues affecting small cities in America. The pilot was a by-the-numbers local-boy-makes-good football story and yet the emphasis was never put on the game itself, but on the characters and how football is really the towns only shared experience. The shows realism seemed startling.

Help Me Help You (Tuesdays 9:30 ABC) - I liked seeing Tim Meadows as the rival therapist. Tim Meadows is the type of SNL alum who was so poorly used on the show it might have tainted an otherwise brilliant career. Otherwise, if it weren’t for the complete lack of comedies on television, I probably would quit watching this show. In classic Hollywood fashion, the series takes place in a New York City that reeks of Los Angeles (the LA subway may on one of the sets didn’t help).

The Nine (Wednesdays 10:00 ABC) - First and foremost, “Egan Foote” might be the greatest character name of the season. As for the character, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. As a whole, The Nine was both good and interesting, but like Studio 60… we won’t be able to get a real look at the show until the second or third week. What is interesting about the setup for The Nine (a group of people are held hostage in a bank for 52 hours, and throughout the shows run we’ll get to see what happened in there) is seeing if audiences will use the hostage-taking as a canvas in which to project their own personal tragedies. Perhaps the bigger question is wondering if people do happen to project themselves into the series, will they like what they see? The Nine asks viewers to dig a little deeper into their own psyche in order to start relating to the characters on screen. I’m curious to see if viewers will be willing to do that.

Freak Show (Wednesdays 10:30 Comedy Central) - The voice-talent alone is a force to be reckoned with. Frankly, I could listen to Jon Benjamin read XML manuals and find it hilarious, though the show still pales in comparison to The Venture Brothers, which might be the pinnacle of six years worth of Adult Swim programming. Aside from South Park, Comedy Central has never really had much authority in animation.

Peep Show (BBC, DVD) - I put down the TV remote for the DVD remote and checkout out the british series, Peep Show, which was recommended to me by a friend. It’s a fairly high concept show about two roommates who are a bit of an odd-couple (one’s a button down office worker, there other is a carefree musician). The twist is that the entire show is shot from the point-of-view of one of the characters. As in we, the audience, are constantly looking through someone’s eyes and are able to hear their thoughts. Its a cool-enough idea, and could certainly propel a series, but it also doesn’t hurt that the characters frequently make the worst decisions you could imagine. I’d basically equate the style of comedy to something of a British It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Definitely worth checking out.

Ugly Betty (Thursdays 8:00 ABC) - Nice to see “Dawn” from the British office show up here as the host of “Fashion TV.” That makes two network shows where she’s been spotted in a small role this season. LET’S MAKE IT THREE!

SNL (Saturdays 11:30 NBC) - The only redeeming parts of this episode were the “New York City Stories” shorts that were done with Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler. Specifically the first one where Armisen played Scorsese. That made me laugh.

South Park (Wednesdays 10:00 Comedy Central) - I don’t play “Worlds of Warcraft” but enjoyed this episode nonetheless. I’m curious how much support they had from Blizzard, as their logo was all over the episode.

Extras (Thursdays 9:00 BBC-2) - It’s not out in America yet (January), but let me be the first to tell you that the second season of Ricky Gervais’ Extras is leaps and bounds above the first (which is saying something since the first season was hardly shabby). This week’s episode featured Chris Martin from Coldplay pimping his new record “Coldplay’s Greatest Hits.” I know that doesn’t sound all that funny (”You’re gay because you like Coldplay”), but trust me… it is. There’s video available via the BBC.

Before we get to anything else, let me address the almost triumph-yet-ultimate-disaster of SNL’s 32nd season premiere. First of all, I don’t find Dane Cook particularly funny anymore (I did at a time, but that time has long since past). However, Dane Cook on SNL works surprisingly well. He isn’t a personality and doesn’t come to the show with all sorts of Hollywood baggage, and because of this he’s able to slip into the show and disappear behind characters– he’s also one of the few hosts who they’ll let play the straight man in sketches. This past week, I found the show to be mostly solid (”mostly solid” is about all you can ask for from a comedy show that is older than most stroller-owners). I liked the TSA sketch, despite it feeling an awful lot like a sketch featuring Jerry Seinfeld from the early 90s. I really liked the Poland Spring water sketch because it was just so damn peculiar. I liked the “Hugo Chavez Political Roundup” for reminding me that Amy Poehler is still funny. The first forty-five seconds of “Al Pacino checks his bank balance” were great before we all caught on to the fact that Bill Hader’s Pacino impression is really more of a Foghorn Leghorn, and the DIGITAL SHORT!! was fine.

But then “Weekend Update” reared its ugly head. It seemed promising with the cold-intro featuring Brian Williams. It made me laugh. Of course, nothing had really changed. Sure, there’s a new background, and Poehler is sitting on stage right instead of left, and Seth Meyers is doing his best Tina Fey impression, but none of this matters when your material ISN’T FUNNY.

I’m not a comedy writer. I don’t know how you solve this problem, but IT IS a problem. It’s a momentum killer. It’s the spike-strip on the late-night highway. Bottom line, though, is Update is DOA.

Oh, and when exactly did The Killers turn into U2?