A Robotic puppet, ladders, and Lorne Michaels.

One thing not commonly known about SNL is that every week, one half hour of material (25% of the show) gets chucked between dress rehearsal and air. Every week the cast and writers script and fully realize two hours of funny- sets, full costumes, special effects- the works. This full two hours is then performed at a dress rehearsal before a live studio audience. Based on audience reaction, time constraints, and a few more aesthetics we're not privy to, half an hour or so's worth of sketches, shorts, etc., get cut from the live show. Occasionally, pretaped material (the stuff we work on...), resurfaces on a later episode. Sometimes, however, it is just flat out dumped, never to be seen again. Rosey Media put in a long day last Friday, shooting two sketches for the weekend's show. The Digital Short starring Rainn Wilson, a reasonably large endeavour featuring the full SNL cast, appeared about 20 minutes into the Saturday night broadcast. It was widely hailed as a progressive move and civil rights triumph, being the first digital short on national television to feature prominent roles by both a Giant Turkey Sub and a Mounted Tiger Head. Seriously. The second pretape, however, didn't make it to the show. At least not this week. How much of the content we are able to disclose and discuss here on our modest piece of cyber real estate is directly proportionate to how much we wish to incur the wrath of the National Broadcasting Company (spelled out fully for dramatic effect). . . which is not at all. So, suffice to say, we shot two things for SNL on Friday. One aired, and one is M.I.A.- whether or not it has in fact completely gone the way of the dinosaurs remains to be seen. We will give you a hint though- the skit had robotic puppets, ladders, and Lorne Michaels. Puts you on pins and needles, doesn't it?