I'M LIKE, WHAT IS THIS GUY'S PROBLEM? HE'S DOING A COMEDY SHOW. WHY DOES HE NOT LIKE TO LAUGH?  Twenty-two SNL vets (and Marc Maron) talk at length about the SNL audition process. Two excerpts from a piece containing many links to extended interviews, video footage, etc:

BILL HADER: I got in an elevator, and there was a guy who was also auditioning, and I thought: “That guy brought a lot of props. I didn’t bring anything.” And he was looking at me, going, “That guy didn’t have to bring any props.” We were just sizing each other up in the elevator. And that was Andy Samberg. 

KATE McKINNON: I did Penélope Cruz. I did Sally Field and Temple Grandin. It’s too bad she’s not in the news more. I have that in my back pocket in case she does anything wacky.

DO YOU KNOW HOW I GOT THESE SCARS?  10 Batman Movie Villains Ranked from Most Epistemological to Most Ontological in Terms of the Nature of the Crisis They Incite.

DIANE LOCKHART ORDERS A MOB HIT ON HER OWN BROTHER:  Sarah Bunting has some highlights from season one of Law & Order: Original Recipe, and so I couldn't help but wonder: what are you Netflixing these days?  [I am finally getting started with Orange Is the New Black, while wrapping up my umpteenth rewatch of West Wing, season four.]

IRREDEEMABLE:  My goodness, the twists in this fall's season of Survivor. There are competitors (Rupert, Colton) whom I truly do not want to see again, plus a twist (Redemption Island) which has never seemed to work on the show, and that's just the beginning. At least we'll learn whether in the past thirteen years, Gervase Petersen finally has learned to swim.

Just give me eighteen people with some strategic sense next time. Please?

STILL, MAKING MORE THAN I DO:  TV Guide's annual star salary list has some fascinating tidbits--not only has Jon Stewart surpassed Leno and Letterman as the highest paid late night personality, but Peter Dinklage is making substantial bank for Game of Thrones (though it's not clear if the $150K per episode is a $1.5M season salary or based solely on the episodes in which Dinklage appears).  Most shocking to me?  For returning to TV in The Crazy Ones, Robin Williams is only making $165K an episode--less than Amy Poehler makes an episode for Parks & Rec, or Jason Segel makes for HIMYM.

WINTER IS COMING: Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones, successfully persuaded her parents to let her adopt the dog that played Sansa's Dire Wolf.  (And when so many shows are weighed down by child actor performances--e.g., Once Upon A Time--it's really impressive how both GoT and Mad Men have either gotten extraordinarily lucky or had extraordinarily good casting for the youth roles.)

34° 59' 20" 106° 36' 52":  That's the location of Albuquerque Studios, if you were wondering.  Took me a few minutes to figure that out on Google Earth.  Funny.  And it's better than encouraging oddballs from digging up the desert.

Look, yes, Walt needs to go down.  But I sure want Skyler to get herself a lawyer here.  "Don't start putting up roadblocks to me helping you."  How creepy is that?