I wrote this one pretty quickly – on a Saturday afternoon, actually, which is usually after our script is out. But the Del Close Awards meant I couldn’t get the script out Friday, and we needed more parts for women, and I had this idea about the controversy around whether “The Help” was another movie about how hard racism is on white people. The audience reaction isn’t as raucous as in other sketches, but I think they were on board, and Artemis Pebdani and Rebecca Stevens were great in this!
So this came out good…Mitt Romney’s “Corporations are people, my friend” gaffe was too good a gaffe to pass up without tackling a comedy sketch on the subject. In a lot of ways it’s a showcase for the actual beliefs of Brian O’Connell, as the words Sammy says are all pretty much things I’ve heard BOC actually says. He’s fantastic in this, as is Christopher Biewer, calibrating his performance between a precise impersonation of Mitt Romney and a concept of what Mitt Romney would be like as a kids’ show host. And don’t overlook the stellar work of Matt Moore and Rebecca Stevens as the other kids in the house. I’m very happy with this one.
We have a lot of fun in Top Story! Weekly with Phillip Wilburn‘s characterization of Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger – so much fun that we had just done a Sully sketch the previous week when the JetBlue/Steven Slater story broke. But when Aires Flight 8250 crashed and all but one passenger survived…well, the temptation to go back to the Sully well was just too strong. And I’m glad I did since this sketch turned out really well. And fun fact: the real-life sister of the actor who plays the reporter who ID’s Sully was actually on Flight 1549!
The pilot who saved 130 lives when he crash landed Aires Flight 8250 on the Colombian island of San Andrés is hailed as a hero – except by a certain other hero pilot who crash landed a plane into the Hudson River to save 155 people’s lives!
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¿QUE EL HACHE? by Michael Hughes – from Top Story! Weekly Episode 66: “Lost in a Mosque-erade”
Matthew Gray Gubler – Dr. Spencer Reid from CBS’ “Criminal Minds” – guest starred in Top Story! Weekly Sunday and could not have been nicer – or funnier! Here’s the opening sketch from that show – based upon a comment that Gregg Lopez made over a year ago when we were picking names for the show, about the likelihood that someone might confuse our show’s name with the name of a certain Pixar franchise whose latest installment opened this past weekend!
A misreading of a title brings an excited couple to iO West for what they think is a showing of “Toy Story 3!”
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TO iO WEST AND BEYOND by Michael Hughes – from Top Story! Weekly Episode 58: “(61) Days of Oil”
Mike Hughes' blog 
Watch “Helped by “The Help”” from Top Story! Weekly Episode 114: “Anarchy in the UK”
August 22, 2011I wrote this one pretty quickly – on a Saturday afternoon, actually, which is usually after our script is out. But the Del Close Awards meant I couldn’t get the script out Friday, and we needed more parts for women, and I had this idea about the controversy around whether “The Help” was another movie about how hard racism is on white people. The audience reaction isn’t as raucous as in other sketches, but I think they were on board, and Artemis Pebdani and Rebecca Stevens were great in this!
HELPED BY “THE HELP” by Michael Hughes
Starring Artemis Pebdani (Robin) and Rebecca Stevens (Amy)
Directed by Michael Hughes
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Tags:Artemis Pebdani, Blind Side, civil rights, Del Close Awards, Do The Right Thing, Emma Stone, Michael Hughes, Mike Hughes, racism, Rebecca Stevens, The Blind Side, The Help, Top Story! Weekly
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