Al Gore got so excited talking about his new '24 Hours of Reality' initiative with Current TV, that he must have forgotten where he was for a moment on 'The Colbert Report' (Weeknights, 11:30PM ET on Comedy Central).

He and Stephen Colbert were talking about the program, which culminates in an hour broadcast on Current TV on September 15 at 8PM ET, when Colbert asked about Keith Olbermann, who's now a broadcaster on the network.

"I'm worried about him," Colbert said. "He scares me. Is he still yelling a lot?"

Now that the debt ceiling debate is settled, MSNBC has turned its attention to more important matters. The network has signed Rachel Maddow to a multi-year contract extension that runs through the 2012 election, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. MSNBC chief Phil Griffin confirmed the news at MSNBC's TCA Panel.

Since it premiered in late 2008, 'The Rachel Maddow Show' has occupied MSNBC's 9PM hour, and has gradually gained prominence, and ratings. It now consistently averages over 1 million viewers per night and ranks 2nd in the 9 PM cable news standings, behind Fox's Sean Hannity but ahead of 'Piers Morgan Tonight' on CNN.

After only the tiniest bit of prompting by Joy Behar, Ed Helms launches into killer impressions of Tom Brokaw and Al Gore on 'The View' (weekdays, syndicated).

If you remember the record album rating controversy of the mid-80s...well, you're probably kinda old. It was a quarter century ago!

One of the leading figures in that fight (along with Frank Zappa and John Denver) was Twisted Sister front man Dee Snider. He was on 'The Wendy Williams Show' (weekdays, check local listings) today and talked about his opposition in that fight, Al and Tipper Gore. He says that even though they were preaching morality at the time, 25 years later he's still together with his wife.

But seriously. No one wants to hear Dee Snider say "oh, snap!"

Bill O'Reilly said he's been trying to get Al Gore on 'The O'Reilly Factor' (weekdays, 8PM on FNC) for 11 years with no luck. So what's a TV show host to do, ambush the potential guest. O'Reilly sent a correspondent to ambush the former vice president was going to lunch, but Gore doesn't bite and keeps his cool.

"I don't like ambush journalism," Gore said. After repeated questions from the Fox News employee, Gore said he would consider an appearance on the show, but ignored all other questions.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S35E07) I imagine it played out like this: Joseph Gordon-Levitt was at home last week, trying to mentally prepare for his first go as Saturday Night Live host by watching January Jones. Her performance turned out to be wooden and incredibly low energy and, consequently, the laughs were minimal. This struck fear into Mr. Gordon-Levitt's heart, and, terrified, he dropped the pint of Phish Food that he was eating in my imagination. "I won't let this happen to me," I bet he said. "I'm going to eat two fistfuls of Pixi Stix at 11:25 p.m. Saturday night and have someone inject me with a near lethal dose of adrenaline. I'll also wear a lot of vests."

And that's how Joseph Gordon-Levitt managed to exhaust a seated audience through sheer enthusiasm and volume alone. Maybe.

This week's episode of 'Saturday Night Live' featured Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the guest host, who wow'd with his rendition of 'Make 'em Laugh,' the great song and dance number from 'Singin' in the Rain.'

Also, Al Gore stopped by Weekend Update to talk about the climate crisis, and there was a special message about Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck. Here's a round-up of 'SNL' skits from last night.

In honor of NBC's Green Week, '30 Rock' featured, among other things, carbon footprint reduction, a guest appearance by former Vice President Al Gore, and ... urine in jars.

In this clip, Gore shows just exactly how green his thumb is, as he follows his own environmentally-friendly advice by recycling a whale joke he used in the season 2 episode 'Greenzo.'

Watch the video after the jump.

(S04E06) "Oh brother. Are they really going to do something this year or just put that stupid green peacock in the corner of the screen?" - Liz, about NBC's Green Week

OK, I think we can all agree that this was one of the more disgusting episodes of 30 Rock. It's one thing to have Frank be really gross; we've seen that in previous episodes (the burping, the tank tops, the porn). But now we find out that he's urinating into jars in his office? I think that's officially holy crap disgusting, even if it does eventually help the Earth and give Jack flowers for his office.

It was also one of the least funny in a while, though that doesn't mean it didn't have its moments.

Fox's charge to make 24 a completely green show is admirable.

It's not only expensive and harder to do than one might think, but it also flies in the face of 24's core audience. Of course, that's not its boldest effect. These days, pissing off the right wing is more "in" than Twittering about your Snuggie.

The boldest move is the effect these new measures could have on the body of the show in ways you may not expect. You might even see Jack Bauer tie a guy to a chair and hook up his nipples to a car battery to get him to admit he doesn't put his plastics and newspapers in separate recycling bins.

I love seeing celebrities dressed up for Halloween. Some of them go all out and look rather crazy. A lot of celebs don't wear anything because they don't want to mess up their hair or be caught dead in anything but Prada. Once in a while a celeb that doesn't go the costume route will put on a mask, like Elvis Presley in this photo. It's one of many photos that The Daily Beast has in a new Halloween gallery.

Alfred Hitchcock doesn't really have a costume, more like a prop. You can almost hear what he said to the crew. Look, I'll stand behind this atrocious pumpkin structure and hold a broom, but I am not going to wear a costume.

Looks like it was shot on the set of Alfred Hitchcock Presents maybe (it was 1958)?

Dennis Haysbert recently claimed that his role as President Palmer on 24 may have helped pave the way for a viable African American presidential candidate. He went on to claim that his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the movie Goodbye Bafana ended apartheid and that his role as Jonas Blane in The Unit cured polio. Haysbert was then wrestled to the ground by his handlers and is now "recuperating" at the Clay Aiken Home for Delusional Celebrities.

My first thought upon hearing this news was that Dennis Haysbert is obviously insane. Since I've been criticized in this space for not having an open mind about insane things, I decided to take Mr. Haysbert at his word. I then went even further and went to work putting together a list of other politicians who exist mainly due to the hard work done for them by TV actors. After researching Wikipedia for almost a full fifteen minutes, this is the list I've managed to put together...

After the first 15 minutes of the HBO movie Recount, I was so upset, so filled with rage that I wondered if I wanted to watch the rest of the movie. Did I want to relive the events of November 7, 2000? Did I want to watch what happened, the craziest election fiasco in the last 25 years? I was compelled to stick with it because I had lived through it and I was dying to know what I didn't know when it unfolded in real time. I thought the HBO movie might teach me something, and, in fact, it did.

For those who don't want to know what happened in Recount, I won't reveal any spoilers until after the jump. Of course, if you don't already know how the election turned out, you've either been in a coma or are woefully out of touch. Suffice to say that Recount doesn't rewrite history. The ending is exactly as it was in 2000.
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(S02E05) "Saving The Environment While Maintaining Profitability." - Greenzo's slogan for NBC's Green Week

I really don't know how I feel about all of these guest stars this season. On the one hand, they've all worked. It was natural to have Jerry Seinfeld on the season opener (even if he was on just to plug that damn movie) because he was an old NBC star. Carrie Fisher worked because she wasn't hyping anything and is a great character actress. And now in this episode we have both David Schwimmer and Al Gore. They were OK too, mostly because the show around them was so strong, but I can really see this show tipping too far over the line with needless celeb cameos. I really hope that doesn't happen.

"Gas Pains": Senior Petroleum Expert Rob Riggle, decked out in his best Mad Max wear, talked about the absurd, record-setting gas prices. If Riggle dresses like that for all of his reports from now on, I promise I'll like him more. Promise.

"Illegally Blonde": The Alberto Gonzalez craziness briefly turned into Monica Goodling craziness. Aaand then it turned back into Gonzalez craziness. I swear, this stuff is never going to end. "Miracle virgin firing" indeed. By the way, Jesus Trump was a little too creepy for me.