There's this, "Remember when SNL was funny?" line that floats out there any time you bring up the show. I'd challenge you to go back and watch entire shows from the first few seasons. It was revolutionary (at least on tv) and ground breaking...but a lot of times it wasn't that funny.
Some of their characters were awful. There just happened to be this late night sketch comedy void...and they filled it. They had characters that they didn't even pretend to do makeup or wigs to have them look somewhat like the people they were portraying. You'd know who they were pretending to be because they'd say things like, "Hi, I'm Gerald Ford" and then move on from there.
Chevy Chase was great - but was only on for one season. Bill Murray was great (even though he didn't make the original cast...and was a replacement for Chevy Chase) but not all time top 10 great (although he'd make my list of top 10 movies after SNL....a very short list) Gilda Radner was great, but she just didn't have as many great characters as any of my top 10.
Chris Rock is a great standup, but he was painfully bad on SNL. Adam Sandler was third grade humor. David Spade had the Hollywood Minute (which he's is trying to revive now) but his other stuff wasn't that good. Joe Piscapo actually had some great moments, I just couldn't quite put him on the list...because he's Joe Piscapo.
Julia Louise Dryfus, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack, Damon Wayans, Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garafolo, Gilbert Gottfried and Ben Stiller - they were all cast members on the show - and you didn't remember any of them....weird, huh?
There were some really funny people on the show that just weren't that great on the show. They were in a slump? Maybe they just didn't have a voice on the show. Eddie Murphy was on for an entire season before they started putting him in skits...some of the above folks just never did much.
Here is my list of folks that I still don't understand how they ever got on the show in the first place:
Garrett Morris
Denny Dillon
Charles Rocket
Tony Rosato
Beth Cahill
Kevin Meaney
Julia Sweeney
Melanie Hutsell
Colin Quinn
Kenan Thompson
so close to putting Tracy Morgan and Horatio Sanz on this list...
You left a ton of people off your list for the same reason you put Dennis Miller on. Was he ever even in a skit?
ReplyDeleteAnd Tracy Morgan is crazy man...him being so crazy all the time made him hilarious. Dude in the movie "Doom" looks exactly like him, so everytime he came on the screen, I cracked up laughing thinking about Tracy Morgan.
"I'm Brian Fellow..." Brilliant!
Oh, you are so wro...uh, let's just say "un-informed"..about Gilda Radner.
ReplyDelete!) She won an Emmy AND a Grammy
2) She was the first person hired on SNL
3) She was super also at Second City
4) John Belushi convinced her to National Lampoon Stage
5) She is credited with playing 18 characters and impersonating 17 celebrities..all on SNL
6) SHe starred in a broadway play Gilda LIve
7) she had 3 CD's - one being "It's Alwasys Something
8)People still identify her character, Emily saying the news..wrong.and when Chevy Chase corrercted her, she would reply the famous, "NEVERMIND"
I rest my case better than Perry Mason
Tracy Morgan makes Martin Short look like the big dog of comedy...
ReplyDeleteAmy Poehler's 'babysitter with a lisp' sketch on last week's was one of the funnier sketches I've seen this decade. What made it brilliant was when she abandoned script and just started climbing over Horatio Sanz and trying to make him laugh. Kind of like coaxing a fish to swim.
But I just can't stop talking about Amy. She's great.
Peggy, I'm with ya'! My daughters remind me of Gilda's "Crazed Brownie" all the time. And what about Baba Wawa and Lisa Lupner? Classic!
ReplyDeleteEmily Latella was one of my favorite characters of all time.
Sean, Gilda is top 10 material. Oh yeah!
Finally...someone with some sense!
ReplyDelete