All The Tropes

Saturday Night Live: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Saturday Night Live (view source)

Revision as of 13:47, 21 February 2017

18 bytes added ,  7 years ago
fix markup glitch, copyedits
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
(fix markup glitch, copyedits)
Line 36:
** '''Tony Rosato''' and '''Robin Duke''' are also the first former cast members of ''[[SCTV]]'' to be on ''Saturday Night Live'' (though the ''[[SCTV]]'' cast member who crossed over to ''SNL'' most people remember is '''Martin Short''').
* '''Danitra Vance''' (a little-known cast member from the same cast as Terry Sweeney [1985-1986]) is not only the first black female cast member who was hired as a repertory player ('''Yvonne Hudson''' is technically the first black female cast member ever to be hired on ''SNL'', but Hudson was only hired as a feature player -- during Jean Doumanian's notoriously bad sixth season -- and not much is known about her either, besides the fact that she was on ''SNL''), but also the only ''SNL'' cast member who had a learning disability (she was dyslexic), the only black female ''SNL'' cast member who is deceased (Vance died of breast cancer in 1994), and the first female cast member who was a lesbian (though her sexual preference wasn't made known until after she died).
** As of April 2012, ''SNL'', for the first time in 27 years, has hired a cast member who, like Terry Sweeney, is openly gay, and like Danitra Vance, is a lesbian. Her name is '''Kate McKinnon'''. Like Erica Ash on ''[[Mad TV]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 14th and final season, McKinnon got her sketch comedy start on Logo's ''The Big Gay Sketch Show''
* '''Joan Cusack''' and '''Kristen Wiig''' are the only female cast members to be nominated for [[Academy Award|Academy Awards]]; Cusack, twice (for Best Supporting Actress in ''[[Working Girl]]'' and ''In & Out''), and Wiig, once (for Best Original Screenplay, as the co-writer of ''[[Bridesmaids]]'').
* '''Jason Sudeikis''' and '''Paul Brittain''': Both are nephews to two sitcom actors who have hosted the show more than once. Jason Sudeikis's uncle is George Wendt (Norm from ''[[Cheers]]''), who first hosted during the 1985-1986 season <ref>onOn a bizarre episode that had Francis Ford Coppola trying to fix the show and a musical performance by Phillip Glass</ref> and made frequent appearances in the 1990s as one of Bob Swerski's "Super Fans"; Paul Brittain is the nephew of [[Bob Newhart]], who first hosted during the 1979-1980 season <ref>The fifth season and the last season featuring the remnants of the original cast -- and Harry Shearer before he became a cast member on ''[[The Simpsons]]''</ref> and hosted again during the notoriously awful 20th season.
* '''[[Al Franken]]''': The first -- and so far only -- ''SNL'' cast member who is now a U.S. Senator.
* '''Christopher Guest''' (from the 1984-1985 season -- season 10): Is the only ''SNL'' cast member who is a member of British nobility (his real title is, "Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest," or "Lord Haden-Guest" for short).
* '''Brad Hall''' and '''Julia-Louis Dreyfus''': The only ''SNL'' cast members to be married to each other.
* '''Rich Hall''' (no relation to Brad or Anthony Michael): The only cast member from ''Fridays'' <ref> ABC's answer to ''Saturday Night Live'' that lasted from 1980 to 1982, though Rich Hall wasn't credited as a cast member on ''Fridays''. He, like Michael O'Donoghue on ''SNL'', was a writer who often appeared on-camera performing bits that he wrote himself</ref> to be a cast member on ''SNL''.
* '''[[John Belushi]]''', '''Gilda Radner''', '''Danitra Vance''', '''Michael O'Donoghue''', '''Chris Farley''', '''[[Phil Hartman]]''', '''Charles Rocket''' and '''Tony Rosato''': These eight are the only ''SNL'' cast members who, as of 2017, are dead. John Belushi and Chris Farley died from drug overdoses (with the drug that killed both men being a cocaine/heroin mix known as a speedball), Gilda Radner and Danitra Vance died of cancer (Gilda had ovarian cancer; Danitra had breast cancer), Michael O'Donoghue <ref>Not officially a cast member, but was an integral part in setting up ''SNL'''s warped humor and sometimes appeared in sketches -- even having a recurring sketch called "Mr. Mike's Least-Loved Bedtime Stories</ref> died of a cerebral hemorrhage caused by years of migraine headaches, [[Phil Hartman]] was murdered by his wife, Brynn<ref>Brynn actually appeared in the opening credits of some of the early 1990s episodes. She's the woman sitting next to Hartman at a diner table with her back to the camera with the swinging earring</ref>, Charles Rocket committed suicide by slashing his throat with a box cutter, and Tony Rosato died of a heart attack.
** Conversely, there are a handful of ''SNL'' cast members who almost died, but didn't:
** '''Joe Piscopo''' and '''Julia Sweeney''' survived cancer (Julia Sweeney's brush with uterine cancer is covered on her tragicomic stage special "God Said, 'Ha!'").
Line 52:
''SNL'' has essentially become a New York City treasure, but even more importantly, ''[[Once Per Episode|Live from New York]], [[Title Drop|it's Saturday Night!]]''
 
''SNL'' has always been an NBC show, but confusingly and rather bizarrely in its first year (as ''NBC's Saturday Night'' and ''Saturday Night'') it competed with a completely different show on ABC, also named ''Saturday Night Live'' and hosted by [[Howard Cosell]].
 
In 2011 there were several [[Spin-Off]] series, most notably ''SNL Japan'' (June 2011) and ''SNL Korea'' (December 2011).
Line 291:
* [[Subverted Kids Show]]: Many, from "The Mr. Bill Show" to many of the "TV Funhouse" shorts...and the live-action ones are worse (the one-shot sketch "The Happy Smile Patrol", recurring sketch "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood", and the Digital Short "The Tizzle Wizzle Show").
* [[Take That]]: Sometimes ''SNL'' will dish out a [[Take That]] against something (cf. the "Really?! With Seth and Amy" segments, the "Bronx Beat" sketch with Katy Perry as a busty teenage librarian {given that the episode premiered the same week as news of a ''[[Sesame Street]]'' sketch featuring [[Katy Perry]] being banned because of Perry's allegedly risque dress}); other times, someone will issue a [[Take That]] against the show itself (cf. New York governor David Paterson's description of ''SNL'' during his surprise appearance on Weekend Update to confront Fred Armisen's insulting impersonation of him when compared the show to being governor: "It has a lot of characters, it's only funny for ten minutes, and then you just want it to be over") or a cast member (cf. David Spade's description of Eddie Murphy: "Look, kids, it's a falling star. Make a wish!").
** Turned on them when Rudy Giuliani hosted the show after 9/11. Lorne Michaels asked him if it was okay to be funny again. Rudy's response: "Why start now?"
** HuffPo Live gets one in the Fatal Attraction parody
{{quote|'''Kellyanne Conway:''' We'll see about that. If I can't be on TV, I"ll go somewhere else. I'll call HuffPo Live,
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1473150"