Join Shari and Joe as they discuss this weeks episode of the HOF podcast and share their visions for first-time hosts.
Transcript:
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[0:19] Hi, welcome to the Saturday Night Live Hall of Fame Water Cooler Podcast. You know, kind of a short, simple title. Or to put it another way, the SNL HOFH2L Podcast. Just to, you know, hashtag it. I'm Joe.
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[0:43] And I'm Shari.
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[0:44] And we're sitting here next to the water cooler, ready for this week's discussion.
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[0:51] Yep. Are you filling up your cup, Joe? I'm filling mine up.
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[0:55] And I'm good. All right. Let's do this.
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[0:59] Okay. We're going to start it off by talking about this week's episode of the SNL Hall of Fame with the fabulous Thomas Senna and his special guest, Jamie Burwood. Wood jamie is a og snl hall of fame guest she's been on a couple of times and i believe all of her nominees have gotten in christopher walken and will ferrell will ferrell thank you joe because i blanked out and our latest nominee she finally got in in season five molly shannon so yes he's on a roll let's see if she can keep it up with sherry o terry did you want to continue on and uh so yeah.
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[1:48] Uh yeah those two they had a great discussion uh they covered a lot uh so uh but i there's plenty left to discuss uh you know they brought up uh, that Sherry's often paired up with Will Ferrell, who, you know, they performed in the Groundlings together. They started at Saturday Night Live at the same time. Will Ferrell, Sherry Oteri, Chris Kattan. Basically, Saturday Night Live cleaned house around season 20. They got rid of those bums, Chris Farley, Mike Myers, and Kevin Nealon. No, they were great. It was just, they did their term. It was time for a change. It was time for a change. And then they brought in, yeah, Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, David Kegner, Daryl Hammond, and our focus for today, Sherry O'Terry.
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[2:43] Thank you, Joe. That was a really good lead-in, recap. Thank you. You're coming up with all the good words, and I'm somehow blanking.
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[2:52] It's cool.
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[2:53] I think we're ready with that great recap. I think we're ready to talk about...
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[3:00] Point counterpoint. Uh, so, uh, okay, let's go into pros and cons. All right. Now this week, uh, I'm going to take the pros with Sherry and you'll take the cons.
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[3:12] Yep. We're switching places.
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[3:14] All right. Uh, so, uh, as far as the pros go, the first thing, and I, they mentioned this on the other episode, she is very energetic. Energetic and the word i want to add on to that is she's energetic to the point where all of her characters are twitching i mean like she's just literally like shocking just you know um yeah like with our characters uh laura or whom i think who's the first one um yeah adele and uh.
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[3:53] Where's the other one? The one that, oh, Colette Rairdon. I wanted to bring her up because she probably has a reason to twitch a little bit because she has a big box of prescriptions that she's on. But yeah, Sherry's very energetic to the point where she's twitching, gives 110%, and also she's just Just a hair below chewing the scenery. She's, you know, not hamming it up. She's not. Everything that she's doing with her energy seems appropriate and called for. And it makes sense within the character. So I just want to point out that she never, ever sleepwalks through a part. So, yeah, that's the first pro I got in your con.
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[4:45] Okay, Joe, that is excellent. And she is very high energy. And Jamie Burwood said that same thing. In fact, her exact, well, maybe not her exact words, but her words were she brings a zaniness and a wackiness that is... Unparalleled. That was Jamie's words, and you pretty much reiterated them, Joe. Unfortunately, I'm here to bring the con, and that wackiness and that zaniness and that shout, she likes to shout. She shouts a lot. So her characters, Rita Del Vecchio, and you mentioned Colette Reardon and of course Simma Down Lady very over the top very shouty all of them and sometimes this repetitive habit with the shouting with the so over the top you and Jamie say that's you know that's a positive a lot of viewers and I've heard it from a lot of viewers over the years because I was watching her back in the day, felt like that was too much, like she was trying too hard. So, yes, she's not sleepwalking. She's almost the opposite of sleepwalking, and that gives viewers a lot of fatigue, and I think people got a little tired of that shtick. So that's my con. Back to you, Joe.
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[6:11] I got it. No, and I get to the point where, yeah, because that happens with Saturday Night Live, where even the best characters get old, hence why she got there in the first place. Like Chris Farley was doing Van Down by the River, which to me is one of my favorite sketches ever. That first one with Christina Applegate, I mean, that to me is one of the top five sketches. However, it got old, and that's why they had to get rid of Farley, bring in new people, and that's how Sherry got there. So yes, that happens at Saturday Night Live. I agree. And with her in particular, yes, the shouting and the energy and the –.
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[6:54] Does wear thin so i agree with that so okay my next pro is something i personally picked up on uh when i was doing all this research is her she does characters of all ages and it's almost to the point where it's like the same character just at different spots in her and the character's life like she did alfina which is this hyper character that visits the pilot um ariana the spartan cheerleader we have to mention her but we'll get back to that and then laura zimmerman the character she did with uh chris katan the hyper sexual hyper sexed couple uh and then rita the porch uh dweller and then finally colette reardon the uh prescription taker and it's like this it's almost like the same person at different stages of the character's life and it's it's cool to see the same actor being able to do that um i just thought that was kind of unique, and i enjoyed seeing that okay.
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[8:00] Joe that is an excellent point she she really she really does put her whole self into her characters and she does do a variety of ages and the observation you made about it being almost like the same character at different points in their life was very interesting, but I'm going to go con now, and this is a biggie, and Jamie and Thomas discussed this quite extensively, and that's the fact that, A, she didn't do a lot after Saturday Night Live, a little bit here and there, some voice work, a couple of TV episodes, nothing major, I guess she was on Broadway, nothing.
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[8:42] I don't even remember hearing about that, but apparently she was on Broadway, but it was very short lived. I think she's had some personal stuff. She keeps it pretty quiet. But the other part of this that's bigger to me is she's never really come back to the show. And I'll be curious to see if she even comes back for the 50th anniversary because I do not believe she was at the 40th. So she really, she didn't really make a connection. Like so many of them stay in touch. Like, look at Dana and David have their podcast fly in the wall. Sherry seems like she kind of disconnected from SNL altogether. And I'm sure she had her reasons. But that is a big reason that voters are going to be like, well, she doesn't care enough to come back to the show. Why would I waste a vote on her and get her into the very hallowed halls of SNL Hall of Fame? So I think that's going to be a biggie. I think that might even hinder her from getting that 10% that she needs to just stay on the ballot. So I guess only time will tell, right?
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[9:49] That is a great point. Because here's something else. Because that whole trio of Farrell, Oteri, Kattan, they all started at the same time. It's kind of like all three of them went in separate directions. And when Will Ferrell hosted Saturday Night Live like three times or the first three times, he always seemed to bring back an old sketch, you know, like he did Jeopardy. He also did that one couple, the middle school singers with Anna Gassmeyer.
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[10:24] Right, right, right, right.
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[10:25] And you would think at least once that they would, you know, when Will Ferrell's hosting, that they would do the cheerleaders. You know like that to me is iconic as, You know, Farley and Spade, Wayne and Garth. Right. You know, like, Will Ferrell, because like we mentioned over and over again, Ferrell and Oteri, they physically look good together. Like, almost in this, not exactly like this, but almost in a Laurel and Hardy type way, where Will Ferrell's tall, Sherry's short, you know, and then she brings the energy to make up for it. So she's, you know, in a scene with Will Ferrell, you know, and she's able to catch your eye with her energy, which is both a pro and a con, you know. So, yeah, I agree.
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[11:21] I guess only time will tell. I guess what we really need to do here is encourage people to vote.
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[11:26] Yes. Vote.
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[11:27] If you think Sherry is deserving, vote. Because if you don't, she's not going to stick around so you can vote for her next time. So if you're going to vote, vote because people left last season. Justin Timberlake is gone. Several others are gone because they didn't.
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[11:53] Yeah, they didn't.
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[11:54] The five seasons came and went. And there are some who didn't get the 10% and didn't get to come back this season. So think about that. That's why Joe and I do this pro and con thing. And now I think we're ready to, are we ready to move on now, Joe? Are you good?
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[12:11] Yeah.
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[12:12] All right. We are going to move on to hopes for season 50. And it's only like four weeks away. Yay! I can't believe it either. I can't believe it.
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[12:26] I need a distraction from this election, and what better way to digest the election better than with Saturday Night Live? I need Saturday Night Live to take all of this craziness of the world, not just the election, but just everything that's going on, and I need to see it through the prism of Saturday Night Live.
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[12:44] I couldn't agree more, and I'm so excited. Our hopes for Season 50, themed today, is first-time hosts. Hosts. We're going to talk about first-time hosts. And Joe inspired this idea. Joe, do you want to talk just a little bit about how this all came about? Because I know it has throwback roots for you, nostalgic roots for you. So why don't you let the listeners know all about it?
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[13:15] Oh, I couldn't. And by the way, that's a joke to everyone who knows me because I talk about this to people that don't even want to hear it. So the fact that I'm on a podcast right now and it's the perfect opportunity to talk about it, I just wanted to make that one joke of going.
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[13:32] Nah.
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[13:34] Nah, I'm good. Let's move on. No. So, OK, here's how this list came about. It was about 2006 and Peter Sarsgaard was a they announced or whatever, like on the bumper that Peter Sarsgaard was going to be that the next week's host. And he's a fine actor to everything. Nothing against him. But just at the time, I had no idea who he was. And I'm like, man, it's really random who they get to host Saturday Night Live for the first time, aside from John Goodman, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Steve Martin, and such. But as far as who gets to host for the first time, it's random because they're usually rising up in fame. Their TV show is becoming popular. They're about to be in a bunch of movies. They just signed a three-movie contract or something. Like they're about to be popular and another person of note is the fact that Bradley Cooper hosted like the February before the hangover came out so it is like you have to really pay attention to who's popular right now and like who's been on the rise and then match that to did they host yet and then if they didn't then they're most likely gonna you know and that's where I try and came up with this list and I just want to give out one more shout out.
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[15:02] To my mom because I used to play this game with my mom until she just lost interest and it became hard but anyway one year I was like hey I made my list and I went on internet movie database tried to see who was you know on the rise and when their movie was coming out and like oh this person has three movies coming out this year and you know it's around in the fall so they probably will be on Saturday Night Live to promote it and stuff like that and I'm trying to carefully analyze and dates and stuff like this and then i kept telling my mom hey mom they're gonna you know the show's gonna come back you better you know because it's kind of cheating if you see who's hosting the first episode and then and then you pick so i kept hounding her hounding her and then i go mom come on let's just do this and she goes all right fine and she takes an issue of entertainment weekly and just sends through it and goes her him him her her and then made her list just off the cuff and then sure enough beat me that year you know like i think she picked out two more than me and i'm like how how you know and and then so and that's another point i want to make is it's it's kind of random and then uh the last thing i'll make to segue back to the podcast uh so originally the what the way i used to play it is uh i made out 25 a list of 25 names.
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[16:25] Because you figure maybe half the people hosting Saturday Night Live would be first time hosts. There'll probably be 12 new hosts, so you figure 25 would give us odds.
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[16:38] But for the podcast, just to keep it simple, do a whole 25, yeah, I guess we'll go back and forth talking about who we think is going to host for the first time in the 50th year.
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[16:52] And also, I think we should also just mention very briefly, if we think they're on the road to possibly returning, if they do get asked, and possibly becoming a Hall of Famer. And then as they show up throughout the season, Joe, we'll come back and look at that and talk about their performance and whether it lived up to expectations and whether we see them being asked back and get continuing on the road to see if we're on target. Game so that'll be fun to watch and also one more thing you listeners out there if you have guesses that you want to send our emails at the end because i don't know by heart yet because this is only our second episode so listen to jd he'll tell you our email and let us know who you think the first time timers are going to be i know that the saturday night network already has this up on their Instagram page, and I tried not to look at it too much. I already had my guesses, so I didn't get spoiled or anything. But we'd like to know from our listeners what you think as well, because maybe it's different from what was in the S&N statistics. We could be wrong. They could be wrong.
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[18:08] We could be wrong.
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[18:10] Absolutely. All right. Did you want to start us off, Joe, with your first? First possible post?
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[18:19] Because... This is a perfect example of, you know, who I think should host. I'm going to go in no particular order except for this first person. She has been on my list for years, and it makes me mad every single week that I see she's not hosting. So the fact that, like, who's the first person I want to put on this pod is Zendaya from Spider-Man and Euphoria, and she's just a great actress. Actress she you know is out there she's it she's the new young actress and you know she's been in the spider-man movies for years and i'm like oh well she's on in the spider-man movies the hbo show yeah she's a the new young talent so and then week after week and year after year um just been eluding me and i know she's gonna and i'm not gonna take her off my list until she hosts so that's my first pick.
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[19:24] Oh joe you we're we're simpatico we're simpatico she's so obvious she had two huge hits last year doom 2 and challengers which they which they talked about out on an episode on the Dakota Johnson episode but they didn't have Zendaya last year so Zendaya I always butcher her name I don't know I'm sorry if you're listening to this but I'm sure she is and and and everybody butchers my name so I I hate doing that I I think it might be Zendaya I, she wasn't my number one I do have mine in the order that I think they're they're likely to be asked because i did go more with people that i think they're really going to ask and i think she's okay that they they have to do but i want to yeah i want to do my number one, I think she's obvious. She's been all over the internet.
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[20:26] Okay, yeah.
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[20:27] She is the it girl of summer. You know they always have to do an Olympian in an Olympic year. So you know who I'm talking about.
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[20:36] Okay.
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[20:36] The fabulous gymnastic rubber band that is Simone Biles. Will she come back? Unlikely. We know what the Michael Phelps debacle was like. But he was on everybody's mind. He was all over the internet. She is everywhere. There are memes featuring Simone everywhere. She has a documentary on Netflix and she's got a bunch of medals. So yeah, this is definitely, I think she's a definite, I think she's going to be a September or October host. But I guess only time will tell. You're next.
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[21:15] So, okay. My next pick is the one who is also, Again, kind of similar to Zendaya. He just seems obvious. He's another guy on the rise. I'm not even going to build him up that much. Glenn Powell, he was in the movie Twisters. He was in Top Gun, Maverick. He just looks like a movie star, like a generic. He just looks like with the perfect teeth and everything. Again, this is another example of when you're making out the list and you're seeing who's on the rise, this guy. And so it just, it's almost inevitable that he will. So when I was making up my list, I was like, him. It was like, easy. Like, moving on. Move along.
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[21:58] Yeah. Well, you know, Joe, another point in your favor for Glenn Powell is he cameoed on the Sidney Sweeney episode last season.
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[22:07] That's right.
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[22:09] Now, do we think he's going to be a returning? I feel like echoes of Jacob Lordy. Like, there's going to be a lot of, he's so handsome sketches. Do you think he's?
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[22:19] You know what? I mean, he could be like Chris Hemsworth, where he's like.
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[22:24] Oh, that's true.
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[22:25] A talented actor. And then he could turn around and do the comedian thing. You know? That's true. So, I mean.
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[22:32] Only time will tell.
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[22:33] Here's the, yeah, this is, you know, the weird thing about going off the first timers list is, it's, because how about this? He did Twisters, Top Gun, and a Netflix show, and they all seemed serious. Maybe after he hosts Saturday Night Live, he'll start doing comedies. And then it'll cycle through. Because he's funny in the movies, he's going to be the guy that comes back to host Saturday Night Live. And then lightning in a bottle will strike. And he'll be in that one skit that everyone's talking about that's viral on YouTube. And then it just dominoes from there. All right.
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[23:08] Well, speaking of serious actors who are on the rise, I think he should have been asked a couple of years ago, this actor that I'm going to mention now. But I don't know how they can't ask him because he is playing Warren freaking Michael in Saturday Night, the Jason Reitman movie that if you're listening to this podcast, you know all about. You've watched the trailer the trailers nerdily like joe and i and jd and thomas and jamie i'm sure looks amazing he is terrific he was terrific as a steven spielberg in the fableman's not steven spielberg but we all know wink wink and he just nailed it and i'm.
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[23:57] Super excited because my friend, I have a friend and her husband is a big autograph hunter in Los Angeles. And he actually took pictures with Gabriel and said he's the nicest, nicest, one of the nicest he's ever met. So that makes me even more excited that Gabriel LaBelle is going to be a big star and hopefully be an SNL host. I think he's a gimme. I mean, wouldn't it be great to see him and Lorne in a sketch with a young Lorne and an old Lorne? How hilarious would that be? So I and I think it's I think it's a gimme. I I can't imagine they won't do it, but maybe it'll be another actor from that movie. But it will be somebody in that cast.
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[24:40] He's on my top 25 list. And everything that you said about it being a gimme, because, yeah, it would be great to do a Lorne off where, you know, where it's funny. But it didn't get the right laugh you know yeah very good paul liked it but then again did it really deserve to be in the top in the first half hour you know like just you know because and on top of it they need to promote that movie you know and they need to have an actor from that movie on the show it'd be weird not to you know like you know so yeah and like you said it has to be someone from the movie. Especially someone playing someone else from the movie. It can't just be... I also want to mention that I think it's kind of weird that William Dafoe... He hosted last year, which is around the time when they were filming that movie. So it's like, was he doing research or like, it just seemed anyway, but it would just be weird if they had J.K. Simmons or William Dafoe or someone else, you know, that's in the cast of that movie that doesn't, that's not playing, or I guess they're all playing someone, but I'm just saying it isn't playing.
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[25:56] Not one of the main.
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[25:57] Yeah, but it needs to be someone that's playing a cast member or if not, Lorne. And then, yes, they need to do a Lorne-off or something, and I agree with everything. So – and then I'll move on to my pick, which is – okay. So this one is someone who I think could be in the Hall of Fame, yes, as a host, obviously. And that person is Nick Kroll. I hope I'm saying his name right. You are.
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[26:28] That one I know.
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[26:29] And, yeah, he had his own sketch show. He's friends with John Mulaney. He auditioned for Saturday Night Live. He's talented at doing characters. He's really genuinely funny. And I believe that, yeah, he would be a great host. And then it would just be like, I'm sure he'll be such a great host that he'll be asked to return.
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[26:53] So i agree and he's friends with a lot of the cast already and a lot of them have been on his uh his animated show big mouth yes he's had a lot of snl i think current and past on that show so he he's a he'd be a great yeah i feel like why why hasn't he been asked that's excellent excellent he's.
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[27:17] Very snl adjacent you know yeah.
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[27:20] Right that's an excellent excellent Excellent guess.
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[27:23] You know? So, and then you're next.
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[27:26] All right. Yes, I am. And speaking of funny. Mm-hmm. Uh, this gentleman is a huge fan favorite and it's funny cause I think a lot of us took him very for granted and didn't realize how funny he was until he left. And he kind of, he's been doing things. He had a show. It didn't make it. I think it only made it one season, but now he's coming back and he's coming back to a CSI franchise, CSI origins. And I know it's on CBS and not NBC, but CSI is a big deal. And I think not only that, but he just did some voice work in Inside Out 2, the Pixar movie. That was terrific, if you haven't seen it. And, of course, I'm talking about the absolutely gut-bustingly funny, drunk uncle, Mr. Bobby Moynihan.
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[28:23] Come on!
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[28:24] He's done cameos. he's done cameos he's done cameos let the guy host he'd be so great i think he'd work fantastically with heidi with mikey of obviously with keenan oh yeah give us bobby moynihan in season 50 come on he deserves to host an hour yes.
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[28:44] And then he could be a returner you know hall of famer and all that.
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[28:48] Oh 100 he is.
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[28:50] Universal he's more than drunk uncle uh yeah he does.
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[28:56] All right, Joe, let's do our wishes now. This means people that we think probably not, not likely, but we would love to see it happen. And I'm going to go first if that's okay.
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[29:13] Please, because just on a side note, before the show started, she let it slip, who it might be. And I've been drooling at the mouth waiting for this moment. So let me take another sip of water from the water cooler.
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[29:25] As well i'm going to take a sip too okay.
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[29:30] Go for it.
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[29:31] Because this is a juicy one yes so i i don't know that this is going to happen political political uh nominees, don't get a whole episode they usually just get cameos it happens rarely and when it does it's It's usually a disaster. I will not name any names. But I'm hoping, I'm really hoping, that Kamala and Tim will joint host an episode in maybe late October, just before the election. How great would that be? And how much would we love? We know Maya's coming back. How much would we love to see maya and kamala and tim and whoever is going to play him face off i don't think steve's gonna do it but whoever does it how funny would that be how great would that be how much would the internet break if that happened so that's my wish what do you think joe because.
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[30:42] The other guy hosted you know on his own equal time that's all i'm saying, Okay, so my honorable mention, dream host, who I think, like, you wouldn't think that this guy, like, you wouldn't think this guy would be a Saturday Night Live host, but if he did, I think he would be insanely incredible, and that is Gary Oldman.
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[31:13] Oh, yes!
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[31:15] Ass he plays every different type of character like there's internet memes that show all the different characters he's played in movies over the years like dracula and he was uh commissioner gordon and batman he was in the fifth element and i'm just like imagine putting him on saturday night live with all these wigs and costumes and in in a sketch show where he has free reign to do Not necessarily Free Reign, but where he is able to do different characters in 90 minutes. Let's see him break free. Instead of playing one character per movie, let's see him do multiple characters in 90 minutes.
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[31:59] I agree, Joe. And he's an actor that's known for being so serious. So how much fun would it be to get to see him play with the cast? So a great one to end on.
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[32:11] Yes.
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[32:11] A great one to end on. All right. Well, it looks like it's almost time to put away our water bottles. But before we do, we have to tell you, we got a great one coming up. The SNL Hall of Fame episode number three is a terrific cast member. You want to take it from there, Joe?
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[32:37] Yes, I do. He is someone who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. I'll just go right into it. I'm not going to preamble it. It's Garrett Morris. He was very underappreciated when he was a part of the first five years. But then when you saw him, it's like, duh. He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame because of the first five years. I feel like all of them do. and they all need to be, go through the process, you know, of.
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[33:11] Yes, I agree. And we're, we're going to talk a lot more about this in our episode next week. So please tune in to the SNL Hall of Fame with the fabulous J.D. And Matt and Thomas Senna, who are going to be joined by the awesome Darren Patterson from SNL Nerds. If you haven't listened to SNL Nerds, it's hilarious. Him and John Trumbull are terrific. They break down episodes. They talk about SNL movies. And Darren is a wealth of knowledge, and he's going to share his knowledge of Garrett Morris. He hasn't been on since season three, but the two that he's talked about, Tom Hanks and the other one is Dana Carvey. Oh, how could I forget him? One of my favorites. So I know Darren's going to be a great guest. I know we're going to have a lot to talk about next week because Garrett's an amazing cast member. So until then.
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[34:12] Go ahead.
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[34:14] Until then, we're leaving the water cooler, right, Joe?
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[34:16] Yes, putting my paper cup into the little bin that we have here, that little two-foot-high garbage can that you always see at Office Max.
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[34:26] Yep, and my cup is joining you. All right. So until next week, this is Shari and… Joe.
Matt, Thomas, and jD are joined by friend of the podcast, TV graphs own, Jamie Burwood. Before her conversation with Thomas, Matt and jD go through some Cheri Oteri trivia. Enjoy.
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[0:43] Thank you so much, Doug DeNance. It is a great pleasure to be joining you all here outside the SNL Hall of Fame. If you wouldn't mind, as you cross the threshold, please take advantage of the mat out front and wipe those feet. The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer, and add them to the ballot for your consideration. Consideration once the nominees have been announced we turn to you the listener to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall and that's how we play the game it's just that simple this week we are joined by our friend jamie burwood to discuss the bona fides of sherry o terry but before we do that we are going to talk to our friend matt ardill and matt i've got a question for you my friend.
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[1:44] Are you ready because i've got two words for you sherry o terry matt what have you got well sherry o terry is five foot five foot two born september 19th 1962 in what i what appears to be a snl hotbed upper derby pennsylvania the hometown of tina fey yeah so water there yeah yeah it's just i i guess there's something about that suburban experience that uh makes you crave uh making people laugh um or at least distracting yourself from being there uh she grew up around music her father was a nashville record producer and worked at amn records before joining the groundlings she earned 92 acting credits six writing credits five producer credits and four soundtrack credits um yeah she has played everything from uh the sidekick of inspector gadget to an animated tooth fairy uh she she is one of the uh folks from snl to go on to broadway having starred in the production of Musical the Musical.
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[3:06] And is a friend of Paul Reuben's, playing husband and wife on an episode of Ally McBeal. Went on to be nominated for the Best Dance Sequence at MTV's Movie Awards and the Teen Choice Award for Best Comedian. Well, that's some cool stuff so far. Anything else on Terry O'Terry? No she's kept it pretty private she's one of those uh snl folks who's gone on to uh just just uh step back and and enjoy the show well we ask you to do the same step back and enjoy the show as we head to our friend thomas senna thomas take it away, All right.
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Season 5 Roundtable
Season 5 · Episode 18
Monday, May 13, 2024 • Duration 02:22:16
This week we're back with the popular Roundtable episode of the program. In this version we invited Ashley Bower and Deremy Dove to share their ballots with host Thomas Sena. Enjoy and don't forget to vote!
https://forms.gle/ECAVQbPBE6r3krpS6
Transcript:
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[0:42] Yes, hello, welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
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[0:45] I'm your master of ceremonies, your co-host for today's proceedings, Thomas Senna. Everybody, welcome. I think I would be remiss, and I think I need to do, Jamie, do a solid here, because it's very important to Jamie for me to tell you to wipe your feet before you enter the SNL Hall of Fame. I think Jamie would fire me from this post if I didn't tell you guys that. So welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame. Today is our customary end of season extravaganza. It's the SNL Hall of Fame Roundtable. This is the show in which we invite SNL Hall of Fame voters to share their ballots and their thought processes behind their choices. So this is always an interesting exercise to get into the psyche of some of the voters.
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[1:40] Previous roundtables, I think minds have been changed. I think people have stood on islands and been steadfast on who they're voting for. It was interesting to see. I think we all just gained a great insight as to what voters may be thinking. Friendships were formed. I think rivalries were formed. So we've had some interesting roundtables in the past. It's always nice to get a peek into the mindset of SNL Hall of Fame voters. So with me today is two of my guests for this past season on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast.
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[2:16] One first-time roundtable panelist, which is going to be fun. I'm excited to hear her thoughts today.
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Don Pardo Award
Season 5 · Episode 16
Monday, May 6, 2024 • Duration 36:25
This week on the podcast we reveal the Don Pardo Award winner for Season 5. This high prestigious honor is bestowed onto a person or group of people who contribute to the show's success despite not being eligible for traditional election into the Hall.
Transcript:
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[0:42] Thank you so much, Doug Donatz. It is great to be here in the SNL Hall of Fame.
The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest, or writer and add them to the ballot for your consideration.
Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener, to vote for the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall.
Except for this week. Because this is our very special Don Pardo Award show where the three of us, Thomas, Matt, and myself put our heads together and award the Don Pardo Award to a deserving individual, or in the case of this year's award, deserving individuals.
I won't bury the lead any longer, but before I go anywhere, please. please wipe your feet.
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[1:43] This week, we are going to be talking about a major component of Saturday Night Live, and that is the SNL band.
So the way we're going to tackle this is we're going to go in chronological order to the best of our ability.
We might miss a couple of years, but we can fill Fill in the blanks as necessary for you to get your little history lesson.
But this has been enough of me talking right now.
How are you doing, Thomas? Hey, JD.
Doing really well. It's nice to be on a little like an actual episode with you and Matt, like the three of us kind of uniting here. Yeah. One united front.
This is really fun. We were talking as we're recording this, we're coming off a really fantastic Kristen Wiig episode. So I think all of us are kind of energized by SNL right now.
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Episode Thirteen - Conan O'Brien
Season 1 · Episode 13
Monday, March 30, 2026 • Duration 29:34
We're back and this week we're discussing former SNL writer and multi-hyphenate Conan O'Brien!
Sometimes there are sketches that are mysterious and other times you just recognize the voice and tone and Conan is one of those writers.
Does that make him a Hall of Famer? We'll have to see...
If you've got questions about the show or would like to be a guest on an episode in the future please reach out - jamie@snlhof.com
You can follow and support the show through discussion and sharing in all the usual places. Twitter - @SNLHOF Web - snlhof.com
The SNL Hall of Fame is back and this week I'm joined by Dave Voigt of In the Seats to discuss Paul McCartney.
Let's start off by saying, the man was freaking Beatle!
It's so lovely to see him taking part in SNL and becoming such a big part of its lore, but does that mean he's a Hall of Famer? We'll have to wait and see...
If you've got questions about the show or would like to be a guest on an episode in the future please reach out - jamie@snlhof.com
You can follow and support the show through discussion and sharing in all the usual places. Twitter - @SNLHOF Web - snlhof.com
We're back again and this week we are celebrating the career of the late Norm Macdonald.
I'm joined by writer Andy Hoglund of @SNLinReview to discuss Norm and the impact that he had on the show despite only sticking around a couple of years.
From Update to Burt Reynolds to Bob Dole, Norm brought his A-game week in and week out, but is it enough to land a spot in the SNL Hall of Fame? Time will tell.
If you've got questions about the show or would like to be a guest on an episode in the future please reach out - jamie@snlhof.com
You can follow and support the show through discussion and sharing in all the usual places. Twitter - @SNLHOF Web - snlhof.com
Discover shows related to SNL Hall of Fame, based on actual content similarities. Explore podcasts with similar topics, themes, and formats, backed by real data.
[4:17] Guys. Thank you so much. You're so excited for this episode. Hello, and welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame conversation portion of the episode. Today, I am joined by an amazing guest, a mainstay at the SNL Hall of Fame, for sure. He's been advocated for a lot of great SNL, current SNL Hall of Famers, actually. So, like, what, Will Ferrell? Jamie, how many people have you gotten into the SNL Hall of Fame? I think you're on a pretty good run. I'm trying to think. We've definitely done quite a few episodes. I'd have to look to see what the actual track record is to know the percentage. Yeah, Will Ferrell got in. Yeah, and you were on for Molly? I was on for Molly. I don't think she got in, though. Did she? Well, Molly's a new inductee. Oh, okay. In the latest. Yes. All right. So Molly got in. Christopher Walken.
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[5:09] Yes, that was my episode. So you're on a pretty good hot streak. Okay, okay. I think. Nice. So I think you're the perfect person to come on and chat about Sherry O'Terry. But I'm going to formally welcome you, Jamie Burwood. Welcome back to the SNL Hall of Fame. How are you doing? How have you been? I'm doing good. It's great to be back here this summer. Yeah, just having a good start to the summer, doing some beach time coming up. But yeah, it's been great. Happy to be here. Yeah, beach time for all of us. That's what this summer is about. It's beach time 2024. So I'm glad you're partaking as well. Is there anything you'd like to plug up top before we get started here? Talking about Sherry? Yeah, I feel like TV show graphs is still my go-to account on TV.
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[6:03] Twitter, Instagram, all of the places, tvshowgraphs.com. Yeah, it has the whole library of a lot of the TV-related data deep dives I've done in the past, exploring a few new topics coming up soon. So hopefully as some of the summer travel slows down, there'll be some new stuff up there soon. But yeah, otherwise I kind of have just been chilling the last few months. So enjoying the start of the summer.
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[6:27] Well, I think you've earned it. Your graphs and the website, side that's like quite the rabbit hole like a true tv fan could spend a lot of time going down that rabbit hole it's pretty cool so you you deserve it any sort of break you get you definitely deserve it jamie so today our nominee like i mentioned sherry o'terry right in your will house jamie like i said you've covered the air a few times here on the snl hall of fame and of course today talking about um somebody who's beloved to us sherry o'terry uh jamie for What was it about Sherry O'Terry that may have first got your attention when you saw her? Yeah, I feel like the zaniness and how memorable her characters are. I feel like she's somebody that, in my opinion, doesn't get talked about enough. And in some ways, she is well-recognized. She has her best of collection. I feel like people do acknowledge her role in that era of SNL and just how important it is. But there's just something really captivating about her wackiness and the way that she commits to all of these characters that she does. And I think for me, that was really what drew me in. Like, there's just something about watching a sketch with her where you can't quite look away in a good way, I think.
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[7:47] Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. And I think sometimes, maybe sometimes I feel like I might throw around the term underrated or underappreciated a lot. But I honestly think in Sherry's case, it fits. And I have, I guess there are theories floating out there as to why she might be underappreciated. But if you actually look at her work, look at the type of performer that she was, I do think she probably should be talked about more and be held in higher regard than she is. So I really do think there's something to that, Jamie. It's not just like throwing out there like, oh, she's a little underappreciated. Like with Sherry O'Terry, I truly, truly think she is. So neither of us say that lightly. Absolutely. Yeah, I feel like she's somebody who...
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[8:32] Just her role in that era, I hope that people recognize. And just, we've talked a little bit in the past in some of the earlier episodes, but just the role that she had in showing how funny female comedians on SNL can be. And just this willingness to go all out and commit fully. And I don't think she's the only one in her cast who does that. I feel like Molly, Will, many others embody that. But there's something to me special about Sherry in just the way that she went all in on things. And she's somebody who you could put her alongside Will Ferrell. And I would argue she doesn't get overshadowed. They match each other. And the chemistry just builds upon each other.
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[9:19] And I feel like she had this knack for kind of elevating some of these sketches where she was working alongside other greats, other Hall of Famers. And she not only holds her own but just makes things so much better yeah i mean when you're trying to revive snl and we've talked about this before prior to season 21 they did almost a full house cleaning like molly was a carryover norm was a carryover there may be a few care but it was pretty much cleaning house from season 20 to season 21 and sherry i always thought crucial like almost a performer like that's necessary for the revival remind people just like how just how much that season 21 cast just revived this show yeah absolutely i feel like it was just a shift in a different kind of comedy at a time where the show really needed it right like it was away from that kind of like meaner vibe which had its time and place on the show but i feel like there were just aspects that were starting to feel a little bit tired, starting to feel not really keeping up with what people wanted to see. And I feel like the tone of the show really shifted into this very, like.
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[10:40] Character centric we got lots of the great greatest of all time in my opinion recurring sketches recurring characters in this era and i feel like sherry in particular really embodied that kind of character actress character comedian and just not being afraid to be be silly and people responded to that really well i think and i think that was a big part of why why that era is remembered so fondly yeah i think it toward the end there it got exhausting just like there's a lot of that mean comedy a lot of the bad boy quote-unquote stuff and then we entered a stage you're right of like character driven a lot of goofy like a lot of goofball kind of comedy was very refreshing and sherry was such such a vital part of that as far as her path to snl cliff's notes not a ton honestly sherry seems a little private uh not a ton of known about her personal life she's from philadelphia the philadelphia area moved to la in her 20s she's a groundling so she did a lot of quality sketch training before starting at snl her audition was really great i don't know if you had a chance to see it it's on youtube uh so i encourage everyone to check that out but the her audition was like eight minutes and and what she showed in her audition she did three characters that ended up on the show but right away you can see like why Lorne and everybody else who saw that edition were like, we got to have Sherry. So I don't know, Jamie, if you've ever seen the audition. I haven't.
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[12:08] Yeah, I do like them. I haven't watched hers. If I haven't, it's definitely been a while, so I'll have to go back and do that. Yeah, it's really fun. So she had a great audition. You could see why she got chosen for the cast. So she starts off 1995, season 21, Sherry O'Terry, Will Ferrell, the rest of the crew. So I want to get into it. like.
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[12:30] What characters or sketches, Jamie, do you go to when you think about Sherry O'Terry? Yeah, so let me talk about a few characters because I feel like, honestly, most of my favorite Sherry sketches are around some of her well-known characters. And there are a few that are not, which we can talk about, too. But I feel like for me, a few of the ones that stand out, Rita Delvecchio, that like grouchy Philadelphia is the vibe woman who just is, I don't know if mean is the right word, but just that typical like kind of street smart lady.
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[13:11] She's kind of like a little grumpy, but she's pretty likable at the same time. She's kind of that old lady who does who's like no nonsense she doesn't take any crap from the name especially the neighborhood kids i'm going on the porch for five minutes a piece the first one who calls me gets my slipper okay you kids got the whole street to play ball on but you're gonna play in front of my house that's okay because i keep it now okay i keep it it's mine now all right have your mother come get it i hear you smart ass but there's something very likable about her jamie like it's almost do you get the sense when you watch her do rita del vacchio that it's like a one-woman play it is i just for some for some reason that character in particular and like she does all sorts of different brands of like out there characters but for some reason like that what i just feel like is a connection and just work she does it so well and And the writing in most of the ones that she's done for her, I feel like, have been really solid. I feel like they tend to incorporate the host in a really fun way. Just kind of showing her amidst the neighborhood, I feel like.
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[14:23] You then see kind of the host pop up and either like the neighbor or a kid or like all of these different like characters amidst her life. And it always just like feels really natural. Like I'm always happy when one of those sketches pops up in an episode. I'm like, Oh, we get to spend some time with Rhea. This is great. Yeah, no, it's amazing world building. And sometimes you're right. They'll, they'll work in the host and everything. And every now and then a character will come by a lot of times. It's just her standing there a lot of times by her front door, just like yelling at a neighbor. And she's and sherry's doing this such a good job of filling in the other person's dialogue there so it's just her on the screen but she's doing such a good job of making it a conversation.
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[15:04] That only on screen only she's taking part in like she's so skilled at that and the whole role building this is something that she auditioned with she had this character sherry started building this whole world uh at the groundlings that that's just such a testament to her her talents is like a creative mind i think absolutely yeah i love the one with the the screen door and like the kids who are coming up to the screen door repeatedly that one always sticks sticks with me for some reason and you're right that is another example where it's like yes you have kids coming up to the door but she is like owning the comedy in each of those scenes and is having her like wild reactions to each one of those people coming up so completely yeah yeah and And she even made, in that particular installment, she even made kind of a boring host, Steve Forbes, like a very boring host. She actually made him, incorporated him really well into the sketch. She ended up stealing one of the kids' money that was coming up to take donations. She ended up taking the money and all of that. Yeah, that was a really great one with Steve Forbes. She puts a lot of love into that character. I think that's a great first choice.
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[16:08] Yeah, she definitely does. And then I feel like for my second choice, and there's so many. But I just love Nadine and in terms of like when I was in high school and this era was I was in high school in the early 2000s ish so right around this era um there the whole like Simadown now, catchphrase was huge like I just remember friends I don't even know like when people first started saying it. I don't even think I really realized where it was coming from. And just like people embodying this character that she did on SNL only to like later recognize that connection. Excuse me, excuse me. My husband's been in a motorcycle accident. I think he broke his wrist. Yeah, I can't move it. It's swelling up really badly. Okay, everybody simmer down now.
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[17:06] Listen, I would love to simmer down now, but you see my wrist is shattered. So I would encourage I encourage you to admit me now. Sir, your sass is unappreciated here. So before your obelisk becomes shattered, I suggest you fill out these forms and have a seat and then simmer down. That's correct. I love all of the Nadine sketches. I feel like the one with Garth Brooks is probably my favorite, like returning things at the desk there for the name of the store. But to me, that's a classic one and just, it's so fun. It's so fun. Yeah, yeah, I love it. You're right. That whole, the Simudan now, like just totally spread like wildfire. Always like people used to always do the impression where she's trying to start the car. Yes.
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[17:59] Yeah, like, and then it goes Simudan. Yeah, there's all kinds of like different ways you could say Simudan now if you want to get creative. That definitely stuck. She only did it three times. Yep. And it caught on so well. Yeah, I also love the line, like Donna Summer and how does her name appear in the phone book, like Summer, Donna, like that, that to me is just great, great writing, great delivery, so much. Yeah, all those strained ways to make the connection to Simma down now. I love it.
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[18:30] There's two, Jamie, that kind of when I think of Sherry O'Terry, I really connect with. And I'm going to talk about the one that she did the most, Barbara Walters. Yeah. She did that one 21 times, I think, last summer when the SNN, our friends at the SNN, did their character countdown. I believe Barbara Walters ended up on the list for good reason. I think that this is her best character. And something that Sherry said that she worked really hard at, she studied Barbara Walters quite a bit when she found out she was doing this. And there's been Barbara Walters impressions done on the show before. I think this is the quintessential one. What do you what do you say about her Barbara Walters? It's so good and like I Have heard that Sherry somebody who's nervous about like the impression aspect of the show coming in right and it's Not necessarily what you like maybe think of right away with her But this is I agree one of the all-time best things that she did over her time in the show I feel like it's a perfect example to me of an impression that like I.
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[19:36] Is very, like, draws from the real person very well, but then also, like, plays things up in a way that gives it a life of its own so that it's not just, like, purely a copycat, but, like, becomes funny in its own right. Fidel Castro and I were roommates my freshman year in college. And girlfriends, let me tell you, he may be brilliant, he may be stubborn, but what I remember most is that he had some funky B.O. Whenever I see Fidel Castro, I just think he looks like an extra from MASH. I mean, you know what I mean? With that hat. Don't look at me.
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[20:17] I just love any of the like VIEW segments where she popped up. I feel like those were always just a good time and just like meant for comedy, meant for parody. It was great. Yeah, I loved the VIEW one specifically when she would get mad at Debbie Martinopoulos. And she would do things like she one time she told her to go get in the cage that was a classic moment for me when she's like enough she's like go get get in the cage go now and then debbie monotonopoulos would just go do it and and this is just how she would kind of erupt at her you that was so funny and then she would uh reference like casually spending time with famous people and historical figures like i was in the hot tub with fidel castro when i found out that or just like the name dropping is wonderful.
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[21:05] This Barbara Walters was one that could be used in so many different settings, Jamie. I give points for that. If you develop a character or do an impression, and it could be used on a talk show or weekend update, or this is such a versatile character.
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[21:20] I agree. And again, it speaks to the theme of when she pops up and you're excited to see that character. And i think it's one that i don't think anyone could really get sick of or maybe somebody could but i certainly did not get sick of this one ever like i could see this every episode in her era and be happy with that yeah so this might be like if i was going to show one person an example of why i love sherry it might actually be her barbara walters like like this one makes me so happy for sure like amongst many that make me so happy and i'm sure that make you so happy you know like what what's what what's another character that people just can't miss for sherry yeah i feel like colette reardon is one that we should talk about the prescription pill addict lipstick smeared on the face and this is true for a lot of sherry's characters but i feel like there's just like an aesthetic to like the character she commits to and like a lot of times in similar outfits, makeup, just like you, you see that person and you're like, okay, I get what this is trying to be. And then Sherry just.
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[22:36] It to to another level it's a good thing that the phone's on the fritz because sometimes i gots to shoot methadrine so i can fire up my toro leaf blower to clean my front lawn falls a bitch dick i don't care how you slice it methadrine you ever try a rake.
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[22:57] Oh really any poop after five hours of methadrine fueled leaf blowing i get kind of confused and start making long distance phone calls i don't know how many of the um of the clut sketches there were i know she appeared a few times maybe on weekend update and then a few standalone sketches maybe like five okay yeah yeah yeah it felt like more honestly such a lived-in character yeah i feel like super memorable one um there was one where i.
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[23:28] Feel like a phone is involved like you have pills coming out of the phone and she's trying to eat the pills which amazing physical comedy just this type of character i feel like she does really well and not in a hateful way like it's a character that you kind of have to like walk that fine line with right because it's like a little bit of a extreme scenario but you come away just being like oh my gosh this character is fabulous and and laughing all over well that's one thing that you know when i had john schneider on for the kristen wigg episode and we talked about when she would do characters uh and impressions that she didn't come at it in a mean way so we used as an example like target lady for kristen and wig that could have been done mean but you can tell there was love put into that and i think somebody like colette you know she she's whacked out on all these pills and and her hair's messed up messy lipstick she's always trying to hit on whoever and uh but like there's still an element of just like she sounds it seems like sherry has love for that character she's not trying to.
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[24:36] To totally be mean to those kind of people or whatever. It's just like they almost... All of our characters almost seem likable, even as wacky as they are. That's such a gift, I think. It is. It really is. I feel like it's...
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[24:51] You kind of see the other level of some of these characters and you watch them and you laugh, but you also just are like, oh, I want to spend time in this world and with this person and just see what antics they're up to. And she did that so well. Yeah, absolutely. This is one of the prime examples to me of a comparison that I've made with Sherry. Kind of think she always reminded me of Mike Myers on screen.
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[25:16] Like just her energy. energy uh if she was in a sketch she was best as the the focus the focal point of the sketch she and mike both like every now and then they would kind of play the straight character the background but that's not what they did if it was a mike myers sketcher it was a sherry o'terry sketch i think or maybe she had a co-pilot and will ferrell sometimes or molly or something but she has this she had this mike myers energy about her that i see pop up in characters like Colette I don't know if I'm off base if we love to make comparisons as SNL fans but Mike Myers and Sherry Oteri was always one that that struck me yeah I can definitely see that like the the leadership in the like just like you said sure you could put her in a background role but it's it's almost a waste like you you want to see her in that that spotlight and I I feel like she has that kind of like magnetic quality yeah for sure um well what's uh what's another what's next on your list yeah i feel like we gotta talk spartan cheerleaders we talked okay during the episode but i again i feel like if you ask people on the street about sherry especially like more a casual fan or someone who.
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[26:35] Maybe not like dedicated to this era as much but that, recurring sketch I feel like is just cemented into pop culture history in a really cool way and I feel like whenever I go back and watch some of these it, am impressed at just how her and Will feed off of each other. It almost feels like improv in some ways. Like, oh, yeah, as much as they're like, the writing is great, not to discount that, like, it just feels like they are in the moment just having fun as two performers, just like.
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[27:11] Each going off of each other. And it, there's just an energy to these ones to me that I feel like is hard to top yeah you're right and i think no that's actually a credit to the writing that doesn't discount in any way i think paula pell who helped them write these was probably the third spartan cheerleader in these in these sketches like she did an amazing job but you're right like like uh showcasing sherry's talents unreal physical performer.
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[27:36] She the way sometimes that she would just leap into will ferrell's arms and they would she would do this weird pose and or will ferrell would just like carry her around in a weird way like sherry Sherry was just fearless, such an amazing, fearless performer. I hope that when people see the cheerleader sketches, they're just not focused on Will, because Sherry's arguably topping his performance in this, honestly. I always thought Sherry was the better performer in these sketches specifically. I agree, actually. And I'm not sure how that dynamic played out in terms of, like, Like, was Will tempering in, like, letting her really be the super zany? And, I mean, he was pretty zany, too, so it's all relative. But I feel like that's the thing that surprises me the most re-watching these is, like, everyone knows, like, Will Ferrell. He's huge. He's, like, had such a big career. People think, okay, Spartan Triller is him. But you watch these and you're like, oh, my gosh, Sherry was killing it. And, again, not only, like, matching him but in some cases, like, going beyond. And that's really cool because I think, again, not everybody...
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[28:46] Thinks of that but when you watch it it's there it really is oh my god ariana can you believe summer's over already i know craig i already missed my summer job at kenny rogers roasters i'm still getting the newsletter though.
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[29:03] Well i'm glad my lifeguarding job is over i did not enjoy taking off my shirt no no craig tomorrow morning we are going to be real spartan cheerleaders this has got to be our year, It was an awesome idea to practice all night. Yeah, and my parents will never know I'm gone. I put my brother's blow-up doll underneath my sheets. Oh. Yeah, she would do these little things as Ariana, like, to give the character neurosis. Like, if it was a little sigh or nervous laughter or something like that, she was very expressive in her face and just the little, like, breaths that she would take. Like, something as a sketch performer, I always admire when I notice those little things, those little small beats that you know sherry thought about does naturally whatever but they're out there and uh yeah this is um if if not barbara walters maybe the cheer maybe ariana the cheerleader uh could be up there as far as like the quintessential sherry especially physically like as a physical performer i'll put ariana right up there and then one other recurring her in character that I want to make sure we talk about. And I think we only got this one a handful of times, but Althea, the little child who in one sketch is on a plane and another is on a bus, Sherry just going full-on annoying.
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[30:27] Child in her layers of pink jackets and clothing and just embodying that... Hyper, chaotic, says-anything kid. I especially love the one with Chevy Chase as the pilot. I feel like to me that's the one that stands out. Dr. Burke, we're going to visit my Aunt Jane in Colorado, where it's called. My Aunt Jane has a life partner. Her name is Judy. They're not married. They're life partners. Life partners! Life partners! Althea, Althea, come on out. Watch the controls now. With my nose will any flight attendant please report to the cockpit any flight attendant please report to the cockpit run to the cockpit.
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[31:21] That's the one actually uh the althea on a plane she actually auditioned with that too so that's like part of her audition really yeah she had the cap and everything like the whole the glasses like it was fully formed in the audition like it didn't seem like they changed much at all from the audition to to the air it does feel like one that like i feel like there's certain characters where they feel like okay this person like cared to develop this and it has that kind of like personal touch and i can absolutely see that with this one right it just seems like a character that she knows that she can embody very naturally um yeah this is just a really fun And I feel like, especially in the plane one with Chevy, the deadpan-ness of his character and the annoying.
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[32:11] Just chattering away child of her character is just, it's such a fun, fun match and made for an awesome sketch. Yeah, for sure. and she would say things like not just weird things as a child but she would say like really precocious like things that like an adult would say or maybe she's repeating what an adult told her but but she would kind of like surprise the audience a little bit or the person she was interacting with by saying something really mature and adult like something beyond like you shouldn't know that or you shouldn't be saying that that's kind of interesting that you're saying that so i like that layer to this character it's a really fun one agreed yeah no i i feel like this is one that just feels very like true to sherry and like everything that she embodies yeah there was a uh along the lines i think of like the colette or alfea there was a one-off i don't know if you had a chance to see this one um her name's roberta it was sherry did this like in the the sixth episode of her first season. So she played somebody named Roberta and it was this dad work colleague who invited herself over to Thanksgiving dinner.
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[33:22] So it was just very weird energy. She was very inappropriate. I'm surprised this actually wasn't a recurring character because this happened really early on in Sherry's career. But she just said these weird things that she thought were just normal, but everybody at the table was like, Oh my gosh, I think, I want to say Jennifer Aniston was in the sketch. But y'all should go look up Roberta because it's like a spiritual cousin to somebody like Colette or Althea or even Rita, like one of these just crazy characters. So I wanted to throw out that a one-off. Oh, that's so exciting. Are Sarah jetting off to Paris? Have you ever been to Scranton?
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[34:06] Nope. Don't count it out. The beauty of the skyline alone made me do a double take. I stayed at the airport Ramada. Ooh, Ramada. It was funny because they hadn't washed the sheets. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. How is that funny? You didn't let me complete the tale. Oh, wow. The other one-off one that I love is with John Goodman playing Adele as the, like, flirty office character. Character just like basically coming in kind of dressed in her like scantily clad outfit um, saying things that are very obvious innuendo and then like going the next mile of explaining every little thing like this this one to me is just like really funny and again great great writing and like all of the different like innuendos that they throw out there, but she super committed, just like very physically on every person in the sketch. It was a fun one. Yeah. Well, this boy's got one thing in his pants that I'd like to wrap my sweaty little mitts around. I'm talking about putting my hands on your penis.
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[35:33] Yes, and again, there's no confusion there. Adele, we got it. Thanks. Well, speaking of getting it, I'm gonna head over to the old icebox and get my oyster platter.
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[35:48] What you looking at, fellas? this is a broke yeah she's totally owning the room in that too like like the office like she's just kind of making her way going to uh everybody i think i remember at one point she um says something suggestive to rachel dratch yes and rachel dratch is like i'm just an intern, i'm just a temp yeah why are you doing this and so yeah yeah that was a really funny one yeah that probably could have been a recurring character yeah as well i could have seen like obvious innuendo lady or yeah like in different settings like we had the office setting and put her in other like various professional worlds i feel like would have been yeah for sure uh there's what if so i i think i said something like she puts a lot of love like it doesn't seem like she, dislikes her any of her characters if there was one where she it was more so making fun of a type and maybe you could sense like there's some sort of meanness underneath the surface it was with the morning latte one yeah oh yeah we gotta talk about that yeah yeah morning latte she and will the dynamic duo again they first did this and i think in season 23 and then they just did a run of them uh famous ones with like chris farley was in a was in a really famous one just a lot of like hyper dumb energy jamie i love these ones yeah these these are great i feel like just that.
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[37:14] Perfect morning talk show shtick and I know we've seen that from like a few cast members over the years but something about this one and this pairing we talked a little bit about like the improv vibe a little but I get that from this as well I'm just like two great people sitting down having fun I know Sherry has mentioned this as like one of her favorite recurring sketches at at some point and it it does just feel like fun fun riffing and just a little bit different from some of her other characters um in a way that's that's kind of fun like yeah crazy but like in a in a different way and more of that like contain talk show still weird but different kind of weird, yeah they're just so funny like they were uninformed about what was going on in the world So we're recording this the day after Joe Biden announced he was stepping down as the Democratic nominee. This is something that the morning latte people would be surprised by the following morning. Or they'd be like, did you hear that Joe Biden? They would just say it with such surprise because they don't follow the news, but they're supposed to be talking about a part of this morning show. They have terrible taste in movies. Cass, how was your weekend? Did you and Eli finally see Good Will Hunting? No, I did something even better. We saw Spice World. Ooh.
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[38:41] That's supposed to be good. Frank, have you seen Spice World yet? I don't know what that is. Oh, well, I'll tell you. You know what I found myself saying after I saw this film? Move over, hard day's night. No kidding. Yes. No, I'm saying these gals are fabulous. That's what I've heard. Yeah, they have got more talent than anything out of Britain or England. Wow. Wow. Wow. Do you like when sketches have like, familiar beats within the sketch how is that for you as a viewer i i do really like that actually i feel like they're i don't know if it's like the comfort or just the style of i don't mind that at all as long as the the jokes are there to kind of hold it up still i i like that and i feel like for this one in particular there was something about that just like kind of.
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[39:31] Sim like i don't know if that's the right word but just like not quite there a little bit like like you said, in their own worlds, combining that with the talk show format was enough to me. Sometimes you don't have to try to reinvent the wheel or do something crazy. It worked because the performers were great. And I think that's a testament to Sherry and to the cast. For sure. They would always involve their producer. So a lot of times the host would play. So John Goodman, Chris Farley, they would involve the producer. I love the bit where Will would say a word and sherry would interrupt him and confidently give a definition that was wrong and she would just say it so confidently like and of course that means this and then will would say no like i just i yeah i love those beats they did a perfect caricature of those cheesy morning show i was part of a morning zoo radio show so i can kind of relate a little bit to that this is something you don't think it's talked about enough and maybe within like snl fan community sure but like i I feel like there needs to be just, like, a giant reel of all of these, like, just great quotes and great moments from this. I feel like it holds up. And sure, some of the pop culture stuff is very much a relic of the time, but the jokes and the...
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[40:48] Dim-wittedness of these characters and how funny that can be i think does really hold up yeah yeah absolutely go back and like deep dive like binge on these morning lattes i found some on tiktok so i googled search and then they came up on tiktok a lot i've been seeing that more and more for snl clips like and i'm i'm not a big tiktoker but i am like okay this is this is kind of refreshing to me that like that's out there in another way for people to kind of discover moments from the show's years past. Yeah, I don't know the TikToks very well, but if they have a lot of SNL sketches, I'll probably visit a lot more. Yeah.
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[41:26] She did another, we talked about the Barbara Walters impression. She did another impression that really stood out to me, but I want to give the floor to you. I want to see if our brains align with maybe the next one that's on your mind. I'm just kind of curious. A little experiment here, Jamie. So what do you got for us next? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my, this one's probably going to be, I think the only other one I had for a recurring that I definitely wanted to talk about was Zimmerman's. Okay. I don't think that's what yours is, because you were saying yours is an impression, right? Yeah, exactly. But I want to hear your thoughts on the Zimmerman's, though. Oh, I mean, the Zimmerman's, gosh, so, so fun. So we have her and Chris Kattan as this like super always breaking out into very inappropriate over-the-top sexual moments and just like can't keep their hands off of each other and, these are just so funny to me like going from the like sexually charged madness to nothingness and to often like blaming the other person in the room like the other couple or whoever else is around in the sketch for like, oh, you guys are inappropriate, or oh, how dare you, like, I feel like that, that in some cases was like the, the conclusion, but the...
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[42:46] Just these moments of like kind of like one upmanship of the just how over the top like sexual energy how much they can bring to the table was just so genius so fun to watch and to re-watch like i feel like if folks haven't revisited these in a while they to me really hold up in terms of the the physical comedy and like just some of the moments and just how some stuff that i'm actually like okay you got that on on tv i know obviously it's late at night and that's the business of snl but um yeah some pretty like vulgar stuff i feel like they got in there which which was fun they did i know it was pretty risque and chris katan's a cast member who i've had a mixed kind of relationship as a viewer with i wasn't always the biggest chris katan fan but i think sherry brought some good parts of chris katan out in these sketches they have a a similar energy so i can see how their kind of energies play off each other well even though i think i really think sherry's a much better sketch performer than chris katan had better snl career but i think she brought out the good parts of chris katan yeah in these that's why i do like watching these agreed yeah i feel like that was a pairing that i enjoyed.
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[43:58] Seeing and i have a similar kind of thing with chris katan of like different doses or different moments is like the right amount for me but i do feel like there's a little bit of a a parallel to me i do hear them sometimes get talked about in like similar conversations and just as some parallels i think with with the roles they played um and just their like relationship with the show itself but this one to me is just like taking those parallels and.
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[44:29] Like putting it to good use because there could be a world where and sometimes this did happen like both of them was too much for one sketch but this is like you're pairing them romantically and like telling them to just go all at it and have fun with it and it it works yeah no i completely agree this is worth a deep dive for a lot of snl fans this is fun a fun revisit and it captures the era a lot because we were talking about like goofball sketches coming off the heels of of not so goofball maybe more mean stuff like yeah so this is like a good example of kind of that goofball energy she did an impression that.
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[45:05] Judge judy oh yeah yeah i really really love she played judge judy like perfectly no nonsense tough lady um fun interplay between her and tracy morgan as the bailiff uh so i really enjoyed her judge duty judy i thought it did great justice to the real judge judy hey hey hey hey look at me look at me i'll take a pig to the butcher when i want to eat baloney. Got it? Hey, got me? Hot judge, cold cuts. All right, Miss Diamond, what sort of training do you have? What's your background as a clown? I never took no courses, but my mother really encouraged me. Whenever the circus came to town, she would drop me off and leave me there for a few days.
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[45:49] Did your mother teach you how to make those disgusting animal balloons? No, they are my own design, tight ass. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey i'm the only tight ass in this courtroom it's right here right here okay yeah i gotta go back in and watch because that's what i i didn't watch for my my rewatch here but i remember yeah from from years past so um yeah if that one is available easily i'll i'll revisit that one again i think that a lot of them are on tiktok so like just the little beats like she came up with little sayings that were funny she would say things like i'll take a pig to the butcher or when I want to eat bologna or I'll grind the organ when I want the monkey to dance and just like these little Judge Judy-isms. Judge Judy actually came on as herself one time and I thought that was pretty fun. Like sometimes I'm hit or miss on like when the actual person comes on. But I think Sherry...
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[46:43] Sherry reacted pretty funny to the real Judge Judy. And she kind of interjected sometimes. And Judge Judy would tell her to go away. And so I thought that was fun. So I think Judge Judy, she did about five of them. I think so. So I think it's worth a revisit for Sherry O'Terry. Another really good impression, I think, Judge Judy. So Jamie, post-SNL, Sherry O'Terry. So not a ton. So she did guest appearances here and there. She was in Shrek the Third, Grown Ups 2. who I'm a big Curb Your Enthusiasm fan, so she was in a memorable episode of Curb for me. A lot of voice acting for animated shows. She was in Scary Movie, the first one, but she never found a project to lead. So do you think it was like a missed opportunity by studios or did something about her style not translate post-SNL? Yeah, it's an interesting one. I feel like her comedy on the show was very much going all in on these zany wacky characters and I could see that leading to a situation of how do we actually take this and put this in more of a film or TV, outside of sketch comedy role I think that, is part of it I know she's talked a little bit about how she.
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[48:02] On SNL it was about comedy first as opposed to like acting outside of sketch comedy and how people have a tendency to kind of like then put you in that lane and i i think that that may be part of it she's someone who like when she does pop up though i always really enjoy seeing her and like curb is a perfect example she's great on that um she had a guest star yeah exactly yeah she popped in on crazy ex-girlfriend which is one of my my favorite shows like was was happy to see her there um so I I'm okay with that and I don't know what like her goals are like what she wants or wanted from her career but I am okay that some cast members aren't like.
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[48:51] Blockbuster every month kind of vibe that that's not the direction their career took like i.
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[48:58] Like seeing her when she has pop up i hope we continue to see those little bits and pieces and i do love her in the comedy roles and and i don't know if that's again what she wants or if she's wanting to was wanting to expand beyond that but i'm happy having her pop up in some of these great shows from time to time no i completely agree like they're not all going to be will ferrell and just take the like be a blockbuster movie star it's not gonna happen with every uh cast member so i'm completely with you i think the thing that maybe is more unfortunate that's impacted her legacy on snl amongst fans is i don't think she's come back to snl yeah like really at all since she left the show in 2000 and i think that kind of sucks jamie i think that's unfortunate i don't know particular reasons why i've kind of heard maybe some stuff But I don't know about you, but I think we're missing out on like Sherry O'Terry not coming back to the show. Agreed. I feel like she's less integrated to like the click of SNL where you see, okay, this person has a show. They're going to bring in all their SNL friends. And you just see this kind of world.
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[50:05] And there can be many reasons for that. Again, I know there are like different theories of like, oh, she was tough to work with or this and that. And, like, I personally have kind of tried to give her the benefit of the doubt among that kind of discourse just because I don't know what happens. I haven't – nothing that's been horrible where I'm like, oh, my gosh, we cannot talk about this person in the history of SNL. I feel like she is somebody who –.
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[50:34] Again, is not super connected with, like, some of the other folks in the show, and I don't know why, and I don't even know that, like, I could. There may be valid reasons for that. There may be invalid reasons. I don't know. I guess what I will say is, like, it's a bummer in the sense of, like, I would love to see her come and host, and she would be a phenomenal host.
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[50:54] So if those circumstances change and she does become more integrated and we get to see more of her in that context that would be an amazing bonus but also if it's a situation where she did her time and that was a period in her life and now she's doing other things i'm okay with that too but yeah yeah the more sherry the better yeah right i know and i don't want to it's hard to speak to like the dynamics between her and her cast members because we weren't there we don't know one thing that she has said though she said she was nervous a lot around the office and she said she would get really nervous before sketches she was nervous during the week so she said she was like this ball of nerves yeah when she was at snl she craved the approval from lorn she really did she she told a story about how norm had to kind of talk her down before a sketch or something like like she just was always just this ball of nerves and maybe she was so nervous that like it kind of prevented her from forging those tight bonds and because i would love like we see dratch come back we see molly shannon we you know sherry o'terry was such a significant arguably bigger than like a dratch or somebody like that but i mean do you think like her not coming back has hurt her legacy a little bit i think it it makes her maybe less known or less talked about in like the fabric of the history of the show to me it doesn't change the like legacy of of what she did for the years and the seasons that she was on the show and doesn't diminish the work.
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[52:23] It maybe contributes to this kind of underrated vibe that comes across because I feel like.
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[52:31] As a result of not being in some of those places, she does get talked about less. And so then when she is talked about, it's like, oh, wait, don't forget about Sherry. She was amazing, too, and also part of redefining this era. So I think that's where I see the connection. Yeah, I'm with that. I think our discussion here hopefully has caused people to go back and remember and just kind of say, like, oh, yeah, Sherry Oteri, she actually was that great. So hopefully this can go towards serving that. So now's the time, part of the show, where you kind of speak to the voters, you speak to the audience, you're speaking to the water cooler.
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[53:08] And, I don't know, Jamie, tell them, why should SNL fans still hold Sherry in high regard as a great cast member? Absolutely, yeah. So Sherry was part of this crucial era of redefining SNL, saving SNL, really showing folks a new way that SNL can be funny. I feel like she was a trailblazer for female comedians on the show. I feel like she paved the way for a lot of the greats that we saw in years to come alongside her cast. I feel like the timing that she had, her ability to excel and really own these character-based sketches was phenomenal. She had this incredible ability to do over-the-top, crazy, fun characters so well, which were so important to that era of the show and what it was all about. Out and I think she really deserves her credit and and props for for that role that she played so I absolutely think that Sherry should be remembered as one of the greats and for playing a critical role in in SNL's history.
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[54:37] So there's that thank you so much thomas and welcome back jamie burwood really great to hear your voice extolling the virtues of sherry o terry i gotta tell you when thomas started to talk about impressions that Sherry O'Terry was part of. And he mentioned Barbara Walters. I was immediately taken back. And I just think that character really exemplifies a lot of what she was capable of and able to do. It's silly, but it's on the mark. And it's a lot of fun. Let's take a listen.
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[55:40] Good morning, I'm Meredith Vieira, and welcome to The View. We've got a fabulous show today, right ladies? Oh, we certainly do, Meredith. We certainly do. Okay, let's take a look at the news. Paula Jones went face-to-face with President Clinton today. He gave his deposition regarding her sexual harassment suit. Now, Star, you're a lawyer. Yes, I am. Now, President Clinton allegedly exposed himself to Ms. Jones and allegedly asked for sex and allegedly Ms. Jones said no, which disappointed the president, allegedly. You know, I was paired with Paula Jones in a three-legged race at Larry King's Fourth of July barbecue bash. And she assured me that President Clinton's member had more twists and turns than the curly fries at Arby's. It's true. Well, I just don't understand what the big deal is. I mean, if a guy whips it out, you just have to be assertive and say, like, hey, don't whip it out, you know?
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[56:41] You're very young, Debbie. Very, very young. All right, this next story is amazing. Chicago physicist Richard Seed wants to open a clinic that would clone human babies. Amazing, right? Now, allegedly, he's going to clone a baby by the year 2000, and what this means is that he's going to take a baby and using signs, he'll make an identical baby to that baby really, really soon. Mm-hmm. You know, there are three people that I would clone. Albert Einstein, Diana, Princess of Where's, and Hugh Downs, my co-host this week on 2020. Well, if I had a clone, I'd make out with myself.
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[57:31] I'm just kidding. Do not speak again. Our guest today is a big star. She is one of the big actresses in the world, allegedly. Please welcome my girl, Glenn Close. Hey!
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[57:58] You are strong and inspirational, and you are one of the whitest women I've ever seen.
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[58:06] I'm delighted to be here. Glenn, you have done so much. Acted in award-winning films. Performed on Broadway. Only one question remains. What do you think of me? Well, Barbara, I admire you tremendously. I've always thought that you would... Oh, you know what I have to ask you about? I want to ask you about that scene in the big chair where you let your husband get that other lady pregnant. Mm, I could not do that. Because I am a do-right woman, and I have to have me a do-right man. Yes. We know that about you, Star. That's done in a nutshell. That's done in a nutshell. Oh, Glenn, I have a question about John Malkovich. What's that? He is so sexy. Ugh. Oh. What's the question? Oh, speaking of questions, it's time for the question of the day. Okay. Today's question comes from Marlene Kimball of Tulsa, Oklahoma. And, Glenn, this question should be really good for you. If you could change one thing about your face, what would it be? Well, nothing. This face has served me very well. Well, I think women need to embrace the uniqueness of their flaws. Wouldn't you all agree?
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[59:31] I don't go in for plastic surgery. If I could change one thing about my face, which is allegedly very big, I would tell those doctors to suck some of this fat out of my neck.
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[59:42] Well, thank you, Glenn, for coming by. That's it? Oh, my God. You know what I just realized? You're the mean lady from 101 Dalmatians. Cruella de Vil. Yeah, now I know who you are. You're evil. Stand over there! Go! Stand over there! Quicker! Stick around. In our next segment, we'll be talking about female circumcision with Naomi Judge.
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[1:00:11] Oh, man. Yeah, that brings back some memories. That's like the original View cast that they were parodying there. And allegedly, I will say, Sherry O'Terry has a path to the SNL Hall of Fame. I believe it. Not a first ballot Hall of Famer, I don't think. We'll get more on the water cooler this week and see what Joe and Shari have to say.
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[1:00:41] Next week, we are discussing Garrett Morris with our friend Darren Patterson, and it should be another great, great episode for you all. Now, that's what I've got for you this week. So, if you would do me a favor, and as you're leaving and walk past the Weekend Update exhibit, turn out the lights, because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
[2:24] So we have two panelists, and for full disclosure, for transparency here on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast, I will be sharing my ballot as well. So it's going to be the three of us sharing ballots today. So I'm not just like the co-host here on the SNL Hall of Fame. I am a panelist today, and I will give some transparency and let you all know my ballot and how I'm feeling about the voting cycle, about the votes this year. So without further ado, let me introduce our panel for today. And I have an icebreaker question, too. So I'm going to introduce them. My icebreaker question, I asked this last panel, last roundtable, and got some interesting responses. I haven't asked these to this question. I don't think. So...
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[3:15] I want to ask which current cast member, not including Kenan Thompson, because that's the obvious one. Kenan's an SNL Hall of Famer. So not including Kenan Thompson, who on the current cast could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday? So that's going to be the little icebreaker question. Get a little peek into the mindset of our panel today. So my first guest, Ashley Bauer, SNL super fan. My guest for Kate McKinnon this year. Ashley did such a great job. And Ashley, thank you so much for joining us today here on the roundtable. How are you? Good. Good to see and talk to you again. Excited to be back. Yeah, this is great. So which current cast member, not including Kenan, that's the obvious one, could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday?
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[4:03] So I thought about this and I went back and forth between two, but I think my vote's going to ultimately go to Bowen Yang. I'm going to have to give it to Bowen. And I think he kind of came out of the gate, you know, really with a bang. And he's really been in some pretty epic and memorable sketches already. And I kind of think he's a jack of all trades. And it's rare that he's in something I'm not dying of laughter in. So, yeah, I'm going to go with Bowen. Bowen's like Mr. Charisma. He really is. I love the iceberg weekend update sketch that he did. That was a really great performance. It's like one of the most memorable things that I can think of that Bowen's done. He's just a very likable person, a lot of charisma. Bowen Yang, Ashley could see in the SNL Hall of Fame someday. That's awesome. All right, so also with us is my partner in crime on the Pop Culture 5 podcast. He also is co-host of the Bigger Than the Game podcast. He's just podcasting all over the place.
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[5:07] He's everywhere. And he was my guest for Tracy Morgan. this season on the SNL Hall of Fame. So I'm welcoming Mr. Deremy Dove to the proceedings. Deremy, how are you? I'm good, man. Always a pleasure to talk SNL and SNL Hall of Fame with you guys. So I'm honored to be on. Yeah, you're one of our go-to guests for the SNL Hall of Fame. Your insights are always so great. So welcome. You've been on for Dick Ebersole. You were on for Adam McKay and this year for Tracy Morgan, which was an interesting one. I think we did Tracy Justice with kind of a more loose sort of format I think Tracy would have wanted it that way I agree I agree absolutely yeah that was fun so who on the current cast not including Keenan could you see in the SNL Hall of Fame uh like like Ashley said it was there's a few who I was going back and forth with but I I went with James Austin Johnson um as my pick I think he um.
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[6:02] He really brings, I love the impressions he does, and he kind of fits that mold of like what I think of. I think of just like what you need to make a great SNL cast member. He has that design. I feel I get like some Daryl Hammond kind of feels from him. I just really love what James Austin Johnson can bring to the table. And I see him. I don't know if he's going to be like the big star, but he's that person when we have rankings in a few years. It's going to be like, we'll be surprised. We'll be like, oh, James Austin Johnson, he's a Hall of Famer. He's a top whatever cast member of all time. So he's who I pick as like that future Hall of Famer for the current cast. I could see that.
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[6:44] He's not just, so he started obviously with his Trump and Biden impressions. And I think he got hired on the strength of that. But he's not just an impressionist. I think he's filling out a lot of important kind of glue guy types of roles. He's kind of branching out and not just being an impressionist. Right, right. Yeah, he plays the dad role really well, kind of the everyday. Because I could see maybe a little bit of Phil Hartman in him, too. Yeah, it's big. In that ways. I mean, Phil's personally one of my top three cast members of all time. So I don't think James is on that tier. But I think there's elements of Phil Hartman that I can see in James. Yeah, I think he's a glue, like you said, a glue guy. And I and I feel like especially those if you're listening to the show or you vote for the SNL Hall of Fame, you're probably a big fan. We all know how important the glue people are to an SNL cast. And I think he fits that role very well. Yeah. What do you think, Ashley? James Austin Johnson's trajectory?
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[7:42] I had to laugh because that was actually who I went between. I was going between whether or not I wanted to vote for Bowen Yang or James Austin Johnson. So I am right there with you, Deremy. I agree. I think he's so versatile. You're right. He definitely evokes some of the greats in the past. He has that, Tom, you said charisma for Bowen. I think James Austin Johnson does too. He just has this swagger every time he's in a sketch. And yeah, he can play just a side character or the main character. Or he can do an impression yeah i was really close to voting for him but um ultimately went with bowen obviously but 1000 agree yeah good solid choices i think i could see in a few years we could be looking up and seeing heidi gardner having the hall of fame kind of resume she has talent she's a hall of fame talent i think she needs to get maybe a couple more seasons have some more good sketches she's very good on weekend update i think that's a lot of times where she's shines is coming on weekend update and doing kind of off the wall but sometimes relatable.
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[8:46] Characters heidi so i can definitely see heidi forming a case uh dark horse it's for me and he's been awesome i think he's my mvp of season 49 is andrew just mugs honestly yeah he has and he has his own lane on the show too it's almost like a will forte ish kind of lane like andrew he has a more offbeat kind of sense of humor than a lot of the cast and i think he's all of my My favorite pieces from this current season 49 have been Andrew Dismuke's pieces, quite frankly. So I see maybe Andrew a little bit of a dark horse, but I wouldn't be surprised if he if he continues what he's doing this season. We could be possibly making a case for Andrew Dismuke. So those are a couple of people that I wanted to shout out.
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[9:29] So how this SNL Hall of Fame voting is going to work every season. The voters have up to 15 votes that they can use. Voters can use one vote if they'd like. I don't know why they would, but maybe that's, you know, they're very hardcore and stringent and they only think one person deserves to be in the SNL Hall of Fame each season. Though from looking at the ballot, that would just mean like, I think you're an SNL Grinch or something and you might be shamed if you just come on here and say you're just using one vote. I don't know. So I'm curious, how many votes, Jeremy, are you leaning toward using today? I'm using all 15. All 15. All 15. I think there's some easy slam dunk people to put in, and there's a lot of people who I don't want to knock the SNL family, the SNL fan base, but I'm just like, why are these people still on the ballot? And this is a shame, and I'm going to stick up for it. I'm going to continue to do it. So I got all 15. Jeremy's going to be an advocate. Awesome. All 15, the opposite of a Grinch. Good job, my man. Yes, yes, yes. Ashley, how many votes are you using?
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[10:39] I'm going to copy Deremy again. I'm using all 15. I found it difficult to keep it at 15, to be honest. And there was one that I realized wasn't on the list. And so I had to unfortunately kind of kick somebody off to make sure this person got on my ballot. But yeah, again, a lot of great, so much talent over the years. And I'm going to fight for them too. All right. So both Jeremy and Ashley are using 15. Coming in, I have 13 locks. So what I'm doing right now is I have 13 on my list that I feel are locks for me. But I have two that are open. So I think my goal here, one of my goals here on this roundtable is to be persuaded maybe as to how I'm going to use those final two votes. Votes so 13 i have locked in but you dare me you ashley you could persuade me you can make the case for maybe somebody that i don't have on my list and as to why they should be in the eston hall of fame so if there's anybody that's a grinch it seems like it's uh it might be me more so than ashley and dare me but it's strategic grinch it's it's i'm utilizing strategery on the round.
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[11:52] Well done yes uh so then i'm gonna name the nominees and then we'll get to it just to refresh everybody's memory uh on who the nominees are uh this season on the snl hall of fame uh in the cast member category we have 13 cast members first time nominees rachel dratch will forte taryn killam kate mckinnon tracy morgan lorraine newman and adam sandler returning to the ballot We have Fred Armisen, Vanessa Baer, Ana Gasteyer, and Chris Parnell. And their final time on the ballot.
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[12:32] Maya rudolph and molly shannon so that means if maya and molly don't get voted in in this cycle they're off the ballot so i know jeremy's shaking his head what a shame i can't believe it i know i know it's the will of the people i don't know what to say that's true that's true so for the host category there's 12 on the ballot first time nominees john ham and hathaway and martin short returning to the ballot but not for their final time candace bergen jim carrey buck henry scarlett johansson and paul rudd final time on the ballot for these folks melissa mccarthy john mulaney emma stone and justin timberlake we'll see if emma stone she's been on the ballot since snl hall of fame season one she just became a five-timer here in season 49 we'll see if that That helps bumper up as far as making the SNL Hall of Fame. So I'm curious about that. Musical guests. There's one first-time nominee. That's Pearl Jam. Great episode with Ryan McNeil. I love doing that Pearl Jam episode. Returning to the ballot, we have David Bowie, Dave Grohl, and Lady Gaga.
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[13:43] On the ballot for the final time, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Prince. So those are the musical guests, which is always a fascinating category to me, musical guests. And we'll probably get into that and your philosophies behind musical guests and the SNL Hall of Fame as well. Writers, there's eight writers on the ballot. First-time writers, John Mulaney. So yes, you heard him as a host. John Mulaney is also on the ballot as a writer. So when we did the draft, I believe it was Matt Ardill who said, let's, you know, John Mulaney is a great host. But he's also known for a writer. Let's put him on the ballot as a writer, too, and just kind of see what happens. So Mulaney's on the ballot for the first time as a writer, as is Julio Torres.
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[14:28] Returning is Jack Handy, Adam McKay, Paul Lappel, Herb Sargent, and Rosie Schuster. Final time on the ballot for Frankenden Davis and Michael O'Donohue. So the writer's always interesting, again, to me. And one producer on the ballot, Dick Ebersole, which Jeremy and I did an episode on. I believe back in season three. Yes. Yeah. So Dick Ebersole on the ballot still here on the SNL Hall of Fame. So with that said, let's reveal those ballots, those votes. So I'm going to start with Deremy to kick things off. Who's the first person, Deremy, you want to talk about who you're voting for? Well, I just think you guys did a great episode on this person. And if there's the biggest lock or just slam dunk for the Hall of Fame, SNL Hall of Fame, it's this person. And let's just get her out the way because it's just so obvious. But Kate McKinnon, I think it's just, we're looking at somebody who.
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[15:32] Is a top 10, maybe top five cast member of all time. And we're almost at 50 year history of the show. And someone, I heard you guys talk about just, just a prodigy and just from day one, you're just like, you know, and for me, I get nervous with that because I'm always like, oh, this person shows so much promise and you start thinking, can they be a great, but there's so many great names in SNL history. You don't want to put that pressure, but Kate McKinnon lived up to deliver and exceeded all these expectations. And when I think of SNL in the decade of the 2010s, she's the first name that comes to my mind. So I figured let's just the number one slam dunk on this list to me, Kate McKinnon. Yeah, the most recent cast member on the ballot. Season 47 was her final season, and she went through the waiting period for the SNL Hall of Fame on the ballot this year. I wonder if there's going to be some sort of recency bias maybe against Kate, because she's so recent, and maybe some people feel like they need to put others ahead of Kate in the Hall of Fame. I mean, that's the only reason that I could think of as to why somebody would not vote for her. Because I agree with you, Jeremy. I think she's a slam dunk. Definitely on my ballot. I assume, Ashley, you were my guest for Kate McKinnon. I assume Kate's on your ballot.
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[16:56] I feel like I could call myself a Kate fan. And my entire podcast should have been thrown away if I didn't put Kate on my ballot. So, yeah, she was actually my number one. I think, Jeremy, you and I are on the same wavelength. We're twins. We're SNL twins.
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[17:09] Yes. So, I was going to come out of the gate strong with Kate, too. And, yeah, like, I was worried about that, too, was, yeah, is she too, quote, unquote, young? Is she still too junior? We were kind of talking about, you know, are we putting people up with, you know, people like Phil Hartman and all these kind of big greats. But I think she is up there already. I think she has proved herself to be a name that will forever echo the halls of Saturday Night Live with the impact that she's had. Yeah, and I can't imagine, you know, don't sleep on her just because we think she's going to sit on this ballot for a little bit. Like, I think she's she deserved it for sure. Yeah, I definitely agree. And I know some people have a philosophy of deciding whether somebody's a first ballot or not. I've always been of the mind, even in sports halls of fame, that if somebody's a Hall of Famer, they're a Hall of Famer. And I don't think there should be tiers as far as first ballot Hall of Fame. And to me, if they're a Hall of Famer, they're a Hall of Famer. And I don't look at them as like, I don't separate the Hall of Fame into tiers like that. Some people do. I think Kate's, even if somebody does separate into tiers, I think Kate's a quote-unquote first ballot Hall of Famer, even if somebody is strict like that. To me, she's almost comfortably in the top 10 all-time cast members.
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[18:28] For me and i hope i hope as the years go along that people really have an appreciation for what she did on the show i know there were a lot of maybe hardcore snl fans toward the end of her tenure who were like oh we need some new blood i'm kind of sick of kate and that's unfortunate because we didn't know how good we had it with kate honestly apparently some people didn't know because she's an all-timers all-timer so that's just kind of where i stand so jeremy i'm curious i don't know if we've talked about this do you separate halls of fame in general into like Like, if somebody's a first ballot, if somebody's not? No, I don't have, like, the tier list. Like, I don't do, like, oh, you're on tier one. But there are in SNL Hall of Fame or in Sports Hall of Fame, there are names that are, like, you can just say their name and there's, like, enough said. And, like, you know, you stand up and you sit down. And there's some Hall of Famers where you have to have a discussion more and, you know, talk about it and you might have some debate. And I understand there's, like, both. But once they're in, there's no separation. You're a Hall of Famer. But there's some where it's like, you know, in the NFL, if I say Tom Brady, and if someone goes, really, I'm not sure about him, I'd be like, what's wrong with you? And, you know, Kate McKinnon's like on that level.
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[19:40] It's like if someone's like, I don't know. I'd be like, really? You don't know about Kate McKinnon? Like, it's going to be a long day. So it's like Kate McKinnon's just, you just got to say her name, and then you sit back down. Exactly. No, I'm with you. I'm going to suck up to Ashley here and say Kate McKinnon's like Tim Duncan. In the nba like tim duncan ashley's his first fans oh okay nice tim tim duncan is like you say tim duncan it's like oh he's like a top 10 all-time great nba player like for sure hall of fame like he's on that first tier of hall of famer so to me kate mckinnon's like a tim duncan yeah like it's just a no-brainer like that absolutely and ashley like did a raise the roof there so i'm on her good side i i think my love for saturday night live may be tied with my love for the san antonio spurs it's really close i'm quite a fan girl when it comes to both so yeah tom could not have picked a better reference for me exactly and i'm jealous you get to follow victor wimpy llama same year how many years she's so lucky with the spurs, I was really happy that draft day, for sure. Oh, I bet. So, Deremy, Kate McKinnon, all three of us have Kate McKinnon on our ballots. Ashley, I want to go to you. Who do you want to start with?
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[20:56] The next person I had right after Kate McKinnon on my list that I want to put on my ballot is Maya Rudolph.
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[21:03] Again, I think she's another name. You say her name and it's no question. Profession the the breadth and the depth of talent that she had while on that show i i think was unmatched and i don't think there's been anyone like maya since on the show that's been able to kind of hold the candle to what she was able to do um i mean vocally she could do any of the you know finger impressions and and give us either you know song parodies um but she could also just really own and commit to being silly and ridiculous um but comes to mind is the sketch that she did with kristin wig where they're the prize girls on the on the game show and kate's you know driving around in the golf cart and they're just acting ridiculous and there's a lot of breaking and again i'm sure lauren wasn't too pleased with it but you could get these really serious impressions like beyonce out of maya but then also these just ridiculous ditzy dumb you you know, physical comedy, throw yourself type of sketches from her. And I think she's definitely, you know, she belongs in this hall of fame. Yeah. Well said. I think we've talked a little bit about Maya. Jeremy, is this the, one of the ones you've been upset about over the last few seasons? Yes, Ashley. I don't know what it is. We're on the same page. I'm going to say this. I think Maya Rudolph is the most.
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[22:26] Under appreciated underrated cast member in the history of snl and i think it's crazy i to me i think she's top 10 but at most i'll give someone top 15 like cast member of all time um i think and maybe that's like a people have that sexist view could we say glue guy so we think of just like phil hartman dan akroyd no to me it's a glue person because my rudolph I think maybe the only glue person I think of more than her is a Phil Hartman, in my opinion. I just think, like what Ashley said, the versatility, what she was able to do, how unique she was, where before or since there's not a talent that Saturday Night Live has seen like her. And I think it's a travesty that she's been on this ballot for so long. So absolutely Maya Rudolph. off.
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[23:17] Jeremy, you could partly blame me for some of that because I have been one of those people that's a little on the fence about Maya. And I know that's one of the things that you and I probably disagree about the most. Absolutely. As far as us in the Hall of Fame. And Ashley wants to throw a tomato at me right now, I think. And I love Maya. I love Maya.
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[23:37] I'll watch anything that she pops up. If she's on a podcast, she was just on Dax Shepard's podcast. And I made sure that moved up in the queue. you like i wanted to listen to maya on dax's podcast like i absolutely love maya and i landed on why i was on the fence about it in the beginning and i talked this over we did actually a relitigation episode with rebecca north she came on and advocated for maya and i think for me i think maya was in the wrong era i think the the type of humor that was around when maya was on the cast probably in the early 2000s. I don't think it really fit the skill set that she had. I think she was honestly better than a lot of the material that was on the show around that time. I think if she was on the show early 90s, or even if she got to be more part of the cast in the other Golden Era from about 2007, I know she overlapped a little bit, but I would have liked to see her move on into like 2012 and you know i think she left the cast a little too soon before it really gelled and blossomed so i just think a lot of the material a lot of this the humor in the early 2000s.
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[24:49] I always felt like it was a little edgelordy it was just weird all around like we were in a weird time in the country and just in comedy in general and i think the humor was just kind of off in the early 2000s and i didn't and i think that that didn't cater to to what made maya truly great I always love watching her on screen, but there was always something missing, but I think I landed on that it wasn't her fault. Really?
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[25:15] You know, what gets me is like a lot and not this isn't at you, Thomas, but a lot of people look at the ladies of that era with Maya as like really breaking through the boys club of Saturday Night Live. And Maya was a big part of that.
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[25:28] And the other women to me get talked about so much more than her when I think she was the best of those ladies who broke through, which is always kind of weird and conflicting for me where it's like there was great women on SNL before. But you know they had to fight that boys club and then it's like that's the era where it's like oh like the ladies broke through but then they leave maybe like one of the biggest pieces or the biggest piece off that list when we're talking about we give amy polar love and everybody like we don't give maya rudolph so it always kind of confuses me yeah i can agree with that what do you think about that ashley oh gosh yeah i can't imagine anybody being on the fence about maya rudolph um i think you saw my jaw hit the floor um because yeah it was oh yeah we talked you know jeremy.
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[26:13] You talked about the glue person i think she could have been in every sketch and she held it together she always brought something to it even if she wasn't the star of that sketch or wasn't bringing her main like impressions um to it and again i know on my kate podcast i talked about you know to me when i think of somebody in the hall of fame for saturday night live is you know does their talent take them beyond the show and again look at her i mean she's still making amazing stuff and i i do i see where you're coming from tom a little bit when you're talking about um you know it not being her fault i can see that i think had she stayed and gotten to do a little bit more with like tina fey and annie puller she was like kind of in this weird she She wasn't on too long before they left.
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[26:59] But then kind of also left herself not long after like Kristen wig and stuff was there, you know, only overlapped a little bit with those. I think she was kind of a little bit in between where it really would have catapulted her to a little bit more star power. Had she had a little bit, you know, better chemistry to meld with, but I loved her every second she was on the show. I loved every sketch that she was in. Um, huge fan of her impressions, of course, who I thought she was really good at it.
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[27:32] Yeah, I'm trying to like, I'm a lawyer in my day job and I'm totally failing right now because I'm like, how do I advocate and convince Tom to put Maya on this ballot? Well, I will say that she's one of my locks. So Maya's on my ballot as a lock. So and I think I think she's going to get in this time around. But I had to have a sort of epiphany as to why I didn't 100 percent connect with Maya like everybody else. And it was like a goodwill hunting thing. I had to look at Maya and say, it's not your fault. And then she's in the SNL Hall of Fame as far as I'm concerned. So I'm writing my previous wrong and putting her as a lock on my ballot. And I think it's going to happen for her. I think she's going to get in this time around. That's just my gut feeling. I hope so. Yeah, I think you'll be fine. I will withdraw my objection. I apologize, Tyler. I've apologized. I've done all of, I think, the right thing here and admitted my error. And arrived at a proper conclusion, I think. So Maya Rudolph is on all three of our ballots here on the SNL Hall of Fame. I'm curious. I'll stick with you, Ashley. I'm curious as to who you want to talk about next. So this is a name that I am shocked is still on the ballot.
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[28:51] That she hasn't been voted into the Hall of Fame yet. I got to go with Molly Shannon. Yeah, I think I talked a little bit on on my episode about, you know, what really made me fall in love with Saturday Night Live. And again, I think, you know, there's a few other names from her era that are on my ballot, too, that I won't bring up yet. But again.
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[29:12] I mean, Mary Catherine Gallagher, just how can you not put Mary Catherine Gallagher in the Hall of Fame? She's a superstar. It's literally on her name. Well said. Yeah, she's on my ballot. So Molly Shannon is one of those. And similar to Maya Rudolph, this is her last year on the ballot. So if she doesn't get in, she's just off the ballot.
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[29:33] So I have her as a lock. So that's one of my other locks. Um daramie uh molly shannon uh what are you what's your feeling on molly oh absolutely a lock um and and i agree with you guys i agree with ashley like she should have she should have been in i'm always going to give love for those cast members and writers who bridge a gap at a really tough time in snl history when i know like we all know the stuff like every year saturday night dead and blah blah blah and it's like okay but there's certain points in the show's history where it was really at a shaky point and on the rocks and she came midway through that awful 94 95 season and stayed on one of the few people who stayed on and really helped bring in a new transition with that fall of 95 96 cast and just the different characters the way she just jumped into the bazaar and didn't hold back and could you know have mary katherine gallagher but just really brought such a weird uncomfortable character to the mainstream and she was able to do that time and time again on this show uh definitely a hall of famer for.
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[30:44] Yeah that's both of you said everything i think especially like she i think mary catherine gallagher on the snn they did a character count and i think mary catherine gallagher finished top five i want to say and that that's that's molly shannon's work her physicality is something.
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[31:01] That i think everybody will always mention probably to her detriment like you watch some of those sketches back and she probably will admit like yeah she could have heard like she probably shouldn't have done that necessarily like i bet the producers on the show and writers and stuff like what are you doing like you don't have to like totally throw yourself through this table or wall or so i think she did a little damage to her body but she sacrificed herself for the good of the show and for our entertainment and she's just so wonderful and she has a really great memoir called hello molly uh i don't know if you have ever if you have a chance to read it i don't you need to pick that up Ashley if you haven't it's so good it's in my it's in my to read list right now for sure I admit I got a little bit sidetracked by some other kind of book talk recommendations that I very cliche got into but it is downloaded it is in my queue I've been dying to read it and yeah yeah you were talking about her physicality and I think what I loved about her too is we haven't seen a female comedian do physical comedy to the extreme like chris farley did you know when i think of extreme physical physical comedy to their actual physical real detriment you know obviously um you know chris farley would chug you know i don't even know how much like caffeine or espressos to get into that you know really hyper mindset in addition to you.
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[32:31] Know, throwing himself through walls and tables.
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[32:34] I loved that a female comedian would do that. And it was, I can be just as funny as the men who do this. And it's not improper. It's not inappropriate.
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[32:43] She nailed it. I think it worked for her. And you're right. She did have so many quirky characters that I feel like other comedians who came after her tried to do, you know, they tried to bring that kind of weird and unique humor, but it didn't really land, or at least I didn't really get it. First person that comes to mind is Kyle Mooney. I apologize to Kyle Mooney fans, but he was just somebody that I couldn't really understand.
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[33:11] I applauded his attempt and because, you know, comedy is so subjective and there's something out there for everybody. But I think Molly was that weird kind of quirky as a weird, quirky girl, awkward, you know, growing up, I was like, Oh, I feel seen like people can laugh with her and not at her. And that was really, really awesome to see. Do we have a Kristen Wiig or Kate McKinnon without Molly Shannon? Yeah, she's a trailblazer. Yeah, exactly.
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[33:42] And I'm looking at Molly's trajectory as far as voting, and she started off at 34% after season one, and she's climbed to 47, 54, and then 57 last time around. So she just needs that last kind of push to get into the Hall of Fame. And with Maya, she started off at 47, and then she's been at 57, 58, and 58 the last few times. So I think both Molly and Maya both hovering around like the 57 to 58 percent of the vote mark. This is their last time. I think Molly's going to get into that's my gut feeling as well. I think the fact that I think voters will look at it and say that Molly and both Molly and Maya deserve it. And they've been on the cusp. They've been so close. And again, I blame myself for Maya. I've voted for Molly in the past. So I'm off the hook as far as Molly goes. But I would love to see both of them get into the SNL Hall of Fame. So we've had agreements on Kate McKinnon, Maya Rudolph, and Molly Shannon, three great cast members. Jeremy, I'm wondering who you have as far as non-cast members.
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[34:53] Yeah, that's actually where I was going to go next because I'm like, you know what, let's just get weird on this roundtable. Let's get weird. Let's get weird. and I'm gonna go with this person and I'll be honest Thomas and, you know have listened to snl hall of fame since season one and usually when i'm listening the the conversation's great and you kind of lean me either way i'm thinking either where i'm like yeah they're hall of famer they're already just you're proving that or i don't think so and you're kind of going that way never have i been more conflicted listening than to the michael o'donohue episode where you had brad and gary on and i'm driving around and i'm going yeah and then right away. Then the next, someone makes a point and I go, no, he's not a hall of famer. Then I'm like, but yeah, he is. And I was just back and forth, like, and I'm like, I really don't know.
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[35:40] And so I thought about it a lot, but I I'm going to vote them in. Okay. And I can understand if people don't, but I'm going to go there because of when the show started and, you know, because we've been making sports references, I'm going to keep that train going. You know, the dynasty docu-series just happened with the Patriots. And of course when you look at the Patriots dynasty there's a lot of players coaches, administrators who are a part of it but the big three like headed leadership Robert Kraft Bill Belichick, Tom Brady. When you look at the first year SNL the three headed leadership it was Lorne Chevy Chase and Michael O'Donohue and Michael really did if you listen to a lot of people that original those first five years You know, Saturday Night Live brought an edge. It was cool. It was hip. It was something that TV in the 70s hadn't seen yet. And who really helped to bring that sensibility was Michael O'Donoghue. And he's also done things, especially in the early 80s, that really could hurt the show. So I understand the negative, but I feel like his positives do outweigh the negatives, which is why I kind of went with he should be voted on. And he was a part of that original crew and I feel like everyone who was a part of the first season in my opinion should Be in the Hall of Fame just because you were a part of the foundation and you started this.
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[37:05] Huge franchise that will stay in pop culture forever, no matter how long the show is on or when it goes off. So I vote for Michael O'Donohue. It's interesting that you bring up O'Donohue because I've, I put him on and then took him off. Like I alternated just so many over the last few days. I was like, nah, I don't know Don Hugh. And then I thought, and then I would think about what Brad and Gary said. I'm like, well, those are good points. I'll put them on. And then I took him off again. As of right now, Now he's not one of my 13 locks and he was one of the ones where I could be persuaded for him to end up on my final ballot. He went actually, I think Brad and Gary did a really great job of advocating for Michael O'Donohue because he went from 11% of the vote after season three to barely, like barely staying on the ballot. He got 35% last year. So that was quite the jump for Michael O'Donohue. I have, I don't know. It's just some, I don't know if it's just his, his persona or something like the, the, the edgy bordering on mean material that he possibly wrote that sometimes rubs me the wrong way. But, but I, I, I definitely grant like how important he was, uh, to the show. Uh, Ashley, it was Michael O'Donoghue, somebody that you've been maybe considering, uh.
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[38:20] He is not on my ballot actually. And yeah, it was one of those things where I totally agree with you, Jeremy. He, I mean, he was part of that first season and I, I do agree with your statement that anyone from that first season because of what they created and what we have now is because of them. Um, but again, I wasn't a huge fan of, of his, some of his sketches were, I don't know, maybe it's just cause they didn't age well looking back at them. Um, but I do have a few writers on my ballot for sure. Um, and he just didn't land in one of my top favorites. Um, so. Yeah. He, uh, looking at his sketches, like, so this will be have like the, the good and the bad of it. Like he wrote Godfather therapy with, uh, Belushi Belushi, which was awesome. He wrote the last voyage of the starship enterprise, which I think is one of the better sketches of those early five seasons. Absolutely. Both of those. Yeah. Yeah, those are great. Norman Bates' School of Motel Management was awesome.
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[39:18] I even liked the, he had a weird concept of the attack of the atomic lobsters that was like, I think O'Donohue's sense of humor kind of reigned in a little bit. Then like you have things like the Needle, the Needles Impressionist, where he just said like, here's my impression of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with needles stuck in their eyes. And he would just like yell he would like mind putting needles in his eyes and just yell so it's just kind of interesting uh but again Jeremy he's not like totally off my ballot it's just something that I have to like keep thinking about well don't get me wrong like I so personally I agree with you guys like there's a lot of things that I'm like uh it doesn't I mean there's some sketches he wrote that hits me it's a lot that don't but I have to take myself out of it and look back on what, for our parents' generation, what TV was like in 1975.
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[40:14] And we look at it like, we look at the late 60s into the 70s, music and movies were ahead of the game, where they reflected what society was doing. TV was dead last. And I think about what really changed TV. I think of, number one, like Norman Lear and his sitcoms, and then, number two, like when Saturday Night Live premiered. So like him doing like the needles in the eye, like it's not, I don't laugh at it, but like at that point, TV was so far behind. That was just bizarre to see on television where you're used to seeing, you know.
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[40:47] Green Acres and Mr. Ed, you know, not that long before. And that was like, that's what you got. And then even like in late night, it was Johnny Carson.
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[40:55] So then it's like, you're getting this and just this sensibility. That's just, whoa, like the counterculture is taking over NBC for an hour and a half on Saturday nights. Like it was very different for that generation, which is why I had to take myself and my personal taste out of it and look like that was different for that time. Totally no i agree i mean that's that's why he's still kind of like i might be persuaded honestly he might end up on my list of 15 i'm trying i'm trying i know yeah you're very persuasive you do that on our other pod too on pop culture five you always kind of like get me on your side yeah so and michael donahue was the first person to appear on camera on snl like just a little like historical fun fact the first person that we see on snl it was michael o'donohue and that wolverine sketch so but Jeremy has Michael O'Donohue Ashley's probably a no I'm a maybe at this point Ashley you said that you had a writer or a couple writers I'm curious if you want to reveal one of those yeah so I have four writers actually um and I I gotta go with my girl Paula Pell brilliant just absolute brilliance like she is my comedy um I if I saw her on the street I might might die just like i would next to kate and tina fey but i think because we got paula pell like in the era of tina fey to such strong writers at the same time we got such great stuff out of them.
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[42:25] Um and again i keep repeating myself but what they've been able to do beyond the show as well, you know like conan o'brien when he was on and what he's been able to do afterwards because he had such talent i think paul is the same way and she kind of stays in the you know she doesn't really take that limelight that I feel like she deserves she's kind of I think happy to be a writer and not necessarily take those starring roles but when she does you know come in and do even just like a supporting actress I sign me up I'm gonna see it every single day any chance I get to see Paula Pell and again I think what she was able to do with around that time with Tina was pushing again we talked about Jeremy you said um breaking the boys club not just for the the comedians we saw on TV, but I think that's what Paula and Tina were doing in the writers room was they were trying to break up that boys club, and again say women are funny too and we can be silly and ridiculous and I think even bringing in the.
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[43:21] You know, the topical humor of calling stuff out and making it funny, though, like bringing up issues in a way that made everybody laugh instead of making them uncomfortable. So we could talk about it and kind of understand it and see it. And I think she was such a trailblazer for it. Yeah, she was one of the minds behind some of the great recurring sketches of that era. She was she was behind the cheerleaders and other just really big recurring sketches like that. She was like you could you definitely felt her voice in that era. And it meshed well with, like you said, Will Ferrell, Sherry O'Terry, and all of those. And she has Girls 5, Ebba. That's kind of like the thing that she's involved with right now. Paula Pell. Deremy, I'm curious before I kind of – because I have a little situation here with Paula Pell and another writer that I might want to hash out. But, Deremy, I want to get your thoughts on Paula Pell. Oh, she's on my list. That's a slam dunk.
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[44:17] Should have been in for a writer. She's the first ballot. Hall of Famer in my opinion um I talked about you know with Molly Shannon those who helped really re like revigorate and save the show in like the fall of 95 we talk about the people on screen you always give credit to those behind the camera and like the writers Paula Pell's one of those people and you mentioned I mean from like the cheerleaders to Debbie Downer to Justin Timberlake in the omelette ville like so that's like over different years she's doing these memorable characters and like writing these great sketches um and just someone you know that lauren trusted you know like i think ashley great point like how huge was it for when tina fey became the first female head writer that having a paula pell there like i'm sure that was like a big help and i just think she's getting this just due now because like in the public eyes because of girls five ever but like.
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[45:16] Maybe it's by design. I know she was behind the scenes, but to me, she's one of those writers who should have always been talked about up there with a Smigel, a Jack Handy, all those people. She's that great. She's a slam dunk for me. me yeah it seems like if you ask somebody who worked at snl around that time they would tell you that paula pell was probably the funniest person yeah in the building so that's kind of the that's the reputation that she had uh and by the way if you listen to wtf with mark maron paula pell was a recent guest yes on and she was great she's hilarious she's so likable love paula pell that was a really great interview she did with mark maron um paul is not a lock on my list and she's honestly one like that I'm not discounting and I wanted to hash it out because I don't know I have another writer that might be a little I'm gonna take controversial but a lot of people might tell me might urge me to put Paula Pell in ahead of him for many reasons I want to hash out as to whether I should swap out Paula Pell for this person or if I should add Paula Pell to my list and keep this person so i want to kind of dive into i have julio torres.
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[46:25] On on my list and i and i didn't think that i didn't think that was i was gonna feel that way heading into the season but then i started looking at the sketches that he wrote and his unique voice and i know the one limiting factor is he was only on the show for he was only a writer on the show for like three seasons but some of the stuff that julio did i mean he he was behind uh papyrus which we saw a second installment papyrus 2 now the actress with emma stone he uh he also wrote wells for boys which was another wonderful emma stone pre-tape he wrote a lot of really great political things he had the melania moments his so you julio had just like such a clever unique voice at that time of the show i think he really stood out he had a really great one with With Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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[47:18] Where Lin-Manuel Miranda played a character. That was like. He was in Montana or North Dakota or something. And he called his mom. Because he was an immigrant that called his mom. And was describing like how his life was. So like. Julio Torres' voice was just so unique. And to me he was almost like a comet. That came through SNL. And he made the show so great. But he just wasn't there. For a long time. Where somebody like Paula Pell was. Was and so i want i was wondering about like the merits of of julio torres in that should i i don't know ashley like should i move another rider a more of a legacy rider in front of him or like what do you what do you think about julio's contributions and then even like compared to somebody like paul appell.
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[48:06] Yeah, I mean, and not to discount Julio Torres. Yeah, I loved his sketches. I thought they were hilarious. And I don't want to say that somebody doesn't deserve to be on a ballot just because they weren't on Saturday Night Live for I don't think there's a requisite amount of time. I think we could, you know, vote somebody in who was in for one season. Obviously, we've got some hosts on the ballot that aren't necessarily in the five timers club and things like that. But I think to me, the difference between if we're going to put Julio and Paula together is not just not that Paula was legacy because she was on for so long, but because of what her sketches did to, you know, move the show. Like Jeremy said, you know, taking it out of an era like she came in, I think, right at the right time to kind of rescue a drowning show and then continue to evolve it and stay relevant and kind of help us, you know, continue to keep SNL moving with the times.
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[49:01] Whereas you know i mean i get papyrus and they just did you know part two a couple weeks ago is just genius um i think it should be nominated for like an emmy for a short or something but um yeah given the two i really think paula um i mean is julio again i hate i hate to do this but this isn't his last year on the ballot correct no and you're right no this is his first year actually so i mean that that plays a role yeah that plays a role too in the thought process i think yeah yeah so i i think you got to go with paula i really do i think and again julio he's also someone who continues to write um and doing great things for other shows you know that we still watch today and so definitely not to discount his humor what what he did um his sketches.
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[49:50] But i'm biased i'm like i said i would fangirl over paula pell in the street so So yeah, you know where I stand. Yeah, I think Jeremy, the thing about Julio to me was like his batting average, putting in sports terms, like his batting average was just so high that it was hard for me to discount. He did so much in such a little time, like almost everything that he did was a hit for me. And to me, that plays a big role. Like, is it quantity or even if he was only on the show for three seasons, but his batting average is super high? Like, how do you weigh stuff like that? No, it's hard. I feel like you could have both on there, and I think that would solve it, but if you have to choose.
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[50:31] Between one or the other, I would put Paula just because.
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[50:35] A little bit of the longevity and what she did over different eras. So her batting average was, you know, it, you know, if you have someone who hit three 50 for three seasons and someone who hit three 25 for, you know, 15 seasons, like it's like, you know, I'm gonna go with that three 25 for 15 over three 50 for the three. So it's like, I have to weigh it like that. I'm probably gonna, you gotta, it's hard because like my, The guy who I look at is either, I go back and forth between first or second greatest cast members, Eddie Murphy. And he wasn't on very long, but what he did was amazing. So I hear you. It's tough. And I think with Julio bringing that different sensibility to a show and really bringing that diversity in a different mind, that's a great factor for him. But Paula did that too. Yeah. So it's like, it's, it's just hard. Like if you have to pick one or the other, I would go with Paula, but it's a tough choice. Yeah. So I think all of that weighs into my thought process. I think, I think.
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[51:40] I think it either come down for me to Julio or Paula, or you're right. I could, I could just put both of them on. I might have room to do that. It's all, I mean, nothing's set in stone right now. I just wanted to hash that out. Cause I think it's interesting. And Julio actually has a better case than I thought even like on the surface, you're like, okay, Julio Torres, like, you know, memorable, talented rider. But then you start looking at his work and it was like, oh my gosh, he might actually have a real case here. Like more so than I thought. So, uh, so I just wanted to hash that out. And I thought that was the perfect time to do it. But Paula Pell is one of the other ones where I was like, man, I love Paula Pell. And I was just considering that. So, yeah, thanks for – see, here, we're all learning something. And we're all kind of like – or at least I'm like kind of getting my thought process in order and maybe swayed a certain way. So, yeah, Deremy, I wonder what is next on your list.
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[52:29] Another crime I'm trying to justify or undo on the SNL Hall of Fame. You came with anger, everybody. Deremy's just like – I'm just like, jeez. here we go i brought this per i think i was on the season three round table before and i nominated this person then and they're still on here but we're talking about you know because ashley you just brought up like host and we're talking about the og five-timer guy he was on 10 times in the first five years he was the person who suggested doing recurring sketches like to that to the original like cast like hey you should do that samurai thing again john like come on i mean it's classic when they did the samurai and belushi like by accident cuts him on the forehead and they're all wearing like the bandage you got to have buck henry on here the og the five timers club is such a known thing in the snl like pantheon and how do we not have the og of the five timers club in the snl hall of fame he should be a first ballot guy because he's one of those people.
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[53:37] I think of him and Steve Martin, where people to this day get confused and say they were part of the original cast. Because that's how much they are a staple of that show. And so I'm just like, outside of maybe Steve Martin, to me there's no more important host than Buck Henry. So it's like, how is he not in the Hall of Fame yet? I don't know. I don't get it. But I'm going to do it again.
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[54:04] Nominate and bring up buck henry for the snl hall of fame let's hopefully we get it right this time people yeah he's on he's a lock on my list too and and i voted for him in the past i think he's just so important to the show he's a 10 timer yeah but it's not just the quantity of like he he was solid like you watch every single one of his hosting gigs there's a reason why they asked him twice a year to come back and he always hosted the finale and it was just like i think the cast and the crew and the producers it was just like they knew they were in good hands with buck henry and they could throw stuff at him and he would he would be great in it he could he could lead a sketch he can just find like a role to kind of hang back and just be a supporting player i think buck just in synonymous with the show i mean he wrote the graduate uh and he was a great writer but people know him for snl like i think that's just as far as on screen especially like he they know him as like the guy who used to host SNL a bunch. And I think, yeah, I think Buck Henry needs to get in. So he's for sure on my list. I don't know how you feel about Buck Henry, Ashley, if we have to like persuade you or where do you stand on this?
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[55:15] I don't, it wasn't a matter of not being persuaded that he deserved to be on it. I think just because I, like I said, at the beginning of this, I had such a hard time whittling my list down to my 15 votes. And that I, you know, have a little bit, you know, my bias is going to show through with my votes of, you know, kind of the more...
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[55:37] Relatively recent um you know people i only have three hosts on my list actually, because again i had such a really hard time with it so i i had to give that spot to somebody else and i think it was kind of me selfishly hoping that somebody else like like you guys would push him through because i agree he believes or excuse me i agree that he deserves to be in the hall of fame um i'm not against it i don't think you have to convince me that he deserves it but you may have to convince me to take somebody else off my list if i'm going to put him on mine so a lot of it's like an era maybe kind of thing like uh buck henry's a more old timer maybe and so so so we're looking at like an era that more so like resonated with you possibly i will say this buck henry was on the ballot for the first time after season three so this is not his final year he's been.
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[56:32] On twice before he went from 23 after season three to 48 so he made quite the jump so i think uh this being his third time on the ballot i wouldn't be surprised uh i would be a little surprised if he got in but i but i think he's gonna be one of those where it's like he's inching toward there so you have another couple seasons after this ashley to to write this wrong that might be made so yeah so this isn't totally the last chance for buck henry and i think that was the thing is you know there's so many greats from that original era that are in the hall of fame already that it was kind of a shock that he isn't on that list um because i mean like how do we get anywhere with it we are today without jane curtain gilda radner you know these ogs um that again like derry said started the show um they made us know what it is and yeah you're right.
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[57:26] Literally you know wrote one of the greatest films of all time you know and then we're like oh no but his his work on snl don't worry about um you know the graduate um thing about snl so you're right i think next year i'll have an updated ballot okay okay so so we'll check back in next year i think if buck henry was more famous just in general in pop culture he would probably get in but he's He's just like a writer, a movie writer. So he just kind of like is under the radar. But I think if he was a little more famous, like Steve Martin or something like that, then I think Buck Henry would be in. So we'll see. I'm curious to see where Buck Henry lands this year. What host do you have, Ashley? So I actually, yeah, kind of going like a little bit more to an older era, I put Martin Short instead of Buck Henry as my vote for one of my hosts. Because, again, he's somebody else that I find synonymous with SNL.
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[58:26] And, again, just that silly, quirky... You know, doesn't apologize for how he is or who he is or his comedy or anything. And even to this day, I mean, we saw him, you know, a couple of weeks ago with, with Kristen Wiggs episode and just still making, he made Lauren break. I mean, come on, like how, how epic is that when you make Lauren Michaels laugh at a sketch? I think that shows how great and how funny he actually is. Every time he's on, I get so happy.
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[58:56] I think because of what he's been able to do, the fact that, yeah, he keeps coming back. As well we keep inviting him back no matter what um i mean they brought him back for kristen wig they brought him back for uh steve martin he's just somebody again it wasn't just a glue person but could you know steal the scene and steal the sketch no matter what he was in yeah just always a wildly entertaining person to watch martin short and he he hosted two all-time classic christmas episodes he has two of the better monologues i've ever seen i'm still teetering though i'm kind of on the fence he's not a lock for me but he's one of those where i just like kind of wanted to wait and see what other people said and i'll do some more thinking on so i didn't totally discount martin short he's in that michael o'donoghue paul appell range where i'm just like i don't know not not a lock for me but i want to see somebody make the case uh jeremy where do you stand on martin short he's a new on my list i don't i don't have him on mine um i think there There is no, in my lifetime, there's no more guaranteed lock to make a person laugh. If I have to pick someone in the world to save my life, like, I dare me, you can only survive if you pick someone to make me laugh.
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[1:00:10] I'm Martin Shorts, like, he's on my Mount Rushmore, probably like number one. Like, he's just that naturally funny. Like, he's like the ultimate talk show person. and it makes sense he's the ultimate person to kind of fill in on SNL and to be there and to come on but I just don't I know he was on for the cast for that season that transition that Steinbrenner year I just still don't.
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[1:00:34] When I think of Martin Short, I don't think of SNL with him. I know that's a part of his history, but I'm going to go to movies. I'm going to go to his talk show appearances. I'm going to go to other things. I'm not his, you know, not his relationship with Steve Martin. I'm not going to go to SNL. And I think that's why. But I still do believe like he's hilarious and he's funny. And I'm always glad when I see him there. But I don't think of him like, oh, as a host or as even a cast member. Like yeah he's one of those you know for our podcast essential people so that's why i don't have him on my list but i could be persuaded to like for sure but he's off mine he had more of a case after i after i re-watched some of his at least a couple of his episodes he had he had the episode there was one in the late 90s that was classic though his episode in 2012 when paul mccartney was the musical guest that's like a stone cold classic episode to me as well and his His monologues there were great. So when I watched specifically even those two episodes, I'm like, all right, yeah.
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[1:01:35] I mean, he put in two amazing performances here. One thing that's interesting about him, too, is he has another, you know, in the 80s, he hosted with Chevy Chase and Steve Martin. And then he also co-hosted with Steve Martin. So some of his hosting gigs have been with other people as well where Martin wasn't totally featured. So I could see both sides. That's why I am kind of like he's still up in the air for me. But anything to add on that, Ashley?
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[1:02:05] I think I'm going to steal your Maya Rudolph explanation. And I think Martin Short was, I think, the victim of being a cast member on a time where maybe his type of comedy or whatever the reason didn't mesh with everything else going on. And you're right, he wasn't on very long and he ended up doing much bigger things, after Saturday Night Live. But I think...
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[1:02:29] The reason Lorne kept bringing him back was because he understood that maybe, the time that he was a cast member, maybe not have been the best time to have him shine, but recognizing his talent, his comedy, what he's able to do.
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[1:02:45] And I think that's why I would vote for him as a host, as opposed to a cast member is you're right. Every time he came back to host, whether it was by himself or, or with, you know, the three amigos, I just, Just, it makes me wish that he would have been on. And sometimes it makes me forget that he wasn't on longer than he was.
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[1:03:05] Because my brain has clicked and associated him so much with Saturday Night Live. And I think, too, just his association with all the other greats on SNL, I think, helped bring him along a little bit to that star power. But I think even without them, he can stand on his own. So and i should say too like uh for snl hall of fame purposes and how how it was set up a few years ago um we there are the categories technically so martin short isn't eligible as a cast member because he was only on for the one season that's why he's on host but it's up to each individual uh voter and it's just to what their criteria is so if they want to count his cat time as a cast member that's up to the voter uh technically it's just kind of his host hosting gigs that we're looking at, but that's interesting as far as... This is why we do these things, is kind of peek into the criteria of a certain individual. Like Jeremy brought up, Martin Short made his mark elsewhere other than SNL. And so there's all sorts of different factors, but I can definitely see Martin Short. I'm curious. This is his first year on the ballot, so I'm curious to see how voters feel about him. So this will definitely be interesting. Jeremy, I want to go back to you for your next pick. I'm gonna go back to another wrong.
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[1:04:20] I've been trying to write it here, and it's the first episode I ever did on SNL Hall of Fame with you, Thomas. And I know I'm still going to use this vote here. I got to go with Dick Ebersole, the man who created Saturday Night Live and who brought Lorne Michaels in as the executive producer and was really like he got hired to create a show for the film on Saturday nights. He picked Lorne Michaels, and they really together co-created Saturday Night Live. That right there is huge. But then after the first five years when Lorne and the rest of the cast, all those original people left, and they hired Gene Domanian in season six as a nightmare. They're looking at canceling the show. They fired Gene Domanian. What do they do? They bring in Dick Ebersole to run it, and he has one of the most important conversations in SNL history. He talks to Lorne because he knew no one would help him from the past if Lorne didn't give it its blessing. Lorne gives it the blessing.
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[1:05:24] Dick Ebersole sees the – he fires everybody, but he keeps Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield. And Blaustein and Sheffield as writers with Eddie Murphy save the show. So that show keeps going you know for the early early into the mid 80s because of what dick ebershaw did and you know he saw the talent in eddie murphy he saw that bright shining star gene domanian had eddie murphy on the side not really doing anything he's like we have this rising comedic the megastar we're going to pump him out and i mean we got some epic sketches some all-time great performances because of that. And where would we be? We wouldn't be doing this roundtable, technically, without Dick Ebersole.
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[1:06:13] So the fact that he's still on there, I'm going to go advocate for him because I think it's shame on the SNL voters that we wouldn't be having this talk if it wasn't for Dick Ebersole, and you're not going to put him in the Hall of Fame. So I've got to give it to Dick Ebersole. Yeah, Dick Ebersole, I mean, he's somebody who helped create the show along with Lauren. He helped save the show so i think he's on my list so he's one of the ones where i just he's he's a lock on my list i think ebersole should be he gets lost in the shuffle because everybody thinks of lauren as like the the guy which he is i mean this is lauren you know ultimately his show but dick ebersole like right right there alongside him at the beginning and and i mean he picked lauren like he could have picked somebody else yeah you're right well it was dick ebersole who yeah yeah so yeah great points i'm with it uh ashley dick ebersole what say you oh ditto yes gavel struck 100 percent um we don't exist all the people we've been talking about don't exist without dick ebersole another one of those i mean.
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[1:07:18] Left bug henry off while i believe he deserves to be in it dick ebersole i would not leave off um because yeah he's gotta go gotta go on the list sorry yes yes so we're all bonding here all three of us have dick ebersole for sure i think just his name like that again the name factor i think hurts dick ebersole and uh i i just gobble up snl uh books and memoirs and stuff and dick Dick Ebersole had a really great one that both Jeremy and I referenced quite a bit when we did the episode as well. So you want to learn a lot about Dick Ebersole's career. Fascinating career. Dick Ebersole is honestly like the Forrest Gump of TV. Yes. Great point. Yeah, very much so. He really is. Yeah, he really is. So Dick Ebersole, hopefully we can welcome you into the SNL Hall of Fame after this season. Ashley, I want to go back to you. You've shared six of your choices, so maybe a little one behind. So I want to, I want to catch you up a little bit and take another one off your board here. I'm going to have to go with John Mulaney. As a host or a writer? So I put him, I put him as a writer. Okay.
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[1:08:24] Um, and I went back and forth on this because again, he's somebody, I mean, we talked about earlier, you know, can bring him back. He hosted, you know, the season finale, like I think two years in a row, um, and has absolutely killed it. but we have so many great sketches because of him before we ever saw his face and knew what he looked like. We got graced with the presence of Stefan in the world. And I know my, my life is better because of it.
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[1:08:55] Stefan is one of my all time top 10 favorite characters of Saturday night live history. And so I love not just what he did with Stefan, but anything he did with hater turned to gold um i i think despite you know putting him you know on the stage and getting to see him as a host was really good and i think kind of helped, propel him when he started to do his own stuff but to me i think his genius and what solidified him to me as being great was was his ability to write um lobster diner even i guess as a writer and a host i know he hosted when lobster diner aired but he wrote lobster diner and so i gotta give that i think that's ultimately what pushed me to put him in the writing category for this vote, um was at the end of the day i think he's a writer at heart and we talk about daramie like, voices like a distinct voice on snl to me john mulaney you know it's john mulaney's voice and i think i don't know if that counts for something to me it does absolutely i i agree actually i have him on my list and as a writer, because that is what I know him for, for SNL, that's what I think of. You know, you mentioned Stefan.
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[1:10:11] Definitely top 10, but maybe top five character in the history of the show. How just how popular it seemed like to me every Sunday morning. People I knew we were talking about what Stefan like that sketch like and what he did with Seth Meyers. So and just him being a voice behind that and all the different sketches. And he felt like in his short time, he was one of the go to writers for Lorne, for the cast.
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[1:10:36] And I think this like you said, Thomas, he you know, it's him. He has that you know it's his voice you know what that sensibility he brings to it so i i think and he wasn't a writer and i think that's due to just his crazy talent same with a julio like wasn't a writer for that long because he was just that great and that talented that you know hollywood came and swooped him up but um john mulaney's a slam dunk for me as a writer yeah he's one of the ones on the short list for me of like i'm still contemplating and i wouldn't be surprised if i ultimately put him in and to me there's just like it's it's it's a stacked class so to me it's just like no shame on john mulaney he's he's had some of my favorite sketches.
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[1:11:20] You mentioned stefan actually stefan might be my favorite character of all time and that's a big uh john will obviously bill hater played stefan but john mulaney's a big reason why he was behind what's that name that's a John Mulaney thing and you totally see Mulaney's voice in a sketch like what's that name there was a one-off called what's wrong with Tanya that I always go back to Anna Faris is in that that's just such like a brilliant satire and parody on Lifetime movies recently two seasons ago one of my favorite recent sketches when he was a host and he helped uh write was the monkey judge sketch which I just that that just floored me with how creative and clever it was so he's behind a lot of stuff that I love it's no shame on him that I don't have him as a lock already there's just some other people that that I have as locks that.
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[1:12:11] Be ahead of him but no no offense to Mulaney but I think you both bring a very good point so I'm curious to see John Mulaney's on on the ballot as a host and a writer so I'm curious to see how that impacts things this is last time on the ballot as a host so maybe if he splits the vote this time around maybe if he's just on as a writer then that'll push him through but I'm curious to see how that might impact um the voting uh there for John Mulaney uh so I wanted to share somebody off off my list and i want to talk musical guests and i and i'm curious to see what you you'll to think about musical guests and to me if there's one musical guest that should be in the hall of fame if we're going to put one throughout the show's history to me it should be dave grohl and uh and i just think the fact that he's not already in the hall of fame to me speaks more of how people view musical guests and their relation to snl rather than dave grohl himself He's been on the show 15 times as a musical guest with Nirvana, with Foo Fighters, with them Crooked Vultures. He's come on and played with McCartney, with Neil Young, Tom Petty. I don't know if he played with Neil Young, but he played with Tom Petty for sure. Tom Petty recruited him, and he was going to be in Tom Petty's band. And Dave Grohl's been in sketches as a musical guest. He's had memorable appearances in sketches.
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[1:13:33] So I think if there's one musical guest that should be in the Hall of Fame, it's Dave Grohl. And he's not paul simon's the only one but i have dave grohl as a stone cold lock for me i'm curious i don't know ashley like what kind of thought did you give to musical guests how do you feel about dave grohl and his place in snl history no i i have dave grohl he's the only musical vote that i have on my ballot actually and i felt kind of bad because you're i i think I think that musical guests are a very underrated part of the show.
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[1:14:09] And when you think of what makes Saturday Night Live so iconic over the years is who they've been able to bring on over these years. And I think that speaks to how important this show is to people and culture. I mean, everybody that comes on is, I've been watching this show since I was a little kid. I've been dreaming of this since I was a little kid. Everybody says that you know when they come on the show and I think.
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[1:14:33] Who they get as a musical guest speaks volumes to that as well. And the fact that somebody like Dave has come back so many times, time and again, and in so many different capacities shows the versatility. And I love when you get a musical guest and you get that cameo in a sketch. And I think that makes the crowd go wild. It gets people so excited because you have this, this rock star come on and they're, it kind of brings them down to earth a little bit. You see them as a real person, And as somebody who's not afraid to be silly, put themselves out there on live TV, sometimes in a sketch that makes fun of themselves. And so now you have that, you know, self self deprecation and makes them even more likable. And I think there's an art and a science to who they pick. Obviously, you know, their scheduling and agents and contracts and all the stuff that goes into it. But I think when they can marry up a host and a musical guest, I think that can really set the tone and the theme for that entire episode that whole night. I think when you bring on somebody like Dave Grohl, regardless of who the host is, you know you're going to get something good all the way through from start to finish.
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[1:15:43] Yeah, Jeremy, he's been appearing on SNL for going on 32 years now. His first appearance was with Nirvana in 92. The most recent one was season 49 in the Nate Bargatze episode this year. He was in a sketch this season. So what do you think, Jeremy? Do me, do me proud. Yeah, he's, he's on my list. He's a lock. I think it's interesting because I do feel like of all the categories we have, the one that is hard to line up as musical guests, because to, to your point, Ashley, it is such a huge and important part of the show and the show's history.
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[1:16:20] And it's also, if you look at, like, what MTV is now and all these other, it's, like, the one platform I feel like, you know, oh, you're the musical guest on SNL, where, like, all of America can, like, really see you. Like, no matter, like, if you're Bieber or Taylor Swift, we're all watching you, which is, like, I think in today's culture very hard to have that, where it's, like, oh, we all saw blank on SNL. Like, we don't really have any place to see musical people, like, all at the same time anymore. More so it's important but i think it's weird because it's like oh that shows the establishment that's the window in time of who was popular you can look at snl's musical guest but i think we think about like you got to have this amazing performance on there to be memorable and all that being said dave grohl he has that because if you look at dave grohl's career on just with With the Foo Fighters being on SNL, he should be a Hall of Famer, just how many times he's been on. But to your point, Thomas, Nirvana, that was a memorable moment in music history and in SNL history. When Nirvana came on SNL, that's when we're like, wow, alternative music has really broken through. It was seeing them overtake Michael Jackson and them being the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. And they gave a memorable performance. So all that combined is like, if there's a slam dunk musical guest throughout the show's 49 year history, it's Dave Grohl.
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[1:17:48] Yeah, and he's inching toward that line. So he was first on the ballot in season two, did an episode with Ryan McNeil on Dave Grohl. He had 32% of the vote, went up to 54% in season three, 55% after last season. So he's inching there. And I think the more we advocate for Dave Grohl as the musical guest, to me, he's the musical guest in SNL history. People say Paul McCartney, Paul Simon. To me, Dave Grohl is the musical guest in SNL history. For sure. So, and one of my favorite all-time performances was in 2020 after Biden got elected. They performed, Foo Fighters performed times like these. And I like got a lump in my throat when they performed that. Absolutely. That was amazing. So, he has an iconic performance. I actually cried. Like, I was crying watching that. Yeah, for sure. No, it was just like stunning. We know that was strategic. There's a reason for so many reasons that Lorne, that they went and picked the Foo Fighters for that. And also, you've heard Dave Grohl talk about it with the Foo Fighters and the Letterman appearances and SNL. He has an appreciation for comedy and appreciation for what those comedy institutions mean. And I like that he appreciates that. So that also is another, for me anyway, another feather in his cap. He appreciates what this means.
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[1:19:10] Yeah, this is awesome. I hope Dave Grohl gets his just due. All three of us have him on our ballots. it's the way we're whittling this down Ashley it makes sense to go back to you so I want to get your next choice um so I picked uh listen I'm trying to because you know I know we have a few left I'm trying to think of who I want to put on here oh I one of my hosts that I voted for was Justin Timberlake again I think he could have his own best of DVD at this point he's been on so often what he's done not only as him as himself you know when he's hosted and musical guest at the same time but also what he did with the lonely island and his bromance with andy sandberg i think just it gave us genius they those two worked so well together not just in the digital shorts but i think just with anything that they did on screen we talked about paula pelsketch omelette bill again and then how many times he came back and we got all the different iterations of you know the wrapping paper or but just iconic absolutely iconic to me he's somebody too that i think we saw the first time that he was on it was like oh.
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[1:20:24] Should he be a cast member? I remember thinking that to myself. He could totally come do this every single week, and I think he would fit in seamlessly as a cast member. And I think he had great comedic timing, also wasn't afraid to make fun of himself, and just really go all in with whatever they gave him. Yeah. Well, Ashley, what I thought to myself when Timberlake first appeared on SNL was, I hate this guy. I hate him because he can sing, he can dance, he's good looking, and he's funny, and he's good on SNL. Like that's just no unfair like i hate you man and for those reasons i have him on my ballot i hate him so much that he was so good on snl that i put justin timberlake uh on my ballot he's one of like the picks that were it was a lock to me so it's i'm surprised that timberlake's not even just for name recognition alone i'm surprised that timberlake's not on jeremy do you have timberlake i'm gonna be honest with the people here yes okay um last time i was on here i left Lonely Island off and people made points which was egregious it was bad and I was like people were making points and I'm like I'm like I'm.
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[1:21:34] I'm like, should I double down? But, like, man, they're kind of convincing me, like, I made a mistake. And then I was like, I think I told you afterwards that. And then I'm like, I'm not going to do that again. So I'm going to be real with you, Thomas, Ashley. I had Candace Virgin on it for my, like, other host. But hearing the points you made, Ashley, I just crossed her off. Sorry, Candace. I love you. I love Murphy Brown. You're important. Five-timer. but i'm uh i'm putting justin on um for everything that you said and i think it's impressive like just to add on yeah the duo i think of with justin on snl is andy sandberg but he's so great in the snl pantheon that like the duo people talk about is like him and jimmy fallon another great cast member yeah i know that's from the tonight show and stuff too but still it's like he's got like like, two, like, partnerships with SNL, like, greats here. That's how awesome. I mean, some of his sketches are some of the all-time great moments that in the 21st century that really put SNL on, like, a new generation's, like, radar.
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[1:22:39] And it's not the show. It's, like, a different category. I think it means something. I know he's a big name, but for the SNL 40th, him and Jimmy were the first one. They opened it. And that has to mean something for all those amazing, talented people who were in that room that night that Lauren ultimately went with, I mean, and Jimmy, but Justin and Jimmy to open the 40th anniversary special. So I righted my wrong. Sorry, Candice, love you, but I'm going with Justin Timberlake. I agree, Ashley. Well done. Yeah, Candice too. Candy Bergen was somebody who I considered as well. Almost put her on the list. She was one of those, like Michael Donahue, I put her on, then took her off, and then put her on, then took her off. Candy, to her credit, she hosted... We did the same thing. Yeah. Candy, to her credit, she hosted maybe the best episode in SNL history. It was a Christmas episode. I think it was the season two or three Christmas episode. Frank Zappa was the musical guest. Yeah. But it was just...
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[1:23:39] Five-star sketch after five-star sketch. So she has a great, great all-timer episode under her belt. She also hosted, I think it was the fifth episode. And it's what many people, like critics, but of the cast and crew who say that was the first episode that established the template for what SNL would be. It's like that first episode she hosted. So that's why it was tough. I considered her for all that. that but ashley i you know i see your law skills because i'm i'm like you you got me you got so i will say this between candy and justin timberlake if it makes a difference with voters so candace bergen has one more year after this on the ballot so she she was first got on the ballot in season two justin timberlake was a season one so if he doesn't get voted in now he's gone so and that would really surprise me so if that's like that could possibly be a tiebreaker for some people like us who are kind of like candy or justin timberlake and candice bergen has another year if she doesn't make it so that could be like a tiebreaker too so much love for you candice bergen for sure yeah love girl yeah uh jeremy uh what's your next one so i'm gonna go with someone who, I go back and forth with, but I could be convinced to go the other way. I don't know how you guys feel, but I'm just going to keep on keeping it spicy.
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[1:25:06] I'm going to go with the Sandman. I put Adam Sandler on the list.
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[1:25:11] I wasn't sure because I do feel like he definitely gets a lot of love for his name and post-SNL career.
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[1:25:21] I think about him, and when you think about the early 90s, you're thinking, one of the first names you're thinking about is Sandler. He's a part of that group, the bad boys of SNL with Farley, Sandler, Spade, Rock. You're always going to think about it. And in some of his moments, some of his musical performances on there, the songs are just classics, and they're still played over and over. And that's his time on SNL, from the Thanksgiving song, and, you know, opera man and just memorable moments who I feel like he kind of was like, I guess, another sports term, like a home run hitter. To me, his batting average wasn't the highest, but he can knock it out the park and get you like a big home run, but he might strike out too. And when he strikes out, you're like, golly. But when he knocked it out the park, you jumped up and you were cheering the loudest. So it was tough for me, but I'm like, you know, He did make his mark on the show, and he is memorable. And there's moments with him. There's sketches with him from Schmitz Gay and all those different things. You've got to think about.
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[1:26:29] He's probably the hardest one for me, but Adam Sandler. I'm completely with you. Yeah, Jeremy. I'm completely with you. He's like Reggie Jackson. Yeah. Reggie Jackson struck out a lot, but at the same time, are you going to leave Reggie Jackson out of a Hall of Fame? I don't know. Yeah, Sandler to me, that's a similar case, because his time at SNL probably wasn't as good as people remember, but he left such an impact. It's like...
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[1:26:54] I got to vote for him just because of the impact alone that he left on the show. So that's one of those weird things. He's like on a personal Thomas favorite.
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[1:27:04] Sandler's not that high, honestly. Same, same. But he's undeniable as far as like the highs were super high for me personally too. And just the mark that he left on the show and the impact that he had. Like i i have him in there but for the same kind of with the same similar hesitancy as you dare me yeah yeah so what do you think ashley again i'm just gonna sound like an echo um because i completely agree with you guys i went back and forth and not because i don't think adam sandler is absolutely epic um one of my favorite comedians of all time but you're right i oscillated between.
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[1:27:42] Because when i think of adam sandler i think of what he did off of us and now i think of Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, Big Daddy, you know, I think of all the amazing movies that he made, but his diving board into that was Saturday Night Live. It was SNL. And I think too, he was so unique. I think he was so different than anybody that they had had up to that point, but they weren't really quite sure what to do with him. And so there were some just not great, great, you know, sketches or things that he did. But, you know, if we wanted him to do a song on Weekend Update, you know, he was our guy. And I think that other than Opera Man are probably, to me, his songs on Weekend Update were more memorable than anything else. Is that an Opera Man? I can't really remember anything else other than Shitsuke that he really did. And I think that made him a good glue person for some of the sketches as well. But I think what he was able to do after SNL was so much bigger. And so that's why I ended up leaving him off, actually. I know this is probably going to get some people very angry. I could be absolutely convinced to put him back on, though. I mean, that's how it was really, really hard.
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[1:28:56] Only because, again, personally, actually, my brain associates Adam Sandler with, you know, his movies and not SNL. Yeah. Could I ask a quick question, I guess, to both of you? How do you guys feel? Because I've seen it go different ways with big SNL fans. When a former cast member comes back to host a show, and let's say they have a really good hosting gig, does that bump them up as a cast member? Or is that just like, oh, that's nice, but it doesn't really make a difference as a cast member for you?
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[1:29:32] Oh, that's a really good question. Cause now that you say that, I remember when he hosted and he did the tribute to Chris Farley and I was a puddle of tears. I'm going to cry thinking about that. Oh my God. Yeah. I just, to me, that was just, Adam Taylor, what a great guy too. I mean, just an amazing. By all accounts, maybe the nicest guy in Hollywood. Absolutely. Right. I've never heard anybody say a bad thing about Sandler. Me neither. Seriously. Maybe I'll put him on. I think Jeremy, I mean, just that one hypothetical question, I don't even think you asked it to change my mind, but I think that question alone changed my mind. Yeah, because I go back and forth because I'm like, should that be like, oh, that's a nice little feather in your cap, but should that bump you? And I've seen some, I know like with John Schneider, and that does bump for a lot of the people on his shows. Like, oh, they had a great memorable hosting gig. and I'm like, should that matter? Like, affect your cast member career? And I'm not saying there's a right or wrong. I'm not sure, to be quite honest. Like, does that matter? Like, does that affect it or not? Like, I don't know. I used to, yeah, I used to think that it, I used to completely separate it. So, like, I used to just only be the type that would just look at Sandler's cast member career and that was it. I've been persuaded more so by, like, John, people like John Schneider, who, he does, take more of a.
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[1:31:01] Wide lens look at the person's contributions to snl and so he does take a look at their hosting gig so i think i'm inching more towards john's side but i'll say this i think i might add a few points if it's a good hosting gig but i won't subtract from a bad one because i like that yeah i have somebody who's on my ballot as a lock who who quite frankly had a terrible hosting gig in my opinion uh so i but i don't dock points for that i only add points for like a really memorable hosting like kristen wig not like she needed to be her points added for her in my mind but her hosting gig here in season 49 to me that's like one of the best episodes in years i absolutely love that episode and so that adds maybe some points in my mind for for kristen wig not like she needs it that's my hall of famer all-time great but like to me that adds a little something To your point, I look at, like, when Eddie Murphy came back, like, I think that was Christmas 2019, like, right before COVID, and he hadn't done it in a year, and he was phenomenal.
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[1:32:07] And, like, that was, like, amazing. But then the other side of it, you know, God rest his soul, when Chris Farley hosted, like, it wasn't good, but I don't hold that against him at all. Like, it doesn't dock him, but, like, he's an all-time great who had not a good hosting performance. And we know why but it's like i don't ever think about that and be like well is chris farley that all-time great now because of that bat like that doesn't matter so it's like to your point yeah yeah and because i thought i thought sandler's hosting gig was really good it was i thought it was a strong episode aside from the farley song too like i thought there were a lot of really strong sketches that night eddie murphy called him to get like because since sandler hadn't done it so long eddie called him for like advice because then murphy did it afterwards well and i think what your question kind of triggered in my memory, Jeremy, was, oh, yeah, like.
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[1:32:58] He did have such a huge impact on the show because he had that relationship with Farley and he had that relationship with Spade and kind of, he really did become part of that group. And even though his humor may have been a little bit different and maybe his sketches didn't always succeed like, like some of those other guys did, but he really was embedded. And I know I talked about in my episode too, about, you know, he was part of what helped me fall in love with SNL, you know, at that age when I was a kid, but when I was looking at my ballot, and I was trying to be clinical. I wasn't trying to totally vote just based off Ashley's heart. You know, I was trying to, you know, think of certain factors and everything. And like I said, I kept going back and forth. But I have been convinced, Jeremy, I will give you an honorary law degree. I appreciate that. You have lawyered the lawyer. All right. All right. That made my day. All right. That's awesome.
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[1:33:48] That's awesome. All right. So Adam Sandler, a lot of really good discussion on the Sandman. Ashley, who's the next one that you would like to talk about so uh the next one that i want to talk about is rachel dratch and again noticing a theme you know kind of these like quirky female comedian characters.
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[1:34:10] Um i think of i was obsessed with sully and zazu um the characters that she did with jimmy fallon the boston teenagers um that was probably one of my favorites during that era and uh of course we you know when we talked about debbie downer earlier that just goes without saying um such a genius genius concept and executed so perfectly by rachel dratch and she could do i think she was a little bit to me like kate mckinnon and they gave rachel a lot of like male impressions to do because she did have that kind of unique look about her. But I think also because she was so versatile in her comedy that she was able to do so many different things, anything they asked her to do, she did it and she nailed it. In addition to having her own characters that go down in history as some of the all time greats. Great and i i actually saw tina fey and amy puller do their stand-up this last year and they brought rachel on as a guest and they recreated um some of the weekend update stuff that they did together and again it sounds like i cry 24 7 i promise i don't but there were tears.
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[1:35:26] During this show as well just because i was like i feel like a kid this is evoking so much happiness and I think that reminded me of just what the impact she had on Saturday Night Live when she was there.
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[1:35:40] Alright, yeah, Rachel Dratch. Jeremy, how do you feel about Dratch? I mean, I do love Rachel, and I love all Ashley's points. I don't have her on, and it's not that I don't think she's a Hall of Famer. It's more like there was just so many... Like you said, Thomas, earlier, it's such a tough class that I couldn't put her on this year, but it's not that I don't think she is a Hall of Famer. I do think she is that. I just couldn't get her on over some other people this year but she every point ashley made is dead on and and like is if she gets in i'm like happy i'm not like how does she like but i just on my list couldn't bump her over some other people on here no i'm the same way like it's no offense to rachel that why i don't have her on i could see myself voting for her in future seasons uh definitely depending on how the ballot shakes out a hall of fame talent for sure uh very memorable i think You said that she was given a lot of male roles and she really excelled in them. One of the ones that comes to mind is that movie, that old movie producer, Abe, what was his name?
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[1:36:49] But yeah, Rachel played that so well. Of course, Debbie Downer and Sully and Zazu. So they were just, yeah, she was just a really important part of that cast, like a part of the rebirth of the rejuvenation of SNL around that time. Um don't have her on my list but i think that's a solid choice it's an understandable pick and i can see myself voting for her uh down the line this is her first year on the ballot so yeah and i can see you know i think it's maybe she was my kyle mooney you know maybe not a lot of people got some of her her comedy too and um so shout out to the mooney fans who probably hate me now um but yeah i can definitely appreciate like i said you know comedy is so subjective i think I think that's what's so wonderful is there's something out there for everybody. And yeah, she's one that I wouldn't be mad about. Cause I.
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[1:37:40] Yeah, all those Mooney bros are going to attack us now, Ashley. I know, I apologize. Thanks for that. You sicked them on us. So it looks like we each have four left. So I'm curious to see what kind of overlap there is by my count. So I'm curious to see what the overlap is and whatnot. Jeremy, what's the next one you want to talk about? Yeah, I'm going to go. Let's keep it going. Let's get weird again. I'm going to go with somebody who I feel like probably won't get in. But I have this platform to talk about this person. I will.
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[1:38:14] I nominate Herb Sargent. Oh, yeah. Interesting. I put Herb Sargent out there because one of the OG writers, and you guys already know how I feel about everyone associated with being there from the beginning, came up with the name Not Ready for Primetime Players, which is important in the SNL history. Also, Weekend Update. How much do we associate Weekend Update? A lot of people I know who aren't even SNL fans would like Weekend Update. And that's been throughout my entire lifetime. They don't like the show, but they'll watch that part. Weekend Update is such a key factor of it. And he was big in creating it and really executing that. You know, Chevy Chase worked hand in hand with Herb Sargent. And Herb made sure all the news stories, the real ones were in there. Plus also like the goofy ones. And then once Chevy left, he kept that with Jane Curtin and Aykroyd and Murray. And then even it got revitalized with Dennis Miller. He was a part of it. A lot of those writers, which I thought was cool to Lawrence... Him picking out those writers in the early days, they weren't typical sketch writers. They had some lampoon background. They were just different. He liked their sensibility. It was Herb Sargent as that veteran writer who really had to break down step by step of how you write a sketch to them and teach them.
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[1:39:36] They all got there in July of 75 and then they went on the air in October. In that time, he's really being like the... He was much older than those guys, including Lorne, to really show them how to write sketch and how to be a comedy writer. So I just think his importance to the show, his importance to being a mentor to the writers, his importance to creating one of the most, if not maybe the most iconic sketch in SNL history with Weekend Update, I nominate Herb Sargent. Yeah, the adult in the room. He was that voice, the steady hand, the veteran, the adult in the room that the original cast and writers needed.
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[1:40:15] Maybe in a lot of ways, they might have been a little aimless with that. But I think he helped focus, like harness their creative, youthful energy to something productive. I think that was very patient is whatever. Very patient, man. Yeah. And he took a pay cut like he he he didn't get paid what he was worth because he had so much experience. But he did that as a favor to Lorne. Mm hmm.
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[1:40:37] Taking a pay cut like that to be on the show so uh i don't have him as a lock he's honestly one of the like handful of folks who i'm still mulling over um ashley have what kind of consideration did you give to herps argent you know he didn't end up on my ballot either um darryl you made an awesome point again with you know we wouldn't have we can update it without him so that's kind of making me rethink it a little bit, but, you know, I had a couple other writers on my list that I think ultimately took the cake. And I think had the earlier years of SNL had the media presence or the media accessibility that we have today, I think that would make a lot of these producers and writers and, you know, the staff and the crew behind the scenes way more, more it more accessible to us to know who they are we're now you know we can name writers by name we can name their sketches we can follow them on on social media um it's they're so much more accessible and i think that kind of keeps them in the forefront of at least my mind a little bit more than some of these older guys but yeah yeah definitely gave him good consideration ultimately lets him off my list um i 100 agree that he deserves to be in the hall of fame though though, because you're right. I mean, weekend update is SNL. SNL is, I mean, those are just anonymous things.
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[1:42:02] I can't imagine SNL would ever get rid of Weekend Update. I think people would riot and revolt as they should. Yeah. Yeah. And if anybody has any, if they want to go listen to our episode on Herb Sargent, John Schneider and I go back into the archives. John Schneider was my guest for Herb Sargent. He laid out a really good case for Herb Sargent. I developed even more of an appreciation for Herb Sargent after doing that episode.
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[1:42:27] So Herb Sargent, let me see here. as far as herb sergeants uh where he's kind of landed on the ballot so this is his third time on the ballot he went from 11 in season three to 21 so probably a bit of an uphill climb but we need people like dare me to kind of like yeah to kind of count his fist on the table to make a drum for him so uh we'll see we'll see what happens with herb sergeant uh this season uh i want to go to one of my choices. I have three cast members and one writer left on my ballot. And I want to talk about one of the cast members and one that I might be, good chance I'm on an island with this person, but I think it's one of the more, underrated cast members in SNL history. If you look at their body of work, it's pretty striking. It's a Hall of Fame resume, in my opinion, but this person might not have a Hall of Fame name. And I'm going to advocate for Vanessa Bayer. To be in the SNL Hall of Fame. If you look at her list of sketches, if you go chronologically, she did Miley Cyrus, she did Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy on Weekend Update, she and Cecily with the ex-porn stars.
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[1:43:40] She did Rachel with Friends. I know you don't love Kyle Mooney, but she had a classic Kyle Mooney sketch. It was called Awkward Flirts. The Totino's trilogy, trilogy. Vanessa Bear totally made those Totino's trilogy. She did Santa Baby with Ryan Gosling, which is still like a Stone Cold, I think like Christmas classic. She ended her tenure with the Weather Girl, Don Lazarus on Weekend Update. And she filled in the gaps in between. She was like that steady hand. She could be the lead of a sketch. She can be the glue person in the sketch. Sketch she i think she put in her tenure she put in enough years at snl uh but i just think like she wasn't i think she got a little lost because she worked with kristin toward the end of her tenure then she worked with kate and cecily in 80 and so i think vanessa bear probably got lost a little bit in the shuffle but i think if you look at her resume to me it's pretty striking and if you think back to what she did i think vanessa bear honestly is an snl hall of famer i have her in the top my top 25 to 30 cast members of all time and i think that's hall of fame territory so am i on an island on this like ashley what do you think of vanessa bear.
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[1:44:54] Oh, she's on my list. Yeah. Oh, okay. I cannot see a Swarovski crystal store out in real life and just not start cracking up. Like my poor husband, every time we're walking and I see one of those, I, we're not porn stars anymore. Um, it's just, yeah. One of my favorite things that she did, um, of all time. Yeah, you're right. I think she, she's, I think she's an underrated. I think she was a dark horse.
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[1:45:24] And she could go from the, again, kind of the same thing with these really silly characters to the Santa baby where she turns into this kind of serious, creepy, could start a fight in the middle of the sketch type of person. And yeah, sorry, I'm just really in awe of the amazing. Yeah, to me, she could do it. She could do it all. And to me, it's just name recognition that probably holds her back because other people on the cast got more shine. But I just love Vanessa Bear. I'm biased. Vanessa Bear, quite frankly, is one of my two favorite cast members ever. So I'm pretty biased here. Jeremy, I don't know. Should we slow our roll with Vanessa Bear? On my list. Really? Yeah. I'm pleasantly surprised by this. And honestly, you said my point that I was going to make this. Is she's, you know, I'm going to keep that sports comparison going. She's Scottie Pippen. She played with MJ and Kate McKinnon. And I'm glad Kate was there, but I think if Kate wasn't there, Vanessa Bayer would get that recognition that, you know, we're talking about. She'd be more known. But she was just, you can't blame anybody. She was next to an all-timer with Kate. And so I feel like that kind of overlooks it. So it's like that MJ and Pippen relationship.
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[1:46:43] And MJ did a lot of great things, but the all-around person was Scottie Pippen. And I think Kate was the slam dunk with the all-around person in that time. To me, it was Vanessa Bayer. She could, like you said, could do everything. So I feel she's a slam dunk Hall of Famer. I think if it wasn't for Maya Rudolph, you can make the case that she's been the most overlooked or underrated cast member. I still have Maya over her as in that top seed for that. That but hopefully that changes but i think vanessa um just had the misfortune of being next to a top five cast member in kate mckinnon i think we all just became best friends i'm so i'm so pleasantly surprised by this i thought i was going to be on my own lonely island as it were like with with this but yeah so so this is awesome so vanessa bear surprisingly enough to me on all three of our ballots she got 33 of the vote last year in her first time which to me.
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[1:47:43] Wasn't bad honestly for her first time out like i wasn't disappointed uh with that i thought people would see gloss over her name and she would get like 10 of the vote or something but 33 like one in three people voted for her for the arsenal hall of fame so let's up those numbers but i think um i'm pretty encouraged and i'm encouraged by what you two said she has a cult following i feel And especially what she's done, she's still, like, with different podcasts, she's still out in people's minds. So I feel like she's not as overlooked as you would think, but she doesn't get the recognition, like, to your point that she should. But I'm not surprised. Like, I think that's a good number, like, where I'm like, I think enough people don't know her, but it's more than what you would think with her. And she has a good podcast, yeah, with her brother Jonah, How Did We Get Weird. So go listen to that. Vanessa's really good Ashley I want to go to you it seems like do how many do you have left three did I lose count.
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[1:48:43] I lost count too, I admit, because I kind of, I didn't write like numbers. I just kind of wrote a list. So I'm trying to make sure I don't repeat. So yeah, I had Vanessa Mayer. I also had Fred Armisen. He is on my ballot. Fred is somebody to me, I think too, at first was kind of this silent assassin. Assassin like he wasn't you know kind of in your face like some of these other comedians are and I think it kind of took a little a few seasons for him to kind of be like oh like who's this Fred guy, um and even I admit that some of his sketches weren't necessarily gelling with my type of humor um some things that I didn't really get but I could appreciate it for what they were and what his talent is, one, his impressions, his voices, his musicality, the glue that he always is holding sketches together, but also, you know, he would kind of team up with some other people as well. I feel like he and Maya Rudolph played off each other really well for a while, especially the Beyonce Prince, you know, impressions that they would do.
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[1:49:48] And yeah, I would call him the silent assassin to me. I feel like, you know, he isn't someone that you would readily think of necessarily but he was on for a really long time and I think not just because he he kind of was like hiding in the shadows and not trying to ruffle feathers I think it was because, he just kind of had that subtle humor um that was still very powerful at the end of the day and I think I I would be remiss if I were to talk about you know who I think belongs in a hall of fame for snl and not say fred armisen's name okay yeah uh jeremy fred armisen he is on my list as well, um and and i think ashley made a great point in the fact that he's someone who not that i'm ever going to make it or try out for snl but a lot of times i'm like well that doesn't fit me because, yeah when i see these people perform they're very like loud and they have these over-the-top characters and i love what she said where he was subtle he was quiet and that kind of i like the people who like you have to kind of like watch like they're not just in your face and i think.
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[1:50:56] Pre fred armisen i kind of thought well yeah you gotta have to be like as a performer in your face and loud but he was very subtle very quiet his versatility was unique and different and i also also say this and I could be off but just from he brought you know people talk about like alternative comedy and like waves of it I feel like he brought a new wave of alternative comedy to SNL like with what he was doing and his sensibility and it was like that hipster kind of I mean I know he did Portlandia but I feel like he really did bring that hipster into the 2000 late 2000 2010s comedy into Saturday Night Live and so So.
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[1:51:39] For everything that Ashley said and for all that, I had to put Fred Armisen on there. Okay, Fred. I've struggled with Fred a little bit over the years.
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[1:51:48] To put it in the batting average terms, for me, his batting average wasn't as high as a lot of other great cast members. I know he was important to the show, but maybe not as important as someone like Adam Sandler. So i couldn't give as many legacy and impact points to fred as i did someone like adam sandler so i don't have fred on my list he's one like rachel dratch where i could see voting for him like ultimately like this is his second time on the ballot so he does have a little bit of time he's one where depending on how the ballot shakes out i'll look and be like yeah dude i think fred i think fred is a hall of famer and i think he does like have all ultimately i think he has a hall of fame impact i think he does have like his his the highs were there like he has high highs as far as sketch goes on the show uh he couldn't jump a lot of the people here on my ballot now um but quite frankly there's probably more than 15 deserving hall of famers so that's why this exercise might be a little tricky and fred's an example of that for me which if you put a water gun to my head and was like, is Fred Armisen a Hall of Famer? I'd be like, yeah, Fred Armisen's a Hall of Famer. Just maybe not right now because of how the circumstances, but you both bring up really good points. And I expect Fred to get in at some point. Again, he got 51% of the vote his first time out. That leads me to believe that his trajectory is Hall of Fame at some point.
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[1:53:15] So Fred Armisen, both of you, it's a no right now for me. I want to go on my list to another cast member somebody they called the ice man because he never broke he was always a steady hand and i think he's an again like a very underrated glue guy type of person but he could also play very like wacky he had no shame put himself out there chris parnell to me i have on my list i definitely think chris is a hall of famer one of the few hall of famers well i guess no because farley and sandler got fired but chris parnell got fired too but then they brought him back at the urging of like Will Ferrell. You have like, in my opinion, the greatest of all time is telling Lorne, hey, we got to bring this guy back because Chris worked so well with everybody on the cast and he was part of so many...
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[1:54:05] Great moments in the show he was part of lazy sunday he was part of all these like iconic things and chris parnell was like he had a thankless role in a lot of ways on snl where he was so good at sketch that they just sort of like handed him things that they didn't feel comfortable with other cast members maybe doing because he was such a steady hand uh i did i just think just looking at chris parnell's work and his his role on the cast i i had to put chris parnell in dave Dave Buckman, who does sketch in Austin, he was my guest for Chris Parnell, and he really made a great case for Chris Parnell. So a little to my surprise, I looked at the list and I said, I'm putting Chris Parnell in over Fred Armisen, surprisingly enough. But I do feel like Chris Parnell's sketch work is just really underappreciated and really great. So, Deremy, Chris Parnell, you have some thoughts? Yeah, he's not on my list.
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[1:55:03] Um you know the always hear debate for hall of fames the hall of fame or the hall of very good i want to put chris parnell in the hall of very good i i like chris parnell i do think he was a glue person um he was a part of lazy sunday which is iconic in a memorable sketch in snl history, um i just think talk about great glue people like he he's not he's not my rudolph like he and i i don't think he's he's not fred where fred brought a totally different sensibility i feel where like for me fred's not personally like haha but fred brought something that like oh this is a new type of comedy that's out there that people are gravitating toward and maybe it's not always for me but like he's bringing that to the mainstream in a way with like what he's doing on here and so that's where like i and i hear you i probably maybe laughed more times at parnell than fred but i i will give fred that uh parnell is uh i like him very but i just i couldn't put him on the list um but he's someone because that episode you did was very good like to ask about him i could be persuaded i maybe need to like re-evaluate but like like we've been saying The list is tough. It's a great class.
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[1:56:25] I have him off, but I definitely could be persuaded. I'm not locked in stone. It's definitely not. I'm just right now, I'm not quite there with him. It's not like a laughable thing. Not at all. Not at all. Ashley, Chris Parnell was part of an era that I know that you really love that's near and dear to your heart. Chris Parnell was smack dab in the middle of a lot of that. What do you think about Chris Parnell?
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[1:56:52] He made my list. Yeah, you're right. That was, you know, one of my favorite eras for sure.
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[1:56:57] And, you know, even, you know, we talked about Lazy Sunday. And of course, I'm a huge, huge, huge Lonely Island fan.
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[1:57:04] And I mean, even they say that, like, they were afraid to kind of do what they did. And they invited because, you know, shout out to their podcast as well with Seth Meyers, that they asked Chris Parnell to be in Lazy Sunday because they didn't want to step on his toes of the fake rap. Of the comedy rap that ultimately they knew that that was his kingdom and they were just happy to you know to be there and be involved and i think that speaks volumes to you know the genius to me that is lonely island looked at chris parnell like that and recognized that you know he was the one to do it first and to do it well and i think you got so many great things from him the versatility his voice i think we were talking about milaney's voice is so recognizable and to me chris parnell's is the same way i mean i'll just be watching tv and randomly hear a commercial and say that's chris parnell's voice um 100 and i just really appreciate everything he brought to that era and you're right i mean will ferrell like the world ferrell saying uh-uh no this guy is that he needs to come back and i cannot imagine snl in that era without chris parnell yeah definitely there There were a couple of things like he did some some kind of alt comedy on SNL around that time. Like some weird Chris Parnell could dabble in like the oddball weird stuff like he did the doctor. He was in the Dr. Beeman sketch with Will Ferrell.
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[1:58:28] Well, Will Ferrell played that just ridiculous doctor. It was such like nonsense and Chris Parnell played the perfect role. He kept it together. He was kind of that steady hand amidst nonsense. And then there was one that he did with Christopher Walken where Chris Parnell played a, like, what do you call a half man, half horse? Why am I blanking on this? Like a centaur? A centaur, yeah. A minotaur, I don't know what that's called.
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[1:58:56] Yeah, so it was a centaur. So Chris Parnell played a centaur that was interviewing for a job with Christopher Walken. And Chris Parnell just played that role so well. It was so odd even for the time on SNL in the early 2000s. So those are just some of the one-offs. And if you want to see like alt comedy and stuff, like I think Parnell, those were two examples of it. I mean, how huge was he? I mean, this may make me sound like a hypocrite, but in maybe the most famous sketch of all, with more cowbell, like he was huge in playing off of Will Ferrell in that and being that like adversary role. Like he played that part very good. Like, which I mean, obviously Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken stripe it and just kill it. But like.
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[1:59:41] Having chris parnell to be that guy and that like you said didn't break what everyone else was breaking like you needed the ice man there especially with jimmy fallon right next to him you need the ice man to like and her ratio and ratio yeah geez yeah both of them break it so like it was just him you know i mean i think my favorite part of that sketch is you know when he complains to chris walkie like you know just tone it down a bit and will ferrell just coming right up to him and playing it so slow like in his face and then they had that like come on gene like it's just classic so i mean he is a part of like you could say maybe the most iconic sketch in snl history yeah a couple of them that and lazy sunday yeah so good point jeremy thanks for making my point yeah i'm a team player yes so so we're almost to the finish line i my account you both have one left and i have two so i'm gonna take one of mine off the board and it's gonna be a writer uh and i'm gonna advocate for jack candy he's um one of my last off my list he's one of my locks just we talked about paula pell in her time people saying that she was the funniest person in the building that's what people said about jack handy in the late 80s and early 90s you have people like conan o'brien and robert smigel and jim downey saying that it was jack handy who cracked us up and made us laugh and and he was a writer's writer and just and we talk.
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[2:01:04] About voice too like jack handy you knew it was jack handy and not just because his name was on the segment but because he had that oddball sensibility that you're like oh that was a jack handy unfrozen caveman lawyer that couldn't have been anybody else but jack handy doing something like that toonsis the driving cat that was jet that was a jack handy deep thoughts i think deep Deep Thoughts alone might get Jack Handy into the Hall of Fame for me. When I was a kid, I didn't think that that was a real person. I thought Jack Handy was a fake name because it sounds vaguely dirty to a kid's mind, especially.
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[2:01:43] So I thought that was like Al Franken or somebody writing under a pen name. And then I found out that Jack Handy was a real person. I started delving more into his comic sensibility and other work. And I'm like, this guy's a genius. and I think just for deep thoughts alone Jack Handy might be a Hall of Famer but then when you look at some of the other sketches that he was behind and a part of and the distinct voice that he brought to SNL to me Jack Handy's a Hall of Famer, so dare me, I know you you're very into advocating for writers and what not, where do you stand on Jack Handy here?
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[2:02:20] I'm glad you – I figured somebody would say, so I couldn't get him on, but he's definitely a Hall of Famer. So I'm glad you kind of did me a solid and advocated – because there were just some other writers who I felt got more disrespected or not represented, so I put them on. But Jack Handy, everything you said, absolutely. Just his sensibility, what he brought, especially to that era that he was on. So he didn't make my list only because I was hoping, and I'm glad that somebody else would nominate him, and I could be like, thank you. So um i he didn't make my list only because of i only have 15 to pick from but jack handy is is a hall of famer for sure and he could go 50 50 and that's reflective in the voting because he's been hovering around 50 for three cycles now so that's not a surprise to me uh ashley where do you stand on jack handy so i mean pretty much everything you said tom for jack handy is what i was going through my head when I was looking at Jack Handy. I mean, I get toons is one of my favorite, favorite sketches of all time. Like I get the giggles, like uncontrollably cannot control and stop laughing every time I watch a toons sketch.
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[2:03:30] But again, you know, it was getting hard. Cause you know, I'm torn because I, you know, I had Jack Handy and Adam McKay as two writers that I kept going back and forth on as far as to me, you know, iconic writers for Saturday night live. And then, you know, gosh, gosh, I love Ana Gasteyer so much. Do I save a spot for her?
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[2:03:53] Yeah, I wanted so bad to put Jack Handy on, but I'm torn between those three. And I think kind of listening to you talk about it and lay it out, I may, I don't know, Jeremy, do you want to play the counter argument to me putting Jack Handy in my last spot? What do you think? I think Jack Handy, it's good for them to put him in that last spot. I really do. do i think he's he's that writer who like thomas thomas made the points but just brought that sensibility and brought that funny and brought that uniqueness to that show i i think he's a writer that you know when you think about like a golden era of writers in that time like his name is always one of the first ones that you mention and i think that says something to how important So I think it's cool to have him on there. And Ashley, Jack Handy's basically a New Mexican. So if that does anything, because he lives in Santa, he's lived in Santa Fe for a long time. So he's basically a New Mexican at this point. Okay, done. That's it. I guess, although, do we need to ask him red or green? His answer to that may also, you know. Yeah, we'll ask him red or green. And that might be, I'll see if I could get a hold of him. And then I'll let you know by the time voting ends. Although, to be fair, I don't know that there's a wrong answer to red or green. Yeah, that's a trick question sometimes. I don't know. It is.
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[2:05:20] So uh so jack candy maybe ashley yeah i mean again it was one of those i looked forward to deep thoughts being on that week's snl like i ended up looking forward to digital shorts being on by the moment like if i saw that black screen that said a digital short an snl digital short pop-up i was like oh my god yes my week is made and it was the same thing when i saw the little cursive start going across the screen and the little stock video of the couple like walking down the beach holding hands my week was set like i knew that it was going to be good because i was getting a deep thoughts by jack candy so i mean i think the nostalgia may be pushing me into it, oh god absolutely no talking about how like they would visit uncle caveman and every now and then uncle caveman would eat one of them and it wasn't until later that they found out that uncle caveman man was a bear kind of things like that like jack just jack candy sensibility like i love those deep thoughts like i like buy a book of deep thoughts like yeah.
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[2:06:20] Oh, man. So yeah, Jack Handy's definitely on my list. Is there anybody, Ashley, left for you that you want to kind of hash out here with us? Yeah, I guess I had a few that I was really torn between, like I said, Adam McKay and Ana Gastar. I was really torn about putting them on.
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[2:06:39] Ana Gastar, to me, is part of the Sherry O'Terry and Molly Shannon and just that epic group of women at that time who had such hilarious and iconic roles. I mean, obviously we got Martha Stewart because of Anagostia and all the amazing things that she would do to parody, you know, like her cooking naked, you know, while doing her show and being completely serious and unbothered by it to the, to the cults, you know, being one half of the cults with Will Ferrell, I think is such an iconic sketch as well. That would make me laugh every single time. And to this day, if I'm near a microphone, I will say, we got a hot mic here. We got a hot mic going on. I mean, who doesn't, who, who watched that and doesn't do that when they're near a microphone now. Um, and so it was so hard and I kept going back and forth. Yeah. Like you said, this is such a challenging exercise because I would say almost all of the names that you presented deserve to be in the hall of fame at one point, but there's definitely a case to be made for, for, for almost all of them. Yeah, for sure. Well, we got the Adam McKay guy right here. Jeremy did the Adam McKay episode with me yes I did so if you want like Jeremy if you have any like thing to advocate as far as Adam McKay I want to hear it well I think we've all even throughout talked about Will Ferrell's impact and I think.
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[2:07:59] Most people have him as the goat and we talk about that writer you know we talk about how Mulaney and Bill Hader have that well even like we've seen like what they did with the movie career but before that a lot of like what Will Ferrell did on SNL.
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[2:08:15] That partnership with Adam McKay was showing. A lot of those iconic sketches that we think about with Will Ferrell, he was doing that with Adam McKay. And also just the fast track that he got to being bumped to being head writer. It was like, I think, Tom, it was like a year. That's like a year on the show. He was like the head writer. And also, once again, just like I said about Paula Pell and Molly Shannon and being a part of that crew in 95, 96 to help really bring the show back when I think Lorne has said that was his toughest time as producer and he was getting hit from the critics, getting hit from network execs at NBC and he really had to change the show up and I credit a lot of people but also people behind the screen like Adam McKay. So that's the strong case I have for him.
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[2:09:08] And to show how highly Lorne thought of Adam McKay, Adam McKay pulled a really great power play, a power move when he was going to leave SNL. He was going to leave, but he told Lorne, I'll only stay if I could have carte blanche to make these little short movies and have my own segment. And Lorne said, go for it. So we saw these little weird movies that Adam McKay made, the digital shorts, honestly. These were the first digital shorts. that's where the Lonely Island guys got the digital short term and even like the font and stuff was from like the Adam McKay shorts and Adam McKay had such sway and pull at SNL that Lauren said okay yeah we'll give you our own segment you can make these movies and Jeremy and I went through the Adam McKay shorts on our episode and they were just wild some of them were so out there and just, wild and funny there was that one with the.
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[2:10:00] Pond the food pond shop and then the shimmy is that one with the shimmy one that's such a great one the one with ben stiller the h is o with glenn fry hilarious just yeah so he had adam mckay's just had his own sensibility and so i think there's a strong case for adam mckay on a gas tire too one of my favorites as well around that era so so yeah so this is tough i'm glad we're hashing this out.
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[2:10:25] Ashley, you made a case because I do appreciate those era, those ladies who broke that crappy boys club thing. And I do think of that time. I think of Sherry O'Terry so highly and Molly Shannon.
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[2:10:40] And what you just said about Anna Gosteyer, I'm like, wow, I maybe haven't given her. I liked her, but I'm like, did I give her enough credit for what she did on SNL? So you're really making me rethink about her legacy. Seeing like man i'm like she she's i think yeah she's a hall of famer now jeremy who's who's on who's the last one on your list last one on my list is um i think so many people's favorite just i think a lot and he's one of those people where you look at it in sports where you're like wow this person yeah like he's a great player i know that and then you start having like discussion you're like oh he's like a top 20 player and then you go is this guy like one of of the all-time greats yeah and like that's Will Forte for me where it's just like you'd like oh yeah Will Forte's great and then you start talking about it you're like oh wow he's even greater then it's like is this dude like a top 10 guy like he's just and like am I sleeping on Will Forte like I like him but like just what his versatility the sketches what he was able to do um just from being the guy to be the king of that you know 10 to 1 sketch that like he just personified that but then to do like Mick Gruber and that to take that sketch and then to just build upon that and to making that like An SNL character that has its own movie and just the versatility that he showed.
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[2:12:03] He's the glue guy He's the quirky like strange guy He's the established character person will Forte is someone I feel like people already put him in like the top 20 top 15 and I think like.
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[2:12:17] It's weird to say. He still could be underrated, and I think as time goes on, we could be bumping him up higher and higher on the all-time list. Yeah, you're speaking my language. My two favorite cast members, probably just personal favorites, are Vanessa Baer and Will Forte. Yeah. And Will Forte, because he had such a distinct voice. It was the oddball. It was the 10-to-1. He had his own lane on the show. Even to me, when the show was kind of slumping, I want to say around 2003 2004 it was a little on a downswing Will Forte was like the.
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[2:12:56] Shining light like he was like that saving grace saving grace in some otherwise maybe down episodes I knew that if a Will Forte, sketch that was led by him that was his sensibility popped up it was like the saving grace for me of an otherwise maybe kind of like era that i didn't totally love and you're right jeremy like people know and love will forte and they say oh no you know he has his own lane he has weird sense of humor but then you go look like the falconer he uh did a lot of great one-off sketches um like the spelling bee one there's one duluth live or um jeff montgomery with the trick-or-treater uh you mentioned mcgruber he has the clan ct baclarat which he brought back um when he hosted locker room motivation with peyton manning yeah potato chip thief like greg stink like all these this is a laundry list i did the show with john schneider and we just like geeked out because there was so much to talk like there's so much meat on that bone to talk about and so i think the combination of just quantity and quality and having a distinct voice, Will Forte is one of the all-time greats to me. To me, he's a slam-dunk Hall of Famer. And it's also an example of somebody who.
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[2:14:21] I'm going to be quite frank with you. I thought his hosting gig was terrible. And I was looking forward to it. And I love Will Forte. And then at the end of the show, I was like, man, that was really bad. But it doesn't take points away from me, though. Right. So we'll just ignore that part of it. Ashley, I hope you're a Will Forte fan. Maybe not as much as me and Deremy. But I'm curious to see where you stand on Will Forte. Oh, no. We used to talk about The Falconer after they came on, like back in the day. Like that was our jam you know we we bonded over the falconer with will forte and uh yeah no 100 agree and like this is so random but his ability to like loud whisper is oddly really impressive to me like the voices and the impressions that he does and some of them where he just does that.
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[2:15:09] It's the quietest and loudest whisper all at the same time and it's just so impressive to me somehow it's it's um probably kind of random but i always appreciated his ability to not just do impressions but to kind of make his own characters and make his own voice associated with them, um he also i think unfortunately played you know kind of a pedophilia looking man a little bit too easily and i think that may be off-putting to some voters but don't let that don't let that deter you just focus on you know mcgruber um and falconer and all too convincing maybe yeah yeah right yeah so um no just i i'm a huge huge huge will forte fan um mcgruber was definitely my favorite at the time i'm pretty sure mcgruber and the lonely island got me through law school and kept me sane.
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[2:16:02] Yeah and the movie's wild too we think the sketches are wild but the movie mcgruber is so wild oh yeah probably an extension of and they filmed it in new mexico he did another new mexico connection and uh he filmed they film a gruber in albuquerque mostly but yeah a side note for me like and another sports reference i love charles barkley i think he's funny on inside the nba not my favorite host but uh will forte did one of impossible task. He made Charles Barkley seem funny in those MacGruber sketches where it's Daryl. It's Daryl. But I still cracked up all the time. And I'm like, Barkley to me was not a good host. But Will Forte did something that was hard. He made Barkley funny to me. So another tip to Will Forte.
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[2:16:52] Yeah, Will Forte is just an all-timer. I think that was a good place to end. I don't think, by my count, Ashley and Jeremy, me you're you're all out of votes i'm out yeah that he was yeah so that's perfect to me i think that's a very fitting one will forte honestly like had such a blast with john schneider go re-listen to that if you haven't because john schneider just like laid out the case perfectly and there was so many sketches that will for today we didn't even talk about he worked with who i consider the goat will ferrell in a sketch called pepper grinder yes ferrell was hosting and they just like yeah will forte and will ferrell that was like a dream come true for me oh yeah a completely weird oddball sketch with the two of them that was like perfect that pepper grinder sketch so yeah so we did it everybody we shared our ballots uh i think um a lot to consider uh voting is open now until may 17th at 9 p.m eastern time so we do have some time to kind of like some of the things that were up in the air that weren't locked but we were considering we have some time to mull those over and potentially put them on the ballots or not. So, Ashley, thank you so much for coming back. You're my guest for Kate McKinnon. You did a great job today.
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[2:18:09] Great conversation. Thank you. Took me back to over 20 years ago, like you said, when we would geek out about the Falconer and the Culp's and all this SNL stuff. So that's so much fun. I don't know if there's anything you want to promote or say hi to anybody or oh my goodness um hi mom stereotypically and uh just yeah thanks so much for having me on I have such a blast doing this like I said it's always great when um I'm with people who like to enjoy listening to me talk about SNL as much as I enjoy talking about it so I had a lot I had a blast.
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[2:18:43] You are awesome. Thank you so much again for coming back. We'll probably see you again, season six of the SNL Hall of Fame. We're doing another season, definitely going to get the lineup here in a few weeks. And I'll definitely get a hold of you for that. So, Deremy Dove, thank you so much again for joining me. Always great to have you here on the SNL Hall of Fame. What would you like to promote? mode uh thomas it's you know always a pleasure when uh when you and jamie have me you know i make sure to keep my feet clean wipe them off when i get to come into the the hallowed halls of the snl hall of fame and ashley it was just awesome chatting with you today and not just because i got out of yard work but it truly was a pleasure talking with both of you so thank you so much and uh just yeah to plug our show thomas pop culture five where we'd look at anything in pop culture and we give our five essential you know lists of that topic for the week and uh a lot of people are liking it and i know you feel the same way we're just humbled and glad that people are liking it and i love doing it with you so thank you for that and uh for those you've heard us doing these sports references i also do a sports history podcast bigger than the game with daramie and jose so uh me and my my co-host jose talk about a coach a player a game.
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[2:20:07] In sports history and we connect the past to the present. That's on all platforms too as well. Same with Pop Culture 5. I know there's a lot of stuff out there, but if you have time and you like what we're doing here, please give those a listen as well. Just thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, man. Thank you for being a great co-host on Pop Culture 5. A little tease, SNL-related tease here. I think we're cooking up a little something to coincide with around the premiere of season 50 of SNL. So we're kind of already looking ahead, kind of cooking something up a little bit at Pop Culture 5 to kind of coincide with the premiere of the 50th season of SNL. Excited. Yeah, I'm excited about that. Thank you both so much for joining me. For the listeners out there, for the voters, you can register to vote if you haven't already at SNLHOF.com. If you're a past voter, Jamie will email a ballot to you. Voting is now open and will close on May 17th at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. So thank you so much for listening. For Ashley Bauer and Jeremy Dove, I'm Thomas Senna.
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[2:21:19] See you next time on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast. So long, everybody.
So we're taking that energy from the recent Kristen Wiig episode and putting it forth here for this. Oh, that's fantastic.
Matt, you're not in your usual corner this week. No, no. Yeah, I've moved things, moved my desk around.
I need to make room to watch that, you know, 1970s French disco funk and dance around.
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[3:00] I wonder if they were even i know when they counted the numbers they were speaking french but i wonder how much of the rest of it was was actual french my wife was asleep on the couch i would have asked her she's a french teacher i wanted to wake her up and say you got to watch this sketch but she was gone i'll ask i'll show it to her today and ask it sounded right from my grade nine general French.
So it may be like Google Translate. Who knows?
But it had the right shapes. Yeah. And I think Bowen's a French speaker.
So I think at least Bowen was probably speaking good real. Oh, OK. I think he is. Yeah. Didn't realize that.
Well, Matt and I have failed our Canadian tests here.
For those listening from other places in the world, Canadians are not truly bilingual, even though our country is.
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[3:52] But I digress. Let's start at the start.
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[3:57] And speaking of Canadians, we're going to talk about the original SNL band.
And it's not band leader, but it's musical director. And that is Howard Shore, who is immensely talented.
He played the alto sax in the band, and he, like I said, was the band leader.
But he was, before he came to SNL, he worked with Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz on the Lorne and Hart Terrific Hour. hour.
And when Lauren got SNL, it seemed like a slam dunk for him to come South and work with Saturday Night Live.
To me, his most defining moment in the role is that he wrote the closing.
He wrote Waltz in D, is it D minor?
Waltz in A, written by a founding member, Howard Shore.
And And that is something, maybe the only thing other than update that is like lasted the duration of the show.
I'm not as versed in the 80s. I don't know if they ended in Waltz and A, but definitely all the Lorne Michaels era, it ends with that.
And it's always very exciting when you get to hear the bulk of it and you get to see the credits roll and you get to see them mingling on the stage.
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[5:24] Oftentimes here in Canada, when it aired on global TV, they would cut it off and you wouldn't see much of anything.
But now for some reason, you get to see it all.
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[5:35] Uh, do you guys have any feelings about that original music director in that original band?
I'm going to get into more detail in a moment, but I'm just curious if you guys have any sort of thoughts or feelings.
We talked a little bit about this concept in the Don Pardo episode from last season, Matt and I, but it's just branding.
And you touched on it, JD, like the Waltz and A and all of that, like the SNL band, And even with them playing in between sketches and bumpers and stuff, it all goes toward the branding of the show, the show's identity.
And when talking about Howard Shore, the fact that he created such an iconic piece of music that's obviously stood the test of time.
Like how much aside unless you're one of the more famous cast members or lauren michaels himself it's hard to find somebody who's had such an imprint as far as the identity and branding of the show so right away like he's he's an icon just because of that along with the other like founding members of the snl band but howard shore will highlight at this moment as like the leader So that's what sticks out to me about Howard Shore, specifically his contribution to SNL.
How about you, Matt? Yeah, for me, I feel like he's one of those instrumental components creating the feeling Thomas was saying.
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[7:03] Because that early band was much more involved in the day-to-day operations.
They were. The later bands, because they would play as part of the show.
So you don't get that anymore.
In those early first few seasons, they would do extended musical numbers.
Or like there's this one sketch with Lily Tomlin where the entire band are dressed up as nurses.
That's right. And they do St. James Infirmary Blues.
And it's it's just like they're they're they're a component of those early days, setting the tone, part of the vibe of the entire thing.
Uh and i think it's no small part due to the camaraderie that shore had with the rest of them, that's right the rest of the cast yeah you're gonna mention this jd but also like the ama king b yes i was just gonna go there that's so funny.
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[8:16] To Matt's point, they were much more a part of the show.
You have the nurse band, you have the beekeeper outfit.
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[8:28] Not to mention the fact that the band is responsible for creating interstitial music for sketches and even main music for sketches in some cases.
So, I think that that is woven into the fabric of the blueprint or the DNA of SNL at this point.
Even though, you know, more contemporary SNL bands aren't as involved.
Now, I say that having just come off the Kristen Wiig episode where we got a really funny joke from Lenny Pickett.
And that was just, you know, just fantastic.
To steal a page from matt's book and just offer you a little trivia i thought it was very interesting that howard shore gave the name blues brothers to akroyd and belushi he was the one who came up with that term and obviously we know how successful the blues brothers were both on the show and in their feature debut uh you know really good stuff shore moved on from snl and And had a phenomenal career post-SNL, scoring films.
And he scored films all through the 80s. There are some pseudo-notable ones that I don't have written down right now.
But in the early 2000s and late 90s, I think it's late. Is Lord of the Rings late 90s?
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[9:57] Or is it early 2000s? I think the first one was early 2000s.
Early 2000s. So it entered production late 90s.
Sure. So he did the score for all three of those movies and the three Hobbit films.
And to me, that is just phenomenal.
He's won three Academy Awards. He's been nominated for Golden Globe Awards.
He has won some Emmy Awards as well.
And he's just all over the place in terms of success. sass.
He's been pursuing music since he was basically eight or nine years old.
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[10:36] At 13 and 14, he became good friends with the young Lorne Michaels in summer camp.
And obviously, we know what happened from there.
Gosh, if I could have been in summer camp with Lorne Michaels, if only, maybe I'd have a different career right now. But I digress.
Any other thoughts on Howard Shore and his influence and importance in the legacy of SNL?
Yeah, I think Howard Shore, and not just him. So I'm looking at like the members of the founding band.
A lot of them were in the Blues Brothers.
So a lot of them played in the Blues Brothers and like role class musicians. You had Paul Schaefer.
That's right. Yeah, involved. And of course, we know Paul Schaefer went on to do he was accredited cast member.
Paul Schaefer at one point. Tom Bones Malone is a really well respected trombone and trumpet player in the music world.
So you have all these world-class musicians, Cheryl Hardwick on keyboards, all these people, super well-respected.
And Howard Shore is like the leader of this group.
But these musicians, and this is going to be a theme throughout our conversation, are just world-class musicians.
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[11:52] Do you two know if Shore was responsible for putting, I'm guessing he was, but for putting the band actually together?
Other yeah i would imagine so because i mean that's how it works now uh as reading an interview, uh maddie rice uh the guitarist and she was talking about how lenny the audition it was sort of like the their version of the lauren michaels the musician's version of the lauren michaels audition where he just sort of sits there dead faced kind of thing but yeah like so i i would assume like he's just going around and getting the best of the best of these musicians that.
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[12:31] At that point, it's a regular gig, good money.
So for the 70s, that's a nice enticement to a lot of musicians, I'm sure.
You're in New York. You're in New York, yeah. So you have ample opportunity to go to a live venue and play during the week if you're not rehearsing.
Almost like the stand-ups and the sketch artists on SNL. Very similar through-line there. That's interesting, Matt. Yeah.
Well, shall we move forward? Shore was there, I guess, from the inception through 1979.
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[13:05] So he left when everybody else left, including Lorne Michaels.
There were two band leaders in the early 80s, one that only lasted a year, I want to say.
Yeah. And one that was three or four years on top of that.
And then Lorne came back. so kenny vance succeeded howard shore as the musical director but kenny vance right he was only there basically probably just when gene dumanian was there as the producer so i think maybe when dick ebersole came uh some of the retooling that they did uh i imagine uh affected kenny vance as well as musical director but then they replaced him with the aforementioned tom Tom Bones Malone, who was in the original SNL band that Howard Shore was musical director of.
So Tom Bones Malone from 81 to 85 was the musical director.
Not that much on Tom Bones Malone. I just know you always hear that name as far as when you talk about great respected musicians.
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[14:10] The name Tom Bones Malone is one that I remember people always talking about.
Out but so it was kenny vance from 80 to 81 and tom malone from 81 to 85 i don't know much about that period i just know tom bones if he got bones as a nickname yeah no it's tom bones malone he's like and speaks to the quality of the music those original musicians uh he played multiple instruments aside from trombone he played saxophone trumpet tuba flute bass guitar.
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[14:42] Oh like he could be half the band if and i mean that that was all these musicians were these multi-instrumentalist talent powerhouses um so so yeah it's just it's amazing again like i think that period is sort of like a weird dark period in a lot of ways where a lot of that doesn't make it out kind of like a black hole of saturday night live but it's a little bit yeah yeah tougher to to find information on that era.
So that brings us to a member, I want to say he was a member of Tom Bones Malone, his troupe.
You guys can correct me if I'm wrong, but he became bandleader, and that is G.E.
Smith, and we're going to pass the torch to Thomas on this one.
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[15:27] Yeah, so they were doing retooling, so Dick Ebersole left, and so Lorne Michaels came back to the show in 1985, so they're doing a lot of retooling.
That was the year, you know, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, we saw Lovitz and Nora Dunn and Dennis Miller come into this season, but just a lot of reshuffling and new energy into the show.
So that's the season that G.E. Smith started as the musical director of the Saturday Night Live band.
I don't know, Jamie, that he was in previous iterations. I think he's a Lorne guy.
Okay. And he knows Lorne because G.E. Smith, he was married to Gilda Radner for a couple years in the early 80s. So he got to know Lorne that way.
And we've seen, obviously, now that Lorne hires people who he knows and trusts.
That's a really big factor. So you're right. Right. If I had married Gilda Radner in the early 80s, I might have a different career path as well.
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[16:31] But as it stands, G.E. Smith's the one who married Gilda Radner.
So he became SNL bandleader in 1985.
But G.E. Smith, if you've ever heard him speak, he has the blues in his blood.
He's like a true blues man, the way he speaks and just his cadence.
And you could tell he plays the blues when you listen to G.E. Smith talk.
He did a really great episode, I'm going to say probably around when COVID first came up with Marc Maron. He was on WTF with Marc Maron. Oh.
Yeah. So he and Marc Maron just geeked out about music because Marc's a guitar player.
And so he and G.E. Smith just geeked out about the blues and, oh, what about this musician? What about this guy and that guy?
And so it was like two music blues geeks. Oh, that's great. So you can tell, you can feel it in G.E.
Smith's blood that he's a blues man. He started playing guitar when he was four years old.
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[17:26] He started kind of learning cursory notes when he was four.
Yeah. And by seven, he actually got like a friend of the family gifted him a really good, like the nice starter acoustic guitar.
So G.E. Smith's been playing since he was a really tiny kid.
You could tell he's just a he's just such a prodigy. That's what he was. He was a prodigy.
Yeah. When he was a kid, man, he's he's he's just he's gotten his blood.
And he said something to Marion that I thought was interesting. and it says a lot about G Smith's musical style so he said in in talking about the Beatles and the Stones and stuff he said he respected the Beatles he liked the Beatles but it was the Rolling Stones and the Kinks he said that really like motivated him as far as music goes so that's just where he's coming from like he likes the Beatles but he's like a Stones guy so I think that could say a lot about a musician when they state that like which way they lean you know what what I'm saying he has more stones in him he ended up working with Mick Jagger which is probably was probably cool for him but does that make sense like like you get to kind of tell when a musician says I like the Beatles but like I had like the stones more in me absolutely and that he mentions the kinks too yeah I can add that vibes with me or I'm like yeah yeah I get a kinks energy.
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[18:46] Yeah, so this guy is just a true blue musician. He played with Hall & Oates.
He was on some of Hall & Oates' biggest records from 79 through the mid-80s.
G.E. Smith was... So that's what he was doing in the early 80s.
He was mainly playing and touring with Hall & Oates.
He's done albums with Tom Waits, Mick Jagger, Carly Simon, Buddy Guy, Bob Dylan.
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[19:09] Worked closely with David Bowie and Roger Waters. I mean, this guy has been around.
That's what he loves. He loves playing. He's made a lot of connections, very well respected.
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[19:19] And we talk about branding, you guys. And I know, JD, I'm pretty sure this is when you started watching, was around the mid-80s. Maybe when Phil Hartman and Carvey and Lovitz and those guys.
G.E. Smith, to me, was part of the fabric of the show. They would even build G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live band.
And watching him, the dude with the blonde ponytail, just shredding on the guitar.
Guitar like he was to me as a viewer part of like that branding he was part of like the essence of the show i don't know if either of you felt that way watching that era of snl absolutely every time they cut to commercial you just see him wailing away on that guitar uh with these incredible licks and it's just yeah that was just the moment and it's like i that early ge smith you know saturday night live band is like i couldn't at that time i couldn't have imagined it i can almost hear don pardo saying it ge smith on the 70 my wife the way he said ge smith it was like it felt like it meant something i don't know here's something nitpicky do we know what ge stands for oh george edward george edward smith oh it's cooler george edward dad actually oh let's say that again george edward haddad.
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[20:43] Yeah, his dad's side of the family is Lebanese. Oh, wow.
So, yeah, so he grew up kind of like culturally Lebanese in a lot of ways, G.E. Smith did. That's fascinating.
Yeah, so like a real cultured guy, a lot of influences, has worked, like I said, with so many people.
People uh he says and he gives he gives credit to a lot of people that were in the his band at snl because he tells he tells marin that he just wanted to keep up with these amazing musicians, so he's like that that's just what you know that that's he said that was my role in the band i was kind of like the leader but like these were world class he's like snl had the budget he said this is a big show they had the budget to get these amazing musicians so he's like i felt every week like i just had to keep up man well he gives a lot of credit he gives a lot of credit to uh to the other people uh that were in the snl band at the same time and i'm looking and um yeah it was guys like george young i know he's a he's a pretty respected player earl gardner who was there forever he started with ge smith all these really great uh great musicians matt chamberlain that That blew my mind when I read that.
Yeah, he was probably best known for Pearl Jam, but he's been drummer for a lot of bands. Soundgarden?
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[22:05] Soundgarden, yeah. He was, from 91 to 92, he was part of G.E.
Smith's band a little bit.
We'd see David Johansson as Buster Poindexter make appearances every now and then in that era.
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[22:18] So, yeah, G.E. Smith really gives a lot of credit to other musicians, the people in his band.
Even though he was the one that was billed and people just think of G.E.
Smith from that era, he really is very complimentary of all the musicians that he got to work with on SNL.
There seems to be a through line here so far that these band leaders put together these world-class bands to play one night a week for 90 minutes. Yeah, right.
Probably the best gig going. Yeah, what a great gig. Yeah.
Well, from GE Smith, we go to...
The longest running, the Kenan of band leaders.
I don't know that anyone will surpass his record at this point because I don't know when he's leaving even.
But this brings us to Lenny Pickett and his cohort at times that I'm sure Matt is going to get into here.
Based on a Facebook post I read earlier today. Yes. Well, Lenny was one of those 1985 hires. So he came in at the same time as G.E. Smith.
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[23:34] He was co-musical director with Cheryl Hardwick, who founding band member.
She was co-musical director with G.E. Smith.
She was in the band until 1995 when she retired at the end of season 25.
So, I mean, she was the last member of the founding band.
But so you get this i think that's why there's such a through line in the psychology of the band leaders because you had members of that original band all through the years up until you know 95 like just a little over you know a little under a decade ago so you you've got like just the psychology and it is a very music forward psychology uh you've got going on like He's a former member of Tower of Power, R&B funk band, amazing.
He led their horn section before joining the SNL band.
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[24:30] He's entirely self-taught. This is a guy who picked up his instruments as a kid and just taught himself, except for a brief period where he went to work with a particular musician for less than a year.
So I don't even really count that. So he's learned everything on his own.
He went to study with Burt Wilson, a jazz musician, for a short time.
But he can also play clarinet, flute, as well as the alto saxophone.
He's considered a virtuoso of the altissimo register.
This is a technique where you can just change your position of your tongue and the shape of your throat and make your saxophone play way outside of its register so he'll you'll key like a b flat and you'll get a high f that kind of thing like totally outside of the range so that's why he gets this incredible performance out of his uh out of his saxophone because he's like pushing it beyond the limits but you know.
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[25:37] He's performed with the greats. He's also performed with Paul and Oates.
He performed with David Bowie as well.
Aaron Neville, Katy Perry, Talking Heads. He was recently a part of Love This Giant, an album by David Byrne and St. Vincent.
So he played saxophone. Wild.
So, I mean, he's still a vibrant, powerful musician.
He surrounded himself with, if we look at this, his current band, they're all veterans at this point there's only a couple of people who are relatively new uh you know leon uh pendarvis keyboard since 1980 he predate he's like predates the you know the band leader uh alex foster 85 uh steve turay trombone 85 christine olman vocals since 91 sean pelton drums since 92.
Valerie Naranjo, you see like rocking out back there every every episode.
95 James Keenis 2000.
Ron Blake, he's on baritone sax 2005.
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[26:50] Toughest Zimbabwe keyboard since 2010.
And then you have Maddie Rice, a guitarist that I mentioned earlier, and Summer DeMarco, who's on trumpet both 20 and 20 and 2022 respectively so for the most part these are band members who are seasoned respected and talented musicians um and it's like an incredible like i was doing a little bit of digging into their process and i have to say in a in some ways they have it harder than the sketch comedians because they don't generally come in during the week they come in on saturday day.
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[27:29] Sometimes they'll do a bit of a rehearsal on Friday if it's a complex piece, like a big piece.
But they work with Elijah Bruggeman. He's the sketch musical director.
And he will collaborate like Rice was talking about, the Tampon Farm sketch, where Kate actually laid down a guitar track.
But it was you know it's not professional quality because she's just a home guitar player so she came over and played over that and sort of expanded the composition but they did that on thursday so it's like she just came in listened to the track and just sort of noodled something over top of it and uh but yeah like they will come in they'll they'll start rehearsal on friday a Saturday and then be ready for dress.
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[28:26] So it's just like, there's no time there. And like those sketches are so tight.
Like you look at the sketches just past weekend, you had multiple sketches where you've got this intense musical number or, or some of the classic sketches where, where you've got music feature very prominently.
No, they've had a day to figure that out is like, this is why you have the best of the best on that band.
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[28:52] Yeah they i noticed snl especially this season in season 49 they like to do one sketches where a character gives a dramatic monologue and then you hear like the dramatic music playing in the background so yeah so a lot of i don't think a lot of people realize that in in most of these sketches that require music that's the band that's like the house band playing in a lot of these sketches so it's not just like oh we're gonna play uh in between commercials or we're gonna play the good nights or or whatever like they're like involved in sketches i think that's a really good thing to bring up pros pros they are absolutely pros pros and very well deserving of this prestigious award the don pardo award that we will be presenting every season uh so far the list is short it's don pardo and the snl band any final thoughts on the snl band gentlemen i'm curious who you think might be good for the like when lenny retires to take over the reins hmm.
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[30:01] This is almost, I mean, this is almost harder than Who Replaces Lorne, because with Lorne, it's a short list.
But like we could, if I knew anything about, you know, jazz music in New York and, you know, R&B music in New York, I would have a couple names for you.
But I don't. So I don't even have any names.
Thomas? Yeah, I wonder if SNL would do something like want to pry like John Batiste or something from his Stephen Colbert gig.
Oh, wow. So here's the thing. Maddie was in that band. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Maddie came from that band. I kind of feel like she's being lined up because she's featured more and more prominently in the transitions and stuff.
She's also a multi-instrumentalist. she's young so she can she's sort of got the vibe for the modern sound but also, jazz musician and guitarist so she has that respect for the old ways as well as the new ways I think she'd be a good fit to sort of transition a new era because I don't Lenny would leave before season 50 but you know like if there was a new new guard let's say were to take over I think that would be a good fit because it's it's a legacy.
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[31:25] How old is Pickett? When he turned 31, 31, he was born at 31.
She. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Lenny Pickett.
Lenny is he was born in 1956.
OK. No. Yeah. Lenny's turning 70 in three days, actually, on April 10th.
So as we're recording this, Lenny's going to be he's 70 when this when this. Yeah. April 10th, 1954.
Sorry. Yeah. So he might be. Yeah. No, I think Matt brings up a good point about Matty Rice, though. Matty. Yeah. Yeah, Maddie's 30, 31.
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[31:57] She could be next in line to follow, to succeed Lenny Pickett, for sure.
She did a good interview with Vulture earlier this year.
That was the interview that I think Matt was referencing, was her Vulture interview.
So yeah, she used to play in John Batiste's Stay Human house band for Stephen Colbert.
My wife and I, a few years ago, went and saw a taping of Stephen Colbert.
Dana Carvey was on that. So that was like, as an SNL fan, that was pretty special.
So I got to see Maddie and John Batiste and do their thing.
It's interesting about Maddie Rice is, and it's kind of unfortunate too, but she was almost at the center of a really, really unfortunate nonsensical discussion online.
Imagine that, a nonsensical discussion online.
Line but people were focusing in on if she laughed or not during the monologue and her reactions during the monologue and i think she even came out and said i've seen a lot of these jokes in this monologue like this is probably the third or fourth time that i've seen it so she said she doesn't want to like do fake laughter so she's like these are just kind of my it's not no offense against the host or whoever's doing the monologue but it's just so it was just very weird like yeah Yeah. Focusing on Maddie Rice's reaction.
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[33:15] And to be fair to her, most of the other band are pretty deadpan during that, too, because they don't want to they don't want to telegraph stuff.
Yeah. They want to, you know. Right. And J.D.
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[33:34] Right. So so what you want to refresh people's memories about that?
Yeah, well, it was interesting. Kristen came up for her monologue.
And before she monologued, she said, you know what?
I haven't talked to the band in a while. Toughest on keys. How you doing?
Sean on drums. How about you?
Great. Lenny on sax. How you doing? I'm OK.
And it was something that we just have not seen before on the show in that manner.
So it was really, for a show that is 49 years old to do something it hasn't done before is pretty incredible.
And I think that's why we pointed it out to each other earlier today, because it does seem sort of shocking in a sense.
But it just goes to show you how important this group of people truly are, that they can, you know, take us to a commercial break.
Oftentimes, when there's not enough time for another sketch, we get a commercial break, and then we come back to an interstitial, and then another commercial break before we go to Walt's and A.
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[34:45] So that is this year's Don Pardo Award winner.
We have some exciting news as well.
As you're listening to this, we are opening voting today, and voting will run through the 17th of May, at which time we will do some tabulation, and then we will present with you the Monday episode that will reveal Season 5's SNL Hall of Fame.
Gentlemen, it has been an absolute pleasure for Matt Ardill and Thomas Senna. I'm JD.
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[35:23] Do me a favor on your way out as you pass the weekend update exhibit.
Turn out the lights because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
