7 Things You May Not Know About Some Saturday Night Live Cast Members.
I am one of those that has been obsessed with SNL since I was a kid. I have seen every season (not every episode because some have been completely removed from the web) up until about 2013, I even bought all the best of DVD's from those informercials that were on TV around 2005ish. However, I am also one of those that thinks the new seasons are pretty much not funny (I know, I am an old person ranting about how things were better in their day). Sorry if you think they are the best right now, I just see A LOT of them taking from past sketches, sometimes word for word. I don't like the reusing of ideas and only a few of the latest cast members have caught my eye. I left when Bill Hader did. Well, anyway... thats enough of me ranting, lets look at some random facts that I found interesting, and ill attach some pictures to go along with it.
7. John Belushi did not like Chevy Chase.
Chevy Chase & John Belushi, lounging backstage between tapings of Saturday Night Live, 1976.
According to The Telegraph, these two did not get along well due to Chevy Chase often attacking cast members with his mean spirited wit. Apparently, the way John Belushi saw it, Chevy was trying to make SNL "the Chevy Chase show." Chevy would often make fun of John's weight and the fact that he wasn't born rich. In an Interview with Grantland, Chevy claimed he would also tell John that he should shave his back and he needed to teach him how to live with civilized people.
Chevy was not very popular at SNL after he had come back eight times to host he was eventually banned for hitting Cheri Oteri on the back of the head as well as harassing the female writers. He is the only cast member to be banned on SNL, which is a very Chevy title to have. In the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, it talks about how Chevy's awful attitude was for fellow cast members in the quote below.
“[Chevy Chase was] a viciously effective put-down artist, the sort who could find the one thing somebody was sensitive about — a pimple on the nose, perhaps — and then kid about it, mercilessly.”
Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, 1986.
6. Dan Aykroyd was engaged to Carrie Fisher.
Dan Aykroyd prepares to demonstrate the 'Super Bass-O-Matic' on a sketch from the TV comedy show 'Saturday Night Live', 1976.
I used to have the biggest crush on him when I was younger, there, I needed to get that out. Anyway, did you know that he and Carrie Fisher were engaged? Here is how that went, Dan wrote a tribute to the Chicago Tribune for Carrie Fisher in 2017
“I met Carrie at Saturday Night Live, she and John Belushi became instant pals. I remember how much she made him laugh. Later, while filming Blues Brothers, Carrie and I fell in love, and during the shoot she moved in with me into a penthouse suite.”
Chicago Tribune, 2017.
He then proposed to Carrie as he was completely in love, Carrie reflected on the matter to the Chicago Tribune as well, saying
“He was forcing me to eat because I was very thin in those days … and I inhaled a Brussels sprout, and I started choking. He thought I was laughing, and then he saw that I was dying, and he did the Heimlich maneuver, and then like 10 minutes later he asked me to marry him.”
Chicago Tribune, 2017.
However, the engagement did not last very long, one day Carrie just left to be with her old boyfriend Paul Simon. Dan remembers the day she left in his written tribute he explains "She asked me to drive her to the airport and she flew to New York.... She was also in love with Paul Simon. She married him but I hope she kept my ring."
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5. Chris Farley would do strange things backstage.
Chris Farley, Toronto, Canada, January 1, 1996
Okay, if you can't read gross stuff brace yourself, this was hard for me to type, but here is the weirdest poop story. Apparently fellow co star at SNL, Jay Mohr, who has the book Gasping for Airtime, had some writers block, was feeling down, and had been up for two days. Suddenly, Chris Farley walks in, Jay offered him a hundred bucks to poop out of a window, Chris would do almost anything for a laugh, including pooping out of the windows up in the offices at SNL. Chris quickly grabbed the money and pulled down his pants, pried open the window... and... well, did the deed. He chased people with his poop stained hand afterwards, quite charming. In an 2014 interview with The Bigfoot Diaries Jay explained
Dave Attell and I dared Chris Farley to take a shit out of our window. It was the 17th floor and he did it. He was pretty much all the way out onto the ledge with just his feet and head on the inside of the building. He shit and a little 2 inch poop came out and it fell on the INSIDE of the window and landed on the window sill. He looked around for toilet paper and not seeing any, wiped his ass with his hand. Then he got down from the window ledge and chased Attell and I around the 17th floor like a zombie with his shit hands...
The Bigfoot Diaries, 2014.
4. Bill Murray and Chevy Chase exchanged fisticuffs.
Bill Murray and Jane Curtin clowning around circa 1980 in New York City.
Bill Murray had come into Saturday Night Live only after Chevy Chase had left the cast to star in movies. The SNL audience had really grown a liking to Chevy Chase, he would usually open the show with his classic bit in which he would fall, I know, grade A stuff, am I right? Well after Chevy decided to leave SNL he was quickly replaced with Bill Murray. The tensions were high, as the audience was angry with Bill, they wanted Chevy to come back. Chevy had of course had already poked fun at Bill, he is known in Hollywood for being a big jerk, and was always putting down his cast member. Apparently one day Bill had had enough, according to an interview on the podcast Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast! with Chevy himself, he claimed that he was hosting on the night they brawled, Bill got the idea that Chevy was going to try and take his spot on the popular segment "Weekend Update." Bill was one that felt he needed to be loyal to his cast mates and fought with Chevy on how he couldn't just come in and take segments away from the others.
Bill rushed me, John [Belushi] got to the doorframe... my hands up ready to box... Brian Doyle-Murray, his brother, came and held my arms back... We had both hit John in the head. Bill was angry because he thought I'd come in to host the show and was gonna take over Weekend Update from... Jane Curtin. He is like one of these quote loyal people who really just wants to fight... Lorne and I had discussed it... I didn't know what people would expect from me... all I knew was Weekend Update and falling.
Chevy Chase on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast!, 2015
According to Far Out Magazine Bill had yelled to Chevy “Go f**k your wife, she needs it” in which Chevy replied by making fun of his acne scars calling it a place where Neil Armstrong would land. The argument had made many headlines in the tabloids, this resulted in Chevy coming back to host AGAIN and having a really awkward segment with Bill Murray talking about the situation.
3. Howard stern once made Gilda Radner cry.
Gilda Radner having fun in A limousine; circa 1970; New York.
In 1983, Gilda Radner had gone on the Howard Stern Show to promote her new book. Howard in the 80's was a bit crazy and had no filter; she was attending as his mystery guest. During the interview Howard asks her sexual questions and brought up her boyfriend at the time, Gene Wilder, often. She is mostly quiet and at one point asked "are you making fun of me?" Howard maintained that he was a huge fan and that he was "kissing her butt" the entire interview. Gilda was on-again off-again with her soon to be husband Gene Wilder at the time and maybe Howard had pulled at a sensitive string. She left his show crying and shaking, Howard did not know what he did wrong. In a later interview with Gilda's ex, Martin Short, the discussion of Gilda comes up. Howard brought up the interview and is certain that he scared her due to his weird style of hosting back in the 80's. He actually was a huge fan and thought she would find him hilarious. I will link both interviews below.
2. Dana Carvey had one of his characters taken by Mike Myers.
Dana Carvey performing onstage, Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 1990.
Back when Dana Carvey and Mike Myers were both cast members on SNL Dana was the king of impressions. Dana was a BIG part of the show and, in my opinion, in the top three cast members of all time. Apparently Dana would do an impression of the creator of SNL, Lorne Michaels, around the office, he also would take his pinky and hold it up to his mouth while doing the impression. He didn't think much of it, and was staring in the Waynes World movies with his pal, Mike. It wasn't until Mike had written and stared in Austin Powers in which he played multiple roles, Austin Powers, and Dr. Evil. Dr Evil was just a slap in the face to Dana, as that character was exactly his Lorne Michaels impression, down to the the pinky being held up to his mouth. COULD YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH BETTER AUSTIN POWERS WOULD HAVE BEEN IF MIKE JUST ASKED DANA TO PLAY DR. EVIL? Dana had this to say about the situation,
"When I started there no one did Lorne... we never really talked about it, I talked about it to the therapist," he said. "There are a lot of moments in my life I wish I was more directly straightforward... I've basically let it go." He continued to say " At the end of the day the construct of Austin Powers is brilliant... I think... you go through life and you get beat up by all kinds of things... I was very lucky to intersect with Mike Myers."
Dana Carvey on The Howard Stern Show, 2019.
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1. Jon Lovitz blames Andy Dick for Phil Hartman's death.
Phil Hartman & his wife Brynn at an HBO event in 1998.
We all know the terrible way that Phil Hartman, one of the greatest comedians of all time, passed away. He was shot in his sleep by his wife Brynn, after the murder Brynn committed suicide. It seems, according to Jon Lovitz, Brynn had been sober for nearly ten years, but she had been seen at a Christmas party receiving drugs from Andy Dick. Apparently Phil was not doing well with her relapsing, he was so upset by the situation that he threatened to leave her. This resulted in her, while under the influence, to shoot Phil in his sleep.
Jon has been quite vocal about his feelings towards Andy, he blames him for Brynn's relapse, and maintains that if she hadn't received drugs from him that night Phill would still be here. According to rumors Jon had confronted Andy, with many witnesses around, discussing his feelings about the matter... which resulted in Jon smashing Andy's head on a bar and the two being pulled apart by security.