Saturday Night Live

spade briefly right? i remember he felt very out of place and he had his own 'showcase', felt as attached to the rest of the show as albert brooks or andy kaufman. only instead of brooks or kaufman you got spade.

Mark McKinney and Molly Shannon sneaked into the cast in the season previous to Ferrell's debut

o man forgot mckinney (i guess that means koechner was there too maybe?).

I remember that 1995 premiere and the first cheerleaders skit, thinking oh what in fresh hell is this crap.

Took me a long time to come around to Will Farrell.

Same here.

For a short while, it looked like the show revolved more around Cheri Oteri than anyone else.

yeah those early episodes of that era of snl where ferrell is either second banana or glorified extra are interesting. it's like the snl's where bill murray still hasn't found his footing.

i didnt learn to like ferrell until Old School, hated him on snl

you didn't like bill brasky?

Will Ferrell was really only WILL FERRELL in a handful of sketches during his first season. Most notably:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/wake-up-and-smile/1400225
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xczm9g_ride-the-snake_fun

Ferrell didn't take a long time at all to become hilarious imo, thanks to Harry Caray, Alex Trebek and Janet Reno.

I'd forgotten just how awesome that Wake Up and Smile sketch was.

I remember that 1995 premiere and the first cheerleaders skit, thinking oh what in fresh hell is this crap.

I remember that as well, I thought the same thing.

yeah "ride the snake" was killer

but hated ferrell for a long time, even after he came into his own it just felt like he was in every sketch doing the same thing in most of them -- a little of him goes a long way imo

true SNL fans looked past the overblown comedic stylings of will ferrell and instead appreciated the nuanced humor of jim breuer

lol

94-95 season was such a heartbreaker, how they could chris elliott, michael mckean, chris elliott and janeane garofalo and just get barely anything of value out of that cast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haAhdtDmsOw

ferrell is one of the best SNL cast members of all time

otm

not gonna lie, I loved Goat Boy

he did recurring characters like the cheerleaders but once he became the star attraction of the show he also seemed to push for a lot of weird sketches that probably wouldn't have made it without him. even a lot of his recurring stuff, like the lovers and bill braski, is pretty weird.

The Lovers is fucking brutal and wonderful every single time

also can we talk for a second about how Cheri Oteri is an unsung genius?

will always love ferrell for continuing to do harry caray even after caray died. also this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajv_8XG9TSQ

i don't know if i'd go that far but i do wonder why she totally disappeared after SNL. i guess that happens to pretty much every female castmember unfortunately.
xpost

other than fey and poehler

maybe maya rudolph and jane curtin. still, not a great track record for the women of SNL.

i just remembered that horatio sanz existed

Jim Carrey never found a problem he couldn't mug his way out of, up to and including "other people having lines to say"

i just remembered that horatio sanz existed

Ha, have you seen him lately?

http://tv.popcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/horatio-sanz-100-weight-loss.jpg

julia louis dreyfus most successful post snl career for a woman

I feel like the Fey-Poehler-Dratch-Rudolph-Shannon-Gasteyer-Wiig generation as a whole has been shockingly successful/in the public eye post-SNL compared to previous generations of female cast members (I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jane Curtin were the biggest successes prior, followed by Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garofalo, Laurie Metcalfe and Joan Cusack)

When was Laurie Metcalf on SNL?

and ana gasteyer is doing well on suburgatory. but yeah wiig definitely breaking new ground. radner saddest case of hollywood and tv having no idea what to do w/ someone after snl.

Laurie Metcalfe was on SNL in 1981

For one episode!

it was a career-changing moment

Michaela Watkins has been showing up here and there...the movie Wanderlust and the first episode of this season's Key and Peele (which I think is hilarious).

i loved cheri oteri's pilled-up retiree character

to this day I drive ppl around me crazy by shouting "SIMMA DOWN NAH!" at them

michaela watkins and casey wilson exits (too old, too fat) maybe most sexist snl moment, way more than janeane garofalo rolling her eyes at frat boys or andrew dice clay hosting

that late '90s cast was definitely the loudest in SNL history -- some of them had moments of brilliance but ferrell and oteri and shannon and breuer and kattan were basically constantly yelling annoyingly

they weren't really any younger or slimmer when they got hired, though
xp

Molly Shannon seems out of place on that list (xp the wiig generation list) - her last season was 2001, all of the others except Gasteyer started 2000 at latest.

Also her latest film is Scary Movie 5, so.

well based on how time works she was younger
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When you start imagining these female assistants to Lorne Michaels, laying around making popcorn and filling up his wine glass, it's surprising that the bad boy network still isn't in play.

Molly Shannon keeps popping up as a guest star on American TV shows that I watch

although tbh nothing made me happier than seeing Nora Dunn pop up on Apt 23

also can we talk for a second about how Cheri Oteri is an unsung genius?

I was surprised, rewatching that '95-'96 season when she & Ferrell, et al. first started, to realize how much I liked her compared to my memory of watching her.

I still lament Gail Matthius's post-SNL obscurity.