As a young man, one of the first purchases I made with the money from my first job was a small color TV, so that I could watch late-night television without bothering the rest of the family. It was a good choice, if only because it allowed me to enjoy the wonders of late-night TV, including Eddie Murphy’s first season of ‘Saturday Night Live’. Over the years, I’ve drifted in and out of watching the show regularly, but I can say that not a year has gone by without me catching at least a couple of episodes, allowing me to see the work of seriously talented people like Mike Myers, Tina Fey, Bill Hader and more. I even got a couple of chuckles out of Adam Sandler, whose post-SNL work has held precisely zero interest for me, which leads us to today’s live from New York query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) wants to make it clear that “None of them” is generally not an acceptable answer to the MS-QOTD, asking: Who is the most talented cast member or former cast member of Saturday Night Live?
7 Comments
I just checked out the list of cast members according to Wikipedia, and wow there’s a lot of talent there.
Since Jim Henson didn’t make the list, I’ll have to go with Robert Downey Jr. for all-around range of talent, but I think that Tina Fey is close behind for me.
I find it too difficult to choose by talent. So, I’ll select by favorite instead. For me it’s Bill Murray. I really liked his fake commercials, and of course the many movies he’s done after SNL ( Groundhog day & Ghostbusters to name a small fraction). And I thoroughly enjoyed his take as Johnny Storm in the 1975 Fantastic Four radio show.
It’s tough. I’d say Murray, Belushi, Aykroyd, Hartman, Murphy…
I’m going to have to second this list.
I’ll third it.
I’ve always liked Dan Aykroyd. I think he might be one of a very small number of SNL alumni that I can watch almost anything he does. I love Ghostbusters, Blues Brothers (including the skits, musical appearances across various TV and radio shows as well as albums and live performances, the first movie and various other appearances), the “Dragnet” movie, Spies Like Us and so on and so forth. Gods help me, I can even watch “Coneheads” and not immediately want to turn it off.
Yep. Even “Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal” that was hosted by him was engaging enough for me.