Laraine Newman
This week on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast we're hosting two guests, Gary Seith and Brad Robinson to discuss the career of an original Not Ready for Prime Time Player, Laraine Newman. Please subscribe, share, rate, and review the show where ever you get your podcasts!
Transcript:
[0:42] Thank you so much, Doug Donance. It is great to be back here on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast with y'all.
Hope you're doing well. I'm doing spectacular, but I'd be that much better if you would just wipe your feet before you come on inside. Come on.
You've listened to this enough times to know what I'm talking about. out the SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take a deep dive into the career of aformer 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 mostdeserving and help determine who will be enshrined for perpetuity in the hall That's how we play the game.
It's just that simple.
So there's that. I hope that you're ready for a great episode today.
We've got two special guests.
We've got Gary Seeth and Brad Robinson from the Not Ready for Primetime podcast joining Thomas down in the bunker.
And they're going to talk about Lorraine Newman, one of the original Not Ready for Primetime time players, and they're going to make a case for why she should be in the SNL Hall ofFame.
But ultimately, it's up to you to cast the votes.
Let's walk on down the hall and talk to our friend Matt Ardill in his minutiae corner. Let's do this. Matt!
Track 3:
[2:12] JD! We're here in your corner, and you know what that means.
Time for trivia. That's right. What have you got for us on Lorraine Newman?
Well, she's five foot five, born March 2nd, 1952.
She was born in L.A. with a twin brother, Paul, attended Beverly Hills High School and the California Institute of the Arts. Uh, she is the self-proclaimed daughter and granddaughter ofJewish cowboys.
Uh, the, the family comes from, uh, cattleman stock and her grandfather was the sheriff.
Her father and grandfather both ran a cattle drive through Calabasas, which is very posh now, but back in the 1930s, um, it was a farming town.
Wow. She began Improvit 15.
[3:03] Edition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, and the Bristol Old Vic, but she didn't make it past the second edition on any ofthose.
So instead, she moved to Paris to study mime with Marcel Marceau. Wow.
Yeah, yeah. She became a member of the Richmond Shepherd Mime Troupe, and at 19, then returned to LA uh as one of the founding members of the groundlings uh with her sister tracynewman who's a film uh writer and producer you know she has a very storied past before getting into comedy she worked as a rock band booking agent uh handling contracts and gigs andthe song never let her slip away by andrew gold is actually written about her because they were were dating and i'm guessing he regrets uh having blown that opportunity i bet you're rightyeah yeah i had a crush on her big time oh yeah definitely yeah now she landed her first role on the tv series manhattan transfer and followed that up by filming tunnel vision which wasfilmed before the first episode of snl but was released after that and it was alongside many of her her future castmates.
She was actually hired by Lorne Michaels for a Lily Tomlin special in 1974.
[4:29] She's gone on to acquire 244 acting credits.
And she also wrote a memoir, May You Live in Interesting Times, a memoir, which is on Audible.
[4:41] She later moved into voice acting and is in a bunch of cartoons, Danny Phantom, Avatar Avatar, The Last Airbender and Metalocalypse, amongst many.
She's a contributing writer to One for the Table, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Believer and McSweeney's.
Has been nominated for Primetime Emmys, Annie Award, Behind the Voice Actors Award and received a Television Academy Hall of Fame Award along with the original SNL cast.
That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And not only that, she has created a legacy.
Her daughter, Hannah Einbinder, went on to become one of the leads of the show Hacks and is frickin hilarious and a great stand up in her own right.
She was did not know that. Yeah, she was in Toronto at Comedy Bar about I think about six or seven months ago. Super frickin hilarious comedian.
So funny runs in the family. But yeah, so I'm really looking forward to what Gary and Brad are going to share with us about Lorraine.
Yeah, me too. They've got a fun person to talk about. It's going to be really interesting. Should we go to them now?
Yeah, let's go for it. All right, let's do it.
Track 2:
[5:56] Take it away, Thomas.
Track 4:
[6:25] Alright, JD and Matt, thank you so much. Yes, we are here.
Welcome to the SNL Hall of Fame. Another great episode for you all.
And to join me to chat about one of the original cast members, somebody who we all hold in such high regard, Lorraine Newman.
Joining me to talk about Lorraine Newman is a duo, a duo that I've had on before from an amazing podcast, a wonderful podcast. I'm a subscriber, listen every week, and before I evenknew them.
You're so self-deprecating, Brad.
[7:03] That's part of your charm. I was a listener before I even met you guys.
So you guys do a great job. They're not ready for primetime podcast.
I'm welcoming Gary Seeth and Brad Robinson.
[7:17] How you two doing? Good. Thank you for having us, Thomas.
Good to be back. back always a fun time happy back yeah you were here uh last season talking about uh michael o'donoghue like the the last gasp as it were possibly that went well well ithink there's the episode it was see brad it's about the uh the journey not the destination around here wait is that really because i thought their whole podcast was about the destination is itnot to get into the hall of fame i believe the finite goal is the destination with the hall hall of fame yeah well yeah maybe we're wrong that's why if you want to be technical we have astated purpose here on i guess in the title of the podcast snl hall of fame but you know i'm i'm like kind of a touchy-feely kind of guy i'm you know i have my zen attitude so it is about thedestination so i didn't really enjoy that michael o'donohue episode it was fun it was very fun it was a lot of fun even if we couldn't pull the votes yet yeah for michael o'donohue oh it's It'squite all right.
So today you're joining me for Lorraine Newman, which I'm excited to get into.
Before we do that, Brad, tell us what's been happening on the Not Ready for Primetime podcast.
Gary, if Brad doesn't do a sufficient job, you can chime in too.
Okay. Oh, thanks, Thomas.
[8:39] Not Ready for Primetime podcast. We do a deep dive through the original era of SNL, the first five seasons.
We are currently wrapping up season two, just about done.
I feel like we're very close to your second appearance this season for our, um.
[8:56] Eric Idle episode right around this time. It's got to be coming out.
But yeah, we're finishing up season two, and then we're going to try to take a little bit of a break, and season three will be starting up in May.
And we are going to do some fun specials in between seasons two and three as well, which will be a lot of fun. And Thomas will be there.
Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be there. I'm looking forward to that.
I've been really honored to be able to take part in the podcast.
I'm apparently now the British correspondent.
That's right. As it were.
I've been on for, who was that, Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, and two Eric Idle episodes.
Yes. So it's been a lot of fun being the British correspondent, being the correspondent for funky white musicians as well.
Okay, okay, easy. Introducing us to the Boz Buds, even though I believe Brad and I, neither one of us are They're actual Boz's buds, but.
But you're closer than you were before that episode.
[9:58] Sure. More of an appreciation. You just don't want to hurt my feelings.
That's exactly right. But we love, Thomas, we have loved having you on.
It's so much fun every time we have you on. The last time we had you on, my wife, I laughed so hard.
She's like, what were you doing? She's never seen me laugh so hard.
So we have a blast when you come on. Thank you so much for supporting the show and coming on like you do. We love it.
You guys are awesome. and you guys let me like I get to let my hair down a little bit on your podcast I get to be just the guest is the wisecracking guest and I think I put the burden onGary to kind of edit the stuff that the dumb stuff out that I say.
[10:32] Oh, it's not you that I'm editing out, Thomas. It's the other one. Here we go.
Okay, here we go, guys. So check it out, the Not Ready for Primetime podcast. Please, yes, thank you.
Yeah, yeah, it's a great podcast. So you guys are immersed in the first, right now, the first two seasons of SNL.
So perfect guys to come in and talk about Lorraine Newman.
So just a little background, Lorraine Newman, a groundling out in L.A.
[11:01] She knew Lorne prior to SNL from working on a Lily Tomlin special in 1974.
That was kind of her, one of her ends with Lorne.
And she impressed him so much, she became an original cast member.
So guys, I wanted to start off, a lot of the original cast knew each other prior to SNL.
But Lorraine, again, came from the Groundlings in LA.
So do you think her not having as much of a rapport with the other cast prior to SNL, do you think that made for somewhat of an uphill climb for her, possibly when the show started?
What do you think of those dynamics of the cast when the show started?
I think at the very beginning of the show, everyone was trying to feel each other out and who worked together well and who worked with what writer well, and everyone's trying to findtheir place.
And I think Lorraine, in the early seasons, showed the breadth of what she could do.
And she was also a lot younger. I think we talk a lot about how Dan Aykroyd was so young.
She was only 23 when the show started. started so there's also that kind of like finding her place on this big national stage all of a sudden and being a lot younger than some of the othercast too right brad.
[12:20] Yeah, I think it's more the age thing. She's being younger.
And also, you know, she was a California girl, so she's so far away from home at a young age, thrust into this environment with the personalities you have.
Your Chevy Chases, your John Belushis, your Dan Aykroyd, your Gilda Radner.
So I think fighting amongst that and being so young, I think all those things is what is what led to her having to maybe what seems to be fighting a little bit more than some of the others.
Yeah, I think she was she was a great cast member in that sense, because like SNL, especially the early years, I always look at it as a sports team. And with a good sports team, you wantto have a good season or whatever.
Everybody needs to kind of slide into roles and see what holes need to be filled and everything.
And they can't all be like Chevy Chase was the breakout star of season one.
Not everybody's going to be Chevy.
You have to have role players and utility players.
And that sounds like a dig, but coming from comedy nerds, being called the utility player is actually a really big compliment to me. So if I think of Lorraine in that sense, that's a hugecompliment.
Did you see her kind of fill in a lot of those utility roles from what you've seen, especially in the first couple seasons?
[13:47] Oh, 100%. I think that's what we're going to talk about a lot tonight is, you know, and she purposely did not have a lot of recurring characters because she didn't want to do them.
And so, you know, I think on a surface level, you look at Lorraine Newman and you're not going to see the characters Belushi had.
You're not going to see the screen time Chevy had. But when you actually look at it, what you're going to see is that utility player, that person who was vital to making sketches work,making the show work.
I almost, I was looking through kind of all the scenes that she was involved in. She's in tons of famous scenes and stuff, you remember.
She's kind of like the cherry on top on a lot of those scenes.
Like, she just adds that little extra something that really ties it all together and brings it together.
And I think she set the standard for what that was, both men and women moving forward on how you contribute and are a vital part of the show, but you're not the star, if that makes anysense.
But you can't diminish how important that role is, like you were just alluding to. Yeah, she she adds a lot to a lot of sketches.
And even when she's not the focus, she brings things that you and maybe at first.
[14:56] Viewing you don't realize it either and you you see it again later and it's like oh look she was brilliant in that and she was i think so underrated with her singing like a lot of thesinging that she did in the first few seasons totally goes unnoticed but she's great and she just she brought it and she could sing in different voices and different characters and withdifferent accents there's an episode in season one where the musical acts singing and her and gilda come come out and are doing hula hoops.
And I remember when we covered that episode, we're like, is there nothing she can't do?
Like, there's nothing Lorraine Newman, you ask of her, she cannot do.
Sing, dance, hula hoop, impressions, characters, she can do everything.
And if you remember, I think it was with Candice Bergen was the host, and they all came out and hula hooped.
And Lorraine did not drop that hula hoop for the whole four minutes or whatever. It was amazing.
And it was just like, it's those small little things that you don't really really notice unless you look for it. And she was excellent.
Yeah. Well, I don't know if I'm stepping on an example, but like you, Brad, you talked about her putting like that cherry on top of a sketch, the Basso Matic.
Yes. Wouldn't have been the Basso Matic sketch. Yeah.
Without Lorraine Newman, it would have just been Dan rambling, which I, I mean, I'm a huge Dan fan.
I don't mind if he's rambling on and on, but Lorraine coming in there with her classic line.
[16:20] Wow that's terrific bass we've got fish here that just completely adds to it it was it was lorraine's delivery her charm that's why they brought her in the 40th lorraine was back doingthat exact same line in that sketch she's 40 she takes that sketch from an a to an a plus yeah like she literally like it it's an a it is an a sketch and she makes it an a plus.
[16:45] Yeah yeah yeah absolutely and then to your point gary about her singing that's something i noticed too with a lot of the sketches i watched like an episode that you all covered inseason two she did a barbara streisand oh yes right amazing yes yeah it wasn't just like it was a funny song if you really listen to the lyrics it was a funny song it was almost like playingoff of streisand thinking very highly of herself but it worked in a lot of ways because lorraine could sing what big.
[17:51] When I first watched that sketch, I had to rewind it because I was so caught up in her actual voice and how well she was singing that I had to stop and go back and listen to thelyrics to listen to how funny it was because it is a very funny song, but she sang it so beautifully as Barbra Streisand. It was excellent.
And to a point on how good that sketch is and how good she is, that was your first sketch after the monologue and there was no intro.
There's no Don Pardo saying here's barbara it's literally they come in from commercial and it's her and she just starts singing and she does a three to four minute tune on her own and she isamazing yeah also it's the same episode she did a howard hughes impression so just like as versatile and how good she is yes she did a barbara streisand flawless impression and then doeshoward hughes later in the same episode like old kind of wacko howard hughes old wacko beard like in a hospital hotel Hotel bed, yes, yeah, that's the same episode. Yeah, yeah.
So you all, again, you two have covered the entirety of seasons one and two.
Is there something that sticks out as far as Lorraine that people should go back and you could point out to them, look, it might be subtle or it may not, but this is what you should noticewhen you're re-watching those SNL sketches in terms of noticing Lorraine.
[19:16] I think I'm going to go first, Brent. I think that if you go back and rewatch the Godfather therapy session with Elliot Gould hosting, she plays Sherry.
Like Brad said, she doesn't have many recurring characters, but that's one.
She plays... First time. The first time we saw Sherry. Yes, this is the first time we saw Sherry. Right.
And if you go back and watch that scene, she owns the whole first half of that sketch where she just... She's the one carrying the story forward as Sherry talking to Belushi as theGodfather. and it's excellent.
Ah, now we're getting someplace. What do you think about that?
Drugs? I'm against them.
We have to go in there. Vito, I'm not kidding. You're still blocking your real feelings. What about the rest of it?
[20:08] Vito?
Well, the restaurant London Supply was never a big money maker in the first place. Oh, you're hurting, Vito, and you're covering up.
That performance in that sketch is one that when we watched it again, I think we really, we both appreciated her performance so much more than I think we had in the past.
Is that fair to say, Brad? Yeah, I agree.
You know, most people remember that sketch for John Belushi's Godfather and what a showstopper it was.
And I was that way too. And then we watched it again.
And Lorraine Newman has to stop at one point because the audience goes so nuts for her and her character that she had to stop and let it quiet down to keep going.
So that's one. And the other one I would say, and again, and it's not a knock.
It is hard to find a lot of like Lorraine Newman standouts, but it's not her role.
And I don't mean as a knock. It's not her role. The other one I would say is another season one, The Exorcist 2, when Richard Pryor hosted.
And she plays the Linda Blair character tied up in the bed with the girl voice.
And it's just it's an amazing sketch. And she is so good in it.
And that's another one that just it's early on and highlights her as just an amazing performer.
[21:28] Oh, Father Chorus, I'm ever so hungry. Couldn't you give me some pea soup? It's right over there.
The bag! There's more! More! More!
Jeepers, I'm sorry.
Oh, thank you, little girl. Thank you. You're such a nice little girl.
I know that all the time. Oh, thank you.
Here's your pea soup. Maybe now we can be friends, huh? That's right. What do you say?
Thank you. Second!
[22:01] Yeah i think if somebody like gilda had played that i love gilda we all love gilda but lorraine provided almost the perfect level of creepy like the the level of acting i think gildawouldn't have been as it would have taken me out of the scene a little bit more if it was somebody like gilda but lorraine really had me immersed in it and because she i think she sheimmersed herself in that?
That's a standout, Brad.
Yeah. Yeah, as an individual. But again, as we said, I think her role is more elevating the sketch from an A to an A+, putting that cherry on top.
Another example, Coneheads.
Coneheads is a fantastic reoccurring sketch. We've seen it so many times. It's so iconic.
If Connie Conehead is not in those sketches, the Coneheads are nowhere we're near as good as they are because she has that youthful element to it as the daughter.
And she brings so much to those scenes, especially when they do like the family feuds.
[23:03] Okay. 12 people said sandwich. All right, Connie, something that people like to bite.
[23:10] The big one. That was the big one, all right.
Does our audience bite the big one? Well, we all want to know that one.
But every single time, she just brings so much to that, that you can't under credit what she brings to the Coneheads in general.
And she plays that role really well in a bunch of different scenes, as the teenage daughter or the younger person in the sketch.
Sketch, there's a scene, a sketch in season two, where Dan and Gilda play a couple that own a restaurant.
And they go in the back and fight and she has to come out and play the recorder for the customers.
And she doesn't say anything for the first maybe three or four minutes of the sketch.
And then when she does, she's pleading for help for these people because her parents are crazy.
And the way that she does it, she just like embodies this young teenager that you feel feel really sorry for her in a funny way.
Like, she still pulls it off comedically, but she also brings this, like, sense of emotion across in a lot of what she does that I think is underrated.
And it really drives some of these scenes forward.
She was a really good actor.
[24:21] She made almost everything she did on the show believable.
Like, everything that we're talking about, like, I believed it and I was immersed in it because as Lorraine was.
And it's interesting that we talked about a couple of her recurring, Connie Coenhead and Sherry. What I really enjoyed about Sherry.
[24:42] Was that she, being Sherry, was put in different situations.
It was almost like they weren't calling attention to the fact that it was a recurring character.
Because Sherry was in all these different situations. She didn't have this theme song.
Don Pardo wasn't doing a voiceover and saying, now Sherry.
[25:01] Sherry was in the plain opposite in Godfather therapy.
Sherry was in a sketch called Trans-Eastern Airlines that we had covered.
She was in one of one one that i love that was a great roast of all the writers from the early day i was not a sucker for saturday night towards this is the chris christopherson episode at theend of season one that one i forget what your review of that sketch was but it had to be hot positive i really enjoyed that one because it was early in the episode and we hadn't drank thatmuch oh was that the episode that was the episode okay okay um but no it was it was very good it is she's yeah she's she was fantastic in that character and and like you said that they theyincorporate it in so many different ways she does a sketch with uh jack burns in season two where like you don't even realize it's sherry for like the first 30 seconds because it's so underthe radar and they they don't like you said they don't oversell it and that's the beauty of the character of the character the sherry character but a lot of the characters that lorraine plays she'splaying a funny character, but she is not the joke of the sketch.
She is there to drive the sketch for everyone else to kind of land their big role.
[26:14] John with the Godfather therapy session, but to do it in a funny way.
And I think that's a big reason why she flies under the radar for people.
Would you say, and her being a groundling, the more we're talking about, I keep thinking of Phil Hartman, you know, the grounding character.
And yes, maybe Phil was a bigger name or known bigger in Saturday Night Live, but I feel like she set the foundation for somebody like a Phil Bill Hartman to come in and do what hedid.
Cause he's basically doing what the rain did. He was that grounding force.
He was the person adding to everything and making sure everybody around him could do what they wanted to do.
And it's funny cause you know, they both came from groundlings and they have the same upbringing.
I feel like, you know, you can kind of see that lineage there between the two of them. Yeah. What do you think about that, Gary? That's, I think that's a pretty good point.
Yeah, no, that's a very good point. I think I'm glad you, Thomas, you gave that note to Brad to say that was very kind of you.
[27:10] No, I think it's an interesting through line for the Groundlings, too, because I think after Phil, like the Groundlings that come in are a little different and a little more, they're biggerpersonalities probably than you would say Phil or Lorraine were.
But they do establish that type of cast member that can help be that grounding force for everyone. That's a good point, Brad.
And Thomas mentioned she's in the Groundling. Let's not overlook, she's a founding member of the Groundlings.
Like she if not for her they may not be a groundling so let's give some credit to her there too and again when she was a founding member she was 21 I think like yeah she was a kid whenshe was doing all of this.
[27:53] Yeah, I did the Jane Curtin episode with Andrew Dick, and we kind of compared Jane to maybe a bass player.
[28:05] A lot of times the music or the song won't work without them, but they're not front and center, and you don't immediately notice them, but it would just be weird without them, andthey kind of keep the thing moving and going.
With Lorraine, she's almost that way, but i think there's a little maybe just sometimes a little bit more flair so she's like uh if she comes in and plays like a tambourine or just plays a greatlike instrument that you're not expecting, but but she just kind of like adds that perfect thing like it's what the song needed yes yes yeah she's like the rhythm guitarist who can like throwin a solo every now and then what do you mean i feel like i feel that understates how good how important she is like i know what you're saying but i don't know theremin what about atheremin brad you're gonna have to explain to brad what a theremin is first thomas pretty much anyway not the podcast for that guys.
[29:04] No but i think it just kind of speaks to that she and jane uh in the early days had very unique unique roles compared to a lot of the other people on the cast and she played it so welland there's something like to me a little uh when she needed it lorraine could be a little sinister in some in a lot of the characters that she played or she can play in like the the the weirdrealm like in the third her third or third episode she she was squeaky from and a lot of people even still remember her as squeaky from right yeah and she but she just had those like highshe could could like pull the dead eyes out when she needed to like that's something that really stood out to me is she can just like change her persona like that in an instant and bebelievable our guest this week is squeaky infamous for her alleged attempt on the president's life and for her connection with the manson family squeaky welcome, Die, lackey pig. Onething I'm sure our viewers would be interested in knowing is just how you came to be called Squeaky. Is that a nickname Charlie gave you?
He isn't Charlie. He's the Holy Redeemer.
Bourgeois hog face. Meet your maker, Squeaky.
[30:18] Well, to piggyback our last episode, which didn't work so well.
[30:22] She was a great voice for Michael O'Donoghue.
There were tons of instances where Michael O'Donoghue would write you know, single person sketches.
[30:31] And more often than not, it'd be Lorraine Newman, because she was that good.
You know, you know, Jane couldn't do it. Gilda, who is immensely talented, couldn't kind of have that dark side take that turn.
And it says a lot to Lorraine Newman that you have to like Michael O'Donohue, you have to know who the hell he is, and what he's writing.
But to that point, it shows her versatility, that while she can play a little schoolgirl along with gilda in a slumber party sketch she can also play a really uh like dark and scary uh corpse likecharacter coming up from a coffin for an infomercial written by michael o'donohue like she can just do so much do you think that was a deliberate thing by michael o'donohue think hekind of looked at lorraine and said you're great for my voice like for what i I want to convey with my sketches.
Yeah. I mean, he had two. He had John on the male side, and he had Lorraine on the female side.
And you really saw it with Lorraine early in the first season, really, with this flight attendant sketch where he calls, it's Michael O'Donoghue calls an airline, and you just hear his voice,and he's threatening her and harassing her with some really horrible Michael O'Donoghue type stuff.
And Lorraine is excellent because she just stands there with a smile on her face and it's just like, okay, thanks for choosing the whatever airline.
[31:55] And it's just the way that she can, again, not be the driving comedic force behind a sketch, but add an element to it that's just like, oh, this works because of her.
And Michael O'Donohue then leaned into that really for the rest of their time working together.
[32:14] Man, if you're an SNL cast member, if you have a bond like that with a writer, it can go a long way.
So I'm glad O'Donoghue saw something in her that was obviously very apparent.
There's a couple of comparisons that I was thinking of when I was kind of going back and watching sketches and thinking about Lorraine's career.
And relatively, I wanted to make them recent because... Because people will know who we're talking about? Right.
Good call. Just to kind of make like recent parallels, kind of put Lorraine in context a little bit.
I'm sure most of our listeners weren't around I wasn't around back then but uh just kind of put it in context for some people so one guy one person who I thought of um was BobbyMoynihan I think Lorraine in a lot of ways was like a Bobby Moynihan Bobby was sometimes maybe more.
[32:57] Front and center but he excelled in filling in a lot of the gaps and made the most of side characters like when Bobby would come on as a side character even if it was just like a panto Bobby to say this three second line to move the sketch forward I think he really excelled at doing something that specific and there's a reason like Bobby actually cites LorraineNewman as a comedic inspiration and one of his.
[33:22] Favorite SNL cast members and I could kind of see that like what do you think of her in terms of like a Bobby Moynihan type for but for the original cast I think it's a hardcomparison only because when you think of Bobby Moynihan you're gonna think of of like some standout characters that you see all the time and it's because of what the show was whenhe was on yeah where when she was on you weren't trying to like make a name for yourself to do whatever um this is my grumpy old man speech but no i i hear what you're saying yeslike bobby moynihan is a good example like somebody who you it's utility like we said phil hartman you know bobby like put him in when you need somebody who you know can deliverdeliver what about i i agree with what brad just said i think bobby moynihan's a little flashier than lorraine was so when they panned him to deliver that line he's a little not as subtle aslorraine i think yeah i was thinking someone like chris parnell who could help carry a sketch but wasn't necessarily like front and center he was there to work with will farrell to drive asketch something like that yeah rachel yeah i could rachel direct that as as well that's a maybe a rachel dratch although rachel had did have like debbie downer oh yeah that's like that but ithink like the overall i mean these aren't gonna be like one-to-one.
[34:40] Comparisons but i could see the rachel dratch thing as well one current cast member who i think in a different snl time i think lorraine could have been kind of like a heidi gardnertype in a different s oh that's a good call yeah if they had put more emphasis when lorraine was on the the show on weekend update because heidi really excels in my opinion on weekendupdate, And if they had put this kind of emphasis that they have probably for the last, gosh, 30 years now on Weekend Update, if they would have put this kind of emphasis when Lorrainewas on the show, I think she could have really carved out a space on Weekend Update.
But that's not what it was for. It was for Emily Latilla, sometimes John, but there was less emphasis on update pieces.
But I could have seen Lorraine really excel at that.
Well, and Lorraine herself has admitted she didn't want to do that.
She didn't want to do recurring characters. She didn't want to lean into that as much as the show may have wanted to.
So some of it, as far as like her legacy or people remembering her, might have been a little bit self-inflicted because she was holding to her guns and not wanting to do those kind of things.
Where like Gilda wanted to throw Emily Latilla out as much as she could.
John couldn't get on camera enough.
[35:56] And Lorraine's like, no, no, no, it's not what I want to do. too she was subtle i mean one of lorraine's recurring characters was lorraine newman the reporter right who we would youknow oh yeah and chevy would throw to and and even that character was not an over-the-top character she was just you know she would throw on this reporter voice and do these live hitsand you know it didn't always work but it was like a subtle character, And she really was the first update correspondent like that you'd go to time and time again.
It was it was a cutaway, but they were figuring it out. Remember, again, there was no blueprint.
So they're figuring it out. And she was the first correspondent for Weekend Update.
[36:44] Yeah, that's true. She played it like a news lady, like a reporter.
She had that affectation, exaggerated affectation.
But yeah, I think there was a kernel there.
I'm imagining Lorraine in a different time that would have been so fun to see.
Before I switch gears a little bit, because I am going to switch gears just a little, do you guys have anything else, any point about Lorraine or anything on your mind in regards to Lorraine?
I think if Lorraine was not in the first five seasons and next to Gilda for her entire SNL career, she would be held in a much higher regard than I think she is because she's just in theshadow of Gilda Radner.
And I think she is, going back and re-watching all of these old episodes, you really see how wonderfully talented not only Jane Curtin is, because Jane is great, but so is Lorraine.
And in a different time period, she would have excelled and could have been a star on her own. Yeah, I mean, I agree.
And I mean, there's a list, again, of sketches and iconic bits that you remember from the show that she's involved in. We mentioned Basimatic.
[38:08] We mentioned Coneheads. E.
Buzz Miller art classics. Classic Dan Aykroyd sketch. Who's his sidekick?
[38:15] Lorraine Newman as Christy Christina Olympia Diner everybody knows it cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger ensemble piece she plays Sandy the Waitress in all of those.
[38:25] Theodoric Barbara of York one of the best sketches of all time from season 3 she's in it as Jane's daughter Uncle Roy, Whatever you feel of it, it's an iconic sketch from back in theday.
It's her and Gilda. She's involved in it.
Season four, the St. Mickey Knights of Columbus sketches. She plays Sister Serena. Like, she's in that.
One of my favorite all-time commercial parodies, Puppy Uppers, is her and Gilda.
So she's always prevalent in things. And she did impressions, too. We mentioned Barbra Streisand, Howard Hughes. She did Shirley Temple.
Amazing. Oh, that was excellent. She did Amy Carter. Carter, you know, and even just, you know, when Dan and John left after season four, she tried to pick up the mantle.
She tried to continue Tom Schiller's bad series playing Lady Pinfgarnell, trying to, you know, take over the mantle when Dan left of Leonard Pinfgarnell.
So, like, it's just like, there's just so many things to the point where she brought— She was possibly the first person that Landshark got.
She was in Landshark. Yeah, she was in Landshark. Exactly. The first person that the Landshark got. Yeah, she was a great victim in there.
She played it so perfectly oblivious and gullible. Plumber, ma'am.
[39:38] I don't need a plumber. You're that clever shark, aren't you?
Candy Graham.
Candy Graham, my foot. You get out of here before I call the police.
You're the shark and you know it. I'm only a dolphin, ma'am.
A dolphin well okay, and she's been featured in every anniversary show they've done she came out for the 15th she was in the opening of the 25th with bill murray and uh dan akroyd andthen she did sherry she brought sherry back for the 40th so like she's obviously woven so tightly into this show And it's so important that every time they do anything where they lookback or talk about it, she has to be included.
Yeah, she's beloved. She loves the show. She was Sherry in the Californians.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Of course. Yeah.
It lent itself to that. But it seems obvious that the show loves her.
Lauren still has so much respect for her.
She loves going back. She really, she talks. I love, she has a really nice presence on social media, on Twitter. She's so complimentary of the current cast and current SNL.
And she's a really good follow. And she just has such a good spirit.
And she's so positive about even the current comedy landscape and the current SNL folks. It's really neat to see.
[41:06] I should say, full disclosure, she did recently autograph a picture for us saying, friend of the pod, Lorraine Newman, wearing a Blues Brothers, a picture of her wearing a BluesBrothers t-shirt.
So, which does not affect my arguing for her at all, but we do have it.
She's so cool. She's awesome. She is. She's great.
What a cool lady. So, you two, of course, I'm going to take advantage of your presence here.
And uh you two have become experts by immersion as far as like the original seasons go and we've seen certain cast members get into the hall of fame from those seasons akroyd murraygilda radner jane curtain they're in but it seems like some of the people responsible for the show's early success who have less star power and camera time still tend to go unrecognized sodo you think I think it's past time for some of those folks, especially people on the writing side, to get their just due.
Not just Michael O'Donohue.
There's a whole stable of them.
So what do you think, as the people who are carrying the torch, the SNL podcasting torch for the older seasons, what do you think about that?
[42:17] Yes, 100%. Yeah. And I think I kind of mentioned this when I was on the roundtable last season. And I think the Hall of Fame is getting to that very interesting and fun place where,you know, you have all of your sure shots are in.
And now you really need to look at who is important, you know, and who is really like a foundation member of like really creating what this show is and why it has lasted so long.
And that's people like, yeah, you're Lorraine Newman's, you're Michael O'Donohue's, you're Franken and Davis, Rosie Schuster, you know, Buck Henry as a host.
You can't, I mean, John Snyder, I know has argued him many, many times was like, John, Buck, like how there is not a statue for Buck Henry somewhere in Saturday Night Live landabout this is what a host is. I mean, come on.
Yeah. Gary, what do you make of Buck Henry not already being in the SNOW Hall of Fame? I want to say it's a tragedy because, to Brad's point, he really defined the role of host.
And you can see in those first two seasons how reliant the cast was when they knew that Buck Henry was hosting.
And it was kind of like, oh, he's going to help us, both the writers and the cast, right? Because he had great writing talents.
And he would bring things to the show and elevate the show for when he was hosting.
So I it's yeah go back and watch his episodes because they are he is he really sets the table for what this the host should do.
[43:46] And watch the good nights and watch just how how much the cast seems to adore him yeah as well they always love like it was Buck Henry week and I'm sure the cast yeah, wasreally excited when it was Buck Henry week because they could be creative they didn't they maybe felt like they didn't have to carry the entire thing they had a host who was more thancapable so yeah so he's won a lot of writers like we've mentioned O'Donohue quite a few times I'm halfway surprised about Franken and Davis I'm shocked about Franken and Davisreally because they had a presence not just in the first few seasons but then they came back later so they They were around in the late 80s, early 90s, and then Franken was even on theshow for quite a while.
So them not getting in is surprising because the writers, and especially like seasons, I guess the end of season two and then season three, really, they carry more weight in the show. Right,Brad?
They really come in. Yeah, season three, they start to come up as O'Donoghue starts to go down.
So three, four, five is really that Franken-Davis era.
I mean, Al Franken almost took over the show when Lorne left.
If it wasn't for limo for lame-o.
Yeah, he sabotaged himself. He sabotaged himself.
He would have been, he would have taken over. Who knows what would have happened. Yeah.
Yeah, those two surprised me, especially given, yeah, Al Franken has the name recognition of the two.
I'm going to tell you, the writer that surprises me the most as a fan, I can't believe Jack Handy's not in.
[45:10] Like, it's not even the era we quote unquote cover. but I and I think it's just because people don't know the stuff Jack Candy actually wrote unless you're like us and you really divedeep as a casual fan you don't realize the the sketches he wrote and the impact he had but how Jack Handy is not in blows my mind yeah probably my favorite writer of all time JackHandy I mean he he has a whole segment with his name on it right so he has some recognition even though I've told people when I was younger I thought that was a fake name name.
It does sound vaguely dirty, honestly.
[45:43] So when I was a kid, I was like, oh, that's just a fake. I didn't even register that that was a real person.
I thought that was, I actually thought that was Al Franken writing those under like a pen name or something. Yeah.
I think I did too when I was a kid back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny.
He was responsible for some iconic sketches in that period with like, you know, late eighties through much of the nineties. And then, yeah.
I mean, Herb Sargent, I believe the man has a WGA award named after him. Right. That he does.
Okay. I mean, the guys, I feel like you've got, you've got, you've got Lauren, you've got Jim Downey.
And then I think like Higgins is probably up there as far as people impact impact on the show and herb sergeant i mean herb sergeant has to be in there of what he's.
[46:31] Contributed to the show and the legacy he left of what he's done on that show yeah herb was like the adult in the room that they needed literally yeah he was very much the adult inthe room he had been in tv for decades decades before that yeah he was much older than everybody else but he he was that steady hand he he was the guy that they would go to for forknowing how to do TV things, for wisdom.
He and Chevy created Weekend Update, right? Herb and Chevy.
I mean, Weekend Update, gosh, of course, obviously it exists now.
You have somebody like Herb Sargent who was kind of a co-creator of such an iconic institution in Weekend Update.
[47:14] And to that institution, many people think Norm MacDonald is their, or not think, but believe, they like norm mcdonald is their favorite weekend update host who was doingweekend update with with uh norm mcdonald sir yeah yeah herb was there yeah he was there through like it's like you know what i mean he was there from chevy and he was therethrough norm mcdonald yep yeah absolutely he's yeah he's won we we've advocated for rosie schuster yeah dick ebersol dick ebersol to me is like and it's hard to because we havecategories here at the eskimo no hall of fame so it's like he doesn't he fits in the technically the producer category but i think i want to urge people to go back and listen to our dick ebersoleepisode was me and darryl dove and darryl made a really great case uh laying out ebersole's career and his impact on snl he co-created the show he and lauren yeah yeah and i think hegets the a bad rap for some of the the later some of the way things played out later with him and SNL.
But really like the creation of the show, he was huge.
He was fundamental in the beginning of the show.
[48:25] Well, I remember on the roundtable again last season, I was like, I have my last vote I'm throwing in.
And I was like, it's a bullshit thing, but I need the voice to be heard.
And I was like, Dick Ebersole, I have to bring up Dick Ebersole.
I have to talk about him. And then everybody else was like, no, no, no. Yes, we all agree.
Dick Ebersole needs to get in. I thought no one else but me wanted to push him to be in.
And everybody on that roundtable wanted him in.
Oh no i'm a huge advocate for dick ebersole for sure and he he swooped in because jean dumanian she gets a lot of crap um she took over for lauren she just probably wasn't the right fitnow that just wasn't her that wasn't her strong suit was to actually lead the show like that so dick ebersole uh did a great job of kind of picking up some of the pieces i think they did twoepisodes at the end of season six and he's like all right we're gonna regroup retool ebersole with Lorne's blessing, by the way.
He didn't just go, he talked to Lorne and got Lorne's blessing to go produce the show.
He and Lorne, contrary to popular belief, even my belief, he and Lorne were friends and probably still are friends and they go way back, obviously.
[49:30] But Dick Ebersole was so instrumental in not only creating SNL in the early days, but retooling SNL to give it the lifespan span that it has he's definitely someone that deserves tobe there and then you got people like candy bergen uh um a host from the early season uh who put in some classic episodes is she responsible not responsible but was she the host for idon't know if you have thought about the best episode you've covered so far but her her second episode maybe i think in season one one One of her Christmas episodes has to be up there.
It's season two. Season two. Season two. Okay. Because her Christmas episode for season one, not very good. Not good. Okay.
But her first episode for season one is the one that many people consider where SNL really got its foot.
It's where Chevy did, I think, right forward for the first time.
Or I'm Chevy Chase and you're not.
[50:26] And it really started coalescing, so a lot of people give that one credit.
But her Christmas episode for season two, I think, is probably, unless Buck pulls it off at the end, is our favorite episode of season two.
It is an amazingly great episode.
And she did some unique things, too, with the show.
She did interviews with some not comedic people, some real-life people who are doing important things, and she brought them onto the show to talk to them, to advocate for things likeequal rights for women and acknowledgement of the elderly.
I forget what that association is called. But she had the trust of Lorne to do these segments where she talked to real people to move things forward.
And I think that was huge. And it was very different than any other host at the time.
Go back and watch Candice Bergens. It's from season two, the Christmas episode.
Frank Zappa was the musical guest. Yeah. Just classic.
Great guest. sketch classic sketch after classic sketch to me it's still uh almost 50 years later one of the great episodes of all time yeah and that's the history yeah just i'm glad i have youguys on because i feel like there needs to be some advocating done um on behalf of of of some of the the older gay days so i'm really happy to have you guys on to to do some of thatwork.
[51:48] Thomas i know you're a huge sports fan and gary is as well so let me like make this analogy and you guys can speak to it better than I can, but so like cast members, right?
[51:58] How, and there are amazing cast members still nominated both this year as new members and on the ballot from before, Maya Rudolph, Kate McKinnon, Will Forte, Vanessa Bayer.
How do those people get in the Hall of Fame and Lorraine Newman is not?
Okay, you go to hosts, Justin Timberlake, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy, all great hosts.
How do they get in the hall of fame and say a buck henry and a candace bergen are not yeah you go to writers paula pell who's an adam mckay newer writers that people know and love iget it they are very great i love them as well but how do you put them in without a michael o'donohue without a herb sergeant without a franken and davis you know what i mean i youknow how do you equate that to To a sports analogy, we're like, you need these founding people in before the younger folk get in.
Yeah. No, you need, of course you needed like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays and all those people.
They set the foundation for, I mean, this year, like Adrian Beltre, Albert Pujols is going to get in at some point.
But those guys set the foundation for all the sluggers that we see now.
I mean, you're absolutely right. Right. I think, Gary, do you think it's just lack of name recognition or just like they've been lost throughout history?
[53:24] I think, you know, I think the writers, it's definitely lack of name recognition.
And I mean, we're talking about someone like Buck Henry who, you know, outside of SNL, how much do we know of Buck Henry?
I mean, we know now what he did. Right. He wrote The Graduate, all these things.
But again, it's that name recognition. I don't think people now think of Candice Bergen as a host, really, even though she was the first female five-timer. Yeah.
I mean, she's very important in the history of the show.
And Buck definitely is. But I think they just don't have that name recognition of today.
Day and with the writers you have someone like i love conan o'brien i think he's excellent he's an excellent writer but he has talked about how you know jack handy is his favorite writerever and he says that he was his favorite snl writer of all time and these people that again herb sergeant like seth.
[54:27] Set everything up so that someone like, you know, Jost and Michael Che have weekend update now because Herb Sargent set that up to be what it is.
Yeah, well said. I just urge all of our listeners and voters to go give consideration.
Go take a look at the resumes of O'Donoghue, Franken, and Davis, Rosie Schuster, Herb Sargent, Ebersole, Buck Henry, Lorraine Newman, all of the people that set the groundwork forthe show that we all love now.
I urge all you guys to go re-evaluate their candidacy and their resumes.
[55:04] Back in the late 90s when they opened up the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they had the big Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert.
Jon Bon Jovi played a tune and he was telling this story and he was like, my mother told me the story of like, you know, think about who your inspirations are, who you like and who youadmire, and then go back and look at who their inspirations are and who they admire.
And I think that's exactly what this is like. All these people that you love from this era and 10, 15 years prior, find out who they liked, who they were into, what got them into it, whattriggered their love for it and got them excited.
And then you're going to find these names we're talking about that started this show.
Yeah. Yeah. When I was a kid, I was a big Nirvana fan.
And because of that, I became a David Bowie fan because they did the man who sold the world unplug.
Yeah. Uh, I found out who lead belly was, uh, meat puppets, kind of people like that.
So it does like you find out the people who you love, who, who do they love?
And that's such like, that's such a great point.
Every once in a while, Thomas I have them when you let me when you let me have it you surprise me you surprise Brad.
[56:14] Oh man um so I think we did a good job of talking about legacies of of some of the the old guard of SNL I want to point it back to specifically Lorraine Newman though whatshould her SNL legacy be uh gary i'll start with you oh i i honestly i think her legacy is that more than anyone else in that original cast she was the one who would set the table and be thefoundation for sketches and let other people get the big laughs and help set them up like she she set the template for what that type of cast member needs to be that's what i think herlegacy is i agree i think I think she set the standard, created the mold for what the utility player is, for what that person is, to let everybody else shine.
And like I said before, and just add that extra something.
[57:13] Take a great sketch to an iconic sketch to make a good sketch a really good sketch you know to help pull stuff out i know again sports you guys are sports i don't know how youwould figure this out i'm sure john and mike over at saturday night network could figure out some kind of algorithm but like her batting average has to be huge she's not hitting home runsshe's not knocking out of the park but she is consistently giving you doubles and triples and knocking in runs when you need them. Like, that's what she does.
She's not striking out. She's not popping up. Like, she is just consistently delivering what you need.
And at a time when you had a brand new show that had no feet under itself, you needed that.
More than ever did you need something like that.
[57:58] Especially when the format wasn't set. So they were trying all different types of things. There were dramatic pieces, there were comedic pieces, they had jugglers on.
She, we totally... Do you remember the sketch where it was her and Gilda, and Gilda introduces Lorraine just doing random impressions?
Yes. And it's like a baby crying and a dog barking. It's just like random shit.
Because, yeah, they were just making it up as they went along.
Yeah. That was the episode where Gilda was like, I don't have a lot of airtime tonight, so I'm going to introduce Lorraine. And she has Lorraine do all of these impressions.
And it's a solid three or four minutes of just Lorraine doing amazing impressions of these awkward, weird things.
And it's excellent. So, yeah, I mean, she's very underrated in my opinion.
Track 2:
[59:00] So there's that really great job there, Gary and Brad.
And of course the ringmaster Thomas, uh, really pleased with that, uh, conversation.
If you were listening and you are on the edge, I think they may have swayed you to casting a vote for Lorraine Newman. We shall see.
We shall see. Jane Curtin was a first ballot Hall of Famer.
Gilda Radner was a first ballot Hall of Famer. It seems only right that Lorraine Newman will also be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
But if you need any more evidence, let's go now to 1975, season one, episode 24.
Kris Kristofferson was your host, and Lorraine is playing her reoccurring character, Sherry.
Let's go to that sketch right now.
Track 5:
[59:59] Thank you, Mr. Christopherson. Hello.
My name is Sherry Norwalk, and I got special permission from the FCC, that's the Federal Communications Club, to come on television and tell my story.
Okay, last October, I went up to the Saturday night offices because I think the show was really boss and I wanted tickets.
Well, they were out of tickets, but as I was leaving, Dave Wilson, the director, said I had a bitchin' bod and would I like to come up and spend the weekend with him up in Parsipany, NewJersey, because his wife was dead.
So I went up, and it was really great and everything, except his wife wasn't really dead. She'd just gone shopping.
God, creative people can be so forgetful. Anyways, I got this phone call from the show the next day, and they said that David recommended me for a job as a secretary for $14,400 a year.
And they didn't even mind that I couldn't type or file or do shorthand.
So they told me I was going to do light secretarial work and maybe help the writers out if I could sometimes.
And I did that. Like Alan Zweibel, he's this big Jewish writer.
Well, he was really weird, man. He made me feel really guilty about the way his people suffered in Egypt.
So he'd get undressed and have me sing Go Down Moses.
[1:01:26] It got stranger, man. I'm not kidding. Like, did you know some comedy writers don't like to work in the office? They work at home and at night.
And they don't write things down. They act them out first.
Like Tom Schiller asked me to act out a scene with him at his apartment.
Then he called two other writers, Tom Davis and Al Franken, because he said he was having trouble with his inspiration.
So they came over and we all acted out the the scene, except it wasn't in the show, which I thought was really weird.
And after a while, it got even more disgusting.
Like Michael O'Donohue, he just couldn't finish writing the Star Trek skit unless I kept whispering to him the words, rocket ships are okay, but your missile is tremendous.
It was really disgusting. And then there was Herb Sargent. He's this older writer with white hair, and he was really like a father figure, a really strict father.
Like, you know, he used to take his belt and tie me up and spank me, and I didn't even do anything wrong.
[1:02:33] Anyways, that's why I've written this book. It's called I Was Not a Sucker for Saturday Night, because I really think the public has a right to know.
Saturday night. Yes, okay. I'll be right up.
I have to help Chevy write update. Okay, let's see, pad.
[1:02:58] Apparatus it's really disgusting.
Track 2:
[1:03:07] That's what we've got for you that was sherry uh well it was lorraine newman playing sherry uh and that's what we've got for you this week i hope you enjoyed yourself i hope youwere able to to listen to that concise argument and maybe put together a case in your own head for voting for Lorraine Newman when voting opens.
In case you aren't registered to vote and I don't send you an email, you can always vote through the social links when I send those out.
That will be middle of May this year, and then we will make the announcement on the last episode of the show.
We'll, of course, be doing a roundtable where we gather some people to discuss their nominees and the way that they are going to vote.
And then we turn it over to you. Next week, we're turning it over to our good friend Kirsten Radula, and she will put together a case for Taryn Killam.
That should be a good one, folks. You're going to want to download that episode.
[1:04:18] So without further ado, I have a favor to ask of you.
If you could please, on your way out, as you walk past the Weekend Update exhibit, turn out the lights, because the SNL Hall of Fame is now closed.
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