Monday, December 19, 2011

HE INTRODUCES THE ACTS! "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, BOYS AND GIRLS ..." I cannot possibly imagine that anyone here would have any comment upon a Nerve.com columnist's efforts to rank all ninety-two fulltime cast members in SNL history from worst to best.

(Underrated: Rock, Rudolph, Fallon; overrated: Dunn, Sudeikis, Meadows. The top ten is the correct ten, but I'm not sure about the order.)

29 comments:

  1. Jay G.5:32 PM

    After a quick review, my only comment is that Joe Piscopo at Number 60 is absurd.

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  2. Piscopo should have a better ranking? If so, I agree. He and Murphy carried that show for a couple of years.

    And the comment about O'Donoghue is a bit unfair: "To you kids out there asking, "Who was Mike Douglas?" I say: exactly."

    Mike Douglas was a pretty big deal in 1975.

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  3. D'Arcy6:38 PM

    I wouldn't have put Ferrel in the top ten, nor would I place Victoria Jackson at 92. Nowhere near the top ten, but not rock bottom. Of the cast members I've actually seen, I'd have to go with Julia Sweeney, I think.

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  4. D'Arcy6:53 PM

    Also, agreed re: Rudolph, Fallon, Dunn and Meadows.

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  5. Joseph Finn7:02 PM

    Totally in agreement, D'Arcy, on Jackson being dead bottom.  Also, Newman is too low and Ferrel might be a mite bit too high.

    (But then, I'd put Hartman at #1.)

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  6. Adlai7:21 PM

    So true.

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  7. Adlai7:23 PM

    Are we sure that picture of Melanie Hutsell isn't actually a picture of Dana Plato?

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  8. In terms of length of tenure multiplied by uselessness of tenure, Jackson's in the bottom ten at least.  Finesse Mitchell may be the real winner.

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  9. J. Bowman7:42 PM

    There's your #92.

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  10. D'Arcy9:49 PM

    I'd probably put Hartman at #1 too, and Myers at #2, but maybe I'm biased toward Canadians. Have I ever mentioned that I'm Canadian?

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  11. Even where she is, Hutsell is over-rated.

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  12. lisased7:17 AM

    Agreed. But at least I remember her, unlike Tony Rosato, Morwenna Banks, and Ann Risley. I can't recall a single sketch they were in.

    And anyone who anchored Weekend Update should be higher than 89.

    I want Hammond in the Top 10, but I don't know who I'd take out.

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  13. Chris Rock isn't underrated on this list.  But that's the fault of the show for not using him as they might have.

    Should be higher, at least a little:  Garrett Morris and Ana Gasteyer. 

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  14. Matt (mobile)8:41 AM

    I suspect part of the issue with Jackson is the wacky politics she's gotten into post-departure. Absent that, she'd just be a mediocrity.

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  15. Anonymous9:16 AM

    So this completist had to include George Coe and Michael O'Donoghue but left off Brian Doyle Murray? Feh.

    --bd

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  16. Joan Cusack and Downey, Jr. should be dropped lower.  Great actors, but totally forgettable SNL cast members.      Kristen Wiig is too high but maybe I just don't get it.  I would have separated Martin Short out from Crystal and Shearer, dropping Crystal and Shearer a bit and moving Short higher.  Short was an aboslutely fantastic cast member in my view.  Tim Meadows is ranked way too highly.  Gilda Radner lower than Meadows?  What planet are we on. Phil Hartman was so good I might move him up even higher.

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  17. I had no idea Gilbert Gottfried was on SNL.  

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  18. It's the season which they try not to acknowledge -- the Jean Doumanian year.  Only noteworthy because she brought on Eddie Murphy as a featured player.

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  19. LDP in Cincinnati11:26 AM

    A few things: 1) I'm surprised how many I don't remember; 2) seeing Martin Short and a couple of other SCTV alums makes me think back on how great SCTV could be; and 3) the only cast member who, arguably, deserves a higher spot than Bill Murray is Eddie Murphy.

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  20. isaac_spaceman11:39 AM

    I'm not sure that Piscopo was ever funny, even once.  Or maybe the way to say it is that I don't think he was ever funnier than he was loud.  He was a stiff, inhibited comedian.  He is to comedy what Katy Perry is to dancing. 

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  21. isaac_spaceman11:40 AM

    I think the only thing I remember about Hutsell is some story about her being coked out of her mind and somebody else saying "we don't really do that any more."  Might not be a true story; don't sue me.

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  22. What turns me off about Piscopo was his whole attitude about the Sinatra impression and wanting it to be "respectful."  But his Letterman was good, and being Murphy's foil has to count for something. 

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  23. Meghan11:55 AM

    The title of this post is maybe the only thing Jim Belushi did that was funny.

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  24. This list cites Norm McDonald is the best Weekend Update Host?!

    He's my least favorite - not that I've seen them all, but I found him grating and all around not funny.  I actually liked Kevin Nealon, who I thought did a nice job at acting like a faux newscaster.  And Fallon/Fey was a great pairing.

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  25. Genevieve2:11 PM

    I want Radner in the top 10, but I don't know who I'd take out.

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  26. Meghan2:15 PM

    I've always enjoyed the adage that Murphy's success went to Piscopo's head.

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  27. Watts3:16 PM

    Hutsell is from near where I grew up in Tennessee - we didn't get the 80s until the 90s, so she probably didn't know any better.

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  28. I'm like the world's biggest Tina Fey fan but she's a better writer than sketch performer (and truth be told, she's not a world-beating improviser, either).  Her range is more limited than Kristen Wiig, who may be controversial, but I bet anyone can name five more of her characters than any number of those played by Fey (and I bet Fey would agree with me).  On the list, way underrated:  Will Forte.  Ranked too well, even though I may like them: David Koechner, Nancy Walls, Kevin Nealon, Jane Curtin, Jan Hooks, John Lovitz, Tim Meadows and Eddie Murphy. 

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  29. isaac_spaceman8:54 PM

    "We hired a guy named Finesse?"

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