Voters again show that they prefer ‘SNL’ cast members of a certain vintage
Most of the original “Saturday Night Live” players continue to stay afloat in the Globe’s bracket competition for the best cast member since the beginning of the show in 1975. After Round 2, the survivors include Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, plus season-two addition Bill Murray. Radner and Aykroyd beat two other original castmates — Chevy Chase and Garrett Morris, respectively — while Laraine Newman was eliminated in Round 1.
Some observations:
1. I was surprised to see that Murray, who got 65.1 percent of the vote, was so clearly preferred to Mike Myers in their face-off. There is obviously a bias toward the early cast members, who were on the show when it had countercultural cachet and are often romanticized — but still. Myers was intensely creative during his seven-season run, from 1989 to 1995. He killed in almost all of the many original sketches he developed, as dieter in “Sprockets” and as the owner of the store “All Things Scottish.” In the start of the dIY-era, “Wayne’s World” was perfectly of its time, and Myers’s Wayne and his sidekick, Dana Carvey’s Garth, were endlessly endearing. Myers’s Linda Richman deservedly became a sensation and remains one of the best recurring characters in the series’ history.
I liked Murray and his dry humor on “SNL,” and I still do my own version of Nick the Lounge Singer. But Myers seemed to have a bottomless well of material and the kind of nutty, singular imagination that the show is made for. Without considering their post-“SNL” careers, I’d have gone with Mr. Mike instead of this Mr. Bill. Fortunately, the masterful Carvey is going strong, having beaten Jimmy Fallon with 81.7 percent of the vote.
2. In this round, I found it particularly difficult to choose between Maya Rudolph and Cecily Strong. They were both prolific and excellent contributors during their long runs on the show — Rudolph with nine seasons and Strong with 11. There’s Rudolph as donatella Versace (“GET OUT”), but then there’s Strong as a deranged Jeanine Pirro. There’s Rudolph as Beyoncé, but then there’s Strong’s product-pitching porn star. Obviously, though, one of them had to go, and it was Strong. I suspect that’s partly due to Rudolph’s likability factor, which is formidable and certainly plays a role in our selections.
3. I’m delighted to see some of the others from Rudolph’s era still in the running. From about 2000 to about 2013, “SNL” was chock full of extraordinary talent, including surviving contenders Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Kristen Wiig, as well as those who just lost the second round — Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Rachel Dratch, and Andy Samberg.
I fully understand the power that comes with being part of the show’s first cast. Those comics got to define the essence of “SNL,” and by extension some of the modes of contemporary comedy, and they are legendary at this point. But I was consistently blown away by the folks from the 2000s, whose brand of humor was less tethered to their specific moment in time. After rewatching old sketches on YouTube, I’d even say that their work has aged better than that of the pioneers. I know, it’s blasphemous.