As Gottfried himself put it years later in the Michaels-produced documentary Saturday Night Live in the ‘80s: Lost and Found, “You needed a sacrificial lamb.”
And while the cast Doumanian eventually settled on may have lacked the necessary star power (and talent) to jump right into their predecessors’ shoes, it’s hard to imagine America taking to these interlopers wholeheartedly. With barely a skeleton crew of the original show’s creative team staying on, Doumanian quickly assembled a new, young cast to carry the show’s still-roaring ratings and cultural torch.
After five years of ever-mounting superstardom, what remained of the show’s stellar cast (Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris and Larraine Newman) had left to join already departed stars Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and Chevy Chase in pursuit of Hollywood success. Under the leadership of former SNL associate producer and talent booker Jean Doumanian, Saturday Night Live ’80 may have been doomed before it started - but the show fulfilled that destiny almost immediately. In Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad’s seminal book on the early days of Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night, the authors describe how, even then, people were concerned that Gottfried’s inimitable style might not mesh with the utility player needs of a live sketch show.Īs they put it, “ auditioned with a manic stand-up routine that had him bouncing around the set, ranting and raving like a madman.” And while the resulting season (unnecessarily rechristened Saturday Night Live ’80) could only have benefitted from some unexpected and unpredictable energy as it turned out, Gottfried was hardly ever called upon to be his unique self. Hired on as part of the cast replacing the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players after the mass exodus of performers, writers and show creator Lorne Michaels in 1980, Gottfried seemed an odd fit -and he was.
0 kommentar(er)
