Saturday Night by Doug Hill

Author:Doug Hill [Hill,Doug and Weingrad, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: PERFORMING ARTS / Television / General
ISBN: 978-1-61187-218-7
Publisher: Untreed Reads Publishing
Published: 2011-12-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The B Team

(Show Notes Two)

Bill Murray’s first cast photo as a member of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, January 1977.

© NBC

Saturday Night more than made good on its vow to carry on without Chevy Chase. There was an overall broadening of the base of the show’s humor after he left: those sometimes referred to on the 17th floor as the B team came on. A more eclectic style emerged, as did some very popular characters.

John and Gilda quickly came into focus as the dominant personalities. John defined “Belushi” as his main character, but also acted brilliantly in parts as diverse as Truman Capote and Humphrey Bogart. Gilda similarly projected herself—in one opening she stood at center stage to say that she didn’t have much to do on the show that night, and she wanted to tell her mother not to worry about staying up to watch—while refining such roles as her lisping Barbara Walters takeoff, Baba Wawa, and her archetypical Jewish American Princess, Rhonda Weiss. Emily Litella’s popularity soared when, after a protracted battle with Standards, she was able to end her commentaries on Weekend Update by responding to an annoyed Jane Curtin with a cross smile and a ladylike “Bitch.”

The full force of Dan Aykroyd’s talent flowered in a whole series of characters, among them that of Beldar, paterfamilias of the Coneheads, the extraterrestrial family from “France.” The Coneheads made their debut in January of the second season after a long, circuitous gestation period and soon became the characters probably more identified with Saturday Night than any other.

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