(Quite a while ago) I was 'saddened' by the news that Leslie Jones wasn't staying-on with SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE this coming season, but she assuaged her fans' grief with the response, "I'm not 'dying,' more like 'graduating!'"
She's already done as many current- & former players do, and appeared in a movie or two! And I'm sure she's on tour and/or working on the next spectacular display of hilarious comedy!
But–though she's "not dead"–she is 'passing away' from Your Family & Mine, the Cast & Crew of ...
Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation; and, as The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999: "In defiance of both time and show business convention, ‘SNL’ is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.Not including specials and digital series, the program has won 67 Emmy Awards, the most for any show in television history. SNL also holds the title for the most nominated television show in Emmy history with 270 nominations, not including specials and digital series. "SNL" has been honored twice, in 1990 and 2009, with the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and cited as "truly a national institution." "Saturday Night Live" was inducted into the Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the National Association of Broadcasters, and the show continues to garner the highest ratings of any late-night television program, entertaining millions each week."SNL" is making headlines and influencing the political dialogue while skewering it at the same time. Beyond politics, the show's cast of recurring characters and take on pop culture targets remains spot-on. The addition of the show's Emmy Award-winning SNL Digital Shorts continues to keep the show as current today as it was when it debuted."Saturday Night Live," which premiered Oct. 11, 1975, is broadcast live from NBC's famed Studio 8H in New York City's Rockefeller Center.
The current cast- and all the casts before them-carry the same 'spirit' ("kids at the nerd-table during lunch in high-school," I read in a book about the series) as the original cast:
(and yes, all these names & tenure-dates are in the table below;
but I'm typing them in so I can link to bigger posts about each
... and the years I list are mostly just guesses (looking at the
table).)
In 1976 (I know the text above says `75, but I guess it wasn't 'a regular show' until `76), Lorne Michaels (? I'll double-check that) presented Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, George Coe (briefly), Jane Curtin, Garret Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O'Donoghue (briefly) & Gilda Radner (the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players") to audiences on Saturday Night---don't remember if they called it "Saturday Night Live" yet ...
Chevy Chase left in about-`77, about the time Bill Murray joined.
Tom Davis & Al Franken joined the cast in `78.
Aykroyd & Belushi left in `79.
Curtin, Morris, Newman, Radner, Murray, Davis & Franken left in `80, with brief appearances by Peter Aykroyd, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Don Novello, Tom Schiller, Paul Shaffer, Harry Shearer & Alan Zweibel.
`81 brought Denny Dillon (briefly), Robin Duke, Gilbert Gottfried (briefly), Yvonne Hudson (briefly), Tim Kazurinsky, Matthew Laurance (briefly), Gail Matthius (briefly), Laurie Metcalf (briefly), Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Emily Prager (briefly), Ann Risley (briefly), Charles Rocket (briefly), Tony Rosato and (briefly) Patrick Weathers.
Doyle-Murray was a 'featured player' in `82, when Rosato left and Christine Ebersole (briefly) & Mary Gross joined.
Brad Hall, Gary Kroeger & Julia Louis-Dreyfuss joined in `83.
Jim Belushi (John's brother) joined in `84, just before Duke, Kazurinsky, Murphy & Piscopo left.
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| Lighter colors denote "featured players" versus repertory cast members. |
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