Photo:Brian Bowen Smith via Getty
Brian Bowen Smith via Getty
Some things only get better with age.
But one thing that did not, according to actressJane Curtin? The first few seasons ofSaturday Night Live, where she was an original cast member.
“We were sent the five year compilation video ofSaturday Night Live’s first five years a few years ago, and I gave one to my daughter,” she says. “We were out visiting her daughter one Christmas, and her husband said, ‘Have you ever watched any of these? And I said, ‘God, I haven’t seen them in a long time.’ "
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That’s not to say Curtin thinks the show was actuallybad.
Curtin says there are some sketches she still thinks are funny, including one ofDan Aykroyd’smost infamous. “See the Bassomatic, I still think it’s funny,” she explains.
But Curtin was surprised at which sketches became such big hits, likeThe Coneheads,where she was part of an alien family who had to try and fit on earth. Years later, the sketch, which first ran in 1976, became a feature-length film in 1993.
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She also has fond memories of some of her favorite guest hosts. “There were some people who really got it, like Dick Benjamin,Buck Henry, andSteve Martin.First of all, you had to be really smart to be a good host, and the ones who kept coming back got the idea of it and they got the fun of it.”
She recalls that not everyone who hosted could handle the pace of things.
“There was an outline you had to follow, as far as time went and getting from point A to point B, and there were some hosts who just came from very different places and didn’t get it. I remember Walter Matthau — he just came from a very different place. We were in rehearsals, two days out from the live show, and he said, ‘Why isn’t anyone having fun around here?!”
Curtin adds, “There was a discipline to it — even though it looked like chaos!”
source: people.com
