Franken and Meyers have significant writing tenure on the show, certainly compared to their on-screen time. Certainly they would both be considered bit players, Meyers moreso than Franken. (That said, I think both of them averaged more sketch appearances per season than Dennis Miller.) Fey is arguably the one person who managed to be both breakout and writer, but she's not on this list.
I don't think this really affects the hypothesis, as comedy writers aren't going to break out - at least for their writing. But I think they make a bigger overall contribution to the show (which is why I'll consider Fey's Mark Twain Prize more deserved than that of Ferrell). David ________________________________ From: PGage <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [TV orNotTV] Re: Darrell Hammond's new memoir When I was reminded the other day that he was the longest tenured SNL performer (not from the Hammond interview, but I think an interview with Seth Meyers) I looked up the list on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_cast_members#Longest_tenures) 1. Darrell Hammond 2. Al Franken 3. Seth Meyers 4. Tim Meadows 5. Fred Armisen 6. Kevin Nealon 7. Kenan Thompson 8. Will Forte 9. Phil Hartman 10. Chris Parnell 11. Amy Poehler 12. Maya Rudolph 13. Horatio Sanz What strikes me about this list is that while there are a few favorites of mine on it (Franken, Hartman, Rudolph) there are only a few break-out star performers (Hartman, Poehler) and the rest are more comfortable supporting players (I guess Armisen is supposed to be more of a star performer than a supporter in the current cast, but I never see that). And I realized that of course this makes sense - most of the really A-level star performers would be motivated to leave SNL relatively early (the list above are all 8 - 14 year vets) to move on to film or prime-time careers, so most of the relative lifers would be more middle of the roaders. All of that said, I still suspect that Hammond's 14 years are at least partially a function of Lorne trying to provide him with some stability and support. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
