Gilda Susan Radner was an American actress and comedian. She was one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980. In her routines on SNL, she specialized in parodies of television stereotypes, such as advice specialists and news anchors. In 1978, Radner won an Emmy Award for her performances on the show. She also portrayed those characters in her highly successful one-woman show on Broadway in 1979. Radner's SNL work established her as an iconic figure in the history of American comedy.
Don Novello is an American actor, comedian, writer, singer, film director and producer.
Father Guido Sarducci is a fictional character created by American comedian Don Novello. Sarducci is a chain-smoking priest with tinted glasses, who works in the United States as gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
Laraine Newman is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Newman was part of the original cast of NBC's sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980.
Mr. Bill is a clay figurine star of a parody of children's entertainment created by Walter Williams in 1974. The Mr. Bill showing got its start on Saturday Night Live as a series of Super 8 films sent in response to the show's request for home movies during the first season. Mr. Bill's first appearance occurred on the February 28, 1976 episode. After five submitted films, Williams became a full-time writer for the show in 1978 and wrote more than 20 sketches based on Mr. Bill. Each Mr. Bill episode started innocently but quickly turned dangerous for Mr. Bill and his dog Spot. He would suffer various indignities inflicted by "Mr. Hands", a man seen only as a pair of hands. Sometimes the abuse came from Sluggo, another clay character, which Mr. Hands usually jokingly brands as one of Mr. Bill's "best friends". A running gag in the sketches is whenever Sluggo would make his appearance, Mr. Bill would get worried and say, "He's gonna be mean to me!", to which Mr. Hands often gives him reassurance by responding with, "No!". The violence inevitably escalated, generally ending with Mr. Bill being crushed or dismembered while squealing "Ohhhh noooooooooooooo!" in a falsetto voice.
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video is a 1979 American Mondo-Mockumentary film conceived and directed by Saturday Night Live writer/featured player Michael O'Donoghue. It is a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentary Mondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts.
Haunted Honeymoon is a 1986 American comedy horror film starring Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Dom DeLuise and Jonathan Pryce. Wilder also served as writer and director. The title Haunted Honeymoon was previously used for the 1940 U.S. release of Busman's Honeymoon based on the stage play by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Weekend Update has been a platform for Saturday Night Live characters to grow and gain popularity ever since Gilda Radner used it to create Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna. Many cast members have used Update as the primary vehicle for a certain character. Don Novello was featured almost exclusively on the news segment as his breakout character, Father Guido Sarducci, and Tim Kazurinsky, in the face of Eddie Murphy's overshadowing popularity, created characters almost exclusively for Update. Before becoming an anchor on Update, Colin Quinn used the segment as his main sounding board as well.
The Land Shark was a recurring character from the sketch comedy television series Saturday Night Live.
Maria Elena Vidal is an American singer songwriter. Her single "Body Rock" reached No. 8 on the US Dance Charts, No. 48 on the Hot 100, No. 5 on the Springbok Charts in South Africa, and No. 11 in the UK, and charted on various other international charts. It was the theme song to the film Body Rock in 1984.
Alan Zweibel is an American writer, producer, director, comedian and actor whom TheNew York Times says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original Saturday Night Live writer, Zweibel has won five Emmy Awards and two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work in television, which includes It's Garry Shandling's Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The fourteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 8, 1988 and May 20, 1989.
The fifth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 13, 1979, and May 24, 1980.
The fourth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 7, 1978, and May 26, 1979.
Rosie Shuster is a Canadian-born comedy writer and actress. She was a writer for Saturday Night Live during the 1970s and 1980s.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 24, 1977, and May 20, 1978, the third season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 7, 1978, and May 26, 1979, the fourth season of SNL.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between October 13, 1979, and May 24, 1980, the fifth season of SNL.
"Saturday Night Live 15th Anniversary Special" is a 2 1/2 hour prime-time special that aired on September 24, 1989, on NBC, celebrating Saturday Night Live's 15th year on the air, having premiered on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. SNL has since had two more specials celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 1998 and 40th Anniversary in 2014.
The National Lampoon Show, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1974–1976 stage show that helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Harold Ramis. The company's stage successor to National Lampoon's Lemmings (1973), some skits from the show made their way into the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House.
