Sunday night, viewers can settle in for a three-hour salute to 50 years of Saturday Night Live (8/9c, NBC and Global). Over the years, Canadian comedy talent has shone on the series.
Let’s start with creator/executive producer Lorne Michaels. I remember former New York Times TV columnist Bill Carter rhetorically asking me, “who has been a bigger Canadian star in the history of American television?” The answer is no one.
In 1975, he had help launching the show from a couple of, not just Canadians, but Torontonians from the same neighbourhood. First and foremost Rosie Shuster, this week’s guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. She was Michaels wife at the time and one of the show’s original writer. Then there is Howard Shore, the original musical director who wrote the jazzy, sax-heavy SNL theme still wailing live from Studio 6H a half century later.
Shore also wrote the theme to Michaels’ and Hart Pomerantz’s CBC series The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour (1970-71). If you can track down a clip, it is basically the same theme.
Beyond those three, who were the greatest Canadian cast performers on SNL? All hail from the series’ first 25 years. They are:
- Dan Aykroyd (1975-79). The Ottawa native, 23 when the show started, was the original SNL “Glue” — a player who could hold any sketch together. He had that snappy, K-Tel patter down cold in those Bass-O-matic sketches, got away with dismissing Jane Curtin as “Jane, you ignorant slut” on Weekend Update and let his harp and crazy legs do the talking with Belushi as Elwood of The Blues Brothers. Throw in those “Wild and Crazy” Czech brothers and the Coneheads and Aykroyd set the bar high for all Canadians to follow.
- Phil Hartman (1986-94). For me, Hartman leaps ahead of Mike Myers and Martin Short because he was so valuable to SNL during transitional seasons, a period when they really needed that “Glue” guy. Fresh from his year as Cap’t Carl on Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Hartman joined in Season 12. The Brantford, Ont.-native killed it as the Unfrozen Caveman lawyer, Frankenstein (of Frankenstein, Tarzan and Tonto fame) and dozens of impressions, from Bill Clinton to Phil Donahue and Ed McMahon. He also paired well with another cast member who died too young, Jan Hooks.
- Norm Macdonald (1993-98). The best and bravest Weekend Update anchor ever. Famed for getting fired from that post after pissing off NBC executive Don Olmeyer with his relentless take down of OJ Simpson, Macdonald would stare down and defy viewers at home and in the studio to laugh. The Quebec City native’s desk work limited him as being much more of a one-dimentional SNL player, although his looney take on Burt Reynolds as “Turd Ferguson” probably rates more YouTube views than just about any other SNL character.
- Mike Myers (1989-95). Myers created some of SNL’s most indelible sketch characters, launching a film franchise later as Community access cable nerd Wayne Campbell with “Wayne’s World.” The Scarborough native later parlayed an impression of Lorne Michaels into his Dr. Evil shtick in the “Austin Powers” movies. He never did find a way to translate another SNL stable, German artist Deiter, into a big scree spinoff. Jewish New Yorker Linda Richmond was another SNL home run for Myers, especially opposite Madonna.
- Martin Short (1984-85) was part of the all-star ninth season of SNL along with Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer. For the Olympic synchronized swimming sketch alone, he makes this list and would rank higher had he stayed past the single year. Add his SCTV success and now Only Murder in the Building and all those killer late night talk show spots and the pride of Hamilton, Ont., has no peer as a comedian over the past half century. He’s also the only Canadian-born host in the Five-Timer Club.
ALSO PART OF SNL’S TEAM CANADA: Robin Duke (Toronto, 1981-84); Tony Rosato (Toronto, 1981-82); Paul Shaffer (Thunder Bay; band member and briefly a sketch player, 1978-80); Mark McKinney (Toronto, 1995-97); Peter Aykroyd (Dan’s brother, six episodes in 1980).
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PROMINENT CANADIAN GUEST HOSTS: Margot Kidder (1979); Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (1983); John Candy (1983); William Shatner (1986); Leslie Nielsen (1988); Wayne Gretzky (1989); Michael J. Fox (1991); Catherine O’Hara (1991 & 92); Kiefer Sutherland (1991); Jason Priestley (1992); Jim Carrey (1997); Pamela Anderson (1997); Justin Bieber (host and musical guest); Drake (host and musical guest); Ryan Reynolds (2009); Ryan Gossling (2015); Dan Levy; Eric McCormack, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogan and Nathan Fillion.
