http://www.nerve.com/entertainment/ranked/ranked-every-emsaturday-night-live-em-cast-member-ever-from-worst-to-best

Nerve.com ranks 92 "Saturday Night Live" cast members, with Victoria Jackson rated as the very worst.

Eddie Murphy has no business in the #1 spot
Will Ferrell at #2 is an insult to anyone's intelligence
3-6 (Bill Murray, Phil Hartman, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) I agree with
7-10 (Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey & Tina Fey) is a complete joke

How Poehler and Fey rank higher than Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin is beyond me. :rolleyes:

Eddie Murphy has no business in the #1 spot
Will Ferrell at #2 is an insult to anyone's intelligence
3-6 (Bill Murray, Phil Hartman, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) I agree with
7-10 (Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey & Tina Fey) is a complete joke

How Poehler and Fey rank higher than Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin is beyond me. :rolleyes:

I agree with all of that, Charles. And I also thought Colin Quinn should have ranked a lot higher. He wasn't a great sketch guy, but I loved him on Weekend Update.

I guess we have to recall that this is yet another list compiled, most likely, by someone who's a lot younger than us and is unwisely weighing the more recent stars of the show too heavily. Either that, or his taste just sucks. :rolleyes:

Why do lists like these even matter? They're all always a matter of opinion.

I think it's pretty obvious that I've always loved my SNL ladies. These are the people I look up to. Tina and Amy are geniuses and it's not fair that some people who grew up with the older generation don't see that. Meh again, all a matter of opinion.

Clearly I'm a Gilda fan. She's an absolute hero of mine. I'm 22 years old. I was not around during her lifetime, and yet I can still appreciate her. If you watch the show enough and learn to respect that it's ever changing both tastes and talent, you learn to appreciate the show in its entirety and not just for certain eras. I understand that isn't how it works for everyone and the cast you grew up with is going to be your favorite. That's just how it is. I'll always be biased toward the early 00's cast because that's when I started watching. They'll always be my babies. Lorne Michaels himself says that this is just how people react and that they attach to that one certain cast and often don't like to give newer casts a chance. The current cast isn't, as I like to call them, "my babies" but I still find many of them wonderful.

I'm surprised you'd consider Amy, Mike, Dana, and Tina jokes, though. They're all wonderfully talented people. I've always had respect for the original cast, too. I have the first five seasons on DVD and take so much comfort and joy in watching them and seeing how it all began. I am crazy about Gilda. I love everything about her. John is a genius. I had a dream last night where Jane Curtin gave me life advice. I have terrible obsession issues with this show...all eras...so I apologize for my rambling. No I don't. :p But really.

I'm going to write for the show one day, ftw. I hope I'm accepted.

their list:
1. EDDIE MURPHY 2. WILL FERRELL 3. BILL MURRAY 4. PHIL HARTMAN 5. JOHN BELUSHI 6. DAN AYKROYD 7. AMY POEHLER 8. MIKE MYERS 9. DANA CARVEY 10. TINA FEY

11. DARRELL HAMMOND 12. TIM MEADOWS 13. GILDA RADNER 14. JON LOVITZ 15. JAN HOOKS 16, 17, & 18. BILLY CRYSTAL, CHRISTOPHER GUEST, and MARTIN SHORT 19. KRISTEN WIIG 20. BILL HADER

21. JANE CURTIN 22. CHRIS FARLEY 23. NORA DUNN 24. JASON SUDEIKIS 25. CHEVY CHASE 26. NORM MACDONALD 27. KEVIN NEALON 28. RACHEL DRATCH 29. ANDY SAMBERG 30. ADAM SANDLER

32. CHERI OTERI 33. TRACY MORGAN 34. MAYA RUDOLPH 35. ANA GASTEYER 36. DAVID SPADE 37. FRED ARMISEN 38. TERRY SWEENEY 39. HARRY SHEARER 40. LARAINE NEWMAN

41. RANDY QUAID 42. NANCY WALLS 43. GARRETT MORRIS 44. RICH HALL 46 & 45. GAIL MATTHIUS and DENNY DILLON 47. BOBBY MOYNIHAN 48. DAVID KOECHNER 49. PAMELA STEPHENSON 50. ABBY ELLIOTT

51. SETH MEYERS 52. JOAN CUSACK 53. MARK McKINNEY 54. MICHAEL McKEAN 55. WILL FORTE 56. MOLLY SHANNON 57. MARY GROSS 58. TIM KAZURINSKY 59. MICHAEL O'DONOGHUE

60. JOE PISCOPO 61. KENAN THOMPSON 62. ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. 63. ROBIN DUKE 64. JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS 65. CHRIS ELLIOTT 66. DENNIS MILLER 67. CHRIS ROCK 68. DANITRA VANCE 69. JIM BREUER 70. CHRISTINE EBERSOLE

71. GEORGE COE 72. FINESSE MITCHELL 73. JULIA SWEENEY 74. JEFF RICHARDS 75. ANN RISLEY 76. MORWENNA BANKS 77. GILBERT GOTTFRIED 78. CHARLES ROCKET 79. ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL

80. JIMMY FALLON 81. JANEANE GAROFALO 82. TONY ROSATO 83. CHRIS KATTAN 84. MELANIE HUTSELL 85. HORATIO SANZ 86. BRAD HALL 87. ELLEN CLEGHORNE 88. ROB SCHNEIDER 89. COLIN QUINN 90. GARY KROEGER 91. JIM BELUSHI 92. VICTORIA JACKSON

some of their placements are ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary (and don't appear to be based on actually having watched the original episodes in the time period that they aired)

harry shearer should have ranked alot higher if for no other reason than saving the 5th season from turning into a complete mess they had lost belushi and aykroyd gilda and bill phoned it in most of the time that year and laraine and garrett;s personal problems were starting to affect their on air work but jane curtin and harry shearer no matter how much they may have had issues with the show or lorne were always reliable performers and harry wrote some great pieces that season like backers auditon i know korne wanted martan short that year but as great as mr short is harry was what was needed at the time

Eddie Murphy has no business in the #1 spot
Will Ferrell at #2 is an insult to anyone's intelligence
3-6 (Bill Murray, Phil Hartman, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) I agree with
7-10 (Amy Poehler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey & Tina Fey) is a complete joke

How Poehler and Fey rank higher than Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin is beyond me. :rolleyes:as much as i like both tina and amy i do have to agree with you i wonder how old this person is who wrote the list?

https://twitter.com/thelonelyisland/status/649644834496483328

Weeks later, Kristen Wiig would be added to the cast, resulting in one of Saturday Night Live’s best-ever freshmen classes.

ROLLING STONE did a list last February (for the 40th anniversary), with 141 cast members:

http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/saturday-night-live-all-141-cast-members-ranked-20150211

their list:
1. EDDIE MURPHY 2. WILL FERRELL 3. BILL MURRAY 4. PHIL HARTMAN 5. JOHN BELUSHI 6. DAN AYKROYD 7. AMY POEHLER 8. MIKE MYERS 9. DANA CARVEY 10. TINA FEY

11. DARRELL HAMMOND 12. TIM MEADOWS 13. GILDA RADNER 14. JON LOVITZ 15. JAN HOOKS 16, 17, & 18. BILLY CRYSTAL, CHRISTOPHER GUEST, and MARTIN SHORT 19. KRISTEN WIIG 20. BILL HADER

21. JANE CURTIN 22. CHRIS FARLEY 23. NORA DUNN 24. JASON SUDEIKIS 25. CHEVY CHASE 26. NORM MACDONALD 27. KEVIN NEALON 28. RACHEL DRATCH 29. ANDY SAMBERG 30. ADAM SANDLER

32. CHERI OTERI 33. TRACY MORGAN 34. MAYA RUDOLPH 35. ANA GASTEYER 36. DAVID SPADE 37. FRED ARMISEN 38. TERRY SWEENEY 39. HARRY SHEARER 40. LARAINE NEWMAN

41. RANDY QUAID 42. NANCY WALLS 43. GARRETT MORRIS 44. RICH HALL 46 & 45. GAIL MATTHIUS and DENNY DILLON 47. BOBBY MOYNIHAN 48. DAVID KOECHNER 49. PAMELA STEPHENSON 50. ABBY ELLIOTT

51. SETH MEYERS 52. JOAN CUSACK 53. MARK McKINNEY 54. MICHAEL McKEAN 55. WILL FORTE 56. MOLLY SHANNON 57. MARY GROSS 58. TIM KAZURINSKY 59. MICHAEL O'DONOGHUE

60. JOE PISCOPO 61. KENAN THOMPSON 62. ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. 63. ROBIN DUKE 64. JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS 65. CHRIS ELLIOTT 66. DENNIS MILLER 67. CHRIS ROCK 68. DANITRA VANCE 69. JIM BREUER 70. CHRISTINE EBERSOLE

71. GEORGE COE 72. FINESSE MITCHELL 73. JULIA SWEENEY 74. JEFF RICHARDS 75. ANN RISLEY 76. MORWENNA BANKS 77. GILBERT GOTTFRIED 78. CHARLES ROCKET 79. ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL

80. JIMMY FALLON 81. JANEANE GAROFALO 82. TONY ROSATO 83. CHRIS KATTAN 84. MELANIE HUTSELL 85. HORATIO SANZ 86. BRAD HALL 87. ELLEN CLEGHORNE 88. ROB SCHNEIDER 89. COLIN QUINN 90. GARY KROEGER 91. JIM BELUSHI 92. VICTORIA JACKSON

some of their placements are ridiculous and seemingly arbitrary (and don't appear to be based on actually having watched the original episodes in the time period that they aired)


I'm no expert by any means. I will say how is Will Ferrell number 2? I like Ferrell as much as the next guy but I might Farley ahead of him. I thought he was just so off the wall. I'd put Sandler higher as well. You really can't do a list like this because some people were only a season(Anthony Micheal Hall) and others were on for years (Carvey, Myers, Hammond)