Already Famous.... yet doing SNL

[Dean Winchester]

after posting about how I was shocked to see Kenan Mitchell going to SNL as a "featured player" 7 years after starring in Good Burger... I wanted to start a thread about other people who joined SNL after they had some sort of fame.

Billy Crystal joined SNL in 1984-1985, even tho he was already well-known by then, best known for his groundbreaking part on Soap. Yet SNL broke him to an even greater amount of fame.

Michael McKean joining SNL in 1994 is a very weird case, and I'd love to hear about it. He was best known for Lenny on L&S, which ended it's run ELEVEN YEARS before he joined SNL (imagine someone from a late 80's/early 90's hit joining the SNL cast now), and he also had already made a career as a supporting player in movies. However, he joined the cast of SNL almost 19 years after the premiere of Laverne And Shirley. Isn't SNL supposed to be before your prime, not after?

[AKA]

Jim Breuer
Chris Elliott
Janeane Garofalo
Anthony Michael Hall
Laura Kightlinger
Norm Macdonald
Mark McKinney
Randy Quaid
Colin Quinn
Martin Short

[Dean Winchester]

Originally posted by AKA
Jim Breuer
Chris Elliott
Janeane Garofalo
Anthony Michael Hall
Laura Kightlinger
Norm Macdonald
Mark McKinney
Randy Quaid
Colin Quinn
Martin Short

I agree with al those except Jim Breuer (I bet he regrets the "I'm such a star thanks to Half Baked" attitude that caused him to leave SNL in 98... since he didn't really become as big as someone like Will Ferrill who wound up staying for a few more seasons) and Norm Macdonald, I don't recall those 2 in anything pre-SNL.

[AKA]

Maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me. I used to watch a lot of Comedy Central and recall seeing a lot of Jim Breuer and Norm Macdonald stand-up in the early '90s.

Norm Macdonald even had a half-hour special on HBO before he got SNL.

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

It's Kenan Thompson, I think you're getting him mixed up with Kel Mitchell.

[tvje]

You forget one other weird fact. Billy Crystal and Michael McKean, both hosted SNL before joining the cast.

[Jack Russel 720]

Adam Sandler was in it a couple times.
He was hilarious.

[Cactus Jack]

Adam Sandler, he had been on Remote Control before is five years of SNL , actually one seaosn he was a writer, 4 as a cast member

And oretty much everyone else mentioned the others

[TJL]

Originally posted by AKA
Maybe it's my mind playing tricks on me. I used to watch a lot of Comedy Central and recall seeing a lot of Jim Breuer and Norm Macdonald stand-up in the early '90s.

Norm Macdonald even had a half-hour special on HBO before he got SNL.

Norm was an established stand up comic, but he wasn't as well known in the comedy circles as say Billy Crystal..

Janeane Garafalo, Chris Elliot and Micheal McKean already had some TV and movie exposure before joining the SNL cast.

I think established performers had a tougher time when they joined the SNL cast. In the book "Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of SNL" Elliot and Garafalo weren't too happy about the way they were treated.
I think they expected to be treated with some sort of favortism, since they had a few pre SNL credits under thier belts. The didn't realize they had to constantly contribute to the writing of the show and fight for stage time with thier fellow performers.

Many a writer and SNL performer spend long days and nights at the SNL studios writing material for the show, and some couldn't handle that work schedule.