Semi-Pro
SNL at the Movies
October 14, 2009
by David Krell
david@davidkrell.com
Saturday Night Live is in its 35th season.
35 years of sketches, recurring characters, and Weekend Update.
35 years of Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!
35 years of laughter.
Shortly after it premiered in 1975, cast members started appearing in movies. They soon became box office gold.
Animal House, Caddyshack, Beverly Hills Cop, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, Stripes, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Land of the Lost, Old School, Ghostbusters, Trading Places, Scrooged, Seems Like Old Times, Tootsie, Tommy Boy, 48 Hours, Driving Miss Daisy, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, Dr. Doolittle, Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and Shrek.
These movies all starred or featured at least one SNL cast member in a prominent role.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are not and were never cast members of Saturday Night Live, but their numerous appearances as guest host arguably give them honorary cast member status.
Add their movies to the SNL cast member movie roster.
Altogether, the total box office gross of these movies will likely be in the billions.
Quite a contribution for a show that was christened Saturday Night Dead by the media at several times in its history.
Saturday Night Live cast members leave Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the big screen.
It’s part of the show’s history dating back to a little movie directed by John Landis that captures America’s fascination with a time that was simpler -- before the Vietnam War, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.
The setting was 1962.
The film was National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Produced on a budget reportedly less than $3 million in 1978, Animal House became a pop culture icon, conquered the box office dragon, and secured John Belushi’s rightful place as a box office attraction.
He was the first SNL cast member to truly break through the television-film barrier.
Belushi was also a good dramatic actor. The romantic comedy Continental Divide pits Belushi’s hardened, cynical, Chicago newspaper columnist Ernie Souchak against Blair Brown’s environmentally aware eagle researcher Nell Porter.
Belushi died in 1981 from a drug overdose at the age of 33. His premature death prevented us from knowing the true depths of his acting talents.
But Belushi’s breakthrough role as Bluto in Animal House set a trend that continues today.
From Eddie Murphy to Mike Myers.
From Dan Aykroyd to Tina Fey.
From Bill Murray to Will Ferrell.
david@davidkrell.com
Saturday Night Live is in its 35th season.
35 years of sketches, recurring characters, and Weekend Update.
35 years of Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!
35 years of laughter.
Shortly after it premiered in 1975, cast members started appearing in movies. They soon became box office gold.
Animal House, Caddyshack, Beverly Hills Cop, Wayne’s World, Wedding Crashers, Stripes, Meatballs, The Blues Brothers, Foul Play, Land of the Lost, Old School, Ghostbusters, Trading Places, Scrooged, Seems Like Old Times, Tootsie, Tommy Boy, 48 Hours, Driving Miss Daisy, Anchorman, Semi-Pro, Dr. Doolittle, Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and Shrek.
These movies all starred or featured at least one SNL cast member in a prominent role.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are not and were never cast members of Saturday Night Live, but their numerous appearances as guest host arguably give them honorary cast member status.
Add their movies to the SNL cast member movie roster.
Altogether, the total box office gross of these movies will likely be in the billions.
Quite a contribution for a show that was christened Saturday Night Dead by the media at several times in its history.
Saturday Night Live cast members leave Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center for the big screen.
It’s part of the show’s history dating back to a little movie directed by John Landis that captures America’s fascination with a time that was simpler -- before the Vietnam War, the JFK assassination, and Watergate.
The setting was 1962.
The film was National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Produced on a budget reportedly less than $3 million in 1978, Animal House became a pop culture icon, conquered the box office dragon, and secured John Belushi’s rightful place as a box office attraction.
He was the first SNL cast member to truly break through the television-film barrier.
Belushi was also a good dramatic actor. The romantic comedy Continental Divide pits Belushi’s hardened, cynical, Chicago newspaper columnist Ernie Souchak against Blair Brown’s environmentally aware eagle researcher Nell Porter.
Belushi died in 1981 from a drug overdose at the age of 33. His premature death prevented us from knowing the true depths of his acting talents.
But Belushi’s breakthrough role as Bluto in Animal House set a trend that continues today.
From Eddie Murphy to Mike Myers.
From Dan Aykroyd to Tina Fey.
From Bill Murray to Will Ferrell.