Your impression of his acting skills is yours to have but it would be silly to deny he’s had a very successful career. His career “exploded” by any reasonable definition. The same could be said for:
Chevy Chase
Bill Murray
Will Ferrell
Bill Hader
Jimmy Fallon
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Seth Meyers
Eddie Murphy
Mike Myers
Laurie Metcalf
Amy Poehler
Adam Sandler
Jason Sudeikis
Kristen Wiig
And I’m sure I’m forgetting many more.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Laurie Metcalf are the definition of actors who used SNL as a launchpad for later success. They weren’t known because of the show. They were the Ellen Cleghornes of their day.
Amy Poehler got lucky with Parks & Recreation, but isn’t really known for anything outside that. Jasonn Sudekis got lucky with *Ted Lasso", but isn’t really known for anything outside that. Bill Hader had to fight hard to get a show he wrote for himself on the air. It worked and was a success, but that’s still all he’s known for. Kristen Wiig has had a good run of sidekick roles in movies but has never been the lead in a big part.
Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers got moved over from Weekend Update to similar roles on The Late Show. Which is executive produced by Lorne Michaels. Not a coincidence. Does anyone remember that Fallon was supposed to be a big movie star and then failed miserably?
That leaves six who can be said to have exploded. Tina Fey needs to be added to that list. John Belushi was huge for his short life, as was John Candy. Billy Crystal and Martin Short got big but didn’t explode directly from their stints. Robert Downey Jr. is as big as any of them, but he’s another Laurie Metcalf. The show has employed dozens of people that nobody remembers was part of the cast.
So after the original cast, there may be a dozen who got famous from the show and went on to a fabulous starring career - if we include names I can’t think of right now. That’s not even as long as your list.
I don’t know how you define a big part. Wiig was in both Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters, and while I haven’t seen the latter, the former made $169 million in the US and Canada on a $32 million budget.
So maybe being a cast member on SNL gives good luck, but quite a few have ended up being just much luckier than most others trying to make careers in comedy. Relative to working stand up gigs I’d count that whole list as having highly successful careers.
Consider counting Steve Martin sort of. Never a cast member, and already launched really as a writer for The Smothers Brothers, but really most had SNL as their first conscious exposure to him. Lucky pretty much ever since.
And while I’m no fan of Fred Armisen, his career has certainly been successful since SNL.
The show is magically delicious I guess!
Personally, I think anyone who can make a decent living acting is successful. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd can’t be the standard by which we measure success. If you’re getting steady work and can provide for you and your family, you’re a succesful actor.
We’re obviously using different definitions of “exploded” here, as well as “success,” “star,” and probably “funny,” “decent,” “adequate,” “amusing,” “tolerable,” “employable” and about half the other words in the dictionary, but I’m talking about people like Tina Fey and Steve Martin who used SNL as a base from which they launched careers that (maybe) will be remembered fifteen minutes after they pass from this veil of tears. Just starring in a movie that made bling-bling-bling dollars is a given, given that that’s what movie producers do, give shots to young obscure talents on the off-chance that they actually have talent. Most of them don’t, which doesn’t prevent another movie producer from taking a second chance on them, or a third, but numbers (ticket sales, salaries, mansions afforded, etc.) do not a career make, from the lofty artistic standard I am applying here to “exploding star.” To qualify, one quick and dirty definition might be “known primarily for achievements beyond the SNL phase of their careers.” Eddie Murphy’s obit will mention SNL in the third or fourth sentence–Jon Lovitz’s will consist of his SNL career.
The important word is “lead.” Both Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters were ensemble movies. Wiig wasn’t the star.
In Hollywood, this distinction is everything.
I didn’t see Ghostbusters but I did see Bridesmaids, she wasn’t the lead? I don’t mean to be contentious, but she was clearly the focus of the movie. She even wrote the movie.
She absolutely co-wrote the movie and intended the main part for her. But, IMO, the part of Annie (the name of the other co-writer Annie Mumolo, interestingly) is not meant to be the lead role the way Bill Hader’s Barry was meant to be the lead role or Mike Meyer’s Austin Powers was meant to be the lead role or even the way Frank Ocean (superstars Sinatra and Clooney) was the lead role in the classic and remake versions of Ocean’s Eleven, usually referred to as ensemble movies.
I did see Ghostbusters and thought Wiig, McKinnon, and McCarthy were co-stars the way Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis were in the original. I’d put Bridesmaids in that same category.
Even if you don’t, what big movie has she been the lead in since? Looking at the list, she’s always second to some real star. Matt Damon in The Martian, Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman.
True, she and Mumolo co-wrote Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar for her to star in (literally as Star - Annie played Barb). I didn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t another Bridesmaids.
I said she has had a solid career, plus lots of voice work, and I’m sure she’s made millions. But she’s not on the same level as Sandler or Ferrell, who created empires.
I don’t understand why you are using “exploded” and “created empires” as a measure of “success.” Most folk come to SNL from low paying gigs. They are paid decently but not hugely at SNL. For folk to leave SNL and subsequently earn millions from steady work seems pretty successful to me.
Honestly, it is hard to find many people that have done worse after SNL. There are arguably a few.
But there are certainly a fair number who, while working, are most famous FOR SNL. Cheri Oteri and Darrel Hammond have worked outside SNL, but never made a big splash. By contrast an Amy Poehler or Phil Hartman are now better known for their work outside the show.
Being the star of a huge, huge critically acclaimed show is a big deal. I’m not sure what these people need to do to acknowledge that SNL sent them on a trajectory to stardom. Julia Louis-Dreyfus can’t be the standard.
Huh? Kristen Wiig was the star of one of the most successful and critically acclaimed comedies in the last thirty or forty years of cinema, and got an Oscar nomination for writing it. No, she wasn’t just one of an ensemble cast; she was the star. She played the protagonist. The movie is about her character; her character’s arc is the film’s central arc. She has more screen time and more dialogue than anyone else. She’s first billed.
John Candy wasn’t even on SNL as a cast member, man. He hosted the show after he was already famous.
Because I was responding to slidedalone’s use of the word exploded in post #56. My point is not that I disagree with his saying that very few cast members “exploded” but that the world of comedy stars is quite small. Most of the ones who make it big come from stand-up, not sketch comedy. People have odd expectations for SNL veterans, because they base them on the tiny number of exceptions.
I was confusing him with Chris Farley. Sorry. But the same applies.
As for Wiig, I keep saying she’s had a fine career. Good for her.
It’s an understandable mistake. Every time Lorne Michaels sees a fat comedian, an angel gets his wings. (Stolen from David Spade).
And isn’t it wiser (and more self-aware) to realize that you may not do better by quitting your job… while you still have the job?
I can think of so many from SNL who didn’t go on to anything better, or their “better thing” was canceled.
I watch a lot of comedy, and I’ve watched SNL since Season One, so I looked up a complete list of cast members… and I didn’t even recognize some of them. John Milhiser, Luke Null, Denny Dillon, Gail Matthius, Finesse Mitchell, Siobhan Fallon, Melanie Hutsell, Beth Cahill… the list of “not a star, although they tried a show or some stand-up” is long.
SNL is an extremely hard job as acting jobs go; it’s very high stress, eats up a shitload of time, and most of its cast aren’t really paid all that much by TV/movie standards. One or two seasons starring in a sitcom, or a few supporting roles in film, can make an SNL cast member far more money than a season on SNL for less work. The people we think of as not doing as well as others after the show -let’s say, I dunno, David Spade or Vanessa Bayer - likely never regretted leaving.
Why Thompson is still on it is something of a mystery, but maybe he loves it, they really are planning to make him the successor to Lorne Michaels, or both.
I read an interview with him where he was asked about this. His answer, “You see that big stack of movie scripts on my desk? No? Neither do I.”
While Kristen Whigg might not be Eddie Murphy in the 80s level of successful, she’s very successful. Lead Roles in: Bridesmaids, Adventureland, Macgruber, Girl Most Likely, The secret life of walter mitty, Welcome to me, Masterminds, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, Ensemble: Ghostbusters, Supporting roles: Whip It, Despicable Me franchise, Wonder Woman 1984.
Not to mention the various walk ons, Zoolander 2, Anchorman 2, or TV shows: Last Man on Earth, Arrested Development (Lucille when younger).
She seems to have her own quirky indy style on her own projects which might niche her, but they keep giving her money to make them, so they can’t have been that unsuccessful. (I’ve spotted a few I’d missed I’ve added to my list though, being unaware of them before).
And as for Dan Aykroyd, both the Blues Brothers AND Ghostbusters pretty much made him a superstar, never mind being in Dragnet, Trading Places, also never minding: 1941, Driving Miss Daisy, Coneheads, Indiana Jones and the temple of doom, Spies like Us, My Stepmother is an alien, Neighbours, Sneakers, The great outdoors, Grosse Point Blank, some a lot better than others, and a bunch of others BEFORE 2000.
Dr. Detroit.
I just watched Adventureland last night, and I wouldn’t call her role or Bill Hader’s lead. Wiig (not Whigg) maybe had five to ten (although that’s pushing it) minutes of screentime total. I was looking forward to seeing both more of her and Hader, but they were colorful background characters.