Top 20 Cast Members screwed over by SNL:
1. Michaela Watkins (Midseason 2008- 1/2 seasons): So many memorable characters in half a season and that's the thanks she gets?
2. Luke Null (2017 1 season): If you're going to hire a musical guitarist and not use them once on the guitar, what's the point of the experience for either party?
3. Paul Britain (2010 1 1/2 seasons)-Wtf? Firing him midseason for almost no reason (I believe it was budget concerns) and then putting out a false press release that it was an amicable split?
4. Gilbert Gottfried (1980)-Gottfried said that the writers hated him and maybe it was a two-way street of antagonism, but he never got to show off his signature comic style. Shouldn't the writers have to bend to the star?
5. Casey Wilson-(midseason 2007-2008 1 1/2 seasons)-According to sources, the SNL producers wanted her to lose weight and she didn't lose enough. The consensus was that she was capable but not a stand-out by most counts, but if the rumors are true, that's the cruelest thing SNL has done.
6. Laura Holt (2020 1 season)-Give the woman a break! She came on during a 20-member cast which was the biggest cast in history at the time (just five years prior, the cast size was 15). Yes, there's a sink-or-swim mentality, but her lack of screen time could have been excused considering the heightened level of competition from an uber-bloated cast.
7-8-9. Brooks Whelan, John Milhiser, Noelle Wells (2013 1 season)-
This trio had the bad luck of being hired when the audience started to care about the racial make-up of the cast. Reports from Brooks echo the fact that they were shut out of the writing process quite a bit (maybe also due to cast overcrowding?). But come on, it's not their fault that they're white.
10. Michael O'Donoghue (1975 less than one season in opening credits with an asterisk)-I see fan art and memes about the original seven cast members all the time. This guy will forever be linked with the history of the additional cast to die-hard fans, but he deserves to be remembered in casual pop culture way as an original cast member. He was in the very first sketch that aired in show history. He had his name in the credits for much of the first season, so he should properly be called an original cast member.
11. Anne Riseley (1980 1/2 season)-She was just as capable a cast member as the ones who were able to withstand the mass firing of 1981.
12. Norm MacDonald (1994 4 seasons)-Yes, he got to stay far longer than anyone else on this list but there is the issue of him being kicked out due to blatant backstage politics
13. Tim Robinson (2012 1 season)-A more than capable player who got his own show, and a place in the writing room after he was demoted from stage performer. Still, we already know just how much potential he has. SNL really needed him during the mid-2010s.
14. Nancy Wall (1995 1 season)-Pretty much everyone from the 1995 cast got a fair shake. In hindsight, it seems foolish not to have given David Koechner a second season now that we've seen his versatility. Back then, he was mostly playing obnoxious and brusque characters. Nancy Walls, on the other hand, held down the fort for the ladies along with Molly Shannon and Cheri Oteri. There were usually only three women prior to 2000 and she was a massive improvement over the more one-note female characters in the first half of the decade (Melanie Hutsell, for example). Unfortunately, she's now mostly known as Mrs. Steve Carell who guested for a few episodes of The Office
15. Jerry Minor (2000 1 season)-Introduced along with Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey and a year before Seth and Amy, Jerry Minor proved a very gifted utility man who got crowded out by a much larger cast. They should have still recognized his talent.
16. Damon Wayans-(1985 1/2 season)-Fired on the spot over an ad-lib. A little cruel, no? Fortunately, he did get to host in 1995.
17, 18. Laurie Metcalfe and Emily Prager (midseason 1981, 1 episode)-They were supposed to work the back half of the midseason but the writer's strike took over one episode into their reign, so these are the two shortest cast members in SNL history. Laurie Metcalfe did eventually get famous from Roseanne.
19. Jon Rudnitsky (2015, 1 season)-A capable sketch player who could make sketches funny (like Nasty Jack with Miley Cyrus or Space Pants with Peter Dinklage). I could have seen his fate going the other way
20. Randy Quaid (1985, 1 season)-A genuinely funny cast member who's time was cut short in a reboot. With Oscar nominations and a film career, he seemed overly qualified for SNL anyway.
Other candidates:
Janeane Garofolo (half a season starting with 1994) and Chris Elliott (the full 1994-1995 season) were both really unhappy on the show, but they got ample opportunities to blame the show while they were there which is a privilege few other cast members have enjoyed. Jeaneane was let out of her contract so that's kind of a win in my book.
Shane Gillis (2017) Some have argued that he should have been suspended or put on some indeterminate leave while they saw whether his character improved or he could do an apology tour, but he was never a cast member so not up for consideration
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