Saturday Night Live remains one of the top producers of comedic talent in show business. So many of the current and former cast members of the show have achieved incredible net worths because of their time on the show. More importantly, they've become huge stars who have contributed endlessly to entertainment.
Of course, SNL turned away a number of people who ended up becoming A-list talent. But they also hired eventual A-listers that fans don't even know spent time on SNL. Some now-famous actors and comedians worked on SNL for short periods and therefore never quite left a mark. Among them Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Larry David. But there's one sitcom legend that holds the title for the shortest-tenured cast member...
Who Is The Shortest-Tenured SNL Cast Member?
Even the biggest Saturday Night Live fan shouldn't beat on themselves too much for not knowing that Roseanne and The Conners star Laurie Metcalf was a cast member of the NBC sketch show. Even Seth Meyers claimed he didn't know that she was involved when he interviewed her on his late-night show. While she only did two bits for SNL, Laurie is listed as an official cast member. But Laurie herself doesn't really remember her brief time on the hit show. She can see that there's video proof but it all happened so quickly.
In fact, Laurie was only part of Saturday Night Live for five days in 1981, making her the shortest-tenured actor to appear on the show. During that time she did one pre-taped sketch for the show.
- Emily Prager was also hired for Laurie Metcalf's SNL episode but was cut from the show prior to air.
While Laurie Metcalf was only featured as a cast member for that one episode, she did return to SNL in 1988 for another pre-taped segment with Catherine O'Hara called "Laurie Has A Story". In the hilarious sketch, Laurie (who plays a character called 'Laurie' has an impossible time finishing her dinner party story.
But it was the "Weekend Update" sketch in 1981 that made Laurie an official cast member... albeit for one episode...
How Laurie Metcalf Was Cast On Saturday Night Live For One Episode
Laurie's background wasn't really in comedy. It was the theater that really gained her interest. She was one of the founders of the Chicago-based Steppenwolf Theater Troupe which also featured up-and-coming talents like John Malkovich and Gary Sinise. This is something Laurie is still involved with from an organizational standpoint. Former SNL cast member Tim Kazurinsky had seen Laurie perform in Chicago and suggested that she try out for the show. Of course, the tryouts for SNL are notoriously brutal. Andy Samberg has admitted to throwing up during the audition process. While Laurie wasn't made a regular cast member, she was given a job as a "man on the street" interviewer for a segment that was part of "Weekend Update" in 1981.
"They put me in an oversized suit with a small little crew and threw me out onto the street [asking people] 'Would you take a bullet for the President?'" Laurie explained to Seth during her 2018 interview. "Pretty soon there was a little crowd around us. I didn't know what I was doing. I had never been to New York. I didn't know where I was, what I was doing... [that is] the actor's nightmare."
During an interview with Vulture, Laurie admitted that her extremely brief time on SNL was like "a dream."
"It was so long ago and it was a whirlwind five days I spent in New York. I think it was my first trip to New York ever. I didn’t know anybody and I was put up in a hotel. They put me in a business suit and sent me out on the street with a little mini–camera crew. I was so out of my element; I had no idea what I was doing. But I know that I did it because there is proof, there is footage. When I see that, I realize I was very naïve and brave about it in a way. Like, Okay, you want me to do this? Okay, let’s go," Laurie explained.
Laurie was also part of a sketch that she had pitched called "Women From Mars". It featured Emily Prager who was eventually cut from the show as the sketch never made it to air.
"We were there to be tested, you know. Obviously [the sketch] didn’t work because they cut it before airtime. Which was a huge relief to me because I was scared to death. Acting is scary enough, but doing it live on TV, that’s got to be as stressful as it gets. I was not cut out to do something like that. First of all, you feel so under-rehearsed anyway. You have to be really loose and really confident. I don’t necessarily have those two traits. Live TV is completely nerve-racking to me," Laurie explained before saying that because of this, she wouldn't even host SNL if asked. "I really admire people who can do it."