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Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman — These are iconic comedians who are part of the foundation of Saturday Night Live. As the film Saturday Night gives us a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes drama before the show’s first episode, it somehow dismisses their contributions, and reduces them to fodder for their male counterparts. The men, including Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), Dan Aykroyd (Dylan O’Brien), Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), and John Belushi (Matt Wood), each get their own moments to shine, and key scenes to highlight both the idiosyncrasies of the characters, and the Saturday Night actors’ performances in these roles. Unfortunately, the females do not have the same opportunities.
This neglectful treatment hasn’t just been reserved for Saturday Night Live’s main players — the supporting roles of Jacqueline Carlin (Kaia Gerber), Joan Carbunkle (Catherine Curtin), and Valri Bromfield (Corinne Britti) are equally underused. They’re each paired off with a male scene partner, and give them all the good lines and drama. On any occasion when the women of Saturday Night have a chance to steal the spotlight, their roles are minimized to elevate the men.
Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, and Laraine Newman Are Practically Interchangeable in ‘Saturday Night’
In Saturday Night, much of the time that the female cast members of Saturday Night Live are on-screen, they are treated as a group rather than as individuals. While the men have a few standout sketches or personal arcs to show off, the main females are part of the scenery. With only seven original SNL cast members to showcase, you would have expected a more even distribution of sharing center stage.
This treatment of the women as a group is particularly prominent when it comes to their comedy work. For example, one of the main sketches they rehearse is the “Hard Hats,” one where they play a group of construction workers in training, who objectify Dan Aykroyd. In the film, Dan Aykroyd is getting all the laughs, hamming it up, feeling a little shy, and getting something to do, while the women are ornamental. In reality, that sketch plays out differently, with the women at the forefront of it, getting all the laughs for the reversal of gender roles. Aykroyd gets some too, but it’s a female-fronted sketch, reduced to spotlight Aykroyd in Saturday Night.
The women seem sort of interchangeable with one another in the film. Both Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) and Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) have scenes with Garrett Morris where they’re trying to help him overcome his insecurities. In Jane’s, it’s her one moment of having some proper lines in the film, and they’re used to uplift Morris, and then she goes swiftly into character to recite a mock commercial. Her impeccable talent with deadpan delivery is overlooked, even though her role on Saturday Night Live was so influential that she became the first female anchor of “Weekend Update” after Chevy Chase vacated the role. There is zero insight into what she is actually like as a person, yet she is a talented comedian who went on to have an extremely successful career on such beloved television as Kate & Allie, and 3rd Rock from the Sun.
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In Saturday Night, Gilda Radner constantly sacrifices herself to uplift those around her. Gilda also helps Garrettt, and is the one who encourages him to sing his big number towards the film’s finale. Besides driving Garrett’s arc, she also chases John Belushi out of the studio to try and encourage him to sign his contract. This is Gilda Radner we’re talking about — she’s regarded as one of the greatest comedians of the era, and none of her talents are on display. During her Emmy-Award-winning tenure on Saturday Night Live, she created many memorable characters, such as Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and the “Baba Wawa” parody of Barbara Walters. Of the three main original female cast members, she left the biggest impact, and had she not passed away at the young age of 42, who knows what else she would have produced.
We can’t forget Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn) who spends what little on-screen time she’s given either fading into the background among the other females, or perfecting a quick costume change. But mostly, her arc is sacrificed in favor of portraying Dan Aykroyd’s womanizing ways. While she is busy quietly pining after Dan Aykroyd, he is more interested in his new love interest, Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott).
Writer Rosie Shuster is Treated Like the Mother of the Show
It’s not just the beloved female cast members of Saturday Night Live who get their roles reduced to glorify the men. Rosie Shuster, a renowned writer for the show, is portrayed as the glue that’s holding everyone together. While in real life she’s responsible for co-creating some of the most iconic sketches and characters of SNL’s early era. H ere, she is a mother figure, mediating between the boys, and massaging their egos. She is a sounding board for her estranged husband Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) as she tries to calm his anxieties. She tries to convince John Belushi that he looks great in his bee costume and should sign his contract. She reassures Dan Aykroyd that Lorne is OK with their relationship. Any backstory of Rosie’s that she discusses is concerning her relationship with Lorne. She talks about how they met at a young age, grew up in comedy together, and work together now — everything about her is relayed back to her relationship with Lorne. There is no mention of who she is as a person or a writer in her own right, so much so that it might require a Google to figure out how she actually fit into the structure of Saturday Night Live.
If that’s how Rosie Shuster and the three female cast members are depicted, there was no chance for the other supporting females in Saturday Night. Kaia Gerber plays Jacqueline Carlin, who is shown to be just the girlfriend of Chevy Chase. She manages to rouse some jealousy in him to advance his bickering scene with Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons). Valri Bromfield is second fiddle to Billy Crystal (Nicholas Podany) as they work on their routines together. He gets to show off his entire concept, she helps him out with it, and then when she manages to steal his time slot on the show, she does so mutely while he’s still the one with all the dialogue.
The Men in ‘Saturday Night’ Get Their Time to Shine
In contrast to how the women are portrayed, either as a group or as fodder for the men, many of the males get their own mini-arcs, personalities, or at least some sort of role that benefits them rather than another character. Obviously, Lorne Michaels is the main character that Saturday Night revolves around, and he takes the audience with him on a journey through the chaos backstage. He also has clear motivations, desires, an ego, a personality, a backstory, insecurities, and an arc that plays out across the film.
It’s fair enough that showrunner Lorne Michaels gets the best character development in the story. But for the original cast members, while the women are clumped together or serving the men’s narratives, each of the men gets their own time to be the focus of their scenes. Chevy Chase gets to show off his personality, his perceived charm, his swagger, and his ego. Dan Aykroyd is a bit of a cad, loved by everyone, and a very funny performer. John Belushi has doubts about signing his contract, and gets to star in at least two almost full scenes during rehearsals. Garrett Morris gets a tidy character arc that shows off both his vulnerabilities and his talents. Jane gets a short impression, Laraine gets to pine after Dan, and Gilda gets to worry about everyone else except for herself. Why don’t they get their moments to shine?
Saturday Night is much more interested in the contributions of the men behind the show than the women who changed comedy forever. The women are either interchangeable in their motivations or lumped together as a group. Any individual time they get is reductive and in support of the male cast. With such comedy legends as Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, and Gilda Radner overlooked and brushed aside for their male colleagues, it skews the impact that they had in creating a comedy revolution — they were the revolution.
At 11:30 PM on October 11, 1975, a group of young comedians and writers changed television history. The film, directed by Jason Reitman, captures the chaos and creativity behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live,” highlighting the birth of an iconic show.
- Release Date
- October 11, 2024
- Director
- Jason Reitman
Saturday Night is now in theaters. Click below for showtimes.
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