LOS ANGELES, Oct. 23 (UPI) — Comedy veteran Laraine Newman this year is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Groundlings comedy troupe and 50th season of Saturday Night Live, of which she was in the original cast.
On Thursday, Newman, 72, will host the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center Hollywood, Health & Society Sentinel Awards, which began in 2000.
“Norman Lear has been so meaningful in all of our lives,” Newman told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “I grew up watching his shows, so I was really thrilled to be asked.”
The Hollywood, Health & Society program provides resources for television and movies dealing with health, safety and security, connecting productions with experts on those topics. The Sentinel Awards honor shows that “inform, educate and motivate” through their depiction of health and social issues, according to the center.
Winners were announced Oct. 16 and will receive their awards Thursday at the Writers Guild Theater in Los Angeles. Winners include Abbott Elementary for its depiction of smoking and vaping and Feud: Capote vs. the Swans for its depiction of end-of-life.
Newman said she appreciates art that conveys messages about social topics, “especially in comedy. It makes it so much more palatable. I think it makes a more lasting impression on people.”
50 years of ‘Saturday Night Live’
Saturday Night Live began its 50th season Sept. 28. Newman debuted on the show’s premiere, Oct. 11, 1975, with castmates Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris.
“A lot of my favorite sketches are ones that are the full cast,” Newman said.
One of those sketches was “Superhero Party,” in which each cast member played a different comic book character. Host Margot Kidder reprised her movie role of Lois Lane.
“John Belushi plays The Hulk, Garrett Morris is Ant Man and Danny as the Flash,” Newman said. “The jokes are fantastic.”
Newman was a regular in Coneheads sketches. The aliens, created by Aykroyd and Tom Davis, required elaborate makeup to extend the heads of Aykroyd, Curtin and Newman.
“There was so much involved with anchoring the cones and then putting on makeup that will obscure the lines of the cone,” Newman said. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.”
Though Newman was surprised to be detailing the Coneheads 50 years later, she said few have noticed over the years that the Coneheads always appeared early in the show. This is because the long makeup application had to be done before the live broadcast began.
The movie ‘Saturday Night’ vs. reality
The 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live coincides with the release of the movie, Saturday Night. The movie is set on Oct. 11, 1975, in the 90 minutes before the first show aired.
“I would say it is a pure work of fiction, but I really do enjoy the feeling that [director] Jason Reitman got,” Newman said. “I enjoyed it.”
Emily Fairn plays Newman in the film. Though the movie focuses on producer Lorne Michaels’ (Gabriel LaBelle) efforts to solve behind-the-scenes issues, the cast gets some screen time.
Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt) reassures Newman when Newman’s character is unsure of her place in the ensemble. Radner’s character also reassures Morris (Lamorne Morris), who feels he does not have enough lines, and Belushi (Matt Wood), who is unsure about even staying with the show.
Newman said the film got Radner’s personality right.
“She was very nurturing and supportive,” Radner said. “She was a good friend.”
Though the film dramatizes much of the events of Oct. 11, Newman said it paid off when the film concluded with a recreation of the very first SNL sketch. Wood and Tommy Dewey, as head writer Michael O’Donoghue, re-enact the sketch in which Belushi is an immigrant taking English lessons.
“Then Chevy comes on and says, ‘Live from New York,’ you hear the theme song,” Newman said. “It was very moving.”
50 years of The Groundlings
Newman was one of the founding members of The Groundlings comedy troupe in 1974. She worked with Michaels on a 1975 Lily Tomlin special and then Saturday Night Live.
SNL would recruit many Groundlings for future casts including Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Jimmy Fallon and Kristen Wiig. Outside of SNL, The Groundlings also trained comedians like Melissa McCarthy, Jennifer Coolidge and Paul Reubens.
The Groundlings teaches improv and sketch comedy and runs a theater in Los Angeles. In her time, Newman approached The Groundlings differently.
“I’m not the greatest improviser,” Newman said. “When I was in The Groundlings, I did character monologues.”
One of Newman’s Groundlings monologues found a place in a SNL sketch. She plays a cabin attendant in group therapy with Don Corleone (Belushi).
“That whole monologue was from The Groundlings — that one of the Valley girl talking about ‘everybody was so immature,'” Newman said.
Newman has joined fellow Groundlings for anniversary celebrations in which she has joined improvisation exercises.’
“I did improvs with people that I’ve seen develop and grow in The Groundlings, but I’ve never worked with them,” Newman said. “Because we all have this commonality of the technique of improv, it worked beautifully.”
