OKLAHOMA CITY -- After eight seasons on “Saturday Night Live,” Will Forte, the show’s funniest male player, bails. The New York Times reports the 36th season of SNL will premiere in September without the sketch show staple.
Will Forte as MacGruber (NBC)
Forte joined “SNL” in 2002 after writing stints at “That ‘70s Show” and “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Along with his writing partner, John Solomon, who may also be out as staff writer, Forte developed some of the show’s most absurd and hilariously zany characters.
Solomon and Forte most famously co-wrote the big-screen adaptation of “MacGruber,” but for my money, he wasn’t their funniest character. Hamilton, the creepy, lurking funeral guy was always nonsensically funny. Andy, the “oh no” guy always made me laugh out loud.
Who could forget the uncomfortably awkward political candidate Tim Calhoun? And The Falconer, in all its ridiculous absurdity, ranks up there as one of my all time favorites.
Several websites are also reporting that Executive Producer Lorne Michaels will tap the usual improv wells of the Groundlings and Second City for two to three new faces for next season. Without Forte, Michaels still has a solid male cast with Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan, Jason Sudeikis and Keenan Thompson.
Hader and Moynihan stand to benefit most from the departure of one the cast’s most-tenured members. Both Forte and Armisen joined the show eight years ago. For the past two seasons or so, Forte’s appearances have been scattered. On the other hand, the very talented Armisen shows up in most sketches.
Jason Sudeikis fills the slot of “this generation’s Phil Hartman.” He’s the handsome, average looking guy, who plays the dad or the straight guy in most pieces. Sudeikis doesn’t have nearly the depth of branded characters that Hartman had, but his Todd Palin, Joe Biden and “a-hole” characters are all solid.
Moynihan is going into his third season, and maybe this year he’ll be promoted out of the featured players bullpen in to permanent cast. Master impressionist Bill Hader continues to impress with funny bits like Vinny Vedecci, “Dateline NBC’s” Keith Morrison and his spot on James Carville.
Andy Samberg makes me laugh with his Digital Shorts, but that’s about it. I’d be fine with having him relegated to the digital-short format and taken out of the live sketches entirely.
Having lost the show’s funniest, most reliable cast member ever, Amy Pohler (I do, in fact, think she is the all-time best), Kristen Wiig has carried the torch as the “SNL” lead comic flawlessly. Wiig is surrounding by two wonderfully funny supporting players in Jenny Slate and Nasim Pedrad.
Pedrad debuted one of my favorite bits last season, Bedelia, the awkward teenager who thinks her parents are the coolest. Easily one of the top five segments from Season 35. Weekend Update, with head writer Seth Meyers, is as funny as it's ever been, mainly because they've really upped their game in the guest character department. Wiig and Forte especially have flourished in that slot.
Ever since I was old enough to have a television in my room, about 1990, I’ve loved show and haven’t missed an episode. I’ve stuck around through several iterations of the popular sentiment of “’SNL” isn’t as funny as it used to be.”
I’ve always enjoyed it. Sure, there have been clunkers here and there. Of course there have been some casting guffaws (Janeane Garofalo, Jay Mohr, Rob Riggle, Jeff Richards), but I never got to the “Entourage” point of our television-viewing relationship.
I used to like “Entourage,” and then it became utterly ridiculous and lazy, and now I must watch out pure loathing. I’ve always stuck with “SNL,” even in “down years,” and I always will.
Watching the show began as an act of rebellious youth. I thought I was watching something I usually wouldn’t be able to watch. Also, it was a connection that my junior high friends and I had. The show gave us endless inside-joke material. We thought we had the inside track. We thought that none of our classmates knew about “SNL.” If they did, they didn’t watch it; and, if they did watch, they couldn’t get the jokes like we got the jokes.
I still get the jokes, and they’ll keep coming even without out the hilariously underplayed and subdued performances of Forte.
Season 36 kicks off Sept. 25, yet the host and musical guest has yet to be announced. Jane Lynch (“Glee”) is slated to host the Oct. 9 episode.
Here’s one of the Ken Mortimer (The Falconer) bits:
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