R.I.P. Jan Hooks

[The Borgified Corpse]

^I read about that before. Makes me sad since I think they're both funny. To quote Adam Sandler from another sketch: "We don't want you to hate! We want you to love!" (Actually, I think that was in a Jan Hooks sketch where she was playing Sinead O'Connor apologizing for ripping up a picture of the Pope.)

(Although, most of my affection for Victoria Jackson comes from when she played that ditzy TV reporter on The X-Files.)

 

[J.T.B.]

Also she was on SNL in a time where there were only two women on the show. Her and Victoria Jackson, after Nora Dunn left over the Anthony Dice Clay controversy.

In my mind, Julia Sweeney came in when Dunn left, but I see she was only a featured player that year.

The Hooks/Carvey/Hartman/Lovitz etc. cast is the one I associate with my high school years. I can remember very well watching the SNL season premiere in 1986 (that same October that Red Sox fans remember so well); it began basically with an apology for the previous season. A few sketches in, you definitely had a feeling that the show was not dead yet, and by the end of 90 minutes a full turn-around seemed possible. I always felt Hooks was a key part of that. I recognized her from Pee Wee's Big Adventure (as well as Hartman) and she quickly became one of my favorites. She could play hilarious original characters, do dead-on impressions, or just be a straight ingenue or girl next door. IMO she was one of very few SNL women who were on a level with SCTV's Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin. Ever since, from Jiminy Glick to 30 Rock, seeing Jan Hooks' name on something meant something extra to me. I'm really sorry to see her go.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

1986 began with an apology for the previous season? That's interesting. SNL's party line has always seemed like "All the casts are good" even if nobody agrees with that. I guess I've never seen that episode. I might have to get the complete collection for 1986-1987 when it comes out.

I don't know how much time there was between Nora Dunn leaving and Julia Sweeney joining. I just saw a lot of old episodes on Comedy Central back when they showed four or five old episodes a day, and I remember the episode Kyle McLaughlin hosted the week before the Twin Peaks murderer reveal where they made a point that they couldn't do three of the Twin Peaks characters because there were only two women in the cast.

That was a hilarious sketch by the way, accurately making fun of Twin Peaks by showing Cooper drawing out the murder investigation when it was obvious (To the audience at the time) that Leo Johnson was the killer.

 

[1001001]

Have they ever announced what she died from? I never heard a cause, other than a "serious illness".

I was thinking about that duet she did with her "daughter" Jenna on 30 Rock. "Do That to Me One More Time..."



Man, she was funny.

 

[J.T.B.]

1986 began with an apology for the previous season? That's interesting. SNL's party line has always seemed like "All the casts are good" even if nobody agrees with that. I guess I've never seen that episode.

The cold open had Madonna come out and introduce herself (huge applause, she was maybe the biggest thing in the world at the time) and say she had been asked to read a statement. The statement was something to the effect that the last season had been only a "horrible, horrible dream." Big laugh. Of course that was around the time of the whole "Bobby Ewing was alive again because the previous season of Dallas was all a dream" thing. So, maybe not an apology, but it sure seemed like an acknowledgement that something had not been right the year before.

Have they ever announced what she died from? I never heard a cause, other than a "serious illness".

It has been reported to have been cancer, but I haven't seen anything more specific.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

1986 began with an apology for the previous season? That's interesting. SNL's party line has always seemed like "All the casts are good" even if nobody agrees with that. I guess I've never seen that episode. I might have to get the complete collection for 1986-1987 when it comes out.

IIRC, that's the first season when Lorne Michaels came back. Other than some of the Eddie Murphy sketches, Michaels tries very hard to ignore the early 1980s stuff where he wasn't involved.

 

[J.T.B.]

IIRC, that's the first season when Lorne Michaels came back. Other than some of the Eddie Murphy sketches, Michaels tries very hard to ignore the early 1980s stuff where he wasn't involved.

1985 was the year Michaels returned, with a younger and actor-heavy cast: Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Nora Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid, Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance. Damon Wayans was featured but was fired part-way through the season. It was pretty much a disaster, and everyone knew it. The discussion around the show became basically "How bad is it going to get?" It has been reported that the decision to cancel the show had already been made, but Lorne Michaels' manager Bernie Brillstein convinced Brandon Tartikoff to let Michaels have one more shot. The cast was let go except for three with stage comedy backgrounds: Miller, Lovitz and Dunn.

Since then, the show has had some rough years, but it has become an institution and I don't think cancellation has been considered as seriously, they just re-tool for the next season.