THEINCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMEN ()F SATURDAYNIGHT L|VEllfl#lHilT,'l;;'l*lJ$ffi' Two DAysAFTER sHE \flAS FIRED FROM .s,qruR_ dayNight Live,' SarahSilverman, a23-year- old stand-up comic from New Hampshire, sits in an EastVillage cafe,as anonymous now as she was one year ago when exec- utive producer Lorne Michaels plucked her from NewYork's comedy circuit to be on his show.Dressed entirely in black, her dark hair framing her chiseledfeatures, pinched ffiw' now, the waifish comedienneseems at leastto embody something of the bohemian spirit the show once set out to capture.As her laundry tumbles in a dryer two blocks from here, next to the walk-up apartment she shareswith a roommate, Silverman clutches a page o{ noteshastily preparedfor this meeting."They don't know half the s--- we can do," ,,,W shesays of herselfand her "-^ three femalecolleagues at \-',.n4 ) \,,I---qreyf,'.\--fl*if the show(two of whom will alsoleave in lessthan conge- nial circumstanceswithin days). "God, they overlook so much talent!,' 'g: Hired in the fall of to beefup the num- ber of the show's women writers (from one to two - out of eighteen)and to be a some- times featured performer, Silverman was dis- missedvia a conferencecall from her agent and her managerlnot a word of explana- tion was offered bySNL. Michaels, she was told, was unreachablein Paris. lllustrationsby Philip Burke "I guessfiring me is really gonna help the shorv,"says Silverman Sweeneythinks shegot out in time. "I left when I did because to quit IighdS "but I'm over it, you know? There'snothing I can do, so I didn't want to become bitter," she saysof her decision SNL I'm not going to dwell on it." after four seasons."That's how all thosewomen who leave leave But talk of her return to a comedy club later this evening has are,you know?And I didn't want to be,so I thought: Better a deflatingeffect. Her 11o'clock gig will be tough - "Drunk New now.Run! Don't walk!" 'Show Yorkers: me you're funny!' " - and suddenlythe faqadeof EvenVictoria Jackson,who had steadfastlyrefused to criticize self-preservingcool drops like so many bad jokes at a Shriners' the place shecalled home for six years,has revisedher opinion. and convention. "They didn't even give me the chance to fail," she The morning after viewing ABC's short-lived SDeTV(written riled says,her voice cracking."The point is, I would not have! I mean, produced by, among others,two exiled SNL women), she's the man,Ihad plans for that show." up. "I was totally wrong," saysJackson. "I was underused.A// right! Like Silverman,Melanie Hutsell (a three-yearvet who made women were underused.The women who complained were her mark with over-the-topimpersonations of Jan BradyandTori SNL is a boy'sclub." male place," saysthe predecessorof them all, Spelling)got the ax, while Julia Sweeney(the androgynousPat) "It was a dark, quit after the last show of the season.'Whichleaves Ellen Cleg- original castmember JaneCurtin. "There was an overall feeling women were basicallyjust not funny'" horne (theAfrocentric Queen Shenequa)the solefemale survivor among the men that at of yet another SaturdayN4gDl massacre.When asked how she And apparently that opinion holds today, as much a tradition to managedto avoid the gender-specificpink slips,Cleghorne answers this tradition-encrustedestablishment as the tired format it refuses situation dryly:"Maybe it's'causeI havea kid.That's what giveup. Eventhough an obviousattempt to help correctthe hot come- somebody told me." was madethis summerwhen it was announcedthat (a fromThe As SaturdayNigbt Liue entersits historic 20th dienne-actressJaneane Garofalo standout and season,accompanied, no doubt, by great waves BenStiller Show,The Larry SandersSbow has of hoopla fanned by the puffed-up peacocknet- ,'rr, RealityBites\ had been hired, nothing much work (acommemorative book has already been **, comefrom it. Judgingby theearly episodes, to take releasedby Houghton Mifflin, and a prime- Garofalo hasn't beenspotlighted advantage of her obvious talents. time specialis irrthe works for the New Year). 1 "You only have to watch the show over a closer look behind the scenesreveals n W" Dunn, placethat hasn'talways been, shall we Ib\. the last 20 years," saysNora ePisode say,hospitable to women. With few lw-i \ whose 1990boycott of an Clay drew exceprions,the former and cur- hosted by Andrew Dice attention to the show's anachro- rent femalecast metnbers and stafi \ Z " Women contactedfor this piece describe nistic treatment of women. o \ never got much air time. It's not SNt as an institutionthat for two \ F becausewe weren't talented.It's decadeshas systematicallydisre- 4rl-o O becausewe were women." gardedwomen, giving them lessair i time than men.relegating them ,.THE ALWAYSGOT to secondaryroles and general- !(/OMEN saysMi- o ly treating them, well, not unlike the short shrift on SNL," 'Wayne one of the a way and Garth see themselves in the chaelO'Donoghue, fathers,a writer z presenceof greatness- as unworrhy. show'sfounding Z in says Louis-Dreyfus and performer who appeared "It was bad there," Julia a very first Z of her three seasonson the show."Pret-ty bad." the very first sketch of the "I think z "It's not a good place for women," offers broadcast."Frankly," he adds, Lorne was frightened of strong wo- Beth Cahill, a comedienne who was fired i: their a in1992 after just one seasonbecause, she I men.... He neverfavored was told, Michaels thought the show's humor that much." Reviledin his day for being extensive cast credits ran too long. o his "They crush your spirit." asbig a misogynistas 9S.US DECEMBE,R1994 1 * :1 * '-,, f n \ ,"'l ffil,p$*\F'' iM*F,1,,,, *.,*tir*lii" friend Belushi(O'l)onoghue '\Why John was quoredin the 19U5book of resentment: don't the girlsget a betterdeal here ? This isn't Saturday Night: A Bltckstdge 'saturday Histuvy of Night Liue' as fair, and we're going to make them pay attenrion to Lls.'Butulti- saying, "lt doeshelp when writing humor ro have a big hunk of mately, at the end of the line, therewas a degreeof justice- and I'm meat betweenthe lcgs"),O'Donoghuehas changed his tune in his not sayingthis just to be sucl<yro Lorne - but it was rrue. IJ.edid twilight years."C)f ,,'Women courseI didn'r believethat," he admits. have an appreciationof the female-orientedaspects of our culture.,' have tl-repotential to be as funny as men, but it's not encouraged Laraine Newman also defendstl-re show and saysthat she con- by society, ril/omen ,Are is it? laugh, nren losetheir hard-on: yon sideredMichaels to be "a E champion of wornen'smarerial.,' She first i laughingat this, honey?"' worked with him on a LilyTomlin specialwhen shewas 22 and !7hile SNL never exacrly pretended to be a bastion of feminism recallsthat the word about him "was a that he was a producerwho J (especiallywith Belushi's Z daily demandsthat the female writers be had a feel for women's humor that was unique, especiallyin 1974.,, fired), in its early days the show featuredwomen much more promi- But forJane Curtin it w:rsa very different situation,marked by the nently than today. ,,I'd Indeed,rhe casrwas most equitably divided dur- simple inability of thc men ro acceprrhe women as funny. never ing its first five years, za when it comprised three women (Curtin, experiencedit before," saysCurtin, from her home in Los Angeles. Laraine Newman and the late Gilda Radner) and (Belushi, four men "I found it mind-boggling. Every time they saw a woman being fun- )Z Chevy Chase,Dan - <Z Aykroyd and Garrett Morris Bill Murray ny on the show they were extremely complimentary but sort of replacedChase A .ri after the first season).There were also more women awestruck at the sametime, thinking it was somekind of mistake.,' )> writers (three out a) of fifteen) then than at any rime since. Had Michaels listened to O'Donoghue, who recommendedhir- One of those writers, Anne Beatts,says she was happy just to be tng stronger women writers, Curtin and her cronies might have fared getting equal pay LZ back then. "\7e did feel a responsibiiity to make better. "\ile wanted F'ranLebowitz," confides O,Donoghue, refer- sure they had more ,Mr. to do on the show than just say, Joneswill ring to the causticNew York humorist who has beencalled a mod- seeyou rlow,' " admits Beatts. "At the time I had a certain degree ern-dayDorothy Parker," but Lorne wouldn't permit it. .. There O: lOO.US DLCEMBER1994 York office beside a stack of videos of her best perfor- were funny women out there. They just didn't end up on that show'" licist's New ''We seasonson the show. The next morning "Don't believethem when they tell you, don't have more mances,culled from three road trip to a new start in Los Angeles' women who are up to our incredibly high standards becausewe she'll leaveon a cross-country before Silverman and in much the same man- can't find them,"'warns former SNLwriter Pam Norris. "I can't tell Fired a few days herselfto her new situation after going you how many times I was taken asideand told,'Bo5 we would ner, Hutsell has reconciled of "devastation' anger and depression' just love to hire more women' but you're the only good one'' To through the usual rounds ''Well, focus on the future," she says, "and myself'" which I'd respond, how many were there five minutes before Now i want to was 23 when Michaels hired her and her best you met me?None?!' " The Tennesseenative friend, Beth Cahill, away from a feminist the- \7hile a few women have occupied high-powered ater company in Chicago to ioin the cast' production positions, the writing staff has '91, The year was and the producer was always been composed largely of men.