The 1970s’ Most Hilarious SNL Cast Members

Since it began in 1975, “Saturday Night Live” has been a major cultural force, with the Lorne Michaels’ show being an incubation lab for many of the greatest comedic minds of recent generations. Week after week, live from New York, the show has delivered countless great sketches that skewer sacred cows, provide vital, hilarious social commentary, or are just plain funny in off the wall ways. 

While SNL remains one of America’s finest and most consistent sources of laughter to this day, ask an aficionado of the show when the show was at its best and you will undoubtedly get the same response: the 1970s. The original cast members as well as the greats who came within a few years are to many the best comedians in the history of the series. Read on for the 1970s six greatest SNL cast members, which may also be interpreted as the best SNL cast members, period.

Al Franken and Tom Davis

These two comics are inexplicably linked with each other, as the Franken & Davis duo performed countless sketches together in their relatively short time on the show (the two were cast members from 1977 to 1980, while Franklin returned in 1986 and again in 1988, staying until 1995). They were also writers on the show from the beginning. 

For fans who missed their collaborations, the good news is that they also worked on many projects together outside of the show, including the feature film “One More Saturday Night” which they wrote and starred in. On top of that, when Franken hosted the radio show “The Al Franken Show,” Davis was a regular guest. Their sharp wit was unique, and their chemistry was the stuff of comedy legend.

Michael O’Donoghue

When it comes to the founding fathers of SNL, Michael O’Donoghue is one of the most essential figures. Not only was he the co-star of the first sketch to ever air on the show, he was also the show’s first head writer. His style remains one of the most unique of any in the show’s history, with its dark edges, twisted humor, and the feeling that anything could happen.

With O’Donoghue at the helm, SNL wasn’t just hilarious, but it was a countercultural force, going against the dominant trends at the time. He became hugely popular for playing Mr. Mike, which is one of the darkest, strangest characters to ever emerge on the show. Mr. Mike got his own feature film, “Mr. Mike's Mondo Video” in 1979, which O'Donoghue wrote, directed, and starred in, and the film featured much of the SNL cast. 

Bill Murray

Bill Murray started on SNL in 1977 right after Chevy Chase left, and he was with the show until 1980, going on to become one of the greatest comedy stars in cinema. The Oscar nominated actor has a remarkable film catalogue, but for many SNL fans, nothing will top his time spent as part of the show’s cast. 

Murray’s characters such as Nick the Lounge Singer have gone down in history as some of the finest to ever appear on the show. His offbeat sense of humor and delivery are one of a kind, and he is constantly surprising and delighting the audience with lines that are totally out of left field. He couldn’t stay away from the show, and has returned many times to host or make a cameo appearance. 

Gilda Radner

As of the original cast members of SNL, Gilda Radner became one of the finest comediennes of her era. Her characters poked fun at the sorts of personalities we saw on television at the time, and it turned her into a sensation. Playing off the characters she established on the show, in 1979 she headlined a one-woman show on Broadway. This was made into the documentary “Gilda Live” which was directed by Mike Nichols. 

She was also in the films “First Family,” “Hanky Panky,” “The Woman in Red,” “Movers & Shakers,” and “Haunted Honeymoon,” working with her husband Gene Wilder in many of them. Her career was sadly short lived, as she died in 1989 of ovarian cancer when she was just 42 years old. In her honor, the Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program was established at Cedars-Sinai.

Dan Aykroyd

When it comes to the original cast members on SNL, many would argue that Dan Aykroyd was the greatest of them all. His iconic characters are endless, and sketches such as the Coneheads and the Blues Brothers are all time greats, both inspiring films of their own. He obviously did great work outside of SNL, being both co-writer and co-star of the 1980s classic “Ghostbusters.” 

There was also his Oscar nominated performance in “Driving Miss Daisy,” and in addition to being a Blues Brother he was also a co-founder of the House of Blues, which has kept blues music alive and kicking across the U.S. Other business ventures include Crystal Head Vodka, but it is his SNL work that is most enduring, and those sketches are as hilarious today as when they first aired.

John Belushi

Perhaps the most tragic moment in SNL’s history was when John Belushi died in 1982. He was just 33 years old when a drug overdose took his life, and one of the greatest comic minds of the century was no longer with us. He was gone too soon, and perhaps never got to reach his full potential, but in his brief time in the spotlight he left behind an incredible body of work.

Some of his finest characters include The Samurai and doing an impression of Joe Cocker, which rank among the funniest moments in SNL history. His roles in films such as “Animal House” and “The Blues Brothers” cemented his legacy, showing that his comedic talents couldn’t be contained by brief sketches. Belushi may have died many decades ago, but he has reached immortality through his incredible work.