Coming Soon: "This Season's Female Cast Shines!" and "How to get Tickets to SNL"
ENCINO, California (CNN) -- Actor Phil Hartman, who portrayed radio newsman Bill McNeal in the NBC television comedy "NewsRadio," and his wife were found shot to death in their home Thursday morning in what police said was an apparent murder-suicide.
Police said Brynn Hartman, 40, apparently took her own life after police arrived, and that Hartman had been killed some time earlier. The two, both dead of gunshot wounds, were found in the house, police Detective Brent Josephson said.
FROM CNN...
Hartman eventually won a part on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1986-1987 season. He stayed with the show for seven years. He was best-known on the show for his impersonations of leading political and celebrity figures, including Frank Sinatra, Bill Clinton, Jack Nicholson, Phil Donahue, Ronald Reagan and Sen. Ted Kennedy.
"I recently made a list of all the characters and voices I've done. It came to 99," Hartman told an interviewer in late 1992.
But Hartman found working on "SNL" to be too stressful. He told People magazine in a 1995 interview, "The rejection and backstabbing could be painful, but the hardest thing was competing against your friends for air time.
"It was literally a situation where you felt the most unbridled glory and the most excruciating emotional agony. What's the line -- laugh all your laughter, cry all your tears? And revel in the glory of it all," Hartman said.
"SNL" also kept Hartman away from his California home.
"I like New York, but I love California," he once said. "I'm a yachtsman, and I've got three boats just sitting in Marina Del Rey begging me to come back and make sense of all the maintenance fees I've been paying."
This is the second death of a former SNL cast member recently...Chris Farley died in mid December of last year. Both will be greatly missed
It's official! The King of all Media has finally closed his deal with CBS. A starring Howard Stern will air in direct competition with SNL. Norm MacDonald introduced Stern at the press conference when this deal was announced recently. Stern intends in no way to take it easy on SNL, which is coming upon it's 23rd season next year. He immediately attacked Saturday Night Live saying, "[SNL has] become safe, and when you become an establishment and become so-called legitimate, you become stiff and stodgy."
"The Howard Stern Show" will be modeled after his program on E!, and it will be taped in the studio where he broadcasts his radio show. The program will initially air on CBS stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Could this mean a new gig for Norm?!?
Finally! It's over! Don't look for Norm come next week on SNL. Okay, here's the story in a nutshell. Don Ohlheymer thought Norm had lost his knack for Weekend Update, so he fired him and replaced him with Colin Quinn...
After showing up...and not showing up on the show in the weeks to follow, fans breathed a huge sigh of relief after he finally showed for 3 consecutive weeks. So...what was really going on?
Now we know that Norm had signed a contract binding him to the show through the end of the season. Norm wanted out. Finally, no one is quite sure of the exact date however, Lorne Michaels released Norm which we assumed to be official after Wednesday, April first, when he introduced Howard Stern to members of the press, and referred to himself as "former TV personality Norm Macdonald."
Some may miss him, while others may be thankful he's gone. Norm was a funny cast member... Never showing for the end of the show's "Thank-you's and Good-Bye's." But if you still want to keep up with Norm, check out "The Fake News". An excellently designed site which fought to return Norm to his throne as Weekend Update anchor, then fought to have him released from his contract, and now celebrates his freedom in an online magazine.
Chris Farley's antics and physical humor are all a memory now, for he was found dead on the morning of December 18, 1997 in a Chicago apartment. Cocaine and opiates along with apparent early signs of heart disease were ruled to have caused the death of Chris Farley, former SNL cast member made star.
Famous for his Matt Foley, motivational speaker, character, Farley began his career on SNL in 1990. After his "SNL Days," he made numerous movies, many of which were with David Spade (also a former cast member, now starring a hit comedy "Just Shoot Me!" on NBC). Some of these include Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, and his last, Beverly Hills Ninja.
He was honored briefly with one of his best sketches at the beginning of SNL the week following his death, and then a full show was put together of his greatest moments in his honor. We'll miss ya Chris.
Yet another SNL spinoff movie is set to be in US theaters on August 21, 1998. "A Night at the Roxbury" will star Will Ferral and Chris Kattan as Steve and Doug Butabi, the head bouncing club hoppers that dance to "What is Love" and like to harass Cheri Oteri's character.
The details are still fuzzy, but the guys are trying to get into the best club in town, as well as perhaps own their own. While a conniving supermodel and her friend (Elisa Donovan and Gigi Rice) try to take them for all they have, only to find that, in fact, they're broke! WIll Ferrall and Molly Shannon also star.
Click Here! for a review from a screentest.
