In honor of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th Anniversary, we will be going through its rich and varied history and breaking down its legendary run into easy to digest eras. Some eras might last for years, others only one season. But each era is one that either marked a change in the show, were driven by a remarkable personality of a star, or marked a special part of the history of the program. Today, we see SNL make history as it names its first female head writer–Tina Fey.
This is how it started for women on Saturday Night Live. Photoplay magazine dismissively called the female members of the cast–the criminally underrated Laraine Newman, the first female Weekend Update Anchor Jane Curtain and the comedy force of nature Gilda Radner, as “Chevy’s Girls.” (They got a lowkey biting sketch out of it, where the trio sarcastically portrayed themselves as a 50’s girl group, singing a song mooning over Chevy Chase.)
It wasn’t much better behind the scenes. As Curtain told Andy Cohen during an episode Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, women had to face sexism from the majority of the men involved in the show:
“There were a few people that just out-and-out believe that women should not have been there and they believe that women were not innately funny,” said the first female anchor of SNL‘s “Weekend Update” segment. “So those were the experiences that I had that were sexist.”
One of those people was John Belushi. The stories of him thinking women were not funny during his tenure on the show were legendary. He would refuse to act in any sketch written by a woman, causing some of the female writers to submit their work under one of their male coworkers so Belushi would do the sketch.
This started a tradition of marginalization at SNL. Women writers had to struggle to get their sketches on the air, and the female cast members were stuck playing wives and girlfriends in the male dominated sketches. It is very telling that two of the most famous females in sketches for years were The Church Lady and Linda Richman of Coffee Talk, both played by men.
Things started to get better in the early 90’s, as stars like Cheri Oteri and Molly Shannon created memorable characters that got a lot of exposure on the show. But the show took a giant step forward when it made Tina Fey its first female head writer in 1999.
Fey came to SNL from Second City, joining the writing team in 1997. Keeping true to the show’s tradition of misogyny, she spent times mostly as a write, making the occasional cameo until she lost 30 pounds. Then the show became interested in putting her on screen more often.
When Adam McKay stepped down as head writer, Lorne Michaels chose Fey to replace him. Many writers would have wither in trying to replace such a legendary name in comedy, but Fey instead flourished. Her tenure wasn’t flush with classic recurring characters–Debby Downer and the Boston Kids were the most notable. But she kept up a consistent level of quality in the writing.
In 2000, Fey partnered with Jimmy Fallon to host SNL’s Weekend Update segment. When Fallon left, Fey partnered with Amy Poehler, becoming the first all-woman tandem on Update. When she left the anchor desk after 117 episodes, she held the record for longest reign as Weekend Update anchor. The record didn’t last long–her replacement Seth Meyers surpassed her record–but it was a fine accomplishment, nonetheless.
Fey also has the onerous task of being head writer in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Lorne Michaels gets a lot of credit for the first episode back after the attacks, but Fey was there, leading the writing room, teaching America how to laugh again as well. And she should get some credit for that too.
Fey left the show in 2006, leaving to create the SNL-inspired sitcom 30 Rock for NBC, in which she also starred. 30 Rock ran until 2013, and Fey then when on to create another great sitcom–The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which ran for four seasons on Netflix.
She also had some success on the silver screen, most famously for creating and staring in Mean Girls. That film was adapted into a Broadway musical, then once again into a film that adapted the musical. She also appeared on screen with Poehler in Baby Mama and Sisters, and with Steve Carrell in Date Night. She also voiced characters in animated films such as Megamind and Soul.
So may say that the ghost of John Belushi might roam the halls of Studio 8H. But Tina Fey helped exorcise the ghost of his belief that women cannot be funny. Her work on the show and outside of it proves that Fey is one of the smartest people in comedy regardless of gender. She has created work that will far outlast her, as future generations are entertained by her creativity. There are a lot of her male counterparts that would like that sort of legacy.
But Fey wasn’t the only woman who burst through the glass ceiling and had a monster success on the show. Another woman joined the cast during Fey’s tenure on the show who, for better or worse, shaped SNL for its next era. That woman is Kristen Wiig and we’ll be talking about her in the next installment.
