Mike Myers at Vulture Festival. Photo credit: Andrew Buss.
When you think of Saturday Night Live, the first thing you might think of is all of the incredible cast members who have passed through those 30 Rockefeller Center halls. It’s a who’s who of entertainment that includes Adam Sandler, Kristen Wiig, Eddie Murphy, John Belushi, Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, Bill Hader, Bill Murray, and the list goes on and on. Among those who went onto have a legendary career in film after leaving the show is Mike Myers.
Myers was a cast member for over six seasons. During this time, he gave us iconic characters such as Wayne Campbell, Dieter, Simon, Linda Richman, and countless others. But his fascination with the show actually started years before his debut episode on January 21st, 1989, which was 35 years ago this year. It all stemmed back to the debut episode on October 11th, 1975.
Mike Myers reflects on his 35th anniversary since making his debut on "SNL."
“Well, I grew up in Canada,” Myers told us on the red carpet at Vulture Festival this weekend, where he received an Honorary Degree. “Gilda Radner played my mom in a TV commercial a few years previously. And we saw this ad for a show called The Saturday Show, so we thought anyway. So I was up in Toronto, and I was like ‘That’s the lady who played my mom.’ I loved Gilda Radner. She played my mom for four days and I cried on the last day of it.”
He continues, “So I turned to my brothers and said ‘I’m gonna be on that show one day.’ Because I knew something about it was everything that I wanted to do. I used to do characters for my friends and stuff like that.”
That desire would extend far past watching that premiere episode. On the day he graduated high school, Mike Myers auditioned for Second City, and got cast in the Canadian touring company. By 1985, he moved to England, where he was a founding member of The Comedy Store Players. While there, he discovered he wasn’t able to find SNL.
“I moved to England,” Myers recalls, “and in England, there was no Saturday Night Live. And I thought ‘Oh, the show went away.’ Then I came back and went to Second City, got a call, and I thought it was my brothers doing an impression of Lorne Michaels, because we all did an impression of Lorne Michaels. It was like ‘This is Lorne Michaels. Would you be interested in being on the show?’ I was like ‘Holy crap!’”
His first season, however, was bookended by something tragic, that actually directly correlated with his desire to be on the show in the first place. In the late 1980’s, Gilda Radner had developed breast cancer. On the day of the final show that season - hosted by Steve Martin - Radner had passed away.
As Myers reflects, “My first season - I did a half-season - on the last day, Gilda Radner passed away that night. And I was just devastated.”
“But I couldn’t believe that I was there,” he continues about his first year. “I still can’t believe that I was on the show, to be honest. I walked into an all-star cast of Dana Carvey. And all I was doing was ‘How can I get him to say yes to one of my sketches?’ So I put him in Wayne’s World. And Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks, Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, on and on. I had a minor nervous breakdown the first week. Because I had done sketches with good comedians, but this was like being called up for the national team. And none of them had a weakness, and everyone was able to bring comedy off the page. But the one that I studied was Phil Hartman. Literally, I would’ve had a thing that said ‘What Will Phil Do?’”
