Tag: Laraine Newman

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie Box Office Prediction

Warner Bros brings some of their classic animated characters to the silver screen on March 14th when The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie opens. Marking the directorial debut of Pete Browngardt, the sci-fi comedic adventures features the voices of Eric Bauza as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig), Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Fred Tatasciore, Laraine Newman, and Wayne Knight.

Earth actually received a limited Los Angeles run in December to qualify for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars (it did not receive a nomination). The studio hasn’t done much work promoting its release. Despite solid word-of-mouth from the West Coast screenings, WB seems to be dumping this. I think anything over $5 million would be a surprise and lower single digits may be all, folks.

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie opening weekend prediction: $3.8 million

For my Novocaine prediction, click here:

Novocaine Box Office Prediction

For my Black Bag prediction, click here:

Black Bag Box Office Prediction

The Top 50 SNL Cast Members of All Time: Number 46 – Jane Curtin

Saturday Night Live officially turns 49 years old today and Jason Reitman’s critically appreciated Saturday Night is out in wide release for the occasion. It recounts the 90 hectic minutes leading up to the iconic show’s premiere. Jane Curtin was there for it. She’s the first original Not Ready for Prime Time Player to make this list. As I wrote in my prelude to these posts, not all of them are included in the top 50 (Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris).

Curtin was more of the straight (wo)man in the program’s early years. She got to stretch every once in a while including as Prymaat Conehead alongside Dan Aykroyd in those bits. Yet it was as one half of the Weekend Update team with Aykroyd and then Bill Murray where she paved the way for future stars like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Some of her cast mates will be showcased later, but Curtin earns placement for her contributions. #45 will be up soon!

Jane Curtin

Years on the Show: 1975-1980

The Top 50 SNL Cast Members of All Time: A Prelude

SNL just began its 50th season and a grand televised celebration is anticipated this spring. I have been a huge follower of the iconic sketch comedy show my whole life. That includes devouring books about its history and memoirs from former cast members.

To mark its half century in existence, I have decided to make a list of my top 50 cast members in the show’s history. Let’s establish an important ground rule. This list covers each member’s time on the show only and not what they did before or after. There’s obvious examples of Not Ready for Prime Time Players who had terrific careers following their stints (some of them short-lived) on Saturday Night Live. Robert Downey, Jr. and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Ben Stiller and Damon Wayans. Chris Rock and Christopher Guest. You won’t find them in my top 50, but they’ve certainly had incredible contributions to film, TV, and stand-up.

I wrote down 70 performers of the 167 total cast members and whittled it down to 50. Not all original members from 1975 made the cut (apologies to Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris). There are current cast members who almost made it like Mikey Day, Ego Nwodim, and James Austin Johnson. In between there were those I struggled to leave off like Beck Bennett, Nora Dunn, Leslie Jones, Chris Kattan, Taran Killam, Tim Meadows, Kyle Mooney, Joe Piscopo, and Rob Schneider. There were a couple that were just never quite my cup of tea… Jim Breuer and Jon Lovitz.

Despite the tough subtractions, the forthcoming list is a treasure trove of talented comedic performers who have kept the show running for half a century. These posts will be a countdown from 50 to 1 (yep, 50 posts) that’ll run through the course of the 50th season. Stay tuned!