‘SNL’ Alum Laraine Newman Reacts to Cast Shake-Up, Says Her Era Was “When Lorne Didn’t Fire People”

Nearly 50 years after she made her debut as an original castmember on Saturday Night Live, Laraine Newman continues to be an avid fan of the NBC sketch comedy series and closely follows its changes.

Newman, who became known for such SNL characters as Connie Conehead and Valley girl Sherry, tells The Hollywood Reporter that she appreciates the propensity for the Lorne Michaels-created program to evolve over the decades. The show has been the subject of recent headlines surrounding its cast comings and goings ahead of season 51, which debuts Oct. 4.

“What’s thrilling about SNL, and the reason I think it’s had its longevity, is that it has absolutely evolved with the time, with the generation, with the style and tone of each new comic voice that came along,” Newman says. “And with the recent hires — Veronika [Slowikowska], I noticed her. I thought, ‘God, this girl is really good,’ and she came from a sphere that is very new, which is streaming and TikTok.”

Many fans have voiced their surprise in recent weeks over the news that such performers as Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, Devon Walker, Emil Wakim and Please Don’t Destroy member John Higgins will not return for the new season. Joining the cast this season alongside Slowikowska are Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, Jeremy Culhane and Tommy Brennan.

“I was very sad to see Michael Longfellow go,” says Newman. She points out that her two children, including Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, have performed stand-up comedy for years and were aware of Longfellow’s work from the scene, even before he joined SNL in 2022. However, Newman is confident that the performers saying goodbye will continue to find success: “What I’ve noticed about [former SNL] people is, they always thrive. Michaela Watkins had one season. There are so many people [like] that.”

Newman cites short-lived SNL castmember Tim Robinson, now better known for the Netflix sketch series I Think You Should Leave, as “a perfect example.” She continues, “Lorne said a wonderful thing about all the people that audition, which is, if they’re there, they’re funny. They’ve gotten to that point, they’re funny. So there’s not one person, I think, that has been on the show that isn’t really, spectacularly talented.”

Such cast shake-ups involving a number of notable exits have become somewhat routine on SNL over the years, but Newman notes that this wasn’t something that performers in her era generally had to lose sleep over. Newman was among the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” — alongside John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase and others — who starred on the show when it premiered Oct. 11, 1975.

“That was the time when Lorne didn’t fire people,” she recalls with a laugh. “For better or for worse, he was very clear that he did not believe in firing people. That stood for a while, and then that changed.”

Newman, who left the show after five seasons, is a founding member of the Groundlings whose credits include the 1994 film The Flintstones and voice roles in an array of Pixar features like Finding Nemo and Inside Out. As a board member for San Francisco Sketchfest, she continues to keep a close eye on rising comics and says of the new SNL faces, “I cannot wait to see what they do.”