Okay, Kids, Let's Meet The New Cast!

 After auditions during the summer of 1980, here are the members of the new cast of Saturday Night Live, as chosen by producer Jean Doumanian:

Cleveland-born Denny Dillon, an actress and comedienne, whose previous experience on TV including appearing as a guest in the show's third-ever episode in 1975 (hosted by Rob Reiner) doing a stand-up routine dressed as a nun with comedy partner Mark Hampton, also dressed as a nun.  You can find the episode here.

She appeared on Broadway in Gypsy and Harold and Maude.  She even had a small role in the motion picture Saturday Night Fever.

More recently, Denny was a regular on a short-lived (1979-80) NBC Saturday morning kids' show Hot Hero Sandwich.

In another post, you'll get to see a segment from that show's premiere (November 10, 1979).

Brooklyn-born Gilbert Gottfried honed his act on the Comedy Shop circuit by acting like a manic madman.  There are doubts the Gilbert's manic style would go over on television, but they decided to give him a shot.

He appeared in a failed NBC pilot, The Further Adventures of Wally Brown.

A native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the lone improv veteran in sight, Gail Matthius impressed the SNL staff with her material, which included an early version of a valley girl, which would be recurring role for her during her tenure on the show.

Gail had worked with the Tommy Tofu improv group in Los Angeles.

A native of Passaic, New Jersey, Joe Piscopo, another stand-up comic who also did TV commercials actually did not want to do the show, but his agent insisted that he'd try out for Saturday Night Live.  In his audition, he did this obnoxious kid named Paulie Herman, also known as the Jersey Guy.

Like Gilbert Gottfried, Joe appeared in a failed NBC pilot, or at least one that was submitted to the Peacock network,  a silly sitcom named McGurk, A Dog's Life, a show in which all the actors wore dog costumes; the pilot didn't catch on at NBC, it was picked up by ABC.

A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Ann Risley was not so much a comedienne as an actress.  She was discovered by Woody Allen, who spotted her in a theater production of his material; he encouraged her to pursue an acting career and move to New York City.  Ann was given small roles in three of Woody's films, "Annie Hall," "Manhattan," and "Stardust Memories."

Ann even made a brief appearance in a filmed segment on a 1976 episode of what was then NBC's Saturday Night; in this one, she played the patient of a psychiatrist, played by recently-departed Not Ready For Prime Time Player, Chevy Chase.

Ann appeared in a couple of CBS pilots, Off Campus (1977) and Night After Night (1979); you'll see a promo for the former in another post on this weblog. 

Born Charles Adams Claverie in Bangor, Maine, Charles Rocket was a comedian, actor, and musician (he was an accordionist).

Charles was a former local news television anchorman (WPRI, Providence; KOAA, Denver; WTVF, Nashville); in fact the season before he was hired, he submitted a videotape of some "Gotcha journalism" called the Rocket Report to SNL, perhaps maybe becoming part of the restructured show that Lorne Michaels had in mind.  He was described as a cross between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray and he took that as a compliment, which might have had been a mistake.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, here is your new cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live!