DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710170104

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Larry Bonko 

                                            LENGTH:   94 lines

NEW CAST READY TO CARRY ON "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE" TRADITION

HOURS BEFORE ``Saturday Night Live'' signs on tonight at 11:30 on NBC, the cast will assemble with producer Lorne Michaels in Studio 8-H at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan to polish the script or . . . tear it up and start all over again.

It happens.

I've been there in Studio 8-H to see the cast and writers change the show from top to bottom between the dress rehearsal at 8 p.m. and the 11:30 air time.

It's chaotic. It's madness. It's live from New York . . . ``Saturday NIGHT!''

``The show's enthusiasm and energy comes from this,'' Michaels said of the long day of re-writes, rehearsals and, finally, the 90-minute broadcast. ``We get up for it like football players get up for a big game.''

Go, team!

As the 23rd season of ``Saturday Night Live'' unfolds with Brendan Fraser hosting tonight, NBC and Michaels have agreed to do ``SNL'' well into the next century.

``Or until I can't do it any longer,'' Michaels said. NBC calls it a multiyear agreement.

Like the father of a large family who does not play favorites, Michaels refuses to say what cast was the show's greatest.

And there have been splendid players, starting with Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman in 1975. ``Three or four great casts,'' Michaels said.

(E! on Sunday at 9 includes Radner in its ``True Hollywood Story'' series).

How does the 1997 bunch - Molly Shannon, Norm Macdonald, Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Anna Gasteyer, Darrell Hammond of the right-on Bill Clinton impression, Chris Kattan, Tim Meadows, Tracy Morgan, Cheri Oteri and Colin Quinn - compare to those who have come before them?

They are not ``The Not Ready for Prime Time Players'' of 1975, to be sure, but Macdonald and the others are mighty creative and talented, Michaels said.

``I'd compare what we're doing now to the time when Mike Myers, Dana Garvey, Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn were on the show,'' said the producer. In that case, the 1997 cast rates a B-minus.

The 1975 cast, augmented by Bill Murray in 1977 after Chase left to make movies, was the best ever. Has there ever been an ``SNL'' character as endearing as Radner's Lisa Loopner? A-plus.

Next best were the Eddie Murphy-Joe Piscopo-Billy Crystal-Dennis Miller and Martin Short years. A-minus.

And there were those C-plus Saturdays of the early 1980s - 42 regulars shuffled in and out of Studio 8-H in five seasons - when Gilbert Gottfried, Denny Dillon and Charles Rocket were among the less than imposing performers.

While the 1997 cast is good enough to make you forget Tim Meadows, Siobhan Fallon and Melanie Hutshell, it's not likely to produce a breakout star, someone who Micheals says ``lights up the television screen.''

Radner did it. John Belushi did it. But younger brother Jim failed to do so in 1983. Murphy, Crystal and Short lit up the TV screen.

But not Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 1982. And she's so darn good on ``Seinfeld.''

While there is some peril in constantly changing the cast of ``SNL'' - out goes Murphy, in comes Brad Hall - Michaels sees it as necessary to keep his show up-to-date. ``We have a young audience that relates to whomever we use,'' he said. ``If we kept the same cast year after year, the show would grow stale and tired. At times the show is erratic and uneven, but the audience forgives us for that.''

And what a loyal audience it is. There is so much passion to see the 20 live shows and 20 dress rehearsals that NBC uses a postcard lottery in August to pass out tickets.

Of the current cast, my money is on Oteri and Shannon to make a lasting impression - not a Radner-type impression but at least a minor imprint. Shannon said she waited three years between her first audition for ``SNL'' and 1994, when Michaels signed her.

``When I finally made it to the studio where we do the show, I hugged the stage,'' she said.

Shannon had thoughts about being a nun as late as her last year in high school in Shaker Heights, Ohio. ``Then one Sunday I decided to have breakfast instead of going to Mass. And that was it for me being a nun.''

From her growing-up years in Ohio has come Mary Katherine Gallagher, the insecure Shannon character in the parochial school plaid skirt who is forever smelling her armpits. Her spin on Courtney Love is also a hoot.

Shannon, who is 32, worked in a restaurant and appeared in clubs with Rob Muir (``The Rob and Molly Show'') until Michaels hired Shannon three years ago. As an ``SNL'' regular with three years' experience in network TV, she has it made, right? Think again.

Last season, Shannon auditioned 10 times for a small role on ``Seinfeld'' before she was hired. If she is lighting up the TV screen as Michaels suggests, Shannon's wattage needs to be a tad higher. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

NBC

Perhaps ``SNL's'' all-time best cast, in 1977, included, standing

from left, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Lorraine

Newman and seated, from left, Gilda Radnor, Jane Curtin and Garrett

Morris.

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