Favorite SNL Weekend Update Anchor?

[Bear]

Norm MacDonald will always be my favorite.

Sorry Jane Curtain and Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray aren't here. I was going for anchor not co-anchor--and yes Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are co-anchors but I wanted to see how either of them chalk up to the classics.

Mary Gross you could argue is too obscure. But I can't help but root for her--cause I loved the Alfalfa impression.

[Karl J. Barnes]

Chevy started all off and though there have been some very good anchors, like Dennis Miller, Tina Fey etc. Chevy is the one I think of, when I think SNL News Anchor.

[Dreadstar]

I think of Chevy first, but Dennis Miller and Norm MacDonald were both better. Of the two, I prefer Miller, so that's my vote.

But MNF forever destroyed my memory of his good qualities.

[Matthew E]

It's got to be Miller. Norm MacDonald is the only other one who comes close.

[HomerJay]

For me it's a photo finish with Miller barely edging Norm.
Even when their jokes failed with the live audience, I usually cracked up. Especially with Norm.

[mrc1214]

Chevy Chase would be my vote hes was really funny.

[Ontir]

A. Whitney Brown Insightful, funny, and often skewering!

[Lone Ranger]

For my money, no one comes close to Christopher Guest during the wonderful 84-85 season.

[jessecuster3]

Chevy Chase for the "Jane you ignorant slut !"


But I think Fey and Pohler together were pretty excellent. Miller was great, but his legacy has tarnished any positive thing you can say about him.

[Serik]

Fey is too annoying for my taste. And Colin Quinn is the unfunniest man to ever be deemed a "comedian." I really don't know how he ended up on SNL or got his own TV show. Jeez.

Norm is still my favorite. He was perfect for that role.

[Nate C.]

I'm with Jay and Dread on Miller by a nose over McDonald. Also, props to Ontir on A. Whitney, underrated and hardly ever remembered.

I did not know Guest was on SNL! My love for this man grows.

(how did Colin Quinn get on this list? The man couldn't even read the cue cards.)

[Michael P]

Chevy Chase for the "Jane you ignorant slut !"


That was Aykroyd.

[Cei-U!]

Jane Curtin. Unlike many of the others (including Fey and Miller, who should both know better than to laugh at their own jokes), she let the material get the laughs, delivering the most outrageous absurdities with absolute straightfaced conviction (though I remember her apologizing to her mother after a particularly "dirty" bit), saving her character's personality quirks for interaction with Gilda, Aykroyd, Belushi, et al. Too bad she couldn't bring that same subtlety to her sitcom work.

Cei-U!
Okay, I had a crush on her! Sue me!

[Jeff Brady]

I just started watching Season 1, and I can say I'm not much of a fan of Chevy's. Colin Quinn is easily the worst.

Norm MacDonald was all right. I like Kevin Nealon's understated delivery. Miller was much better. I like rants.

[Sanagi]

Overall, Dennis Miller. However, SNL was all downhill from "Jane, you ignorant slut."

[Donald M.]

I voted for Chevy Chase but Dennis Miller is a very close second. Back when he was on SNL he was actually funny, unlike later when he had his show on HBO and suddenly everything he said was so densely packed with obtuse allusions you never sure if half the stuff he was saying was something you should've laughed at because who has time to do the research?

He tended to say "Fuck," a lot though and that's always good for a chuckle.

[Deathstroke]

Tina Fey is my favorite but Dennis Miller is a VERY close second.

[saintsaucey]

Kevin Neelan, then tina fey and jimmy fallon.


ugh i had almost blocked colin from my memory. he had like two funny moments that i can think of and i can't remember what they were.

norm and dennis were interchangeable in my opinion

[Lurch]

Glad, and a little surprised to see my man Norm tied for the lead. I remember he was on Dennis Miller's HBO show after SNL fired him. Miller was saying he thought it was because of the OJ Simpson jokes that Norm always did, and the head of NBC programming (or something like that) was a buddy of O.J.'s. I always wondered if that were true, because Norm himself said it was really hard to get fired from that show, and he was one of the funniest cast members they ever had, in my opinion.

Oh yeah, Tina Fey is a close second. And is it just me or is she really sexy?

[Conn Seanery]

Dennis Miller, hands down.

Chevy Chase: Liked, but not so much for the news reading (he was better when playing off other people).
Jane Curtin: Good, professional yet funny. Great deadpan.
Charles Rocket: Haven't seen any of these to date, but I've heard they were horrible.
SNL Newsbreak (Doyle-Murray, Gross, Ebersole): Haven't caught too many of these, but what I have seen I didn't like.
Brad Hall: One of my least favorite, if not the very least.
Christopher Guest: Haven't caught any of these to my recollection, but I imagine it was a step up (from Hall, at least).
Dennis Miller: Awesome.
Kevin Nealon: Maybe I was suffering from post-Miller withdrawl, but I found Nealon to be another really bad one. Like Chevy, I found he came off better when interacting with others, didn't like his news reading.
Norm MacDonald: I really enjoyed most of MacDonald's run, but more often than not they went for the easy crude joke. I like crude humor, but he/they relied on it a bit too much. He had decent running gags and a good deadpan delivery most of the time.
Colin Quinn: Good when in rant mode, but horrible at news reading. It was a mistake to make him anything but a supportive player.
Tina Fey: Very good, very enjoyable.
Jimmy Fallon: I don't have a problem with Fallon anywhere near as much as most people do, but if he was good at all as a co-anchor it was only because of the material.
Amy Poehler: I like her as an anchor, but she's not great. She has potential and worked well with Fey, but Meyers is dragging her down.
Seth Meyers: Yikes, get him out of there. Stick to skits or head-writing. Give Forte a shot!

[Ontir]

Chevy Chase for the "Jane you ignorant slut !"

I thought it was Bill Murray who said that, along with, "Bill, you pompous ass!"

[Conn Seanery]

Chevy Chase for the "Jane you ignorant slut !"
I thought it was Bill Murray who said that, along with, "Bill, you pompous ass!"
That was Aykroyd.
I love multi-quotes.

[J. Robb]

I thought it was Bill Murray who said that, along with, "Bill, you pompous ass!"
It was Dan Aykroyd, in their "Point/Counterpoint" discussions. My sister often talks about how I'd call her an ignorant slut when I was, like, six. My dad, of course, thought that was hilarious.

For the poll, I had to go with Dennis Miller. He really seemed to perfect the "formula" that Chevy started. But I'll always have a soft spot for Tina Fey. Luckily I still have "30 Rock".

[Karl J. Barnes]

Glad, and a little surprised to see my man Norm tied for the lead. I remember he was on Dennis Miller's HBO show after SNL fired him. Miller was saying he thought it was because of the OJ Simpson jokes that Norm always did, and the head of NBC programming (or something like that) was a buddy of O.J.'s. I always wondered if that were true, because Norm himself said it was really hard to get fired from that show, and he was one of the funniest cast members they ever had, in my opinion.

Oh yeah, Tina Fey is a close second. And is it just me or is she really sexy?

Yes, she is very very sexy.

[Donald M.]

Oh yeah, Tina Fey is a close second. And is it just me or is she really sexy?

Trust me, it's not just you.

I thought it was reasonably well known that she is (or was when was the Weekend Update Co-Anchor) a pretty major geek sex symbol.

[Blueferret]

I'm going with Norm over Miller by a nose. Norm gets it for his monologue when they had him come back the following year to host the show after he was fired.

[EZMOHR]

I went with Miller, cause, man, that is when I started watching SNL, and I thought he was funny. But McDonald had his moments, and so did Nealon, who seems to be good after the fact. I swear, I caught a Nealon SNL Update the other day, and I was like, man that was pretty funny.

Chevy, Dan, Jane, Christopher Guest, and Charles Rocket were way b4 my time. Though, I'll give Rocket his props for throwing a f'bomb into his skit one time.

Colin Quinn was like listening to nails on a chalkboard. He had no delivery, and he just wasn't my cup o' tea.

Tina Fey can be funny more often than not and I thought she was a pretty darn good Update host.

Jimmy Fallon, I don't know. I hated him when he was on SNL. HATED. But, I think he's not as bad as I remember. And, yes he laughed at his own jokes, but, I think he generally does that because he seemed to just plain and simply love his job and that is something to admire.

Amy Pohler....wow. She had never been funny. Ever. It is like she went to the Sam Kenison school of comedy....ie just be freaking loud and mug a lot, and you'll do alright. Well except for one thing...evidently she missed the last day at Sam Kenison school of comedy...ie the class that stated you actually had to be funny to be a comedian. I just don't know how a woman who is married to Will Arnett can't have some of his talent, charisma, and ability rub off on her while they are in bed together.

[kalorama]

Dennis Miller and Norm MacDonald are 1A and 1B. Curtain and Ackroyd are close behind. Tina Fey is third. (I like Poehler, but they should have let Fey handle it solo after Fallon (finally!) was gone. How's that career move workin' Jimbo?)

Kevin Nealon was the worst by far (at least among the ones I've seen; I had no idea Mary Gross had ever done Update).

[The Zapper]

Norm all the way for me. After all these years I STILL quote him.

[stealthwise]

That was Aykroyd.

Indeed. Akroyd was my favourite, but McDonald comes awfully close.

[Alex]

Voted miller, with norm in a close second.
Colin quinn is at the bottom, with tina fey almost hitting him, mainly due to her having a lot of misses (In her defense, her update tried to fit more jokes in) and for including jimmy fallon next to her for a time.

[Kirayoshi]

A. Whitney Brown Insightful, funny, and often skewering!
"Do you realize that ten percent of high school graduates won't be able to read or write? For these students, the employment opportunites look grim. After all, they can't all work for USA Today."

Didn't A. Whitney Brown do a stint on The Daily Show for a couple of years?

[Lurch]

My favorite A. Whitney Brown quote is;

"I don't know if the unborn have any rights, but I do know that being born again doesn't give you twice as many."

[Frodo-X]

Gotta be Dennis Miller. The Weekend Update format (news made funny) is right up his alley. I did like Norm, but Miller has always been my favorite.


And likely always will be, as I stopped caring about SNL years ago...

[the film freak]

"Do you realize that ten percent of high school graduates won't be able to read or write? For these students, the employment opportunites look grim. After all, they can't all work for USA Today."

Didn't A. Whitney Brown do a stint on The Daily Show for a couple of years?

Yeah he was around during the Kilborn years. Shame he didn't stick around (he left before Jon Stewart took over). I think the only ones he stayed were Colbert, Lewis Black and Beth Littleford. Carrell came in more towards the tail end.

[brundlefly]

Dennis Miller for me, who carried the same 'Weekend Update'-style format into the closing bits of his HBO show, and was still really sharp and funny up until his perplexing conservative lobotomy a few years ago. Now he's just Bush's court jester. A. Whitney Brown and Norm MacDonald round out my top three.

Glad to see that giggling goon Fallon didn't make the poll....

[Conn Seanery]

Much as I did enjoy A. Whitney Brown's appearances on Update, he wasn't an anchor.

[rick]

I loved Norm McDonald, and my second choice is Dennis Miller.

And I still have a real soft spot though for Colin Quinn.

[Dreadstar]

Much as I did enjoy A. Whitney Brown's appearances on Update, he wasn't an anchor.

Neither was Aykroyd.

[The Comic Book Guy]

I haven't watched SNL since the early 90s.

What I remember most about the show was it's first several years. I recall sitting in bed between my folks when I was about 5 or 6-years old, watching John Belushi and the other greats. They were such geniuses. So I picked Chevy.

Even though, I really liked Dennis Miller as well.

[Bear]

Germans love David Hasselhoff...

http://www.madgecko.com/yellow5/normecli.jpg

...and I just can't love Miller more than Norm.

[rick]

My question is why the Hell isn't Jane Curtin on the list?

She was the host of Weekend Update for some 4 years during the very prime of SNL.

And whats more, she was just amazingly funny in the part.

Maybe she isn't Miller or McDonald, but she was at least as funny as Chase, Quinn or Fey and certainyl deserves some credit.

[J. Robb]

Yeah, the great thing about Jane Curtin was she always kept a very serious, straight face. She was really playing a news anchor, while most of the others were just people telling jokes.