It's been a tough ride since Will Forte announced that he was leaving “Saturday Night Live” and taking all of his phenomenally hilarious characters with him. But with the premiere of the show’s 36th season, just weeks away, 3 new comedians have been brought into the fold to fill the void. According to The New York Post, executive producer Lorne Michaels has hired Paul Brittain, Vanessa Bayer, and Taran Killam.
Taran Killam’s name will ring bells for fans of “Scrubs” and “How I Met Your Mother,” in which he's played minor roles. His schedule cleared when the proposed series he’d been working on, an Arianna Huffington-produced comedy called “Freshman,” was not picked up by ABC.
The two other additions are products of the infamous Chicago comedy troupe scene. Brittain reportedly has a pretty hefty range of abilities/characters, and he may be a frontrunner in terms of potential.
It's a damn shame to see such a great cast come apart at the seams, after they seemed to make such strides in the past two seasons. With the addition of Abby Elliott, leading female castmember Kristen Wiig was able to fully spread her wings and unleash her comic brilliance through an array of lead characters (I still can't decide whether to love or hate Gilly). Forte, her perfect counterpart and costar in last Spring's absurdly awesome MacGruber, led the male cast members in characters, onscreen magnetism and gut-splitting hilarity.
There's potentially more bad news as well: Seth Meyers, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson are reportedly among those whose contracts have yet to be finalized for the new season. Lorne Michaels' confidence-decimating tactics in SNL cast selection is known far and wide, but with Jason Sudeikis as the next-funniest guy on the show and Seth Meyers as head writer, Michaels would be committing series suicide by wiping the proverbial slate.
That's not likely to happen, despite Lorne's propensity for stirring up a mess just before the start of yet another new season. But we're curious to see where the new season will take us - can the additions keep a good thing going? Or will we see a return to the dark ages yet again for the longest running comedy show in history?
