For better or worse the debut of Saturday Night Live changed American comedy, the 2019 book Wild and Crazy Guys provides a group portrait of the male performers (there really needs to be a book on the female cast of SNL who are mostly ignored here). The book's focused on Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, John Candy, Eddie Murphy, and Rick Moranis. For what the book lacks in providing insight on the era, it does provide a compelling rise and fall narrative.
The debut of SNL, an outbranch of National Lampoon, is often cited as the moment boomer comedy went mainstream. Chevy Chase emerged as the star, his detached wisecracking persona and physical comedy propelled him to fame. Leaving the show in the middle of the second season, Chase embarked on a movie career. Chase looms large in the book, a difficult man but a constant presence throughout the Eighties.
So much has been written on the early years of SNL, none more than on John Belushi. In the wake of Chase's departure (which he resented) Belushi raised to even greater heights of fame, at one point in 1978 simultaneously having a hit TV show, movie, and record album. His early death in 1982 from a drug overdose became a case study on how not to handle fame. While Belushi's exploits have been covered elsewhere, his quick fall continues to haunt those who knew him decades later.
Meanwhile SCTV based in Toronto, more acerbic and polished than SNL, propelled the careers of many comedy stars. Avuncular John Candy and the cerebral comedy of Rick Moranis would also break into movies (among many others from SCTV).
Steve Martin, a Californian, filled arenas with is "anti-comedy" stand up act and became a regular host on SNL. Comedy prodigy Eddie Murphy joined the show at age 19 and became the biggest star of them all.
The shadow of Belushi hangs over the era despite his early departure. The 1980s became an age of excess and drugs, which often fueled the comedy. The fame and money that came to them tended to complicate their lives above all else. Chase became known for the amount of bombs he made, scoring the occasional hit. Bill Murray eschewed the spoils of fame and chose his projects with more caution. Martin grew tired of standup and embarked on a movie career, scoring a hit with the The Jerk, but would agonize over never being able to replicate the success of that film, although like Murray he graduated into more serious roles and became a critical darling.
Murphy swiftly became the most versatile cast member on SNL and scored a string of early hit movies like 48 Hours and Trading Places. Ready to take over Hollywood, Murphy signed a major five picture deal with Paramount. He avoided drugs and alcohol, but totally embraced an extravagant movie star lifestyle. By the end of the 1980s, Murphy's career had also suffered after a string of misfires, mirroring the pattern of his peers, always trying to recapture the magic of the early years.
Wild and Crazy Guys is built on anecdotes. Murray arrived on Ghostbusters after months of traveling the world filming his own ambitious film The Razor's Edge, tired and grouchy on the set but eventually taking to the material. During the filming of one of his most loved films Groundhog Day he was in the midst of a divorce and clashed with his director/friend Harold Ramis. John Candy was liked by everyone, generous to a fault. Tired of the game, Moranis retired from acting and now lives the quiet life. There's also the pariah of John Landis who directed so many comedies of the era, he's one of the book's primary raconteurs.
A breezy and engaging read, Wild and Crazy Guys covers a bygone age of comedy, which for all its faults, will continued to be studied.
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