6 Local Connections to “Saturday Night Live” You Might Not Know
SNL turns fifty this year. Here are some southern New Englanders who played a role in the pop culture juggernaut's success.
Photograph via Getty Images/Ray Orton.
The first voice to tell “Saturday Night Live” viewers what they were watching was honed heavily in Rhode Island. Many of the sets the audience beheld for the past half-century were crafted by a Providence resident. The show’s mock newscast was once helmed by a one-time southern New England anchor.
Rhode Island can take great pride in contributing to the groundbreaking sketch comedy show that’s celebrating its fiftieth season this year. Ahead of SNL’s formal anniversary special — airing Sunday, Feb. 16, on NBC 10 — here is a rundown of some southern New Englanders who helped make the show what it is today.
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Don Pardo. Photograph via Everett Collection Inc/Alamy Stock Photo.
Don Pardo, the announcer for much of SNL’s first thirty-nine seasons until his passing in 2014, split his childhood between Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. At age twenty, while still attending college in Boston, he returned to Providence to launch his career at WJAR radio, beginning an inextricable affiliation with NBC. He was enshrined in the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame in 2009.
Eugene Lee. (Photo courtesy of Trinity Repertory Company.
Joining Pardo at SNL’s inception was set designer Eugene Lee. Already a seasoned crew member at Trinity Repertory Company, he juggled his duties between 201 Washington St. and 30 Rockefeller Plaza — and kept his home in Providence — until his death in February 2023.
Rhode Island School of Design alum Charles Rocket stuck around Providence and effectively proved he had every requisite skill to host “Weekend Update.” He performed in the local underground art movement and dabbled in newscasting on WPRI Channel 12 before anchoring “Update” in 1980–81 — two seasons after his RISD contemporaries, the Talking Heads, performed as SNL’s musical guest.
Harry Anderson. Photograph via Picturelux/the Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
Shortly after Rocket’s 30 Rock stint, Newport’s multitalented Harry Anderson (of “Night Court” fame) repeatedly performed magic and standup as an “SNL” guest in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Janeane Garofalo. Photograph via Picturelux/the Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.
Meanwhile, in the mid-’80s, Janeane Garofalo was fresh out of Providence College when she won a standup contest for the title of “Funniest Person in Rhode Island.” The protracted career that platform launched included fourteen episodes on SNL in 1995. While her time at 30 Rock was short and, by her own assessment, unmemorable, she later cracked Time Magazine’s list of the 10 best post-“SNL” careers.
New Hampshirite Seth Meyers has savored success on and beyond “SNL,” and owes both chapters, in no small part, to Fall River native Wally Feresten. From 1991 to 2019, Feresten held cue cards for “SNL” performers, including “Update” anchors, and has done the same for Meyers on NBC’s “Late Night.”
