As he wrote in his 2004 memoir Gasping for Airtime, Mohr was struggling to come up with anything when the likes of Franken and Adam Sandler were pitching Charles around the semicircle. For Mohr, who had come to the show after serving as host of the MTV lip-sync show Lip Service, this was trouble. In his first week as a writer on SNL, Jay Mohr didn’t bring any ideas with him into Lorne Michaels’s office on Sept. Eric Mink of the New York Daily News, noted that even the celebrated political sketches of the 18th season had been “mostly exercises in bloodless, if often hilarious, mimicry aided by makeup wizardry rather than cutting political satire.” SNL wanted a part of him at a time when some critics were saying the shows had fallen flat creatively. Hosting SNL, however, would be a different animal than spending a few minutes on a late-night couch. “Charles was always prepared with great stories, and we always enjoyed having him.”Ĭonan O’Brien lauded him for his wit, timing, and a great deadpan - as well as eyebrows that the comedian considers to be one of Charles’s secret weapons: “When he trains those eyebrows on you and he gives you that very fierce look he has, it adds to the comedy of what he’s saying.” ![]() “Charles Barkley was one of my all-time favorite guests on T h e T o ni g h t S ho w,” Leno said. Leno valued Charles’s authenticity and speed of his back-and-forths. “My God, what a thing to have.” Charles could make David Letterman laugh at how he would have considered going back to school if he weren’t so loaded.įor Jay Leno, it was the quickness of their exchanges. When you said his name, people smiled,” said Larry King. “You couldn’t find another person like him on television. He’d also be the first athlete to host since Jordan’s turn in 1991, leading to yet a different kind of comparison between the Finals friends.Īlthough it was Charles’s first time hosting, expectations were notably high considering he had been a bankable guest for the late-night shows. As the 17th person from the sports world to host SNL, Charles had a legitimate chance to be the funniest of the bunch since O.J. For every Bob Uecker that thrived, there was a George Steinbrenner or Joe Montana that proved to be less than memorable. ![]() Since quarterback Fran Tarkenton became the first athlete to host the show in 1977, there had been a rich, history of athlete hosts, though to mixed success. Now it was Charles’s turn to host the iconic show’s season premiere in September 1993. 'SNL' Weekend Update Bashes Trump's Gaffes, Katie Britt's Acting
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