Grantland is doing a tournament to determine the greatest SNL cast member ever.
Here are my picks.
75-85 Region
Round One:
Entirely chalk; the 8/9 matchup between Short and Curtin is as tight as the seeding implies, but in the end Jane's longevity and Update work can't get by Nathan Thurm. Piscopo got hindered with a particularly challenging matchup, but he was a significantly bigger SNL star than is remembered.
86-94 Region
Round One:
Also chalk; I enjoy the Tea Party subregion (Jackson, Miller and a sneakily conservative MacDonald) that 8/9 matchup has me flipping back and forth, I think Norm was funnier than Dennis - but Miller gave Update an identity it really hadn't had since Chevy, his imprint is just more significant. I almost took a 12/5 upset here with Rock going over Sandler, I'm of the mind that Rock's SNL work is a little underrated and Sandler's is significantly overrated - were you to pick these brackets like the NCAA tournament and look to pepper in upsets, particularly focusing on a 12/5 matchup, I'd take Rock even though I can't really say he was better than Sandler.
95-04 Region
Round One:
You see increasingly easy first round matchups here, but my first upset comes in the 8/9, I'll pretty easily take Hammond over Rudolph and am not sure why he's seeded, say, below Tracy Morgan. For both versatility and longevity this is the most questionable seeding decision of the tournament. At any point, was Cheri O'Teri seen as a more important/more talented cast member than Darrell Hammond?
05-14 Region
Round One:
Chalk - my initial selection was Thompson over Forte in a 7/10 upset, but my affection for the weird just makes that impossible.
75-85 Region
Round Two
One upset, Radner over Murray in the 6/3; Gilda's Update pieces are, maybe still, the most memorable in show history and make this not as close as you might think.
That's going to leave us with:
Murphy v. Aykroyd
Radner v. Belushi.
86-94 Region
Round Two
Chalk. You know who else was violently underseeded? Lovitz. Lovitz goes down in a 7/2 to Hartman, I would have seeded him 4th and maybe even 3rd.
That's going to leave us with:
Carvey v. Farley
Myers v. Hartman
95-04 Region
Round Two:
Chalk - and without a particularly difficult matchup. Maybe Fallon over Shannon, but Update stretches Fallon's advantage.
That's going to leave us with:
Ferrell v. Fallon
Fey v. Poehler
05-14 Region
Round Two:
Armisen edges Sudeikis in a 5/4 upset (note, there's not even a colorable argument that either was as good as Lovitz, when considering the relative strengths of the regions - and Billy Crystal was also a 7 seed; I love Portlandia, but neither Fred or Jason was anything more than a utility player, despite all the seasons each put in).
That's going to leave us with:
Wiig v. Armisen
Hader v. Samberg
75-85 Region
Sweet Sixteen:
Murphy d. Aykroyd
Belushi d. Radner
Both forces of nature go over here; it's a tough out for Aykroyd, who set the template as the need for a glue guy, who could just be plugged into any spot on the show in order to keep the machine moving. We don't get the Blues Brothers Elite 8 match that one might have hoped for.
86-94 Region
Sweet Sixteen:
Carvey d. Farley
Hartman d. Myers
The analogues to Carvey/Hartman are Belushi/Aykroyd and then Murphy/Piscopo - the star of the show and the versatile character guy; that's the formula for the first 15 years of SNL, a zenith and a craftsman. Myers/Carvey would have been an interesting matchup for multiple reasons, but Hartman was Aykroyd+, the most versatile character actor in show history.
95-04 Region
Sweet Sixteen:
Ferrell d. Fallon
Poehler d. Fey
I don't know that either of these is difficult; Fallon just gets overwhelmed by Ferrell, it's the most lopsided match of the Sweet 16 - Tina was better than Amy at Update, maybe - that's a reasonable minds can differ situation, but her work as head writer isn't taken into account for this tournament, it's only on the performing side, and Amy was better as a sketch performer.
05-14 Region
Sweet Sixteen:
Wiig d. Armisen
Samberg v. Hader
Super easy win for Wiig; I groove on Hader's weird, but Samberg's digital work really was the signature of the entire decade and I don't think this is that close.
Elite Eight.
Murphy d. Belushi
Hartman d. Carvey
Ferrell d. Poehler
Wiig d. Samberg
If Hartman is Aykroyd+, the Eddie is Belushi++, the only cast member in 40 years legitimately bigger than the show.
I would have taken Aykroyd over Belushi had that matchup presented itself; in this format, it's the craftsman who is often more important than the zenith - and that plays out in Hartman going over Carvey.
Ferrell and Wiig are pretty similar - zeniths in craftsman bodies; I don't have much hesitation taking both.
Final Four
Murphy d. Hartman
Ferrell d. Wiig
I'll do the second matchup first, Wiig was terrific, the best of the era and maybe the best female cast member in show history (I'd probably take Poehler) but she's outmatched against Ferrell.
Murphy/Hartman is the ultimate zenith v. craftsman battle - it is the superstar v the ultimate utility player, what I said before still applies, fundamentally, when it comes to the needs of the show, craftsmen are more important - Phil could have fit in any era of the show, with any host, in almost every role - plug him in and the sketch gets better.
(Behind the curtain, even as I write this, I haven't entirely decided who wins this matchup).
I just...Murphy was undeniable; he was Michael Jordan, and even if Phil was some combination of Oscar Robertson and Tim Duncan - you still take MJ. Hartman was the most important figure inside the structure of what SNL is - Murphy transcended the structure. You don't remember Murphy from a multi character sketch, you remember him by himself - put the camera on Eddie Murphy and get out of the way.
Finals
Will Ferrell d. Eddie Murphy
That stuff I just said - still true. But Ferrell's the best combination of the character guy and the superstar in show history; he's a better Dana Carvey; he isn't Eddie Murphy, he isn't Phil Hartman, but if you take the second best choice for both roles in show history, they might both be Ferrell.
In the end, the way I thought about this was - if i were starting a cast and had the top pick, I think I'd pick Ferrell, knowing that I had both a star and an ensemble player all in one, over Murphy, despite his singular talent.
I don't think there's a good Wiig argument for best cast member ever - but the other 3 in the final four have really good cases and I wouldn't put up any sort of disagreement.
