![]() While Rocket anchored Weekend Update and frequently appeared in sketches that season – notably the season opener with Elliott Gould when he introduced himself as “a cross between Chevy Chase and Bill Murray” – his too-cool attitude ultimately proved to be his downfall. In Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, Joe Piscopo notes that to Rocket, following the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players didn’t seem like such a daunting task, and his attitude was “immediately: sunglasses.” Then an associate producer, Jean Doumanian became an instant Rocket fan, and after Michaels decided to leave the show she hired him for the sixth season. First taking on his birth name then evolving to the pseudonym Charles Kennedy, Rocket continued his local news anchoring career at KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs then WTVF in Nashville.īefore Lorne Michaels ultimately decided to leave SNL after season 5, he asked talent scout John Head to seek out potential new cast members, and Head returned with a tape of Rocket’s news report spoofs. He also made several on-the-street mock news reports dubbed “The Rocket Report” and sent the tapes to the local news station, where he was hired as a straight news man (“I guess the satire was too subtle,” he told People in 1981). Throughout the following decade he immersed himself in the RISD underground arts scene alongside artists like David Byrne and Gus Van Sant, making several short films and fronting a band on accordion called The Fabulous Motels. She packaged Rocket as the new Murray/Chase hybrid handsome guy – confident, a little clueless, and able to pratfall one second and deliver straight-faced news the next – but instead Rocket found his style overshadowed by the surprise success of the much more streetwise Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy.Ī Bangor, Maine native, Rocket (born Charles Adams Claverie) attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the late sixties. One of the few truly “dangerous” moments of the infamous Jean Doumanian SNL run from 1980-1981 came from a louche, too-handsome 30-year-old comedian named Charlie Rocket, and it caused the whole cast to be fired, and Jean too. ![]() ![]() In our column Saturday Night’s Children, we present the history, talent, and best sketches of one SNL cast member each week for your viewing, learning, and laughing pleasure. Saturday Night Live has been home to over a hundred cast members throughout the past 37 years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |