MovieChat Forums > MADtv (1995) Discussion > Bobby Lee says the MadTV cast were “look...

Bobby Lee says the MadTV cast were “looked down on” in Hollywood

posted 2 years ago by TMC-4 (19423)
5 replies | jump to latest

If you were from MadTV you were looked down upon and most of the cast struggled to find work. He said it was hard to even get auditions because they wouldn’t even see you because you were from MadTV, so some of them went back to standup comedy to almost start from scratch again.

Years later, aka now, things are better for many of them but for years many of them struggled to find work.

Why do you think being on MadTV was looked down upon while being on SNL opened up many doors for you?

https://youtu.be/l7tmJ8Sjdhs

[–] TandyMan (10373) 2 years ago

I believe this. Lorne and SNL are very big power players in Tinseltown. MadTV was direct competition, likely owned by the wrong politics. I bet there was a lot of backdoor blacklisting going on.

[–] SandyR (7383) 2 years ago

MAD TV demonstrated comedy. SNL hasn't understood the concept for decades.

[–] kwestmo (4114) 2 years ago

very true

[–] Threadkiller (2954) 2 years ago

Yeah. Sounds about right. I always noticed how much easier it seemed to be for even middling talent on SNL to get other opportunities starring in major film & television projects. It was apparent to see that even the top MAD TV stars in their prime weren't getting these opportunities.

Phil Lamar went on to have a steady voice acting career. Alex Borstein got lucky with Family Guy & finally a supporting role on 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Aries Spears went back to his stand up roots. Debra Wilson has had a steady voice acting career as well. The biggest thing I'm aware of that Will Sasso has done is that Three Stooges movie that apparently bombed. Ike Barenholtz has actually had a surprising number of small supporting roles in major films.

I literally have no idea what Michael McDonald has done outside of Mad TV until I heard he turned up as one of Michael Myers victim in the last Holloween movie. Ironic sidenote: Michael McDonald has been killed on screen by two different people named Michael Myers. Once in Austin Powers & again in Halloween

[–] legnadibrom (5729) a year ago

you can look up Will Sasso on imdb.com to see his filmography