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Over the decades its been on the air, Saturday Night Live's cast is littered with comedy greats from all over who helped make the sketch show into the institution it is. One name who almost did the same was Catherine O'Hara, and she has revealed why she ultimately quit the show only a week after joining the cast.
O'Hara was poised to join Saturday Night Live‘s sixth season in 1981 when she ultimately decided to quit the show after a week on the cast, according to People. She said the reason wasn't due to any issues over working conditions or backstage conflicts, but rather loyalty to the Canadian sketch comedy show SCTV.
She revealed part of the issue was due to SCTV's inconsistent schedule.
“Our producer would get a deal with a network, and we’d have a show for a season or two, and then that deal would go away,” O'Hara told People. “There’d be a break, then we’d do the show again.”
O'Hara was contacted about joining SNL during one of these breaks and was excited to join, but left after learning SCTV had been picked back up.
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“I got asked to be on Saturday Night Live,” O'Hara said. “And of course I said yes. Who doesn’t want to do that?”
“Basically I said, ‘Oh, sorry, I gotta go be with my [comedy] family,’” she said in reference to SCTV.
Had O'hara stayed with SNL, she would have worked alongside Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Gilbert Gottfried, and others during a transitional period of the show. It was the first season of the show not to feature any of the original stars, such as Bill Murray or Gilda Radner, or the show's creator and producer Lorne Michaels.
Despite walking away from the show, O'Hara would go on to have an extremely successful career on film and TV with hits like Home Alone, Best in Show, Schitt's Creek, and would even host Saturday Night Live on two occasions.
