With over 50 years on the air, Saturday Night Live isn’t just a television show, it’s an institution that has brought us some of the biggest names in comedy, many of whom credit their predecessors for introducing them to the genre.
And for women in comedy, one SNL alum in particular gets mentioned quite a bit: the sweet and charming Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer less than a decade after leaving the show.
But her legacy has continued, from her fellow founding cast members’ homage to her at the end of the SNL50 Anniversary Special, where they held up a framed photo of Radner to the camera, to a current SNL star’s conviction that Radner is cheering her on from the beyond.
Sarah Sherman recently told Vulture’s Good One podcast that after joining the show, she “got a giant envelope in the mail” that contained a handwritten letter from a member of Radner’s family.
Sherman shared that the letter said, “Hey, I’m Gilda Radner’s brother. Weird thing happened where I’ve been receiving all of your residuals checks for the past few months…by the way, you’re really great on the show,” prompting an emotional reaction from the actress.
“I started hysterically sobbing, obviously, because I’m like, ‘okay, God’s speaking to me right now.’ The fact that my SAG residuals checks, shout out union, my SAG residuals checks have been sent to Gilda Radner’s estate,” she continued.
“I texted Lorne, I was like, ‘Oh my God, my checks have been sent to Gilda Radner’s estate. Isn’t this, like, a crazy coincidence? I feel like this is like a miracle or like, I feel like this is a spirit talking,’” Sherman said she wrote to SNL chief Lorne Michaels.
As for Michaels’ response? “Lorne was like, ‘That’s sweet.’”
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