TVSquad

Radner. Louis-Dreyfus. Poehler. Fey. Shannon.

Suffice it to say, the number of women who became famous on Saturday Night Live before graduating to solo success is few and far between. Sure, Gilda Radner can be considered a pioneer in the art of sketch comedy. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus undoubtedly honed her comedic skills before becoming a sitcom icon on Seinfeld. And, yes, Tina Fey can easily be considered a heroine to comedy nerds everywhere who have witnessed her climb from Weekend Update anchor to Mean Girls scribe to single-handedly decimating the vice presidential chances of one certain gun-wieldin', six-pack-totin' Alaskan governor.

But, sadly, the number of men who left Studio 8 for the superstardom of Planet Hollywood (not the theme restaurant) easily outnumbers the ladies. For every Amy Poehler, there's a Will Ferrell. And a Bill Murray. And a Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler (although, to be fair, there's also a David Gary Kroeger, A. Whitney Brown, and Charles Rocket for every Melanie Hutsell, too). (And for the record, no, you shouldn't recognize those names.)

I didn't know Tim Russert on a personal level. I rarely even saw him in his own element as host of NBC's Meet the Press. However, when he suddenly died last Friday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was the fact that he was a huge presence on television, particularly during this year's Presidential election. It made Russert feel like he was a part of the family.

So it has been with many television personalities that have left this earth before their time. It's the intimacy of the industry and the fact that this person has come into our homes night after night, week after week, that the unexpected death of these personalities hits us much harder than, say, movie stars. Unfortunately, there have been a number of these surprising deaths over the last few decades. Here are 12 such deaths that affected millions of television viewers.

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with numbers 20-11, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1975-1985 that made it to the big time. This week, we focus on the SNL casts from 1986 to 2006.

Aside from the first season of Lorne Michaels' return to the show he created and the 1994-95 season, this period was a very successful one for SNL, introducing a slew of characters and sketches that fans of the show still talk about today. It also produced a good number of Not Ready for Prime-Time Players who went on to bigger things in television and the movies (and some theater as well). Sometimes those bigger things were movies or television shows based on characters developed on SNL.

In this video filmed for a Tom Arnold comedy special, Chris Farley tries to pick up women at a mall. It's classic Farley, with pratfalls and generally making an ass of himself. I'm surprised he had such problems picking up women.

The surprising thing to me was that this was filmed when Tom and Roseanne were still an item, so the marriage isn't yet revealed to be the sham it was. Buying Rosie a present? Puh-lease.

Farley also played Tom Arnold's brother on one of his Roseanne-sponsored short-lived TV sitcoms called Tom. This was a sitcom-within-a-sitcom. Arnold played a loony sitcom star. Obviously it was a beneficial relationship on both sides.

[via Digg]

NBC announced today that 90-minute "Best of" specials of Saturday Night Live will air throughout December. These special episodes, featuring sketches with Will Ferrell and Chris Farley to name just two, will air in primetime Saturdays from 9:30 to 11:00 p.m. ET/PT.

The first "Best of," to air on December 8, will be devoted to Will Ferrell's best work on the show. This episode will feature sketches of Craig the Spartan Spirit cheerleader, singing middle school teacher Marty Culp, along with Ferrell's portrayal of Alex Trebek on Celebrity Jeopardy and much more.

Hey, don't yell at me, that line is from Anthony Bourdain!

It was said at the recent roast for chef and Food Network celeb Mario Batali. It was held at Capitale and served as a benefit for the Food Bank of New York.

Lots of fellow chefs and celebrities were at the event, including Queer Eye For The Straight Guy's Ted Allen ("Mario actually hasn't cooked since 1979 - unless you count freebasing"), comedian Artie Lange ("You look like Kiefer Sutherland after he was stung by bees"), and comedian Nick DiPaolo, who asked "What are you, trying to be the Chris Farley of the Food Network?" Yeah, that pic that accompanies the New York mag piece really is kinda disturbing.

As New York reports, even though Rocco DiSpirito and fellow Food Network star Rachael Ray were not at the roast, a lot of the comics dumped on them too. (As Julia told you earlier, Batali will team up with Ray on Iron Chef America this Sunday as they go up against the team of Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis.)

NBC Universal Television gets to go mining for comedy gold over at the famous Second City Improv Theatre. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio and the theatre have signed a two-year deal that allows NBC access to Second City shows, talent, and comedy library. NBC intends to use the information to develop comedy content for new television programs. "We look at it as a great resource of talent and ideas that we can share back and forth," said NBC Universal TV president Angela Bromstad.

Good move on NBC's part. Second City alumni include Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Andy Dick, Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Fred Willard, Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert... and the list goes on and on. These people know what funny is.

The family of Chris Farley has given approval for his image to be used on outdoor advertisements for alcohol and drug treament from Hythiam Inc. The ads will feature a photo of Farley and the text, "It Wasn't His Fault." Chris Farley died eight years ago from an overdose of morphine and cocaine, at the age of 33.

The first billboard will appear on Monday near the Chateau Marmont, the hotel on Sunset Boulevard where fellow SNL alum John Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982. Several other billboards will appear in the Los Angeles area. Executives for Hythiam Inc. say they are in negotiations with the estates of other dead celebrities to use their images for the same campaign.

Remember the good ol' days of Saturday Night Live? You can. On your video iPod, or just on your computer. This week, iTunes released all sorts of video clips that span the last 30 years of Saturday Night Live. You can purchase individual sketches, including The Hanukkah Song, Wake Up and Smile, Schwetty Balls, Motivational Speaker, plus a few oldies-but-goodies like Word Association with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor, and King Tut with Steve Martin. There are also all sorts of commercial parodies such as Colon Blow, Oops I Crapped My Pants, and Mom Jeans (what? no Clear Gravy?). You really have to love those sketches, though, because they each cost $2. The collection is by no means complete, but it looks as though SNL is just getting started. For instance, I didn't see any of the Wayne's World or Church Lady sketches available for individual purchase. However, those are included on the "Best Of" compilations that are also available for download, for $10.