TVSquad

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with numbers 30-21, 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 numerous stand-up comedians who became sitcom stars. In this installment we look at one particular TV comedy that made stars out of a number of actors and actresses.

I'm talking about NBC's Saturday Night Live. Since its premiere in 1975, the late-night sketch show has given us a slew of actors and actresses who have made the move onto both the big and small screen. Sometimes the move was towards more comedy, sometimes it was a switch to more serious roles, other times it was a little bit of both. And, while many of those who made it are still in the public eye these days, some of the greatest of those who came from Studio 8H had their careers snuffed out way too early.

The amount of those who rose to the top varied from cast to cast. Some casts, like the very first one, produced a whole slew of talent who went on to bigger and better things. Others, like the first casts from 1980-85 and the mid-1990s, produced very little in the way of big stars.

Of all the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players from Saturday Night Live, who knew that Jane Curtin was going to be the one to have the most consistent and sustainable entertainment career? Think about it: John Belushi and Gilda Radner are dead, Lorraine Newman and Garrett Morris have fallen off the face of the earth, and Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd show up as guest actors on TV from time to time, but that's about it. Curtin, on the other hand, had hit sitcoms in the '80s (Kate & Allie) and the '90s (Third Rock from the Sun) and continues to get interesting roles in new shows, the last of which was the crazy mother in last year's failed ABC comedy Crumbs.

Well, now she's back in another ABC comedy pilot, called Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office. She plays the feared assistant of a nice woman who tries to make it in corporate America (Jayma Mays). I can see her in that kind of role; Curtin has always been good at playing the prim and proper woman who has a streak of something sexy or mean or evil underneath.