Saturday Night Live alum Chris Parnell has opened up about the “big shock” of being let go.
Parnell, the only cast member to have been fired from the show, opened up about his dismissal on Jay Mohr’s podcast.
“There was enough of an outcry from the cast and the writers that I felt like, ‘OK, I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy,’” Parnell said. “I just kept hearing that Lorne might be bringing me back.”
The actor, who stars alongside SNL alums Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon in the upcoming Netflix comedy series The Hawk, was a fan favorite on SNL from 1998 until his initial firing in 2001.
Parnell said he believed that the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, would bring him back sooner than he ultimately did. “There was just all this back and forth, and finally I just moved my stuff back to LA,” he said.
The actor was cut from the show along with Jerry Minor, who was a featured player for just one year. He went on to book a recurring role as Mr. Morton in Abbott Elementary. Shannon also left the show of her own volition at the time. However, Parnell’s firing prompted pushback from the cast.
“I was on the phone with like Rachel Dratch and some other people who were all waiting to hear that same kind of thing,” Parnell said, “and we just assumed we would all be back, so it was a big surprise.”
Parnell, who’s also known for voicing Jerry on Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, also revealed the first episode he watched after he was axed.
“I watched the 9/11 show, after 9/11, with Reese Witherspoon hosting, because I think that was the first one on after,” he said. “And I was bummed because I really wanted to—I’m such a fan of hers, and I really wanted to work with her.”
Parnell was later brought back in March 2002, after Michaels admitted he’d made a mistake in firing him. The actor recalled that interaction last May, telling Deadline, “He brought me into his office and said, ‘I made a mistake, what can I say?’ Which is, I think, rare for Lorne.”
He also told the site, “Thankfully, I had a few people go to bat for me,” after he was fired in 2001.
According to Deadline, Ferrell and Chris Kattan raised the issue with Michaels. One of the show’s writers at the time, T. Sean Shannon wrote a sketch to call out Michaels for firing Parnell, through a thin metaphor about a restaurant letting go of its best “chef.” The site reports that the sketch was performed at a table read to “to crickets.”
Parnell told Deadline, “At one point, I heard it was an NBC executive that I sort of knew, who didn’t like me. But I also heard it was budget cuts. I never got a straight answer, and I didn’t dig too hard to try to find out what it was ’cause I don’t know that I really wanted to know.” He added that he was “thrilled” to return to the show, as his firing had been a “pretty big hit.”
“You immediately realize how much of your own sense of self-worth is wrapped up in this idea of being a Saturday Night Live cast member,” he said.
He remained on the series from 2002 until 2006, when he became the first and only cast member to be axed twice.
It was a much easier pill to swallow the second time around.
“I was ready at that point, and I was OK, and I knew that might be coming,” he said.
