Original Saturday night live Cast member Jane Curtin admitted she didn't have much hope for the show's first season in 1975.
Ahead of the 50th season premiere of the NBC sketch comedy series on Saturday, the actress-comedian spoke with The New York Times and looked back SNL's first broadcast on October 11, 1975, noting that the entire night seemed a blur.
“I never paid much attention to the audience,” Curtin recalled. “I thought, well, whoever is watching this must be really stupid. It gave me a lot of anguish. So the way I approached the situation was: I was in this bubble and we had a job to do inside the bubble.”
Even in the weeks leading up to the big debut episode, the 3rd Rock from the Sun the actress faced a lot of anxiety, wondering why she was on the show.
“I was quiet and no one paid attention to me. I didn't know how to pitch. I've never had to do that in my life,” he said of that time, but ultimately was confident he would get roles on opening night. “I thought, well, they hired me. They're paying me. So it would be foolish of they don't use me.”
Later, once the show started gaining attention, the Kate and Allie the alum said his life outside of SNL completely changed. “You would walk past people and they would tremble,” he said. “They had a physical reaction to you, because they could feel the energy behind what was happening at 30 Rock. And it was very, very emotional.”
Curtin, one of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, starred alongside Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner, Michael O'Donoghue and George Coe in the first season. She stayed with SNL until 1980 before finding success with other shows.
Curtin is also played by Kim Matula in Jason Reitman's film Saturday eveningwhich dramatizes the 90 minutes preceding the first broadcast of the sketch comedy show. The film opens on October 11th.