“Saturday Night Live” cast member Sarah Sherman has revealed that several of her residual checks from the show were sent to the estate of late “SNL” icon Gilda Radner, the first performer to be hired when the show began in 1975.
“I started, like, hysterically sobbing, obviously,” Sherman told Vulture senior editor Jesse David Fox on a recent episode of the “Good One” podcast.
Sherman, who began as a featured player on the show’s 47th season, said she got a “giant envelope” in the mail along with a handwritten letter from Radner’s brother explaining the “weird” occurrence and complimenting her “great” performance on “SNL.”
“I’m like, ‘OK, God’s speaking to me right now,’” Sherman recalled.
The comedian — known for her surreal comedy — said the mailing caused her to text the man who brought Radner onto the show’s first season: “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, my checks have been sent to Gilder 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 is talking,’” Sherman said.
Michaels, she revealed, had a simple response: “That’s sweet.”
Radner, an Emmy Award winner for her work on “SNL,” was one of the show’s seven original cast members known as the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.”
Following her time on the program, she appeared in several films with Gene Wilder — who she went on to marry in 1984.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986, later dying of the disease in 1989.
Back in February, Laraine Newman and Jane Curtin — fellow cast members from the show’s first season — paid a touching tribute to Radner by holding up a framed photo of the comedian at the end of the “SNL” 50th anniversary special.
Later on the “Good One” podcast, Sherman revealed that Radner is among her all-time favorite cast members along with Fred Armisen, Norm Macdonald, Kristen Wiig and Dana Carvey.
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