Comments on: How Barbara Walters Came to Terms With ‘Baba Wawa’

By: John B Trumbull

John B Trumbull — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 23:41:37 +0000

Early SNL did a lot of loose (or downright half-assed) impressions in those first few seasons. Chevy Chase played Gerald Ford without any makeup or even an attempt at doing his voice. He just fell down a lot and played him as somewhat dimwitted. Dan Aykroyd played Jimmy Carter with a mustache but he at least tried to sound like the guy. Gilda’s Baba Wawa falls into that category to me.

That raises an interesting question: What was the first really GOOD celebrity impression on SNL? Maybe Aykroyd’s Richard Nixon during “The Final Days” sketch, which also featured Belushi doing Kissinger? Belushi doing William Shatner during the classic “Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise”? Belushi joining Joe Cocker in a duet of “Feelin’ Alright”? All of those were in 1976…

By: Gill

Gill — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 18:50:08 +0000

Dave Thomas did indeed do a funny impression of Walter Cronkite on SCTV. Though Rick Moranis did a very funny David Brinkley impression on there too.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 06:37:35 +0000

In reply to Tim Pendergast.

Cronkite got a lot of parodies later on. SCTV, for instance, did parodies of him. But he wasn’t frequently parodied before that point, even though he had such an easy to parody voice. And guys like Reasoner, Downs, Chancellor and Brinkley weren’t mocked at ALL. Once the dam sort of broke in the late 1970s, then yes, the 1980s were full of parodies, especially Tom Brokaw and his very distinctive way of talking.

Mad magazine parodied a few of them in the 1960s, but VERY few. Hugh Downs, for instance, appeared in Mad, like, five times over DECADES.

By: Tim Pendergast

Tim Pendergast — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 05:14:03 +0000

I seem to recall a lot of folks parodying Cronkite back in the day. But his dull staccato style didn’t make for a lot of laughs.