Institute for RDJ Studies ❱ Television Dept.
Robert Downey Jr on Saturday Night Live
As a cast Member in 1985-86
After five seasons of Saturday Night Live, creator and producer Lorne Michaels left the show in 1980. NBC kept SNL on the air with some difficulty but by 1984 thanks to already established stars like Billy Crystal and Martin Short, it was a hit show. When the executive producer pushed to drop the live format in favor of mostly recorded segments, NBC considered canceling the show but ultimately fired the producer and re-hired Lorne Michaels to "save" the classic format of SNL.
Lorne brought back many of his original writers and hired an entirely new cast: Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr, Nora Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid, Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance. Damon Wayans was also a featured player for most of the season. The eleventh season opened with Lorne Michaels administering drug tests to his new cast, but NBC executives removed this sketch from future airings of the show.
For the most part, critics and the audience didn't warm to the new cast. The season ended with a "cliffhanger" sketch where Lorne Michaels ushered Jon Lovitz out a side door while the rest of the cast was trapped in a burning building. SNL was threatened with cancellation again and in a last-ditch effort to save his show, Lorne promised to hire a new cast. Only Lovitz, Nora Dunn and Dennis Miller returned for season twelve.
Robert Downey Jr's stint on SNL wasn't successful, but in retrospect, that wasn't such a bad thing. He got his breakout dramatic role (Less Than Zero) and his first starring film role (The Pick-Up Artist) the following year. Typically, SNL stars have difficulty breaking into (or staying in) the film industry and compared to the 1985 cast members who weren't fired. Downey enjoyed more film success within 2-3 years of being fired than the eleventh season's big star Jon Lovitz ever did. Similarly, Joan Cusack and Damon Wayans (who was fired before the season ended) also went on to be much more successful in their other endeavors.
On the 40th anniversary of the show, Rolling Stone ranked 145 cast members. They placed Robert Downey Jr dead last, saying, "Robert Downey Jr. is a comic genius. Making him unfunny stands as SNL’s most towering achievement in terms of sucking. How do you fuck up a sure thing like Downey? He’s funny in anything. I mean, dude was funny in Weird Science. He was funny in Johnny Be Good. He was funny in Iron Man. But he met his Kryptonite, and it was SNL, where he spent the 1985-1986 season sucking up a storm. His greatest hit? A fart-noise debate with Anthony Michael Hall. In a perverse way, the Downey Fail sums up everything that makes SNL great. There are no sure things. No rules. No do-overs. No safety net — when you flop on SNL, you flop big. And that’s the way it should be. The cameras roll at 11:30, ready or not. Live from New York — it’s Saturday Night."
In 2023, Robert Downey Jr became the first former SNL cast member to win an Oscar.
Quotes from Robert Downey Jr about SNL
How He Ended Up on The Show
They were on Anthony Michael Hall's dick to get him on the show. And so he negotiated some ridiculous contract and then also said, "Well, Robert Downey has to be on the show, too." We were friends. And so I went on the audition. I thought it was going to be like four people; instead, it's all of NBC in this room ... I took my t-shirt off and threw it on my head and started doing this character, my imitation of this guy that I'd seen at Voila, a terrible club in the Beverly Center ... Anyway, this Iranian guy was drunk and didn't know the language well, and he was talking shit to this guy, saying, 'Hey, man—you don't know who I am. You'll kick my ass.' I was like 'No—it's I'll kick your ass.' So, I went in and started doing this Iranian for the audition and they started laughing and they started hiring me.
More About the Audition
I just took off my t-shirt and put it on my head and did my Iranian character — this guy who's always ranking on people but doesn't speak any English, so it never comes out right. He says stuff like, "Step outside and kick my ass. Make love to my mother, okay, or my friends will kick my face."
The Good and the Bad
The great thing about SNL was being at 30 Rockefeller Center. And having Belushi and Ackroyd's old office. And me and [Anthony] Michael [Hall] saying, "We want bunk beds. With NFL Sheets. And we want them now." And Michael was like "Man, it's gonna be great, we're gonna be buddies, we're gonna do a show together, we're gonna ..." Then, "I'm gonna do Out of Bounds," and he left.
In Retrospect
I had the dubious honor of being on probably the worst season of Saturday Night Live. And I still had a great time and it was a great experience. Thanks for not kicking me off the show—I was up to some pretty nefarious acts in the dressing room. It was a period of time when being a Gen X guy, when being self-destructive seemed in.
The Grueling Schedule
I was doing Back to School and Saturday Night Live at the same time. So I'd fly back to Los Angeles for a couple of days during the week to shoot the movie and then fly back and, "Live from New York, it's a tired young man!"
Doing a Weekly Live Show
Live TV is the ultimate medium. Two hundred of your best friends in the audience, five cameras in your face, not enough time to get it together and thirty million people watching ... It's like okay it's Monday-meet-the-new-host-Tuesday-Wednesday- everything-is-changing-NEW DIALOGUE-now-that-you've-never-seen-before-five, four, three, two, GO.
The Skit Critics Disliked Most
I think it was when I wore the suitcase on my head and said things like, "I know why whales beach themselves. Spider Man told me."
Excerpts from Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales
Terry Sweeney, 1985-86 cast member:
Chevy [Chase] hosted the second show, and we were all so excited because, to us, Chevy was like a god. This was someone returning who'd been one of the original [cast members] and was this legendary figure. And we were just excited to work with him. And when he got there, he was a monster. He said to Robert Downey Jr., "Didn't your father used to be a successful director? Whatever happened to him? Boy, he sure died, you know, he sure went to hell." Downey turned ashen.
Bernie Brillstein, producer:
Robert Downey was one of the people [Lorne Michaels] really wanted, and it wasn't a terrible idea, but it wasn't a good idea either, in retrospect. It just didn't work. And there were a few problems among the cast; I mean alcohol and drugs or whatever. It wasn't good.
Robert Downey Jr Hosting Saturday Night Live in 1996
Original airdate, US, 16 November 1996.
In 1996, Robert Downey Jr was at the height of his drug addiction and at the beginning of the legal troubles that would eventually land him in prison. While he was in a court-ordered rehab program, he was given a week-long work release "pass" from the facility to fly to New York and host Saturday Night Live.
The Monologue
Robert Downey Jr. greets the audience with pictures from his summer vacation, all of which are jokes about his legal troubles.
"Well, it's great to be back here on Saturday Night Live. I was actually a cast member on the show ten years ago, and in case you were wondering why I'm hosting, well, actually, I've been invited back as part of the distinguished alumni series."
The Cobras and Panthers
The leader of a 1950s street gang is unaware that he's in a West Side Story type musical, and doesn't understand why his fellow gangsters keep breaking into song. Robert Downey Jr plays one of the singing gang members.
Spartan Cheerleaders at a Bowling Tournament
Robert Downey Jr plays a star "athlete" in a sketch where two cheerleader rejects show up to cheer on a bowling tournament.
Mary Katherine Gallagher's First Kiss
The awkward Catholic school girl attends a party and her friend stages a game of Spin the Bottle. She gets locked in the closet with her longtime crush—"Brian Mulhoney, the almighty pony," played by Robert Downey Jr.
"You stare at me all the time. You do it in English, you do it in Bio. You even stare at me when I go to Confession. You're such a freak. What is wrong with you?"
Mr. Music
Robert Downey Jr is Mr. Music, a wedding DJ who has just made the transition from the hard rock scene to "paying gigs." Hijinks ensue as Mr. Music struggles to play something the wedding guests will enjoy.
"Ever since I changed my name from Knife Tit to Mr. Music, I've been getting a lot more of these paying gigs."
"That's not what you told me on the phone. You said you had plenty of experience as a wedding DJ."
"Since I said that, I looked up the word plenty in the dictionary, and I was wrong."
The Streets of L.A.
Two cliche 1970s cops make a heroin bust that quickly degenerates into a critic-baiting mockery of Robert Downey Jr's real-life problems at the time.
"It doesn't matter if the user is a plumber, a lawyer, or a hot shot actor who's been nominated for an Academy Award for playing Charlie Chaplin."
"What the hell are you talking about Wade? We never busted nobody like that."
"Well, we should have 'cause in my book if you do drugs, you go to jail and you stay there. You don't go to a cushy rehab center and take a week off to fly to New York and host a comedy show."
Shop At Home Network
Three over-enthusiastic home shopping channel stars try to sell sports and film collectibles.