For the first few years,Saturday Night Livewas much more of a boys club than it is now.
No, the first person he knew hehadto have was Gilda Radner.
The first five seasons ofSNLwere seismic in their impact on pop culture.
Credit: Magnolia Pictures
And its fair to say that there had never been anyone quite like Radner doing comedy on television before.
She was waifishly slight in stature, but was physically fearless, throwing herself around like a rag doll.
She had a thousand-watt smile, but she could also plumb deep and vulnerable inner depths.
She was part Lucille Ball goofball and part Tasmanian devil.
The one thing she was consistently, though, was radiant.
But as Lisa DApolitos new film reveals,beingGilda Radner was often not joyful at all.
Love, Gildaopens with home-movie footage of Radner as a young girl growing up in Detroit in the 50s.
Its hard to find a moment when shes not mugging for the camera.
Still, even at a young age, she was deeply insecure.
Her mother putting her on diet pills by age 10 didnt help matters.
Afterwards, she began performing at Second City alongside John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Aykroyd.
He needed a girl in the show.
No matter what character she inhabited, her smile always made you smile at home.
By the time Radners miraculous run onSNLwas winding down, she was both physically and emotionally spent.
She would check into a hospital to finally tackle her eating disorders and candle-burning-at-both-ends lifestyle.
At the time, she weighed just 104 pounds.
Radner emerged stronger, healthier, and eager to find some stability.
Again, its here that home movies of the Radner-Wilders tell us more than simple voiceover narration ever could.
DApolito does a solid job of weaving together the many strands of Radners pinwheeling psyche.
Its also bittersweet considering how it ends how we know itmustend.
But for an hour and a half at least, the sorely-missed Radner feels alive again.
Like shes still with us sharing the public joy that her private self fought so hard to find.B+
