last night on late night

Jane Curtin Looks Back on SNL’s Chaotic 1977 Mardi Gras Special

Original Not Ready for Prime Time Player Jane Curtin caught up with Seth Meyers on last night’s Late Night, and as is the case whenever Meyers chats with a fellow Saturday Night Live alum, the conversation at one point turned to SNL memories. Meyers asked Curtin about participating in the show’s now-infamous 1977 Mardi Gras special in New Orleans, which didn’t exactly go as planned, to say the very least. As Lorne Michaels put it to Vulture in our article about the special last year: “For all of us, it was just sort of seeing what our limits were. And we found them.”

“It was such a good idea,” Curtin sarcastically tells Meyers of the experience. “The planning that was involved was so meticulous. I mean, every minute was counted for. Not.” Along with Buck Henry, Curtin’s role was to provide color commentary for a parade in the city that not only never happened but also led to a pedestrian getting hit and Curtin and Henry getting pelted with bottles and doubloons before they were swarmed by a “plastered” crowd and felt certain they were going to die, if it weren’t for the two retired detectives who saved the day. “I’m so happy you went through that so I never had to,” Meyers tells Curtin. “Well,” Curtin responds with a smile, “it was my pleasure, Seth.”

Jane Curtin Looks Back on SNL’s Chaotic Mardi Gras Special