The ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance John Goodman will always regret: “The first time I let them down”
When he wasn’t busy at his day job as one of the greatest and most dependable character actors in cinema, John Goodman carved out a secondary career as one of the most frequent hosts in Saturday Night Live history.
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin are the only people who’ve fronted the long-running sketch staple more times than Goodman, who’s hosted SNL 13 times since his debut in December 1989. However, he’s only done it once since 2001, and there’s a chance that he may never do it again.
That’s not because Lorne Michaels and the rest of the decision-makers have decided they don’t want him anymore, though. Instead, Goodman was left so devastated by his most recent stint on SNL that it crippled his confidence and left him wondering whether he’s got enough left in the tank.
In the ninth episode of the 39th season, which aired on December 4th, 2013, Goodman made it an unlucky 13. It was a typically star-studded affair, with Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone making cameo appearances to promote their eminently forgettable boxing film, Grudge Match, with Kings of Leon the night’s musical act.
By his own admission, the actor was rusty, having been absent from SNL for over a decade, which meant, from his perspective at least, that he was fighting a constant uphill battle. “The last time I hosted, I felt every week of 62 years old,” he admitted to Howard Stern.
“I didn’t bring much to the party,” he explained. “It’s the first time I felt I let them down. I ran out of gas between the dress rehearsal and the actual show. I had a bottle of 5-Hour Energy drink, but I didn’t want to take it. I should have.”
The veteran who can always be relied on to give a solid performance in any feature or TV series he appears in was making what was supposed to be a triumphant return to SNL after a 12-year absence, only for Goodman to realise that age was finally starting to catch up with him.
He’s nowhere close to being the oldest host in the show’s history, with Betty White, Miskel Spillman, and Ruth Gordon all doing it in their 80s, while Martin, Michael Keaton, and Larry David are just three of the 7-somethings who’ve proven that age is nothing but a number.
And yet, for the first time, Goodman was convinced he’d dropped the ball. He wasn’t savaged, panned, or trashed for delivering a sub-par turn in his 13th gig, but it didn’t matter. What did matter was how he perceived himself, and it crushed him to realise that he couldn’t keep up.
That’s enough to knock anyone’s confidence, and it remains to be seen if that 14th appearance will ever materialise.
