‘Saturday Night Live’ tributes Phil Hartman, John Belushi, Jan Hooks, Chris Farley

For the most part, “Saturday Night Live” went with laughs for its 40th anniversary, but there was a moment in which things started to get serious … even if it was just for a few minutes.

In a segment presented by Bill Murray, the show went through and honored many of the former cast members, writings, and folks behind the scenes who are no longer with us. This was a lengthy list sadly, and it reminded us of some of the tragedy that has befallen this show over the years. Phil Hartman is one of the funniest people to ever live, and we still miss him. The same goes for John Belushi, Jan Hooks, Chris Farley, Danitra Vance, Gilda Radner, and the many other people who were honored by the show. Don Pardo was of course one of the most noteworthy recent additions, and they did add a little humor at the end by throwing back to all the old “Jon Lovitz is dead” jokes.

Also, Bill Murray doing the whole Francisco France joke at the end is something that we really forgot about, in all honesty. We really worried for a second that he was about to announce some really terrible news out of Spain.

This was a really touching moment for the show, and a way to actually honor some people who have meant so much to all of us. Even people who don’t act or never wanted to probably still had a moment or two where they dreamed about being a part of the show, and playing crazy characters and having an overall good time. We’ve certainly been there.

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