Who is Margaret Karolyi? Behind new Saturday Night Live title card
So who is she in relation to the show? Margaret had a rich history working as a part of the SNL wardrobe department, one that dated back all the way back to the show’s early years in the 1970’s. Her last IMDb credit for the show was a little bit earlier this decade (2013), and her long history at Studio 8H shows the devotion that she had to her craft in trying to perfect every costume featured on the show.
Few people within SNL have a tougher job during the week than the wardrobe and costume designers. You’re having to come up with outfits on the fly, and then also prepare for cast members to swap them out over a very brief period of time. It’s a time-consuming task just to get them ready, and then during the show, everything happens in a blink.
SNL was Karolyi’s most-notable television credit, and that is often the case when you work on the show. It’s a full-time gig that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room open to other opportunities, and it is also a show that does its best to demonstrate loyalty and keep long-tenured employees in-house. It seems as though she had an incredible career at the show and was one of the foundational players behind making things run smoothly in the wardrobe department.
The SNL title card tradition
Like they did recently with Joe Disco, what SNL likes to do at the end of its episodes is show a photo of the person they lost alongside the name. They carefully place it before the good-nights as a way to ensure it receives proper attention — these are people who deserve to be known, and who gave so much to the show over the years.
These cards are important beyond word and beyond measure — they offer comfort to families and to the crew of SNL itself. This show has so many long-tenured crew members that many of them likely worked alongside Karolyi for many years. They likely used this week in order to share some memories of her. SNL has done a good job over the years of showing some of the work that goes into making it (including the talent), but only a select number of viewers often see those featurettes that are often reserved for either specials or online videos. Putting a tribute of Margaret into the show was something special and very much merited.
Our thoughts go out to all of Karolyi’s family and friends during what has to be a difficult time for them. Once again, we applaud SNL for honoring her.