Jan Hooks Has Been Dead To Us Ten Years

I remember the old RIP troll's thread here when Jan died ten years ago The headline was "Jan Hooks, RIP". RIP, RIP troll.

Wow, it's incredible to believe it's been a full ten years.

She might have been the all-time funniest person ever to be a regular on SNL.

Insanely talented. Should have been a megastar.

Link: Jan Hooks as Bette Davis reading her own will on video

(This had me dying on the floor when I was a kid and it aired live that night)

The most talented female performer in Saturday Night Live history.

Insane range and so full of energy.

The deep dive after she died mentioned that once her cancer returned, she retreated from the world in a Catskills cabin, having liquor and cartons of Merit cigarettes delivered from a local store and watching TCM around the clock.

She was so beautiful that her cameos on 30 Rock — greatly overweight, alcoholic eyes — were quite a shock.

There's no basement at the Alamo!?

[quote] This is one of my personal favorite parts of the tour. Please say hello to our residents, Pedro and his wife Inez. Inez is holding a clay pot that she seems very proud of. She has carefully detailed it with lots of paint and glaze. And Pedro is working on an "adobe." Can you say that with me? "Adobe".

[quote] (Tour group responds, "Adobe.")

Sad that Designing Women had already jumped the shark by the time she turned up there.

She was its only real saving grace in those last two seasons.

Tragic.

She had beauty, wit, cunning, and insight; the weapons all women needed to survive in the world.

So sad she let her inner demons eat her alive. She deserved better.

Those inner demons were HUNGRRRYYY!!!!!

[quote] (Tour group responds, "Adobe.")

One of my favorite things in that movie is at this moment the Mexicans in the tour ("Well, BUENOS DIAS!") also say the word very carefully with the Anglos, like they've never heard it before.

[quote]She had beauty, wit, cunning, and insight; the weapons all women needed to survive in the world.

Thanks for weighing in, Joan Collins.

I love when her whole trashy TexASS accent and when she finally takes the gum out of her mouth.

This is still fucking gold.

It's a crime those Sweeney sisters sketches aren't available in high quality.

Jan Hooks was truly funny in everything I ever saw her in, a very gifted comedic actress. I'm sorry that she had so many personal problems.

An article written one year after she died, which explains a lot.

Jan Hooks could rock a Southern accent like nobody's business.

R18

“I see you pushed L for lobby! Join us, won’t you?”

Is this the lady that did Joana Dana? Why do so female comedians die young it seems like.

I adore Jan Hooks. One of the all-time greats. Fearless.

Mafuckin!’

I wuz razed rite.

F23: Who the fuck is Joana Dana? Do you mean Roseanne Roseannadanna? And no, it isn't.

She was a highlight of Batman Returns, against some fairly stiff competition.

"Attitudes" was also very funny. If you remember the actual "Attitudes" talk show it was a spot-on parody. Jan Hooks as the insecure, trying too hard Dee Kelly and Nora Dunn as the brassy and obnoxious Linda Dano.

R26 Yea that’s who I meant. My fault, I didn’t grow up with other that era of SNL, just reruns.

That Geena Davis hosted show was great. The version on line I saw cuts one of the funniest skits where Geena teaches women how to be game show presenters. "Flourish the hands, ladies, flourish the hands."

[quote]Sad that Designing Women had already jumped the shark by the time she turned up there.

Nevertheless, the sixth season was the highest-rated.

SEASON ONE = #33

SEASON TWO = #34

SEASON THREE = #33

SEASON FOUR = #22

SEASON FIVE = #10

SEASON SIX = #6

SEASON SEVEN = #67

It really is, R18! There were ten Sweeney Sisters sketches over three seasons. NONE of them are included in the abbreviated SNL episodes on Peacock, which is unbelievable. You'd think that they would included at least one -- like the Christmas medley (William Shatner) or when they serenaded Paul Simon (host) with Bridge Over Troubled Water. ("You gave us your LOVE!!")

Pace picante sauce commercial featuring Jan before she was famous.

If I have found out I had terminal cancer I would pretty much do the same thing poor Jan did.

P.S. Meant to link this at R32

Best of Jan Hooks playlist on SNL's youtube channel:

She had the most beautiful smile. Her whole face would change when she smiled.

I'm ashamed to say that I must have forgotten she had died. She was funny on the Church Lady skit where she played Marla Maples. I didn't realize she'd had so many difficulties, either. Poor Lady.

R28 That is one of my favorites. So demented. And how good is Nora Dunn?

I am so glad Tina Fey talked Jan into doing 30 Rock. Verna was perfect, with her saggy boob and feather earrings. If Jan had not done the show, her last in-person screen appearance would have been that awful Jiminy Glick movie.

R5 Bette Davis will video was the best- over over.

She was so reclusive and wary, so uncommitted to thriving, one wonders what the hell happened to her. Maybe some childhood trauma there.

[Quote] She just wanted live with her demons

More than she wanted live from New York

[Quote] So sad she let her inner demons eat her alive.

She spent the last fifteen or so years of her life as a semi-recluse, holed up in her house in Upstate NY drinking and smoking. So sad. She was one of the best comedic actresses ever, imho. So talented. Obviously she had a lot of problems.

Saw her grave stone in Georgia. Ten years and it’s leaning forward ready to topple-unless someone’s tried to steal it.

Maybe Lucy and Ethel?

That was the year we lost so much great comedic talent - Robin Williams, Joan Rivers and Jan Hooks...all within weeks of each other.

She was so interesting to watch, with that beautiful smile and hugely expressive face. She was also willing to perform characters at the edge of madness. One skit, where she plays a strident waitress who is destabilized by a handsome drifter played by Alec Baldwin, was near genius sketch comedy.

R47 I always will remember that Robin Williams and Joan died right behind each other. RW was my childhood; Joan was my early 20s gay awakening when I was slowly on the path to live my truth. They both were hysterical in very different ways. I miss them both though I think I miss Joan more.

I loved her on the late night basic cable TV show “Tush” out of Atlanta. She was hilarious as an alien vixen in the show’s “Flash Gordon” spoofs.

"I got the meat, Jack"

This was such a sad, lonely death to me. She was truly gifted as a comedienne.

She was wonderful but only human. Was so glad to hear Joan was dead and the hilarious way she died- Death by Dentist-thx Joan.

I loved her in Batman Returns - she's possibly the funniest thing in the whole film and she's only got one scene.

"Our research tells us voters like fingers..."

Underrated film all round.

She clearly had problems with depression, low self confidence and alcohol. A shame, because she was a unique talent who should've had a bigger career.

R54 She was supposed to have two scenes but refused to return to set. Her costar Steve Witting talks about it:

“Well, Jan had gotten a part on a show called Designing Women, which shot on the lot. And she had a really funny part as the Alamo tour guide in Tim’s movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I remember we were supposed to shoot another scene together for Batman, but she had come up with a reason not to do it.

There was going to be another scene with Jen and Josh?

Yeah, and I don’t know if Jan had an issue with it, but she used the excuse that because she was shooting Designing Women she couldn’t shoot the other scene. So, this scene would’ve been where Batman and Catwoman meet at a big party.

Shreck’s annual Maxquerade Ball.

Yeah, the fancy costume black tie thing.

But Jan didn’t want to?

She just wouldn’t do it. I remember going on the lot and begging her, “Please, I know you’ve got a job, and you’re great, but I need this.” But she never relented for whatever reason, and we never shot that scene.“

The last season of Designing Women has to be one of the worst seasons ever done of a TV show, but I agree that Hooks was arguably the only bright spot in it.

My fave female SNL star bar none. Her and Phil Hartman remain King and Queen of SNL for me.

Jan's Bette Davis was hysterical. She even had the same bemused eye expression.

Jan as Bette-the best!

She was great as Bette but nothing will ever equal her Tammy Faye Baker.

R56, that makes me sad for both of them.

I wonder what the scene was.

Doesn’t seem like 10 years to me because I’ve watched her in videos these years and just love her stuff. I hope that is comforting for her-Love you Jan…

Oh, her does, R58?

[quote] I loved her on the late night basic cable TV show “Tush” out of Atlanta.

R50 So did I. She was the absolute standout performer on that short-lived 1980-81 show. I remember an episode in which members of the cast were trying to take control of the show away from host Bill Tush, who I think used to introduce the show by saying, “Hi, and welcome to Tush.” At the point that Jan got control of the show, she walked up to the camera, put on her big smile, cocked her head sideways, and said in her southern drawl, “Hi, and welcome to “HOOKS!” It still makes me laugh. She could make almost anything funny.

I drove out by her old house in Bearsville this summer. She lived closer to Glenford. It is pretty isolated. Dreary too. It’s still gray. A big thank you to the person who posted it on here a few years ago.

I can’t imagine her wandering around Woodstock. Guess she didn’t go to town much. I did notice Glenford had a nice liquor store next to a Hannaford supermarket, bet she loved that.

I remember finding that second Jen & Josh scene in an online version of the Batman Returns script (sorry I don't have a link). They would have appeared at the costume ball, dressed as the Catwoman & Batman, sneering at Selina & Bruce for showing up without costumes. It's a shame that Jan didn't want to do it, because it would have been funny. But I guess Shreck making fun of Bruce's lack of a costume serves the same purpose.

Strike that, I just found a link. It also demonstrates how much more effective the final scene is versus the one that was written.

According to Dennis Miller and Kevin Nealon, Jan had a pre-show ritual in her later seasons of SNL.

She’d pop in the tape of Mary Hart and Mary Frann singing Footloose on a show called “Super Summer Picnic.” She get up to the point where the Marys are gasping for air, hit pause and go out for the show.

I must find a copy of this. It makes me miss Jan’s campy ass even more.

Jan was brilliant at camp.

I feel like she would have done wonders on a Ryan Murphy show. I vaguely remember a story about Martin Short's Christmas party, where various famous people would get up and sing carols or do bits. When it was Jan's turn, she did Mayella Ewing on the witness stand in To Kill a Mockingbird.