Laraine Newman recently spoke out about her years on Saturday Night Live, but she stopped short of naming the worst host she worked with. Newman, 73, was an original Not Ready for Prime Time Player when the NBC sketch comedy debuted on Oct. 11, 1975.
In a new interview with Latenighter, Newman happily spilled the name of her favorite SNL host—English actor Christopher Lee, who hosted the show on March 25, 1978—but when asked to name her least favorite, she fumbled.
“I don’t like to say, but his name rhymes with Hilton Hurl,” she told the outlet.
Newman was obviously referring to late comedy legend Milton Berle, whose 1979 hosting stint on SNL became the subject of endless stories.
In a December 2024 interview with Cracked, Newman gave a careful answer when asked if it was safe to say that Berle was the worst host during her five years on SNL. “What constitutes ‘worst’ is so many things,” she said. “There are so many things that constitute a bad host that I’m hard-pressed to name the worst.”
But when asked if she had any bad memories of working with Berle, she admitted she did. “Jane (Curtin), Gilda (Radner), and I were standing with him during blocking, and he said, ‘Give me a little two-step,’ which is a tap-dancing move that none of us knew,” Newman recalled. “He said, ‘You don’t know a two-step? Where’s your talent?’ It was so crushing because I grew up with him on TV, and I loved Uncle Miltie. That was really wounding at the time.”
Berle made his one and only appearance on SNL on April 14, 1979. Not only was he reportedly condescending to the writers and cast members, but a transcript of his opening monologue posted by SNL Transcripts Tonight revealed an opener filled with racist, homophobic, and misogynistic jokes. His musical finale, “September Song,” featured a boastful homage to his career.
Mr. Television also took it upon himself to set up an arranged standing ovation for himself, much to the dismay of showrunner Lorne Michaels.
“It was just bizarre,” Michaels told Vulture in 2014. “The idea of the arranged standing ovation is just a part of show business that we were trying to separate ourselves from. …Milton Berle, I was just not prepared for.”
Things were reportedly just as bad backstage. In the SNL oral history book Live From New York, show writer Alan Zweibel alleged that when Berle hosted the show in 1979, he flashed him and cast member Gilda Radner in his dressing room.
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Michaels reportedly called the Saturday Night Live episode with Berle “the worst show ever.” In turn, the comedian was banned from future appearances on SNL, and the episode was never shown in reruns.
This story was originally reported by Parade on Oct 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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