This Non-Cast Member Has Appeared in 29 of ‘SNL’s 50 Seasons

Would you believe there’s someone who has appeared on more seasons of Saturday Night Live than Kenan Thompson? Thompson has been part of the cast for 22 seasons now, a record that no one else is even in shouting distance of. (Darrell Hammond is second with 14 seasons — Thompson has 50 percent more years under his belt.)

And yet, there’s a non-cast member who blows Thompson away, appearing on 29 of the show’s 50 seasons — including the current one. Starting with Season 15 (the 1989-1990 year), this performer has appeared in all but seven SNL seasons. 

The answer? Lorne Michaels’ good pal, Alec Baldwin. 

On the one hand, that fact isn’t so surprising. After all, Baldwin has topped Steve Martin as the comic actor who’s hosted the show the most times. But those 17 headlining gigs only get Baldwin a little more than halfway there. Baldwin has popped in without being on the bill during 12 other seasons, including his insufferable run as Donald Trump. (The impression was okay, but SNL ran it into the ground well past its still-funny date.)

“There were people outside the cast that I look at and say, ‘They could have been cast members’ — Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, John Goodman and Steve Martin,” said Buck Henry (himself a 10-time host) in SNL oral history Live From New York. “Those four people were essentially cast members, because they really fit into the format and they understood their work, and they were really great hosts.”

SNL was the gift that kept on giving for Baldwin. In addition to paychecks and recognition over 29 seasons, it was also where he met Tina Fey, the boss who cast him on 30 Rock. Two Emmys and seven acting nominations later, Jack Donaghy is the role Baldwin might be best known for.

Baldwin has experienced the gamut during his run on Saturday Night Live. “One of the oddest elements is that you’re standing next to some guy one day doing the show and you think they’re funny, but you turn around and five years later they’re getting paid $20 million a movie. There are people I worked with there who I never thought in my wildest dreams that they’d go on to become the apotheosis of movie comedy of their day.” (Who’s Baldwin talking about here? At $20 million per film, it can only be Will Ferrell or — my guess — Adam Sandler.)

The lesson Baldwin learned? Be extremely nice to everyone on SNL. “No matter who I work with, no matter what a sniveling, drooling wuss they are, I embrace them all like they’re my dearest friend and most respected colleague.”