David Koechner on His Sadly Short-Lived Tenure on ‘SNL’

David Koechner is far from the only Saturday Night Live cast member to last just a single season on the show, but he might be the only one to be cut loose after such a successful first year. 

Koechner arrived for Season 21 in 1995, along with Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Cheri Oteri and Molly Shannon. Yet, even among that impressive group, Koechner was a standout. In fact, he quickly developed four separate recurring characters: the drifter T-Bones; Norm Macdonald’s funnier brother, Gary; a pair of dandies known as “The Fops” with Mark McKinney; and one of the drunk salesmen who loved to spin tales about Bill Brasky. Somehow, though, Koechner was still cut from the show once the season concluded, a devastating loss for a dream he’d had since he was 13.

I recently spoke to Koechner about his abbreviated stint on SNL, why he decided to improvise his audition and what Lorne Michaels told him after he’d been let go. 

Let’s start at the beginning, how did you end up on Saturday Night Live?

I got into Saturday Night Live when I was 13. I fell in love right away, and I made my decision, at 13, “I’m going to be on that show someday.” 

I didn’t tell anybody, but I had it in my heart that I’m gonna be on it. Then I was a political science major and realized that’s not what I wanted to do. A buddy and I went to Chicago and to Second City. I started taking classes at the ImprovOlympic first. I was onstage five nights a week, and I had auditioned for MADtv like everybody else. Then, Pam Thomas, Dave Thomas’ ex-wife from SCTV, saw my tape and sent it to Lorne Michaels. It got a favorable response, and she relayed that information to me, so I was very confident when I was tapped to audition for SNL.

I thought it was my manifest destiny. It’s so odd, but I wasn’t in the least bit nervous when I auditioned. That may sound ignorant, but I had just decided that I was going to be on the show. I’d also already decided that I was only going to stay three years. Which, if you believe in manifest, it hears you — it doesn’t hear your number, you dumbass. All it heard was, “You’re leaving? Okay! Bye!”

I had a great season, actually. It was a shock that I was let go, but I pissed off a junior executive at NBC — he just didn’t like me — and one of the writers who had a little bit of weight. I don’t suffer fools gladly, as they say, so that was that.

What was your audition?

The first one is that you have to come in with an original character and a celebrity. I did this character called T-Bones, which was one of the strongest things I got on the show, and I did Pat Buchanan. I also did a buddy scene that was a buddy picture between Jim Carrey and Jack Lemmon, and Jack Lemmon was very irritated by Jim Carrey. Those were the weakest parts of my audition.

Here’s the fucked-up thing: I improvised that audition. What the fuck is wrong with me?

Why?

I’d been improvising for eight years, so I was like, “Fuck it, I can do anything.” I had a loose idea of what to do, but it was improvised.

Now, the second audition, I wrote it out. I did five different characters almost as a one-man show. It was a very strong audition. I remember being right in the fucking pocket. It’s rare in your life when you know, “This is mine. I got it,” but I just knew it.

What was the first thing you did? Was it the commercial for A.M. Ale?

Yup. We taped that sometime in August. That was very strong. 

The first thing I did live on-air was the first cold open of the season. It was O.J. time. They had a fake nose on me; I was Kardashian, and we were all dressed in African tribal wear — that was the joke. I didn’t have any lines, but I do remember that my heart was in my throat. It was pounding hard. I was like, “This is eight-to-ten million people live.” Thank God we had Timmy Meadows because he knocked it out of the park.

You were also the straight man in Will Ferrell’s sketch “Get Off the Shed.”

Yeah, me and Mariel Hemingway, we had very little to do. Between dress rehearsal and air, you’ll get notes. Lorne said to me, “Take it down a bit.” Because I didn’t have any lines, I was overly expressive. I’m not a great straight man.

There were times, especially early on, where they didn’t quite seem to know how to use you.

Yeah. Talking about T-Bones — they came to me three times and said, “What about a T-Bones talk show?” I said, “That’s what’s wrong with this show. There’s too many talk-show parodies. We need more sketches.” I could have made it work though, it was a beautiful suggestion, actually.

Why has your opinion on that changed?

The way T-Bones operates is that he takes complete control of the situation when no one thought he would. And, if there was a T-Bones talk show, the guest would have to adhere to his rules. That’s the key to T-Bones, he’s the last guy you’d put in charge. 

Either way, I said “no,” though, but nobody really asked me.

What do you mean?

They were asking, but I didn’t understand that they weren’t really asking me. They were telling me.

Saturday Night Live is the most dysfunctional thing I’ve ever been a part of in terms of show business. I can’t believe it’s still on the air. Their approach to production is chaos, and that worked in the beginning so they just let it go.

It’s not the best writing that you really know is going to work out. And they’ve never changed what they’ve been doing, except they started doing more absurd stuff when Lonely Island came around, which was great. They should have committed to more pre-taped stuff, so you get it right. Things change, just go with it. You can still do mostly live, but it should be half and half. That way, your success ratio is going to be higher. 

Some people thrive in that chaos, and some don’t. How did you feel?

I thought it was the wrong way to do things. Even in wrestling, they try to get you over, as they say. Can we get this guy over? Can we break him? But, nope, with SNL, it’s sink or swim.

The Fops were an early hit, though! We were on the cover of TV Guide! We were the first recurring sketch that worked that season. My Fagan was a character I did in my audition, then Mark McKinney came to me and said, “I think I have someone to pair with your Fagan.” That’s how we came up with the Fops. That was all costuming — they came up with the look. It was fucking amazing.

NBC pointed to that sketch, though. Don Ohlmeyer was a homophobe, and apparently he thought the Fops were gay and that they didn’t work. There was no reason for me to go, though. Lorne wanted to keep me. NBC West Coast were the ones that decided that I was done. There was also one junior executive that was on the show every week from NBC that clearly just didn’t like me, because of my personality, I think. 

Because, as far as performance and things I got on the show, I was only behind Cheri, Will and Kattan at the end. I got shit on all the time.

I just rewatched your entire season, and I was surprised how much you managed to get on for a newcomer. Considering that, it’s really surprising that they cut you.

Yeah. It was two people — one junior executive and one writer. I won’t name them. Someday I should.

You mean outside of Ohlmeyer?

Ohlmeyer, ultimately, probably wasn’t paying that much attention. It was a junior executive on the show and a writer. They know who they are. Otherwise, I’d probably still be on the show. 

When you got the word that you were cut, how did you react?

It was the most painful thing ever in my life. You get your ticket punched to go up and play in the bigs, then they take your ticket away? There was no reason to let me go. No reason. 

I got to meet with Lorne before I left, which is rare. I’ve talked to people who never got a meeting with Lorne. Lorne liked me. He had an intention to bring me back. Me, Nancy Walls-Carell and Mark McKinney were all let go. Lorne could probably save one pawn, is my guess. Mark had just had a baby, and their relationship went back to when he was a producer on Kids in the Hall, so that made sense to save Mark. That’s my guess.

Was there a point in your career where you finally felt okay again after that?

I wasn’t worried because I came out to L.A. and immediately got a holding deal. In fact, Lorne even told me, “Dave, you’ll be fine. You’re on the radar.”