Performers who got their starts on sketch-comedy shows other than 'Saturday Night Live'

Tomlin has been a beloved actor for years, and is actually an Oscar short of an EGOT. Plus, she’s been at it for decades, finding a new wave of success with “Grace and Frankie” on Netflix. Her breakout work happened on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” where her distinct character work was a big hit.

If you remember “Laugh-In” at all, you probably remember the “groovy” ladies dancing in bikinis and painted with slogans. Hawn was once one of those women. However, she also did comedy work on the show, beginning to perfect the “bubbly blonde” persona she rode to fame.

Brennan and Hawn worked together on “Private Benjamin,” with Brennan getting an Oscar nomination. It wasn’t their first time working together, though. Brennan spent a season on “Laugh-In” as well. Oh, and she played Mrs. Peacock in “Clue,” for all you “Clue” heads.

Riley was not on “Laugh-In”  long, but his career would be lengthy. He was a staple of sitcoms through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. Riley is best remembered as the misanthropic Mr. Carlin on “The Bob Newhart Show.”

“Fridays” is perhaps best remembered for that one time Andy Kaufman used it as a vehicle for one of his meta performance pieces. It also gave us a few future stars. For many years, David was more successful behind the scenes, largely on “Seinfeld.” Then, he became a star thanks to “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” It’s hard to imagine him on a middling sketch show, but it happened once upon a time.

Richards is persona non grata these days, fairly so, but we cannot deny just how good he was as Kramer on “Seinfeld.” He had an edge in getting that role, we assume, from the fact he shared the stage with David on “Fridays.”

Chartoff is best known for her voiceover work, though she did play the principal on “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” for 72 episodes after “Fridays.” Her most enduring work is as the voice of Didi Pickles on “Rugrats.” By the way, the voice of her husband Stu? That was provided by Jack Riley.

No sketch show other than “SNL” has yielded more future stars than “Second City Television,” aka “SCTV.” Candy was on the show for the first three seasons before he moved on to greener pastures. He became a movie stars thanks to films like “Uncle Buck” and “Spaceballs.” His life was cut short, but it was still an impressive career.

Sure, Levy had been in Ivan Reitman’s debut film “Cannibal Girls” alongside future “SCTV” costar Andrea Martin prior to joining the sketch show when it started, but that wasn’t exactly a hit. Levy would go on to be unusually involved in the “American Pie” series and more importantly a standout in Christopher Guest’s improvised comedies. Then, of course, he gained a whole new level of admiration from “Schitt’s Creek.”

Moranis joined “SCTV” midstream, but he quickly became a standout. He then stole scenes in movies like “Ghostbusters” before charming audiences in the family film “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” Moranis took a lengthy break from acting for his family, but he’s started to pop up occasionally, giving us hope we might see more Moranis.

O’Hara is a living legend, and often tied to Levy in our minds. They are fantastic together in Guest’s films. However, the two, along with John Candy, were also among the inaugural cast of "SCTV." O'Hara and Levy also played the iconic couple Johnny and Moira Rose in “Schitt’s Creek.” O’Hara won a well-deserved Emmy for that.

This is the last of our “SCTV” cast members, with no disrespect to talented folks like Andrea Martin and Dave Thomas (Martin Short actually had a decently successful career prior to joining the sketch show, so we didn’t include him). Ramis was as much a behind-the-scenes guy as an actor, directing films like “Caddyshack” and “Groundhog Day.” Of course, he was also Egon in “Ghostbusters,” which made him a legend forever.

In the ‘90s, MTV got into the sketch-comedy game, including “The State.” This show gave us several notable names to comedy lovers. Black is one of those. You may know him from his time as a talking head on all those “VH1” shows, or from several comedic turns involving his deadpan wit and sarcasm.

Among the cast of “The State,” Lennon has probably had the most success. He’s spent years, off and on, doing “Reno 911” with “State” alums like Kerri Kenney and Ben Garant. As a writing team, Lennon and Garant have also given us movies like “Night at the Museum.” The actor also got a bit of mainstream sitcom success as the Felix to Matthew Perry’s Oscar on the remake of “The Odd Couple.”

“In Living Color” was more than just a clearinghouse of Wayans family members (and the reason the Super Bowl started sprucing up the halftime show). It also gave us, among others, Jim Carrey. Carrey’s gift for pulling faces and contorting his body comedically would eventually lead to him becoming the biggest movie star in the world for a bit.

Foxx, like Carrey, broke out on “In Living Color,” though Foxx joined the show midstream. He then got into making comedy films, though he didn’t have as much success there as fellow "In Living Color" alum Carrey did. On the other hand, both actors also eventually got into serious fare as well. Foxx won an Oscar for “Ray,” something that has eluded Carrey.

“Mad TV” got a lot of stick for being a “poor man’s” version of “Saturday Night Live.” However, it still gave us a few success stories. Among those is Key. He arguably really had his break out with another sketch show, “Key & Peele,” before moving on to other successful acting roles. Hey, speaking of the second half of that show title.

Yes, Peele and Key worked together on “Mad TV.” Now, Peele is known more for his impeccable directing than his acting. He’s the foremost name in “elevated horror” thanks to films like “Get Out” and “Us.”

People like to mention Aniston’s movie debut in “Leprechaun.” Before she was in that film, though, she was in a one-season sketch show on FOX. The show was something of a vehicle for Julie Brown, but it had an impressive cast of players. In addition to future “Friends” superstar Aniston, Newman himself, aka Wayne Knight, was on the show as well.

Let’s bring this, in a way, full circle. Thompson started performing as a kid on Nickelodeon’s “All That.” This led to his own Nick sitcom “Kenan & Kel.” In adulthood, Thompson returned to the world of sketch comedy. Namely, he joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live.” Now, he’s not your average “SNL” cast member. In fact, Thompson is the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history.