Editing Jane Curtin (section)

== Career ==
She has served as a U.S. Committee National Ambassador for [[United Nations Children's Fund|UNICEF]]. In 1968, Curtin decided to pursue comedy as a career and dropped out of college. She joined a comedy group, The Proposition, and performed with them until 1972. She starred in ''Pretzels'', an off-Broadway play written by Curtin, [[John Forster (musician)|John Forster]], [[Judith Kahan]], and [[Fred Grandy]], in 1974.

=== ''Saturday Night Live'' ===
One of the original [[Not Ready For Prime Time Players]] of [[NBC]]'s ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' (1975), Curtin remained on the show through the 1979–1980 season. Guest host [[Eric Idle]] said that Curtin was "very much a 'Let's come in, let's know our lines, let's do it properly, and go' ... She was very sensible, very focused", and disliked the drug culture in which many of the cast participated. Show writer [[Al Franken]] stated that she "was so steady. Had a really strong moral center, and as such was disgusted by much of the show and the people around it".<ref name="snl20050220">{{cite episode | title=Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live | series=Saturday Night Live | network=NBC | airdate=2005-02-20}}</ref>

On the show, and mirroring her own low-key real life, she frequently played [[Double act|straight-woman]] characters, often as a [[wikt:foil#Etymology 1|foil]] to [[John Belushi]] and [[Gilda Radner]]. Curtin anchored ''SNL'''s "[[Weekend Update]]" segment from 1976 to 1977, paired with [[Dan Aykroyd]] from 1977 to 1978 and [[Bill Murray]] from 1978 to 1980. On occasional "Weekend Update" segments, her newscaster character served as a foil to Belushi, who often gave a rambling and out-of-control "commentary" on events of the day. During these sketches, she timidly tried to get Belushi to come to the point, which would only make him angrier. Curtin's newscaster also introduced baseball expert [[Chico Escuela]] ([[Garrett Morris]]), a heavily accented [[Dominican Republic|Dominican]], who started his sketches by saying, "Thank you, ''Hane''", before repeating his famous catchphrase, "Baseball been bery, bery good to me!" She also introduced [[Roseanne Roseannadanna]] (Radner) and would listen in exasperated silence at Roseannadanna's disjointed commentary before ultimately cutting her off.  In addition, she sang in the "Chevy's Girls" sketch in season two, episode two, alongside [[Laraine Newman]] and Radner, and sang again with Newman and Radner as a trio backing up Morris as he sang the song Three Little Words for the cold opening of the Season 4 premier episode.

In a parody of the "Point-Counterpoint" segment of the news program ''[[60 Minutes]]'', Curtin delivered a controlled liberal viewpoint (à la [[Shana Alexander]]) vs. Aykroyd, who (in the manner of [[James J. Kilpatrick]]) epitomized the [[right-wing politics|right-wing]] view, albeit with an over-the-top "attack" journalist slant. Curtin presented the [[liberal politics|liberal]] "Point" portion first. Then Aykroyd presented the "Counterpoint" portion, sometimes beginning with the statement, "Jane, you ignorant [[wikt:slut|slut]]," to which she replied, "Dan, you pompous ass." The recurring segment has been discussed in an article on "How to Respectfully Disagree" in ''[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]]''.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://chronicle.com/article/Two-Professors-One-Valuable/48901/ |last1=Polk |first1=Bryan |first2=Mel |last2=Seesholtz |title=Two Professors, One Valuable Lesson: How to Respectfully Disagree |journal=[[The Chronicle of Higher Education]] |location=Washington, D.C. |volume=56 |issue=10 |date=October 25, 2009 |access-date= April 14, 2013 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Curtin is also well known for her role in the [[The Coneheads|Conehead]] sketches as Prymaat (wife/mother of the Conehead family), and as Enid Loopner (in sketches with Radner and Murray). She is one of many cast members who appear in the retrospective compilation DVD ''The Women of SNL'' (2010, 97 minutes).<ref>{{cite video |title=The Women of SNL |publisher=Broadway Video; SNL Studios |date=November 1, 2010 |medium=DVD| oclc=795402925}}</ref>

=== Later television work ===
Unlike many of her fellow ''SNL'' cast members who ventured successfully into film, Curtin chose to stay mainly in television, with a few sporadic film appearances. To date, she has starred in two long-running television sitcoms. First, in ''[[Kate & Allie]]'' (1984–89), with [[Susan Saint James]], she played a single mother named "Allie Lowell" and twice won the Emmy Award for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Following ''Kate & Allie'', Curtin co-starred on the 1990 sitcom ''[[Working It Out]]'' with [[Stephen Collins]]. The series was created by [[Bill Persky]], a writer, director, and producer of ''Kate & Allie'', but it was not successful and was cancelled after 13 episodes. Later, she was part of the cast of ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' (1996–2001) playing a human, [[Mary Albright|Dr. Mary Albright]], opposite the alien family composed of [[John Lithgow]], [[Kristen Johnston]], [[French Stewart]], and [[Joseph Gordon-Levitt]]. As with ''SNL'', her mostly strait-laced character was often confounded by the zany and whimsical antics of the Solomon family.

In 1997, Curtin narrated two episodes of the documentary television series ''[[Understanding (TV series)|Understanding]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1041883/ |title= Understanding (1994–2004) |publisher=[[IMDb]] |access-date=April 14, 2013}}</ref> and she has done voice work for ''[[Recess (TV series)|Recess]]'' and ''[[Cyberchase]]''. She guest starred on ''[[Sesame Street]]'' in 1985.

Curtin also starred with [[Fred Savage]] in the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] sitcom ''[[Crumbs (TV series)|Crumbs]]'', which debuted in January 2006 and was cancelled in May of that year. She also guest-starred on ''[[Gary Unmarried]]'' as Connie, Allison's mother.<ref>{{cite journal| url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20081110cbs08/| title=Listings: Gary Unmarried| journal=[[The Futon Critic]] |date=November 10, 2008| access-date=July 29, 2020}}</ref> In 2012, she joined ''[[Unforgettable (American TV series)|Unforgettable]]'' as Dr. Joanne Webster, a gifted but crusty [[medical examiner]]; in 2014, she occasionally reprised her role as the first Guardian on ''[[The Librarians (2014 TV series)|The Librarians]]''. In 2020, she had a co-starring role as a quirky mother-in-law on the ABC sitcom [[United We Fall (TV series)|''United We Fall'']].

=== Film ===
In 1980, Curtin starred with Susan Saint James and Jessica Lange in the moderate hit ''[[How to Beat the High Cost of Living]]''. In 1993, Curtin and Dan Aykroyd were reunited in ''Coneheads'', a full-length motion picture based on their popular ''SNL'' characters. They also appeared together as the voices of a pair of wasps in the film ''[[Antz]].'' In 2009, she played [[Paul Rudd]] and [[Andy Samberg]]'s mother in ''[[I Love You, Man]]''. In 2013, she took a small role in ''[[The Heat (film)|The Heat]]'' as Mrs. Mullins, the mother of Detective Mullins. Curtin played Moira, the Headmistress of the Motherland, in Disney's ''[[Godmothered]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|date=30 January 2020|title=Production Has Begun On New Disney+ Movie 'Godmothered'|url=https://whatsondisneyplus.com/production-has-begun-on-new-disney-movie-godmothered/|website=What's on Disney Plus|language=en-us}}</ref>

=== Other work ===
Curtin has also performed on Broadway on occasion. She first appeared on the [[Great White Way]] as Miss Proserpine Garnett in the play ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' in 1981. She later went on to be a replacement actress in two other plays, ''[[Love Letters (play)|Love Letters]]'' and ''[[Noises Off]]'', and was in the 2002 revival of ''[[Our Town]]'', which received huge press attention as [[Paul Newman]] returned to the Broadway stage after several decades away.

She also has narrated several audio books, including [[Carl Hiaasen]]'s novel ''[[Nature Girl (novel)|Nature Girl]]''.

On May 7, 2010, Curtin placed second in the ''[[Jeopardy! Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational]]'', winning $250,000 for the U.S. Fund for [[UNICEF]]. [[Michael McKean]] won the tournament, while [[Cheech Marin]] came in third.

She presented [[Emmy Award]]s in 1984, 1987, and 1998; the 11th Annual [[American Comedy Awards]] in 1997; and the 54th Annual [[Golden Globe Award]]s in 1997.<ref name="CTFT">{{cite book |chapter=Jane Curtin |title=Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television |editor-first=Thomas |editor-last=Riggs |location=Detroit |publisher=Gale |year=2012 |volume=118 |isbn=978-1-4144-8202-6 |oclc=781178307}}</ref>

Curtin has guest hosted several episodes of ''Selected Shorts'' produced by [[Symphony Space]] and distributed by [[Public Radio International]].