Editing Jane Curtin (section)

=== ''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>