Bill Swerski's Superfans

Did You Know?

• Robert Smigel was assigned the role of Carl Wollarski because head writer James Downey believed his accent was more authentic than Phil Hartman's.
• In the first sketch, Todd O'Connor predicted the Bears would defeat the Giants 79–0, claiming "the Bears' defense is like a wall. You can't go t'rough it." The Giants won the actual game 31–3.

Background

Robert Smigel moved from New York to Chicago in 1983 and soon visited Wrigley Field, where he noticed many large men with walrus mustaches and aviator sunglasses, resembling Mike Ditka. The city's sports teams saw success in the following years, including the Bears' Super Bowl XX victory in 1985. Smigel conceived characters based on these fans and the line "Da Bears!" but struggled to find a setting. Bob Odenkirk, a Naperville native, advised him to include the slight hiss at the end of the word in a strong Chicago accent.

Smigel and Odenkirk later joined SNL's writing staff but did not write the sketch until the 1988 writers' strike, when they staged it as "Chicago Superfans" in Chicago. Played by Smigel, Odenkirk, and Dave Reynolds, with occasional appearances by Conan O'Brien, the sketch featured fans on lawn chairs drinking beer and making imaginative leaps about the Bears winning another Super Bowl. Smigel cut the sketch for a Los Angeles performance, believing national audiences would not understand it.

In January 1991, Chicago native Joe Mantegna hosted SNL, and Odenkirk suggested pitching the premise to him. Mantegna liked it, and the writers finally came up with a setting parodying The Sports Writers on TV, a Chicago-area show featuring three veteran sportswriters. The name "Bill Swerski" was a play on Chuck Swirsky, a Chicago sportscaster.

History

The sketch premiered on January 12, 1991, hours before a Bears playoff game against the New York Giants. Joe Mantegna played Bill Swerski, with Chris Farley as Todd O'Connor, Mike Myers as Pat Arnold, and Robert Smigel as Carl Wollarski. Smigel had intended Phil Hartman for his role but was assigned it by head writer James Downey, who found Smigel's accent more authentic. Kevin Nealon appeared as oddsmaker Danny Sheridan in the first sketch—he is promptly sent away by Bill after giving an honest assessment of the prospect of Mike Ditka single-handedly defeating the Giants.

Later sketches starred George Wendt as Bill's brother Bob, with occasional appearances by Beth Cahill as Bob's daughter Denise. Macaulay Culkin appeared as Tommy Arnold, Pat's young nephew, who played a Pilgrim in a short school program about Thanksgiving, saying that the first Thanksgiving had Indians giving gifts of Polish sausage, in which an Indian (played by Culkin's brother Kieran) predicted the Bears would lead the Detroit Lions 96–14 at the half.

John Goodman played Pat Arnold upon Myers's departure from SNL; the change in Pat Arnold's appearance was attributed to "massive weight gain." Mantegna's absences were explained by Wendt saying his "brudder Bill" had "had anudder heart attack." The characters gathered at Mike Ditka's sports bar, drinking beer, smoking, and eating ribs and Polish sausage. They wore dark sunglasses and thick mustaches to resemble Ditka.

Topics included the Bears, the Chicago Bulls, and Michael Jordan. Both Ditka and Jordan appeared as themselves in episodes. Early sketches had posters with call letters WBBM, later changed to WBCM. The characters appeared in nine episodes in two years.

The January 9, 1993 cold open featured Mantegna's return as Bill Swerski since the character's debut, as well as a pre-taped cameo from Mike Ditka, who had recently been fired as Bears' coach. The sketch only appeared two more times after this episode: March 1995 and again when Farley hosted in October 1997. This final sketch (a taped segment narrated by Bill Kurtis) featured the second appearance by Ditka, though he was at the time coaching the New Orleans Saints, which resulted in a schism among the Superfans.