Love, Gilda

The documentary covers the life of comedienne Gilda Radner. Like most documentaries, home movies of her growing up are shown. Mixed with this are interviews with comedians and actors who worked with her. What makes this doc special are the audio tapes narrated by Gilda herself. Gilda was born and grew up in Detroit. Her father took her to the theater thus igniting Gilda's passion to appear on stage. Two years later he died from a brain tumor. This left her with her brother, her mother and a nanny. Later the nanny would be the basis for her character of Emily Litella on 'Saturday Night Live'. Following high school graduation Gilda enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. But Gilda still wanted to perform so she dropped out and moved to Toronto. In Toronto she was cast in Stephen Schwartz musical 'Godspell'. She performed alongside Martin Short to music performed by Paul Schaffer. Short, Schaffer and Schwartz interviews looked back on the Toronto performance. Gilda then joined the Second City Troupe in Toronto. From there Gilda went to the National Lampoon Radio Hour where she performed with Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, and John Belushi. Then off to fame as the first performer ever cast on 'Saturday Night Liv'e. Lorne Michaels produced SNL and clips of his interview form the basis of the 'Saturday Night Live' segment of the documentary. Cast members interviewed were Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and then writer now performer Bill Hader. In 1980 Gilda left Saturday Night Live and was briefly married to guitarist G.E. Smith but the love of her life was comic actor Gene Wilder. Gilda seemed to have found what she needed in Wilder. Their marriage lasted 5 years until she died from Ovarian cancer. But in her 43 years she created Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseanadanna, Baba Wawa, and many others. This loving documentary shows us some of the memorable characters created by comedienne/icon Gilda Radner.