Gilda Radner Documentary, ‘Love, Gilda’: You’ll Laugh, You’ll Cry

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Photo of Gilda Radner via the Love, Gilda Facebook page

Love, Gilda, a feature length film from CNN Films, had its world premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, the city she called home and in which she catapulted to fame. The documentary about Gilda Radner was selected to open TFF‘s 17th edition.

The Emmy and Grammy award-winning comedian became a cultural icon the moment audiences first laughed with her on the 1975 debut episode of Saturday Night Live.

The film opened in theaters and on demand; it made its television debut on CNN on New Year’s Day, 2019. It was available for streaming on Hulu as of May 20, 2024, the anniversary of her death in 1989 at age 42. [It’s also available here.] Watch the trailer and several clips from the film below.

Radner and her fellow Not Ready For Primetime Players – Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman – changed the face of television comedy. Saturday nights at 11:30 p.m. became appointment television almost immediately, changing evening entertainment plans for untold millions in those early pre-VCR days.

Watch the Love, Gilda trailer

Love, Gilda was directed and produced by Lisa D’Apolito with the support of the Gilda Radner estate. The film is a true autobiography of a pioneering woman, told in her own voice and through her own words. It weaves together audiotapes, rare home movies, diary entries, and interviews with her friends and those inspired by her, including future SNL stars Bill Hader, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Cecily Strong, original Saturday Night Live cast and peers Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, and Paul Shaffer, as well as SNL creator-producer Lorne Michaels, series writer Alan Zweibel, Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz, Second City CEO Andrew Alexander, actress Melissa McCarthy and long-time friend and actor Martin Short.

Radner captivated television viewers on Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1980. The popularity of her now-classic comedic characters Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella, and Lisa Loopner fueled the young talent to meteoric fame in television, movies, and on Broadway.

Watch Radner, in character, introduce audiences to Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey

After finding happiness in love with Gene Wilder, she received the cruelest joke of all: cancer. Her fight against the disease served as an inspiration to people impacted by the illness to stay positive and to keep laughing no matter what challenges life brings you.

The film, and other Radner titles are available here.