The Fight to Save Charles Rocket

Charles Rocket was in the cast of the very rough 1980-81 season that followed the exit of all the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, as well as SNL creator Lorne Michaels (who returned to the show in the middle of the ’80s.)

As SNL fans know, Rocket is best known on the show for a flub during a February 21, 1981 segment inspired by the famed Dallas storyline “Who Shot J.R.?.” Rocket used a curse word on air: “It’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the f— did it.” (Note the reactions the instant after he said it, above.)

According to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live, by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad, SNL producer Jean Doumanian, who had been hired to replace Lorne, went on a long campaign to save Rocket’s job.

She and Rocket went to a series of meetings with NBC executives, in which they apologized again and again — sometimes laughing about it afterwards. At one point, according to the book, Doumanian told an executive, “If you’re going to fire him, you can fire me.”

Soon after, NBC fired them both — not just because of the incident, but because of a general sense that the show wasn’t doing well.