In its 40 years as an staple every Saturday night, NBC's Saturday Night Live (originally NBC's Saturday Night) has created thousands of characters in an attempt to entertain an ever changing audience. Some of these characters failed, some returned, and a very few, became so popular, they seemed to have a life of their own.

Whether it was numerous return appearances or a hilarious movie, Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtin's characterizations of Beldar and Prymaat Conehead, accompanied by Laraine Newmann as their daughter Connie, developed a life of their own. Aliens from the planet Remulak, the characters became a tremendous hit on their first SNL episode, which broadcast on January 15th, 1977. The characters would appear 10 more times over the next two seasons.

The Coneheads would later be immortalized in song, cartoon and on the silver screen. Frank Zappa recorded "Conehead" for his 1981 album You Are What You Is (Zappa also appeared in a Conehead sketch) and a Conehead appeared in the Cyndi Lauper video for "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". In 1983, Rankin/Bass produced an amimated TV special, and in 1993, Curtin and Ackroyd reprised their roles for Coneheads, a big screen movie. For my money, it was the second best of the SNL character movies, bowing only to Ackroyd and John Belushi's The Blues Brothers. There was even a Coneheads limited series of comic books released by Marvel Comics.

And now, the Coneheads have returned as State Farm Insurance pays tribute to the legendary characters in their most recent series of commercials, which introduces them to probably the world's most famous khaki wearing insurance agent, Jake.

Kudos State Farm, well played!

 

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