The &34;SNL&34; alum tells EW all about her most beloved characters and sketches of the era, from the Spartan Cheerleaders to Barbara Walters. Saturday Night Li

The "SNL" alum tells EW all about her most beloved characters and sketches of the era, from the Spartan Cheerleaders to Barbara Walters.

Saturday Night Live's underrated MVP of the '90s Cheri Oteri shares memories of her best characters

The "SNL" alum tells EW all about her most beloved characters and sketches of the era, from the Spartan Cheerleaders to Barbara Walters.

By Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm

Jillian Sederholm is 's news director and co-host of EW's 'BINGE' podcast covering every season of 'RuPaul's Drag Race.' Follow her on Twitter at @JillianSed to geek out over 'SNL,' guess every celeb on 'The Masked Singer,' or discuss Christian Bale's entire filmography in intricate detail (have you noticed all the dancing?)

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Published on August 14, 2025 08:30AM EDT

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Cheri Oteri's best 'SNL' characters. Credit:

NBC / Getty Images

When it comes to our passion for Cheri Oteri's status as underrated MVP of late '90s *Saturday Night Live*, no, we will not simmah down now!

Oteri rocket-launched onto *SNL* in 1995 as her very first onscreen role when the legendary sketch show was in a time of rebuilding after the departures of powerhouses like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, and Mike Myers. Like season castmate and fellow Groundlings member Will Ferrell, Oteri bypassed the usual two-year stint as a featured player to begin on the main cast straight out of the gate in an attempt to find new breakout stars — and break out they did.

"I never thought about ratings. I never thought about saving the show," Oteri tells **. "That's somebody else's job, you know? I hit the ground running with writing characters, which I loved."

Will Ferrell as Craig and Cheri Oteri as Arianna of the Spartan Cheerleaders on 'Saturday Night Live' on Nov. 11, 1995.

Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Oteri quickly became recognizable for her zippy, over-the-top characters like the woman on the porch yelling at neighborhood children, the dimwitted cohost of *Morning Latte*, and one-half of the highly physical Spartan Cheerleaders, as well as her idiosyncratic take on Barbara Walters.

Even with a robust sizzle reel of enduring characters, impressions, and lasting catchphrases, Oteri doesn't get the fanfare she deserves for the huge mark she made on the show in the latter half of the decade, not even a cameo in the recent 50th anniversary special. And despite an Emmy nomination for a guest appearance on* Just Shoot Me!* while still on *SNL*, she didn't experience the same kind of thriving post-show career as many of her costars.**

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Oteri left unceremoniously after the season 25 finale on May 20, 2000, without a proper goodbye. Her five-year contract was up, but she hadn't yet decided if she would return after summer hiatus.

"I wanted to end on a high and not a low. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made," she says. "I thought, I can't quit. I'm not a quitter. Then my agent at the time said, it's not about you quitting, it's do you want to renew your contract? I think I could have stayed there for 10 years if it wasn't so hard."

'Saturday Night Live' season 21 cast members (top row, from left to right) Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, Norm MacDonald, Colin Quinn; (middle row, from left to right) Chris Kattan, Tracy Morgan, Molly Shannon, Tim Meadows; (front row, from left to right) Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri, Jim Breuer.

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

She calls her decision not to return "a part of taking care of myself," while also bittersweet.

Oteri explains that she felt pigeonholed by roles she was offered later that were just "big, broad characters" like she played on the show, but they "looked crazy" without much substance. There was also the heartbreak of a promising TV pilot that shocked her when it didn't get picked up.

Still, she looks back fondly on her career at *SNL*.

"It was everything I ever wanted to do. I got to live my dream," she says. "I have no regrets whatsoever. I just feel nothing but gratitude."

Read on for Oteri's memories of her most popular recurring characters during her impressive stint on *Saturday Night Live.*

Rita DelVecchio ("I keep it now!")

Oteri appeared seven times as sharp-tongued Italian American porch lady Rita DelVechio, who was regularly tormented by neighborhood kids throwing things at her house or stealing her lawn decor, but took her own revenge ("See this? I keep it! I keep it now!").

Rita, a character Oteri auditioned with, first popped up in her third-ever episode of *SNL, *in which the comedian faced several obstacles of her own.

"I remember the hockey net got caught on my housecoat. And I said, 'You believe this s---?' I didn't even realize I said a curse word because it was so in the character," she recalls. "They made me put a dollar in the tip jar on stage to just, I guess, apologize for it. I had no idea that I even did it," she shares.

In one memorable 1997 sketch, Oteri was joined by then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as Rita's mother. "My gosh, I loved it. He's playing an old-school Italian lady, and I love that he had a housecoat on sleeveless and all the hair on his arms," Oteri recalls.

"This is when he was, you know, pretty normal," she notes. "He was at the most normal when he was in drag.… I don't know where his head went, but he was lovely [at the time]."**

Arianna of the Spartan Cheerleaders

In arguably her most popular recurring sketch, Oteri and frequent scene partner Ferrell played Arianna and Craig, the high-energy Spartan Cheerleaders.

The former Groundlings colleagues wrote and choreographed the sketches (later with writer Paula Pell) about the lovable outcasts who perform "the perfect cheer" at various high school events, including chess matches and ping pong tournaments.

The routines regularly saw Ferrell flinging the petite Oteri into the air or upside down, but miraculously her only accident across the 17 sketches came from a splash of water.

"One time we were at the swim meet and water is thrown as if somebody's diving in. And it knocked my contacts right outta my eye," she remembers. "I couldn't see the cue cards. I mean, we wrote it so we knew it, but you change things in between dress [rehearsal] and air, some dialogue, so I was completely dependent on it, but I was like, 'Okay, time to get Lasik eye surgery.'"

The fan-favorite characters seemed ripe for an *SNL* spinoff movie, but Oteri explains she just didn't have it in her to spend her time off writing one.

"To be honest, it was so hard during the whole season that when we had our summers off, I just couldn't imagine writing the whole summer. I really felt like I needed that time to recharge and just experience life," she shares. "I think I probably should have, but I was exhausted."**

Barbara Walters

The character Oteri played more than any other across her five seasons at *SNL* was legendary broadcast journalist Barbara Walters.

"Well, it's her fault, because she was so damn busy between *20/20*, her Oscar specials,* The View*," Oteri laughs.

The sketch comic never had any intention of impersonating Walters, who'd already been famously lampooned on *SNL *as "Baba Wawa" by original cast member Gilda Radner.

"The truth is, Lorne Michaels really wanted me to do her and I did not do impressions," Oteri shares. "Then I realized I really had to do her and I just started studying her all over again. Gilda was so famous for what she did, but I wanted to have a completely different take."

Ultimately, she calls her impression "the best gift that Lorne could have given me." And says the real Walters was "a wonderful sport" about it.

After scrapping her plan to play *The View *mastermind in a CNN New Year's Eve special, upon learning of Walters' death on Dec. 30, 2022, Oteri says she isn't interested in reviving the impression.

"It doesn't feel right now that she's passed, you know, unless I did her interviewing in heaven."

Cass Van Rye, cohost of Morning Latte

Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell in a 'Morning Latte' sketch on 'Saturday Night Live' on Oct. 25, 1997.

Oteri lists *Morning Latte* talk show host Cass Van Rye, whom she played nine times opposite Ferrell's Tom Wilkins, among her personal favorites.

"It just cracked me up how ill-informed they were. And no matter how Ill-informed, it never threw them off," she says. "I laughed so hard when we wrote that together."

She says although Kathie Lee Gifford served as one inspiration, it was meant as a true amalgamation of the many morning talk show hosts she studied.

"What I did take from Kathie Lee Gifford, at that time, she always talked about her kids," Oteri shares. "So my character always talked about how she can't have kids. 'My cervix is the size of a circus peanut!'"**

Nadeen ("Simmah down now!")

Although Nadeen only popped up three times, the Cajun-accented service worker made a big impression with her signature warning, "Simmah down now!" A catchphrase fans still regularly recite to Oteri.

Her favorite was Nadeen's final appearance on April 15, 2000, alongside host Tobey Maguire, who she recalls being "so scared" of doing *SNL *that she had to give him a pep talk.

"He called me and I go, 'You're gonna do the show. You're gonna kill it, and you're gonna do 'Simmer down now' with me,'" she remembers.

The final joke saw Maguire hold up a Donna Summer album to coax a customer into saying the line ("Who is this Queen of Disco?" "How do her name appear in the phone book?" "Stretch it out now!" "Summer Don-na that's right, simmah down now!").

Oteri laughs as she does the bit again.

"It was so stupid, so funny," she says, equating it to "when you're with people you're close to and you're just being so immature and cracking each other up — and then you get to do it in front of millions of people."**

Collette Reardon, a prescription pill addict

"I really have a fondness for people who love her because it's a certain type of person that gets her," Oteri says of prescription pill-popping Collette Reardon, who appeared six times, both in sketches and on "Weekend Update" alongside anchor Colin Quinn.

"I wanted to make her innocent and fun loving, juxtaposed against the drugs," Oteri explains. "Essentially she's high, but she had a reason for every drug and nothing was gonna get her down."

Oteri based the character on someone she knew in childhood, recalling, "I would look at her makeup and I would be like, okay, her eyebrow pencil is going straight into her hairline. That's when the shakes must have come in."

She recalls using M&Ms when it came time to down the pills on air. But when she tried to push things further, she was shot down.

"I remember the sensor saying, 'We can't have a needle dangling from her arm.' And I'm like, 'Okay.' I mean, I realize how much we could never do that today."

Judge Judy Sheindlin with Cheri Oteri as Judge Judy on 'Saturday Night Live'.

Oteri played Judge Judy five times, including once in 1998 joined by the real Judy Sheindlin.

"She called my manager and said, 'You tell your client that she's almost got me,'" she recalls of Sheindlin's initial reaction to the impression. "Then I saw her at a party and she was so nice, and she wanted me to go out with her son. And I go, 'Judy, if it doesn't work out, I don't want any trouble. I love you.' And she goes, 'Honey, you never have to worry about that.'"

When prompted, Oteri reveals that she did end up going out with one of the judge's sons "a couple times" before leaving to spend the summer in Los Angeles. "But it was all good," she says.

Adele the office flirt

Just two episodes before what would be her final *SNL* appearance, Oteri introduced Adele, the office flirt, an overly sexual office worker who had all the makings of becoming her next recurring character.

"I did her the last year that I was there, and it went so well. But I only did it once," she recalls. "I was a little shy to do it. And so I had them dress me really ugly and crazy. And then Lorne Michaels said, 'Uh-uh, Cheri's not doing another ugly character.' And so they made me change between dress and air into a tube top.... That was a favorite and people always mention that to me today."**

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