By Steve Hall

   Saturday Night Live star Molly Shannon cringes when she's asked
to appear on Politically Incorrect or talk shows where the
producers tell her, "Oh, just tell funny stories. "

"That makes me nervous because I consider myself more an
actress than a comedian," said Shannon, 32.  "I'm interested in
characters, and they don't necessarily have to be funny. "

Of course, her breakout character is funny - desperate, edgy
Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher, who wants to succeed
so badly that in moments of stress she hooks her fingers under her
armpits, then sniffs them.  This misfit is touchingly, painfully
human.

Cheri Oteri, by contrast, plays a misfit totally for laughs.

She and Will Ferrell are insane wannabe cheerleaders Arianna and
Craig, showing up in their Spartan uniforms at the most unlikely
places for cheers - chess matches, the beach, a Hickory Farms mall
kiosk at Christmas.  On Saturday's show, they performed a
caffeine-fueled tribute to Juan Valdez.

Ironically, Oteri said she had no school spirit during her own
cheerleading days in Philadelphia.  "I was a cheerleader for all the
wrong reasons," she said emphatically.  "I had no idea who was
playing.  I just wanted to perform, baby! "

Both women and their comic creations are instrumental in SNL's
creative rebirth, with a big change off-camera as well as on: Since
SNL premiered on Oct. 11, 1975, female performers have traditionally
complained of a boy's club mentality that discourages women's ideas
and characters.

Original cast member Jane Curtin felt so underused on the show
that once, when a production assistant brought a rewritten script
to her dressing room, she asked acidly, "Oh, did my line change? "
More recently, former cast member Janeane Garofalo has expressed
regret over not speaking out more for herself on the show.

Improvement for women
The current SNL atmosphere "is much better for women," said Oteri,
a 5-foot-1-inch restless bundle of energy during an SNL party this
summer in Pasadena, Calif.  She attributes the change to female cast
members who, surrounded by a majority of male writers, can write
material for themselves.

"It's very important that as a woman - well, as anybody - you've
got to be able to generate characters and things for yourself," she
said.  "If you sit around waiting to be written for, you'll end up
unhappy.  Men will write from a man's perspective, so it's good if you
can bring something to the party. "

Shannon believes the change also stems from SNL's near-total
makeover before the 1995-96 TV season, which brought in new writers
and cast members who bonded as the "new kids" at the show and had a
wider range of experience and sensibility.

"You still have to get your own ideas and characters, but they
will get in," said this rapid-fire motormouth who genuinely
complimented reporters ("You've got such beautiful skin," she told
one) and had a standard rejoinder for any risky character line
("That was so bad").

"You have to write - everybody on the cast writes.  If it's
topical, if it's funny, they'll put it on the show. "

Shannon and Oteri came to SNL from improvisational theater, but
from much different backgrounds.

Shannon grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.  The
definitive event of her life occurred on June 1, 1969, when her
family was driving home after spending the afternoon at a relative's
high-school graduation party.  The car crashed into a utility pole,
killing Shannon's mother, her younger sister Katie and a cousin.

Her father's legs were crushed (he still wears a brace), while
Molly, then 4, and her sister Mary, 6, suffered a broken arm and a
concussion, respectively.

Today, Shannon has no memory of the collision and few memories
of her mother.  She didn't really comprehend the loss until she was
25: "A guy broke up with me and there was a sadness I never before,
the feeling of somebody leaving you.  Now I can say I miss her. "
 
Acting instincts from Dad

Shannon attributes her love of performing to her dad, James,
who after his wife's death quit his job as a sales manager with 3M,
made his income from rental properties and stayed home to raise the
girls.  "He's so into old movies and dramas - he should have been an
actor," Shannon said.  "He's wild and funny. "

During her childhood, he was also an alcoholic.  "We'd call from
downtown to see if he was drunk," she recalled.  "You would count
drinks.  But it was also this free-for-all.  It was fun. "

Shannon's unconventional childhood included shoplifting, posing
department-store mannequins suggestively and, at age 12, sneaking
aboard a flight from Cleveland to New York City with her best
friend, Ann Ranft.  They were discovered midflight and waved off the
plane in the Big Apple.  When Shannon called home, her dad suggested
the girls stow their way back. (He ended up buying two return
tickets.)

In fifth grade, Shannon starred as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz,
an experience that persuaded her to become an actress.  She studied
drama at New York University with her eye on Broadway, but didn't
find her niche until doing an improv show with Adam Sandler.

"You just threw stuff out there," she recalled in amazement.  "I
went, 'Hey, people love it, and I didn't even have to emotionally
prepare by remembering my grandmother's funeral! ' "

Moving to L.A., Shannon and a friend from NYU posed as
assistants from the office of a famous writer and recommended each
other for auditions.  Shannon landed work in an orange-juice
commercial and small parts on Twin Peaks and The John Larroquette
Show before debuting an improvisational comedy show with Rob Muir
in 1991.

The show was the birthplace of many of her SNL characters -
including a more shocking version of Mary Katharine Gallagher.  That
Mary Katharine would pull odd objects from her underwear and say
ominously, "Sometimes when I get nervous, I touch my boobs. "
 
Brilliant before camera
SNL hired Shannon in early 1995.  "She reminds me a lot of Bill
Murray," executive producer Lorne Michaels told The Cleveland Plain
Dealer.  "Both of them joined the show during a time of great
turmoil.  Billy just went on to become the biggest star the show
ever had.  Molly has that same confidence.  When she is out there in
front of the camera, I have no worries.  She is brilliant. "

By contrast, Oteri once told Entertainment Tonight she was too
boring for a "Day in the Life of Cheri Oteri" piece. (The show
eventually aired an interview with her.)
She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and was working in
promotions at A&M Records in Los Angeles when a co-worker told her
she should try comedy.  Oteri auditioned for the Groundlings, the
L.A.-based improv/sketch group that gave Laraine Newman, Phil
Hartman and Jon Lovitz (among others) their start.  "It was like falling in love," she said of trying
improv.

Oteri refuses to divulge her age, because she loves being able
to play characters ranging from little girls to old women.  Her
personal favorites include her Debby Reynolds, who yuks it up with
Shannon's Ann Miller in the cable talk show Leg Up!; Mickey the
Dyke; and brassy Rita, the housewife who patrols her street.

"Rita Delvecchio is only thing I brought to SNL from the
Groundlings," she said.  "My inspiration was my grandmother, Claire
Oteri, who's Italian.  She's a living saint but she has a mouth like
a dockworker.  Rita swears a lot, and it's really hard to do without
actually cursing on TV.  I have to say things like 'you
mother-humping bastard' or 'you crack-piping, car-jacking bastard. "'

In character as Rita, Oteri once slipped and said a bad word
live on the air: "I remember walking off the set and passing Lorne.

I said, 'Sorry,' and just kept walking. "

The cheerleaders were born two years ago, before Oteri ever
appeared on an SNL telecast.  She and Will Ferrell were getting the
feel of the stage at Studio 8H, SNL's home in New York City's
Rockefeller City.  She began rhythmically stamping her feet, then
Ferrell joined in.  Before long, they were doing stupid cheers.

"I'd always watched those cheerleading championships on ESPN,
which is like, 'The University of Tennessee Vols!  Go Vols! ' They
could break their legs and still be smiling," Ferrell said.  "We
thought it would be funny to spoof that in some way. "
 
Cheerleading favorite

Originally Ferrell proposed a guy who had joined the
cheerleading squad just to throw the girl up "and cop a feel," said
Oteri.  "I said, 'That's funny, but as much as I love you I'm not
comfortable having my feel copped through the whole skit. ' Where
was that going to go?  Then we just thought of these kids who didn't
get on the squad, but have to cheer. "
The sketch has proven so popular that such celebrities as Rosie
O'Donnell, Pamela Anderson and Jim Carrey have requested being
included in a cheerleader sketch when they commit to be guest host.

After Carrey's host stint, Oteri and Ferrell were invited to
his home.  She was perusing glass cases full of memorabilia from his
movies - such as his Joker outfit - when she was shocked to see a
photograph of Carrey in his Spartan cheerleading sweater.

"I was freaked out," she said.