Valerie Bertinelli says Phil Hartman reprimanded her during ‘SNL’ sketch

Valerie Bertinelli is remembering the talking to that she received from late comedian Phil Hartman during one Saturday Night Live rehearsal.

The One Day at a Time actress, who hosted the NBC sketch comedy show in 1987, told Entertainment Weekly that the incident occurred while the pair were running through a sketch called “Dinner at the Van Halens,” which saw Bertinelli and then-husband Eddie Van Halen invite their friends (played by Hartman and Victoria Jackson) over for a meal.

“I remember Phil Hartman. I loved him,” she said. “[The script] didn’t have me say a name [for him], but I was like, ‘And, Phil,’ and he goes, ‘No, don’t call me Phil in this. My character’s name is [blank].'” 

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Bertinelli accepted Hartman’s note straight away. “I’m like, ‘Oh, okay, you have a character name,’” she said. “I remember him just reprimanding me like, ‘No, I’m not Phil here.’ I don’t know why that sticks out. He was digging deep for that particular skit.”

The couples were accompanied during the sketch by Van Halen’s top-notch roadies — played by Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey, and Dennis Miller — who caused chaos as they orchestrated the fine dining experience by replacing fallen spoons, answering telephones as if they were testing microphones, and shining flashlights on Bertinelli’s new hairdo.

“It was very funny,” she said of the sketch. “We’re having a dinner party, and Ed had his roadies there taking care of the dinner instead of waiters and waitresses and being wait staff, which we would never have anyways. It’s like, so not us.” 

Hartman, who was tragically killed in 1998 at 49, starred on eight seasons of Saturday Night Live from 1986 until 1994. EW ranked him as the second-greatest SNL cast member in the show’s history, praising his versatility and consistency in roles that ranged from everyday characters to the unforgettable “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer.”

These days, Bertinelli admitted that she “would not be able to watch” her SNL monologue, which featured the actress poking fun at the show by equating it to a less organized Van Halen concert and expressing her struggle to break free from the girl-next-door image after One Day at a Time.

“I have a hard time watching myself,” Bertinelli added. “I don’t know why.” 

The Drew Barrymore Show lifestyle expert explained that she used to “watch dailies and the films I was making” as a way to continue to study and improve upon her acting, but noted that it’s an entirely different ballgame when it comes to starring on daytime television “because what I’m doing is I’m just myself.” 

She continued, “I don’t know that I’m totally comfortable in my skin as much as I would love to be, so that when I see myself just being me, I’m like, ‘Oh, okay.’ And I don’t want to fill my brain up with like, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have done that.’ I just want to just relax and just be.”