Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/766812
SAGAFTRA.org | Special Issue 2017 | SAG-AFTRA 60 characters that Lily's creative genius fully shines. She has an ability to create diverse and distinct characters that are at once familiar, eccentric and oh-so-honest — in a way that illuminates life's hidden corners." Tomlin grew up in Detroit in a working-class family. Despite — or perhaps because of — her penchant for skipping school, she was voted both most popular and most likely to succeed at Cass Technical High School. Although she initially wanted to study medicine at Wayne State University, Tomlin was bitten by the acting bug and never looked back. After college, she pursued standup comedy in Detroit and, later New York, with her first television appearance coming in 1965 on The Merv Griffin Show. In December 1969, Tomlin debuted on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. At the time, it was the No. 1 show on television, watched by more than 25 percent of all U.S. viewers. Laugh-In introduced mainstream America to characters such as the overbearing (and snorting) switchboard operator Ernestine, the philosophical 5 ½-year-old 3 characters that Lily's creative genius fully shines. She has an ability to create diverse and distinct characters that are at once familiar, eccentric and oh-so-honest — in a way that illuminates life's hidden corners." Tomlin grew up in Detroit in a working-class family. Despite