By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, September 2012
In mid-September 2012, Bill Hader sat with Elvis Mitchell for an episode of KCRW’s The Treatment. Hader’s appearance came as he prepared for his first Primetime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category — the first SNL performer to receive that nod since Eddie Murphy in 1983. The original FishbowlLA framing tracked the long arc.
Then
Bill Hader had been an SNL cast member since 2005. By the 2012 nomination cycle, he had built up a substantial portfolio of character work — Stefon on Weekend Update, his many impressions, and his broader sketch contributions had been recurring SNL highlights through multiple seasons.
The Eddie Murphy 1983 reference frame was substantively important. The Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy nomination for an SNL cast member had been an effectively closed category for nearly three decades.
Elvis Mitchell’s The Treatment on KCRW had been one of the most-respected long-form interview shows in American public radio across multiple decades by 2012. Mitchell’s interview register was substantively suited to the kind of substantive conversation Hader’s pre-Emmy promotional cycle was structured around.
Richard Horgan’s FishbowlLA framing was warmly admiring.
Now
Bill Hader did not win the 2012 Emmy — Eric Stonestreet of Modern Family took the award. Hader eventually won multiple Primetime Emmys for his work on Barry — his post-2018 HBO comedy-drama series. Barry ran for four seasons through 2023 and produced two Lead Actor Emmys for Hader plus substantial broader awards recognition.
Hader’s post-SNL career has continued through Barry, the IT films, the South Park universe, and various other projects.
Elvis Mitchell has continued at KCRW with The Treatment across the entire interval since 2012 — a 30-plus-year run that is now one of the longer-running radio interview shows in American public radio.
The 2012 piece reads now as a documented early-career snapshot of one of the post-2010 American comedy-performer career trajectories that turned out to substantially exceed initial expectations.
Original report archived on the Wayback Machine.