It’s been a full quarter century since Saturday Night Live viewers first met Denise “Zazu” McDenna and Pat “Sully” Sullivan—aka “The Boston Teens.”
The underachieving high school sweethearts, played by Rachel Dratch and Jimmy Fallon, were introduced during SNL’s 25th season on November 13, 1999. Fallon was on his second season overall and his first as a repertory player, while Dratch had only joined the featured cast three weeks earlier.
Dratch, who was born and raised in the Boston-adjacent town of Lexington, developed her character (initially named Heather) alongside Tina Fey during their time at The Second City. Following their SNL debut, Denise and Sully came to be defined by their brash behavior and overt public displays of affection, which usually occurred after they hurled insults at each other.
The Boston Teens’ first sketch is set at the Burlington Mall, where Sully is filming a school video project with the help of his unseen friend, Tommy. After being introduced by her boyfriend, Denise succinctly establishes the tone of their relationship by barking, “I swear to God, Sully, if you don’t get that Burger King breath out of my face, I’m gonna get wicked pissed off!”
Upon wandering into a Hickory Farms store, the couple encounter an assistant manager played by that night’s host and musical guest, Garth Brooks. He conducts an on-the-spot job interview with Denise, who reveals sordid details of her criminal past before being exposed for smuggling alcohol into the store.
After the buttoned-up manager delivers an ostensibly inspiring message directly into Tommy’s camcorder, Denise informs Sully that she intends to shoplift quite a few meat and cheese products, to which he responds, “You are wicked clever! Let’s go do it in the parking lot.”
The Boston Teens appeared three more times during Season 25 and twice in each of the next four seasons. Two lasting elements added to their second sketch were Sully’s Red Sox shirt (replacing his original Celtics one) and the side character Frankie Hilbert, played by Horatio Sanz.
Denise and Sully’s quick popularity led to a cameo from Sully’s idol, Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, in their first Season 26 sketch. Since leaving the SNL cast, Dratch and Fallon have twice returned to the show to play adult versions of the characters who got married and had at least five children after dropping out of school.
Although the hard-partying duo technically haven’t been seen since 2017, Dratch did pay slight homage to her first hit character in 2020 by appearing as a heavily-accented version of herself in a Hyundai Sonata Super Bowl commercial alongside fellow Massachusetts natives Chris Evans and John Krasinski as well as Red Sox legend David Ortiz.
