More cowbell? The Trib's "SNL" tourney begins.

March Madness has arrived early for the folks who run RedEye at the Chicago Tribune. Excited about this weekend's return of "Saturday Night Live" -- hey, we love Tina Fey, too, but we're not clearing our schedule for it -- the site put together a "Best SNL Cast Member of All-Time" tournament to be voted on by the public.

It's a fun idea, and we'll gladly make our picks. First round voting ends Tuesday at 2 p.m.

It would appear the top seeds -- at least according to first round match-ups and placement on the list -- are Bill Murray, Will Ferrell, Chris Farley and Mike Myers. Number two seeds seem to be Phil Hartman, Eddie Murphy, Gilda Radner and John Belushi.

Thirty-two cast members were placed in four regions named after recurring hosts Steve Martin, Tom Hanks, John Goodman and Alec Baldwin. Familiar names who didn't make the cut include Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kevin Nealon, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Tim Meadows, Jimmy Fallon and Andy Samberg.

Also, Adam and I discussed prospects today and agreed that an "SNL" character tournament would have been a much better idea. Then again, no one really stood a chance against Phil Hartman's Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, did they?

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell in some ice and later got thawed out by your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me. Sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out of my BMW and run off into the hills or whatever. Sometimes when I get a message on my fax machine, did little demons get inside and type it? I don't know. My primitive mind can't grasp these concepts."

-- Thomas Rozwadowski, trozwado@greenbaypressgazette.com