History of Saturday Night Live (1990–1995)

Saturday Night Live is an American sketch comedy series created and produced by Lorne Michaels for most of the show's run. The show has aired on NBC since 1975.

History of Saturday Night Live series:

1975–1980
(seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
1980–1985
(seasons 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
1985–1990
(seasons 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
1990–1995
(seasons 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
1995–2000
(seasons 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
2000–2005
(seasons 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
2005–2010
(seasons 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
2010–2015
(seasons 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
2015–2020
(seasons 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)

Weekend Update

The 1990–91 season brought the first major changes to the show's cast in over four years, adding cast members such as Chris Farley and David Spade. As the previous cast slowly left, the new players began to take over.

With most of the older cast gone, Michaels attempted to push a mix of old (Kevin Nealon, Mike Myers) and new (Janeane Garofalo, Michael McKean) for the 1994–95 season's cast. This season is widely considered one of the show's worst (along with the 1980–81 and 1985–86 seasons). After this cast, Michaels replaced most of the cast with unknowns for the 1995–96 season, once again saving the show from cancellation.

Transition in progress (1990–1991)

The 1990–91 season was a transitional year. Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn left the show after the previous season, the latter in a cloud of controversy. Lorne Michaels introduced a number of players who quickly became stars on the show: Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Julia Sweeney.

Memorable characters and sketches introduced by the new cast members from this period included Sweeney's "Pat", Sandler's "Opera Man" and "Canteen Boy", Farley's "Matt Foley", Schneider's annoying office geek "The Copy Guy", Rock's black perspective talk show host "Nat X", and Spade's caustic commentary piece "Hollywood Minute". The popularity of these new cast members helped to offset the departure of several popular long-time players over the first two seasons of this era, including Jan Hooks and "Weekend Update" anchor Dennis Miller after this season, as well as Victoria Jackson after the following season.

The remaining cast members of the "older" cast (Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers and Kevin Nealon) also remained popular with audiences. Nealon succeeded Miller as "Weekend Update" anchor. For the remainder of his tenure, Nealon found himself playing the straight man during "Update" and other sketches, particularly against the newer cast members. His participation in that role increased after Carvey, Hartman, and Myers left the show. Myers introduced many popular new characters during this period, including Linda Richman, host of a talk show "Coffee Talk". Meanwhile, Hartman, who had impersonated President Ronald Reagan on the show, began appearing regularly with his impression of Democratic candidate and soon-to-be President Bill Clinton. Carvey's impersonations of President George H.W. Bush remained an audience favourite, and Carvey also developed a popular impression of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. In the period leading up to the 1992 presidential election, Carvey and Hartman dominated the show with these impressions, creating mock debates. The Myers and Carvey characters Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar from the "Wayne's World" sketch would become household names during the early 1990s following the release of the successful feature film, Wayne's World.

Season Breakdown

Of the new cast members of the show, Chris Farley was not afraid to trade on his size for laughs. In one sketch he played a shirtless dancer, opposite the trim and muscular Dirty Dancing star Patrick Swayze, as they competed in an audition for a position with the Chippendales male dance troupe. Sandler and Farley also did a song called "Lunch Lady Land", with Farley dancing while dressed up as a lunch lady. Another recurring Farley character was the manic, thrice-divorced motivational speaker Matt Foley, whose schtick consisted mainly of yelling at and whining to his clients about having to live "in a van down by the river", and hurling himself around the room, demolishing everything in sight. Farley was fired from the show in 1995, but went on to star in successful movies like Tommy Boy and Black Sheep with David Spade, and Beverly Hills Ninja with Chris Rock and Nicollette Sheridan.

1993–1994 season

After the end of the 1993–1994 season, having already lost star cast member Dana Carvey, who left midway through the previous season, SNL's 1994 post-season saw more departures. Julia Sweeney left due to frustration and burnout. Another departure was that of Phil Hartman, whose final moment on the show was at the end of a musical number, with the entire cast singing a parody of the "So Long, Farewell" song from The Sound of Music. After all of the cast had left the stage, Farley, in his Matt Foley character, was left sitting on the stage, with Phil walking back on stage, cuddling next to Farley to sing goodbye and waving at the audience.

Producer Lorne Michaels hired a number of new cast members, beginning midway through the 1993–1994 season.

1994–1995 season

Similar to his decision in the mid-1980s to bring in established actors Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack and Robert Downey, Jr., Michaels added Michael McKean, and later Chris Elliott, to the cast. Both left at the end of the 1994–1995 season.

Later acquisitions were sketch veteran Mark McKinney of the recently wrapped, Michaels-produced Canadian sketch comedy show The Kids in the Hall, and stand-up comic Janeane Garofalo, the latter of whom joined at the beginning of the 1994–1995 season, and the former joining in January, shortly before the departure of Mike Myers. Garofalo left in mid-season, replaced by Molly Shannon. Myers also left in mid-season, as would Nealon after season's end. Farley and Sandler left at the end of the season. Longtime featured player Jay Mohr left as well, and Al Franken, who had worked on the show as a writer and featured player on and off since 1975, left at season's end as well. British actress Morwenna Banks joined the cast for the last four episodes of the season as a full cast member, but did not return the next season.

Much like season 6 [1980-1981] (or, to a lesser extent, season 11 [1985-1986]), season 20 [1994-1995] is considered one of SNL's worst-received seasons. The season was home to many cast turnovers and much dissension. Janeane Garofalo left the show halfway through the season. Mike Myers departed to pursue a movie career. Longtime feature player Al Franken quit, Ellen Cleghorne, Kevin Nealon, Chris Elliott, and Michael McKean also quit the show as well. Laura Kightlinger left to join Roseanne Barr's ill-fated FOX comedy series Saturday Night Special. Morwenna Banks, Chris Farley, Jay Mohr, and Adam Sandler were fired. Banks was hired as a contract player for the last four episodes of the season, leaving behind no memorable characters or celebrity impersonations.

Towards the end of the 1994–1995 season on SNL the show was in a state of turmoil, with the show enacting the highest turnover rate going into the next season. The 1994–1995 season had a total of 14 cast members; only five remained for the 1995–1996 season: Molly Shannon, Mark McKinney, Norm Macdonald, David Spade and Tim Meadows.

Season breakdown

1990–1991 season
Main article: Saturday Night Live (season 16)

Cast

With

Featuring

Notes
  • Dennis Miller became the first repertory cast member to spend more than five seasons on the show, paving the way for other long-running cast members, such as Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows, Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen, and Kenan Thompson. Miller is also the first Weekend Update anchor to last more than five seasons. The only other anchors to pass the five-year mark are Tina Fey (who became the first female anchor to stay on for more than five years), Seth Meyers (who broke Miller's record in 2012), Colin Jost (who took over for Meyers in the middle of Season 39), and Michael Che (Jost's co-anchor who came on the following season).
  • Hartman was to leave along with Miller and Jan Hooks, but stayed on after NBC convinced him to stay with the proposal of his own sketch comedy show. The show was scrapped but Hartman was fine with it because he would be "sweating blood to make the show work", according to him.
  • This season is the debut of the "Bad Boys", who would begin to achieve prominence around 1992–1993. Adam Sandler appears in three episodes (December 8, 1990, December 15, 1990 and January 12, 1991) as an uncredited extra prior to his official debut on the February 9, 1991 episode, alongside Tim Meadows. David Spade appears in nearly every live broadcast throughout Season 16 but does not appear in the opening credits.
  • Dennis Miller and Jan Hooks left the show at the end of the season.
  • This is the first season since the 1985–86 season to hire African-American cast members and the first time that two African-American males (Tim Meadows and Chris Rock) were cast.

1991–1992 season
Main article: Saturday Night Live (season 17)

Cast

With

Featuring

Notes
  • The 1991–1992 season boasted the largest cast in the history of the series. The season also sets the record for most female performers, a record that would later be broken in the 2013–2014 season (season 39), with seven women (Aidy Bryant, Vanessa Bayer, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, Noel Wells, Nasim Pedrad, and Sasheer Zamata).
  • Chris Farley, Chris Rock and Julia Sweeney were upgraded to contract status.
  • Victoria Jackson left at the end of the season, as the longest-serving female cast member in SNL history, a record broken by Molly Shannon in 2001, while short-lived cast members Beth Cahill and Siobhan Fallon are fired.
  • Ellen Cleghorne becomes the first African-American female cast member hired in six years and the third one hired overall (after Yvonne Hudson and Danitra Vance).

1992–1993 season
Main article: Saturday Night Live (season 18)

On October 3, at the end of her second song, a cover of Bob Marley's song "War", musical guest Sinéad O'Connor created controversy by holding up a picture of Pope John Paul II, exclaiming, "Fight the real enemy", and tearing the picture to pieces. According to the book Live From New York, this was unrehearsed, and condemned by Michaels and the SNL crew, who refused to light the applause sign after O'Connor's performance; likewise, guest host Tim Robbins, who was raised Catholic,[1] did not thank O'Connor during the closing.

Cast

Featuring

With

Notes
  • Mike Myers was absent for the first several episodes of the season.
  • Rob Schneider ascended to contract status.
  • Melanie Hutsell was promoted to the middle category.
  • Robert Smigel and Chris Rock leave the show at the end of the season. Smigel would go on to The Dana Carvey Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien (though Robert Smigel would return as a writer for the "TV Funhouse" cartoon segments on SNL), while Rock would guest star on In Living Color's final season before concentrating on standup comedy and film appearances.

1993–1994 season
Main article: Saturday Night Live (season 19)

Cast

Featuring

Hosts and musical guests

One host during this season, Martin Lawrence, had an opening monologue which included an extended series of comments about feminine hygiene. The syndicated version of the episode replaces the offending section of the monologue with a graphic (read by an off-screen announcer, SNL writer Jim Downey) describing in vague terms what Lawrence had said and noting that it had almost cost SNL employees their jobs. Lawrence was subsequently banned from appearing on SNL again.

Notes
  • Ellen Cleghorne, Melanie Hutsell, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler and David Spade were all promoted to full-time cast member status.
  • Nealon ends the season by handing "Weekend Update" over to Norm Macdonald and kissing him on the mouth.
  • Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney left at the end of the season, while Melanie Hutsell, Rob Schneider, and Sarah Silverman were fired.

1994–1995 season
Main article: Saturday Night Live (season 20)

Cast

Featuring

Notes
  • In his book, Gasping for Airtime, Jay Mohr mentions that at the end of the season, he demanded a promotion to cast member, among other things, and the network procrastinated on answering his demand throughout the summer of 1995 until he finally quit outright. However, this has been disproved when it was revealed that Mohr was fired due to confessing that he plagiarized jokes for sketches.
  • During this season, Kevin Nealon became the show's longest-tenured cast member, as he had been in the cast for nearly a decade - from 1986 to 1995.
    • Also, with Mike Myers' departure, he became the last cast member who was hired in the 1980s to leave the show.
  • Molly Shannon joined the cast as a midseason replacement for Mike Myers (who left the show so he can star in movies) and Janeane Garofalo (who quit out of disgust over dealing with the cast and crew) in February 1995, eight months before she was promoted to a contract player in SNL's 21st season (1995–1996).
  • In the prime time special Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation (a documentary on how Saturday Night Live survived the 1990s), it was revealed that, because of this season's less-than-stellar reception, NBC was seriously considering firing Lorne Michaels and canceling the show (making this the third time this show has come close to being canceled, joining two other tumultuous and critically lackluster seasons: season 6 [1980-1981] and season 11 [1985-1986]). The firings and turnover resulting from this season represented the biggest involvement into the show's affairs by NBC executives since season 6 and the largest cast overhaul since season 11.
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References
  1. Rose, Charlie (February 8, 1996). "Tim Robbins Interview". PBS. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
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