Saturday Night Live

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SNL redirects here. For other uses of SNL, see SNL (disambiguation).

{{infobox television

 | show_name = Saturday Night Live
 | image = Image:Snllogo2005-HD.jpg
 | caption = 30th season title card, featuring the skyline of New York City
 | format = live action, comedy, variety television series
 | runtime = 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes) per episode
 | rating = Template:TV-14
 | creator = Lorne Michaels
 | starring = see the Saturday Night Live cast
 | country = USA
 | network = NBC
 | picture_format = 1080i HDTV
 | first_aired = October 11, 1975 
 | last_aired = (contracted through 2012)
 | num_episodes = 601, as of April 15, 2006

|}} Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly late-night 90-minute comedy-variety show based in New York City which has been broadcast by NBC nearly every Saturday night since its debut on October 11, 1975. It is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American television history. Each week, the show's cast is joined by a guest host and a musical act.

Originally, the show was called NBC's Saturday Night because Howard Cosell was hosting a show on ABC titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After Cosell's show was cancelled in 1976, NBC retitled its show. The first show with the new title was broadcast on March 26, 1977.

The show — broadcast from Studio 8H at the GE Building in New York's Rockefeller Center — has been the launching place for some major American comedy stars of the last thirty years. It was created by Lorne Michaels who, excluding a hiatus from Season 6 through Season 10, has produced and written for the show and remains its executive producer (Jean Doumanian producing most of Season 6, and Dick Ebersol 7–10).

In 2005, NBC renewed SNL's contract until 2012.

Contents 1 Format of the show 2 History 3 Cast 3.1 Current repertory players 3.2 Current featured players 3.3 Notable tenures 3.4 Family connections 3.5 Cast member deaths 3.6 Contracts 4 The studio 5 Production process 6 When it's not live 7 When it's less than live 8 Rights to SNL 9 Guest hosts 9.1 Frequent hosts 9.2 Cast members who have hosted 9.3 Hosts who auditioned to join the cast 10 Musical guests 10.1 Frequent musical guests 10.2 Last-minute replacements/changes 11 Infamous Moments 12 Banned From the Show 13 Recurring characters and sketches 14 Films based on SNL sketches 15 Trivia 16 See also 17 External links 17.1 Fansites 18 Further reading

Format of the show

The show usually follows a standard format. It opens with a cold opening sketch often parodying politics, pop culture, or other current events; this sketch always ends with someone saying "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" The show then segues into the opening credits, which usually open with a shot of the Statue of Liberty and a montage of the cast members cut with various locations around the city. The opening credits are voiced-over by long-time NBC announcer Don Pardo. The show's theme music has been re-arranged many times, but always follows the same basic chord patterns. For three episodes in 1985 (11th season), the opening credits were run over photographs of New York and the host, musical guests, and castmembers on segmented paper.

Next is the opening monologue performed by the guest host(s), often followed by a TV commercial parody. The show continues with more comedy sketches (sketches might feature recurring characters, running gags, celebrity impersonations, movie and TV spoofs, and sketches parodying the news issues of the day), followed by a performance by the guest musical act. More recent shows have the second act divided by an animated short by Robert Smigel. The news parody segment Weekend Update marks the show's midway point. The second half of the program continues with more sketches, and in most cases a second performance by the musical guest. Some shows also feature filmed segments, often featuring cast members, or it may feature independent film shorts. In a few rare cases, a third musical performance by the week's musical guest is done at the end of the show, but in most instances this is just a goodbye segment by the host and musical guest. Often times, the show "fades to black", or just blatantly cuts away while the credits roll, most likely a time-saving measure. Also, in some reruns, shows have been edited to contain a mixture of sketches, and do not follow this sequence.

History

• 1975 – 1980
• 1980 – 1985
• 1985 – 1990
• 1990 – 1995
• 1995 – 2000
• 2000 – 2005
• 2005 - Present
• Weekend Update

Cast

For a full list of past and present cast, see Saturday Night Live cast.

Notable tenures

Although SNL has a rapid turnover of supporting players, some performers have had long tenures with the show. Few have broken the seven-year barrier. Among the longest serving repertory players are:

Cast Member	Cast Status	Tenure	Total Seasons	Other Notes
Al Franken	Featured Player	1977–1980 and October, 1986–May, 1995	12	Holds the record for the highest total number of seasons as a SNL cast member. He left SNL for five years starting in 1980 but returned in 1986.
Darrell Hammond	Repertory Player	September 1995 – Present	11 and counting	Holds the record for the highest number of consecutive seasons as a SNL cast member.
Tim Meadows	Repertory Player	February 1991 – May 2000	9½	Holds the record for the longest serving African-American SNL cast member.
Kevin Nealon	Repertory Player	October 1986– May 1995	9
Phil Hartman	Repertory Player	October 1986 – May 1994	8
Horatio Sanz	Repertory Player	September 1998 – Present	8 and counting	Holds the record for the longest serving Hispanic-American SNL cast member.
Chris Parnell	Repertory Player	September 1998 – Present	7½ and counting	He was fired from SNL at the end of the 2000-2001 season. However, he was rehired for the remaining half of the 2001-2002 season.

Family connections

Some cast members are related to former staff on the show. The most prominent example is Jim Belushi, younger brother of Not Ready for Prime Time player John Belushi. Before that, Bill Murray's older brother Brian Doyle-Murray was a writer and cast member. When Dan Aykroyd left the show in 1979, he was replaced by a series of short-lived featured players, one of whom was his brother Peter.

Other family connections are not as obvious. For instance, long-time writer and sometime performer Jim Downey is former cast member Robert Downey, Jr.'s uncle. Cast member Gilda Radner was briefly married to G.E. Smith, who later became the show's bandleader. The same is true for Michael O'Donoghue. He was married to SNL band pianist Cheryl Hardwick. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall were an item during their tenure, and were married in 1987.

Cast member deaths

Although SNL is well-known as the launchpad for many successful careers, a few castmembers (and active crew members) have died tragically young. This has given rise to a theory known as the "Saturday Night Live Curse".

• The first of these was John Belushi, who in 1982 died from a lethal overdose of cocaine and heroin. Ironically, years before Belushi's death, there was a short film on SNL called, "Don't Look Back In Anger" that showed an elderly John Belushi as the last living member of the Not Ready For Primetime Players. Not only that, the film did, in a way, predict that Gilda Radner would die (although in the film, there was no mention of how Gilda died; it just mentioned that all of the castmembers [including one-seasoner Chevy Chase and then-new castmember Bill Murray] were dead except for John Belushi).
• Gilda Radner died after a year-long battle with ovarian cancer in May 1989. She was scheduled to host the last episode of season 13 (1987-1988), a first for a former female castmember, but the season was cut short due to a writer's strike and her condition worsened. When Steve Martin hosted the last episode of the 1988-1989 season (season 14), his original monologue about photographing his good and bad sides was scheduled for later in the show when news hit that Radner had died. The new monologue was Steve showing a clip from a sketch on an episode he hosted in 1978 (Steve Martin/The Blues Brothers) where two strangers (played by Martin and Radner) meet each other in a disco and start dancing eloquently around the studio until they return to the sketch and go about their business as if nothing happened between them. This famous sketch is called "Dancing In The Dark" (transcript: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/77/77rdancing.phtml)
• While not a cast member, Jim Henson, whose Muppets appeared in the first year (and were dropped due to unpopularity), died in May of 1990, of pneumonia.
• In August 1994, Danitra Vance died of breast cancer. Vance was the first black female castmember during the 1985-1986 season (not to be confused with Yvonne Hudson from season six since Hudson was not a regular castmember). She claimed to have quit the show because she was sick of being put in stereotypical roles, but Al Franken was quoted in 2002 saying that she could not read cue cards on the air because she was dyslexic.
• In the same year as Danitra Vance's death, one-time SNL castmember and SNL writer Michael O'Donoghue, who long suffered from severe chronic migraine headaches, died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Bill Murray cameoed in a season 20 (1994-1995) episode (hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker with musical guest R.E.M.) to honor him by replaying O'Donoghue's famous sketch, Mr. Mike's Least Loved Bedtime Stories: The Soiled Kimono from December of 1977. (transcript of Bill Murray's appearance: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/94/94etribute.phtml; transcript of Mr. Mike's Least Loved Bedtime Stories: The Soiled Kimono sketch: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/77/77hmrmike.phtml)
• In 1997, two months after he came back to host SNL, Chris Farley, not unlike his idol, John Belushi, also died from an accidental drug overdose of cocaine and heroin, commonly known as a speedball, at the age of 33 (which was also how old Belushi was when he died).
• Phil Hartman became the first (and so far, only) SNL castmember to be murdered when his wife Brynn, who had been in treatment for her depression, consumed a dangerous combination of alcohol, cocaine and the prescription drug Zoloft, shot Phil that morning as he slept, after months of speculated marriage problems. She later turned the gun on herself.
• SNL writer Eliot Wald [1981-1985] died of cancer in 2003.
• SNL writer Drake Sather [1993-1995] committed suicide (by gunshot) in 2004.
• The most recent death happened on October 2005, when Charles Rocket (birth name: Charles Adams Claverie) became the first SNL alum to commit suicide, not to mention the first SNL castmember from the low-rated, widely-panned Jean Doumanian season (1980-1981) to die, and the first SNL castmember to die who was a Weekend Update anchor, when local police found Rocket dead in his backyard with a slashed throat. The death was ruled a suicide.

Other crew members who have died (though not at a young age).

• Dave Wilson, director from 1975-86 and 1989-95, died in 2001 of an aortic aneurysm.
• Herb Sargent, a writer for SNL and the creator of Weekend Update, died from a heart attack on May 6th of 2005.

Contracts

SNL received some negative publicity in 1999 when it was leaked that, henceforth, actors joining the show would have to agree in their five-to-six year contract that, upon request, they would act in up to three movies by SNL Films, for fees of US$75,000, US$150,000, and then US$300,000; and also that, upon request, they would leave SNL and act in an NBC sitcom for up to an additional six years. This appeared to be a reaction to former cast members such as Adam Sandler and Mike Myers going on to movie stardom.

Some agents and managers characterized these long-term contracts as involuntary servitude, saying that almost any young, undiscovered comic would immediately agree to any given set of exploitative contractual restrictions for the opportunity to launch a career via the show. NBC publicly defended the new contracts, saying that SNL was doing a service to young comics by launching so many careers.

It was reported in 1999 that the starting salary for SNL cast members was US$5,000 per episode.

The studio

Since the show's inception, SNL has aired from Studio 8H, located on floors 8 and 9 of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (usually nicknamed "30 Rock"). Due to the studio originally being a radio soundstage for Arturo Toscanini and his NBC Symphony Orchestra, the layout of the studio floor and the audience positioning causes some audience members to have an obstructed view of many of the sketches.

The first 4 shows of the 1976-77 season were shot at the former NBC Studios in Brooklyn, due to NBC News using Studio 8H for Presidential election coverage.

During the summer 2005 shooting hiatus, crews began renovations on Studio 8H. With its thirty-first season premiere in October 2005, the show began broadcasting in High Definition, appearing letterboxed on conventional screens.

On the August 17, 2005 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien (also aired on NBC), Conan mentioned hearing furniture being moved around in the studio upstairs. When Conan asked if it was a rival show, someone mentioned that it was Saturday Night Live. Conan jokingly responded, "Saturday Night Live? It'll never make it." Late Night with Conan O'Brien is taped in Studio 6A, on floors 6 and 7 of "30 Rock". Conan was a writer for SNL from 1988-1991.

The offices of SNL writers, producers, and other staff can be found on the 17th floor of "30 Rock". Last Call with Carson Daly used the studio until 2005, when the show moved to Studio 9 at the NBC Studios in Burbank, California.

Production process

The following is a summary of the process used to produce the show. It is based in part on an August 2000 Writer's Digest article and an April 2004 Fresh Air interview with writer and performer Tina Fey:

• Monday: The day begins with a topical meeting, identifying the biggest story for the show's opening. This is followed by a free-form pitch meeting with Lorne Michaels and the show's host for the week. According to an October 2004 60 Minutes segment on the show, throughout the week the host has a lot of influence on which sketches get aired. Following the meeting, writers begin to draft the two scripts each must produce.
• Tuesday: Starting in the afternoon, anywhere from 30 to 45 scripts are written, significantly more than will make it to air. Most writers work through the night. Once a writer's scripts are complete, he or she will often help other writers on their scripts.
• Wednesday: All scripts get a read-through. After the read-through, the head writer(s) and the producers meet with the host to decide which sketches to work on for the rest of the week, with Lorne Michaels and the host having the final say.
• Thursday: The surviving sketches are reviewed, word-by-word, by the writing staff as a whole (or in two groups in the case of co-head writers). Some sketches which survived the cut because of their premise but otherwise needed a lot of work are rewritten completely. Others are changed in smaller ways. Thursday is also the day that Weekend Update starts coming together, starting with the news items written by writers dedicated all week to the segment. This is also the first day the crew comes in for rehearsal. The music act is rehearsed as well as some of the larger, more important sketches.
• Friday: The show is blocked. The writer of each sketch acts as producer, working with the show's set designers and costumers.
• Saturday: With the show still far from finalized, the day begins with a run-through, with props, in front of Lorne Michaels. After the run-through, the cast and crew find out which of the sketches are in the dress rehearsal, and which are cut. The writer/producer deals with any changes. This is followed by an 8 p.m. dress rehearsal in front of a live audience, which lasts until 10 p.m. or sometimes later, and which contains around twenty minutes of material which will not make it to the broadcast. Lorne Michaels uses first-hand observation of the audience reaction to the rehearsal, and input from the host, to determine the final round of changes, re-ordering sketches as necessary. The show then begins at 11:35p.m. (11:45 or midnight in some markets).

The status of the show during the week is maintained on a bulletin board. Sketches and other segments are given labels which are put on index cards and put on the board in the order of their performance. The order is based on content as well as production limitations such as camera placement and performer availability. Segments which have been cut are kept to the side of the board. As the broadcast approaches, often the writer/producer discovers the fate of his or her segment only by consulting the bulletin board.

A 60 Minutes report taped in October 2004 depicted the intense writing frenzy that goes on during the week leading up to a show, with crowded meetings and long hours. The report particularly noted the involvement of the guest hosts in developing and selecting the sketches in which they will appear.

When it's not live

SNL is one of the few shows on television to have its in- and off-season reruns aired out of its original broadcast sequence. The sequence of the in-season reruns (that is, encore shows that air during the season it originally aired) are usually determined by the episode(s)' popularity. So, for example, if by the midway point of the season in December, a show hosted by Robert DeNiro turned out to be the highest rated show of the season thus far, it would be the first show to be repeated when SNL begins airing its reruns during one of their live breaks. Shows usually air twice during a particular season, but often the highest rated shows of the season have a second encore show towards the end of the off-season.

Encore showings are not always identical to the original broadcast. Frequently, successful sketches that aired later in the show during the original broadcast will be reedited to appear earlier, and segments that did not work well during the original showing are replaced by alternate performances, or sometimes completely different sketches that had been taped at the dress rehearsal that preceded the live broadcast.

From time-to-time, SNL airs compilation shows. Such shows will feature the best of a previous season (consisting of sketches and musical segments specially selected by the producers), or of a particular cast member (such as Eddie Murphy or Adam Sandler) or guest (such as Tom Hanks), or centered on a particular theme (for example, Halloween, Christmas, or a major news event). Almost every election year since 1992, SNL airs, during primetime, a "Presidential Bash" featuring both classic and new sketches involving Presidents and presidential candidates. The 2000 Bash was notable for having self-deprecating sketches taped by the actual candidates (George W. Bush and Al Gore, though not together) in addition to the sketches with the players normally assigned to impersonate them.

When it's less than live

Over the years SNL has almost always been broadcast live in the Eastern and Central time zones, in spite of the expletive spoken by Charles Rocket in 1981. Exceptions include shows hosted by Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, and Andrew Dice Clay, which were broadcast on a five-second delay.

The episode scheduled for October 25, 1986, hosted by Rosanna Arquette, was not aired until November 8. NBC was broadcasting Game 6 of the 1986 World Series on the evening of October 25; the game entered extra innings, causing that night's broadcast of SNL to be first delayed and then cancelled. The show was performed for the studio audience starting at 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time, recorded, and broadcast two weeks later.

The episode scheduled for February 10, 2001, hosted by Jennifer Lopez, aired on tape delay by almost 45 minutes due to a late-running XFL game that was airing on NBC during primetime. Lopez and the cast were not told by Michaels that they were not being seen live [1].

During Eddie Murphy's last season, he was only available for part of the season, so they recorded a number of extra sketches in September, 1983, featuring him that were broadcast in episodes he was not available for, according to the book Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad.

Some live shows may also be altered and edited for the West Coast (where it is broadcast at 11:35 p.m. Pacific Time, three hours after the live broadcast); in some cases recordings of sketches or performances from the program's dress rehearsal have been substituted for the later feed. During Richard Pryor's monologue, he twice used the word "ass," which was muted on the West Coast (but has been restored for syndication). When Sam Kinison delivered a comic monologue in 1986, NBC removed his plea for the legalization of marijuana from the West Coast broadcast and all subsequent repeats.

Rights to SNL

NBC holds the copyright to every episode of the show made thus far. The syndication rights to the original incarnation (1975–1980) were originally acquired by Filmways Television (later Orion Television and MGM), while the syndication rights to the shows made from 1980 forward (that is, rerun rights beginning two years after its original NBC airings) have been held by Broadway Video, Lorne Michaels' production company.

The home video rights have also been scattered. Warner Home Video originally released several episodes from the original incarnation (1975–1980). Paramount released a "Best Of Eddie Murphy" video compilation in the 1980s (Murphy had a multi-picture deal with Paramount at the time). In the 1990s, Starmaker Entertainment held the video rights. Today, Lions Gate Home Entertainment handles the VHS and DVD releases of SNL under a new license with NBC.

For many years, Comedy Central aired SNL reruns from 1980-93 under license from Broadway Video. In 1998 or so, Comedy Central began getting reruns from 1993 to the (then) present. In 2001, E! Entertainment Television contracted with Orion/MGM to show reruns from the 1975-80 seasons. At the same time, a deal was signed to move the 1980-present reruns to E! starting March, 2003. By fall, 2003, the 1975-80 reruns were rarely programmed by E! and had disappeared entirely by 2005.

The only episodes that have not been included in any syndication package (including the current deal with E!) are the prime-time special at Mardi Gras in New Orleans (the only time the show has originated outside of New York), and the infamous 1990 episode which Andrew Dice Clay hosted. A one hour edited version of the Andrew Dice Clay episode did air on one occasion, during a "Bleep Day" marathon on Comedy Central in the late 1990s.

In Canada, episodes from 1975–1980 are aired in late night programming hours, weeknights on some Global Television Network owned stations such as CHAN, CHCA, and CIII. However, these episodes are edited considerably to fit into to its one hour timeslot, rather than the usual hour and a half.

In Australia, SNL is seen on Pay-TV Channel Arena. It airs late night Weeknights and Saturday as well Premiere Episodes at 6.30pm Saturday for a limited run. However, all episodes are edited considerably to fit into to its one hour timeslot, rather than the usual hour and a half.

Recently, CNBC Singapore dropped SNL from Starhub Cable Vision (SCV). SNL used to be broadcased on CNBC Singapore via SCV on Channel 15, every Saturday at 11pm, with an encore telecast on Sunday in a similar time slot.

Guest hosts

Frequent hosts

A separate list of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests is available.

Image:Cowbell2.gif There have been many people who have been invited to come back and host SNL again. Some of these hosts (such as Steve Martin, Christopher Walken, Tom Hanks, and Alec Baldwin) have hosted so many times that special episodes of SNL have been compiled and aired as "Best of ..." episodes. Hosts who have been the subject of a Best of SNL videotape, DVD, or compilation special are marked with a (•) in the "Other Notes" section on the list below. The following people have hosted SNL at least five times:

Host	Number of Episodes	First Hosted	Last Hosted	Number of Special Cameos	Other Notes
Steve Martin	14	October 23, 1976	February 4, 2006	5	Highest hosting record; He hosted three times in one year, 1978. He co-hosted with Chevy Chase and Martin Short on December 6, 1986 (•)
John Goodman	12	December 2, 1989	November 3, 2001	9	Hosted once a season for 11 straight seasons
Alec Baldwin	12	April 21, 1990	December 10, 2005	2	Co-hosted with wife (Kim Basinger) on February 12, 1994 (•)
Buck Henry	10	January 17, 1976	May 24, 1980	5	Hosted twice a season for each of the first five seasons.
Chevy Chase	9	February 18, 1978	February 15, 1997	5	First former cast member to host more than five times. (•)
Tom Hanks	7	December 14, 1985	September 28, 1996	1	Scheduled to host for 8th time on May 6th, 2006 (•)
Elliott Gould	6	January 10, 1976	November 15, 1980	1
Danny DeVito	6	May 15, 1982	December 10, 1999	3	Co-hosted with wife (Rhea Perlman) on October 15, 1983
Christopher Walken	6	January 20, 1990	February 22, 2003	0	(•)
Candice Bergen	5	November 8, 1975	May 19, 1990	0	The only woman to host five times; hosted twice in one season in 1975.
Bill Murray	5	March 7, 1981	February 20, 1999	1	Second former cast member to host five or more times.

Cast members who have hosted

As of March 2006, there have been 21 performers who have hosted SNL who, at one point in their careers, were either a repertory or featured member of the SNL cast. Curiously, none of these hosts were women. Gilda Radner was scheduled to host in 1988 but the episode was canceled due to a writers' strike, and she died the following year. The following performers have hosted SNL either before, during or after their tenure as a member of the SNL cast.

Host	Number of Episodes	First Hosted	Last Hosted	Number of Special Cameos	Other notes
Chevy Chase	9	February 18, 1978	February 15, 1997	5	First former cast member to host and first to host more than five times. He co-hosted with Martin Short and Steve Martin on December 6, 1986
Bill Murray	5	March 7, 1981	February 20, 1999	1	Second former cast member to host five or more times.
Dana Carvey	3	October 22, 1994	October 21, 2000	5
Don Novello	2	January 14, 1984	May 12, 1984	3
Eddie Murphy	2	December 11, 1982	December 15, 1984	0	He is the only performer to host while still a member of the cast
Billy Crystal	2	March 17, 1984	May 12, 1984	2	He is the first performer to join the cast after he had hosted. He co-hosted with Ed Koch, Don Novello, Betty Thomas and Edwin Newman on May 12, 1984
Martin Short	2	December 6, 1986	December 7, 1996	1	He co-hosted with Chevy Chase and Steve Martin on December 6, 1986. His two hosting appearances were almost exactly ten years apart. If he hosts SNL in December of 2006, he will be the only performer to have a decade separating each hosting appearance.
Phil Hartman	2	March 23, 1996	November 23, 1996	0
David Spade	2	November 7, 1998	March 12, 2005	2
Dan Aykroyd	1	May 17, 2003	May 17, 2003	8
Paul Shaffer	1	January 31, 1987	January 31, 1987	0
Michael McKean	1	November 3, 1984	November 3, 1984	0	He is the second performer to join the cast after hosting a show.
Robert Downey, Jr.	1	November 16, 1996	November 16, 1996	0
Jon Lovitz	1	November 8, 1997	November 8, 1997	7
Damon Wayans	1	April 8, 1995	April 8, 1995	0
Mike Myers	1	March 22, 1997	March 22, 1997	3
Ben Stiller	1	October 24, 1998	October 24, 1998	2
Chris Farley	1	October 25, 1997	October 25, 1997
Chris Rock	1	November 2, 1996	November 2, 1996	2
Norm MacDonald	1	October 23, 1999	October 23, 1999	0
Will Ferrell	1	May 14, 2005	May 14, 2005	2

Hosts who auditioned to join the cast

The following is a list of guest hosts who had previously auditioned for the show earlier in their careers only to be turned down. This list does not include the names of hosts, like Billy Crystal, who were rejected but eventually joined the cast at a later date. The list of the hosts and dates of their auditions are as follows:

Host	SNL Season of Audition	First Hosted	Last Hosted	Other notes
Jim Carrey	6th (1980 -1981)	May 18, 1996	same as first host date
John Goodman	6th (1980 -1981)	December 2, 1989	November 3, 2001	Hosted once a season for 11 straight seasons
Paul Reubens	6th (1980 -1981)	November 23, 1985	same as first host date	Hosted under his kids show alter ego Pee Wee Herman in 1985
Geena Davis	10th (1984 -1985)	April 22, 1989	same as first host date
Lisa Kudrow	16th (1990 -1991)	October 5, 1996	same as first host date
Steve Carell	21st (1995 -1996)	October 1, 2005	same as first host date
Johnny Knoxville	21st (1995 -1996)	May 5, 2005	same as first host date
Dane Cook	28th (2002 -2003)	December 3, 2005	same as first host date

Musical guests

Frequent musical guests

The following performers have been musical guests on SNL at least five times:

Musical Guest	Number of Episodes	First Musical Appearance	Last Musical Appearance	Other Notes
Tom Petty	7	November 10, 1979	April 10, 1999	Shares the highest musical appearances record with Dave Grohl.
Dave Grohl	7	January 11, 1992	November 12, 2005	Shares the highest musical appearances record with Tom Petty. He appeared as an SNL musical guest twice with Nirvana, four times with the Foo Fighters and once with Tom Petty.
Paul Simon	6	October 17, 1987	November 4, 2000	He hosted the second program with Art Garfunkel on October 18, 1975. Scheduled to make his 7th musical guest appearance in May of 2006. If he appears as scheduled, he will also share the highest musical appearances record with Tom Petty and Dave Grohl.
Randy Newman	6	October 18, 1975	October 22, 1988
James Taylor	6	September 18, 1976	November 13, 1993
Sting	5	October 17, 1987	November 20, 1999	Only British performer to appear as a musical guest at least five times.
Beck	5	January 11, 1997	April 16, 2005

Last-minute replacements/changes

• The Sex Pistols were supposed to be the musical guests of the December 17, 1977 episode, but because of visa problems, were replaced with Elvis Costello and The Attractions.
• Al Franken and Tom Davis, writers and featured players on the show, were scheduled to host on April 18, 1981 with The Grateful Dead as musical guest (Franken and Davis appeared in "The Grateful Dead Movie" of that year). It was cancelled due to a writers' strike and the temporary cancellation of SNL after Jean Doumanian and her cast (save Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, and writer Brian Doyle-Murray) were fired and Dick Ebersol was called in to retool the show.
• James Caan was originally supposed to host the 1981-82 season premiere on October 3, 1981. He backed out to be with his ailing sister, and no host was booked to replace him for the episode.
• Nick Nolte was scheduled to host the December 11, 1982 Christmas episode, but he became too ill to host, so his 48 Hrs. co-star (and then current SNL cast member), Eddie Murphy took over as host. He became the only cast member to host while still a regular, a choice reportedly upsetting to his fellow cast members. Murphy opened the show with the phrase, "Live from New York, It's the Eddie Murphy Show!"
• John Candy and Eugene Levy were scheduled to host an episode on March 9, 1985, with musical guest Hall and Oates. It was cancelled due to a short writer's strike that season.
• Joe Pesci was originally supposed to host on May 9, 1992, but had to back out at the very last minute due to a change in the filming schedule of Home Alone 2. He was replaced by Tom Hanks. The show made light of the switch by having Hanks deliver a monologue that appeared to have been written for Pesci, complete with plugs of all of Pesci's recent films and a parody of the "Whaddya mean I'm funny" scene from Goodfellas. Pesci hosted five months later.
• David Letterman was originally supposed to host the finale episode of season 18 (1992-1993), but backed out due to his problems with NBC. Lorne Michaels also tried to get Sharon Stone to host again, but she declined as well. Kevin Kline would host the last show of the 1992-1993 season.
• Michael Richards was scheduled to host the March 12, 1994 episode, but was dropped by producers in favor of skating sensation Nancy Kerrigan.
• Dana Carvey was supposed to host for the first time in April 1994, but he had to back out at the last minute. He was replaced by Emilio Estevez. Carvey finally hosted six months later.
• Martin Short was originally supposed to host the 1994 season premiere but backed out at the last minute. He was replaced by Steve Martin.
• Gary Sinise was originally supposed to host the December 10, 1994 episode. He was replaced by Alec Baldwin.
• Image:Princesymbol.png (Prince) was originally scheduled to be the musical guest for the 1995 season premiere with host Mariel Hemingway but backed out at the last minute. David Spade poked fun at this in his "Spade in America" segment during the show by calling him, "The Artist Formerly Booked on This Show, But Flaked On Us" and showing the famous Prince symbol with a cornflake on it. Image:Princesymbol.png was replaced by Blues Traveler. Prince did appear as the musical guest over ten years later on February 4, 2006.
• Alec Baldwin was supposed to host the February 7, 1998 episode. John Goodman was his replacement.
• Drew Carey was originally scheduled to host the December 12, 1998 episode. He was replaced by Alec Baldwin.
• Dana Carvey was scheduled to host the April 10, 1999 show. John Goodman, originally scheduled to host the next week, but as that episode was cut due to budget constraints, Goodman was moved up to replace Carvey.
• Jim Carrey was originally supposed to host the 1999 Christmas show to promote Man on the Moon. He had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and was replaced by his Man on the Moon co-star Danny DeVito.
• Jon Stewart was supposed to host in February 2000, but had to back out at the last minute. He was replaced by Alan Cumming. Stewart finally hosted the show in March 2002.
• Ben Stiller was scheduled to host on October 6, 2001, but he said it was "impossible to be funny at times like this" (shortly after 9/11). Seann William Scott took his place.
• Ray Romano was supposed to host the show for the second time in April 2002 but had to drop out due to a busy schedule. He was replaced by The Rock.
• Anthony Hopkins was supposed to host the November 9, 2002 show. Nia Vardalos, scheduled to host the next week, was his replacement.
• Nia Vardalos, was scheduled to host the November 16, 2002 show. She was replaced by Brittany Murphy.
• Renée Zellweger was scheduled to host the May 10, 2003 show. She backed out at the last minute and was replaced by Adrien Brody.
• Steve Martin and Prince were the original choice to host and musical guest the 30th season premiere, but Prince had to back out, and Steve Martin declined the invitation. They were replaced by Ben Affleck and Nelly.
• The Scissor Sisters were the first choice to musical guest for the Queen Latifah episode for the 30th season, but they ended up having Queen Latifah double duty as host and musical guest.
• During the 2004-2005 season, an article was released in November 2004 concerning the hosts and musical guests further in the season. It included Gwyneth Paltrow with musical guest Coldplay, Ice Cube with musical guest Franz Ferdinand, and later on Cameron Diaz in April. Because the movie dates and albums were pushed back, Gwyneth was replaced by Jennifer Garner (and eventually Topher Grace) and Ice Cube was replaced with Paul Giamatti. Coldplay was pushed back to perform on the season finale, and Franz Ferdinand to Season 31 in October 2005.
• Jennifer Garner was scheduled to host on January 15, 2005 but had to cancel due to an injury she sustained while filming Alias. She was replaced by Topher Grace.
• Patrick Dempsey was scheduled to host on April 15, 2006, but pulled out at the last minute due to personal issues and was replaced by Lindsay Lohan who originally was to host the 2005-06 season finale.

Infamous Moments

• Infamous Moments on SNL

Banned From the Show

• Banned From SNL

Recurring characters and sketches

• See also:

Character Lists: Alphabetical and Chronological

Character Categories:

• Weekend Update characters
• TV show sketches
• Animal sketches
• Musical sketches
• Short-lived characters

Below is a short list of some of SNL's most popular recurring sketches.

Weekend Update E. Buzz Miller (Dan Aykroyd) Fred Darvin: Male Prostitute (Dan Aykroyd) The Festrunk Brothers (Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin) The Coneheads (Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman) Leonard Pinth-Garnell (Dan Aykroyd) The Blues Brothers (John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd) Olympia Cafe (John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman and Bill Murray) Samurai Futaba (John Belushi) The Land Shark (Chevy Chase} Chico Escuela (Garrett Morris} Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner) Emily Litella (Gilda Radner) Nick The Lounge Singer (Bill Murray) The Nerds (Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris) Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) Buckwheat (Eddie Murphy) Gumby (Eddie Murphy) Tyrone Green (Eddie Murphy) Mister Robinson's Neighborhood (Eddie Murphy, Tim Kazurinsky) Dion & Blaire (Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo) Pudge & Solomon (Joe Piscopo, Eddie Murphy) Paulie Herman (Joe Piscopo) The Whiners (Joe Piscopo, Robin Duke) Mrs. T (Robin Duke) I Married A Monkey (Tim Kazurinsky) Havnagooiim Vishnuuerheer (Tim Kazurinsky) Dr. Jack Badofsky (Tim Kazurinsky) Alfalfa (Mary Gross) Siobhan Cahill (Mary Gross) Chi Chi & Consuela (Mary Gross, Julia Louis-Dreyfus) Dwight MacNamara (Gary Kroeger) April May June (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) That White Guy (Jim Belushi) Fernando's Hideaway (Billy Crystal) Willie & Frankie (Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest) Ed Grimley (Martin Short) Jackie Rogers, Jr. (Martin Short) Nathan Thurm (Martin Short) The Pat Stevens Show (Nora Dunn) The Jones Brothers (Anthony Michael Hall, Damon Wayans Tommy Flanagan (Jon Lovitz) Master Thespian (Jon Lovitz, John Litgow) Tales of Ribaldry (Jon Lovitz) That Black Girl (Danitra Vance) The Stand-Ups (Dennis Miller, Damon Wayans and Jon Lovitz) Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey Church Lady (Dana Carvey) Hans and Franz (Kevin Nealon, Dana Carvey) Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (Phil Hartman) The Sweeney Sisters (Jan Hooks, Nora Dunn) Mr. Subliminal (Kevin Nealon}

Wayne's World (Mike Myers, Dana Carvey) Sprockets (Mike Myers) Coffee Talk with Linda Richman (Mike Myers) Bill Swerski's Superfans (George Wendt, Joe Mantegna, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Robert Smigel) Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker (Chris Farley) The Dark Side with Nat X (Chris Rock) I'm Chillin' (Chris Rock, Chris Farley) Pat (Julia Sweeney) Total Bastard Airlines (David Spade, Ellen Cleghorne) Dick Clark's Receptionist (David Spade) The GAP Girls (David Spade, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler) The Ladies Man (a.k.a Leon Phelps) (Tim Meadows) Perspectives (a.k.a Lionel Osbourne) (Tim Meadows) G-Dog (Tim Meadows) Captain Jim & Pedro (a.k.a Lionel Osbourne) (Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler) Canteen Boy (Adam Sandler) Opera Man (Adam Sandler) Stan Hooper (Norm MacDonald) Queen Shenequa (Ellen Cleghorne) Zoriada (Ellen Cleghorne) Scottish Soccer Hooligan Weekly (Mark McKinney, Mike Myers) Lucien Callow & Fagan (Mark McKinney, David Koechner) Mary Katherine Gallagher (Molly Shannon) Passive Aggressive Pam (Ana Gasteyer) The Delicious Dish (Ana Gasteyer, Molly Shannon) Goat Boy (Jim Breuer) Gerald Tibbins (David Koechner) The Spartan Cheerleaders (Cheri Oteri, Will Ferrell) The Butabi Brothers (Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan) Celebrity Jeopardy! (Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, Norm MacDonald, Jimmy Fallon) Mango (Chris Kattan) Brian Fellow's Safari Planet (Tracy Morgan) Astronaut Jones (Tracy Morgan) Pimp Chat (Tracy Morgan, Tim Meadows) Jarret's Room (Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz) Barry Gibb Talk Show (Jimmy Fallon), (Justin Timberlake) The Falconer (Will Forte) Debbie Downer (Rachel Dratch) Deep House Dish (Kenan Thompson, Rachel Dratch) The Needlers: The Couple That Should Be Divorced (Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers)

Films based on SNL sketches

The early days of SNL spawned a few movies and low-budget films. However, it wasn't until the huge success of Wayne's World that Broadway Video (Lorne Michaels' production company) became encouraged to feature more film spinoffs, with several popular 1990s sketch characters (and a few unlikely ones) becoming adapted into movies. Producers tried their luck with a revival of 1970s characters The Coneheads, followed by movies based around Pat, Stuart Smalley, The Ladies Man, The Butabi Brothers and Mary Katherine Gallagher. Some did moderate business but others bombed disastrously — notably It's Pat and Stuart Saves His Family, with the latter losing US$15 million despite good reviews.

Trivia

• Steve Martin was a frequent guest host of the program and even had popular recurring characters. However, contrary to popular belief, Martin was never a regular member of the cast.
• Mike Myers based his character Dieter, host of the avant-garde German TV talk show 'Sprockets', after a real person, a student whom Myers met in art college. The real Dieter would often say things like "I once had a course where we had to touch tapioca, styrofoam and monkeys. Michael, perhaps we can go to the zoo and touch monkeys." (thus giving rise to the TV Dieter's catchphrase "Would you like to touch my monkey?")
• A film version of 'Sprockets' was planned, but abandoned after Mike Myers became dissatisfied with his own script. It would have involved Dieter travelling to the USA to rescue Klaus, his pet monkey. This aborted production would later be the crux of a 2000 lawsuit between Myers and Ron Howard, which was settled by Myers' agreeing to appear in The Cat in the Hat.
• Although Darrell Hammond holds the record for longest tenure by a repertory player with 11 consecutive seasons (about 200 episodes), Al Franken has appeared in about 140 episodes over 12 seasons (1977–80) and (1985–95), as a featured player.
• The recurring character that has appeared the most is Don Novello's Father Guido Sarducci with a whopping 31 appearances over the course of 17 years. Novello was not a cast member for most of these appearances and the Sarducci character was not even created specifically for the show.
• Morwenna Banks holds the record for the shortest tenure of a repertory player, with only four episodes (April–May 1995). Two featured players appeared for only a single episode: Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager, on April 11, 1981, the last episode of a strike-shortened season.
• Eddie Murphy is the only person to have hosted the show while still a cast member; this occurred during season 8 (December 11, 1982), when Murphy filled in for a sick Nick Nolte.
• The cold opening occasionally varies from the traditional "Live From New York...", either to commemorate the season number (usually during season premieres) or to follow the consistency of a certain sketch. In 1981, the traditional cold opening was done away with entirely (returning the next season).
• Dan Aykroyd and Michael McKean are the only performers to appear as cast members, hosts, and as musical guests. While a cast member, Aykroyd appeared as Elwood Blues from The Blues Brothers; McKean appeared as David St. Hubbins from Spinal Tap in May 1984, hosted six months later, and became a cast member in 1994.
• Michael McKean and Billy Crystal are the only two people to join the cast after hosting the show.
• Harry Shearer and Brian Doyle-Murray are the only two cast members to work under both Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. Shearer in 1979 and 1984, and Doyle-Murray in 1979 and 1981. In addition, Doyle-Murray also worked under one-season producer Jean Doumanian as a writer. Jim Downey, a featured player and writer under Lorne in 1979-80, was also a writer during 1984-85 (under Ebersol). Terry Sweeney, a writer in 1980-81 under Doumanian, was also a castmemebr under Lorne in 1985-86.
• The eldest hosts were Ruth Gordon, at age 80 years, 2 months, 24 days, in the episode aired on January 22, 1977, who was 15 days older than Miskel Spillman, aged 80 years, 2 months, and 9 days, in the episode aired on December 17 of that same year.
• The youngest host was Drew Barrymore, at age 7, in the episode aired on November 20, 1982.
• The longest span of time between two hosting spots goes to Madeline Kahn who returned 18 years after her 1977 spot to host in 1995.
• The longest span between musical guest spots goes to Prince when he was a musical guest for Steve Martin in 2006. Prince first appeared on the now infamous 1981 episode hosted by Charlene Tilton.
• The youngest cast member hired was Anthony Michael Hall who was 17 years old when he joined the cast in 1985. But he wasn't an audience favorite due to his strange behavior on-stage.
• The oldest cast member hired was Michael McKean, who was 46 years old when he joined the show in 1994.
• The oldest cast member to perform is Darrell Hammond, who is 50 years old and still a member of the cast.
• In 2003, Kenan Thompson became the first cast member born after SNL's premiere in 1975. Bill Hader and Andy Samberg followed two seasons later.
• The highest rated (according to Nielsen) episode aired on October 13, 1979 (Steve Martin/Blondie).
• During the early years, the format of the show was not completely set in stone. For example, on the second episode, hosted by Paul Simon, included a reunion with his former musical partner, Art Garfunkel. Only a few comedy sketches were featured during the episode, with others dropped in order to allow Simon and Garfunkel to perform an extended musical set. On another occasion, Beat generation author William S. Burroughs appeared on the program and read passages from his books, to mixed response.
• During the first season, besides the usual comedy sketches, Albert Brooks contributed short films and a rather adult cast of Muppets acted in a weird setting known as the Land of Gortch.
• George Carlin was the show's first host. Instead of taking part in sketches, Carlin performed snippets of his stand up comedy routines.
• The first episode in which The Blues Brothers appeared was hosted by Carrie Fisher. In the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, Fisher played Jake Blues' ex-fiance, who tried numerous times to kill him and Elwood.
• Desi Arnaz was a memorable guest host on February 21,1976. He performed with his son, Desi Arnaz, Jr.
• In issue #74 of Marvel Team-Up (cover dated October, 1978), the Not Ready For Prime Time Players (Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtain, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner) and Lorne Micheals teamed up with comic book superhero Spider-Man, making them among the few real people to have had a superhero team up.
• According to his website, Dane Cook (who hosted December 3, 2005) performed the longest opening monologue in the history of the show. It consisted of jokes from his stand-up act.
• When Kevin Spacey hosted the show in 1997, one pair of sketches spoofed the screen tests of Star Wars. Spacey played, among others, Christopher Walken auditioning for the role of Han Solo. Walken really was considered for that role before Harrison Ford was chosen.
• Chris Parnell isn't the only castmember to get fired and rehired. Jim Belushi was fired on the 1983-1984 season, then brought back a week later. Tim Meadows was also fired when Lorne was rebuilding his cast for season 21 (after season 20 proved to be a disaster with critics and in the ratings), but this was during the summer when no new episodes of SNL were on, so Tim was there by the time the first episode of the new season began.
• Coffee Talk with Linda Richman's host, Linda, is based on Mike Myers mother-in-law.
• Joel Hodgson (of MST3K fame) and Andy Kaufman both appeared on the show, in segments between scetches.

See also

• List of Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests
• Saturday Night Live commercial, a series of parody advertisements
• Bad Boys of SNL
• Happy fun ball
• Lazy Sunday
• Kids in the Hall, which was also produced by Lorne Michaels
• List of Saturday Night Live compilation albums and videos
• Infamous moments in SNL history

External links

Template:Wikiquote

• Official NBC website
• {{{2|{{{title|Saturday Night Live}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• MoreThings Notes and extensive SNL photo galleries
• Summary of the series from the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• directory for Saturday Night Live at Yahoo!
• alt.tv.snl, Google's interface to a long-lived Usenet group for SNL fans
• Interview (MP3) with John Belushi biographer Tanner Colby and widow Judith Belushi Pisano on the public radio program The Sound of Young America regarding their book, Belushi. Includes clips from Belushi's work on The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

Fansites

• SNLRA.com, an extensive fansite
• SNL Archives and SNL Transcripts, extensive SNL fansites hosted by a Phoenix, Arizona-based company
• Saturday-Night-Live.com, yet another extensive ad-supported fansite, maintained by a college student
• SNL, an AdSense-supported Wikicity

Further reading

• Cader, Michael. (1994). Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395708958
• Hill, Doug, and Jeff Weingrad. (1986). Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Beech Tree Books. ISBN 0688050999
• Mohr, Jay. (2004). Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live. New York, NY: Hyperion. ISBN 1401300065
• Shales, Tom, and James Andrew Miller. (2002). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Boston, MA: Little, Brown. ISBN 0316781460

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