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Saturday Night Live season 21

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The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995, and May 18, 1996.

Saturday Night Live
Season 21
The title card for the twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live.
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 30, 1995 (1995-09-30) –
May 18, 1996 (1996-05-18)
Season chronology
← Previous
season 20
Next →
season 22
List of episodes

After the low ratings and negative reviews of the previous season, NBC executives necessitated significant changes for the show, including a major cast overhaul.[1][2] Only five cast members from the previous season remained. New hires included Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Darrell Hammond, Jim Breuer, David Koechner, and Nancy Walls. Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn joined as featured players.

History

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The season was infamous for the Rage Against the Machine incident. On April 13, 1996, the band was the musical guest, and was scheduled to perform two songs. The show was hosted that night by ex-Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement."[3] To this end, the band hung two upside-down American flags from their amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", SNL and NBC sent stagehands in to pull the flags down.[4] Following the removal of the flags during the first performance, the band was approached by SNL and NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, bassist Tim Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes' dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down flags.

Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."[3]

SNL faced new competition in the form of Fox's sketch comedy show MADtv, which aired a half hour earlier than SNL[5] and featured a more diverse cast.[6] Though MADtv never posed a serious ratings threat to SNL, it did at times beat the NBC show in the key demographic of twenty-and thirtysomething male audiences.[7][8]

Cast

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Before the start of the season, most of the cast had left or been fired from the show. NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer said, "If you look at the past several seasons, we haven't had breakout performers like Dana Carvey or Billy Crystal. In the writing, we haven't had many of the great characters that people have enjoyed seeing in sketches in the past. The cast had gotten too large and, frankly, some of them seemed to regard 'Saturday Night Live' as what they did between theatrical films. The energy was off. Sometimes people seemed to be reading cue cards rather than doing a live show."[2]

Only five cast members returned to the show from the previous season: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon, and David Spade.[1] Although Spade returned to the show, he had more of a diminished role, very rarely appearing in sketches except for Spade in America, a Weekend Update segment hosted by Spade that debuted at the start of the season and was featured in all but five episodes. Shannon was upgraded to repertory status for this season.

Lenny Pickett also took over for G.E. Smith as leader of the Saturday Night Live Band.[9]

Aside from Macdonald, McKinney, Meadows, Shannon, and Spade, the rest of the cast hired prior to the start of the season was entirely new. These included stand-up comedians Jim Breuer and Darrell Hammond; Groundlings alumni Will Ferrell[10] and Cheri Oteri;[1] and Chicago-based comedians David Koechner and Nancy Walls.[11] Breuer, Hammond, Ferrell, Oteri, Koechner, and Walls were all promoted to repertory status upon being hired.

Ferrell and Oteri's fellow Groundling Chris Kattan,[12] along with newly hired staff writer Colin Quinn,[13] also joined as featured players for the final six episodes of the season. In April, Quinn's fellow SNL writer Fred Wolf was hired to join the cast as a featured player for the last four episodes.[14]

Newer cast members were restricted from filming movies during the season.[2]

This would be the final season for longtime cast member Spade, who had been on the show since 1990, a total of 6 seasons.[15] Spade had agreed to stay only a year so he could be a bridge between the old and new casts. Newcomers Koechner and Walls were also let go after this season.

Cast roster

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bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor

Writers

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Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § season 21

Jim Downey was removed as head writer as part of NBC executives' changes,[16] but remained on the writing staff, now producing Weekend Update with Norm Macdonald.

Steve Higgins (who was made head writer with Fred Wolf),[2] Adam McKay,[17] Paula Pell,[18] Frank Sebastiano, Dennis McNicholas, Harper Steele and Colin Quinn joined the staff.

The only returning writers from the previous season were Downey, Wolf, Tim Herlihy, Norm Hiscock, and Steve Koren.[19] Koren would leave the show at the end of the season, after 4½ years.[20]

Episodes

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Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		HostMusical guestOriginal air date
3871Mariel HemingwayBlues TravelerSeptember 30, 1995 (1995-09-30)

3882Chevy ChaseLisa Loeb & Nine StoriesOctober 7, 1995 (1995-10-07)

3893David SchwimmerNatalie MerchantOctober 21, 1995 (1995-10-21)

3904Gabriel ByrneAlanis MorissetteOctober 28, 1995 (1995-10-28)

3915Quentin TarantinoThe Smashing PumpkinsNovember 11, 1995 (1995-11-11)

3926Laura LeightonRancidNovember 18, 1995 (1995-11-18)

3937Anthony EdwardsFoo FightersDecember 2, 1995 (1995-12-02)

3948David Alan GrierSilverchairDecember 9, 1995 (1995-12-09)

  • Silverchair performs "Tomorrow" and "Pure Massacre".
  • The most infamous Spade in America segment occurs on this episode. During the segment, Spade makes a joke about the flailing movie career of former SNL cast member Eddie Murphy, saying "Look kids, it's a falling star. Make a wish."[21] This not only started a long standing feud between Spade and Murphy that lasted until 2011,[22][23] but Murphy and Lorne Michaels that had seemly lasted up until the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special.[24]
3959Madeline KahnBushDecember 16, 1995 (1995-12-16)

  • Bush performs "Comedown" and "Glycerine".
  • Sam Waterston appears in the pre-recorded "Old Glory Insurance" sketch.
39610Christopher WalkenJoan OsborneJanuary 13, 1996 (1996-01-13)

39711Alec BaldwinTori AmosJanuary 20, 1996 (1996-01-20)

39812Danny AielloCoolioFebruary 10, 1996 (1996-02-10)

39913Tom ArnoldTupac ShakurFebruary 17, 1996 (1996-02-17)

40014Elle MacphersonStingFebruary 24, 1996 (1996-02-24)

  • Sting performs "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" and "You Still Touch Me".
  • Darrell Hammond filled in as announcer for an ailing Don Pardo (Hammond would later become the permanent announcer upon Pardo's death in 2014.)
  • No Spade in America sketch.
40115John GoodmanEverclearMarch 16, 1996 (1996-03-16)

40216Phil HartmanGin BlossomsMarch 23, 1996 (1996-03-23)

  • Gin Blossoms perform "Follow You Down" and "Memphis Time".
  • Hartman impersonates Frank Sinatra.
40317Steve ForbesRage Against the MachineApril 13, 1996 (1996-04-13)

  • Rage Against the Machine performs one song, "Bulls on Parade". Their second song was cut after the band attempted to hang inverted U.S. flags from its amplifiers, protesting host Steve Forbes, a Republican presidential candidate.
  • Forbes' family appears onstage during the goodnights.
  • No Spade in America sketch.
  • Fred Wolf's first episode as a cast member.
40418Teri HatcherDave Matthews BandApril 20, 1996 (1996-04-20)

  • Dave Matthews Band performs "Too Much" and "So Much to Say".
  • Sam Waterston appears in the pre-recorded "Old Glory Insurance" sketch.
  • The Spade in America sketch is performed by Teri Hatcher (as David Spade) and David Spade (as Teri Hatcher).
40519Christine BaranskiThe CureMay 11, 1996 (1996-05-11)

40620Jim CarreySoundgardenMay 18, 1996 (1996-05-18)

  • Soundgarden performs "Pretty Noose" and "Burden in My Hand".
  • First time "What Is Love" plays in the Roxbury Guys sketch as well as a third member's joining the brothers played by Jim Carrey.
  • Last episode for stage manager Joe Dicso, who had been in that position since the show's 1975 inception.
  • David Koechner, David Spade and Nancy Walls' final episode as cast members.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Moore, Frazier (September 25, 1995). "'Saturday Night Live': It's back…and then?". The Associated Press. p. D4. Retrieved April 29, 2024 – via The Free Lance-Star.
  2. ^ a b c d Hall, Jane (July 4, 1995). "NBC Looks to Restore the Shine on 'SNL'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 3, 2022. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Saturday Night Live Incident". musicfanclubs.org. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
  4. ^ "Rage Against the Machine". The Flag Burning Page. Retrieved March 16, 2008.
  5. ^ Boedeker, Hal (October 14, 1995). "'Mad Tv' Clobbers 'Snl'". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 7, 2015. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  6. ^ Funk, Tim (July 21, 1995). "'Saturday Night Dead' to be renovated". Ocala Star-Banner. Knight-Ridder Newspapers. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  7. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (February 12, 1996). "Television: The Battle For Saturday Night". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  8. ^ Greiving, Tim (May 18, 2016). "An Oral History of MADtv, the Sketch Show That Never Quite Changed Comedy". Vulture. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  9. ^ "Another 'SNL' Shakeup Note: Long-Time Bandleader Bopped". New York Daily News. August 28, 1995. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved September 1, 2015.
  10. ^ Gross 1997.
  11. ^ "Newest 'SNL' Cast Members a 'Who's That?' of Comedy". New York Daily News. August 10, 1995. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  12. ^ Gross 1997, p. 56.
  13. ^ Wilstein, Matt (January 13, 2021). "Why Colin Quinn 'Sabotaged' Himself on 'Saturday Night Live'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  14. ^ Wright, Megh (September 11, 2014). "Saturday Night's Children: O'Hara, Hudson, Prager, and Wolf". Vulture. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  15. ^ "David Spade planning to leave SNL". The Albany Herald. Associated Press. March 11, 1996. p. 2A. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  16. ^ "Saturday Night's Alright for Firing". New York. June 12, 1995. p. 17. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  17. ^ McKay, Adam (February 13, 2015). "Adam McKay: What It's Like to Write for 'SNL'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  18. ^ Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (2002). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Little, Brown. p. 428. ISBN 978-0316781466.
  19. ^ "Mariel Hemingway/Blues Traveler". Saturday Night Live. Season 21. Episode 1. September 30, 1995. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  20. ^ "Tom Hanks/Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers". Saturday Night Live. Season 22. Episode 1. September 28, 1996. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  21. ^ "Spade in America CLIP 12/09/95". nbc.com. NBC. December 9, 1995. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  22. ^ Spade, David (2015). "David Spade: This is why Eddie Murphy hated me, wouldn't come back to "Saturday Night Live"". Salon.com. Dey Street Books. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  23. ^ Reed, Ryan (October 21, 2015). "David Spade Recalls Intense Eddie Murphy Feud in Memoir Excerpt". rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  24. ^ Horgan, Richard (April 17, 2013). "Lorne Michaels Admits Infamous SNL Eddie Murphy Crack Was a Mistake". FishbowlNY.

Works cited

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