- Source: Saturday Night Live season 11
The eleventh season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between November 9, 1985, and May 24, 1986.
The season marked Lorne Michaels' return to SNL as showrunner after a five-year hiatus. Michaels hired new cast members, but instead of his usual approach of recruiting from comedy clubs and improv groups, he cast established names such as Randy Quaid, Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., and Joan Cusack. Due to their relative inexperience in comedy, the new cast failed to connect with audiences.
The show also featured a frustrated writing crew (including future Simpsons writers Jon Vitti, George Meyer and John Swartzwelder), who didn't know how to write sketches for such an eclectic cast. The season was plagued by harsh criticism, low ratings, and rumors of a possible cancellation. NBC president Brandon Tartikoff planned to cancel SNL after its season finale in May 1986; Michaels, however, pleaded with Tartikoff to let the show go on. Most of the cast was let go for the following season, with only Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller along with featured player A. Whitney Brown returning, making it one of the more notable cast overhauls alongside season 6 and season 20.
Cast
With Dick Ebersol's cast and writers gone, Michaels hired Academy Award nominee Quaid, best known for his work in The Last Detail and National Lampoon's Vacation; as well as Cusack and Downey Jr. Part of the reasoning that Michaels chose younger performers was due to SNL's original audience, which comprised baby boomers, now nearing middle age, meaning that producers and NBC executives needed to appeal to a younger audience.
Danitra Vance was added along with stand-up comedians Miller and Damon Wayans, and improv comedians Dunn and Lovitz. Terry Sweeney, who had been a writer on season 6 of SNL, was added to the cast, making him the first openly gay male cast member. Don Novello returned as his popular Father Guido Sarducci character. Writer Brown was also added to the cast midseason and Al Franken returned in the finale. Miller became the new anchor for Weekend Update. Despite the season's negative reception, Lovitz would gain popularity with characters like the Pathological Liar and Master Thespian.
According to a recent interview with short-term cast member Dan Vitale, actress Anjelica Huston was nearly hired as a cast member this season. Huston, a friend of Lorne's, was begged to join the show as a cast member; instead she co-hosted the season finale with Billy Martin.
= Incidents
=Notable moments of the season included when Chevy Chase hosted the show. Chase was not popular with the cast and crew and, according to the book Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Chase pitched an idea for a sketch that featured openly gay cast member Sweeney as a person with AIDS who is weighed by a doctor to see how much weight he lost.
= Cast roster
=bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
This season's writers were A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Lanier Laney, Carol Leifer, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Don Novello, Michael O'Donoghue, R. D. Rosen, Herb Sargent, Suzy Schneider, Robert Smigel, John Swartzwelder, Terry Sweeney, Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch. The head writer was Downey. Downey and Sargent were the only writers from the previous season to return to the show.
Episodes
References
= Works cited
=Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (2002). Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0316781466.
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Saturday Night Live
- Saturday Night (film 2024)
- Maya Rudolph
- Colin Jost
- Kate McKinnon
- Tim Robinson
- Jay Pharoah
- Ego Nwodim
- Tina Fey
- Daftar episode Alvin and the Chipmunks
- Saturday Night Live season 11
- Saturday Night Live season 1
- Saturday Night Live season 50
- Saturday Night Live season 48
- Saturday Night Live season 12
- List of Saturday Night Live episodes (season 31–present)
- Saturday Night Live season 49
- Saturday Night Live season 42
- Saturday Night Live season 45
- Saturday Night Live season 46
