History of Saturday Night Live (1985-1990)

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History of Saturday Night Live series:
1975–1980
1980–1985
1985–1990
1990–1995
1995–2000
2000–2005
2005–Present
Weekend Update

Contents

[edit] The Late Eighties

Dick Ebersol left the show after the 1984-85 season, when the network refused his request to shut the program down entirely for 6 months and shift much of the material onto tape, not live broadcast. Once again, NBC briefly considered cancelling the show, but programming head Brandon Tartikoff (who was something of an SNL fan) decided to continue the show and re-hire erstwhile producer Lorne Michaels.

[edit] The Prodigal Son returns

In some ways the job Michaels returned to was more challenging than the one he took on in 1975. For starters, Michaels' "golden boy" reputation was somewhat tarnished. His latest effort, the previous season's The New Show confused critics and was ignored by audiences. Also, the '84-'85 season had been a critical and ratings hit, generating memorable characters and stand-out performers. However, Michaels would not be the only member of the old guard to return: original writers Al Franken and Tom Davis would return as producers, and veteran Jim Downey would be head writer. Fans and critics welcomed Michaels and many of the original producers and writers back, calling it a return to the show's roots, as the past five seasons before this were very out-of-element compared to the 1975-1980 era.

Michaels opted to follow Ebersol's lead from the previous season, hiring established young actors for his ensemble. He hired comedy veteran Randy Quaid, best known for his work in The Last Picture Show and National Lampoon's Vacation, as well as Joan Cusack and Robert Downey Jr. Milestones included the first black female regular, Danitra Vance (a young woman named Yvonne Hudson had been a featured player in 1980 and appeared as an extra and in bit parts in '78, '79 and '80), Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast member, and Anthony Michael Hall, yet another fresh face from Hollywood who at 17 was the youngest castmember ever. Rounding out the cast was future In Living Color star Damon Wayans, and previously unknown improv comedy veterans like Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller and Jon Lovitz. Miller, who performed in relatively few sketches (and even fewer as the years went by), became known for bringing his stand-up wit to "Weekend Update," becoming the first memorable anchor since Chevy Chase back in 1975.

With the exceptions of Miller, Lovitz and Dunn the new cast failed to connect with audiences. Michaels' gamble on a young, brat pack approach may have made the show seem more hip, but many of the regulars were better actors than comedians. The writing staff, composed of newcomers and veterans from the first five seasons failed to collaborate with the new talent as they had during Michaels' first tenure. At the end of the 1985-86 season NBC briefly cancelled SNL, but eventually opted to give Michaels 6 episodes in the fall to turn things around.

[edit] Return to Form

Of the entire cast, only Dunn, Lovitz, and Miller returned when the 1986-87 season rolled around. For his next crop of regulars Michaels returned to his original tactic of assembling a strong ensemble of relative unknowns, led by Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller and Kevin Nealon. Although the new lineup contained some of the best actresses since the show's early seasons, there were reportedly some dramatic behind-the-scenes ego battles, and tensions eventually forced out Nora Dunn. In particular, Victoria Jackson has been highly critical of Hooks and especially Dunn, who was romantically involved with Michaels at the time.[citation needed]

The first show of the 1986-87 season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, telling the audience that the entire 1985-86 season had been a dream, just as Dallas had done a few weeks earlier (marking the second time JR Ewing and company were parodied during a tumultuous time on SNL). Michaels pulled out all the stops that season, producing some of the best SNLs ever (in particular, shows 4-6 with Sam Kinison / Lou Reed; Robin Williams / Paul Simon; Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Martin Short/ Randy Newman).

With the new cast, SNL began to revive and gain renewed popularity, mainly thanks to Michaels' inspired casting decisions, vastly improved writing and increasingly on-target political satire and TV parodies. Sadly, one of the best seasons, 1987-1988, was cut short by a writers' strike. Gilda Radner had been penciled in to host the season finale that spring, but by 1989 her cancer had returned and she died within the year.

The urbane, smooth-voiced Hartman became one of the show's longest-serving cast members. Hartman had originally worked as a graphic designer; among his credits is the band logo for Crosby, Stills & Nash and the cover of the hit 1975 album America's Greatest Hits. Turning to theatre, he became a member of The Groundlings, where he met Paul Reubens, which led to a featured role in Reubens' cult 80s kids TV show Pee-Wee's Playhouse. When he left SNL in 1994, he and Kevin Nealon were the longest-serving cast members in the show's history (eight seasons).

A turning point came with the 1988-89 season, and the recruitment of a young Canadian comic Mike Myers. A versatile and inventive comedian with a gift for accents and a lifelong love of Monty Python and British comedy, he introduced several classic characters including Streisand-loving cable talk show hostess "Linda Richman", and ultra-pretentious German arts show host "Dieter". He also formed a strong partnership with Carvey, which revisited the magic of the classic Aykroyd-Belushi pairing. Carvey and Myers created and performed one of SNL's most popular and successful recurring sketches, Wayne's World, which inspired two successful spin-off movies.

The shows in this period featured some of SNL's best loved recurring sketches and characters, including "Wayne's World", the Schwarzenegger-like Austrian body-builders Hans and Franz (Carvey and Nealon). Carvey also gained renown for his scowling, ultra-conservative "Church Lady" character and his impersonations of then US President George H. W. Bush and presidential candidate Ross Perot.

Bolstered by strong scripts penned by the writing team, Carvey's Bush and Perot impressions were a notable advance on earlier ventures in this vein, and they set a new benchmark for this aspect of the show's political satire. The best-remembered political impersonation from the '70s period was Chevy Chase's slapstick parody of President Gerald Ford, but Chase had made no attempt to create an accurate impression of Ford's character or essay any in-depth political satire — his sketches simply lampooned Ford's renowned clumsiness and consisted of Chase falling down a lot.

Carvey's Bush and Perot parodies were far more sophisticated and his Bush send-up was so well received that the former President himself made a cameo appearance in 1994 when Carvey hosted, lightheartedly taking Dana to task.

Spring 1990 proved a rocky finale for one of the show's most underrated cast members. Nora Dunn boycotted a show hosted by the perceived to be sexist, homophobic, and then extremely controversial comedian Andrew Dice Clay. NBC fired her and a series of ugly charges and countercharges were lobbied between Lorne Michaels and Dunn. Many felt that Dunn cared more about garnering publicity than standing up for women's rights, but others took her side and viewed Clay's appearance as an all-time low. This episode marked the first turnover in nearly half a decade, and seemed to be a sad harbinger for the endless turmoil which would mark the 90's SNL.

[edit] Season Breakdown

[edit] 1985-86 Season

[edit] Opening Montage

This season also had two opening montages. The first lasted only four episodes, and--like the 1984 season--opened with a picture of the Statue of Liberty covered in scaffolding (the statue was under renovation that year in preparation for its centennial celebration). It then showed various still images of New York bordered with several triangular lines and post-card like decorations. Starting with the Tom Hanks/Sade episode on 12/14/85, a new opening montage seemed to tell a story of sorts of a limo driving through New York, and eventually passing each cast member. At the end, the limo would approach 30 Rockefeller Plaza, and that particular weeks' host would then emerge from the backseat. Another version of the second montage exists that shows a plane landing just before the limo leaves the airport. The music during this opener would be used for almost a decade, with a slight change in 1994, and finally being replaced entirely for the 1995 season.

[edit] Cast

Featuring

[edit] Notes
  • Wayans is fired on 3/15/86 (he was sick of the way the show treated him and camped up a "straight" character so that Lorne Michaels would fire him). Vitale, a little-used featured player who also served as a staff writer, is also pink-slipped at mid-season.
  • At season's end Cusack, Downey, Hall, Quaid, and Sweeney are all axed. Danitra Vance quits because of her limited roles. Although each had his/her funny moments (Sweeney's Nancy Reagan impression was especially popular), the cast never seemed to come together as a cohesive unit.
  • This season included the only SNL episode (unless one counts the "Who Shot C.R.?" episode from years earlier) to actually feature a continuing narrative thread linking the sketches together. In the opening sketch of an episode hosted by George Wendt, the cast is informed that NBC is turning the show over to respected director Francis Ford Coppola, in a bid for greater artistic merit. A brilliant director of feature films, Coppola turns out to be an incompetent TV director, resulting in a running gag in which each sketch is ruined in various ways by Coppola's bumbling. The cast finally quits in the final sketch when Anthony Michael Hall is injured in a war-sketch after Coppola decides to use real bullets to increase the sketch's sense of realism. During the closing credits, Wendt realizes just how much damage Coppola has done to SNL's reputation: the former producers of the show (actually played by Franken & Davis) have chosen to tend bar rather than continue watching Coppola's travesty.

[edit] 1986-87 Season

[edit] Opening Montage

This montage was used for two seasons, and is basically just video footage of each cast member racing the clock to get to what appears to be a casual night club.

[edit] Cast

Featuring

[edit] Notes
  • This season provides a major cast overhaul which restores the show to critical acclaim and watercooler value. All players introduced in this season become long-running cast members and/or major stars. Even the middle ranked Kevin Nealon remains in the cast for 9 seasons, one of the longest-running stints for any cast member (he's bumped up to contract in the 87-88 season).

[edit] 1987-88 Season

[edit] Opening Montage

Same montage as the 1986 season with only two noticeable changes: 1) Kevin Nealon is added to full-fledged cast member status in the credits and 2) The host/musical guest photos shown during the montage and bumpers are now in black in white.

[edit] Cast

Featuring

[edit] Notes
  • This season is trimmed to only 13 episodes due to a writers' strike.

[edit] 1988-89 Season

[edit] Opening Montage

This montage was also used for two seasons, and is just video footage with a light greenish-blue tint, of the cast members "caught" engaging in different tasks around areas of New York, intermingled with various footage of the city. During this season, the now-familiar Saturday Night Live circular logo appears for the first time.

[edit] Cast
Dolly Parton with SNL's Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks in a skit from the 1988 season.
Enlarge
Dolly Parton with SNL's Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks in a skit from the 1988 season.

Featuring

[edit] Notes
  • Ben Stiller and Mike Myers go on to become major film stars, but by very different routes. Myers remains on SNL for 6 years, as an increasingly popular attraction, while Stiller is fired in spring '89, flounders for several years, and becomes a big draw by the late 90's.

[edit] 1989-90 Season

[edit] Opening Montage

Same montage as the 1988 season with little notable changes, except that every episode in 1990 has a '15' in the center of the circle logo, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the show.

[edit] Cast

Featuring

[edit] Notes
  • Myers is bumped up to contract player at midseason.
  • This season has the first real cast turmoil in nearly five years, as Lovitz departs after being denied a leave absence to make a movie (Loaded Weapon 1), and Dunn is fired after boycotting the show hosted by Andrew Dice Clay.
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