Saturday Night Live season 6

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Saturday Night Live aired its sixth season during the 1980 - 1981 television season on NBC. This season became notorious as it was considered by many to be one of the worst seasons ever. Lorne Michaels, executive producer, had left last season, along with the whole cast, and all the writers. The sixth season began with a completely new cast, new writers, and a new producer, Jean Doumanian, resulting in many harsh barbs and scathing reviews over the season's humorless writing and inexperienced cast, as well as plummeting ratings. Over at ABC, a new sketch show emerged called Fridays, featuring a more put-together cast and stronger writing, that outdid SNL in the ratings and threatened to replace Saturday Night Live as the edgy sketch comedy show that had celebrity hosts, popular musical guests, and regularly mocked pop culture and current events.

Through all of this, the quick standouts were Eddie Murphy (who appeared in a non-speaking role on the Malcolm McDowell/Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band episode, was made into a feature player in the Jamie Lee Curtis/James Brown with Ellen Shipley episode, and was finally a repertory player in the Robert Hays/Joe "King" Carrasco & The Crowns with 14 Karat Soul episode) and Joe Piscopo, who were the only cast members to return for the seventh season. It should be noted that two future hosts of SNL auditioned to be castmembers in this season: John Goodman and Jim Carrey. It should also be noted that, despite the criticisms of the comedy (or lack thereof), many famous musicians were booked to be musical guests, such as Funky Four Plus One (the first rap group to appear on SNL, an honor erroneously credited to Run-DMC), James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Deborah Harry from Blondie (though as a host, rather than a musical guest), and Prince (who would not appear again on SNL until 2006).

The fate of Doumanian's tenure would ultimately be sealed on the February 21, 1981 episode when, during the goodnights, host Charlene Tilton asks Charles Rocket (in a wheelchair after being shot by a sniper during the final sketch, as part of a running gag parodying the "Who Shot J.R.?" plot from Dallas) what's it like to be shot. In response, Charles Rocket said, "Oh, man, it's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who the fuck did it." The on-air curse was met with gasps of shock and laughter. However, the network producers and censors saw it as a plot by Jean Doumanian to save the dying series by doing something outrageous. After the Bill Murray/Delbert McClinton episode, Jean Doumanian, all of her feature players, and all of her castmembers (save Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy) were fired, though Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius would appear in Dick Ebersol's first produced episode at the end of the season. In the end, the show was put on hiatus for retooling.

All in all, this season was considered so disastrous that NBC barred episodes from being put into syndication. However, there have been rare times when these episodes would show up: Comedy Central (in America) has aired a few episodes from this season up until the mid-1990s, particularly the Bill Murray/Delbert McClinton episode (albeit a scaled-down 60-minute version instead of the full 90-minute version) during a marathon featuring films and Saturday Night Live episodes starring Eddie Murphy. The Comedy Channel in Canada has aired the entire season uncut, and even left Charles Rocket's "fuck" incident uncensored on the Charlene Tilton/Todd Rundgren and Prince episode. The most recent sighting of a Jean Doumanian-era episode in the USA happened in 2005 when NBC aired a full 90-minute rerun of the episode hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis (with musical guests James Brown and Ellen Shipley).

Season six started on November 15, 1980 and ended on April 11, 1981, with only 13 episodes (caused by the show being put on stasis for retooling and a writers' strike), cancelling a planned episode for March 14, hosted by Robert Guillaume with musical guest Ian Dury.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Repertory

Jean Doumanian's Cast:

[edit] Feature Players

Dick Ebersol's Cast (for the April 11, 1981 episode):

[edit] Repertory

[edit] Feature Players

  • Laurie Metcalf
  • Emily Prager (Prager was credited for appearing in the live show version of the April 11, 1981 episode, but only appeared in the dress rehearsal version of the episode, making her the only credited cast member to never appear on SNL).

[edit] Episodes

Episode
Number		 Date Host(s) Musical Guest(s) Remarks
107 November 15, 1980 Elliott Gould Kid Creole & the Coconuts
108 November 22, 1980 Malcolm McDowell Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band  
109 December 6, 1980 Ellen Burstyn Aretha Franklin
Keith Sykes
  • This episode almost didn't make it to air because of Jean Doumanian's insistence on airing three controversial sketches: one about a heroin addict (played by Charles Rocket) who is taken in by a clean-cut family, one featuring Gail Matthius's Valley Girl Vicki character annoying a receptionist at an abortion clinic, and a filmed piece about NBC talent scouts looking for a virgin female to be an SNL castmember (this caused controversy because of its sequence where the NBC talent scouts go to a convent and find out that one of the nuns there isn't a virgin). The "Virgin Search" short film ended up being cut from this episode, but would air on the episode hosted by David Carradine.
  
110 December 13, 1980 Jamie Lee Curtis James Brown
Ellen Shipley
111 December 20, 1980 David Carradine Linda Ronstadt
The Cast of The Pirates of Penzance
  • This is Matthew Laurance and Yvonne Hudsons' first episode as cast members. Yvonne had appeared as an uncredited background player the previous season.
  
112 January 10, 1981 Ray Sharkey Jack Bruce & Friends  
113 January 17, 1981 Karen Black Cheap Trick
Stanley Clarke Trio		  
114 January 24, 1981 Robert Hays Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns
14 Karat Soul
  • With this episode Eddie Murphy is upgraded from feature player to repertory player
  
115 February 7, 1981 Sally Kellerman Jimmy Cliff
  • In the original airing of this episode, there was a sketch called "Lean Acres" about a sadistic fat camp counselor (Sally Kellerman) who punishes two women (Denny Dillon and Ann Risley) for cheating on their diets that got interrupted by an audience member who hated the sketch and vocally spoke out against the sketch's take on plus-sized women. The show cut to commercial quickly and the protestor was escorted out of the studio. When NBC reran this episode during the summer of 1981, this unscripted part was cut.
  
116 February 14, 1981 Deborah Harry Funky Four Plus One  
117 February 21, 1981 Charlene Tilton Todd Rundgren
Prince
  • The word "fuck" was said twice in this episode: once by Prince during his song "Partyup" (though nothing was made of it since no one knew if Prince actually said it) and (more infamously) during the goodnights when Charles Rocket (in a wheelchair after getting shot during the last sketch) grumbles, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" in response to Tilton's query on how Rocket felt after being gunned down.
  • Larry Hagman, also from "Dallas", was originally asked to host, but declined.
118 March 7, 1981 Bill Murray Delbert McClinton
  • This is the last episode for producer Jean Doumanian.
  • During the goodnights, Bill Murray refuses a hug from Charles Rocket and stands away from all of the Jean Doumanian castmembers (except for Eddie Murphy).
  • Ann Risley, Gilbert Gottfried, Charles Rocket, Yvonne Hudson, Patrick Weathers, and Matthew Laurance's final episode as cast members.
119 April 11, 1981 Jr. Walker & the All-Stars
  • Dick Ebersol begins producing the show. A show scheduled to be hosted by Al Franken and Tom Davis was set to air after this one, but cancelled due to a writers' strike.
  • Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosatos' first episode as cast members
  • This episode has no host (though Chevy Chase, Christopher Reeve, and Robin Williams made appearances on this episode, and Chevy Chase returned to Weekend Update). It is the second episode of the show to be hostless.
  • As of this episode both Denny Dillon and Yvonne Hudson become the first two people to appear on screen during shows produced by all three executive producers (Doumanian, Ebersol, and Michaels). Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray, the only others to do it, would complete the feat the following season.
  • Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius' final episode as cast members.
  • Only episode for Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager as cast members, though Emily Prager only appeared in the dress rehearsal version of this episode.
Preceded by
Season 5		 Saturday Night Live
Season 6		 Succeeded by
Season 7