Saturday Night Live season 7

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Saturday Night Live aired its seventh season during the 1981 - 1982 television season on NBC. Following the termination of producer Jean Doumanian and the majority of her castmembers (repertory players Gilbert Gottfried, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket and feature players Yvonne Hudson, Patrick Weathers, and Matthew Laurance), NBC had put the show on hiatus to retool it. Dick Ebersol (Lorne Michael's co-creator of SNL) was hired as Doumanian's replacement. The new cast of SNL for this season were the ones from the episode Dick Ebersol produced on the April 11, 1981 episode with no host and musical guest Jr. Walker and the All Stars: Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato along with the Jean Doumanian era's sole survivors Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius were fired following the April 1981 episode while Laurie Metcalf and unseen castmember Emily Prager weren't asked back to be castmembers on the show. Two new female castmembers, Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole were hired to replace Metcalf and Prager.

A big difference this season was that the popular opening line "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!" was not said during cold openings (and sometimes cold openings weren't even shown) and the monologues were skipped over entirely. These changes weren't permanent, as Ebersol decided to change them back for the eighth season. Weekend Update went through its first name change and became "SNL Newsbreak". At the newsdesk was feature player Brian Doyle-Murray with Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole alternately filling in as co-anchor.

Additionally, this was the only season without announcer Don Pardo, but instead the voice-overs were done by Mel Brandt, except for the episode hosted by Tim Curry on December 5, 1981 and the episode hosted by former castmember Bill Murray on December 12, 1981 where veteran NBC News announcer Bill Hanrahan handled such duties.

The seventh season also saw the death of original SNL castmember, John Belushi, from a cocaine/heroin overdose. The original airing of the Robert Urich/Mink DeVille episode had a tribute to Belushi.

The seventh season started on October 3, 1981 and ended on May 22, 1982.

1 Cast
- 1.1 Repertory cast members
- 1.2 Featured cast members
2 Episodes

[edit] Cast

[edit] Repertory cast members

[edit] Featured cast members

Brian Doyle-Murray

[edit] Episodes

Episode Number	Date	Host(s)	Musical Guest(s)	Remarks
120	October 3, 1981	(none)	Rod Stewart	James Caan was originally scheduled to host, but he backed out at the last minute^{[citation needed]} because his sister had fallen ill. Christine Ebersole and Mary Gross's first episode as cast members Brian Doyle-Murray rejoins the cast after a one year hiatus
121	October 10, 1981	Susan Saint James	The Kinks
122	October 17, 1981	George Kennedy	Miles Davis
123	October 31, 1981	Donald Pleasence	Fear	John Belushi appears in the cold opening. Three sketches from this episode were cut after dress rehearsal^{[citation needed]}: "Grand Guingol White House" where Ronald and Nancy Reagan cannibalize Jane Fonda, a sketch where an old man (played by Pleasence) drains the blood of his date and uses it as wine, and a sketch where Nazis discuss "good" reasons why they kill Jewish people. Fear's performance, which only happened on the insistence of John Belushi, took place in front of a group of east coast punks. One of them, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, grabs a live mic and screams, "NEW YORK SUCKS!!" several times between songs. The performance is cut short during the song "Let's Have a War".
124	November 7, 1981	Lauren Hutton	Rick James & the Stone City Band	Beat-generation writer William S. Burroughs appeared to perform spoken word.
125	November 14, 1981	Bernadette Peters	The Go-Go's Billy Joel
126	December 5, 1981	Tim Curry	Meat Loaf and the Neverland Express
127	December 12, 1981	Bill Murray	The Spinners Yale Whiffenpoofs	The sketch, "At Home With The Psychos", was modified because a prop was deemed to resemble too much like a vagina [1].
128	January 23, 1982	Robert Conrad	The Allman Brothers Band
129	January 30, 1982	John Madden	Jennifer Holliday	Andy Kaufman made a special guest appearance as Elvis Presley.
130	February 6, 1982	James Coburn	Lindsey Buckingham
131	February 20, 1982	Bruce Dern	Luther Vandross
132	February 27, 1982	Elizabeth Ashley	Hall & Oates
133	March 20, 1982	Robert Urich	Mink DeVille	John Belushi died 2 weeks before this show aired; he was the first castmember to die. The original airing has a tribute to him at the end of the show.
134	March 27, 1982	Blythe Danner	Rickie Lee Jones
135	April 10, 1982	Daniel J. Travanti	John Cougar Mellencamp
136	April 17, 1982	Johnny Cash	Elton John
137	April 24, 1982	Robert Culp	The Charlie Daniels Band
138	May 15, 1982	Danny DeVito	Sparks
139	May 22, 1982	Olivia Newton-John		Brian Doyle-Murray, Tony Rosato and Christine Ebersole's final episode as cast members

Preceded by Season 6	Saturday Night Live Season 7	Succeeded by Season 8

v • d • e Saturday Night Live

History	1975–1980 • 1980–1985 • 1985–1990 • 1990–1995 • 1995–2000 • 2000–2005 • 2005–Present

Seasons	1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33

Related lists	Hosts and musical guests (Five-Timers) • Compilation albums and videos • Commercials • Cast members • Writers

Recurring characters and sketches	Alphabetical • Chronological • By Cast Member • Weekend Update characters • Short-lived recurring characters

Sketch lists	TV shows • Animal • Musical • SNL Digital Shorts • TV Funhouse episodes

Sketches	Barry Gibb Talk Show • Bill Swerski's Superfans • The Blues Brothers • Celebrity Jeopardy! • The Chris Farley Show • Coffee Talk • The Coneheads • The Continental • The Cork Soakers • Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey • Delicious Dish • Gap Girls • Goth Talk • Happy Fun Ball • Hollywood Minute • Jeffrey's • Landshark • Larry the Lobster • Lazy Sunday • More cowbell • The Needlers • Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy • Olympia Cafe • Rialto Grande • The Schoeners • Sprockets • Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber • TV Funhouse • Wake Up and Smile • Wayne's World • Weekend Update • Z105 with Joey Mack

Films based on sketches	The Blues Brothers (1980) • Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1980) • Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures (1986) • Bob Roberts (1992) • Mr. Saturday Night (1992) • Wayne's World (1992) • Wayne's World 2 (1993) • Coneheads (1993) • It's Pat! (1994) • Stuart Saves His Family (1995) • A Night at the Roxbury (1998) • Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) • Office Space (1999) • Superstar (1999) • The Ladies Man (2000) • Key Party (TBD)

Characters	Adult Students • Bill Brasky • The Bloder Brothers • The Boston Teens • Canteen Boy • Carol • The Church Lady • Debbie Downer • Ed Grimley • Emily Litella • Father Guido Sarducci • Hanukkah Harry • Hans and Franz • Kaitlin & Rick • Lisa Loopner • Lovers • Mango • Mary Katherine Gallagher • Master Thespian • Matt Foley • Merv the Perv • Nick The Lounge Singer • Pat • Roseanne Roseannadanna • Samurai Futaba • The Spartan Cheerleaders • Stuart Smalley • Toonces the Driving Cat • Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer • Velvet Jones • The Whiners

Related topics	"Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" • Dick Ebersol • Don Pardo • Frank Oz • "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead" • Jean Doumanian • Jim Henson • Lorne Michaels • Saturday Night Live Band • Strategery • SNL Thursday Night Live