Saturday Night Live (season 31)

Saturday Night Live Season 31

The Saturday Night Live title card as seen in the opening credits of the 31st season.
Country of origin  United States
No. of episodes 19
Broadcast
Original channel NBC
Original run October 1, 2005 – May 20, 2006
Season chronology
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32

Saturday Night Live aired its thirty-first season in the 2005-06 television season on NBC. The season began on October 1, 2005, and ended on May 20, 2006 with 19 episodes in all. The season was cut one episode short due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games. A 30th anniversary special for the show was planned, but the plan was scrapped due to budget cuts.

Before the start of the season, featured player Rob Riggle was let go from the show. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status while Jason Sudeikis remained a featured player.

The show then added three new cast members to the show. They included: Los Angeles-based sketch comedian Bill Hader, Andy Samberg (the show also hired his two friends Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone to the writing staff, all members of the The Lonely Island sketch group) and Kristen Wiig of The Groundlings. Wiig debuted on the show in November, in the episode hosted by Jason Lee. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone would be a notable force for creating SNL Digital Shorts. One such short was "Lazy Sunday"; after it aired during the Jack Black episode it became an Internet phenomenon.

Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph missed a few episodes in this season due to both of them being pregnant and on maternity leave. Fey's place on Weekend Update was briefly taken over by Horatio Sanz until her return in the episode hosted by Catherine Zeta-Jones, making Sanz the first (and so far only) Hispanic Weekend Update anchor. Fey returned to the show before her maternity leave time was up. Maya Rudolph, however, appeared on the first episode of the new season, and then went on maternity leave and returned in February.

This season is also notable for the people who hosted the show. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an SNL cast member from 1982 to 1985 under Dick Ebersol, become the first former female cast member to come back and host the show (and also the third cast member from Seinfeld to host). This season is also known for the return of such frequent hosts as Alec Baldwin (who last hosted in season 29 with musical guest Missy Elliot in 2003), Tom Hanks (who last hosted the first episode of season 22 with musical guest Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1996), and Steve Martin (who last hosted the first episode of the 20th season with musical guest, Eric Clapton in 1994).

This season also became the first to broadcast the show in high-definition, after thirty years of broadcasting in analog.

This would also be the final season for cast members Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz, as well as the last season for longtime director, Beth McCarthy-Miller. Dratch and Fey both left the show to focus on 30 Rock and McCarthy-Miller left the show on her own terms. Parnell, Mitchell, and Sanz, however, were let go after Lorne Michaels was given the choice to either cut back on episode production or get rid of long-standing and/or poor-performing cast members due to NBC budget cuts.

Contents

Cast

Repertory players
Featured players

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers#Season 31

Listings

Prime-time airings

Specials

Special Name Original Air Date Notes
The Best of David Spade October 15, 2005
  • The special featured some of the best material featuring David Spade during his stint on the show.
  • Sketches include: "Dick Clark's Receptionist", "Gap Girls", "Total Bastard Airlines", "Spade in America", "Stewart Release", "Salon", "Stunt Double", Sean Penn's Celebrity Roast", "Peer Pressure at Valley High", "Dirtball and Burnout Convention", "Karl's Video", "NCI Long Distance", "The Road to Self-Improvement", and "Hollywood Minute."
The Best of SNL Commercial Parodies November 5, 2005
  • The special featured some of the best commercial parodies featured on the show.
Lost & Found: SNL in the '80s November 13, 2005
The Best of TV Funhouse April 29, 2006
  • The special featured some of the best TV Funhouse material featured on the show.
  • The special was hosted by The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary, making it the first time that cartoon characters have hosted SNL.
  • Jimmy Fallon cameos near the end of the show.
  • Sketches include: "The Ambiguously Gay Duo", "The All-New Adventures of Mr. T", "Fun With Real Audio", "E! Cartoons' The Smurfette Show", "The X-Presidents", "The Religetables" (DVD version only), and the banned sketch "Conspiracy Theory Rock" (DVD version only).

Episodes

Episode Number Air Date: Host(s) Musical Guest(s) Remarks
586 (31.1) October 1, 2005 Steve Carell Kanye West
  • Tina Fey did not appear due to her pregnancy.
  • Former cast member Mike Myers made a special appearance spoofing Myers and West's joint appearance in "A Concert for Hurricane Relief".
  • Bill Hader and Andy Samberg's first episode as cast members.
  • Kanye West performs a medley of "Gold Digger" and "Touch the Sky" in the first performance and Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine performs with West on "Heard 'Em Say" during the 2nd performance.
  • This is the first SNL episode broadcast in high definition. The show is now letterboxed in widescreen on standard definition televisions.
  • Steve Carell is the first cast member from the NBC comedy The Office to host SNL. Coincidentally, The Office airs in widescreen on standard definition televisions.
587 (31.2) October 8, 2005 Jon Heder Ashlee Simpson
  • With this episode, Rachel Dratch becomes SNL's longest-serving female castmember, surpassing Ana Gasteyer.
  • Chris Parnell does not appear in this episode as he was in Los Angeles filming an episode of his failed sitcom pilot Thick and Thin. He is cut out of the opening montage to reflect this.
  • Tina Fey & Maya Rudolph do not appear due to their pregnancies.
  • Ashlee Simpson performed "Catch Me When I Fall" and "Boyfriend.
588 (31.3) October 22, 2005 Catherine Zeta-Jones Franz Ferdinand
  • Tina Fey returned after giving birth to her daughter.
  • At the end of Weekend Update, a still photo of former Jean Doumanian-era cast member and Weekend Update anchor Charles Rocket, who had committed suicide the week before this episode premiered, is shown in his memory. The NBC and E! reruns of this episode cut out the appearance of Charles Rocket's photo.
  • Chris Parnell does not appear again due to filming "Thick and Thin." He is once again cut out of the opening montage.
  • Franz Ferdinand performs "Do You Want To" and "Take Me Out."
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
589 (31.4) October 29, 2005 Lance Armstrong Sheryl Crow
  • Chicago White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik made a guest appearance on Weekend Update shortly after his team swept the Houston Astros in the 2005 World Series.
  • The musical guest, Sheryl Crow, Armstrong's then-fiancé, made an appearance in the monologue and in two sketches in addition to her two performances.
  • Sheryl Crow performed "Good Is Good" and "Strong Enough."
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
590 (31.5) November 12, 2005 Jason Lee Foo Fighters
  • The NBC rerun replaces a sketch about "butt pregnancy" with a musical sketch centering around workers singing over desserts in the office cafeteria.
  • Kristen Wiig's first episode as a cast member.
  • Foo Fighters perform "DOA" and "Best of You"
  • This is the Foo Fighters 4th time appearing on SNL. Previously they had performed in 1995 (supporting their self titled debut), 1999 (supporting There Is Nothing Left to Lose), and 2002 (supporting One By One). On this appearance they supported their 5th album, In Your Honor. Even though Foo Fighters have only performed on the show 4 times, singer Dave Grohl has been featured as a musical guest 7 times: twice more with Nirvana, who performed on the show in 1992 and 1993, and again drumming with Tom Petty on a 1994 episode.
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
591 (31.6) November 19, 2005 Eva Longoria Korn
592 (31.7) December 3, 2005 Dane Cook James Blunt
  • This is the third time the show opened with the entire cast yelling, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" (the first time occurred on the Bill Murray/Delber McClinton episode of season 6 and the second time occurred on the Steve Martin/James Taylor episode of season 17).
  • James Blunt performed "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover."
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
593 (31.8) December 10, 2005 Alec Baldwin Shakira
  • Tim Meadows made a guest appearance during the monologue.
  • Shakira performed "Don't Bother" and "La Tortura", with Alejandro Sanz singing in the latter track.
  • At the end of Weekend Update, Tina Fey shows a clip from a famous season one sketch, where Chevy Chase and then-host Richard Pryor get into a word association that leads to the use of racial epithets, commemorating Pryor's death on the show's original airdate.
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
594 (31.9) December 17, 2005 Jack Black Neil Young
  • The Digital Short in this episode, Lazy Sunday, soon became a cult phenomenon through its exposure on the Internet.
  • Neil Young performed "It's a Dream" and "He Was the King;" Young also makes an appearance in the Appalachian Emergency Room sketch, which also features a cameo from Johnny Knoxville.
  • Tracy Morgan makes an appearance during Weekend Update.
  • Jack Black's Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass makes a cameo appearance during the spelling bee skit.
  • The sketch "Space War 2148" is actually a sketch reused from cast member Andy Samberg's unsold TV pilot Awesometown. Samberg reprises his role; Black takes the role played by Jorma Taccone.
  • Darlene Love performed "White Christmas" with the SNL Band. She had provided vocals for TV Funhouse cartoon "Christmastime For The Jews". which aired right before this performance.
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
595 (31.10) January 14, 2006 Scarlett Johansson Death Cab for Cutie
  • An excerpt from the night's TV Funhouse called "The 700 Gang" was retooled into the cold opening (after a Hardball sketch was cut from dress rehearsal), making it the first (and only) time that an animated sketch is used for a cold opening (not counting the Best of TV Funhouse special). Robert Smigel (creator of the cartoons) apparently went into a recording booth between dress and air and recorded some more lines to stretch the piece out, he also recorded the opening "Live from New York" phrase that was spoken by Pat Robertson at the top of the show. This is his first and only time saying the phrase.
  • Death Cab For Cutie performed "Soul Meets Body" and "Crooked Teeth"
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
596 (31.11) January 21, 2006 Peter Sarsgaard The Strokes
  • Drew Barrymore made a special appearance in the Weekend Update segment.
  • There was a sketch where Sarsgaard plays a weary traveler in a hotel room with an HDTV set that plays a constantly looping video of a woman, played by Rachel Dratch, informing guests of the hotel's amenities is marred by technical glitches.
  • On the NBC rerun of this episode, during the "Cat Fancy Journalist Gets Fired" sketch, when Peter Sarsgaard's character tells Seth Meyers' character to save his outrageous stories for "Parrot Companion Quarterly", a caption appears at the bottom of the screen that reads, "Parrot Companion Quarterly is a real magazine".
  • The Strokes performed "Juicebox" and "You Only Live Once."
  • Maya Rudolph did not appear due to her pregnancy.
597 (31.12) February 4, 2006 Steve Martin Prince
  • Alec Baldwin, and Jimmy Fallon cameo in the live show; Baldwin, Kelly Ripa, Scarlett Johansson, Conan O'Brien, Brian Williams and Gideon Yago all appear in filmed segments.
  • The 2nd digital short entitled "The Tangent" was filmed during the week of the Scarlett Johannson episode, but it was cut after dress rehearsal.
  • With this episode, Prince becomes the first musical guest with the longest gap between appearances (24 years, 11 months and 15 days; Prince's first appearance was on the season six episode hosted by Charlene Tilton back on February 21, 1981). He also appeared in September 1989 on the SNL 15th Anniversary special, however technically the special isn't part of the regular SNL series. Prince's record would later be broken by both Elton John and Leon Russell in season 36 (Elton John's has a 29-year gap between appearances [from 1982 as the musical guest for the season seven episode hosted by Johnny Cash to his dual role as host and musical guest in 2011; Leon Russell has a 35-year gap between his appearance on the 1976 episode hosted by Dyan Cannon and his role as co-musical guest for Elton John also in 2011])
  • Prince performed "Fury" collaborated with Támar to perform his second song, "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed".
  • This episode was the highest rated episode of the season, drawing 9.3 million viewers.
  • Both the host (Martin) and musical guest (Prince) for this episode were originally supposed to headline the first episode of SNL's 30th season (and both dropped out for personal reasons).
  • With this episode, Paula Pell (one of SNL's writers) returns to the show after her sitcom pilot "Thick & Thin" failed to get picked up and made into a series.
  • Maya Rudolph returns after missing 11 episodes while on maternity leave.
598 (31.13) March 4, 2006 Natalie Portman Fall Out Boy
  • Dennis Haysbert made a live-action cameo during TV Funhouse.
  • Fall Out Boy performs "Dance, Dance" and "Sugar, We're Goin Down."
  • The digital short "Natalie Raps" that aired in this episode is featured on V for Vendetta DVD as an easter egg.
599 (31.14) March 11, 2006 Matt Dillon Arctic Monkeys
  • According to an interview with Seth Meyers, Matt Dillon did not show up for work until late Tuesday afternoon. This was probably due to Matt's attendance at the Oscars the past weekend.
  • Arctic Monkeys perform "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "A Certain Romance".
  • Lead singer Alex Turner stopped in the middle of the band's performance of "A Certain Romance" and, visibly frustrated with the audience reaction, pointed into the crowd and yelled "That man just yawned!"[1] The band then destroyed their instruments after the performance.
600 (31.15) April 8, 2006 Antonio Banderas Mary J. Blige
  • Former cast member Chris Kattan makes a cameo during Weekend Update.
  • Antonio Banderas becomes a contest in a Deal Or No Deal sketch, where the rules to him were quite confusing.
  • Mary J. Blige performed "Be Without You" and "Enough Cryin."
601 (31.16) April 15, 2006 Lindsay Lohan Pearl Jam
  • Adult film star Savanna Samson makes an extra appearance in the TV Funhouse cartoon. The cameo wasn't seen on many affiliates.
  • Maya Rudolph and Horatio Sanz do not appear in this episode.
  • Pearl Jam performed "World Wide Suicide" and "Severed Hand."
602 (31.17) May 6, 2006 Tom Hanks Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • This episode earned a 3.4 rating, 14 share in 18-49 and 7.3 million viewers overall.
  • Seth Meyers does not appear in any sketches.
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers performed "Dani California" and "Give It Away."
  • Tom Hanks was originally asked to host the season finale but had prior engagements.
603 (31.18) May 13, 2006 Julia Louis-Dreyfus Paul Simon
  • With this episode, Julia Louis-Dreyfus becomes the first former female SNL castmember to come back and host an episode and the fourth castmember from the Dick Ebersol-produced episodes to host (joining Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, and Martin Short).
  • This episode garnered a 3.4 rating, 14 share in 18-49, and 8.0 million viewers overall.
  • Special cameos by Al Gore, Jason Alexander, and Jerry Seinfeld. Al Gore's cold opening was written by his daughter and former SNL staff writer Kristin Gore.
  • Al Gore made two appearances during this episode, first giving a cold opening showing an alternate universe under President Al Gore (where Osama bin Laden is caught and gas prices are at their lowest) and later appeared in the weekend update making a debate against Amy Poehler about global warming being bad (Al Gore) or good (Amy Poehler).
  • This episode marked Paul Simon's eighth appearance as musical guest on the show. He performed "How Can You Live in the Northeast?" and "Outrageous".
  • Paul Simon was asked to appear as a pedophile in the Myspace Seminar sketch but he declined.
604 (31.19) May 20, 2006 Kevin Spacey Nelly Furtado
  • Tina Fey, Chris Parnell, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, and Finesse Mitchell's final episode as cast members, and Beth McCarthy Miller's last episode as director. Dratch and Fey left the show while Parnell, Sanz, and Mitchell were let go.
  • Nelly Furtado performs "Promiscuous" and "Maneater", with Timbaland performing on the former.

References

  1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7vsMnoNgRI
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