Saturday Night Live (season 21)
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| The title card for the twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live. | |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 30, 1995 – May 18, 1996 |
The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995 and May 18, 1996.
History
SNL once again dodged cancellation from season 20's low ratings and scathing reviews about the show's decline in quality. The cast was mostly overhauled, new writers were brought in, and Beth McCarthy Miller took over as director.
The season was home to the Rage Against the Machine incident. On April 13, 1996, the band was the musical guest, and was scheduled to perform two songs. The show was hosted that night by ex-Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement."[1] To this end, the band hung two upside-down American flags from their amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", SNL and NBC sent stagehands in to pull the flags down.[2] Following the removal of the flags during the first performance, the band was approached by SNL and NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, bassist Tim Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes's dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down flags. Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."[1]
A new logo was used starting this season, consisting of the words SATURDAYNIGHTLIVE in a sans-serif typeface, and was used until 2006.
Cast
Only five cast members returned to the show from the previous season: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon and David Spade.[3] Although Spade returned to the show, he had more of a diminished role, very rarely appearing in sketches except for Spade in America, a "Weekend Update" segment hosted by Spade that debuted at the start of the season and was featured in all but five episodes.
Molly Shannon was upgraded to repertory status.
Chris Kattan and newly hired writer Colin Quinn also joined as featured players for the final six episodes of the season. Fred Wolf was hired later in April as a featured player.
Cast roster
|
Repertory players |
Featured players
|
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Writers
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Steve Higgins, Adam McKay, Paula Pell, Frank Sebastiano, and Colin Quinn join the writing staff.
Episodes
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| No. overall |
No. in season |
Host | Musical guest | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 387 | 1 | Mariel Hemingway | Blues Traveler | September 30, 1995 |
| 388 | 2 | Chevy Chase | Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories | October 7, 1995 |
| 389 | 3 | David Schwimmer | Natalie Merchant | October 21, 1995 |
| 390 | 4 | Gabriel Byrne | Alanis Morissette | October 28, 1995 |
| 391 | 5 | Quentin Tarantino | The Smashing Pumpkins | November 11, 1995 |
| 392 | 6 | Laura Leighton | Rancid | November 18, 1995 |
| 393 | 7 | Anthony Edwards | Foo Fighters | December 2, 1995 |
| 394 | 8 | David Alan Grier | Silverchair | December 9, 1995 |
| 395 | 9 | Madeline Kahn | Bush | December 16, 1995 |
| 396 | 10 | Christopher Walken | Joan Osborne | January 13, 1996 |
| 397 | 11 | Alec Baldwin | Tori Amos | January 20, 1996 |
| 398 | 12 | Danny Aiello | Coolio | February 10, 1996 |
| 399 | 13 | Tom Arnold | Tupac Shakur | February 17, 1996 |
| 400 | 14 | Elle Macpherson | Sting | February 24, 1996 |
| 401 | 15 | John Goodman | Everclear | March 16, 1996 |
| 402 | 16 | Phil Hartman | Gin Blossoms | March 23, 1996 |
| 403 | 17 | Steve Forbes | Rage Against the Machine | April 13, 1996 |
| 404 | 18 | Teri Hatcher | Dave Matthews Band | April 20, 1996 |
| 405 | 19 | Christine Baranski | The Cure | May 11, 1996 |
| 406 | 20 | Jim Carrey | Soundgarden | May 18, 1996 |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Anon., Saturday Night Live Incident, Public release and distribution. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
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