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History of Saturday Night Live

 
Wikipedia: History of Saturday Night Live (1995–2000)
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Contents

The mid-late nineties

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1995-1996 season

The 1995-1996 season is a milestone for SNL, not only marking the last season for David Spade, but also the debuts of a large group of new recruits: Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri, Nancy Walls, Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn. Ferrell, Hammond, Oteri, Kattan and Molly Shannon, who had been a featured player since midway through the preceding season, became mainstays of the show for the rest of the decade and beyond.

Ana Gasteyer

Ex-Groundling Ana Gasteyer joined in 1996-1997, bringing an excellent singing voice and considerable musical skills to the cast, as well as creating some memorable characters such as Margaret Jo McCullen, co-host of tedious public radio cooking show “The Delicious Dish”, ultra-square middle school music teacher “Bobbi Mohan-Culp”, her hatchet-faced impersonation of home-economics guru Martha Stewart; and her often-scathing impression of Céline Dion hosting a talk show.

Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond proved to be a great find, being one of the most gifted impressionists in the show's history. He built up a repertoire of popular impersonations, including Bill Clinton and Tim Russert, taking the show's political satire to new heights.

Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell was undoubtedly the keystone of this new cast. He performed superbly in all his partnerships, with Oteri, Shannon, Gasteyer and Kattan, as well as creating some devastatingly funny solo characters. One of his most popular impressions was his bellowing, belligerent parody of former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Like Dana Carvey's George H. W. Bush, Norm Macdonald's Bob Dole, and later, Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton, and Tina Fey's Sarah Palin, Ferrell's Reno continued the tradition of having the real-life target of the satire appear on the show to confront their satirist.

Noteworthy recurring sketches and characters

This period featured many classic recurring sketches and characters, with radio and TV parodies featured prominently. They included the NPR parody “The Delicious Dish” (Shannon and Gasteyer), “The Ladies Man” (Tim Meadows), the geeky Spartan Cheerleaders (Ferrell and Oteri), Ferrell and Gasteyer's starchy, husband-and-wife music teacher duo Marty Culp and Bobbi Mohan-Culp, Kattan's campy “Mango”, the brain-dead, disco-loving “Roxbury Guys” (Ferrell and Kattan), Shannon and Kattan's “Goth Talk”, Celebrity Jeopardy! (Ferrell, Macdonald and Hammond), and Molly Shannon's star-struck, accident-prone Catholic schoolgirl, Mary Katherine Gallagher.

Cast additions and surprise departures from 1997-1999

This ensemble remained substantially unchanged for the 1997-1998 and 1998-1999 seasons, although the later series introduced new cast members — Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz. The only surprise departure was Norm Macdonald, who was suddenly replaced by Colin Quinn as Update anchor starting on January 10, 1998. It was reported that Macdonald was fired on the order of Don Ohlmeyer, who claimed the actor was “unpopular and unfunny” (which Macdonald mocked during his monologue when he hosted the show in 1999), but it was widely thought that Macdonald had been fired because the executive — a close friend of O.J. Simpson, a regular Weekend Update target — had taken offense at Macdonald's persistent attacks on Simpson. Though off Weekend Update, Macdonald was still a cast member and made appearances. (Notably, his first appearance afterwards during a monologue on January 17, 1998 saw him receive strong applause from the audience. Macdonald even jokingly commented on-camera, "All right. I gotta do this skit now.") However, unhappy with the situation, Macdonald asked to leave and was gone by March 1998.

1999-2000 season

1999-2000 was the last season for Colin Quinn, Cheri Oteri, and Tim Meadows, but it also marked the arrival of two strong new female cast members, Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph (daughter of the late singer Minnie Riperton).

Season breakdown

1995-1996 season

Opening montage

Along with a virtually all new cast, this season also came with an all new opener. With G.E. Smith gone as bandleader, Lenny Pickett takes over. This montage has a theme similar to that of the NBC studios where SNL is broadcast, and consists of black and white images of the cast at a party, with purple and green titling. The SNL logo introduced here is used through the 2005-2006 season.

Cast

Featuring

Notes
  • The only holdouts from the previous season were Tim Meadows, David Spade, Molly Shannon, Norm Macdonald and Mark McKinney, and of the five only Meadows and Spade were true veterans. The latter three were still brand new to SNL (Macdonald had a few bit parts in 1993, but nothing notable; Shannon arrived in early 1995 as a featured performer; McKinney began in early 1995 as well, but as a contract player, having gained much experience in televised sketch comedy as a five-season veteran of the Canadian variety show Kids in the Hall, also produced by Lorne Michaels). Spade only stayed one final year to help bridge the gap between old and new casts. Meadows was allegedly kept mainly because NBC did not want be seen as eliminating all of their African-American performers in one fell swoop.
  • Spade also was the longest-serving cast-member during this season.
  • David Koechner and Nancy Walls were fired at the end of the season. Most of the other new regulars went on to become quite popular.
  • Chris Kattan was added to the cast at midseason and made an immediate impact on the show, thus making Koechner and Walls expendable.

1996-1997 season

Opening montage

This montage also uses a "30 Rock" theme, and is virtually identical to the 1995 montage, but with brand new cast photos, and slight change in font.

Cast

Featuring

Notes
  • Tim Meadows was the longest-running cast member during that season and he held on to that honor for the remainder of his tenure.
  • Fred Wolf was a writer for the show since 1991, and he served a brief run as a featured player in 1995-1996 and the first few weeks of 1996-1997.
  • Mark McKinney left at the end of the season.
  • Tracy Morgan and Ana Gasteyer both join the cast, taking the places of David Koechner and Nancy Walls.

1997-1998 season

Opening montage

This opener is the only montage in SNL's history that did not feature any images of New York City. Instead, it featured colored bars that spun and revealed each cast member photo, along with mention of a TV Funhouse cartoon appearing on some episodes and/or a special guest.

Cast

This season is the first since 1984-1985 to have no featured players.

Notes
  • Tina Fey joins the writing staff.
  • Norm Macdonald's exit was widely publicized, with Macdonald appearing on such shows as Late Show with David Letterman and Howard Stern's radio show to discuss the ordeal. Both hosts comment that Macdonald was the show's sole funny aspect. Additionally, television ads for Macdonald's June 1998 film Dirty Work were initially not shown on any NBC broadcast. Adding to the publicity was Colin Quinn's takeover of Weekend Update in January 1998.
  • Jim Breuer is fired at the end of the season after a three year run. Rumors say he was fired for doing a show for MTV during the summer of 1998, which was a breach of his contract with NBC.

1998-1999 season

Opening montage

This montage was used for two seasons, including SNL's 25th Anniversary season. It is similar to the 1997 montage in that various colored bars. There are various striking differences between the two montages. Whereas the first one had all bars moved sideways in a vertical positions, this one including bars moving from different directions in horizontal positions. Also, unlike the previous montage, shots of New York City were featured within the moving bars. Finally, as opposed to the cast members/musical guest/host photos occupying the entire screen, they were represented in a small box in a beige color.

Cast

Featuring

Notes
  • The changing of the guard begins yet again as Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz are groomed for stardom, replacing several reliable players who will leave over the next couple of years.

1999-2000 season

Opening montage

This montage is the same as the 1998 season with little-to-no changes. One difference is that the SNL logo now has a small "25" superscript after it to commemorate its 25th Anniversary and Season 24 featured players, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz, and Chris Parnell are now added to the main cast while Rachel Dratch (and later Maya Rudolph for the last 3 episodes of the season) would be added in the featured player credits.

Cast

Featuring

Notes
  • Colin Quinn and Cheri Oteri leave at the end of the season, as does Tim Meadows after nearly a decade on SNL.
  • Not only did Meadows leave the show as the longest-serving African-American cast member, he surpassed Kevin Nealon as the longest-serving cast member in SNL history. Meadows would be surpassed by Darrell Hammond five seasons later.
  • The season was preceded by a live primetime broadcast commemorating the show's 25-year history. Over three hours in length, the Emmy-winning special included appearances by not only current and former cast members, but also from a wide variety of past guest hosts and musical acts. Pre-recorded segments were interspliced into the live broadcast; some of these did not make it to air and were shown on later 1999-2000 season episodes. Chris Rock performed the monologue. The featured musical acts were Elvis Costello featuring the Beastie Boys, Al Green and the Eurythmics. Former SNL band leader G.E. Smith played with the current house band during the special.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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