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Wikipedia: Saturday Night Live (season 21)
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Saturday Night Live Season 21
Series Saturday Night Live
Country of origin  United States
Network NBC
Original run September 30, 1995 – May 18, 1996
No. of episodes 20
Previous season 20
Next season 22

Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-first season during the 1995-1996 television season on NBC. SNL once again dodged cancellation from season twenty's low ratings and scathing reviews about the show's decline in quality. Only five repertory cast members -- Mark McKinney, David Spade, Tim Meadows, and Norm Macdonald -- from the previous season returned along with Molly Shannon, who was promoted to the repertory cast. The rest of the season 20 cast either left on their own terms (Kevin Nealon, Michael McKean, Jay Mohr, Chris Elliot, Laura Kightlinger and Ellen Cleghorne) or were let out of their contracts to make room for new castmembers (Adam Sandler, Morwenna Banks and Chris Farley). Although David Spade returned to the show, he had more of a diminished role, very rarely appearing in regular sketches and only in "Spade in America", a new segment hosted by Spade that debuted at the start of the season and was featured in all but three episodes.

The new performers cast this season were Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, David Koechner, Chris Kattan (who joined for the season's final six episodes), Fred Wolf (Wolf also served as head writer), Jim Breuer, Cheri Oteri, Colin Quinn, and Nancy Walls.

The twenty-first season began September 30, 1995 and ended on May 18, 1996.

Contents

Cast

Repertory players

Featured players

Episodes

Episode # Air Date Host(s) Musical Guest(s) Remarks
387 (21.1) September 30, 1995 Mariel Hemingway Blues Traveler
  • Prince (back when he was known as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince") was originally booked for this episode as the musical guest. David Spade, on his "Spade in America" sketch, mentioned this and referred to Prince as "The Artist Formerly Booked on This Show, But Flaked on Us".
  • Jim Breuer, Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri, Nancy Walls and Colin Quinn's first episode as cast members
388 (21.2) October 7, 1995 Chevy Chase Lisa Loeb
  • Chevy Chase's monologue (where he reminisces about being in the original cast of SNL while singing "When You Wish Upon A Star") is edited from the 60-minute syndicated rerun.
389 (21.3) October 21, 1995 David Schwimmer Natalie Merchant
  • David's Friends co-stars Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston (The latter of whom appears in a Spade in America sketch) appear in his opening monologue, along with Jimmie Walker, Gary Coleman and Barry Williams.
  • In the live show version of the "Rita Delvecchio" sketch, Cheri Oteri gets her housecoat stuck on a hockey net and mutters, "Look at this shit!" Nothing was made of the on-air cursing, except that Oteri had to put a dollar in a swear jar and all reruns of this episode (NBC, Comedy Central, and E!) muted out the word.
390 (21.4) October 28, 1995 Gabriel Byrne Alanis Morissette
  • Norm McDonald, as Bob Dole, mutters "Goddamnit" in the cold opening when a kid forgets his line.
391 (21.5) November 11, 1995 Quentin Tarantino The Smashing Pumpkins
392 (21.6) November 18, 1995 Laura Leighton Rancid
393 (21.7) December 2, 1995 Anthony Edwards Foo Fighters
  • Anthony Edwards is the second castmember from the NBC medical drama E.R. to host SNL.
394 (21.8) December 9, 1995 David Alan Grier Silverchair
  • During the Howard Simmons sketch with guest star David Alan Grier, we learn that him and Howard met during a college tour.
395 (21.9) December 16, 1995 Madeline Kahn† Bush
396 (21.10) January 13, 1996 Christopher Walken Joan Osborne
  • The 60-minute syndicated version adds three commercial parodies: Old Glory Insurance (from the Laura Leighton/Rancid episode, the Madeline Kahn/Bush episode, and the Teri Hatcher/Dave Matthews Band episode), Gangsta Bitch Barbie (from the Chevy Chase/Lisa Loeb episode and the Madeline Kahn/Bush episode), and John-John Mackey's Storm-Tracker AccuCast (from the Madeline Kahn/Bush episode) to fill up time lost by cutting all of Weekend Update, the Connie Stintson talk show sketch, and the monologue.
  • For the original broadcast, Osborne rehearsed a second song, "Right Hand Man", but it was cut. However, the rehearsal taping of the song was included on the "Best of 1995-1996" episode.
397 (21.11) January 20, 1996 Alec Baldwin Tori Amos
  • Tori Amos performs "Caught A Lite Sneeze" and "Hey Jupiter".
398 (21.12) February 10, 1996 Danny Aiello Coolio
399 (21.13) February 17, 1996 Tom Arnold Tupac Shakur†
400 (21.14) February 24, 1996 Elle MacPherson Sting
401 (21.15) March 16, 1996 John Goodman Everclear
  • Everclear rehearsed a second song, "Heartspark Dollarsign", but it was cut from the original broadcast.
  • Chris Kattan's first episode as a cast member
402 (21.16) March 23, 1996 Phil Hartman† Gin Blossoms
  • This episode marked the first appearance of Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan's "Roxbury Guys" characters; however, their appearance differs greatly (notably lacking their "theme music" (Haddaway's What is Love? dance hit)) from all subsequent episodes and the film A Night at the Roxbury.
403 (21.17) April 13, 1996 Steve Forbes Rage Against the Machine
404 (21.18) April 20, 1996 Teri Hatcher Dave Matthews Band
405 (21.19) May 11, 1996 Christine Baranski The Cure
406 (21.20) May 18, 1996 Jim Carrey Soundgarden
  • Carrey was asked to host when the original host backed out at the last minute.
  • Carrey performs an impersonation of Jimmy Stewart during The Joe Pesci Show sketch. Stewart was one of Carrey's better-known (and first-ever) impersonations he did at comedy clubs during his early days in stand-up comedy.
  • Chris Kattan has stated in an interview that Carrey was the best "third Roxbury Guy" character he and Ferrell had ever performed with.
  • Last episode for stage manager Joe Dicso (who had been in his position since the show's 1975 inception)
  • David Spade, Nancy Walls and David Koechner's final episode as cast members

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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