Saturday Night Live (season 12)

Saturday Night Live Season 12
The Saturday Night Live title card as seen in the opening credits of the 12th season.
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	20
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	October 11, 1986 – May 23, 1987
Season chronology
← Previous 11 Next → 13

Saturday Night Live aired its twelfth season during the 1986-1987 television season on NBC. The 12th season started on October 11, 1986, the 11th anniversary of the show's first episode, and ended on May 23, 1987.

Despite plans to have Saturday Night Live canceled due to the ratings of its previous season, producer Lorne Michaels convinced Brandon Tartikoff to give the show another chance, provided that a better cast be found for the next season.^{[citation needed]} As a result, many of season 11's cast members were fired, except for Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, featured player A. Whitney Brown, and Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller. Al Franken was rehired as a writer. The rest were relative unknowns, led by Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon. Hooks had auditioned to be in the season 10 and 11 casts, but had been turned down.^{[citation needed]} Hartman helped write sketches in season 11's Thanksgiving episode hosted by Pee-wee Herman, and appeared in a sketch as a Pilgrim.

The first show of the 1986-1987 season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, reading a "statement" from NBC about season 11's mediocre writing and bad cast choices.^{[citation needed]} According to the "statement", the entire 1985-1986 season was "...all a dream. A horrible, horrible dream."

The season included "Masterbrain", a skit written by Jim Downey and Al Franken, in which Phil Hartman portrayed two sides of Ronald Reagan; 25 years later Todd Purdum called the skit "surely among the show’s Top 10 of all time."

Cast

Repertory cast members

• Dana Carvey
• Nora Dunn
• Phil Hartman
• Jan Hooks
• Victoria Jackson
• Jon Lovitz
• Dennis Miller

Featured cast members

• A. Whitney Brown
• Kevin Nealon

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers

• Andy Breckman
• A. Whitney Brown
• E. Jean Carroll
• Tom Davis
• Jim Downey
• Al Franken
• Jack Handey
• Phil Hartman
• George Meyer
• Lorne Michaels
• Kevin Nealon
• Herb Sargent
• Marc Shaiman
• Rosie Shuster
• Robert Smigel
• Bonnie Turner
• Terry Turner
• Jon Vitti
• Christine Zander

Episodes

Episode #	Air Date	Host(s)	Musical Guest(s)	Remarks[citation needed]
214 (12.1)	October 11, 1986	Sigourney Weaver	(none)	Madonna (the host of the previous season's premiere episode) appears in the cold opening to read a statement from NBC about the 1985–1986 season:[citation needed] "It was all a dream—a horrible, horrible dream" in a Dallas-esque spoof. Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson and Jan Hooks' first episode as cast members. Buster Poindexter and Christopher Durang appear as special guests.
215 (12.2)	October 18, 1986	Malcolm-Jamal Warner	Run DMC	Special guests: Sam Kinison, Buster Poindexter, and Spike Lee as his Mars Blackmon character from She's Gotta Have It[citation needed] During Sam Kinison's guest performance, the part where he encourages the legalization of marijuana has been muted out.[citation needed]
216 (12.3)	November 8, 1986	Rosanna Arquette	Ric Ocasek	This episode marks the first time that a first-run SNL episode did not air live on the East Coast.[citation needed] The episode was originally supposed to air live on October 25, but was pre-empted by Game 6 of the 1986 World Series until 1:00 am. Rather than air the episode live at that time, it was videotaped, and aired two weeks later, with an introduction in which, on behalf of the team, Mets pitcher Ron Darling apologized to the SNL audience for delaying the episode.[citation needed] Guest appearance by Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright in a short film Strange to Meet You. Ric Ocasek appears as himself in Church Chat.
217 (12.4)	November 15, 1986	Sam Kinison	Lou Reed	This episode was put on a seven-second delay.[citation needed] Lou Reed performed "I Love You, Suzanne" from 1984's New Sensations and "Original Wrapper" from 1986's Mistrial.
218 (12.5)	November 22, 1986	Robin Williams	Paul Simon	Guest appearance by Art Garfunkel
219 (12.6)	December 6, 1986	Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short	Randy Newman	Chase, Martin, and Short hosted the episode together to promote their film Three Amigos, which was released December 12, 1986. Chevy Chase acknowledged his recent stint in the Betty Ford Center[citation needed] in the monologue and cold opening (a skit where klutzy people hold a support group meeting called Stumblebums Anonymous). In a skit written by Jim Downey and Al Franken, Phil Hartman portrayed President Ronald Reagan as Masterbrain, a "sweet, befuddled old man in public, who in private becomes the hard-charging director of the covert operation to finance the Nicaraguan Contras." Guest appearance by Eric Idle
220 (12.7)	December 13, 1986	Steve Guttenberg	The Pretenders	Guest appearance by Penn & Teller Guest appearance by Buster Poindexter
221 (12.8)	December 20, 1986	William Shatner	Lone Justice	This show features a sketch where William Shatner, sick of Star Trek fans asking him inane questions, tells them to "Get a life!" Comedian Kevin Meaney makes a special guest appearance that was later revealed[citation needed] to be an audition to join the cast.
222 (12.9)	January 24, 1987	Joe Montana Walter Payton	Debbie Harry
223 (12.10)	January 31, 1987	Paul Shaffer	Bruce Hornsby & The Range	With this episode, Paul Shaffer becomes the first (and only) member of the Saturday Night Live Band to come back and host, and the only regular from Late Night with David Letterman (later renamed The Late Show with David Letterman, following Letterman's move to CBS) to host SNL.
224 (12.11)	February 14, 1987	Bronson Pinchot	Paul Young	Special guest appearance by Buster Poindexter with the SNL Band. Paulina Porizkova appears on the show.
225 (12.12)	February 21, 1987	Willie Nelson		Danny DeVito was featured as a guest star. Willie Nelson performed "Nightlife" and "Partners After All". He also accompanied Victoria Jackson on "The Boyfriend Song".[citation needed]
226 (12.13)	February 28, 1987	Valerie Bertinelli	Robert Cray Band	Bertinelli's then-husband, Eddie Van Halen, appeared in a sketch and played with the SNL Band. Guest appearance by Edwin Newman
227(12.14)	March 21, 1987	Bill Murray	Percy Sledge	On the original version of this episode, there is a Donahue sketch where one of the guests (played by Nora Dunn) reveals that she had a bad relationship with Joe Piscopo. Reruns of this sketch are replaced[citation needed] with a dress rehearsal version where Nora reveals that she had a bad relationship with Gallagher. During the "Goodnights" segment, Murray encourages all of the original 1975-1980 SNL cast members (except for Chevy Chase) to return and host the show. With this episode Bill Murray is the only person to host shows produced by all three executive producers (Doumanian, Ebersol and Michaels).
228 (12.15)	March 28, 1987	Charlton Heston	Wynton Marsalis	The episode features a short film by Ben Stiller, who would join the cast in 1989.
229 (12.16)	April 11, 1987	John Lithgow	Anita Baker
230 (12.17)	April 18, 1987	John Larroquette	Timbuk 3
231 (12.18)	May 9, 1987	Mark Harmon	Suzanne Vega
232 (12.19)	May 16, 1987	Garry Shandling	Los Lobos	Tracey Ullman and Neve Campbell appeared, Ullman was in the filmed Hollywood Mom sketch. While Campbell appeared in Tenny Café. A number of sketches had Shandling breaking the fourth wall, which is a standard in It's Garry Shandling's Show, which was airing on Showtime at the time. Los Lobos preformed Is That All There is and One Time, One Night
233 (12.20)	May 23, 1987	Dennis Hopper	Roy Orbison