Saturday Night Live (season 6)

Saturday Night Live Season 6
The Saturday Night Live title card as seen in the opening credits of the 6th season.
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	13
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	November 15, 1980 – April 11, 1981
Season chronology
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Saturday Night Live aired its sixth season during the 1980–1981 television season on NBC. Season six started on November 15, 1980 and ended on April 11, 1981, with only 13 episodes (caused by the show being put on hiatus for retooling and a writers' strike). This season was alternatively known as Saturday Night Live '80

This season became notorious as it was considered by many critics and fans to be one of the worst seasons ever.

Background

According to Tom Shales' book "Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live", Executive Producer Lorne Michaels cited burnout as the reason behind his desire to take a year off, and had been led to believe by NBC executives that the show would go on hiatus with him, and be ready to start fresh upon his return.

However, Michaels had learned from associate producer Jean Doumanian that the show would go on with or without him, and that she had been chosen as his replacement, much to Michaels' surprise and dismay.

Angered by this news, the entire cast and all but one writer (Brian Doyle-Murray) followed Michaels out the door. The sixth season began with a completely new cast and new writers, with Doumanian at the helm.

Doumanian hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, and Patrick Weathers as featured cast members, passing on such then-unknown comics as Jim Carrey, John Goodman, and Dom Irrera. Though Doumanian initially did not want to hire Eddie Murphy (preferring instead Robert Townsend), Murphy was added in place of Townsend (as a featured player) starting with the fourth episode after much convincing from her colleagues and staff.

With its team of entirely new writers and cast members, the show was plagued by problems from the start and deemed a commercial disappointment by both critics and by viewers as reflected in the Nielsen ratings. For much of the season, the show was in turmoil and many critics wrote the show off as a pale imitation of its former glory due to budget cuts, lack of support that was promised to Doumanian by either the network or her staff, and stiff competition from ABC, who, at the time, was gaining popularity for their edgy, late-night sketch show that aired on a weekend: Fridays.

On February 21, 1981, the show featured a parody of the "Who Shot J.R. Ewing?" episode from the hit TV show Dallas. In a cliffhanger titled "Who Shot C.R.?", cast member Rocket was "shot" in the last sketch of the episode, after a running gag in which other members of the cast shared their grievances about Rocket with one another. Onstage for the goodnights, Dallas star and that week's host, Charlene Tilton, asked Rocket (who was still in character and sitting in a wheelchair) his thoughts on being shot. "Oh man, it's the first time I've been shot in my life", he replied. "I'd like to know who the fuck did it." The cast, along with some of the audience, reacted with laughter and applause. According to Neil Levy, Jean Doumanian was notified by a staff member that Rocket said the expletive and was so angry, she was ready to pull the cables out with her teeth.

Doumanian Fired

Though this was not the first nor last time the expletive would be uttered live on SNL, Rocket's line, unbeknownst to him, would cost him and everyone else (save Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo) their jobs. This would be Doumanian's last episode.

"This woman was a trainwreck," said then NBC President and CEO Fred Silverman in the Shales book. "The shows were just not watchable."

Doumanian, Gottfried, Risley, and Rocket were fired before the show returned from a month-long break.

Aftermath

SNL was given one more chance when Dick Ebersol, one of the original developers of SNL in 1974 and the man responsible for hiring Lorne Michaels as show-runner in 1975, was hired to replace Doumanian. In his first week, Ebersol fired Gottfried, Risley, and Rocket, replacing them with Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, and Tony Rosato. At the end of the season, he would eliminate the rest of the 1980 cast except for Murphy and Piscopo. Ebersol made offers to John Candy and Catherine O'Hara of SCTV to join the cast. Candy turned down the offer, so Tony Rosato was added to the cast in his place. O'Hara initially accepted, but changed her mind after Michael O'Donoghue – the show's original head writer, who had been brought in to rejuvenate the show – screamed at the cast about the season's poor writing and performances. O'Hara suggested Robin Duke as her replacement, and Duke was brought in. Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager joined as featured players.

Dick Ebersol's first produced episode was on April 11, 1981. After Ebersol's first episode, the 1981 Writers' Guild of America strike started, forcing the show into a hiatus during which it was extensively retooled.

Cast

Repertory cast members

• Denny Dillon
• Robin Duke (first episode: April 11, 1981)
• Gilbert Gottfried (final episode: March 7, 1981)
• Tim Kazurinsky (first episode: April 11, 1981)
• Gail Matthius
• Eddie Murphy (upgraded to repertory status on January 24, 1981)
• Joe Piscopo
• Ann Risley (final episode: March 7, 1981)
• Charles Rocket (final episode: March 7, 1981)
• Tony Rosato (first episode: April 11, 1981)

Featured cast members

• Yvonne Hudson (first episode: December 20, 1980)
• Matthew Laurance (first episode: December 20, 1980)
• Laurie Metcalf (first episode: April 11, 1981)
• Emily Prager (first episode: April 11, 1981)
• Patrick Weathers

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers#Season 6

Brian Doyle-Murray returns as the only writer from the previous season. Pamela Norris and Terry Sweeney were also hired; the latter would become a cast member in 1985. Michael O'Donoghue was hired back after Doumanian's firing.

Episodes

Episode Number	Date	Host(s)	Musical Guest(s)	Remarks
107	November 15, 1980	Elliott Gould	Kid Creole & the Coconuts	Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley, Charles Rocket, and Denny Dillon's first episode as cast members. Dillon had previously appeared as a special guest in the third episode of the first season.
108	November 22, 1980	Malcolm McDowell	Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band	Charles Rocket interviews John Lennon (played by Malcolm McDowell) during Weekend Update. The sketch aired two weeks before Lennon was murdered. Eddie Murphy makes his first appearance in this episode in an uncredited cameo. This was Matthew Laurence's first appearance on the show. Laurance has previously worked as an assistant director on the show during seasons 3-5. Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band performed "Hot Head" and "Ashtray Heart".
109	December 6, 1980	Ellen Burstyn	Aretha Franklin Keith Sykes	A snippet of the "Fish Heads" short film from this episode was later shown on the prime-time special "SNL: Just Shorts." First episode for Patrick Weathers. Eddie Murphy's first episode as a cast member
110	December 13, 1980	Jamie Lee Curtis	James Brown Ellen Shipley	Danny DeVito appears in a black and white film short
111	December 20, 1980	David Carradine	Linda Ronstadt The Cast of The Pirates of Penzance	This is Matthew Laurance and Yvonne Hudson's first episode as credited cast members. Hudson had appeared as an uncredited background player since Season 4.
112	January 10, 1981	Ray Sharkey	Jack Bruce & Friends	Gail Matthius's first episode as Weekend Update co-anchor.
113	January 17, 1981	Karen Black	Cheap Trick Stanley Clarke Trio
114	January 24, 1981	Robert Hays	Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns 14 Karat Soul	Eddie Murphy is upgraded from featured player to repertory player in this episode.
115	February 7, 1981	Sally Kellerman	Jimmy Cliff	In the original airing of this episode, there was a sketch called "Lean Acres" about a sadistic fat camp counselor (Sally Kellerman) who punishes two women (Denny Dillon and Ann Risley) for cheating on their diets which was interrupted by an audience member (portrayed by an unnamed writer) who hated the sketch and vocally spoke out against the sketch's cruel take on plus-sized women. In the original airing, the protester was then seen to be forcibly removed from the studio after the commercial break. When NBC reran this episode during the summer of 1981, the post-break continuation was cut.
116	February 14, 1981	Deborah Harry	Funky Four Plus One	With this appearance, Funky Four Plus One became the first hip-hop group to perform on a nationally-televised program. Harry was a fan of the group and brought them on the show.[citation needed] Patrick Weathers' final episode as a cast member.
117	February 21, 1981	Charlene Tilton	Todd Rundgren Prince	The word "fuck" was said twice in this episode: once by Prince during his song "Partyup" (though nothing was made of it since no one knew if Prince actually said it) and (more infamously) during the goodnights when Charles Rocket (in a wheelchair after getting shot during the last sketch) grumbles, "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" in response to Tilton's query on how Rocket felt after being gunned down. The debut of Eddie Murphy's "Mister Robinson's Neighborhood" sketch. The infamous ending credits sequence was included in an otherwise heavily edited version of the episode made available on Netflix Streaming and Hulu Plus in late 2010.
118	March 7, 1981	Bill Murray	Delbert McClinton	Jean Doumanian's final episode as producer. Ann Risley, Gilbert Gottfried, Charles Rocket, and Matthew Laurance's final episode as cast members. During the goodnights segment, Bill Murray appears embarrassed, and says, "Danny, John, Gilda, Laraine, Garrett... I'm sorry for what I've done." Murray then avoids all contact with the cast members, who attempt to hug him. The one exception is Eddie Murphy, whose hand Murray shakes. The two struck a friendship during the episode. Also during the goodnights, Murray announces that next week's host would be Robert Guillaume with musical guest Ian Dury and the Blockheads; however, this never happened, as about half of the cast was fired shortly after the episode taped, and SNL was put on hiatus for over a month.
119	April 11, 1981		Jr. Walker & the All-Stars	Dick Ebersol's first episode as producer. Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato's first episode as cast members. This episode has no credited host (though Chevy Chase, Christopher Reeve, and Robin Williams made appearances throughout this episode, and Chevy Chase returned to Weekend Update). It is the second regular episode of the show to be without a host. As of this episode, Denny Dillon and Yvonne Hudson become the first two people to appear on screen during shows produced by each of SNL's three executive producers (Doumanian, Ebersol, and Michaels). Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray would be the only others to do so the following season. Denny Dillon, Gail Matthius, and Yvonne Hudson's final episode as cast members. Hudson would continue to appear occasionally as an uncredited extra until the tenth season. Only episode for Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager as cast members. Metcalf would later make a guest appearance in the October 15, 1988 episode. Prager only appeared in the dress rehearsal version of this episode making her the only cast member to never appear on screen. In the green room at dress rehearsal, John Belushi watched the show with Brandon Tartikoff. Belushi said, "I should have never left the show. I'm gonna do the show next week, I don't care what my agent says."[citation needed] Al Franken appears on Weekend Update to announce he and partner Tom Davis will host the following week; a strike prevented this episode from ever airing. Jr. Walker & the All-Stars performed "(I'm a) Road Runner," "Shotgun," "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)," and "What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)."