Saturday Night Live season 7

Saturday Night Live Season 7
Season 7
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 3, 1981 – May 22, 1982
Season chronology

Saturday Night Live aired its seventh season during the 1981–1982 television season on NBC. Following the termination of producer Jean Doumanian and the majority of her castmembers (repertory players Gilbert Gottfried, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket and feature players Yvonne Hudson, Patrick Weathers, and Matthew Laurance), NBC had put the show on hiatus to retool it. Dick Ebersol (Lorne Michael's co-creator of SNL) was hired as Doumanian's replacement. The new cast of SNL for this season were the ones from the episode Dick Ebersol produced on the April 11, 1981 episode: Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato along with the Jean Doumanian era's sole survivors Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius were fired following the April 1981 episode while Laurie Metcalf and unseen castmember Emily Prager weren't asked back to be cast members on the show. Two new female cast members, Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole were hired to replace Metcalf and Prager.

A big difference this season was that the popular opening line "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!" was not said during cold openings (and sometimes cold openings weren't even shown) and the monologues were skipped over almost entirely. These changes weren't permanent, as Ebersol decided to change them back for the eighth season. Weekend Update went through its first name change and became "SNL Newsbreak". At the newsdesk was feature player Brian Doyle-Murray with Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole alternately filling in as co-anchor.

Additionally, this was the only season without announcer Don Pardo, but instead the voice-overs were done by Mel Brandt, except for two episodes that aired in December 1981 (see below) where veteran NBC News announcer Bill Hanrahan handled such duties.

The seventh season also saw the first death of an original SNL castmember, John Belushi, from a cocaine/heroin overdose. The original airing of the Robert Urich/Mink DeVille episode had a tribute to Belushi.

The seventh season started on October 3, 1981 and ended on May 22, 1982. A standard total of 20 episodes were broadcast.

Cast

Repertory cast members

• Robin Duke
• Christine Ebersole
• Mary Gross
• Tim Kazurinsky
• Eddie Murphy
• Joe Piscopo
• Tony Rosato

Featured cast members

• Brian Doyle-Murray

Episodes

Episode Number	Date	Host(s)	Musical Guest(s)	Remarks
120	October 3, 1981		Rod Stewart	James Caan was originally scheduled to host, but he backed out at the last minute because his sister had fallen ill. Christine Ebersole and Mary Gross's first episode as cast members Brian Doyle-Murray rejoins the cast after a one year hiatus
121	October 10, 1981	Susan Saint James	The Kinks	Originally, Rickie Lee Jones was supposed to appear as musical guest.
122	October 17, 1981	George Kennedy	Miles Davis†	This episode was considered one of the best of the season. Mr. Bill marks his return to SNL in this episode. This episode features an amusing blooper in the Spray on Laetril skit when Tim Kazurinsky sprays Eddie Murphy during the third "The Pump" sequence in that skit. Harry Anderson has a stand up / magic routine in this episode.
123	October 31, 1981	Donald Pleasence†	Fear	John Belushi appears in the cold opening. Three sketches from this episode were cut after dress rehearsal: "Grand Guingol White House" where Ronald and Nancy Reagan cannibalize Jane Fonda, a sketch where an old man (played by Pleasence) drains the blood of his date and uses it as wine, and a sketch where Nazis discuss "good" reasons why they kill Jewish people. Fear's performance, which only happened on the insistence of John Belushi, took place in front of a group of east coast punks. One of them, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat, grabs a live mic and screams, "NEW YORK SUCKS!!" several times between songs. The performance is cut short during the song "Let's Have a War".
124	November 7, 1981	Lauren Hutton	Rick James†	Beat-generation writer William S. Burroughs appeared to perform spoken word.
125	November 14, 1981	Bernadette Peters	The Go-Go's Billy Joel	Peters did not have a monologue, instead opening with a parody of a US Army hygiene film as Betty Boop in Johnny Keep Your Gun Clean. She also performed a song filled with masturbation innuendo called Making Love Alone that has since become part of her concerts.
126	December 5, 1981	Tim Curry	Meat Loaf	This is the first of two episodes where Brian Hanrahan takes over for Mel Brandt as the show announcer. Tim Curry is the first castmember from the 1975 cult movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show to host SNL (though Meat Loaf was the first castmember from that movie to appear on SNL back in 1977 when he served as the musical guest for the episode hosted by Christopher Lee).
127	December 12, 1981	Bill Murray	The Spinners	The sketch, "At Home With The Psychos", was modified because a prop was deemed to resemble too closely a vagina [1]. Bill Murray delivers a short monologue about Santa, and introduces "Saint Nick," making his show one of the only episodes this season to feature the traditional opening monologue. This is the second (and last) of two episodes where Brian Hanrahan takes over for Mel Brandt as the show announcer.
128	January 23, 1982	Robert Conrad	The Allman Brothers Band
129	January 30, 1982	John Madden	Jennifer Holliday	Andy Kaufman made a special guest appearance as Elvis Presley.
130	February 6, 1982	James Coburn†	Lindsey Buckingham
131	February 20, 1982	Bruce Dern	Luther Vandross†
132	February 27, 1982	Elizabeth Ashley	Hall & Oates
133	March 20, 1982	Robert Urich†	Mink DeVille	John Belushi died 2 weeks before this show aired; he was the first castmember to die. The original airing has a tribute to him at the end of the show.
134	March 27, 1982	Blythe Danner	Rickie Lee Jones
135	April 10, 1982	Daniel J. Travanti	John Cougar
136	April 17, 1982	Johnny Cash†	Elton John
137	April 24, 1982	Robert Culp	The Charlie Daniels Band
138	May 15, 1982	Danny DeVito	Sparks	Sparks perform "I Predict" and "Mickey Mouse" - the latter with a introductory monologue by Ron Mael - from their album Angst in My Pants.
139	May 22, 1982	Olivia Newton-John		Brian Doyle-Murray, Tony Rosato and Christine Ebersole's final episode as cast members. Special guest was Graham Chapman of Monty Python who appeared in several skits and in the SNL NewsBreak with a humorous promotion for the new movie The Secret Policeman's Other Ball