Saturday Night Live season 5

Saturday Night Live
Season 5
Starring	Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 13, 1979 (1979-10-13) – May 24, 1980 (1980-05-24)
Season chronology

The fifth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 13, 1979, and May 24, 1980.

Cast

Repertory players

• Jane Curtin
• Garrett Morris
• Bill Murray
• Laraine Newman
• Gilda Radner
• Harry Shearer (first episode: October 20, 1979; upgraded to repertory status: February 9, 1980)

Featured players

• Peter Aykroyd (first episode: January 26, 1980)
• Tom Davis
• Jim Downey (first episode: January 26, 1980)
• Brian Doyle-Murray (first episode: January 26, 1980)
• Al Franken
• Don Novello
• Tom Schiller (first episode: April 19, 1980)
• Paul Shaffer (first episode: November 17, 1979)
• Alan Zweibel (first episode: April 19, 1980)

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Featured cast members announced and shown during the "Opening Introductions" varied from week to week, as noted below in each episode's description.

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § Season 5

As previously mentioned, Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to cast member status, including Aykroyd, Downey, Doyle-Murray, Novello, Schiller and Zweibel. Doyle-Murray would be the only one to return, as a writer, in the following season.

This season's writers were Peter Aykroyd, Anne Beatts, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Al Franken, Tom Gammill, Lorne Michaels, Matt Neuman, Don Novello, Sarah Paley, Max Pross, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Harry Shearer, Rosie Shuster and Alan Zweibel. The head writer was Herb Sargent.

Episodes

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host(s)	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
87	1	Steve Martin	Blondie	October 13, 1979 (1979-10-13)
88	2	Eric Idle	Bob Dylan	October 20, 1979 (1979-10-20)
89	3	Bill Russell	Chicago	November 3, 1979 (1979-11-03)
90	4	Buck Henry	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	November 10, 1979 (1979-11-10)
91	5	Bea Arthur	The Roches	November 17, 1979 (1979-11-17)
92	6	Howard Hesseman	Randy Newman	December 8, 1979 (1979-12-08)
93	7	Martin Sheen	David Bowie	December 15, 1979 (1979-12-15)
94	8	Ted Knight	Desmond Child & Rouge	December 22, 1979 (1979-12-22)
95	9	Teri Garr	The B-52's	January 26, 1980 (1980-01-26)
96	10	Chevy Chase	Marianne Faithfull Tom Scott	February 9, 1980 (1980-02-09)
97	11	Elliott Gould	Gary Numan	February 16, 1980 (1980-02-16)
98	12	Kirk Douglas	Sam & Dave	February 23, 1980 (1980-02-23)
99	13	Rodney Dangerfield	The J. Geils Band	March 8, 1980 (1980-03-08)
100	14	(none)	Paul Simon James Taylor David Sanborn	March 15, 1980 (1980-03-15)
101	15	Richard Benjamin Paula Prentiss	Grateful Dead	April 5, 1980 (1980-04-05)
102	16	Burt Reynolds	Anne Murray	April 12, 1980 (1980-04-12)
103	17	Strother Martin	The Specials	April 19, 1980 (1980-04-19)
104	18	Bob Newhart	The Amazing Rhythm Aces Bruce Cockburn	May 10, 1980 (1980-05-10)
105	19	Steve Martin	3-D Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney	May 17, 1980 (1980-05-17)
106	20	Buck Henry	Andrew Gold Andrae Crouch & the Voices of Unity	May 24, 1980 (1980-05-24)

Home media

SNL's fifth season was released on DVD on December 1, 2009.