Saturday Night Live season 10
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|
| Saturday Night Live | |
|---|---|
| Season 10 | |
 | |
| No. of episodes | 17 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | October 6, 1984 – April 13, 1985 |
| Season chronology | |
The tenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 6, 1984, and April 13, 1985. Only 17 episodes were produced due to a writers' strike and budget constraints.
Changes to format
This season also featured a new opening sequence produced by Charlex (who also created The Cars' "You Might Think" video earlier in 1984), depicting the SNL cast as giants in and around New York City landmarks. At the end of the season, Ebersol requested to completely revamp the show to include mostly prerecorded segments. Short, Guest, and Hall ultimately got tired of the show's demanding production schedule and showed little interest in returning for another season, leaving Crystal the only "A-cast" member available for season 11. Like Lorne Michaels at the end of season 5, Ebersol made taking the show off the air for several months to re-cast and rebuild a condition of his return. Another idea was to institute a permanent rotation of hosts (Billy Crystal, David Letterman and Joe Piscopo) for "a hip The Ed Sullivan Show". After briefly canceling the show, NBC decided to continue production only if they could get Michaels to produce again. Ebersol, along with his writing staff and most of the cast, left the show after this season. Those who wished to stay, such as Crystal, were not rehired for the following season.
Cast
During the previous season, Eddie Murphy left the show mid season. Because of Murphy's departure Joe Piscopo also left the show because he did not want to do it without Murphy. Dick Ebersol fired Robin Duke, Brad Hall and Tim Kazurinsky. Ebersol then wanted to blow up the show by adding seasoned comedians instead of newcomers. He hired Billy Crystal (who hosted twice in season 9 and was originally set to appear in SNL's first episode), Christopher Guest (a frequent contributor to The National Lampoon Radio Hour in the early 1970s), Rich Hall (best known for his work on "Not Necessarily the News" and "Fridays"), Harry Shearer (who was a cast member on SNL in season 5), Martin Short (from "SCTV") and New Zealander Pamela Stephenson (from "Not The Nine O'Clock News"). Christopher Guest became the anchor of Saturday Night News. All of the cast members left the show at the end of the season. According to IMDb, future cast member Jan Hooks and actress Kathy Najimy auditioned for a spot in the season as Duke's replacement, but both lost to Stephenson. Hooks then auditioned the following season and later joined the show in season 12.
In the middle of the season, Harry Shearer left the show due to "creative differences". Shearer told the AP, "I was creative, and they were different."[1] Despite his departure, his image is still shown in the opening credits (spray-painting an elevated train as it goes down the track).
Cast roster
Repertory players
- Jim Belushi
- Billy Crystal
- Mary Gross
- Christopher Guest
- Rich Hall
- Gary Kroeger
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
- Harry Shearer (final episode: January 12, 1985)
- Martin Short
- Pamela Stephenson
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
Billy Crystal, Larry David, Christopher Guest, Rich Hall, Rob Riley, and Martin Short joined the writing staff. Jim Downey and Harry Shearer rejoined the staff after a four-year hiatus. Robin Duke, Adam Green, Tim Kazurinsky, Michael McCartney, Eddie Murphy, Pamela Norris, and Joe Piscopo left the staff.
This season's writers were Jim Belushi, Andy Breckman, Billy Crystal, Larry David, Jim Downey, Christopher Guest, Rich Hall, Nate Herman, Kevin Kelton, Andy Kurtzman, Margaret Oberman, Rob Riley, Herb Sargent, Martin Short, Harry Shearer, Andrew Smith, Bob Tischler and Eliot Wald. The head writer was Bob Tischler.
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Host(s) | Musical guest(s) | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 179 | 1 | (none) | Thompson Twins | October 6, 1984 |
| 180 | 2 | Bob Uecker | Peter Wolf | October 13, 1984 |
| 181 | 3 | Jesse Jackson | Andrae Crouch Wintley Phipps | October 20, 1984 |
| 182 | 4 | Michael McKean | Chaka Khan The Folksmen | November 3, 1984 |
| 183 | 5 | George Carlin | Frankie Goes to Hollywood | November 10, 1984 |
| 184 | 6 | Ed Asner | The Kinks | November 17, 1984 |
| 185 | 7 | Ed Begley, Jr. | Billy Squier | December 1, 1984 |
| 186 | 8 | Ringo Starr | Herbie Hancock | December 8, 1984 |
| 187 | 9 | Eddie Murphy | Robert Plant & the Honeydrippers | December 15, 1984 |
| 188 | 10 | Kathleen Turner | John Waite | January 12, 1985 |
| 189 | 11 | Roy Scheider | Billy Ocean | January 19, 1985 |
| 190 | 12 | Alex Karras | Tina Turner | February 2, 1985 |
| 191 | 13 | Harry Anderson | Bryan Adams | February 9, 1985 |
| 192 | 14 | Pamela Sue Martin | Power Station | February 16, 1985 |
| 193 | 15 | Mr. T Hulk Hogan | The Commodores | March 30, 1985 |
| 194 | 16 | Christopher Reeve | Santana | April 6, 1985 |
| 195 | 17 | Howard Cosell | Greg Kihn | April 13, 1985 |
Canceled episodes with booked guests
| Airdate | Host | Musical Guest | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 9, 1985 | John Candy & Eugene Levy | Hall & Oates | Candy and Levy were planned to host that week, but was cancelled due to a short writer's strike. |
| May 11, 1985 | Joe Piscopo | Not announced | One of Ebersol's planned shows, but was cut due to budget cuts. |
| May 18, 1985 | David Letterman | Not announced | One of Ebersol's planned shows, but was cut due to budget cuts. |
Specials
| Title | Original air date |
|---|---|
| "SNL Film Festival" | March 2, 1985 |
| "The Best of John Belushi" | August 3, 1985 |
References
- ^ Steele, Brian (April 26, 2015). "11 Things We Learned About Harry Shearer From His WTF Episode". IFC. Retrieved September 2, 2015.