Saturday Night Live season 21
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2011) |
| Saturday Night Live | |
|---|---|
| Season 21 | |
 | |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 30, 1995 – May 18, 1996 |
| Season chronology | |
The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995 and May 18, 1996.
History
SNL once again dodged cancellation from season 20's low ratings and scathing reviews about the show's decline in quality. The cast was mostly overhauled. new writers were brought in, and Beth McCarthy Miller took over as director.
The season was home to the Rage Against the Machine incident. On April 13, 1996, the band was the musical guest, and was scheduled to perform two songs. The show was hosted that night by ex-Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement."[1] To this end, the band hung two upside-down American flags from their amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", SNL and NBC sent stagehands in to pull the flags down.[2] Following the removal of the flags during the first performance, the band was approached by SNL and NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, bassist Tim Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes's dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down flags. Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."[1]
A new logo was used starting this season, consisting of the words SATURDAYNIGHTLIVE in a sans-serif typeface, and was used until 2006.
Cast
Only five cast members returned to the show from the previous season: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon and David Spade.[3] Although Spade returned to the show, he had more of a diminished role, very rarely appearing in sketches except for Spade in America, a "Weekend Update" segment hosted by Spade that debuted at the start of the season and was featured in all but five episodes.
With the cast overhaul taking place, Lorne Michaels hired Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri, and Nancy Walls (who, coincidentally, would later marry Steve Carell, who auditioned to be part of the season 21 cast, but never made it).
Molly Shannon was upgraded to repertory status.
Chris Kattan and newly hired writer Colin Quinn also joined as featured players for the final six episodes of the season. Fred Wolf was hired later in April as a featured player.
This is the first season to have repertory players since (Season 10) and did not have feature players until filling in back on March 16, 1996.
This would be the final season for David Spade. Spade had agreed to stay only a year so he could be a bridge between the old and new casts. Newcomers David Koechner and Nancy Walls were also let go after this season.
Cast roster
|
Repertory players |
Featured players
|
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Writers
Steve Higgins, Adam McKay, Paula Pell, Frank Sebastiano, and Colin Quinn join the writing staff.
Episodes
References
- ^ a b Anon., Saturday Night Live Incident, Public release and distribution. Retrieved November 12, 2007.
- ^ "Rage Against the Machine". The Flag Burning Page. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ Shales, Tom (2003). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Back Bay. ISBN 0-316-73565-5.