Saturday Night Live season 4

Saturday Night Live
Season 4
Starring	Dan Aykroyd John Belushi Jane Curtin Garrett Morris Bill Murray Laraine Newman Gilda Radner
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 7, 1978 (1978-10-07) – May 26, 1979 (1979-05-26)
Season chronology

The fourth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 7, 1978, and May 26, 1979.

The season 4 DVD was released on December 2, 2008.

Cast

The entire cast from the previous season returned. The only change was Bill Murray's joining Jane Curtin as co-anchor for Weekend Update, replacing Dan Aykroyd. This would be the final season for Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as cast members (who both left to work on SNL's first film, The Blues Brothers).

Cast roster

Repertory players

• Dan Aykroyd
• John Belushi
• Jane Curtin
• Garrett Morris
• Bill Murray
• Laraine Newman
• Gilda Radner

Featured players

• Tom Davis
• Al Franken

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § Season 4

Walter Williams, creator of the Mr. Bill shorts, joined the writing staff.

This season's writers were Dan Aykroyd, Anne Beatts, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Al Franken, Brian McConnachie, Lorne Michaels, Don Novello, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Rosie Shuster, Walter Williams and Alan Zweibel. The head writer was Herb Sargent.

Episodes

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
67	1	The Rolling Stones	The Rolling Stones	October 7, 1978 (1978-10-07)
68	2	Fred Willard	Devo	October 14, 1978 (1978-10-14)
69	3	Frank Zappa	Frank Zappa	October 21, 1978 (1978-10-21)
70	4	Steve Martin	Van Morrison	November 4, 1978 (1978-11-04)
71	5	Buck Henry	Grateful Dead	November 11, 1978 (1978-11-11)
72	6	Carrie Fisher	The Blues Brothers	November 18, 1978 (1978-11-18)
73	7	Walter Matthau	Garrett Morris	December 2, 1978 (1978-12-02)
74	8	Eric Idle	Kate Bush	December 9, 1978 (1978-12-09)
75	9	Elliott Gould	Peter Tosh Mick Jagger	December 16, 1978 (1978-12-16)
76	10	Michael Palin	The Doobie Brothers	January 27, 1979 (1979-01-27)
77	11	Cicely Tyson	Talking Heads	February 10, 1979 (1979-02-10)
78	12	Ricky Nelson	Judy Collins	February 17, 1979 (1979-02-17)
79	13	Kate Jackson	Delbert McClinton	February 24, 1979 (1979-02-24)
80	14	Gary Busey	Eubie Blake & Gregory Hines Gary Busey with Rick Danko & Paul Butterfield	March 10, 1979 (1979-03-10)
81	15	Margot Kidder	The Chieftains	March 17, 1979 (1979-03-17)
82	16	Richard Benjamin	Rickie Lee Jones	April 7, 1979 (1979-04-07)
83	17	Milton Berle	Ornette Coleman	April 14, 1979 (1979-04-14)
84	18	Michael Palin	James Taylor	May 12, 1979 (1979-05-12)
85	19	Maureen Stapleton	Linda Ronstadt & Phoebe Snow	May 19, 1979 (1979-05-19)
86	20	Buck Henry	Bette Midler	May 26, 1979 (1979-05-26)

See also

• Recurring SNL characters and sketches introduced in season 4
• History of Saturday Night Live (1975–1980)