Saturday Night Live season 5

Saturday Night Live (season 5)
Season 5
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.

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd left the show at the end of the fourth season, leaving a void in the cast that most fans thought would be the beginning of the end of the late-night sketch show.

To keep the show going, Lorne Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to featured cast member status: Peter Aykroyd (Dan's brother), Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill's brother), Don Novello (unless appearing exclusively as Father Guido Sarducci), Tom Schiller and Alan Zweibel. Band leader Paul Shaffer also joined the cast, becoming the first person from the SNL band to become a cast member. Harry Shearer joined the show as a featured cast member and was promoted to repertory status during the season.

This season was also the first to have two members of the same family as cast members (Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray).

This would be the final season for everyone in the cast. Tom Davis and Downey would return to the show in future seasons as writers. Al Franken, Doyle-Murray, Novello, and Shearer would rejoin the cast in future seasons (Franken would also return as a writer).

Cast

Repertory cast members

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

Featured cast members

• Peter Aykroyd (first credited episode: January 26, 1980)
• Tom Davis (first credited episode: November 17, 1979)
• Jim Downey (first credited episode: January 26, 1980)
• Brian Doyle-Murray (first credited episode: January 26, 1980)
• Al Franken (first credited episode: December 15, 1979)
• Don Novello / Father Guido Sarducci
• Tom Schiller (first credited episode: April 19, 1980)
• Paul Shaffer (first credited episode: November 17, 1979)
• Alan Zweibel (first credited 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)

DVD release

SNL's fifth season was released on DVD on December 1, 2009. There are no plans to release any further seasons.