Saturday Night Live season 13

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Contents

Saturday Night Live
Season 13
Snloldtimes.jpg
No. of episodes13
Release
Original network NBC
Original releaseOctober 17, 1987 (1987-10-17) –
February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27)
Season chronology
← Previous
season 12
Next →
season 14
List of episodes

The thirteenth season of Saturday Night Live , an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 17, 1987 and February 27, 1988. Although the changes to the cast and writers were minimal, the season was cut short due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike.

Production

During a dress rehearsal for the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H and was planned to be postponed. However, episode host Steve Martin pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal. [1]

On March 7, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The strike continued until August, thus cutting the season short at 13 episodes. Gilda Radner had been scheduled to host the season finale in the spring. [2]

Cast

Cast roster

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

A. Whitney Brown is credited in the opening montage for seven of this season's 13 episodes.

Writers

New hires this season were Greg Daniels, Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk. [3]

The writers for this season included A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, David Borowitz, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner, and Christine Zander. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.

Episodes

No.
overall		No. in
season		HostMusical guest(s)Original release date
2341 Steve Martin Sting October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17)

2352 Sean Penn LL Cool J
Michael Penn 		October 24, 1987 (1987-10-24)

  • Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown
  • LL Cool J performed "Go Cut Creator Go". [4] and appeared in the opener.
  • Michael Penn, older brother of host Sean, performed "This and That" with his band The Pull. [4]
2363 Dabney Coleman The Cars October 31, 1987 (1987-10-31)

2374 Robert Mitchum Simply Red November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14)

  • Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown
  • Simply Red performs "Suffer" and "The Right Thing". [4]
2385 Candice Bergen Cher November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21)

2396 Danny DeVito Bryan Ferry December 5, 1987 (1987-12-05)

2407 Angie Dickinson Buster Poindexter
David Gilmour 		December 12, 1987 (1987-12-12)

  • Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown
  • Buster Poindexter performs "Hot Hot Hot". [4]
  • David Gilmour performs "Ah, Robertson, It's You" [4] and an instrumental guitar jam with the SNL house band called "Song For My Sara".
2418 Paul Simon Linda Ronstadt December 19, 1987 (1987-12-19)

2429 Robin Williams James Taylor January 23, 1988 (1988-01-23)

  • Credited Featured Player: (none)
  • James Taylor performs "That Lonesome Road", "Sweet Potato Pie" and "Never Die Young". [4] ("Lonesome Road" was a song that Taylor had sung at the funeral of John Belushi in 1982. This episode aired the day before what would've been Belushi's 39th birthday.)
  • First appearance of "Learning To Feel" Sketch (Nora Dunn).
24310 Carl Weathers Robbie Robertson January 30, 1988 (1988-01-30)

24411 Justine Bateman Terence Trent D'Arby February 13, 1988 (1988-02-13)

24512 Tom Hanks Randy Travis February 20, 1988 (1988-02-20)

24613 Judge Reinhold 10,000 Maniacs February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27)

Canceled episodes with booked guests

AirdateHostMusical GuestComments
May 14, 1988 Gilda Radner U2 A planned episode with original cast member Gilda Radner as host was cancelled due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike. [2] Radner would never get another chance to host, due to her death in 1989. This episode would have marked the first time a female cast member came back to host, a milestone that wasn't reached until Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted on May 13, 2006. U2 would perform on the show on December 9, 2000.

References

  1. ↑ King, Mason (November 2, 1993). "Stand-up isn't news to 'SNL' star". Lawrence Journal-World . p. 2D. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  2. 1 2 Hoglund, Andy (May 5, 2023). "'SNL' hosts whose episodes were canceled amid strikes: John Candy, Gilda Radner, more". EW.com. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  3. ↑ Shales & Miller 2002, pp. 319, 326–330.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp.  124–127. ISBN   0-395-70895-8.
  5. ↑ Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp.  220–223. ISBN   0-395-70895-8.

Works cited

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