| Saturday Night Live | |
|---|---|
| Season 18 | |
 | |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 26, 1992 – May 15, 1993 |
| Season chronology | |
The eighteenth season of Saturday Night Live , an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993.
Many changes happened before the start of the season. Long-term cast member Victoria Jackson left the show after six seasons. [1] Newer cast members Beth Cahill and Siobhan Fallon were both fired. [1] Lorne Michaels did not hire any new cast members. Rob Schneider was upgraded to repertory status. [1] Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler and David Spade remained in the middle category. Melanie Hutsell was promoted to the middle category and Robert Smigel stayed a featured player.
Mike Myers would miss the first seven episodes of the season, due to filming the movie So I Married an Axe Murderer . [2]
Long-term cast member Dana Carvey would leave midseason; he originally planned to leave in the fall of 1992, but he ended up staying until the February 6, 1993 episode, leaving after roughly seven seasons in the cast. [3] [1] [4] This would also be the final season for cast members Chris Rock and Robert Smigel.
After three years with the show, Rock quit at the end of the season, joining the much more diverse sketch comedy show In Living Color . [5] [6] [7] Of his time on SNL, Rock had been frustrated with his lack of creative freedom and air time. [8] In the oral history Live from New York, Rock said, "The good thing about me being on In Living Color, I got things on that had nothing to do with race. On SNL, I either had to play a militant or a hip-hop guy. If you watch my stand-up, race is ten minutes of an hour-long show. I talk about relationships, whatever. And Living Color allowed me to talk about other shit. I could do sketches about, you know, funny stores I was in." [9] Writer and featured player Smigel left to become the head writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien . [10]
This season was also home to one of SNL's most infamous moments: Sinéad O'Connor tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II at the end of her second singing performance. [11] [12]
Repertory players
| Featured players | With |
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
All of the middle tier cast members were credited in every single episode of the season, while those in the third category are only credited in certain episodes. Robert Smigel is featured in the opening credits of six episodes, while Al Franken is featured in the opening for four episodes. Don Novello is credited as "Father Guido Sarducci" in the third cast member category for the Bill Murray episode in which he guest stars but isn't considered a featured player because this was a one-off guest appearance.
David Mandel (a future writer/producer of Seinfeld , Curb Your Enthusiasm , and Veep ) and Ian Maxtone-Graham (a future writer for The Simpsons ) join the writing staff this season. [13]
Starting with the John Goodman-hosted episode, original-era writer Marilyn Suzanne Miller (who previously wrote for the first three seasons from 1975 to 1978; and again for the 1981-82 season) returns as a writer. [14]
This season is more notable for being the final season for several longtime/veteran writers including Robert Smigel (who had been a writer for eight years since 1985), Jack Handey (who had been a writer for seven accumulative years since 1985, with the exception of season 12), Bonnie and Terry Turner, and Christine Zander (the later three of whom, had been writers for 6½ years since 1987). [15] (Although Smigel and Handey would return to the show in later seasons).
Then-head writer Jim Downey would blame the declining quality of the following seasons on all of the veteran writers departing. [16]
| No. overall | No. in season | Host | Musical guest(s) | Original release date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 327 | 1 | Nicolas Cage | Bobby Brown | September 26, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 328 | 2 | Tim Robbins | Sinéad O'Connor | October 3, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 329 | 3 | Joe Pesci | Spin Doctors | October 10, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 330 | 4 | Christopher Walken | Arrested Development | October 24, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 331 | 5 | Catherine O'Hara | 10,000 Maniacs | October 31, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 332 | 6 | Michael Keaton | Morrissey | November 14, 1992 | |
| 333 | 7 | Sinbad | Sade | November 21, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 334 | 8 | Tom Arnold | Neil Young | December 5, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 335 | 9 | Glenn Close | The Black Crowes | December 12, 1992 | |
| |||||
| 336 | 10 | Danny DeVito | Bon Jovi | January 9, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 337 | 11 | Harvey Keitel | Madonna | January 16, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 338 | 12 | Luke Perry | Mick Jagger | February 6, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 339 | 13 | Alec Baldwin | Paul McCartney | February 13, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 340 | 14 | Bill Murray | Sting | February 20, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 341 | 15 | John Goodman | Mary J. Blige | March 13, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 342 | 16 | Miranda Richardson | Soul Asylum | March 20, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 343 | 17 | Jason Alexander | Peter Gabriel | April 10, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 344 | 18 | Kirstie Alley | Lenny Kravitz | April 17, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 345 | 19 | Christina Applegate | Midnight Oil | May 8, 1993 | |
| |||||
| 346 | 20 | Kevin Kline | Willie Nelson & Paul Simon | May 15, 1993 | |
| |||||
| Title | Original release date |
|---|