Saturday Night Live season 22

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Saturday Night Live
Season 22
SNLseason21.jpg
No. of episodes20
Release
Original network NBC
Original releaseSeptember 28, 1996 (1996-09-28) 
May 17, 1997 (1997-05-17)
Season chronology
 Previous
season 21
Next 
season 23
List of episodes

The twenty-second season of Saturday Night Live , an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 28, 1996, and May 17, 1997.

This season is notable for the host selection. Seven of the 20 hosts were former cast members. They included Dana Carvey, Robert Downey Jr. (the second of three season 11 cast members to come back and host the show joining Damon Wayans [who hosted during the show's 20th season] and, later in season 23, Jon Lovitz), Phil Hartman, Chris Rock, Martin Short (who hosted before with Steve Martin and Chevy Chase on the show's 12th season, and the only cast member out of the seven to not have worked under Lorne Michaels, as Short was a Dick Ebersol cast member), Chase and Mike Myers. This would mark Chase's final time hosting before getting banned [1] (returning much later for numerous guest appearances).

Cast

Many changes happened before the start of the season. David Koechner and Nancy Walls were both let go after one season, and longtime cast member David Spade, who had been with the cast for six seasons since 1990, left the show on his own terms. [2]

Comedian and singer Ana Gasteyer of The Groundlings and stand-up comedian Tracy Morgan were hired to replace Koechner and Walls, [3] being promoted to repertory status when hired.

Chris Kattan was promoted to repertory status, while Colin Quinn and Fred Wolf remained as featured players.

This was the final season for Mark McKinney, who had been on the show for three seasons since 1995. [4] Wolf also left his position as featured player and co-head writer after the season's first three episodes. [5]

Cast roster

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Quinn was credited for 10 of the season's 20 episodes and Wolf was only credited for the third episode of the season and left afterwards. This is also the final season in which featured players are only credited in certain episodes. Starting with season 24, featured players are credited for every single episode of the season, whether they appear or not.

Writers

Adam McKay, who had joined the writing staff at the start of the previous season, became head writer alongside Tim Herlihy. [6] While Steve Higgins (who was also promoted to producer) and Fred Wolf remained on the writing staff. Robert Carlock and Stephen Colbert [7] joined the writing staff for this season.

Additionally, former writer Robert Smigel (who previously wrote for the show from 1985 to 1993) returned to the writing staff to produce the "TV Funhouse" cartoons. [8]

Wolf (who joined the writing staff in 1993) left the show after the Bill Pulman-hosted episode after about three calendar years. [9]

This was Norm Hiscock's final season as a writer. Hiscock (joining the writing staff in 1994) departed from the series after three seasons. [10] Hiscock was one of the few writers who survived the writer/cast overhaul after season 20 in 1995.

Episodes

No.
overall
No. in
season
HostMusical guestOriginal release date
4071 Tom Hanks Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers September 28, 1996 (1996-09-28)

4082 Lisa Kudrow Sheryl Crow October 5, 1996 (1996-10-05)

4093 Bill Pullman New Edition October 19, 1996 (1996-10-19)

4104 Dana Carvey Dr. Dre October 26, 1996 (1996-10-26)

4115 Chris Rock The Wallflowers November 2, 1996 (1996-11-02)

  • The Wallflowers perform "One Headlight".
  • Credited Featured Players: (none)
  • Dana Carvey makes a guest appearance, most notably as George H. W. Bush, who tells Norm Macdonald's Bob Dole to give up hope on the 1996 election. Carvey also appeared as Charles Grodin in a parody of "The Charles Grodin Show".
  • Cameo by Abe Vigoda in "The Charles Grodin Show" skit
  • Show writer Stephen Colbert appears in the Excedril commercial parody.
4126 Robert Downey Jr. Fiona Apple November 16, 1996 (1996-11-16)

4137 Phil Hartman Bush November 23, 1996 (1996-11-23)

  • Bush performs "Swallowed" and "Insect Kin".
  • Rodney Dangerfield appears on Weekend Update.
  • Credited Featured Players: (none)
  • Cliff Robertson appears in the pre-filmed "Lux 420SL" commercial parody.
  • Hartman once again brings back his impersonation of Frank Sinatra on "The Joe Pesci Show" sketch.
  • This was Hartman's second and last hosting appearance on SNL before his death on May 28, 1998.
4148 Martin Short No Doubt December 7, 1996 (1996-12-07)

  • No Doubt performs "Don't Speak" and "Excuse Me Mr."
  • Chevy Chase makes a cameo appearance during a sketch featuring Short's Ed Grimley character.
  • Credited Featured Player: Colin Quinn
  • First appearance of the Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch. The episode re-aired in November 2020 following the passing of Alex Trebek, with a clip of Trebek in a Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch from a future season following the original sketch
4159 Rosie O'Donnell Whitney Houston December 14, 1996 (1996-12-14)

41610 Kevin Spacey Beck January 11, 1997 (1997-01-11)

41711 David Alan Grier Snoop Doggy Dogg January 18, 1997 (1997-01-18)

41812 Neve Campbell David Bowie February 8, 1997 (1997-02-08)

41913 Chevy Chase Live February 15, 1997 (1997-02-15)

  • Live performs "Lakini's Juice" and "Heropsychodreamer".
  • Credited Featured Player: Colin Quinn
  • As mentioned above, the episode marks the final hosting by Chase as of 2024; he was believed to have been banned from doing so again due to his longtime difficulties performing with the cast, with the final straw being an alleged incident in which he slapped Cheri Oteri in the head after she messed up a line during dress rehearsals for the "7 Action News" sketch.
42014 Alec Baldwin Tina Turner February 22, 1997 (1997-02-22)

42115 Sting Veruca Salt March 15, 1997 (1997-03-15)

  • Veruca Salt performs "Shutterbug".
  • Sting performs "My One & Only Love".
  • Credited Featured Player: Colin Quinn
  • Sting's wife Trudie Styler appears during the "Audition" sketch.
  • Mark Hamill appears during the "Shopping at Home Network" sketch.
42216 Mike Myers Aerosmith March 22, 1997 (1997-03-22)

42317 Rob Lowe Spice Girls April 12, 1997 (1997-04-12)

  • Spice Girls perform "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There".
  • During the "Joe Pesci Show" sketch with Jim Breuer playing Pesci and Colin Quinn portraying Robert De Niro, the real Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro make cameo appearances.
  • During Weekend Update, Norm MacDonald coughs during one of the stories and says "The fuck was that?" He quickly laughs it off and jokes "My farewell performance." When he signs off at the end of Weekend Update, he says "Maybe I'll see you next week."
  • Credited Featured Player: Colin Quinn
42418 Pamela Anderson Rollins Band April 19, 1997 (1997-04-19)

  • Rollins Band performs "Starve".
  • Credited Featured Players: (none)
  • Anderson's then-husband, rocker Tommy Lee, appeared as himself in the "Movie Shoot" sketch and "Hey, Remember The 80s" sketch.
42519 John Goodman Jewel May 10, 1997 (1997-05-10)

42620 Jeff Goldblum En Vogue May 17, 1997 (1997-05-17)

References

  1. Kennedy, Michael (March 12, 2022). "Saturday Night Live: Everyone Banned From Performing & Why". ScreenRant. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  2. "'SNL' yanks Koechner, Walls, Spade". New York Daily News. September 10, 1996. p. D4. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  3. "'Saturday Night' starts season". Rome News-Tribune. September 5, 1996. p. 8-A. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  4. Wright, Megh (June 6, 2012). "Saturday Night's Children: Mark McKinney (1995-1997)". Vulture. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  5. Wright, Megh (September 11, 2014). "Saturday Night's Children: O'Hara, Hudson, Prager, and Wolf". Vulture. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  6. McKay, Adam (February 13, 2015). "Adam McKay: What It's Like to Write for 'SNL'". Rolling Stone . Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  7. "10 People You Didn't Know Were Writers On SNL". HowStuffWorks. February 24, 2016. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
  8. "Tom Hanks/Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers". Saturday Night Live. Season 22. Episode 1. September 28, 1996. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  9. "Bill Pulman/New Edition". Saturday Night Live. Season 22. Episode 3. October 19, 1996. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  10. "Jeff Goldblum/En Vogue". Saturday Night Live. Season 22. Episode 20. May 17, 1997. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.