![]() ![]() You may be noticing a theme with those actors. The 1985-86 cast would feature a fair amount of people who would go on to have prolific acting careers after their departure from SNL, including Randy Quaid, Joan Cusack, Anthony Michael Hall, and Robert Downey, Jr., all of whom would leave after just one season on the show. Once again, however, the show would start fresh with an entirely new cast, and just like five years earlier, there were difficulties finding people who fit the mold of the show. At that point, the show was coming off a great year, with the “celebrity” cast of 1984-85, which featured Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Michael McKean. Dick Ebersol would be the show’s executive producer for the next four years, and the show would improve considerably, mostly due to the talents of Eddie Murphy, the lone comedic stand-out of the 1980-81 season,Īfter five years away, Lorne Michaels returned as the executive producer for the 1985-86 season. The show would air just two more episodes that season, and Jean Doumanian was fired. At the end of the episode, Tilton asked Rocket how he felt about being shot, and he responded “I’d like to know who the f*ck did it.”Įven these days, f-bombs on the air aren’t received well by the network, but with SNL already hanging by a thread, NBC brought down the hammer. The writers naturally decided to parody that show’s “Who Shot J.R.” storyline with an episode-length bit called “Who Shot C.R.,” in which cast member Charles Rocket is shot. That night’s show was hosted by Charlene Tilton, best known for her work on Dallas. This was sadly typical of sketches during this season, but the show was mostly stumbling along without too much incident until Feb. The silence from the audience is deafening. Apparently, the writers thought the concept of Jack the Stripper instead of Jack the Ripper would be enough to carry a sketch without any real jokes. It aired in the second episode of the 1980-81 season, and it drags on for six minutes with nary a laugh in sight. The sketch in the above video is “Jack the Stripper,” one of the more infamous sketches from this cursed year. It didn’t take long before the wheels started to come off, and SNL was nothing like the irreverent show viewers had loved for the previous five seasons. Hey, when SNL started, it starred a bunch of no-name actors, so surely a new bunch of fresh-faced kids without much TV experience would have similar success, right? Well, not so much. Perhaps more importantly, the entire cast left along with him. But after the fifth season, Lorne left, and Jean Doumanian was brought in as the new executive producer. Let’s look at the stories behind those seasons:ġ980-81 – The Not Ready For Not Ready For Primetime PlayersĬonsidering how much Lorne Michaels is associated with SNL now, it’s strange to think that their would ever be a time when the show could exist without him. ![]() Specifically, there are three seasons in that people think of when they think of SNL at its worst. Saturday Night Live‘s big 40th anniversary special is airing this Sunday, and while the show has given us tons of laughs over the years, not all of its 40 seasons have been highly regarded among critics. ![]()
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