Saturday Night Live season 21

Saturday Night Live
Season 21
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 30, 1995 (1995-09-30) – May 18, 1996 (1996-05-18)
Season chronology

The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995, and May 18, 1996.

After the low ratings and negative reviews of the previous season, NBC executives necessitated significant changes for the show, including a major cast overhaul. Only five cast members from the previous season remained. New hires included Will Ferrell, Cheri Oteri, Darrell Hammond, Jim Breuer, David Koechner, and Nancy Walls. Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn joined as featured players.

History

The season was infamous for the Rage Against the Machine incident. On April 13, 1996, the band was the musical guest, and was scheduled to perform two songs. The show was hosted that night by ex-Republican presidential candidate and billionaire Steve Forbes. According to RATM guitarist Tom Morello, "RATM wanted to stand in sharp juxtaposition to a billionaire telling jokes and promoting his flat tax by making our own statement." To this end, the band hung two upside-down American flags from their amplifiers. Seconds before they took the stage to perform "Bulls on Parade", SNL and NBC sent stagehands in to pull the flags down. Following the removal of the flags during the first performance, the band was approached by SNL and NBC officials and ordered to immediately leave the building. Upon hearing this, bassist Tim Commerford reportedly stormed Forbes' dressing room, throwing shreds from one of the torn down flags.

Morello noted that members of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew, whom he declined to name, "expressed solidarity with our actions, and a sense of shame that their show had censored the performance."

Cast

Before the start of the season, most of the cast had left or been fired from the show. NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer said, "If you look at the past several seasons, we haven't had breakout performers like Dana Carvey or Billy Crystal. In the writing, we haven't had many of the great characters that people have enjoyed seeing in sketches in the past. The cast had gotten too large and, frankly, some of them seemed to regard 'Saturday Night Live' as what they did between theatrical films. The energy was off. Sometimes people seemed to be reading cue cards rather than doing a live show."

Only five cast members returned to the show from the previous season: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon, and David Spade. Although Spade returned to the show, he had more of a diminished role, very rarely appearing in sketches except for Spade in America, a Weekend Update segment hosted by Spade that debuted at the start of the season and was featured in all but five episodes. Shannon was upgraded to repertory status for this season.

Aside from Macdonald, McKinney, Meadows, Shannon, and Spade, the rest of the cast hired prior to the start of the season was entirely new. These included stand-up comedians Jim Breuer and Darrell Hammond; Groundlings alumni Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri; and Chicago-based comedians David Koechner and Nancy Walls. Breuer, Hammond, Ferrell, Oteri, Koechner, and Walls were all promoted to repertory status upon being hired.

Ferrell and Oteri's fellow Groundling Chris Kattan, along with newly hired staff writer Colin Quinn, also joined as featured players for the final six episodes of the season. In April, Quinn's fellow SNL writer Fred Wolf was hired to join the cast as a featured player for the last four episodes.

Newer cast members were restricted from filming movies during the season.

This would be the final season for longtime cast member Spade, who had been on the show since 1990, a total of 6 seasons. Spade had agreed to stay only a year so he could be a bridge between the old and new casts. Newcomers Koechner and Walls were also let go after this season.

Cast roster

Repertory players

• Jim Breuer
• Will Ferrell
• Darrell Hammond
• David Koechner
• Norm Macdonald
• Mark McKinney
• Tim Meadows
• Cheri Oteri
• Molly Shannon
• David Spade
• Nancy Walls

Featured players

• Chris Kattan (first episode: March 16, 1996)
• Colin Quinn (first episode credited: March 16, 1996)
• Fred Wolf (first episode: April 13, 1996)

bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § season 21

Jim Downey was removed as head writer as part of NBC executives' changes, but remained on the writing staff.

Steve Higgins (who was made head writer with Fred Wolf), Adam McKay, Paula Pell, Frank Sebastiano, and Colin Quinn joined the staff.

Episodes

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest	Original air date
387	1	Mariel Hemingway	Blues Traveler	September 30, 1995 (1995-09-30)
Blues Traveler performs "Run-Around" and "Hook". Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri and Nancy Walls' first episode as cast members. As mentioned in the Spade in America sketch, the original musical guest scheduled to appear on this episode was Prince (back when he was known as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince").
388	2	Chevy Chase	Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories	October 7, 1995 (1995-10-07)
Lisa Loeb performs "Do You Sleep?" and "Stay (I Missed You)". Mariel Hemingway appears during the "Braveheart" sketch. Don Novello appears as Father Guido Sarducci during Weekend Update.
389	3	David Schwimmer	Natalie Merchant	October 21, 1995 (1995-10-21)
Natalie Merchant performs "Wonder" with Jennifer Turner and "Carnival" with Turner and Katell Keineg. Schwimmer's Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow appeared in the opening monologue. Aniston also appeared during the Spade in America segment. Gary Coleman, Jimmie Walker and Barry Williams also appear in the opening monologue. Writer Colin Quinn appears as an extra in the "Standing in an Elevator" sketch.
390	4	Gabriel Byrne	Alanis Morissette	October 28, 1995 (1995-10-28)
Alanis Morissette performs "Hand in My Pocket" and "All I Really Want". Molly Shannon debuts her Mary Katherine Gallagher character. Writer Colin Quinn appears in the opening monologue as a dancing potato. Bill Bradley and Lamar Alexander appear during the cold open. Tom Glavine, Chrissie Hynde, Chipper Jones and Mark Wohlers appear in a pre-recorded Spade in America segment.
391	5	Quentin Tarantino	The Smashing Pumpkins	November 11, 1995 (1995-11-11)
The Smashing Pumpkins perform "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and "Zero". First Spartan Cheerleaders Episode. Robert Hegyes appears during the Spade in America segment.
392	6	Laura Leighton	Rancid	November 18, 1995 (1995-11-18)
Rancid performs "Roots Radicals" and "Ruby Soho". Leighton's Melrose Place co-star Grant Show appears in the "Cydney" sketch. Sam Waterston appears in the pre-recorded "Old Glory Insurance" sketch. Sean Penn appears in a pre-recorded Spade in America segment, where he gives David Spade a tattoo.
393	7	Anthony Edwards	Foo Fighters	December 2, 1995 (1995-12-02)
Foo Fighters perform "I'll Stick Around" and "For All the Cows". Jim Breuer debuts his recurring sketch The Joe Pesci Show.
394	8	David Alan Grier	Silverchair	December 9, 1995 (1995-12-09)
Silverchair performs "Tomorrow" and "Pure Massacre".
395	9	Madeline Kahn	Bush	December 16, 1995 (1995-12-16)
Bush performs "Comedown" and "Glycerine". Sam Waterston appears in the pre-recorded "Old Glory Insurance" sketch.
396	10	Christopher Walken	Joan Osborne	January 13, 1996 (1996-01-13)
Joan Osborne performs "One of Us". Rudolph Giuliani and George Pataki appeared in the cold open.
397	11	Alec Baldwin	Tori Amos	January 20, 1996 (1996-01-20)
Tori Amos performs "Caught a Lite Sneeze" and "Hey Jupiter". No Spade in America sketch. Features the first Bill Brasky sketch.
398	12	Danny Aiello	Coolio	February 10, 1996 (1996-02-10)
Coolio performs "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "Gangsta's Paradise" (the latter with L.V.). He also appears in the "Kevin Franklin Show" sketch. Chris Farley appears as a special guest during the "Spade in America" segment, promoting Farley and Spade's new film Black Sheep. Larry Brown appears during Weekend Update.
399	13	Tom Arnold	Tupac Shakur	February 17, 1996 (1996-02-17)
Tupac Shakur accompanied by Danny Boy and Roger Troutman performs "California Love" and "I Ain't Mad at Cha". Adam Sandler appears during Weekend Update, singing a song about his grandmother. No Spade in America sketch.
400	14	Elle Macpherson	Sting	February 24, 1996 (1996-02-24)
Sting performs "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" and "You Still Touch Me". Darrell Hammond filled in as announcer for an ailing Don Pardo (Hammond would later become the permanent announcer upon Pardo's death in 2014.) No Spade in America sketch.
401	15	John Goodman	Everclear	March 16, 1996 (1996-03-16)
Everclear performs "Santa Monica". Elle Macpherson made a cameo appearance during the monologue. Kurt Loder appears during the "MTV News" sketch. No Spade in America sketch. Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn's first episode as cast members.
402	16	Phil Hartman	Gin Blossoms	March 23, 1996 (1996-03-23)
Gin Blossoms perform "Follow You Down" and "Memphis Time". Hartman impersonates Frank Sinatra.
403	17	Steve Forbes	Rage Against the Machine	April 13, 1996 (1996-04-13)
Rage Against the Machine performs one song, "Bulls on Parade". Their second song was cut after the band attempted to hang inverted U.S. flags from its amplifiers, protesting host Steve Forbes, a Republican presidential candidate. Forbes' family appears onstage during the goodnights. No Spade in America sketch. Fred Wolf's first episode as a cast member.
404	18	Teri Hatcher	Dave Matthews Band	April 20, 1996 (1996-04-20)
Dave Matthews Band performs "Too Much" and "So Much to Say". Sam Waterston appears in the pre-recorded "Old Glory Insurance" sketch. The Spade in America sketch is performed by Teri Hatcher (as David Spade) and David Spade (as Teri Hatcher).
405	19	Christine Baranski	The Cure	May 11, 1996 (1996-05-11)
The Cure performs "Mint Car" and "In Between Days". Dennis Rodman made a cameo appearance in the cold open as Bob Dole's running mate, and then once again during Weekend Update. Jim Gaffigan appears during the pre-recorded "Fuzzy Memories" sketch.
406	20	Jim Carrey	Soundgarden	May 18, 1996 (1996-05-18)
Soundgarden performs "Pretty Noose" and "Burden in My Hand". First time "What Is Love" plays in the Roxbury Guys sketch as well as a third member's joining the brothers played by Jim Carrey. Last episode for stage manager Joe Dicso, who had been in that position since the show's 1975 inception. David Koechner, David Spade and Nancy Walls' final episode as cast members.

Works cited

• Gross, Cristofer (June 1997). "Prime Time?". Orange Coast Magazine. pp. 51–52, 55–57. Retrieved April 22, 2024.