Saturday Night Live season 13

Saturday Night Live
Season 13
No. of episodes	13
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17) – February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27)
Season chronology

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 were minimal there were, however, major events that impeded the show's production. During production of the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H during dress rehearsal.

Despite plans to cancel the show for the week, Steve Martin (the episode host) pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal.

On March 7, 1988, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, cancelling many planned episodes (and ultimately cutting the season short), including one originally planned to be hosted by original cast member Gilda Radner. (After Radner discovered that her ovarian cancer had returned by the end of 1988, she would never get the chance to host the show as she died the following May [the day of the following season's finale] from the disease.) The host for the March 12, 1988 broadcast (the first episode to be cancelled due to the strike of 1988) was never confirmed.

Cast

Minimal changes occurred before the beginning of the season. Kevin Nealon was promoted to repertory status.

Cast roster

Repertory cast members

• Dana Carvey
• Nora Dunn
• Phil Hartman
• Jan Hooks
• Victoria Jackson
• Jon Lovitz
• Dennis Miller
• Kevin Nealon

Featured cast members

• A. Whitney Brown

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § season 13

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

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

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
234	1	Steve Martin	Sting	October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17)
235	2	Sean Penn	LL Cool J & Michael Penn	October 24, 1987 (1987-10-24)
236	3	Dabney Coleman	The Cars	October 31, 1987 (1987-10-31)
237	4	Robert Mitchum	Simply Red	November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14)
238	5	Candice Bergen	Cher	November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21)
239	6	Danny DeVito	Bryan Ferry	December 5, 1987 (1987-12-05)
240	7	Angie Dickinson	Buster Poindexter David Gilmour	December 12, 1987 (1987-12-12)
241	8	Paul Simon	Linda Ronstadt	December 19, 1987 (1987-12-19)
242	9	Robin Williams	James Taylor	January 23, 1988 (1988-01-23)
243	10	Carl Weathers	Robbie Robertson	January 30, 1988 (1988-01-30)
244	11	Justine Bateman	Terence Trent D'Arby	February 13, 1988 (1988-02-13)
245	12	Tom Hanks	Randy Travis	February 20, 1988 (1988-02-20)
246	13	Judge Reinhold	10,000 Maniacs	February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27)

Canceled episodes with booked guests

Airdate	Host	Musical Guest	Comments
May 14, 1988	Gilda Radner	U2	Gilda Radner was an original cast member. She was planned to host, but her episode was cancelled due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike. She would never get a 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 didn't happen until Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted on May 13, 2006. U2 would perform on the show on December 9, 2000.