October 1, 2005 Season 31 episode
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| Episode | 586 |
| Season Episode | 1 |
| Host | Steve Carell |
| Musical Guest(s) | Kanye West |
| Song(s) performed by Musical Guest(s) |
"Gold Digger" "Touch The Sky"(medley) "Heard Em Say" |
| Previous Episode May 21, 2005 |
Next Episode October 8, 2005 |
The 586th episode of Saturday Night Live and the season premiere of Season 31 premiered on October 1, 2005, hosted by actor and comedian Steve Carell, star of the NBC hit series The Office and the musical guest was Kanye West, who performed a medley of "Gold Digger" and "Touch The Sky" for the first performance and was joined by Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine to perform "Heard Em Say" for the second performance. West also appeared in the Backstage sketch right before his first performance. Steve Carell made his hosting debut on SNL, and this is the both the SNL (and musical guest) debut for Kanye West.
This marked the first episode for Bill Hader and Andy Samberg as cast members.
This is also the first episode of Saturday Night Live to be broadcast in HD format.
Cast[]
Repertory[]
- Fred Armisen
- Rachel Dratch
- Tina Fey †
- Will Forte
- Darrell Hammond
- Seth Meyers
- Finesse Mitchell
- Chris Parnell
- Amy Poehler
- Maya Rudolph
- Horatio Sanz
- Kenan Thompson
Featured[]
- Bill Hader (First appearance)
- Andy Samberg (First appearance)
- Jason Sudeikis
† Credited, but did not appear
- Cameo by former cast member Mike Myers
- Musical appearance by Adam Levine
Sketches and Musical Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| White House Press Briefing Cold Open | George W. Bush (Will Forte) addresses executive branch woes at press conference. The first SNL sketch to ever be broadcast in high-defiition. | |
| Opening Montage | Same as the preceding season, but is now in high-definition. Also the first episode to credit Bill Hader and Andy Samberg as cast members. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status this season. | |
| Steve Carell's Monologue | Following his big-screen success as “The 40-Year Old Virgin”, Steve Carell sings about being in league with frat-packers Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, and others, as he hosted SNL for the first time. Also features Amy Poehler, Horatio Sanz and Kenan Thompson. | |
| Morgan Stanley | Morgan Stanley advisor (Will Forte) is client’s (Fred Armisen) surrogate disciplinarian. First appearance of Andy Samberg. | |
| Jet Blue Flight 292 | Onboard TV occupies a man (Steve Carell) & alarms his wife (Amy Poehler) on troubled Jet Blue flight. First appearance of Bill Hader; and the first sketch written by then-new writer Colin Jost. | |
| Anderson Cooper 360 | Anderson Cooper (Seth Meyers) reports from the floodwaters of New Orleans, as a barrage of inept celebrities build housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina. The debut of Hader's Al Pacino impression. | |
| The Needlers | Sally (Amy Poehler) and Dan Needler (Seth Meyers) argue with one another while having dinner with recently-engaged friends (Steve Carell, Rachel Dratch). | |
| Girls Gone Wild Katrina | Doug Stanhope (Jason Sudeikis) takes to the floodwaters of New Orleans to hand out rations and rescue Hurricane Katrina victims — aah, aah, aah! But only if those girls flash their boobs! | |
| Backstage | Behinds the scenes at Studio 8-H, Maya Rudolph worries that her pregnancy shows, while executive producer Lorne Michaels sweats out the possibility of Kanye West causing controversy during his performance. While heading for the stage, Kanye West runs into Mike Myers, whose life hasn’t been easy since they appeared together at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon. | |
| Kanye West performs “Gold Digger” & “Touch The Sky” | ||
| Weekend Update with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler |  |
Horatio Sanz substitutes for Tina Fey, who had recently gave birth to baby Alice at the time. Sanz also delivers an editorial about the genius of President Bush. Nightlife correspondent Finesse Mitchell comments on how he accidentally picked up a dude at a club recently. New featured players/cast members Bill Hader and Andy Samberg have an Impression-Off. |
| The Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour | “The Lundford” Twins (Fred Armisen, Steve Carell) Feel Good Variety Hour” returns with another unaired episod from 1967, featuring more unusual song and dance and Granny (Amy Poehler). | |
| Saturday TV Funhouse: Fun With Real Radio | In a Robert Smigel “Fun With Real Audio” cartoon, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts waffles his responses in a variety of odd situations. | |
| Kanye West and Adam Levine perform “Heard ‘Em Say” | ||
| Debbie Downer: Wedding Reception | At a wedding reception, Debbie Downer (Rachel Dratch) finds romance with like-minded Bob Bummer (Steve Carell). | |
| Goodnights and Closing Credits | Steve Carell thanked Kanye West, longtime former SNL cast member Mike Myers, Adam Levine, his family, and everyone, it's really a dream come true and he had a great time. |
Trivia[]
- Tina Fey does not appear in this episode because she was on maternity leave, she is still credited, however.
- Horatio Sanz fills in for Fey as Weekend Update co-anchor alongside Amy Poehler. Sanz is also the first Hispanic Update anchor.
- Starting with this episode, Seth Meyers (who had been a cast member since 2001) is promoted to Writing Supervisor this season, and is the sole writing supervisor for this half of the season.
- With this episode Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson have been promoted to repertory status.
- This is the first episode for future head writers Bryan Tucker and future cast member/Weekend Update anchor Colin Jost as writers.
- Longtime former cast member Mike Myers makes a guest appearance during the Backstage sketch spoofing his and West's joint appearance in A Concert for Hurricane Relief.
- This episode referenced JetBlue Flight 292, which was an incident involving an emergency landing in Los Angeles (during a flight from Long Beach to New York) due to a defective landing gear on the Airbus A320 involved in the flight.
- Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine joins West for his performance of Heard Em Say.
- This is the 2nd appearance of the Needlers.
- This is the 2nd and final appearance of The Lundford Twins Feel Good Variety Hour.
- This is the 5th appearance of Debbie Downer.
| Preceded by: May 21, 2005 |
Saturday Night Live episode | Followed by: October 8, 2005 |