Saturday Night Live aired its 12th Season during the 1986 - 1987 television season on NBC. The 12th Season started on October 11, 1986 with host Sigourney Weaver, the 11th anniversary of the show's first episode, and ended on May 23, 1987, with host Dennis Hopper and musical guest Roy Orbison.
The season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, reading a "statement" from NBC about season 11's mediocre writing and bad cast choices. According to the "statement", the entire 1985–86 season was "... all a dream. A horrible, horrible dream."
The season included "Mastermind", a skit written by Jim Downey and Al Franken, in which Phil Hartman portrayed two sides of Ronald Reagan; 25 years later Todd Purdum called the skit "surely among the show's Top 10 of all time".
A new logo was introduced for this season: it consisted of a yellow square and a small black rectangle; the yellow square had "SATURDAY" and "LIVE" in it; between them was a black rectangle with the word "NIGHT" in it. It was used only until the following season.
Also, during this season, singer David Johansen made several guest appearances as his famous persona, Buster Poindexter joined the Saturday Night Live Band for part of the season.
Most of Season 11's cast members were fired, except for A. Whitney Brown, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller. Al Franken was rehired as a writer. Al Franken also appeared in several episodes but was not credited as a cast member this season. The new cast members included Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon (Nealon was brought on as a featured player). Phil Hartman helped write sketches in Season 11's Thanksgiving episode hosted by Pee-wee Herman, and appeared in a sketch as a Pilgrim. Jan Hooks had auditioned for the show twice, firstly for Season 10, but lost to Pamela Stephenson and the second time for Season 11, but lost to Joan Cusack.
Cast[]
Repertory[]
 Dana Carvey |
 Nora Dunn |
 Phil Hartman |
 Jan Hooks |
 Victoria Jackson |
 Jon Lovitz |
 Dennis Miller |
Featured[]
 A. Whitney Brown |
 Kevin Nealon |
List of Episodes[]
‡ Buster Poindexter is credited as a member of the Saturday Night Live Band in these episodes.
| Air Date | Host | Musical Guest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 11, 1986‡ | Sigourney Weaver (did not do music on the show) | Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon's first episode as cast members. Madonna appears in the cold opening to read a statement saying the previous season "was all a dream... a horrible, horrible dream." | |
| October 18, 1986‡ | Malcolm-Jamal Warner | Run-DMC | Guest appearances are made by stand-up comedian Sam Kinison and Spike Lee as his Mars Blackmon character from She's Gotta Have It. |
| November 8, 1986 | Rosanna Arquette | Ric Ocasek | This episode was actually filmed two weeks beforehand, but delayed due to NBC's broadcast of the that year's World Series (the legendary Game 6) between the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox; the aired opened with a segment in which Mets pitcher Ron Darling playfully apologized for the delay. |
| November 15, 1986‡ | Sam Kinison | Lou Reed | Guest appearance by Seka. |
| November 22, 1986 | Robin Williams | Paul Simon | Guest appearance by Art Garfunkel. |
| December 6, 1986 | Chevy Chase Steve Martin Martin Short |
Randy Newman | Guest appearance by Eric Idle. |
| December 13, 1986‡ | Steve Guttenberg | The Pretenders | Guest appearances by Penn & Teller. |
| December 20, 1986‡ | William Shatner | Lone Justice | Guest appearance by comedian Kevin Meaney. |
| January 24, 1987‡ | Joe Montana & Walter Payton | Deborah Harry | |
| January 31, 1987 | Paul Shaffer | Bruce Hornsby & The Range | |
| February 14, 1987‡ | Bronson Pinchot | Paul Young | Guest appearance by Paulina Porizkova. |
| February 21, 1987 | Willie Nelson | Guest appearance by Danny DeVito. | |
| February 28, 1987 | Valerie Bertinelli | The Robert Cray Band | Bertinelli's then-husband Eddie Van Halen appears in a sketch and plays with the SNL Band. Guest appearance by Eddie Newman. |
| March 21, 1987 | Bill Murray | Percy Sledge | |
| March 28, 1987 | Charlton Heston | Wynton Marsalis | This episode features a short film by Ben Stiller. |
| April 11, 1987 | John Lithgow | Anita Baker | |
| April 18, 1987 | John Larroquette | Timbuk 3 | |
| May 9, 1987 | Mark Harmon | Suzanne Vega | |
| May 16, 1987 | Garry Shandling | Los Lobos | Tracey Ullman appears in the filmed Hollywood Mom sketch. Nell Campbell appears in Tenny Cafe. A number of sketches had Shandling breaking the fourth wall, referring to the style of the then-airing It's Garry Shandling's Show. |
| May 23, 1987 | Dennis Hopper | Roy Orbison | |
Births[]
- Noël Wells (December 23, 1986)
- Aidy Bryant (May 7, 1987)
- Abby Elliott (June 16, 1987)
- Melissa Villaseñor (October 9, 1987)
- Jay Pharoah (October 14, 1987)
Opening montage[]
S12
Opening sequence would also be used in season 13
Gallery[]
[]
| Preceded by: Season 11 |
Season 12 (1986— 1987) |
Followed by: Season 13 |
| Seasons | |
|---|---|