Season 21 of Saturday Night Live began on September 30, 1995 with host Mariel Hemingway and musical guests Blues Traveler and ended on May 18, 1996 with host Jim Carrey and musical guest Everclear. Most of the cast were new hires, with mass firings having followed the previous season. This season did not include any featured players until March 16, 1996, and like earlier seasons, the featured players were only credited for episodes in which they appeared. David Spade is also missing from three episodes in the middle of the season.
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: 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.
Lenny Pickett also took over for G.E. Smith as leader of the Saturday Night Live Band.
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 Nancy Walls and David Koechner. 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 writer Colin Quinn, also joined the cast as featured players for the six final 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.
This would be the final season for longtime cast member David 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, due to NBC executive meddling. McKinney was also on the chopping block, but ultimately remained the enxt season.[1][2]
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
Featured Players[]
Changes[]
- Chris Kattan: First March 16
- Colin Quinn: First March 16
- Fred Wolf: First April 13
- David Spade: Not credited February 17-March 16
Episodes[]
Opening montage[]
S21
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| Preceded by: Season 20 |
Season 21 (1995— 1996) |
Followed by: Season 22 |
| Seasons | |
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