Season 21

“ Get off the damn shed! ”

—Will Ferrell in the role he used to audition, September 30, 1995

Season 21
Premier	September 30, 1995
Finale	May 18, 1996
Episodes	20
Weekend Updateanchors	Norm MacDonald
Previous	Season 20
Next	Season 22

Season 21 of Saturday Night Live began on September 30, 1995 with host Mariel Hemingway and musical guest 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.

Most of the cast had left or been fired from the previous season: 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.

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. Fred Wolf was hired in April as a featured player

This is the final season for longtime cast member David Spade, who had been on the show since 1990, a total of 6 seasons. This is also the only season for first-year repertory players David Koechner and Nancy Walls, as they both would let go after the finale.

Cast

Repertory

     

     

     

   

Featured

     

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

Date	Host(s)	Musical Guest(s)	Notes
September 30, 1995	Mariel Hemingway	Blues Traveler	Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Darrell Hammond, David Koechner, Cheri Oteri and Nancy Walls's first episode as cast members.
October 7, 1995	Chevy Chase	Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
October 21, 1995	David Schwimmer	Natalie Merchant
October 28, 1995	Gabriel Byrne	Alanis Morissette
November 11, 1995	Quentin Tarantino	The Smashing Pumpkins
November 18, 1995	Laura Leighton	Rancid
December 2, 1995	Anthony Edwards	Foo Fighters
December 9, 1995	David Alan Grier	Silverchair
December 16, 1995	Madeline Kahn	Bush
January 13, 1996	Christopher Walken	Joan Osborne
January 20, 1996	Alec Baldwin	Tori Amos
February 10, 1996	Danny Aiello	Coolio	Cameo by Chris Farley
February 17, 1996	Tom Arnold	Tupac Shakur	David Spade is dropped from the opening montage
February 24, 1996	Elle MacPherson	Sting	Don Pardo is absent for this episode
March 16, 1996	John Goodman	Everclear	Chris Kattan and Colin Quinn are added as featured players; the first featured players of the season.
March 23, 1996	Phil Hartman	Gin Blossoms	David Spade returns.
April 13, 1996	Steve Forbes	Rage Against The Machine	RATM was banned from the show for their conduct during this episode; Fred Wolf is added as featured player.
April 20, 1996	Teri Hatcher	Dave Matthews Band	Cameo by Steve Higgins
May 11, 1996	Christine Baranski	The Cure
May 18, 1996	Jim Carrey	Soundgarden	David Spade's final episode as a cast member, after six years. David Koechner and Nancy Walls' last episode, as they would let go after just one season.

Opening montage

S21

Navigation

Preceded by: Season 20

Season 21 (1995— 1996)

Followed by: Season 22