The thirty-eighth season of Saturday Night Live premiered on September 15, 2012 and concluded it on May 18, 2013. Longtime cast members Kristen Wiig and Andy Samberg, both of whom had been on the show for seven seasons since 2005, had left at the end of the previous season. Following Samberg and Wiig's departures, Abby Elliott was let go after four seasons on the show since 2008.
This is the first season for Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong as cast members, and the only season for Tim Robinson, who joined at the start of the season and moved to the writers' room for season 39. Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam and Jay Pharoah were all upgraded to repertory status, while Kate McKinnon remained a featured player.
This would be the final season for longtime cast members Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and longtime writer Jim Downey.[1] Armisen had been on the show for 11 seasons since 2002, Sudeikis, and Hader, the latter two of whom had been on for 8 since 2005. Downey had writen for the show for 30 seasons, on-and-off since 1977, during the second half of the show's second season.
Cast[]
Repertory Players[]
Featured Players[]
Episodes[]
Trivia[]
- Upright Citizens Brigade Theater performers Josh Patten and Neil Casey joined the writing staff.
- Two election-themed episodes of the spin-off Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, which aired on September 20, 2012 and September 27, 2012.
- Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck become the newest members of the Five-Timers Club, with the former being the youngest member of the club, as of 2013.
- Christoph Waltz was the first German-speaking host on Saturday Night Live.
Opening montage[]
S38
The departures of Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, and the promotions of three cast members called for a refreshed opening montage. The opening montage changed the Saturday Night Live logo to blue and featured a plethora of New York City b-roll along with geometrical transitions into photos of the cast - a change from the montage sequence used from Season 35 to Season 37 which used video clips.
The intro had gone through changes throughout the first few episodes of the season. This included: tweaking the title animation, cast photo retakes, a swap of the b-roll used behind the musical guest and host, a new ending transition shot of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the removal and reorder of b-roll, and cleaner animations. These changes had been made between the first and second episodes of the season with a musical tempo adjustment being made subsequently for the third episode.
For three episodes in this season, Don Pardo would be unable to make new musical guest and host announcements as he had sustained an injury. For the first episode without Pardo (February 16, 2013), cast member Bill Hader would impersonate him for the musical guest and host announcements, while pre-recorded announcements were used for cast members. Later, former cast member Darrell Hammond would be invited to replace Bill Hader for the remaining two episodes (March 2, 2013 and March 9, 2013). For these episodes, Hammond also made cast announcements. For Season 40, Hammond would be hired as the full-time announcer for SNL in response to Pardo's death over the 2014 summer hiatus.
Gallery[]
References[]
Deaths[]
Tom Davis (July 19, 2012)
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| Preceded by: Season 37 |
Season 38 (2012— 2013) |
Followed by: Season 39 |
| Seasons | |
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