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 September 28, 2013
 Season 39 episode
 Episode 746
 Season Episode 1
 Host Tina Fey
 Musical Guest(s) Arcade Fire
 Song(s) performed by
 Musical Guest(s)
"Reflektor"
"Afterlife"
Previous Episode
May 18, 2013
(Season 38)
Next Episode
October 5, 2013

The 746th episode of Saturday Night Live and the season premiere of Season 39 premiered on September 28, 2013, hosted by longtime former cast member and writer and Weekend Update co-anchor Tina Fey with musical guest Arcade Fire, who performed "Reflektor" and "Afterlife" and appeared in the "New Cast Member or Arcade Fire?" sketch. This is Tina Fey's 4th time as host, as well as the 3rd time as musical guest on SNL for Arcade Fire.

This marked the first episode for Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, writer Mike O'BrienNoël Wells, and Brooks Wheelan as cast members.

This is also the first episode to feature Cecily Strong as a Weekend Update co-anchor.

On the new episode Version, Tina says "Thanks To Arcade Fire, Aaron Paul, The Cast, Lorne, You Guys We Got Something to Say to You Guys Tonight the Network Is Letting Us Go Long Tonight, Arcade Fire Has a Show Tonight, So Don’t Go Anywhere, It’s About to Get Weird".

On Hulu, TV app and NBC app versions, she says "Thanks To Arcade Fire, Aaron Paul, Everybody Here Thank You Very Much Goodnight".

Cast[]

Repertory Players[]

Featured Players[]

Cameo by Aaron Paul

Sketches and Musical Performances[]

 Cold Open   Sketch   Pre-recorded   Weekend Update   Music Performance   Other 

Title Image Summary
Affordable Care Act (Cold Opening) President Obama (Jay Pharaoh) defends and explains his universal healthcare plan. The President has a number of ordinary Americans help him in advocating for the legislation. Each does a worse job. With Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman. First appearance of Beck Bennett as a cast member.
Opening montage





Despite the multiple cast changes between this season and last, the intro is exactly the same from last season. Longtime cast members Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Jason Sudeikis, and first-year featured player Tim Robinson were all removed from the intro, since they all left the cast prior to this season. Additionally, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant were all promoted to Repertory Status, and Strong's photo in the montage is different, as well. Lastly, this is the first credit for new cast members Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Mike O'Brien, Noël Wells, and Brooks Wheelan.
Monologue by Tina Fey Returned to SNL to host for the fourth time, longtime former cast member, writer and Weekend Update co-anchor Tina Fey recaps all the classic characters from her tenure at SNL, like Queef Latina and Salvador Dali Parton. She then introduces the six new cast members and, as a rite of passage, embarrasses them by making them dance. First appearances of John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Mike O'Brien (as a credited cast member), Noël Wells, and Brooks Wheelan as cast members.
Girls This promo for the latest season of HBO's Girls features the newest character, Blerta (Tina Fey), who's an impoverished, sickly immigrant from Albania who just cannot sympathize with the girls' issues.
Airport Married couple (Beck Bennett, Kate McKimmon) wait patiently for airline clerks (Taran Killam, Tina Fey) to board more unusual passengers before them.
New Cast Member or Arcade Fire? Tina Fey tries to differentiate between recently hired members of the SNL cast and members of the band Arcade Fire. Many of the new cast members (Kyle Mooney, Noël Wells, and Mike O'Brien) try to interact with Tina only to be shouted down by game show host Kenan Thompson. Onscreen appearance by executive producer Lorne Michaels.
E-Meth In this commercial parody, meth addicts (Taran Killam, Brooks Wheelan, Kate McKinnon) promote a new electronic pipe that lets you smoke meth and ride the ice pony anywhere you want. With a special endorsement from Aaron Paul.
Arcade Fire performs “Reflektor”.
Weekend Update with Seth Meyers and Cecily Strong Cecily Strong's first episode co-anchoring Weekend Update. Meanwhile, Weekend Update veteran Tina Fey gives tips to new newsreader Cecily Strong; Hacky veteran stand-up Bruce Chandling (Kyle Mooney) plies well-worn material; and Drunk Uncle (Bobby Moynihan) bewails back-to-school season with Meth Nephew (Aaron Paul).
Cinema Classics Scenes from 1949’s “Unwanted Woman” feature lots of unnecessary focus on stuffed animals.
Rick's Model T's Rick (Mike O’Brien) of Rick’s Model T’s broadcasts the world’s first used car commercial with a little help from his crazy wife Daisy (Tina Fey).
Arcade Fire performs “Afterlife”.
Manolo Blahnik Vacuous ex-porn stars Brookie (Vanessa Bayer) and her frind (Cecily Strong) submit a commercial for free Manolo Blahniks shoes, with the help of former lesbian porn actress (Tina Fey).
Goodnights and Closing Credits Tina Fey thanked Arcade Fire, Aaron Paul, and everyone for being here.

Notes/Trivia[]

  • Lorne Michaels’ credit scrolls up when the first last 3 notes of the introduction of the goodnight's music was used. On On demand, TV app and NBC app versions, the cheers and applause track from the montage is used. On the TV app version, after the camera scrolls up to the clock, the screen fades out and the logos are absent. On Hulu and Sling versions, the cheers and applause track from the studio is used. On Hulu versions, after Nick Poyner’s credit, the I love ny, copyright notice and logos appear. On Sling versions, after film producer, the I love ny and copyright notice appear and after Win Butler says something to make the audience clap more, the logos appear. On other versions, the logos appear before it fades out.
  • This is Mikey Day's first episode as a writer.
  • This was also Michael Che's first episode as a full-time writer for SNL. He previously guess wrote for 4 episodes of the previous season: March 9, 2013, May 4, 2013, May 11, 2013, and May 18, 2013.
  • Before joining the cast, Mike O'Brien was a writer on the show for four seasons, and he returned to the writing staff the next season after getting kicked out the cast.
  • This is Tim Robinson's first episode as a staff writer, after being demoted from the cast at the end of the previous season.
  • Lastly, in terms of writers, starting with this episode, Rob Klein (who had been writing for the show since 2007) is named as one of the show's head writers.
  • This is also the first episode of the Seventh generation of SNL. Due to the 6 new cast members (with 2 of them being longtime cast members); McKinnon, Bryant, and Strong's promotions to Repertory Status, and more sketches being focused on them, as well as Seth Meyers' future departure (and then-head writer Colin Jost replacing him), and the overall longevity most of the players from this era (including a few from the next season) would have.

Credits[]

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: LORNE MICHAELS

PRODUCED BY: STEVE HIGGINS, ERIN KENWARD

DIRECTED BY: DON ROY KING

HEAD WRITERS: SETH MEYERS, COLIN JOST, ROB KLEIN

PRODUCERS: LINDSAY SHOOKUS, ERIN DOYLE

WRITTEN BY: JAMES ANDERSON, MICHAEL CHE, MIKEY DAY, STEVE HIGGINS, ZACH KANIN, CHRIS KELLY, ERIK KENWARD, LORNE MICHAELS, CLAIRE MULANEY, JOSH PATTEN, PAULA PELL, TIM ROBINSON, SARAH SCHNEIDER, PETE SCHULTZ, JOHN SOLOMON, KENT SUBLETTE

ADDITIONAL SKETCH BY: ROBERT CARLOCK

WRITING SUPERVISED BY: BRYAN TUCKER, MARIKA SAWYER

SUPERVISING PRODUCER: KEN AYMONG

FILM PRODUCER: RHYS THOMAS

WEEKEND UPDATE PRODUCED AND WRITTEN BY: ALEX BAZE

WEEKEND UPDATE PRODUCED BY: PETE SCHULTZ

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS: EUGENE LEE, AKIRA YOSHIMURA, KEITH ANN RAYWOOD, N. JOSEPH DETULLIO

LIGHTNING DESIGNER: PHIL HYMES

MUSICAL DIRECTORS: LENNY PICKETT, LEON PENDARVIS, ELI BRUGGEMANN

SKETCH MUSIC ADAPTATIONS: HAL WILLNER

COSTUME DESIGNERS: TOM BROECKER, ERIC JUSTIAN

COORDINATING PRODUCER: STACY FOSTER

CO-PRODUCERS: KEVIN MILLER, BRYAN SIEDLECKI, NICHOLAS MALLARDI, DINA MOLES

DIGITAL PRODUCER: RACHEL LYNN

PHOTOGRAPHER: MARY ELLEN MATTHEWS

E METH DIRECTED BY: MATT AND OZ

GIRLS PROMO DIRECTED BY: RHYS THOMAS

SCRIPT SUPERVISOR: JANINE DEVITO

SCRIPT COORDINATORS: CHRISTINE ARBULU, GREG SCANIRCI, CLAIRE SHIREY, ABIGAIL LEIBER, NERY RAMOS, MELISSA ROSEN, RACHEL LABIANCA

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: ADAM NICELY

WEEKEND UPDATE CO-PRODUCER: SCOTT WEINSTEIN

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: STEVEN CIMINO

TALENT EXECUTIVE: MATTHEW MCHUGH

TALENT COORDINATOR: JEFF BLAKE

ASSISTANT TO LORNE MICHAELS: LAURIE BERDAN

LIGHTNING DIRECTORS: GEOFF AMORAD, RICK MCCGUINNESS

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS: MICHAEL MANCINI, MICHAEL POOLE, BOB CAMINITI

STAGE MANAGERS: GINA ROSITANO, CHRIS KELLY

AUDIO: ROBERT PALLADINO, CHRIS MCKEVITT, CHRISTOPHER COSTELLO, PATRICIA REILLY

MUSIC MIX BY: JAY VINCARI

MUSIC EDITOR: MARTY BRUMBATCH

MUSIC SUPERVISOR: MELANIE MALONE

AUDIO POST PRODUCTION: DEVIN EMKE

SOUND EFFECTS: WILLIAM TAYLOR

VIDEO: FRANK GRISANTI, SUSAN NOLL

TECHNICAL MANAGER: STEVE DAURIO

STUDIO MANAGER: JIM BENJAMIN

CAMERAS: JOHN PINTO, PAUL CANGIALOSI, LEN WECHSLER, BARRY FRISCHER, ERIC A EINSTEIN

THE LIVE BAND

LEON PENDARVIS

CONDUCTOR: LENNY PICKETT

GRAPHICS SUPERVISOR: THOMAS WILSON

FILM RESEARCH COORDINATOR: JOHN MACDONALD

GRAPHICS COORDINATOR: SARA COURTNEY

WRITERS RESEARCH: NICK POYNER

CHOREOGRAPHY: DANIELLE FLORA

PRODUCTION ACCOUNTANT: CHRIS WILLIAMS

GRAPHICS: TARA DONNELLY, ROBERT SAMARTINO, DOUG ZIDER, BILL AFFATIGATO, EDMOND HAWKINS

ELECTRONIC GRAPHICS: CAROL COLLINGS PETER CESAR

ASSISTANTS: MEGAN CALLAHAN, ANNA WEINSTEN, CHLOE GORDON, SARAH IMMELT, DANA ENDELSON

TALENT ASSISTANTS: EAMON O’NEIL, GRACE SHAKER

OPENING TITLES DESIGNED BY: PENTAGRAM, NY

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY: JAMES SIGNIRELLI

FILM PRODUCER MANAGER: JUSTUS MCLARTY

FILM PRODUCTION: MELANIE BOGIN, KAITLIN KNUTSON, CHRIS VOSS

FILM EDITING: ADAM EPSTEIN

EDITORS: YANNI FEDER, JASON WATKINS, MATT YONKS

CUE CARDS: WALLY FERESTEIN, WILLIAM CLIFFORD

EVS: ED HINCH, PAUL SCRABO

SCENIC ARTISTS: MARK RUDOLF, HALINS MARKI

HAIR: BETTIE O. ROGERS, JODI MANCUSO, INGA THRASER

MUSIC BY: LOUIS ZAKARIAN

WARDROBE: DALE RICHARDS, DOUGLAS JAMES, TIM ALBERTS

PRODUCTION STAFF: SONIA ATANCHIO, LINDSEY CHARLES, JOSH HICKMAN, EMILY HOFFMAN, LAURA KESTER, GRANT LIPSHULTZ, JOSEPH LYNN, BLAKE ROSENBERG, LAURA VALK

SCENIC SHOP: STEIGELBAUER ASSOCIATES

ANNOUNCER: DON PARDO


Preceded by:
May 18, 2013
(Season 38)
Saturday Night Live episode Followed by:
October 5, 2013
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