Saturday Night Live (season 11)

Saturday Night Live (season 11)

Saturday Night Live aired its 11th season during the 1985-1986 television season on NBC. The season started on November 9, 1985 and ended on May 24, 1986, 18 episodes were produced.

Dick Ebersol left the show after the 1984-85 season, when the network refused his request to shut the program down entirely for six months and shift much of the material onto tape, not live broadcast. Once again, NBC briefly considered cancelling the show, but programming head Brandon Tartikoff (who was something of an SNL fan) decided to continue the show and re-hire erstwhile producer Lorne Michaels.

In some ways the job Michaels returned to was more challenging than the one he took on in 1975. For starters, Michaels' "golden boy" reputation was somewhat tarnished. His most recent effort, the previous season's The New Show confused critics and was ignored by audiences. Also, the 1984-1985 season had been a critical and ratings hit, generating memorable characters and stand-out performers. However, Michaels would not be the only member of the old guard to return: original writers Al Franken and Tom Davis would return as producers, and Jim Downey would be head writer. Fans and critics welcomed Michaels and many of the original producers and writers back, calling it a return to the show's roots.

With Ebersol's cast and writers gone, Michaels went out to find the rest of his staff. He hired Academy Award nominee Randy Quaid, best known for his work in The Last Detail and National Lampoon's Vacation, as well as Joan Cusack and Robert Downey, Jr. Milestones included the first black female regular, Danitra Vance (Yvonne Hudson had been a featured player in 1980 and appeared in uncredited bit parts from 1978 to 1980), Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay male cast member (and one of Jean Doumanian's writers during the show's 1980-1981 season), and Anthony Michael Hall, yet another fresh face from Hollywood, who had appeared with Quaid in Vacation and starred in The Breakfast Club earlier that year; At 17 years old, Hall was the youngest male cast member, beating out Eddie Murphy, who was only 19 when he joined SNL during Jean Doumanian's turbulent, short-lived era. Rounding out the cast were unknowns: stand-up comedians Dennis Miller and Damon Wayans and improv comedians Nora Dunn and Jon Lovitz. Don Novello, another member of the old guard, would also return as his popular Father Guido Sarducci character. Writer A. Whitney Brown was also added to the cast mid-season.

Wayans, unhappy with the parts he had been getting, decided to play the minor police officer character he'd been assigned in one sketch as gay, though it did not fit the role. For this, Michaels fired him.

Saturday Night News was changed back to its old name Weekend Update with this season. Miller, who performed in relatively few sketches (and even fewer as the years went by), became known for bringing his stand-up wit to the sketch becoming the most memorable anchor since Chevy Chase back in 1975.

The new cast failed to connect with audiences, due to the cast's inexperience in comedy. The show also featured a frustrated writing crew (that featured future Simpsons writers Jon Vitti, George Meyer, and John Swartzwelder), that didn't know how to write sketches for such an eclectic cast. Tartikoff planned to cancel SNL after its season finale in May 1986; Michaels, however, pleaded with Tartikoff to let the show go on, provided that Lorne find better-suited cast members for the next season.

"Weekend Update" proved to be a highlight in a season plagued by harsh criticism, low Nielsen ratings, and rumors of a possible cancellation. The only people to return to the show in the following season would be Brown, Dunn, Lovitz and Miller.

Notable moments of season included when Chevy Chase hosted the show. Chase was not popular with the cast and crew and, according to the book "Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live," Chase pitched an idea for a sketch that featured Sweeney as a person with AIDS who is weighed by a doctor to see how much weight he lost.

Another notable moment of the season was in the episode hosted by George Wendt. During the show, Francis Ford Coppola appeared in between sketches where he, Michaels and Sweeney try to fix up SNL to boost the show's sagging ratings by turning creative control over to Coppola. With the exception of the "Who Shot C.R.?" storyline back in season six, this episode marks the series' only attempt at extending a plot throughout an episode, as Oscar-winner Coppola turns out to be an incompetent director.

In the season finale, Michaels invited Wayans back to perform stand up on the show, even though he had been fired from the show two months prior. Also, in the final sketch, Billy Martin is shown dumping gasoline around the studio and then setting it on fire. The entire cast is shown to be trapped in a room as a parody of TV show cliffhangers. Credits rolled with question marks on each name, signaling that the viewer didn't know which cast members would be returning the next season. Cast members were angered by an ending added to the sketch, in which Michaels has the opportunity to rescue the cast from the fire, but chooses to save only Lovitz.