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Saturday Night Live
Season 18
The title card for the eighteenth season of Saturday Night Live.
No. of episodes20
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 26, 1992 (1992-09-26) –
May 15, 1993 (1993-05-15)
Season chronology
← Previous
season 17
Next →
season 19
List of episodes

The eighteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993.

Cast

Many changes happened before the start of the season. Long-term cast member Victoria Jackson left the show after six seasons.[1] Newer cast members Beth Cahill and Siobhan Fallon were both fired.[1] Lorne Michaels did not hire any new cast members. Rob Schneider was upgraded to repertory status.[1] Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler and David Spade remained in the middle category. Melanie Hutsell was promoted to the middle category and Robert Smigel stayed a featured player.

Long-term cast member Dana Carvey would leave midseason; he originally planned to leave in the fall of 1992, but he ended up staying until the February 6, 1993 episode.[2][1][3] This would also be the final season for cast members Chris Rock and Robert Smigel.

After three years with the show, Rock quit at the end of the season, joining the much more diverse sketch comedy show In Living Color.[4][5][6] Of his time on SNL, Rock had been frustrated with his lack of creative freedom and air time.[7] In the oral history Live from New York, Rock said, "The good thing about me being on In Living Color, I got things on that had nothing to do with race. On SNL, I either had to play a militant or a hip-hop guy. If you watch my stand-up, race is ten minutes of an hour-long show. I talk about relationships, whatever. And Living Color allowed me to talk about other shit. I could do sketches about, you know, funny stores I was in."[8] Writer and featured player Smigel left to become the head writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien.[9]

This season was also home to one of SNL's most infamous moments: Sinéad O'Connor tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II at the end of her second singing performance.[10][11]

Cast roster

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § season 18

David Mandel (a future writer/producer of Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Veep) and Ian Maxtone-Graham (a future writer for The Simpsons) join the writing staff this season.[12]

Starting with the John Goodman-hosted episode, original-era writer Marilyn Suzanne Miller (who previously wrote for the first three seasons from 1975 to 1978; and again for the 1981-82 season) returns as a writer.

This season is more notable for being the final season for several longtime/veteran writers including Robert Smigel (who had been a writer for eight years since 1985), Jack Handey (who had been a writer for seven accumulative years since 1985, with the exception of season 12), Bonnie and Terry Turner, and Christine Zander (the later three of whom, had been writers for 6½ years since 1987).[13] (Although Smigel and Handey would return to the show in later seasons).

Then-head writer Jim Downey would blame the declining quality of the following seasons on all of the veteran writers departing.[14]

Episodes

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		HostMusical guest(s)Original air date
3271Nicolas CageBobby BrownSeptember 26, 1992 (1992-09-26)

  • Bobby Brown performs "Humpin' Around" and "Good Enough".[15][16] Bobby Brown also appeared in the "Queen Shenequa Show" sketch.
  • Jan Hooks appears in the cold open and the "Nightline" sketch.
  • Cher appears during "Weekend Update".
  • One of the final sketches of the night is a satire of the famous Murphy Brown episode that aired that week responding to Dan Quayle's comments. Lorne Michaels does a cold open to the camera explaining that Dan Quayle had, during their summer hiatus, criticized the Rob Schneider running character "Mr. Casual Sex", and they would now like to respond – the joke being that this character had never existed until that moment, though he has an introductory theme song. This is followed by a sketch of Mr. Casual Sex being criticized for his morality, followed by endless pedantic jokes about the spelling of potato, and culminating in Mr. Casual Sex being joined by an array of men who like casual sex to proudly stand up to Dan Quayle (a la the ending of the Murphy Brown episode).
3282Tim RobbinsSinéad O'ConnorOctober 3, 1992 (1992-10-03)

  • Sinéad O'Connor performs "Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home" and the Bob Marley song "War".[15][17]
  • After four minutes of a capella during Sinéad O'Connor's second song, "War", she exclaims "child abuse" several times and then holds up a picture of Pope John Paul II, and says, "Fight the real enemy," tearing the picture to pieces. During the earlier rehearsal taping, Sinéad O'Connor held up a picture of a starving African child before leaving the stage. Director Dave Wilson gave the order to not light up the audience applause light following "War," as he felt she had "railroaded" the crew and producers.[18] The segment, which aired nearly a decade before the world became fully aware of the prolific sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church, marked one of only a few times that a sketch or performance ended with a quiet studio.[10] NBC received 4,484 complaints about O'Connor, and 725 calls supporting her.[19]
  • Susan Sarandon appears during the goodnights.
3293Joe PesciSpin DoctorsOctober 10, 1992 (1992-10-10)

3304Christopher WalkenArrested DevelopmentOctober 24, 1992 (1992-10-24)

3315Catherine O'Hara10,000 ManiacsOctober 31, 1992 (1992-10-31)

3326Michael KeatonMorrisseyNovember 14, 1992 (1992-11-14)

3337SinbadSadeNovember 21, 1992 (1992-11-21)

3348Tom ArnoldNeil YoungDecember 5, 1992 (1992-12-05)

3359Glenn CloseThe Black CrowesDecember 12, 1992 (1992-12-12)

  • The Black Crowes performs "Sometimes Salvation" and "Non-Fiction".[15]
  • Jon Lovitz cameos during "Weekend Update".
  • Mary Beth Hurt appears in the "Lesbian Christmas Party" sketch.
  • Dana Carvey is absent from this episode.
33610Danny DeVitoBon JoviJanuary 9, 1993 (1993-01-09)

33711Harvey KeitelMadonnaJanuary 16, 1993 (1993-01-16)

33812Luke PerryMick JaggerFebruary 6, 1993 (1993-02-06)

  • Mick Jagger performs "Sweet Thing" and "Don't Tear Me Up".[15] He also appears on "Weekend Update" as Keith Richards and during the "Tampon Prince" sketch.
  • Jan Hooks (as Hillary Clinton) and Giorgio Armani (as himself) appear in the cold open.
  • Dana Carvey's final episode as a cast member.
  • This episode re-aired on March 9, 2019 as a tribute to Luke Perry, who had died five days earlier.
33913Alec BaldwinPaul McCartneyFebruary 13, 1993 (1993-02-13)

  • Paul McCartney performs "Get Out of My Way" and "Biker Like an Icon" from Off the Ground, as well as The Beatles song "Hey Jude".[15] Paul McCartney appears during the monologue, the "Mimic" sketch, "The Chris Farley Show" sketch, and "Weekend Update".
  • Linda McCartney performs alongside Paul McCartney during the musical segments and appears during "Weekend Update".
34014Bill MurrayStingFebruary 20, 1993 (1993-02-20)

34115John GoodmanMary J. BligeMarch 13, 1993 (1993-03-13)

  • Mary J. Blige performs "Reminisce" and "Sweet Thing".[15] Blige's mother Cora appears during the goodnights.
  • The Bravados appear during the monologue.
34216Miranda RichardsonSoul AsylumMarch 20, 1993 (1993-03-20)

34317Jason AlexanderPeter GabrielApril 10, 1993 (1993-04-10)

34418Kirstie AlleyLenny KravitzApril 17, 1993 (1993-04-17)

34519Christina ApplegateMidnight OilMay 8, 1993 (1993-05-08)

34620Kevin KlineWillie Nelson & Paul SimonMay 15, 1993 (1993-05-15)

Specials

TitleOriginal air date
"SNL Presidential Bash"November 1, 1992 (1992-11-01)
This special featured some of SNL's best political sketches throughout its 18-year run. Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman hosted the special as George Bush, Ross Perot and Bill Clinton, respectively. Sketches include "The Pepsi Syndrome", "Ask President Carter", "Debate '92", and "Stockdale's Joyride".
"2nd Annual Saturday Night Live Mother's Day Special"May 9, 1993 (1993-05-09)
A Mother's Day special featuring the SNL ensemble with their real-life mothers as well as a compilation of sketches from the 1992-93 season.[23] Includes guest appearances by David Dinkins, George Steinbrenner, Regis Philbin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Larry Gatlin, and Donald Trump.[24]

Coneheads film

Coneheads, a film based on the popular Coneheads sketches that appeared on the show in the 1970s, was released on July 23, 1993. Cast members Dan Aykroyd, Peter Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, Tim Meadows, Garret Morris, Kevin Nealon, Laraine Newman, Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Julia Sweeney all appear in the film. The film did not do well at the box office and was largely panned by critics.[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Shister, Gail (September 26, 1992). "Season starts for 'Saturday Night'". Star-News. Knight-Ridder Tribune News Services. p. 7B. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  2. ^ Shales & Miller 2002, p. 408.
  3. ^ "'Saturday Night Live' cast changing". New York Daily News. August 14, 1992. p. 9D – via Star-News.
  4. ^ Shales & Miller 2002, pp. 383–386.
  5. ^ Roberts, Andrew (November 1, 2014). "The Story Behind Chris Rock's Firing From 'Saturday Night Live'". UPROXX. Archived from the original on September 23, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  6. ^ Gadino, Dylan P. (November 3, 2011). "Chris Rock: Why I left Saturday Night Live". Laughspin. Archived from the original on September 4, 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  7. ^ "He looks at life with black humor". The Vindicator. Knight-Ridder Newspapers. March 14, 1993. p. E7. Retrieved July 4, 2024.
  8. ^ Shales & Miller 2002, p. 397.
  9. ^ Shales & Miller 2002, p. 395.
  10. ^ a b Shales & Miller 2002, pp. 369–372.
  11. ^ Gajanan, Mahita (July 26, 2023). "The Controversial SNL Performance That Made Sinéad O'Connor an Icon". TIME. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
  12. ^ "Nicholas Cage/Bobby Brown". Saturday Night Live. Season 18. Episode 1. September 26, 1992. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  13. ^ "Charles Barkley/Nirvana". Saturday Night Live. Season 19. Episode 1. September 25, 1993. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
  14. ^ Mink, Eric (September 25, 1993). "Talent turmoil at 'Saturday Night Live'". New York Daily News. Retrieved May 24, 2024 – via Record-Journal.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp. 124–127. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.
  16. ^ "Nicolas Cage: 09/26/92". SNL Transcripts. September 26, 1992.
  17. ^ "Tim Robbins/Sinéad O'Connor". Saturday Night Live. Season 18. Episode 2. October 3, 1992. NBC.
  18. ^ Shales & Miller 2002, pp. 369–371.
  19. ^ Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp. 264. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.
  20. ^ "Tom Arnold: 12/05/92". SNL Transcripts. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  21. ^ "ABC's 'Jackie' hosts 'SNL'". Variety. December 3, 1992. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  22. ^ "Kevin Kline: 05/15/93". SNL Transcripts. October 8, 2018.
  23. ^ "2nd Annual Saturday Night Live Mother's Day Special". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 6, 2013. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
  24. ^ "Mother's Day Special". Wilson Daily Times. May 11, 1993. p. 20 – via Newspaper Archives.
  25. ^ Uytdewilligen, Ryan (March 26, 2022). "Saturday Night Live's First Movie Failure: Why Coneheads Bombed". ScreenRant. Retrieved April 21, 2024.

Bibliography

  • Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (2002). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0316781466.
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