Season 21
The twenty-first season began September 30, 1995 and ended on May 18, 1996. 20 episodes were produced. SNL once again dodged cancellation from season twenty's low ratings and scathing reviews about the show's decline in quality. Only five cast members: Norm Macdonald, Mark McKinney, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon and David Spade returned to the show from the previous season. This would be the final season for David Spade. Spade had agreed to stay only for a year so that he could be a bridge between the old and new casts. Newcomers David Koechner and Nancy Walls were also let go after this season.
Mariel Hemingway/Blues Traveler
Sketches include: ""OJ Today,"" ""Leg Up,"" ""The Taylors,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Long Phone Call,"" ""Nightline,"" ""Biography"".
Chevy Chase/Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
Sketches include: ""NFL on NBC,"" ""The Mark Fuhrman Show,"" ""Althea,"" ""Lobotol,"" ""The Blame Game,"" ""Jim Breuer and Braveheart,"" ""Spade in America,"" and ""Fuzzy Memories"".
David Schwimmer/Natalie Merchant
Sketches include ""Darius Rucker,"" ""Kids vs. Grownups,"" ""Rita Delvecchio,"" ""Fuzzy Memories,"" ""The Elevator,"" ""Secrets,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Slim Shannon,"" and ""Triumph Performers"".
Gabriel Byrne/Alanis Morissette
Sketches include: ""Halloween in New Hampshire,"" ""Grayson-Moorhead,"" ""Mary Katherine Gallagher,"" ""Cooking With Keith,"" ""Marshall Power Tools,"" ""Spade in America at the 1995 World Series,"" Fuzzy Memories, and ""Firing a Prison Guard.""
Quentin Tarantino/Smashing Pumpkins
Sketches include: ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""Old Glory Insurance,"" ""Clara Turley's Bible Challenge,"" ""Bill Clinton,"" ""Bug Off,"" ""Directors on Directing,"" and ""All Aboard"".
Laura Leighton/Rancid
Sketches include ""Air Force One,"" ""Psychic Reading,"" ""Midgets,"" and ""Spade in America.""
Anthony Edwards/Foo Fighters
Sketches include ""Inside Politics,"" ""Grimaldi's,"" ""The Joe Pesci Show,"" ""Nightline,"" ""Mary Katherine Gallagher,"" ""G-Dog Does the Nasty,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Turning Point,"" and ""Hulk Hogan Talk Show"".
David Alan Grier/Silverchair
Sketches include ""Nightline,"" ""Rocky Roads,"" ""The Today Show,"" ""Three Wise Men,"" ""Wake Up and Smile,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Black People,"" and ""Perspectives"".
Madeline Kahn/Bush
Sketches include ""Bosnian Goodwill Tour,"" ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""John-John Mackie,"" ""Giant Bird,"" ""Leg Up,"" ""Lucien and Fagin,"" ""Spade in America,"" and ""Wedding Vows"".
Christopher Walken/Joan Osborne
Live from New York, it's...Rudolph Giuliani Sketches include: ""Rudy Giuliani and George Pataki Apologize For SNL's Low Quality,"" ""Rita Delvecchio,"" ""Spade In America,"" ""The Continental,"" ""Fuzzy Memories,"" ""T-Bone The Executioner,"" ""Connie Stinston"", and ""Mary Katherine Gallagher's Dancing Fantasy"". Joan Osborne performs: ""One of Us""
Alec Baldwin/Tori Amos
Sketches include ""Nightline,"" ""The Joe Pesci Show,"" ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""Navy Guys,"" ""Talking About Bill Brasky,"" and ""Accidentally Shot by Hunters.""
Danny Aiello/Coolio
Sketches include ""Inside Politics,"" ""Spaghetti Sauce,"" ""The Kevin Franklin Show,"" ""Time Life's Valentine's Day Arguments,"" ""Althea,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Hi-C and Turkey,"" ""Martha Stewart Living,"" and ""Fuzzy Memories"".
Tom Arnold/Tupac Shakur
Sketches include ""Presidential Candidates,"" ""The Life We Lead/Channel 7 Action News,"" ""Ranger Ron and his Tree Slice,"" ""St. Gabriel's Annual Bake Sale,"" ""A Criminal and his Grandmother,"" and ""Drunk Surgeon.""
Elle MacPherson/Sting
Sketches include ""Presidential Candidates,"" ""Mary Katherine Gallagher,"" ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""Winston Graff,"" ""Stan Hooper,"" ""Dinner at Oliver's,"" and ""Australian Phone Sex.""
John Goodman/Everclear
Sketches include ""Suel Forrester,"" ""The Real World,"" ""Steve Forbes,"" and ""The Joe Pesci Show.""
Phil Hartman/Gin Blossoms
Sketches include ""Leg Up,"" ""Acting Class,"" ""Fuzzy Memories,"" ""Bug-Off,"" ""Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer,"" ""Petchow Rat Poison,"" ""Hollywood Minute With David Spade"".
Steve Forbes/Rage Against the Machine
Sketches include ""Class Reunion,"" ""Nightline,"" ""House Workers,"" ""Entering Penn State,"" ""Seattle Today,"" ""Greyson-Moore,"" ""Gibberish Sergeant,"" ""Fuzzy Memories,"" ""Steve Forbes and the Flies""
Teri Hatcher/Dave Matthews Band
Sketches include ""Kazinsky and his Lawyers,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""The Princess and the Homeboy,"" ""Romantic Music,"" and ""St. Gabriel's Women's Charity for the Needy.""
Christine Baranski/The Cure
Sketches include ""Bob Dole Press Conference,"" ""AM Ale,"" ""The Courtney Love Show,"" ""Get Off The Shed!,"" ""20 Years and One Week,"" ""Terminally Ill Amateur Singer,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""Rolf,"" ""Goat Boy,"" ""Personality Alteration,"" ""Lansing Phone Sex,"" ""Fuzzy Memories"".
Jim Carrey/Soundgarden
Sketches include: ""Nightline,"" ""Spartan Cheerleaders,"" ""Roxbury Guys,"" ""Overprotective Lifeguard,"" ""I'll See You In Hell,"" ""Spade in America,"" ""The Joe Pesci Show,"" and ""Jimmy Tango's Fat Busters"".
Avis de la communauté (1)
There were a lot of forgotten gems of sketches during this rebuilding year. After the previous season's embarrassing contribution to SNL history, this cast and writing staff were under a lot of pressure to redeem the show and raise ratings. In other behind the scenes drama, the West Coast network executive weasels of NBC had a lot of power in the network over the New York network executive weasels where Lorne Michaels had a lot more influence. He was forced to appease the West Coast executives and had to fire David Koechner and Nancy Walls despite their obvious talents. There are also some interesting stories about how Fred Wolfe and Steve Higgins ran the writing staff if you go back and listen to Mark Maron's meticulous interviews with former SNL cast members on his WTF! podcast. For example, one that I remember was how their computers were networked and Wolfe and Higgins could access all the writers' sketch ideas and thus seemed to have several incidents of "parallel thinking" wherein they happened to write a sketch that was exactly like something one of the others had been writing on their computers. Jim Breuer's stories about his experiences starting this year provide a lot of color to keep in mind should you go back and check out the season. I should also add this was Paula Pell's first year on staff. She created some of the most memorable charactersof all time brought to life by Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri, the Spartan Cheerleaders!