Saturday Night Live season 16

The sixteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 29, 1990, and May 18, 1991.

Cast

Extensive changes occurred before the start of the season. Nora Dunn and Jon Lovitz were both dropped from the show. Following her boycott of the episode hosted by Andrew Dice Clay the previous season, Dunn left the cast.

Before the season began, Lovitz requested time off so he could film Mom and Dad Save the World, which would cause him to miss the first several episodes of the season. Michaels refused, because he did not view this to be fair to the other cast members. Lovitz subsequently quit. However, he would make several cameo appearances throughout this season.

With Dunn and Lovitz gone, Michaels was put in an unusual situation. Most of the cast had been on the show for five seasons. He did not want to be put in the spot of having to replace the entire cast all at once (and to avoid repeating Jean Doumanian's mistake—and his previous mistake in the case of the season 11 cast—of hiring a cast of new, inexperienced cast members with little to no comedic chemistry). Instead, he promoted writers Rob Schneider and David Spade to the cast and hired Chris Farley, Chris Rock and Julia Sweeney.Template:Sfn He later hired Tim Meadows and Adam Sandler to the cast midseason.

Starting with this season, the cast was divided into three groups. A middle group was created, and this new category would be introduced with the word "with," following the introduction of the repertory players.Template:Sfn The first cast members added to the new group were Farley and Rock, with Meadows and Sweeney added midseason.

This season would also be the final season for Dennis Miller, Jan Hooks and A. Whitney Brown. Hooks left at the end of the season to join the show Designing Women, and Brown left the show midseason to move on to other acting opportunities. Miller, who also departed at the end of the season, was at the time the longest running anchor of Weekend Update, having done the job for six full seasons, until Seth Meyers broke the record in season 38. However, Miller still holds the record as the longest solo anchor of Weekend Update as Meyers was paired with Amy Poehler in his first three seasons on Weekend Update and Cecily Strong in his final season on the show.

Additionally, at the time of his departure, Miller was (briefly) the show's longest-tenured cast member (in the show's history), as he was the first cast member to stay on the show, for more than five seasons. However, several of his (former) castmates would pass that record over the next few years

Phil Hartman was also planning on leaving the show, but NBC convinced Hartman to stay on for a few more seasons by promising him his own comedy show, which was later scrapped. Hartman's third wife, Brynn, appears in this season's opening credits montage as the woman whom Hartman is speaking with in a restaurant booth.

Cast roster

Repertory players

• Dana Carvey
• Phil Hartman
• Jan Hooks
• Victoria Jackson
• Dennis Miller
• Mike Myers
• Kevin Nealon

Middle players

• Chris Farley
• Tim Meadows (first episode: February 9, 1991)
• Chris Rock
• Julia Sweeney (first episode: November 10, 1990)

Featured players

• A. Whitney Brown (final episode: March 16, 1991)
• Al Franken
• Adam Sandler (first episode: February 9, 1991)
• Rob Schneider (first episode: October 27, 1990)
• David Spade (first episode: November 10, 1990)

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

All performers in the "Middle Players" category were credited for every episode after they were introduced, whereas performers in the featured players were only credited in episodes in which they appear. Of the featured players, Rob Schneider is credited for 14 episodes, David Spade and Al Franken for eight episodes each, Adam Sandler for seven episodes, and A. Whitney Brown for five episodes.

Writers

Notable writers from season 16 included Jim Downey, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Jack Handey, Conan O'Brien, Adam Sandler (who was a new writer), Rob Smigel and Bob Odenkirk.

Season 16 would be the final year for O'Brien and Odenkirk as Saturday Night Live writers. O'Brien (who previously joined the writing staff in 1988) left to write for The Simpsons, and would later host NBC's Late Night and Tonight Show late night talk shows. Odenkirk (who wrote on the show for four years, starting in 1987) would go on to write for future cast member Chris Elliott's Get a Life and The Dennis Miller Show as well as The Ben Stiller Show, for which he was also a cast member. In 1995, he would co-create and co-star on HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David.

This was also the final season for longtime writer A. Whitney Brown (who had been a writer since 1985, as he left the writing staff after six years.