Saturday Night Live season 23
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The twenty-third season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 27, 1997, and MayScript error: No such module "String".9, 1998.
This season saw the deaths of two former cast members. Six weeks after hosting the October 25 episode, Chris Farley died of a speedball overdose. Two weeks after the season finale, long-time performer Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife who then committed suicide. Following their deaths, NBC aired two SNL specials as tributes to Farley and Hartman in dedication to their legacies.[1][2]
Cast
Before the season, Mark McKinney left the show after three seasons.[3] Colin Quinn was promoted to repertory status. This season is one of the few to not include any featured players or new cast members.
During the season, a controversy arose in which Weekend Update anchor Norm Macdonald was removed from the Update segment. Macdonald's final episode as Update anchor was on December 13, 1997.[4][5] Quinn was then promoted to the job and anchored the segment in the next live episode, which aired January 10, 1998. Macdonald performed in sketches, but was angry about the change-up and ultimately quit the show; his final appearance was on March 14, 1998.
This was also the final season for Jim Breuer as he left the show at season's end to move on to other acting opportunities.[6]
Cast roster
Repertory players
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- Jim Breuer
- Will Ferrell
- Ana Gasteyer
- Darrell Hammond
- Chris Kattan
- Norm Macdonald (final episode: March 14, 1998)
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Future cast member/head writer Tina Fey joins the writing staff in this season.
Adam McKay continues as the sole head writer, while Tim Herlihy is promoted to a producer alongside Steve Higgins.[7]
Fellow regular writer Paula Pell is named as a creative consultant (nowadays a writing supervisor) this season.[7]
With the Sarah Michelle Gellar-hosted episode, future Parks and Recreation/The Good Place creator Michael Schur joined the writing staff.[8] Decades later, Schur explained that he initially applied for the job at the start of the season, but Fey was hired over him, and that he was hired over the show's winter break.[9]
Longtime writer Jim Downey is fired coinciding with Norm Macdonald being taken off of Weekend Update.[10][11] Downey is still credited as a writer until the end of the season,[12] and would return to the writing staff in 2000.
Episodes
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Specials
| # | Special | Original airdate
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References
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- ↑ https://www.cracked.com/article_44634_mike-schur-says-working-at-snl-is-kill-or-be-killed.html
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