The thirty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 1, 2005, and May 20, 2006. 19 episodes were produced (rather than the usual 20) due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games[1] and network budget cuts.[2]
History
This season is notable for the people who hosted the show. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, an SNL cast member from 1982 to 1985 under Dick Ebersol, became the first former female cast member to come back and host the show (and also the third cast member from Seinfeld to host).[3]Gilda Radner was originally supposed to host in 1988, but could not due to the Writers Guild of America strike and then Radner's death the following year.[4] This season is also known for the return of such frequent hosts as Alec Baldwin (who last hosted in season 29 with musical guest Missy Elliott in 2003), Tom Hanks (who last hosted the first episode of season 22 with musical guest Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1996), and Steve Martin (who last hosted the first episode of season 20 with musical guest Eric Clapton in 1994).
This season saw the seventh death of a former cast member, Charles Rocket (a cast member during the notoriously lackluster 1980–1981 season), who committed suicide six days after the premiere. Rocket's suicide is the first death of an SNL cast member who never worked under Lorne Michaels and is the first death of a Weekend Update anchor until Norm Macdonald in 2021.[5]
This season was the first to broadcast in high-definition (HD), after 30 years of broadcasting in standard definition.[6]
Cast
Before the start of the season, featured player Rob Riggle was let go from the show after one season. Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson were both promoted to repertory status, while Jason Sudeikis remained a featured player.[7]
Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph missed episodes due to maternity leave. Fey's place on Weekend Update was briefly taken over by Horatio Sanz until her return in the episode hosted by Catherine Zeta-Jones.[9] Fey returned to the show before her maternity leave time was up. Rudolph, however, appeared on the first episode of the new season, and then went on maternity leave and returned in February, in the episode hosted by Steve Martin.[10]
This would be the final season for Fey, Rachel Dratch, Mitchell, Chris Parnell, and Sanz, as well as the last for longtime director Beth McCarthy-Miller. Dratch and Fey both left the show to focus on 30 Rock.[11] McCarthy-Miller left on her own terms and was replaced by Don Roy King.[11] Parnell, Sanz, and Mitchell were let go due to NBC budget cuts.[11][2][12]
Meyers (who had been a cast member since 2001) was initially named as the sole writing supervisor at the start of the season,[14] and was named as co-head writer with the Scarlett Johansson-hosted episode.[15]
Lastly, in addition to Fey (who had been a writer for nine years since 1997 and head writer since 1999), this was also the final season for fellow writers T. Sean Shannon (a writer for eight years since 1998), Frank Sebastiano (a writer overall for 8½ accumulative years from 1995-1998; and had been back since 2001), J.B. Smoove (who joined the writing staff in 2003, and departed after three seasons), and Liz Cackowski (who joined the writing staff in 2004, and departed after 2½ years).[17]
A still photo of former Jean Doumanian-era cast member and Weekend Update anchor Charles Rocket, who had committed suicide the week before this episode premiered, is shown in his memory after Weekend Update.
Tina Fey's first episode back as Weekend Update co-anchor.
Sheryl Crow, Armstrong's then-fiancé, performs "Good Is Good" and "Strong Enough". Additionally, Crow appears in the opening monologue, the "Harmonies" sketch, and the "Lance's Song" sketch.
In reruns, the Butt Pregnancy sketch is replaced by a dress rehearsal sketch featuring the cast singing a song about the office cafeteria dessert counter.
A clip of the "Word Association" sketch from the first season'sRichard Pryor/Gil Scott-Heron episode is shown after Weekend Update, commemorating Pryor's death earlier that day.
An excerpt from the night's TV Funhouse cartoon "The 700 Gang" was used as the cold open, marking the only time a cartoon was used as an SNL cold open.
A number of technical issues plagued the "Fairmount Suites Inn" sketch, such as Sarsgaard accidentally disabling the television and visible stagehands.
During the parody of the film Shattered Glass centered on a cat magazine journalist (Peter Sarsgaard) getting fired for publishing misinformation, Seth Meyers' character mentions a magazine called Parrot Companion Quarterly. In the NBC reruns of this sketch, a lower-third caption was added that says Parrot Companion Quarterly was a real publication and not something made up by the show writers.
Arctic Monkeys perform "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "A Certain Romance". Lead singer Alex Turner became visibly frustrated with the audience reaction during the latter performance, at one point pointing into the crowd and singing "That man just yawned!" to the music.[18]
The special presented material featuring David Spade during his stint on the show. Sketches include "Dick Clark's Receptionist", "Gap Girls", "Total Bastard Airlines", "Spade in America", "Stewart Release", "Salon", "Stunt Double", Sean Penn's Celebrity Roast", "Peer Pressure at Valley High", "Dirtball and Burnout Convention", "Karl's Video", "NCI Long Distance", "The Road to Self-Improvement", and "Hollywood Minute".
"The Best of SNL Commercial Parodies"
November 5, 2005 (2005-11-05)
The special presented commercial parodies featured on the show.
The special presented TV Funhouse material featured on the show. The special was hosted by The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary. Jimmy Fallon cameos near the end of the show. Sketches include "The Ambiguously Gay Duo", "The All-New Adventures of Mr. T", "Fun With Real Audio", "E! Cartoons' The Smurfette Show", "The X-Presidents", "The Religetables" (DVD version only) and "Conspiracy Theory Rock" (DVD version only).
