Saturday Night Live (season 13)

Saturday Night Live (season 13)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	13
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 17, 1987 – February 27, 1988

The thirteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 17, 1987, and February 27, 1988.

Minimal changes occurred before the beginning of the season. Kevin Nealon was promoted to repertory status.

Although the changes to the cast were minimal there were, however, major events that impeded the show's production. During production of the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H during dress rehearsal.

Despite plans to cancel the show for the week, Steve Martin (the episode host) pushed the cast to perform, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal.^[1]

On March 7, 1988, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, cancelling many planned episodes (and ultimately cutting the season short), including one originally planned to be hosted by original cast member Gilda Radner. (Radner would never get the chance to host due to her death from ovarian cancer the following year.) The host for the March 12, 1988 broadcast (the first episode to be cancelled due to the strike of 1988) was never confirmed.

Cast

Repertory cast members Dana Carvey Nora Dunn Phil Hartman Jan Hooks Victoria Jackson Jon Lovitz Dennis Miller Kevin Nealon

Featured cast members A. Whitney Brown

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

New hires this season were Greg Daniels, Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk.

The writers for this season included A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, David Borowitz, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner and Christine Zander. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
234	1	Steve Martin	Sting	October 17, 1987
Presidential candidate Bruce Babbitt appeared on Weekend Update First appearance of the Hans and Franz series of sketch[2] Sting performed "We'll Be Together" and "Little Wing",[3] and appeared in the "Operation: Tightwad" sketch as James Bond villain Goldensting, a parody of Goldfinger
235	2	Sean Penn	LL Cool J & Michael Penn	October 24, 1987
Michael Penn, older brother of host Sean, performed "This and That" with his band The Pull.[3] LL Cool J performed "Go Cut Creator Go."[3]
236	3	Dabney Coleman	The Cars	October 31, 1987
Guest appearance by Cassandra Peterson as Elvira. The Cars performed "Strap Me In" and "Double Trouble."[3]
237	4	Robert Mitchum	Simply Red	November 14, 1987
Simply Red performed "Suffer" and "The Right Thing."[3]
238	5	Candice Bergen	Cher	November 21, 1987
Cher performed "We All Sleep Alone" and "I Found Someone".[3] Guest appearance by Paul Shaffer.
239	6	Danny DeVito	Bryan Ferry	December 5, 1987
Bob Odenkirk's first credited episode as a writer. Bryan Ferry performs "The Right Stuff" and "Kiss and Tell."[3]
240	7	Angie Dickinson	Buster Poindexter David Gilmour	December 12, 1987
Buster Poindexter performed "Hot Hot Hot."[3] David Gilmour performed "Ah, Robertson, It's You"[3] and an instrumental guitar jam with the SNL house band called "Song For My Sara."
241	8	Paul Simon	Linda Ronstadt	December 19, 1987
Namesake U.S. Senator Paul Simon, a presidential candidate at the time, makes a cameo in the monologue. Dana Carvey appeared during Weekend Update as Dennis Miller for the first time. Linda Ronstadt performed "Under African Skies" with Paul Simon, and "Los Laureles, La Cigarra."[3]
242	9	Robin Williams	James Taylor	January 23, 1988
James Taylor performed "Lonesome Road", "Sweet Potato Pie", and "Never Die Young."[3]
243	10	Carl Weathers	Robbie Robertson	January 30, 1988
Robbie Robertson performed "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" and "Testimony."[3]
244	11	Justine Bateman	Terence Trent D'Arby	February 13, 1988
Conan O'Brien and Greg Daniels first writing credits as staff members D'Arby performed "Wishing Well" and "Under My Thumb."[3] Dan Aykroyd appeared as Bob Dole in the cold opening
245	12	Tom Hanks	Randy Travis	February 20, 1988
Randy Travis performed "What'll You Do" and "Forever and Ever, Amen."[3]
246	13	Judge Reinhold	10,000 Maniacs	February 27, 1988
10,000 Maniacs performed "What's the Matter Here" and "Like the Weather."[3]

References

1. Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (7 October 2002). Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-3167-8146-6.
2. Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp. 220–223. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.
3. Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 1994. pp. 124–127. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.