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By the mid-1990s, Saturday Night Live was a mainstay of popular culture, one entering its third decade of programming. Despite some ups and downs over time, SNL introduced viewers to famous characters like Jake and Elwood Blues, Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, and a host of others. The show's "Weekend Update" segment offered comedic takes on the news, infusing some laughs into current events.
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Saturday Night Live's 20th season featured some of the show's funniest and most celebrated cast members
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including Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, David Spade, and Tim Meadows. But the tumultuous events of that season nearly broke the show entirely
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leading to a drastic cast shake-up by season 21. So, today we're going to take a look at how the now classic 1994-95 season of Saturday Night Live
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almost sabotaged the show. Okay. Live from the internet, it's Weird History
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Well, not really live. That would be horrible. I'd actually have to get dressed
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If anyone in the world has ironclad job security, you'd assume it would be the creator of a show that has produced dozens of comedy legends
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and has been renewed nearly 50 seasons in a row without fail
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That's like a golden goose laying two hours of live comedy once a week for five decades
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Just put food in his bowl and see what comes out. But in the 2007 documentary, Saturday Night Live in the 90s, Pop Culture Nation
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SNL producer and creator Lorne Michaels indicated that the struggles of the 94-95 season
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almost cost him his job. Critics at the time called SNL dysfunctional and embarrassing
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and their assessment was backed up by ever-declining ratings. NBC executive Don Olmeyer, who was president of the network's West Coast division at the time
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later recalled giving Michaels an ultimatum. Apparently, his exact words were, the show has to get better
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You're a captain of industry, and that's the advice you give? I guess that's why I'm not a captain of industry
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Michaels, for his part, was scared. He knew he was in danger of being broke and washed up
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As a result, he took a drastic approach to revamping the show, including several casting shakeups and a legitimate Saturday night massacre at the end of the season
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that left many of the show's major performers suddenly out of a job
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But we'll get to that in a minute. In addition to the poor reviews and sliding ratings, the 1994-95 season, SNL's 20th year on the air, began on an uncertain note
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The off-season exits of Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney, and Rob Schneider had left some big shoes to fill, especially Hartman's
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The famed actor and comedian joined the show in 1986 and became one of its most celebrated performers
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During his eight-season run, his impressive range allowed him to take on all kinds of characters, including the vital role of then-president Bill Clinton
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If you're doing a weekly comedy show that regularly skewers pop culture in the media
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you kind of need someone who does a good impression of the president. Otherwise you end up with whatever the hell this was If you want it pass it Whatever I sign it It your call I really don care anymore SNL even acknowledged his absence
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in the first sketch of the 1994 season, which featured numerous cast members
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including newbie Chris Elliott, auditioning to be the next on-screen Clinton. Julia Sweeney was candid about her decision to leave
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stating, everybody says this show is a boys' club, right? Well, it's everything you think it is, times 100
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Schneider would later recall, But while he had a great experience at SNL, he simply wanted to take on other projects
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For him, SNL was but a stepping stone on the path to Judge Dredd and Deuce Bigelow, European gigolo
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With the exit of Hartman, Sweeney, Schneider, and others, Lorne Michaels brought in emerging new talent like Chris Elliott and Janine Garofalo
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If you just said, hey, I didn't know Janine Garofalo was on SNL, you're not alone
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She didn't stay with the show for very long. She struggled throughout the season, feeling the characters she was given were unenlightened and stereotypical, not to mention they received relatively few lines
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This was a typical experience for newcomers. Veteran cast members got the most airtime, with competing personalities draining SNL of its energy
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Observers indicated that the writers' room was mired in a mood of depressed and lethargic burnout
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One SNL writer even noted that the cast members couldn't even fake forcing themselves to care
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According to the writer, when you watch the show on TV, that comes through
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It's sort of like a screw you to the audience. We don't have to be good, because we're Saturday Night Live
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Garofalo compared her first few months on SNL to a fraternity hazing. While she felt the experience was ultimately beneficial because it toughened her up
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she also admitted it took its toll. She reportedly told friends being on SNL was the most miserable experience of her life
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attributing her survival to cigarettes and stolly. That sounds like a lot of people's jobs
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Except the booze is even cheaper. Garofalo left SNL in March of 95, weeks before the season
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officially ended, and she wasn't the only cast member to abandon ship before the final episode
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Mike Myers left the show in January to begin his career making millions of dollars off of
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Austin Powers and Shrek sequels. Although at the time, Myers was still struggling to find footing
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as a movie star. The addition of new cast members Molly Shannon and Morwenna Banks during the season
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helps carry the weight of his departure. But that did not make the mid-season exit of one of the show's most recognizable performers
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any less conspicuous. At the time, Myers called his experience on the show a cross between love boat and das boat
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Ouch Although to be honest Captain Stubing on a German new boat that sounds like a fair sketch Laura Keitlinger a new addition to SNL that year had previous writing experience working on the sitcom Roseanne
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But the experience of working on SNL's 20th season was very different
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She later said, in the writer's room at Roseanne, you could on each other and everybody would laugh
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But at SNL, it gets personal in a hurry. While cast members were also expected to contribute as writers
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there was a disconnect between who would and would not have sketches appear on the show. Chris Elliott found that the pressure to write and perform
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could be bothersome, noting, if you wanted to get on the air, you had to write some material for
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yourself. That mercenary approach to writing the show only amplified tension and resentment behind
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the scenes. Okay, okay, okay. This sketch is about a guy named Chris Elliott trying to get
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five minutes on a comedy show. It writes itself. Norm MacDonald climbed into the Weekend Update
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Anchor's chair for the first time on September 24, 1994. And while he would become one of the
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segment's best-loved hosts, he was antagonistic, both on and offscreen. His habit of smoking in
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the writer's room prompted fellow writer Ian Maxtone-Graham to shoot a water gun into his
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face to extinguish the cigarette. McDonald retaliated by punching Maxtone-Graham in the
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head. If only he'd been as critical of some of the jokes in Dirty Work. McDonald's dark humor
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and dry delivery didn't thrill network executives either. He and SNL head writer Jim Downey were
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targeted by NBC executive Don Olmeyer, who didn't appreciate the pair regularly skewering O.J. Simpson
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and his upcoming murder trial on Weekend Update. Why so much sympathy for the juice? Simpson was
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one of Olmeyer's personal friends. In the end, Olmeyer got Downey fired, although he later returned
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to the show, and McDonald was ultimately let go during the 1997-1998 season. Lorne Michaels opined
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that the tensions and animosities were natural. He noted writers may have been dismayed
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at the fortunes amassed by some performers once they left the show, while acknowledging that the show
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was apparently being looked upon, even by some of its cast and creative team
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the way the network regarded it, as an ATM rather than a learning experience
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or a creative challenge. You mean like a creative challenge like the Coneheads movie produced by Lorne Michaels
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One former cast member quoted in a New York Magazine article published during that beleaguered 20th season
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Phil Michaels intentionally kept the cast feeling ill at ease, likening it to the same techniques cults use
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They keep you up for hours. They never let you know that you're OK. They always make you think that your spot could be taken
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at any moment by someone else. Wow, I just realized I've been in a lot of cults
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As morale and ratings declined during the 94 season some of the show personnel noticed the writing beginning to suffer as well Bonnie and Terry Turner who had penned famous sketches like Wayne World and The Church Lady
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commented on the bizarre nature of some of the season's segments. Meanwhile, sketches like Gay Stripper Theater didn't thrill Garofalo
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who commented that homophobic jokes were considered incredibly funny. She also wasn't pleased by an alien skit that included probes
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and the word written across male cast members' chests in lipstick
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Garofalo later said she wanted to quit after the first week. Most of the show's viewers at the time clearly felt the same way
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However, there were many bright points during the season. Future United States Senator Elle Franken continued to appear as Stuart Smalley
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Chris Farley's motivational speaker, Matt Foley, remained popular. And The Gap Girls, starring Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade
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as vapid teen girls working at the mall, became a new favorite. Perpetual SNL cast member Tim Meadows saw the 1994-1995 season as the worst year
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in large part because there were too many people. From Meadows' perspective, the writers and cast didn't gel
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And to him, it seemed like there were 30 people trying to race to the finish line. Meadows, one of the few cast members who survived the culling that took place before the 21st season
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wasn't alone in his assessment. Chris Elliott also felt there were too many people in the cast
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recalling that he would attend tapings only to appear in a single sketch
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However, the show's crowded cast wasn't an issue for much longer. In a move still not completely understood by many of those involved
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Lorne Michaels called SNL's cast at the end of the 20th season, releasing some of its most beloved performers
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Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Ellen Cleghorn, Chris Elliott, Laura Keitlinger, Michael McCann, Jay Moore, and Kevin Nealon were all dismissed
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Elliott and Keitlinger had only been on the show for one season, while another cast member, Morwenna Banks, was only on for a portion of the 1994-95 season
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In interviews since his dismissal, Sandler has indicated that while he was hurt by the dismissal
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it was as much him quitting as a true firing. According to Sandler, we kind of quit at the
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same time as being fired. It was the end of the run for us, and hurt a lot at the time because
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we were young and didn't know where we were going. But it all worked out. Well, it certainly worked
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Tougher Adam, anyway. The following season, Michaels brought in a new lineup of talent
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like Nancy Walls, David Koechner, Chris Kattan, Sherry Oteri, some guy named Will Ferrell
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As is so often the case with classics, the 94-95 season of SNL is fun to watch
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but was decidedly not fun to make. Comedy is a serious business
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