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Saturday Night Live
Season 16
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 29, 1990 (1990-09-29) – May 18, 1991 (1991-05-18)
Season chronology
← Previous season 15 Next → season 17
List of episodes

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. 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. 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.

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

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

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.

Episodes

References

1. Perrin, Dennis (September 9, 2015). "When Andrew Dice Clay Came to 'SNL' and Controversy Followed". Vulture. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
2. Bolonik, Kera (April 8, 2015). "Nora Dunn: "SNL is a traumatic experience. It's something you have to survive"". Salon. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
3. ^ Endrst, James (September 29, 1990). "Ho-hum! 'Saturday Night Live' kicks off 16th season". Hartford Courant. p. B10. Retrieved April 30, 2024 – via The Pittsburgh Press.
4. Engel, Joel (August 2, 1992). "They're More Than Just a Pair of Characters; Jon Lovitz Conjures Up Many People With One Voice". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
5. Wright, Megh (July 13, 2011). "Saturday Night's Children: Jon Lovitz (1985-1990)". Vulture. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
6. Shales & Miller 2002, p. 365-366.
7. Shister, Gail (February 20, 1991). "Baby Talk to air March 8 on ABC". Beaver County Times. Knight-Ridder Newspapers. p. D8. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
8. Irwin, Corey (February 9, 2021). "30 Years Ago: Adam Sandler Makes His Forgettable 'SNL' Debut". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
9. Shales & Miller 2002, p. 569.
10. Johnson, Allan (January 20, 1992). "Anchor of 'Weekend Update' to start late-night talk fest". Chicago Tribune. p. D6. Retrieved May 28, 2024 – via The Vindicator.
11. Mink, Eric (August 16, 1991). "'SNL' will air Jordan for debut". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. C12. Retrieved May 28, 2024 – via The Vindicator.
12. Reilly, Dan (May 18, 2014). "A Complete Ranking of Saturday Night Live 'Weekend Update' Anchors - Slideshow". Vulture. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
13. Bark, Ed (September 21, 1993). "Phil Hartman prepares for days after 'Saturday Night'". Dallas Morning News. p. D-7. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
14. Thomas, Bob (August 25, 1995). "Down-to-earth Phil Hartman made steady climb to stardom". The Daily Gazette. The Associated Press. p. D7. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
15. Willman, Chris (July 10, 1994). "TELEVISION : Just Call Him Bankable Boy". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 2, 2019. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
16. Reilly, Travis (December 15, 2015). "11 Reveals From Adam Sandler's First Howard Interview". Howard Stern. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
17. Spitz, Marc (March 13, 2011). "Mr. Show: The Oral History". Spin. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
18. "Michael Jordan/Public Enemy". Saturday Night Live. Season 17. Episode 1. September 28, 1991. Event occurs at Closing credits. NBC.
19. ^ Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 124–127.
20. https://theworld.org/stories/2018/05/22/iconic-cue-card-holder-makes-name-himself-entertainment-industry
21. Cader & Baskin 1994, p. 233.
22. Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 241–242.
23. Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 244–246.
24. Cader & Baskin 1994, p. 46.
25. Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 248–249.
26. Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 250–251.
27. Cader & Baskin 1994, pp. 255–257.

Sources

• Cader, Michael; Baskin, Edie (1994). Saturday Night Live: The First Twenty Years. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0-395-70895-8.
• Shales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (2002). Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0316781466.

• Saturday Night Live seasons
• Saturday Night Live in the 1990s
• 1990 American television seasons
• 1991 American television seasons