Saturday Night Live (season 13)


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.
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 pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal.
On March 7, 1988, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, cancelling many planned episodes, including one originally planned to be hosted by original cast member Gilda Radner. The host for the March 12, 1988 broadcast was never confirmed.

Cast

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

Cast roster

Repertory players
Featured players
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

Canceled episodes with booked guests

AirdateHostMusical GuestComments
May 14, 1988Gilda RadnerU2Gilda Radner was an original cast member. She was planned to host, but her episode was cancelled due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike. She would never get a chance to host, due to her death in 1989. This episode would have marked the first time a female cast member came back to host, a milestone that didn't happen until Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted on May 13, 2006. U2 would perform on the show on December 9, 2000.