The thirteenth season of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'', an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

between October 17, 1987 and February 27, 1988. Although the changes to the cast and writers were minimal, the season was cut short due to the

1988 Writers Guild of America strike The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the ...

Production

During a dress rehearsal for the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H and was planned to be postponed. However, episode host

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He has won five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 2013. Additionally, he was nominate ...

pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal. Following the February 27 episode, the series went on a planned two-week hiatus with plans to return on March 12 (the host of which had yet to be announced). However, on March 7, the

Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers: * The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO * The Writers Gu ...

went on strike. The strike continued until August, thus cutting the season short at 13 episodes, tying the sixth season as the shortest season until it was surpassed by the thirty-third season twenty years later (which was also due to a writers' strike). Several planned episodes were cancelled, including one hosted by original cast member Gilda Radner (who was never able to host, as she discovered her ovarian cancer had returned and died the day of the next season's finale). Radner would have been the first former female cast member to host an episode; that distinction would not happen until

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus ( ; born January 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, and producer who worked on the comedy television series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1982–1985), ''Seinfeld'' (1989–1998), ''The New Adventures ...

hosted in 2006.

Cast

Minimal changes occurred before the beginning of the season.

Kevin Nealon Kevin Nealon (; born November 18, 1953) is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1986 to 1995, acted in several of the Happy Madison films, played Doug Wilson on the Showtime series '' Weeds'', and p ...

was promoted to repertory status.

Cast roster

Repertory players *

Dana Carvey Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, impressionist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his seven seasons as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1986 to 1993, which earned him fiv ...

Nora Dunn Nora Dunn (born April 29, 1952) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch variety TV series '' Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990, Dr. Reynolds in ''The Nanny'' (1998-1999), and Muriel in '' Home Economic ...

Phil Hartman Philip Edward Hartman (; September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States w ...

Jan Hooks Janet Vivian HooksJan Hooks obituary
liteseyfh.com; accesse ...

Victoria Jackson Victoria Jackson (born August 2, 1959) is an American actress, comedian, and singer who was a cast member of the NBC television sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) from 1986 to 1992. Early life Jackson was born in Miami, Florid ...

Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz (; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990. Lovitz starred as Jay Sherman in '' The Critic'' and played a baseball scout in '' A League of ...

Dennis Miller Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a stri ...

Featured players * A. Whitney Brown bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

New hires this season were

Greg Daniels Gregory Martin Daniels (born June 13, 1963) is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''The Simpsons'', adapting ''The Office (Am ...

, Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk. The writers for this season included A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis,

, Jim Downey,

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...

Jack Handey Jack Handey (born February 25, 1949) is an American humorist. He is best known for his "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey", a large body of surrealistic one-liner jokes, as well as his "Fuzzy Memories" and "My Big Thick Novel" shorts, and for his dead ...

George Meyer George Meyer (born 1956) is an American producer and writer. Meyer is best known for his work on ''The Simpsons'', where he led the group script rewrite sessions. He has been publicly credited with "thoroughly shap ng... the comedic sensibility ...

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian-American producer, screenwriter, and comedian. He is best known for creating and producing ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and producing the '' La ...

, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, David Borowitz, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel,

Bonnie Turner Bonnie and Terry Turner are an American husband-and-wife team of screenwriters and producers. They are best known for creating the sitcoms '' 3rd Rock from the Sun,'' ''That '70s Show,'' and its Netflix sequel '' That '90s Show''. From 1986 unt ...

, Terry Turner and

Christine Zander Christine Zander is an American television writer and producer. She started writing for national television on NBC's '' Saturday Night Live'' (1986–1993 Personal life Zander is the daughter of Marie Zander, who died in May 2001. She has one bro ...

. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.

Episodes

Canceled episodes with booked guests

References

{{Saturday Night Live 13 1987 American television seasons 1988 American television seasons Saturday Night Live in the 1980s