The seventh 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 3, 1981, and May 22, 1982.

Background

Following the dismissal of producer

Jean Doumanian Jean Doumanian ( Karabas; born July 28, 1936) is an American stage, television and film producer. She briefly produced ''Saturday Night Live'', between November 1980 and March 1981. Early life Doumanian was born Jean (or Jeannine) Karabas, th ...

during the show's sixth season, Dick Ebersol, the program's developer, was hired as Doumanian's replacement. In March 1981, Ebersol dismissed several of her cast members (repertory players

Gilbert Gottfried Gilbert Jeremy Gottfried (February 28, 1955 – April 12, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian and actor, known for his exaggerated shrill voice, strong New York accent, and his edgy, often controversial, sense of humor. His numerous r ...

Ann Risley Anna F. "Ann" Risley (born September 30, 1949, Madison, Wisconsin) is a retired American actress and comedian. She was a cast member of the TV series ''Saturday Night Live'' for the 12 episodes of the 1980–1981 season. These 12 broadcasts were t ...

and

Charles Rocket Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy and Charles Rocket, was an American actor, comedian, musician, and television news reporter. He was a cast member on ''Saturda ...

and featured players

Yvonne Hudson Yvonne is a female given name. It is the feminine form of Yvon, which is derived from the French name Yves and Yvette. It is from the French word ''iv'', meaning "yew" (or tree). Since yew wood was used for bows, Ivo may have been an occupatio ...

Matthew Laurance Matthew Laurance (born Matthew Dycoff) is an American film and television actor best known for starring as Ben Coleman in the Fox sitcom ''Duet'' and for his recurring role as Mel Silver on ''Beverly Hills, 90210''. Early life, family and edu ...

and

Patrick Weathers Patrick Weathers is an American musician, actor and comedian, who appeared as a cast member on season 6 of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1980–1981. After college, Weathers moved to New Orleans, where he began working with The Meters. Moving ...

). After one episode on April 11, 1981, the show was shut down for the rest of the season because of the

1981 Writers Guild of America strike The 1981 Writers Guild of America strike was a 3-month strike action taken to establish compensation in the then-new markets of "pay TV" and home video. Most scripted television series seasons started much later than originally planned as a result. ...

. In the break, Ebersol would also dismiss repertory players

Denny Dillon Denise Dillon (born May 18, 1951) is an American actress and comedian best known for starring as Toby Pedalbee on the HBO comedy '' Dream On'' from 1990 to 1996. Dillon was first known for her stage work and was nominated for a Tony Award on Br ...

and

Gail Matthius Gail Matthius (born December 14, 1953) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member of NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' during its critical and ratings low point at the time (the 1980–1981 season, produced by Jean Doumanian), and ...

, and featured players

Laurie Metcalf Laura Elizabeth Metcalf (born June 16, 1955) is an American actress. Often described as a character actor, she's known for her complex and versitile roles across the stage and screen. She has received various accolades throughout her career sp ...

and

Emily Prager Emily Prager is an American author and journalist. Prager grew up in Texas, Taiwan, and Greenwich Village, New York City. She is a graduate of the Brearley School, Barnard College and has a master's degree in Applied Linguistics. She has written ...

were not asked back as cast members. The new cast of ''Saturday Night Live'' for season7 included most of the repertory players from the final Ebersol-produced episode of season6:

Robin Duke Robin Duke (born March 13, 1954) is a Canadian actress, comedian, and voice actress. Duke may be best known for her work on the television comedy series '' SCTV'' and, later, ''Saturday Night Live''. She co-founded ''Women Fully Clothed'', a ske ...

Tim Kazurinsky Timothy James Kazurinsky (born March 3, 1950) is an American actor and screenwriter best known as a cast member and writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' and for his role as Carl Sweetchuck in the '' Police Academy'' films. Early life Kazurinsky wa ...

and

Tony Rosato Antonio Rosato (26 December 1954 – 10 January 2017) was an Italian-Canadian actor and comedian, who appeared in television and films. He was best known as a cast member on both '' SCTV'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', and for voicing Luigi in '' ...

along with the sole surviving cast members from Doumanian's era, Eddie Murphy and

Joe Piscopo Joseph Charles John Piscopo ( ; born June 17, 1951) is an American actor, comedian and conservative radio talk show host. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1980 to 1984, where he played a variety of recurring characters. His f ...

, while adding two new cast members

Mary Gross Mary Martha Gross is an American voice actress, comedian, and actress known for her four-year stint on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1981 to 1985. Her credits also include minor roles on ''Animaniacs'', ''Boston Legal'', ''That's So Raven'', '' ...

and

Christine Ebersole Christine Ebersole (born February 21, 1953) is an American actress and singer. She has appeared in film, television, and on stage. She starred in the Broadway musicals '' 42nd Street'' and ''Grey Gardens'', winning two Tony Awards. She has co- ...

Brian Doyle-Murray Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), known professionally by his stage name as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, voice-actor and screenwriter. He has appeared with his younger brother, actor/comedian Bill Murray, in several movies, i ...

, who had been a writer for

season 6 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

, joined Ebersol's new cast as a featured player (he was also a featured player during

season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

Michael O'Donoghue Michael O'Donoghue (January 5, 1940 – November 8, 1994) was an American writer and performer. He was known for his dark and destructive style of comedy and humor, was a major contributor to ''National Lampoon'' magazine, and was the ...

, who Ebersol brought back to the show in March, remained as head writer for the first half of season7. Some sketches, as well as the appearances of artists like

Fear Fear is an intensely unpleasant emotion in response to perceiving or recognizing a danger or threat. Fear causes physiological changes that may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat. Fear ...

and

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

, reflected the increasingly bizarre ideas O'Donoghue had for the show. However, after developing a tense relationship with Ebersol and berating the cast in a meeting following the December 12 episode, O'Donoghue was fired, with

Bob Tischler Robert Tischler is an American television writer, audio engineer and television producer. Tischler engineered the National Lampoon's first comedy album and with Michael O'Donoghue co-created and produced the National Lampoon Radio Hour. A frien ...

taking the role of head writer.Hill and Weingrad, p. 453-7. A new logo was introduced for this season, and was used until season 10: it consisted of the words SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE in the form of a square, with each word after it increasing in size; a modernized version of this logo was used from 2006 to 2014.

Format changes

Wanting to distance the show from its first six seasons, Ebersol cut the popular opening line ''

Live from New York, It's Saturday Night! "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" is a famous phrase typically featured on the American sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', which runs on the NBC broadcast network. It is generally used as a way to end a cold opening sketch and le ...

'' from the

cold openings A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In Americ ...

. Sometimes there were no cold openings, and the

monologues In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

were skipped over almost entirely. These changes were not permanent for the series, as Ebersol decided to reverse them for the eighth season. Each episode began with the announcement "And now from New York, the most dangerous city in America, it's Saturday Night Live!" Ebersol also revamped

Weekend Update ''Weekend Update'' is a ''Saturday Night Live'' sketch and satirical news program that comments on and parodies current events. It is the show's longest-running recurring sketch, having been on since the show's first broadcast, and is typic ...

. The segment went through its first name change (aside from the temporary change to "Saturday Night Newsline" in the final Doumanian episode from March 1981) and became "SNL Newsbreak". At the news desk was featured player

with

and

alternating as co-anchor.

also became the first Weekend Update anchor to be a featured player while serving as anchor. The only other anchors to do this were

Michael Che Michael Che Campbell (; born May 19, 1983) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is best known for his work on ''Saturday Night Live'', where he has served as co-anchor on '' Weekend Update'' alongside Colin Jost, and the two w ...

Tina Fey Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the ...

and

Colin Jost Colin Kelly Jost (; born June 29, 1982) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He has been a writer for ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) since 2005 and '' Weekend Update'' co-anchor since 2014. He also served as one of the show's co-head writ ...

. Additionally, this was the first season without

Don Pardo Dominick George "Don" Pardo (February 22, 1918 – August 18, 2014) was an American radio and television announcer whose career spanned more than seven decades. A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Pardo was noted for his 70-year tenure with ...

( season 40 would become the next due to Don Pardo's death in 2014) as the show announcer. Instead the

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non- diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...

s were done by

Mel Brandt Melville Brandt (June 18, 1919 – March 14, 2008) was an actor and NBC staff announcer. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Brandt joined NBC around 1948. His radio announcing credits included '' The Adventures of Frank Merriwell'', ''Author Meet ...

, except for two episodes that aired in December 1981 when veteran

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

announcer

Bill Hanrahan William A. Hanrahan (September 14, 1918 – August 7, 1996) was an American radio and television announcer, perhaps best known as the "Voice of NBC News." Hanrahan's broadcasting career dated back to the 1940s, when he worked at WELI radio in New H ...

handled them.

Cast

During the season, original cast member

John Belushi John Adam Belushi (January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known for being one of the seven original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Throughout his c ...

died from an overdose of cocaine and heroin. The original airing of the episode hosted by

Robert Urich Robert Michael Urich (December 19, 1946 – April 16, 2002) was an American film, television, and stage actor, and television producer. Over the course of his 30-year career, he starred in a record 15 television series. Urich began his ca ...

had a tribute to Belushi.

Cast roster

Repertory players *

* Eddie Murphy *

Featured players *

bold denotes

anchor

Writers

This season's writers were Barry W. Blaustein, Joe Bodolai, Brian Doyle-Murray, Nate Herman, Tim Kazurinsky, Nelson Lyon, Maryilyn Suzanne Miller, Pamela Norris, Mark O'Donnell, Michael O'Donoghue, Margaret Olberman, Tony Rosato, David Sheffield, Rosie Shuster, Andrew Smith, Terry Southern, Bob Tischler and Eliot Wald. The head writers were Michael O'Donoghue (episodes 1–8) and Bob Tischler (episodes 9-20).

Episodes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saturday Night Live (season 7) 07 1981 American television seasons 1982 American television seasons Saturday Night Live in the 1980s