The fifth season of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'', an American

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

series, originally aired in the United States on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

between October 13, 1979, and May 24, 1980.

Cast

Dan Aykroyd Daniel Edward Aykroyd ( ; born July 1, 1952) is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Aykroyd was a writer and an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" cast on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Nigh ...

and

John Belushi John Adam Belushi ( ; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, singer and musician. He was one of seven ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members of the first season. He was arguably the most popular member of the ''Satur ...

left the show at the end of

season 4 Season 4 may refer to: * "Season 4" (''30 Rock'' episode), an episode of ''30 Rock'' See also * * Season One (disambiguation) * Season 2 (disambiguation) Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album), 2014 * ''2econd Season'', an album ...

, leaving a void in the cast that most fans thought would be the beginning of the end of the late-night sketch comedy show. Belushi left to make movies while Aykroyd had intended to stay for the fifth season, only to change his mind to concentrate on filming ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul music, soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast ...

'' only weeks leading up to the season premiere. Aykroyd's sudden departure caused a rift between him and

Lorne Michaels Lorne Michaels (born Lorne David Lipowitz; November 17, 1944) is a Canadian and American television writer and film producer. He created and produced ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1980, 1985–present) and produced the ''Late Night (franchise) ...

that wouldn't be healed for many years. This is the first season of the show where the opening credits include "featured players", starting with the fifth episode. The concept evolves onscreen, with Harry Shearer being credited as "a little of Harry Shearer" in the second episode before the "featuring" category is introduced in the fifth episode. To keep the show going, Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to featured cast member status:

Peter Aykroyd Peter Aykroyd (November 19, 1955 – November 6, 2021) was a Canadian actor, comedian, and writer. Biography Born to Lorraine (1918–2018) and Peter Hugh Aykroyd (1922–2020) in Ottawa, he was the younger brother of comedian Dan Aykroyd. Alo ...

(Dan's brother), Jim Downey,

Brian Doyle-Murray Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), better known by his stage name Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He has appeared with his younger brother, actor/comedian Bill Murray, in several films, including ''Caddy ...

(Bill's brother),

Don Novello Don Novello (born January 1, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, writer, singer, film director and producer. He appeared on NBC's ''Saturday Night Live'' as the character Father Guido Sarducci from 1978 to 1980 and 1985 to 1986. He appeared ...

(also credited as

Father Guido Sarducci Father Guido Sarducci is a fictional character created by American comedian Don Novello. Sarducci is a chain-smoking priest with tinted glasses, who works in the United States as gossip columnist and rock critic for the Vatican newspaper ''L'Os ...

), and

Paul Shaffer Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian musician, actor, and comedian who served as David Letterman's musical director, bandleader, and sidekick on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1993) and ''Late Show with D ...

. Longtime writers

Tom Schiller Tom Schiller is an American writer, director, comedian and actor best known for his eleven-year stint writing and directing short films for ''Saturday Night Live'' (following the show's original short film makers Albert Brooks and Gary Weis). His ...

and

Alan Zweibel Alan Zweibel (born May 20, 1950) is an American writer, producer, director, comedian and actor whom ''The'' ''New York Times'' says has “earned a place in the pantheon of American pop culture." An original ''Saturday Night Live'' writer, Z ...

are credited as featured players for only the April 19th, 1980 episode. Shearer was promoted to repertory status midway through the season. Although Al Franken, Tom Davis and Novello were credited as special guests for individual episodes in which they performed their own segments in earlier seasons of the show (with Franken and Davis being semi-official cast members for the previous

two 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and the only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many ...

seasons 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

), they officially became featured players starting midway through this season when the featured player category was introduced. Novello is credited as a guest star under his character Father Guido Sarducci's name in two episodes before he becomes a featured player. This season was the first to have two members of the same family as cast members (

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian, known for his deadpan delivery in roles ranging from studio comedies to independent dramas. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Bill Murra ...

and

). This would be the final season for everyone in the cast. Davis and Downey would return to the show in future seasons as writers. Franken, Doyle-Murray, Novello and Shearer would rejoin the cast in future seasons (Franken would also return as a writer). Repertory players *

Jane Curtin Jane Therese Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedienne. First coming to prominence as an original cast member on the hit TV comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards ...

Garrett Morris Garrett Isaac Morris (born February 1, 1937) is an American actor, comedian and singer. He was part of the original cast and was the first black cast member of the sketch comedy program ''Saturday Night Live'', appearing from 1975 to 1980. He ...

Laraine Newman Laraine Newman (born March 2, 1952) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Newman was part of the original cast of NBC's sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from its inception in 1975 until her departure in 1980. Newman took an ...

Gilda Radner Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian. She was one of the seven Saturday Night Live cast members, original cast members of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy series ...

Harry Shearer Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, musician, radio host, writer, and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The ...

(first episode: October 20, 1979; upgraded to repertory status: February 9, 1980) Featured players *

(first episode: January 26, 1980) * Tom Davis (first credited episode: November 17, 1979) * Jim Downey (first episode: January 26, 1980) *

(first episode: January 26, 1980) *

Al Franken Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American politician, comedian, and actor who served from 2009 to 2018 as a United States senator from Minnesota. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he worked as an ...

(first credited episode: December 15, 1979) *

(first episode: December 8, 1979; final episode: May 17, 1980) *

(only episode: April 19, 1980) *

(first episode: November 17, 1979) *

(only episode: April 19, 1980) bold denotes

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 been featu ...

anchor Featured cast members announced and shown during the "Opening Introductions" varied from week to week, as noted below in each episode's description. Shearer is credited for seven episodes as a featured player before becoming part of the main cast. Davis is credited as a featured player for 12 episodes. Doyle-Murray, Franken and Shaffer are credited for 10 episodes each. Novello is credited as a featured player for eight episodes (not counting the two episodes he guest starred in prior to becoming a featured player). Aykroyd is credited for six episodes, Downey is credited for three and Schiller and Zweibel are each credited for one episode only.

Writers

As previously mentioned, Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to cast member status, including Aykroyd, Davis, Downey, Doyle-Murray, Franken, Novello, Schiller and Zweibel. This season's writers were Peter Aykroyd,

Anne Beatts Anne Beatts (February 25, 1947 – April 7, 2021) was an American comedy writer. Early life Beatts was born in Buffalo, New York, to Sheila Elizabeth Jean (Sherriff-Scott) and Patrick Murray Threipland Beatts. She has described her parents as " ...

, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Al Franken, Tom Gammill, Lorne Michaels, Matt Neuman, Don Novello, Sarah Paley, Max Pross, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Harry Shearer, Rosie Shuster, and Alan Zweibel. Doyle-Murray would be the only one to return as a writer in the following season. (Although Downey, Franken, Davis, Michaels, Novello, Sargent, Schiller, Shearer, and Shuster would return in ''later'' seasons)

Episodes

Home media

''SNL'''s fifth season was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

on December 1, 2009.

References

{{Saturday Night Live 05 Saturday Night Live in the 1970s Saturday Night Live in the 1980s 1979 American television seasons 1980 American television seasons