Saturday Night Live aired its fifteenth season during the 1989 - 1990 television season on NBC. The fifteenth season started off with a 15th anniversary special on September 24, 1989 and ended on May 19, 1990. 21 episodes were produced, including the anniversary special.
Few changes happened before the start of the season. The only change was the absence of Ben Stiller. After being on the show for five episodes, Stiller left the show due to creative differences with Lorne Michaels. Mike Myers was upgraded to repertory status.
This season saw the first hosting gigs of three celebrities who would go on to be frequent SNL hosts: John Goodman, Christopher Walken, and Alec Baldwin.
This season is also notorious for an in-cast spat towards the end of the season. Nora Dunn staged a boycott over the host of the episode, controversial comedian Andrew Dice Clay. Dunn refused to appear in the episode because of Clay's profane jokes about women. The original musical guest for the episode, Sinéad O'Connor, joined Dunn in her boycott and canceled her scheduled appearance. O'Connor was replaced by Julee Cruise and The Spanic Boys.
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Reviews
Community reviews for Saturday Night Live, shown here with its season details.
G
GenerationofSwine
1.0
It was good, then it was great, then it was good again and now it stinks.
As of 2018 The edginess is gone. There are no risks in the jokes. They all consist of two things, 1. Trump is bad. and 2. This was a thing, remember it?
Neither of those really work for me. Make fun of Trump all you want, but do it with a punch line. Most of the time they forget the punchline. Simply not liking him is NOT a punchline. You have to exaggerate something, make it satire, mock it in some way. I don't even care if it's a cruel mockery...so long as it doesn't seem like they are just stating an opinion.
Opinions are NOT jokes.
The same thing goes with their "remember this, this was a thing" jokes...
They leave you sitting there waiting for them to say something funny about it. You're with them for a little while, "Yeah I remember it, go on..." then you realize that, no, that was the joke.
That's not a joke, that's just asking me to remember something.
Again, if they had a punch line, if they said something about what they were asking me to remember, then it might be funny...but they don't. The jokes are literally "this was a thing, laugh at it." and that's not funny. It has to be followed up with something.
Like with Trump, an opinion is NOT a joke unless it is followed by something. The same thing with a memory, a memory is NOT a joke in and of itself. They both have to be followed by something
s
sethdozerman
Saturday Night Live will always be my comfort show. The longevity and influence SNL has had on the comedy scene is unmatched. It has been the catalyst for so many careers, e.g. Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Will Ferrell etc... The show has definitely had its ups and downs but, in taking a step back it is evident that the show has remained consistently mixed in it entire run.
Not every season has had great writers or talent, some actors have been much more successful than others, and yet it has always found an audience. My favourite era of the show was the mid 2000s with Bill Hader and Andy Samberg, but most people have a a preference for whatever season they had as a teenager. The consistency of structure and crew unites all the different casts, creating a familiar image and sensibility, found in every season.
There will always be a host monologue, musical guest, Weekend Update and most importantly, it will always be LIVE! The production process of a pitch meeting with the host, staying up all night on Tuesdays to write, read-through and dress rehearsal. Whether it's 1975 or 2023, everyone endures the same experience (although whether they have the aid of cocaine is certainly a difference!).
The argument SNL hasnt been funny since the "insert previous ten years" is redundant. Every season of the show has been criticised for not being funny but every season of the show has produced hilarious sketches and shone a light on the new faces of comedy. In the 70s they had Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, the 80s they had Julia Louis Dreyfus and Conan O'Brien, the 90s they had Will Ferrell and Eddy Murphy, the 2000s Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the 2010s Kate McKinnon and Vanessa Bayer and finally in the 2020s we have Bowen Yang and Marcello Hernandez.
The show continues to inspire and entertain the next generation of aspiring creatives with it's ground approach to sketch comedy. It is an American institution that will always hold a very dear place in my heart.
Episodes
Episode 1
Bruce Willis/Neil Young
NR
Sep 30, 198967 min
Sketches include: Thirtysomething, Wayne's World, Donahue, Home Improvement, New Leading Man, Sprockets, Bruce Willis: The Man and His Music
Episode 2
Rick Moranis/Rickie Lee Jones
NR
Oct 7, 198967 min
Sketches include: The Big Bitch Bulldyke Bust Out of '89, Honey I Shrunk Hans & Franz, Resorts International Hotel, Wild Horse, New Commissioner, Baby Talk, Word Busters
Episode 3
Kathleen Turner/Billy Joel
NR
Oct 21, 198967 min
Sketches Include: Plug Away With Harvey Fierstein, Die Squaren Ost Berliner, Egg Man, Really Ordinary People, All About Deborah Norville, Lank Thompson: I'm A Handsome Man, 555-Toon, Maxwell House
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Episode 4
James Woods/Don Henley
NR
Oct 28, 198967 min
Sketches include ""The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,"" ""Yard-a-pult,"" ""Dracula and AIDS,"" ""Primetime Live,"" ""Ventriloquist Act,"" ""Falling in Love,"" ""Three Dudes Holistic Automotive,"" ""Hemsley Spook House,"" and ""Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein.""
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Episode 5
Chris Evert/Eurythmics
NR
Nov 11, 198967 min
Sketches include ""Wimbledon,"" ""Oneupmanship,"" and ""Lothar of the Hill People.""
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Episode 6
Woody Harrelson/David Byrne
NR
Nov 18, 198967 min
Sketches include ""Jack Nicholson,"" ""Pumping Up with Hans & Franz,"" ""A&E Attitudes,"" ""Sprockets,"" and ""Three Very Lonesome Cowboys.""
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Episode 7
John Goodman/k.d. lang & The Reclines
NR
Dec 2, 198967 min
Sketches include ""It's a Wonderful Savings and Loan,"" ""Wayne's World,"" ""Cooking with the Anal-Retentive Chef,"" ""Toonces The Cat Who Could Drive a Car,"" ""The Mike Ditka Type-A Christmas Special,"" and ""The Referee Pitman Show"".
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Episode 8
Robert Wagner/Linda Ronstadt & Aaron Neville
NR
Dec 9, 198967 min
Sketches include ""George Bush and Dan Quayle"", ""Yard-A-Pult,"" ""Messy Date"", ""Tales of the Runaway Boulder,"" ""Attack of the Masturbating Zombies,"" ""Rockefeller is Evil,"" ""A Betty Ford Straight Arrow Christmas"", and ""In the Middle.""
Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville performed ""Don't Know Much"" and ""When Something Is Wrong.""
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Episode 9
Andie MacDowell/Tracy Chapman
8.0
Dec 16, 198967 min1 votes
Sketches included ""Interrupted PSA,"" ""Church Chat,"" ""The Night Hanukkah Harry Saved Christmas,"" ""Hal Jerome Tribute,"" and ""Before the Wedding."" Tracy Chapman performed ""Gimme One Reason.""
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Episode 10
Ed O'Neill/Harry Connick, Jr.
NR
Jan 13, 199067 min
Sketches include ""George Bush,"" ""Bizilady,"" ""I Got What You Need,"" ""Wayne's World,"" ""The Nagging,"" ""Dennis Woo's Real Estate Fortunes The Easy Way,"" ""Ceaucescu's Wake,"" ""Lothar of the Hill People,"" and ""SNL in the 90's"".
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Episode 11
Christopher Walken/Bonnie Raitt
NR
Jan 20, 199067 min
Sketches include ""The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson,"" ""Eternity,"" ""Hired Break-Up,"" ""The Continental,"" ""Attitudes,"" ""Lease With an Option to Kill,"" ""Hardbound""
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Episode 12
Quincy Jones
NR
Feb 10, 199067 min
Sketches include ""Pumping Up With Hans and Franz,"" ""Century 21 Marriage Counselors,"" ""Toonces,"" ""Bob Waltman Special,"" ""Jazz Perspective,"" ""Reverend and Rabbi,"" ""Tonto, Tarzan, and Frankenstein,"" ""Soviet Central Committee,"" ""House Committee on Dials and Gauges"".
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Episode 13
Tom Hanks/Aerosmith
NR
Feb 17, 199067 min
Sketches include ""Ivana Trump Pre-Nup"", ""Wayne's World,"" ""Tales of Ribaldry,"" ""Tradtional Irish Drinking Songs for St. Patrick's Day,"" ""The Mob,"" ""Singles Cruise,"" and ""Black History Minute.""
Aerosmith performed ""Jamie's Got a Gun"" and ""Monkey On My Back.""
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Episode 14
Fred Savage/Technotronic
NR
Feb 24, 199067 min
Sketches include ""Church Chat,"" ""Left Alone with a Gun,"" ""The Pat Stevens Show,"" ""Imaginary Friend,"" and ""Hooked on Sushi"" (film).
Technotronic performed ""Pump Up The Jam.""
Sketches include ""Reagan Census Count,"" ""Wayne's World,"" ""Toonces the Cat Who Could Drive a Car,"" ""Calamity Jane,"" and ""Senate Record Labelling Hearings"", ""Weekend Update""
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Episode 17
Corbin Bernsen/Smithereens
NR
Apr 14, 199067 min
Sketches include ""Cable Shopping Network,"" ""Celebrity Lawyer Court,"" ""Hanukkah Harry,"" ""George F. Will's Sports Machine,"" ""His Face,"" ""Movers and Shakers,"" and ""Playgirl Models"".
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Episode 18
Alec Baldwin/The B-52's
NR
Apr 21, 199067 min
Sketches include "Bush Talks to Nation", "Greenhilly", "The Environmentally Conscious One", "Sexual Tension Diner", "The Garbo I Knew", "Only In New York", "Nude Talk Show" and "Middle Aged Man". The B-52's perform "Cosmic Thing" and "Channel Z".
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Episode 19
Andrew Dice Clay/Spanic Boys & Julee Cruise
NR
May 12, 199067 min
Sketches include ""It's a Wonderful Dice,"" ""Diceman Employment Agency,"" ""Cooking With the Anal-Rententive Chef,"" ""What's Sex?"", ""DJ Tony Trailer,"" ""Jan Hooks Protest,"" ""Cool Mite,"" ""Ridiculous Bull,"" ""Kevin Nealon Protest""
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Episode 20
Candice Bergen/Notting Hillbillies
NR
May 19, 199067 min
Sketches include ""George Bush,"" ""Toonces The Cat Who Can Drive a Car,"" ""The Carsenio Show,"" and ""Wayne's World.""
