Country of origin United States Original network NBC | No. of episodes 20 | |
Original release September 26, 1992 (1992-09-26) – May 15, 1993 (1993-05-15) | ||
The eighteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 26, 1992, and May 15, 1993.
Contents
Many changes happened before the start of the season. Long term cast member Victoria Jackson left the show after six seasons. Newer cast members Beth Cahill and Siobhan Fallon were both fired to make room in the cast.
Unlike the past two seasons Lorne Michaels did not hire any new cast members. Rob Schneider was upgraded to repertory status. Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, and David Spade remained in the middle category. Melanie Hutsell was promoted to the middle category. Robert Smigel remained as a featured cast member.
Long-term cast member Dana Carvey decided to leave the show mid season. This would also be the final season for Chris Rock and Robert Smigel.
After three years with the show, Rock decided to quit the show at the end of the season. Rock had become frustrated with never quite finding a voice on the show and wanted to instead focus on his stand-up career. Writer and featured player Smigel left to become the head writer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien, but would later return to the show in 1996 to write and produce the "TV Funhouse" cartoons.
This was also the last season to feature three separate categories for cast members. Starting next season, the show returned to the original "repertory" and "featured" cast lists.
This season was also home to one of SNL's most infamous moments: Sinéad O'Connor tore a photograph of Pope John Paul II at the end of her second performance on the episode hosted by Tim Robbins.
Due to the success of the film Wayne's World, Michaels decided it was a good idea to jump onto the popularity of the film and make more movies based on SNL characters. However, none would prove to be as successful as Wayne's World, critically or commercially.
Cast
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Coneheads film
Coneheads, a film based on the popular Coneheads sketches that appeared on the show in the 1970s, was released on July 23, 1993. Cast members Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Chris Farley, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, Tim Meadows, Garret Morris, Kevin Nealon, Laraine Newman, Adam Sandler, David Spade, and Julia Sweeney all appear in the film. The film did not do well at the box office and was largely panned by critics.