Country of origin United States Original network NBC | No. of episodes 22 | |
Original release September 18, 1976 (1976-09-18) – May 21, 1977 (1977-05-21) | ||
The second season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 18, 1976, and May 21, 1977.
Contents
The season included a Live from Mardi Gras Special.
This season of what began as NBC's Saturday Night saw the departure of Chevy Chase after the October 30th episode hosted by Buck Henry. Jane Curtin took over as Weekend Update anchor following Chase's departure. On the January 15, 1977 episode, Bill Murray joined the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players, filling the void left by Chase's departure. Jim Downey joined the writing staff. This season was the last to feature The Muppets.
Steve Martin, Eric Idle, and Buck Henry each hosted two episodes.
History
Following the cancellation of ABC's Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, NBC changed the name of the show from NBC's Saturday Night to its current title, Saturday Night Live in the episode hosted by Jack Burns in 1977.
The shows on October 16, October 23, and October 30 1976 were live from NBC's studio complex in Brooklyn, NY. NBC News used Studio 8-H for Presidential election coverage.
This season was the last to feature The Muppets in The Land of Gorch, who had appeared in segments that were unpopular with fans and the SNL writers. Jim Henson was reportedly displeased with the amount of creative control he had over the scripts. Jerry Juhl called Henson "very frustrated" with his input into the scripts, and stated that the SNL writers "didn't have any real handle" on Henson's concept. "Jim would come in with ideas, and sit with them, and give them wonderful ideas, and they wouldn’t know how to fly with them," Juhl recalled. In a 1977 interview with Playboy, head writer/performer Michael O'Donoghue referred to the Muppets as "fucking Muppets…little hairy facecloths" that were made from the refuse after they cleaned up after Woodstock. He also refused to write for them, saying "I don’t write for felt". O'Donoghue also had a lynched Big Bird hanging in the writer's office.
Jim Downey joined the writing staff in what would be a long career on the show.
Cast
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
Writers
Jim Downey joined the writing staff.
This season's writers included Dan Aykroyd, Anne Beatts, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Bruce McCall, Lorne Michaels, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Bill Murray, Michael O'Donoghue, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Rosie Shuster and Alan Zweibel. The head writer was Michael O'Donoghue.
DVD release
The Mardi Gras Special and all 22 episodes were released on a DVD set on December 4, 2007.