Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Saturday Night Live (season 25)

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Country of origin
  
United States

Original network
  
NBC

No. of episodes
  
20

Original release
  
October 2, 1999 (1999-10-02) – May 20, 2000 (2000-05-20)

The twenty-fifth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 2, 1999, and May 20, 2000.

Contents

Changes and notes

The entire cast from last season returned for another year. Jimmy Fallon, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz were all promoted to repertory status, with the cast otherwise unchanged at the start of the season. As the season progressed, the show added two new cast members. Rachel Dratch, recruited from Chicago's The Second City, where she was head writer Tina Fey's comedy partner, joined the show in the episode hosted by Norm Macdonald. Towards the end of the season, Maya Rudolph of The Groundlings joined the show, starting with the episode hosted by John Goodman.

This would be the final season for cast members Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, and Cheri Oteri.

Cast roster

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Contract for new cast members

In July 1999, when executive producer Lorne Michaels held auditions for the season, NBC introduced a new contract for first-year cast members, replacing the five- or six-year deals they had used in the past. The terms were established by NBC executives Scott Sassa and Garth Ancier. According to Peter Bogdanovich, the new contract came with the following terms:

  • NBC can take a Saturday Night Live cast member off the show any time after his or her second year on the program and put him or her in an NBC sitcom.
  • A cast member has the option of saying no to the first two shows proposed by NBC, but must accept the third deal.
  • NBC dictates the length of the sitcom contract, which can run as long as six years.
  • SNL Films, co-owned by Paramount Pictures, NBC and Lorne Michaels, has a three-movie option that would pay the star a set $75,000 for the first film, $150,000 for the second and $300,000 for the third, rates that used to be negotiable.
  • NBC has the option of paying those same amount to force a cast member to say no to a film deal offered to them by another studio.

    • The starting salary remained $5,000 per episode.

    Writers

    Starting this season Tina Fey is credited as the writing supervisor.

    Superstar film

    A Superstar film, based on the Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches, was released on October 8, 1999. Cast members Will Ferrell, Mark McKinney and Molly Shannon appear in the film. The film did modestly well at the box office but was panned by critics.

    References

    Saturday Night Live (season 25) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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