SNL Up Close: 1988-89
When the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike in March 1988, the Winter Olympics had just finished, both the Republican and Democratic primaries were underway, and Saturday Night Live was in the middle of its 13th season. Despite the anticlimactic finish to the year (Judge Reinhold / 10,000 Maniacs), the show was continuing its resurgence.
There weren’t many changes when the show reconvened in the fall: there was a new montage and show logo, but Lorne Michaels was still executive producer, Jim Downey was still producer, and the writing staff was more or less intact from February, including mid-season hires Bob Odenkirk, Conan O’Brien, Greg Daniels, and Shannon Gaughan; Gaughan’s husband John Bowman was the only new hire over the summer. All of last seasons’ cast members returned, writers A. Whitney Brown and Al Franken appeared on screen occasionally, and Dennis Miller continued to anchor Weekend Update. It would only be after Christmas break that SNL would receive their first notable change to the cast in two and a half seasons.
Mike Myers, who had been a member of Toronto’s Second City Theatre, London’s Comedy Store Players, and Chicago’s ImprovOlympic, joined the show as a writer and featured player beginning with the January 21, 1989 show. While he mostly played small roles at first, he already had established several characters that would soon become synonymous with SNL, including public-access show host Wayne Campbell and the German artiste Dieter. In March, Ben Stiller, who had previously contributed the short film The Hustler of Money two years earlier, became another new SNL writer/featured player, but he would leave after only four shows to focus more on filmmaking.
As usual, I will be posting sketch-by-sketch reviews, with new posts uploaded every weekend. Any information regarding the sketches (such as sketch authorship) and shows is certainly welcome, and will be incorporated into my reviews with acknowledgement (if requested).
The episodes (with links to episode summaries in the SNL Archives):
As well, I will be using the original live versions for these reviews when available, and keeping track of any differences between live and repeat broadcasts.