Saturday Night Live season 26 explained

Season Number:26
Bgcolour:
  1. 235454
Image Alt:The title card for the twenty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live.
Num Episodes:20
Network:NBC
Prev Season:season 25
Next Season:season 27
Episode List:List of Saturday Night Live episodes

The twenty-sixth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 7, 2000, and May 19, 2001.

This season featured satire of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, including the Republican and Democratic primaries, the campaigns of Vice President Gore, Texas Governor George W. Bush, and Ralph Nader, the Florida election recount, and the Bush v. Gore case that came before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cast

Before the start of the season, longtime cast members Tim Meadows,[1] Cheri Oteri,[2] and Colin Quinn[3] all left the show. Meadows had been on the show for 10 seasons since 1990, while Oteri and Quinn had both been on for five seasons since 1995. The show added two new featured players: SNL head writer Tina Fey and Second City comedian Jerry Minor.[4] Fey had been a writer on the show since 1997 and began as the show's head writer in 1999. Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph remained featured players. Minor was let go following this season.

This would be Molly Shannon's final season on the show.[5] Leaving midseason, she surpassed Victoria Jackson as the show's longest-serving female cast member (Amy Poehler would surpass Shannon's record seven years later).

Chris Parnell was fired at the end of this season, but then rehired midway through the next season. Executive producer Lorne Michaels would later admit he made a mistake in firing Parnell.[6]

With Colin Quinn's anchor seat on Weekend Update empty, Lorne Michaels decided to go back to the format used in the late 1970s with two anchors. Jimmy Fallon and head writer Tina Fey were picked to anchor the segment together.[7]

This season also marked the first time since Season 14 that John Goodman didn't host at all. He had previously hosted at least one episode per season for a ten-year stretch.

Cast roster

Repertory players

Featured players

bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor

Writers

Jim Downey rejoins the writing staff this season.[8] James Anderson, who went on to write on SNL for decades, joins the writing staff as a new writer.[9] This was also the final season for Adam McKay (a writer since 1995)[10] and Robert Carlock (a writer since 1996)[11]

Episodes

See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.

The Ladies Man film

See main article: The Ladies Man (2000 film). Based on Leon Phelps' popular sketches, The Ladies Man film was released on October 13, 2000. The film's star Tim Meadows left Saturday Night Live at the end of the previous season but returned to promote the film in the first episode of this season. Cast members Will Ferrell and Chris Parnell and former SNL cast member Mark McKinney co-starred in this film. The movie was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: October 19, 2000 . Meadows leaves the "SNL' nest . 2024-04-23 . Tampa Bay Times . en.
  2. Web site: 2002-04-14 . Whatever happened to Cheri Oteri from… . 2024-04-23 . Chicago Tribune . en-US.
  3. News: March 8, 2002 . Colin Quinn has to prove himself fast with series . April 23, 2024 . New York Daily News . C5 . Reading Eagle.
  4. Web site: Wright . Megh . 2012-09-25 . Saturday Night’s Children: Jerry Minor (2000-2001) . 2024-04-23 . Vulture . en.
  5. News: Shannon to Exit 'SNL' . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110302164722/http://www.people.com/people/article/0%2C%2C618945%2C00.html . 2011-03-02 . 2024-04-23 . People.
  6. News: Izadi . Elahe . The weird ways people have been fired from 'Saturday Night Live' . 23 April 2024 . Washington Post . August 9, 2016.
  7. News: Gray . Ellen . December 30, 2000 . Head writer: Timing helped her land job . April 23, 2024 . The Vindicator . B13 . Gray . Knight Ridder Newspapers.
  8. Book: Sacks, Mike. Poking a Dead Frog. Penguin Books. 2014. 978-1-101-61327-6. New York. 1–2.
  9. jazzblob. CI_veUaJ_L1. After 20 fun filled seasons at SNL i didn’t return for 21. My fairy god queer reminded me how I would disintegrate into a neat pile of southern dust. However, I had fun popping back in for Wiig and I didn’t transform into dust, it was more like a disco mist. ❤️. 20 December 2020.
  10. News: Weiner . Jonah . Why the Director of 'Anchorman' Decided to Take On Dick Cheney . 4 May 2020 . The New York Times . 29 November 2018.
  11. Web site: Robert Carlock. 2012-01-12. IMDb. 2011.