After creating and running Saturday Night Live for five seasons, Lorne Michaels stepped
away from the sketch comedy to work on some other TV projects.
As a result, the show's sixth season, which ran from 1980 to 1981, turned out to be an
incredibly tumultuous year for the creatives on SNL.
Although much of the chaos ensued behind the scenes, there were some on-screen shifts that
rendered the show's comedy pretty forgettable.
So forgettable, in fact, that people rarely bring up any moments from this season at all
unless they're talking about how disastrously bad it was.
Here's what you might not know about Saturday Night Live's forgotten season.
Breaking away
After five years of putting in the intense time and effort it takes to make SNL shine,
Lorne Michaels decided he needed to take a step back from the executive chair for a bit.
At first, he just wanted the summer off and to delay the sixth season premiere to just
after the 1980 election, instead of the usual September start.
But Michaels also admitted he wasn't sure if he wanted to come back at all, because
to continue the show meant he'd have to sacrifice other ambitions.
So, he floated some ideas to NBC about who should take over in his absence just in case.
His top choice was for SNL writers and occasional performers Al Franken and Tom Davis to take
over.
He figured they'd be the best candidates to maintain the quality, integrity, and tone
of the show, since they'd all worked together for so long.
But he doomed Franken's chances before the possibility could even materialize.
Michaels had been scheduled to meet with NBC president Fred Silverman to discuss their
future, but Silverman had to postpone.
Then, the weekend before the rescheduled appointment, Franken appeared on a segment of "Weekend
Update" that specifically targeted the head honcho.
"You know who gets complete, door-to-door limousine service from NBC?
Fred Silverman."
Franken said in the piece that it wasn't fair that he should have to hail cabs in New York
while Silverman got to take a limousine wherever he wanted, even while NBC was failing in the
ratings.
"I like to call it a limo for the lame-o."
Silverman saw the episode — and lost his cool with Michaels.
The relationship between Michaels and the network soured so badly that Michaels decided
to walk away from SNL completely, and Silverman overlooked Franken as Michaels' replacement.
Regrouping
A few weeks after his spat with NBC brass, Michaels got a call from another exec who
informed him that his successor would be Jean Doumanian, an associate producer for the show.
Michaels thought Doumanian was, quote, "an interesting choice" because he felt SNL was,
quote, "a writer-based show," and Doumanian had been on the writing staff for exactly
one TV variety special.
But her years on SNL did give her the knowledge of how the show was assembled each week, and
Doumanian's skills as a talent coordinator would come in handy.
That's because when Michaels left, so did the entire cast of Saturday Night Live: including
Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner.
So that meant Doumanian had to assemble an entirely new cast.
She put together a roster that included Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Joe Piscopo, and
Eddie Murphy.
Although Murphy was not the first choice for the new roster, he continuously contacted
talent coordinator Neil Levy until he gave the comedian a chance to audition.
Little did anyone know that Murphy's audition routine would come in handy later on in the
show.
See, almost every writer left with Lorne Michaels and the cast, so Doumanian had to recruit
a new stable of talent behind-the-scenes too.
But with the writer's room becoming its own sort of revolving door while she was in charge,
there was a shortage of sketches.
In one case, they were running five minutes short on material and decided at the last-minute
to have Murphy go out and perform his stand-up routine to fill the empty airtime.
The 19-year-old became the actual saving grace of the entire season after that.
Multiple missteps
Despite the introduction of Murphy as a rising star, the sixth season of SNL was still filled
with snafus.
For example, In the cold open of the season premiere, host Elliott Gould wakes up in bed
with some new cast members, and they're immediately compared to the show's former cast members.
"Sort of a cross between Gilda and Jane."
In other words, the show's new era began with an unfavorable comparison to its old iteration,
and it was a steep slide down from there.
In one episode, some good ol' boys try to shoot Communists, and one character used the
N-word.
But the season wasn't just offensive — it was also boring and bizarre.
There was a five-minute-long sketch about a couple who can't remember the name of their
friend's cat.
"The Leather Weather Report" featured Denny Dillon as a dominatrix named Thelma Thunder
giving her S&M-themed forecast.
Perhaps most idiotically, "Weekend Update" was ditched in favor of a failed segment called
"Saturday Night Newsline."
And in what became the most infamous incident of the season, on episode 11 in February,
cast member Charles Rocket dropped an eff-bomb on live air.
“Charlie, How are you feeling after you’ve been shot?”
“Oh man, it’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life.
I’d like to know who the f--- did it.”
The show lost 30 percent of its audience, and critics maligned the new direction.
The New York Times even called it "an unfunny parody of its predecessor" that relied too
heavily on racial and sexual humor.
If the execs wants to salvage their hit series, they'd have to think fast.
Beginning again
After the 12th episode of the season — one after Charles Rocket's eff-word incident — Doumanian
was relieved from her position as SNL producer.
Her replacement was NBC executive Dick Ebersol, who'd actually helped develop Saturday Night
Live in the mid-'70s.
Immediately after taking over, Ebersol fired most of the cast, including Charles Rocket,
Gilbert Gottfried, Ann Risley, Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, and Patrick Weathers.
In their places, he brought in SCTV stars Robin Duke and Tony Rosato, as well as Tim
Kazurinsky.
Laurie Metcalf and National Lampoon editor Emily Prager were also hired as featured players.
By the time the season was finished, Ebersol also fired Gail Matthius and Denny Dillon,
so the only Doumanian hires to survive the season were breakout stars Eddie Murphy and
Joe Piscopo.
Thanks to Murphy's status as the MVP of the season, he became the first featured player
promoted to regular cast member during his first season on the show.
Bad timing
What set all these massive changes into motion was producer Lorne Michaels wanting a break
in the fall of 1980.
Ironically, had he just stayed with the show and said nothing to NBC, he probably would've
gotten one.
The sixth season of SNL didn't actually air its first episode until November 15th, 1980
— about two months late — all because of a Screen Actors Guild strike.
But luckily for everyone involved with the disaster-plagued season, it also ended early,
cut short abruptly after the 13th episode due to a writers strike.
The 14th episode had already been planned, and it might have helped get SNL back on track.
As a guest on Weekend Update, would-be showrunner Al Franken announced he'd be back the next
week to host and offered a scathing monologue about how he was hellbent on repairing the
broken season.
"Anyway it took NBC 12 shows to figure out their horrendous mistake."
But the strike-shortened season led to some of the shortest tenures in SNL history.
Featured players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager were let go after that de facto season
finale, and Metcalf only appeared in one pre-taped bit for Weekend Update, while Prager never
officially appeared on the show at all.
Thanks to the brevity of the season and so many cast and creative shake-ups, it's hardly
any wonder why SNL's sixth season hasn't shown up much in the highlight reel.
But, hey — at least it introduced the world to Eddie Murphy.
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