Saturday Night Live (Season 21)

"Saturday Night Live" aired its twenty-first season during the 1995-1996 television season on NBC. "SNL" once again dodged cancellation from season twenty's low ratings and scathing reviews about the show's decline in quality. Only four repertory cast members (Mark McKinney, David Spade [who wanted to stay until SNL's quality improved] , Tim Meadows [who was almost fired when Lorne was building his season 21 cast, but was kept in order to make the cast diverse] , and Norm Macdonald [whose turn as Weekend Update anchor was considered by many to be the only good aspect of season 20] ) from the previous season returned along with Molly Shannon, who was promoted to the repertory cast, while the rest of the season 20 cast either left on their own terms (Kevin Nealon, Michael McKean, Jay Mohr, Chris Elliot, Laura Kightlinger and Ellen Cleghorne) or were let out of their contracts (Adam Sandler, Morwenna Banks and Chris Farley) to make room for new castmembers.

The new performers chosen were Darrell Hammond, Will Ferrell, David Koechner, Chris Kattan (who didn't appear until the middle of the season), Fred Wolf, Jim Breuer, Cheri Oteri, Colin Quinn, and Nancy Walls. Future SNL host Steve Carell auditioned to be in the cast, but was rejected, while Johnny Knoxville turned down the opportunity to feature what would later be his stunts for the MTV show "Jackass" in a series of short films.

The twenty-first season began September 30, 1995 and ended on May 18, 1996.

Cast

Repertory players

*Jim Breuer
*Will Ferrell
*Darrell Hammond
*David Koechner
*Norm Macdonald
*Mark McKinney
*Tim Meadows
*Cheri Oteri
*Molly Shannon
*David Spade
*Nancy Walls

Featured players

*Chris Kattan (First Episode: March 16, 1996)
*Colin Quinn
*Fred Wolf (First Episode: October 28, 1995)

Episodes