Saturday Night Live (Season 20)

"Saturday Night Live" aired its twentieth season during the 1994-1995 television season on NBC. Much like seasons six and eleven, this season was lambasted by critics for its decline in quality. However, unlike seasons six and eleven, which were criticized for having weak writing and a cast with no chemistry, season twenty suffered from having sketches based on very thin premises (mostly centered on O. J. Simpson's famous murder trial) and a mix of castmembers who have been on the show for too long along with newcomers who regularly clashed with the older ones (particularly Janeane Garofalo, according to her account on the book, "Live From New York: The Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live"). Norm Macdonald became the "Weekend Update" anchor at the beginning of the season, replacing Kevin Nealon (who, despite, leaving his post as Weekend Update anchor, still stayed on the show).

This season saw the death of two more SNL castmembers: Danitra Vance (SNL's first black female repertory player who was on the show's 11th season) who died of breast cancer (after three years of the cancer being in remission following a radical masectomy) and Michael O'Donoghue (a longtime writer and sometimes castmember known for his dark, sadistic humor and frequent migraine headaches) who died of a cerebral hemorrhage (the Sarah Jessica Parker/R.E.M. episode had a special appearance by Bill Murray who showed a clip of "Mr. Mike's Least Favorite Bedtime Stories" in his memory).

The twentieth season began on September 24, 1994 and ended on May 13, 1995.

Cast

Repertory cast members

* Morwenna Banks (First Episode: April 8, 1995)
* Ellen Cleghorne
* Chris Elliot
* Chris Farley†
* Janeane Garofalo (Final Episode: February 25, 1995)
* Norm Macdonald
* Michael McKean
* Mark McKinney (First Episode: January 14, 1995)
* Tim Meadows
* Mike Myers (Final Episode: January 21, 1995)
* Kevin Nealon
* Adam Sandler
* David Spade

Featured cast members

* Al Franken (Final Episode: May 6, 1995)
* Laura Kightlinger
* Jay Mohr
* Molly Shannon (First episode: February 25, 1995)

Episodes