Saturday Night Live season 5
The fifth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 13, 1979, and May 24, 1980.
Cast
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi left the show at the end of season 4, leaving a void in the cast that most fans thought would be the beginning of the end of the late-night sketch comedy show. Belushi left to make movies while Aykroyd had intended to stay for the fifth season, only to change his mind to concentrate on filming The Blues Brothers only weeks leading up to the season premiere. Aykroyd's sudden departure caused a rift between him and Lorne Michaels that wouldn't be healed for many years.This is the first season of the show where the opening credits include "featured players", starting with the fifth episode. The concept evolves onscreen, with Harry Shearer being credited as "a little of Harry Shearer" in the second episode before the "featuring" category is introduced in the fifth episode. To keep the show going, Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to featured cast member status: Peter Aykroyd, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Don Novello, and Paul Shaffer. Longtime writers Tom Schiller and Alan Zweibel are credited as featured players for only the April 19th, 1980 episode. Shearer was promoted to repertory status midway through the season.
Although Al Franken, Tom Davis and Novello were credited as special guests for individual episodes in which they performed their own segments in earlier seasons of the show, they officially became featured players starting midway through this season when the featured player category was introduced. Novello is credited as a guest star under his character Father Guido Sarducci's name in two episodes before he becomes a featured player.
This season was the first to have two members of the same family as cast members.
This would be the final season for everyone in the cast. Davis and Downey would return to the show in future seasons as writers. Franken, Doyle-Murray, Novello and Shearer would rejoin the cast in future seasons.
Repertory players
Featured players
- Peter Aykroyd
- Tom Davis
- Jim Downey
- Brian Doyle-Murray
- Al Franken
- Don Novello
- Tom Schiller
- Paul Shaffer
- Alan Zweibel
Featured cast members announced and shown during the "Opening Introductions" varied from week to week, as noted below in each episode's description. Shearer is credited for seven episodes as a featured player before becoming part of the main cast. Davis is credited as a featured player for 12 episodes. Doyle-Murray, Franken and Shaffer are credited for 10 episodes each. Novello is credited as a featured player for eight episodes. Aykroyd is credited for six episodes, Downey is credited for three and Schiller and Zweibel are each credited for one episode only.
Writers
As previously mentioned, Michaels upgraded many of the show's writers to cast member status, including Aykroyd, Davis, Downey, Doyle-Murray, Franken, Novello, Schiller and Zweibel.This season's writers were Peter Aykroyd, Anne Beatts, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Al Franken, Tom Gammill, Lorne Michaels, Matt Neuman, Don Novello, Sarah Paley, Max Pross, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Harry Shearer, Rosie Shuster, and Alan Zweibel. Doyle-Murray would be the only one to return as a writer in the following season.