Saturday Night Live season 17

Saturday Night Live
Season 17
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 28, 1991 (1991-09-28) – May 16, 1992 (1992-05-16)
Season chronology

The seventeenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 28, 1991, and May 16, 1992.

Cast

A. Whitney Brown, Jan Hooks and longtime Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller all left the show. Kevin Nealon was promoted to Weekend Update anchor. New cast members included Ellen Cleghorne, Siobhan Fallon and writer Robert Smigel. Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell also later joined the cast. Chris Farley, Chris Rock and Julia Sweeney were upgraded to repertory status, while Tim Meadows remained in the middle group. Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade were promoted to the middle group.

This was the final season for Victoria Jackson (at the time, she became the longest serving female cast member, with a total of six seasons on the show. She was later surpassed by Molly Shannon in season 26). This would be Cahill and Fallon's only season on the show.

Cast roster

Repertory players

• Dana Carvey
• Chris Farley
• Phil Hartman
• Victoria Jackson
• Mike Myers
• Kevin Nealon
• Chris Rock
• Julia Sweeney

Middle players

• Ellen Cleghorne
• Siobhan Fallon
• Tim Meadows
• Adam Sandler
• Rob Schneider
• David Spade

Featured players

• Beth Cahill (first Episode: November 16, 1991)
• Al Franken
• Melanie Hutsell (first episode: November 16, 1991)
• Robert Smigel

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live writers § season 17

Steve Koren joins the writing staff with the Tom/Roseanne Arnold hosted episode. Koren would be one of the few writers to survive the writer/cast overhaul in 1995.

Episodes

Main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host(s)	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
307	1	Michael Jordan	Public Enemy	September 28, 1991 (1991-09-28)
Public Enemy performs "Can't Truss It" and "Bring the Noise". George Wendt appears during the "Bill Swerski's Super Fans" sketch. Spike Lee appears during the "Dark Side with Nat X" sketch. Jesse Jackson appears during Weekend Update and reads Green Eggs and Ham as a tribute to Dr. Seuss, who had died four days prior to the episode's initial airing. Kevin Nealon's first episode as Weekend Update anchor. Ellen Cleghorne, Siobhan Fallon and Robert Smigel's first episode as cast members.
308	2	Jeff Daniels	Color Me Badd	October 5, 1991 (1991-10-05)
Color Me Badd performs "I Wanna Sex You Up" and "I Adore Mi Amor". This episode features the first appearance of "The Chris Farley Show".
309	3	Kirstie Alley	Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers	October 12, 1991 (1991-10-12)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers perform "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Kings Highway". Kirstie Alley's Cheers co-stars Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson and George Wendt appear as themselves in the opening monologue. Siobhan Fallon objected to appear in the Il Cantore sketch and was replaced by Victoria Jackson.
310	4	Christian Slater	Bonnie Raitt	October 26, 1991 (1991-10-26)
Bonnie Raitt performs "Something to Talk About" and "I Can't Make You Love Me". Raitt dedicated the latter song to concert promoter Bill Graham, who had died in a helicopter crash the day before. John McLaughlin appears as himself in the cold opening. Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a guest appearance in the "Hans and Franz" sketch.
311	5	Kiefer Sutherland	Skid Row	November 2, 1991 (1991-11-02)
Skid Row performs "Piece of Me" and "Monkey Business". Band members Sebastian Bach and Rachel Bolan also appear in the "Kiddie Metal" sketch. Ken Stabler appears in the "Lung Brush" commercial parody.
312	6	Linda Hamilton	Mariah Carey	November 16, 1991 (1991-11-16)
Mariah Carey performs "Can't Let Go" and "If It's Over". Edward Furlong appears as his Terminator 2 character, John Connor, in a "Terminator" parody which doubles as a "Toonces" sketch. Martin Scorsese appears as himself in "The Chris Farley Show". Beth Cahill and Melanie Hutsell's first episode as cast members.
313	7	Macaulay Culkin	Tin Machine	November 23, 1991 (1991-11-23)
Tin Machine performs "Baby Universal" and "If There Is Something". Macaulay Culkin's brother (and co-star of Home Alone) Kieran Culkin appears in the "Bill Swerski's Super Fans" sketch, as Froggy in a "Richmeister" sketch, and in the "Medieval Scalders" sketch. George Wendt (who played Culkin's father in the music video for Michael Jackson's "Black or White") reprises his role as Bob Swerski in "Bill Swerski's Superfans".
314	8	MC Hammer	MC Hammer	December 7, 1991 (1991-12-07)
Hammer performs "Too Legit to Quit", "Addams Groove" and "This Is The Way We Roll". Christina Ricci and Jimmy Workman introduce "Addams Groove".
315	9	Steve Martin	James Taylor	December 14, 1991 (1991-12-14)
James Taylor performs "(I've Got to) Stop Thinkin' 'Bout That", "Shed a Little Light" and "Sweet Baby James". Contains the “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” cold open. Susan Lucci appears in a filmed cameo during the "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee" sketch.
316	10	Rob Morrow	Nirvana	January 11, 1992 (1992-01-11)
Nirvana performs "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Territorial Pissings". The band trashed their instruments after the second song. During the good nights Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic kisses drummer Dave Grohl. Their kiss was not allowed to be played during reruns and was replaced with the good nights from the dress rehearsal. During the monologue, Rob Morrow shows a clip from the "Substitute Judge" sketch on the season 5 episode hosted by Rodney Dangerfield, pointing out that he had played one of the jurors.
317	11	Chevy Chase	Robbie Robertson	January 18, 1992 (1992-01-18)
Robbie Robertson performs "Go Back to Your Woods" and "The Weight". Monk Boudreaux, Bruce Hornsby, Ivan Neville appears in both performances. George Wendt appears in the "Bob Swerski's Quiz Masters" sketch.
318	12	Susan Dey	C&C Music Factory	February 8, 1992 (1992-02-08)
C+C Music Factory performs "Here We Go (Let's Rock & Roll)", "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" and "A Deeper Love".
319	13	Jason Priestley	Teenage Fanclub	February 15, 1992 (1992-02-15)
Teenage Fanclub performs "The Concept", "What You Do to Me" and "Pet Rock".
320	14	Roseanne Arnold Tom Arnold	Red Hot Chili Peppers	February 22, 1992 (1992-02-22)
Red Hot Chili Peppers performs "Stone Cold Bush" and "Under the Bridge". Madonna and Barbra Streisand appear in the “Coffee Talk” sketch.
321	15	John Goodman	Garth Brooks	March 14, 1992 (1992-03-14)
Garth Brooks performs "Rodeo" and "The River".
322	16	Mary Stuart Masterson	En Vogue	March 21, 1992 (1992-03-21)
En Vogue performs "My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It)", "Hold On" and "Free Your Mind".
323	17	Sharon Stone	Pearl Jam	April 11, 1992 (1992-04-11)
Pearl Jam performs "Alive" and "Porch," and also appears during the monologue. Jon Lovitz appears in the "Hitting on Women" sketch. Beth Cahill is not announced by Don Pardo in the opening credits and does not appear in the episode.
324	18	Jerry Seinfeld	Annie Lennox	April 18, 1992 (1992-04-18)
Annie Lennox performs "Why" and "Legend in My Living Room".
325	19	Tom Hanks	Bruce Springsteen	May 9, 1992 (1992-05-09)
Bruce Springsteen performs "Lucky Town", "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" and "Living Proof". Jay Leno appears during Weekend Update. Joe Pesci was originally planned to host this episode, but had to cancel due to the filming of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York running late.
326	20	Woody Harrelson	Vanessa Williams	May 16, 1992 (1992-05-16)
Vanessa Williams performs "Save the Best for Last" and "The Comfort Zone". Jon Lovitz appears in the "Bad Expectant Mother" sketch. Beth Cahill, Siobhan Fallon and Victoria Jackson's final episode as cast members.

Specials

Title	Original air date
"Halloween Special"	October 28, 1991 (1991-10-28)
Wayne (Mike Myers) & Garth (Dana Carvey) host this compilation of some of SNL's greatest Halloween-themed sketches.
"All the Best for Mother's Day"	May 10, 1992 (1992-05-10)
The cast and their mothers take a look at some of the best sketches from the 16th and 17th seasons. Sketches include "The Tonight Song," "Wayne's World," "The Chris Farley Show," "Massive Headwound Harry," and "Coffee Talk".

Wayne's World film

Wayne's World, a film based on the popular "Wayne's World" sketches, was released on February 14, 1992. Cast members Dana Carvey, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chris Farley and Mike Myers appear in the film. The film received positive reviews and was commercially successful, becoming the highest grossing SNL film to date. A sequel was produced in 1993, titled Wayne's World 2.