Season Five was a watershed moment for SNL; at the beginning of the season, the cast said goodbye to original cast members John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and at the end of the season, the remaining founding players left (including Bill Murray, who joined in Season Two.)
On this episode, we discuss what the loss of Aykroyd and Belushi meant for Bill Murray, who was forced to play the male lead in far more sketches than he wanted. Behind the scenes, this led Murray to become more demanding and more difficult to work with, as he began blackmailing producer Lorne Michaels to get what he wanted.
This season also saw the worst episode of the first five seasons - an episode so vile and tasteless, it is a wonder it hasn’t been wiped from the streaming services forever. (To find out which episode it is, listen in!)
This is also a season that featured some hosts that surprised us with their willingness to buy in to the show, even as the writing struggled. Old guys like Ted Knight, Kirk Douglas, and Rodney Dangerfield showed up, put in the work, and it shows.
As Season Five wore on, Gilda Radner, pulled in many directions by other projects and despondent over her breakup with Murray, grew exhausted and virtually disappeared from the show. Paul Shaffer, forced into service due to the lack of male cast members, dropped the “F” bomb on the show. Garrett Morris, in the grips of a cocaine habit, lost control during rehearsals, stripping down bare-chested and screaming at the crew.
We discuss all these issues, including our breakdown of a sketch so offensive, we have difficulty even describing it. And we offer our reflections on the first five seasons of SNL and what they meant for comedy moving forward.
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