Season 39 of Saturday Night Live premiered on September 28, 2013, hosted by longtime former cast member Tina Fey, with musical guests Arcade Fire and concluded on May 17, 2014, hosted by another longtime former cast member Andy Samberg, with musical guest St. Vincent.
Cast changes
At the end of the previous season, longtime cast members Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Jason Sudeikis left the show after their respective eleventh, ninth, and eighth seasons. Soon after their departures, featured player Tim Robinson, who had been a cast member the previous season, decided to instead join the show's writing staff before this season began; this would be Robinson's last season overall on the show, as he departed following the finale; Robinson remained as a writer. Seth Meyers also announced a planned mid-season exit to prepare for his new job, hosting Late Night; in preparation, Cecily Strong was added to the Weekend Update desk with him. Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong were promoted to repertory status.[1]
The cast ballooned compared to the previous season, with six new people added before the start of the year: Beck Bennett, John Milhiser, Kyle Mooney, Mike O'Brien, Noël Wells, and Brooks Wheelan all joined the cast as featured players; O'Brien was promoted from the writers' room. It would be the first season for Bennett, Mooney, Zamata and Jost, and the only season for Wells, Milhiser, O'Brien, and Wheelan. After this season concluded, Wells, Milhiser, and Wheelan were dropped from the show entirely, while O'Brien returned to the writers' room.
In October, Kenan Thompson gave an interview to TV Guide, where he criticized the show's lack of black females on the cast, and publicly refused to continue to dress in drag on the show.[2] This was a point of humor in the November 2 show, hosted by Kerry Washington. With the flurry of press attention that followed, Lorne Michaels and NBC decided to add a black woman to the cast, leading to Sasheer Zamata joining after Christmas break.[3][4] Auditioning but not making the cast were Tiffany Haddish, Amber Ruffin, LaKendra Tookes, and Leslie Jones.[5] Tookes and Jones were added as writers; Tookes would only last to the end of the season, but Jones would remain and was eventually promoted to the cast in the following season. Haddish and Ruffin would both reach fame outside of SNL; Ruffin appeared on Seth Meyers' Late Night and Haddish would come back to host.
Also in the news was the shift in late night programming, an extension of the 2010 Tonight Show conflict, which meant SNL alum Jimmy Fallon moving from the 12:35 Late Night to the 11:35 Tonight Show, and Seth Meyers taking over the 12:35 show. The transition took place during the gap created by the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi; Meyers last show was February 1, his Late Night started in the last week of February, and when SNL resumed on March 1, Meyers was gone and head writer Colin Jost had joined the cast in his place. (Jost had been a writer since 2005 and head writer since 2012.) Jost joined Strong at the Weekend Update desk.
This was the final season for longtime cast members Meyers, who had been on the show since 2001, a total of 13 seasons, head writer since January 14, 2006 and Weekend Update anchor since September 30, 2006 for 8 seasons, and Nasim Pedrad, who had been on the show for five seasons since 2009. Pedrad announced her departure from the show in June 2014 in order to join John Mulaney's new sitcom Mulaney, the Lorne Michaels-produced show.
This would be also the final season for long-time announcer Don Pardo, who died on August 18, 2014, at the age of 96, over the summer following the season finale.
The opening montage retains from the previous season, with an alteration to Cecily Strong's photo, an extremely subtle alteration to Bobby Moynihan's photo, and a change in b-roll used to precede Seth Meyers photo.
Writing credits
For this season only, after written by, additional sketch by scrolls up before writing supervised by. Pete Schultz is a weekend update producer. His credit is before production designers and after Alex Baze’s credit. Rachel Lynn is digital producer. Her credit is before Mary Ellen Mathews’ credit and after co producers.
Writing supervised by has now Bryan Tucker and Marika Sawyer. On some episodes, it adds John Solomon. Starting on the episodes where Colin Jost starts being a cast member on SNL, Marika Sawyer and John Solomon are writing supervised by. On the episode where Louis CK hosts, Robert Smigel is credited for additional sketch by. On the episode where Anna Kendrick hosts, Sam Means is credited for additional sketch by. On the episode where Seth Rogen hosts, Dan Mirk is credited for additional sketch by. On the episode where Andrew Garfield hosts, Mike Scollins is credited for additional sketch by. Scollins is also credited for that credit in the episode where Charlize Theron hosts. On the episode where Andy Samberg hosts, two people are credited for additional sketch by.
This is the last season in which Alex Baze was weekend update supervising producer. His retirement was after the show ended. His retirement was announced at the end of May.
Cast
Changes
| Not returning |
New · Beck Bennett |
Promoted |
Mid-season changes · Sasheer Zamata (first January 18) |
Repertory Players
Featured Players
Episodes
Trivia
- Claire Mulaney, the younger sister of former writer John Mulaney,[6]and Groundlings member Mikey Day,[7] joined the writing staff.
- Michael Che, a guest writer for the previous season, was hired full-time.
- Episodes with a cheers and applause track from the studio used on Hulu and sling versions are, September 28, 2013, October 5, 2013, November 2, 2013, December 21, 2013, January 18, 2014, January 25, 2014, February 1, 2014, March 1, 2014, March 8, 2014, March 29, 2014, April 5, 2014, April 12, 2014, May 3, 2014 and May 10, 2014.
- This season's head writers are Seth Meyers, Colin Jost, and Rob Klein. As of March, Jost and Klein will continued as co-head writers for the rest of the season.
- Following the departure of Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Jason Sudeikis, Meyers, who was born in 1973, was the only cast member born before the premiere of the show on October 11, 1975. After Meyers left, everyone in the cast was younger than the show, with featured player Michael Patrick O'Brien being the eldest (O'Brien was born in 1976), and Jay Pharoah and Aidy Bryant being the youngest male and female, respectively.
- LaKendra Tookes and Leslie Jones joined the writing staff in January of 2014, after both had auditioned in December to join the cast.
- Second City, Chicago theater alum Katie Rich joined the writing staff in December of 2013.
- This was Don Pardo’s final season. He died on August 18, 2014, before the premiere of the 40th season.
- Some milestones this season included:
- Bruce Willis, who hosted back in 1989, returned to host for the second time after 24 years.
- John Goodman, who hosted from 1989 to 2001, returned to host this season after 12 years for his thirteenth time.
- Charlize Theron, who hosted back in 2000, returned to host for the second time after 13 years.
- 3 double duty hosts and musical guests are:
- Miley Cyrus, who previously hosted on March 5, 2011, the sixteenth episode of Season 36, with musical guests The Strokes, returned to SNL making her second hosting stint and her first-time as the musical guest.
- Lady Gaga, who previously made her 2nd musical guest appearances: On October 3, 2009, the second episode of Season 35, hosted by Canadian and American actor Ryan Reynolds and on May 21, 2011, the Season 36 finale, hosted by singer-songwriter and actor Justin Timberlake, returned to SNL to host for the first-time and made her 3rd musical guest appearance.
References
- ↑ http://nytimes.com/2013/09/16/business/media/saturday-night-live-setting-its-new-cast.html
- ↑ http://www.tvguide.com/News/SNL-Diversity-Issue-Kenan-Thompson-1072056.aspx
- ↑ http://hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/saturday-night-live-get-know-625783
- ↑ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/saturday-night-live-adds-sasheer-668659
- ↑ Flashback to when SNL held auditions for the next black female cast member during season 39. Recognize any familiar faces?
- ↑ http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-07-17/entertainment/chi-chicago-claire-mulaney-saturday-night-live_1_bill-hader-improv-team-second-city
- ↑ http://splitsider.com/2013/08/wild-n-outs-mikey-day-hired-to-write-for-snl/
| Preceded by: Season 38 |
Season 39 (2013— 2014) |
Followed by: Season 40 |
| Seasons | |
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