Saturday Night Live (season 6)
| Saturday Night Live (season 6) | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | November 15, 1980 – April 11, 1981 |
| Season chronology | |
The sixth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between November 15, 1980, and April 11, 1981.
This season was alternatively known as Saturday Night Live '80.
According to Tom Shales' book Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, Executive Producer Lorne Michaels cited burnout as the reason behind his desire to take a year off, and had been led to believe by NBC executives that the show would go on hiatus with him, and be ready to start fresh upon his return.
However, Michaels learned from associate producer Jean Doumanian that the show would go on with or without him, and that she had been chosen as his replacement, much to Michaels' surprise and dismay.
Angered by this news, the entire cast and all but one writer (Brian Doyle-Murray) followed Michaels out the door. The sixth season began with a completely new cast and new writers, with Doumanian at the helm.
Doumanian hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley, and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance, and Patrick Weathers as featured cast members, passing on such then-unknown performers as Jim Carrey, John Goodman and Paul Reubens. Doumanian sought a non-white cast member to fill Garrett Morris's previous role. As SNL scholars Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad phrase it,
Jean still needed an ethnic, and a special series of auditions was set up to find one. For two days in mid-September some thirty black actors and comedians filed through the writers' wing on the 17th floor [of Rockefeller Center] to read for Jean and her people. At the end, Jean told her group she was leaning toward hiring a stand-up by the name of Charlie Barnett. But talent coordinator Neil Levy had another black performer he wanted her to see, a kid from Roosevelt, Long Island, named Eddie Murphy.
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