Random Thing Of '94-'95 Season Of 'SNL' (13 items)

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  (#1) Lorne Michaels Describes The Season As The 'Closest' He Ever Came To 'Being Fired'

  In the 2007 documentary Saturday Night Live in the '90s: Pop Culture Nation, show producer Lorne Michaels indicated that the struggles of the 1994-1995 season almost cost him his job. Critics called SNL "dysfunctional" and "embarrassing," something substantiated by ever-declining ratings.

  According to NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, "Lorne knew that there was a problem, but I think he was unsure of exactly what the problem was... I never gave Lorne an ultimatum. But what I basically said to him is, 'The show has to get better.'"

  Michaels claimed, "I don't think I'd ever been as scared." He knew he was in danger of being "broke and washed up." 

  As a result, Michaels took a drastic approach to revamping the show, firing many of the major players when the season came to an end. While Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, among others, were still on contract with SNL, they found themselves on the chopping block and off the show for the 1995-1996 season.
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  (#5) Though The Cast Produced Memorable Sketches, They Also Made Some Of The Biggest Bombs

  As morale and ratings declined at SNL during the 1994-1995 season, writers noticed the subject matter took a downhill trajectory, as well. Writers Bonnie and Terry Turner, who had penned skits like "Wayne's World" and the Church Lady sketches, were disappointed to see "less about relationships... Unless the relationship is between a man and his shoe, rather than actual people."

  Similarly, sketches like "Gay Stripper Theater" indicated to Janeane Garofalo that, "They love the anal sex here... that's considered incredibly funny." It wasn't something she found amusing, nor was an alien skit that included anal probes and the word "b*tch" written across male cast members' chests in lipstick. Garofalo, who later said she "wanted to quit after the first week," found it nausea-inducing instead.  

  There were some bright points during the season, however. Al Franken continued to appear as Stuart Smalley, Chris Farley as Matt Foley remained popular, and the Gap Girls - featuring Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade - brought lots of laughs.
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  (#13) There Are Very Different Interpretations Of What Exactly Happened During The 1994-1995 Season

  Janeane Garofalo has made no secret of her difficult experience on SNL. She's talked about what she viewed as sexism, homophobia, and the lack of intellectualism on the show, but many of her former colleagues view her time on the show differently.

  Writer Fred Wolf, for example, found her arguments that some sketches were "disrespectful to women" to be "the most convoluted, strangest, and most ridiculous" he'd ever heard. He described her as "awful on the show... completely and totally wrong... very, very insecure," even though he'd helped her get on the show.

  Paul Simon, musical guest alongside Edie Brickell for the October 22, 1994, episode, insists, "Garofalo has no case. It was during one of the show's low points... and she had a miserable case," but "she messed him up" by leaving mid-season.

  Fellow first-year cast member Chris Elliott acknowledged, "A lot of the humor was not up her [Garofalo's] alley," but he, too, tried to quit during the season. For his part, he doesn't even remember some of the skits he appeared in, theorizing, "It was just such a miserable experience that I have sort of blacked out a lot of these things. "

  Still one more contemporary, Rosie Shuster - writer and former wife to Lorne Michaels - said, "There's no word for when you castrate a female... but that's the feeling I get watching" what Janeane Garofalo went through.
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  (#3) Only 'Cigarettes And Stoli' Kept Janeane Garofalo Sane

  With the exit of Phil Hartman, Julia Sweeney, and others, Lorne Michaels brought in new cast members like Chris Elliott and Janeane Garofalo. Garofalo, known for her roles on The Larry Sanders Show and The Ben Stiller Show, struggled throughout the season.

  The characters she was given were unenlightened and stereotypical, with relatively few lines. On one show, the December 10, 1994, episode hosted by Alec Baldwin, Garofalo found herself with "things to do in sketches," which was exciting because her family was there to watch the show. In the end, she "was usually embarrassed. My family did not like the show that season. My father felt that his intelligence was being insulted." 

  Garofalo reportedly told friends it was "the most miserable experience of" her life, attributing her survival to "cigarettes and Stoli."
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  (#12) At The End Of The Season, Michaels Effectively Fired Everyone And Hired A Whole New Cast

  In a move still not completely understood by many of those involved, Lorne Michaels culled the SNL cast at the end of the show's 20th season, releasing some of its most beloved performers.

  Chris Farley and Adam Sandler, alongside cast members and featured players Ellen Cleghorne, Chris Elliott, Laura Kightlinger, Michael McKean, Jay Mohr, and Kevin Nealon, were all dismissed. Elliott and Kightlinger had only been on the show for one season, while another cast member, Morwenna Banks, was on for only a portion of the 1994-1995 season. 

  In interviews since his dismissal, Sandler has indicated it was as much him quitting as a true firing. From Sandler's point of view:

  Yes, we were [fired]. We kind of quit at the same time as being fired. It was the end of the run for us... We were on it for a few years, had our run, and everything happens for a reason. We kind of understood because we did our thing. It hurt a lot at the time because we were young and didn’t know where we were going, but it all worked out.

  Other comments from Sandler illustrate how he - and Farley - felt at the time. Sandler told Howard Stern:

  I was hurt because I didn't know what else I was going to do... I was probably [covering] up the sadness with being mad and saying "f**k you blah, blah, blah"... But I remember when I saw Farley and he said, "Me, too, they don't want me either." We were both like "f**k this s**t." We got mad together, pretended we weren't sad, pretended this was for the best.
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  (#4) The 'Hazing' And Internal Pecking Order Made New Talent Begin To Reject The Show

  Janeane Garofalo likened her first few months on SNL to "hazing... Fraternity hazing. It's hard. It takes its toll on you. But I think you come out much better in the end. If nothing else, this experience has just toughened me up."

  Air time seemed to be distributed according to tenure on the show, with competing personalities draining SNL of its comedic energy. Observers indicated, "You feel it as soon as you walk into the writers' room... It's a depressed, kind of lethargic burnout."

  An SNL writer observed how the cast members couldn't "even fake forcing themselves to care." According to the writer:

  When you watch the show on TV, that comes through - it really seems taken with itself. And when it's as bad as it can be, and people still act like there's nothing wrong, then it's sort of like a f**k-you to the audience - "We don’t have to be good, because we're Saturday Night Live!" It's like the post office. "What are you gonna do, deliver the mail yourself?"

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