Scot Bertram

Carvey and Hartman Usher in a New Golden Age

In Season Eleven, Lorne Michaels tried something new with Saturday Night Live: he brought in a cast full of movie stars who hadn’t previously performed sketch comedy. And the results showed.

Michaels famously ended the season with a sketch that trapped the cast and writers in a burning room, with only Jon Lovitz escaping the fire. As Season Twelve begins, we find that Nora Dunn and Dennis Miller also escaped the flames of death.

The players that didn’t make it were replaced by a slew of new cast members that would go on to define the show for nearly a decade to come. New are San Francisco-based standup Dana Carvey, Groundlings improv veteran Phil Hartman, comedic actresses Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson, and Los Angeles-based standup Kevin Nealon.

With new cast in tow, Season 12 hits the air as if it was shot out of a cannon, with at least three of the first 10 among some of the best the show has ever produced. The very first sketch of the first episode of the season features the Church Lady, who would go on to be one of the most iconic recurring characters in the show’s history. (And give birth to the name of this here podcast.)

Throughout the season, Carvey, Hartman and Hooks prove to be top-flight cast members. Jackson, historically undervalued because of her voice (which often kept her from doing celebrity impersonations), actually ends up being important to the show, as she demonstrated not only a skill for physical comedy (doing monologues while performing a handstand, crashing through windows, etc.), but musical ability, playing the ukelele in a song with Willie Nelson.

Throughout the season, Dennis Miller continues to reinvent Weekend Update, taking it to levels no previous host had been able to. The show brought back former cast members Bill Murray and Paul Shaffer to host, each helming underwhelming episodes. But shows hosted by Sigourney Weaver, William Shatner, Willie Nelson (and co-host Danny DeVito) all shone.

We discuss all these topics and much more on this week’s episode of “Wasn’t That Special.” Please subscribe and join us for a trip through every year of SNL. And consider joining at the Executive Producer level, where you get a whole load of extra commentary and clips that will help you become an SNL expert.

Listen to this episode here.