Scot Bertram

After the disastrous Season 20, there is no way Saturday Night Live could return to its former glory, is there?

Is there?

As it turns out, there was a way. The show’s regeneration was found in a group of former Groundlings, most notably an unknown Irvine, California-based comedian named John William Ferrell.

In Season 21, Ferrell joined the SNL cast with Cheri Oteri and (later) Chris Kattan, replacing Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Chris Elliott, Ellen Cleghorne, Laura Kightlinger, Michael McKean, Jay Mohr, Kevin Nealon, and Morwenna Banks. New cast members also included Jim Breuer, David Koechner, Darrell Hammond, and Nancy Walls.

In the first episode of the season, Ferrell made his presence known, starring in his famous “Get Off the Shed” bit (which he used to audition for the show) which he followed up with a good sketch in which he comes up with different ways to get his wife (Mariel Hemingway) off the phone.

In addition to a wholesale change in cast members, Season 21 also returned to many of the familiar types of sketches that made the show successful in the earlier years. Recurring characters, which had been nearly absent in the previous two years, were back in force. With the 1996 presidential election afoot, the show returned to politics in a way that had been missing in prior seasons. And with newcomer Darrell Hammond on board, the show committed to celebrity impressions in a way that wasn’t possible with the limited talent of the recent past. And the writers produced more – and better – commercial parodies.

In Season 21, the writing staff also got a boost by bringing on Adam McKay and Paula Pell, both of whom would immediately make their mark on the show. And the quality of guest hosts included, with the episode hosted by David Alan Grier turning out as one of the best single episodes in show history. Other strong hosts included Jim Carrey, Anthony Edwards, and if you can believe it, billionaire Steve Forbes, fresh off his exit from the Republican presidential primary race. (The less said about Quentin Tarantino and Tom Arnold as guest hosts, the better.)

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.