The thirteenth season of '' Saturday Night Live'', an American

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 17, 1987 and February 27, 1988. Although the changes to the cast and writers were minimal, the season was cut short due to the

1988 Writers Guild of America strike The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the ...

Production

During a dress rehearsal for the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H and was planned to be postponed. However, episode host Steve Martin pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal. Following the February 27 episode, the series went on a planned two-week hiatus with plans to return on March 12 (the host of which had yet to be announced). However, on March 7, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The strike continued until August, thus cutting the season short at 13 episodes, tying the sixth season as the shortest season until it was surpassed by the thirty-third season twenty years later (which was also due to a writers' strike). Several planned episodes were cancelled, including one hosted by original cast member

Gilda Radner Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian, and one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). In he ...

(who was never able to host, as she discovered her ovarian cancer had returned and died the day of the next season's finale). Radner would have been the first former female cast member to host an episode; that distinction would not happen until Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted in 2006.

Cast

Minimal changes occurred before the beginning of the season. Kevin Nealon was promoted to repertory status.

Cast roster

Repertory players * Dana Carvey * Nora Dunn * Phil Hartman * Jan Hooks * Victoria Jackson * Jon Lovitz *

Dennis Miller Dennis Michael Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, and comedian. He was a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1991, and he subsequently hosted a stri ...

* Kevin Nealon Featured players *

A. Whitney Brown Alan Whitney Brown (born July 8, 1952) is an American writer and comedian best known for work on ''Saturday Night Live'' in the 1980s. In addition to writing for the program, he appeared opposite Dennis Miller in a biting satirical Weekend Update ...

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

New hires this season were Greg Daniels,

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...

and

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

. The writers for this season included

, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels,

Herb Sargent Herbert Sargent (born Supowitz; July 15, 1923 – May 6, 2005) was an American television writer, a producer for such comedy shows as ''The Tonight Show'' and ''Saturday Night Live'', and a screenwriter ('' Bye Bye Braverman''). During his tenu ...

, David Borowitz,

Rosie Shuster Rosie Shuster (born June 19, 1950) is a Canadian-born comedy writer and actress. She was a writer for ''Saturday Night Live'' during the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Shuster was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Ruth (''née'' Burstyn), an inte ...

Robert Smigel Robert Smigel (born February 7, 1960) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, producer, and puppeteer, known for his ''Saturday Night Live'' " TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph the Insult Comic D ...

Bonnie Turner Bonnie and Terry Turner are an American husband-and-wife team of screenwriters and producers. They are best known for creating the sitcoms ''3rd Rock from the Sun,'' ''That '70s Show,'' and its Netflix sequel ''That '90s Show''. From 1986 until ...

, Terry Turner and Christine Zander. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.

Episodes

Canceled episodes with booked guests

References

{{Saturday Night Live 13 1987 American television seasons 1988 American television seasons Saturday Night Live in the 1980s