The twelfth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 11, 1986 and May 23, 1987.

History

When the 1986-1987 season began, only Lovitz, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, and featured player A. Whitney Brown returned as cast members. Michaels went back to his original tactic of assembling a strong ensemble of relative unknowns, led by Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon. The first show of the 1986–1987 season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, telling the audience that the entire 1985–1986 season had been a "horrible, horrible dream". Carvey's Church Lady character debuted in this episode. Carvey's impression of George H. W. Bush is widely remembered, and Hartman's send-up of President Ronald Reagan kickstarted the most fruitful and successful period of political parody on SNL. Other popular sketches introduced this season include Mr. Subliminal, the Sweeney Sisters, and Derek Stevens.

Cast

Returning cast members included A. Whitney Brown, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller. Al Franken was rehired as a writer. In rebuilding the cast, Lorne Michaels returned to his usual practice of hiring unknown performers from stand-up and improv comedy backgrounds. New cast members included Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon.

Cast roster

Repertory players Featured players bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

This season's writers were Andy Breckman, A. Whitney Brown, E. Jean Carroll, Tom Davis, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Kevin Nealon, Herb Sargent, Marc Shaiman, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner, Jon Vitti and Christine Zander. Downey also served as head writer.

Episodes