Everything to Know About Tom Hanks on SNL — And The "Life Lesson" He Learned
The actor opens up about his first time on SNL in Peacock's SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
Saturday Night Live turns 50 this year, and there’s a big surprise in store for fans. The four-part docuseries, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, chronicles the iconic show, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with a slew of stars — including Tom Hanks.
When the Academy Award-winner first hosted SNL 40 years ago, it was the beginning of a decades-long collaboration that has seen him become one of the most frequent guest hosts in SNL history. In the docuseries' fourth episode, the 68-year-old actor went down memory lane, describing his first SNL hosting gig, which came during "The Weird Season,” revealing the one important lesson he learned as a young actor from the experience.
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When did Tom Hanks host SNL for the first time?
A 29-year-old Hanks hosted Season 11, Episode 5 in 1985, featuring the Musical Guest Sade. The series was in a time of transition, with a brand-new cast and the return of producer Lorne Michaels after a five-year hiatus.
From the get-go, Hanks inspired the laughs, portraying an Entertainment Tonight host in the show’s cold open. At that time, the world knew him from the TV series Bosom Buddies and Family Ties, and he had landed his first leading role in the movie Splash the year before.
In the Peacock docuseries, he fondly remembered thinking at the time that his first SNL gig was “the single most exciting thing that has happened in my career.”
For one, Hanks was the first host to ever join the writer’s room and sit in on the writing process — and the experience changed his perspective as a young actor. “The fact that they just put their head down and plowed through it was actually a bit of a life lesson for me. Don’t read the bad reviews because someone out there is just going to hate your guts,” he recalled.
“The cliché of saying it was a dream come true doesn’t do it justice. It’s a fantasy made real,” he continued.
How many times has Tom Hanks hosted SNL?
The Oscar-winner is a card-carrying member of the Five-Timers Club, a group of performers who have hosted the show five times or more. In Hank’s case, it is “more” – he has hosted 10 times through the years and has made nearly a dozen additional cameos, most recently on the December 21, 2024 episode, to support his pal and show Host, Martin Short.
He coined the “Five-Timers” term during a memorable episode back in 1990, where he flashed his official card during a hilarious sketch that introduced other club “members,” including Steve Martin, Elliott Gould, and Paul Simon.
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Tom Hanks' memorable moments on SNL
From a roadie for the band Aerosmith in a 1990 “Wayne’s World” sketch to his role as “Mr. Short Term Memory,” an ad exec stricken with chronic amnesia, Hanks has had plenty of fun showing off his comedic range.
In “Girl Watchers,” which first aired in 1988, Hanks and cast member Jon Lovitz played a couple of regular guys who face constant brutal rejection from attractive women.
In 2016, he donned a MAGA cap to play Doug, a game-show contestant who competes on “Black Jeopardy!” and surprises everyone with his thoughtful answers.
That same year, he became a viral sensation as David S. Pumpkins, SNL’s most iconic Halloween-themed sketch. His strangely confusing and hilarious character was known for the catchphrase “Any questions?” and he appeared as the character again in a second sketch in 2022, one pretaped cameo, and a 2017 animated special.
For someone like Hanks, with a knack for classic and quotable characters, it’s hard to believe he was ever shocked that people found him funny, but he admitted on SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, “I was amazed because everything got laughs.”
