Why Was SNL’s Season 11 Known as the “Weird Year?”
Season 11 marked the return of original producer Lorne Michaels and a young cast led by Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey Jr.
Over the course of a half century of Saturday Night Live, there have some seasons considered part of a golden age, others that marked ratings highs, and ones that notched critical accolades.
There have been numerous moments in which the NBC sketch comedy series has permeated the zeitgeist and generated viral video clips.
There have been memorable guest stars, transcendent musical performances, and surprise cameos that have become the stuff of legend.
There is only one season over that historic span, however, worthy of the moniker, “The Weird Year.”
RELATED: Mark Your Calendar for These SNL 50 Anniversary Events, Specials, and Episodes
Season 11 (1985-1986) has been largely overshadowed by the popular Eddie Murphy years that preceded it and the start of the golden age of the late ‘80s that came immediately after. Now, however, that "Weird Year" is front and center in the fourth and final episode of Peacock's new documentary series, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, available to stream now.
The result is a fascinating deep dive into a season that was as dramatic backstage as it was comedic on-screen.
“That 11th year was probably the biggest risk, where the division between what worked and what didn’t work … oh, that was painfully obvious,” Tom Hanks, who made the first of his 10 (and counting) appearances as SNL Host that year, said in the documentary series.
The return of SNL creator Lorne Michaels after five years away
"The Weird Year" started off as a transitional season with enormous promise.
Amid declining ratings and exit of caretaker Dick Ebersol, NBC President Brandon Tartikoff fought to protect the show from cancellation. To do that, he enlisted original producer Lorne Michaels to return after five years away to save the show he created.
He brought some of his favorite veteran writers in Al Franken and Tom Davis as fellow producers.
In an effort to attract new, younger viewers, he brought in a whole new cast of repertory players. Among them:
- A quartet of Hollywood actors: Academy Award-nominated Randy Quaid, and up-and-coming stars Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall and Joan Cusack.
- Improv veterans Jon Lovitz and Nora Dunn
- Standup comedian Dennis Miller
- A pair of pioneers in Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay cast-member in show history, and Danitra Vance, the first Black woman to be cast on SNL.
Live television, though, doesn’t always go as planned.
A bumpy transition
As Beyond Saturday Night shows, the young actors struggled to adapt to the format right from the Madonna-hosted first episode of the season on November 9, 1985. And the writers had a difficult time finding material that brought out their best.
“I learned so much that year about what I wasn’t,” Downey Jr., who went on to be one of the most bankable names in Hollywood, said in an 2019 interview with photographer and filmmaker Sam Jones. “But there is not a more exciting ninety minutes you can have — whether you’re good at it or not.”
Over the course of its 20 episodes, there were moments that cemented Season 11 as “The Weird Year.” There was the Twilight Zone parody, “Limits of the Imagination,” a recurring sketch all season. Ron Reagan, the then-president’s son, hosted an episode in a first in both SNL and American political history, which included Sweeney playing First Lady Nancy Reagan in drag. Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola even guest-directed an episode. Oprah Winfrey hosted five months before her landmark talk show debuted.
Featured player Daman Wayans left halfway through the season, but returned for a stand-up performance during the finale.
The weirdness ran right up until the last sketch of the last episode of the season: A bizarre cliffhanger that featured the cast in danger from a fire lit by ex-Yankees manager Billy Martin, and Michaels only trying to save Lovitz. The implication was that he didn't want the others back for Season 12.
Michaels was apparently only partially joking.
Jon Lovitz, Nora Dunn, and Dennis Miller emerge as SNL mainstays
Amid the criticism, however, there were a number of bright spots.
Lovitz shined with his signature character of Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar, whose signature catchphrase, “Yeah, that’s the ticket,” would prove to be a hit at office water coolers around the country. Dunn also struck comedic gold with her inappropriate talk show host character, Pat Stevens. Snarky standup veteran Dennis Miller settled in nicely in the “Weekend Update” news anchor chair, a spot he would keep for years to come.
Those three would be the only cast members to return the following season.
RELATED: Lindsay Lohan's "Disney Housewives" SNL Sketch Got a Glowing Review From Andy Cohen
How Season 11 ultimately made SNL stronger
The result of the lessons learned from the "Weird Year" would be the launch of a new golden age for the show with the additions of improv sketch veterans Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon.
“There had been a codification of the right way and a wrong way to do Saturday Night Live,” Michaels recounted on Beyond SNL, “And I think it had to be blown up. And the 1985 season allowed it to be blown up.”
