Saturday Night Live Season 7 (1981)

Saturday Night Live Season 7 (1981)

Saturday Night Live Season 7 continues the series with a fresh chapter, bringing its familiar characters into new situations while developing the story established in earlier seasons.

Season 7

Saturday Night Live aired its seventh season during the 1981–1982 television season on NBC. The seventh season started on October 3, 1981 and ended on May 22, 1982. A total of 20 episodes were broadcast.nnFollowing the dismissal of producer Jean Doumanian and most of her cast members, the show was shut down due to the commencement of the 1981 WGA strike.nnDick Ebersol, the program's developer, was hired as Doumanian's replacement. The new cast of Saturday Night Live for this season were the same ones from the episode Ebersol produced on the April 11, 1981 episode: Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky and Tony Rosato along with the Doumanian era's sole survivors Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius were fired following the April 1981 episode while Laurie Metcalf and unseen castmember Emily Prager weren't asked back to be cast members on the show.nnEbersol then hired two new cast members: Mary Gross and Christine Ebersole. Both were hired to fill the gap left by Metcalf and Prager.nnWanting to distance the show from its first five seasons, Ebersol cut the popular opening line Live from New York, It's Saturday Night! from the cold openings. In fact, sometimes cold openings weren't even shown and the monologues were skipped over almost entirely. These changes were not permanent, as Ebersol decided to reverse them for the eighth season.

What to Expect

The season builds on the show's central themes and relationships while introducing new challenges. As the story develops, the characters must respond to changing circumstances and the consequences of their previous choices.

Final Thoughts

Saturday Night Live Season 7 adds another chapter to the series, continuing its established world while giving the characters new conflicts and opportunities to evolve.