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.
When the 1986âÂÂ1987 season began, only Jon 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.
Jim Carrey made his third unsuccessful attempt to join the cast.
The first show of the 1986âÂÂ1987 season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, telling the audience that the entire 1985âÂÂ1986 season had been a "horrible, horrible dream". Carvey's Church Lady character debuted in this episode.
Hartman's send-up of President Ronald Reagan kickstarted the most fruitful and successful period of political parody on SNL. Carvey's widely remembered impression of then Vice President George H. W. Bush debuted in the following season.
Other popular sketches introduced this season include Mr. Subliminal, the Sweeney Sisters, and Derek Stevens.
The returning cast members were A. Whitney Brown, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller. Al Franken continued to write on the show, dropping his featured player status that he held for one episode of the previous season. In rebuilding the cast, Lorne Michaels returned to his usual practice of hiring unknown performers from stand-up and improv comedy backgrounds. The new cast members were Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon.
Repertory players
Featured players
<small>bold denotes Weekend Update anchor</small>
Unlike featured players in most other 80s/90s seasons, Brown and Nealon are credited in the opening montage for every single episode this season.
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.
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