# Saturday Night Live season 13

The thirteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 17, 1987 and February 27, 1988. Although the changes to the cast and writers were minimal, the season was cut short due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike.

## Production

During a dress rehearsal for the season premiere, a fire broke out near Studio 8H and was planned to be postponed. However, episode host Steve Martin pushed the cast to carry on with the show, making the Steve Martin/Sting episode the only episode without a dress rehearsal.
On March 7, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. The strike continued until August, thus cutting the season short at 13 episodes. Gilda Radner had been scheduled to host the season finale in the spring.

## Cast
### Cast roster

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor
A. Whitney Brown is credited in the opening montage for seven of this season's 13 episodes.

## Writers

New hires this season were Greg Daniels, Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk.
The writers for this season included A. Whitney Brown, Tom Davis, Greg Daniels, Jim Downey, Al Franken, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, David Borowitz, Rosie Shuster, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner, and Christine Zander. The head writer, like the previous season, was Jim Downey.

## Episodes

| No. overall | No. in season | Host | Musical guest(s) | Original release date |
| 234 | 1 | Steve Martin | Sting | October 17, 1987 (1987-10-17) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown Sting performs "We'll Be Together" and "Little Wing". He also appeared in the "Operation: Tightwad" sketch as James Bond villain 'Goldsting', a parody of Goldfinger. Presidential candidate Bruce Babbitt appeared in a Weekend Update film with Al Franken. First appearance of the Hans and Franz series of sketches |||||
| 235 | 2 | Sean Penn | LL Cool J Michael Penn | October 24, 1987 (1987-10-24) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown LL Cool J performed "Go Cut Creator Go". and appeared in the opener. Michael Penn, older brother of host Sean, performed "This and That" with his band The Pull. |||||
| 236 | 3 | Dabney Coleman | The Cars | October 31, 1987 (1987-10-31) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) The Cars performed "Strap Me In" and "Double Trouble". Lead singer Ric Ocasek appears in the opener. Guest appearance by Cassandra Peterson as Elvira in the opener and on Weekend Update. A short film by Michael Lehmann titled "Ed's Secret Life (An Unauthorized Biography)", purportedly about Mister Ed, is shown, with guest appearances by Mick Fleetwood, Heather Locklear and William Schallert. |||||
| 237 | 4 | Robert Mitchum | Simply Red | November 14, 1987 (1987-11-14) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown Simply Red performs "Suffer" and "The Right Thing". |||||
| 238 | 5 | Candice Bergen | Cher | November 21, 1987 (1987-11-21) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) Cher performs "We All Sleep Alone" and "I Found Someone". Guest appearance by Paul Shaffer. |||||
| 239 | 6 | Danny DeVito | Bryan Ferry | December 5, 1987 (1987-12-05) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) Bryan Ferry performs "The Right Stuff" and "Kiss and Tell". Bob Odenkirk's first credited episode as a writer. |||||
| 240 | 7 | Angie Dickinson | Buster Poindexter David Gilmour | December 12, 1987 (1987-12-12) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown Buster Poindexter performs "Hot Hot Hot". David Gilmour performs "Ah, Robertson, It's You" and an instrumental guitar jam with the SNL house band called "Song For My Sara". |||||
| 241 | 8 | Paul Simon | Linda Ronstadt | December 19, 1987 (1987-12-19) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown Linda Ronstadt performs "Under African Skies" with Paul Simon, and "Los Laureles, La Cigarra". Namesake U.S. Senator Paul Simon, a presidential candidate at the time, makes a cameo in the monologue. Dana Carvey appeared during Weekend Update as Dennis Miller for the first time. |||||
| 242 | 9 | Robin Williams | James Taylor | January 23, 1988 (1988-01-23) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) James Taylor performs "That Lonesome Road", "Sweet Potato Pie" and "Never Die Young". ("Lonesome Road" was a song that Taylor had sung at the funeral of John Belushi in 1982. This episode aired the day before what would've been Belushi's 39th birthday.) |||||
| 243 | 10 | Carl Weathers | Robbie Robertson | January 30, 1988 (1988-01-30) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown Robbie Robertson performs "Somewhere Down the Crazy River" and "Testimony". BoDeans and Maria McKee appeared in both performances. |||||
| 244 | 11 | Justine Bateman | Terence Trent D'Arby | February 13, 1988 (1988-02-13) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) D'Arby performs "Wishing Well" and "Under My Thumb". Dan Aykroyd appeared as Bob Dole in the cold opening. Conan O'Brien and Greg Daniels' first writing credits as staff members. |||||
| 245 | 12 | Tom Hanks | Randy Travis | February 20, 1988 (1988-02-20) |
| Credited Featured Player: (none) Randy Travis performs "What'll You Do About Me" and "Forever and Ever, Amen". |||||
| 246 | 13 | Judge Reinhold | 10,000 Maniacs | February 27, 1988 (1988-02-27) |
| Credited Featured Player: A. Whitney Brown 10,000 Maniacs performs "What's the Matter Here" and "Like the Weather". Last episode of the season. The 1988 WGA strike brought a sudden conclusion to this season. |||||

## Canceled episodes with booked guests

| Airdate | Host | Musical Guest | Comments |
| May 14, 1988 | Gilda Radner | U2 | A planned episode with original cast member Gilda Radner as host was cancelled due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike. Radner would never get another chance to host, due to her death in 1989. This episode would have marked the first time a female cast member came back to host, a milestone that wasn't reached until Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted on May 13, 2006. U2 would perform on the show on December 9, 2000. |