Saturday Night Live (season 31)

*Saturday Night Live*
Saturday Night Live
Season 31
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	19
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 1, 2005 –; May 20, 2006
Season chronology

The thirty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 1, 2005, and May 20, 2006. 19 episodes were produced (rather than the usual 20) due to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and network budget cuts.

History

This season was the first to broadcast in high-definition (HD), after 30 years of broadcasting in standard definition.[1]

Cast

Repertory players

Featured players

Bill Hader
Andy Samberg
Jason Sudeikis
Kristen Wiig (first episode: November 12, 2005)

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

There were three head writers for the 31st season: Andrew Steel,[2] Tina Fey and Seth Meyers.

Future cast member Colin Jost joined the writing staff this season.

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest	Original air date
586	1	Steve Carell	Kanye West	October 1, 2005 (2005-10-01)
Kanye West performs a medley of "Gold Digger" and "Touch the Sky", and "Heard 'Em Say" with Adam Levine. Mike Myers appears before West's first performance, spoofing their joint appearance in A Concert for Hurricane Relief. Horatio Sanz's first of two episodes substituting for Tina Fey as Weekend Update co-anchor Bill Hader and Andy Samberg's first episode as cast members. This is the first SNL episode to broadcast in high-definition (HD).[1]
587	2	Jon Heder	Ashlee Simpson	October 8, 2005 (2005-10-08)
Ashlee Simpson performs "Catch Me When I Fall" and "Boyfriend".
588	3	Catherine Zeta-Jones	Franz Ferdinand	October 22, 2005 (2005-10-22)
Franz Ferdinand performs "Do You Want To" and "Take Me Out". A still photo of former Jean Doumanian-era cast member and Weekend Update anchor Charles Rocket, who had committed suicide the week before this episode premiered, is shown in his memory after Weekend Update. Tina Fey's first episode back as Weekend Update co-anchor.
589	4	Lance Armstrong	Sheryl Crow	October 29, 2005 (2005-10-29)
Sheryl Crow, Armstrong's then-fiancé, performs "Good Is Good" and "Strong Enough". Additionally, Crow appears in the opening monologue, the "Harmonies" sketch, and the "Lance's Song" sketch. Chicago White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik appears on Weekend Update.
590	5	Jason Lee	Foo Fighters	November 12, 2005 (2005-11-12)
Foo Fighters perform "DOA" and "Best of You". Kristen Wiig's first episode as a cast member. In reruns, the Butt Pregnancy sketch is replaced by a dress rehearsal sketch featuring the cast singing a song about the office cafeteria dessert counter.
591	6	Eva Longoria	Korn	November 19, 2005 (2005-11-19)
Korn performs "Twisted Transistor" and "Freak on a Leash".
592	7	Dane Cook	James Blunt	December 3, 2005 (2005-12-03)
James Blunt performs "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover".
593	8	Alec Baldwin	Shakira	December 10, 2005 (2005-12-10)
Shakira performs "Don't Bother" and "La Tortura" with Alejandro Sanz. Tim Meadows appears during the opening monologue. A clip of the "Word Association" sketch from the first season's Richard Pryor/Gil Scott-Heron episode is shown after Weekend Update, commemorating Pryor's death earlier that day.
594	9	Jack Black	Neil Young	December 17, 2005 (2005-12-17)
Neil Young performs "It's a Dream" and "He Was the King". Additionally, Young appears in the "Appalachian Emergency Room" sketch. Johnny Knoxville appears in the "Appalachian Emergency Room" sketch. Darlene Love provides vocals for TV Funhouse cartoon "Christmastime For The Jews" and performs "White Christmas" with the SNL Band. Tracy Morgan appears on Weekend Update. Black's Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass appears during the "Spelling Bee" sketch.
595	10	Scarlett Johansson	Death Cab for Cutie	January 14, 2006 (2006-01-14)
Death Cab for Cutie performs "Soul Meets Body" and "Crooked Teeth". An excerpt from the night's TV Funhouse cartoon "The 700 Gang" was used as the cold open, marking the only time a cartoon was used as an SNL cold open.
596	11	Peter Sarsgaard	The Strokes	January 21, 2006 (2006-01-21)
The Strokes perform "Juicebox" and "You Only Live Once". Drew Barrymore (Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti's then-girlfriend) appears on Weekend Update. A number of technical issues plagued the "Fairmount Suites Inn" sketch, such as Sarsgaard accidentally disabling the television and visible stagehands. During the parody of the film Shattered Glass centered on a cat magazine journalist (Peter Sarsgaard) getting fired for publishing misinformation, Seth Meyers' character mentions a magazine called Parrot Companion Quarterly. In the NBC reruns of this sketch, a lower-third caption was added that says Parrot Companion Quarterly was a real publication and not something made up by the show writers.
597	12	Steve Martin	Prince	February 4, 2006 (2006-02-04)
Prince performs "Fury" and "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed" with Támar. Alec Baldwin and Kelly Ripa appear in the pre-filmed cold open. Baldwin also appears in the "Backstage" sketch. Jimmy Fallon appears in the "Backstage" sketch. Scarlett Johansson, Conan O'Brien, Brian Williams and Gideon Yago appear in the SNL Digital Short. Cast member Finesse Mitchell did not appear in this episode. This episode was the highest rated episode of the season, drawing 9.3 million viewers.
598	13	Natalie Portman	Fall Out Boy	March 4, 2006 (2006-03-04)
Fall Out Boy performs "Dance, Dance" and "Sugar, We're Goin Down". Dennis Haysbert appears in the "Belated Black History Moment" sketch.
599	14	Matt Dillon	Arctic Monkeys	March 11, 2006 (2006-03-11)
Arctic Monkeys perform "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "A Certain Romance". Lead singer Alex Turner became visibly frustrated with the audience reaction during the latter performance, at one point pointing into the crowd and singing "That man just yawned!" to the music.[3]
600	15	Antonio Banderas	Mary J. Blige	April 8, 2006 (2006-04-08)
Mary J. Blige performs "Be Without You" and "Enough Cryin". Chris Kattan appears on Weekend Update.
601	16	Lindsay Lohan	Pearl Jam	April 15, 2006 (2006-04-15)
Pearl Jam performs "World Wide Suicide" and "Severed Hand". Lohan's brother Michael Lohan Jr. appears in the opening monologue.
602	17	Tom Hanks	Red Hot Chili Peppers	May 6, 2006 (2006-05-06)
Red Hot Chili Peppers perform "Dani California" and "Give It Away".
603	18	Julia Louis-Dreyfus	Paul Simon	May 13, 2006 (2006-05-13)
Paul Simon performs "How Can You Live in the Northeast?" and "Outrageous". Al Gore appears in the cold open and on Weekend Update, the latter written by his daughter and former SNL writer Kristin Gore. Louis-Dreyfus' former Seinfeld co-stars Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld appear in the pre-filmed portion of the opening monologue. SNL writer and future cast member Colin Jost makes his first appearance on the show appearing as an extra in The Morning Show sketch. A photo of former SNL cameraman Al Camoin who had died two days earlier was shown before the goodnights.
604	19	Kevin Spacey	Nelly Furtado	May 20, 2006 (2006-05-20)
Nelly Furtado performs "Promiscuous" and "Maneater" with Timbaland. Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnell and Horatio Sanz's final episode as cast members. Fey's final episode as Weekend Update co-anchor. Beth McCarthy Miller's final episode as director.

Specials

Title	Original air date
"The Best of David Spade"	October 15, 2005 (2005-10-15)
The special presented material featuring David Spade during his stint on the show. Sketches include "Dick Clark's Receptionist", "Gap Girls", "Total Bastard Airlines", "Spade in America", "Stewart Release", "Salon", "Stunt Double", Sean Penn's Celebrity Roast", "Peer Pressure at Valley High", "Dirtball and Burnout Convention", "Karl's Video", "NCI Long Distance", "The Road to Self-Improvement", and "Hollywood Minute".
"The Best of SNL Commercial Parodies"	November 5, 2005 (2005-11-05)
The special presented commercial parodies featured on the show.
"Lost & Found: SNL in the '80s"	November 13, 2005 (2005-11-13)
Topics of the special include: the Jean Doumanian era as one of SNL's many critical and ratings low points, the cancellation, retooling, and reviving of SNL courtesy of Dick Ebersol and Doumanian-era stand-outs Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, Murphy and Piscopo emerging as the driving force behind Ebersol's 1981-1984 seasons, Ebersol picking a new cast for season 10 after the departure of Murphy and Piscopo, Lorne Michaels returning to the show and hiring a young cast of semi-famous actors and actresses and the harsh critical response from that decision leading to yet another threat of cancellation, and the second golden age of SNL with season 11 survivors Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, A. Whitney Brown, and Dennis Miller and new cast members Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson, Jan Hooks, Kevin Nealon, and Mike Myers. James Belushi, A. Whitney Brown, Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Denny Dillon, Robin Duke, Nora Dunn, Dick Ebersol, Al Franken, Gilbert Gottfried, Mary Gross, Victoria Jackson, Tim Kazurinsky, Gary Kroeger, Neil Levy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jon Lovitz, Gail Matthius, Lorne Michaels, Kevin Nealon, Conan O'Brien, Joe Piscopo, Martin Short, Robert Smigel, Terry Sweeney and Bob Tischler gave insight for the special.
"The Best of TV Funhouse"	April 29, 2006 (2006-04-29)
The special presented TV Funhouse material featured on the show. The special was hosted by The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Ace and Gary. Jimmy Fallon cameos near the end of the show. Sketches include "The Ambiguously Gay Duo", "The All-New Adventures of Mr. T", "Fun With Real Audio", "E! Cartoons' The Smurfette Show", "The X-Presidents", "The Religetables" (DVD version only) and "Conspiracy Theory Rock" (DVD version only).

References

Kaplan, Don (April 27, 2005). "'SNL' Goes High-Def". New York Post. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
McCarthy, Sean L. (February 18, 2010). "Executive producer Andrew Steele says HBO's "Funny or Die Presents" is "true to us"". Retrieved September 20, 2015.
That Man Just Yawned! (Alex Turner) on YouTube

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[HighDefNYP-1] Kaplan, Don (April 27, 2005). "'SNL' Goes High-Def". New York Post. Retrieved May 13, 2017.

[2] McCarthy, Sean L. (February 18, 2010). "Executive producer Andrew Steele says HBO's "Funny or Die Presents" is "true to us"". Retrieved September 20, 2015.

[3] That Man Just Yawned! (Alex Turner) on YouTube