The twenty-seventh season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 29, 2001 and May 18, 2002.
Eighteen days before the season started, the September 11 terrorist attacks took place in New York. The season premiere (hosted by Reese Witherspoon) went on as scheduled, with a special cold open featuring Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City at the time, along with firefighters from the FDNY and police officers from the NYPD, declaring that despite the terrorist attack, New York City will run as normal and Saturday Night Live will go on as planned (with Lorne Michaels asking Giuliani "Can we be funny?" and Giuliani replying "Why start now?").
Three weeks into the season the show faced another scare when anthrax was found in the GE Building (from where the show is broadcast).[1] The scare caused most of the cast and crew, as well as that week's guest host Drew Barrymore, to evacuate the building.
Cast
Before the start of the season, longtime cast member Molly Shannon, who had been on the show for seven seasons since 1995, departed midway through the previous season on her own terms,[2] and featured player Jerry Minor[3] and longtime cast member Chris Parnell were both let go from the show after the finale. However, Parnell was hired back to the show midseason in the episode hosted by Jonny Moseley,[4][5] becoming the second cast member to be hired back to the show after being fired, the first person being Jim Belushi in 1983.[6]
Will Ferrell was absent from a number of episodes because he was filming Old School. This would also be the final season for both Ferrell[10] and Ana Gasteyer. After Gasteyer went on maternity leave at the end of the season, she decided not to return to the show.[11]
This was also the final episode for longtime writers Hugh Fink (who had been a writer since 1995) and Matt Piedmont (who had written at the show since 1996, and is called out by departing-cast member Will Ferrell via a cue card for what was their last episode). Fink wrote for the show for seven years, while Piedmont was there for six.[15]
Being the first episode to air following the 9/11 attacks, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani along with members of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) appear in the cold opening to encourage New York and Saturday Night Live to carry on in the face of adversity. When asked by Lorne Michaels "Can we be funny?" Giuliani replies "Why start now?"[16] In addition to appearances by Giuliani and the FDNY, Paul Simon plays "The Boxer" during the cold open.
Former cast member Chevy Chase made a cameo on Weekend Update as the Land Shark. Chase ends the segment by saying "Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow," the sign-off used by both Chase and Fey during their tenures on Weekend Update.
Former cast member Colin Quinn, introduced by Tina Fey as the "New Yorkiest New Yorker I know," appears on Weekend Update to give his NYC-centric take on current events.
Former cast member Dan Aykroyd appears during the "Hudson Valley Community Circuit" sketch, during Weekend Update, reprising his role as Elwood Blues, and during the "Bad Conceptual Theater" sketch, reprising his role as Leonard Pinth-Garnell.
Dan Aykroyd, who co-starred with Spears in the film Crossroads (released a few weeks after this episode) appears during the Mormon skiers cold-open, the "Leather Man" sketch, and introduces Spears' second performance.
Justin Timberlake appears during the opening monologue and introduces Spears' first performance.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of John's death, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey host this retrospective of some of his greatest sketches on SNL. Dan Aykroyd makes a cameo appearance in this special.
