Saturday Night Live (season 23)
The twenty-third season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 27, 1997, and May9, 1998. This season saw the deaths of two former cast members. Six weeks after he came back to host, Chris Farley became the fifth SNL cast member to die prematurely. Influenced by his idol, John Belushi, Farley died of a speedball overdose at the age of 33. Two weeks after the season finale, long-time performer Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife who then committed suicide. Following their deaths, NBC aired two SNL specials as tributes to Farley and Hartman as they were both dedicated to their memories during this season. Cast
Repertory players
Jim Breuer
Will Ferrell
Ana Gasteyer
Darrell Hammond
Chris Kattan
Norm Macdonald (final episode: March 14, 1998)
Tim Meadows
Tracy Morgan
Cheri Oteri
Colin Quinn
Molly Shannon
bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Tina Fey joins the writing staff in this season. Longtime writer Jim Downey is fired coinciding with Norm Macdonald being taken off of Weekend Update. Episodes

Specials

References

23
Saturday Night Live in the 1990s
1997 American television seasons
1998 American television seasons
Television shows directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller