most of season 11's cast members were fired, except for a. whitney brown, nora dunn, jon lovitz and dennis miller. al franken was rehired as a writer. the new cast members included dana carvey, phil hartman, jan hooks, victoria jackson and kevin nealon. phil hartman helped write sketches in season 11's thanksgiving episode hosted by pee-wee herman, and appeared in a sketch as a pilgrim. jan hooks had auditioned for the show twice, firstly for season 10, but lost to pamela stephenson and the second time for season 11, but lost to joan cusack.