The Saturday Night Network’s season-by-season Saturday Night Live deep dive has reached one of the most consequential years in the show’s history.
In the latest installment of our video series “Everything You NEED to Know About Saturday Night Live,” Jon Schneider and James Stephens revisit Season 27—the 2001-2002 season that began in the shadow of September 11th, introduced future SNL mainstays Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers, and ended with the departure of Will Ferrell.
The season was already positioned as a transitional one. SNL had said goodbye to Molly Shannon the previous spring, Chris Parnell and Jerry Minor were let go over the summer, and four new featured players joined the cast: Dean Edwards, Seth Meyers, Amy Poehler, and Jeff Richards.
Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, and Maya Rudolph were also promoted to repertory status, further reshaping the ensemble.
Then September 11th changed everything.
Production on Season 27 had been scheduled to begin that day. Less than three weeks later, SNL returned to the air with Reese Witherspoon hosting, Rudy Giuliani appearing alongside first responders, and Paul Simon performing “The Boxer.” The premiere set the tone for a season in which the show repeatedly found itself responding to events beyond Studio 8H.
We also track the season’s major creative milestones: Ferrell’s recalibrated George W. Bush, Drew Barrymore’s anthrax-week monologue, Poehler’s fast rise from featured player to repertory cast member, Jack Black’s first hosting turn, Jon Stewart’s SNL debut, Ian McKellen’s Emmy-winning episode, and Ferrell’s emotional farewell after seven seasons as one of the defining cast members of his era.
Click the video at the top of the post to watch. Season 27 is now available to stream on Peacock.
Dive Deeper: LateNighter asked the Saturday Night Network’s Jon Schneider to curate a list of ten essential clips from SNL’s 27th season.
