Saturday Night Live returns tomorrow night to kick off its 36th season. There are a bunch of new cast members and also a couple of missing cast members not returning from last season. There are already hosts and musical guests lined up. And, oh my, the recurring characters that they’ll be bringing back! Here is your complete guide to SNL season 36 (because you should really be prepared for these sorts of things).
This guide will be updated throughout the season as more hosts are announced and things of that nature, so bookmark it if you want a handy place to come for the most up-to-date info.
The Hosts
Here’s what the schedule looks like at the moment:
September 25: Amy Poehler/Katy Perry
October 2: Bryan Cranston/Kanye West
October 9: Jane Lynch/Bruno Mars
October 16: Off Week/Rerun
October 23: Emma Stone/Kings of Leon
October 30: Jon Hamm/Rihanna
The Cast
Fred Armisen
Cast member since: 2002
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Nicholas Fehn, Manuel Ortiz, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Barack Obama, David Paterson
Abby Elliott
Featured player since: 2009
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Rachel Maddow
Bill Hader
Cast member since: 2005
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Stefon, Vinny Vedecci, Greg the Alien, Vincent Price, Al Pacino, Lindsey Buckingham
Seth Meyers
Cast member since: 2001
Note: Seth Meyers is the head writer of the show and generally only does Weekend Update, although he’ll occasionally do the cold open as someone such as Anderson Cooper.
Bobby Moynihan
Featured player since: 2009
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Mark Payne, Vinny Vedecci Jr., Ass Dan, Snookie, Guy Fieri
Nasim Pedrad
Featured player since: 2009
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Bedelia, Lil’ Blaster, Christine Amanpour, Barbara Walters
Andy Samberg
Cast member since: 2005
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Mark Wahlberg, Rahm Emmanuel, Anything from a Digital Short
Jason Sudeikis
Cast member since: 2003
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Officer Sikorsky, Pete Twinkle, What Up With That? breakdancer, Joe Biden, Howard Dean
Kenan Thompson
Cast member since: 2003
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Deandre Cole, Oscar Rogers, Al Roker, Charles Barkley
Kristen Wiig
Cast member since: 2005
Notable recurring characters and impersonations: Penelope, Gilly, Sue, The Target Lady, Judy Grimes, Suze Orman, Kathy Lee Gifford, Nancy Pelosi
New Featured Players:
SNL hired four new featured players this year. Who the hell are they?
Vanessa Bayer
Not a lot is known about Vanessa Bayer other than the fact that she hails from Chicago, where she’s been performing at the iO Theater, the Annoyance Theater and Second City for a few years. The only video involving her that’s online seems to be the above Blue Cross/Blue Shield ad.
Paul Brittain
Like Vanessa Bayer, Paul Brittain hails from Chicago and the iO Theater. He was in the syndicated NBC show Sports Action Team, and you can see him above in that playing the ghost of Prefontaine.
Taran Killam
Killam, who comes from the Groundlings in LA, was actually a castmember on MADtv for one season; I’m sure he is hoping to not make such a short tenure a pattern in his career as a late-night sketch actor. He was also a cast member on two seasons of Wild ‘N Out and has been a regular castmember of Scrubs as Jimmy, the overly touchy orderly, seen above.
Jay Pharoah
Pharoah is known for his spot-on impressions of people such as Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, Jay-Z and, of course, Barack Obama. Officially, he won’t be playing Obama, at least not at first. Which makes sense; they don’t want a new castmember carrying a cold open in the first episode. He needs to settle in first. But if he’s not playing Obama eventually, it would be pretty ridiculous, as his impression of him is much better than Armisen’s.
Non-Returning Cast Members
Will Forte decided to leave the show after 8 years to spend more time with his family. Although if he deosn’t come back at least once to do a MacGruber, I’ll be shocked.
Featured player Jenny Slate was let go from the show before the season started for reasons unknown. But she is still on HBO’s Bored to Death and is making great videos, so you will almost certainly keep seeing her around.
The Specials
On Monday, November 1st, NBC is airing two SNL specials to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the show (despite the first episode actually airing on October 11th, 1975). The first will be The Women of SNL and the second will be the 35th Anniversary Special. They’ll be pretty standard SNL clip shows.