A Queer History of SNL, Part Four: The Lost Years

People use the term “the lost years” differently when speaking of Saturday Night Live, but this podcast is using it specifically to refer to the period when time Lorne Michaels left the show, after season five, up until he returned in season eleven. Aside from Eddie Murphy’s presence on the show, these are the sketches that are less remembered today because they weren’t rerun on Comedy Central in the 2000s as much and they’re largely absent from the cache of episodes preserved online today. And that’s too bad, because this is when the show boasted some legends in the cast — Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Billy Crystal, Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Short and Damon Wayans among them, as well as queer cast members Terry Sweeney, Denny Dillon and Danitra Vance.

The sketches (and click here if you want to watch them):

• “SoHo Lesbians” (S6E10: Debbie Harry)

• “Little Richard Simmons” (S7E1: No host)

• “James Coburn Is a Homosexual” (S7E11: James Coburn)

• “Focus on Film: Making Love” (S7E12: Bruce Dern)

• “Penny Lane” (S10E11: Roy Scheider)

• “Pinklisting” (S11E1: Madonna)

• “Mr. Monopoly” (S11E12: Griffin Dunne)

• Monologue (S11E16: Catherine Oxenberg)

• “Lesbian Pick-Ups” (S11E18: Anjelica Huston)

Episode artwork by Ian O’Phelan.