I wasn't expecting this to be as strong as it was; I always remembered this as the season where Eddie Murphy was half-on, half-off the show, and that the show struggled with his absence and the departures of his regular collaborators Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield. While there were a number of mediocre shows this season, on the whole, I found it to be a bit better than the previous year, and that the weak-to-good show ratio didn't necessarily coincide with Murphy's presence in Studio 8H. The second half of the season was a bit stronger than the first, which I attribute to a few things: the use of the show's film unit (something that would pay off even more the next year), a better integration of the guest hosts into the show, and the writing branching away from showcases for Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo and heading into odder, more conceptual territory.

As important as Eddie Murphy was to the show's survival over the previous seasons, his absence from a number of the shows and departure before the year's end seemed to open up a few opportunities and forced the writing staff to take a few more chances than in the previous season. Murphy was missed earlier in the season, but there were a few weeks where he seemed to coast through the show, contributing mostly his star power and charisma. Joe Piscopo had a stronger start to this season and had one of his all-time best nights when Don Rickles hosted, but by the end of the year, he seemed more out of place; part of this was due to Murphy's departure, but the writing had also shifted by this point.

Jim Belushi was a positive addition to the cast, though a better utility player than a featured star; his performing style seemed to fit the writing a little better than Piscopo's at this point. He seemed to do best with slightly put-upon types (the host of "Hello Trudy", his half of the Siamese Twins with Robin Williams) and somewhat shifty characters (the shoplifter, the job applicant in "Lie Detector"). Gary Kroeger continued to be the show's secret weapon, developing new characters like grumpy old man Walter and deceptively unsuave El Dorko, while ending the season with one of his best-remembered pieces ("Needleman"). Tim Kazurinsky also contributed solid utility work, though his stable of recurring characters was beginning to show wear at this point. When utilized, Mary Gross and Julia Louis-Dreyfus delivered; it may be hindsight, but Louis-Dreyfus seemed to show some flashes of her future as one of the premiere comic performers of our age.

The two performers that were lost in this shuffle were Brad Hall and Robin Duke. Hall suffered the blow of losing the Saturday Night News anchor post mid-season; while the segment had its issues, Hall wasn't the problem (in Live From New York, he expresses regret at the lack of political humor on the show). He also didn't seem to have as many chances to shine this year (his violently emotional Pete Best is an exception). As for Duke, many of her pieces were either cut after dress rehearsal (a number of Saturday Night News bits in November and December) or truncated when the show ran long ("Jacoby Escort Service"), and some of the little airtime she got was in weaker sketches ("Body Guard", "Misfits"). I'm curious if either would have fared better under Lorne Michaels' regime, though he's seen his share of performers who didn't reach their potential while on the show.

Strongest shows: