| Season Number: | 29 |
| Bgcolour: |
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| Image Alt: | The title card for the twenty-ninth season of Saturday Night Live. |
| Num Episodes: | 20 |
| Network: | NBC |
| Prev Season: | season 28 |
| Next Season: | season 30 |
| Episode List: | List of Saturday Night Live episodes |
The twenty-ninth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 4, 2003, and May 15, 2004.
This season marked the debut of a brand new stage for the host's monologue and the musical guest performing stage. Instead of the wrought-iron fire escape motif with the blinking "ON AIR" light, the stages are now modeled after Grand Central Terminal (right down to the spherical clock).[1]
Before the start of the season, longtime cast members Chris Kattan[2] and Tracy Morgan,[3] who had both been on the show since 1996, departed the show on their own terms, and Dean Edwards, who had been a featured player since 2001, was let go following the finale. Despite Kattan and Morgan's departures, the two would make guest appearances in several episodes throughout the season and Morgan would later host in 2009 and 2015.
Before the season started, Will Forte, Seth Meyers, and Jeff Richards were all promoted to repertory status, while Fred Armisen remained a featured player.
The show added two new African-American cast members: stand-up comedian Finesse Mitchell and Kenan Thompson, a former child star from the Nickelodeon comedy shows All That and Kenan & Kel.[4] Thompson became the first SNL cast member to be born after the show's premiere in 1975 (Thompson was born in 1978). Thompson eventually became the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history.
This was the final season for both Jeff Richards[5] and Jimmy Fallon (who decided to leave the show after the final episode).[6] In an interview at the time, Richards said he left to branch out into other projects,[7] though he later mentioned that his substance abuse was a factor.[8]
Repertory players
Featured players
bold denotes "Weekend Update" anchor
Future cast member Jason Sudeikis and stand-up comedian J.B. Smoove were hired as writers this season.[9] [10]
John Lutz and Liz Cackowski are hired midway through the season, starting with the Megan Mullally-hosted episode.[11]
This was the final season for longtime writers Michael Schur (who had been a writer since 1998) and Dennis McNicholas (who had been a writer since 1995; and became head writer back in 2001).[12]
Schur left the writing staff after 6½ years, while McNicholas left after nine years with the show, and 3½ as head writer, but returned to producer Weekend Update, 10 years later in 2014.
See main article: List of Saturday Night Live episodes.