But First: The Ups and Downs of SNL Cast Members in the ’80s

It’s hard to believe that Saturday Night Live almost got the ax in the 1980s, but it’s true. In 1980, after the fifth season, Lorne Michaels took a hiatus from running the show. Most of the SNL cast members left with him, and thus began the messy run of Jean Doumanian.

She didn’t last a year, new NBC president Brandon Tartikoff saved the show from cancellation, and Dick Ebersol took over.

Michaels returned in 1985, but there were multiple massive changes to the cast. Again, it was salvaged, and so here we are. For this list, we considered anybody who had the majority of their run on SNL fall in the 1980s.