Saturday Night Special was a 60 minute long, comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

-variety show

Variety show

A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...

. It aired weekly on Saturday nights on Fox

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

.

This show was a competitor to Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

, with a similar format of comedy skits and musicians. It debuted on April 1, 1996 through May 18, 1996, airing in the same timeslot as the temporarily-displaced MADtv

MADtv

MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

.

The theme song to the show was War

War (band)

War is an American funk band from California, known for the hit songs "Low Rider", "Spill the Wine", "The Cisco Kid" and "Why Can't We Be Friends?". Formed in 1969, War was a musical crossover band which fused elements of rock, funk, jazz, Latin, rhythm and blues, and reggae...

's "Low Rider".

Cast

• Jennifer Coolidge
  Jennifer Coolidge
  Jennifer Coolidge is an American actress best known for playing "Stifler's mom," the older woman in the film American Pie ; Hilary Duff's stepmother in A Cinderella Story ; Paulette, the manicurist in Legally Blonde and its sequel; the voice of Aunt Fanny in the animated feature Robots ; for her...
  
  .... Herself/Various Characters
• Kathy Griffin
  Kathy Griffin
  Kathleen Mary "Kathy" Griffin is an American actress, stand-up comedienne, television personality, New York Times best-selling author and an LGBT rights advocate. Griffin first gained recognition for appearances on two episodes of Seinfeld, and then for her supporting role on the NBC sitcom...
  
  .... Herself/Various Characters
• Laura Kightlinger
  Laura Kightlinger
  Laura Kightlinger is an American actress, comedian and writer. She may be best known for her role as Nurse Sheila on Will & Grace.-Early life:Kightlinger was born and raised in Jamestown, New York...
  
  .... Herself/Various Characters
• Bob Rubin
• Warren Hutcherson
  Warren Hutcherson
  Warren Hutcherson is a veteran comedian and comedy writer from Baltimore, Maryland. He is perhaps best known for his jokes about how his father, a member of the Nation of Islam, was able to find conspiracies in everyday occurrences....
  
  
• Heath Hyche
• Carl LaBove (as C.D. LaBove)

Guest celebrities

• Yasmine Bleeth
  Yasmine Bleeth
  Yasmine Amanda Bleeth is an American actress. Her television roles include Caroline Holden in the long-running series Baywatch.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Sharon Stone
  Sharon Stone
  Sharon Vonne Stone is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. She achieved international recognition for her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct...
  
  
• Scott Wolf
  Scott Wolf
  Scott Richard Wolf is an American actor, known for his roles on the television series Party of Five as Bailey Salinger and on Everwood as Dr. Jake Hartman. Since 2009, he has appeared in the Sci-Fi series V as the morally ambiguous journalist, Chad Decker.-Early life:Wolf was born in Boston,...
  
  
• Melissa Etheridge
  Melissa Etheridge
  Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...
  
  
• Bush
  Bush (band)
  Bush are an alternative rock band formed in London in 1992 shortly after vocalist/guitarist Gavin Rossdale and guitarist Nigel Pulsford met in a London nightclub. Realising they shared a love for such diverse artists as the Pixies, Bob Marley, The Jesus Lizard, MC5, Nirvana, Hüsker Dü, and Big...
  
  
• Ben Stiller
  Ben Stiller
  Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
  
  
• Salt-N-Pepa
  Salt-N-Pepa
  Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip hop trio from Queens and Brooklyn, New York, that was formed in 1985. The group, consisting of Cheryl "Salt" Renee James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, and Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper, was one of the first all-female rap crews....
  
  
• Max Perlich
  Max Perlich
  -Biography:He was born in Cleveland, Ohio. His mother was a teacher and his father, Martin Perlich, a writer and radio programming director and announcer, worked for a time with the Cleveland Orchestra. The Perlich family moved to Los Angeles, California when Max was four...
  
  
• Alice in Chains
  Alice in Chains
  Alice in Chains is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1987 by guitarist and songwriter Jerry Cantrell and original lead vocalist Layne Staley. The initial lineup was rounded out by drummer Sean Kinney, and bassist Mike Starr...
  
  
• D'Angelo
  D'Angelo
  Michael Eugene Archer , better known by his stage name D'Angelo, is an American R&B and neo soul singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is known for his production and songwriting talents as much as for his vocal abilities, and often draws comparisons to his influences,...
  
  
• James Woods
  James Woods
  James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
  
  
• John Goodman
  John Goodman
  John Stephen Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for appearances in the films of the Coen brothers, with prominent roles in Raising...
  
  
• Rodney Dangerfield
  Rodney Dangerfield
  Rodney Dangerfield , was an American comedian, and actor, known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect!," "No respect, no respect at all... that's the story of my life" or "I get no respect, I tell ya" and his monologues on that theme...
  
  
• Lynn Whitfield
  Lynn Whitfield
  Lynn Whitfield is an American actress.Whitfield began her acting career in television and theatre, before progressing to supporting roles in film. She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Special and a NAACP Image Award for her performance as Josephine Baker in the...
  
  
• Coolio
  Coolio
  Artis Leon Ivey Jr. , better known by the stage name Coolio, is an American musician, rapper, actor and record producer.-Late 80s:He recorded two singles in the late 80s, titled "Watcha Gonna Do" and "You're Gonna Miss Me"...
  
  
• Garbage
  Garbage (band)
  Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...
  
  
• Rosie Perez
  Rosie Perez
  Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
  
  
• Tupac Shakur
  Tupac Shakur
  Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
  
  
• Ice-T
  ICE-T
  * Ice-T, an American rapper and actor* ICE T , a tilting model of the German InterCityExpress series of high-speed trains...
  
  
• Fugees
• The Verve Pipe
  The Verve Pipe
  The Verve Pipe is an American rock band from East Lansing, Michigan. It was formed in 1992 by Brian and Brad Vander Ark, Brian Stout and Donny Brown.-History:...
  
  
• Laura Leighton
  Laura Leighton
  Laura Leighton is an American actress. She is best-known for the role of Sydney Andrews, introduced in the 1990s television series Melrose Place. She reprised the role in the 2009 series of the same name...
  
  
• Smothers Brothers
  Smothers Brothers
  The Smothers Brothers are Thomas and Richard , American singers, musicians, comedians and folk heroes. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...
  
  
• Radiohead
  Radiohead
  Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
  
  
• Jenny McCarthy
  Jenny McCarthy
  Jennifer Ann "Jenny" McCarthy is an American model, comedian, actress, author, activist, and game show host. She began her career in 1993 as a nude model for Playboy magazine and was later named their Playmate of the Year. McCarthy then parlayed her Playboy fame into a successful television and...
  
  
• Green Day
  Green Day
  Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
  
  
• Patti Smith
  Patti Smith
  Patricia Lee "Patti" Smith is an American singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album Horses....
  
  
• Vendela
• Kiss
  KISS (band)
  Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
  
  

Production credits

• Troy Miller and Keith Alcorn (Directors)
• Roseanne Barr
  Roseanne Barr
  Roseanne Cherrie Barr is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997...
  
   (Executive Producer)
• Craig J. Nevius (Co-Producer)
• Troy Miller (Producer)
• Eric Beetner (Film Editor)
• Michele Spadaro (Set Decorator)
• Keith Alcorn and Nick Gibbons (Art Department)
• Paul Claerhout (Animator)
• Eric Mazer (Production Coordinator)
• Kenneth Paul Schoenfeld {Makeup Department Head}
• Taylor M. Uhler (Music Composer)
• Fox Network (Production Company)