Saturday Night Live season 7

The seventh season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 3, 1981, and May 22, 1982. It was the first full season produced by Dick Ebersol.

Cast
After the end of the previous season, which was cut short because of the 1981 Writers Guild of America strike, Ebersol dismissed two more of Jean Doumanian's hires, repertory players Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius. Featured players Laurie Metcalf and Emily Prager, who only appeared in the previous season's final episode, were not asked back as cast members.

The new cast of Saturday Night Live for season7 included returning veterans Robin Duke, Tim Kazurinsky, Tony Rosato, Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Two new cast members were added: Second City alum Mary Gross and Broadway actress Christine Ebersole. Writer Brian Doyle-Murray joined as a featured player. Doyle-Murray became the new Weekend Update (then called SNL Newsbreak) host, and was teamed first with Mary Gross before anchoring solo for three months, then back again with Gross for one more month. For the remainder of the season, Doyle-Murray was paired with Christine Ebersole.

Murphy, who had already emerged as a cast breakout last season, continued to rise in popularity in season 7, and Dick Ebersol heavily featured both Murphy and Piscopo in the show.

Cast roster
Repertory players
 * Robin Duke
 * Christine Ebersole
 * Mary Gross
 * Tim Kazurinsky
 * Eddie Murphy
 * Joe Piscopo
 * Tony Rosato

Featured players
 * Brian Doyle-Murray

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers
This season's writers were Barry W. Blaustein, Joe Bodolai, Brian Doyle-Murray, Nate Herman, Tim Kazurinsky, Nelson Lyon, Maryilyn Suzanne Miller, Pamela Norris, Mark O'Donnell, Michael O'Donoghue, Margaret Olberman, Tony Rosato, David Sheffield, Rosie Shuster, Andrew Smith, Terry Southern, Bob Tischler and Eliot Wald. The head writers were Michael O'Donoghue (episodes 1–8) and Bob Tischler (episodes 9-20).

Michael O'Donoghue, whom Ebersol brought back to the show in March, remained as head writer for the first half of season7. Some sketches, as well as the appearances of artists like Fear and William S. Burroughs, reflected the increasingly bizarre ideas O'Donoghue had for the show. However, after developing a tense relationship with Ebersol and berating the cast in a meeting following the December 12 episode, O'Donoghue was fired, with Bob Tischler taking the role of head writer.