Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-seventh season during the 2001-2002 television season on NBC. Eighteen days before the season started, the September 11, 2001 attacks took place in New York which devastated the country and raised questions on whether the season premiere would be delayed or whether the show's humor would suffer due to the tragic events. The season premiere (hosted by Reese Witherspoon) went on as scheduled, with a special cold...
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Saturday Night Live aired its twenty-seventh season during the 2001-2002 television season on NBC. Eighteen days before the season started, the September 11, 2001 attacks took place in New York which devastated the country and raised questions on whether the season premiere would be delayed or whether the show's humor would suffer due to the tragic events. The season premiere (hosted by Reese Witherspoon) went on as scheduled, with a special cold opening featuring Rudy Giuliani, the Mayor of New York City at the time, along with the firefighters and police officers of New York, declaring that despite the terrorist attack, New York City will run as normal and Saturday Night Live will go on as planned (with Lorne Michaels asking Giuliani, "Can we be funny?" and Giuliani replying, "Why start now?").
Because of budget cuts, Chris Parnell was fired from the cast, only to be rehired in March after Will Ferrell was rarely seen in the show due to his budding movie career. Jerry Minor, however...
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