Saturday Night Live (season 28)

Saturday Night Live
	Season 28
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	20
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	October 5, 2002 –; May 17, 2003
Season chronology

The twenty-eighth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 5, 2002, and May 17, 2003.

Cast of 02/03. Back row from left to right: Richards, Edwards, Armisen, Kattan, Sanz, Fallon, Poehler, Forte and Dratch. Front row from left to right: Meyers, Morgan, Rudolph, Fey, Hammond and Parnell.

Cast

Before the start of the season, Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer left the show. Gasteyer was on maternity leave, and decided not to return, while Ferrell left to star in feature films. Hired to fill their absences were comedian/punk musician Fred Armisen and TV writer Will Forte (of The Groundlings). Both joined the show as featured players. Armisen is the show's second Latino male cast member (Horatio Sanz being first), and also the second male cast member to have some Asian heritage (Rob Schneider being first). Armisen is so far the only cast member to have Korean heritage (though, at the time, Armisen mistakenly believed his heritage to have been Japanese).

This would be the final season for Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan, who both had been cast members since 1996, and Dean Edwards, who had been a feature player since 2001. The former two would make cameo appearances in many episodes of the following season.

Cast roster

Repertory players

Featured players

bold denotes Weekend Update anchor

Writers

Episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Host	Musical guest(s)	Original air date
526	1	Matt Damon	Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band	October 5, 2002 (2002-10-05)
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band performs "Lonesome Day" with Soozie Tyrell, and "You're Missing". Jim Cummings performed voiceover work in the "Smurfette Show" TV Funhouse sketch. Fred Armisen and Will Forte's first episode as cast members.
527	2	Sarah Michelle Gellar	Faith Hill	October 12, 2002 (2002-10-12)
Faith Hill performs "Cry" and "Free", and appears during the "No Wrestling" sketch.
528	3	John McCain	The White Stripes	October 19, 2002 (2002-10-19)
The White Stripes performs "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" and "We're Going to Be Friends". Re-aired in tribute to McCain on September 1, 2018, the Saturday following his death
529	4	Eric McCormack	Jay-Z	November 2, 2002 (2002-11-02)
Jay-Z performs "Guns & Roses" with Lenny Kravitz and "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" with Kravitz and Beyoncé.
530	5	Nia Vardalos	Eve	November 9, 2002 (2002-11-09)
Eve performed "Gangsta Lovin'" and "Satisfaction", and appears during the "Dropping The L.B.'s With Missy E" sketch. Tina Fey's mother Jean Fey appears during the opening monologue.
531	6	Brittany Murphy	Nelly	November 16, 2002 (2002-11-16)
Nelly performs "Dilemma" with Kelly Rowland and "Hot in Herre", and appears in the "Astronaut Jones" sketch. Former cast members Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider appear during the cold open to perform "The Chanukah Song". Garrett Morris appears during the "Astronaut Jones" sketch.
532	7	Robert De Niro	Norah Jones	December 7, 2002 (2002-12-07)
Norah Jones performs "Don't Know Why" and "Come Away with Me". Harvey Keitel appears during the "Very Versace Christmas" sketch.
533	8	Al Gore	Phish	December 14, 2002 (2002-12-14)
Phish performs "46 Days" and "Chalk Dust Torture", and appears in the "Jarret's Room" sketch and the "Peanuts Christmas" cartoon. Phish's performance was their first in over two years, ending the hiatus period they had embarked on in October 2000, the longest break from performing they had taken up to that point.[1] Tipper Gore appears during the cold open and the Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley sketch. The West Wing cast members Allison Janney, Bradley Whitford, John Spencer, Martin Sheen, and Richard Schiff appear during the pre-recorded "The West Wing Set" sketch. Al Franken appears during Daily Affirmation With Stuart Smalley, reprising his role as Stuart Smalley. Brad Pitt performs a voice role during the "Peanuts Christmas" cartoon.
534	9	Jeff Gordon	Avril Lavigne	January 11, 2003 (2003-01-11)
Avril Lavigne performs "I'm with You" and "Complicated".
535	10	Ray Liotta	The Donnas	January 18, 2003 (2003-01-18)
The Donnas perform "Take It Off" and "Who Invited You".
536	11	Matthew McConaughey	Dixie Chicks	February 8, 2003 (2003-02-08)
Dixie Chicks perform "Travelin' Soldier" and "Sin Wagon", and appear during the "Jarret's Room" sketch.
537	12	Jennifer Garner	Beck	February 15, 2003 (2003-02-15)
Beck performs "Lost Cause" and "Guess I'm Doing Fine".
538	13	Christopher Walken	Foo Fighters	February 22, 2003 (2003-02-22)
Foo Fighters perform "All My Life" and "Times Like These", with Jim Carrey appearing during their second performance. Steve Martin, Will Ferrell, and Britney Spears appear during Weekend Update. Additionally, Ferrell appears during the "Lovers" sketch.
539	14	Queen Latifah	Ms. Dynamite	March 8, 2003 (2003-03-08)
Ms. Dynamite performs "Dy-Na-Mi-Tee". Dan Aykroyd appears during the "60 Minutes" cold open, reprising his impression of Bob Dole. Jeff Bergman and Tom Kenny provide the voices of Bugs Bunny and SpongeBob SquarePants respectively during the "X-Presidents" cartoon. Horatio Sanz pays tribute to Mr. Rogers who died of stomach cancer nine days earlier.
540	15	Salma Hayek	Christina Aguilera	March 15, 2003 (2003-03-15)
Christina Aguilera performs "Beautiful" and "Fighter", and appears during the "Versace Oscar Fashion Preview" sketch. Edward Norton appears during the opening monologue.
541	16	Bernie Mac	Good Charlotte	April 5, 2003 (2003-04-05)
Good Charlotte performs "The Anthem" and "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous".
542	17	Ray Romano	Zwan	April 12, 2003 (2003-04-12)
Zwan performs "Lyric" and "Settle Down".
543	18	Ashton Kutcher	50 Cent	May 3, 2003 (2003-05-03)
50 Cent performs "In Da Club" with G-Unit and "21 Questions" with G-Unit and Nate Dogg.
544	19	Adrien Brody	Sean Paul Wayne Wonder	May 10, 2003 (2003-05-10)
Sean Paul performs "Get Busy". Wayne Wonder performs "No Letting Go". Brody's parents Sylvia Plachy and Elliot Brody appear during the opening monologue. Prior to Sean Paul's performance, Brody gives an improvised introduction while wearing faux dreadlocks and mumbling in a Jamaican accent for Paul, unbeknownst to the cast, crew and Lorne Michaels. Because of this, Brody has been banned from the show.
545	20	Dan Aykroyd	Beyoncé	May 17, 2003 (2003-05-17)
Beyoncé performs "Crazy in Love" with Jay-Z and "Dangerously in Love". Jim Belushi appears during the opening monologue. Chris Kattan's father Kip King appears during the "Rialto Grande" sketch. John Goodman appears during "The Falconer" sketch, the "Donatella Versace Backyard Barbeque" sketch, and the "La Cuisina Canina" sketch. Aykroyd brought in Tom Davis, one of the show's original writers, to help write this episode.[2] Aykroyd becomes the first SNL cast member to have a long gap between leaving the show as a cast member and returning to host at nearly 24 years (and, as of 2019, is the third and most recent cast member from the show's "Not Ready for Primetime" era [1975-1980] to come back and host). Dean Edwards, Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan's final episode as cast members.

Specials

Title	Original air date
"The Best of Will Ferrell"	September 28, 2002 (2002-09-28)
Sketches include: "Alta Dena Mandatory Drug Assembly", "Cow Bell", "Dissin' Your Dog", "Spartan Cheerleaders", "The Coconuts Bangers Ball: It's A Rap!", "Celebrity Jeopardy", "Inside The Actors Studio", "Space, The Infinite Frontier with Harry Caray", "Luvahs at the Welshly Arm Motel", "Roxbury Guys", "The Replacement Nude Model", "Tension Dinner" and "Jacob Silj".
"SNL Christmas 2002"	December 17, 2002 (2002-12-17)
Holiday-themed sketches from past episodes are aired. Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey host.
Weekend Update Halftime Special	January 26, 2003 (2003-01-26)
Weekend Update Halftime Special, timed to compete with the Super Bowl XXXVII halftime show.

References

"Phish Plays Saturday Night Live On December 14". Phish. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
Davis, Tom (2009). Thirty-nine Years of Short-term Memory Loss. Grove Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8021-1880-6. When Dan Aykroyd hosted the show in 2003, he brought me along. It was great fun writing and getting stuff on again; it was a terrific show.

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[1] "Phish Plays Saturday Night Live On December 14". Phish. Retrieved 17 December 2019.

[2] Davis, Tom (2009). Thirty-nine Years of Short-term Memory Loss. Grove Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-8021-1880-6. When Dan Aykroyd hosted the show in 2003, he brought me along. It was great fun writing and getting stuff on again; it was a terrific show.