The Sarah Jessica Parker-hosted episode featured a special appearance by Bill Murray, who introduced a clip from season 3, "The Soiled Kimono", aired in O'Donoghue's memory.

[5] Preceding the season 20 premiere, longtime cast members Phil Hartman, Melanie Hutsell, Rob Schneider, and Julia Sweeney all left the show, alongside featured player Sarah Silverman.

[6] In their places, the show hired Late Night with David Letterman writer Chris Elliott, as well as stand-up comedians Janeane Garofalo and Laura Kightlinger, to the cast.

[6] Jay Mohr remained a featured player and Norm Macdonald was promoted to repertory status and made Weekend Update anchor.

"[2][17] Longtime staff writer and cast member Al Franken's final appearance as a featured player was on May 6 following the box office failure of the SNL spin-off film Stuart Saves His Family.

[7] Following the May 13, 1995 season finale, nine other cast members either quit or were fired: Banks, Ellen Cleghorne, Elliott, Chris Farley, Kightlinger, Michael McKean, Mohr, Nealon and Adam Sandler.

Nealon, Cleghorne, McKean, Elliott and Kightlinger left the show at season's end on their own terms; Farley, Sandler, Banks and Mohr were let go after the finale.

[18] In his book Gasping for Airtime, Mohr wrote that following the season, he demanded a promotion to repertory status, among other things; the network procrastinated throughout the summer of 1995 and he chose to quit.

[6][27] Without Hartman and Carvey, critics expressed that SNL lacked an anchor to hold its sketches together, leaving Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, and David Spade to carry much of the show.

[28] Critics also expressed the show was missing its signature political humor, and pointed out that veteran writers like Jack Handey, Robert Smigel, and Conan O'Brien had already left the staff.

Stuart was depressed and bitter throughout the entire segment, eating cookies and lambasting the audience for choosing other movies (such as Dumb and Dumber and anything Pauly Shore had out at the time) over his.