"Saturday Night Live" History (1982-1992) Quiz

Answer: Frank Sinatra

It was May 22, 1982, and as legend has it, the sketch was much more controversial and edgy when the two men rehearsed it in the writer's room before taking it live before an audience. But Piscopo, who was impersonating Sinatra for the sketch was ultimately the one who decided to tone it down, effectively taking the NBC censors off the hook. Sinatra was Piscopo's bread and butter having impersonating him many times on the show. Mr. Piscopo explained that "Sinatra was so important to Italian-Americans....I didn't care if I was fired, I didn't care if it didn't work. I just didn't want to embarrass the Sinatra name."

Answer: synchronized swimming

Harry Shearer had watched the Los Angeles Summer Olympics a few month before that Season 10 show and is quoted in the book "Live From New York" by Tom Shales as saying he couldn't believe synchronized swimmers were "getting the same medals as real athletes." He, Martin Short and Christopher Guest worked out their own synchronized swimming routine without the help of a choreographer. Even the underwater stuff.

The sketch was shot in a a mockumentary film format and was a big influence on Akiva Schaffer, the author of "Lazy Sunday." He watched the sketch "over and over", he said, and years later would make his own digital shorts for "Saturday Night Live."

Answer: Brandon Tartikoff

On November 9, 1985 of season 1, the show opened with a cold open of Brandon Tartikoff joking about drug-testing the cast in a bit that critics felt was "off-key." Madonna was the host that evening and received similarly tepid reviews. The cast that show featured Anthony Michael-Hall who was only 17-years-old at the time, along with Robert Downey, Jr., Damon Wayans, and others, but they somehow didn't coalesce into a a comic force, and there was actually some doubt as to whether "SNL" would survive.

As writer Carol Leifer recalled, "People didn't know whether it was going to get picked up or not."

Answer: Terry Sweeney

It's another season that didn't go well overall according to critics; one milestone was having the first openly gay cast member come out. Writer Carol Leifer remembered it as being a "big deal" and Anthony Michael Hall insisted that his nickname "Terry Queeney" was a compliment "because he was really funny." Sweeney says the highlight of his time at "SNL" was impersonating Nancy Reagan, but especially memorable was getting to play her opposite Reagan's actual son Ron Reagan who was a guest host that night on the show. Ron would tell Sweeney that he was "more like his mother than his mother was."

Answer: Sean Penn

On season 13's October 24, 1987 show, Carvey's Church Lady snidely commented about Madonna: "Oh Madonna she's named after the Mother of our Lord, but she doesn't quite live up to the same standards, does she?" Well, that was the last straw for Madonna's husband Sean Penn who hauled off and took a swing at the Holier Than Thou character.

The Church Lady was a character that Carvey actually originated years before"playing around at a Melrose Improv thing." He debuted her on "SNL" on October 11, 1986 during Season 12.

The character's signature quip, "Isn't that special?" would go on to become perhaps the most quoted line in the show's history.

Answer: Steve Martin

It was during season 14's Saturday on May 20, 1989. Steve Martin came out telling everyone that they had a very funny show for them tonight and that Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers would perform. He said that one of the things that keeps him coming back are the people here that he works with, and then says he'd like to show you something that we recorded here on this stage back in 1978.

It was a sketch without dialogue, just a funny dance between Steve and Gilda Martin to the classic song, "Dancing In The Dark." "You know when I look at that tape" he said, "I can't help but think how great she was...and how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you."

Answer: Julia Sweeney

Julia Sweeney explained that she based the character Pat, on two men she worked with when she was an accountant. One was fat and the other one was skinny. The gist of the Pat sketches was that other characters were puzzled by Pat's gender, and tried to find subtle ways of determining it without coming right out and asking.

When Julia Sweeney introduced the character on December 1, 1990 during Season 16, it went over only so-so. But a week later, Rosanne Barr was the host and she had seen the sketch the week before. Barr loved the sketch, so the writers wrote another skit and this time it resonated. Pat would return another 12 times.

Answer: Campbell and Algar

Fortunately the "special report" cold open worked. On season 16's January 19, 1991 show, Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar appeared on camera, reporting that they'd been locked in their basement watching nothing but cable-TV news programming for the past 72 hours.

They proceeded to present awards for different categories of the war's media coverage: Brit Hume was the "Best Name" while Wolf Blizer was the "Worst Name" because according to Wayne and Garth, "he so obviously made it up.". Michael Myers recalled that, "We didn't know if it was going to be horrific casualties.

The sketch got rewritten 25 seconds until air. As I was talking, the [cue] cards were being written out."

Answer: Steven Seagal

Steven Seagal's hosting appearance on season 16's April 30, 1991 show is regarded as one of the worst of all. The other choices would all be mentioned by the producers as well since they've also been banned. Grodin for not coming to rehearsals, Berle for indecent exposure, and Zappa for going wildly off book and not keeping in character. Cast member David Spade recalled that the Steven Seagal experience was the first time he ever heard talk of getting rid of the host and doing a show with just the cast. Julia Sweeney remembered that he didn't like the ideas they were pitching, but surprisingly had some of his own ideas, but they were all "heinous, so hilariously awful." The main problem apparently was his general refusal to do anything even slightly spoofing his image.

Answer: Bob Marley's "War"

Ms. O'Connor has covered all of those songs, but it was "War" by Bob Marley that she sang a capella on that season 18 show on October 3, 1992. When she finished her rendition she pulled out a photograph of Pope John Paul II and tore it up, and then told the audience to "fight the real enemy." It's actually not the first time she was the source of some pushback on the show. "SNL"'s music producer Jim Pitt said that, "She was difficult, which was no surprise" because two years prior to the Pope incident the show had booked her to sing "Nothing Compares to You" but along with cast member Nora Dunn, Ms. O'Connor boycotted the show because of their choice to have Andrew Dice Clay as the host.