📺 Madonna · Simple Minds
Saturday Night Live · season 11, episode 196 · Saturday, November 9, 1985 Host: Madonna. Musical guest: Simple Minds. • Simple Minds perform "Alive and Kicking" and "Sanctify Yourself". • The episode's cold opening features Lorne Michaels and the head of NBC's entertainment division Brandon Tartikoff announcing the start of the show's second decade before immediately proceeding to issue urine tests to check the new cast members for drug use due to the show's past performers' well-publicized issues with drugs. The new cast's youngest member, 17-year-old Anthony Michael Hall then pledges to remain drug-free while employed by the network. Criticized for being in poor taste, the sketch has been cut from nearly all reruns with the exception of Canada's Comedy Channel. Instead, the reruns now start with the opening montage and a Simple Minds performance from dress rehearsal (“Sanctify Yourself”) fills time. Reruns also replace the opening sequence with the one that began later in the season. • First appearance of "Limits of the Imagination," a Twilight Zone spoof that recurs throughout the season. • Guest appearance by Penn & Teller. • Don Novello appears as Father Guido Sarducci during the pretaped wedding video segment in the monologue. • Joan Cusack, Robert Downey Jr., Nora Dunn, Anthony Michael Hall, Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Randy Quaid, Terry Sweeney, Danitra Vance and Damon Wayans' first episode as cast members. • Credited Featured Player: Damon Wayans • Saturday Night News is retitled back to Weekend Update, the news segment's title during the first six seasons. Weekend Update is now hosted by Miller. • Michaels returns as executive producer. Wiki link