Saturday Night Live aired its nineteenth season during the 1993-1994 television season on NBC. The season began on September 25, 1993 and ended on May 14, 1994. Many changes happened before the start of the season. Dana Carvey had left the show in the middle of the previous season. Chris Rock and Robert Smigel also left the show at the end of the previous season. Ellen Cleghorne, Melanie Hutsell, Tim Meadows, Adam Sandler, and David Spade were all promoted to repertory status. Stand-up comics Norm Macdonald, Jay Mohr and Sarah Silverman were hired as writers and would debut as featured players a few episodes into the season. Veteran comic actor Michael McKean joined the show mid-season as a repertory cast member. This would also be the final season for Phil Hartman, Melanie Hutsell, Rob Schneider, Sarah Silverman and Julia Sweeney. A major blow for the show was the loss of Hartman. Before his final show the entire cast and crew presented him with a bronzed stick of glue, symbolizing how he had become "The Glue" of the show, a term coined by Adam Sandler.