Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Michael Hall are proud to be “SNL” cast members

Saturday Night LiveSeason 11 is widely considered one of the series’ worst, despite featuring a number of recognizable faces that many casual fans often forget were even cast members.

“I’m proud to be a part of it. “It was like an out-of-body experience,” Anthony Michael Hall recalled of his one season on the Peacock docuseries cast SNL50: Beyond Saturday Nightis the fourth and final episode titled “Season 11: The Strange Year.”

Hall had already appeared in important Brat Pack films Sixteen candles And The Breakfast Club when he was tapped to join SNL She was cast at 17, still the youngest addition to the series. “I remember just being shocked,” Hall said, when he got the gig on “a show that meant so much to me as a kid growing up in New York.”

This season, his job was to support Hall in the cast Weird science Co-star and best friend, 20-year-old Robert Downey Jr.

“Michael Hall told me I would do it SNL. I’ll get you an audition and I bet you’ll make it on the show too,” recalled Downey, who later became a Marvel superhero and the only one Saturday Night Live Actor who won an Oscar.

“I’m still waiting for that bastard to return a favor 40 years later,” Hall joked. “Come on, Iron Man, you’ve got it.”

Season 11, which ran from November 1985 to May 1986, marked a time of great change for the iconic sketch show. SNL faltered after the loss of superstar-turned-comedy wunderkind Eddie Murphy and suffered from a lackluster tenth season that brought it to the brink of cancellation. It was then that Lorne Michaels decided to return after a five-year break and try to breathe new life into his creation.

“I wanted to be younger. Maybe I was too young, but I wanted to get younger,” Michaels said SNL50, He explained: “The baby boomer generation had dominated the show for ten years, so I decided to clean up.”

That led him to occupy Hall’s National Lampoon’s Vacation Co-star Randy Quaid, already nominated for an Oscar at the time; Joan Cusack; Danitra Vance, the first black woman to join the cast; Terry Sweeney, his first openly gay actor; Damon Wayans, Nora Dunn; Jon Lovitz; and Dennis Miller.

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Although much of the cast was fresh-faced, the writers’ room included many people who had moved around Studio 8H over the years, such as Jim Downey, Al Franken and Tom Davis. In retrospect, many of those interviewed admitted that there was a discrepancy.

“Looking back, I remember it was difficult for a lot of writers to figure out how to write for this kid,” Hall said. “I think it was a big challenge.”

Ultimately, the season was a disaster. So much so that the finale ended with the cast trapped and burned in a mock fire while Michaels rescued Lovitz, whose catchphrase “That’s the ticket” had been a rare highlight of the season. A title card asked, “Who Will Survive?” Who will die?” As the credits rolled, every staff member’s name, including Michael himself, was followed by a question mark, suggesting that cancellation may be imminent.

During this hiatus it was actually canceled for a short time until NBC was convinced to relent SNL one last chance. To answer the big question of the Season 11 finale, the only cast members Michaels brought back for Season 12 were Lovitz, Dunn, Miller and A. Whitney Brown, who had joined as main cast members late in the season. Everyone else was left to history as one-season wonders.

“I learned so much that year about what I wasn’t,” Downey recalled of his short stint. “But there is no more exciting 90 minutes, whether you are good or not.”

All four episodes of SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night streaming on Peacock. Saturday Night Live returns Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT with host Dave Chappelle on NBC.