Television

I watched the first episode of SNL, and have been a fan ever since. I started hearing the "SNL is no good anymore" complaint in Season 2 after Chevy left. It got tiresome after about the 4th season, yet I've kept hearing it for the next 46 seasons. It's not an edgy opinion, it's just lame.

Have you ever watched the first season? Or any of the early seasons, when it was supposed to be so great that it sucks now? People seem to have this idea that every episode introduced iconic characters and sketches, but EVERY episode had sketches that bombed. Most episodes only had one really good sketch, and the iconic sketches, like the Land Shark, or the Bees, or Emily Litella, etc. happened a few times per season. Often, the musical guest was the best thing about the show. Lorne Michaels once said that everybody thinks the SNL era that happened during their high school years was the best era.

If you really want some perspective on SNL, watch Fridays, which is now on Hulu. Fridays was ABC's response to SNL, coming out about 4-5 years later. The first cold open was a sketch about how different they would be from SNL, and then went on to have a clone of SNL in every way, except one - it wasn't funny at all. The studio audience almost never laughs. Once you've watched a few episodes of Fridays, SNL is incredible in comparison.

Fridays was interesting for one thing though - the cast included Larry David and Michael Richards, and the writers included Larry Charles, who all went on to partner up with Jerry Seinfeld to create Seinfeld.