After 38 Seasons Should SNL stick a Fork in it?

[66Crush]

In my opinion Saturday Night Live is neither funny nor relevant anymore, and hasn't been in years. When SNL first aired it was new and cutting edge. Some of the greatest comedians of all time started there. The list of SNL's alumni reads like a who's who of comedy for the 20th century. I was once a huge fan. But after seeing the state of TV today and seeing one crap show too many succeed, while anything any good usually gets the proverbial axe. I've decided that I think it's time this show was cancelled. The problem is Saturday Night live has created a dangerous formula for TV. One that continues to this day with shows like American Idol. It has become a taste maker. Just as American Idol has made Americans complacent and lazy about it's music choices, SNL has done the same with comedy. Today's comedy is lazy and geared for people with short (if any) attention spans. So what do you think? Am I way off base? Or do you agree? Vote now. Let's get some democracy for TV!

[Jack]

I haven't even watched it since way back in the Chevy Chase days.  Seems like it's just people acting loud and obnoxious and we're supposed to find that hilarious.

[AndyC]

I haven't paid much attention to SNL since about the early 90s. I thought the original cast was great, and the show stayed more or less excellent through the 80s. By the mid-90s, I thought the cast was kind of lacklustre and they were just beating the old formula to death. The show was no longer fresh or innovative, or even unique. There were other edgy sketch comedy shows around, and in the late 90s MADtv was much better. SNL, much like the later seasons of The Simpsons, just seemed to keep riding along on the momentum it built up in earlier years.

I think SNL probably wouldn't have lasted this long, except that it bounced back a bit at the end of the 90s, before resuming its downhill slide a few years later. At this point, I have to be reminded it is still going. It's just become that irrelevant to me. It shares that in common with The Simpsons as well.

[66Crush]

Was there even a final episode for The Simpsons? I don't remember seeing anything about it. Last season was the end, right? Or is it still on?

[FatFreddysCat]

Was there even a final episode for The Simpsons? I don't remember seeing anything about it. Last season was the end, right? Or is it still on?

Simpsons is still goin'... their new season starts @ the end of the month. Fox threatened to end it last year cuz they got into a salary dispute with the voice acting cast (which happens every couple of years) but eventually it was worked out. I think it's contracted through the end of the 2013-2014 season now, last I checked.

As for SNL, the last time I tuned it in, Nirvana was the musical guest... and that guy's been dead for how many years now?   

[Andrew]

Katie still watches it at times, but I cannot say that it interests me any more.  I liked the older episodes with what many consider the cast during its heyday.  However, the "More Cowbell" episode is still one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television and it appeared during a period when I did not watch the show very often either.

[voltron]

I voted "yes". I couldn't bring myself to watch it for, at least, the past 10 years. I wholeheartedly agree with the Simpsons comments as well. If I do chose to watch either, it's repeats all the way.

[tracy]

"Yes,the show sucks now" pretty much covers it for me. I watched it until Mike Meyers left then it lost what bits of funny it still had. I still prefer the original cast best....they were fresh and hilarious.

As for the Simpsons.....

[HappyGilmore]

I can't vote via phone. However, it had a good couple of years recently. Notably for their 'Digital Shorts' by the Lonely Island crew.

It has hit-and-miss seasons. First few were great, had a down run in the early-mid '80s. I became a fan around the '87-'94 cast: Sandler, Miller, Farley, Spade, Rock, Schneider, etc.

Down run, good again, etc.

Even one episode can go from a great opening sketch and just end poorly.

[66Crush]

If The Simpsons would go away now, they could come back in 10 years when the nostalgia has built up and be really good again. But SNL is such a dead horse in comedy, that nobody's really gonna miss it. I think the only reason NBC keeps it around is because it's just a promotion vehicle for whatever movie the host is in and a showcase for whatever musical guest is being hyped that week.

[alandhopewell]

     Actually, I stopped watching it after the last original cast member left, but there was no choice for that.

[The Burgomaster]

I was an avid watcher of the show for 3 - 4 years (back in the early years).  I don't think I could name a single cast member now.

[tracy]

I was an avid watcher of the show for 3 - 4 years (back in the early years).  I don't think I could name a single cast member now.

I know I sure couldn't.

[akiratubo]

It's sucked since sometime in the 90s.

[ChaosTheory]

I haven't watched since they axed Norm McDonald; to be fair I think quality-wise SNL tends to go in cycles (remember the 1980 season?  The Robert Downey Jr - Joan Cusack - Anthony Michael Hall season?  Yeah neither does anyone else.)  It may just be time to clean house again.