You probably remember the glory days of “Saturday Night Live.” Whether it was the days of Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd, Mike Myers and Adam Sandler or Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon, “SNL” has almost seen plenty of good days. But the show has been a sinking ship for more than a season or two. Now it is a bona fide ship wreck polluting the airwaves every Saturday night.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh. After all, the writers can’t produce gold every single episode, right? The actors can’t be side-splitting funny every sketch, right?
Every sketch? No, but they should be able to put something resembling humor together at least once a week, if not more
frequently.
An example of a would-be funny sketch aired last Saturday night. The audience saw a poorly imitated Britney Spears meeting with her lawyers to prepare for her upcoming divorce. Relying on the phrase “Ya’ll,” actress Amy Poehler doesn’t even come close to a funny impersonation. The writing of the sketch, at points, showed some hope, with Spears confessing that her ex-husband told her she wouldn’t get pregnant if they “did it in the booty.” But throughout most of the sketch, the audience was mildly entertained, mustering a chuckle here and there.
Last week’s host Alex Baldwin did bring some levity back to the long-running series. Most of the time, however, it seemed like the cast wasn’t even having fun. With major cutbacks at NBC, it’s not surprising most of the actors are more concerned with their job security rather than putting out a good product. It’s sad to say the once dismal competitor “Mad TV” actually surpasses “SNL” some weeks in terms of production quality and laughs.
What happened to those glory days? Gone the way of UPN. “SNL” isn’t finding the next great talent like it used to. New names like Bill Hader, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig either haven’t been in the right sketches or have bombed when they should have shined. In either case, “SNL” just isn’t making the right casting decisions. Dumping good actors like Horatio Sanz and Rachel Dratch isn’t going to help the cause, either.
“SNL,” like “Law and Order” and “ER” have sure-fire formulas for success. Those shows know to keep viewers interested they have to introduce new, memorable characters to replace the departing ones. “SNL” hasn’t done this and until it does, it will continue to stink up the small screen.
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