BY JESSE HASSENGER
Saturday Night Live is both the platonic ideal of television — long-running to the tune of 50 years, rooted equally in old-fashioned traditions of the medium and upending them, live, difficult to reproduce, often disposable — and nearly impossible to process like normal TV.
And yet, I do love SNL as well as a challenge, so I’ve attempted to tame the untamable and rank the (first) 50 seasons of the show, sometimes challenging conventional wisdom about certain eras, cast members or even sketches — and sometimes hopelessly conforming to them. What contributes to a “good” SNL season is a little nebulous; it can be cast chemistry, particularly strong individual episodes, maybe even an unusually good musical-guest lineup. (Similarly, opportunities for demerits are legion, sometimes coming down to just how many times a particularly annoying recurring character came back.) As a tribute to the show’s consistent inconsistency, I’ve also selected a sketch from each season that I personally enjoy, doing my best to (mostly) avoid the greatest hits — and, whenever possible, conventional wisdom.
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