I think you will generally find that anyone 30 and older who remembers watching the Original cast when it was live prasies the first 5 years (even some of the horrible stuff you don't see anymore, example louise lasser was stoned and stuff from that episode is very rarely seen). Vs. under 30s who have only seen best ofs and the more recent casts who don't get some of the references in the late 70s humor.

True memories tend to make things you liked sound even better with age, then you watch it later and say "Why did I like this?" like that old newspaper article you were saving becuase it interested you at the time, but when you dig it out of your attic/basement you think "Who was this Monudo fellow and why did I save this article?"

There were the classic "land shark" scetches and the first appearance of The Blues Brothers and the special "The Things We Did Last Summer", The Mr. Bill segments and then there were the things that didn't go so well like The entire Louise Lasser Episode, and some of the off the wall short fillms.

Just bumping this up as this is going to be repeated from 9:00 pm ET to 11:00 pm ET tonight on NBC (of course)

LB...

As far as I am concerned the first 5 years were the only decent years. All the rest suffer in comparison.

I agree. the only period that would come close would be the Carvy, Meyers, Hartman era.

I would say that the cast of Carvey, Lovitz, Hartman, Nealon, Miller, etc. were probably the BEST the show has ever been.

As people mention, sure you remember all the classic sketches from the original cast, but there was a LOT of unfunny as well.

Hartman and Lovitz were as big a talent as anyone from the first five years, and Carvey, Miller, and Nealon less so.

Many of the sketches from the first five years were very topical, and don't hold up as well, but in the context of the time were top notch.