by Melissa Fajardo ’13

For those born in the late 90s, we grew up watching “Saturday Night Live” when the show had some of its golden members like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. But just like the U.S. economy, the show goes boom and bust every so often. The comedy sketch show has produced over 731 episodes since its NBC debut on October 11, 1975 and has developed huge TV and movie stars. Each episode has a musical guest as well as a celebrity guest who performs sketches with the cast that parody contemporary culture and politics. This format remains the same even in its 38th season, making it one of the longest running network television programs.

The show’s first season became an instant hit with cast members like Chevy Chase who pioneered the Weekend Update skit and John Belushi who later starred in “The Blues Brothers” with fellow SNL cast member Dan Aykroyd. The cast members, who were mostly upcoming and unknown comics, quickly became relevant.  Many cast members, including original executive producer Lorne Michaels, decided to leave the show in pursuit of other career opportunities in the early 80s.  The cast was rejuvenated with new rising stars, such as Eddie Murphy, who made his debut in 1980 at 19 years old. Michaels returned to the show in the mid-80s and favored unknown talent over established comedians. After a few shaky seasons, the show began to pick up speed with new powerhouses Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon in the late 90s. They were followed by familiar members like Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg and Kristen Wiig, all of whom maintain steady and successful careers today.

The current season began on September 15 with high energy and a mix of old skits as well as new refreshing material. Even without the return of Samberg and Wiig, the cast is able to deliver the humor the American people have been waiting for. However, some members seem to show no growth from the last season. Although Jay Pharoah and Vanessa Bayer are considered current repertory players on the cast, there’s still something about them that doesn’t quite fill the enormous shoes of their predecessors. Pharoah specializes in uncomfortably perfect impressions of Obama and Jay-Z, but what else can he do? It seems like the writers hand him the same role over and over again with the same lackluster material that does not allow viewers to connect with him. Bayer, on the other hand, is given many opportunities to show her range but she executes each role in the same manner for every skit: with a plastered look on her face and an irksome smile that appears at the wrong times. She seems overly rehearsed and lacks the natural pauses comedians genrally incorporate into their material.

In general, the writing this season has been funny. However, it’s glaringly obvious when the quality of some skits isn’t as good as others and the writers simply run out of ideas and hand them to rookie cast members. If members like Pharoah and Bayer are the future of “Saturday Night Live,” they need to start grooming them for when they become the leading members of the show.