Garret Morris? Clearly used as a token in the 1970s.

Eddie Murphy? He actually had to *beg* to be on the show! Then he ends up saving the franchise in the early 80s (he and Piscopo were the only ones kept in a house-cleaning so there was *some* reward for him).

There surely could have been others but it’s pretty clear that Mr Michaels is color-blind … and not in a good way …

OTOH, the white folks on the show suck. The last 10 years of Weekend Update anchors … wait, the last 15 years … wait. OK, Weekend Update (and SNL Newsbreak) has pretty much sucked since Jane “ignorant slut” Curtain and Dan “pompous ass” Ackroyd left the desk (I love Billy Murray, but didn’t care much for his WU work).

Agreed — I think Fey does best when she’s riffing off something real that she has experienced or has factual material for. “Mean Girls” is partly based on a nonfiction study of teenage girls’ interactions (and probably partly based on the traumas of a teenaged Fey). “30 Rock,” of course, is based on Fey’s experiences working at “SNL.” I have no idea what Baby Momma was supposed to be based on, and I think the detachment from reality was part of why it sucked — both main characters were unsympathetically unreal.

Is it just me and my old technology, or has the sound mix sucked all season?

I love Maya, but her impression was even worse than Armisen’s. Obama does have some identifiable vocal quirks, but Fred hasn’t nailed them yet. Michelle, on the other hand, isn’t quite so easy. She’s a graceful, articulate, supportive wife and will be an EXCELLENT First Lady. Frankly, SNL was fine without lampooning Laura Bush. I’m not so sure there’s a lot of comedy gold to be found in either Obama.

Thank goodness Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. I guess they’ll have to get one of the noobs up to speed to replace Tina Fey.

She did write the script for Mean Girls, which, in my opinion, is a very funny movie (and probably the only good thing that Lindsay Lohan has ever appeared in).

I will watch it if a band I like is performing, but Tina Fey is way over-rated.

What was that sucktastic movie she made recently? Baby Momma? Did _anybody_ go see that?

Richard Pryor? White man in makeup. Eddie Murphy? White man in makeup. Alan Keyes?

Well, actually Alan Keyes is black. And he is hilarious. And he’s not even trying.

Bring back Kel, I say!

Seriously though, hasn’t “Saturday Night Live” always been a white “Boyz Only!” from the beginning? It says something about how damned hard Garrett Morris had to work to make the table scraps they gave him funny.

Even during the “glory years” with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players, however, I thought SNL just wasn’t that funny. Oh sure, there were always random moments of savage comedic brilliance, but most of the time I felt as though I needed a few shots and a bong hit for the jokes to work.

I thought shows like SCTV, In Living Color, The Upright Citizens Brigade, The Kids in The Hall, and MADtv were much funnier. My laughter wasn’t an accident. More importantly, there was a genuine subversive ideology there that SNL didn’t have. SNL reeked with White Male privilege. It also helped that these shows were shorter, unlike SNL’s bloated hour and a half. But then, it made it easier to show more commercials for those corporate sponsers Lorne Michaels sucked up to, huh?

What happened to Tina Fey was the same thing that happened to Eddie Murphy years. SNL was so bad, that they gave Murphy total creative freedom because the show was terrible and he was the only funny performer in the cast. What does it tell you that when Fey brilliantly channeled Sarah Palin during her guest appearances, SNL got its highest ratings in years?

“Saturday Night Live” has been dead to me for years. I wish somebody would thrust a stake into its heart.