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Bill Hader leaving Saturday Night Live

Not surprised, but disappointed. He's my favorite of the current cast. If Armisen leaves, it may be it for me.
 
Saturday Night Live has been too stagnant for too long. They need to do what they did in 1981, 1985, and 1995: flush everything (cast, writers, production staff in some cases) and start over from scratch.

The show is best when it reinvents itself to stay relevant. A reboot is long overdue.
 
Pab Sungenis said:
Saturday Night Live has been too stagnant for too long. They need to do what they did in 1981, 1985, and 1995: flush everything (cast, writers, production staff in some cases) and start over from scratch.

The show is best when it reinvents itself to stay relevant. A reboot is long overdue.
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I strongly disagree. They have been using the vastly overrated (in my opinion) Fred Armisen less and less this season, and while Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis are both talented, they may have overstayed their welcome.

The fresh blood that has joined the cast, including all the women this season like Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon and Cecily Strong are breathing fresh life into the series.

This past week's Kristen Wiig episode featured many of the new featured players at the expensive of some of the older cast (with the obvious exception of the always stupid Garth and Kat Weekend Update bit). These new faces, especially all the new women, are the future of the show.
 
Lorne Michaels has enough on his plate, putting together a New 'Tonight Show', a New 'Late Night'. Then to start a Reboot of SNL? That may be just way too much for him to handle.
 
I noticed that Fred Armisen was used a LOT more this past weekend, largely due to Kristen Wiig hosting. Bill leaving kinda surprised me. I thought for sure that Jason Sudekis would've been leaving, partly due to him wanting more time with fiance Olivia Wilde. Personally, I really wish that Keenan Thompson would leave.
 
For some reason, (and not to sound crass or anything) I think they think of Keenan as their "Token Black Guy". Kinda like Eddie Murphy, but at least Eddie Murphy was able to parlay his comedy stand-up success somewhat into a reasonable movie career. I'm not sure what else is keeping Keenan there, except the call for some sort of steady paycheck...
 
Bigger difference: Eddie was funny on SNL. I don't think Keenan Thompson is at all. I can tolerate Jay Pharoah, however. :)
 
SNL has been a waste since the early days and is a prime reason the so-called "comedians" of today are so poor in comparison with those of the Golden Age.
 
Jefferson Lee Eng said:
For some reason, (and not to sound crass or anything) I think they think of Keenan as their "Token Black Guy". Kinda like Eddie Murphy, but at least Eddie Murphy was able to parlay his comedy stand-up success somewhat into a reasonable movie career. I'm not sure what else is keeping Keenan there, except the call for some sort of steady paycheck...
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People recognizing him from his All That days?

Hey, remember when we were all worried about Fox getting the Olympics? Well, at the time I had an idea for a mean-spirited SNL sketch making fun of how Fox would do the Olympics, and part of the reason for that was that Kenan Thompson would have been a dead ringer for Curt Menefee. So... he has that going for him? I guess?
 
1069_KIFR said:
Lorne Michaels has enough on his plate, putting together a New 'Tonight Show', a New 'Late Night'. Then to start a Reboot of SNL? That may be just way too much for him to handle.
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And the best way to reboot is to start at the top. Let Lorne concentrate on the Tonight Show and give Saturday Night Live to some fresh blood who can stop living in the past and build something great.
 
Pab Sungenis said:
And the best way to reboot is to start at the top. Let Lorne concentrate on the Tonight Show and give Saturday Night Live to some fresh blood who can stop living in the past and build something great.
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After all, that worked so well for SNL after Lorne left the first time in 1980!

I've always thought Hader, Sudeikis, and, before she left, Wiig were the only ones keeping SNL afloat. Rumor is Sudeikis is leaving after this season, too. SNL has, for a long time, been outdone by other shows at doing its own thing. However, I can remember critics writing its obituary 20+ years ago. SNL's still around, and the shows that have been essentially doing better jobs have fallen by the wayside. It benefits from being on a major network in a low-priority timeslot and having low expectations. It has good seasons and bad seasons and will never be what it was, but it will stay around so long as it remains cheap late-night programming.
 
KML-224 said:
Bigger difference: Eddie was funny on SNL. I don't think Keenan Thompson is at all. I can tolerate Jay Pharoah, however. :)
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Keenan has never done much for me either, though he's far better than Finesse Mitchell ever was!
 
landtuna said:
SNL has been a waste since the early days and is a prime reason the so-called "comedians" of today are so poor in comparison with those of the Golden Age.
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Your opinion, maybe.
 
Kent said:
It benefits from being on a major network in a low-priority timeslot and having low expectations. It has good seasons and bad seasons and will never be what it was, but it will stay around so long as it remains cheap late-night programming.
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*cheap, well-rated late-night programming. Averaging about 7 million demo viewers makes SNL a hit by NBC standards.

Last week's Kristen Wiig episode was the most watched thing on Saturday night on any network, including an NBA playoff game on ABC.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Last week's Kristen Wiig episode was the most watched thing
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For the first time in a long time, I actually turned it off. I was only half-watching it anyway but turned it off as soon as Garth and Kat came on. Why those characters were ever popular is beyond me. I have nothing against Kristen, she had some good funny characters (Kat was not one of them), but I'll miss Bill Hader more. It was always funny watching him trying to keep a straight face in certain sketches such as that recurring juvenile delinquent sketch (with Samberg, Bobby Moynihan, and Jason) or in last Christmas's episode in the 'Kate Middleton's doctor (OB-GYN?) sketch with Martin Short who was obviously and purposely adlibbing and going a bit over the top.
 
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