SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE has been on forever, and over the years it's gotten pretty bad. And yet I continue to watch it. Which says something about me, I guess.

Of course, SNL is one of those shows, like THE SIMPSONS, that always seems funnier with a few years distance. No one thought Will Ferrell and Molly Shannon were funny while they were on SNL, but now that era is the golden age.

Maybe it's just too soon to appreciate the trenchant wit of Mr. Horatio Sanz.

There have been some bright spots over the past season. Of course, everyone has downloaded "Lazy Sunday" seventeen million times already. It was featured in one of only three "very funny" episodes this season.

(The finale with Kevin Spacey hasn't aired yet, so if we're very, very lucky, we'll get four.)

The "very funny" episodes this season were Jack Black's episode (with "Lazy Sunday"), Matt Dillon's episode (notable for NOT starting with a political sketch), and Julia Louis-Dreyfus' episode (buttressed by a guest appearance by former host/VP, Al Gore).

So... three or four out of twenty-two aint' good. And who doesn't love to kick a man when he's down? And by that I mean, who doesn't love to kick a man when he's down and he's yourself?

NBC is launching two prime time shows that parody SNL, which might seem like overkill if they weren't written by two of my favorite writers:

WEST WING creator Aaron Sorkin is writing the hour long drama STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, starring Chandler Bing and the villain from BLACK SHEEP. (Or maybe TOMMY BOY.) S60otSS is a scathing condemnation of how bad television in general (and SNL in particular) has gotten. It's also Sorkin's bid to create the clunkiest acronym ever.

Tina Fey, she of SNL and Upper Darby High School fame, is writing and starring in 30 ROCK, alongside Alec Baldwin as the VP of Television and Microwave Programming at NBC/GE/Universal/Kmart. And, honestly, I think that joke alone justifies the existence of the program.

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