After 21 intermittently disappointing and hilariously weird episodes, the 2012/2013 season of Saturday Night Live came to an end last weekend with arguably the best episode of the season. It seems we're on the verge of some big changes for the crew at SNL (and hopefully some big new personalities in the cast) with Bill Hader and Fred Armisen gone, Seth Meyers leaving after the fall, and Jason Sudeikis' future unclear. We stayed up every Saturday night through the good (Louis CK, Christopher Waltz, Melissa McCarthy), the bad (Christina Applegate, Jennifer Lawrence) and the god awful (Justin Bieber, Jeremy Renner). So for the first part of our look back at this season, we've picked out our 10 favorite sketches of this transitionary season (plus a bonus sketch worthy of note).
Keep in mind: you won't find The Californians here (because we hate that sketch); you won't find any cold opens (because they were all pretty dire); you won't find any monologues (although some were good, like Vince Vaughn, Melissa McCarthy and Zach Galifinakis); you won't find any commercials (we're saving those for another post); you won't find anything from the Joseph Gordon-Levitt episode (it was pretty solid episode, but there were no huge standout sketches); and you won't find Kristen Wiig (does anyone really like Garth and Kat?). Even though it was a wildly uneven season—and there really were episodes pretty devoid of laughs—SNL could hit it out of the park. Click through to see the cream of the crop, and check back this weekend for more.
