The Network on the Edge of Forever

Now is the time when we juxtapose, Small Dead Animals-style:

Captain’s Log, final entry. We have tried to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. And except for one television network, we have found intelligent life everywhere in the galaxy. Live long and prosper. Captain James T. Kirk, SC 937-0176 CEC.

— John Belushi as William Shatner in Michael O’Donoghue’s brilliant parody of “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise,” from the first season of Saturday Night Live, May 29, 1976.

 “You went on MSNBC and expected to have an intelligent discussion?”

— Headline at Dr. Helen Smith’s PJ Media column, yesterday.

But then, considering that NBC as a whole long ago adopted the worst excesses of Lorne Michaels’ groundbreaking show, no one should be surprised at this late date that the rot — and the stasis — are both network-wide.