MadTV was fairly consistent in quality. SNL kind of since its inception has always been shit most of the time, its just that they'd once in awhile have an amazing sketch that manifested out of thin air. A lot of the time it had to depend on the guest stars like Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin or Christopher Walkin. Or minor bit players like Norm Macdonald or Adam Sandler. A lot of the primary crew, even the original cast weren't really able to push most of the sketches over the edge.