CHRISTIAN TOTO: How ‘Saturday Night Live’ Betrayed Its Legacy (and Us).

Feb. 16’s “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” airs at 8 p.m. ET on, where else, NBC. The gala will include Peyton Manning, Robert De Niro, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Steve Martin, Miley Cyrus and other stars.

Many fans will tune in for the memories, but others know the milestone is bittersweet. The current show is a shell of its former self. That’s been the case for nearly a decade.

What changed?

First, “SNL” became hyper-partisan and abandoned bipartisan satire. “SNL,” like the legacy media, mostly ignored President Joe Biden’s obvious mental decline, the most stark example of its liberal bias.

Show founder Lorne Michaels pretends the show remains nonpartisan. Reality says otherwise.

Screams it, to be precise.

Plenty of new media outlets have shared that sad state of affairs. The legacy media ignores it, yet another reason the public no longer trusts the old-school press.

The other serious flaw infecting “SNL” is less obvious but just as important.

“SNL” could have been at the forefront of the counter-culture revolution. Again. The early “SNL” days examined race, sexual taboos and more, some of which shocked audiences at the time.

Not every sketch hit the bullseye. On average, about half the night’s sketches made us howl.

Sometimes less.

That ratio didn’t matter. “SNL” swung for the fences, trotting out fresh jokes and provocative angles in search of laughs and insight. It’s why we cared about the show in the first place. The recent “Saturday Night” feature captured that comedic chaos.

Yes, as I wrote late last month: Live From New York, It’s ‘Saturday Night’ Member Berries!