Now time for me to shyt on it...
1. Nobody really blew up off MadTV. The biggest one was probably Artie Lange, Frank Caliendo (one-note as fukk) or Orlando Jones. But nobody got a real movie deal like a Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig or even Damon Wayans. Not to say they weren't funny, but nobody became a star.
2. The guest stars were
compared to SNL. SNL busy
off Alec Baldwin and Justin Timberlake while MadTV is stuck with Eric Balfour.
3. The skits were funny, but the writers were lazy as fukk so they ran the characters into the ground. And other than parodies, all MadTV did was characters. Michael McDonald was doing that Stuart character with the clown makeup for like 8 years.
The parodies were cool though. Still, it's a distant third behind SNL and In Living Color. Even in SNL's weakest years, it was never worse than MadTV.