All I could find at Google was some guy saying it was a boneheaded NBC exec. [he’s at the bottom of the page]. Needless to say, I’d like to hear something more than conjecture.
Was he really fired? I find that hard to believe. He was/is an excellent comedic straight man.
My guess is, he had a severe drug addiction and had to get clean. Visions of Belushi and Farley come to mind.
Really, if it were all about dead weight, wouldn’t Tim Meadows have been fired around Year 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…well, you get the idea.