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True geniuses. They pushed the edge to a point never pushed before in network television. If they were unfunny to you, you likely didn't grow up in the 60s and 70s. Whatever they did had never been allowed on TV previously. Oftentimes, they held off on showing the network what they were planning to do in a night because if the network knew beforehand, they wouldn't have allowed it.
Not only that, but every one of the original cast had a chemistry with each other that has never truly existed since. They could get away with a tremendous amount with their costars because of that.
Many of the later SNL members that you mentioned were good, too. But they didn't have to go through the shit that the originals did--those who paved the way for them. Many of them had their own thing going before they got to SNL, and often played solely for their own success.
The "adulation" isn't necessarily for their talent, though each and everyone of them had/has quite a lot. It's for their guts, their determination and their continued exploration of what they could get away with in an environment that sought to take them down.
If you look at each of the original cast members, there are very few who haven't had very successful careers after their tenure on SNL.
John Belushi and Gilda Radner unfortunately didn't live to continue their careers for very long, but almost all the others have done well:
Chevy Chase, Danny Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Steve Martin (who though he was never officially an SNL cast member, was often added anyway!), Eddie Murphy, and all the others, have proven their talent a thousand times over since those early days of SNL. But you really need to have lived in the times to appreciate much of what they did and how much they opened up in terms of material for the others to follow.
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