Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests
by James A. Miller, Tom Shales
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 178)
Read in February, 2008
This book puts Saturday Night Live on a kind of ridiculous pedestal, making it seem like this epic achievement. I haven't watched it in years, largely because I've always found it mostly mediocre. Obviously it's had some highlights, but the ratio of good stuff to bad is pretty low in my opinion. Still, Live From New York is a riveting read, compiling interviews from cast members, producers, directors, Lorne Michaels, writers, and pretty much everyone else who's ever been involved with the...more
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Read in May, 2004
Hip hip hooray for such a great book, a "juicy read" as my co-worker put it, on all the sex, drugs, and rock -n- roll of SNL. This hefty volume (600 pages of story not counting appendix/index), is intriguing and enjoyable from first to last page. Written as if every cast member/writer/"suit" were sitting around a campfire retelling the show's history from inception to present day. you feel as if almost nothing was left out or kept secret. The honesty is a little shocking but ...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in September, 2007
Anyone who knows me knows that over the years knows that I've been a big fan of Saturday Night Live. I started watching in 1985 as a young teen and still watch it today.
This book is a collection of interviews of all of the important people who have ever had anything to do with the show. Writers, cast members, producers, network executives, etc. Everyone who was there when they were first putting together this new show to the biggest names who've been on the show (with the notable e...more
This book is a collection of interviews of all of the important people who have ever had anything to do with the show. Writers, cast members, producers, network executives, etc. Everyone who was there when they were first putting together this new show to the biggest names who've been on the show (with the notable e...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Any SNL fan
This is a very interesting, hard-to-put-down book that goes inside the offices and studio of Saturday Night Live to give you the stories behind it all. I liked how many different people participated - cast members, writers, hosts, producers, and even Lorne Michaels himself.
Some of the stories are pretty outrageous. It's really amazing what the original cast got away with. It's also nice to hear about just how hard it is to put on the show every week. Not only do the writers and cast memb...more
Some of the stories are pretty outrageous. It's really amazing what the original cast got away with. It's also nice to hear about just how hard it is to put on the show every week. Not only do the writers and cast memb...more
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Paul Schaefer is a scamp, Harry Shearer is a raging ego-maniac and an all-around asshole (& that's on his good days), Bill Murray (who I love as an actor) is almost sociopathically anti-social and often just plain mean, Chevy Chase is a bad man, John Belushi was a lovable but very messed up lush, Joe P. (who's actorly and comedic talents seemed to decrease in direct proportion to his increasing muscle mass) resented Eddie Murphy's success, and not one single soul has a bad thing to say about...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone
It's super rich with factoids about the history of television, the history of comedy and television, the revolution of comedy fit to the television as we know it today, the comics who made it all happen, the beaurocracy that goes into producing a television show like this, and how you'd get into a business like television, or comedy, and how to manage yourself as a performer in the business. It's also an easy read if you know some of the names that went along with the early Saturday Night Live ...more
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So, so many good stories in this book. The best include:
1. A "worst host ever" discussion. Steven Seagal, it seems, was especially unpopular among the cast.
2. The fact that John Belushi could never hold his liquor -- someone describes him as a "real short hitter from behind the bar."
3. Milton Berle displaying his monstrous penis to a horrified Alan Zweibel.
4. Chevy Chase acting like an asshole all the time.
If you're a fan, you need to read this. Period.
1. A "worst host ever" discussion. Steven Seagal, it seems, was especially unpopular among the cast.
2. The fact that John Belushi could never hold his liquor -- someone describes him as a "real short hitter from behind the bar."
3. Milton Berle displaying his monstrous penis to a horrified Alan Zweibel.
4. Chevy Chase acting like an asshole all the time.
If you're a fan, you need to read this. Period.
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A account of the history of Saturday Night Live, something that is probably more interesting than this guy makes it. There are good parts in it, but all in all I felt like he wasn't really concerned with the process of making the show, just more concerned with who was doing drugs and who was fighting with whom and where the show failed. It sucks because that seems to be what everyone cares about when they read something like this, so I guess it achieved it's purpose.
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Read in January, 2000
recommends it for:
SNL fans :)
I’m a huge fan of late 80s and early-mid 90s Saturday Night Live and I adore Adam Sandler, Chris Farley (RIP), Mike Meyers, Dana Cravey, etc. This was an excellent read and very accurate of the history that is Saturday Night Live. The fact that they want season-to-season and had the cast and crew speak about the show was such an excellent quality of the book. If you love SNL or books on the history of TV shows then check this book out.
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Read in February, 2008
Took me forever to read this - just too easy to pick it up, read a bit, then put down...for several months. It's a 600 page compendium of interviews with key cast members and writers from 30+ of SNL. Everyone from Chevy Chase to Tina Fey. A very interesting book. Very enlightening on the process the cast and writers put themselves through to produce a show almost every Saturday night - and as we all know, it doesn't always produce funny stuff.
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Read in December, 2007
It reads a little disjointedly because it's told almost completely anecdotedly. (I like adverbs!) But the bits about the drugs are fun, and there's very little Jimmy Fallon. Also, the part where David Spade talks about Chris Farley's death made me tear up a little. I recommend reading the first part while watching the first season or two of SNL, available through Netflix.
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Aj by:
Scott
Interesting behind the scenes look at SNL. It's broken up into super small sections told by the cast, writers, and guests, so it's easy to read "just one more" until 3 AM. I'm learning that a lot of people are jerks. For some reason Eddie Murphy won't have anything to do with SNL, refused to be part of the book, and won't participate in any reunion shows.
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of comedy.
As a fan of the mid-to-late 90's batch of SNL alum, it was nice to read about the many comedians that preceded them. I only wish the author had included some new material, as this was published in 2002 and so much has happened in the last few years, particularly the success of NBC's "30 Rock," a parody of an SNL-type show that was created by ex-members.
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Read in September, 2007
If you're a fan of the show, this book makes for some pretty good bedside reading. It's got a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes stories--the last chapter, on Lorne Michaels, is particularly good--but otherwise, it's mostly just a big love-in for how great and brilliant and important and scrappy the show is. Love-ins, after a bit, get old.
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No, it's not an error when I say I have both the hardcover (Christmas) AND the paperback. Actually, if I was accurate, I would say that I have two copies of the paperback--because I do! I got so hyper about getting the paperback with the new chapters, I bought it TWICE!
I really must do something about this anxiety problem of mine... ;0!
I really must do something about this anxiety problem of mine... ;0!
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Pop Culture students
I ripped through this. Great detail of the "how" of this long-running show. It's clear why more than one person thought the making of a live comey show would be could TV (30 Rock, Studio 60). Frank, funny, and more detailed than I would have expected. Quite a good historical document of several eras of American comedy and television.
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recommends it for:
fans of Saturday Night Live
This book was really fun to read, especially the beginning of it. I liked getting the dirt on how the original cast was hired. Toward the end of the book, it started getting tedious, especially at the point where I had never heard of any of the people involved (becasue I haven't really watched SNL since maybe the early 90s).
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Read in January, 2008
Amazing to read about what is now ancient history when I remember watching the show when it began and thinking it was something special. It surprised me how candid folks were willing to be but I suppose every one of them has a lot invested in the show even after many years.
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Read in January, 2008
Fascinating insight into the behind the scenes of SNL. Makes me want to watch all the early episodes now that I've read some of what was happening in the background. Also makes me glad that I have no desire to be a star on SNL.
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Read in January, 2008
This was a very fun read with lots of behind the scenes stuff I didn't know about. It was also great for very short reading breaks because the whole book is just interview excerpts - very easy to find a spot to stop reading.
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