Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live [Hardcover]

Tom Shales (Author), James Andrew Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2002

WHEN A YOUNG WRITER named Lorne Michaels talked NBC executives into taking a chance on a new weekend late-night comedy series, nobody really knew what to expect-not even Michaels. But Saturday Night Live, launched in 1975 and still thriving today, would change the face of television. It introduced brash new stars with names like Belushi, Radner, Chase, and Murray; trashed taboos that had inhibited TV for decades; and had such an impact on American life, laughter, and politics that even presidents of the United States had to take notice. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winner Tom Shales and bestselling author James Andrew Miller bring together stars, writers, guest hosts, contributors, and craftsmen for the first-ever oral history of Saturday Night Live, from 1974, when it was just an idea, through 2002, when it has long since become an institution. In their own words, dozens of personalities recall the backstage stories, behind-the-scenes gossip, feuds, foibles, drugs, sex, struggles, and calamities, including personal details never before revealed. Shales and Miller have interviewed a galaxy of stars, including Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler, Chevy Chase, Will Ferrell, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, Jon Lovitz, Jane Curtin, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Dana Carvey, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Garrett Morris, Molly Shannon, Damon Wayans, Chris Elliott, Julia Sweeney, Norm Macdonald, and Paul Simon-plus writers like Al Franken, Conan O'Brien, Larry David, Rosie Shuster, Jack Handey, Robert Smigel, Don Novello, and others who got their big breaks as part of the SNL team. The Coneheads, the Blues Brothers, Buck-wheat, Wayne and Garth, Hans and Franz, the Cheerleaders, Todd DiLaMuca and Lisa Loopner, "Cheeseburger cheeseburger," Mango, the Church Lady, Ed Grimley-they're all here. And for every fabulous character on-screen there was an outrageous maverick, misfit, or rebel behind the scenes. Live from New York does what no other book about the show has ever done: It lets the people who were there tell the story in their own words, blunt and loving and uncensored.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This oral history of NBC's Saturday Night Live is the juiciest treasure trove of backstage gossip, sex and drugs since The Andy Warhol Diaries. With almost three decades' worth of memories from cast members, celebrity hosts, writers, crew and network execs, readers get first-hand reports (often contradictory) on the volatile, competitive, grueling and often drug-fueled process of creating a weekly, 90-minute, live comedy show. While the cast and writers changed over the decades there were two constants: the universal loathing of guest host Chevy Chase and the power of producer Lorne Michaels ("I think he picked the right profession," assesses Jane Curtin, "because he gets to lord over people who want to kneel at his feet and he doesn't acknowledge them-which makes them work harder."). Regulars like Dan Aykroyd, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Mike Myers, Billy Crystal, Bill Murray, Al Franken, Martin Short as well as guest hosts like Tom Hanks, Penny Marshall, Alec Baldwin, Carrie Fisher, Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin contribute sterling anecdotes that are alternately hilarious, touching, upbeat and scathing. With the exception of Eddie Murphy (who's positively portrayed), virtually the only missing voices are of those who have passed away (the editors use only interviews conducted for the book and not vintage interviews with John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman or Chris Farley). Scandals, infighting and plenty of showbiz dirt make this a guilty-pleasure page-turner from start to finish. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Given access by Lorne Michaels himself, two journalists with TV connections Miller has produced two TV series, Shales is TV critic for the Washington Post recount this show's 25-year history.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 566 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (October 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316781460
• ISBN-13: 978-0316781466
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.9 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (195 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you loved the show, you'll love the book September 26, 2002

By Karl Miller

Format:Hardcover

This book feels like a reunion of old friends, telling their stories at a dinner party that you are fortunate ewnough to overhear.
There is so much history in the years of SNL that there is an anecdote for every fan, but this book recognizes Loren Michaels as being the true genius behind the creation and development of the show. He's not universally loved by the cast (but also not nearly as despised as Chevy Chase, who seems to beeveryone's favorite whipping boy), but his genius is acknowledged by one and all.
A lot of favorite skits and characters are discussed, as well as some legendary battles with censors, advertisers and network executives. The mix of radical comedy with revenue concious TV executives makes for fascinating reading.
The chapters dealing with the deaths of cast members and behind the scene staff members are incredibly poignant, especially Belushi's and Chris Farley's, bit of whom were known to be dancing with trouble.
This book also goes a long way to humanizing Chris Rock, who emerges as one of the most thoughtful and career minded members of all SNL casts. His intelligence shines through in his tales of making it by way of the show.
There is a great story on almost every page of this book, and having grown up with this show, it made the memories all the more pleasant.
This is a great Christmas present for any 30-50 year old who has spent their Saturday night in front of a TV.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Face it: It's as "inside" SNL as you or I will ever get November 12, 2002

By John S. Harris VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The curtain is pulled back on SNL in this book to reveal (not surprisingly) that Lorne Michaels was, is, and always will be the Wizard who always kept SNL ticking. Decades of drug use, debauchery, infighting, sleeping around, desperation, and show-biz chutzpah are related courtesy of first-hand accounts of the writers, stars, agents, TV executives, staff members, and guests of the show.

Not all comments are complimentary, and not all that went on behind the scenes was funny. But it all makes for a fascinating read, despite the fact that a few notable surviving cast members chose not to participate in these oral interviews. "Live From New York" is as much a evolutionary history of the business of television over the past three decades as it is an oral history of the show itself. Perhaps SNL isn't as consistently cutting edge and counter-culture as it was in its earliest years. But nowadays the show IS the pop and showbiz culture it lampooned in the past. It cannot ever really return to its fabled glory days of 1975-1979 because the entire showbusiness landscape has changed so dramatically since then. One must credit Michaels for recognizing that and still plodding ahead with the show for most of the years since the days of The Not Ready For Prime Time Players.

Read this book to find the origins of many of the standard conventions and favorite moments of the show: why the band always dresses in tuxedos, the inspiration of Danny Aykroyd's buttcrack-exposing refrigerator repairman, the inhuman writing schedule, etc.

This is better than an "E! True Hollywood Story" any day.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Material in search of better writers May 2, 2005

By Warlock One

Format:Hardcover

I can't say I hated the book. I kept coming back to it willingly enough, and finished it relatively quickly. My problems with it come not from the bulk of the material itself (interviews with cast, hosts, producers, directors, and writers, cut into segments organized into some rough similiarities of topic), but from what the writers have done with it.

When you have a book consisting largely of interview snippets, what you have is a cross-section of opinions. Some of those opinions may have a greater amount of concensus behind them than others. Better writers could have done real research to qualify or confirm the statements made by the interview subjects: was Doumanian's budget actually cut from the first years of the show? If so, by as much as she claims? Where did the cuts hit the most? What were the actual box office numbers of Belushi's and Murphy's movies? Have they taken later rentals and tv showings into account in saying who was more successful? Was Nora Dunn as unsuccessful after leaving the show as her resentful colleagues would like to think? (A quick look at imdb.com suggests not...)

Apart from the failure to provide factual context, the writers show their own prejudices in ways that can't help to be annoying and occasionally disturbing. The bridge and introduction segments are full of the usual kind of biography hyperbole better writers avoid. SNL "helped bestow upon the comedy elite the hip-mythic status that rock stars had long enjoyed." "An audience that expected to see fresh new Gildas, Belushis... refused to settle for the paltry replacements that initially dominated Doumanian's cast." "[Belushi's death] told his friends at Saturday Night Live not only that John was mortal, but that they were too." All arguable statements, of course, but statements better writers would have let the material say for them without lapsing into purple, melodramatic prose.

Further, there's a distracting sense that the writers have their own over-protective issues with the show. "Those who hurt show bad! Those who protect show, good!" I can't help but wonder if Jean Doumanian and Nora Dunn suffer largely from an absence of voices other than their own to present their point of view. And while Dunn might have handled walking off the infamous Andrew Dice Clay show better than she did, the authors describing Clay's act as "politically incorrect" and "antifeminist" rather than mysoginist- which it very arguably was- is telling.

The authors arrangement seems to have been written as if imagining a television show- perhaps understandable, given the choice of topic, but a poor choice for a book. When snippets of interview are presented in an arbitrary order without any knowledge of the questions that provoked those answers, one cannot help but wonder if the authors were more interested in selling a particular version than giving their readers a chance to draw their own conclusions. Again, do the authors really contribute to the material? Does this arrangement offer so much more than we could have gotten if they had just presented the whole interviews, with questions, one per chapter?

Finally, there are obvious gaps in who is and is not interviewed, and how much material they are given. Again, A.D. Clay's receiving a page and a half in his own defense is telling, though I'm sure the reader recognizes by now that the topic grated on my nerves. But more, two of the show's most notable stars- Dennis Miller and Eddie Murphy- are not interviewed at all. It is mentioned in passing that Murphy dislikes talking about the show; no mention is made of the reason for Miller's absence. A better book would acknowledge the absence and their attempts to work around it. And while I enjoyed reading Tom Hanks's segments, his contributions to a chapter devoted to a period in the show's history where not only had he yet to host, but yet to become a professional actor, are extremely questionable.

For all this, I enjoyed reading much of the book. Some of the interview material is insightful; some of the anecdotes are side-splittingly funny. I just can't help but wish the authors, Pulitzer-winners though they may be, didn't seem to be such hacks. Two stars for the writers, four for the material, average of three.