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This review is for the 40th anniversary edition.
I take issue with reviewers who are praising the writing in this book because there's hardly any actual writing in it. The original edition first published in 2002 was titled more accurately: “An Oral History.” That's really what it is, snippets of interviews with a huge assortment of writers, cast members, network executives and to some extent family members, assembled in more-or-less chronological order so that it loosely tells the life story of the show, from 1975 when it was just an idea to fill a time slot left empty when Johnny Carson told the network to quit rerunning The Tonight Show on the weekends, to the 21st century when it's the gold standard of television comedy, in terms of making careers. The little bits of actual writing are interstitial, just filling gaps here and there where the editors presumably couldn't find an interview excerpt to do the job. And I think the editors could have done a better job of helping to tell the story coherently.
That said, I think what you'll make of it overall depends a lot on your own emotional relationship with Saturday Night Live. Reading the story of its birth and the seminal first five years is worthwhile from nearly any point of view, but if at any stage in your life you've been a regular watcher and loved or even liked the show, you'll hit a point somewhere along the timeline when it will cease being simply a history and become more personal for you. You'll think, “Oh yeah, I remember that season, I loved that actor/character/sketch.” For me, that point was the early-to-mid 80s, the days of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Mary Gross, Brad Hall, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus... and then a little later, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal and Martin Short. As a teen, I would tune in every Saturday to watch Eddie Murphy do Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson and James Brown Hot Tub, and watch Joe Piscopo do Frank Sinatra. Just like “Who's the real James Bond to you?” you can date yourself in terms of, “Who's the face of SNL Weekend Update to you?” I was part of the Brad Hall era. As Hall himself points out, the show was aggressively non-political in those days, in what was arguably a betrayal of SNL's satire roots.
It was a little disheartening to me to realize reading this book that the early 80s, the period I grew up with and loved as a kid, is considered by many on the inside to be the show's lowest point – a time when executive producer Dick Ebersol routinely passed over smart, original, challenging writing in favor of stock characters and whatever would get the easiest, safest laugh. He turned the show into a commercial success by yanking its creative teeth. In short, he sold the show out. But some witnesses acknowledge that by doing that, he kept the show afloat during a period when it could easily have gone under in the wake of the departure of Lorne Michaels and all of the original cast in 1980. And at the end of this section, it's tacitly acknowledged that the final year of Ebersol's tenure, the 1984-85 season, the only season when Billy Crystal and Martin Short were regular members of the cast, may rank as one of the funniest and most popular years in SNL's history. I certainly remember it fondly.
Another thing that's liable to happen, if you've stopped watching it for long periods in your life, is you'll reach a point where nearly everyone who's involved in the narrative, with the notable exception of Lorne Michaels, is a stranger, and they'll talk about popular sketches you've never heard of. This happened to me once we hit the Obama era: I have no familiarity at all with Fred Armisen or Jay Pharoah, the two guys who were the resident Obama impressionists between 2002 and 2016. Ditto Kristin Wiig, whose entire 7-year career on the show, and whom some insiders have called “the greatest cast member of all time,” is a closed book to me. And there were apparently sketches so popular they got spinoff movies that I've literally never heard of, like “MacGruber.” These later sections are still moderately interesting, but they feel less personal to me, and they simultaneously don't have the sense of history that the early years have, so it was a little harder to stay engaged.
The oral history format is interesting because it challenges you as a reader. There's not one narrative, but fifty or more, and they sometimes directly contradict each other, and it's up to you to decide which witness to believe... if you believe any of them. Here's an example that occurs a couple of times during the book, in radically different eras:
I found it helpful to vread it with one eye on Wikipedia's timeline of the cast for the whole 45 years. Checking the timeline will help you both visualize the cast environment in which things described in the book are going on, and mysterious things you see on the timeline, like sudden breaks where an entire cast disappears and a whole new cast comes on the scene, will have their context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_cast_members#Timeline
Facts that surprised me:
Al Franken, whom I was accustomed to seeing as a performer in the early 90s, was actually one of the original writers in 1975, and was a major part of the writing staff during the show's formative years of 1975-80. He left for five years and then came back from 1985-1995.
Jack Handey is a real person, not a made-up character. And he was a writer on SNL for ten years (not all consecutive) between 1985 and 2002. He may be the only member of the writing staff who became famous without ever showing his face on TV. We all know his voice, though, because he read “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” himself. Two of his other famous recurring sketches were “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” and “Toonces the Driving Cat.”
Darrell Hammond is the second longest-tenured cast member in the show's history, having been on the show for 14 years from 1995-2009, and I was like, “Who the hell is that?” The reason I didn't know who he is, is largely because he's so good at doing impressions, and has done so many of them over the years, that he disappears into his roles and you don't see Darrell Hammond. You just see... Bill Clinton. And Al Gore. And Sean Connery. And Newt Gingrich. And Donald Trump (perhaps less famously than Alec Baldwin doing Trump). And John McCain. And Dick Cheney. And Regis Philben. And Ted Koppel. And so on, times about a hundred, he did so many impresssions.
This one quote struck me as one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. I aspire to be this able to honestly recognize the good qualities of someone I don't personally like and to publicly say so.
I take issue with reviewers who are praising the writing in this book because there's hardly any actual writing in it. The original edition first published in 2002 was titled more accurately: “An Oral History.” That's really what it is, snippets of interviews with a huge assortment of writers, cast members, network executives and to some extent family members, assembled in more-or-less chronological order so that it loosely tells the life story of the show, from 1975 when it was just an idea to fill a time slot left empty when Johnny Carson told the network to quit rerunning The Tonight Show on the weekends, to the 21st century when it's the gold standard of television comedy, in terms of making careers. The little bits of actual writing are interstitial, just filling gaps here and there where the editors presumably couldn't find an interview excerpt to do the job. And I think the editors could have done a better job of helping to tell the story coherently.
That said, I think what you'll make of it overall depends a lot on your own emotional relationship with Saturday Night Live. Reading the story of its birth and the seminal first five years is worthwhile from nearly any point of view, but if at any stage in your life you've been a regular watcher and loved or even liked the show, you'll hit a point somewhere along the timeline when it will cease being simply a history and become more personal for you. You'll think, “Oh yeah, I remember that season, I loved that actor/character/sketch.” For me, that point was the early-to-mid 80s, the days of Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Mary Gross, Brad Hall, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus... and then a little later, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal and Martin Short. As a teen, I would tune in every Saturday to watch Eddie Murphy do Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson and James Brown Hot Tub, and watch Joe Piscopo do Frank Sinatra. Just like “Who's the real James Bond to you?” you can date yourself in terms of, “Who's the face of SNL Weekend Update to you?” I was part of the Brad Hall era. As Hall himself points out, the show was aggressively non-political in those days, in what was arguably a betrayal of SNL's satire roots.
It was a little disheartening to me to realize reading this book that the early 80s, the period I grew up with and loved as a kid, is considered by many on the inside to be the show's lowest point – a time when executive producer Dick Ebersol routinely passed over smart, original, challenging writing in favor of stock characters and whatever would get the easiest, safest laugh. He turned the show into a commercial success by yanking its creative teeth. In short, he sold the show out. But some witnesses acknowledge that by doing that, he kept the show afloat during a period when it could easily have gone under in the wake of the departure of Lorne Michaels and all of the original cast in 1980. And at the end of this section, it's tacitly acknowledged that the final year of Ebersol's tenure, the 1984-85 season, the only season when Billy Crystal and Martin Short were regular members of the cast, may rank as one of the funniest and most popular years in SNL's history. I certainly remember it fondly.
Another thing that's liable to happen, if you've stopped watching it for long periods in your life, is you'll reach a point where nearly everyone who's involved in the narrative, with the notable exception of Lorne Michaels, is a stranger, and they'll talk about popular sketches you've never heard of. This happened to me once we hit the Obama era: I have no familiarity at all with Fred Armisen or Jay Pharoah, the two guys who were the resident Obama impressionists between 2002 and 2016. Ditto Kristin Wiig, whose entire 7-year career on the show, and whom some insiders have called “the greatest cast member of all time,” is a closed book to me. And there were apparently sketches so popular they got spinoff movies that I've literally never heard of, like “MacGruber.” These later sections are still moderately interesting, but they feel less personal to me, and they simultaneously don't have the sense of history that the early years have, so it was a little harder to stay engaged.
The oral history format is interesting because it challenges you as a reader. There's not one narrative, but fifty or more, and they sometimes directly contradict each other, and it's up to you to decide which witness to believe... if you believe any of them. Here's an example that occurs a couple of times during the book, in radically different eras:
Woman: Yes, it was a hard to be a woman on the show. It was kind of a boys' club.On top of wondering whom to believe, the reader is also left to wonder whom, if anyone, the authors meant for us to believe, and whom they themselves believed. Then there's a weird and seemingly interminable chapter at the end filled with nothing but people from every era talking about Lorne Michaels. And in the same vein, it's filled with diametrically opposing viewpoints about him. I couldn't help noticing that the guest hosts, who get treated with kid gloves, all think Lorne's great, while the cast and writing staff nearly all have a much more ambivalent relationship with him.
Several men: Bullshit! It was definitely NOT a boys' club. We totally deny that her dumb female experience is in any way valid. She is just being too female.
I found it helpful to vread it with one eye on Wikipedia's timeline of the cast for the whole 45 years. Checking the timeline will help you both visualize the cast environment in which things described in the book are going on, and mysterious things you see on the timeline, like sudden breaks where an entire cast disappears and a whole new cast comes on the scene, will have their context.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_cast_members#Timeline
Facts that surprised me:
Al Franken, whom I was accustomed to seeing as a performer in the early 90s, was actually one of the original writers in 1975, and was a major part of the writing staff during the show's formative years of 1975-80. He left for five years and then came back from 1985-1995.
Jack Handey is a real person, not a made-up character. And he was a writer on SNL for ten years (not all consecutive) between 1985 and 2002. He may be the only member of the writing staff who became famous without ever showing his face on TV. We all know his voice, though, because he read “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” himself. Two of his other famous recurring sketches were “Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer” and “Toonces the Driving Cat.”
Darrell Hammond is the second longest-tenured cast member in the show's history, having been on the show for 14 years from 1995-2009, and I was like, “Who the hell is that?” The reason I didn't know who he is, is largely because he's so good at doing impressions, and has done so many of them over the years, that he disappears into his roles and you don't see Darrell Hammond. You just see... Bill Clinton. And Al Gore. And Sean Connery. And Newt Gingrich. And Donald Trump (perhaps less famously than Alec Baldwin doing Trump). And John McCain. And Dick Cheney. And Regis Philben. And Ted Koppel. And so on, times about a hundred, he did so many impresssions.
This one quote struck me as one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. I aspire to be this able to honestly recognize the good qualities of someone I don't personally like and to publicly say so.
ELLIOT WALD: Harry [Shearer] is impossible. Impossible to get along with. And if he wasn't as bright and talented as he is, nobody would put up with him for one minute. But the fact is, that he is one of the smartest guys doing this stuff, and I'm always impressed by him.And there was this great pearl of wisdom from Sarah Palin, on what it's like to be the butt of public parody and ridicule: “You either become bitter or you become better.” She took a sustained and public beating from the show that year, and had the courage to come and appear on the show and be gracious about it. There are a number of former guests and cast members who would have been better served by taking a page from her book and going the “better” route rather than the “bitter.”
I love my best friends: everybody who has ever been involved with SNL except Jim Downey.
I loved how none of this was sugar coated, it’s real stories told the way the actor/writers/producers felt and saw things. Absolutely amazing book. It may seem long but it’s totally worth the long read.
can't suggest this highly enough if you like SNL. great structure. everything you ever wanted to know about the show but didn't know to ask. just wonderful.
Read as an e-book and felt like it went on forever. Seemed meandering and biased so wasn't the interesting read I'd hoped.
funny
informative
fast-paced
This is a wonderfully updated and expanded edition of a book previously published in 2002. While there have been a number of other books written about Saturday Night Live over the years, and I admittedly haven't read any of them, it's hard to imagine that any gives a greater glimpse into just what makes SNL tick than this 781-page tome by James A. Miller. The chronological narrative (if you could call it that) from idea conception to the present is told via bite-sized quotes, a format which works surprisingly well for the subject. The sheer number of past and present cast, crew, hosts and executives he must have interviewed is astounding. There were many instances in which I wished this could be a multi-media experience -- for example, when reading about a particularly awkward sketch or awful episode, I of course wanted to view the footage in question right then and there. Much of the content focuses on the fascinating interpersonal relationships, an aspect of which the viewer is rarely aware. Whatever you conclude about producer Lorne Michaels' personality, he is unarguably a TV god. Oh, and I'm pretty stoked that Al Franken is now my US Senator.
I watched SNL during a very specific time and have some memories of earlier casts. Beyond the late eighties/early nineties timeframe I've found most of SNL crass and obnoxious.
However some of the history was interesting. As other reviewers have pointed out... you'd think that a book about so many funny people would have been funnier?
I didn't know Al Franken was with SNL for as long as he was, so that was interesting.
Unfortunately talking to cast after cast starts getting repetitive. A few stories are told from different perspectives, and you certainly get a feel for the outcasts of the show. In some ways the outside perspectives (hosts, musical guests, etc) provide some of the most insightful information.
Probably a more interesting book if you're a big fan of SNL, but it dragged long for me.
However some of the history was interesting. As other reviewers have pointed out... you'd think that a book about so many funny people would have been funnier?
I didn't know Al Franken was with SNL for as long as he was, so that was interesting.
Unfortunately talking to cast after cast starts getting repetitive. A few stories are told from different perspectives, and you certainly get a feel for the outcasts of the show. In some ways the outside perspectives (hosts, musical guests, etc) provide some of the most insightful information.
Probably a more interesting book if you're a big fan of SNL, but it dragged long for me.
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced