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dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Cool concept. Wish anyone else wrote it.
funny
informative
medium-paced
funny
medium-paced
Great to read on the history to where it’s at. There were some moments where I felt the narrative would go this way and that way despite the subject they introduced. I hope it gets updated with the 50th.
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
First published in 2002, Live from New York isn't just the definitive book published about Saturday Night Live — it might also be responsible for igniting the modern fad of oral histories. This most recent edition, from 2014, is nothing if not comprehensive. Nearly every significant cast member, with some notable exceptions, participated, as did writers, guest hosts, and even tangential figures like Rudolph Giuliani. As a person whose SNL fandom spanned only a few years in the early-mid 1990s, I was only familiar with a fraction of the sketches discussed in these pages. Nevertheless, Live From New York was a pleasure to read, as so many cast members through the iterations of the show have gone on to successful careers in film and television.
The best part of the book focuses on the first five years of SNL's existence, when a legendary cast including Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi became instant cultural icons. The show nearly died after all of them — including founder Lorne Michaels — left, but was saved by the individual genius of Eddie Murphy in the early 1980s. Then, after Michael's return, the show experimented with hiring established comic actors before finding relevance once again with a group that included Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and the star-crossed Chris Farley.
Subsequent casts are hardly less talented — Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, and Seth Meyers come to mind — but the stories about them don't have the same punch. One reason is that 21st-century cast members are decidedly less debaucherous and troubled as the likes of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, whose off-screen excesses are almost as legendary as their comedy. This makes the younger SNL alumni healthier and better-adjusted people, if not more interesting subjects for an oral history.
A second problem is that cast members in the post-2002 era are discussing events near-contemporaneously, robbing their words of the wisdom that comes with hindsight. The earliest cast members had almost 25 years to reflect on that phase of their lives, but more recent casts are discussing events that happened more or less contemporaneously.
At over 700 pages, Live From New York also suffers from repetition. There are only so many stories from comedians about how they were discovered before they all start sounding the same. There's also a section on diversity and inclusion that has not aged well.
But Saturday Night Live is, in the end, an American institution, and there's still something magical about reading about how a group of people put together 90 minutes' of entertainment in just six feverish days of work. It's great that it's still around.
The best part of the book focuses on the first five years of SNL's existence, when a legendary cast including Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, and John Belushi became instant cultural icons. The show nearly died after all of them — including founder Lorne Michaels — left, but was saved by the individual genius of Eddie Murphy in the early 1980s. Then, after Michael's return, the show experimented with hiring established comic actors before finding relevance once again with a group that included Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and the star-crossed Chris Farley.
Subsequent casts are hardly less talented — Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, and Seth Meyers come to mind — but the stories about them don't have the same punch. One reason is that 21st-century cast members are decidedly less debaucherous and troubled as the likes of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, whose off-screen excesses are almost as legendary as their comedy. This makes the younger SNL alumni healthier and better-adjusted people, if not more interesting subjects for an oral history.
A second problem is that cast members in the post-2002 era are discussing events near-contemporaneously, robbing their words of the wisdom that comes with hindsight. The earliest cast members had almost 25 years to reflect on that phase of their lives, but more recent casts are discussing events that happened more or less contemporaneously.
At over 700 pages, Live From New York also suffers from repetition. There are only so many stories from comedians about how they were discovered before they all start sounding the same. There's also a section on diversity and inclusion that has not aged well.
But Saturday Night Live is, in the end, an American institution, and there's still something magical about reading about how a group of people put together 90 minutes' of entertainment in just six feverish days of work. It's great that it's still around.
funny
informative
inspiring
relaxing
fast-paced
Not bad, a fun history told almost entirely through interviews with former and current (as of 2002) cast, crew and writers. I'm a big SNL fan, so it was fun to read about an era, then go on Netflix and watch a few episodes of that cast before continuing on with the book.
funny
medium-paced
Gah, I wish I could give this a 3.5 -- it's quite engaging and very detailed/well-researched, but the newer sections (though interesting, despite being not nearly as dramatic as the earlier sections) are not as polished as the earlier ones, both structurally and at the sentence level.
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced