Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live

I definitely enjoyed listening to this book, mostly for the insightful, interesting, behind-the-scenes look at SNL. The accounts from the various cast members, especially the early ones, confirmed what I had suspected about the show.

I *really* wish that the narrators had simply read the quotes of the various writers, hosts and cast members. In imitating people whose voices you knew well (such as the various cast members) they came off as caricatured, often oddly similar, voice impressions and overall detracted from listening experience and content of the book. The narrators take artistic license by interpreting and adding dramatic emphasis, emotion, etc. to the quotes of various people that I question would have been there had the actual people spoke.

Overall, I good listening experience to learn more about the makings of an American pop culture institution.

Probably more like 3.5 stars instead of 4 but still really good and if you're a fan big of SNL it really hits.
The book details the ins and outs and minor details of SNL from it's inception till present day. But I kept wanting more of a focused story from the years I grew up on, which will most likely be the same for anyone listening. The first cast gets the most page time, but even that could be it's own incredible book.

The book spends a lot of time on the early years which is great, but that attention to detail for the later years is glossed over through the rest of the book which is too bad. I wish the same amount of detail that went into the first cast and SNL's opening years showed up in the later years as well. That of course would have made the book four times the size it is now though.

The dynamics of how the cast works, writers write, and how the show comes together is fascinating, but I still wanted more about the show I love so much and the book never seems dive as deep as you want into any given set of cast members, besides the first for obvious reasons.

The reading of the book is very well done. There are numerous people doing all of the different quotes throughout the book from cast members and writers, to studio execs. It sounds like they try to match the person they're imitating every once in a while which is kind of weak, but nothing that throws you out of the book. Very easy to listen to and sounded great.

This is a must read/listen for any SNL fan.

I agree with the other reviewers that the people who read quotes from cast members' and writers' interviews probably misinterpreted the quotes by placing the emphasis in the wrong places. This detracted slightly from the book's presentation, as did the slightly off attempts to impersonate the voices which we all know so well. Still, the content of the book was fascinating, and this book was extremely well written and researched. I was not looking for sensationalism, or "an expose." This book offers the facts, interpretations and experiences of the cast members over the years and presents them in a frank, factual and entertaining style. The writing and the narration, even with the possible problems with the quotes, made this one of the most interesting audiobooks I have heard in a long time. But I am a fan and was interested in knowning about all the backstage drama at SNL.

This book explains how and why the show got so bad at points, and how and why it got better. It explains the concept for the show and the network's meddling and occasionally necessary interference. It discusses the interrelationship of the cast members, writers and producers throughout the years. I found it fascinating. If you liked the show, you'll like the book.

Doubtful

Doubtful

I think if you're going to try to have lots of different voices for so many different people like that, you've got to have so many more narrators than they did for this audiobook. It was embarrassing to hear the same african-american guy doing all the african-american guy voices, and it was lame to hear the same "young sounding guy" do a couple of the voices back-to-back without even trying to sound different.Some of the voices have accents that the real-life people they're representing don't even have! Honestly, this was not good.If I hadn't been a lifelong, gigantic fan of SNL, I never would've even finished listening to this.

It actually reads like an interview-heavy documentary. I'd have MUCH rather seen the real people talking than hear these awful voice overs from other actors.

The fact that SNL and its history is enthralling all by itself is the only thing that makes this book even sort of worth listening to. There are some really interesting and worthwhile moments in this book, but the audiobook performance is abysmal.

I would probably stay away from these authors. The narration was ok.

Probably not.

The narration was weird. There were like 6 different narrators, alternating the quotes by the actors and writers. It was weird to have someone else do the voice of an actor you know, but fine. At times, I felt the narration was over-acted, but I got used to it.

The book is basically just a series of quotes that tell the story. That's fine, but I think it could have moved faster if they summarized more and used fewer quotes. The early years were especially boring to me, but maybe that's because I don't remember them.

I'm a big fan of SNL and I'm glad I know more about the history of the show now. It was just a little tedious at times.

For me, the problem is with the format. I am very famiar with the voices of the people being portrayed and as a result I was distracted by the narrators. For example, it was very distracting to have someone other than Eddie Murphy read words as Eddie Murphy. Even worse, you'd have the same voice for many different people. This particular book would be best read.

Great book for anyone who loves or ever loved Saturday Night Live. Found it very interesting to find how it was created and why at times the show seemed to falter! Great listining. :)

I wish there was more of this book - I could have listened all day to former SNL castmates and writers sharing their experiences. At the very least, you'll walk away from this highly-entertaining read with a new respect and admiration for Saturday Night Live. For the audio version, some contributors to the book are combined so hearing the same voice read for multiple characters could be a bit distracting at first. However, well worth getting past! Great behind-the-scenes look and highly-entertaining listen.

I highly recommend this audio novel but have one reservation. Blue tooth streaming in my car tends to drop off every time there is a pause in an audio. Between songs you don't notice it, in most audio novels its barely noticeable. In this one, however, it drops off each time they mention the name of the speaker. Not knowing who said what makes the story far less enjoyable. If you don't have this problem, ignore my review, the audio is brilliant fun over the iphone headset. If you do, well you've been warned so you might look for a solution before you buy (perhaps avoid streaming and run it directly).

No way.

Meh.

Possibly.

Not really.

This really can't be considered a book, per se. All it is, really, is a collection of quotes which have been copy and pasted into a text document. Period. I could have done that.