Live from New York

An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live

By: Tom Shales, James Andrew Miller

Narrated by: Christopher Burns, Eric Conger

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

Saturday Night Live changed the face of television: it introduced brash new stars, trashed TV taboos, and had an impact on American life, laughter, and politics.

Dozens of stars, writers, guest hosts, contributors, and craftsmen recall the backstage stories, behind-the-scenes gossip, feuds, foibles, drugs, sex, struggles, and calamities, including personal details never before revealed.

Stars interviewed include 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.

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.

©2002 Thomas W. Shales and Jimmy the Writer Inc., (P)2002 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

"The juiciest treasure trove of backstage gossip, sex and drugs since The Andy Warhol Diaries." (Publishers Weekly)

great ...and a little unsettling

if you're a SNL junkie, you'll love the book. it is jarring however to hear others read in the voices of those people whose actual voices we know so well (i.e. Bill Murray, Chris Rock, David Spade, Chevy Chase, etc.)

A Bit Confusing

All these interviews interweave, making it hard sometimes to keep track. But it was still worth hearing.

Abridged too short

Would you try another book from James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales and/or Christopher Burns and Eric Conger ?

Yes

What other book might you compare Live from New York to and why?

"Those Guys Have All The Fun" (ESPN story)

Any additional comments?

It's a damn shame they didn't release an audio version of the unabridged story. I really enjoyed everything that was included but wanted much more.

Much like the show itself

I dont think you can grow up in America today without Saturday Night Live being part of your cultural heritage. As a young man born in 1982, it was definitely a solid part of my upbringing. It was a right of passage to get to stay up till 1130 and you really started to show your maturity when you could stay up for the whole show.

This book recounts some of the wonderful stories behind the making of this iconic show. Much like the show itself, it is often witty, intelligent, funny, and cool but oftentimes just as misdirected, scatterbrained, misfocused, and boring. The book itself is definitely interesting. But something strikes me as a tad fishy when Jon Belushi gets nearly a total hour of audiobook time, and Phil Hartman gets a brief mention. The book obviously slants towards the original cast which deserves all of the praise they are given. My biggest problem is that I wanted to hear more about the early to mid 90s then just Chris Rock's struggle with race issues. I think the first two thirds of this book make the first half of a very interesting story, but Lorne and the gang would do well to step up and give us just as much background on later casts as the original 1975 cast.

If you like the very early years, you'll like this.

We listen to this book on a road trip and my husband and I enjoyed it.

We liked all of the stories of past cast members, but it was a little heavy on the very early years. Since those are not our favorite years as SNL watchers, we didn't necessarily love that. The other thing we didn't enjoy or the voiceovers. I know it would be difficult to have everybody read their own part, obviously if that cast member is no longer alive, but it would have been nice to have the people who have are still here read their own part.

Entertaining History

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).

Great listen for the SNL super fan!

I loved this book! Some of the other reviews commented on how the narrators didn't sound like the real people. Because you expected the real people to read their small section of an audiobook... C'mon. I loved all the narrations. Only problem was this was over too fast!!!

Not too big on narrating

Great story, I'm always charmed with going behind the scenes of stories like these.. Just not a fan of the narrating, going back and forth between diff. characters. Wanted to hear more of the 90s group; Farley, Sandler, and Spade. Overall, fun interesting book.

Read This Book, Don't Listen

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.

Surprisingly Boring

Would you try another book from Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller and/or Christopher Burns and Eric Conger ?

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

Would you ever listen to anything by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller again?

Probably not.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

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.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Live from New York?

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.

Any additional comments?

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.