Live from New York

An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live

By: Tom Shales, James Andrew Miller

Narrated by: Christopher Burns, Eric Conger

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)

Honestly, Not Great - Only For The BIGGEST Fans

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

Doubtful

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

Doubtful

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Christopher Burns and Eric Conger ?

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.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

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.

Any additional comments?

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.

Interesting

Good overall summary of SNL's history - not much detail though. Recommended for general information.

Interesting inside look, so-so presentation

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.

Great Job

I think the actors who recreated voices of people we know did an amazing job (sometimes having to re-create the voices of a character we know doing an impersonation of another celebrity!). Obviously, getting the original quotees would have been prohibitively expensive. As far as being somewhat melancholy in mood, as opposed to being a nice, packaged tribute, that's what the point of the book is... the show can be cancelled at any time without notice.. and that has been true for its entire turbulent history. It's never comfortable and nice.

entertaining recap

wish it went throughout the present day. but narration was pretty entertaining for the different voices and really added to the story. easy to follow along and learn a lot about the SNL show.