Live from New York

By: James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales

Narrated by: Christina Delaine, Paul Woodson

Length: 28 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's Summary

When first published to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Live from New York was immediately proclaimed the best book ever produced on the landmark and legendary late-night show. In their own words, unfiltered and uncensored, a dazzling galaxy of trail-blazing talents recalled three turbulent decades of on-camera antics and off-camera escapades. Now a fourth decade has passed - and best-selling authors James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales have returned to Studio 8H. They raucously and revealingly take the SNL story up to the present, adding a constellation of iconic new stars, surprises, and controversies.

©2002 Thomas W. Shales and Jimmy the Writer, Inc.; material new to the 2014 edition copyright 2014 by Jimmy the Writer, Inc.; preface to the 2015 edition copyright 2015 by Jimmy the Writer, Inc. (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Entertaining but repetitive

The first few chapters were pretty entertaining but after a while some of the stories dragged on. Then towards the end it seems as if stories were repeated. I often thought that I had gone back to a previous chapter knowing I had already hear a tale before only to see that in fact they had repeated a story. So if you're a true SNL you'd probably enjoy it but it seemed to drag on in my opinion.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

What a fun listen

I got this book in 2002 or 2003 and listening to it again in audio form was an absolute blast. What a great listen and adventure. The performers are great and do a great job differentiating without doing poor imitations.
Thank you

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A nice trip through SNL’s Memory Lane

Loved the hearing about the first ten years or so (especially the first five years with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players). After about 1995 or so is when the book loses its steam for me. And a lot of that has to do with the fact I’m not much of an SNL viewer anymore. The new millennium years don’t hold much interest for me and beyond the talk about the election year SNLs, that part of the book is vanilla and a bit tedious. Great performances by the voice talent though not much range between Dana Carvey or Damon Wayans. That’s okay though. Save the impressions for the show.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

lorens a father figure...

Yeah we get it, Lorens a father figure, the show is chaotic, its fair, its unfair. same thing over and over for hours. missed oppourtunity to talk more about sketches behind the scenes, mishaps, suprises etc. I love SNL but this was really mostly about the love hate relationship with Michaels.kinda boring.

4 of 6 people found this review helpful

MORE THAN YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW

I love oral histories. I love Saturday Night Live. And, I loved about the first half of the book. But then, it bogged down in the less interesting latter day cast -- and a staggering amount of repetition. Yes, we understand that it's the greatest experience in the world, and leaving is really tough...do we have to hear it again and again and again? A bit of judicious editing would have made this a far better book.

5 of 8 people found this review helpful

For the SNL Fans Out There!

I simply love this book. I love the minutiae, the background, the small details that have filled out this fan’s understanding of the hows and whys of the show.

The book has not disappointed me!

Excellent stories, insights, & perspectives - just a bit redundant by the end

Really enjoyed this book. If my personality would allow me to not finish a book once I start, I could have done without the last ~ 1/4 of it.

But, the first 3/4 of the book are so informative and interesting that you will be happy you purchased it and had the experience of hearing the stories and anecdotes.

Equal Parts Behind the Scenes and Apotheosis of Lorne Michaels

The book was good, but suffered a bit from being to Lorne Michaels centric. The end focuses tremendously on the man and the story of SNL as a whole falls off. Additionally, the performance would be outstanding except the Oral History of the Daily Show, whilst a similar format of interviews forming a narrative, did a better job of creating a different voice for each person being quoted. This book has two different narrators who stay in the same voice and the story suffers a bit. The book was overall ok.

great but repetitive

sometimes it gets repetitive about something uninteresting... we don't need 3 point of views about a boring subject haha

Live from audible, its Saturday Night!

Great read for fans of the show, insightful and often overtly informative. Might be hard to get through for those who did not grow up with the show or are not devout fans.