Rating: 
Summary: Too Many Cooks in The Kitchen, but Still Hits the Mark
Review: A 600+ page book about Saturday Night Live can seem rather intimidating. But once you open it up and see the style with which it is written you can easily understand why it's so long. The book is comprised of excerpts from interviews with cast members new and old, just about every writer that walked through the building, and most executives at NBC. This all culminates in a very interesting read. However, one can get antsy reading over 100 pages of talk about the show before it was ever on the air. Once that is over with, the juicy stuff starts. You'll learn who was well respected and who was not. But at the same time you get conflicting views of the same person so it's hard to create a mental image of any particular individual. For instance, Lorne Michaels is a central figure in all the talks, yet I feel like I would be better off reading a biography on him than reading this book. Sure, you only get one angle, but sometimes that's the easiest to ingest.
Rating: 
Summary: Great quotes, great story, some narrative please
Review: Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller did not author "Live From New York," they compiled it--just an observation. I really enjoyed "Live From New York." What a brilliant topic for a thorough book. I have sometimes loved Saturday Night Live and other times loathed it. SNL has given the world some great stars and some of forgettable ones. In compiling this book, Shales and Miller did endless leg work and then stepped out of the picture. They wrote introductions for the various sections of the book but left the text to meander as the body of the book is really little more than a list of quotes from the people who were there. Shales and Miller reached almost everybody of any stature in the history Saturday Night Live--writers, comedians, producers. (Eddie Murphy was notably abscent.) My gripe is that Miller and Shales are fine writers with expert views, I wanted to hear more of what they thought. I wanted to hear a little of their voice, and I wanted them to help me pick up on some of the nuances. I wanted to know whom they trusted and whom they dismissed. When Bill Murray and Chevy Chase got into a shoving match--was Murray reacting to Chase's arrogance or had John Belushi put Murray up to attack? What do Shales and Miller think after interviewing both men? You won't get it from this book? That said, reading quote after quote by everybody who is still alive (Gilda Radner, Chris Farley, John Belushi, and many other key people have passed away) becomes somewhat hypnotic, and you really do hear their voices in their quotes.
Rating:
Summary: Fast and Fascinating
Review: The library I patronize bought only two copies of this book. One doesn't circulate, and the other is always out, so I broke down and bought this. I only wanted to read it because I love gossip. I didn't expect much of the writing because this is an oral history, and I wasn't disappointed. However, you wouldn't want the authors/editors to do too much editing, or the voices wouldn't sound natural. But when one of the people from the show who's labeled "writer" says, "Each one was their own boutique," I cringe. Some of the reviewers don't give the compilers of this volume much credit. I think they deserve more. First they had to do a lot of legwork just to get interviews with these people and get them to talk about meaningful stuff. I assume they taped all this. Words don't just jump from an audiotape to the printed pages of a book. All the "and-ums" had to be deleted. Probably some of the language had to be cleaned up. Useless repetition had to be cut. All this editing had to be done without killing the spontaneous feel of the material. Seems like a big job to me. My only complaint about the authors is that they're a little too reverential in their short pieces between the speakers. The first time I ever saw Saturday Night Live, I thought the musical act was one of the comedy sketches, and if I hadn't been told differently, I'd think so still. My son-in-law tells me he's heard other people say the same thing. If the musical acts are supposed to be taken seriously, they're completely out of sync with the rest of the show, none of which is to be taken seriously. The one thing that almost every speaker dwells on is the fame and money garnered by the players who went on to become big names in entertainment. Fame and money are their gods. There's no mention of whether these successes ever did anything of quality. ... Not one of them has been on a level with Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, or Bill Cosby. And no one ever even mentions the one Oscar nomination to come out of this company: Dan Ackroyd's performance in "Driving Miss Daisy." I've never been a big fan of SNL. My favorites were Gilda Radner and Phil Hartman. I absolutely loathe(d) Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Chris Kattan, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and John Belushi. They are or were all loud, stupid, vulgar, and disgusting. But I still watch occasionally, hoping to see something funny. I seldom do. The commercials are overlong. The music is awful. The humor is never subtle. When did vomit become funny? Nevertheless, I think the book is worth a read, especially for those who are just aching to know what went on among these people after hours. It's a long book but a fast read.
Rating:
Summary: A great read for fans of SNL
Review: I'm a big fan of SNL, so I was quite excited to get into this book. It did not let me down. The reading is very easy, and the format facilitates the transmission of information one wouldn't normally know: the writers, actors, producers, etc. do most of the talking here in short interview snippets, filled in occasionally by explanations of context from the authors of the book. It's a great situation, which allows for memorable moments like Will Ferrell saying Chevy Chase was the worst host he ever worked with. It's fascinating stuff, and I'd recommend it to any SNL fan.
Rating:
Summary: Unsatisfying Brain Candy
Review: It's a good read if you like a gossipy view on the people behind SNL, but lacks any semblence of structure or insight. I was disappointed it didn't have much on the actual skits, hosts or role the show played in the pop culture of the time. Mostly it was writers complaining they were underappreciated and actors complaining they didn't get enough skits. Again, just gossipy.
Would have been better if they included a pictures of each of the actors.
Rating:
Summary: For Better or Worse, In Their Own Words
Review: Rather than compiling a linear, cohesive history of SNL from the words of the actors, writers, and guests who lived and created it, the authors of Live From New York went one step fewer and offer what amounts to a digest of loosely categorized interviews. Kudos to Shales and Miller for getting so much input for the project; the only SNL notables whose names I didn't see as contributors were Eddie Murphy and Dennis Miller. Everyone else is there, in varying degrees of self-adulation and delusion as to the significance their stint with the show had vis-à-vis its history. The great thing about the interviews is that the book's whole is greater than the sum of its parts: everything that was remembered by only a handful of people would otherwise be lost to the ages if the book tried to capture SNL's story from an objective, 10, 000 foot view. What is lost in consistency is gained in detail, not to mention cattiness (there is an awful lot of dirt dished here). However, recognize that a lot of objectivity is lost by the fact that there is no omniscient narrator here, and the only checks and balances are personalities pitted against one another. This book is likely to do two things to the reader: One, make him lose respect for many celebrities whose work he formerly enjoyed, once the extent of their egos is realized. Everyone knows that Chevy Chase is a petulant, borderline-talent egomaniac, but did you know that equally loathsome are Harry Shearer , Nora Dunn, and Jan Hooks? Al Franken is a scheming, petty little cutthroat. Jon Lovitz has no sense of humor about himself, and is his own biggest fan. Chris Rock blames everyone but himself for his lack of success on the show. Victoria Jackson had rocks in her head. Lorne Michaels is a heartless snob with loads more creative vision than human emotion or care for his fellow man. One of the few personalities who seems really to have been as decent a person as he was a comic talent was Dan Aykroyd... it's just too bad that a consistent string of bombs like Blues Brothers 2000 have shattered all that credibility and respect. The second effect this book will have is to surprise the reader to learn how much work goes into all of the skits, particularly the bad ones. Bill Murray describes in great detail a Nick the Lounge Singer skit that was resurrected for the opener to the 25th anniversary special, explaining how a group of the 70s greats got together at Paul Schaeffer's place in New York for a week, writing, rehearsing, and having a blast putting together a masterpiece. I saw the skit a few weeks after I read this book and couldn't believe how painful it was to watch. Genius is certainly in the eyes of the creator, if not beholder.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting , but disjointed
Review: I have been a fan of SNL from the very first show and eagerly anticipated reading this book. The book is written in an "oral history" format and while this allows the authors to cram in a lot of information from many, many different people associated with the show, it also tends to fracture the narrative a bit. The book feels a bit disjointed, hopping from one subject to another.The anecdotes also become a bit repetitive after a while. The best part of the book was, for me, the parts which dealt with the creation and the first few years of SNL. Reading this book brought back a lot of great memories of the incomparable Gilda Radner and John Belushi. If you're a fan of the show, this book is definitely worth reading but I wish the format had been better.
Rating: 
Summary: One book that matches the hype
Review: I used to be a big fan of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE . . . so
it was with some degree of enthusiasm that I began to
read LIVE FROM NEW YORK by Tom Shales and
James Andrew Miller. Fortunately, this is one book that matched the hype . . . and
the subtitle: AN UNCENSORED HISTORY OF SATURDAY
NIGHT LIVE . . . Shales (long one of my favorite TV critics
that I only regret that I can't read more often because his
column is not run in my local paper) and Miller bring
together stars, writers, guest hosts, and contributors for
the first-ever oral history of the program . . . they trace
it from 1974, when it was just an idea, through 2002, when
it has long become an institution. Mike Myers, Chris Rock, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler,
Billy Crystal, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Martin, and Paul Simon were just a partial listing of the stars interviewed . . . writers Al Franken, Conan O'Brien and Larry David were also brought into the project. Lorne Michaels, executive producer of the show, was interviewed
as well . . . in my ways, this is his story . . . I'm just
glad that he was never my boss . . . he comes across as
one tough cookie that lives and breathes his work, often with
little regard for his or anybody else's personal life. A fair amount of "dirt" is presented (e.g., on John Belushi), but it seems to have been presented objectively . . . there's a great collection of pictures (do I ever miss Gilda Radner!) . . . and it left me wanting what will hopefully be a follow-up book that will profile the many music guests that have appeared. There were many memorable passages; among them:
Lorne Michaels:
I had to shoot Ford saying "Live from New York" and "I'm Gerald Ford and you're not" for the show. And I suddenly find myself in the Oval Office, and it's just me, the president, and this little crew. There's security too, I'm sure. And Ford does it, but the line reading is wrong,and I realized that it's just the same as working with anybody else and getting them to relax and do the line properly to camera. We'd done two or three takes, and to relax him, I said to him--my sense of humor
at the time--"Mr. President, if this works out, who knows where it will lead?" Which was completely lost of him. John Landis:
I've seen this attributed to John Lennon, but I know Michael O'Donoghue said it, because I was there when we heard Elvis died. My secretary came in and she said, "Elvis is dead," and Michael O'Donoghue said, "Good career move." Elliot Gould:
Gilda became a very close friend of mine. She was the greatest. Just the most lovely and sensitive human being you could imagine. Gilda told me that when she couldn't sleep, she would order food at about two or three in the morning, and she was so bulimic she would order enough for six or seven people, even though it was just her alone. And then when the delivery guy came and rang the bell, she would say, "The food's here!
The food's here!"
Rating:
Summary: It was, like, a really, like, good, like, book, you know?
Review: My title of this review is a crude impression of how this book reads. While offering some good information about the early days of SNL and how it works to this day, the book is basically made up of interviews lifted word for word from a tape recorder and pasted onto the pages of the book along with every conversational filler word known to human kind, the most prevalent being "like." I had no idea that the word "like" was such a force in the American lexicon since almost everyone quoted in the book uses it so freely and so often. The editor of this book also seemed to have something against sentence structure and you are constantly hit with fragments of sentences that should be a continuation of the previous statement. After a short time of reading sentence fragments and endless use of the word "like," I was ready for this book to be over. With that said, those interviews do contain the main points of interest regarding the show. You learn how the show was created by NBC as a relief to showing "Tonight Show" reruns on Saturday nights. You learn that almost every cast has one person who stands out as "The Star." You hear from former cast members who both enjoyed their time at SNL and those who have hated it. You gain a new appreciation for the performers who fight each week to get their sketch on the air and the writers who try to slip some intelligence into the humor instead of relying on dumb/toilet humor. You'll learn about the cast members who have passed on and the grief felt by those that knew and worked with them. All in all, I'm glad I read this because I enjoy the show and it was nice to get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of it. If you are a fan of SNL and can get past the word "like" and the poor structure of the book, give this a try.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Days I'll Never Get Back
Review: Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller seemingly provided an opportunity for free therapy sessions to all former and current SNL staffers. The whining, moaning and venting about how hard their lives are is more laughable than most of the SNL skits they've ever performed in. The book provided nothing interesting in how the show actually operates. Sniping at one another seems to be the only reason for most cast member to even agree to be interviewed for the book. Missed opportunities by not interviewing lesser cast members (though they might have turned down the authors) could have painted a complete other picture. The special on Biography (on A&E) was more interesting than this book - and was only an hour. Catch that instead.
| 
