Live from New York cover art

Live from New York

The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests

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Live from New York

Written by: James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales
Narrated by: Christina Delaine, Paul Woodson
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About this listen

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
Entertainment & Celebrities Film & TV Performing Arts Comedy Celebrity Stand-Up Dark Humour Funny Witty Film History
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What listeners say about Live from New York

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Read!

If your an SNL fan this is a must. It’s a nice deep dive into the world of SNL. It’s an emotional journey to say the least. Thank you to the authors, narrators and all the cast that shared there experiences in this book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Look Back

I've been watching Saturday Night Live since about 84 or so. Not so much in the last two decades but definitely remember the Chris Farley and Will Ferrell years. I had enjoyed the show and thought this would be a pretty interesting listen and it was.

The story, a complete recollection by the many writers, actors, guests and other personalities that have been or had some part in or on Saturday Night Live since it's start in 75 pieced together to give perspective of moments and events going on during those times.

The reading was well done by both narrators, the flow was ok although I found I would occasionally lose track of who is giving their versions or retelling their stories at times but for the most part it worked. Ultimately, you do get a very good overview and understanding of Saturday Night Live's history and realize that love him or hate him (and there are a number on both sides) Lorne Michaels is an individual who is respected not just for what he created, produced but as a pretty decent person, albeit with a seeming sort of passive aggressive power trip thing going on. 4.1 stars overall.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Very Meh lol. Performances are cringe-worthy, get ready

It’s dense, only for obsessives and Uber fans of SNL history and lore. More of a salacious, gossipy, behind-the-scenes look at SNL, rather than an objective and academic deep-dive. Seemed to be mostly based on interviews with satellite figures spilling the tee on their experiences, some juicy stories though I guess. Overall the stories are worthwhile, but the performances are pretty rough at times. They seemed to hire B-level voiceover artists, career narrators with a bit of personality and had them voicing these titans of comedy…. Which translated to very annoyingly desperate performances. There was one woman that I could not stand, just insufferable lol. Honestly, the narration kinda ruined it for me.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

It's hard to keep up with who's who bc same voices

It's hard to keep up with who's who bc same 2 voices for everyone. I had to rewind often to verify whose story it was. Great story, but just having 2 peopke and not the persons, themselves made it harder to follow. Great stories, though.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating book

This is my third time reading this book. The first two times were the original version, and with an actual hard copy. I loved it then and I love it now.

My takeaways for this version:
1. The updated material DELIGHTED me. They could make a version of this book every ten years and I’d buy it again. The inner workings of SNL never stop intriguing me.

2. My only issue with the reading of the book, and it is one that is hard to solve, is that each genders passage is read by the same voice. So if I miss the name intro, or forget whose name it was because a lot of these names hold little meaning until long into the book, the stories aren’t as valuable. And if I need to know who is saying what, I have to skip back how many seconds to hear their name introduces? It was so frustrating, and could only be fixed by having a different voice for each main character (implausible), or having the persons name be repeated at the end of the story/appear in screen.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

All of the warts ... none of the charm.

If you have any affection for SNL at all, fair warning .. this book will pretty much cure you of that. It's just ugly.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

all drama no funny

of all the ways this book could go, im on chapter 27/41 and its been very little about the skits stories of behind the scenes funny stuff....this is actually a book about how it almost went off the air every other year and firing cast. extremely disappointing. thank god i can return . be warned its 24+ hours of drama about a comedy show.

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