Live from New York

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

By: James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales

Narrated by: Christina Delaine, Paul Woodson

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

The narrators

They seriously handled the narration so damn well. The “voices” weren’t full on impressions when they were talking as people, but the slight tweaks to accents and cadence showed true professionalism. Christina Delaine and Paul Woodson are fantastic and I will look to listen to books with their narration in the future.

The book’s content was also good.

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.

Insight into the world of SNL

For me, insight into the world of SNL is Gold. Although, I am a comedic actor, sketch writer and stand-up with high hopes — so for me, this is like a holy book. For you.. well you be the judge.

Must read

Must read. I feel like I was on the show for years after reading this!

The Best

The show is the best and these reminiscences are funny and real. The only criticism I have is the stories would have been so much better if they had been read by the comedians themselves. Still, it’s a great history.

Showbiz history

It's good to understand why SNL is a cultural phenomenon. All the work that went into the show and still goes inbis breathtaking.

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

Excellent

Great read (listen) for any fan of SNL/pop culture. My only complaint is that because it’s essentially snippets from various cast members, writers, and execs, it can be confusing who is talking/sharing their experience (a lot of rewinding...there’s a dated term 😂). Highly recommended!

Great For SNL Fans

Everything you could possibly want to know about SNL. Inserts from cast past and present. Mostly a collection of quotes from and by cast about experience, other cast members and host.

Flags a bit at the end, but good overall.

The narrators are good, and the stories from the early days are great. I was beginning to lose interest in the stuff from 2000 on, but I enjoyed my time with it, all told.