Live From New York - James H. Miller [1]
— Hartford Courant
“As documentation of TV history, this is a treasure. For SNL fans and observers of pop culture, it’s a candid, gossipy, and fun read.”
— Michael Long, Weekly Standard
“Illuminating….A great read….A chatty, catty, mostly fascinating talkfest…. For those who love their entertainment tomes full of juicy gossip and backstage dirt, there is perhaps no greater pleasure this fall than Live from New York.”
— Omar L. Gallaga, Austin American-Statesman
“The juicy anecdotes and downright insults… make the book so addictive.”
— Mark Bazer, New York Post
“A book that moves briskly and consistently entertains…. The story is, inevitably, one of alternating triumph and heartbreak. This is one reason the oral-history format works — one writer’s triumph might be another cast member’s heartbreak, and we get to hear both. Besides, most of these people are articulately funny by trade.”
— Rob Walker, Newsday
“If you’ve ever been a fan of Saturday Night Live, or if you have a taste for showbiz gossip, Live from New York makes for engaging reading.”
— Andy Smith, Providence Journal
“Shales and Miller interviewed people who have worked on the show, and allowed them to speak for themselves. They describe a frenetic, competitive, ego-filled atmosphere in which young actors and writers danced wildly on the cutting edge of comedy….If you’re an SNL fan, it’s hard to put down.”
— Anne Stephenson, Arizona Republic
“An irresistible read for anyone interested in the history of television or just the perversity of human nature. Quotes from the twenty-seven-year-old show’s principals provide surprises on every page.”
— Detroit Free Press
“Refreshing… vibrant… entrancing and instructive….To reduce this superbly executed oral history to a list of potential National Enquirer headlines is to do it, and reading itself, a disservice…. Through interviews with almost all of the principals and a knack for making their quotes play off of one another, Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller paint a detailed landscape portrait of what has become an American cultural icon, one that will guide any attentive reader to a fuller understanding of comedy, TV, and the culture itself.”
— Steve Johnson, Chicago Tribune
“For longtime fans of Saturday Night Live who have always wanted a window into the show’s unique atmosphere, it’s hard to imagine a better guide.”
— Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times
“A behind-the-laughs history of Saturday Night Live. Live from New York is an oral history compiled — with occasional pert interstitial chronology added — by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. They have crafted a constantly entertaining and instructive document; among its many virtues, Live from New York is a better manual on how a business really works than all those cheeseball who-moved-my-Camembert books smushed together. That’s because Shales and Miller haven’t just interviewed the stars; nor have they merely come up with the most thorough examinations to date of the haunting, untimely deaths of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chris Farley, and Phil Hartman — no small feat, to be sure. Rather, Shales and Miller dig deeper, seeking out generations of SNL writers and producers, NBC TV executives, and guest hosts. Most important, they’ve quizzed the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, and thoroughly debriefed nearly everyone involved about the pull — at once Zen-like and paternal — that this tidy, deadpan Canadian has exerted on so many people…. Whoever Daddy Michaels really is, what he did was create one of the most interesting examples of survival and invention in the history of the medium, and Live from New York does that achievement full justice.”
— Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
ALSO BY TOM SHALES
On the Air
Legends: Remembering America’s Greatest Stars
ALSO BY JAMES ANDREW MILLER
Running in Place: Inside the Senate
With undying love to my children,
Zachary, Sophie, and Chloe
— J.A.M.
To John Carmody — distinguished colleague,
irreplaceable friend
— T.S.