Live From New York - James H. Miller [3]
Of all the reactions that the book elicited, the ones we feel guiltiest about are those that saw it as an attack on Chevy Chase. When the hardcover edition was published, some reviewers seized on the reminiscences of people who felt wronged by Chevy over the years, even though there are many positive words and stories about him throughout the book. “And They All Hated Chevy” read the headline over one representative review.
They didn’t “all” hate Chevy, and his importance to the show in its formative stages and earliest outings is immense. His cool, knowing flippancy was something new on television, and viewers took to him even though he did anything but mewl for approval on the air. It’s quite possible that without his telegenic smarts, Saturday Night Live might not have won the attention and the plaudits it received in its first months on the air, might not even have survived to become the fabled institution it is today.
We have another big fat regret. Despite countless requests submitted through a wide variety of contacts, we couldn’t induce Eddie Murphy to be interviewed for the book. We tried again several more times for this edition, but he still wouldn’t budge. Apparently his bittersweet memories of working on the show are more bitter than sweet. But, Eddie! Everybody’s memories are mixed! We don’t take it personally, though, because despite pleading from Michaels and others, Murphy also refused to take part in SNL’s fifteenth reunion and twenty-fifth-anniversary prime-time special. You’ll find the reason why within the pages of this paperback edition, which contains material from a number of interviews not included in the hardcover.
Though the reviews of the hardcover edition, we are grateful to say, were overwhelmingly positive, some critics thought we were too reverential toward the program. The purpose, however, was always to celebrate Saturday Night Live, not to deconstruct or debunk it. Because it is, at the end of the day — which is when it airs, and at the end of the week too — truly a TV show like none other, in the extent of its influence and the canny flexibility that keeps it alive. Not just alive but fresh and, every now and then, once again the most talked-about show on the air — once again the craziest kid on the block.
That said, we are grateful to every last one of its veterans, the bright new breed as well as the savvy battle-scarred, whether expansive or relatively tight-lipped. We love them for their brilliance as well as for their tolerance of us as we crept around the wings, the green-room, Lorne’s offices, performers’ dressing rooms, and beneath the bleachers, all under the guise of doing research. But then it’s a kick just to hang around at Saturday Night Live, even as outsiders, and we enjoyed the luxury of having an excellent excuse to be there.
We wish only the best to the next team of cultural anthropologists and gossips who try to excavate the intricate origins and trace the phenomenal progress of Saturday Night Live. For us, the journey was at times a hilarious pleasure and at other times a maddening ordeal — but always, more than anything else, an honor.
— Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller
Prologue
Saturday Night Live is more than a television show. Since its premiere in 1975, it has served as a trendsetter in American humor and had a remarkable effect on American mores, manners, music, politics, and even fashion. It can’t be said that there’d never been anything like it in TV history, because one of its bold strokes was reviving a format as old as television itself — in fact, older: the variety show, with music and comedy sketches intermixed. Though the basic form wasn’t entirely new, the content was, and so were the show’s attitude and approach and collective mind-set. Tea had been around for centuries, after all, but the notion of throwing mass quantities into Boston Harbor was new. It was revolutionary. So was Saturday Night Live.
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