Live From New York is compiled by James A. Miller and Tom Shales in such a giddily readable manner, you're as hooked by it as one of those VH1 Specials looking back at the history of a cultural movement. Conceived as a one-quote-after-another recollection from each significant period of Saturday Night Live's long history (leading up to the book's writing in 2003), Live From New York fascinates you with the revelation of one personality after another - it's safe to say that even in the celebrities you thought you knew well, these interviews and stories evoke something surprising about each of them, and manage to highlight the rather wonderful pretentiousness by which SNL was bourne. Conceived by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol as a chance to showcase edgy, youthful comedy that skewered the world around it, Live From New York shows that SNL's goal of biting the hands that feed it remains gleefully a part of the show's DNA in spite of how commercial periods of its run have been. So with that, Live From New York has the power to be comprehensive and merciless - its 1981-1985 Dick Ebersol years show Ebersol's surprising tenderness and respect while mocking his inability to determine if anything's funny. On the flip side, the book may wind up souring fond thoughts you had of Chevy Chase's various appearances over the years. I found myself deeply drawn into one era after another of SNL while reading this book, yet despite the years flying by over hundreds of pages, something unfortunate happens to the book as it gets "current" - it turns out it's not so current. Though this is mostly the result of the time the book was written, the Will Ferrell/Molly Shannon/Cheri Oteri cast doesn't really have a lot to offer in terms of perspective, and thinking that this was the "end" of a show that has risen back to its peak rather undersells the show's great longevity. The actors in this section talk as though champions doing a victory lap, and it, honestly, makes the pages more soggy than the ones that preceded it, feeling rushed to get in all the highlights of recent years. I also can't help but wish for a supplement to the book to get up to more recent times - Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, or the Lonely Island digital videos. Still, I can't say that's a fault of the book - it was written when it was written, though the slowing impact on the book's excitement is unignorable. Live From New York at its dullest can spend far too long on overcooked grievances and insecurities; why Janeane Garofalo - a very talented actress who had the misfortune of starring in a very bad year of SNL - gets so much ground to whine about... well I'm not sure, is beyond me. At its best, however, it wraps you in extraordinary fly-on-the-wall stories that make you feel like an insider revelling in all of SNL's endless relevance.Get more detail about Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live.
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