Live from New York Audiobook By James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales 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

By: James Andrew Miller, Tom Shales
Narrated by: Christina Delaine, Paul Woodson
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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 Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Performing Arts Celebrity Comedy Funny Witty Film History

Featured Article: Go Behind the Scenes of the Small Screen with These Television Tell-Alls


Nothing quite compares to a night in with your couch, a bowl of popcorn, and a fresh season of your favorite show. But what if you just can’t decide what to watch? We’ve all spent literal hours scrolling through our watchlists or recommended carousels, going glassy-eyed at the thousands of options available—before turning on that same familiar sitcom or dependable drama. Look no further for something new and different that's also sure to satisfy.

Featured Article Go Behind the Scenes of the Small Screen with These Television Tell Alls
Fascinating Backstories • Entertaining Anecdotes • Professional Narration • Comprehensive History • Multiple Perspectives
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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.

The narrators

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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.

Equal Parts Behind the Scenes and Apotheosis of Lorne Michaels

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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.

Insight into the world of SNL

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

Must read

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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.

The Best

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

Showbiz history

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Loved the hearing about the first ten years or so (especially the first five years with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players). After about 1995 or so is when the book loses its steam for me. And a lot of that has to do with the fact I’m not much of an SNL viewer anymore. The new millennium years don’t hold much interest for me and beyond the talk about the election year SNLs, that part of the book is vanilla and a bit tedious. Great performances by the voice talent though not much range between Dana Carvey or Damon Wayans. That’s okay though. Save the impressions for the show.

A nice trip through SNL’s Memory Lane

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sometimes it gets repetitive about something uninteresting... we don't need 3 point of views about a boring subject haha

great but repetitive

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I like the narration for this book. They really add enthusiasm to the read.
This is a great historical recount of the longest running one-of-kind television icon.
You get to hear an unbiased account of the people who were responsible for keeping the show going and the man responsible for inventing and fostering the show for so many years -- Lorne Micheals.

Secrets of success are revealed.

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Those malcontents, along with whiny people who have no sense of reality, seem to poison the book. It is worth reading, just fast forward through their negativity.

Jeanine Garafalo and Chris Elliot poison it.

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