Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live Hardcover – March 1, 1989
by Doug Hill (Author), Jeff Weingrad (Author)
Saturday Night Live came alive at 11:30 P.M. on October 11, 1975, from NBC's venerable Studio 8H in New York. From the moment SNL went on the air, millions of young viewers recognized that here, finally, was something different on their screens: a show that spoke for them. The response was instantaneous and passionate. Saturday Night is the intimate, definitive account of the comedy institution that made stars of Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris, Bill Murray, Joe Piscopo, and Eddie Murphy.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Bold and irreverent, NBC's Emmy-winning Saturday Night Live produced many stars (Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and others) and redefined the limits of TV comedy.
In this absorbing account, based on 250 interviews, the authors successfully recreate the chaotic backstage scene where writers and performers from the comedy underground of the 1970s created an "outlaw" show for a generation raised on TV and rock 'n' roll. The on-air shenanigans pale in comparison to much of the manic behavior reported here: frantic last-minute changes in sketches; rivalries between stars; battles with censors; run-ins with more conventional network crews and security guards. At once serious (explaining how "amateurs" managed to break TV's comedic rules) and gossipy (drugs, brawls, etc.), this bright history is bound to please many. Hill and Weingrad have written individually about TV for numerous publications. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
An engrossing, compulsively readable history of the late-night television show, from the early struggle to get it accepted by the network to its most recent incarnation with the return of original producer Lorne Michaels. The book is well written and detailed, and the authors interviewed more than 200 people connected with the show. Most interesting are the first few seasons, when Saturday Night was truly innovative and blessed with the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players and more daring writers. Excerpts from skits punctuate the text, and most are still funny. As the show loses its cult status and goes big-time, however, the story becomes a depressing account of rampant egotism, drug abuse, and, ultimately, the end of SNL 's originality and excitement. For social history and media collections. Judith Sutton, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Biography
Doug Hill has studied the history and philosophy technology for more than twenty years, and it is that study that informs "Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology." He blogs at The Question Concerning Technology (http://thequestionconcerningtechnology.blogspot.com/) and can be followed on Twitter @DougHill25 and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NotSoFastBook.
Here are some of the endorsements "Not So Fast" has received:
"Lively, fast moving, always entertaining, Not So Fast offers a grand overview of the extravagant hopes and dire warnings that accompany the arrival of powerful new technologies. Blending the key ideas of classic and contemporary thinkers, Doug Hill explores the aspirations of those who strive for the heavens of artifice and those who find the whole enterprise a fool's errand. This is the most engaging, readable work on the great debates in technology criticism now available and a solid contribution to that crucial yet unsettling tradition."
- Langdon Winner, author of Autonomous Technology: Technics-out-of-Control as a Theme in Political Thought and The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology
Product Details
Hardcover: 510 pages
Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (March 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0688050999
ISBN-13: 978-0688050993
Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
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