Ezra's Bookshelf

Lorne

by Susan Morrison · 673 pages · ~12 hrs

Biography & MemoirMedia & Journalism

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Susan Morrison, who spent decades as a senior editor at The New Yorker, has written the definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, who created Saturday Night Live in 1975 and has run it ever since. Through interviews with hundreds of cast members, writers, and NBC executives, Morrison traces how Michaels built an institution that outlasted its individual stars and shaped American comedy for fifty years. The book covers the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, the crisis after Michaels's first departure, his return, and the continual reinvention that has kept the show relevant. Morrison examines Michaels's management style—enigmatic, occasionally brutal, but capable of inspiring loyalty—and his eye for talent that discovered everyone from Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey to Pete Davidson. The book is equally attentive to failures and conflicts: cast members who flamed out, sketches that bombed, political controversies that required navigation. Morrison addresses criticism of the show's treatment of race and gender while showing how SNL has evolved. For anyone interested in comedy, television, or how creative institutions survive across generations, this is essential reading.

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