11/14/16, 4:48 PMLive from New York, it's James Andrew Miller, Author of the New 'SNL' Book - September 19, 2014 - NewYork.com

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Live from New York, it’s James AndrewMiller, Author of the New ‘SNL’ BookJames Andrew Miller talks about the latest edition of his best-selling oral history ofNBC’s late-night comedy juggernaut -- and how he first came up with the book'sconcept

September 19, 2014, Craigh Barboza2 Share Tweet

It’s been more than a decade since James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales set the television comedyworld abuzz with Live from New York, their fascinating, door stopper-size oral history of SaturdayNight Live. The book, which has gone on to sell a half million copies, was at the time the “complete”story of the late-night sketch series. But that was back in 2002, before Andy Samberg, Akiva Schafferand Jorma Taccone (known collectively as The Lonely Island) made their first viral video for theshow; before Stefon, the alt club kid-turned-city correspondent played by Bill Hader, visited WeekendUpdate; and before a certain Alaskan governor saw Russia from her window.

‘Live From New York’ by JamesAndrew Miller

In other words, it was time for an updated version of Live from New York. Many will be happy to learnthat such a thing arrived in stores last week, just ahead of the September 27 premiere of SNL’s 40thseason. The newly expanded book (a whopping 800 pages) picks up where the original left off. It ischock-full of anecdotes, backstage rivalries and classic sketches from the show’s last decade. Acontroversy surrounding SNL’s dearth of black female performers is also deconstructed. All together,there are nearly 100 new interviews, many with the latest generation of stars, producers, writers andhosts.

Miller, an award-winning journalist and author, said he worked on the book right up until the lastpossible moment. “This summer was all about making sure that Live from New York was as up-to-dateas possible,” said Miller, who fell in love with SNL as a kid growing up in Pennsylvania. “I waspleased that we could get through the end of the 39th season, which was the goal, and that just meantgetting to as many people as possible.”

In a recent interview, excerpts from which are below, Miller talks about how SNL is no longer home tothe Not Ready for Prime Time Players, why he prefers dress rehearsals and the one interview he’s stillwaiting to land.

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11/14/16, 4:48 PMLive from New York, it's James Andrew Miller, Author of the New 'SNL' Book - September 19, 2014 - NewYork.com

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Your book is seen as a manual for SNL. Bill Hader has said, “I think most current cast members,the day they find out they’ve been hired, run out and buy that book to see what’s in store forthem. I know I did.”

I was, of course, very touched to read that. A lot of cast members have said the book was like theirport of entry into this world. Remember these are creative people. Many of them have said to me,“Jim, I had never worked in an office before. I never had a job.” And in a way the 9th and 17th floorsof 30 Rock, which are two of the Saturday Night Live floors, are like a biosphere; everything about theway those floors operate are fundamentally different. They have their own sensibilities and their ownculture, and it can be a little strange for people just arriving, particularly cast members who didn’tcome from Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade or [one of the other great arteries for the show].

I was also blown away by the fact that there are cast members who ask all the new cast members andhosts to sign their books. It’s this tradition, which I thought was really cool. I wish I thought of itmyself. I’d love to have a copy signed by everyone.

How did you and Tom Shales end up working on a book about SNL?

I worked with Tom at The Washington Post and I guess Lorne Michaels [the show’s executiveproducer] had been approached by some people about doing a history of SNL. The wrench I threw intoit, and that Tom fought me on a little bit, was that I definitely wanted to do it as an oral history, and Isaid that for a very specific reason, which is that, look, Tom’s a brilliant writer; I like to think that Iknow how to write. But I don’t think there’s a way you can sit down and just through prose capture thedistinct personalities and attitudes of all the people who come through SNL. For readers to really get asense of what people are thinking, and why they did something or why they didn’t, I just thought thatthe oral history format was the best for that.

Tina Fey as Governor Sarah Palin, Amy Poehler as Senator Hillary Clinton during ‘A NonpartisanMessage From Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton’ skit on ‘SNL,’ September 13, 2008 (Photo: DanaEdelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

Which aspect of the show did you enjoy diving into for this update?

SNL has a rich legacy of turning politics into humor. Chevy [a writer and cast member during the firstseason] did Gerald Ford, and you can go through the years and see not only the great impersonationsthat were done on the show but also the hilarious sketches, particularly during presidential electionyears and primaries. Dan Aykroyd as Richard Nixon is fantastic, or Jon Lovitz playing MichaelDukakis and turning to the camera during a debate with George H. W. Bush to say, “Can you believeI’m losing to this guy?”

Those types of lines — and obviously, “I can see Russia from my house!” — [became a part of thepolitical discussion]. So for the new book, it was fun to get into the 2008 presidential campaign withTina Fey as Sarah Palin. I was delighted that I got to interview Sarah Palin about it too. She was quiteopen and very funny at times, and I interviewed Senator John McCain as well who loves the show andhas a huge amount of respect for Lorne.

Do you think SNL has had an impact on elections?

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11/14/16, 4:48 PMLive from New York, it's James Andrew Miller, Author of the New 'SNL' Book - September 19, 2014 - NewYork.com

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Sarah Palin will tell you the show is arrogant if it thought that it had an impact. But there are momentsin a Saturday Night Live sketch when something happens, particularly attendant to a presidentialelection, that you may not be able to track [in terms of polls and approval ratings]. But I think theshow’s take on politicians kind of seeps into people’s consciousness and influences them to a certaindegree.

What was it like returning to the book after 10 years?

It was interesting because I didn’t know what I would find. In the first edition there was obviously ahealthy dose of parties, sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. There were wild years. For instance, in the firstseason of Saturday Night Live, there were seven cast members. Jane Curtin was married and she wouldkind of leave rehearsals and go to the opera or out to dinner with her husband or double date withother married friends or whatever. But the other six were definitely playing in the deep end of the pool,and it would have been fine if there were more stories like that with the recent cast because thosethings are interesting to talk about and fun to read about. But it turns out that there was this wholeother dimension that happened in the past decade, which got me really excited. [laughs]

It turns out that SNL has become a much — sorry to use a cliché — kinder, gentler environment. It’s alot less manic. The culture fundamentally changed, as did a lot of the people’s existences outside of theshow. One cast member said to me, “We’re worried about meeting up with our personal trainers.”

And, of course, the other thing is that you start to recognize in this new book that many people onSaturday Night Live are thinking more and more about the show not just as a destination but as part ofa larger journey. They can’t help but think that because there’s been so much success by previous castmembers moving on to big movie careers and big TV careers. So in February, they’re thinking, “Oh,am I gonna get a movie when we go on hiatus for the summer?” “Oh my gosh, this is my sixth year.Am I gonna stay or do I have sitcom that I can get into?” They’re very professionally aware.

The cast of the 39th season of ‘Saturday Night Live’ (Photo: NBC)

How often do you see the show in person?

I try to go several times a year. I love going to the dress rehearsal because you see sketches that youdon’t get to see on air. I play this little game in my mind: “Which sketches would I keep and whatwould the order be?” I try to program the show after seeing it in dress. Then I watch it on TV to seehow close I got. There’ve been a couple times when I batted 1,000 in what was cut and the order.

Do you have an all-time favorite sketch that never aired?

No, but I wish I could’ve seen the sketch that writer Jim Downey describes in the book. People willhave to buy the book. I can’t do it justice. But Jim definitely took a chance on a big sketch. I wish Icould’ve seen that one live.

How did you manage to gain the cooperation of so many of the show’s stars, writers and guests?

The fact that Lorne was participating was the biggest reason of all because anytime I called anybodythey’d say, “Is Lorne talking to you for the book?” So having him was a big door-opener. The secondis I think SNL is one of those shows — because it’s been such a tradition in our culture for 40 yearsand its impact has been felt in many different ways — that people are proud of participating in and

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they want to talk about it.

And it turns out they’re pretty thoughtful. I was always happy to sit there and wax philosophic withsomebody, if they were in that mood. Many of them were honest and their emotions were sometimesraw. Their feelings, years and years after something happened, may still be hurt. I had maybe threedozen interviews where somebody was in tears. You get 360 degrees of the human experience in thebook.

Not everyone was willing to talk.

For the first volume, only Eddie Murphy said no, which was a big frustration for me because one couldmake the case that without Eddie Murphy Saturday Night Live may not have survived during thoseyears [in the early ’80s] that Lorne Michaels was not executive producing. Dick Ebersol had Eddie andused him to great effect and that was certainly a big, big burst of wind that the show was back.

Did you ever find out what Eddie’s beef was?

I heard various reasons through the years of why he didn’t talk: he was mad at this person; he was madat that; he wasn’t invited to this reunion, whatever. But the good news is Eddie was, basically, the onlyone who said no.

After getting Lorne’s blessings, who was the first person you reached out to for an interview?

My first call was Bill Murray. Of course, we pulled out of Vietnam faster than it took me to get to him.But it was worth it. I would meet Bill Murray on the 16th green of a golf course in South Dakota, if hewanted. He’s just worth it.

Do you have a favorite interview?

Yikes! Well, that’s really a Sophie’s Choice. I don’t know that I can answer that. But the thing I willsay is that sometimes, particularly with funny people, when you’re sitting with them at a coffee shopor you’re at their house or something it turns out, wow, they’re not that funny! I don’t mean it as anegative. It just means they’re very serious, or introspective, which is nice because that kind of dualityto their personality was really interesting. But then there are other times when you would meetsomebody and you just can’t stop laughing. I mean Chris Rock. You interview Chris Rock and it’s likegoing to one of his stand-up acts; every sentence is something you can imagine being in the book.

So what kind of system did you use to organize the material?

I always took the approach of “trust, but verify,” as Reagan said to Gorbachev. I record everything andI have a pretty elaborate note system too where I cross-reference things with topics and people anddifferent eras of the show. There’s this algorithm I put together for how things fall into place.

But the great thing about reporting and interviewing is you wind up learning so much that it forces youto change certain things. What you might have imagined was going to be big sometimes winds upbeing not as big. Then there are these delicious little morsels that become an entire meal.

The Lonely Island in their ‘SNL’ Digital Short

11/14/16, 4:48 PMLive from New York, it's James Andrew Miller, Author of the New 'SNL' Book - September 19, 2014 - NewYork.com

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What’s an example of that?

I knew I had to cover the Lonely Island guys, but I didn’t think it was going to be as interesting as itturned out. The book gets into the origins of the SNL Digital Shorts and the process that AkivaSchaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg went through, in terms of getting the shorts on the air, andthe nature of their collaborations, particularly with guest stars [like Justin Timberlake]. That wound upbeing a much bigger part of the book than I originally envisioned.

How did you get your start as a writer/reporter, and what advice can you give to those whowould like to follow in your footsteps?

The best thing about writing is that there’s very low barriers to entry. You don’t need anything butyourself and your pen or your keyboard. When I got to the Washington Post, I immediately made apromise to myself that I was going to try to write as much as I could for anyone who would take it. SoI was covering ribbon cuttings out in the Virginia suburbs and I was writing for any section. I startedas a news aide and worked my way up, and I think if you’re willing to write, if you’re willing to sitdown and actually do the writing, then that opens up countless doors.

The new season is around the corner. What are your expectations?

Last season was what you’d call a transition year for SNL, and they’ve been through many of them.You can’t lose Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader and Fred Armison, as they did in the past couple ofyears, and it not have an impact. But they always want to bring in new blood [Michael Che will anchorWeekend Update and Lorne Michaels is expected to add a couple of new cast members] and luckilythere were people like Bobby Moynihan and Kenan Thompson. Kate McKinnon came along andVanessa Bayer was great. I think there were some people who were finding their way last year that aregoing to step up in a bigger way. I just hope it’s a great season because it’s a big anniversary, and,look, I always root for it because at the end of the day I love the show. I watch it every time it’s on andI want it to be great.

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