Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live

by Susan Morrison

A definitive biography of Lorne Michaels, the man behind America’s most beloved comedy show

Over the fifty years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of Saturday Night Live, he has become a revered, inimitable, and bewildering presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys—and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. He’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (Tracy Morgan), the “great and powerful Oz” (Kate McKinnon), or “some kind of very distant, strange comedy god” (Bob Odenkirk).

Lorne will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire SNL apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever.

Drawn from hundreds of interviews—with Michaels, his friends, and SNL’s iconic stars and writers, from Will Ferrell to Tina Fey to John Mulaney to Chris Rock to Dan Aykroyd—Lorne is a deeply reported, wildly entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life—and have a profound impact on American culture.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, History, Comedy, Biography Memoir, Humor

656 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2025

About the author

Susan Morrison is the articles editor of The New Yorker. She is the former editor in chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY magazine. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Lorne Michaels (b. 1944) is a Canadian and American television writer and film producer. He's probably best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live (SNL), which has been on the air from 1975 to the present.


Lorne Michaels

This biography of Michaels toggles back and forth between Lorne's life and career, and the step-by-step preparations for the SNL episode that aired on November 3, 2018 - with host Jonah Hill and music guest Maggie Rogers.


Jonah Hill


Maggie Rogers

As always, the Writers' Meeting for the Hill-hosted show took place on the Monday before - October 29, 2018 - at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where SNL is based. The Writers' Meeting is where writers pitch ideas for sketches, and the following six days - during which the skits are tested and rewritten and rehearsed and winnowed - culminates in a live broadcast on Saturday night at 11:30, before a worldwide audience of millions. Preparations for the November 3 episode, under the eagle eye of Lorne Michaels, are described in great detail, and should interest fans of the show.


Original Cast of SNL. Not Ready for Prime Time Players: John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Dan Aykroyd, and Gilda Radnor

It seems like Lorne Michaels was destined for show business from the get-go. The SNL creator was born Lorne Lipowitz in Toronto, Canada, to parents Florence and Henry Lipowitz. The Lipowitz family loved the entertainment industry, and they would watch movies and TV shows, and talk about the actors and actresses. Lorne daydreamed about acting, writing, and directing, and he put on musicals in summer camp, wrote funny items for his high school newspaper, contributed comedy sketches to the school's 'Frolics', acted in school shows, etc.


Young Lorne Michaels

Teenage Lorne's friend (and later his first wife) Rosie Shuster was the daughter of comedian Frank Shuster, and Frank taught Lorne the fundamentals of television production.


Lorne Michaels' first wife Rosie Shuster


Frank Shuster

Lorne also steeped himself in culture: Victorian novels, Romantic poets, Shakespeare, newspapers, plays, comedy revues, comedy recordings, etc. Lorne and a friend would also take the bus to New York to sit in studio audiences and meet people working in the industry.

At the University of Toronto Lorne majored in English, and co-wrote and directed the University College Follies, a well-regarded theatrical revue. 'Lorne had organizational skills, a grip on the technical aspects of mounting a show, a knack for spotting talent, and a temperament that allowed people to flourish creatively.' Lorne was honing the talents he'd later need for SNL.

After college, Lorne spent time in Europe, especially London, then returned to Canada in 1966, determined to succeed in the entertainment industry. Lorne and his friend Earl Pomerantz formed a comedy team called Lipowitz and Pomerantz, and performed in local clubs and on radio and television shows.


Lipowitz and Pomerantz Comedy Team (Lorne Michaels and Earl Pomerantz)

Along the way, Lorne changed his name to Lorne Michaels and married Rosie Shuster - who was also a comedy writer. Lorne had originally planned to stay in Canada, but went to Los Angeles at the age of 24, to write for 'The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show'. Going on to write for 'Laugh-In', and with his knack for fraternizing, Lorne met all the right people: talent agent Bernie Brillstein; variety TV eminence Bob Finkel; sitcom writer Bob Schiller; producer George Schlatter; and more.

Lorne soon moved on to other aspects of show business, cultivating his skills. One of Lorne's triumphs is a hilarious skit on 'The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour' called 'The Puck Crisis'. This is a mockumentary about an invasive species that spread Dutch Puck Disease, which devastated the crops of Canada's hockey puck farmers. "Over grim footage of lab-coated scientists examining shriveled pucks drooping from branches, a dead-serious voiceover explains the blight's origins: puck pests, or puctococci, were accidently carried over on the sticks of a touring Dutch hockey team." This skit - and numerous others - stood Lorne in good stead as he pursued future endeavors.


SNL cast member Gilda Radner challenges the show's guest, professional football player Fran Tarkenton, to an arm wrestling competition on set


Will Ferrell on SNL

Lorne's ascent up the entertainment industry ladder is thoroughly documented by author Susan Morrison. Starting early on, Lorne worked with talents like Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Teri Garr, Candace Bergen, Neil Young, James Taylor, Garrett Morris, Albert Brooks, Lili Tomlin, Buck Henry, Richard Pryor, Molly Shannon, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Pete Davidson, Norm Macdonald, Chris Rock, Jimmy Fallon, and on and on - creating many symbiotic relationships with show business folk. Lorne also became close friends with famous people like Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, and Paul McCartney, which added to his glittery image.


Paul McCartney and Lorne Michaels


George Carlin on SNL


Eddie Murphy on SNL


SNL cast members Bill Murray, John Belushi, Garrett Morris, and Steve Martin are seen hanging out backstage on set


Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey, and Bill Hader on SNL


Chris Farley on SNL

On the subject of SNL, the book covers every aspect of the show, from conception, to creation, to birth pangs, to success, to Lorne leaving for five years, to good and bad shows, to sketches, to political philosophy, to budgets, to drug dealers on the set, to awards, to Lorne's management style, to props, to everything else you can think of. If you're interested in the people connected with SNL - producers, directors, writers, assistants, actors, actresses, comics, mimics, musicians, guest hosts, costume designers, supporters, detractors, critics, what have you - this is the book for you.


The control room for SNL in the late '70s was just as busy of a place as it is today, as the show has been live since its inception


Dennis Miller, Dana Carvey, and Tom Hanks on SNL


Joe Piscopo appears in a sketch impersonating David Letterman. As the comedian looks in the camera, his cue cards can be seen in the wings


Kenan Thompson on SNL

SNL has been on the air for half a century, and is the parent of a huge 'family'. Morrison writes, "When graduates of the show reunite for anniversaries, they feel a kinship across the decades. They are an elite tribe, like astronauts." And producer/comedian Paula Pell remarked, "It's like Lorne had a hundred children with nine wives. It blows your mind, the amount of connective tissue he's created in the world of comedy."


Paula Pell


Steve Martin joins magician Harry Anderson at a cast party after the show in the early '80s. To this day, the cast still gathers for an after-party following each episode


Candice Bergen practices her opening monologue during rehearsal for an episode in which she was the host. She was the first woman to host SNL and did so five times between 1975 to 1990

Part of Lorne's legacy includes show business ventures beyond SNL, and Morrison writes about these as well. The author also discusses Lorne's personal life: his mother, father, extended family, wives (Rosie Shuster, Susan Forristal, and Anne Barry), friends, lifestyle, homes, favorite restaurants, vacations, parties, gift-giving (Lorne has a knack for thoughtful presents), and so on. (Note: Lorne and Alice Barry have three children, Sophie, Henry, and Edward)


Lorne Michaels' second wife Susan Forristal


Lorne Michaels and his third wife Alice Barry


Lorne Michaels with his children Sophie, Henry, Edward

Morrison did an enormous amount of research for this 600+ page biography, which tells us a lot about Lorne Michaels. It would seem Lorne's most important legacy is the 'healing laughter' provided by SNL, which can draw a smile, and help us go on, even after a disaster or bad news.

It feels like every famous person in the modern western world is mentioned in this book, which I'd recommend to readers interested in the entertainment industry, especially fans of SNL.

Thanks to Netgalley, Susan Morrison, and Random House for a copy of the book.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Although [Lorne] Michaels would become famous as a father figure, [Saturday Night Live writer] Anne Beatts considered his management style as being 'maternal': if he saw talent in people, he created the conditions for them to flourish. His businesslike calm was a counterbalance to the whirling egos and animosities that drove his employees. When he held forth about the principles of comedy, some found him mesmerizing . . . She pegged him as the type of comedy professional who, instead of laughing, '[simply] says, with a completely straight face, 'Hysterical.''" -- on page 179

One of the better show biz-related biographies that I've read in some time, Ms Morrison's thorough and outstanding Lorne is both a portrait of the comedy writer-turned-television producer Lorne Michaels - a Canadian native best known for creating and being the long-time show runner of America's Saturday Night Live program - AND a candid behind-the-scenes look at his TV series. (I had previously considered Hill & Weingrad's excellent Saturday Night - which covered the first ten years of the show - to be the gold standard for 'SNL'-themed books, but now Lorne certainly deserves a mention on the same short list.) Michaels has arguably been doing something right both in his career and with the series - 'SNL' has been on the air continuously since 1975, and he has been overseeing it for all but five of its seasons, along the way garnering a record 21 Emmy awards out of 106 nominations. Yet the book is not simply a dry retelling of a life story, or a colorless look at the TV show - Ms Morrison really dug in here to establish his background, and conducted research and interviews to fully flesh out the taciturn-seeming Michaels and his ways. Although he has a persona as a cool, calm and collected man who is reserved by nature, I enjoyed the revealing and low-key character-defining moments, such as that he loves to meet the visiting family members of his performing cast. (This was charmingly referenced by former 'SNL' writer/performer Tina Fey in her Bossypants memoir, when Michaels was impressed upon meeting her quietly charismatic father Don Fey.) Even though I have not regularly watched 'SNL' in some years - and even Michaels understands that it probably has it strongest hold on a viewer during their high school and/or college years - this was a nostalgia-laced and informative read that also regularly depicts just how difficult (whether it be timing, topicality, or often the talent's egos) it can be to make a weekly live TV show.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t read them often, but I do like old behind-the-scenes showbiz stories. When an early review copy of this became available, I thought it might be a breezy, superficial cash-in of a book marketed to coincide with SNL’s 50th anniversary year. Since I’m not above a quick perusal of a breezy, superficial cash-in of a book, I figured it might be worth a look.

So I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this is a substantial, deeply-researched, fully-fleshed-out, definitive biography of one of television’s most influential producers and comedy pacesetters, which I only later found out has been nearly a decade in the making.

Few TV producers are famous in their own right, and most who are currently known by name (like, say, Chuck Lorre or Shonda Rhimes) are known for a prolific body of work. You have to go back to the likes of Rod Serling or Gene Roddenberry to find TV producers who are essentially known for one career-defining thing. Lorne Michaels, you could say, is as current as Lorre and Rhimes in his output and influence, and as old-school as Serling and Roddenberry in his connection to one definitive project.

And that bridge between the old and the new, between Michaels’ reverence for what has come before and his push to help define what comes next, is a major theme of the book. As mainstream as SNL is today, it’s easy to forget how subversive it was when it debuted. And yet even then, it had its roots in classic comedy, Morrison observes, as Michaels “was hoping to be able to recreate the Colgate Comedy Hour and the Sid Caesar Show” for a younger, modern audience.

Long before SNL, though, a large part of the book is devoted to Michaels’ upbringing and his influences. We learn how the young Lorne Lipowitz grew up enchanted by comedy and entertainment, absorbing the lore of old showbiz from his neighbor/later first wife’s comedian father. Putting on SNL-like weekly shows at summer camp eventually led to putting on an SNL-like show on Canadian TV, which eventually led to… not SNL, but a career dead-end in Hollywood.

SNL would come, but not just yet. Michaels once again found himself straddling the old and the new, the hip and the hoary, embracing the counterculture of the 1960’s and 70’s while making a living writing for a lot of schlocky old-fashioned variety shows of the era. As one who was “as much an old showbiz buff as he was a young man in a hurry,” he found himself “caught between feeling like he was going places and panicking that he had dead-ended.”

It was a combination of talent and serendipity that led to Saturday Night Live. This is the part of Michaels’ story that most readers have probably come for, while simultaneously being the part that’s most often told. But Morrison tells it with engaging writing and compelling detail. It was actually NBC executives who thought up much of the show’s structure - that it should be called Saturday Night, that it would be live, broadcast from NBC headquarters in Rockefeller Center, and have guest hosts. It all meshed with the ideas that Michaels himself had, for a youth-oriented comedy sketch show with live rock music, featuring a repertory company that often satirized television itself, with fake commercials, game shows, newscasts and the like.

The early years of the show are well-covered by other books, but Morrison differentiates her take by keeping the focus on Michaels, his theories and analysis of comedy, and how to generate a show from scratch every week, as she deconstructs early sketches and their influences instead of merely summarizing them. Complaints that the show wasn’t as good as it used to be started only a few years in, as “success made it seem mainstream” and Michaels found that “maintaining a hit was almost harder than creating one.”

Tensions with less creative-minded executives are a recurring theme, particularly during Michaels’ “wilderness years,” when he left the show after its fifth season and was lured back for its eleventh; during the rocky 1984-85 and 1994-95 seasons when the show was at risk of being cancelled; and in 1998, when humorless execs got Norm Macdonald and longtime writer Jim Downey fired. By this time, Michaels comes across as somewhat more detached, making decisions that weren’t always best for the show, inviting more executive interference. While every story seems to end with Michaels coming out ahead and outsmarting the suits, Morrison does manage to show that the one-time wunderkind is far from infallible in his approach to comedy and his management style.

With no real rocky periods to speak of in the show’s second quarter-century, this portion of the book is somewhat less interesting, as everything seems to coast along and the stories about how the show handled challenges like 9/11, recent presidential elections and Covid are much more familiar. At this point, the book is less about Michaels’ rise and the creative process, and more about the show itself, as the one-time counterculture darling developed into an old showbiz-style institution itself. I'm not sure it would have been realistic to do so, but I don't think the book would have lost anything had all of the past 25 years or so been truncated into a shorter summary rather than stretched into full chapters.

Over time, Michaels himself became a mogul, rich and well-connected beyond his wildest dreams. And yet some of his dreams, from becoming a successful filmmaker to becoming, improbably, editor of the New Yorker, never came to pass, as most of his successes are directly linked to SNL - overseeing the rest of NBC late night, with his hoped-for movie career largely limited to producing SNL spinoffs.

The book’s structure is unusual, in that it’s divided into “parts” named for days of the week, each one starting with a chapter describing a day in the production process leading up to a 2018 episode of SNL (it’s unclear why Morrison didn’t manage to get insider access to a more recent production week - 2018 was a long time ago, after all). Then, after each of these opening chapters, the book reverts to its original timeline right where it left off in the previous part. So it can be a little jarring, lurching back and forth in time - but it all comes together in the end, where the final chapter describes show day and you really get to see Michaels in action, making decisions large and small, being incredibly hands-on in some cases, surprisingly hands-off in others, and choreographing the entire process of turning what appears to be endless chaos into live television.

“He is the real star of the show,” Morrison writes of Michaels early in the book. By the book’s end, that’s hard to dispute. After 50 years, the show may not always be funny, but it’s undoubtedly still influential, as a marriage of the old and the new, the hip and the hokey, the subversive and the institutional, the likes of which we’re unlikely ever to see again.

Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Random House for providing an advance copy of this book for review, ahead of its February 18th release.

[Alan Chrisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always thought SNL was overrated. Even at its height, with its best cast, skits went too long and were always politically correct. Lorne Michaels string puller behind, started out as wannabe Cdn. comic himself. Moved to L.A., struggled to find his place writing jokes for Phyllis Diller, Flip Wilson, Laugh In. When NBC needed fill a late night spot and reach a younger demographic, he finally got his chance. Problem is it became an institution, the very thing it was against. Lots of celebrity name dropping, many who worked with him views of him, both good and bad.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This did not have to be a 23 hr audiobook. While it had some fun bits, the lack of clear timeline was not my favorite.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this 600 pager like it was nothing, and I will definitely re-read "Lorne" again soon, so I can suck out all its marrow. The best biographies for me are the ones where learning about someone else's life/world helps me make sense of my own. Lorne was one of those books.

Susan Morrison's portrait of Lorne works on so many levels--as a celebrity biography, as a business book, as an essential piece of comedy history, and as a behind-the-scenes peak at how an episode of SNL gets made. The biography alternates between a straightforward account of Lorne's life, and an exhilarating piece of "embedded journalism", as Morrison describes the chaotic experience of watching Lorne put an episode of SNL together in real-ish time.

You see how he handles host Jonah Hill (Morrison is able to convey a lot about Hill just by quoting him lol), glimpse some behind the scenes drama with then-cast member Leslie Jones, learn the different stages of production leading up to show night, and are even made privy to the ruthless, rapid fire production notes Michaels provides the writing staff during dress rehearsal. You see Michaels navigate political fallout after Pete Davidson makes a flippant remark about a veteran. You even get to tag along to an SNL post-show party.

I learned a ton about Lorne, and while it wasn't all flattering, it was compelling. Michaels sees himself as a problem solver, and he has an incredible ability to crystallize every moment of his life into wisdom. Surprisingly, many of the lessons Lorne has learned in showbiz has helped me process/understand a few things in my own non-showbiz life! It was kind of an inspiring read in that way.

You don't have to be a diehard SNL fan to relish this book (I'm not), but I imagine it would be a lot to absorb if you didn't know anything about the show going in. Even so, I'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who is even slightly aware of/interested in Lorne Michaels.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been a fan of SNL since the first show in 1975.

As Lorne willingly admits the show has had its ups and downs through the 50 years it has been on TV.

I enjoyed the more in-depth view of Lorne Michaels and the backstage look at the production of SNL.

Lots of info I never knew with lots I did know. Thoroughly enjoyable especially if you’re a fan.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it began 50 (yikes) years ago, Saturday Night Live relished in its image of gonzo television, and helmed by Lorne Michaels has somehow retained that aura while gaining respect. This heavily researched biography does a great job of telling Michaels's story and how he shaped the show featuring the kind of humor that he appreciates. The most interesting parts to me were of how the show is crafted, the creative forces necessary to go live from New York at precisely 11:30 on Saturday nights. He has remarked that they go on not because they are ready, but because it's time. Fascinating but not a perfect 5 because it could have used a bit of trimming.

[Steve Peifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess a 50 year institution’s creator deserves a biography, but something this massive seems like a strange choice.

It’s unusual how unfunny this book is. The few really funny lines (Henry Kissinger actually calls the show trying to get tickets for his son and Al Franken tells him he could of had them if he hadn’t bombed Cambodia) almost seem like accidents they are so rare.

Michaels come across as so in love with his wealth and famous friends that if you looked up insufferable in the dictionary, his picture would appear next to the definition. It’s a puzzling choice to make the subject so unlikable, but maybe the research she did gave her no other choice.

If you listen to it as an audible book, you keep wondering if the narrator is making a conscious choice to be so bad it is somehow good. The way she renders his voice would get her booed off the stage at a high school reader’s theater. I can’t remember a worst narrator.

I like SNL and I appreciate Michaels talents so I’m not sad that I read it, but boy howdy I can’t imagine recommending it to anyone but a hard core fan.

[Stuart Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what you want in a celebrity biography - or any biography, really. Deep reporting. Stories you haven’t heard a million times. Clean, incisive writing. And the feeling that you never know, moment to moment, just what you think about the subject, your assessment changing with the evidence.

Lorne Michaels is a source of constant fascination of anyone who comes into contact with him. Seemingly every SNL alumnus has a theory about him, and literally every SNL alumnus can’t seem to stop thinking about him.

Michaels, through author Morrison’s reporting, emerges as an act of will and self-creation. What he has made of himself is not always flattering, but is always fascinating. I simply loved and devoured this book.

Many thanks to Random Hoise and NetGalley for the advance reviewer copy.

[Jill S]

kudos to Susan Morrison for writing a very interesting book about a very uninteresting man

[Jon Gaide · Rating 5 out of 5]

What's the appropriate number of pages to read about Lorne Michaels? The answer is almost certainly not six hundred and fifty, but I enjoyed this read from cover to cover

[Wendi Manning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve wished for this book for so many years. Lorne Michaels has always fascinated me and my expectations were very high. I wasn’t disappointed.

Lorne goes deep. This book covers him from his childhood to now and it really covers everything. That made the book a little longer than necessary. It also name drops as much as Lorne does. That’s my only issue with it.

The research and writing are so well done. I really recommend this one!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC, all opinions are my own.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who knows me knows that Saturday Night Live has and will always be a hyper-fixation for me. So this VERY LONG BOOK (and even longer audiobook) was purely fascinating. But this is not a memoir and definitely not the faint of heart.

[Jojo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main reason I don’t rate this higher is because it is a 600+ page book and i think easily about 100 pages could be cut. There are so many names of people that the author writes about who are in Lorne’s orbit and we just don’t need to know them all. I wanted to read about the SNL drama and the cast, both old and new, and maybe a little bit about Lorne’s upbringing, but just a little bit…. (it is after all a bio).

The second reason is someone wrote a review here and described the writing a little bit like reading a term paper. (I agree.)

The third reason is because the one episode the author chose to write about to illustrate the behind the scenes of how SNL is produced during the week was when Jonah Hill hosted. Jonah Hill comes off as a tool, (which wasn’t surprising, given all that tabloid news about the texts his former girlfriend disclosed that showed his controlling behavior.)

The episodes that would have been more interesting would be Kanye West, Dave Chappelle (after Hillary lost), Sinead O’Connor or Norm Macdonald, (when he returned to SNL after having been fired.) Who among us remembers the Jonah Hill episode? (I tried to find that episode On Demand and it wasn’t available, though most all the rest of them were.)

I realized after reading it that I did not like Lorne as much as i thought i would. Yes, he is an enigmatic genius, (I guess), but he is not someone i would want to work for, nor would i want him in my family.

Much like the the Rolling Stone’s bio I read about Jann Wenner, (which also disappointed), Lorne comes across as name dropping and fawning over celebrities. The author writes how Lorne holds back communication and uses it as a weapon. This is one of my least favorite traits in a man’s personality. (Though i need to add that Jann comes across to be more of an egomaniac and narcissist than Lorne.)

Having said all of this, it was a pretty decent read, but maybe just because it’s been raining every day here for about two weeks so having a thick book was good. I just wish i hadn’t purchased it and checked it out of the library instead. It’s not a book i need to own in my stacks and i can’t really recommend it.

When Lorne dies i would much rather read a tell all book about him from one of the former cast members. Maybe John Mulaney, Tina Fey, Pete Davidson or Kenan Thompson.

[Matt Woodward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook. 650 pages/23hours about Lorne Michaels (or anyone) is excessive. So I skipped/skimmed most of the book having to do with Lorne's life and listened to the chapters that gives a behind-the-scenes look for every day of the week leading up to the show. I'd recommend doing that.

[Jordan Eichenblattt · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve ever wondered how SNL was made. We’re curious to what happened when this happened, it’s all in this book. For a comedy nerd and a tv junkie and even a pop culture fan this biography was much more than that, it was a behind the scenes style monologue but it wasn’t fake it was real. You became a fly on the wall at SNL, and no one swatted you down until Congressman Dan Crenshaw noticed you and it was over. (That’s not a political statement but more of when the book ends)

Awesome to learn more

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars because of how comprehensive and well researched this was. I personally didn’t connect to the parts from SNL eras that I’m not familiar with (which, frankly, is more than half of the show’s history), but I respect how much went into the author’s 10 year journey of writing this book. It was long as hell so buckle UP.

[Erin Wanek · Rating 5 out of 5]

“When [Will] Ferrell finally realized that he was hired, he asked to shake his new boss's hand. "Do whatever you need to do," Michaels said.”

Author does an excellent job weaving present day with Lorne’s remarkable journey to get here. Probably as in depth as you are going to get on the enigma and legend that is Lorne Michaels. Truly incredible to learn what a significant impact he’s had on so many people and how much heart is behind that cool as a cucumber demeanor.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Alex Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone agrees that the best years of SNL were whenever they were in high school, but even haters are bound to respect a guy who has managed to have had as big of a huge impact on American entertainment for as long as he has. Fans of SNL or showbiz generally will like it.

PS—I listened to the audio book and it was fun hearing the narrator do her “Lorne” voice

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

*audiobook

[Dennis McCrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is without a doubt my favorite ongoing TV program. This is the only TV program at the present time y hat I set aside time on a weekly basis to watch. I find little value in the TV programming drivel that is found elsewhere. Books as of late have become my escape.

Lorne Michaels (the book’s subject) is the person who envisioned SNL in 1975.

This book allowed me to understand how the program was visualized in the beginning, how it’s put together on a weekly basis today and how and why it’s continued to be the successful program it is at present.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Having written the constitution of SNL, Michaels brings a world of practice to solving the problems it creates. It’s supposed to be funny, and ‘when it’s not,’ he said, ‘you have to demonstrate that there’s a decency to the show.’”

[Desiree · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a great, in-depth biography of Lorne & a behind the scenes of SNL. Much of the history & BTS have been portrayed in other formats (books, docs, films, etc) but this expanded upon what I’ve already consumed and did so in a captivating way.

It’s no secret I love SNL & Lorne, so I found every single nugget of information super fascinating, and I still want more! I loved how this was structured: into 6 parts, one for each day of a typical SNL work week; starting on Monday with the pitch meeting, and ending on Saturday with the live taping. In this biography, Susan Morrison takes us through the week of Jonah Hill’s 2018 hosting episode (in which he joined the Five Timer’s Club) while cutting back in time to key events in Lorne’s life leading up to the creation of Saturday Night Live. But don’t worry, it doesn’t end there. We get to hear about a lot of the production decisions throughout the lifespan of the show through interviews with Lorne, his friends, and iconic SNL stars and writers.

It was literal perfection.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and a great read for any fan of SNL.

It was a bit long, at over 600 pages, but written in a way that kept your attention.

I was 15 in 1975 when it first aired and I remember lying in my bed after a night spent with good friends and SNL popped on at 11:30 and I was hooked.

Definitely groundbreaking stuff.


Lorne was a visionary and he had the guts to put stuff out there that would make a parent in the 70’s cringe. Mine never knew what I was watching since they were already asleep.

It became my Saturday Night Ritual. I stopped watching a few years back. I just don’t find it enjoyable anymore. I guess the torch has passed to a new generation or two, but I’m so glad I got on for the ride at the very beginning when it was truly good.

[Mediaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Massive, biased biography of the SNL chief, written with the blessing of Lorne Michaels himself. That should give readers concern because Michaels is a Mafia-like control freak and rarely grants interviews.

I've read so many SNL books and all draw him as a softspoken dictator who is difficult to please, and I've come to dislike his leadership style as well as the crap he puts on the air late Saturday nights.

This book didn't change my opinion of the disgustingly self-serving and liberal producer. Over three-fourths of his show segments are amateurish, he has no problem allowing staff to push a distorted anti-conservative agenda, and (in my view watching it from the start) he should have been replaced at least a decade ago. The 50th Anniversary special had a few good bits but most of it was lame and failed to honor some of the most significant stars in the show's history (because Lorne avoids them when they don't bow down to him or say something negative publicly about him).

This brings a lot of interesting background detail while breezing through the years (as fast as the author can in 600 pages!), but it's also filled with first-person speculation by Morrison and leaves out a whole lot of negative perspectives that should have been included. Pages are packed with bits of supposed facts without any attribution, and despite having a footnotes index most references to where she got the information is never included. Morrison makes all sorts of claims about Michaels' emotions, feelings and motivations without any source shown.

It's not a whitewash but it is a propaganda piece that concludes Lorne Michaels is a soft-hearted benevolent family man who has found a peace-loving Canadian way to treat others. Remember how Mafia leaders claim to be all about family and preach about keeping peace through loyalty to the man in charge?

I prefer to think of Lorne as the book states in one spot: "Colleagues have mentally linked Michaels to...The Godfather," with John Mulaney saying: "He was like a hit man." Maybe the title of the book should have been Hit Man, which has multiple meanings that would reflect the mob-like producer's personality and life.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loaded with well-sourced details and behind-the-scene moments. Creatively shifting between past and present, this is a smart, funny and very interesting read. There’s a lot of ground to cover and the writer sifts through a wealth of material both in Lorne’s life and the show’s life. They’re really the same thing, aren’t they? There’s a beautiful Fred Armisen quote near the end that sums up both Lorne and SNL but I don’t want to give it away. It’s worth reading your way to it.

[E.C. Pollick Byrnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hm....

I don't know what I was expecting...but it wasn't... this.

This book was interesting enough that I keep reading, but I doubt I'll recite any fun major fact about Lorne Michaels and SNL from reading this book. I found the biography part of this biography kind of minimal, oddly enough. The parts analyzing Lorne's take on comedy somehow made the comedy less funny to me because it was so highbrow; so psychoanalytical and the way it was discussed, too erudite. I don't know - maybe there's no way to do that well, but as a lifelong SNL fan, I was so just soo, soo distracted by this book's tone and style that I felt took away from the substance.

The story also had a weird cadence to its storytelling. It starts from a moment when the author clearly was approved to follow a typical SNL week for a Jonah Hill-hosted episode from 2018 - why this moment from 7 years ago before this story is finally published is never addressed. In fact, the most recent as far as I could tell this book references is 2021 - which again, is weird for a book published in 2025. I get she's a journalist and it took her time to write the story and time for the publishing house to actually get everything to print, but these seem like pretty significant time gaps that I thought was odd it was just never addressed.

The book starts us off with the week in 2018 where Jonah Hill will be the host. The author reviews the potential sketches that were considered for Jonah's episode, and then we shift into 50 years of Lorne history and the evolution of SNL. Jarring? Yes. After consuming 50 years worth of history, then, we randomly are dumped back into the same point of time of the Jonah Hill show, and the author is referring back to sketches that I'm like wait, you talked about this like 17 years ago - I don't remember what they were. The story is supposed to be broken down into days of the week to I guess better tell you about how shows come together in a typical week but the whole thing just didn't work for me. I found it very hard to follow.

Lastly, we got to talk about the man himself. The more I read this book, the less I liked Lorne. By the end of the book, to defend Maggie Rogers alone, I just wanted to punch the man and tell him off to stop being a bully.

But seriously, the older Lorne gets and the more the author details the more snippy "notes" he gives actors and guests, he just sounds so pretentious and old man-ish. "I know more than you- you're 24 you don't know anything" which if you guys would remember being 24, you'd remember that shit boiling your blood when someone older did that to you.

The best parts of the book are the more human parts of Lorne's story - dealing with the death of his father, his loneliness as his prior marriages didn't work out, Belushi and Farley's death - those are really touching moments in the story. I also found the network sniping/politicking pretty interesting, but not anything that was wildly new to me.

In all honesty, I read "Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live" a few years ago and I enjoyed that read wayyyyy more than this one. It was just more of a likable story to me.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read dozens and dozens of memoirs but this might be my first biography and now I want to read more biographies.

Phew what a life. Clearly Michaels was super influenced by his dad dying when he was 14 which drove a lot of his desire to succeed and then also act as a father figure to so many rising comedians. At the end it touches on his relationship with Pete Davidson which was so so sweet. You really could feel how much he loves him, even in just a few stories.

Anyways I'm jumping ahead...the first 300 pages of this 600 page biography are about Michaels' early life through the first 3 seasons of SNL. So so so many names of famous people and different players in 70s showbusiness. TV was still so new, the whole thing is just another world than the one I know. SNL was supposed to have the feeling of "the kids came out to play after the grown ups go to sleep" which I think still tracks with how the show feels.

The book also jumps to "present" day (the week Jonah Hill hosted in 2018) every few chapters chronicling the week leading up to Saturday Night, which was fun to bring things back to references I'm more familiar with and keep a feeling of a crescendo throughout the story.

The second half is much faster paced journey through the years of SNL, Spin-off movies, elections, 9/11, late night drama, Trump, Covid. This book left me feeling like Michaels has some connection to nearly all of the comedy that has been created in the last 50 years.

There is a clear theme of SNL rising and falling as it becomes more and more popular and then being on the brink of getting cancelled. Michaels seems just completely steady and unflappable through everything, which on one hand is really remarkable but on the other I do sort of wonder if he is dead inside? Maybe that's why I really liked the Pete Davidson anecdotes.

Michaels is self-aware enough to know that all this success and access to famous people doesn't ultimately satisfy and the pursuit of fame and money will always leave you wanting more...at least that's what he'll tell you.

I did end the book a little sad. So many of his friends died. I'm not sure I got the sense that he is satisfied. He always has notes. I think the pursuit of laughs as the ultimate goal is tricky....but I don't know I guess I am too earnest which is why I wasn't a big fan of SNL for a long time.

This was a great biography. I loved getting a 3rd person account, the author interviewed a billion people for this. I feel like I got to have my own takeaways instead of being spoon-fed advice like in a memoir. The end.