Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live By Susan Morrison – A Book Review

Lorne Michaels has been an entertainment figurehead for a long time, but in Susan Morrison’s biography, Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, we learn he’s much more than that.  Morrison’s biography tells the story of Lorne Michaels’ rise in show business and comedy and details a typical work week. Including how an episode of Saturday Night Live comes together.

Starting on Monday, October 29, 2018, Susan Morrison details the number of little fires she has to put out before the Monday meeting with SNL’s guest host that week, Jonah Hill. Setting the scene, we learn that Michaels is pulled in all sorts of directions. While being not only the producer of SNL, he’s also the producer of the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers’s late-night. Michaels handles these little crises well. It seems, at this point, forty-plus years at the time of the book’s writing, Lorne has seen it all. Once the workday reaches its end, Morrison chronologically delves into Michaels’s life.

Starting with his upbringing in Toronto, Ontario, and his influences. Lorne then delves into his early works and his time on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. Since so much of Lorne’s history is wrapped up in SNL’s, we get a lot of behind-the-scenes. This information is almost a back-door origin of the show.

Having loved the Aaron Sorkin-esque quality of Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s Saturday Night movie, but recognizing that much of it was fictionalized, it was nice to get those aspects of the story straightened out. Morrison wisely adds context to some of the figures Lorne had to work with, whether comedian or executive. At some points, I can’t tell if the TV world was just that small fifty-plus years ago, or if Lorne simply fell into some of these jobs.

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There are fantastic chapters on some of the other ventures made by Lorne Michaels. Such as the few years he had left SNL to start making movies and his return to the show and the process of making movies based on sketches, such as Wayne’s World. There are chapters each devoted to Late Night with Conan O’Brien and his other foray into sketch comedy with Canada’s own Kids In The Hall. 

The book rides the line of common knowledge, but also has new information and insights for die-hard SNL fans like myself. While the criticisms of Saturday Night Live are mostly objective, the criticisms against Lorne Michaels himself are not so much veiled. However, they definitely seem hushed. With as much control as he has had over his corner of comedy and entertainment, it will be interesting to see how the pieces fall at his retirement or death.

Overall Grade: 8/10

I would give the book an 8/10 overall. I’m a long time SNL fan and this book was most of what I wanted. I get the feeling there were a few details left out that may not have made Michaels left looking desirable. I would call this a blemish and some, rather than a warts and all. We get some of his work ethic and his personal rules for writing, but also a lot more info than what may have been previously available for a person who seems to be private. 

Pick up Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morisson through Penguin Random House.

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