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Lorne

Lorne

The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live

About the Book

The 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 and inimitable 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), “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.
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Praise for Lorne

From Lorne

“It’s him and Hitchcock. No one else has had this kind of longevity.”—John Mulaney

“If there were a Game of Thrones of show business, Lorne would be the last person standing.”—Conan O’Brien

“The first time you walk into the building, it’s like you’re seeing the Wizard of Oz.”—Kate McKinnon

“It’s like he invented NASA, or Yale.”—Mike Myers

“My favorite thing he always says is, ‘You can’t make an entrance if you never leave.’”—Chris Rock

“If you start drowning, he’s not, like, ‘Here’s a life jacket.’ He’s like, ‘Oooh, look at that guy drowning in my pool. That’s disgusting; let’s go over here and hang with Alec Baldwin.’”—Bill Hader

“He probably likes me and David Spade the best. There, I said it.”—Tina Fey

“When Lorne laughs, he looks like he’s in pain. Which I enjoy.”—Amy Poehler

“Baseball players keep the highs not too high and the lows not too low. That sums up Lorne’s management style; he knows that it’s a long season.”—Will Ferrell

“He always reminded me of Jack Benny.”—Paul McCartney

“Dave Letterman is genuinely self-deprecating. He genuinely doesn’t think he’s any good. Those problems don’t come up with Lorne.”—Steve Martin

“Nobody, nobody can ever replace him, because he has love. Underneath that depth and intelligence is deep love. It’s only him, it’s his show.”—Molly Shannon

“He’s like the great impresarios, like P. T. Barnum. They see the talent. They can blend it and turn it into a fabric that is very finely woven, and impermeable.”—Dan Aykroyd
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About the Author

Susan Morrison
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. More by Susan Morrison
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