The very nature of a blog is that you get to put your opinion out there in print for anyone, or preferably everyone, to read. 

There are many reasons for this. 

But speaking for those of us who do this consistently and with regularity (Note: Because why wouldn’t I?) we also believe we are here to inform, entertain, educate and/or yell and scream at the world when we think it deserves it because someone has to and no one can do it the way it needs to be done except for us.  

At our idealistic best, we’re merely trying to help.

At our unvarnished worst, we’re promoting our thoughts and/or ourselves. 

Often shamelessly.

So, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s the thing:

My husband and I wrote a fun and informative book on Saturday Night Live that will be released on Sept. 17^th from Rowman & Littlefield and we want you all to read it, enjoy it and, if you can, BUY IT!

It’s titled:

The SNL Companion: An Unofficial Guide to the Seasons, Sketches, and Stars of Saturday Night Live.

(Here’s the link to it on Amazon)

The list price is $36.95 but you can get it for 38% off at $22.81.

And it’s a whopping 648 pages!!

AND IT’S NOT BORING!!!

So here’s the deal and some background. 

This book is more than a list of stars, sketches, hosts and musical guests through the seasons.  It takes readers through all of the notable highlights, the transitions and the necessary evolutions it took to make SNL the longest-running comedy series on television.  Also, through an analysis of all of the historical information, as well as interviews about how the show portrayed what was going on in the country, it becomes a sort of time capsule of comedic and musical American pop culture, as well as a showcase for much of the political and sociological change we’ve endured and evolved from over the last 50 years. 

This was not necessarily the plan.

It only became that through extensive research on every key sketch (Note: And I mean EVERY) and seasonal high and low and in-between point throughout the history of the series.

We interpreted the information but at the end of the day it’s Lorne Michaels and everyone associated with SNL who deserve the credit.  They are responsible for creating the many hundreds of hours of outstanding television memories (Note: Oh, and of course, every episode and season has moments that bomb, that’s the case with every long-running series that’s ever been on television) we had the pleasure, and sometimes appalled bemusement, of reliving.

It’s not like every notable comedy star, writer, director or creator stepped through the doors of SNL since it began.  But, well, A LOT of them did.  Like — A LOT.  As we write in the book:

…Consider the popularity over the last fifty years of films starring:  Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Mike Myers.  Or the impact on TV made by shows created by, produced by or starring: Tina Fey, Larry David, Amy Poehler, Jane Curtin, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Maya Rudolph, Andy Samberg and Will Forte.  Not to mention writers and directors like Adam McKay, Michael Schur, Greg Daniels and Bob Odenkirk…

And that’s a partial list that leaves out stand-up comics, Broadway and concert performers, musical guests in pretty much every genre, and even any number of flash-in-the pan one hit or one bit wonders.

Here’s a more polished promotional link from the publisher: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781493072606

Two more personal points worth noting.

My husband and co-author, Stephen Tropiano, published the forerunner to this book, Saturday Night Live FAQ, through Applause Books almost a decade and a half ago.  But with the 50^th anniversary coming around and SNL’s enduring influence in the zeitgeist, especially in politics and through a continuous loop of viral moments, R & L (Note: They acquired Applause Books some years ago) asked him to revisit the material and expand the scope. 

Knowing I’m a political junkie who can’t resist comment and chronicling my every thought about that and pop culture somewhere, he generously asked me to co-author what has become a much more gargantuan and strangely personal project than we both imagined.

This brings me to the second thought. 

One of the best things I ever did in my life was to say “yes” in 1987 when a friend asked me to get together with someone he went to school with at NYU who had just moved to L.A. to get his PhD and didn’t know many people.  I took that someone to a party, spent the next three hours talking to him about something I was writing in between a few requisite questions about himself, and then drove him back to his college apartment at USC.

When we got inside we hung out and watched a new episode of SNL where guest host Sean Penn (then married to Madonna) joked about beating up paparazzi (Note: He used to do that kind of stuff and in fact had just done so mere days before the broadcast). 

Then we…..well, never mind.

In any event, that was thirty-seven years ago and that someone is now DR. Tropiano, the guy who I am married to and still hanging out with watching SNL.

We should really write a book about that. 

Or maybe not.

Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg – “Lazy Sunday”