First published 2026
Lorne Michaels has run Saturday Night Live for five decades, becoming both revered and mysterious in the entertainment world. Cast members call him everything from Obi-Wan Kenobi to a distant comedy god, but nobody really knows the man behind America's longest-running sketch show. Susan Morrison spent unprecedented time with Michaels and his SNL world, conducting hundreds of interviews with everyone from Will Ferrell and Tina Fey to Chris Rock and Dan Aykroyd. She takes readers inside the actual process of making the show, revealing how Michaels built and sustained the institution that transformed American comedy. The book shows Michaels as talent spotter, businessman, father figure, and winner of over a hundred Emmys. Morrison delivers the complete story of how one man created a cultural force that has shaped generations of performers and writers.
Genres: biography, business, american, cultural-studies
Vibes: behind-the-scenes, insightful, intimate, reverent, thought-provoking
Tropes: institutional-history, mentor-figure, portrait-of-a-visionary
Setting: United States
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
672 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks