{"id":16293,"date":"2025-05-19T12:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T16:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/?p=16293"},"modified":"2025-05-29T09:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T13:55:12","slug":"readers-notebook-5-19-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/2025\/05\/19\/readers-notebook-5-19-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader’s Notebook, 5\/19\/25"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to delay the weekend notes until tomorrow since we have a rather important event tonight. Fortunately I have two books that I need to share some thoughts about.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Surely You Can\u2019t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! – David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker<\/a>
\nTruly one of the most fun books I\u2019ve read in a long time. The three men behind the movie Airplane!<\/em> come together for an oral history of both how their partnership started and the lengthy, arduous process to get their classic comedy made. There are plenty of insights from other people, both from the cast and within the entertainment industry. I laughed almost as much reading this as I would had I been watching the movie, something I\u2019m about to do again for the first time in ages.<\/p>\n

My favorite piece of trivia that was new to me: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s part was originally written for Pete Rose. But as the film was being shot during the baseball season, Rose was unavailable and they had to scramble for a replacement. I can\u2019t imagine Rose would have been anywhere near as shocking and funny as Kareem.<\/p>\n

Also, fuck Pete Rose. For many, many reasons.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live – Susan Morrison<\/a>
\nAfter waiting for months my hold on the newest Lorne Michaels biography finally came in. I\u2019m not sure if this was essential, especially since I just read one of the great Saturday Night Live<\/em> accountings earlier this year. But I heard Morrison on Bill Simmons\u2019 podcast around the time her book came out and the access she got made it seem essential to an old SNL<\/em>-head like me.<\/p>\n

As a biography of a person rather than show, it obviously has a different focus. We learn all about Michaels\u2019 upbringing in Toronto and the early days of his career in Canada and the US before he began SNL<\/em>. We see how he developed his comedic point of view, both from absorbing the works of others and through his various failures early in his career.<\/p>\n

In the SNL<\/em> years, like so many other books that follow the show\u2019s history, the earlier years get more attention than the later ones. Many anecdotes I\u2019ve read multiple times before appear here. It was interesting, though, to see what ones Morrison highlighted or put into different contexts than past writers have done. There are plenty of quotes from many of the most famous performers in the show\u2019s history. Big surprise that Chevy Chase\u2019s reputation as an ass is confirmed for the millionth time.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always heard of Michaels\u2019 various personality traits that have a profound effect on the show and its cast members. He can be cold and distant, cruel and direct, inscrutable and maddening. He encourages and supports people in their weakest moments and then ignores them when they triumph. He is a name dropper of the first order, and casually mentions his friendships with some of the most famous people in the world and vacations at some of the most exclusive parts of the world like everyone else, including new cast members with a couple hundred dollars to their names, has the same experiences. He\u2019s kind of a weird dude.<\/p>\n

Morrison gets at where all that comes from. The final portrait isn\u2019t necessarily all that flattering. You can admire the institution he created while thinking he could have done some things differently over the past 50 years. I feel like that\u2019s something that has taken me over 50 years to figure out for myself: you can like someone\u2019s work while also thinking that they are kind of a dick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to delay the weekend notes until tomorrow since we have a rather important event tonight. Fortunately I have two books that I need to share some thoughts about. Surely You Can\u2019t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! – David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker Truly one of the most fun books I\u2019ve read in a long time. The three men behind the movie Airplane! come together for an oral history of both how their partnership started and the lengthy, arduous process to get their classic comedy made. There are plenty of insights from other people, both from the cast and within the entertainment industry. I laughed almost as much reading this as I would had I been watching the movie, something I\u2019m about to do again for the first time in ages. My favorite piece of trivia that was new to me: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar\u2019s part was originally written for Pete Rose. But as the film was being shot during the baseball season, Rose was unavailable and they had to scramble for a replacement. I can\u2019t imagine Rose would have been anywhere near as shocking and funny as Kareem. Also, fuck Pete Rose. For many, many reasons. Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live – Susan Morrison After waiting for months my hold on the newest Lorne Michaels biography finally came in. I\u2019m not sure if this was essential, especially since I just read one of the great Saturday Night Live accountings earlier this year. But I heard Morrison on Bill Simmons\u2019 podcast around the time her book came out and the access she got made it seem essential to an old SNL-head like me. As a biography of a person rather than show, it obviously has a different focus. We learn all about Michaels\u2019 upbringing in Toronto and the early days of his career in Canada and the US before he began SNL. We see how he developed his comedic point of view, both from absorbing the works of others and through his various failures early in his career. In the SNL years, like so many other books that follow the show\u2019s history, the earlier years get more attention than the later ones. Many anecdotes I\u2019ve read multiple times before appear here. It was interesting, though, to see what ones Morrison highlighted or put into different contexts than past writers have done. There are plenty of quotes from many of the most famous performers in the show\u2019s history. Big surprise that Chevy Chase\u2019s reputation as an ass is confirmed for the millionth time. We\u2019ve always heard of Michaels\u2019 various personality traits that have a profound effect on the show and its cast members. He can be cold and distant, cruel and direct, inscrutable and maddening. He encourages and supports people in their weakest moments and then ignores them when they triumph. He is a name dropper of the first order, and casually mentions his friendships with some of the most famous people in the world and vacations at some of the most exclusive parts of the world like everyone else, including new cast members with a couple hundred dollars to their names, has the same experiences. He\u2019s kind of a weird dude. Morrison gets at where all that comes from. The final portrait isn\u2019t necessarily all that flattering. You can admire the institution he created while thinking he could have done some things differently over the past 50 years. I feel like that\u2019s something that has taken me over 50 years to figure out for myself: you can like someone\u2019s work while also thinking that they are kind of a dick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-16293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-books"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16293"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16298,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16293\/revisions\/16298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}