| View Larger Image | 39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There | Hardcoverby Tom Davis (Author), Al Franken (Introduction)
| List Price: | $24.00 | | Price: | $16.32 | | You Save: | $7.68 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Grove Press | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | March 03, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 37,276th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780802118806
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss is a seriously funny, offbeat and irreverent memoir that chronicles the early days of Saturday Night Live and features some of its greatest personalities—Al Franken, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Michael O'Donoghue, and Chris Farley. Written by Tom Davis, an original SNL writer and comedy partner of Al Franken, 39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss is the story of coming of age in the 60s, and a spellbinding account of the birth and rise of one of television’s most celebrated shows, Saturday Night Live. Tom Davis’ memoir is filled with wry, candid anecdotes about his days at Saturday Night Live and friendship with its stars. But it also the story of Davis’ own coming of age—escaping his conservative roots in suburban Minneapolis, traveling the world, and reveling in the hippie culture of 1960s San Francisco. The author finds the highs and lows of his own career to be an hilarious counterpoint to the meteoric rise of SNL and his friends' growing celebrity. Hysterical, lucid and wise, 39 Years of Short Term Memory Loss is a free spirited, unrepentant romp through an era of sex, drugs, and comedy. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 23 reviews)
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This book is Hilarious by Uncle Jerry (Stinson Beach, Ca.)  5 Stars
August 18, 2009
This book is hilarious - laugh out loud funny - those giving it a poor review are looking for intimate details of back stage - oooohhhhh the intrigue - who's sleeping with who did Danny yell at John - what was Lorne wearing? Nope this is an entirely different look - more autobiographical with SNL tidbits thrown in along the way and the campy spaced out adventures of Tom Davis - how he and Al joined forces their success, failures and struggles - from Johnny Carson to Tim Leary. If you liked Fear and Loathing - you'll appreciate Tom's arc and life adventure.
Paul Burke
Author-Journey Home
Journey Home
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Perfect for any general lending library by Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) 5 Stars
July 18, 2009
Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL From Someone Who Was There is a funny and pointed memoir about the evolution of Saturday Night Live by one who was there to chart its birth and rise. The author and Al Franken met in prep school, wrote and starred in a show banned by school authorities, and enjoyed early success as a comedy team. Davis was there for Saturday Night Live's first day and his memoir brings alive those early, heady years. Perfect for any general lending library.
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Not what you think it's going to be by Jennifer Adams (New York, NY)  1 Stars
July 07, 2009
And that's not even the problem- when the book turns out not to be about Saturday Night Live so much as Tom Davis' penchant for drugs, it's STILL not good, in the least. I'm all for a little rambling down hippie lane, but this book reads like a too-long email from a college kid, bragging about what he did last night. There's no real timeline, no introspection, and all of the sentences are just choppy, declarative statements of things Tom Davis swallowed, and what people around him did. Perhaps the most annoying convention, and one he employes every 3-4 pages, is when he adds in short dialogue snippets, written out like a play. None are particularly funny, illuminating, or even interesting. I can only assume this book is titled as it is because once the editor saw it, he knew there was going to be no other way to sell it without a complete rewrite, by someone other than Tom Davis.
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Interesting but not a must read by Joe Duke (New York USA)  2 Stars
July 05, 2009
The book contains some interesting tidbits, but is not very well written. Every other paragraph ends with the author thanking someone. The book is disjointed, and out of sequence. Photos would be more elucidating if they were all captioned with subject's name. Strange how he refers to the "Franken and Davis" comedy duo, as if he wasn't the Davis of Franken and Davis. It's similar to a baseball player referring to himself in the third person.
Read "Wired"- Belushi's biography if you want a great SNL primer.
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interesting, unlikely success story of funny "everyman" druggie you knew in H.S. by Susan Goewey (Vienna, VA United States) 5 Stars
July 04, 2009
I ended up liking Davis so I want to help his average by giving him 5 star review...though it wasn't best book I've ever read, still it kept pulling me back to learn more. and was WAY better than "Living and Dying in LA" (couldn't get through) or another "fiction" book "Story of My Life" (based on John Edwards' mistress's true, but throughly depressing bio set in NYC) unlike those other druggie books Davis seems well aware of his own excess/idiocy/missed opportunities, etc.
It was an interesting book to read and you could pick it up anywhere ... it should give safe comfort to every wanna be comedy writer that that coveted life is not what it's cracked up to be...reading about his adventures trying to make it in comedy, succeeding, then losing it gave me a chance to live vicariously from the comfort of my nice suburban home...not wondering where my next meal was coming from and living off rent provided by Franken's parents.
Yes, he's got a poor memory, but he managed to tell his interesting stories in a funny and even "deep" way thanks to validation from offering up unedited emails from Al Franken... (Can't we all relate to lost friends/ family like Franken & Davis today, who we love but who we also don't see often.)
It was Laugh out loud funny in spots --"the comedy team that weighs the same", Chevey Chase "sneezing" on Lorne Michaels in first meeting of SNL writers and ironic Franken's posed question to candidate Ronald Regan on Press Bus (thanks to press pass provided by successful brother Owen Franken), depressing in others (he cheated on girls he loved), but he gives us fly on wall view of what it was like not just in beggining of SNL, but on road to SNL in your typical comedian's life working comedy clubs and relying on kindness of friends and strangers. Not a life I'd live, but the kind of life lived by guys I used to like to date and be entertained by...now I see why they liked Grateful Dead so much.
One question: where did you find money for all the drugs when you had no $$ for food/rent yet didn't (appear to) turn to life of crime ? Kindness of friends I guess. (Surely there's a joke in that, "we were poor but never knew it (being that we were so stoned all the time.)"
Congrats on telling your story Tom, nice trip down memory lane... hope you've given up the drugs by now and you didn't write this just to be able to buy more?
As Franken and Jon Stewart prove, "funny is the new serious" ... perhaps you should apply to be one of franken's caseworkers... or perhaps help him work on fixing healthcare in america ... i sense you have unique insight on how we can finally win war on drugs :)
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