Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
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 personalitiesAl 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
Rating: 
(out of 26 reviews)
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Review by Mark Demos for Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
Rating:
I’m a HUGE fan of SNL (especially that of the early years), so I snapped this title up almost as soon as it became available. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of believing that a book with the subtitle, “The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There”, might actually focus on, you know, THE EARLY DAYS OF SNL !!!
But that’s really not the case…….
Instead, what we get are a patchwork of recollections from Tom Davis’s drug-addled life and career, with emphasis on his friendship/partnership/break-up with Al Franken, some adventures and experiences shared with his pal Dan Aykroyd, and numerous exploits involving Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead (Davis’s favorite band).
To be fair, over the course of the book Davis DOES relate a number of stories from his time as a writer (and occasional performer) on SNL, however, nowhere near as many as I expected, or had hoped for, based on the misleading title.
The other stories that are told are, for the most part, interesting, and help the reader better understand the truly atypical life that Tom Davis has led, however, it’s the way he relates those stories that are this book’s biggest problem…………….simply put, they’re ALL over the place.
The story line (what little there is) is disjointed, and rather difficult to follow. The narrative constantly jumps back and forth from the present to the past (and back again) without much explanation (or segue) in between, leaving the reader in a semi-constant state of confusion regarding ‘time and place’………and THIS from a man who makes his living as a writer!!! (Though I realize that the writing of one’s bio is VERY different from the scripting of comedy “bits” for tv, movies and stand-up, understanding that fact doesn’t make the reading any easier.)
In the end, it’s up to the reader to make some kind of sense out of the ‘jumbled’ story line. I did, and am (mostly) glad that I did, since I learned a few things about ‘Saturday Night Live’ that I didn’t already know.
Still, I can’t recommend this book to anyone looking for a highly informative read on that particular subject. In fact, I guess I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but the most diehard of ‘SNL’ers’, or possibly to those looking for a glimpse into some of the formative experiences of Tom Davis’s onetime partner, (Minnesota Senator) Al Franken (and “Deadheads” too, might enjoy reading the various exploits of their ‘heroes’).
Having completed this work, my vote for the best SNL ‘history’ book is still “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests”, by James A. Miller and Tom Shales. It provides a decent overview of the show from a number of different perspectives, and is a VERY entertaining (and often surprising) read, to boot (It’s even been updated!). Comprised almost entirely of first-hand quotes culled from numerous interviews with the producers, writers, performers, and hosts from the show’s past, it touches on every ‘era’ in SNL history.
And hopefully we’ll one day still get the ‘definitive’ book on the early days of SNL from “someone who was there”, but, sad as it is to say, it’s now beginning to look like that may never happen…….
Hmmmmmmmm………….”Paging Mr. Michaels, Mr. Lorne Michaels…”
Review by Shaun Mason for Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
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Tom Davis and his cohorts at Saturday Night Live helped to shape my sense of humor. The show premiered when I was 14 years old and was very important to me at a very formative age. Therefore, I was greatly looking forward to this book. As stated in a previous review, Davis’s memory for what drugs he took, actually discerning between window pane and microdot decades after the trips, is amazing, and also sad, because his memories of the amazing life going on around him aren’t enough to make a good book.
What is really amazing is that he ever got anything done, being so effed up all the time. Had I not been a fan, there is no way I would have finished this disjointed conglomeration of one man’s lifelong commitment to substance abuse, oh, and his marginally mentioned participation in the greatest sketch comdey show ever on American television. A lot of time could be saved by highlighting the few tidbits of confession or enlightenment that one can glean from the book, such as that he regrets dissing Jan Hooks, he didn’t like Johnny Carson, he made and smoked crack with Jerry Garcia, he was sad about Belushi and Farley, but doesn’t even mention Phil Hartman or Gilda Radner (they must not have done enough drugs with him), and he was bummed that no one knew his name as the answer to the Jeopardy question “He was the writing partner of Al Franken.”
This book will be a classic of books that are funny for reasons they didn’t intend to be (or in fairness, maybe he did intend it to be). Future generations can marvel at the sheer volume of hallucinogens consumed. The Tom Davis drinking game would be to pick out a random page and do shots every time the word “acid” appeared. You’d be annihilated after one page, just like Tom.
Review by Grigory’s Girl for Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
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This is a real mess of a book, one that purports to tell about Tom Davis’s experiences working at Saturday Night Live. But all the book consists of are the following…
Tom did a lot of drugs
He slept with women
He’s one of the “original” hippies
He partied with Jerry Garcia and followed the Dead around
He did more drugs
He occasionally wrote a sketch and did some comedy with some guy named Al
More drugs
Started out bitter, and grew more bitter
Partied with famous people
Did drugs with famous people
Wrote another sketch
Did some bad film work
Then wrote this book.
The book is a mishmash of what seems like diary notes that no one bother to organise. It jumps around like a person riddled with ADD had written the bloody thing. Davis seemed to get into show business to be famous and party with other celebrities, not to be a great comic writer and an artist. He’s not the only one who has ever done this, and he sure as hell won’t be the last, but his life’s story is not worth reading about. Sorry. The book is really sloppy and repetitive, and Davis hardly talks about the material he actually wrote. It’s more like a frat guy’s journal where he brags about how much booze he drank, who he screwed, who he did coke with, etc., etc.. Actually, it’s a depressing book that should be avoided. I’m done ranting now.
Review by Tech Historian for Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
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Other reviewers have already mentioned the disjointed, poorly edited story of someone who seems to remember every drug he took and was clueless about the life he led.
Tom Davis comes across as a 20-something creative kid who had a few years of fame and snorted, smoked and drank it all away – and never grew up.
Given that nothing is said of Davis’s last 15-years, one can only conclude that this is a sad, money-making opportunity piggybacking on Al Franken’s senate campaign.
Review by Susan Goewey for Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There
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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