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Tom Davis: The Early Days of SNL

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Berkeley Arts and Letters

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Partner:: Berkeley Arts and Letters
Location:: Berkeley Arts and Letters
Berkeley, CA
Event Date:: 03.18.09
Speakers:: Tom Davis,; Dennis McNally
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Summary: Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss is a seriously funny and irreverent memoir that gives an insider's view of the birth and rise of Saturday Night Live, and features laugh-out-loud stories about some of its greatest personalities - Al Franken, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Chris Farley.

Tom Davis, an original SNL writer and comedy partner of Al Franken, tells the story of coming of age in the 60s and the spellbinding account of the birth of one of television's most celebrated shows. Davis's memoir is filled with wry, candid anecdotes but it's also a coming-of-age tale of his generation and a graphic description of the cannon he was shot out of: suburban childhood, high school in the 60s, the discovery of sex, and reveling in the hippie culture from San Francisco to Katmandu.

Tom Davis also wrote for New Show, The Coneheads, Steve Martin's Best Show Ever, and The Paul Simon Special. He won a Writers Guild Award for the SNL Twenty-fifth Anniversary Special and four Emmy Awards. Tonight he comes armed with a number of terrific clips from his careers, including some from the early SNL.

Bio

Tom Davis

Tom Davis, an original SNL writer and comedy partner of Al Franken, also wrote for New Show, The Coneheads, Steve Martin's Best Show Ever, and The Paul Simon Special. He won a Writers Guild Award for the SNL Twenty-fifth Anniversary Special and four Emmy Awards.

Dennis McNally

Dennis McNally was raised in a military family before graduating high school in Maine. He attended St. Lawrence University and then received his Masters and Ph.D. in American History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His dissertation, a biography of Jack Kerouac, was published by Random House in 1979 as Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation, and America. In pursuit of his next book, a history of the Grateful Dead, he settled in San Francisco in 1977, where he has made his home ever since. He began work on the Dead history in 1980 at the invitation of Jerry Garcia, and in 1984 the Dead hired him as their publicist. He continues to hold this position. The obligations of the job required him to put the book on hold, and he only resumed it in 1997, after the death of Garcia. A Long Strange Trip: The History of the Grateful Dead, was published in 2002. McNally has been married to Susana Millman, a photographer and graphic designer, for 15 years. They have one daughter, Season Ray. Dennis is a board member of two non-profit organizations, the Northern California affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Music in Schools Today.

Chapters

: Watch Full Program

55 min 16 sec

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01.: Introduction

03 min 05 sec

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02.: Excerpt: Al Franken's Early Years

05 min 24 sec

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03.: Excerpt: Messing with Lorne Michaels

01 min 34 sec

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04.: Excerpt: The Grateful Dead on Saturday Night Live

02 min 45 sec

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05.: Excerpt: Owsley Stanley's LSD Philosophy

01 min 51 sec

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06.: Dennis McNally Introduction

00 min 41 sec

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07.: The Challenges of Writing Non-fiction

01 min 51 sec

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08.: Saturday Night Live's Relation to the 1960's

04 min 34 sec

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09.: Working with John Belushi

03 min 03 sec

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10.: The Influence of the Bob and Ray Comedy Team

06 min 28 sec

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11.: Making 'One More Saturday Night'

04 min 19 sec

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12.: Q & A

00 min 12 sec

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13.: Q1: The Writing and Research Process

02 min 20 sec

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14.: Q2: A Bill Murray Story

03 min 16 sec

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15.: Q3: Al Franken's Political Career

02 min 36 sec

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16.: The Al Franken Golf Story and Other Errors

04 min 51 sec

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17.: The Faultiness of Memory

02 min 03 sec

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18.: An SNL Parody of Deadheads

04 min 11 sec

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: Watch Full Program

55 min 16 sec

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Tom Davis: Adventures with Al Franken

02 min 32 sec

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Tom Davis, one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live and longtime friend of comedian-turned-politician Al Franken, recounts an incident where the two of them were detained at the US-Canada border for looking like "young, hippie freaks."

He then reads a recent e-mail exchange with Franken about their clash with standards and practices over using the word "horny."
Watch Full Program

55 min 16 sec

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