There has been “an air of kismet” about Susan Morrison’s 10-years-in-the-making biography of Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, the author said.

The New Yorker editor managed to penetrate the still-secretive process of making the show, weaving in-the-room reporting from a week when Jonah Hill hosted in 2018 with hundreds of interviews, including many hours with Michaels himself. “There were absolutely no conditions, no strings of any kind,” she told Deadline. “Nobody pulled anything back.”

The result of those efforts, Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, was published this week by Random House, just two days after the 50th anniversary prime-time special aired on NBC. On nearly each of its 600 pages, the book sheds intriguing light on Michaels and his creation. It documents his winding journey to 30 Rock and revisits defining battles like an infamous showdown with NBC West Coast boss Don Ohlmeyer, who pushed...