Part history lesson, part biography, part social commentary, part of our lives — Saturday Night Live is an institution in American television history and author Arie Kaplan opens the doors of the who, when and what this sketch comedy show has done for American culture in the past 40+ years.  After an opening chapter that chronicles sketches/characters decade by decade, Kaplan delves into the best chapter of the book, “Diversity…’Yeah, that’s the ticket!'” to shed light on the lack of diversity in the faces and roles on SNL.  While there were women and black men had roles in the show from the beginning, they weren’t leading roles.  Eddie Murphy broke out in the early 1980’s but other black male comics on the show weren’t given prominent sketches. 2 black female comics had one season each in the 80’s.  The 90’s witnessed minimal improvement with one black female cast member lasting 6 seasons.  Even Tina Fey didn’t become the 1st female head writer for the show until 1999, after nearly 25 years in production, though only her 3rd season on the show.  But where are the Asian-Americans, Arab-Americans, Hispanic-Americans and Native Americans?  Saturday Night Live has more representing to do “fu-shur”.  A 3rd chapter about SNL’s foci on politics throughout its time on the air makes the contention that SNL swings popular opinions, using Sarah Palin’s Vice-Presidential candidacy as the prime example.  The 4th chapter nestles back into noting the most memorable comedians and what they went on to accomplish after SNL.  In addition to this accessible look into the life of Saturday Night Life, the physical presence of the book is also “Live” so to speak.  Well chosen, full-color pictures pop on the high quality, glossy paper.  The author also added a “Catch Phrase Quiz as well as other resource lists that lend to this text’s appeal for young adults.  Twenty-First Century Books did an A+ job for this 7-12 grade non-fiction title.  Highly recommended.