The book has too many good Michaels stories to count, but we picked five of the most revealing tidbits that might help you better understand the man behind the show. Michaels made his first trip to New York from Toronto in the winter of 1961 when he was 17.

At the end of the Feb. 16 broadcast of “SNL50,” a tribute to the half-century reign of “Saturday Night Live” over American culture, Martin Short thanked executive producer and series creator Lorne Michaels,