Fans of Saturday Night Live who’ve resigned themselves to the idea that full-season reissues of the show’s golden age would be limited to one every Christmas, take note: Bucking its recent pattern, Universal has just put out Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season, a set that catches the show at, if not its absolute finest hour, then certainly one of the peaks. These full-length shows from 1977 and 1978 include outings with well-loved hosts Steve Martin and Buck Henry; musical guests both exotic (Sun Ra) and legendary (Ray Charles, who did double-duty as host); and the now-weird sight of O. J. Simpson fronting one February 1978 broadcast. Vintage SNL captures a New York City that was, for good or ill, scrubbed clean during the Giuliani years; those nostalgic for pre-gentrification Manhattan should seek out a couple of recent evocative books: The images in Martha Cooper’s New York State of Mind ($30), shot for the New York Post during the late ’70s, focus on vibrant street life; those in Vivian Cherry’s Helluva Town ($40), taken in the ’40s and ’50s, are a good deal more downbeat, evoking a Depression hangover even when they depict pastimes, like bocce ball, that look like fun in Cooper’s book. The publisher of both releases, PowerHouse, makes a specialty of Big Apple artists — its latest offering, A Fine Example of Art ($45), showcases the eccentric paintings of John Lurie, better known as a jazz saxophonist and the star of Stranger than Paradise. Speaking of that Depression vibe brings to mind a new reissue of a classic book by Berenice Abbott: Changing New York ($60) collects the work she did in the ’30s for the WPA — arranged geographically, she chronicled architecture that has since disappeared or been hidden by more modern, less beautiful buildings. Photo-book fans who like their New York a little closer to “Live!,” meanwhile, should check out two small new volumes devoted to Manhattan’s sister borough. Brooklyn Street Art and Brooklyn Storefronts are exactly what they sound like: color-crammed photo collections showcasing evidence of the kind of diverse population and exuberant, hand-made creativity that you used to find in Manhattan before rents made it off-limits to all but the most corporate tenants.