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Posts tagged as james downey

Interviews

'SNL's James Downey on Working with Norm Macdonald and Getting Fired for Making Fun of OJ Simpson

by | June 24th, 2014

Saturday Night Live has employed hundreds of comedy writers in its four decades on the air, but no writer has been associated with the show longer — or had more of a lasting impact — than James Woodward Downey. If Lorne Michaels is the face of Saturday Night Live, Downey is its behind-the-scenes creative force. 

Called by Lorne Michaels the best political humorist alive, Downey has been responsible for most of the political-centered pieces during Saturday Night Live’s run (many of which he co-wrote with now Senator Al Franken), starting with Jimmy Carter in the mid-’70s and ending, six administrations later, with Barack Obama. The power of Downey’s political comedy extends [...]

SNL

Saturday Night's Children: Jim Downey (1979-1980)

by | March 4th, 2014

Aside from having the best set of lines in Billy Madison, Jim Downey is best known for having a long writing tenure at SNL second only to Lorne Michaels. Downey joined the show at the same time as Bill Murray in 1976, and with only a few exceptions (including a break in the early '80s to serve as head writer at Letterman), he was a regular fixture on the writing staff until the end of last year, serving as the show's longest-running head writer from 1986-1995 and knighted ruler of SNL's political cold open sketches. Despite being better remembered as a writer, Downey also spent a single season [...]