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Posts tagged as michael o’donoghue

Lost Roles

The Lost Projects of Michael O'Donoghue

by | February 28th, 2013

Lost Roles is a weekly column taking a different comedian, actor, or writer each week and exploring all of their movie and TV projects that almost happened but didn't.

This week, we turn our attention to Michael O'Donoghue, one of the major creative forces behind National Lampoon magazine and Saturday Night Live during the two comedy franchises' 1970s heydays. After leaving his job as SNL's head writer in 1978, O'Donoghue began working on a variety of movie projects, but given the sluggish nature of the film industry and the fact that O'Donoghue's work is often too daring and edgy for mainstream audiences, most of the movies he wrote never [...]

History

Saturday Night Live Debuted 35 Years Ago Today

by | October 11th, 2010

This is the 35th anniversary season of SNL, yes, but it was 35 years ago today that the show actually debuted. Its first episode was hosted by George Carlin and had two musical guests: Billy Preston and Janis Ian.

Above is the cold open from that first episode, featuring John Belushi and head writer Michael O'Donoghue and ending with Chevy Chase saying "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" for the first time.

Lost Roles

The Lost Roles of Bill Murray, Part Two

by | February 16th, 2012

It's the one-year anniversary of "Lost Roles," the column where we take a different comedian, comedy writer, or comedic performer each week and dive deep into the movie and TV projects they almost became involved with but didn't. This column began with "The Lost Roles of Bill Murray."Even though that piece detailed over 25 roles Murray almost played, there were still enough left to easily fill another post.

As you may know, Bill Murray's never been keen to the fakeness of the movie industry, so much so that he fired his agent and manager years ago and only takes offers via a voicemail system that's hooked up to [...]

Rage

"Let me close with the sincere hope that you and everyone you love catches rectal cancer and dies screaming."

by | May 19th, 2011

Michael O'Donoghue, SNL's first head writer, wasn't known for pulling punches or sugarcoating his opinions. That's made especially clear in this letter that he wrote to the Los Angeles Herald-Tribune's Gregg Kilday in 1985 after he mistakenly attributed the lousy sketches of that season's premiere show (Lorne's first back after a five-year absence) to O'Donoghue, who had only been hired back to write pre-taped short films (none of which were ever shot or aired before he was fired). Dug up by O'Donoghue biographer Dennis Perrin, the letter is a thing of exquisite brutality. A taste:

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