Anne Beatts
Encyclopedia
Early life
Born to parents Beatts describes as "beatniks", Beatts grew to have what has been called an "aggressive, dark sensibility" which she later put to use in the world of comedy. Growing up in Somers, New York she later attended McGill UniversityMcGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
.
It was at McGill University where the Beatts discovered the darkly tragic humor of Jewish writers J. D. Salinger
J. D. Salinger
Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980....
, Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
, and Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman
Bruce Jay Friedman is an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor.Raised in the Bronx by Irving and Mollie Friedman, Bruce Jay Friedman graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School. He then attended the University of Missouri as a journalism major, then served as a First Lieutenant in...
. At this time, Beatts converted to Judaism.
National Lampoon
After graduating from college, Beatts joined up with the National Lampoon. The magazine was a national offshoot of the Harvard LampoonHarvard Lampoon
The Harvard Lampoon is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.-Overview:Published since 1876, The Harvard Lampoon is the world's longest continually published humor magazine. It is also the second longest-running English-language humor...
. Beatts brought her dark sense of humor to her work, even co-writing a parody ad for Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
with Philip Socci for which the magazine was later sued by the car company. The ad stated "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today," which was accompanied by a photo of a VW Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
floating in a lake (this, of course, being a reference to the Chappaquiddick incident
Ted Kennedy Chappaquiddick incident
The term "Chappaquiddick incident" refers to the circumstances involving the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, whose body was discovered underwater inside an automobile belonging to her driver, U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy. During the early morning hours of July 19, 1969, Kopechne's body and the car...
).
Beatts became the first female editor of the National Lampoon magazine where she worked with Michael O'Donoghue
Michael O'Donoghue
Michael O'Donoghue was a writer and performer. He was known for his dark and destructive style of comedy and humor, was a major contributor to National Lampoon magazine, and was the first head writer of Saturday Night Live.-Childhood:O'Donoghue was born Michael Henry Donohue in Sauquoit, New York...
. Beatts and O'Donoghue became romantically involved and both soon joined up with Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
in the early years of the program.
Television
Beatts is regarded as something of a pioneer in TV and comedy circles, as an early female comedy writer and one of the very few female writers working in the National Lampoon/SNL comedy scene of the 1970s. At SNL she was nominated for an Emmy five times, winning once. She later won a Writer's Guild Award in 2001. She created the cult hit 1982 CBS series Square PegsSquare Pegs
Square Pegs is an American comedy series that aired on CBS during the 1982–1983 season. The series follows Patty Greene and Lauren Hutchinson , two awkward teenage girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School....
and appeared in several episodes (she also did uncredited acting work on the early SNL), and while the series only lasted one season it has been frequently rerun since and several of the cast members (most notably Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
) have gone on to greater fame.
Since Square Pegs, Beatts wrote the book for the 1985 Ellie Greenwich
Ellie Greenwich
Eleanor Louise "Ellie" Greenwich was an American pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer. She wrote or co-wrote "Be My Baby", "Christmas ", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Leader of the Pack", "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", and "River Deep, Mountain High", among many others...
jukebox musical
Jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage or film musical that uses previously released popular songs as its musical score. Usually the songs have in common a connection with a particular popular musician or group — either because they were written by, or for, the artists in question, or were at least...
Leader of the Pack
Leader of the Pack (musical)
Leader of the Pack is a musical with liner notes by Anne Beatts and additional material by Jack Heifner, music by Ellie Greenwich, and lyrics by Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector, George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Kent, and Ellen Foley.-Background:...
and produced the first season of A Different World in 1987-1988 and since then has gradually dropped out of sight, writing for television very rarely. Her most recent TV credit was the 56th Annual Writers Guild Awards in 2004. In 2006, she directed the series John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
Presents Movies That Will Corrupt You with her writing and producing partner, Eve Brandstein for B-Girls Productions.
Beatts is currently serving as one of the judges for the comedy competition Project Breakout.
Beatts serves as Adjunct Professor in the Writing Division at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
's School of Cinematic Arts, as well as at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She also gives private lessons on writing sketch comedy.
Credits
- National Lampoon (Magazine)
- National Lampoon's LemmingsNational Lampoon's LemmingsNational Lampoon's Lemmings, a spinoff of the humor magazine National Lampoon, was a 1973 stage show which helped launch the performing careers of John Belushi, Christopher Guest, and Chevy Chase. The show was co-written and co-directed by a number of people including Sean Kelly...
(Stage Show) (1973) - Tarzoon: Shame of the JungleTarzoon: Shame of the JungleTarzoon: Shame of the Jungle is a 1975 adult-oriented French/Belgian animated film directed by cartoonist Picha and Boris Szulzinger. The film was the first foreign-animated film to receive both an X rating and wide distribution in the United States....
(1975) - Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(TV) (1975–1979) - Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women (Book) (1976)
- Gilda LiveGilda LiveGilda Live is an American film released in 1980 starring Gilda Radner. It was directed by Mike Nichols and was produced by Lorne Michaels. Radner and Michaels and all of the writers involved with the production were alumni from the television program Saturday Night Live.-Summary:Gilda Live is a...
(Stage Show) (1980) - Square PegsSquare PegsSquare Pegs is an American comedy series that aired on CBS during the 1982–1983 season. The series follows Patty Greene and Lauren Hutchinson , two awkward teenage girls desperate to fit in at Weemawee High School....
(TV) (1982–1983) - Titters 101 (Book) (1984)
- Leader of the PackLeader of the Pack (musical)Leader of the Pack is a musical with liner notes by Anne Beatts and additional material by Jack Heifner, music by Ellie Greenwich, and lyrics by Greenwich, Jeff Barry, Phil Spector, George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Kent, and Ellen Foley.-Background:...
(Stage Show) (1985) - A Different WorldA Different WorldA Different World is an American television sitcom which aired for six seasons on NBC . It was a spin-off series from The Cosby Show originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in the state of Virginia...
(TV) (1987–1988) (Producer only) - Faerie Tale TheatreFaerie Tale TheatreFaerie Tale Theatre is a live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales. Shelley Duvall serves as narrator, host and executive producer of the program, and occasionally stars in episodes...
(TV) (1987) - The Belles of Bleeker Street (TV) (1991)
- Murphy BrownMurphy BrownMurphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...
(TV) (1991) - The Elvira Show (TV) (1993)
- The Stephanie Miller ShowThe Stephanie Miller ShowThe Stephanie Miller Show is a syndicated progressive talk radio program that discusses politics, current events, and pop culture using a fast-paced, impromptu style. The three-hour show is hosted by comedienne Stephanie Miller along with voice artist Jim Ward and the show's engineer and executive...
(TV) (1995) - Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every ChildHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every ChildHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American animated television series that premiered March 26, 1995, on HBO. Narrated by Robert Guillaume, the series aired 39 episodes from 1995 to 2000, and is currently airing on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United...
(TV) (2000) - Hollywood Off-Ramp (TV) (2000)
- 56th Annual Writer's Guild Awards (TV) (2004)
External links
- Anne Beatts Interview at Archive of American TelevisionArchive of American TelevisionThe Archive of American Television is a division of the non-profit Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation that films interviews with notable people from all aspects of the television industry....
- Two part interview Anne Beatts on her involvement with NL: Part One / Part Two
- Anne Beatts at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....