Michael O'Donoghue
Encyclopedia
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
.
After a brief time working as a writer in San Francisco, California, O'Donoghue returned to Rochester and participated in regional theater. During this period, he formed a group called Bread and Circuses specifically to perform his early plays which were of an experimental nature and often quite disturbing to the local audience. Among these are an absurdist work exploring themes of Sadism entitled "The Twilight Maelstrom of Cookie Lavagetto", a cycle of one-act plays called Le Theatre de Malaise and the 1964 dark satire The Death of JFK.
His first work of greater note was the picaresque feature "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist
", published as a serial in Evergreen Review
. This was an erotic satire of the comic book genre, later released in revised and expanded form as a book by that magazine's publisher, Grove Press
. Drawn by Frank Springer
, the comic detailed the adventures of debutante
Phoebe Zeit-Geist as she was variously kidnapped and rescued by a series of bizarre Inuit
, Nazis, Chinese
foot fetish
ists, lesbian
assassin
s and other characters. Doonesbury
comic-strip creator Garry Trudeau
cited the strip as an early inspiration, saying, "[A] very heavy influence was a serial in the Sixties called 'Phoebe Zeitgeist'. . . . It was an absolutely brilliant, deadpan send-up of adventure comics, but with a very edgy modernist kind of approach. To this day, I hold virtually every panel in my brain. It's very hard not to steal from it."
In 1968, O'Donoghue worked with illustrator and fellow Evergreen Review veteran Phil Wende to create the illustrated book The Incredible, Thrilling Adventures of the Rock. Biographer Dennis Perrin described it as having "no plot. The same rock sits in the same spot in the same forest for thousands of years. Nothing much happens. Then, while two boys roam the wood in search of a Christmas tree, one sees the rock and is inspired."
Taking the idea to the publisher Random House
, the pair sold the book to the young editor Christopher Cerf
. Cerf was a former member of the Harvard Lampoon
, and O'Donoghue's first acquaintance from that group. Through Cerf, O'Donoghue would meet George W. S. Trow
and other former Lampoon writers looking to start a national comedy magazine.
In 1969, O'Donoghue and Trow co-wrote the script for the James Ivory
/ Ismail Merchant
film Savages. This film tells the story of a tribe of prehistoric "Mud People" who happen upon a deserted Gatsby
-esque 1930's manor house. The Mud People evolve into contemporary high-society types who enjoy a decadent weekend party at the manor before ultimately devolving back into Mud People. Savages was eventually released in 1972.
National Lampoon magazine. As one of many outstanding National Lampoon contributors, O'Donoghue created some of the distinctive black comedy
which characterized the magazine's flavor for most of its first decade.
His most famous contributions include "The Vietnamese Baby Book", in which a baby's war wounds are cataloged in a keepsake; the "Ezra Taft Benson High School Yearbook;" a precursor to the Lampoons High School Yearbook Parody; the comic "Tarzan of the Cows;" and the continuing feature "Underwear for the Deaf." He was also the editor and main contributor to the Lampoon's Encyclopedia of Humor.
He co-wrote the album "Radio Dinner" with Tony Hendra
, and because of the album's success he was assigned to direct and act on The National Lampoon Radio Hour
. After 13 episodes, publisher Matty Simmons
asked O'Donoghue to return to the magazine. A week later, O'Donoghue and Simmons argued over what was later revealed to be a simple misunderstanding, and O'Donoghue left.
It was at the Lampoon that O'Donoghue met Anne Beatts
, with whom he became romantically involved. The two later moved on to work at Saturday Night Live
together.
program Saturday Night Live
, on which creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels
assigned him the position of head writer, O'Donoghue appeared in the first show's opening sketch, as an English-language teacher instructing John Belushi
in such phrases as "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines," and "We are out of badgers. Would you accept a wolverine in its place?" He later appeared in the persona of a Vegas-style
"impressionist" who would pay great praise to showbiz mainstays such as talk show
host Mike Douglas and singers Tony Orlando and Dawn
—and then speculate how they'd react if steel needles were plunged into their eyes. The shrieking fits that followed are believed by biographer Dennis Perrin to be inspired by O'Donoghue's real-life agonies from chronic migraine
headaches.
O'Donoghue, in his refusal to write for Jim Henson
's Muppet characters which appeared in the early years of SNL, quipped, "I won't write for felt."
Later, O'Donoghue cultivated the persona of the grim "Mr. Mike", a coldly decadent figure who favored viewers with comically dark "Least-Loved Bedtime Stories" such as "The Little Engine that Died." His other SNL sketches range from a black-and-white Citizen Kane
parody to a Star Trek
spoof that was a tour-de-force for Belushi.
O'Donoghue shared SNL Emmy Award
s for outstanding writing in 1976 and 1977. He left the series in the fall of 1978, after three years.
In 1979, he produced a television special for NBC, featuring most of the SNL cast, called Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
. Because of its raunchy content, the network rejected the program, which was then released as a theatrical film.
O'Donoghue returned to SNL in 1981 when new executive producer Dick Ebersol
needed an old hand to help revive the faltering series. O'Donoghue's volatile personality and mood swings made this difficult: His first day on the show he screamed at all the cast members, telling Mary Gross
she was as talented as a pair of old shoes, and forcing everyone to write on the walls with magic markers. This horrified Catherine O'Hara
so much that she quit before ever appearing on air. The only one he liked was Eddie Murphy
, reportedly because Murphy wasn't afraid of him. According to the book Live From New York O'Donoghue tried to shake things up on that first day by saying "this is what the show lacks" and spray-painting the word "DANGER" on the wall of his office.
Arguably the most memorable sketch O'Donoghue created during this short-lived tenure was a spoof of the old Superman
"Bizarro
" world (where up is down, etc.) set in the Ronald Reagan
administration.
According to a question in the SNL edition of Trivial Pursuit
, O'Donoghue was fired after writing the never-aired sketch "The Last Days in Silverman's Bunker" (which compared NBC network president Fred Silverman
's problems at the network to Adolf Hitler
's last days in charge of the Third Reich). It was planned that John Belushi would return to play Silverman, and a great deal of work had been done on creating sets for the sketch (which would have run for about twenty minutes), including the construction of a large Nazi eagle clutching an NBC corporate logo instead of a swastika
. Another unaired O'Donoghue sketch from around the same period, "The Good Excuse", also involved Nazi jokes. In the sketch, a captured German officer berated by his captors for Nazi war crimes explains that he had a good excuse, which he whispers into their ears, inaudible to the viewers. His captors are quickly persuaded that the unheard "good excuse" was, in fact, a good excuse for the crimes of the Third Reich.
O'Donoghue was further connected to SNL by virtue of his marriage to the show's musical director, Cheryl Hardwick, in the late 1980s. The union was fodder for a "Weekend Update" joke in which Dennis Miller
noted that the couple was registered at Black and Decker.
. He had small parts in the 1979 movie Manhattan (which poked fun at SNL), the 1987 movie
Wall Street, and the 1988 movie
he co-wrote, Scrooged
. O'Donoghue said he loathed the theatrical release of Scrooged
, insisting until his death that he and co-writer and best friend Mitch Glazer
had written a much better film. He also wrote or co-wrote a number of unproduced screenplays of which Saturday Matinee (aka Planet of the Cheap Special Effects) remains legendary in Hollywood screenwriter circles.
O'Donoghue also found some success as a country music
songwriter, his most notable credit being Dolly Parton
's "Single Women
" (1982). The song, originally composed for a 1981 SNL skit, later inspired the 1984 ABC
TV movie Single Bars, Single Women starring Tony Danza
and Jean Smart
, which was produced by O'Donoghue.
.
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
and humor, was a major contributor to National Lampoon magazine, and was the first head writer of 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...
.
Childhood
O'Donoghue was born Michael Henry Donohue in Sauquoit, New York. His father, Michael, worked as an engineer, while his mother, Barbara, stayed home to raise him.Early work
O'Donoghue's early career included work as a playwright and stage actor at the University of Rochester where he drifted in and out of school beginning in 1959. His first published writing appeared in the school's humor magazine "Ugh!"After a brief time working as a writer in San Francisco, California, O'Donoghue returned to Rochester and participated in regional theater. During this period, he formed a group called Bread and Circuses specifically to perform his early plays which were of an experimental nature and often quite disturbing to the local audience. Among these are an absurdist work exploring themes of Sadism entitled "The Twilight Maelstrom of Cookie Lavagetto", a cycle of one-act plays called Le Theatre de Malaise and the 1964 dark satire The Death of JFK.
His first work of greater note was the picaresque feature "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist
The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist
"The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist" was an American comic strip, written by Michael O'Donoghue and drawn by Frank Springer. It was published as a serial in the magazine Evergreen Review and later in book form as a Grove Press hardcover in 1968 and trade paperback in 1969. It was reissued as a...
", published as a serial in Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review
Evergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998...
. This was an erotic satire of the comic book genre, later released in revised and expanded form as a book by that magazine's publisher, Grove Press
Grove Press
Grove Press is an American publishing imprint that was founded in 1951. Imprints include: Black Cat, Evergreen, Venus Library, Zebra. Barney Rosset purchased the company in 1951 and turned it into an alternative book press in the United States. The Atlantic Monthly Press, under the aegis of its...
. Drawn by Frank Springer
Frank Springer
Frank Springer was an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for Marvel Comics' Dazzler and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D....
, the comic detailed the adventures of debutante
Debutante
A débutante is a young lady from an aristocratic or upper class family who has reached the age of maturity, and as a new adult, is introduced to society at a formal "début" presentation. It should not be confused with a Debs...
Phoebe Zeit-Geist as she was variously kidnapped and rescued by a series of bizarre Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
, Nazis, Chinese
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
foot fetish
Foot Fetish
Foot Fetish is the first solo studio album by the Jackyl's lead singer, Jesse James Dupree.- Track listing :All songs written by Jesse James Dupree except where noted.# "Mainline" – 3:25 # "First Taste of Freedom" – 3:53...
ists, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
s and other characters. Doonesbury
Doonesbury
Doonesbury is a comic strip by American cartoonist Garry Trudeau, that chronicles the adventures and lives of an array of characters of various ages, professions, and backgrounds, from the President of the United States to the title character, Michael Doonesbury, who has progressed from a college...
comic-strip creator Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
cited the strip as an early inspiration, saying, "[A] very heavy influence was a serial in the Sixties called 'Phoebe Zeitgeist'. . . . It was an absolutely brilliant, deadpan send-up of adventure comics, but with a very edgy modernist kind of approach. To this day, I hold virtually every panel in my brain. It's very hard not to steal from it."
In 1968, O'Donoghue worked with illustrator and fellow Evergreen Review veteran Phil Wende to create the illustrated book The Incredible, Thrilling Adventures of the Rock. Biographer Dennis Perrin described it as having "no plot. The same rock sits in the same spot in the same forest for thousands of years. Nothing much happens. Then, while two boys roam the wood in search of a Christmas tree, one sees the rock and is inspired."
Taking the idea to the publisher Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
, the pair sold the book to the young editor Christopher Cerf
Christopher Cerf
Christopher Cerf is a U.S. author, composer-lyricist, voice actor, and record and television producer. He is known for his musical contributions to Sesame Street, for co-creating and co-producing the award-winning PBS literacy education television program Between the Lions, and for his humorous...
. Cerf was a former member of the Harvard Lampoon
Harvard 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...
, and O'Donoghue's first acquaintance from that group. Through Cerf, O'Donoghue would meet George W. S. Trow
George W. S. Trow
George William Swift Trow Jr. was an American essayist, novelist, playwright, and media critic. He worked for The New Yorker for almost 30 years, and wrote numerous essays and several books...
and other former Lampoon writers looking to start a national comedy magazine.
In 1969, O'Donoghue and Trow co-wrote the script for the James Ivory
James Ivory (director)
James Francis Ivory is an American film director, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
/ Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant
Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...
film Savages. This film tells the story of a tribe of prehistoric "Mud People" who happen upon a deserted Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
-esque 1930's manor house. The Mud People evolve into contemporary high-society types who enjoy a decadent weekend party at the manor before ultimately devolving back into Mud People. Savages was eventually released in 1972.
National Lampoon magazine
Donoghue was, along with Henry Beard and Doug Kenney, a founding writer and later an editor for the satiricSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
National Lampoon magazine. As one of many outstanding National Lampoon contributors, O'Donoghue created some of the distinctive black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
which characterized the magazine's flavor for most of its first decade.
His most famous contributions include "The Vietnamese Baby Book", in which a baby's war wounds are cataloged in a keepsake; the "Ezra Taft Benson High School Yearbook;" a precursor to the Lampoons High School Yearbook Parody; the comic "Tarzan of the Cows;" and the continuing feature "Underwear for the Deaf." He was also the editor and main contributor to the Lampoon's Encyclopedia of Humor.
He co-wrote the album "Radio Dinner" with Tony Hendra
Tony Hendra
Tony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
, and because of the album's success he was assigned to direct and act on The National Lampoon Radio Hour
The National Lampoon Radio Hour
The National Lampoon Radio Hour was a comedy radio show which was created, produced and initially written by staff from National Lampoon magazine. The show ran weekly, for a little over a year, from November 17, 1973 to December 28, 1974...
. After 13 episodes, publisher Matty Simmons
Matty Simmons
Matty Simmons is a former newspaper reporter for the New York World-Telegram and Sun, and Executive Vice President of Diner's Club, the first credit card company...
asked O'Donoghue to return to the magazine. A week later, O'Donoghue and Simmons argued over what was later revealed to be a simple misunderstanding, and O'Donoghue left.
It was at the Lampoon that O'Donoghue met Anne Beatts
Anne Beatts
- 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 University....
, with whom he became romantically involved. The two later moved on to work at 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...
together.
Saturday Night Live
On the pioneering, late-night sketch comedySketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
program 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...
, on which creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
assigned him the position of head writer, O'Donoghue appeared in the first show's opening sketch, as an English-language teacher instructing John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
in such phrases as "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines," and "We are out of badgers. Would you accept a wolverine in its place?" He later appeared in the persona of a Vegas-style
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
"impressionist" who would pay great praise to showbiz mainstays such as talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
host Mike Douglas and singers Tony Orlando and Dawn
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Tony Orlando and Dawn was a pop music group that was popular in the 1970s. Their signature hits include "Candida", "Knock Three Times", "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", and "He Don't Love You ".-History:...
—and then speculate how they'd react if steel needles were plunged into their eyes. The shrieking fits that followed are believed by biographer Dennis Perrin to be inspired by O'Donoghue's real-life agonies from chronic migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
headaches.
O'Donoghue, in his refusal to write for Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
's Muppet characters which appeared in the early years of SNL, quipped, "I won't write for felt."
Later, O'Donoghue cultivated the persona of the grim "Mr. Mike", a coldly decadent figure who favored viewers with comically dark "Least-Loved Bedtime Stories" such as "The Little Engine that Died." His other SNL sketches range from a black-and-white Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
parody to a Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
spoof that was a tour-de-force for Belushi.
O'Donoghue shared SNL Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
s for outstanding writing in 1976 and 1977. He left the series in the fall of 1978, after three years.
In 1979, he produced a television special for NBC, featuring most of the SNL cast, called Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video
Mr. Mike's Mondo Video was a 1979 movie conceived by Saturday Night Live writer/featured player Michael O'Donoghue.-Plot:Mondo Video was a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentary Mondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts. The logo for this film copies the original Mondo Cane logo...
. Because of its raunchy content, the network rejected the program, which was then released as a theatrical film.
O'Donoghue returned to SNL in 1981 when new executive producer Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol
Duncan "Dick" Ebersol is an American television executive and a senior adviser for . He had previously been the chairman of NBC Sports, producing large scale television events such as the Olympic Games and National Football League broadcasts....
needed an old hand to help revive the faltering series. O'Donoghue's volatile personality and mood swings made this difficult: His first day on the show he screamed at all the cast members, telling Mary Gross
Mary Gross
Mary Gross is an American comedian and actress, perhaps best known for her four-year stint on Saturday Night Live from 1981 to 1985. Her credits also include minor roles on Animaniacs, Boston Legal and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch...
she was as talented as a pair of old shoes, and forcing everyone to write on the walls with magic markers. This horrified Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...
so much that she quit before ever appearing on air. The only one he liked was Eddie Murphy
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
, reportedly because Murphy wasn't afraid of him. According to the book Live From New York O'Donoghue tried to shake things up on that first day by saying "this is what the show lacks" and spray-painting the word "DANGER" on the wall of his office.
Arguably the most memorable sketch O'Donoghue created during this short-lived tenure was a spoof of the old Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
"Bizarro
Bizarro
Bizarro is a fictional character that appears in publications published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman and first appeared in Superboy #68...
" world (where up is down, etc.) set in the Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
administration.
According to a question in the SNL edition of Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
, O'Donoghue was fired after writing the never-aired sketch "The Last Days in Silverman's Bunker" (which compared NBC network president Fred Silverman
Fred Silverman
Fred Silverman is an American television executive and producer. He worked as an executive at the CBS, ABC and NBC networks, and was responsible for bringing to television such programs as the series Scooby-Doo , All in the Family , The Waltons , and Charlie's Angels , as well as the...
's problems at the network to Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's last days in charge of the Third Reich). It was planned that John Belushi would return to play Silverman, and a great deal of work had been done on creating sets for the sketch (which would have run for about twenty minutes), including the construction of a large Nazi eagle clutching an NBC corporate logo instead of a swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
. Another unaired O'Donoghue sketch from around the same period, "The Good Excuse", also involved Nazi jokes. In the sketch, a captured German officer berated by his captors for Nazi war crimes explains that he had a good excuse, which he whispers into their ears, inaudible to the viewers. His captors are quickly persuaded that the unheard "good excuse" was, in fact, a good excuse for the crimes of the Third Reich.
O'Donoghue was further connected to SNL by virtue of his marriage to the show's musical director, Cheryl Hardwick, in the late 1980s. The union was fodder for a "Weekend Update" joke in which Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
noted that the couple was registered at Black and Decker.
Other work
O'Donoghue acted in a supporting role in the 1985 comedy Head OfficeHead Office
Head Office is a 1985 American comedy film, produced by HBO Pictures in association with Silver Screen Partners. It stars Judge Reinhold, Eddie Albert, Lori-Nan Engler, Jane Seymour, Richard Masur, Michael O'Donoghue, Ron Frazier, Merritt Butrick and was directed and written by Ken...
. He had small parts in the 1979 movie Manhattan (which poked fun at SNL), the 1987 movie
1987 in film
-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....
Wall Street, and the 1988 movie
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
he co-wrote, Scrooged
Scrooged
Scrooged is a 1988 American comedy film, a modernization of Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol. The film was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue...
. O'Donoghue said he loathed the theatrical release of Scrooged
Scrooged
Scrooged is a 1988 American comedy film, a modernization of Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol. The film was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue...
, insisting until his death that he and co-writer and best friend Mitch Glazer
Mitch Glazer
Mitchell A. Glazer is an American movie producer, writer, and actor.-Biography:Glazer was born in Key Biscayne, Florida and was raised in Miami, the son of Leonard and Zelda Glazer, an English teacher. Glazer is a relative of Sidney Glazier and Tom Glazer. He attended Miami Beach High School. He...
had written a much better film. He also wrote or co-wrote a number of unproduced screenplays of which Saturday Matinee (aka Planet of the Cheap Special Effects) remains legendary in Hollywood screenwriter circles.
O'Donoghue also found some success as a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
songwriter, his most notable credit being Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
's "Single Women
Single Women
"Single Women" is a song, written by Saturday Night Live writer Michael O'Donoghue. The song, which depicted a number of women looking for love in a singles bar was originally performed during an SNL sketch by Christine Ebersole on the October 10, 1981 broadcast. The song later provided a top-ten...
" (1982). The song, originally composed for a 1981 SNL skit, later inspired the 1984 ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
TV movie Single Bars, Single Women starring Tony Danza
Tony Danza
Tony Danza is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards...
and Jean Smart
Jean Smart
Jean E. Smart is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is known for her comedic roles, one of the best known being her role as Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the CBS sitcom Designing Women. She later gained critical acclaim for dramatic work, with her portrayal of Martha Logan on 24...
, which was produced by O'Donoghue.
Death
On November 8, 1994, O'Donoghue died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 54, after a long history of what were thought to be chronic migraine headachesMigraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
.
Writing credits
- Evergreen ReviewEvergreen ReviewEvergreen Review is a U.S.-based literary magazine founded by Barney Rosset, publisher of Grove Press. It existed in print from 1957 through 1973, and was re-launched online in 1998...
(1966, 1969) (Periodical) - The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-GeistThe Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist"The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist" was an American comic strip, written by Michael O'Donoghue and drawn by Frank Springer. It was published as a serial in the magazine Evergreen Review and later in book form as a Grove Press hardcover in 1968 and trade paperback in 1969. It was reissued as a...
(with Frank SpringerFrank SpringerFrank Springer was an American comic book and comic strip artist best known for Marvel Comics' Dazzler and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D....
) (1966) (Comic) - National LampoonNational LampoonNational Lampoon was both a ground-breaking American humor magazine and also a wide range of productions directly associated with that magazine. The magazine ran from 1970 to 1998, and was originally a spinoff of the Harvard Lampoon....
(1970–1975) (Periodical) - National Lampoon Radio DinnerNational Lampoon Radio DinnerNational Lampoon Radio Dinner is a comedy album from National Lampoon that was first released in 1972. The humor on the album was very much steeped in the pop culture of the era and includes such subjects as game shows , the 1972 presidential election National Lampoon Radio Dinner is a comedy album...
(with Tony HendraTony HendraTony Hendra is an English satirist and writer who has worked mostly in the United States. Educated at St Albans School and Cambridge University, he was a member of the Cambridge University Footlights revue in 1962, alongside John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor.-Career:In 1964 Hendra...
and Bob Tischler) (1972) (LP) - The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of HumorThe National Lampoon Encyclopedia of HumorNational Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor is an American humor book that was first published in 1973 in hardback. It was a "special issue" of National Lampoon magazine, so it was sold on newsstands, however it was put out in addition to the regular issues of the magazine.The book contained all new...
(1973) (Editor) - Savages (with George W.S. Trow) (1972)
- National Lampoon Radio Hour (1973–1974) (Radio)
- 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....
(with Anne BeattsAnne Beatts- 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 University....
) (1975) (Adaptation) - 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...
(1975–1979, 1981) (TV) - 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...
(with Gilda RadnerGilda RadnerGilda Susan Radner was an American comedian and actress, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which she won an Emmy Award in 1978.-Early life:...
, Lorne MichaelsLorne MichaelsLorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...
, Anne BeattsAnne Beatts- 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 University....
, Rosie ShusterRosie ShusterRosie Shuster is a Canadian-born comedy writer. She was writer for Saturday Night Live during the 1970s and 1980s and she was married to the show's creator, Lorne Michaels from 1971 to 1980...
, Alan ZweibelAlan ZweibelAlan Zweibel is an American producer and writer who has worked on such productions as Saturday Night Live, PBS' Great Performances, and It's Garry Shandling's Show.-Early life:...
, Marilyn Suzanne-Miller, Paul ShafferPaul ShafferPaul Allen Wood Shaffer, CM is a Canadian musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer who has been David Letterman's sidekick since 1982.-Early years:...
and Don NovelloDon NovelloDon Novello is an American writer, film director, producer, actor, singer, and comedian. Novello is best known for his work on NBC's Saturday Night Live, from 1977 until 1980, and then 1985 until 1986, often as the character "Father Guido Sarducci". Novello has appeared as "Sarducci" on many...
) (1980) (Stage/Film) - Mr. Mike's Mondo VideoMr. Mike's Mondo VideoMr. Mike's Mondo Video was a 1979 movie conceived by Saturday Night Live writer/featured player Michael O'Donoghue.-Plot:Mondo Video was a spoof of the controversial 1962 documentary Mondo Cane, showing people doing weird stunts. The logo for this film copies the original Mondo Cane logo...
(with Mitch GlazerMitch GlazerMitchell A. Glazer is an American movie producer, writer, and actor.-Biography:Glazer was born in Key Biscayne, Florida and was raised in Miami, the son of Leonard and Zelda Glazer, an English teacher. Glazer is a relative of Sidney Glazier and Tom Glazer. He attended Miami Beach High School. He...
) (1979) - Single WomenSingle Women"Single Women" is a song, written by Saturday Night Live writer Michael O'Donoghue. The song, which depicted a number of women looking for love in a singles bar was originally performed during an SNL sketch by Christine Ebersole on the October 10, 1981 broadcast. The song later provided a top-ten...
(1982) (Song) - ScroogedScroogedScrooged is a 1988 American comedy film, a modernization of Charles Dickens' novella, A Christmas Carol. The film was produced and directed by Richard Donner, and the cinematography was by Michael Chapman. The screenplay was written by Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue...
(with Mitch GlazerMitch GlazerMitchell A. Glazer is an American movie producer, writer, and actor.-Biography:Glazer was born in Key Biscayne, Florida and was raised in Miami, the son of Leonard and Zelda Glazer, an English teacher. Glazer is a relative of Sidney Glazier and Tom Glazer. He attended Miami Beach High School. He...
) (1987) - Spin Magazine ("NOT MY FAULT" Column) (1990–1994) (Periodical)
Unproduced screenplays
- Biker Heaven (with Terry SouthernTerry SouthernTerry Southern was an American author, essayist, screenwriter and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style...
and Nelson Lyon) - Planet of the Cheap Special Effects
- War of the Insect Gods (with Mitch GlazerMitch GlazerMitchell A. Glazer is an American movie producer, writer, and actor.-Biography:Glazer was born in Key Biscayne, Florida and was raised in Miami, the son of Leonard and Zelda Glazer, an English teacher. Glazer is a relative of Sidney Glazier and Tom Glazer. He attended Miami Beach High School. He...
, Emily PragerEmily Prager- Life and work :Prager grew up in Texas, Taiwan, and Greenwich Village, NY. She is a graduate of The Brearley School, Barnard College and has a Masters Degree in Education...
and Dirk Wittenborn)
External links
- The Big Dave Page: "Things I Like: Current Feature – Michael O'Donoghue" (four "Not My Fault!" columns by O'Donoghue, from SpinSpin (magazine)Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazine) - O'Donoghue at Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site
- A Proper Goodbye to Mr. Mike
- O'Donoghue at the Evergreen Review
- Michael O'Donoghue, How to Write Good
- Mr. Mike's Elvis impression