Michael O'Donoghue | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Michael Henry Donohue (1940-01-05)January 5, 1940 Sauquoit, New York, U.S. |
| Died | November 8, 1994(1994-11-08) (aged 54) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation |
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| Genre | Black humor |
| Years active | 1964–1994 |
| Spouse | |
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Michael O'Donoghue (January 5, 1940 – November 8, 1994) was an American writer, actor, editor and comedian.
He was known for hisdark and destructive style of comedy and humor, and was a major contributor toNational Lampoon magazine. He was the first head writer ofSaturday Night Live and the first performer to deliver a line on the series.
O'Donoghue was bornMichael Henry Donohue inSauquoit, New York. His father, Michael, worked as an engineer, while his mother, Barbara, stayed home to raise him.
O'Donoghue's early career included work as a playwright and stage actor at theUniversity of Rochester where he drifted in and out of school beginning in 1959. His first published writing appeared in the school's humor magazineUgh!
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 ofsadism entitled "The Twilight Maelstrom ofCookie Lavagetto", a cycle of one-act plays calledLe Theatre de Malaise and the 1964 dark satireThe Death of JFK.
His first work of greater note was the picaresque feature "The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist", published as a serial inEvergreen 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 byFrank Springer, the comic detailed the adventures ofdebutante Phoebe Zeit-Geist as she was variously kidnapped and rescued by a series of bizarreInuit,Nazis,Chinesefoot fetishists,lesbian assassins and other characters.Doonesbury comic-strip creatorGarry 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."[1]
In 1968, O'Donoghue worked with illustrator and fellowEvergreen Review veteran Phil Wende to create the illustrated bookThe 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."[2]
Taking the idea to the publisherRandom House, the pair sold the book to the young editorChristopher Cerf. Cerf was a former member of theHarvard Lampoon, and O'Donoghue's first acquaintance from that group. Through Cerf, O'Donoghue would meetGeorge W. S. Trow and other formerLampoon writers looking to start a national comedy magazine.
In 1969, O'Donoghue and Trow co-wrote the script for theJames Ivory /Ismail Merchant filmSavages. This film tells the story of a tribe of prehistoric "Mud People" who happen upon a desertedGatsby-esque 1930s 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.
O'Donoghue was, along withHenry Beard andDoug Kenney, a founding writer and later an editor for thesatiricNational Lampoon magazine. As one of many outstandingNational Lampoon contributors, O'Donoghue created some of the distinctiveblack 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 theLampoon'sHigh School Yearbook Parody; the comic "Tarzan of the Cows"; and the continuing feature "Underwear for the Deaf". Two of his parodies were reprinted in the anthologyNational Lampoon: This Side of Parodies (Warner Paperback Library, 1974).
He was also the editor and main contributor to theLampoon'sEncyclopedia of Humor. He co-wrote the albumRadio Dinner withTony Hendra, and because of the album's success, he was assigned to direct and act onThe National Lampoon Radio Hour. After 13 episodes, publisherMatty 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.[3]
It was at theLampoon that O'Donoghue metAnne Beatts, with whom he became romantically involved.[3] The two later moved on to work atSaturday Night Live together.
On the pioneering late-nightsketch comedy programSaturday Night Live (originally calledNBC's Saturday Night), creator and executive producerLorne Michaels hired him as a writer. O'Donoghue appeared in the first show's opening sketch as an English-language teacher, instructingJohn Belushi to repeat the phrases, "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines,", "We are out of badgers. Would you accept a wolverine in its place?" and "'Hey!' Ned exclaimed. 'Let's boil the wolverines.'" before suddenly dropping dead of a heart attack. He later made appearances in the persona of aVegas-style "impressionist" who would pay great praise to showbiz mainstays such astalk show hostMike Douglas and singersTony Orlando and Dawn—and then speculate how they would react if steel needles with real sharp points were plunged into their eyes. The shrieking fits that followed are believed to be inspired by O'Donoghue's real-life agonies from chronicmigraine headaches.
O'Donoghue, in reference to his refusal to write forJim Henson'sLand of Gorch sketches which appeared in the early years of SNL, quipped, "I won't write for felt."[4]
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". One of his most notableSNL sketches is theStar Trek spoof "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" that was a tour-de-force for Belushi.
In 1979, he produced a television special for NBC, featuring most of theSNL cast, calledMr. Mike's Mondo Video. Because of its raunchy content, the network rejected the program, which was then released as a theatrical film.[5]
O'Donoghue returned toSNL in 1981 when new executive producerDick 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, forcing everyone to write on the walls with magic markers.Catherine O'Hara was rumored to have quitSNL after a week and before appearing on-air due to O'Donoghue's volatility. O'Hara denied this account, saying she didn't feel comfortable in New York City and left to return toSecond City Television.[6] The only cast member O'Donoghue liked wasEddie Murphy, reportedly because Murphy was not afraid of him. According to the bookLive 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.
O'Donoghue was released from the show after writing the never-aired sketch "The Last Days in Silverman's Bunker", which compared NBC network presidentFred Silverman's problems at the network toAdolf Hitler's final days.[7] 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 largeNazi eagle clutching an NBC corporate logo instead of aswastika. 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 excuse was, in fact, an acceptable reason for the crimes of the Third Reich.
On October 26, 1986, O'Donoghue was further connected toSNL by virtue of his marriage to the show's musical director, Cheryl Hardwick.[8] The union was fodder for a "Weekend Update" joke in whichDennis Miller noted that the couple was registered atBlack+Decker.
O'Donoghue was one of several original writers rehired by Lorne Michaels upon his return to produce the show in 1985. O'Donoghue's intention was to write and direct short films for the show; however, none were completed and he wrote little else, apart from a monologue seemingly designed to humiliateChevy Chase when he hosted the second show of the season. (The monologue began, "Right after I stopped doing cocaine, I turned into a giant garden slug, and, for the life of me, I don't know why.") The monologue never aired, and O'Donoghue was fired a month later after tellingThe New York Times thatSNL had become "an embarrassment. It's like watching old men die."[9] His final contribution to the show was a song, "Boulevard of Broken Balls", co-written with his wife Hardwick and performed by Christopher Walken on the October 24, 1992 episode.
O'Donoghue acted in a supporting role in the 1985 comedyHead Office. He had small parts in the 1979 movieManhattan (which poked fun atSNL), the 1987 movieWall Street, and the 1988 movie he co-wrote,Scrooged. O'Donoghue said he loathed the theatrical release ofScrooged, insisting until his death that he and co-writer and best friendMitch Glazer had written a much better film. He also wrote or co-wrote a number of unproduced screenplays, of which the Chevy Chase collaborationSaturday Matinee (a.k.a.Planet of the Cheap Special Effects) remains legendary in Hollywood screenwriter circles.[10]
O'Donoghue also found some success as acountry music songwriter, his most notable credit beingDolly Parton's "Single Women" (1982). The song, originally composed for a 1981SNL skit, later inspired the 1984ABC TV movieSingle Bars, Single Women starringTony Danza andJean Smart, which was produced by O'Donoghue.
In 1992, O'Donoghue created a sketch show pilot titledTV forFOX directed byWalter Williams, creator ofMr. Bill, and featuringKelly Lynch. The pilot was ultimately passed on by the network.[2]
On November 8, 1994, he died of acerebral hemorrhage at age 54.[8]
He is portrayed byTommy Dewey in the 2024 filmSaturday Night.
| Author | Dennis Perrin |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Avon Books |
Publication date | July 1998 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 429 |
| ISBN | 978-0-380-72832-9 |
Dennis Perrin's biographyMr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue was published in 1998 by Avon Books. The Barnes and Noble overview reads, "This is the unvarnished story of a towering figure in American popular culture, the prime artistic force behind an entire generation of humorists and satirists."[citation needed]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Dynamite Chicken | Segment: "Phoebe Zeit-Geist"; writer | |
| 1972 | Savages | Writer | |
| 1975–86 | Saturday Night Live | Various roles | Also writer/head writer, supervising producer |
| 1978 | Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle | English version; writer | |
| 1979 | Manhattan | Dennis | |
| 1979 | Mr. Mike's Mondo Video | Mr. Mike | Also writer, director, producer, composer |
| 1980 | Gilda Live | Documentary; writer | |
| 1980 | The Dreammaster | Abandoned; writer | |
| 1981 | The Midnight Special | 2 episodes; writer | |
| 1983 | Kittens in a Can | Parody of "women in prison" films; co–scripted withMarilyn Suzanne Miller | |
| 1985 | Head Office | Scott Dantley | |
| 1987 | Wall Street | Reporter | |
| 1988 | Scrooged | Priest | Writer |
| 1988 | The Suicide Club | Cardinal Mervin | |
| 1989 | The House Guest | Unproduced; writer | |
| 1990 | Arrive Alive | Unfinished film; writer | |
| 1992 | Itsy Bitsy Spider | Short film; writer |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
