Anne Beatts, Groundbreaking SNL Comedy Writer, Dead At 74
Beatts was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs.”
The Associated Press
Todd Williamson via Getty Images
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 10: Anne Beatts attends the premiere Of Abramorama s Live From New York! - Red Carpet at Landmark Theatre on June 10, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (AP) Anne Beatts, a groundbreaking comedy writer who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs,” has died. She was 74.
Beatts died Wednesday at her home in West Hollywood, California, according to her close friend Rona Kennedy. Kennedy, a film producer and a fellow faculty member at Chapman University, did not immediately know the cause of death.
Beatts died at her home in West Hollywood, California, according to her close friend Rona Kennedy.
Kennedy, a film producer and a fellow faculty member at Chapman University, did not immediately know the cause of death.
Starting in 1975 and running for five seasons, Beatts was among a team of gifted writers that included Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel, Marilyn Suzanne Miller and such cast members as Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase who helped make Saturday Night Live a cultural phenomenon.
With Shuster, she would invent the beloved young nerds, the nasally, Marvin Hamlisch-adoring Lisa Loopner (played by Gilda Radner) and Todd DiLaMuca (Bill Murray), and help coin such catchphrases as Lisa’s: “That’s so funny I forgot to laugh.”
The Associated Press
NEW YORK Anne Beatts, a groundbreaking comedy writer who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs,” has died. She was 74.
Beatts died Wednesday at her home in West Hollywood, California, according to her close friend Rona Kennedy. Kennedy, a film producer and a fellow faculty member at Chapman University, did not immediately know the cause of death.
Starting in 1975, Beatts was among a team of gifted writers that included Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel, Marilyn Suzanne Miller and such cast members as Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase who helped make “Saturday Night Live” a cultural phenomenon.
AM Prep-Segue
ANNE BEATTS, GROUNDBREAKING COMEDY WRITER, DEAD AT 74
NEW YORK (AP) - Anne Beatts (BEETS), a groundbreaking comedy writer who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs,” has died at age 74. Starting in 1975, Beatts was among a team of gifted writers that included Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel, Marilyn Suzanne Miller and such cast members as Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase who helped make “Saturday Night Live” a cultural phenomenon. In 1982, she developed her own series, what was then a rare sitcom centering on teen-age girls and starring Sarah Jessica Parker in her breakthrough role.
Anne Beatts, comedy writer on original ‘SNL’ staff and more, dies at 74
Updated 7:14 AM;
Today 7:14 AM
FILE - Anne Beatts arrives at the premiere of Live from New York! in Los Angeles on June 10, 2015. Beatts, a groundbreaking comedy writer who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs,” died Wednesday, April 7, at her home in West Hollywood, California, according to her close friend Rona Kennedy. She was 74. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Facebook Share
NEW YORK (AP) Anne Beatts, a groundbreaking comedy writer with a taste for sweetness and the macabre who was on the original staff of “Saturday Night Live” and later created the cult sitcom “Square Pegs,” has died. She was 74.