Anne Beatts is deceased. A pioneer in the world of comedy writing, Beatts is probably best known for her five-year career as a writer in the early days of Saturday Night Live, where she was one of the few women in the program’s writing staff to help create a number of classessic characters and sketches. After you have the series, Klopse made her own TV, especially the cult high school sitcom Square pensand help start the career of a young Sarah Jessica Parker. According to Variety‘Beatts’ the death was confirmed today by her longtime friend Rona Edwards. Beatts was 74.
Beatts first gained notoriety as a comedy writer with her tenure as editor at the National Lampoon, one of the several comedy tributaries introduced to the writing staff of the original SNL. (She was known for co-writing a fake advertisement that caused the magazine to sue Volkswagen.) Upon joining the series, Beatts often with co-author Rosie Shuster, where they regularly tasked with the development of materials for the female members of the program, especially Gilda Radner. (Like many of the early SNL Beatts was a writer on Radner’s 1980 solo show Gilda Live.) Beatts wrote for SNL for the whole of the original Lorne Michaels era in the series, which created characters like Todd and Lisa Lupner (also known as The Nerds), Buck Henry’s deeply disturbing ‘Uncle Roy’ and Fred Garvin, male prostitute.
In the 1980s, Beatts left on her own and created Square pens for CBS. Telling the same kinds of teen-oriented stories that John Hughes would spend the next decade on hits, the single-season show features a cast of future stars (especially Parker), a new soundtrack with a new wave, and at least a few kame performances of Beatts’ old friends –especially Bill Murray in a single starring role in a single episode. (Father Guido Sarducci also appeared.) Unfortunately, reports of dysfunction on the program lmoved to the studio to make a promising start and end the series after a single season.
After Square pens ended, Beatts continued to write with some regularity and an episode of Murphy Brown in the ’90, and writes for comedian Stephanie Miller’s short-lived late-night talk show in 1995. She was also a writing teacher for many years and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, and at Chapman University.