Michael O'Donoghue Movies
Specializing in comedy and satire, screenwriter and magazine journalist Michael O'Donoghue was among the charter writers of NBC's long-running comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live (1975). O'Donoghue's association with original cast members Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and John Belushi extended back through the days when O'Donoghue was creative director of the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Before that, O'Donoghue edited National Lampoon magazine where he ranked as one of the great humor journal's finest writers. On staff at SNL, O'Donoghue was responsible for some of the show's best sketches; his work there earned him Emmys in 1976 and 1977. Though O'Donoghue left the show in 1980, he returned for a short period in 1981 and in 1985. His few screenwriting credits include Savages (1972), Gilda Live!, and Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (both 1979). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1992
This half hour length animated special tells the "real" story behind the famous children's song "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." I.B. Spider (voiced by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) is sick and tired of being called Itsy Bitsy just because he is so small. He shows everyone that he isn't short on bravery when he climbs up a water spout to save his friends who have been caught in a glass jar. Patti Labelle sings the title song and Jim Carrey is the voice of the exterminator. This video is from the Real Story Collection and is the winner of the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Animation 1991 at the Yorktown Short Film and Video Festival. ~ Karla Baker, All Movie Guide
A darkly comic and surreal contemporization of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, this effects-heavy Bill Murray holiday vehicle from 1988 sees the former SNL funnyman assuming the role of television executive Frank Cross, the meanest and most depraved man on earth. Cross will stoop to unheard of levels to increase his network's ratings -- even if it means mounting outrageous programs to retain an audience, such as "Robert Goulet's Cajun Christmas" and Lee Majors in "The Night the Reindeer Died," with an AK-47-toting Santa. Cross plots his foulest move, however, for the Christmas holiday, when he will force his office staff to mount a live production of A Christmas Carol on national television -- and thus work through Christmas Eve. Cross's life is turned upside down with visits from three ghosts: a craggy-faced cabbie known as The Ghost of Christmas Past (David Johansen); the sugar-plum fairy Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) (who gets her jollies by bonking Frank across the face with a toaster oven); and, eventually, the caped, headless Ghost of Christmas Future, who will send Frank sliding into a crematory oven -- just before he gives the sleazoid one last chance to redeem himself. Along the way, the spirits carry Frank to scenes from his past, present, and future (per Scrooge) and impart a glimpse of how he became so thoroughly rotten. The radiant Karen Allen co-stars as Frank's girlfriend, Claire Phillips, and the film packs in cameos from countless celebrities -- among them, Mary Lou Retton, John Houseman, Jamie Farr, and, in a truly grisly and tasteless bit, John Forsythe. Richard Donner directs, from a script credited to the late Michael O'Donoghue and Mitch Glazer. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Karen Allen, (more)
"Greed is Good." This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko's inner circle, Fox quickly learns to rape, murder and bury his sense of ethics. Only when Gekko's wheeling and dealing causes a near-tragedy on a personal level does Fox "reform"-though his means of destroying Gekko are every bit as underhanded as his previous activities on the trading floor. Director Stone, who cowrote Wall Street with Stanley Weiser, has claimed that the film was prompted by the callous treatment afforded his stockbroker father after 50 years in the business; this may be why the film's most compelling scenes are those between Bud Fox and his airline mechanic father (played by Charlie Sheen's real-life dad Martin). Ironically, Wall Street was released just before the October, 1987 stock market crash. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, (more)
A year after appearing in the box-office sleeper Shanghai Surprise, pop superstar Madonna starred in the screwball comedy Who's That Girl? She plays Nikki Finn, who is being released from prison after serving a four-year sentence for a murder she didn't commit. Meanwhile, wealthy lawyer Loudon (Griffin Dunne) is about to get married that afternoon to the snobby Wendy (Haviland Morris), the daughter of Simon Worthington (John McMartin). Worthington does not approve of the wedding and he wants Nikki out of town as soon as possible, so he sends Loudon to collect Nikki and take her to the bus station. Instead, the flamboyant Nikki seeks her revenge while trying to find out what happened to her friend Johnny, which causes Loudon a lot of trouble. Naturally, wild action ensues -- some of it involving an escaped Cougar belonging to Loudon's boss, the millionaire animal collector Montgomery Bell (John Mills) -- and Loudon having to choose between the prim Wendy and the unpredictable Nikki. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madonna, Griffin Dunne, (more)
- 1987
- R
In this drama, a wealthy young heiress endeavors to discover if her life does indeed have any meaning after she participates in a far-from-harmless parlor game at an exclusive costume party held in a grand old mansion. Sasha, the heiress, has fallen into a deep depression following the suicide of her brother and is strongly thinking about joining him when she goes to the party and begins playing a card game in which the winner's reward is a drink of deadly poison. Unfortunately, Sasha wins and must now reconsider her rashness. The plot is based on a story from Robert Louis Stevenson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariel Hemingway, Robert Joy, (more)
With a script that is too anemic for the red-blooded actors featured here, this anorexic comedy moves slowly up and down the corporate ladder with the fortunes and misfortunes of several company men. Jack Issel (Judge Reinhold) gets a VIP position at INC in the PR department (business-speak). Suddenly the corporation's shady activities come to the fore -- especially when a U.S. plant is set to close for a move south of the border where labor is almost free. Enmeshed in these tangles, Jack is hardly prepared to fall in love with the leading activist against the plant closing -- but he does. Meanwhile, a lot of other subplots quickly dispose of potentially budding villains like Stedman (Danny DeVito) the inside trader -- too bad. DeVito and Don King (appearing as himself) would have made a great team. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judge Reinhold, Eddie Albert, (more)
- 1984
In this made-for-TV movie, a group of lonely, unattached people meet up in a local bar in search of love and friendship. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Hack, Paul Michael Glaser, (more)
- 1980
- R
Director Mike Nichols makes no effort to inject camera trickery or "mise en scene" in Gilda Live. This is a live comedy concert by the peerless Gilda Radner, and that is enough; Nichols merely records this wonderful lady in action. All of Gilda's standard characterizations -- Emily Latella, Roseanna Roseannadanna et. al. -- are here in full force, a lot raunchier than when seen on TV. Everyone's favorite bit in this comedy catalogue is Gilda's specialty number "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals." On hand to allow Gilda to take a breather once in a while is Don Novello, aka Father Guido Sarducci. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gilda Radner
On the heels of Annie Hall, the Oscar-winning romantic comedy that rocketed Woody Allen to the front ranks of American filmmakers, Manhattan continued Allen's romantic obsessions in a slightly darker, more pessimistic vein. Allen stars as Isaac Davis, a TV comedy writer sick of the pap he is forced to churn out and harboring dreams of being the great American novelist. His love life is in barbed-wire territory: he is tormented by his second ex-wife Jill (Meryl Streep), a lesbian who has written a tell-all book about their marriage, and he is dating teenager Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), to whom he refuses to commit, and keeps hinting that a breakup may be imminent. Isaac's disillusioned (and married) best friend Yale (Michael Murphy) has begun an affair with the cerebral writer Mary Wilke (Diane Keaton). While Isaac makes a last minute, sink-or-swim decision to quit his job and devote all of his time to book writing, and neurotically moans about what the lack of a full time job will do to him ("My parents won't have as good of a seat in the synagogue," he moans. "They'll be far away from God... away from the action") Yale is crippled by his lack of resolve, as indicated by his inability to leave his wife Emily (Anne Byrne). Meanwhile, Isaac and {%Mary) begin to fall for one another. Tracy then tells Isaac the basic truth that none of his hung-up friends and past lovers fully realizes: "You have to have a little more faith in people." Manhattan is both a seriocomic dissection of perpetually dissatisfied New Yorkers and an ode to the city itself, filmed in glorious black-and-white by ace cinematographer Gordon Willis, and set to a score of rhapsodic George Gershwin music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
Michael O'Donoghue, a writer for the original Saturday Night Live, was the mastermind of this collection of bizarre and often raunchy sketches featuring SNL cast members and numerous celebrity cameos. Originally intended as a late-night television special, network hesitation led to the special's release as a theatrical film. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael O'Donoghue
Returning for a fourth season (1978-79), the cast and writers of Saturday Night Live maintained their reputation for hilarious characters and innovative sketch-comedy, creating characters such as the Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd), Nick the Lounge Singer (Bill Murray), Candy Slice (Gilda Radner), the Loud Family (Jane Curtin, Murray, and Radner), Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute (Aykroyd), and the Nerds (Murray and Radner). Other favorites include the return of iconic host Steve Martin (with Aykroyd as the "wild and crazy" Festrunk Brothers) and Buck Henry's inappropriate Uncle Roy. The 20 episodes of Season 4 feature classic performances from hosts Fred Willard, Carrie Fisher, Kate Jackson, Milton Berle, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Elliott Gould, Frank Zappa, Gary Busey, and Walter Matthau. Unforgettable musical guests include Peter Tosh, Mick Jagger, the Doobie Brothers, Bette Midler, Talking Heads, Devo, Van Morrison, Grateful Dead, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, and the Rolling Stones.
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, (more)
Continuing the enormous success of the previous two years, the third season of SNL (1977-78) showcased a fearless cast that created some of the most memorable sketches to ever appear on the show. With hilarious breakthrough characters like The Nerds (Bill Murray and Gilda Radner), Coneheads (Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtin), lounge singer Nick Winters (Bill Murray), Samurai Warrior (John Belushi), a singing King Tut (legendary SNL host Steve Martin) and featuring Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) as well as "The Franken and Davis Show" (Al Franken and Tom Davis), SNL continued to define itself as the pinnacle of irreverent humor and political satire.
The complete third season of SNL contains unforgettable appearances by hosts Steve Martin, Michael Palin, Hugh Hefner, Buck Henry, Robert Klein, Chevy Chase, Madeline Kahn, Richard Dreyfuss, O.J. Simpson and the winner of the "Anyone Can Host" contest, Miskel Spillman, and classic musical performances by Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Leon Redbone, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ashford & Simpson, Meat Loaf and The Blues Brothers.
The complete third season of SNL contains unforgettable appearances by hosts Steve Martin, Michael Palin, Hugh Hefner, Buck Henry, Robert Klein, Chevy Chase, Madeline Kahn, Richard Dreyfuss, O.J. Simpson and the winner of the "Anyone Can Host" contest, Miskel Spillman, and classic musical performances by Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Ray Charles, Leon Redbone, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ashford & Simpson, Meat Loaf and The Blues Brothers.
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, (more)
For over three decades, Saturday Night Live has been the source of young comedic talent and helped to launch the careers of countless performers, making them household names. Still considered iconic for their live performances from Studio 8H in New York, the original cast of SNL (including Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner and John Belushi) set the tone for years to follow with their irreverent, edgy humor. They combined anti-establishment political satire with rock-and-roll attitude for a show that spoke to the youth of the 1970's, turning it into an instant sensation. Although only the second year on the air, the 1976-1977 season turned out to be the last for Chevy Chase, but the first for a young comedian named Bill Murray. The complete second season of SNL contains legendary musical performances by artists Joe Cocker, The Band, Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, George Harrison, Frank Zappa, Chuck Berry, The Kinks, Santana and Tom Waits and classic appearances by hosts Lily Tomlin, Norman Lear, Steve Martin, Dick Cavett, Jodie Foster, Candice Bergen, Ralph Nader, Fran Tarkenton, Sissy Spacek, Elliott Gould and Shelly Duvall.
- Starring:
- Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, (more)
This hippie parable, co-written and directed by James Ivory and produced by his long-time partner Ismail Merchant, tries to make a heavy-handed parallel between civilization and corruption. A tribe of nameless natives (played by Sam Waterston, Susan Blakely, Salome Jens and Martin Kove, among others) finds a croquet ball and, rolling it along the ground mystified by what it might be, stumbles upon an estate. They enter and occupy the mansion and don the clothes and trappings of civilized luxury. A dividing line begins to develop between strong and weak tribe members, with the weak becoming subordinate to the others. A lavish party is thrown that resembles nothing so much as a summer weekend gathering of sophisticates. After a game of croquet, however, the natives begin to tire of their masquerade and devolve back into their original, more primitive state, and disappear into the forest. Cinematographer Walter Lassally makes the film's point more blunt and obvious by filming the prologue in black and white and then switching to color once the tribe discovers the estate. One of Ivory's co-writers was Michael O'Donoghue, infamous bad boy of the original Saturday Night Live writing staff. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lewis J. Stadlen, Anne Francine, (more)
