Former ‘Saturday Night Live’ head writer Bob Tischler dead at 78
The comedy world is mourning one of its own.
Former head writer of “Saturday Night Live” Bob Tischler has died at age 78.
Tischler’s son Zeke confirmed his father’s death to the New York Times on Monday. He told the outlet that the sketch comedy show writer died on July 13 at his home in Bodega Bay, California, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tischler was largely credited with his work to help revive the late-night series after its 1980-1981 season.
“Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels handed the show over to Jean Doumanian for Season 6, which caused the show to suffer until Dick Ebersol replaced her and brought in Tischler — who served as a supervising producer.
Tischler was promoted to head writer a year later, a position he held until he departed in 1985.
Ebersol touched on working with Tischler in his 2022 autobiography, “From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My Forty Years of Laughter, Tears, and Touchdowns in TV.”
The 77-year-old wrote that Tischler “wanted the show to succeed,” noting, “But more than that, he was exactly the leader the writers’ room needed — steady, calm and respected.”
The comedic writer worked closely with cast member Eddie Murphy to help revive the NBC show and wrote for other stars, such as Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest and Martin Short.
“We had this thing for Eddie, because Eddie would take what we wrote and make it better every single time,” Tischler was quoted explaining in James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales’ 2002 book “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live.”
He added about his time on “SNL”: “I produced a lot of comedy and I did writing, but I wasn’t a member of the union or anything.”
Tischler was born in Englewood, New Jersey, on June 12, 1946, to parents Leonard and Florence (Parets) Tischler. In the 1960s, he attended Ithaca and Franconia colleges before landing a job as a sound engineer on television and radio.
In the 1970s, Guest recommended Tischler to “National Lampoon” after the pair worked on a radio ad together. From there, he produced “The National Lampoon Radio Hour” in 1973.
Tischler also produced multiple albums, including “Radio Dinner” in 1972, “Gold Turkey” in 1975 and “That’s Not Funny, That’s Sick” in 1977.
He also worked on various albums for his friend John Belushi — one of the original “SNL” cast members and a “National Lampoon” alum.
Tischler produced four albums for Belushi’s musical comedy duo, the Blues Brothers, with Dan Aykroyd. The music was later featured on “Saturday Night Live.”
Later in his career, Tischler wrote for such shows as “Something So Right,” “Empty Nest” and “Boy Meets World.”
Tischler is survived by his son, wife Judith Tischler and brother Jim, per the New York Times.
