Making Room in the Boys’ Club: A Tribute to Anne Beatts, an Original SNL Writer

"Run your finger randomly through the dictionary and pick an adjective, because it was thrilling, it was exciting, it was satisfying, it was terrifying, it was boring, it was horrible. It was everything." This is what Anne Beatts had to say to an interviewer about her five-year tenure as a Saturday Night Live writer a week before she died. The groundbreaking comedy writer died last week at age 74.

We can imagine the thrilling and exciting parts. Being part of one of the coolest clubs ever, one that included John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Akroyd, and presided over by the one-and-only Lorne Michaels. Beatts told of so many all-nighters spent at 30 Rock, squeezing humor out of the foibles, trends, and obsessions of the late 70s, that she had a bed installed in her office. She and another female writer on staff, Rosie Shuster, would sometimes order breakfast up to the office and tip the delivery guy in joints.