Alan Zweibel

As a comedy writer, producer, playwright and even novelist, Alan Zweibel was a prolific comedic voice whose life and career were inexorably linked to the first five seasons of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC, 1975- ). One of the original writers hired by producer Lorne Michaels, Zweibel had his hand in creating and writing for some of the show's most famous characters and bits, most notably John Belushi's Samurai and Gilda Radner's Emily Litella and frizzy-haired Roseanne Roseannadanna. In fact, he developed a strong professional and personal bond with Radner that lasted until her untimely death from cancer in 1989. Meanwhile, he made his feature writing debut with the concert film "Gilda Live" (1980) and later helped create and write "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (Showtime, Fox, 1986-1990) alongside the show's titular star. After writing a big screen remake of "Dragnet" (1987), Zweibel wrote the best-selling memoir, Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner - A Sort of Love Story (1994), which detailed his platonic relationship with Radner, while branching further out into Broadway and writing for a number of variety specials, cementing his legacy as one of the comedy world's more pioneering writers.