Steve O'Donnell (writer)

Steve O'Donnell (born July 19, 1954) is an American television writer. His credits include The Simpsons, Seinfeld, The Chris Rock Show and Late Night with David Letterman.^[1]

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and graduated with an A.B. degree from Harvard College in 1976. He also did graduate studies in American history at Columbia University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He was in the David Letterman show almost since the beginning. The Top Ten List was invented while he was head writer of the show, and he wrote the lists in collaboration with the other writers of the show. According to O'Donnell, the Top Ten List was an "almost simultaneous inspiration arriving from staffers Jim Downey, Randy Cohen and Robert “Morty” Morton — largely prompted by the ridiculous 'eligible bachelor' lists in a local New York paper that included the 84-year-old Bill Paley. 'Why, we can put such nonsense together ourselves!' we exclaimed. And we did." ^[2] He later co-authored several of the Top-ten books based in the show.^[3]

He has been the head writer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! since the show's debut in January 2003. He occasionally appears acting in comedy bits for the show in front of camera as well.^[4]

He is the identical twin of Mark O'Donnell, the Tony-award winning co-writer of the Broadway musical Hairspray^[1] who died on August 6, 2012.^[5]

He won Primetime Emmy Awards in the "Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program" category on four occasions: for Late Night with David Letterman in 1984, 1986 and 1987 and for The Chris Rock Show in 1998.^[6]

Simpsons episodes written by O'Donnell

References

1 2 "Interview with Steve & Mark O’Donnell". The Believer. August 2004. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
↑ Steve O’Donnell (2015-05-07), "David Letterman’s Top Ten On Air Moments", New York Times
↑
Sources for top-ten list:
- Gliatto, Tom (1990-08-27), "And the No.1 Reason David Letterman Keeps Reading the Top 10 List–Well, It's Funnier Than His Monologue", People 34 (8)
- Larry McShane, Associated Press (1991-11-02), "Letterman lists take country by storm", Reading Eagle
- Phil Rosenthal (2009-12-13), "No chance of a list-less columnist this time of year", Chicago Tribune
↑ Mendoza, Manuel (2006-02-04). "Inside 'Kimmel Live'". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
↑ Kennedy, Mark. "'Hairspray' co-writer Mark O'Donnell dies at 58". Boston.com.
↑ "Awards for Steve O'Donnell". IMDB. Retrieved 2010-01-22.

External links

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (1980–89)

Buz Kohan (1980) Jerry Juhl, Chris Langham and David Odell (1981) Jeffrey Barron, Dick Blasucci, John Candy, Chris Cluess, Bob Dolman, Joe Flaherty, Paul Flaherty, Stuart Kreisman, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, John McAndrew, Brian McConnachie, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, Mert Rich, Michael Short, Doug Steckler and Dave Thomas (1982) Dick Blasucci, John Candy, Bob Dolman, Joe Flaherty, Paul Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, John McAndrew, Martin Short, Michael Short, Doug Steckler and Mary Charlotte Wilcox (1983) Chris Elliott, Sanford Frank, Ted Greenberg, David Letterman, Merrill Markoe, Jeff Martin, Gerard Mulligan, Steve O'Donnell, Joe Toplyn, Matt Wickline and David Yazbek (1984) Randy Cohen, Kevin Curran, Chris Elliott, Sandy Frank, Eddie Gorodetsky, Fred Graver, Larry Jacobson, David Letterman, Merrill Markoe, Jeff Martin, Gerard Mulligan, Joe Toplyn and Matt Wickline (1985) Randy Cohen, Kevin Curran, Chris Elliott, Sandy Frank, Fred Graver, Larry Jacobson, David Letterman, Merrill Markoe, Jeff Martin, Gerard Mulligan, Steve O'Donnell, Joe Toplyn and Matt Wickline (1986) Randy Cohen, Kevin Curran, Chris Elliott, Sandy Frank, Fred Graver, Larry Jacobson, David Letterman, Jeff Martin, Gerard Mulligan, Steve O'Donnell, Adam Resnick, Joe Toplyn and Matt Wickline (1987) Jackie Mason (1988) John Bowman, A. Whitney Brown, Greg Daniels, Tom Davis, James Downey, Al Franken, Shannon Gaughan, Jack Handey, Phil Hartman, George Meyer, Lorne Michaels, Mike Myers, Conan O'Brien, Bob Odenkirk, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Robert Smigel, Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner and Christine Zander (1989)

Complete list (1957–1969) (1970–1979) (1980–1989) (1990–1999) (2000–2009) (2010–2019)

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series (1990–99)

Billy Crystal / Jerry Belson, James L. Brooks, Marc Flanagan, Dinah Kirgo, Jay Kogen, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Heide Perlman, Ian Praiser, Sam Simon, Tracey Ullman and Wallace Wolodarsky (1990, tie) Billy Crystal, Hal Kanter, Buz Kohan, David Steinberg, Bruce Vilanch and Robert Wuhl (1991) No award (1992) Judd Apatow, Robert Cohen, David Cross, Brent Forrester, Jeff Kahn, Bruce Kirschbaum, Bob Odenkirk, Sultan Pepper, Dino Stamatopoulos and Ben Stiller (1993) No award (1994) No award (1995) David Feldman, Eddie Feldmann, Mike Gandolfi, Tom Hertz, Leah Krinsky, Dennis Miller and Rick Overton (1996) Chris Rock (1997) Jose Arroyo, David Feldman, Eddie Feldmann, Jim Hanna, Leah Krinsky, Dennis Miller and David Weiss (1998) Tom Agna, Vernon Chatman, Louis C.K., Lance Crouther, Gregory Greenberg, Ali LeRoi, Steve O'Donnell, Chris Rock, Frank Sebastiano, Chuck Sklar, Jeff Stilson, Wanda Sykes and Mike Upchurch (1999)

Complete list (1957–1969) (1970–1979) (1980–1989) (1990–1999) (2000–2009) (2010–2019)

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