Jim Downey

James Woodward Downey (born ) is an American comedy writer and occasional actor. Downey wrote for over 30 seasons of Saturday Night Live, making him the longest tenured writer in the show's history. SNL creator Lorne Michaels called Downey the "best political humorist alive". Early life and education Downey grew up in Joliet, Illinois. After graduating from Joliet Catholic High School, he entered Harvard University, where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon and later became its president. He graduated from Harvard in 1974 with a degree in Russian. Writing In 1976, Downey joined the Saturday Night Live writing staff as its youngest member. He was among the first Harvard Lampoon writers to write for television; writer Steve O'Donnell said "the proliferation of cable and the proliferation of comedy [led] the sensibilities of the Lampoon [to become] a little closer to the sensibilities of the mass media." Simpsons writer Mike Reiss called Downey "patient zero" of Lampoon comedy writers. Downey ultimately worked on 27 of the show's first 32 seasons, one of the longest tenures in the show's history. He arrived at Saturday Night Live the same week as Bill Murray with whom he ended up sharing an office overlooking 50th Street, but he mostly began writing at SNL with Al Franken, Tom Davis, and Dan Aykroyd. His first stretch as writer for the show ran from 1976 to 1980, culminating in a brief stint as a featured cast member. By the 1979–1980 season, Lorne Michaels had lost both Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi to feature film careers, causing him to look to writers like Downey, Tom Schiller, Dan Aykroyd's brother Peter, Al Franken, Alan Zweibel, and Tom Davis to fill spots as cast members (along with SNL bandleader Paul Shaffer and newcomer Harry Shearer). Downey left the show in 1980 as part of the mass exodus of writers and actors following Lorne Michaels' departure.