‘Brilliant pioneer’: Chapman professor, ‘SNL’ writer Anne Beatts dies at 74
Chapman screenwriting professor Anne Beatts, an original writer on “Saturday Night Live,” passed away April 7 prior to the production of two upcoming projects. Photo courtesy of Jane Garcia
Jolted out of a sleepy haze, Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, woke up April 7 to a shrill ringtone at 11:44 p.m. More jarring than the phone call was the news it brought: beloved Chapman screenwriting professor Anne Beatts had just died at 74 years old.
The next morning, Galloway entered the first session of the former “Saturday Night Live” writer’s Short Script Workshop class with sunken eyes and a heavy heart — a task he had to perform for the following class as well, accompanied by Interim Film Chair James Dutcher.
Students began to tear up as he relayed Beatts’ sudden passing.
“It’s amazing how much (her students) revered her,” Galloway said. “Some of them were really in tears, and then of course I got calls from parents who were very concerned. One student had, in two years, taken five of her classes. Can you imagine the influence that you have if someone’s done five of your classes?”
Anne Beatts' "Short Script Workshop" students celebrated her 74th birthday on Feb. 25. Photo courtesy of Graham Byrne
Jenna Bolena, a sophomore screenwriting major, is enrolled in the first session of the “Short Script Workshop” course. After Galloway and Dutcher left, she said students remained in the Zoom call to share stories and appreciation for their professor.
“I didn’t realize how much she had an impact on me until after she was gone, but she was just awesome,” Bolena said. “Her laugh was one of the funniest things ever. It was like a huge cackle and it was so sweet. She just always knew how to make people laugh.”
Bolena said she suspected Beatts’ health was declining when she hosted their April 6 class lying flat on her bed, revealing she was unable to feel her legs. Despite students urging her to take the class off, she refused, determined to proceed as planned.
This stubborn perseverance is typical of Beatts — a characteristic repeatedly praised by those closest to her, like Chapman professor and longtime friend Rona Edwards.
“When Anne knew what she wanted, she would go after it and get it,” Edwards said.
Two days after Beatts’ passing, Edwards spent her time organizing her late friend’s belongings and checking in on Beatts’ 18-year-old daughter Jaylene. Memories of their 36-year relationship came flooding back as she flipped through decades of creative work and memorabilia.
The two met in 1985 at a Palm Springs retreat for “Women In Film,” a prestigious organization that offers membership-based community support to vetted female creatives in the entertainment industry. It was the first time Edwards or Beatts had ever been to a conference of the sort, and Edwards cautiously approached the poolside of the resort in search of a friendly face.
“Hi, my name’s Anne Beatts!” Beatts jovially announced.
Edwards whipped around to find the source of the boisterous voice. Beatts extended her hand out to Edwards, emblazoned with her typical bold charisma, and the rest is history.
“It was just a great weekend,” Edwards said of the 1985 retreat. “I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to it, because I don’t usually like those things. But, obviously, there was a reason why I went without realizing it at the time. I was destined to meet Anne."
“It was just a great weekend. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to it, because I don’t usually like those things. But, obviously, there was a reason why I went without realizing it at the time. I was destined to meet Anne.”
Ever since their first meeting, Edwards and Beatts attended the retreat annually, throwing raucous parties in their hotel room. Their friendship extended past international borders, ranging from Hawaii to Hong Kong, as the women began to travel together.
Anne Beatts (left) visited Rona Edwards (right) while Edwards was teaching in Singapore. Photo courtesy of Edwards
On one such occasion, Beatts visited Edwards in Singapore while she was working as an assistant professor for the Chapman University-Ngee Ann Polytechnic Singapore campus teaching a variety of development, production and writing courses. Edwards said that Beatts was one of her only friends that made this effort during the four years she was stationed internationally.
Shortly before being transferred to Singapore, Edwards introduced Beatts to faculty from the television writing and production program at Dodge College. Beatts was hired almost immediately.
“I don’t know how to replace her, because she had a gift,” Galloway said. “What I liked was ... her defiance of political correctness and a willingness to speak her mind.”
Given that both of Beatts’ parents worked in education, Eve Brandstein, who partnered with Beatts to co-write and produce various projects, said it seemed only natural for her to end up in the same field. However, Beatts simultaneously kept active within the entertainment industry while working as a professor, with two concurrent projects pending for deals at the time of her death.
The first is a documentary series called “The Girl in the Room,” centered around the historic journey of women in comedy. The other is a comedy series called “Funny Boys: Life at the National Lampoon,” derived from Beatts’ own experience as the first female contributing editor of the National Lampoon, a comedy magazine. The documentary already has a sizzle reel prepared and the other has a fully outlined treatment.
Eve Brandstein (left) and Anne Beatts (right) were writing and producing partners who founded their own co-run production company called “B-Girls.” Photo courtesy of Brandstein
Both projects involved a collaborative effort with Brandstein, who told The Panther she will continue developing the two projects in Beatts’ honor. Brandstein has an arsenal of other unpublished content co-written by Beatts that she is currently reevaluating and may choose to pursue in the future.
The duo met on Beatts’ 1982 CBS sitcom “Square Pegs,” where Brandstein was working as a casting director. The show was similarly rooted in Beatts’ own lived experience during her high school years. Brandstein and Beatts went on to establish their own production company called “B-Girls.”
“When I keep reading a lot of how she’s reflected upon, it seems like everything was done 30 years ago, but (Beatts) continued to have an important voice as an artist in the media and was continuing to write, develop and produce projects,” Brandstein said. “Life went on until the very end.”
One of the most defining projects in Beatts’ entertainment career was her role in the writer’s room between 1975 and 1980 on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL), for which she was nominated for five Emmys and won two. The show paid a photographic tribute to Beatts during its April 10 episode.
“We don’t even realize how difficult it was for women,” Galloway said. “It’s still difficult. But back then, it was almost impossible, and yet she managed to get her voice heard on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ which is a real boy’s club.”
Beatts was one of four female writers during the five seasons she worked for the late-night comedy show and began to also collaborate with fellow female SNL writer Rosie Shuster.
Beatts worked fervently, often with the burden of sleep deprivation, to prove not only her own self-worth, but the value of women in comedy during a time period in which women weren’t seen as inherently funny. During one contract for SNL, Edwards even recalled Beatts asking for a hospital bed in her office so she could take breaks to sleep before diving back into work.
“I think she really found her strength in those (writers’) rooms because she found her voice,” Brandstein said. “She found her voice in a community that wasn’t giving her an invitation. She had to break through, and how she broke through was her might, her fight and her wit. She was able to make everyone laugh.”
“I think she really found her strength in those (writers’) rooms because she found her voice. She found her voice in a community that wasn’t giving her an invitation. She had to break through, and how she broke through was her might, her fight and her wit. She was able to make everyone laugh.”
To her readers, Beatts’ writing style is distinctive for its unadulterated worldview. Brandstein opted to classify Beatts as a “satirist, not a joke writer” to place emphasis on how her platform thrusted a mirror at society.
With her comedy often derived from observation, her office spaces were cluttered with hand-written notes scribbled with spontaneous ideas tucked away for future reference, according to Edwards.
“She had a different take on sardonic, comical satire,” Edwards said. “There was always an edginess to her writing, but it was always laid in the truth.”
She put forth the same expectation for her students, whom she encouraged to rebel against conventionality. Bolena said that Beatts made the environment feel like an actual writer’s room that facilitated open discussion.
“It honestly felt like we were in SNL,” Bolena said. “She genuinely wanted our scripts to be better. She didn’t want it to be OK; she wanted us to try really hard … I just always wanted to be better.”
Beatts will be missed by the Chapman community, but the cultural impact of her legacy as a female trailblazer in the realm of film and television will remain ever-ingrained in the fabric of the contemporary entertainment industry.
“Anne Beatts is the reason women in comedy have to walk through so much glass. She blew through that ceiling and left a path for all of us,” said Jill Condon, a fellow professor at Dodge College in the television writing and production program and friend of Beatts. “She will forever be a brilliant pioneer, and I consider myself so lucky to have known her.”
Corrections: Anne Beatts’ friendship with Rona Edwards was 36 years long. Edwards organized Beatts belongings two days after her passing. Beatts was introduced to Chapman faculty before Edwards was transferred to Singapore. This information has been corrected.
Clarifications: “Square Pegs” was created by Anne Beatts, and Eve Brandstein worked on the sitcom as a casting director. Beatts requested a hospital bed in her “SNL” office so she could take breaks. This information has been clarified.