Robert Tischler (June 12, 1946- July 13, 2024) was an American television writer, audio engineer and television producer. Tischler engineered the National Lampoon's first comedy album and with Michael O'Donoghue co-created and produced the National Lampoon Radio Hour. A friend of John Belushi's since the Radio Hour days, Tischler produced four Blues Brothers albums, the first of which, Briefcase Full of Blues, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went double platinum.
Tischler joined NBC's Saturday Night Live television program when Dick Ebersol took creative control in 1981 and stayed with SNL for four seasons, and became the head writer, starting with Season 7 later that year, until leaving the show in 1985 (with the exception of season 9, where he was just credited as a producer). Tischler produced David Brenner's late-night talk show Nightlife during the 1986-'87 season and had since wrote for and produced a number of television series, including What's Alan Watching?, Empty Nest, Something So Right and Boy Meets World.
Bob Tischler was making radio spots for movie studios when, after hiring improvisational actor Christopher Guest as voice talent, Guest and Tischler became friends. "Chris got me into show business," Tischler later recalled. When Guest became involved with National Lampoon's 1972 Radio Dinner album, he called on Tischler to help. Tischler co-produced the record with Lampoon magazine writers Tony Hendra and Michael O'Donoghue.
SNL Career[]
- 1981-1985: Writer/Producer (first episode: April 11, 1981)
- 1981-1983; 1984-85: Head Writer