Jean Doumanian
Jean Doumanian (born c.
1934 as
Jean Karabas in
Chicago, Illinois) is an American
producer. She is most widely known for a brief stint as the executive producer of
Saturday Night Live (SNL) and later, as a producer for several
Woody Allen films.
Show creator
Lorne Michaels resigned as producer of
SNL at the end of its fifth season and the entire cast and writing staff followed. Doumanian, who was an associate producer for the first five seasons of the show and produced a special for Michaels in
1978, was one of the few who stayed around. She was offered Michaels' job running
SNL and took over the show for the
1980 season, hiring a completely new cast and new writers (many people refused to go near the show because of loyalty to Michaels). The show was plagued by problems from the start.
The first episode, renamed
Saturday Night Live 80, appeared on
November 15,
1980.
Charles Rocket was groomed by Doumanian to be the show's biggest star, while
Eddie Murphy, who would become the most successful member of that season's cast, received little air time. The new season was quickly panned by the critics.
Doumanian nearly lost her job in a battle with
NBC executives over a sketch she wanted to insert into the
December 6,
1980 episode. The sketch, named
The Virgin Search, portrayed NBC executives looking for a woman who's never had sexual intercourse to be
SNL's newest castmember. The main objection to the sketch was the sequence where the NBC executives visit a convent and meet a nun (played by
Gail Matthius) who had sex with Father Guido Sarducci. NBC executives threatened to ban this episode and air an episode from
Lorne Michaels' tenure as executive producer if Jean Doumanian didn't back down. The controversial sketch eventually aired two weeks later, on
December 20.
On the
February 21 episode, Rocket said "
fuck" on air at the close of an episode. In addition to firing Rocket, NBC soon fired Doumanian, replacing her with
Dick Ebersol. The period is now widely regarded as being the worst in
SNL history.
Doumanian had a nearly 40-year friendship and professional relationship with
Woody Allen. He is said to have called the SNL studios regularly during her brief tenure there, and cast member
Ann Risley had had a bit role in
Stardust Memories. She taught him how to dance in the
1960s, defended him through various scandals, and he saved her life in
1992 when she was choking on a piece of bread.
After leaving SNL, she was an executive producer for several of his films:
Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
Everyone Says I Love You (1996)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Small Time Crooks (2000)
She was also a producer for a 1994 made-for-television film
Don't Drink the Water and the 1997 documentary
Wild Man Blues, a film about a tour undertook by Allen's jazz band.
In May
2001 many were stunned when he filed a
lawsuit against Doumanian and her partner
Jacob Safra, claiming their production company had skimmed $12 million of profits off of the movies. She countersued, claiming he had cheated them out of $19 million. The two sides settled in
2002, but the friendship was shattered beyond repair.
In
2002, Doumanian was a producer for a
Broadway revival of
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, which was nominated for a
Tony Award. In
2004, Doumanian was a producer of the Broadway premiere of the play
Democracy by
Michael Frayn.
Her nephew is Chris Karabas, a sales rep at the Chicago office of
Creative Management Partners (CMP), who, ironically, often liaised with
Woody Allen when his aunt was still collaborating with Allen, before their partnership ended so acrimoniously ([
1]).
