michael o'donoghue, who dick ebersol brought back to the show in march, remained as head writer for the first half of season7. some sketches, as well as the appearances of artists like fear and william s. burroughs, reflected the increasingly bizarre ideas o'donoghue had for the show. however, after developing a tense relationship with ebersol and berating the cast in a meeting following the december 12 episode, o'donoghue was fired, with bob tischler taking the role of head writer.