Soon after leaving
Saturday Night Live, Macdonald co-wrote and starred in the "revenge comedy"
Dirty Work (
1998), directed by
Bob Saget and co-starring
Artie Lange,
Jack Warden,
Don Rickles,
Chevy Chase,
Christopher McDonald,
Traylor Howard, and
Chris Farley (this would be
Farley's last movie; the film was dedicated in his memory.)
Later that year, Macdonald voiced the character of
Lucky the dog in the
Eddie Murphy adaptation of
Dr. Dolittle. He reprised the role in both
Dr. Dolittle 2 (
2001) and
Dr. Dolittle 3 (
2006). Macdonald voiced the character of
Death on an episode of
Family Guy. Because of a conflict with his stand-up comedy schedule, he was unavailable to voice the character for his next appearance; Death has since been voiced by
Adam Carolla. In
1999, Macdonald starred in the sitcom
The Norm Show (later renamed
Norm), co-starring
Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange and
Ian Gomez. It ran for three seasons on
ABC. Macdonald voiced Hardee's restaurants' (
Carl's Jr. on the
U.S. west coast) costumed mascot, the Hardee's star in advertisements. Macdonald appeared on several
Miller Lite commercials that year. He appeared on the
September 1999 Saturday Night Live primetime special celebrating the program's
25th year on the air. Macdonald was one of only three former
Weekend Update anchors to introduce a retrospective on the segment (the others being Chevy Chase and
Dennis Miller).
Macdonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the
October 23, 1999, show. In his opening monologue, he expressed resentment at having been fired, then concluded that the only reason he was asked to host was because "the show has gotten really bad" since he left,[14] echoing a perennial criticism of the show. The next episode, airing
November 6, 1999, and hosted by
Dylan McDermott, featured a sketch wherein
Chris Kattan, as the androgynous character
Mango, is opening letters from celebrity admirers and, after opening the last one, says "[The letter is from]
Norm Macdonald—who is that?" Earlier in 1999, Macdonald made a cameo appearance in the
Andy Kaufman biopic
Man on the Moon. When
Michael Richards refused to portray himself in the scene reenacting the famous
Fridays incident in which
Kaufman throws water in his face, Macdonald stepped in to play Richards, although he is never referred to by name.
In
2000, Macdonald starred in his second motion picture,
Screwed, which, like Dirty Work, fared poorly at the box office.[citation needed]
On
November 12, 2000, he appeared on the
Celebrity Edition of Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire?, winning $
500,
000 for
Paul Newman's
Charity Camp after he decided to walk away despite he knew the correct answer to the final question.[citation needed] Macdonald continued to make appearances on television shows and in films, including
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,
Deuce Bigalow:
European Gigolo and
The Animal, all of which starred fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus
Rob Schneider and were produced by
Adam Sandler. In
2003 he played the title character in the Fox sitcom
A Minute with Stan Hooper, which was canceled after six episodes.
In
2005, Macdonald signed a deal with
Comedy Central to create the sketch-comedy
Back to Norm, which debuted that May. The pilot was never turned into a series. Its cold opening parodied the suicide of
Budd Dwyer, a
Pennsylvania politician who, facing decades of incarceration, committed suicide on live television in
1987. Rob Schneider appeared in the pilot. Later in 2005, Macdonald performed as a voice actor, portraying a genie named Norm, on two episodes of the cartoon series
The Fairly Odd Parents. But he could not return for the third episode, "
Fairy Idol", owing to a scheduling conflict. In 2006, Macdonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for
Canadian cellphone services provider
Bell Mobility, as the voice of "
Frank the
Beaver". The campaign had a commercial tie-in with the
2006 Winter Olympics in
Turin and with the
2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The ads ran heavily on
CBC during the
Olympics and throughout the
National Hockey League's postseason. Due to its success, the campaign was extended throughout 2006 and
2007 and into 2008 to promote offerings from other
Bell Canada divisions such as
Bell Sympatico Internet provider and
Bell TV satellite service.[15] In
August 2008, the new management at Bell decided that they would go in a different direction with advertising, and would no longer be using the beavers.
- published: 07 Apr 2016
- views: 993