Jean Doumanian ( Karabas; born July 28, 1936) is an American stage, television and film producer. She briefly produced Saturday Night Live, between November 1980 and March 1981. Early life Doumanian was born Jean (or Jeannine) Karabas, the youngest of three children born to Greek immigrant parents and raised in Chicago. Her father was a restaurateur. She attended the University of Illinois but dropped out as a junior to marry John Doumanian, a promoter for Capitol Records. While out with her husband who was scouting new talent in the clubs of Chicago, she met stand-up comedian Woody Allen who was sharing a billing with Capitol singer Nancy Wilson. A friendship developed after Allen's manager, Jack Rollins, asked the couple to show Allen around Chicago and her husband became Allen's road manager. Career The Doumanians divorced and John Doumanian moved to California. She moved to New York at the request of up-and-coming comedian Dick Cavett as a pre-interviewer and writer for ABC's The Dick Cavett Show; and then as an associate producer for Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. In 1975, she took a position with NBC as associate producer for Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night Live Show creator Lorne Michaels resigned as producer of Saturday Night Live at the end of its fifth season and the entire cast and writing staff followed, with the exception of writer Brian Doyle-Murray. Doumanian, who had been an associate producer during the first five seasons of the show and produced a special for Michaels in 1978, was one of the few who remained. She was offered Michaels' job running SNL, much to Michaels' surprise, and took over the show for the 1980 season, hiring a completely new cast and new writers. Doumanian's tenure as SNL executive producer was tumultuous. She hired Denny Dillon, Gilbert Gottfried, Gail Matthius, Joe Piscopo, Ann Risley and Charles Rocket as repertory players, and Yvonne Hudson, Matthew Laurance and Patrick Weathers as featured players. Then-unknown Eddie Murphy would join the show as a featured player on the fourth episode and was upgraded to repertory status on January 24, 1981. With its team of all-new writers and cast members, the show was plagued with problems from the start of the season and deemed a commercial disappointment, and suffered from competition with ABC's new weekend show, Fridays, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation import SCTV, which NBC aired following the Tonight Show on