Upon the show's cancellation, Smigel continued developing more cartoon ideas the following summer and would begin airing them on Saturday Night Live under the TV Funhouse banner.

Smigel would later claim, " My whole career came out of the impulse to do cartoons on The Dana Carvey Show.

First studying with the famous improv-guru Del Close ( who had mentored the likes of Bill Murray and John Belushi ) Odenkirk also attended " The Players Workshop of the Second City " where he met Robert Smigel and they began a collaboration that would last for years and take Bob to Saturday Night Live.

Steve Carell, who would go on to major success, was hired through Smigel and Carvey's auditions in which Smigel recalls seeing future SNL alumni Tracy Morgan, Jimmy Fallon and Ana Gasteyer ; however, The Dana Carvey Show had but a small cast to fill.

" In the summer following the show's cancellation, Smigel continued to develop more cartoon ideas which would be used on SNLs TV Funhouse.

The pilot, written by Conan O ' Brien and Robert Smigel in their pre-Late Night period, aired on NBC that summer but was not picked up as a series.

In 2000, he played himself on two episodes of the Robert Smigel series TV Funhouse ; as a sort-of mentor to the show's animal puppet troupe, he was the only character who had the respect of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

In the early 1990s, Wendt made cameo appearances on several episodes of SNL as Bob Swerski, one of the Chicago Superfans ( along with castmembers Chris Farley, Mike Myers, Robert Smigel, and one-time host, Joe Mantegna ).

Smigel first established himself as a writer on Saturday Night Live by joining the writing staff when Lorne Michaels returned as executive producer for the 1985-1986 season.

" Smigel rarely appeared on screen ; although, he was credited as a feature player in the early 1990s and has played a recurring character in the Bill Swerski's Superfans sketches.

While on a writers ' strike from Saturday Night Live following the 1987 – 88 season, Smigel wrote for an improvisational comedy revue in Chicago with fellow SNL writers Bob Odenkirk and Conan O ' Brien called Happy Happy Good Show.

Smigel later became the first head writer at Late Night with Conan O ' Brien, where he created numerous successful comedy bits, including one where Smigel performed only the lips of public figures which were superimposed on photos of the actual people.

In 1996, Smigel wrote and performed on the short-lived Dana Carvey Show, a primetime sketch comedy program on ABC.

Smigel continued to establish himself on Saturday Night Live by producing infamous, provocative, short animated segments under the title TV Funhouse, which usually satirizes public figures and popular culture.

Currently Smigel is working on an animated sitcom for Fox called Animals.

In late 2010, on the Conan program, Conan O ' Brien and Nealon discussed how they were holed up in a Santa Monica hotel room for a month or so in the early nineties with Carvey and Robert Smigel, working on a script for the movie ( which was to be a musical ).

" Saturday TV Funhouse " is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central.

Along with fellow cast member Stephen Colbert, Carell provided the voice of Gary, half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, the Robert Smigel – produced animated short which continued on Saturday Night Live later that year.

It first appeared on January 12, 1991 starring Joe Mantegna as the show's host Bill Swerski, along with Chris Farley as Todd O ' Connor, Mike Myers as Pat Arnold, and Robert Smigel as Carl Wollarski.

Two years later, Smigel followed it up with " Sabra Price Is Right ", starring Tom Hanks as a pushy Israeli game show host, Sandler and Rob Schneider as its presenters and Smigel as a cigarette-smoking announcer, all pushing shoddy electronics on hapless clientele.

The show's cast consists heavily of Saturday Night Live and Second City alumni including Dana Carvey, Steve Carell, Bill Chott, Stephen Colbert, Elon Gold, Chris McKinney, Heather Morgan, Peggy Shay, Robert Smigel, and James Stephens III.

Smigel later considered the cartoons his favorite aspect of the program and noted, " My whole career came out of the impulse to do cartoons on The Dana Carvey Show.

Robert Smigel turned down an offer to rejoin SNL as a producer, favoring the challenge of working with Carvey on primetime.

Smigel and Carvey were given SNLs audition tapes which led them to hire Bill Chott and Jon Glaser.

As such, he regarded Smigel as the true writer and " creative force " behind the show while Carvey considered himself " kind of a zombie.

During the development, Smigel and Carvey focused on being different from SNL.

When Saturday Night Live took its 1988 summer break, Odenkirk returned to Chicago to perform a stage show with Smigel and O ' Brien, titled Happy Happy Good Show.

Smigel originally wrote the sketch for the improvisational comedy show Happy Happy Good Show.

In 1999, Pets. com filed a lawsuit against Late Night and Robert Smigel claiming that Triumph constituted a trademark violation because of possible confusion with their sock puppet dog mascot ( which appeared two years after the first appearance of Triumph ); however, the bankruptcy and closing of the company during the dot-com bust of 2000 ended the lawsuit.

who worked with Smigel on Late Night with Conan O ' Brien.

Smigel particularly cast Stephen Colbert whom he'd met years prior and tried to use on Late Night.

On Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse sketch entitled " Maraka ", created by Robert Smigel, the Dora-like character is called Maraka, while the Boots-like character is called Mittens.

Robert Smigel ( born February 7, 1960 ) is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live " TV Funhouse " cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

For the December 10, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live, Foley and Gordon lent their voices ( playing themselves ) to a Robert Smigel animated TV Funhouse parody called " Celebrity Mugshot Poker ," where, as the title suggests, various celebrities ( like Nick Nolte and James Brown ) are represented by animated versions of their infamous mugshots.

* Comedian-writer Robert Smigel came up with a Saturday Night Live sketch in 1990 called the " Sabra Shopping Network ".

The sketch featured Cheers co-star George Wendt, a Chicago native, as host of a radio talk-show ( similar in tone to WGN radio's " The Sportswriters "), with co-panelists Carl Wollarski ( Robert Smigel ), Pat Arnold ( Mike Myers ) and Todd O ' Connor ( Chris Farley ).

Smigel began developing his comedic talent at The Players Workshop in Chicago, where he studied improvisation with Josephine Forsberg.

After the 1985-1986 season proved to be a disappointment with critics, in the ratings, and with Brandon Tartikoff ( who was planning to have SNL canceled by the last episode of season 11 due to its sliding ratings ), Michaels fired most of the cast and writers, retained the cast and writers who were standouts during the otherwise dismal season ( Smigel being one of them ), and hired new ones for the 1986-1987 season.

Smigel co-wrote Lookwell with Conan O ' Brien for NBC.

Smigel, along with Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow, wrote the script for the film You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

Smigel is also one of the executive producers of the film which is a first for him despite his frequent collaborations with Sandler.

Smigel has a child with autism and is active in raising money for New Jersey-based autism services.

* Streaming NPR Interview with Triumph and Robert Smigel

Odenkirk has credited SNL with teaching him many lessons about sketch writing, from senior writers like James Downey and Al Franken, as well as his friends Smigel and O ' Brien.

While learning how to eat and sleep, he meets a talking bulldog named Mr. Beefy ( voice of Robert Smigel ), rents an apartment with an actor named Todd ( Allen Covert ) and falls in love with a design student named Valerie ( Patricia Arquette ).

Smigel's preferred version of Lookwell ( with Adam West busting through the police tape at the beginning ) has also screened at " The Other Network ", a festival of un-aired TV pilots, featuring live and taped intros by Smigel and an extended interview with O ' Brien, produced by Un-Cabaret.