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During the early 1970s, McConnachie was one of the main writers for National Lampoon, where he authored and co-authored many articles. He left the magazine after four years, but as Rick Meyerowitz wrote, in his 2010 book Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, "[McConnachie's Lampoon work] is well loved, here on earth and on his home planet."
In 1978, McConnachie left the Lampoon and joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live, joining Bill Murray and John Belushi, two friends from The National Lampoon Radio Hour. McConnachie and Belushi remained particularly close until Belushi's death in 1982, and Murray and McConnachie remained friends as well, with McConnachie acting in several of Murray's movies. McConnachie's absurdist sketches for SNL included “Cochise at Oxford” and “Name the Bats.”
After leaving SCTV, McConnachie launched The American Bystander, a magazine he variously described as "a hip New Yorker" or "National Lampoon for grown-ups." Though the Bystander had contributions from many of McConnachie's friends from the Lampoon and was initially backed by Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Lorne Michaels and others, it was unable to secure financing for print distribution beyond its "pilot issue." In 2015, McConnachie partnered with Michael Gerber and Alan Goldberg to relaunch the magazine;[2] the sole issue from 1982 was reprinted in full in Bystander #25 (May 2023).
McConnachie was married to the former Ann Crilly for 56 years, and they had one daughter.[1][2] He died in Venice, Florida, on January 5, 2024, of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 81.[2][3][4]
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Artists and Writers who made National Lampoon Insanely Great, 2010, Rick Meyerowitz, Abrams Books, New York, ISBN978-0-8109-8848-4
