Murray worked at The Second City comedic stage troupe in the early 1970s. He was also a regular on
The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a comedy program syndicated nationally to 600 stations from 1973 to 1975. Co-workers on the
Radio Hour included
Richard Belzer,
John Belushi,
Gilda Radner,
Harold Ramis, and younger brother Bill. He was also a featured performer in
The National Lampoon Show stage show (with Belushi, Radner, Ramis, and his brother Bill) in 1974–1975. He then appeared as a cast member on the
ABC variety show
Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, alongside his brother Bill and fellow Lampoon alum
Christopher Guest. By January 1976, the series was canceled, and Bill became a cast member on ''
NBC's
Saturday Night Live'' during its
second season in 1977. By the second-half of the show's
third season in 1978, Doyle-Murray was hired as a writer. Amid some cast changes, Doyle-Murray was made a featured cast member, within the second-half of the show's
fifth season in 1980. He remained the only writer to return to the show in
season 6, and though not a featured player any more, he wrote for
Jean Doumanian for 1980 to 1981, after executive producer
Lorne Michaels, the entire cast, and most of the writing staff had left. After
Dick Ebersol took over as producer near the end of the season, Doyle-Murray was retained as a writer (despite not writing for the April 11 finale), and returned as a featured player for the show's
seventh season from 1981 to 1982, in which he also anchored
Weekend Update (which was renamed
SNL Newsbreak during his sole season anchoring the segment). Additionally, he and fellow writers
Barry Blaustein,
David Sheffield, and
Pam Norris were the only writers from Doumanian's tenure to return for season 7. He departed after the end of season 7 after 4½ years writing for the show, and two non-consecutive seasons, as a featured player. He is one of the few people to have worked as a writer for all three producers of the show (
Lorne Michaels,
Jean Doumanian, and
Dick Ebersol). For his work on the show, he was nominated for three
Emmy Awards in 1978, 1979, and 1980 in the category
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. Murray has appeared in many films with his brother, Bill Murray, including
Caddyshack (1980, his film debut), ''
The Razor's Edge (1984), Scrooged (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Groundhog Day (1993). He has also landed roles in other films. Early on, he appeared in Modern Problems (1981) alongside Chevy Chase. He also appeared with Chase in a small role as a camp clerk in National Lampoon's Vacation'' (1983), and later memorably appeared as Clark's uptight boss, Frank Shirley, in ''
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). He landed a small role as Jack Ruby in JFK (1991). He co-starred as arcade tycoon Noah Vanderhoff in the film version of Wayne's World (1992). He was also seen in the movies Sixteen Candles (1984), Club Paradise (1986), Legal Eagles (1986), How I Got Into College (1989), Jury Duty (1995), Multiplicity (1996), The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story (1997), As Good as It Gets (1997), Dr. Dolittle (1998), Stuart Little (1999), Kill the Man (1999), Bedazzled (2000), Snow Dogs (2002), Nearing Grace (2005), Daddy Day Camp (2007), and 17 Again'' (2009). He portrayed Mel Sanger, the bubble boy's dad, on
Seinfeld, and played Joe Hackett's high-school baseball coach on a 1992 episode of
Wings. He co-starred on the
Fox TV series
Get a Life and
Bakersfield P.D. from 1991 to 1992 and 1993 to 1994, respectively, with a recurring role as sports editor Stuart Franklin on the
Fox/
UPN TV series
Between Brothers from 1997 to 1999. He played studio head and Greg Warner's (
Anthony Clark) boss George Savitsky on
Yes Dear. He played
Shawn Spencer's grandfather on the episode "The Old and the Restless" on the
USA Network TV series
Psych, with an uncredited cameo in the sixth season. He had a recurring role as Mr. Ehlert, owner of the car dealership where Frankie Heck works on the ABC-TV series
The Middle. He co-starred on the
TBS sitcom on
Sullivan & Son, where he played the foul-mouthed Hank Murphy. He recently appeared on
Lodge 49 on the
AMC Network (now canceled). Murray voices the
Flying Dutchman on
Nickelodeon's
SpongeBob SquarePants, Coach Tiffany Gills on the
Cartoon Network original animated series ''
My Gym Partner's a Monkey'', and had a leading role as Captain K'nuckles in
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack. He appeared in one episode of
The Angry Beavers. Murray appears as
Santa Claus in the
CatDog episode "A Very CatDog Christmas". He has also appeared as Salty in the
Family Guy episode "
A Fish Out of Water", the voice of Jack the barber on
King of the Hill, the voice of the mayor in the
Ghostbusters video game, the voice of Qui the Promoter in the 2005 video game
Jade Empire, Prince Huge on
Adventure Time in the episode "The Hard Easy", Charlie in
Mike Judge's
The Goode Family, and Jacob on
Motorcity. Murray voiced the villainous corporate executive Mr. Twitchell on the Christmas special
Frosty Returns. == Personal life ==