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Herb Sargent, a veteran television comedy writer who helped the fledgling Not Ready for Prime Time Players make "Saturday Night Live" a hit with skits like "Weekend Update," its long-running news parody, died yesterday at a Manhattan hospital. He was 81.

The cause was a heart attack, his brother, Alvin, a screenwriter, said.

Mr. Sargent began as a radio writer in the 1940's and soon moved to the new medium of television. He was one of the writers for "Broadway Open House," the late-night predecessor to "The Tonight Show" that starred Jerry Lester and Dagmar, sometimes characterized as the poor man's Jayne Mansfield.

His résumé included some of television's most famous shows, including "The Colgate Comedy Hour," with Fred Allen; "The Victor Borge Show"; and "The Tonight Show," with Steve Allen, and later with Johnny Carson. He also wrote for "The Perry Como Show" and "That Was the Week That Was," whose cast included David Frost.

Mr. Sargent won six Emmy Awards and six Writers Guild Awards.

He was perhaps best known as a writer and producer for NBC's "Saturday Night Live," where he worked for more than 20 years and mentored a generation of younger comedy writers. He was principally responsible for shaping "Weekend Update" and conspired hilariously with its hosts, beginning with Chevy Chase, and including Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Dennis Miller.

"Herb would work closely with Chevy," Lorne Michaels, the show's executive producer, said in an interview. "He would make sure all the major news stories of the week were covered. Plus just silly things."

Mr. Michaels said that when Mr. Sargent, whom he called "a pre-eminent New York comedy writer," agreed to come to the show for far less money than he was accustomed to earning, it lent instant credibility to an enterprise where most of the writers had little or no experience in television. It was he, Mr. Michaels said, who named the Not Ready for Prime Time Players. He said Mr. Sargent was preternaturally patient and remarkably quiet in a raucous business.

"If only he could talk, what stories he would tell," people said of him, Mr. Michaels said.

Al Franken, a writer for many years on "Saturday Night Live," said in an interview that Mr. Sargent "would pitch jokes and they'd be fully formed."

Mr. Franken recalled that when one of Mr. Sargent's several ex-wives died, he complained, "They are dying faster than I can marry them."

Mr. Sargent was born on July 15, 1923, in Philadelphia, and grew up in Upper Darby, Pa., where he graduated from high school. He went to Pennsylvania State University, studying architecture until he joined the Army Air Corps in 1943.

After his discharge in 1946, he lived in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of California there. He moved to New York, where one of his early jobs was assisting Earl Wilson, the gossip and entertainment columnist. He then began writing for radio.

In addition to his brother, who lives in Los Angeles, Mr. Sargent is survived by his wife, LeGrand Council Mellon.

In 1983, in an interview with The Washington Post, he paraphrased a slogan of many news radio stations, "Give us 18 minutes and we'll give you the world," to describe the typical television comedy.

Mr. Sargent said, "Give us a half an hour, and we'll give you 24 and a half minutes" - the length of the show without commercials.

Herbert Sargent