Just the Funny Parts

January 15, 2018
In this illuminating memoir, sitcom writer Scovell (Newhart, Murphy Brown, NCIS) details her career as a highly successful television writer over the last three decades, during which she was usually the only woman in the room. Scovell revised her ambition to become a serious journalist when she landed a job at the satirical Spy magazine in 1986, thereby launching her new career as a master of snark. Scovell’s first foray into television writing was a spec script for It’s Garry Shandling’s Show; the script was killed but it put her on Hollywood’s radar. During her tenure at Late Night with David Letterman, which she started in 1990, she worked well with the host, but nevertheless encountered a toxic, male-centric culture. After years of writing jokes and scripts for various shows, she created Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In the 20 years since, Scovell has repeatedly felt the sting of toiling in Los Angeles, “where rejection and failure are the bread and butter of this gluten-free, nondairy town,” and in an industry that continually looked for a cheaper, younger version of her. But in working with Sheryl Sandberg as the co-writer on Lean In, she was reminded of a timeless lesson: doing something that is meaningful to oneself might also have an impact on others. Scovell’s memoir is wonderfully entertaining and ultimately uplifting.

February 1, 2018
A TV writer reflects on carving out a career in male-dominated Hollywood.Scovell, a veteran writer, producer, director, and show creator, minces few words when skewering the toxic atmosphere for female talent in Hollywood. In her frank memoir, the author, who collaborated with Sheryl Sandberg on Lean In, escorts readers through the beginnings of her career writing for SPY magazine in the 1980s while unpacking the emotional baggage of two botched marriages. At 26, she spontaneously flew from New York to Los Angeles to meet with an executive producer only to be placed in the first of many competitive, sexist, "penis party" writing teams and learning one industry lesson after another. A talent for comedic timing and impressive spec scriptwriting ushered Scovell into the writers' meetings of some of TV's top programs over a career that now spans over three decades. She reflects on the mixed success of scriptwriting for an impressive array of popular programs, including The Simpsons, Coach, and Murphy Brown. She also created and produced Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed and even wrote jokes for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. "The ratio of fun versus not fun varies from show to show," she acknowledges, commenting that "the people, the process, and the product" are the determining factors. As Scovell's career matured and her confidence bloomed, so did her role as a wife and mother of two. Her fearlessness was clearly evidenced when the David Letterman sex scandal broke and the author made a controversial and risky career move by speaking out about a marked lack of gender diversity in the late-night TV arena. Photographs, newspaper mentions, and script clips further illuminate the author's rise to prominence. While arguing that the industry still has a long way to go "in changing its casual acceptance of inappropriate behavior," Scovell counts herself among the many who have made successful careers in show writing and creative collaboration.A breezy, affably written amalgam of memoir, advice, and workplace survival guide from the front lines of the entertainment industry.

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April 1, 2018

Former Late Night writer Scovell has plenty of insider stories to tell. But because she has felt the need to speak out about the male-dominated and sometimes hostile environment of late night TV after David Letterman revealed that he had had sex with staffers, her memoir morphs into a treatment of sexual politics in the entertainment world. With a 150,000-copy first printing.

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