Everything I needed to know about writing for television, I learned from “Sex and the City.”
When my writing partner Julie Rottenberg and I got hired on the already iconic show, we were so green that we didn’t even know the term “baby writers”—which is what cranky veterans call newbies. We landed in the writers’ room on the first day, convinced that they’d made a clerical error and we’d be fired at the end of the week. When that didn’t happen, we had to quickly learn what to pitch, which was harder than it seemed.
The outrageous-bar had already been set quite high with themes like “golden showers” and “Mr. Pussy,” for instance—but showrunner Michael Patrick King made it clear that he wanted real stories from us, not circus tricks (yes, Charlotte’s depressed vagina did originate with an actual person). This was good news to me, because while my sex life had been perfectly fine, thank you very much, it lacked shock-value. I was better off focusing on the smaller, more embarrassing moments in life that happened outside of the bedroom.
The only downside of the job was that the moment I was hired, my love life disappeared. And not because I was too busy to date; I was suddenly repellent to men. Was it that I’d just turned 30, and was suddenly in a sad, new age bracket I hadn’t been warned about? Or was it that decent guys were nervous about becoming fodder for the show? Whatever it was compelled me to try all kinds of bizarre things to find love, including slipping a note under the door of a guy I’d met at a neighborhood bar, asking him out for a ping-pong date—mortifying. I joked that I was professionally single, but those were some lonely years.
As luck would have it, I did manage to find who I’d been looking for just as we were filming SATC’s climactic final episodes. I exhaled, thinking I finally had all the pieces in place: I was no longer a baby writer, but a seasoned “Sex and the City” alum, plus I no longer had to slip notes under strangers’ doors! What could possibly go wrong?
I’ll tell you what: Jobs that weren’t “Sex and the City.” I’d marveled at the well-oiled machine Michael Patrick King helmed, but I also naively thought that all writers’ rooms were like highly efficient, sometimes-argumentative group therapy. With writing assignments.
Instead I found rooms filled with solid writers, but no guiding vision; rooms that spent countless hours twisting and spinning to create storylines out of thin air, instead of from life. Difficult as some of these experiences could be, they brought into graphic relief what was so special about writing for SATC and crystallized what Julie and I hoped to one day recreate: A room of smart, funny writers who trusted each other enough to share personal stories and disagree; a show with a clear voice and vision; a show that made people laugh, often at themselves.
Enter Jill Kargman [NYF’s June cover mom], who created Bravo’s first scripted comedy, “Odd Mom Out” (which debuted in June), and one year ago hired my writing partner and me to be showrunners. We’ve been learning Jill’s language and laughing “on-the-daily” ever since. While SATC and OMO cover vastly different territory—our heroine Jill Weber is a married stay-at-home-mom with three kids, for starters—we’ve tried to emulate Michael Patrick King’s model.
We start each day, for instance, with a brief period of “host chat,” where everyone can download their night or morning. Whereas on SATC, we vented about the gray areas of dating, OMO host chat is more likely to revolve around the gray areas of making a new mom-friend. I used to worry that I’d missed my chance to have kids; now I worry that my kids will never stop waking me up in the middle of the night (see Episode 9, airing on July 27).
Eleven years, one husband, and two kids since SATC, I no longer believe in having all the pieces in place; they keep shifting. But I’m damned grateful for the chance to write on another show that lets me laugh through the challenges. It’s a second dream come true.
Elisa Zuritsky is a Brooklyn mom and the co-showrunner and executive producer on Bravo’s first original scripted comedy, “Odd Mom Out.”
For more on “Odd Mom Out,” see our profile of its creator and star Jill Kargman and her costar Andy Buckley, here!
