I had the opportunity recently to speak with Amy Cohen, one of the writers for Caroline in the City and Spin City. Whatever the reason that a sitcom about a single woman attempting to find love in New York City attracted a chubby suburban early teenage jew from Long Island is beyond me, but I didn’t pass at the opportunity for an interview. She’s promoting her new book “The Late Bloomer’s Revolution” (buy The Late Bloomer’s Revolution on Amazon or The Late Bloomer’s Revolution on iTunes.
RB: For those people who don’t know the book, what is The Late Bloomers Revolution?
Amy Cohen: Within a year, I lost my mother; my job (writing for Spin City); my boyfriend (who I was desperate to marry) and then my face, when I got a rash for six months and couldn’t go out of the house. At my best, I looked like I’d fallen asleep, face first, on a George Foreman grill. That was on my best day. On my worst day I looked more like Swamp Thing. Basically I lost everything that I thought defined me. And all of those circumstances led to my reevaluating my life in a big way.
I was feeling pretty low and like a big, unemployed loser in life and love and then one day, at thirty-five, I decided it was time I learned how to ride a bicycle. And I taught myself over a summer. Frightening? Yes very, especially for my family who yelled things like “Amy ! Careful! Watch out for that oncoming car!” Embarrassing? Yes very, again. Like when I rode directly into a very expensive, brand new parked Mercedes. But it turned out to be the thing that set me on my and I try not to use this word as I often think it’s what my friend Amy calls “Patchouli scented language”— but it set me off on a journey. The Late Bloomer’s Revolution refers not only to the wheel revolutions of the bike that I rode, but also to my self-proclaimed status as a Late Bloomer, i.e. someone who realizes his or her strengths later in life.
Our audience is television centric, so how did you wind up working on the shows Spin City and Caroline in the City?
A: I had been writing features and getting nowhere. I had been looking for a writing partner and one day I said to my friend, Michelle Nader, “you interested in writing for TV?” And she said “yeah, actually I am,” and then we got to writing a spec. My first idea I can’t believe I’m admitting this now it’s utterly embarrassing, was to write a Friends spec where Monica has an ovarian cyst. Yeah, real hilarious, right? But I thought it was “edgy.” Anyway, we wrote a draft and gave it to Ted Chervin, who we were hoping would represent us. He said, “it’s not nearly there, but there’s some good things in it. ” He gave us great, detailed notes and told us to rewrite it and give it back to him.
And the result?
So we implemented every single one of his suggestions, and we gave it to him and he said, “I don’t know how you did it. But this script is so much worse. This is a disaster and I don’t think you have enough time before staffing season to fix it.” We begged him and he said we had three days to rewrite it. We had until Sunday night because staffing season had already begun and as it was we were very late. So Michelle and I threw out the cyst story and rewrote furiously, and at 11:00 Sunday night delivered it to Ted’s apartment. And he called within the hour and said, “I don’t know how you did it. It’s great.”
And two weeks later we got our first job on Caroline.
Over the last ten years sitcoms have really progressed from the “filmed in front of a studio audience” feel. Why do you think that the change was made?
A: I don’t know if they’ve moved away, so much as TV has exploded in so many different directions. There are more single camera shows like “The Office” and comedic one hours, like “Desperate Housewives.” And of course, what so many TV writers consider the death of their livelihood, reality shows, which are cheap to make and get huge ratings.
Along with your writing work on Caroline in the City and Spin City, you’re also a columnist for the New York Observer and a correspondent for New York Central, is there a reason you’re so New York-centric?
A: You’re reminding me of that great Saul Steinberg, New Yorker cartoon, “View of the World From 9th Avenue,” where it goes 9th avenue, 10th avenue, New Jersey, the Pacific Ocean, China. Well, it can’t come as much of a surprise that I’m from New York City, born and raised. Maybe I should be good will ambassador. But actually, the truth is, it was just dumb luck.
Let’s compare apples to oranges for a moment, how much of your television experience went into the preparation and writing of the book?
A: Really great question and something I discuss a lot with other former sitcom writers.
I actually had to de-sitcomize myself, meaning what works on a sitcom the timing, the rhythm, the compression of ideas and the quick resolution of big problems doesn’t work in prose. That was really hard for me to negotiate for awhile.
I wrote so many horrible, painful drafts that were either so bleak you wanted to read them with your head in the oven or trying so hard to be funny because I was afraid to be serious, it just fell flat.
Also, in sitcoms you convince yourself funny trumps everything. Again, not the case with prose. People have different expectations depending on what you’re doing. With sitcoms, laughs are often enough. With Memoirs, I know I look for honesty and feelings laid bare. Stuff I can relate to.
At what point did you know that you were going to write this book? Was there a specific moment?
A: I got a book contract after writing my New York Observer column. Originally, for years I had been wanting to write about my mother’s death. So my first draft, which took a year and a half to write, was this incredibly depressing version that took place entirely in the hospital and my parent’s apartment when my mother came home to die. It should have been written in Swedish, as only the Swedes can pull off material that dismal.
Their heavy metal isn’t half bad either. But on the subject matter, not so much with the funny…
A: Again, I think as a former sitcom writer I went really far in the other direction to prove I could be serious. So I threw out that whole version and started from scratch. I decided I needed to write in my own voice, which I hadn’t really had a chance to explore when I was writing for TV, because the most important thing is to be part of a team and write with the voice of the show.
And so I worked hard at trying to get my voice to translate into readable stuff. And that’s the version that became the book.
Finally, what shows interest you at the moment?
A: I couldn’t love THE OFFICE more. I laugh out loud at least once every episode, which for me is rare. Genius. I’m also a huge BRAVO fan. I love Project Runway, Top Chef and My Life on the D-list. When I was in L.A. I went to a party with some of the smartest, funniest writers I know and they couldn’t stop raving about “Hey Paula,” so there you go. Also, Flight of the Concords, has a brilliant moment at least once a week.
Amy, thanks for your time
Thanks Rob.
Here are some links for you to check out:
Amy Cohen at the New York Observer
Amy Cohen on MySpace
Her “official” bio reads:
Amy Cohen was a writer/producer on the sitcoms Caroline in the City and Spin City, a dating columnist for the New York Observer, and the dating correspondent for cable TV’s New York Central. She lives in New York City.
