A Room of Nell Scovell’s Own

Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen

PRX

Arts

4.6 • 675 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2018

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You might not have heard of Nell Scovell, but you’ve definitely seen her work: she’s written for The Simpsons, Late Night with David Letterman, Murphy Brown and co-wrote the 2013 blockbuster book Lean In with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Her new memoir, Just the Funny Parts, reveals what it was like to break into the male-dominated TV industry. Nell talks to Kurt Andersen about crafting a classic episode of The Simpsons, writing jokes for Barack Obama and reminisces about her first gig: writing for the magazine Kurt co-founded, Spy.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From PRX.
0:07.0	This is Studio 360. I'm Kurti Anderson.
0:13.0	What do you mean I'm a witch?
0:14.0	You're a witch.
0:16.0	Now, you're not alone. I'm a witch.
0:18.0	Hilda's a witch. Your father's a witch.
0:20.0	And I suppose my mom's a witch too.
0:22.3	I always thought so. That is from the premiere episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a primetime
0:28.8	hit show created in the 1990s by Nell Scovel. Even if you've never heard of Nell, you have almost
0:37.4	certainly seen her work.
0:39.2	She has written for everything from The Simpsons to Late Night with David Letterman,
0:42.7	to Newhart, to Murphy Brown, to Munk.
0:45.1	She also co-wrote Cheryl Sandberg's 2013 bestselling book, Lean In.
0:51.1	Now, Nell has just published her own book, her first, a memoir called Just the Funny Parts,
0:57.7	which is a candid and funny portrayal of her 30-year career in a very male-dominated part of
1:05.6	show business. But before she broke into show business into TV, Nell got her start as a professional funny person in 1986 at a magazine, which I had just co-founded.
1:19.0	We met at Spy Magazine where I was hired as the first reporter.
1:25.8	And you were like 25, I'm thinking?
1:27.7	That's right.
1:28.5	At the time, I was married to a man who had access to a lot of money,
1:34.3	and you were trying to get him to invest in spy,
1:38.0	and he was not interested, but he gave me the perspective.
	...

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