Article on "Simpsons" Writer
Laniakea
was an article on a woman from Aiea, Hawaii who is a writer on the Simpsons.
And she wrote next Sunday's episode! Here is what was in the article. Spoiler
Warning: This article does mention a few things that will happen in the next
episode.
From the HONOLULU ADVERTISER
Posted on: Thursday, January 6, 2000
Script: Simpsons headed this way
By Melanie Lee Johnston
Special to The Advertiser
Bart and Homer Simpson are coming to Hawaii. And the writer whose script is
bringing them here, Carolyn Omine, is the only Islander ever to write for
“The Simpsons,” one of the most popular sitcoms on television.
Growing up on Oahu, Omine originally dreamed of becoming a rock singer.
Strictly by chance, she discovered her true talent was making people laugh.
After graduating from Aiea High School, Omine sang in the band The Movies,
playing popular ’80s haunts like The Wave, while studying art at the
University of Hawaii-Manoa. After two years, she transferred to the University
of California at Los Angeles because the campus was off Sunset Boulevard. “I
thought it would be a good place for my rock stardom to begin,” she recalled.
When she arrived in Los Angeles 17 years ago, Omine saw an ad in the school
newspaper inviting students to join a new improv group.
Responding to that ad changed her life. The group wrote and performed sketches
for a show they called “Midnight Madness.” “I never wanted to write
before I wrote,” Omine said. “I never aspired to it. But doing improv, I
could tell that I could write comedy.”
Next came a place in The Groundlings, L.A.’s legendary improvisation group
whose ranks included Lisa Kudrow of “Friends” fame.
But it was a connection she made during “Midnight Madness” that would lead
to her big break. The sister of a fellow performer was a television producer.
Omine’s day job was as assistant to literary agent Robb Rothman, who
represents high-profile TV writers.
“This producer, Nancy Stein, called my boss checking on the availability of a
writer for a new show,” Omine said. Stein told Omine’s boss she’d be
willing to read a spec script if Omine wrote one.
A spec script is an original episode of an established television series,
written on "speculation" — the calling card for hopeful TV writers.
After a short bout with writer’s block, Omine produced a script that landed
her a job on “Stand By Your Man,” featuring Rosie O’Donnell and Melissa
Gilbert and she’s worked every season since, though never for a blockbuster
hit.
Facing network executives meddling in story lines, actors paying little
attention to scripts and a growing disenchantment with the people she worked
for, Omine was considering giving up.
During this time, she was flying to Oahu on many weekends to be with her ailing
mother, Yaeko, who was hospitalized, and with her father, Art, who owns an auto
shop in Kalihi. In 1997, her mother died.
It was, she said, “a bad year. I said, ‘I just can’t do this.’”
She vowed that unless she was offered a job on a “good show” during the
spring 1998 staffing season, she would leave TV writing behind. “I was really
tired of writing things that I didn’t believe in,” she said.
Omine met with several show producers, but no job offers followed.
Then a writer she knew at “The Simpsons” encouraged executive producer Mike
Scully to read one of her scripts. “It was a long shot,” she said. “I had
every friend I knew chanting and praying for me.”
A month later, in the summer of 1998 — an eternity in the TV staffing season
— Scully invited her to join his writing staff. “This is the first time
I’ve felt like a writer, even though I’ve been writing on staffs for almost
seven years,” she said.
With alumni such as Conan O’Brien, “The Simpsons” staff is legendary for
being highly educated and highly discriminating.
“At first I was intimidated beyond belief because I’m the only woman in the
writers’ room, I didn’t go to an Ivy League school — and some of these
guys didn’t just go to Harvard, they went to Harvard at 16 and graduated at
20 — and my resume was exclusively schlocky sitcoms.”
But she has quickly adapted to the rapid-fire pace of 15 bright minds huddled
together each day from 10 a.m. to nightfall, competing to conjure up the
funniest stories and jokes. The entire group fleshes out episode ideas, then a
writer is sent off to create a first draft.
That script is brought into the room, where everyone contributes ideas, jokes
and dialogue until the script is transformed from the comedy equivalent of
turning a Timex into a finely tuned Rolex.
Though she’s been contributing to scripts since she came on staff, Omine got
her first assignment eight months ago — the script that became “Little Big
Mom,” airing Sunday.
“I’m having the time of my life,” she said. “It’s a show written and
completely controlled by writers.”
At the same time, she said, “It’s not the most relaxing place to work.
That’s what’ s kept the quality so high. People who’ve been on the show
for nine years still hustle as hard as newbies. I’m getting used to the
pressure.”
Omine’s script deals an incident in which Bart and Homer come to believe they
have Hansen’s Disease and end up visiting the peninsula on Molokai where
people with what was once called leprosy used to be interned for life.
She says she dealt with the karmic debt of taking “The Simpsons’”
trademark light-hearted approach to a serious subject by making a donation to
the Leprosy Foundation. “I think people understand that ‘The Simpsons’
has always played fast and hard with reality.”
Melanie Lee Johnston is the Arizona-based author of the upcoming book,
“Getting in the Hollywood Writing Game: How Television's Leading Writers
Wrote Their Way to the Top.”See excerpts at www.hollywoodwritinggame.com.
*~*~*~*~* Liz *~*~*~*~*~*~*
Auctions for books, music, videos, comics and more -
http://auctions.yahoo.com/user/Napua_Poire
Handmade bracelets in over 40 colors -
http://members.aol.com/Laniakea/bracelet.html
Chris Palm
And actually, if handled well, this Hawaii idea sounds pretty good.
But, uh...
What the hell IS the main point of this story?! We've got the family skiing,
Homer and Bart going to Hawaii, Marge hurting herself and Lisa taking over in
her place, a guest appearance by Britney Spears...
But I'm not gonna let all these plots and guest stars and such ruin my
anticipation for this episode. I'm willing to bet anything that it'll be great.
-=Krispy
"It's not the ups and downs that make life hard, it's the jerks." -- Alfred E.
Nueman
To respond, break the pact.
Buffalo Boy Flatland
>What the hell IS the main point of this story?! We've got the family skiing,
>Homer and Bart going to Hawaii, Marge hurting herself and Lisa taking over in
>her place, a guest appearance by Britney Spears...
I felt kind of the same way before seeing "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder," but
that was pulled off fairly well.
Nathan
Dinne...@tmbg.org
http://www.geocities.com/fablesto/
"I drink the blood of virgins!" --Weird Al