In July 2007,
Wit’s
End’s Co-Creator, Lizbeth Finn-Arnold attended a
writing seminar in Los Angeles hosted by veteran TV sitcom writer Ken Levine.
Upon her arrival back home in New Jersey, Liz felt re-invigorated about the
possibility of writing for TV, despite talk about the sitcom “being dead,” a
looming writer’s strike, and the general lack of television writing jobs on the
East Coast. In September, while covering
the 2007 New York Television Festival (NYTVF) for AOL’s TV Squad blog, Liz had
an epiphany (as one will while waiting to get through the Lincoln Tunnel). She
realized that she needed to be a participant — not a media observer— at NYTVF.
But which show would she produce? Liz had
written several original pilots already, but most of them would be too costly
to produce independently. She needed a
new pilot, tailor-made for the festival, but wasn’t sure what it should be
about. She racked her brain and realized that while comedians often star in
sitcoms, there hadn’t yet been a sitcom that really delved into the life of
stand-up comics. Liz took the idea to her producing/writing partner, Sandra
Longo, who had already produced an award-winning documentary called What’s So Funny? about a female
comedian who lost her sense of humor after shedding 170 pounds. Sandy jumped at
the idea of adapting What’s So Funny? into
a sitcom.
Liz and Sandy realized they needed access to
comedians and their lives if they were going to write about them. Sandy
immediately thought of contacting Mitchell Olson, who had appeared in What’s So Funny? Since his stint on Survivor: The Australian Outback, Mitchell had been performing comedy throughout New
York City. Mitchell knew a lot of
comedians and he was key to casting the show by bringing the right mix of
people on-board. The initial sitcom concept evolved into a story about a group
of ragtag comedians — Carey, Mitchell, Nancy, Ophira, and Shecky — who inherit a comedy club from an eccentric millionaire. Liz, Sandy, and
Mitchell immediately began visiting comedy clubs and conducted in-depth
interviews with each cast member in order to fully develop the characters.
In early January, Liz, Mitchell and Sandy locked
themselves in a room for two days and hammered out the first draft of
the script. As they wrote, they kept their budget in mind. Luckily, Sandy had
recently moved into a new home with a huge finished basement that would
accommodate their sets. Sandy had also built a stage for her young
daughter—months before she ever knew she would be transforming her basement
into a comedy club.
As expected, the production hit a couple of
snags.
¨ A major snowstorm hit New York City on the same day
that the crew had to travel into Manhattan to shoot Wittaker Endicott’s Last
Will & Testament scene.
¨ During principal photography, Carey, who was
seven-months pregnant, had to be rushed to the ER when she became violently ill
with the flu. While Carey went into
premature labor, the day’s scene was quickly rewritten to explain her absence.
Luckily, the ER doctors were able to stop labor, but production shut down for a
week until Carey was given the okay to resume work.
¨ The production experienced a major loss when Joy, the
beloved one-eyed dog who won the hearts of cast and crew, died four days after
shooting her final scene.
Through the ups and downs, Liz, Sandy, and
Mitchell have stayed true to their shared vision. Each brought their unique
strengths and viewpoints to the project which resulted in a smooth and
successful collaboration. Although
their initial goal was to make the audience laugh, their ability to make each
other laugh throughout the sitcom-making progress turned out to be an
unexpected bonus. The trio looks forward to
collaborating (and laughing) on several future projects together.
