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My Life Is a Situation Comedy
A Memoir by Bill Persky
Before Larry David, before Louis C.K., before Ray Romano, there was the true Golden Age of television comedy, an era of brilliant and landmark programming that dominated the dial from the 50s to the 70s.
Bill Persky, the five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, director and producer of over 300 TV shows and films was at the center of that special time in TV history. Along the way, he was responsible for some of the most successful and acclaimed sitcoms of all time, including the
The Dick Van Dyke Show
That Girl
Kate & Allie.
Persky blazed a trail through television during a time of tremendous social upheaval, when TV was still discovering its power to influence and move audiences. To this day, Perskys groundbreaking female characters, such as That Girls Ann Marie, remain pop culture icons.
In his memoir, My Life is a Situation Comedy , Bill shares his tales of a life well lived and vividly recollected.
Persky's touching, often hilarious and occasionally alarming backstage portrayal is one of triumphs and disappointments, celebrity and calamity, romances and breakups. I attempted to make things right and maintain a semblance of dignity, he writes, while constantly slipping on the banana peels of life.”
Lucky for us, many of those slip ups wound up as fodder for the TV episodes we came to know and love so well. My Life is a Situation Comedy is populated by the larger than life legends and one-of-a-kind characters that figured so prominently in Perskys world.
From his work with Carl Reiner on The Dick Van Dyke Show, to a surreal six weeks in London with the mythic Orson Welles, Persky knew them all and somehow lived to tell the tale.
Among the marquee names that sparkled brightly in Persky's universe are Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Cosby, Sid Caesar, Steve Allen, Goldie Hawn, Marlo Thomas, Peter Sellers, Susan St. James, Jane Curtin, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Tim Conway, Andy Williams, Cary Grant and The Smothers Brothers.
A veritable treasure trove of stars.
Before Larry David, before Louis C.K., before Ray Romano, there was the true Golden Age of television comedy, an era of brilliant and landmark programming that dominated the dial from the 50s to the 70s.
Bill Persky, the five-time Emmy Award-winning writer, director and producer of over 300 TV shows and films was at the center of that special time in TV history. Along the way, he was responsible for some of the most successful and acclaimed sitcoms of all time, including the
The Dick Van Dyke Show
That Girl
Kate & Allie.
Persky blazed a trail through television during a time of tremendous social upheaval, when TV was still discovering its power to influence and move audiences. To this day, Perskys groundbreaking female characters, such as That Girls Ann Marie, remain pop culture icons.
In his memoir, My Life is a Situation Comedy , Bill shares his tales of a life well lived and vividly recollected.
Persky's touching, often hilarious and occasionally alarming backstage portrayal is one of triumphs and disappointments, celebrity and calamity, romances and breakups. I attempted to make things right and maintain a semblance of dignity, he writes, while constantly slipping on the banana peels of life.”
Lucky for us, many of those slip ups wound up as fodder for the TV episodes we came to know and love so well. My Life is a Situation Comedy is populated by the larger than life legends and one-of-a-kind characters that figured so prominently in Perskys world.
From his work with Carl Reiner on The Dick Van Dyke Show, to a surreal six weeks in London with the mythic Orson Welles, Persky knew them all and somehow lived to tell the tale.
Among the marquee names that sparkled brightly in Persky's universe are Mary Tyler Moore, Bill Cosby, Sid Caesar, Steve Allen, Goldie Hawn, Marlo Thomas, Peter Sellers, Susan St. James, Jane Curtin, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Tim Conway, Andy Williams, Cary Grant and The Smothers Brothers.
A veritable treasure trove of stars.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 18, 2012
Anyone hoping to read behind-the-scenes stories from Bill Persky's experience writing for sit coms like That Girl, Dick Van Dyke Show, and Kate and Allie, will be disappointed. However, there is charm, humour and age-won wisdom to be found in this book of anecdotes from life. I enjoyed getting to know this very talented gentleman.
May 1, 2013
This book is both terribly written and terribly disappointing. For anyone who is a TV lover expecting great stories about The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl and Kate & Allie, you won't find them here. This book is not about his television shows (which, in some cases, only get a page or two mention, with less than one-fourth of the book devoted to his TV career!). Instead it's mostly about his really dull life told in a way that makes no sense, focusing on his inability to deal with women and his many therapy sessions.
Persky states upfront that he isn't going to tell his life story sequentially but instead "one thing reminds me of another and that leads to yet another." Namely, the book has "stories" (which are mostly a set of dull circumstances) told out of order which often need explanations that aren't ever given. At one point in the middle of a "story" about one of his early TV shows he alludes to his wife--but at no point had he yet mentioned her, introduced her, told us about her or let us know who she is! Instead 60 pages later he devotes a couple vague pages to their wedding day attempt to get a chocolate cake, which he must find fascinating but on paper comes across as foolishness.
His ramblings are difficult to follow, often don't make sense, and rarely have any entertainment value or punchline. Many chapters are only a page or two and it quickly becomes obvious that he doesn't recall anything interesting about any of the shows he is associated with. He overpraises Carl Reiner and Mary Tyler Moore (which is difficult to do because they're both great!), half-praises Marlo Thomas (who deserves to be put in her place for her bossiness), and takes way too much credit for things like Goldie Hawn's career, finding Farrah Fawcett (who he told to not take a part he offered her) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which he actually had nothing to do with).
This book is a form of elder therapy, where he jots down random thoughts in a notebook that have emotional meaning to him but are just words to others. It's an out-and-out bomb that needed a good editor to tell the author to get his act together, write some interesting material about the shows readers care about, and skip the internal dialogue about how a man who loves women so much could be such a failure with them on a personal level. If the life described in this book really were a sitcom, it would have been cancelled after one episode.
Persky states upfront that he isn't going to tell his life story sequentially but instead "one thing reminds me of another and that leads to yet another." Namely, the book has "stories" (which are mostly a set of dull circumstances) told out of order which often need explanations that aren't ever given. At one point in the middle of a "story" about one of his early TV shows he alludes to his wife--but at no point had he yet mentioned her, introduced her, told us about her or let us know who she is! Instead 60 pages later he devotes a couple vague pages to their wedding day attempt to get a chocolate cake, which he must find fascinating but on paper comes across as foolishness.
His ramblings are difficult to follow, often don't make sense, and rarely have any entertainment value or punchline. Many chapters are only a page or two and it quickly becomes obvious that he doesn't recall anything interesting about any of the shows he is associated with. He overpraises Carl Reiner and Mary Tyler Moore (which is difficult to do because they're both great!), half-praises Marlo Thomas (who deserves to be put in her place for her bossiness), and takes way too much credit for things like Goldie Hawn's career, finding Farrah Fawcett (who he told to not take a part he offered her) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which he actually had nothing to do with).
This book is a form of elder therapy, where he jots down random thoughts in a notebook that have emotional meaning to him but are just words to others. It's an out-and-out bomb that needed a good editor to tell the author to get his act together, write some interesting material about the shows readers care about, and skip the internal dialogue about how a man who loves women so much could be such a failure with them on a personal level. If the life described in this book really were a sitcom, it would have been cancelled after one episode.
October 28, 2013
Not so much about the TV shows as about his life reflections as he juggled being in The Business through the social upheaval of the Find Yourself 60s & 70's. Three wives, his Jewish Guilt upbringing and therapy are co-stars. About his therapy group: "We were all respected members of the show business community with 6 Emmys and 4 Academy Awards among us, earning more money than we had ever dreamed possible, and it just wasn't enough. I am more embarrassed to write that sentence today than I was to feel it then."
Humorous (just not laugh out loud), one can see he was a talented writer of sitcoms, and that his personal experience must have informed those shows. He writes about mid-life dating: "Of the countless blessings and gifts God bestowed on Adam and Eve, the most magnificent and loving was that they didn't have to date...There was no small talk, coyness, game playing, thoughts they might do better, time needed to be sure, space to find themselves or fear of commitment." That chapter reads like a stand up comic's riff on male bewilderment on needing to navigate a "Relationship" when all the rules between men & women suddenly changed. Those who lived through the social changes from the 60's Dick Van Dyke show to the 80's Kate & Allie can identify.
Humorous (just not laugh out loud), one can see he was a talented writer of sitcoms, and that his personal experience must have informed those shows. He writes about mid-life dating: "Of the countless blessings and gifts God bestowed on Adam and Eve, the most magnificent and loving was that they didn't have to date...There was no small talk, coyness, game playing, thoughts they might do better, time needed to be sure, space to find themselves or fear of commitment." That chapter reads like a stand up comic's riff on male bewilderment on needing to navigate a "Relationship" when all the rules between men & women suddenly changed. Those who lived through the social changes from the 60's Dick Van Dyke show to the 80's Kate & Allie can identify.
May 15, 2017
I had heard Bill Persky promote his autobiography on a comedy podcast. His discussion was very lively and colorful and he name-dropped some of the biggest stars on television. I ordered the book through the library and began to read it that night but quickly got bored. It's very short and it's somewhat bland. I waited almost a week to finish it but it was a chore.
I wasn't looking for a salacious tell-all of the stars, but he promoted the book as many stories told by a successful TV writer/producer and his dealing with many household name stars. There were a few mentions here and there but I learned a lot more on the podcast than in this book.
He does detail his upbringing, which was interesting but not in an engaging manner. His short chapters about a joke or two fall flat. Major league disappointment. It wasn't bad or good, just a book that left me indifferent, which is the worst kind of book you can waste time with. You learn a few things but the writing style is like that of a court reporter's.
I wasn't looking for a salacious tell-all of the stars, but he promoted the book as many stories told by a successful TV writer/producer and his dealing with many household name stars. There were a few mentions here and there but I learned a lot more on the podcast than in this book.
He does detail his upbringing, which was interesting but not in an engaging manner. His short chapters about a joke or two fall flat. Major league disappointment. It wasn't bad or good, just a book that left me indifferent, which is the worst kind of book you can waste time with. You learn a few things but the writing style is like that of a court reporter's.
February 27, 2023
An Entertaining Collection Of Anecdotes
A legend in the world of comedy writing, Persky has filled this book with an entertaining array of stories about people he’s worked with (like Carl Reiner and Marlo Thomas) and tales from his personal life about his kids and various marriages/relationships. If you’re looking for salacious behind-the-scenes show business gossip, you won’t find it here, but it is an amusing look back at an era of TV comedy that created a lot of classic shows, like The Dick Van Dyke Show and That Girl.
A legend in the world of comedy writing, Persky has filled this book with an entertaining array of stories about people he’s worked with (like Carl Reiner and Marlo Thomas) and tales from his personal life about his kids and various marriages/relationships. If you’re looking for salacious behind-the-scenes show business gossip, you won’t find it here, but it is an amusing look back at an era of TV comedy that created a lot of classic shows, like The Dick Van Dyke Show and That Girl.
August 7, 2013
I really liked this book a lot. I was born in 1963, so I have a fuzzy memory of some of the tv shows Bill Persky wrote. This book provided a great perspective of what it was like to try to write comedy during the early 60's when so many things were going on as far as societal changes and what was "acceptable". With the words that come out of actors' mouths on tv today, it is just amazing to think that the writers couldn't use the word "pregnant" in their scripts! Great stories from a great story-teller.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews