Just the Funny Parts audiobook

Not since Bossypants have I loved and laughed over a memoir so much. This book was my heaven: a hilariously funny and frank look at writing and creativity and celebrities and TV and, lest we forget, fighting sexism in the workplace. Nell Scovell was and is a pioneer for women in Hollywood and, now, rightfully will go down as a feminist hero for co-writing Lean In. She’s self-deprecating and genius and doesn’t spare herself (while also dishing about Dave Letterman) in her memories of her awesome career. Nell is one of the greats.

I have another hero! A hilarious, moving, fascinating memoir by a very smart, funny, resilient, and generous person.After a quick tour of her childhood, the author takes us through her accomplished career as a writer, director, showrunner, and producer in journalism, movies, and TV - she has worked in just about every genre, with the one common thread being that her work has been funny everywhere she went.At the same time, this is a frank and sometimes scathingly angry history of the misogynistic culture she and other women in entertainment have had to survive and struggle through. It left me both ashamed at the ugliness of some of my fellow humans - mostly men - and deeply impressed by the contrasting generosity and goodness of others, some men and many but not all women.As a therapist I was taught that humor is the healthiest of the many coping mechanisms our species has evolved, and I can attest to that based on the role it played in my own family's awful and at times ridiculous tribulations.BTW, a few years back I read and wrote a Goodreads review of Overcoming Autism, the memoir this author's sister, Claire LaZebnik, wrote about her family's experience with her son's autism. All I can say is that this is one strong, gifted family.

A must read for pretty much all working women, even if you're not in Hollywood.

3.5 stars. Nell Scovell and I don't share much of a sense of humor, so this isn't an all-out rave though I suspect it would be if we were more similar that way. But after reading Scovell's book I feel like I know a lot more about how Writers' Rooms work and (depressingly) how happily those rooms have clung to absolute bare minimum diversity for as long as they could. Most of Scovell's time pre-dates our current Prestige TV era, and I know a lot has gotten better but... also Hollywood. Scovell is light and personable, and the book is easy to breeze through even if it gives you the occasional rage headache. Scovell is particularly well known for being more outspoken about how heavily male the world of television is (she was a co-writer on Sheryl Sandberg's LEAN IN thanks to that reputation) and she has brought some real receipts with her. It's impossible to avoid the misogyny all around her, but you do get a lot of fun behind the scenes TV stuff. Scovell seems to want this to be a kind of guidebook and she provides a lot of things she's learned to help newer writers along the way. But you don't have to be a huge TV buff to find this interesting and to find Scovell very personable.

Adored this book by Nell Scovell, creator of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV show, among many other things. I loved following the ascent of her career and was careful not to google because I didn't want to know what happened next. (Although we know from the start she co-authored Lean In with Sheryl Sandberg). Well-written and funny. My only complaint is that I listened to it in audio format and I wish she'd been the one to narrate.

As someone who worked (very briefly) in "the industry," I very much enjoyed this book. Not laugh-out-loud funny but certainly insightful. Recommended for those curious to hear how things work in Hollywood--especially for women.

There are moments in "Just the Funny Parts" where you wish it was another of Nell Scovell's sitcoms, rather than an unflinching look at her real life.If only it were a work of fiction, real-life characters like Jim Stafford — who coerced her into a sexual act when she thought her job was on the line and then essentially fired her anyway — would get some sort of fourth-act comeuppance. But, as it is in the real world, the fourth act progresses just as Scovell says it does for any aging writer being pushed off Hollywood's it-list and hoping for another shot.The selling point for Scovell's memoir — at least how it has been marketed — is that she's the woman who came forward in 2009 to call out late-night giant David Letterman for a lack of gender diversity on the show. (She was only the second woman to write for his show.) And, given her interaction with Stafford, it could be considered her moment in the #MeToo movement. But those components — powerful as they may be — don't fairly represent how entertaining, profound and funny Scovell is throughout her memoir.That should be no surprise. Scovell has written thousands of jokes in a career spanning more than 30 years. She's made funny people even funnier, writing for the likes of Bob Newhart, Conan O'Brien and (back when presidents attended the Correspondents' Dinner) President Barack Obama. Years of writing 22-minute sitcoms have clearly honed Scovell's abilities to cut to the chase. There are no wasted words in this wholly entertaining read. When she's not making you laugh, you'll find yourself feeling the agony she felt when jokes got cut, drafts got rewritten, or she was just plain undermined by male bosses who held all the power in writer's rooms.This book is not for women or feminists or men who need a wake-up call. It's for anyone who has even a passing familiarity with the concept of TV. When you flip over the final page you'll find yourself just like Scovell, in that, you're left hoping she gets another shot in Hollywood. And then another ... and another.Oh, and as for Stafford. He now lives in Branson, Missouri. So maybe there is a real-life comeuppance.

Books by professional Funny People are often less amusing and punchy than one expects: Authors can't help undermining their autobiographical anecdotes & name-dropping stories & life lessons with incessant puns and strained wordplay, in a desperate effort to keep the reader entertained. But Scovell is genuinely, gently, casually, conversationally hilarious. And the humor doesn't distract from her deadly serious main point, about how TV & film executives reflexively discount the value of women as directors & showrunners & decision-makers.Most valuably, Scovell's tales of working on shows are often scathing but—perhaps because her coauthoring Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In has made her an A-list writer in the business world as well as in Hollywood—always productive. It'd be hard for anyone to read Just the Funny Parts and not watch TV shows differently, wondering who's in the writer's room and who's making key decisions, and understanding ways in which diversity should make shows better. It's not about diversity for the sake of diversity.

The four levels of writing in Hollywood: Who is Nell Scovell? Get me Nell Scovell! Get me someone cheaper than Nell Scovell! Who is Nell Scovell? Scovell shares her experiences being the only female writer in the writing room for David Letterman, The Simpsons, Coach, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and others. I got this audiobook on a whim when looking for a new one. But I’m glad I’m did. I didn’t know much about her before this, but she’s written for a lot of TV shows and specials I have seen and enjoyed.

My god, this girl can write! The story of her developing feminist sensibilities hit home for this baby boomer. Back in my day, finding bright, talented working women to commiserate with was difficult. There were so few of us. Her activism has made a difference and will continue to shape the marketplace. Unfortunately the men who undervalue female counterparts are dinosaurs. We may just have to wait for their extinction.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book. A fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes world of script writing, (and yes, I was one of those teens with Sabrina the Teenage Witch posters in my room) as well as a sobering account of the lack of women given opportunities in this field. The world needs more Nell Scovells. The thing is though, there ARE more. They just need to be given the opportunities they deserve. And they need to write more books.