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Merrill Markoe | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 13, 1948 |
| Occupation | Author, screenwriter |
| Alma mater | |
| Notable works | Late Night with David Letterman |
| Notable awards | Four Emmy Awards; 2020 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement [2] |
| Partner | David Letterman (1978–1988) Andy Prieboy (2004-present) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Merrill Markoe (born August 13, 1948)[ citation needed ] is an American author, television writer, and occasional standup comedian.
Markoe was born in New York City. [3] Her family moved several times including stays in Miami, Florida and San Francisco, California. [4] She attended the University of California, Berkeley, receiving a B.A. in art in 1970 and an M.A. in 1972. Her first job after leaving the university was teaching art at the University of Southern California. [1]
After auditing scriptwriting classes and doing research for the head writer of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman , Markoe was hired as writer for the 1977 revival of Laugh-In , joining a team that included Robin Williams. [1] In 1978, she was part of the cast of Mary Tyler Moore's first attempt at a variety show, the eponymous Mary , along with future boyfriend David Letterman. [3] In 1980, Markoe was the head writer for The David Letterman Show , a short-lived live NBC morning show whose writing team was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award.[ citation needed ]
Markoe shared in three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work on Late Night with David Letterman , for which she was the original head writer. [5] [6] She engineered most of the original concepts and architecture for the ground-breaking late-night talk show and created the segment "Stupid Pet Tricks", [7] as well as "Stupid Human Tricks" and "Viewer Mail". Many of the ideas behind the remote segments outside the studio came from Markoe, who also won a Writers Guild award for her writing/performing work on HBO's Not Necessarily the News . [5]
She has also written for television shows such as Newhart , Sex and the City , and Moonlighting . [8] She appeared on-camera as a lifestyle reporter at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles, then for Michael Moore's NBC show TV Nation , and worked on other magazine shows such as Lifetime Magazine . In the early 1990s she wrote and directed a number of HBO and Cinemax comedy specials. She appeared in two episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast from 1997 to 1998 as the unwilling subject of the eponymous late night talk show host's affections.
In 2005, Markoe was a regular panelist on Animal Planet's Who Gets the Dog? She has had a number of columns and written for many periodicals, including Rolling Stone , Time , New York Woman , New Woman , U.S. News & World Report , Us , People , Esquire , The Huffington Post , Glamour , The New York Times , The Los Angeles Times , LA Weekly , Real Simple , etc. She appears in episode 2 of Friends as irritable museum curator Marsha and can be seen in the movie EDtv as a panelist, as well as in the cast of The Aristocrats .
In 2020, she was awarded the Laurel Award for TV Writing Achievement by the Writers Guild of America.
She and David Letterman were involved romantically from 1978 to 1988, [7] after which Markoe moved to California to continue her writing career. She wrote about the relationship several years later in essays in the book Cool, Calm, and Contentious, giving him the pseudonym "Bobby". [4]
Markoe lives in Malibu with musician Andy Prieboy and four dogs. [4]
David Michael Letterman is an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC and ending with the May 20, 2015, broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. In total, Letterman hosted 6,080 episodes of Late Night and Late Show, surpassing his friend and mentor Johnny Carson as the longest-serving late-night talk show host in American television history.
Christopher Nash Elliott is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and author, known for his surreal sense of humor. He appeared in comedic sketches on Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1988), created and starred in the comedy series Get a Life (1990–1992) on Fox, and wrote and starred in the film Cabin Boy (1994). His writing has won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards. His other television appearances include recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond and How I Met Your Mother, starring roles as Chris Monsanto in Adult Swim's Eagleheart (2011–2014) and Roland Schitt in Schitt's Creek (2015–2020). He also appeared in the films Groundhog Day (1993), There's Something About Mary (1998), Snow Day (2000) and Scary Movie 2 (2001).
Late Night with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on NBC, the first iteration of the Late Night franchise. It premiered on February 1, 1982, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Space Age Meats, and Carson Productions. Letterman had previously hosted his own morning talk show on NBC from June to October 1980. The show's house band, The World's Most Dangerous Band, was led by music director Paul Shaffer. In 1993, Letterman announced that he would leave NBC to host the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS. The final episode of Late Night was broadcast on June 25, 1993. The series has continued as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
The Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, and CBS Television Studios. The show's music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. The head writer was Matt Roberts and the announcer was originally Bill Wendell, then Alan Kalter. In most U.S. markets the show aired from 11:35 p.m. to 12:35 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and recorded Monday to Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m., and Thursdays at 3:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The second Thursday episode usually aired on Friday of that week.
Philip Edward Hartman was a Canadian-born American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and graphic designer. Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, and his family moved to the United States when he was ten years old. After graduating from California State University, Northridge with a degree in graphic arts, he designed album covers for bands including Poco and America. In 1975, Hartman joined the comedy group the Groundlings, where he helped Paul Reubens develop his character, Pee-wee Herman. Hartman co-wrote the film Pee-wee's Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens' show Pee-wee's Playhouse.
The Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. The series was created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein and aired from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998, on the HBO cable television network.
Worldwide Pants Incorporated is an American television and film production company founded and owned by comedian and talk show host David Letterman.
Marjorie Armstrong Post, known professionally as Markie Post, was an American actress. Her best known roles include: bail bondswoman Terri Michaels in The Fall Guy on ABC from 1982 to 1985; public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992; Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire from 1992 to 1995; and Barbara ‘Bunny’ Fletcher, the mother of Detective Erin Lindsay, on the NBC drama series Chicago P.D. from 2014 to 2017.
The David Letterman Show is an American morning talk show that was hosted by David Letterman on NBC. It originally aired from June 23 to October 24, 1980. Originally, the series lasted 90 minutes, then 60 minutes from August 4 onward.
Not Necessarily the News is an American satirical sketch comedy series first aired on HBO in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then as a series from 1983 to 1990. For most of the run, the series featured Anne Bloom, Danny Breen, Rich Hall, Mitchell Laurance, Stuart Pankin and Lucy Webb. For the final season, the series switched to a live, up-to-the-minute format and also included reports from many other correspondents including Will Durst, Merrill Markoe, Richard Rosen and Harry Shearer.
Mary Kay Place is an American actress. She is best known for portraying Loretta Haggers on the television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, a role that won her the 1977 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress - Comedy Series. Her numerous film appearances include Private Benjamin (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Captain Ron (1992) and Francis Ford Coppola's 1997 drama The Rainmaker. Place also recorded three studio albums for Columbia Records, one in the Haggers persona, which included the Top Ten country music hit "Baby Boy". For her performance in Diane (2018), Place won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress.
Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He first became familiar to radio audiences in the 1930s and 1940s as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist. In the 1950s and later he was a regular and cantankerous panelist on the game show I've Got a Secret as well as other game and talk shows.
The 67th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 27, 1995, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 23 categories honoring the films released in 1994. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gilbert Cates and directed by Jeff Margolis. Comedian David Letterman hosted the show for the first time. Three weeks earlier in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on March 4, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Jamie Lee Curtis.
Army Man was a comedy magazine published in the late 1980s by George Meyer, who went on to be an acclaimed writer for The Simpsons.
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Helen Vivian "Nell" Scovell is an American television and magazine writer, and producer. She is the creator of the television series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which aired on ABC and The WB from 1996 until 2003 and co-author of the book Lean In.
Jill A. Davis is an American author and television writer. She is a member of the Writers Guild of America. She was nominated for five Emmy awards for her six years of work as a writer for David Letterman. Her first novel, Girls' Poker Night, was a New York Times bestseller. It was published in five languages, and twelve countries. Her second novel, Ask Again Later, was published by Ecco in February 2007.
Gail Parent is an American television screenwriter, producer, and author.
Bonnie McFarlane is a Canadian comedian and writer. She is best known for appearing on the second season of the TV reality show Last Comic Standing and for co-hosting the podcast My Wife Hates Me with her husband Rich Vos.
Paula Pell is an American writer, actress, comedian, and producer. Pell is best known for her work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2020. For her work on SNL and 30 Rock, she has been recognized with a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program and six Writers Guild of America Awards. In 2019, Pell was honored with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence.
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