YouSaid · the spoken record

Nell Scovell

lines on the record: 104
first: 2018-05-07
most recent: 2018-05-07
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Nobody would have read it. Right. Okay. So talk about when you're thinking about it, your involvement with it, because you were more involved in it. There's lots of people who do ghostwriting and there's a lot of people who do co-writing. It was a collaboration. Yes, it was. Right. So how do you look at it now? Because obviously it still has controversies attached to it and what the messaging it is. But when you look back on it.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I do. My joke was always if I had, you know, without Cheryl, if I had written something like Lean and Alone, I would have called it bargain. And nobody would have read it.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Yeah. You were talking about that. Like, this book is not selling 4 million copies. Okay. You could call it just the funny parts of leaning in or something like that. I wanted to write a, I wanted to do.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I do I do kind of think technology beats content. And here's my theory why that's true. It's called the Gutenberg Bible. Okay. Gutenberg got top billing. Okay.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it's amazing. I remember 10 years ago working on a show, HDTV, was just coming out, maybe 12 years ago, and we had to go to like a seminar to teach us about how they said makeup was going to change and sets were going to have to change. And now everyone's watching on their phones. I'm like, they got it so wrong.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The last show I was on was The Muppets. And we had the same problems in the writer's room with everyone's watching videos and on their phones. So I think Feeds into it also”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was shocked, so I have two sons, and one watched every episode of Scrubs. So it's like scrubs. I don't even know how it started. Right, right. No, it's different. And I do wonder at a certain point, do you just go, we have enough content?”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Meaning, do you think this group of people are different in? And listening, I don't necessarily because I can see my kids, they're very like the Simpsons, which you worked on. They like the normal way things are done. It's just they watch it differently or they consume it differently, I would say.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I remember Candace Bergen once saying, as an actress you want to be on the front page of the arts section, not the front page of the news section. Right, right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me just say I want Dan Quill back, if you can believe me. I was living in Germany at the time when Murphy Brown had the kid out of web, and then Dan Quayle was arguing with Murphy Brown. And the Germans just didn't get it. And they're like, why is your vice president arguing with this Character Murphy Brown, and I said, Well, she's fictional. Why is he arguing with a fictional person? I said, because it's America. I didn't know what to say. I was like,”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. We did a reading with Kristen Bell, and it was really fun, and she loved it. Hollywood is, I've worked in Hollywood for 30 years, and it's still a mystery. And I do think it's one of the reasons I wrote this book was I'm still trying to figure it out.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it's interesting, and I won't go into too much detail, but everyone sort of assumed it was going to be about a group of women who are best friends and how they have some choose to go into the workplace and some choose to have kids. And I said, no, it's going to be about two best friends who are graduating from law school at the same time. They both go to work for the same law firm. One's a man, and one's a woman. How do they get treated differently?”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's right. And then went uphill, right? But there was makeover scene, was there? Yeah. They made her own. When he first brings her to civilization.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's hard because not, and this was women giving these notes, and the problem is you look at what's been successful, oh, it's bridesmaid. She's a mess and she's trying to get her life together. That movie worked. All movies should be like that about women”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To men, I mean, I wrote a movie based on lean in. I think it was a good script, and it's in turnaround. I mean, that was a great title. And instead, they made female Ghostbusters. And one of the issues with that script was the lead woman wasn't a mess. And they kept saying, couldn't she, like, couldn't you put in a makeover scene? We love makeover scenes”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. I mean, I wish no. Well, you spent a lot of time with technique men. I mean, I think, and the hard part is when you're pitching your experiences.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I don't know that business side so much. I do think Hollywood has always been more interested in the potential of young women than in the experience of middle-aged women. Right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The studios are still all run by men. And I do believe that leadership makes a huge difference. I tell a story in the book about working with Anne Sweeney at ABC, who Cheryl put me in touch with Anne because Jimmy Kimmel only had one female writer who was his wife. And they were moving to 1130. And I thought that seemed like maybe not a good situation. Sent a bunch of writers to them. They hired two. They turned two women. And they've done great. But think of all the firepower it took to get two women hired on the Jimmy Kimmel show.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think Hollywood lags behind the times. I don't think it's at the forefront. The example I use is think of when Condoleezza Rice was Secretary of State and how long it took to get to scandal. George Bush beat Hollywood.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that doesn't make me feel really good about the whole thing. My personal opinion is that Me Too was born out of the feeling that women have nothing left to lose. Right. You know, and we watch Donald Trump win this election or steal this election. And so now there's no reason not to speak out.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, two of the producers who condemned Harvey Weinstein, I know for a fact, have both settled sexual harassments. Right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They got the ballot. The worst case scenario is because we've had Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, which are so egregious that we end up in a place that if you haven't raped a dozen women, you're a gentleman. Right, right, right, right, right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I haven't, you can cherry pick data to support that things are getting better. I haven't seen sustained statistical data. You know, the year after Catherine Bigelow wins the Oscar for Best Director, there was actually a decrease in the number of women directing feature films. So I don't. Tina Fay didn't, and sexism any more than Barack Obama ended racism in this country. I worry that when you see those high profile people, you think, oh, it's done and people actually stop working to make things better.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, what I wanted to say is if you want to help your daughter back in the day when there were no women in that room, you would have hired some.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it doesn't happen. I got a call not too long ago from a colleague of mine, someone I worked on a show with a million years ago. His daughter wanted to get into comedy writing, and he asked me to help her He's a comedy writer.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But should it be your job? You know what I mean? As the woman's job to do that, I remember Cheryl when I interviewed her once she was talking about being the woman who brings up women's issues in Disney board meetings or wherever. And she does it because that's what you do. Does it have to be you to do this? Or it just doesn't happen.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And what she meant by that is there's so much work to be done everywhere. We need man-to-man defense. So whether it's in tech or finance or philosophy departments, wherever you can have an impact, you should try to have an impact.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So this just like hit me so hard and I said to her, you know, I can't believe I care about late night TV when things are like that are happening in India And Gloria said to me You worry about late night TV and I'll worry about India.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think it's just very deep cultural bias that we're all fighting There's a story I tell in this about meeting Gloria Steinem. And she had just come back from India and was just telling these incredibly depressing tales about how there were five million girls missing. That boys and girls are born equal in India, but by the age of five there are millions of girls missing. And she said, why? And Cheryl was there and Cheryl's nodding. And I'm like, I don't know. Right, right. Well, it turns out these families won't pay for medicine.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, well, it's a fairer sampling of humanity will always produce better comedy. And studies have shown to incorporate. You have less harassment, you have better work-life policies, and more profitability. You just have more experiences to draw from.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I decide to write this piece in Vanity Fair that just calls out not just the harassment, but the lack of women in the writer's room.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was hard because you wanted to represent, but they didn't always listen, and then it always became how hard do you fight. And that's kind of the through line of this book of like I start fighting more and more and more until 2009 when Letterman famously goes on air and says, I've had sex with women who I work with.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I really tried to focus on the work, but it always astonished me that there were a few times when I did feel compelled to represent all womanhood. I was on the show called Coach, and they came up with a story, a plot point where do people know that show? Yeah. So, yeah, Hayden and Christine are about to get married, but it was too soon to let them get married. We wanted to save it to the end of the season. So we had to break them up. And so the guys were pitching a story where Hayden just says to Christine, I'm not ready for this. And she says, okay. So she's like this independent, strong woman, and I kind of go, I don't buy it. Why is she okay with this? And all the guys in the room shouted me down and one said, well, my wife would be fine with it. And I was like, I bet you would. So, uh...”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What did you wish you had said right then You know what would have been good? No, you know what I'm good. I don't have a uterus or something like that. And the word uterus would have upset a man, I'm sure.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What do you think he meant by that? Well, Cheryl Sandberg is the one who taught me what I think he meant by that, which is she taught me about stereotype threat. Right. Which is when women girls are told they're not as good at math. So if you give girls in boys a math test and on the first page make them check off what their gender is, that creates anxieties and the girls will perform worse. And so I think he was reminding me that of my gender”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So she was... She's gone for two years, no women, and then they hire me. And I get there my first day another writer stops by my office. We have a chat. And at the very end, he says to me, before this is over, I will see a tampon fall out of your purse. And I just was dumbfounded. And for 20 years, I would ask people, what do you think he meant by that?”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So funny. And she invented dog videos, which basically means she invented the internet. Right, right. Because that's what it's there for, right?”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, I did fit in, although I tell the story in the book about my first day at David Letterman. Where there'd been one female writer, Merrill Marco, who's from this area. She'd also been Dave's girlfriend. She leaves the show after five years.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, not for a long time, which was great. And I like sports. I like science fiction. And by the way, I didn't think those were male things. Those were male things. Right, right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, early on, I just wanted to blend in. I really loved it. It was fun and I just thought if they don't notice I'm a girl, they'll let me stay.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But then suddenly, you know, I'm like, oh, well, this is interesting and challenging. I've always liked the challenge. So I just kept at it. But I think it did help that I always knew I had this fallback of a magazine career.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so here's the thing about trying something new. It really should be the easiest thing in the world. Because if you try something new, And you succeed, it's great. And if you fail, you just say, I've never done it before. What's the big deal? So I try writing a TV script, and I basically knew one person in Hollywood, but that's all you need.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I think everything set when one day I bump into a friend who was an editor at SPY, and she says to me, Nell, I don't mean this as an insult, but I think you could write for television. Oh, okay. And that was the first time you shifted.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I had no concept. And it really wasn't this dream I moved to New York. I'm writing for Spy magazine. Best the best. And Tina Brown then hires me away to go work on Vanity Fair in the late 80s.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The point that is actually the point. Yeah, so I love, and my fellow sports writer at the time was Jeff Tubin, we all know on CNN. And so these were really entertaining people.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you learn to care about the characters. It's not about the box score. It's about the towns and the people in them and the hopes and the dreams. So it really did appeal to me more than other parts of the paper. Plus, they were very serious. And it always seemed like if you screwed up, you could really get someone in trouble. Right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I get to college, and the first day when they were telling us about the Crimson a guy gets up and he says anyone cool stick around we're gonna talk about sports writing And I just had this flash that I'd never been cool. Have you heard someone was offering me an opportunity? And I'd grown up in Boston late 60s, early 70s, all the teams are great.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Grandmother, that's right, your grandmother couldn't be a doctor. So none of my grandparents went to college. Right, right. And only one was born in this country and one finished high school.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'll talk about that a little. So you were going to college, you were thinking because you were your mother couldn't be a doctor, your aunt couldn't grandmother. That's right, your grandmother couldn't be a doctor.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, I was dipping my toe into those waters and I came through this circuitous route of journalism and sports writing. Right.”
2018-05-07 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Nell Scovell, author, 'Just the Funny Parts' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT