It Never Ends : A Memoir With Nice Memories! (9781647000325) by Scharpling Tom

Author:Scharpling, Tom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc
Published: 2021-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

MONK AND THE BEST SHOW

When people ask me how they can start writing for television, I never have an answer that makes any sense outside of “You just have to write a lot and keep writing and try to meet people and get your stuff out into the world even though you’re probably not good at pitching a show because you’re a writer.” My path to a career in writing on TV shows was circuitous and unpredictable, and I’m still not sure how it happened.

I had been writing for basketball magazines for a few years but I knew in my heart that I wasn’t meant to be a sportswriter as a career. My desire was always to be a Professional Funny Person and it was high time to make that a reality. But I was a shy young fella who didn’t have a single connection to anyone in the entertainment industry. My best showbiz contact at that point would’ve been the magician my parents hired for my sixth birthday party. I remember being blown away when he made milk pour out of my shirtsleeve, but that doesn’t mean he could’ve provided decent feedback on my Just Shoot Me! spec script. Although who knows? Maybe he was as masterful at punching up a script as he was at pulling a quarter from my ear.

A development around this period was one of the scariest things that ever happened to me: Terre was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer a couple of years after we got married. It was one of the most brutal experiences of my life and I was merely a spectator. I cannot express how difficult it is to watch someone you love get sick. You simply aren’t supposed to worry whether your wife is going to die from a disease when you’re still in your twenties. But she dealt with it by displaying superhuman strength and determination, and after a year of surgeries and chemotherapy treatments she was declared cancer-free. This is ultimately Terre’s story to tell and I hope she tells it, but what I will say is that she stood up to cancer and beat it and it was one of the most impressive feats of courage I have ever witnessed.

With Terre thankfully on the mend and my writing career finally starting to take shape I felt I could manage a return to WFMU (Terre would resume doing her show the following year). I just couldn’t get rid of that radio bug no matter how hard I tried to move on! I knew that nothing made me happier than sitting behind the board and doing my show. But I also understood that I wasn’t really a disc jockey. If I was going to do another radio show it would need to be more than just me playing music. I knew that Wurster and I had tapped into something in the few scripted calls we did, so the goal was now to create a

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