Man of few words wants more

Mike Fox

Writer’s assistant on the ABC sitcom “According to Jim”

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The role: “A writer’s assistant’s main job is to sit in the [writers’] room behind the computer -- usually we have two monitors. If we are working on a script, we will go through it line by line, and the writer or a bunch of writers will make an adjustment and the writer’s assistant takes that down and makes changes to the script. Also, when we are breaking stories, you kind of listen to everything that’s going on in the room and write down the important stuff.

“On our show, we have about 16 writers. Why they have so many is that they like to have a couple of writers off writing scripts as the show goes along so there is never a lag time. We will split up into two rooms. We’ll have one room of writers who will kind of work on stories and the other will work on scripts. It’s totally a collaborative effort. It’s a blast.”

The motivation: The reason you become a writer’s assistant is that you hope to get on a show like this. I think it is Warren Bell, the executive producer, who last year said it’s different than the old days -- writer’s assistants are now assistant writers. It is training for them to become writers. When writer’s assistants first started, they were almost like stenographers and secretaries.”

Real-time payoff: “I haven’t written a script yet; I will get one this year. I am amazed that they let me pitch jokes all the time and a lot of jokes end up in the scripts. It is an amazing feeling when you are there on shoot night and you are standing there with the rest of the writers and you hear the actors say the line you came up with and you hear the whole audience laugh. It is the greatest feeling in the world.”

Number of assistants: Three. “One of them just started this season and the other one started off as a production assistant and this is her first year as an official writer’s assistant. I am the script coordinator this year -- it’s a fancy title for head writer’s assistant. I am just basically in charge of the other two guys.”

Back story: “I went to undergraduate at American University in Washington, D.C., in communications and I got my master’s at Syracuse in writing for TV and film. As amazing as the education was, I think I learned more here in a month than I did in school.

“I was working as a production assistant on a show called ‘The Naked Truth’ with Tea Leoni. It was grunt work; it was bottom-of-the-ladder-doing coffee runs.... They said, ‘You worked really hard and next year when we come back, we’ll make you a writer’s assistant.’ But the show didn’t come back; it was canceled. Then I tried for a couple of years to become a writer’s assistant, but it is very “Catch-22.” They don’t want to hire you unless you have experience.

“Luckily, a friend of mine was working on ‘The Simpsons’ as an assistant to the executive producer, and he said one of the writer’s assistants was going to be on sick break for like two months and asked if I would be willing to fill in. So I came in and worked there for two months, and basically whenever any of their writer’s assistants were out they would have me come in and take over. Then on this show, they had a writer’s assistant who had to take some sick leave and someone over here who had worked with my friend at ‘The Simpsons’ called him up and asked for a recommendation. So they called me and I filled in here for about two months. About a month later, I got a call that they were letting a writer’s assistant go that wasn’t quite working out and asked if I wanted the job permanently.”

Family affairs: “My writing partner is my little brother. I think when I was about 7 years old I wrote on crayon on the wall that my sister was a stupid head and my little brother walked up and said, “I think it will be funny if you say ‘poopy head’ instead.” and the Fox brothers writing team was born!”

Camaraderie: “I have been on the show for 2 1/2 seasons. I think we have only had two writers leave, and they have left just this year to run their own show. This is going to sound silly, but it’s almost like a family here. We all have a good time. Even last week after the show, a whole group of us went out to play broom ball; one of the writers rented out an ice hockey rink.

“With this show, almost every writer at one point has pulled me aside to give me advice and help me out in some way, to read one of my spec scripts, to help me any way possible.”

Age: 33

Resides: “That is the one downside of this job, that I live in Marina del Rey and I work in Studio City. It’s nice [in the Marina], but I feel I spend more time on the 405 and the 101 than I do in the office.”

Union or guild: No. “There is a writer’s assistant who I worked with last year who is actually looking into forming a union.”

Salary: $40,000 and under. “It’s enough to live off, but you can’t go out and buy a flat-screen TV. You can live modestly on a writer’s-assistant salary. But you think of it as an investment.”

Ambitions: To get on staff. “There is a writer’s assistant on ‘The Simpsons’ who has been there the entire run of the show. But it’s unheard of on our show; the person I trained under when I first got here was a writer’s assistant, and now he’s on staff and the person he trained under, she’s on staff. I will tell you the truth. All I ever wanted is to get one sitcom script, and I am getting that. I am the closest I have ever been to living my dreams.”

-- Susan King