The Emmy Awards are this Sunday, and as good as the acting may be, it’s really about what they’re saying. Writing can make or break a sitcom. And it always helps when the writer can get into the mind of all kinds of people. A criticism so often heard about Hollywood is the lack of diversity, especially in the writers’ room. Even now, in 2017, there aren’t that many women at the table so imagine what it was like in the early ‘70s. Susan Silver was there. Silver wrote for shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show and Square Pegs. She sheds details of those days in her latest book, Hot Pants in Hollywood: Sex, Secrets and Sitcoms, and gives us the juicy “behind the scenes” view.
