Ever since I retired from television writing at the ripe age of 38, people have asked me, “Why would you quit such a cool career?” It’s impossible to answer this question over cocktail-party conversation. Where would I even begin? There were the grueling hours, the egotistical bosses, the dysfunction—there’s everything the Writers Guild of America is currently fighting against with their ongoing strike, and the issues have only gotten more complex since I left in 2008.
My disillusionment had begun at my very first writing job but was momentarily staved off by a positive experience at Freaks and Geeks. Then came Friends. When my agent told me the Friends team wanted to meet with me, I was stunned. It was America’s most popular sitcom—and I had been writing for only two years. But somehow, after a grueling, eight-person interview, I got the job.
