Sybil Adelman Sage wrote for the television shows “Northern Exposure,” “Maude” and “The New Dick Van Dyke Show,” among others.
Sybil Adelman Sage
By Sybil Adelman Sage
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Culture Why is late-night TV still a no-woman zone
CNN’s current series of documentaries about late-night television rekindled memories of working on the “Tonight Show” back when it was based in New York but shooting for three weeks in “beautiful Downtown Burbank,” as Johnny Carson joked. At 23 and new to the entertainment industry, I was taken aback to have the star appear at…
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Culture One year under lockdown — celebrating the anniversary from hell
March 11 isn’t a date to be commemorated with champagne or flowers. Nobody will celebrate the day in 2020 when the virus came to America. The traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper. This year’s favorites will likely be the stimulus check or a COVID Vaccination Record Card. Like so many Americans, I’ve been…
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Culture ‘I got the Covid vaccine; don’t hate me’
My husband and I joined an absurdly long line of seniors outside a lower East Side high school to get the coveted Covid vaccine. Prior to the pandemic this long a queue happened only for a hot sample sale, Beyoncé concert tickets or at Zabar’s smoked fish counter. But nobody was complaining. The vaccine had…
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Culture Finally, the perfect board game for Jewish boomers
Finally, there’s something for those of us who qualify for Old People Shopping Hour and it isn’t about arthritis or urinary tract problems. It’s “Boom Again,” a board game designed for those 50 and up. If, like me, you miss pre-pandemic schmoozing, kibitzing and reminiscing, this is for you. The game goes like this: Questions…
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Culture Norman Lear at 98 — once again an Emmy winner, always a mensch
History was made this week when an Emmy was awarded to 98-year-old Norman Lear, the oldest winner in the history of the Television Academy. A victim of the depression, as a young boy, he’d hoped to one day be able to flip a quarter, as his press agent Uncle Jack did to him whenever he…
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Culture I wrote speeches for a fictional president; no one could have imagined Donald Trump
Long before Fox became a right-wing propaganda machine, I crafted speeches for an Oval Office occupant on their comedy series, “Mr. President,” which starred George C. Scott and Madeline Kahn. My husband Martin and I were in the writers’ room in 1987, several years after politics and performing had intersected with the election of former…
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Culture Why Carl Reiner was the dreamiest boss I ever had
“My secretaries stay a long time,” Carl Reiner said as he greeted me at the start of the job interview, “so I don’t know what I’m supposed to ask.” Okay, I was plotzing to get the job. Though at 26 I’d worked in show business long enough to know that celebrities were often nothing like…
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Culture ‘All my socks are face masks now’ – Life in the new abnormal
“Are you going out at all?” friends called to ask, each of us struggling to interpret self-distancing during the latter part of March. “Old-people shopping hour is my new happy hour,” I quipped, adding, “I’m glad I never had my eyes done. Even with my mask, they know to let me in.” Those of us…
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