Episodes #14 and #15 of The Constant Comedy Podcast is up now with Comedy Channel aliumni and famed sitcom writer Betsy Borns in this great two part episode.
This week's guest, Betsy Borns is somewhat of a mystery woman. In fact, I’m wasn't entirely convinced she even existed until we actually interview her. I’ll explain in a minute.
Art and I worked with Betsy Borns at the launch of Comedy Central in 1991. While there she was a producer on one of the network’s signature pieces called “Thirty, Sixty, Nineties” [Remember that one Art!]…among many other things she did at Comedy Central that we can’t wait to talk about.
Her career skyrocketed after she left us. Art and I remained in a quiet, steady orbit, watching her success from a distance…so basically, we were Michael Collins [may he Rest In Peace] to her Neil Armstrong.
She was a writer and producer on two of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Roseanne and Friends. She wrote the classic Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus" that featured the now famous “Smelly Cat” song.
She went on to write and produce a wide variety of sitcoms including Bob Newhart’s return to prime time with “George & Leo” and in 2003 Betsy co-created…with Will Smith and Jada Pinket… the long running sitcom “All Of Us”.
She has a new book out called “Talking To Myself” which has an origin story that rivals Bruce Wayne’s Batman origins!
So here’s the thing…with everything that Betsy has accomplished in her career you would think that researching her for this interview would have been a cinch. But other than her IMDB page, she has ZERO presence on the internet. Not even a Wikipedia page! Everyone has a wiki page…I even have one…hell Smelly Cat has its own wiki page…but not Betsy. This is starting to remind me of Red Button’s “Never Got A Dinner” bit from the Dean Martin Roasts.
So, every time I searched for “Betsy Borns”, Google would politely ask, “did you mean Betsy Beers” who happens to be a very successful TV drama writer herself. After a week of searching, Betsy Born’s name finally came up in my google results, halleluiah, but it just turned out to be an interview Art and I did where WE mentioned her name. How very meta.
But then I hit the motherlode and probably the thing we are now most excited to talk to Betsy about. I discovered she had written “Comic Lives” a book that came out in 1987 which was a deep dive into the world of stand-up comedy.
For a podcast called Constant Comedy that was gonna be gold. I went to Amazon where the only copy available was selling for $895 wait that’s eight hundred and ninety-five dollars…I swear to god..here's the screen grab!
I was finally able to find a digitized copy at the Internet Archive Library...and by digitized I really mean it was xeroxed. But g-d was it worth the effort.
Betsy spoke to EVERYONE on the comedy scene from the 60s,70s and 80sand jam packed so much information and back stories that now I actually think it’s worth the high price!
Betsy made so many date changes while scheduling this interview that we honestly thought she was catfishing us!
Well it turns out she is not only the real deal, she is a fascinating interview! You can listen here!
Apple https://lnkd.in/d4QaqYC
Art Bell and I worked with Betsy Borns at the launch of Comedy Channel in 1989. While there she was a producer on one of the network’s signature pieces called “Thirty, Sixty, Nineties”.
She has a new book out called “Talking To Myself” which has an origin story that rivals Bruce Wayne’s Batman origins! Besty is also the writer of “Comic Lives” a book that came out in 1987 which is an incredible deep dive into the world of stand-up comedy. Betsy spoke to EVERYONE on the comedy scene from the 60s,70s and 80s and jam packed so much information and back stories making it a perfect time capsule of a seminal period in the history of stand up.
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