Monica Johnson (February 21, 1946 – November 1, 2010) was an American screenwriter whose film credits included ''

Mother A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

'', ''

Lost in America ''Lost in America'' is a 1985 American satirical road comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co-written by Brooks with Monica Johnson. The film stars Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to quit their jobs and tra ...

'', '' Modern Romance'', '' Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again'' and '' The Muse''. Her television credits included ''

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from September 19, 1970 ...

'', ''

Laverne & Shirley ''Laverne & Shirley'' is an American television sitcom that ran for eight seasons on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. A spin-off of ''Happy Days'', ''Laverne & Shirley'' stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Wi ...

'' and ''

It's Garry Shandling's Show ''It's Garry Shandling's Show'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on Showtime from September 10, 1986, to May 25, 1990. The series, created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel, is notable for breaking the fourth wall. I ...

''. She was a frequent collaborator with

Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein; July 22, 1947) is an American actor, director and screenwriter. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1987 comedy-drama film '' Broadcast News' ...

Early life

Johnson was born Monica Lenore Belson in 1946 in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, but was raised in El Centro, California and spent her early years in medical and dental assistants' school.

Career

Her brother,

Jerry Belson Jerry Belson (July 8, 1938 – October 10, 2006) was an American writer, director, and producer of Hollywood films for over 40 years. Collaborating with figures like Steve Allen and Garry Marshall, Belson gained recognition for his work on various ...

, an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

-winning screenwriter and film producer, hired her to type scripts for the TV series '' The Odd Couple'' around 1972; noticing that his sister added jokes to the scripts which met with the producers' approval, he suggested that she partner with Marilyn Suzanne Miller to form a writing team. Initially working under her married name of Monica Mcgowan in 1973, she and Miller wrote one script for '' The Paul Lynde Show'' and three scripts for ''

''. For the second script, having remarried, she was credited as Monica Mcgowan Johnson. By the time of the third script in 1974, she was credited as Monica Johnson, the professional name she used for the rest of her career. Miller and Johnson broke up as a writing team in 1974; Miller became one of the original writers for ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' in 1975, while Johnson wrote two scripts for the Paul Sand series '' Friends and Lovers''. Johnson wound up making uncredited contributions to the first season of ''SNL'', when she began to collaborate with

and Harry Shearer on the scripts for Brooks's series of seven short films for the show. In 1976, Johnson co-created the NBC pilot ''The Cheerleaders'', which did not go to series. Following this, she became a writer/producer on ''

'' and co-created the CBS sitcom pilot ''The Plant Family'', which was not picked up to series. Following this, she began her long-term screenwriting collaboration with

, co-writing the 1979 film ''

Real Life Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the Character (arts), characters they portray. It has become a ...

'' with him and Shearer. Shearer fell out of Brooks's orbit following this movie, leaving Brooks and Johnson to become a writing duo. The two co-wrote five more of Brooks' films over the following two decades, '' Modern Romance'', ''

Lost In America ''Lost in America'' is a 1985 American satirical road comedy film directed by Albert Brooks and co-written by Brooks with Monica Johnson. The film stars Brooks alongside Julie Hagerty as a married couple who decide to quit their jobs and tra ...

'', '' The Scout'', ''

'', and '' The Muse''. Johnson also co-wrote the 1979 film '' Americathon'', the 1982 film '' Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again'' (with her brother Jerry Belson, who also directed), and wrote for the fourth season of ''

'' and the one-season Alan Zweibel-created sitcom '' Good Sports''. She wrote the unpublished book ''Penny Saver'' and an unproduced screenplay for a movie called ''Marrying for Money''.

Personal life

Johnson, a resident of

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

, died of

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing and weigh ...

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, Tertiary referral hospital, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre, academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on November 1, 2010, aged 64.

Awards

* National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, 1985, ''

'' * National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, 1996, ''

Filmography

* '' The Paul Lynde Show'' (1973, TV) * ''

'' (1973–1974, TV) * '' Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers'' (1974, TV) * ''The Cheerleaders'' (1976, TV pilot) * ''

'' (1977–1978, 1982, TV) * ''The Plant Family'' (1978, TV pilot) * ''

'' (1979) * '' Americathon'' (1979) * '' Modern Romance'' (1981) * '' Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again'' (1982) * ''

'' (1985) * ''

'' (1989–1990, TV) * '' Good Sports'' (1991, TV) * '' The Scout'' (1994) * ''

'' (1996) * '' The Muse'' (1999)

References

External links

* * https://www.primoquotes.com/author/Monica+Johnson {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Monica 1946 births 2010 deaths Television writers from California People from El Centro, California American women screenwriters American women television writers Deaths from esophageal cancer in California Writers from Palm Springs, California Screenwriters from Colorado 21st-century American women