“Everything is copy,” says Pamela Adlon, quoting Nora Ephron’s now-famous dictum. It’s the underlying creative impulse of her semi-autobiographical TV show Better Things, which she writes, produces, directs, and stars in, and has recently begun its third season on FX.
Adlon might have rested on her professional laurels as the voiceover artist who gave life to the animated character of Bobby Hill, the adolescent son of Texans Hank and Peggy Hill on the much-missed show King of the Hill. She won an Emmy for that voicework, which led to a gazillion more gigs giving voice to various cartoon creations and other commercial work. Those assignments still come her way, but over the last 12 years, Adlon has begun to appear on the other side of the camera, as well as among the writing staff of Louis C.K.’s Lucky Louie and Louie. Although C.K.’s company also produced the first two seasons of Better Things, the working relationship was severed in light of the sexual misconduct charges against C.K. The subject was not brought up during the Austin Convention Center conversation.
However, Adlon spoke frankly about what she wanted to accomplish with her show. “I want to see somebody like me. I’ve never seen someone like me on television before. Women of my age, we’re invisible. We literally can go and rob a fuckin’ bank, and nobody would even be looking at us … because they’d be looking at my fuckin’ daughters. I wanted to elevate the mundane, kind of in a whimsical way. This is the way I look at my life, the way I do my show. I should be in the dollar bin at the Jewish Council Thrift Store. There’s nothing sexy about a smallening, oldening, Jewish lady.” But after a beat she tops off the joke: “But I made it cool again.”
The conversation addressed topics such as Adlon’s influences, which, it turns out, come more from song cues than films. She does her writing in the first part of the day because “no good stuff happens later.” She talked about trying to think and work in a “non-gendered way,” and not wanting Better Things to look “time-stamped.” At one point, Adlon fell to her knees on the floor while tearing up at the memory of a certain season two scene that she still finds moving. Yet she had the audience in stitches when she upbraided us for heaping praise on the opening sequence of season three in which Sam tries on all the clothes in her closet and everything that once fit perfectly and looked great can no longer zip or button up over new stomach bulges, love handles, and realigning proportions. “Everyone says, ‘You’re so fuckin’ brave’” for showing her body like that. Scornfully, she blurted to the assembled group, “Thanks.”
The comment echoes something Adlon said at the outset: “The strength of Better Things lies in its scar tissue.” Long may it heal.
Featured Session: Unfiltered: Pamela Adlon Embraces Better Things
Saturday, March 9, Austin Convention CenterThis article appears in March 8 • 2019.
