I've slowly become a fan of Simon Rich. I think his writing is among the most original, clever and funny stuff around. You can read his great short story '
Unprotected' on the New Yorker's website. A live version, read by
Wyatt Cenac, is available as part of a collection to buy from the
Selected Shorts website.
He has a new sitcom called 'Man Seeking Woman' starting. He speaks to
Splitsider about it and his writing career.
"In the writer’s room, I would say we’re less influenced by traditional romantic comedies than we are by genres like horror and science fiction. I think our biggest influences are shows like The Twilight Zone and the works of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury. But obviously on a basic story level, it’s a pretty straight ahead romantic comedy. There’s an episode about trying to text a girl, there’s an episode about trying to break up with a girl, there’s one about two friends being in love with the same girl. Y’know, it’s all the same stories we’ve seen in every dating show from Seinfeld on, but hopefully we’ve come at it from new angles."
