Phil Rosenthal’s You’re Lucky You’re Funny How Life Becomes a Sitcom is the only book on how to create, write and produce television you truly need.
There have been many screenwriting books. There have been many “ how to to write a sitcom” books. And there have been a gazillion autobiographies. But Phil Rosenthal’s 2006 published masterpiece You’re Lucky You’re Funny is a combo of all three and just funnier, sharper, more intricate, less pretentious and just overall better than most if not all the other books on the subject.
For those who don’t know the show the book is discussing is the hit CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond that ran from 1996–2005 and took the world by storm becoming not only a critical and ratings smash but also became apart of the overall television culture and is considered one of the greatest television shows of all time.
The series was created by acclaimed sitcom writer Philip Rosenthal, who also wrote on such series as Baby Talk and Coach and has gone on to host Netflix’s exotic food travelling show “Somebody Feed Phil”.
Phil may be a genius but you’d never know it from how self deprecating and normal he is:
And yet speaks with such nuance and passion for his series and the television form:
The book is packed with such great insight into the making of a well developed and written sitcom but in such a low key and humorous way that you feel like you’re just reading a funny book and it goes over your head that you’ve just learned something. Phil’s life itself could be a sitcom and his blending of autobiographical elements with structured tips on showrunning and writing is frankly brilliant.
I consider You’re Lucky You’re Funny my television making bible. Back in 2010 when I was given the book by my father I found myself finishing it in one night. I couldn’t put it down and it changed my own style of writing for the better. I highly recommend it to any beginners in the screenwriting field and sitcoms in particular. We have enough crappy sitcoms from the past and now, hopefully reading this book will give the actual talented folks out there the tools they need to rise sitcoms back from the dead.