The Women Who Run TV: Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler is showing Knope signs of slowing down in Hollywood. In addition to her starring role on NBC’s Parks and Recreation, she’s producing a pilot for Comedy Central based on the web series Broad City, appearing in three upcoming movies (A.C.O.D, They Came Together, You Are Here), overseeing her online network Smart Girls at the Party, hosting shiny events like the Golden Globes, and writing a book. For those reasons — and just because she’s, you know, funny — Poehler is highlighted in this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly as part of our Women Who Run TV feature. During our interview, we asked the 41-year-old actress/writer/producer for the best TV show pitch she ever brainstormed that never saw the light of day, and she shared an intriguing one with us.
“When I was young, I had a TV show idea called Let’s Get Outta Here! I thought it would be a great MTV show, which is just a bunch of attractive people running place to place. They all meet up in a park and look at each other and they’re like, ‘Let’s get outta here!’ And they just run to the next place. Maybe when they run from place to place, one of them gets in a fight, and two of them become a couple— it doesn’t matter. The point is: They have to get somewhere, and then they have to get the hell outta there.”
Would you totally watch the hell outta that? If so, write to MTV and tell them you want your Let’s Get Outta Here!
We also asked her who — or what — would theoretically be on her inspiration board*. She talked. We listened. And then we mocked one up for her.
(*Inspirations: Catherine O’Hara, Woody Allen, Judge Judy, Pema Chodron, Charles Schulz, John Ritter, summer salads, Wu-Tang Clan, Rhoda, The Go-Gos, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Judy Blume, Erma Bombeck, and a woman in a garden with fresh skin.)
For more with Poehler (including her tips for making it in show business), and such standouts as Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling, check out this week’s issue of EW, on stands today.
Read more:
The Women Who Run TV: Q&A with ‘Vampire Diaries’ EP Julie Plec
Lena Dunham: A few of my favorite things
Tina Fey, Amy Poehler promise the ‘sloppiest, best ever’ Golden Globes
CREDIT: (CW) Go-Gos: Neal Preston/Corbis; Ritter: Everett Collection; Hemingway: Getty Images; Snoopy: United Features Syndicate; Allen: Brian Hamill; Salad: Getty Images; Garden: Getty Images; Harper: Everett Collection; Bombeck: AP; O’Hara: Larry Busacca/Getty Images
