GINA

In the span of about a year Gina retires from her career as a YA librarian in a NJ suburb and is promptly uprooted by her husband Abe to move to Maine. Their only child, Hazel, is a married lesbian hairdresser living in Brooklyn, herself on the brink of major life upheaval. They're all very close. Probably a little too close through this tumultuous period. Gina has spent her life spinning the plates of clinical depression, anxiety and OCD, which inform her familial relationships and ability to adjust to a drastically different new life. But it's mostly funny! The vibe is "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?" meets "What About Bob?"

  • Caroline Mitgang
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Television Script
  • Genres:
    Dramedy
  • Number of Pages:
    29
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Writer Biography - Caroline Mitgang

Growing up as the only child in a family of journalists, creative writers and a librarian caused me to steer clear of professional writing for a good long time, but it's been a real bee in my bonnet. For a decade I convinced myself that my greatest gift was doing hair for rich ladies and finance bros in Manhattan where I could hector them about politics and they couldn’t escape because I was slathering their heads with chemicals. But after the election, the universe spoke to me and said the world’s problems would be solved if I moved to LA and tried to write for TV. It also feels more viable to write about my parents from 3,000 miles away.

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Writer Statement

I'm a 35-year-old hairdresser with a B.A. in English and tendonitis from doing blowouts with no upper body strength, so I'm aiming for a career shift that involves more sitting. Since 2015 I've been transcribing noteworthy text message exchanges with my mom in preparation for writing a book of essays centered on her, because she is a wildly rich character and there's not a ton of material floating around that focuses on newly retired older women struggling with clinical depression/anxiety/OCD. Since moving from NYC to LA in 2017 and beginning to try my hand at writing scripts it felt like there could be a show there too.