Monica Mcgowan Johnson

Who was Monica Mcgowan Johnson?

Monica Johnson was an American screenwriter whose film credits included Mother, Lost in America, Modern Romance, Jekyll and Hyde... Together Again and The Muse. Her television credits included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley and It's Garry Shandling's Show . She was a frequent collaborator with Albert Brooks.

Johnson was born Monica Lenore Belson in 1946 in Colorado, but was raised in El Centro, California. Her brother, Jerry Belson, a longtime Emmy Award winning screenwriter and film producer, hired her to type scripts for the TV series The Odd Couple circa 1972; noticing that his sister added jokes to the scripts which met with the producers' approval, he suggested that she partner with Marilyn Suzanne Miller to form a writing team. Initially working under her married name of Monica Mcgowan in 1973, she and Miller penned three scripts for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For the second script, having remarried, she was credited as Monica Mcgowan Johnson. By the time of third script in 1974, she was credited simply as Monica Johnson, the professional name she would use for the rest of her career.

Miller and Johnson broke up as a writing team in 1974; Miller would go on to become one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live starting in 1975.