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Cheri and Bill started going out on the town as a writing team. “It turned into TV,” levels
Cheri, “because we lived in L.A. and that’s what happens to theater in L.A.”
Success, Awards, and a Move to Montecito
Until
Our Place,
Cheri thought she was meant to be an actress. She had an epiphany
while playing one of the production’s lead roles. “I remember being onstage one time and
it hit me,” she says. “I realized that it was more rewarding for me to hear the audience
laugh at something I had thought of than something I said.”
The duo’s first paid TV gig came from a script that was picked up by a Canadian
show about a teen help center. After that, they worked on the American show
Benson
,
and then landed a staff writing job on the last season of
The Jeffersons
. “And that, as a
young writer, as a new writer,” Cheri says about the position, “is all you can ask for.” She
Cheri played Fanny Brice in
Funny Girl
at several Southern California theaters in the ‘80s
before she transitioned fully to her life behind the scenes
(From left) Co-Executive Producer Phoef Sutton, Cheri, Bill, and Producer Tim Berry smile
and hold their Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1989. Cheri is pregnant
with Teddy in this picture and wearing a maternity dress from the
Cheers
wardrobe; it was
worn by Bebe Neuwirth’s character Lilith Sternin.