End Credits
How I Broke Up with Hollywood
A candid and revealing look at life in television, Hollywood, and work in the writer's room, from an insider who wrote for some of the most popular television shows in history — Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Breaking Bad.
Ever since Patty Lin retired from television writing at the ripe age of thirty-eight, people have asked her: 'Why would you quit such a cool career?' Especially when they find out she worked on some of the most successful shows in television history. But what if achieving your professional dreams comes at too high a personal cost? That’s what Patty Lin started to ask herself after years in the cutthroat TV industry. One minute she was a tourist, begging her way into the audience of Late Night with David Letterman. Just a few years later, she was an insider who — through relentless hard work and sacrifice — had earned a seat in the writers’ rooms of the hottest TV shows of all time. While writing for Friends, Freaks and Geeks, Desperate Housewives and Breaking Bad, Patty steeled herself against the indignities of a chaotic, abusive, male-dominated work culture, not just as one of the few women in the room, but as the only Asian person.
Funny, eye-opening, and sobering, this inside-Hollywood story will resonate with anyone who has struggled with their work and on their life journey. And it will inspire others to listen to their inner voices and know when it’s time to get out.
Patty Lin is a former TV writer and producer whose credits include Freaks and Geeks, Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Breaking Bad. She has also written pilots for Fox, CBS, and Nickelodeon. Her Breaking Bad episode, "Gray Matter," was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Script in the Episodic Drama category. She retired from television writing to pursue other interests and occasionally appears in background acting roles. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband.
