30-On The Record: You Only Fail When You Quit

On The Record

Tracy Newman started playing guitar at 14 with dreams of becoming a folk singer. In the early 70s, she joined an improvisation class taught by Gary Austin, which became The Groundlings. Tracy is a founding member, and besides being in the show, she began teaching and directing there. Her sister, Laraine Newman was the first Groundling to be discovered there by Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live. It was at the Groundlings that Tracy met her future TV writing partner, Jonathan Stark. They started on Cheers, and worked on many shows, including Bob (Bob Newhart), The Nanny, Ellen, The Drew Carey Show and Hiller and Diller (Richard Lewis and Kevin Nealon.) In 1997, they won the Emmy and the prestigious Peabody Award for writing the ground-breaking -coming out- episode of Ellen. In 2001, they created the ABC comedy, According to Jim, which recently completed it’s eighth and final season of production. Tracy has been writing songs all along and is once again performing full-time. She has three CDs: “A Place in the Sun,” “I Just See You” and “I Can Swing Forever,” (which is for children). www.TracyNewman.com