Screenwriter Chip Andowl may appear unassuming with his dirty sweatshirt and Dorito dust under his fingernails, but he almost accomplished the impossible: Chip almost wrote a story arc for a fat woman that didn’t center around her weight!
What made Chip want to attempt this? “Well, not many people know this, but my mother was actually fat when she had me, so I really care about fat women,” he says.
Overwhelmed by the thought of his mother and his own sheer brilliance, Chip sheds a small tear.
“I was out at my favorite cafe. I go there all the time and always get served by the same fat chick… um…. Cathy, or Sarah, or something. And then, her manager comes up to her, and they get into it about some side work. I was listening to this fairly routine conversation, and BAM! I was just hit by this idea for our fat character… um… Dolores…. or….. yeah, Dolores! Anyways, I was like, what if Dolores has something happen at her job, and like, we spend a few episodes dealing with that, and then we go back to her problems with her diet?”
A huge smile comes across Chips face as he finishes the origin story of his brilliance. He obviously loves the idea, so what happened?
“Oh, yeah, well, I couldn’t really figure out what the problem at work could be for her. My first instinct was to have an alien brain slug species take over her manager so that he started making her work night shifts as part of his master plan to take over the world, and while she was on the night shift, she would meet a dishwasher who is actually the reincarnation of the
alien’s god, and while working to save the world they would fall in love. But ultimately my show runner felt it was a little far fetched to have someone be attracted to a fat person, so we scratched that idea. Then, I thought maybe she could get a promotion and have to deal with that, but that got hard. So eventually I just had her get in trouble for eating a whole cheesecake from the freezer on her break.”
When asked why, after all that work, he came to this idea, Chip shrugs, “I just couldn’t come up with anything else believable. And we were able to smoosh cheesecake all around the actress’s mouth. It was really funny! She graduated from Yale acting school, so she really crushed it! Truly, so funny! A big shout out to…. um….. oh hell, what is her name… maybe
Sarah, or Cathy?”
Catch 5 Men and a Futon every Friday at 8 p.m. on Fox.
