TV Talent Pool Vies for Book Humor Prize

By Neal 

The nominees for this year’s Thurber Prize for American humor have been announced, and they all have something in common: a career in sitcoms. In fact, although she’s understandably more famous for her role as the original head writer on Late Night With David Letterman, Merrill Markoe once wrote for fellow nominee Bob Newhart‘s Newhart. The third nominee, Joe Keenan, spent six years writing for Frasier, and eventually became an executive producer of that show. The prize will be presented during a ceremony at the Algonquin in early October.