“Not Dead”: a lively view of an obituary writer

As “Not Dead Yet” debuts on ABC, we’re reminded of a key literary fact:
Few art forms can match the combination –facts and flair, done on a deadline – of an obituary.
“This tight little coil of biography, with its literary flourishes, reminds us of a poem,” obit-writer Marilyn Johnson wrote in “The Dead Beat” (HarperCollins, 2006). “Certainly, it contains the most creative writing in journalism.”
And now – after piles of shows about cops and cowboys and such – there’s one about an obit writer. “Not Dead Yet” (shown here) debuts at 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 8) on ABC, then settles into the 9:30 slot.
The comedy-drama has Gina Rodriguez (shown here, center, with Angela Gibbs and Rick Glassman) of “Jane the Virgin” fame, as a former star reporter; now she’s assigned to write obits – not the ones that come from families and funeral directors, but the ones that reporters turn into news stories. The fun comes when she meets the ghosts of her subjects.
There are the standard twists – comedy about her workplace, her eccentric roommate, her now-dormant romantic life. But what makes it stand out is the passing of interesting lives.
Casey Johnson (no apparent relation to Marilyn) had been writing scripts with David Windsor for 20 years – mostly comedies (“The Real O’Neals,” “Galavant,” etc.), plus “This Is Us.” But it was only when they started adapting a book into this series, he said, that they “discovered that we always both loved to read obituaries …. Everyone has a story. (Some) lead extraordinary lives, and then there’s a mail-carrier who’s fascinating.”
Now we get to meet them. Martin Mull is the first guest ghost; others include the occasional young actor (Brittany Snow) and lots of older ones – Rhea Perlman, Ed Begley Jr., Mo Collins, Paula Pell, Telma Hopkins, Julia Sweeney and more. “We got very lucky,” Rodriguez said.
The idea of recapping lives is a natural, Marilyn Johnson wrote. “Obituaries are booming as literature and folk-art across the English-speaking world.” Many of the fans, she wrote, were literature majors.
Indeed, she’s an Ivy Leaguer and a poet who edited fiction at Esquire, but later wrote obits for Life magazine and elsewhere. “I became popular among obituary lovers, but socially unfit,” she wrote. “At one tea, her “conversations about obituaries turned a young pregnant woman pale and then queasy.”
As it happens, “Dead Like Me” had a pregnant woman who seemed undisturbed.
Rodriguez, 38, describes “accidentally getting pregnant right before the show started.” She and her husband (Joe LoCicero, an actor, formerly a model and mixed martial arts fighter) “were very excited about it, but it definitely wasn’t planned.”
That led to a first season filled with creative ways to hide the pregnancy, she said, “whether it was costumes or my cubicle, a plant or a refrigerator.”
She was telling the story to the Television Critics Association on Jan. 11, five days before the baby was due. And this mixture – discussing death and birth – didn’t seem odd. “I have always felt like my ancestors have been around me …. We can learn from the people who came before us.”
That’s part of the perpetual appeal of obituaries, Marilyn Johnson wrote. The New York Times “never fails to deliver news of the important dead …. Obituaries are history as it is happening.”
The Times people – often writing preliminary versions in advance — must turn around obits instantly, for the next day’s paper. In other cases – including magazines (and the fictional newspaper in “Not Dead Yet”) – there are a few days to work it out.
Either way, the results often are eloquent and informative. “It’s the best time ever to read obituaries,” Marilyn Johnson wrote. “And I’m here to tell you, it’s a great time to die.”