I am relieved to report the this news about a political television show isn’t about last year’s election: Mindy Kaling has optioned former Obama White House deputy chief of staff for operations Alyssa Mastromonaco’s recently published memoir Who Thought This Was A Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House?
Deadline reports that the book will be adapted for TV by Kaling, who is also friends with Mastromonaco — they were introduced to each other in 2012 by Obama. Mastromonaco worked with Obama for the better part of his political career, from his days as a senator all the way up to his time as president, working her way up in the White House from assistant to the president and director of scheduling and advance to assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for operations.
Per Deadline’s description, the source material sounds like it’ll be right up Kaling’s alley —The Mindy Project minus the doctor stuff with a dash of Veep, a hint of The West Wing, minus any House of Cards Underwood-ian touches.
Called “less political diatribe than a gossip session with an older sister,” Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? is an admiring account of Obama, an unfiltered account of Mastromonaco’a time at the White House putting out fires, meeting with world leaders and occasionally winning elections.
After leaving the White House, Mastromonaco did a stint at Vice Media before joining A+E as President of Global Communications Strategy & Talent. She’s also from my hometown of Rhinebeck, New York, a lovely hamlet in the Hudson Valley and the fact that she worked in the Obama White House and is now getting a TV show based on her memoir will likely knock out Chelsea Clinton’s wedding as the most exciting thing that has happened to my town to date.
No word on when this is coming to TV, but it sounds like it won’t be for a minute. Kaling is finishing up the last season of The Mindy Project and executive producing and appearing on a NBC pilot called The Champions.
