'Weeds' creator tells how she got into showbiz

LOS ANGELES - Jenji Kohan, creator of "Weeds" (which returns to Showtime for its seventh season Monday), talks about her career as a TV writer and her path to being a showrunner.

Q. Did you always want to work in TV?

A. My impetus was vengeance initially. I had an ex-boyfriend who said I had a better chance of getting elected to Congress than getting on the staff of a television show. I don't like to be told I can't do something. So I quit my day jobs - I had three - and I moved in with a friend. I'd watch tapes of shows and write my spec scripts.

Q. You wrote for some big shows, but why did it take so long to settle into a series?

A. Right after "The Fresh Prince," I wrote my first pilot. "Weeds" was my 17th. . . . Every season I would write between one and three pilots hoping to win that lottery. . . . So I wrote a pilot that was similar to "Friends," and that got me onto "Friends." Then I got fired from "Friends." So I went to Nepal and quit showbiz - but then I wrote a "Frasier" spec in the Himalayas. That made me realize, maybe I'm not quite done.

Q. Before creating the antiheroine played by Mary-Louise Parker on "Weeds," you worked on several shows with women at their center, including "Tracey Takes On" and "Gilmore Girls."

A. "Tracey" [starring Tracey Ullman] was a huge turning point for me. What I learned on "Tracey" was how to run a healthy show. . . . I also learned I am not a performer. We'd turn in our drafts and the whole room would take parts and read them out and perform them for Tracey . . . I was the joke slayer. I hear it all in my head but it just doesn't come out of my mouth right.