Grossinger’s, a well-known resort and hotel in the Catskills, has consistently been a popular destination for New Yorkers and New Jerseyans for many generations.
Alternatively, they would say that they were “going to the mountains” during the summer months.
At the same time that Grossinger’s was a major star in the constellation of recreation that was the Borscht Belt in upstate New York, it was also the source of inspiration for the popular film “Dirty Dancing” published in 1987.
1986 was the year that the Liberty, New York, staple, which was well-known for providing luxury and entertainment, shut down.
Now, a writer and comedian from Jersey is attempting to bring back the glory days of the resort using a television series.
According to Deadline, Alan Zweibel, who was at one point one of the original writers for “Saturday Night Live,” is currently working on “The Mountains,” a comedy that will be about Grossinger’s.
A native of Brooklyn who spent his childhood on Long Island, Zweibel, who is now 75 years old and has lived in Short Hills for a considerable amount of time, has also resided in Bergen County. He was a child when he spent his summers at Grossinger’s.
Later on, he began his career in comedy by selling jokes to established comedians from the Borscht Belt. After that, he joined Saturday Night Live, where he invented the Gilda Radner characters Emily Litella and Roseanne Roseannadanna. These characters would respond to fictional letters from Richard Feder of Fort Lee, Zweibel’s brother-in-law.
In collaboration with Harris F.B. Salomon, who is the producer of “The Dr. Ruth Show” and the owner of Atlantic Overseas Pictures, Zweibel is working on the Grossinger’s series. Atlantic Overseas Pictures is the business that owned the rights to the Grossinger’s narrative.
The film “The Mountains” is set in the year 1950 and begins on the weekend of the Fourth of July.
The series will follow the Grossinger family, specifically Jennie Grossinger and her daughter Elaine Grossinger, as they embark on a journey to construct and expand the resort, which began as a boarding house, into the destination that it eventually became.
Due to the fact that Jews were excluded from other areas and subjected to discrimination, the family established one of the most prominent places in the Catskills where they were welcomed.
The Borscht Belt was not only a place to get away from the oppressive heat of summer in the city, but it also became a performance hub, a testing ground, and a rite of passage for comedians and performers who would go on to become household names. This will be demonstrated in “The Mountains.”
Eleanor Bergstein, the author of “Dirty Dancing,” was a frequent visitor to Grossinger’s estate throughout her childhood, just like Zweibel.
In the aftermath of the resort’s closure, a portion of it was destroyed. In the year 2022, a fire destroyed yet another building.
Besides winning many Emmys for his work on “Saturday Night Live,” Zweibel was also a co-creator of the Showtime series “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” alongside Shandling.
His producing credits include the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the movie “Here Today” starring Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish, which he co-wrote with Crystal, and the documentary “Love, Gilda,” which was released in 2018 and is about his friend, Gilda Radner, who was a standout in the original cast of Saturday Night Live and passed away in 1989.
The book “The Other Shulman: A Novel” that Zweibel wrote earned him the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2006. He also collaborated with Crystal on the Broadway production of “700 Sundays,” which was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005 on Broadway.
