The true tale behind ‘The Shrink Next Door’ is a twisted ‘love story’
“The Shrink Next Door” screenwriter has a good idea how she snagged the plum job.
“I think the difference was that the other people pitching saw it more in terms of like a ‘Dirty John’ story of a goodie and a baddie, a victim and a villain,” scribe Georgia Pritchett told The Post. “And my approach was, this is a love story that lasted 27 years, longer than most marriages.”
British-born Pritchett, 53, is describing the deeply dysfunctional relationship between real Manhattan psychiatrist Dr. Isaac Herschkopf and his patient Marty Markowitz, which served as the basis for the hit 2019 podcast of the same name. Their story — in which Herschkopf convinced millionaire Markowitz to give him control of his estate — is now a series on Apple TV, out Friday, starring Paul Rudd as the shrink and Will Ferrell as his hapless patient.
Markowitz, the CEO of a fabric company, began seeing Herschkopf in 1981. Two years into their thrice-weekly sessions, Markowitz became convinced his sister was after his money, a belief he now says was fostered by Herschkopf.
The podcast painted a disturbing portrait of Herschkopf, with allegations that he persuaded Markowitz to create a charity called the Yaron Foundation and draft a new will leaving his considerable fortune to the foundation, which conveniently was only accessible to Markowitz, Herschkopf and his wife, Becky.
Markowitz also claimed that the doctor insisted he amend his will to leave his Hamptons estate to Becky — which the Herschkopf family basically co-opted, even going so far as to have a welcome mat with the family name on it — and coaxed him into naming him a joint signatory on a $2.5 million Swiss bank account.
It wasn’t until 2010 that Markowitz made an effort to rid himself of the predatory doctor. He changed his will, reunited with his sister and filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Health, which is currently investigating Herschkopf.
Markowitz told The Post last year that he estimates he squandered roughly $3 million seeing Herschkopf and is still recovering from the pain inflicted by him.
“He said I’m not lovable,” Markowitz said. “He was all about power and greed.”
Pritchett, who also worked on “Veep” and is currently an executive producer and writer on “Succession,” explained that she always looks to find humanity in characters that on the surface come off as morally bankrupt.
“I’m trying to show a bit more compassion to characters, whether it’s Logan Roy, Selina Meyer or even a real person like Ike Herschkopf,” she said. “He’s a psychiatrist, he’s got a great job, he’s successful, he’s got a family, he’s doing pretty well. I think, for him, it was not good enough, clearly it wasn’t. That must come from a place of damage and pain.
“And so I sort of tackled it that way,” she added. “Let’s kind of put aside judgment and blame because it would be very easy to dismiss Marty as a fool or gullible. I thought, let’s put aside judgment and blame for both men. And let’s just try and understand how this happened.”
Pritchett says it was “fantastic casting” having Rudd play such an unlikeable character.
“When trying to depict an abusive or unhealthy relationship … I didn’t want viewers to think, ‘Oh that would never happen to me.’ I wanted them to kind of go on that journey with Marty,” she said. “And I think Paul Rudd really helps us in that he’s so charming and irresistible that we kind of get swept off our feet, as Marty does.”
She also researched the script by reaching out to cult survivors, “because there were so many similarities in terms of cutting you off from your family and sort of disorienting people with being incredibly nurturing and loving and then being very sort of withholding and cold.
“I feel like this is a tragedy, this story for both men,” Pritchett said. “Marty kind of opted out of life and Ike lived someone else’s life. They both lived a lie, and that for both men to waste almost 30 years of their life doing that, to me, that seems incredibly sad for both of them.”
