In the recent film “Saturday Night,” a fictional version of original SNL writer Alan Zweibel (played by Josh Brener) is discovered by Lorne Michaels in a New York City bar. He’s writing jokes for a character called, simply, Borscht Belt Comedian.
The Borscht Belt, the Catskills resort area that started out as a refuge for Jews at a time when antisemitism kept them away from traditional vacation destinations, did indeed leave an indelible mark on Zweibel and his comedy.
He went on to co-create “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” and work for shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” after his successful career at SNL.
And now, he’s bringing The Borscht Belt back to life in a new show. Specifically, he’s helming a new scripted series about Grossinger’s — arguably the most iconic resort of the Jewish vacation haven. It’s the very vacation destination that inspired “Dirty Dancing”, and the one that Zweibel and his family vacationed at when he was young.
“The Mountains,” which is currently in pre-production, will be produced by Harris Salomon, who worked as a producer on “The Dr. Ruth Show.”
“This series isn’t a reimagining,” Salomon told Deadline. “It’s a resurrection. Of a place. Of a people. Of an America that danced, fought, loved and built something beautiful in the mountains.”
The show will focus on the women behind the great resort where singer Eddie Fisher got his start (and married his first wife Debbie Reynolds) and Rocky Marciano trained. Starting on the 4th of July 1950, it will tell the story of this iconic resorts through its matriarchs, mother and daughter Jennie and Elaine Grossinger.
Matriarch Jennie Grossinger made the simple Jewish boarding house her parents ran into an expansive, iconic “It Destination,” one that had an ice rink, a tarmac, several pools, a ski slope and even its own zip code.
Jennie’s daughter Elaine, who ran the resort after Jennie’s 1972 death with her brother Paul, is also a focal point of the show. She ran the hotel until 1985, when she sold it off to New York investors who hoped to rebuild and reopen after they closed it in 1986. But the resort never truly reopened, and one of its structures burned down in 2022.
This isn’t the first time Grossinger’s and the Borscht Belt have been featured in TV and film; aside from “Dirty Dancing,” there are also those iconic episodes from “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”
The Borscht Belt, of course, is no longer what it was. Assimilation and accessible air travel meant that the clientele for the resorts dwindled by the 1980s. But many are trying to keep its glory days alive, from the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, which has many exciting events this summer, to the Borscht Belt Museum, which is hosting a comedy festival later this month.
It’ll be exciting to have this future show, “The Mountains,” join the ranks of those working to enshrine the memory of this important part of Jewish American history.
