the episode "Headwriter". Patterson was created by Maya Forbes. Talent bookers Paula Paula, played by Janeane Garofalo, (seasons 1–5) is the show's talent booker (although another character, Kiki, is shown as the talent booker in the season 2 episode "Performance Artist"). Throughout the run of the series, her last name is never mentioned. She has a very dry sense of humor and cringes at any display of sentimentality. In the second-season episode "Artie's Gone", Arthur trusts her to produce the show on her own. In the episode "Montana", as Larry is trying to assemble the former show staffers for another kick at the can after his sabbatical, he asks Paula if she'd be interested in continuing at her old job. She says that she has an offer to be the associate producer on the Conan O'Brien Show. Larry's response comes in the form of a question: "I can understand why you'd want to take the Conan O'Brien job over this one. It's a good sh... How long do you think that's going to stay on the air?", to which frightened Paula replies: "See you Monday". However, Paula's second stint with the show is not without problems as Larry comes very close to firing her in the episode "The Gift Episode" after several high-profile guests pull out of the commitment despite being already booked. In a conversation with Artie, Larry expresses a personal opinion that Paula isn't right for the job "because she doesn't have the right personality". He goes on to state that "she's too....", but before Larry can finish, Artie interjects with three offerings "abrasive?", "brusque?", and "incapable of putting a performer at ease because she has a basic contempt for the business?". Larry's answer is a vehement "no" after each of the first two, and a strong "yes" after the third one. In the episode "The Matchmaker", she gets an inexperienced assistant, Mary Lou Collins, who makes frequent mistakes in research notes for Larry's interviews leading to several on-air embarrassing situations during the Nicollette Sheridan segment. Paula last appears in "Pain Equals Funny". After performing the booking job for five years, she gets an offer to be the producer on a daytime program Caryl & Marilyn: Real Friends. On one hand, she is not thrilled about going to daytime, but on the other, it's the realization of her dream to one day produce. Also, as she tells Larry