Bill Persky and wife Joanna. (Lorenzo Ciniglio)
TOP CHEF: The oval breakfast counter — the couple calls it the egg — is of Italian marble; the cabinetry is by IKEA. (Lorenzo Ciniglio)
IT’S SHOW TIME: The living room of the couple’s 1,600-square-foot prewar co-op features 12-foot beamed ceilings, an original fireplace and moldings painted a custom off-white shade. The rug is an antique; the vintage coffee table is by Italian designer Carlo Scarpa. (Lorenzo Ciniglio)
A 10th-century Tang Dynasty horse, given to him by Joanna (Lorenzo Ciniglio/Freelance)
Bill Persky and Joanna Patton are the definition of a savvy New York City couple: He’s a five-time Emmy Award-winning writer/producer/director (“The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Kate & Allie,” among his many hits); she’s a partner in the advertising agency Lotas Patton. But when they bought their Upper East Side apartment 17 years ago, the newlyweds neglected to ask one very important question.
“We never thought to ask if the apartment was noisy,” Bill Persky says over the blaring sirens that go off intermittently during the course of our interview. The apartment is not only on the same block as a police station and a firehouse, there’s also a school, a synagogue and a crosstown bus.
“I’ve never heard a complete television show,” he says. “There’s always a fire or a cop car going past. But now we’re so used to the sirens, they don’t wake us at night anymore.”
Persky is not really complaining; he thinks everything else about the apartment, housed in an 1908 building that was constructed as one of the city’s first co-ops, is just about perfect. It measures 1,600 square feet, with two bedrooms (one is now the den), two bathrooms, a full dining room and a living room with a working fireplace. They paid less than a million for it.
“When we bought it,” Persky says, “there were walls and closets all over. So when you walked in, it was all closed off. We wanted a loft-like look. We brought in architects and reconfigured it. We tore down walls and gutted a lot of it.”
The couple stayed at Persky’s East 60th Street rental during the eight months of renovation.
“The living room is pretty much the way it was,” he continues. “There were curved arches, but we squared them off to make the room linear. But the fireplace is the same. And we kept the beamed ceiling — 12 feet high — and the molding, which looks off-white, but it’s actually four different colors blending together. I sometimes look at the little stuff and see just how pretty it is.”
Once the painting was done, they did the floors. First they tried bleached wood, but then they redid them in a natural shade.
Next came the furniture.
“He had some stuff, I had some stuff, and then we got some stuff together,” Patton says. “It was interesting when we started melding our households. I’d been living in a 7,400-square-foot loft [in SoHo]. Billy had the coffee table, I had the antique living-room rug. We each had different pieces, and then we added stuff.”
“I fell in love with the coffee table just because it’s beautiful,” Persky says. “And then I found out that it was designed by Carlo Scarpa, who is one of the most renowned architects in Italy. It’s fun when you fall in love with something and then find out that it’s really very special.”
They bought the dining-room table together, but Persky already had the six chairs to go with it. “They’re very expensive — $1,200 each,” Patton says. “The designer was Gae Aulenti, who also designed the Musée D’Orsay. Later, we got chairs almost exactly like them from Ikea for $88, for our country house.”
Then they added smaller treasures, like a Tang Dynasty horse.
“I have always been in love with Tang horses,” Persky says. “I saw one at a show from 900 AD. But they’re so expensive, you can’t go near them. Joanna knew I loved it, so she surprised me and bought it for me. That’s what’s great when you have a wife who’s independently wealthy.”
What you won’t find in their apartment are Persky’s five Emmy Awards.
“I don’t know where they are,” he says. “When my twin daughters [from a previous marriage] were 12 years old, we were living in Los Angeles, and they gave the pool boy one of my Emmys to teach them how to kiss. I gave another one to a friend. But I don’t know what happened to the rest.”
That story — plus how he discovered Goldie Hawn, gave Kelsey Grammer his first acting job, created “That Girl” for Marlo Thomas, wrote and directed “Kate & Allie,” worked with Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore and Carl Reiner, and much more — are in his recently published book, “My Life Is a Situation Comedy.”
With all that, Persky, 81, has no intention of letting up. Currently he keep an office with three of his closest friends.
“We give advice,” he laughs, “whether you want it or not. Actually, we became consultants to various businesses. And we have a bunch of young people who we mentor. And I write. I did a couple of pilots and I’m planning more books. I also do speaking engagements.
“I’m so busy. I don’t make any money, but I’m having a wonderful time.”
And, just for emphasis, another siren starts to blare.
Bill PERSKY’S
FAVORITE THINGS
*The Carlo Scarpa coffee table
*A sculpture of a mother and child by David Ingber, a gift to his wife, Joanna Patton, from Persky’s twin daughters
*A painting by Joseph LaRosa of a picnic table at the couple’s house on Shelter Island
*A 10th-century Tang Dynasty horse, given to him by Joanna
*A sculpture of dancing elephants
*The dining room table and Gae Aulenti chairs