A native San Franciscan who started her career as a reporter at j. (then the Jewish Bulletin) debuts 10 p.m. Monday, June 12, as the host of a national television show.
Teresa Strasser, who wrote about talking her hippie parents into letting her have a bat mitzvah (which was held at her mother’s coffee shop on Haight Street) and other such things while she was at the Bulletin, is taking on the role of dating adviser on the new ABC reality show “How to Get the Guy.”
It’s a fitting role for her. For many years, Strasser was the singles columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and won several awards from the American Jewish Press Association for her columns. She still contributes regularly to the Jewish Journal.
She began her writing career as an intern at the Jewish Bulletin, and then was on staff as a general assignment reporter from 1994 to 1997.
She left the Bulletin to pursue her television career in Los Angeles. She has been on numerous programs on the E! network, and won an Emmy for being part of Comedy Central’s “Win Ben Stein’s Money” team of writers.
“How to Get the Guy” is a six-part summer series that follows four Bay Area singles as they look for love. The first episode, airing June 12, has Strasser and her co-host, JD Roberto — don’t call them matchmakers, they insist — teaching “girl next door” Anne how to “drop the hankie” (a metaphor for getting a guy’s attention). They’re also working on getting “party girl” Kris to party less, having “career girl” Michelle become less picky, and finding a “real” guy for “dreamer” Alissa.
“The producers were looking for someone with experience writing about single life,” Strasser said. “I told them I’m kind of like the Jewish Carrie Bradshaw, only much less sex and a different city.”
Although neither host is a therapist, Strasser has plenty of love lessons to share. At a bookstore, she advises Anne to “use your rack to work the racks.”
“I had to harness my own years of tragic dating experiences and those of my friends,” said Strasser, who’s been with her boyfriend — the result of a fix-up — for three years.
However, her job as love coach wasn’t always easy.
“I would worry that I wouldn’t have an answer, like when one of the girls asked me, ‘How do I know if he’s the one?'” she said. “There were times I couldn’t sleep at night because I was obsessing about one of the girl’s dates and how it would go.”
But by the end of the series, Strasser said, “the girls made me proud beyond my wildest expectations.”
Strasser noted that geography shouldn’t keep anyone from finding love: “Sure, L.A. may have a larger volume of available men, but I think if you refrain from having a bitter, all-the-good-ones-are-gay-or-taken attitude, you can find great men to date anywhere.”
Shoshana Lewin is a copy editor at the L.A. Jewish Journal. Alexandra J. Wall is a staff writer at j.