Jo Coppola was a prominent 1950s columnist and television critic for Newsday and the New York Post.She was the first TV critic Newsday ever had, and also wrote for Commonweal, and others. In 1959 she wrote the script for the short film Summer of Decision, a 30 min long film produced by the Council on Social Work Education, directed by William A. Graham and starring Suzanne Pleshette, Kevin McCarthy and Nicholas Pryor.