David Mirkin
Encyclopedia
David Mirkin is an American
feature film
and television director
, writer
and producer
. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer
, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University
. After graduating, he became a stand-up comedian, and then moved into television writing. He wrote for the sitcoms Three's Company
and Newhart
, and worked on It's Garry Shandling's Show
and The Larry Sanders Show
. After an unsuccessful attempt to remake the British series The Young Ones
, Mirkin created Get a Life
in 1990. The series starred comedian Chris Elliott
and ran for two seasons, despite a lack of support of many Fox network
executives, who disliked the show's dark and surreal humor. He moved on to create the sketch show The Edge
starring his then-partner, actress Julie Brown
.
Mirkin left The Edge during its run and became the executive producer and showrunner of The Simpsons
for its fifth
and sixth
seasons. Mirkin is seen by many as introducing a more surreal element to the show's humor, as shown by his sole writing credit for the show, "Deep Space Homer
", which sees Homer Simpson
go to space as part of a NASA
program to restore interest in space exploration. Mirkin does not personally think that he made the show more satirical, feeling that he returned it to a focus on character, emotion and story. He won four Primetime Emmy Award
s and a Peabody Award
for his work on The Simpsons. Mirkin stood down as showrunner after season six, but produced several subsequent episodes, co-wrote The Simpsons Movie
(2007) and remains on the show as a writer/producer. Mirkin has also moved into feature film direction: he directed the films Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
(1997) and Heartbreakers (2001).
in 1975. His father was a computer engineer. Throughout his childhood, Mirkin had an interest in film, and explored both writing and filming. Mirkin has described himself as a "nerd" and was often in trouble as a child because he was "in another world". At high school, he felt the teaching was "too slow" and was allowed by his teachers to "skip class two to three days a week." Mirkin intended to pursue a career in electrical engineering
. He took an internship at Philadelphia's Drexel University
, but chose to abandon this career path because he realized that he "hated" it. He decided to "[take] an enormous chance on show business" and moved to Los Angeles, California
. He attended film school at Loyola Marymount University
, and graduated in 1978.
Mirkin lists Woody Allen
and James L. Brooks
as his writing inspirations and Stanley Kubrick
and the work of the comedy group Monty Python
as developing his "dark sense of humor." He considers Mike Nichols
's film The Graduate
to be what inspired him to enter directing.
, where he became a regular, and at The Improv
. The first joke he used in his routine was, "Is it just me or has everybody been coughing up blood lately?" Mirkin considers the joke to be "an insight into the way [he writes]." Stand-up comedy was the most profitable and easily accessible route Mirkin found into the comedy industry, but "it wasn't a lifestyle that [he] particularly coveted," especially due to the traveling required.
He got his first job writing for television on the sitcom Three's Company
. Mirkin had been pitching ideas to the show for several years before his eventual success; the producers bought one of his scripts and he was hired as a staff writer. Mirkin noted that Three's Company "had a classic French farce structure," and he observed, "the characters were so stupid they could never say anything clever, which forced you to put all the cleverness into the plot, a much more difficult thing to do. The plot had to get all the laughs. That taught me a lot about structure and has served me well throughout the rest of my career." Next, Mirkin worked on Newhart
from 1984 to 1988, serving as a writer, director and later executive producer and showrunner. In 1987, he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Newhart. He also wrote for It's Garry Shandling's Show
and The Tracey Ullman Show
, and worked as writer and consultant on The Larry Sanders Show
during its first season, and later returned to direct the 1998 final season episode "The Beginning of the End".
, entitled Oh No, Not Them!, featuring Nigel Planer
from the original series, as well as Jackie Earle Haley
and Robert Bundy. Mirkin had wanted to cast comedian Chris Elliott
in the pilot, but was prevented by Fox
, which wanted Elliott for another show. Oh No, Not Them!, in Mirkin's words, "tested through the floor" because it was too "surreal" and "sarcastic" and was not picked up. Mirkin and Elliott decided to develop a show together; along with Adam Resnick
, and in 1990, they created the sitcom Get a Life
, which was conceived as a dark, surreal, grown-up, psychotic version of Dennis the Menace
. The show stars Elliott as Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old newspaper delivery boy who still lives with his parents, and who is increasingly losing his grip on reality. Fox was lukewarm about the idea, but Mirkin convinced them to order a pilot by understating how dark the show would be. The network executives "hated" the pilot after seeing an initial run-through, but Mirkin felt that this was because they "didn't get" the show and opted not to change it. The executives enjoyed the finished pilot and it was aired. However, throughout the show's run, the network's initially negative attitude prevailed; many of the executives struggled to understand it and objected to the darkness and surrealism of the show's humor, which included the frequent death of Elliott's character, and regularly threatened to shut down production and fire Mirkin. After its first season, on the insistence of the network, Chris moves out of his parents' garage, attempts to get additional jobs to his paper route, and attempts to get a girlfriend. However, Mirkin and Elliott refused to "[compromise on] the essential goofiness of the show," while "there wasn't any pressure to make the show less wacky."
Mirkin served as executive producer for the series, directed most of the episodes, wrote several of them, and oversaw the filming and production of them all, to ensure that they had the correct "tone". The show's production process was lengthy; Mirkin would rise at to film the show, write further episodes from until , and then repeat that the following day. Unlike most single-camera
shows, which have around six days to film, Mirkin had to film each episode in two days. He enjoyed doing it, but described it as "not a healthy way to live". Due to the logistics of filming the show, especially its many sets and effects, Mirkin convinced Fox to not film it in front of a studio audience and use a laugh track
instead. The show achieved steady ratings in its first season, finishing 92nd out of the listed in the Nielsen ratings
. However, for its second season, it was moved from on Sunday to on Saturday and lost the bulk of its audience; it was canceled after that second season finished in 1992. In a 1999 piece about the show's DVD release, Tom Shales
praised the show, concluding, "At its best, Get a Life achieved dizzying heights of surrealist farce. At its worst, it was at least amusingly idiotic existential slapstick. Get a Life is a television classic unlike any other. For one thing, most of the others are better. We're not talking Playhouse 90
here, after all. But we are talking riotous nonsense, and that's not to be sneezed at. It's to be laughed at. Hard." A strong cult following
subsequently developed.
In 1991, Mirkin wrote a pilot with Julie Brown
entitled The Julie Show, starring Brown, but NBC
did not produce it. Several people at the network enjoyed it and commissioned The Edge
, a sketch comedy
show also written by Mirkin and Brown. NBC felt the show was "too intense" for their network, but Fox ran it from 1992 to 1993. As well as Brown, The Edge featured Tom Kenny
, Jennifer Aniston
and Wayne Knight
. Mirkin designed it to be "fast-paced" and "some skits overlap, end abruptly or are broken into segments," in order to maintain attention. The show's material often inflamed its targets, particularly producer Aaron Spelling
. Spelling objected to a sketch mocking his series Beverly Hills, 90210
, another Fox show, and its lead actress Tori Spelling
, who is his daughter. He demanded a public apology and that no further episodes contain the parody, threatening to sue. The show's production company TriStar Television
refused, while Mirkin responded: "The thing about these parodies is they don't hurt a show. It's only cross-promotion. The viewers who like the show always come back the next week. What's upsetting to me is it shows absolutely that Mr. Spelling has no sense of humor." Mirkin left his role as executive producer of The Edge during its run. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
, Mirkin had been "forced off the show," due to the negative reaction of Spelling and others.
during its fifth
and sixth
seasons (1993–1995). Following the end of the show's fourth season
, most of the original staff members left the show; only Bill Oakley
, Josh Weinstein
, Conan O'Brien
and Dan McGrath
remained, and O'Brien soon left to replace David Letterman
as host of Late Night
. Executive producers James L. Brooks
and Richard Sakai
hired Mirkin following his exit from The Edge. He had been asked to join the show's writing team when it started in 1989, but decided instead to work on Get a Life. He very much enjoyed The Simpsons before being hired for the show, and started work in . Due to the show's long production cycle, season five did not air until the following September. Mirkin was the program's first solo showrunner and also directed the voice actors. Due to the high staff departure at the end of season four, Mirkin "pretty much had to build [the] show from the ground up again," and noted that this "was exciting but also a big challenge." He hired several new writers, including Richard Appel
, David X. Cohen
, Ken Keeler
and Bob Kushell
.
His sole writing credit is for the episode "Deep Space Homer
", in which the characters Homer
and Barney
are recruited by NASA
. Mirkin had worked on the idea for the episode for a long time, and based the story on NASA's Teacher in Space Project
scheme to send ordinary civilians into space in order to spark interest amongst the general public. There was some controversy amongst the show's writing staff during production. Some of the writers felt that having Homer go into space was too "large" an idea. Series creator Matt Groening
felt that the idea was so big that it gave the writers "nowhere to go." Based on these attitudes, several jokes were toned down to make the episode feel more realistic, including the impression that everyone at NASA was as stupid as Homer. During re-writes, the writers placed greater emphasis on the relationship between Homer and his family and on Homer's attempts to be a hero. The episode is considered one of the show's best. Colin Kennedy of Empire magazine named it a "contender for greatest ever episode", and in Chris Turner's
book, Planet Simpson, he says the episode is "second to none". Regarding the long sequence that begins with Homer eating potato chips in the space shuttle and ends with Kent Brockman
's dramatic speech, Turner claimed that it was "simply among the finest comedic moments in the history of television".
Mirkin produced the two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", which aired as the finale of season six and the premiere of season seven
. The writers decided to write the episode in two parts with a mystery that could be used as a contest. It was important for them to design a mystery that had clues, took advantage of freeze frame
technology, and was structured around one character who seemed the obvious culprit. Mirkin suggested Maggie Simpson
as the culprit because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member. He also pitched the plots for the episodes "The Last Temptation of Homer
", "Bart's Girlfriend
" and "Homer the Great
".
In The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
(2009), John Ortved—using interviews with Kushell, Brent Forrester
and Mirkin's assistant Charleen Easton—describes Mirkin as an "outsider" on the show because, unlike the bulk of the writing staff, Mirkin was not a Harvard University
graduate. The writing staff were, at least initially, divided with respect to Mirkin's leadership (which Forrester described as "a little bit dictatorial") and style of humor. This division caused the show to move away from more "realistic" emotional and character-based stories to "pure comedy" and "surreal" humor, epitomized by episodes like "Deep Space Homer". A. O. Scott
notes that "several veterans recall the 'crazy David Mirkin years' as a time of wild inventiveness." Mirkin conducted the show's writing sessions in one room, rather than splitting the writers into two groups, as other showrunners had done, and often worked late into the night. Some praised Mirkin's leadership and comedic style, including Appel, who felt that "the shows were great under him." Others criticised him. Kushell challenged Mirkin over the episode "A Star is Burns
", a crossover with The Critic
. Most of the writers opposed producing it, but it was supported by Brooks, with whom Mirkin agreed. Kushell's opposition went unheeded, and Mirkin insulted him in front of the other writers; Kushell's contract was not renewed. In a 2004 interview with Animation Magazine
, Mirkin stated that he "really wasn't at all intimidat[ed] to join [the show's writing] crew," because he "had worked with and written with" many of his fellow writers previously. Mirkin said, "[I took] this show in a direction that is more personal to me. I did that, had a great time doing that, and everyone was very receptive to that." He felt that he "brought [the show] back to a more story-oriented" approach and increased the focus on characters and their emotions, while "at the same time still keeping it surreal and weird". During his tenure, Mirkin moved the show's focus toward Homer, and also developed some of the secondary characters, including Apu
. He also strongly opposed censorship and network interference, telling post-production supervisor Colin A.B.V. Lewis to ignore the list of changes sent by the Fox censors. He aimed to put "as much blood and guts" as possible into the episode "Treehouse of Horror V
" as an attack on the censors. Mirkin's era and style of humor are popular amongst the show's fans.
After season six, Mirkin suggested Oakley and Weinstein take over as showrunners, but remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping them with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing, and attending table readings of the scripts. He was the executive producer for three other episodes from season seven: "Lisa the Vegetarian
", "Radioactive Man
" and "Team Homer
". "Lisa the Vegetarian" was approved by Mirkin after the story was pitched by Cohen; Mirkin had just become a vegetarian himself, and so many of Lisa
's experiences in the episode were based on his own. Mirkin flew to London to record the episode's guest stars Paul
and Linda McCartney
at Paul's recording studio, where the McCartneys spent an hour recording their parts. Mirkin later said that recording with the McCartneys was one of the most "amazing" experiences of his life and considers the episode to be one of his favorites. Mirkin returned to the role of showrunner to produce the episodes "The Joy of Sect
" and "All Singing, All Dancing
" for season nine
. He pitched the plot for "The Joy of Sect", because he was attracted to the notion of parodies of cults, calling them "comical, interesting and twisted." Mirkin still works part-time on the show, helping with the re-write process; he also co-wrote The Simpsons Movie
in 2007. Mirkin won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award
for his work on The Simpsons.
in 1997. The film stars Mira Sorvino
and Lisa Kudrow
as two friends determined to show their former high school tormentors at their 10-year reunion that they have led successful lives. Mirkin said of the film: "These are women characters we haven't seen before. There are so few female buddy movies, written funny for women. Women don't get to do odd, strange, self-involved roles like these." He knew Kudrow previously and felt she was "perfect" for the role, but did not expect Sorvino would take the part given her recent Academy Award win for Mighty Aphrodite
, but it "turn[ed] out that she'd had a horrible time in high school, so the story appealed to her." The film received critical praise, as did Mirkin's direction. James Berardinelli
wrote that Mirkin "brings a lot of energy to the production, always keeping things moving," while Jack Matthews of The Los Angeles Times says Mirkin "knew exactly what he had here and composed it like frames in a comic strip, ordering cheerful snow-cone colors for everything from the girls' childlike outfits to the decor of a Laundromat."
In 1999, several of the Fox executives who had disliked Get a Life came to Mirkin and apologized for the way they had treated the show, stating that they now found it funny. They commissioned Mirkin to write, produce and direct a similarly-themed show of his choice. Mirkin produced a pilot for Jeff of the Universe, a "sarcastic" parody of the science fiction genre. The executives who had disproved of Get a Life had since moved from the Fox Network to Fox Studios
, and they liked this new show. However, the new executives at Fox did not, and chose not to air the show. Mirkin often plays clips from the show at the talks he does at colleges; they receive a positive response.
In 2001 he directed Heartbreakers. Mirkin rejected the project three times because he disliked the script. While he liked the idea of a mother and daughter con-woman team, he found the writing "really broad," and "it had no emotion in it." Eventually, Mirkin was allowed to rewrite the script himself, which he did in a year's time. He filmed the project in Florida and Los Angeles and had a cameo appearance
in the film as Jack's lawyer. Reactions to both the film and Mirkin's direction of it were more varied compared to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Roger Ebert
said the film was not "as sly and has no ambition to be [as] charming" as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, "but in a season of dreary failed comedies it does what a comedy must: It makes us laugh." Chris Hewitt of Empire
wrote that "Mirkin's direction is a little flat, but he's clearly having tremendous fun," but Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today
opined that Mirkin "never gets the timing right and allows the story to drag with little internal logic."
In 2004, Mirkin was attached to direct Sports Widow, a comedy starring Reese Witherspoon
as a disregarded housewife who seeks to become an expert in American football
in order to regain her husband's attention; the project has never been completed. Mirkin enjoys the music of James Taylor
and directed the music videos for his songs "Enough to Be on Your Way" and "Sea Cruise".
, he will write, direct and co-produce a biopic of businessman Richard Branson
, based on his memoir Losing My Virginity
.
, with whom he had worked on The Julie Show and The Edge; the two considered getting married.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
and television director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
. Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and intended to become an electrical engineer
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
, but abandoned this career path in favor of studying film at Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
. After graduating, he became a stand-up comedian, and then moved into television writing. He wrote for the sitcoms Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
and Newhart
Newhart
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
, and worked on It's Garry Shandling's Show
It's Garry Shandling's Show
It's Garry Shandling's Show is an American sitcom which was initially broadcast on Showtime from 1986 to 1990. It was created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. The show is notable for its frequent use of breaking the fourth wall to allow characters to speak directly to the audience...
and The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...
. After an unsuccessful attempt to remake the British series The Young Ones
The Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
, Mirkin created Get a Life
Get a Life (TV series)
Get a Life is a television sitcom that was broadcast in the United States on the Fox Network from September 23, 1990, to March 8, 1992. The show starred Chris Elliott as a 30-year-old paperboy named Chris Peterson. Peterson lived in an apartment above his parents' garage...
in 1990. The series starred comedian Chris Elliott
Chris Elliott
Christopher Nash "Chris" Elliott is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his comedic sketches on Late Night with David Letterman, starring in the cult comedy series Get a Life and for his recurring role as Peter MacDougall on Everybody Loves Raymond...
and ran for two seasons, despite a lack of support of many Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
executives, who disliked the show's dark and surreal humor. He moved on to create the sketch show The Edge
The Edge (FOX TV series)
The Edge is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Mirkin which ran on the Fox Network from 1992 to 1993.-Synopsis:...
starring his then-partner, actress Julie Brown
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
.
Mirkin left The Edge during its run and became the executive producer and showrunner of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
for its fifth
The Simpsons (season 5)
The Simpsons fifth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993 and May 19, 1994. The show runner for the fifth production season was David Mirkin who executive produced 20 episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced the remaining two, which were both hold overs...
and sixth
The Simpsons (season 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
seasons. Mirkin is seen by many as introducing a more surreal element to the show's humor, as shown by his sole writing credit for the show, "Deep Space Homer
Deep Space Homer
"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season and first aired on February 24, 1994. The episode was directed by Carlos Baeza and was the only episode of The Simpsons written by David Mirkin, who was also the executive producer at the time...
", which sees Homer Simpson
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
go to space as part of a NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
program to restore interest in space exploration. Mirkin does not personally think that he made the show more satirical, feeling that he returned it to a focus on character, emotion and story. He won four Primetime Emmy Award
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
s and a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for his work on The Simpsons. Mirkin stood down as showrunner after season six, but produced several subsequent episodes, co-wrote The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
(2007) and remains on the show as a writer/producer. Mirkin has also moved into feature film direction: he directed the films Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 comedy film starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming directed by David Mirkin. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have achieved very little success in life and decide to invent...
(1997) and Heartbreakers (2001).
Early life
Mirkin was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Northeast High SchoolNortheast High School (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Northeast High School is a high school located at 1601 Cottman Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States....
in 1975. His father was a computer engineer. Throughout his childhood, Mirkin had an interest in film, and explored both writing and filming. Mirkin has described himself as a "nerd" and was often in trouble as a child because he was "in another world". At high school, he felt the teaching was "too slow" and was allowed by his teachers to "skip class two to three days a week." Mirkin intended to pursue a career in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
. He took an internship at Philadelphia's Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
, but chose to abandon this career path because he realized that he "hated" it. He decided to "[take] an enormous chance on show business" and moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. He attended film school at Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University is a comprehensive co-educational private Roman Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions located in Los Angeles, California, United States...
, and graduated in 1978.
Mirkin lists Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
and James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
as his writing inspirations and Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
and the work of the comedy group Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
as developing his "dark sense of humor." He considers Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
's film The Graduate
The Graduate
The Graduate is a 1967 American comedy-drama motion picture directed by Mike Nichols. It is based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay was by Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as a hotel clerk, and Calder...
to be what inspired him to enter directing.
Early career
Mirkin started out as a stand-up comedian in 1982 and performed across the United States, including at The Comedy StoreThe Comedy Store
The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It has a sister comedy club in La Jolla, San Diego, California.-History:...
, where he became a regular, and at The Improv
The Improv
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. Originally, it was a single venue founded in 1963 by Budd Friedman and located in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City on West 44th near the SE corner of 9th Ave. A second location was opened in 1974 at 8162 Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District...
. The first joke he used in his routine was, "Is it just me or has everybody been coughing up blood lately?" Mirkin considers the joke to be "an insight into the way [he writes]." Stand-up comedy was the most profitable and easily accessible route Mirkin found into the comedy industry, but "it wasn't a lifestyle that [he] particularly coveted," especially due to the traveling required.
He got his first job writing for television on the sitcom Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
. Mirkin had been pitching ideas to the show for several years before his eventual success; the producers bought one of his scripts and he was hired as a staff writer. Mirkin noted that Three's Company "had a classic French farce structure," and he observed, "the characters were so stupid they could never say anything clever, which forced you to put all the cleverness into the plot, a much more difficult thing to do. The plot had to get all the laughs. That taught me a lot about structure and has served me well throughout the rest of my career." Next, Mirkin worked on Newhart
Newhart
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
from 1984 to 1988, serving as a writer, director and later executive producer and showrunner. In 1987, he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Newhart. He also wrote for It's Garry Shandling's Show
It's Garry Shandling's Show
It's Garry Shandling's Show is an American sitcom which was initially broadcast on Showtime from 1986 to 1990. It was created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. The show is notable for its frequent use of breaking the fourth wall to allow characters to speak directly to the audience...
and The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts...
, and worked as writer and consultant on The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...
during its first season, and later returned to direct the 1998 final season episode "The Beginning of the End".
Get a Life and The Edge
Mirkin produced a pilot for an American adaptation of the British sitcom The Young OnesThe Young Ones (TV series)
The Young Ones is a British sitcom, first broadcast in 1982, which ran for two series on BBC2. Its anarchic, offbeat humour helped bring alternative comedy to television in the 1980s and made household names of its writers and performers...
, entitled Oh No, Not Them!, featuring Nigel Planer
Nigel Planer
Nigel George Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright.Planer is perhaps best known for his role as Neil Pye in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked and Hairspray...
from the original series, as well as Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley
Jackie Earle Haley is an American film actor. Establishing himself from child actor to adult Academy Award-nominee, he is perhaps best known for his roles as Moocher in Breaking Away, Kelly Leak in The Bad News Bears, pedophile Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children, the vigilante Rorschach in...
and Robert Bundy. Mirkin had wanted to cast comedian Chris Elliott
Chris Elliott
Christopher Nash "Chris" Elliott is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his comedic sketches on Late Night with David Letterman, starring in the cult comedy series Get a Life and for his recurring role as Peter MacDougall on Everybody Loves Raymond...
in the pilot, but was prevented by Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, which wanted Elliott for another show. Oh No, Not Them!, in Mirkin's words, "tested through the floor" because it was too "surreal" and "sarcastic" and was not picked up. Mirkin and Elliott decided to develop a show together; along with Adam Resnick
Adam Resnick
Adam Resnick is an American comedy writer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is best known for his work writing for Late Night with David Letterman....
, and in 1990, they created the sitcom Get a Life
Get a Life (TV series)
Get a Life is a television sitcom that was broadcast in the United States on the Fox Network from September 23, 1990, to March 8, 1992. The show starred Chris Elliott as a 30-year-old paperboy named Chris Peterson. Peterson lived in an apartment above his parents' garage...
, which was conceived as a dark, surreal, grown-up, psychotic version of Dennis the Menace
Dennis the Menace (U.S.)
Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate...
. The show stars Elliott as Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old newspaper delivery boy who still lives with his parents, and who is increasingly losing his grip on reality. Fox was lukewarm about the idea, but Mirkin convinced them to order a pilot by understating how dark the show would be. The network executives "hated" the pilot after seeing an initial run-through, but Mirkin felt that this was because they "didn't get" the show and opted not to change it. The executives enjoyed the finished pilot and it was aired. However, throughout the show's run, the network's initially negative attitude prevailed; many of the executives struggled to understand it and objected to the darkness and surrealism of the show's humor, which included the frequent death of Elliott's character, and regularly threatened to shut down production and fire Mirkin. After its first season, on the insistence of the network, Chris moves out of his parents' garage, attempts to get additional jobs to his paper route, and attempts to get a girlfriend. However, Mirkin and Elliott refused to "[compromise on] the essential goofiness of the show," while "there wasn't any pressure to make the show less wacky."
Mirkin served as executive producer for the series, directed most of the episodes, wrote several of them, and oversaw the filming and production of them all, to ensure that they had the correct "tone". The show's production process was lengthy; Mirkin would rise at to film the show, write further episodes from until , and then repeat that the following day. Unlike most single-camera
Single-camera setup
The single-camera setup, or single-camera mode of production, is a method of filmmaking and video production. A single camera—either motion picture camera or professional video camera—is employed on the set and each shot to make up a scene is taken individually...
shows, which have around six days to film, Mirkin had to film each episode in two days. He enjoyed doing it, but described it as "not a healthy way to live". Due to the logistics of filming the show, especially its many sets and effects, Mirkin convinced Fox to not film it in front of a studio audience and use a laugh track
Laugh track
A laugh track is a separate soundtrack invented by Charles "Charley" Douglass, with the artificial sound of audience laughter, made to be inserted into television programming of comedy shows and sitcoms.The term "laugh track" does not apply to the genuine audience laughter on shows that shoot in...
instead. The show achieved steady ratings in its first season, finishing 92nd out of the listed in the Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. However, for its second season, it was moved from on Sunday to on Saturday and lost the bulk of its audience; it was canceled after that second season finished in 1992. In a 1999 piece about the show's DVD release, Tom Shales
Tom Shales
Thomas William "Tom" Shales is an American critic of television programming and operations. He is best known as TV critic for The Washington Post; in 1988, Shales received the Pulitzer Prize...
praised the show, concluding, "At its best, Get a Life achieved dizzying heights of surrealist farce. At its worst, it was at least amusingly idiotic existential slapstick. Get a Life is a television classic unlike any other. For one thing, most of the others are better. We're not talking Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
here, after all. But we are talking riotous nonsense, and that's not to be sneezed at. It's to be laughed at. Hard." A strong cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
subsequently developed.
In 1991, Mirkin wrote a pilot with Julie Brown
Julie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
entitled The Julie Show, starring Brown, but NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
did not produce it. Several people at the network enjoyed it and commissioned The Edge
The Edge (FOX TV series)
The Edge is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Mirkin which ran on the Fox Network from 1992 to 1993.-Synopsis:...
, a sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show also written by Mirkin and Brown. NBC felt the show was "too intense" for their network, but Fox ran it from 1992 to 1993. As well as Brown, The Edge featured Tom Kenny
Tom Kenny
Thomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...
, Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
and Wayne Knight
Wayne Knight
Wayne Eliot Knight is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor perhaps best known for his role as Newman in the TV sitcom Seinfeld...
. Mirkin designed it to be "fast-paced" and "some skits overlap, end abruptly or are broken into segments," in order to maintain attention. The show's material often inflamed its targets, particularly producer Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling was an American film and television producer. As of 2009, Spelling's eponymous production company Spelling Television holds the record as the most prolific television writer, with 218 producer and executive producer credits...
. Spelling objected to a sketch mocking his series Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 is an American drama series that originally aired from October 4, 1990 to May 17, 2000 on Fox and was produced by Spelling Television in the United States, and subsequently on various networks around the world. It is the first series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise...
, another Fox show, and its lead actress Tori Spelling
Tori Spelling
Victoria Davey "Tori" Spelling is an American actress. Spelling became known in the early 1990s for her role as Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210. Spelling then had roles in a string of made-for-television films, such as A Friend to Die For and Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?...
, who is his daughter. He demanded a public apology and that no further episodes contain the parody, threatening to sue. The show's production company TriStar Television
TriStar Television
TriStar Television was an American television production company that was launched in 1986 by TriStar Pictures . The same year, Tri-Star Television joined forces with Stephen J...
refused, while Mirkin responded: "The thing about these parodies is they don't hurt a show. It's only cross-promotion. The viewers who like the show always come back the next week. What's upsetting to me is it shows absolutely that Mr. Spelling has no sense of humor." Mirkin left his role as executive producer of The Edge during its run. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
, Mirkin had been "forced off the show," due to the negative reaction of Spelling and others.
The Simpsons
Mirkin was the executive producer and showrunner for the animated series, The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
during its fifth
The Simpsons (season 5)
The Simpsons fifth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993 and May 19, 1994. The show runner for the fifth production season was David Mirkin who executive produced 20 episodes. Al Jean and Mike Reiss executive produced the remaining two, which were both hold overs...
and sixth
The Simpsons (season 6)
The Simpsons sixth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 4, 1994 and May 21, 1995 and consists of 25 episodes. The Simpsons is an animated series about a working class family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie...
seasons (1993–1995). Following the end of the show's fourth season
The Simpsons (season 4)
The Simpsons fourth season originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992 and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty." The show runners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season...
, most of the original staff members left the show; only Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley
Bill Oakley is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Oakley and Josh Weinstein became best friends and writing partners at high school; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon...
, Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the...
, Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien
Conan Christopher O'Brien is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer and performer. Since November 2010 he has hosted Conan, a late-night talk show that airs on the American cable television station TBS....
and Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath
Dan McGrath is an American television writer. He has written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Mission Hill, The PJs and King of the Hill.- The Simpsons episodes :He wrote the following episodes:...
remained, and O'Brien soon left to replace David Letterman
David Letterman
David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
as host of Late Night
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
. Executive producers James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
and Richard Sakai
Richard Sakai
Richard Sakai is an American producer best known for partnering with James L. Brooks and for his work on The Simpsons....
hired Mirkin following his exit from The Edge. He had been asked to join the show's writing team when it started in 1989, but decided instead to work on Get a Life. He very much enjoyed The Simpsons before being hired for the show, and started work in . Due to the show's long production cycle, season five did not air until the following September. Mirkin was the program's first solo showrunner and also directed the voice actors. Due to the high staff departure at the end of season four, Mirkin "pretty much had to build [the] show from the ground up again," and noted that this "was exciting but also a big challenge." He hired several new writers, including Richard Appel
Richard Appel
Richard "Rich" Appel is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Growing up in Wilmette, Illinois, Appel developed a love of comedy and dreamt of a career as a comedy writer; he attended Harvard University and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. Following in his mother's footsteps Appel...
, David X. Cohen
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
, Ken Keeler
Ken Keeler
Kenneth "Ken" Keeler is an American television producer and writer. He has written for numerous television series, most notably The Simpsons and Futurama. According to an interview with David X. Cohen, he proved a theorem which appears in the Futurama episode "The Prisoner of Benda".-Career:After...
and Bob Kushell
Bob Kushell
Bob Kushell is a writer and producer for The Simpsons. As of December 2008, Kushell began hosting his own talk show, Anytime with Bob Kushell, on Crackle.-Writing credits:Samantha WhoThe VirginThe Break UpThe AffairThe Park...
.
His sole writing credit is for the episode "Deep Space Homer
Deep Space Homer
"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season and first aired on February 24, 1994. The episode was directed by Carlos Baeza and was the only episode of The Simpsons written by David Mirkin, who was also the executive producer at the time...
", in which the characters Homer
Homer Simpson
Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Barney
Barney Gumble
Barnard "Barney" Gumble is a fictional character on the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. The character is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared in the series premiere episode "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire". He is the town drunk and Homer Simpson's best friend. His capacity for...
are recruited by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
. Mirkin had worked on the idea for the episode for a long time, and based the story on NASA's Teacher in Space Project
Teacher in Space Project
The Teacher in Space Project was a NASA program announced by Ronald Reagan in 1984 designed to inspire students, honor teachers, and spur interest in mathematics, science, and space exploration....
scheme to send ordinary civilians into space in order to spark interest amongst the general public. There was some controversy amongst the show's writing staff during production. Some of the writers felt that having Homer go into space was too "large" an idea. Series creator Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
felt that the idea was so big that it gave the writers "nowhere to go." Based on these attitudes, several jokes were toned down to make the episode feel more realistic, including the impression that everyone at NASA was as stupid as Homer. During re-writes, the writers placed greater emphasis on the relationship between Homer and his family and on Homer's attempts to be a hero. The episode is considered one of the show's best. Colin Kennedy of Empire magazine named it a "contender for greatest ever episode", and in Chris Turner's
Chris Turner (author)
Chris Turner is a Canadian author. He is the author of Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation, published in 2004...
book, Planet Simpson, he says the episode is "second to none". Regarding the long sequence that begins with Homer eating potato chips in the space shuttle and ends with Kent Brockman
Kent Brockman
Kent Brockman is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer and first appeared in the episode "Krusty Gets Busted"...
's dramatic speech, Turner claimed that it was "simply among the finest comedic moments in the history of television".
Mirkin produced the two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", which aired as the finale of season six and the premiere of season seven
The Simpsons (season 7)
The Simpsons seventh season originally aired on the Fox network between September 17, 1995 and May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced the remaining...
. The writers decided to write the episode in two parts with a mystery that could be used as a contest. It was important for them to design a mystery that had clues, took advantage of freeze frame
Freeze frame shot
A freeze frame shot is used when one shot is printed in a single frame several times, in order to make an interesting illusion of a still photograph....
technology, and was structured around one character who seemed the obvious culprit. Mirkin suggested Maggie Simpson
Maggie Simpson
Margaret "Maggie" Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She first appeared on television in the Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Maggie was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening while he was waiting in the lobby of James...
as the culprit because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member. He also pitched the plots for the episodes "The Last Temptation of Homer
The Last Temptation of Homer
"The Last Temptation of Homer" is the ninth episode of The Simpsons fifth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on December 9, 1993. In the episode, a female employee named Mindy is hired at the nuclear power plant...
", "Bart's Girlfriend
Bart's Girlfriend
"Bart's Girlfriend" is the seventh television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 6, 1994. The plot of the episode follows the secret romance of Bart and Jessica Lovejoy, Reverend Lovejoy's daughter...
" and "Homer the Great
Homer the Great
"Homer the Great" is the twelfth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 8, 1995. In the episode, Homer discovers that Lenny and Carl are members of the ancient secret society known as the Stonecutters...
".
In The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History
The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History is a book about the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was written by John Ortved, and first published in October 2009 by Faber and Faber...
(2009), John Ortved—using interviews with Kushell, Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester
Brent Forrester is an American writer, who wrote several episodes of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons between 1993 and 1997. He has also worked as an executive producer on King of the Hill, and a writer on The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David, Undeclared, and The Office...
and Mirkin's assistant Charleen Easton—describes Mirkin as an "outsider" on the show because, unlike the bulk of the writing staff, Mirkin was not a Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
graduate. The writing staff were, at least initially, divided with respect to Mirkin's leadership (which Forrester described as "a little bit dictatorial") and style of humor. This division caused the show to move away from more "realistic" emotional and character-based stories to "pure comedy" and "surreal" humor, epitomized by episodes like "Deep Space Homer". A. O. Scott
A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott, known as A. O. Scott , is an American journalist and critic. He is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with Manohla Dargis.-Background and education:...
notes that "several veterans recall the 'crazy David Mirkin years' as a time of wild inventiveness." Mirkin conducted the show's writing sessions in one room, rather than splitting the writers into two groups, as other showrunners had done, and often worked late into the night. Some praised Mirkin's leadership and comedic style, including Appel, who felt that "the shows were great under him." Others criticised him. Kushell challenged Mirkin over the episode "A Star is Burns
A Star is Burns
"A Star Is Burns" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 5, 1995. In the episode, Springfield decides to hold a film festival, and famed critic Jay Sherman is invited to be a judge...
", a crossover with The Critic
The Critic
The Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
. Most of the writers opposed producing it, but it was supported by Brooks, with whom Mirkin agreed. Kushell's opposition went unheeded, and Mirkin insulted him in front of the other writers; Kushell's contract was not renewed. In a 2004 interview with Animation Magazine
Animation Magazine
Animation Magazine is a monthly publication covering the animation industry, including different reviews about film and television animation, visual effects and video games....
, Mirkin stated that he "really wasn't at all intimidat[ed] to join [the show's writing] crew," because he "had worked with and written with" many of his fellow writers previously. Mirkin said, "[I took] this show in a direction that is more personal to me. I did that, had a great time doing that, and everyone was very receptive to that." He felt that he "brought [the show] back to a more story-oriented" approach and increased the focus on characters and their emotions, while "at the same time still keeping it surreal and weird". During his tenure, Mirkin moved the show's focus toward Homer, and also developed some of the secondary characters, including Apu
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is a character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Hank Azaria and first appeared in the episode "The Telltale Head". Apu is the proprietor of the Kwik-E-Mart, a popular convenience store in Springfield, and a friend of Homer Simpson. He is also...
. He also strongly opposed censorship and network interference, telling post-production supervisor Colin A.B.V. Lewis to ignore the list of changes sent by the Fox censors. He aimed to put "as much blood and guts" as possible into the episode "Treehouse of Horror V
Treehouse of Horror V
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons sixth season and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It premiered on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories called The Shinning, Time and Punishment, and Nightmare Cafeteria...
" as an attack on the censors. Mirkin's era and style of humor are popular amongst the show's fans.
After season six, Mirkin suggested Oakley and Weinstein take over as showrunners, but remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping them with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing, and attending table readings of the scripts. He was the executive producer for three other episodes from season seven: "Lisa the Vegetarian
Lisa the Vegetarian
"Lisa the Vegetarian" is the fifth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 15, 1995. In the episode, Lisa decides to stop eating meat after bonding with a lamb at a petting zoo...
", "Radioactive Man
Radioactive Man (The Simpsons episode)
"Radioactive Man" is the second episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 24, 1995. The episode sees the film version of the comic book series Radioactive Man set up production in Springfield. Much to Bart's disappointment, the...
" and "Team Homer
Team Homer
"Team Homer" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 7, 1996. In the episode, Homer starts a bowling team with Moe, Apu, and Otto. When Mr. Burns discovers the team was funded with his money, he insists on joining...
". "Lisa the Vegetarian" was approved by Mirkin after the story was pitched by Cohen; Mirkin had just become a vegetarian himself, and so many of Lisa
Lisa Simpson
Lisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
's experiences in the episode were based on his own. Mirkin flew to London to record the episode's guest stars Paul
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
and Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....
at Paul's recording studio, where the McCartneys spent an hour recording their parts. Mirkin later said that recording with the McCartneys was one of the most "amazing" experiences of his life and considers the episode to be one of his favorites. Mirkin returned to the role of showrunner to produce the episodes "The Joy of Sect
The Joy of Sect
"The Joy of Sect" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons ninth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 8, 1998. In the episode, a cult called the "Movementarians" takes over Springfield, and Homer and the rest of the Simpson family become members...
" and "All Singing, All Dancing
All Singing, All Dancing
"All Singing, All Dancing" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons ninth season and originally aired on the Fox network on January 4, 1998. In it, the fourth clip show aired by The Simpsons, Homer claims he hates singing, so Marge shows family videos of musical numbers from the previous seasons...
" for season nine
The Simpsons (season 9)
The Simpsons ninth season originally aired between September 1997 and May 1998, beginning on Sunday, September 21, 1997 with "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson". The show runner for the ninth production season was Mike Scully...
. He pitched the plot for "The Joy of Sect", because he was attracted to the notion of parodies of cults, calling them "comical, interesting and twisted." Mirkin still works part-time on the show, helping with the re-write process; he also co-wrote The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress...
in 2007. Mirkin won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
for his work on The Simpsons.
Subsequent work
Mirkin directed the feature film Romy and Michele's High School ReunionRomy and Michele's High School Reunion
Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 comedy film starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming directed by David Mirkin. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have achieved very little success in life and decide to invent...
in 1997. The film stars Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
and Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
as two friends determined to show their former high school tormentors at their 10-year reunion that they have led successful lives. Mirkin said of the film: "These are women characters we haven't seen before. There are so few female buddy movies, written funny for women. Women don't get to do odd, strange, self-involved roles like these." He knew Kudrow previously and felt she was "perfect" for the role, but did not expect Sorvino would take the part given her recent Academy Award win for Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite
Mighty Aphrodite is a 1995 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The screenplay was inspired by the mythological tale of Pygmalion....
, but it "turn[ed] out that she'd had a horrible time in high school, so the story appealed to her." The film received critical praise, as did Mirkin's direction. James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
wrote that Mirkin "brings a lot of energy to the production, always keeping things moving," while Jack Matthews of The Los Angeles Times says Mirkin "knew exactly what he had here and composed it like frames in a comic strip, ordering cheerful snow-cone colors for everything from the girls' childlike outfits to the decor of a Laundromat."
In 1999, several of the Fox executives who had disliked Get a Life came to Mirkin and apologized for the way they had treated the show, stating that they now found it funny. They commissioned Mirkin to write, produce and direct a similarly-themed show of his choice. Mirkin produced a pilot for Jeff of the Universe, a "sarcastic" parody of the science fiction genre. The executives who had disproved of Get a Life had since moved from the Fox Network to Fox Studios
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, and they liked this new show. However, the new executives at Fox did not, and chose not to air the show. Mirkin often plays clips from the show at the talks he does at colleges; they receive a positive response.
In 2001 he directed Heartbreakers. Mirkin rejected the project three times because he disliked the script. While he liked the idea of a mother and daughter con-woman team, he found the writing "really broad," and "it had no emotion in it." Eventually, Mirkin was allowed to rewrite the script himself, which he did in a year's time. He filmed the project in Florida and Los Angeles and had a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in the film as Jack's lawyer. Reactions to both the film and Mirkin's direction of it were more varied compared to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
said the film was not "as sly and has no ambition to be [as] charming" as Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, "but in a season of dreary failed comedies it does what a comedy must: It makes us laugh." Chris Hewitt of Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
wrote that "Mirkin's direction is a little flat, but he's clearly having tremendous fun," but Susan Wloszczyna of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
opined that Mirkin "never gets the timing right and allows the story to drag with little internal logic."
In 2004, Mirkin was attached to direct Sports Widow, a comedy starring Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
as a disregarded housewife who seeks to become an expert in American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
in order to regain her husband's attention; the project has never been completed. Mirkin enjoys the music of James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
and directed the music videos for his songs "Enough to Be on Your Way" and "Sea Cruise".
, he will write, direct and co-produce a biopic of businessman Richard Branson
Richard Branson
Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....
, based on his memoir Losing My Virginity
Losing My Virginity
Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography is a 1998 autobiography by Richard Branson. A paperback version was released in 2002.The book features Richard Branson's story from rags to riches....
.
Personal life
Mirkin is a vegetarian. In the early 1990s, Mirkin was in a relationship with actress Julie BrownJulie Brown
Julie Ann Brown is an American actress, comedienne, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, television director. Brown is perhaps best known for her work in the 1980s, where she often played a quintessential valley girl character...
, with whom he had worked on The Julie Show and The Edge; the two considered getting married.
Film
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Last Resort Last Resort (1986 film) Last Resort is a 1986 comedy film directed by Zane Buzby and produced by Julie Corman. It revolves around George Lollar , who takes his family on vacation to "Club Sand", a shoddy and untrustworthy company... |
Actor (as Walter Ambrose) |
| 1997 | Romy and Michele's High School Reunion Romy and Michele's High School Reunion Romy and Michele's High School Reunion is a 1997 comedy film starring Lisa Kudrow, Mira Sorvino, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, and Alan Cumming directed by David Mirkin. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have achieved very little success in life and decide to invent... |
Director |
| 2001 | Heartbreakers | Director Actor (as Jack's lawyer) |
| 2007 | The Simpsons Movie The Simpsons Movie The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons. The film was directed by David Silverman, and stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Tress... |
Writer |
| TBA | Losing My Virginity Losing My Virginity Losing My Virginity: The Autobiography is a 1998 autobiography by Richard Branson. A paperback version was released in 2002.The book features Richard Branson's story from rags to riches.... |
Writer, director, producer |
Television
| Year | Series | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983–1984 | Three's Company Three's Company Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House.... |
Writer, story editor | Wrote: "Janet's Little Helper", "Out on a Limb", "Now You See It, Now You Don't", "Look What I Found", "Jack Takes Off", "Forget Me Not" (teleplay) |
| 1984 | Three's a Crowd Three's a Crowd Three's a Crowd is an American television sitcom spinoff of Three's Company... |
Writer | Wrote: "A Little Competition" |
| 1984–1988 | Newhart Newhart Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990... |
Executive producer and showrunner, writer, director, executive script supervisor | Wrote: "Lady in Wading", "You're Nobody 'til Somebody Hires You", "The Geezers in the Band", "The Stratford Horror Picture Show", "Torn Between Three Brothers", "Co-Hostess Twinkie", "Thanksgiving for the Memories", "Night Moves", "Telethon Man", A Friendship That Will Last a Lunchtime", "A Midseason's Night Dream" Directed: "Night Moves", "Telethon Man", "A Midseason's Night Dream" |
| 1986 | It's Garry Shandling's Show It's Garry Shandling's Show It's Garry Shandling's Show is an American sitcom which was initially broadcast on Showtime from 1986 to 1990. It was created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. The show is notable for its frequent use of breaking the fourth wall to allow characters to speak directly to the audience... |
Writer | |
| 1987 | The Tracey Ullman Show The Tracey Ullman Show The Tracey Ullman Show was an American television variety show, hosted by British comedian and onetime pop singer Tracey Ullman. It debuted on April 5, 1987 as the Fox network's second primetime series after Married... with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy shorts... |
Writer | |
| 1990–1992 | Get a Life Get a Life (TV series) Get a Life is a television sitcom that was broadcast in the United States on the Fox Network from September 23, 1990, to March 8, 1992. The show starred Chris Elliott as a 30-year-old paperboy named Chris Peterson. Peterson lived in an apartment above his parents' garage... |
Creator, executive producer, writer, director, actor | Wrote: "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000", "Drivers License", "Married", "Psychic 2000", "Chris Moves Out", "Girlfriend 2000", "Clip Show" Directed: "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000", "The Prettiest Week of My Life", "Drivers License", "Bored Straight", "The Counterfeit Watch Story", "Married", "The Construction Worker Show", "Neptune 2000", "Chris and Larry Switch Lives", "Psychic 2000", "Chris Moves Out", "Larry on the Loose", "Meat Locker 2000", "Chris Gets His Tonsils Out", "Prisoner of Love", "Girlfriend 2000", "Bad Fish", "Spewey and Me", "1977 2000", "Clip Show" Actor: "Larry on the Loose" (as Businessman) |
| 1991 | The Julie Show | Creator, executive producer | |
| 1992–1993 | The Edge | Creator, executive producer, writer, director | |
| 1992, 1998 | The Larry Sanders Show The Larry Sanders Show The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the... |
Writer, consultant, director | Directed: "The Beginning of the End" |
| 1993–present | The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie... |
Executive producer and showrunner (1993–1995, 1996, 1998) producer, consulting producer and writer |
Wrote: "Deep Space Homer Deep Space Homer "Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons fifth season and first aired on February 24, 1994. The episode was directed by Carlos Baeza and was the only episode of The Simpsons written by David Mirkin, who was also the executive producer at the time... " Directed: "Treehouse of Horror VI Treehouse of Horror VI "Treehouse of Horror VI" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons seventh season and the sixth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 29, 1995, and contains three self-contained segments... " (live-action segment) |
| 1999 | Jeff of the Universe | Creator, producer, director, writer |