Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When was David Mirkin born?
David Mirkin (born September 18, 1955) 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, It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show and served as showrunner on the series Newhart. 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 from 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 was born and raised in Philadelphia and graduated from Northeast High School in 1973.[1] His father was a computer engineer until his death in 1960.[2][3] Mirkin's older brother Gary worked as a television engineer for the Philadelphia NBC affiliate, KYW-TV, now a CBS owned-and-operated station.[3] Throughout his childhood, Mirkin had an interest in film, and explored both writing and filming.[2] 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".[4]
In 1991, Mirkin wrote a pilot with Julie Brown entitled The Julie Show, starring Brown, but NBC did not produce it.[18] Several people at the network enjoyed it and commissioned The Edge, a sketch comedy show also written by Mirkin and Brown, with Mirkin directing. NBC opted against production, but Fox ran it from 1992 to 1993.[18] Mirkin had long wished to produce a sketch show,[10] and designed The Edge to be "fast-paced" and "some skits overlap, end abruptly or are broken into segments", in order to maintain attention.[19] The Edge was a ratings success and was supported by the network. Mirkin considered it "the first time I experienced the feeling of having a hit that I created. It just kept building and growing."[10] The show's material often inflamed its targets,[18] 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.[18][20] 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."[20] Mirkin left his role as executive producer of The Edge during its run.[18][21] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Mirkin had been "forced off the show", due to the negative reaction of Spelling and others,[18] though in 2012, Mirkin stated that he left the series after refusing to accept a substantially reduced budget. The show's producers Sony failed to persuade him to stay but he returned to the series to produce its final "Best Of" compilation.[10]
In the final scene of the episode, Homer is sent to the real world in the first ever live-action scene in "The Simpsons". It was filmed on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City and directed by David Mirkin, who later said that Fox "couldn't have been less supportive" because they thought it would be too expensive. The scene involves a crane shot which pulls back as the credits are shown. Fox "begrudgingly" allowed Mirkin to use a crane for the ending. The scene was filmed on a sidewalk with the crane on the street and Mirkin was not able to fully stop traffic for the shot. Because of this, when the camera swings around, a line of cars can be seen backed up on the street. Mirkin was also disappointed in the quality of the camera pan, again blaming the lack of support from Fox and the inability to halt the traffic.
Although "Homer the Great" was written by John Swartzwelder, the story was suggested by executive producer David Mirkin. Mirkin did not have enough time to write the episode and asked Swartzwelder to do it. Mirkin came up with the idea while driving home from a rewrite early in the morning and listened to a religious radio station where they were talking about Freemasonry. Mirkin decided it would make a great episode, where many people in Springfield were members of a Masonic society and Homer was left on the outside and felt neglected.
In the DVD commentary for the series by David Mirkin, he discusses the development of the Chris Peterson character and the series in great detail.
Mirkin states that the Chris Peterson character was originally somewhat based on Dennis the Menace, i.e. "What would Dennis The Menace have been like when he was 30 years old?" In the pilot, "Terror on the Hell Loop 2000", Chris Peterson was a fully functioning, wisecracking adult who is beating the system. However, as the series went on, he became a darker, more psychotic, character. According to Mirkin, the main character was made more likeable in the pilot to get the network to agree to order the series, and once the series was ordered, the producers took the character in the darker direction that was always intended.
Mirkin was attached to direct Sports Widow in 2004, 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.[55][66][67] Mirkin is a fan of the musician James Taylor; Taylor guest starred in "Deep Space Homer" and Mirkin directed the music videos for his songs "Enough to Be on Your Way" and "Sea Cruise".[6][10][68][69] As of 2012, Mirkin will write, direct and co-produce a biopic of businessman Richard Branson, based on his memoir Losing My Virginity.[3][70]
The episode was written by Jennifer Crittenden. She came into the writers' room and pitched the idea that there should be a teachers' strike in an episode. Then-show runner David Mirkin thought the episode had a lot of potential, and much of it is based on his experience as a child with schools running out of money. Despite the title of the episode, at no point does the PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) actually disband. The title was suggested by Mirkin and was intended to poke fun at Crittenden, who thought the most exciting part of the teachers going on strike would be that the PTA might disband. In addition to this, Mirkin added a character to the episode who, on thinking the PTA has disbanded, jumps panicking out of a window. He jumps back in the same window when he is told the PTA has not disbanded.
The show was a creation of Elliott, Adam Resnick (like Elliott, a writer for "Late Night with David Letterman"), and writer/director David Mirkin (former executive producer/showrunner for "Newhart" and later for "The Simpsons"). Mirkin was executive producer/showrunner of the series and also directed most of the episodes. Notable writers of the series included Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter of "Being John Malkovich"; and Bob Odenkirk, co-creator of "Mr. Show with Bob and David" and "Tenacious D".
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.[24][48] He was the executive producer for three other episodes from season seven: "Lisa the Vegetarian", "Radioactive Man" and "Team Homer".[49][50] "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.[51] Mirkin flew to London to record the episode's guest stars Paul and Linda McCartney at Paul's recording studio,[52] 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.[51] Mirkin returned to the role of showrunner to produce the episodes "The Joy of Sect" and "All Singing, All Dancing" for season nine.[53] 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".[54]
Mirkin pitched the plots for the episodes "The Last Temptation of Homer", "Bart's Girlfriend" and "Homer the Great".[8][43][44][45] He also produced the show's sole 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.[46] Mirkin suggested Maggie Simpson as the culprit because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member.[47]
Still hoping to work on Cheers, Mirkin sent a spec script of an episode of Taxi to Cheers writers Ken Levine and David Isaacs. The two approved and offered Mirkin a freelance job writing one of the final nine episodes of the show's first season, pending their commissioning by NBC. The episodes were commissioned, but Mirkin's agent rejected the Cheers job without telling his client, failing to see why Mirkin would want to work on what was then the lowest-rated comedy on television. Mirkin sacked the agent and signed on with Robb Rothman. Rothman knew Dan Wilcox, the executive producer of Newhart, which like Cheers was more character-focused. Rothman persuaded Wilcox to hire Mirkin. Mirkin wrote a freelance script and in 1984 beat seven other writers to a staff position on the series.[7] He served as a writer and supervising story editor, before being promoted to executive producer and showrunner after one and a half years.[4][6][7][8] Mirkin "felt [Newhart] was where I belonged. I'd finally come to a place in my life where everything I'd ever wanted had come together."[7] In 1987, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Newhart.[9] It was the first nomination the show had received in that category and for the first episode Mirkin wrote as the series' showrunner.[10] Mirkin directed several of the Newhart episodes he wrote because he saw directing as "a means of protecting the writing". A philosophy he carried into his later work, Mirkin felt that "being the head writer... was not enough; you had to see the material through its execution– especially the weirder stuff. You had to be right there to make sure every sick idea didn't lose any disturbing nuance."[3] Mirkin left Newhart in 1988, desiring to work on a single-camera sitcom.[7]
Mirkin's tenure on The Simpsons has been cited as a period where the series evolved to focus more on abstract and surreal stories and humor. A. O. Scott notes that "several veterans recall the 'crazy David Mirkin years' as a time of wild inventiveness."[31] In The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History (2009), John Ortved describes Mirkin's era as moving the show away from more "realistic" emotional and character-based stories to "pure comedy" and "surreal" humor.[32] In a 2004 interview with Animation Magazine, Mirkin stated that he felt that he "brought [the show] back to a more story-oriented" approach and increased the focus on characters and their emotions, although "at the same time still keeping it surreal and weird".[8] Mirkin moved the show's focus toward Homer Simpson, and also developed some of its secondary characters, including Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.[8][25] 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.[33] He aimed to put "as much blood and guts" as possible into the episode "Treehouse of Horror V" as an attack on the censors.[34]
—Mirkin on his decision to leave Nehwart[7]
David Mirkin attempted to put "as much blood and guts" into the episode as he could. This was because Mirkin was disappointed by complaints from Congress regarding the amount of violence in the show and their attempts for it to be censored. He later called it "the most [...] disturbing Halloween show ever". The opening sequence, in which Marge states the episode could not be shown and plays some live action stock footage, was also in reaction to this. Mirkin said he thinks Halloween shows can be "scary as well as fun".
After leaving Newhart, Mirkin wrote freelance scripts for It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Tracey Ullman Show.[3][5][8] Garry Shandling asked Mirkin to co-create The Larry Sanders Show with him. Mirkin did not have time, but worked as writer and consultant on the show's first season, and later returned to direct the 1998 final season episode "The Beginning of the End".[5][6][10][11]
As of 2012 Mirkin still works part-time on the show as a consultant, helping with the re-write process.[55][56] The show's nine-month production cycle allows him to contribute to each episode in some form, whilst engaging in other projects as well.[3] Mirkin also co-wrote The Simpsons Movie in 2007,[57] and the 3D animated short The Longest Daycare in 2012, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.[58] Mirkin won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for his work on The Simpsons.[6]
The episode was written by Frank Mula and directed by Carlos Baeza. The idea was conceived by the then-show runner David Mirkin. When he was hired to work on "The Simpsons", one of his goals was to study the aspect of Homer's character if he was "really tempted away" from Marge. Mirkin wanted to find out what would happen in a situation where Homer finds himself attracted to another woman. "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening had previously written an episode for the show's third season, called "Colonel Homer", where Homer finds himself attracted to a country singer named Lurleen Lumpkin. In that episode, Lurleen immediately had a "crush" on Homer, but Homer was not aware of it until later on. With this episode, Mirkin wanted Homer to immediately know he was attracted to Mindy. Mirkin thought it was a "great exploration" to see what happened to Homer in this particular case. The episode did not get the usual amount of laughs at the animatic test screening, which made the staff worry it was not as funny as they expected. Mirkin said it had to do with the fact that because there were very "subtle" performances in the episode, the animation had to be "exactly right" for it to be funny. Baeza and David Silverman, another animation director on the show, worked "hard" on the episode. Mirkin said from the very beginning it was a "huge group effort" from both the writing and the animation staff.
Mirkin started out as a stand-up comedian in 1982 and performed across the United States, including at The Comedy Store, where he became a regular, and at The Improv.[6] 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]".[2] 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.[2]
Ortved—using interviews with writers Bob Kushell and Brent Forrester and Mirkin's assistant Charleen Easton—describes Mirkin as an "outsider" on the show, with the writing staff, at least initially, divided with respect to Mirkin's comedy and leadership style.[35] Forrester described the latter as "a little bit dictatorial".[36] Mirkin conducted the show's writing sessions in one room, rather than splitting the writers into two groups, as later showrunners would do, and often worked late into the night.[3][36] Some praised Mirkin's leadership, including Appel, who felt that "the shows were great under him."[36] Others criticised him, including Kushell, who clashed with Mirkin over the episode "A Star is Burns", a crossover with The Critic.[37] In 2004, 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 and concluded that, "[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."[8] Mirkin's era and style of humor are popular amongst the show's fans.[25]
The episode was written by Jennifer Crittenden, and directed by Swinton O. Scott III. This was the first episode Scott directed for the show. Crittenden also made her debut as a writer for "The Simpsons" in this episode. Crittenden was taking a beginners' writing program at 20th Century Fox when former "The Simpsons" showrunner David Mirkin hired her on the show. Crittenden's only writing experience before that had been as an intern on the "Late Show with David Letterman". 20th Century Fox introduced Crittenden to Mirkin, and Mirkin read a script of hers that he liked. When Mirkin first talked to Crittenden, he thought she was a really nice woman who was very mature. Crittenden was only 23 years old at the time, but Mirkin liked her and he hired her.
Mirkin is a vegetarian.[51] In the early 1990s, Mirkin was in a relationship with actress Julie Brown, with whom he had worked on The Julie Show and The Edge.[18][71]
Mirkin left The Edge during its run and became the executive producer and showrunner of The Simpsons for its fifth and sixth seasons. Mirkin has been cited as introducing a more surreal element to the show's humor, as shown by his first 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. He won four Primetime Emmy Awards 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 in 2013 remains on the show as a consultant. Mirkin has also moved into feature film direction: he directed the films Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997) and Heartbreakers (2001).
Mirkin wanted to produce a surreal, Monty Python-esque, single-camera comedy series. He had a development deal with Newhart's producers MTM Enterprises and persuaded them to buy the rights to produce a pilot for an American adaptation of the British sitcom The Young Ones.[10] The pilot was entitled Oh No, Not Them!, and featured Nigel Planer from the original series, as well as Jackie Earle Haley and Robert Bundy.[12][13] 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.[10][12] Mirkin and Elliott decided to develop a show together, along with Adam Resnick. In 1990, they created the sitcom Get a Life, which was conceived as a dark, surreal, psychotic version of the cartoon Dennis the Menace.[12] 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.[14][15] 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 disliked 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.[12] However, throughout the show's run, the network's initially negative attitude prevailed. According to Mirkin, 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.[10][12] 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".[16]
Mirkin was the executive producer and showrunner for the animated sitcom The Simpsons, during its fifth and sixth seasons (1993–1995).[22][23] 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.[24] Executive producers James L. Brooks and Richard Sakai hired Mirkin following his exit from The Edge.[10][25] 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.[3][26] He was a fan of The Simpsons before being hired for the show,[8] and started work in November 1992. Due to the show's long production cycle, season five did not air until the following September.[27] Mirkin was the program's first solo showrunner.[6] 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".[8] He hired several new writers, including Richard Appel, David X. Cohen, Jennifer Crittenden, Greg Daniels, Bob Kushell, Jace Richdale and Mike Scully.[28][29][30]