Brian Levant

Brian Levant
Born	Brian Michael Levant (1952-08-06) August 6, 1952 (age 72) Highland Park, Illinois, United States
Occupations	Film director television director film producer television producer screenwriter
Years active	1976–present
Spouse	Alison Logan
Children	3

Brian Michael Levant (born August 6, 1952) is an American filmmaker. ^[1]

Early life and career

Born in Highland Park, Illinois to a Jewish family, Levant started his career in 1976 as a writer for the TV series Happy Days . He also wrote for, among other TV shows, The Jeffersons, Mork & Mindy and Still the Beaver.

He is best known for directing the films Beethoven , ^[1] The Flintstones and its 2000 prequel The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas , Jingle All the Way , Snow Dogs and Are We There Yet? . ^[1]

Though his work is generally disliked by film critics, ^[2] Levant has responded to the criticism with, "I'm making movies for the audience that I was when I was sitting at home watching Garfield Goose and The Three Stooges on WGN...To read those reviews is an act of self-flagellation, but reviews be damned when you're at Blockbuster, and you're seeing family after family grab one of your movies off the shelf on a Friday night. I can't tell you how many times I've seen that." ^[2]

Levant is a major collector of 20th century toys and pop culture memorabilia. His collection is displayed in a 2022 book, My Life and Toys. ^[3]

Filmography

Feature film

Director

• Problem Child 2 (1991)
• Beethoven (1992)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• Jingle All the Way (1996)
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000)
• Snow Dogs (2002)
• Are We There Yet? (2005)
• The Spy Next Door (2010)
• Max 2: White House Hero (2017)

Writer

• Leave It to Beaver (1997)

Direct-to-video

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Story
2008	Beethoven's Big Break	No	No	Yes
2012	A Christmas Story 2	Yes	Yes	No
2014	Sophia Grace & Rosie's Royal Adventure	Yes	Yes	No

Television

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer
1995	Problem Child 3: Junior in Love	No	Executive	No
	The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space	No	Executive	Story
2009	Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins	Yes	Yes	No
2010	Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster	Yes	Yes	No
2016	The Game of Love	No	Executive	Yes

TV series

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Writer	Creator	Notes
1976–84	Happy Days	No	Supervising	Yes	No	Writer (14 episodes) / Producer (44 episodes)
1977	The Jeffersons	No	No	Story	No	Episode: "Jefferson Airplane"
1978	Please Stand By	No	No	Yes	No	1 episode
1979	Brothers and Sisters	No	No	Yes	No	2 episodes
1979–80	The Bad News Bears	No	Yes	Yes	No	Writer (2 episodes) / Producer (12 episodes)
1981–82	Mork & Mindy	No	Yes	Yes	No	Writer (2 episodes) / Producer (22 episodes)
1983–89	The New Leave It to Beaver	Yes	Executive	Yes	Developer	102 episodes / Director (21 episodes) / Writer (19 episodes)
1987	Married... with Children	Yes	No	No	No	Episode: "The Poker Game"
1988–89	Charles in Charge	Yes	No	No	No	2 episodes
1988–91	My Secret Identity	No	Co-Executive	Yes	Yes	72 episodes / Writer (Episode: "Pilot")
1990	Poochinski	No	Executive	Yes	No	Unsold pilot
1990-91	Babes	No	Executive	No	No	22 episodes
1997	Metropolitan Hospital	Yes	Executive	No	Yes	Unsold pilot
2000	Father Can't Cope	Yes	Executive	Yes	No	Unsold pilot
2001	Grounded for Life	Yes	No	No	No	Episode: "Eddie's Dead"

References

1. "Brian Levant". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . 2016. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016.
2. Liebenson, Donald (January 15, 2010). "'Spy Next Door' reflects on its director". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved September 30, 2019.
3. Zahed, Ramin (September 30, 2022). "Brian Levant and the Beautiful Madness of Collecting Toon Toys & Memorabilia". Animation Magazine. Retrieved December 17, 2022.

External links

• Brian Levant at IMDb
• Brian Levant at the TCM Movie Database