Dan McGrath | |
---|---|
Alma mater | Harvard University |
Occupation | Writer/Producer/Stage Director/Tutor |
Years active | 1983–present |
Dan McGrath is an American television writer, educator and stage director. He is known primarily for his work as a writer/producer for several TV series including The Simpsons , Saturday Night Live , King of the Hill , Gravity Falls and Mission Hill .
He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Saturday Night Live , and later won an Emmy for his work on The Simpsons . He was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for "Life: A Loser's Manual".
McGrath was raised in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Gerard McGrath, a machinist and electrician, and Eleanor McGrath, a homemaker. He is of Irish, Hungarian, and Scandinavian descent.
He attended Regis High School and Harvard University, where he studied Chinese and Japanese history and politics. He failed all his Japanese-language courses, but was active as a writer, editor and cartoonist at The Harvard Lampoon , where he was twice elected a vice president, and somehow managed to graduate with honors.
While at Harvard, Dan also designed computer games at MIT and co-founded (along with Bill Rauch, Lisa Latham, Amy Brenneman and Dean Norris) the notorious avant-garde theatre company The Kronauer Group, which later became the Cornerstone Theater Company.
He worked in hospitals, public clinics and emergency rooms for a number of years, and then moved onto Hollywood.
He is a founder and co-chairman of Tamaribuchi Heavy Manufacturing Concern.
Dan started his television career as a writer at Saturday Night Live , where he was a frequent collaborator with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley. He then joined the writing staff of The Simpsons , contributing things like "The Devil and Homer Simpson" and "Time and Punishment" (both co-written with Greg Daniels) and "Bart of Darkness".
Entertainment Weekly called the "Time and Punishment" segment "one of the most beautifully random moments in [The] Simpsons history". [1]
The A.V. Club called McGrath's "Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood" episode "pretty much comic gold from start to finish" and "utterly fantastic" and said it "features one of the greatest, most true-to-life depictions of a bender/drug binge in television history". [2]
They also said Dan's episode "Bart of Darkness" "is a hilarious episode that restricts a Simpsons' go-to—Bart as hell-raiser—and mines much of its humor from the cruelties of childhood." [3]
After getting fired twice from The Simpsons, he later worked on Mission Hill (where he wrote "I Married a Gay Man from Outer Space"). He also worked on Gravity Falls , The PJs , and a nearly decade-long stint at King of the Hill , contributing episodes like "Full Metal Dust Jacket" and "The Minh Who Knew Too Much". The A.V. Club called "The Minh Who Knew Too Much" episode "terrifyingly silly and haphazard". [4]
At Harvard he was a prolific stage director: he directed Richard III in a dining hall, using only the tables and chairs as a set, and he once covered the entire Loeb Main Stage in dirt for "Richard's Cork Leg". They are still cleaning up the dirt he left there from 1985. [5]
Recently Dan taught a course in "Comedy and Cultural Theory" at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn.
He wrote (or co-wrote) the following episodes:
"Bart of Darkness" is the first episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on September 4, 1994. In the episode, Bart breaks his leg and becomes increasingly isolated in his room. He starts spying on neighbors with a telescope and begins to suspect that Ned Flanders has murdered his wife. The episode was produced during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which delayed production by a month, and is largely a parody of the Alfred Hitchcock film Rear Window.
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 School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.
"Treehouse of Horror" is the third episode of the second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 25, 1990. The episode was inspired by 1950s horror comics, and begins with a disclaimer that it may be too scary for children. It is the first Treehouse of Horror episode. These episodes do not obey the show's rule of realism and are not treated as canon. The opening disclaimer and a panning shot through a cemetery with humorous tombstones were features that were used sporadically in the Treehouse of Horror series and eventually dropped. This is also the first episode to have the music composed by Alf Clausen.
"Treehouse of Horror IV" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons and the fourth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series of Halloween specials. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 28, 1993, and features three short stories called "The Devil and Homer Simpson", "Terror at 5+1⁄2 Feet", and "Bart Simpson's Dracula".
William Lloyd 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 St. Albans School; Oakley then attended Harvard University and was Vice President of the Harvard Lampoon. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.
"Treehouse of Horror V" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons, and the fifth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 30, 1994, and features three short stories titled "The Shinning", "Time and Punishment", and "Nightmare Cafeteria".
"Treehouse of Horror IX" is the fourth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on October 25, 1998. This is the ninth Treehouse of Horror episode, and, like the other "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, contains three self-contained segments: In "Hell Toupée", Homer gets a hair transplant and is possessed by the spirit of an executed criminal; in "Terror of Tiny Toon", Bart and Lisa are trapped in a special, extremely violent episode of The Itchy & Scratchy Show; and in "Starship Poopers", Marge reveals that Maggie is the product of a one-night stand with the alien Kang.
Jim Reardon is an American animator, storyboard artist, television writer, television director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the animated TV series The Simpsons. He has directed over 30 episodes of the series and was credited as a supervising director for seasons 9 through 15. Reardon attended the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1982, where one of his student projects, the satirical cartoon Bring Me the Head of Charlie Brown (1986), has become a cult classic through the likes of YouTube. He was hired by John Kricfalusi as a writer on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures and later worked on Tiny Toon Adventures. He has been described by Ralph Bakshi as "one of the best cartoon writers in the business".
Joseph Stewart Burns, better known as J. Stewart Burns, is a television writer and producer most notable for his work on The Simpsons, Futurama, and Unhappily Ever After.
"Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 18, 1993. In the episode, Bart, intoxicated from an all-syrup Squishee, mistakenly joins the Junior Campers, a Boy Scout-style organization. Homer and Bart join a father-son rafting trip which goes awry when they are stranded at sea.
Gregory Martin Daniels is an American screenwriter, television producer, and director. He has worked on several television series, including writing for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, adapting The Office for the United States, and co-creating Parks and Recreation and King of the Hill. Daniels attended Harvard University, where he befriended and began collaborating with Conan O'Brien. His first writing credit was for Not Necessarily the News, before he was laid off because of budget cuts.
Richard James Appel is an American writer, producer and former attorney. Since 2012, he has served as an executive producer and co-showrunner of Family Guy on Fox. He attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. As an undergraduate, he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon.
Jon Vitti is an American writer best known for his work on the television series The Simpsons. He has also written for King of the Hill, The Critic and The Office, and has served as a screenwriter or consultant for several animated and live-action movies, including Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). He is one of the eleven writers of The Simpsons Movie and also wrote the screenplays for the film adaptions Alvin and the Chipmunks, its "squeakquel" and The Angry Birds Movie.
Steve Tompkins is an American television writer. He attended Harvard University and wrote for the Harvard Lampoon; he graduated in 1988. He has worked on such television shows such as The Critic, In Living Color, Entourage, The Bernie Mac Show and The Knights of Prosperity. He was also with The Simpsons, for its seventh and eighth seasons; after leaving he co-created The PJs, with Larry Wilmore and Eddie Murphy. He was also the executive producer on the Nickelodeon animated series Fanboy & Chum Chum and also voiced the character Janitor Poopatine.
Bob Anderson is an American animation director on The Simpsons. He also contributed additional sequence direction on The Simpsons Movie.
The sixth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons 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. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition. Season 6 was the highest rated season of the series.
The fifth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 30, 1993, and May 19, 1994. The showrunner 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 that were produced for the previous season. The season contains some of the series' most acclaimed and popular episodes, including "Cape Feare", "Homer Goes to College" and "Rosebud". It also includes the 100th episode, "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Program as well as an Environmental Media Award and a Genesis Award. The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 21, 2004, Region 2 on March 21, 2005, and Region 4 on March 23, 2005.
Daniel Greaney is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and The Office. He was hired during The Simpsons' seventh season after writing the first draft of the episode "King-Size Homer", but left after season eleven. He returned to the Simpsons staff during the thirteenth season.
Treehouse of Horror is an annual series of special Halloween-themed episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons, with 33 anthology episodes between 1990 and 2022. Also known as The Simpsons Halloween Specials, each episode typically consists of three separate, self-contained segments. Each segment involves the Simpson family in some comical horror, science fiction, or supernatural setting; plot elements operate beyond the show's normal continuity, with segments exaggeratedly more morbid and violent than a typical Simpsons episode.