Howard Gewirtz is an American television producer and writer, whose credits include Taxi , The Larry Sanders Show , Just Shoot Me , Wings , Oliver Beene , Everybody Hates Chris , Gary and Mike and The Simpsons . [1]
He was born January 26, 1952 in Rego Park, Queens in New York. His father was a dentist who invented Firmadent, a type of toothbrush. [2] Predominantly working as a comedy writer, Gewirtz's first writing credit was for Busting Loose in 1977. [3] Three years later, he penned the Three's Company episode "Mighty Mouth." [4] Gewirtz wrote episodes of Taxi (also functioning as a producer) [5] and Bosom Buddies during the 1980s. [6] He received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for his work on the former. [7]
Gewirtz wrote the premiere episode of the short-lived sitcom Domestic Life , which reviewer Tom Shales found to be "moderately endearing" but lacking in humor. [8] He served as an executive producer of Down and Out in Beverly Hills in 1987, [9] a sitcom for the fledgling Fox network based on the 1986 film of the same name. [10] Like Domestic Life, it was cancelled after one season.
As a freelance writer, Gewirtz wrote "Homer Defined" for The Simpsons during its third season. It was Gewirtz who gave Milhouse Van Houten the character's last name. [11] He penned episodes of The Larry Sanders Show and Wings throughout the 1990s. [6]
In the late 1990s, Gewirtz executive produced Jenny , a sitcom starring Jenny McCarthy. [12] After working on Just Shoot Me! , [13] Gewirtz created the Fox sitcom Oliver Beene , which ran from 2003 to 2004. He based several of the characters on family members, [14] while the title character was modeled after his childhood self. [15] The series received negative reviews from television critics. [2] [16]
Gewirtz earned his second Emmy Award nomination for co-writing a song featured on UPN series Gary & Mike . [7] He executive produced Everybody Hates Chris during its first season, [17] [18] for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination in the category of best television series (musical or comedy). [19]
The Simpsons
Gary & Mike
Daniel Louis Castellaneta is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series The Simpsons. Castellaneta is also known for voicing Grandpa in Nickelodeon's Hey Arnold!, and has had voice roles in several other programs, including Futurama, Sibs, Darkwing Duck, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, The Batman, Back to the Future: The Animated Series, Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, and Taz-Mania.
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, 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.
Oliver Beene is an American sitcom that aired on Fox from March 9, 2003 to September 12, 2004. The show was created by Howard Gewirtz. Set in 1962 and 1963, the show chronicled the trials and tribulations of the 11-to-12-year-old Oliver Beene, in first person perspective. Oliver Beene's other main characters are his parents Jerry and Charlotte Beene, his older brother Ted Beene, and his two friends Joyce and Michael. The narrator, an older Oliver reflecting on his experience, is voiced by David Cross. Often in episodes, the story is interrupted by flashbacks and flashforwards.
Alfred Ernest Jean III is an American screenwriter and producer. Jean is well known for his work on The Simpsons. He was raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981. Jean began his writing career in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss. Together, they worked as writers and producers on television shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF and It's Garry Shandling's Show.
Marc Edward Wilmore was an American television writer, producer, actor, and comedian. He wrote and performed for shows such as In Living Color, The PJs, The Simpsons, and F Is for Family. Wilmore was a 10-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee. He was the younger brother of comedian Larry Wilmore.
Grant Mandel Rosenmeyer is an American actor and screenwriter best known for his roles in The Royal Tenenbaums and on the FOX television sitcom Oliver Beene.
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.
Todd Holland is an American film and television director and producer. He directed over 50 episodes of The Larry Sanders Show, for which he received an Emmy, and 26 episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, for which he received two Emmy Awards. His feature films include The Wizard (1989), Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), Firehouse Dog (2007), and had also directed the TV movie Monster High: The Movie (2022) and its 2023 sequel.
Everybody Hates Chris is an American semi-autobiographical sitcom created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi and originally broadcast on UPN and The CW from 2005 to 2009. The series is based loosely on Rock's personal experiences as a teenager living in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City from 1982 to 1987. However, Rock's real-life adolescence took place from 1978 to 1984, having been born in 1965.
Michael C. Scully is an American television writer and producer. He is known for his work as executive producer and showrunner of the animated sitcom The Simpsons from 1997 to 2001. Scully grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and long had an interest in writing. He was an underachiever at school and dropped out of college, going on to work in a series of jobs. Eventually, in 1986, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a stand-up comic and wrote for Yakov Smirnoff.
Tequan Richmond, also known as T-Rich, is an American actor best known for playing Drew Rock on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Richmond played Ray Charles Jr. in the motion picture Ray, and in the soap opera General Hospital on ABC, he portrayed TJ Ashford.
Jennifer Crittenden is an American screenwriter and producer. She started her writing career on the animated television series The Simpsons, and has since written for several other television sitcoms including Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld and Veep. Her work has earned her several Emmy Award nominations.
Mike Royce is an American screenwriter and television producer.
The fourteenth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons was originally broadcast on the Fox network in the United States between November 3, 2002, and May 18, 2003, and was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The show runner for the fourteenth production season was Al Jean, who executive produced 21 of 22 episodes. The other episode, "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", was run by Mike Scully. The season was the first to use digital ink-and-paint for most of its episodes, though four episodes were hold-overs from season 13's production run and used traditional ink-and-paint. A fifth season 13 holdover episode, which was the first episode of season 14, used digital ink-and paint like the rest of the season. The fourteenth season has met with mostly positive reviews and won two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program, four Annie Awards and a Writers Guild of America Award. This season contains the show's 300th episode, "Barting Over".
The fourth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 24, 1992, and May 13, 1993, beginning with "Kamp Krusty". The showrunners for the fourth production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, with the season being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. The aired season contained two episodes which were hold-over episodes from season three, which Jean and Reiss also ran. Following the end of the production of the season, Jean, Reiss and most of the original writing staff left the show. The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and Dan Castellaneta would win one for his performance as Homer in "Mr. Plow". The fourth season was released on DVD in Region 1 on June 15, 2004, Region 2 on August 2, 2004, and in Region 4 on August 25, 2004.
The third season of the American animated television series The Simpsons originally aired on the Fox network between September 19, 1991, and August 27, 1992. The showrunners for the third production season were Al Jean and Mike Reiss who executive produced 22 episodes for the season, while two other episodes were produced by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, and Sam Simon, with it being produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. An additional episode, "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?", aired on August 27, 1992, after the official end of the third season and is included on the Season 3 DVD set. Season three won six Primetime Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Voice-Over Performance" and also received a nomination for "Outstanding Animated Program" for the episode "Radio Bart". The complete season was released on DVD in Region 1 on August 26, 2003, Region 2 on October 6, 2003, and in Region 4 on October 22, 2003.
Tyler James Williams is an American actor and rapper. He began his career as a child actor, making several appearances on Saturday Night Live, Little Bill, and Sesame Street. Williams later rose to prominence for playing the role of Chris Rock on the UPN/CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris (2005–2009). Following this, he starred as songwriter Cyrus DeBarge in the Disney Channel film Let It Shine (2012), and Noah on the AMC drama television series The Walking Dead (2014–15).
David Michael Stern is an American television screenwriter. Among his first work in television was writing episodes of The Wonder Years in the late 1980s. He then proceeded to write several episodes of The Simpsons in the 1990s. In 2010, he developed the animated television series Ugly Americans. Stern is the younger brother of actor Daniel Stern, who served as the narrator of The Wonder Years.
Ali LeRoi is an American television producer, director, writer and actor. He is best known as the co-creator of the Chris Rock semi-autobiographical sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, for which he won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 2008.