Linwood Boomer

Last updated

Linwood Boomer
Born (1955-10-09) October 9, 1955 (age 69)
Occupations
  • Writer
  • producer
  • director
  • actor
Years active1978–present
SpouseTracy Katsky
Children4

Linwood M. Boomer (born October 9, 1955) is a Canadian-born American film and television producer, writer, and actor. He is known for playing the role of Adam Kendall on the drama Little House on the Prairie , and for creating the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle .

Contents

Early life

Boomer was born into a lower middle class family in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the third of four sons. He was enrolled in a gifted program at school. His mother is named Eileen. Boomer made a show based on his life story called Malcolm in the Middle , which ran on FOX from January 2000 to May 2006.

Career

Boomer began his career as an actor. After playing Adam Kendall on Little House on the Prairie, Boomer began working behind the camera in the television business.

Boomer's writing and executive producing credits include Night Court , Flying Blind , The Boys Are Back , Townies , 3rd Rock from the Sun and God, the Devil and Bob . He also created and executive produced the pilots Family Business, Nice Try, and the American version of Red Dwarf and served as an executive producer under James L. Brooks for the pilot of Big . He owns his own production company Satin City.

Boomer negotiated with CBS on a pilot order for a project that reunited him with Gail Berman, the exec who shepherded Malcolm during her tenure at Regency TV and as programming chief at Fox. Boomer wrote the script and exec produced along with Berman and Lloyd Braun for their BermanBraun shingle and Universal Media Studios, where BermanBraun is based. Dubbed The Karenskys, the multi-camera comedy would revolve around a daughter's return to the fold of her large, eccentric, ethnic family after her husband takes a job in her hometown. It was directed by Pamela Fryman and starred Annie Potts, Desi Lydic, Jack Thompson, Mather Zickel, Sasha Alexander, Tinsley Grimes, and Todd Stashwick. [1]

Malcolm in the Middle

Boomer based the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle on his life story. The pilot episode of the series premiered on January 9, 2000, and was watched by 22.5 million viewers, while the second episode, "Red Dress" (premiered on January 16, 2000), was watched by 26 million viewers. Boomer wrote two episodes, starting with the pilot episode and then "Francis Escapes" and directed five episodes -- "Opera," "Stilts," "Reese vs. Stevie," "Bride of Ida," and the series finale, "Graduation." Boomer received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the pilot episode. The series completed its six-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes.

Awards and nominations

Wins

Nominations

Filmography (as an actor)

YearTitleRoleNotes
1978 Suddenly, Love Dave BusbyTV movie
1980 Hawaii Five-O Nick Zanoepisode: The Flight of the Jewels
1978–1981 Little House on the Prairie Adam Kendall35 episodes
1982 The Love Boat Doug Bridgesepisode: The Return of the Captain's Lady/Love Ain't Illegal/The Irresistible Man
1983 Fantasy Island Alex Westonepisode: Eternal Flame/A Date with Burt
Voyagers! Dr. Thomas A. Watsonepisode: Barriers of Sound
1985 The Young and the Restless Jared MarksonEpisode dated 8 April 1985
2006 Malcolm in the Middle Loan Shark (as Enzo Stussi)episode: Graduation
2018 Santa Clarita Diet Mr. Whethertonepisode: The Queen of England

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisa Kudrow</span> American actress (born 1963)

Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy, Screen Actors Guild, Satellite, American Comedy and TV Guide awards. Phoebe has since been named one of the greatest television characters of all time and is considered to be Kudrow's breakout role, spawning her successful film career.

<i>Andy Richter Controls the Universe</i> 2002 American TV series or program

Andy Richter Controls the Universe is an American sitcom created by Victor Fresco that originally aired on Fox from March 19, 2002, to January 12, 2003. The series was Andy Richter's first starring role after leaving NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2000, and centers around Richter's eponymous character, a writer living in Chicago who works at a fictional company called Pickering Industries. The show was a joint production of Garfield Grove Productions and 20th Century Fox Television in association with Paramount Television.

<i>Malcolm in the Middle</i> American television sitcom (2000–2006)

Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons consisting of 151 episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Sherman-Palladino</span> American television writer, director, and producer (born 1966)

Amy Sherman-Palladino is an American television writer, director, and producer. She is the creator of the comedy drama series Gilmore Girls (2000–2007), Bunheads (2012–2013), and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023).

Mitchell Donald "Mitch" Hurwitz is an American television writer, producer, and actor. He is best known as the creator of the television sitcom Arrested Development as well as the co-creator of The Ellen Show. He is also a contributor to The John Larroquette Show and The Golden Girls.

James Edward Burrows, sometimes known as Jim "Jimmy" Burrows, is an American television director. Burrows has received numerous accolades including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards and five Directors Guild of America Awards. He was honored with the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and NBC special Must See TV: An All-Star Tribute to James Burrows in 2016.

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), and Firehouse Dog (2007), and had also directed the TV movie Monster High: The Movie (2022) and its 2023 sequel.

<i>Extras</i> (TV series) 2005 British TV sitcom

Extras is a British sitcom about extras working in television, film, and theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom starred in it. It follows the lives of Andy Millman (Gervais), his friend Maggie Jacobs and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb (Merchant) as Millman muddles through life as an anonymous "background performer" who eventually finds success as a B-list sitcom star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Lawrence (TV producer)</span> American television producer, screenwriter, and director

William Van Duzer Lawrence IV is an American television producer, screenwriter, and director. He is the creator of the series Scrubs and co-creator of shows including the live-action Cougar Town, Spin City, Ground Floor, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking, and the animated series Clone High, in which he also voiced the leader of the shadowy figures. He has written for many other shows, including The Nanny and Boy Meets World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Crittenden</span> American screenwriter and producer

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Royce</span> American screenwriter

Mike Royce is an American screenwriter and television producer.

"Pilot" is the pilot episode, and the first episode of the first season, of the American sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Written by series creator Linwood Boomer and directed by Todd Holland, the episode originally aired on Fox on January 9, 2000. In this episode, the six primary characters are introduced, Malcolm, Lois, Hal, Reese, Dewey, and Francis, and Malcolm's struggles and fears to be placed in the accelerated learning class ('Krelboynes') even though he has an IQ of 165. Airing as a midseason replacement for Futurama, the episode gained a large viewer base, with ratings of 23 million.

Righteous Brothers (<i>Arrested Development</i>) 18th episode of the 2nd season of Arrested Development

"Righteous Brothers" is the eighteenth and final episode of the second season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It is the 40th overall episode of the series, and was written by series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and co-executive producer Jim Vallely, and directed by Chuck Martin. It originally aired on Fox on April 17, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Weiner</span> American screenwriter, director, producer and author

Matthew Hoffman Weiner is an American television writer, producer, and director best known as the creator and showrunner of the television series Mad Men, and as a writer and executive producer on The Sopranos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primetime Emmy Awards</span> Academy of Television Arts & Sciences accolade

The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime Emmys are presented in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming. The award categories are divided into three classes: the regular Primetime Emmy Awards, the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards to honor technical and other similar behind-the-scenes achievements, and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for recognizing significant contributions to the engineering and technological aspects of television. First given out in 1949, the award was originally referred to as simply the "Emmy Award" until the International Emmy Award and the Daytime Emmy Award were created in the early 1970s to expand the Emmy to other sectors of the television industry.

Christopher Lloyd is an American television producer and screenwriter. Lloyd is the co-creator and executive producer of the ABC mockumentary family sitcom Modern Family, which he co-created and produced with Steven Levitan. Lloyd has had an extensive career on many series, primarily Frasier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Sheridan (writer)</span> American screenwriter (born 1967)

Christopher Sheridan is an American television writer, producer, and occasional voice actor. Born in the Philippines, Sheridan grew up in New Hampshire. He attended Gilford High School, where he decided that he wanted to become a writer. After graduating from Union College, he moved back to his home, where he worked at several short-term jobs before relocating to California to start his career. His first job came in 1992 when he was hired as a writers' assistant for the Fox sitcom Shaky Ground. Following that, he was hired as an assistant on Living Single, a Fox sitcom, where he was eventually promoted to writer. He stayed with the show until its cancellation in 1998.

"Pilot" is the first episode of the American family sitcom television series Modern Family. Written by series creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd and directed by Jason Winer, it premiered on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States on September 23, 2009. The episode introduces viewers to three sets of people who make up a single family. The episode is shot in a mockumentary style, with a cameraman following the characters around their everyday lives and interviewing them at various intervals. It cuts between the experiences of the three separate units before they all come together at the end of the episode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Burditt (writer)</span> American television writer and producer

George Henry Burditt was an American television writer and producer who wrote sketches for television variety shows and other programs such as Three's Company, for which he was also an executive producer in its last few seasons. Burditt was Emmy-nominated in writing categories alongside writing crew, including his writing partner Paul Wayne, for twice each The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and Van Dyke and Company.

Paul Wayne is a Canadian writer. He wrote sketches of television variety shows, like The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour that he won an Emmy Award for, and episodes of other television shows, like Three's Company. He also served as producer of only two short-lived sitcoms, Doc and Excuse My French.

References

  1. Littleton, Cynthia (September 7, 2008). "Boomer back on track with Berman". Variety. Retrieved January 31, 2018.