David Mirkin

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David Mirkin at Comic-Con in San Diego (2012)

David Mirkin (born September 18, 1955 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American director , producer and screenwriter . He was involved as a screenwriter in the sitcoms The Larry Sanders Show and Jack of Hearts with Two Women , before he took on the role of Executive Producer in the animated series The Simpsons from 1993 . He later worked as a showrunner on the production team, but continued to write individual episodes and was also involved in The Simpsons . He has been available to the series in an advisory capacity since 2013.

Mirkin is a Peabody Award and a five-time Emmy Award winner. He is also the director of Heartbreakers - Warning: Sharp curves! as well as Romy and Michele .

Career

youth

David Mirkin grew up in Philadelphia and attended high school there . Like his father and brother, he wanted to study engineering and so attended Drexel University , but left without a degree because he found the job too monotonous. Even as a child, Mirkin showed an interest in filming, so he enrolled at the film school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1978.

Beginnings in the film business

Mirkin began his career as a stand-up comedian in 1982 , making appearances across the country. In 1983 he got his first job in show business. Through his cousin he met George Tricker, who was working on The Ropers , a sitcom that was a spin-off of Jack of Hearts with Two Ladies ( Three's Company ). Mirkin wrote a screenplay for The Ropers , which was rejected by the show's producer but was also read by Three's Company writer Bernie West . This liked Mirkin's style, so that he worked on the series for three years and contributed ideas, although the producers did not buy a single script from him during that time. Mirkin was grateful for the opportunity, however, as it gave him a foothold in the business.

Mirkin's goal was to write for the sitcom Cheers , and he earned the opportunity to write a trial script for one of the final episodes of the first season. However, his agent refused the job without his knowledge, whereupon Mirkin fired him. Through his new agent he got a permanent job as a screenwriter for the comedy series Newhart . After a year and a half as a writer, he also took on the role of executive producer and showrunner of the series and also shot several episodes himself. After receiving the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1987 , he left the production team in 1988.

In 1990 Mirkin conceived and produced his first own show Get a Life (together with Chris Elliott ). As executive producer he was responsible for the entire production and also shot most of the episodes himself. After two seasons, Get a Life 1992 was canceled. This was followed by a collaboration with Julie Brown , from which the sketch series The Edge emerged in 1992. He left the production team in 1993.

The simpsons

Directly after The Edge had left the executive producer of the contacted him Simpsons , James L. Brooks . After most of the original production team left the series after the fourth season, it was up to Mirkin to start a fundamental rebuild. He himself took on the post of executive producer and show runner and hired Mike Scully and David X. Cohen for the production team. With his work he shaped an "era Mirkin" in the series, which is particularly popular with fans. He was executive producer until 1995, but after that he continued to play a major role in the entire production process. Deep Space Homer is the only episode that Mirkin wrote entirely himself and is still featured in various top ten lists of the best episodes to this day. To this day, Mirkin is available in an advisory capacity to the series and was also involved in The Simpsons . Mirkin received four Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award for his work on the series .

In his work as a director, Heartbreakers have been created so far - Warning: Sharp curves! as well as Romy and Michele . In 2012 Mirkin was commissioned to script and direct the film adaptation of Richard Branson's memoir Losing My Virginity .

Web links

Commons : David Mirkin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b David Mirkin, A Writer I Love - Part I ( Memento from September 24, 2014 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ a b uk.ign.com: "Interview with David Mirkin" (English, March 30, 2001, accessed November 19, 2013)
  3. ↑ a b c David Mirkin, A Writer I Love - Part II ( Memento from October 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ David Mirkin, A Writer I Love - Part III ( Memento from October 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  5. ↑ James Walton: "The 10 Best Simpsons TV Episodes (In Chronological Order)". The Daily Telegraph, July 21, 2007, p. 3 ff.
  6. ↑ variety.com: "David Mirkin to adapt Richard Branson's memoir" (English, October 29, 2012, accessed November 20, 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Mirkin, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director, film producer and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , United States