Who is David Mirkin?

Why is it Sunday afternoon TV always triggers these posts? Whatever the reason, it happened again.

Flipping around last Sunday, I found an episode of THREE’S COMPANY. It was the episode where Jack goes to an art class taught by a new female neighbor. While there, he winds up becoming the nude model for the class, only to find Furley walk in at the last minute. Fun episode, that still holds up.

Watching the show, after realizing what a loss it is that both John Ritter and Don Knotts are no longer with us, I noticed something else about it.

At the end, it said the episode was written by David Mirkin.

David Mirkin? The same David Mirkin? I looked it up, and yes, it is him.

Mirkin I’ve long said has to be one of the funniest writers out there.

Reading about him, I saw he began his career on THREE’S COMPANY, then moved on to THREE’S A CROWD. Then, he wrote and exec produced NEWHART.

After that, there was a little show called GET A LIFE. What? You don’t remember GET A LIFE?



The Chris Elliott as a paper boy cult classic? I had forgotten he was involved with that one.

Sadly, GET A LIFE didn’t stay around for too long. According to the IMDB he worked on a sitcom called THE JULIE SHOW. I don’t remember this, but since it starred Julie Brown (who I've always loved), I must have seen it.

After that came what he was best known for, THE SIMPSONS. What more can you say about that? He is also one of the writers for the upcoming movie. He wrote the “Deep Space Homer” episode, as well as acting as a producer and showrunner.



But wait, there’s more.

He directed a couple feature films. A little film entitled ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION, another cult classic that gets funnier on each viewing.

Remember this scene?



How does he not have an Oscar, for that scene alone???

Plus, there are episodes of THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW and the Sigourney Weaver / Jennifer Love Hewitt film HEARTBREAKERS (which I enjoyed, despite it being 20 minutes too long).



So, that is an almost perfect record there.

Glad I tuned in to THREE’S COMPANY to finally realize all this about him.