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Wikipedia

Josh Weinstein

January 01, 1970

For other people with the same name, see Joshua Weinstein (disambiguation).
For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer, actor and puppeteer, see J. Elvis Weinstein.

Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966)[1] 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.

Josh Weinstein
Weinstein in 2013
Born (1966-05-05) May 5, 1966 (age 57)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
OccupationTelevision writer, producer
Period1988–present
GenreComedy
Spouse
Lisa Simmons
​
(m. 1995)​
Children2

Weinstein and Oakley eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld, after which they wrote "Marge Gets a Job", an episode of The Simpsons. Subsequently, the two were hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in 1992. After they wrote episodes such as "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", "Bart vs. Australia" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show. They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family, as well as several high-concept episodes such as "Homer's Enemy", "Two Bad Neighbors" and "The Principal and the Pauper", winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work.

After they left The Simpsons, Oakley and Weinstein created Mission Hill. They worked as consulting producers on Futurama, then created The Mullets in 2003. The two wrote several unsuccessful TV pilots, and were due to serve as showrunners on Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009. Oakley left the project over a contract dispute, but Weinstein remained until it was canceled. He co-produced and wrote for Futurama again during its Comedy Central revival, winning an Emmy in 2011. Since 2013, Weinstein has served as showrunner for the CBBC series Strange Hill High, and in 2015, Danger Mouse. He has also served as a writer for season two of Gravity Falls, co-writing nine of the season's episodes. In 2018, Weinstein co-developed the Netflix animated series Disenchantment with creator Matt Groening, of which he and Groening served as co-showrunners. Weinstein is married to journalist Lisa Simmons.

Early life edit

Weinstein was born and raised in Washington, D.C.[2] to Rosa and Harris Weinstein. His mother is the director of the Himmelfarb Mobile University which provides education for the elderly, while his father is a lawyer for Covington & Burling.[3] He has a brother, Jacob, and a sister, Teme.[4] Weinstein attended St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., where he met and became best friends with Bill Oakley in the eighth grade. The two created the school humor magazine The Alban Antic in 1983.[5][6] He later attended Stanford University,[7] where he served as editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral.[8] Weinstein is an honorary member of the Harvard Lampoon as he worked on some of Lampoon's parody publications with Oakley over the summers between course years.[7]

Career edit

Weinstein did not land a job on a major comedy series, despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman; he moved back home to Washington, D.C.[6] There, he worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency, writing print adverts for such clients as IKEA.[9] In their free time, Oakley and Weinstein wrote for local comedy groups, such as Gross National Product.[6] In 1989, they moved to New York City after being hired to write for a game show on Ha!, before writing for a variety show on the network featuring Denis Leary.[9] The two also wrote for the National Lampoon and Spy.[5] An editor of Spy was hired by NBC to run the variety show Sunday Best, and took Oakley and Weinstein to Los Angeles with him in 1991. When the show was canceled after three episodes, they were unemployed for a lengthy period.[9]

The Simpsons edit

Well, we were pretty freaking dedicated, I guess. We were Simpsons nerds of the first order and were huge fans before we even got hired. It was basically the equivalent of getting hired on SNL in 1978. The entire original staff was there. The only "new guys" were Conan and us. We lived and breathed that show from 1992–1997.
— Oakley on his and Weinstein's dedication to the show.[10]

As a writer edit

After changing their agent,[6] they wrote a spec script for Seinfeld, which was well received. Amongst those who liked it were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, showrunners of The Simpsons. There were no openings on the staff at the time, but Oakley and Weinstein were hired to write the episode "Marge Gets a Job", based on an idea by Conan O'Brien.[9] The episode aired as part of season four.[9][11] Their Seinfeld script and The Simpsons episode caught the attention of Diane English, and they were offered a job on a sitcom. Before they accepted this job, they were told that Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky were leaving The Simpsons, and then joined the writing staff on a permanent basis in 1992, in the third season of that show.[9][12] They began as story editors.[13] They were initially quiet and felt "intimidated", being in the same room as "10 of the greatest minds in comedy", but eventually started pitching jokes with confidence.[9] They wrote their scripts together, working side by side at a computer.[9] Their first episode as staff writers was "Marge in Chains", an existing idea that they were assigned. The first draft of the script was based on research about women in prison conducted by Oakley and Weinstein, making it "slightly more realistic" than the final version of the episode, in which many realistic elements were replaced.[14]

 
Weinstein in 1994

After season four, most of the original staff left the show. Before David Mirkin arrived to take over as showrunner for season five, Oakley, Weinstein, O'Brien and Dan McGrath were the only writers working on the show and spent a month mapping out most of the season's episodes.[12] Oakley and Weinstein wrote several episodes for season five, penning the "Terror at 5½ Feet" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV",[15] "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)",[16] "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy",[17] the show's 100th episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"[18] and "Lady Bouvier's Lover".[19] For season six they wrote "Sideshow Bob Roberts", basing much of the episode on the Watergate scandal, in which they had a great interest,[20] as well as "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and "Bart vs. Australia".[21] For "Bart vs. Australia", the writing staff wanted to produce an episode in which the Simpsons family traveled to a foreign country; they selected Australia because they thought that everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and "would get the jokes",[22] with the episode being intentionally inaccurate.[23] The episode proved somewhat controversial; some Australian fans said the episode was a mockery of their country. Shortly after it had aired, the Simpsons staff received over a hundred letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode.[24] The pair wrote the two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", which was initially proposed by series creator Matt Groening.[25] While deciding who the culprit was, Oakley and Weinstein pitched Barney Gumble because he was a character that could go to jail and it could change the dynamic of the show.[26] Mirkin suggested Maggie because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member.[27] Oakley and Weinstein were initially unsure about having Maggie as the culprit, and it was decided that the episode would end with Maggie shifting her eyes and making it look like it was not a complete accident.[28]

As showrunner edit

Oakley and Weinstein were appointed executive producers and showrunners of the seventh and eighth seasons. They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics.[12] The showrunner is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the show's production. Each episode takes ten months to produce, so the showrunner must "oversee many different episodes in different stages of production all at the same time", with roles including head writer, making notes on the storyboards and working with the voice actors, animators, editors and composers. Oakley and Weinstein often set two script-rewriting rooms in motion at the same time, delegating leadership in the rooms to writers such as Steve Tompkins and David Cohen.[9] Mirkin, who had suggested that the two take over, remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping Oakley and Weinstein with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing.[9] When they took over the series, they wanted many of the episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family and explored their feelings and emotions towards each other.[29] They wanted to produce Treehouse of Horror episodes, episodes about Sideshow Bob, Itchy & Scratchy and several "format-bending" episodes such as "22 Short Films About Springfield", for which Weinstein wrote the scene featuring Comic Book Guy and Milhouse Van Houten.[30] They aimed for "at least two episodes per season that 'pushed the envelope', [and] expanded the definition of what an episode could be".[9] This was a style they employed for both seasons they produced.[31] Season eight featured several episodes in which focus was given to secondary characters and in which new issues were explored, such as divorce.[31] Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices, and several of their guest stars were "old grizzled men with distinctive voices" such as R. Lee Ermey, Donald Sutherland, Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney.[32] Oakley considered season three to be the single greatest comedic season of television ever produced and so attempted to recreate the feel of that season for the two he ran,[33] focusing on stories with real emotions and situations, as well as some off-the-wall episodes.[9] Season three was their basis for Homer: "We liked Homer the way he was in the second and third seasons. That was what we consciously used as our model. Dimwitted, loving, hyper-enthusiastic, creatively goofy, parody of the American father – drawn with real emotions, though admittedly amplified. This was exemplified in "Mother Simpson", "Lisa the Iconoclast", "Diddly-Dum-Doodly", and a couple others. In some of the less reality-based episodes, i.e. the Beer Baron one – usually Swartzwelder's, we'd treat this stricture with a certain amount of latitude."[10]

One of their most notable episodes was "Homer's Enemy", an episode designed to "push the envelope conceptually". The idea for "Homer's Enemy" was first conceived by Oakley who thought that Homer should have an enemy. This evolved into the concept of a "real world" co-worker who would either love or hate Homer. The writers chose the latter as they thought it would have funnier results.[34] The result was the character of Frank Grimes, a man who has had to work hard all his life with nothing to show for it and is dismayed and embittered by Homer's success and comfort in spite of his inherent laziness and ignorance.[34] "Homer's Enemy" explores the comic possibilities of a realistic character with a strong work ethic placed alongside Homer in a work environment. In the episode, Homer is portrayed as an everyman and the embodiment of the American spirit; however, in some scenes his negative characteristics and silliness are prominently highlighted.[34][35] By the close of the episode, Grimes, a hard working and persevering "real American hero,"[35] is relegated to the role of antagonist; the viewer is intended to be pleased that Homer has emerged victorious.[35] Oakley says the episode was "hyper-meta" and focused on "parodying to some degree the Homer we don't like. That's one of the things that episode is supposed to illustrate — "Homer gone wrong". Although, I would argue that in "Homer's Enemy" he's not even really even all that excessively stupid or immature, actually."[10] Weinstein said: "We wanted to do an episode where the thinking was "What if a real life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?" I know this episode is controversial and divisive, but I just love it. It really feels like what would happen if a real, somewhat humorless human had to deal with Homer. There was some talk [on NoHomers.net] about the ending—we just did that because (a) it's really funny and shocking, (2) we like the lesson of "sometimes, you just can't win"—the whole Frank Grimes episode is a study in frustration and hence Homer has the last laugh and (3) we wanted to show that in real life, being Homer Simpson could be really dangerous and life-threatening, as Frank Grimes sadly learned."[9] When the episode was first broadcast, many fans felt it was too dark, unfunny and that Homer was portrayed as overly bad-mannered.[36] On the DVD commentary, Weinstein considers this episode one of the most controversial of the seasons he ran, as it involves sharp observational humor which many fans "didn't get".[34] Weinstein also talks about a "generation gap"—the episode was originally panned by viewers, but has since become a favorite among fans who grew up with the show.[34]

Other episodes included "Two Bad Neighbors", which sees Homer meet former President George H. W. Bush, a reference to the show's feud with the Bushes in the early 1990s.[37] Weinstein said that the episode is often misunderstood. Many audiences expected a political satire, while the writers made special effort to keep the parody apolitical.[38] Oakley stresses that "it's not a political attack, it's a personal attack!", and instead of criticizing Bush for his policies, the episode instead pokes fun at his "crotchetiness". Oakley described the episode as a companion piece to "Homer's Enemy", in that a character is juxtaposed alongside Homer and does not get along with him.[39]

They considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows.[12] This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted, as Weinstein commented: "The great thing about The Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like "Two Bad Neighbors" and "Homer's Enemy" we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us."[9] Such was the network's limited input, when an executive suggested the staff introduce a new character to live with the Simpsons so as to "liven up the show",[40] the staff rejected the idea and instead created the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", inserting the one-time character Roy, with no explanation as to who he was, or why he was living with the family, as a reference to the executive's proposal.[41] The episode, which marked the point at which The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones for the number of episodes produced for an animated series,[42] was named by the BBC as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show. They noted "the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show."[43] The intrusion of the network censors was limited: the normal procedure is for an episode's script to be sent to the censor and then faxed back with a list of lines and words that should be substituted, causing limited problems as often the offending lines are removed or changed for comedic purposes after animation. The episode "Homer's Phobia" drew the censor's objections. Its script came back with two pages of notes about almost every single line. The censors stated that they did not like the use of the word "gay", or the discussion of homosexuality at all, and closed with a paragraph which stated that "the topic and substance of this episode are unacceptable for broadcast". The censor problems ultimately came to nothing when the episode came back from animation in South Korea, the then-Fox president had just been fired and replaced, with the censors being replaced as well. The new censors sent back merely one line: "acceptable for broadcast".[2]

Leaving the show edit

Oakley and Weinstein stood down as showrunners after season eight because they "didn't want to break [the show]". Oakley said: "We always said we'd never do a joke that we'd done before."[6] They felt the showrunner should not stay for more than two seasons.[12] Due to the pressures of having to work on two seasons at once (writing season eight, whilst doing post-production of season seven), Oakley said that at least two episodes from season eight would ideally have been rewritten, had there been sufficient time,[31] and that towards the end, they were "treading water".[33] As they were working on post-production of season eight, they were credited as consulting producers for season nine, which was in its initial writing stages.[9] Oakley stated that they contributed "somewhere between 0 and .0001%" of the season, only attending the table readings of the scripts.[9] They produced three episodes held over from season eight, which aired as part of season nine: "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson",[44] "The Principal and the Pauper" and "Lisa the Simpson". "The Principal and the Pauper" was negatively received due to the sudden revelation that long-time character Seymour Skinner was actually an imposter. For example, in his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes "The Principal and the Pauper" as the "broadcast that marked [the] abrupt plunge" from The Simpsons' "Golden Age", which he says began in the middle of the show's third season. He calls the episode "[one of] the weakest episodes in Simpsons history".[45] As such, they consider it the most controversial episode from their tenure as executive producers. He and Oakley advise viewers to treat "The Principal and the Pauper" as an "experiment". They surmise that the negative reception was partly due to the fact that it was not immediately apparent to viewers that this was such an episode (as opposed to, for example, "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"). They describe the ending of the episode as an attempt to reset the continuity and allow fans to consider the episode on its own.[46] "Lisa the Simpson" was their final involvement with the show. The duo wanted to end on a good note—Weinstein stated that the episode "was meant to embody the humor, depth, and emotions of The Simpsons,"—and they were pleased with the result.[47]

Awards and critical reaction edit

Weinstein won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons, and shared them with the other producers.[48] When Weinstein was the showrunner and executive producer, "Homer's Phobia" won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1997.[48] The previous year, "Treehouse of Horror VI" was submitted for the award. The staff felt the 3D animation sequence "Homer³" would have given it the edge. The episode eventually lost to Pinky and the Brain. Oakley later expressed regret about not submitting an episode with a more emotionally driven plot, such as "Mother Simpson".[49] In 1996, during season seven, the show received a Peabody Award.[50] Weinstein shared the awards for "Lisa's Wedding" and "Trash of the Titans" in 1995 and 1998 respectively.[48][51][52] Oakley and Weinstein themselves were nominated, along with the show's composer Alf Clausen, for the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics for writing "Señor Burns" from "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)".[48]

Many of the episodes by Oakley and Weinstein are considered amongst the show's best. For example, in 2003, Entertainment Weekly included six episodes they produced ("Homer's Phobia", "A Fish Called Selma", "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", "22 Short Films About Springfield", "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" and "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show") and one episode they wrote ("Who Shot Mr. Burns?") as part of their list of the show's 25 best episodes.[53] Robert Canning of IGN said the episode "You Only Move Twice" from season eight "may well be the greatest Simpsons episode of all time. In my book, it's at least tied," with "Marge vs. the Monorail".[54] A. O. Scott described their era as "reach[ing] a pinnacle of zany self-reference with "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "Simpsons Spin-off Showcase"."[55] Weinstein considers the line "Too crazy for Boy's Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town", from the episode "Treehouse of Horror VII" to be his favorite joke contribution to the show.[56] The two are popular amongst the show's fans,[10] and in the early days of the Internet, Oakley read and participated in fan discussion of the show on newsgroups such as alt.tv.simpsons.[12][33] In 2005 and 2006, they participated in two question-and-answer sessions on the fan message board NoHomers.net.[9][31]

Mission Hill and other work edit

After Oakley and Weinstein left The Simpsons, they created Mission Hill in 1997, a show about a hip, lazy, 24-year-old cartoonist named Andy French, and sold it to The WB for a fall 1999 debut.[9][57] They pitched the show in 1998 "as an animated series for young adults with a sophisticated, 'Simpsons'-style sensibility." They aimed to make the show about realistic issues affecting young adults, which were too mature for The Simpsons.[6] The network was impressed and initially ordered 13 episodes; they ordered five more once the first was completed.[9] Oakley explained: "The audience we're going for is one that's sophisticated, that likes high and low humor, that's very savvy in animation. [But] this show is definitely a case where a lot of people don't get it. It's not setup, setup, setup, punch line. It's observational humor. It's jokes told in a weird way, in the background or with a bizarre sound effect."[6] The show was plagued by "public relations" difficulties, which meant it was "tarnished" from the start. A badly edited two-minute promotional video for the show, sent to advertisers in April 1999 for the annual upfronts, was poorly received. Oakley and Weinstein had been informed that the upfronts did not matter.[6] Similarly, because no episodes were finished in time, journalists were not able to see anything of the show at the network's schedule presentation in July. Subsequently, as Weinstein commented to the Washington Post, "for seven months, the only impression people had of the show was based on a two-minute tape that looked terrible. Six major publications panned it before they even saw it." The pilot garnered largely negative reviews from publications such as The Deseret News; and earned a positive write-up in Variety.[6] Furthermore, the show was forced to change from its originally planned title of The Downtowners due to its closeness to an MTV show.[6] All of these factors combined to ensure the show received little attention, and the WB ran only a few commercials for it. Weinstein stated: "I don't know exactly why America doesn't know about this show. It's like Teen People came out with its fall preview, and we're not even in it."[6] Mission Hill came at a time when the TV schedules were already saturated with animated shows; some of the response could be chalked up to its genre.[10]

The show was put out on a Friday, a night on which the WB had never broadcast before, at 8:00 pm, a time Oakley felt was inappropriate,[6] and aired in front of The Wayans Bros., The Jamie Foxx Show and The Steve Harvey Show, all shows with which Oakley felt it was "incompatible".[9] The show's poor reviews and ratings of an average of 1.8 million led to its swift cancellation.[10][57] Oakley concluded that the pair had been "very naive" with regard to producing the show,[6] and that it "would've been better on cable anyway because it would never have appealed to a broad enough audience due to the subject matter".[10] The 13 completed episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network's adult swim block and the show garnered a worldwide cult following. After lobbying from Oakley and Weinstein, the WB eventually released the series on DVD.[5][9][57]

From 2001 to 2002, the two served as consulting producers on Futurama. They worked for two-and-a-half days a week, contributing jokes and helping with stories. They worked most substantially on the episodes "That's Lobstertainment!" and "Roswell That Ends Well".[9] They produced The Mullets for UPN in 2003.[58] Oakley and Weinstein have written and produced several television pilots. These include a CBS dramedy entitled 22 Birthdays, Business Class, a comedy for NBC about two traveling salesmen, The Funkhousers, an off-the-wall comedy for ABC about a close-knit family which was directed by Frank Oz and The Ruling Class for Fox, about a high school class who all got along, regardless of their social group.[9][59][60] They have written two feature film screenplays: The Optimist for New Line Cinema, in which Seann William Scott was slated to star as a man born with no unhappiness gene,[61] and Ruprecht, a Santa Claus-related comedy for Disney.[62]

Weinstein was due to serve with Oakley as an executive producer on the Fox animated television series Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009, which was created by Mitchell Hurwitz.[63] The show, which was based on an Australian program,[64] featured cartoon characters on live-action backgrounds.[65] However, Oakley ended his involvement with the show due to a contract dispute between the staff and Sony Pictures. Sony refused to offer a contract which operated under the complete terms of the Writers Guild of America. Weinstein continued working on the show,[66] before it was canceled after 13 episodes.[67] Weinstein returned to Futurama, following its revival on Comedy Central in 2010, and served as a writer and co-executive producer on its sixth and seventh seasons.[68][69] He wrote the episodes "That Darn Katz!", "Law and Oracle", "All the Presidents' Heads", "A Farewell to Arms", "Viva Mars Vegas" and T.: The Terrestrial.[70][71][72] Weinstein shared another Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the Futurama episode "The Late Philip J. Fry" in 2011, being nominated again the following year for "The Tip of the Zoidberg".[48] Individually, he received an Annie Award nomination for Writing in a Television Production for the episode "All the Presidents' Heads" in 2011,[73] and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Animation for writing "A Farewell to Arms" in 2013.[74]

In 2013, Weinstein co-created, produced and wrote the animated comedy-mystery series Strange Hill High for British children's channel CBBC. For the series, Weinstein imported the role of the showrunner and the writer's room, used routinely on American television shows like The Simpsons, but uncommon on British television. The show uses the animation technique hypervynorama, a mix of puppetry and CGI.[69][75] Weinstein will also team up with Oakley again to co-write and co-executive produce 22 Birthdays, the failed pilot they originally produced for CBS, as a pilot for Bravo. Doug Liman and Dave Bartis will also be co-executive producers.[76]

On September 17, 2021, Weinstein guest starred as a contestant on the YouTube web series, Puppet History.[citation needed]

In August 2022, Weinstein appeared in an episode of Rate My Takeaway where he enjoyed a burger and fries over a chat with the host Danny Malin. Weinstein was a long time fan of the Youtube channel and when Malin was on a tour of the US they arranged the meet up.[77]

Personal life edit

Weinstein married Lisa Simmons, a West Coast editor of Cosmopolitan, in a Jewish ceremony in 1995.[3] They have two children, twins Molly and Simon, born in 1999.[78]

Credits edit

References edit

  1. ^ @Joshstrangehill (May 5, 2021). "I turn 55 today on 5/5 (and was born 5/5/66) All signs point to... I'm old!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  2. ^ a b Oakley, Bill; Weinstein, Josh (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Phobia" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  3. ^ a b "Weddings; Lisa Simmons, Joshua Weinstein". New York Times. 1995-07-02. Retrieved 2010-08-04.
  4. ^ McCluskey, Eileen (2010). "Harris Weinstein '56, SM '58". Technology Review. Retrieved 2011-06-11.
  5. ^ a b c Fu, Sandra (2003-03-11). "A Lesson On The Concept of "Relatability": Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, Mission Hill". Morphizm. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Waxman, Sharon (1999-10-07). "That's Show Buzz – For the Guys Behind 'Mission Hill,' a Long, Hard Climb". The Washington Post. p. Style C1.
  7. ^ a b Rehling, William E. (1996-05-20). . The Harvard Crimson. Archived from the original on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  8. ^ Philp, Tom (1987-05-13). "Campus Humor Loses In Student Balloting Vote Against Magazine Funding Is No Joke". San Jose Mercury News. p. Extra – 12.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w "Ask Bill & Josh". NoHomers.net. 2005-11-02. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g . Springfield Weekly. Archived from the original on 2007-11-30. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
  11. ^ Oakley, Bill (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Marge Gets a Job" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Oakley, Bill & Weinstein, Josh. (2006). Easter egg Commentary for "Lisa the Simpson", in The Simpsons: The Complete Ninth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  13. ^ "Joshing around". Sunday Herald Sun. 2006-04-02. p. F03.
  14. ^ Oakley, Bill. (2004). DVD Commentary for "Marge in Chains", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  15. ^ Oakley, Bill (2004). The Simpsons The Complete Fifth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror IV" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  16. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "$pringfield". BBC. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  17. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy". BBC. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  18. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song". BBC. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  19. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Lady Bouvier's Lover". BBC. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  20. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  21. ^ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy". BBC. Retrieved 2010-07-29.
  22. ^ Weinstein, Josh (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Bart vs. Australia" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  23. ^ Mirkin, David (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Bart vs. Australia" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  24. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Bart vs. Australia" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  25. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part One)" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  26. ^ Weinstein, Josh (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  27. ^ Mirkin, David (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  28. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  29. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  30. ^ Weinstein, Josh (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "22 Short Films About Springfield" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  31. ^ a b c d "Ask Bill and Josh 2 Q&A Thread". NoHomers.net. 2006-01-08. Retrieved 2010-07-26.
  32. ^ Oakley, Bill (2005). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Marge Be Not Proud" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  33. ^ a b c Oakley, Bill (2010-02-14). Outlook Portland (Interview). Interviewed by Rick Emerson. Portland: KRCW-TV. {{cite interview}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  34. ^ a b c d e Weinstein, Josh (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Enemy" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  35. ^ a b c Turner 2004, pp. 99–106.
  36. ^ Reardon, Jim (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Enemy" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  37. ^ Brooks, James L. (2004). "Bush vs. Simpsons", in The Simpsons: The Complete Fourth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
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Bibliography

External links edit

 
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January 01, 1970
josh, weinstein, other, people, with, same, name, joshua, weinstein, disambiguation, mystery, science, theater, 3000, writer, actor, puppeteer, elvis, weinstein, born, 1966, american, television, writer, producer, known, work, animated, comedy, series, simpson. For other people with the same name see Joshua Weinstein disambiguation For the Mystery Science Theater 3000 writer actor and puppeteer see J Elvis Weinstein Josh Weinstein born May 5 1966 1 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 Josh WeinsteinWeinstein in 2013Born 1966 05 05 May 5 1966 age 57 Washington D C U S OccupationTelevision writer producerPeriod1988 presentGenreComedySpouseLisa Simmons m 1995 wbr Children2 Weinstein and Oakley eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld after which they wrote Marge Gets a Job an episode of The Simpsons Subsequently the two were hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in 1992 After they wrote episodes such as pringfield Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling Bart vs Australia and Who Shot Mr Burns the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family as well as several high concept episodes such as Homer s Enemy Two Bad Neighbors and The Principal and the Pauper winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work After they left The Simpsons Oakley and Weinstein created Mission Hill They worked as consulting producers on Futurama then created The Mullets in 2003 The two wrote several unsuccessful TV pilots and were due to serve as showrunners on Sit Down Shut Up in 2009 Oakley left the project over a contract dispute but Weinstein remained until it was canceled He co produced and wrote for Futurama again during its Comedy Central revival winning an Emmy in 2011 Since 2013 Weinstein has served as showrunner for the CBBC series Strange Hill High and in 2015 Danger Mouse He has also served as a writer for season two of Gravity Falls co writing nine of the season s episodes In 2018 Weinstein co developed the Netflix animated series Disenchantment with creator Matt Groening of which he and Groening served as co showrunners Weinstein is married to journalist Lisa Simmons Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2 1 The Simpsons 2 1 1 As a writer 2 1 2 As showrunner 2 1 3 Leaving the show 2 1 4 Awards and critical reaction 2 2 Mission Hill and other work 3 Personal life 4 Credits 5 References 6 External linksEarly life editWeinstein was born and raised in Washington D C 2 to Rosa and Harris Weinstein His mother is the director of the Himmelfarb Mobile University which provides education for the elderly while his father is a lawyer for Covington amp Burling 3 He has a brother Jacob and a sister Teme 4 Weinstein attended St Albans School in Washington D C where he met and became best friends with Bill Oakley in the eighth grade The two created the school humor magazine The Alban Antic in 1983 5 6 He later attended Stanford University 7 where he served as editor in chief of the Stanford Chaparral 8 Weinstein is an honorary member of the Harvard Lampoon as he worked on some of Lampoon s parody publications with Oakley over the summers between course years 7 Career editWeinstein did not land a job on a major comedy series despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman he moved back home to Washington D C 6 There he worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency writing print adverts for such clients as IKEA 9 In their free time Oakley and Weinstein wrote for local comedy groups such as Gross National Product 6 In 1989 they moved to New York City after being hired to write for a game show on Ha before writing for a variety show on the network featuring Denis Leary 9 The two also wrote for the National Lampoon and Spy 5 An editor of Spy was hired by NBC to run the variety show Sunday Best and took Oakley and Weinstein to Los Angeles with him in 1991 When the show was canceled after three episodes they were unemployed for a lengthy period 9 The Simpsons edit Well we were pretty freaking dedicated I guess We were Simpsons nerds of the first order and were huge fans before we even got hired It was basically the equivalent of getting hired on SNL in 1978 The entire original staff was there The only new guys were Conan and us We lived and breathed that show from 1992 1997 Oakley on his and Weinstein s dedication to the show 10 As a writer edit After changing their agent 6 they wrote a spec script for Seinfeld which was well received Amongst those who liked it were Al Jean and Mike Reiss showrunners of The Simpsons There were no openings on the staff at the time but Oakley and Weinstein were hired to write the episode Marge Gets a Job based on an idea by Conan O Brien 9 The episode aired as part of season four 9 11 Their Seinfeld script and The Simpsons episode caught the attention of Diane English and they were offered a job on a sitcom Before they accepted this job they were told that Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky were leaving The Simpsons and then joined the writing staff on a permanent basis in 1992 in the third season of that show 9 12 They began as story editors 13 They were initially quiet and felt intimidated being in the same room as 10 of the greatest minds in comedy but eventually started pitching jokes with confidence 9 They wrote their scripts together working side by side at a computer 9 Their first episode as staff writers was Marge in Chains an existing idea that they were assigned The first draft of the script was based on research about women in prison conducted by Oakley and Weinstein making it slightly more realistic than the final version of the episode in which many realistic elements were replaced 14 nbsp Weinstein in 1994 After season four most of the original staff left the show Before David Mirkin arrived to take over as showrunner for season five Oakley Weinstein O Brien and Dan McGrath were the only writers working on the show and spent a month mapping out most of the season s episodes 12 Oakley and Weinstein wrote several episodes for season five penning the Terror at 5 Feet segment of Treehouse of Horror IV 15 pringfield Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling 16 Lisa vs Malibu Stacy 17 the show s 100th episode Sweet Seymour Skinner s Baadasssss Song 18 and Lady Bouvier s Lover 19 For season six they wrote Sideshow Bob Roberts basing much of the episode on the Watergate scandal in which they had a great interest 20 as well as Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy and Bart vs Australia 21 For Bart vs Australia the writing staff wanted to produce an episode in which the Simpsons family traveled to a foreign country they selected Australia because they thought that everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and would get the jokes 22 with the episode being intentionally inaccurate 23 The episode proved somewhat controversial some Australian fans said the episode was a mockery of their country Shortly after it had aired the Simpsons staff received over a hundred letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode 24 The pair wrote the two part episode Who Shot Mr Burns which was initially proposed by series creator Matt Groening 25 While deciding who the culprit was Oakley and Weinstein pitched Barney Gumble because he was a character that could go to jail and it could change the dynamic of the show 26 Mirkin suggested Maggie because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member 27 Oakley and Weinstein were initially unsure about having Maggie as the culprit and it was decided that the episode would end with Maggie shifting her eyes and making it look like it was not a complete accident 28 As showrunner edit Oakley and Weinstein were appointed executive producers and showrunners of the seventh and eighth seasons They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics 12 The showrunner is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the show s production Each episode takes ten months to produce so the showrunner must oversee many different episodes in different stages of production all at the same time with roles including head writer making notes on the storyboards and working with the voice actors animators editors and composers Oakley and Weinstein often set two script rewriting rooms in motion at the same time delegating leadership in the rooms to writers such as Steve Tompkins and David Cohen 9 Mirkin who had suggested that the two take over remained on the show in an advisory capacity helping Oakley and Weinstein with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing 9 When they took over the series they wanted many of the episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family and explored their feelings and emotions towards each other 29 They wanted to produce Treehouse of Horror episodes episodes about Sideshow Bob Itchy amp Scratchy and several format bending episodes such as 22 Short Films About Springfield for which Weinstein wrote the scene featuring Comic Book Guy and Milhouse Van Houten 30 They aimed for at least two episodes per season that pushed the envelope and expanded the definition of what an episode could be 9 This was a style they employed for both seasons they produced 31 Season eight featured several episodes in which focus was given to secondary characters and in which new issues were explored such as divorce 31 Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices and several of their guest stars were old grizzled men with distinctive voices such as R Lee Ermey Donald Sutherland Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney 32 Oakley considered season three to be the single greatest comedic season of television ever produced and so attempted to recreate the feel of that season for the two he ran 33 focusing on stories with real emotions and situations as well as some off the wall episodes 9 Season three was their basis for Homer We liked Homer the way he was in the second and third seasons That was what we consciously used as our model Dimwitted loving hyper enthusiastic creatively goofy parody of the American father drawn with real emotions though admittedly amplified This was exemplified in Mother Simpson Lisa the Iconoclast Diddly Dum Doodly and a couple others In some of the less reality based episodes i e the Beer Baron one usually Swartzwelder s we d treat this stricture with a certain amount of latitude 10 One of their most notable episodes was Homer s Enemy an episode designed to push the envelope conceptually The idea for Homer s Enemy was first conceived by Oakley who thought that Homer should have an enemy This evolved into the concept of a real world co worker who would either love or hate Homer The writers chose the latter as they thought it would have funnier results 34 The result was the character of Frank Grimes a man who has had to work hard all his life with nothing to show for it and is dismayed and embittered by Homer s success and comfort in spite of his inherent laziness and ignorance 34 Homer s Enemy explores the comic possibilities of a realistic character with a strong work ethic placed alongside Homer in a work environment In the episode Homer is portrayed as an everyman and the embodiment of the American spirit however in some scenes his negative characteristics and silliness are prominently highlighted 34 35 By the close of the episode Grimes a hard working and persevering real American hero 35 is relegated to the role of antagonist the viewer is intended to be pleased that Homer has emerged victorious 35 Oakley says the episode was hyper meta and focused on parodying to some degree the Homer we don t like That s one of the things that episode is supposed to illustrate Homer gone wrong Although I would argue that in Homer s Enemy he s not even really even all that excessively stupid or immature actually 10 Weinstein said We wanted to do an episode where the thinking was What if a real life normal person had to enter Homer s universe and deal with him I know this episode is controversial and divisive but I just love it It really feels like what would happen if a real somewhat humorless human had to deal with Homer There was some talk on NoHomers net about the ending we just did that because a it s really funny and shocking 2 we like the lesson of sometimes you just can t win the whole Frank Grimes episode is a study in frustration and hence Homer has the last laugh and 3 we wanted to show that in real life being Homer Simpson could be really dangerous and life threatening as Frank Grimes sadly learned 9 When the episode was first broadcast many fans felt it was too dark unfunny and that Homer was portrayed as overly bad mannered 36 On the DVD commentary Weinstein considers this episode one of the most controversial of the seasons he ran as it involves sharp observational humor which many fans didn t get 34 Weinstein also talks about a generation gap the episode was originally panned by viewers but has since become a favorite among fans who grew up with the show 34 Other episodes included Two Bad Neighbors which sees Homer meet former President George H W Bush a reference to the show s feud with the Bushes in the early 1990s 37 Weinstein said that the episode is often misunderstood Many audiences expected a political satire while the writers made special effort to keep the parody apolitical 38 Oakley stresses that it s not a political attack it s a personal attack and instead of criticizing Bush for his policies the episode instead pokes fun at his crotchetiness Oakley described the episode as a companion piece to Homer s Enemy in that a character is juxtaposed alongside Homer and does not get along with him 39 They considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network s executives as is commonplace on other shows 12 This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted as Weinstein commented The great thing about The Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything so there weren t any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn t do Even the crazy high concept ones like Two Bad Neighbors and Homer s Enemy we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us 9 Such was the network s limited input when an executive suggested the staff introduce a new character to live with the Simpsons so as to liven up the show 40 the staff rejected the idea and instead created the episode The Itchy amp Scratchy amp Poochie Show inserting the one time character Roy with no explanation as to who he was or why he was living with the family as a reference to the executive s proposal 41 The episode which marked the point at which The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones for the number of episodes produced for an animated series 42 was named by the BBC as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show They noted the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show 43 The intrusion of the network censors was limited the normal procedure is for an episode s script to be sent to the censor and then faxed back with a list of lines and words that should be substituted causing limited problems as often the offending lines are removed or changed for comedic purposes after animation The episode Homer s Phobia drew the censor s objections Its script came back with two pages of notes about almost every single line The censors stated that they did not like the use of the word gay or the discussion of homosexuality at all and closed with a paragraph which stated that the topic and substance of this episode are unacceptable for broadcast The censor problems ultimately came to nothing when the episode came back from animation in South Korea the then Fox president had just been fired and replaced with the censors being replaced as well The new censors sent back merely one line acceptable for broadcast 2 Leaving the show edit Oakley and Weinstein stood down as showrunners after season eight because they didn t want to break the show Oakley said We always said we d never do a joke that we d done before 6 They felt the showrunner should not stay for more than two seasons 12 Due to the pressures of having to work on two seasons at once writing season eight whilst doing post production of season seven Oakley said that at least two episodes from season eight would ideally have been rewritten had there been sufficient time 31 and that towards the end they were treading water 33 As they were working on post production of season eight they were credited as consulting producers for season nine which was in its initial writing stages 9 Oakley stated that they contributed somewhere between 0 and 0001 of the season only attending the table readings of the scripts 9 They produced three episodes held over from season eight which aired as part of season nine The City of New York vs Homer Simpson 44 The Principal and the Pauper and Lisa the Simpson The Principal and the Pauper was negatively received due to the sudden revelation that long time character Seymour Skinner was actually an imposter For example in his book Planet Simpson Chris Turner describes The Principal and the Pauper as the broadcast that marked the abrupt plunge from The Simpsons Golden Age which he says began in the middle of the show s third season He calls the episode one of the weakest episodes in Simpsons history 45 As such they consider it the most controversial episode from their tenure as executive producers He and Oakley advise viewers to treat The Principal and the Pauper as an experiment They surmise that the negative reception was partly due to the fact that it was not immediately apparent to viewers that this was such an episode as opposed to for example The Simpsons Spin Off Showcase They describe the ending of the episode as an attempt to reset the continuity and allow fans to consider the episode on its own 46 Lisa the Simpson was their final involvement with the show The duo wanted to end on a good note Weinstein stated that the episode was meant to embody the humor depth and emotions of The Simpsons and they were pleased with the result 47 Awards and critical reaction edit Weinstein won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons and shared them with the other producers 48 When Weinstein was the showrunner and executive producer Homer s Phobia won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program For Programming One Hour or Less in 1997 48 The previous year Treehouse of Horror VI was submitted for the award The staff felt the 3D animation sequence Homer would have given it the edge The episode eventually lost to Pinky and the Brain Oakley later expressed regret about not submitting an episode with a more emotionally driven plot such as Mother Simpson 49 In 1996 during season seven the show received a Peabody Award 50 Weinstein shared the awards for Lisa s Wedding and Trash of the Titans in 1995 and 1998 respectively 48 51 52 Oakley and Weinstein themselves were nominated along with the show s composer Alf Clausen for the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics for writing Senor Burns from Who Shot Mr Burns Part Two 48 Many of the episodes by Oakley and Weinstein are considered amongst the show s best For example in 2003 Entertainment Weekly included six episodes they produced Homer s Phobia A Fish Called Selma The City of New York vs Homer Simpson 22 Short Films About Springfield The Simpsons Spin Off Showcase and The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show and one episode they wrote Who Shot Mr Burns as part of their list of the show s 25 best episodes 53 Robert Canning of IGN said the episode You Only Move Twice from season eight may well be the greatest Simpsons episode of all time In my book it s at least tied with Marge vs the Monorail 54 A O Scott described their era as reach ing a pinnacle of zany self reference with 22 Short Films About Springfield and Simpsons Spin off Showcase 55 Weinstein considers the line Too crazy for Boy s Town too much of a boy for Crazy Town from the episode Treehouse of Horror VII to be his favorite joke contribution to the show 56 The two are popular amongst the show s fans 10 and in the early days of the Internet Oakley read and participated in fan discussion of the show on newsgroups such as alt tv simpsons 12 33 In 2005 and 2006 they participated in two question and answer sessions on the fan message board NoHomers net 9 31 Mission Hill and other work edit After Oakley and Weinstein left The Simpsons they created Mission Hill in 1997 a show about a hip lazy 24 year old cartoonist named Andy French and sold it to The WB for a fall 1999 debut 9 57 They pitched the show in 1998 as an animated series for young adults with a sophisticated Simpsons style sensibility They aimed to make the show about realistic issues affecting young adults which were too mature for The Simpsons 6 The network was impressed and initially ordered 13 episodes they ordered five more once the first was completed 9 Oakley explained The audience we re going for is one that s sophisticated that likes high and low humor that s very savvy in animation But this show is definitely a case where a lot of people don t get it It s not setup setup setup punch line It s observational humor It s jokes told in a weird way in the background or with a bizarre sound effect 6 The show was plagued by public relations difficulties which meant it was tarnished from the start A badly edited two minute promotional video for the show sent to advertisers in April 1999 for the annual upfronts was poorly received Oakley and Weinstein had been informed that the upfronts did not matter 6 Similarly because no episodes were finished in time journalists were not able to see anything of the show at the network s schedule presentation in July Subsequently as Weinstein commented to the Washington Post for seven months the only impression people had of the show was based on a two minute tape that looked terrible Six major publications panned it before they even saw it The pilot garnered largely negative reviews from publications such as The Deseret News and earned a positive write up in Variety 6 Furthermore the show was forced to change from its originally planned title of The Downtowners due to its closeness to an MTV show 6 All of these factors combined to ensure the show received little attention and the WB ran only a few commercials for it Weinstein stated I don t know exactly why America doesn t know about this show It s like Teen People came out with its fall preview and we re not even in it 6 Mission Hill came at a time when the TV schedules were already saturated with animated shows some of the response could be chalked up to its genre 10 The show was put out on a Friday a night on which the WB had never broadcast before at 8 00 pm a time Oakley felt was inappropriate 6 and aired in front of The Wayans Bros The Jamie Foxx Show and The Steve Harvey Show all shows with which Oakley felt it was incompatible 9 The show s poor reviews and ratings of an average of 1 8 million led to its swift cancellation 10 57 Oakley concluded that the pair had been very naive with regard to producing the show 6 and that it would ve been better on cable anyway because it would never have appealed to a broad enough audience due to the subject matter 10 The 13 completed episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network s adult swim block and the show garnered a worldwide cult following After lobbying from Oakley and Weinstein the WB eventually released the series on DVD 5 9 57 From 2001 to 2002 the two served as consulting producers on Futurama They worked for two and a half days a week contributing jokes and helping with stories They worked most substantially on the episodes That s Lobstertainment and Roswell That Ends Well 9 They produced The Mullets for UPN in 2003 58 Oakley and Weinstein have written and produced several television pilots These include a CBS dramedy entitled 22 Birthdays Business Class a comedy for NBC about two traveling salesmen The Funkhousers an off the wall comedy for ABC about a close knit family which was directed by Frank Oz and The Ruling Class for Fox about a high school class who all got along regardless of their social group 9 59 60 They have written two feature film screenplays The Optimist for New Line Cinema in which Seann William Scott was slated to star as a man born with no unhappiness gene 61 and Ruprecht a Santa Claus related comedy for Disney 62 Weinstein was due to serve with Oakley as an executive producer on the Fox animated television series Sit Down Shut Up in 2009 which was created by Mitchell Hurwitz 63 The show which was based on an Australian program 64 featured cartoon characters on live action backgrounds 65 However Oakley ended his involvement with the show due to a contract dispute between the staff and Sony Pictures Sony refused to offer a contract which operated under the complete terms of the Writers Guild of America Weinstein continued working on the show 66 before it was canceled after 13 episodes 67 Weinstein returned to Futurama following its revival on Comedy Central in 2010 and served as a writer and co executive producer on its sixth and seventh seasons 68 69 He wrote the episodes That Darn Katz Law and Oracle All the Presidents Heads A Farewell to Arms Viva Mars Vegas and T The Terrestrial 70 71 72 Weinstein shared another Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the Futurama episode The Late Philip J Fry in 2011 being nominated again the following year for The Tip of the Zoidberg 48 Individually he received an Annie Award nomination for Writing in a Television Production for the episode All the Presidents Heads in 2011 73 and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding Animation for writing A Farewell to Arms in 2013 74 In 2013 Weinstein co created produced and wrote the animated comedy mystery series Strange Hill High for British children s channel CBBC For the series Weinstein imported the role of the showrunner and the writer s room used routinely on American television shows like The Simpsons but uncommon on British television The show uses the animation technique hypervynorama a mix of puppetry and CGI 69 75 Weinstein will also team up with Oakley again to co write and co executive produce 22 Birthdays the failed pilot they originally produced for CBS as a pilot for Bravo Doug Liman and Dave Bartis will also be co executive producers 76 On September 17 2021 Weinstein guest starred as a contestant on the YouTube web series Puppet History citation needed In August 2022 Weinstein appeared in an episode of Rate My Takeaway where he enjoyed a burger and fries over a chat with the host Danny Malin Weinstein was a long time fan of the Youtube channel and when Malin was on a tour of the US they arranged the meet up 77 Personal life editWeinstein married Lisa Simmons a West Coast editor of Cosmopolitan in a Jewish ceremony in 1995 3 They have two children twins Molly and Simon born in 1999 78 Credits editSunday Best 1991 writer The Simpsons 1992 1998 writer producer story editor supervising producer consulting producer executive producer showrunner all episodes with Bill Oakley Marge Gets a Job Marge in Chains Treehouse of Horror IV Terror at 5 Feet segment pringfield Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling Lisa vs Malibu Stacy Sweet Seymour Skinner s Baadasssss Song Lady Bouvier s Lover Sideshow Bob Roberts Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy Bart vs Australia Who Shot Mr Burns parts 1 amp 2 22 Short Films About Springfield Milhouse and Comic Book Guy scenes Mission Hill 1999 2002 creator writer executive producer voice of Toby Mundorf Pilot with Oakley Futurama 2001 2002 2010 2013 consulting producer executive producer writer That Darn Katz Law and Oracle All the Presidents Heads A Farewell to Arms Viva Mars Vegas T The Terrestrial The Funkhousers 2001 writer Ruling Class 2002 writer The Mullets 2003 creator executive producer 22 Birthdays 2005 writer Business Class 2007 creator writer Sit Down Shut Up 2009 executive producer writer High School Musical Musical Strange Hill High 2013 14 creator showrunner writer The Awesomes 2013 writer Gravity Falls 2014 2016 writer The Love God Not What He Seems A Tale of Two Stans Dungeons Dungeons amp More Dungeons The Stanchurian Candidate Roadside Attraction Dipper and Mabel vs the Future Weirdmageddon Part 1 Weirdmageddon 3 Take Back The Falls Danger Mouse 2016 writer Disenchantment 2018 2023 writer showrunner executive producer A Princess an Elf and a Demon Walk into a Bar Tiabeanie Falls Freak Out The Pitter Patter of Little Feet Bean Falls Apart References edit Joshstrangehill May 5 2021 I turn 55 today on 5 5 and was born 5 5 66 All signs point to I m old Tweet via Twitter a b Oakley Bill Weinstein Josh 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode Homer s Phobia DVD 20th Century Fox a b Weddings Lisa Simmons Joshua Weinstein New York Times 1995 07 02 Retrieved 2010 08 04 McCluskey Eileen 2010 Harris Weinstein 56 SM 58 Technology Review Retrieved 2011 06 11 a b c Fu Sandra 2003 03 11 A Lesson On The Concept of Relatability Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein Mission Hill Morphizm Retrieved 2010 07 29 a b c d e f g h i j k l m Waxman Sharon 1999 10 07 That s Show Buzz For the Guys Behind Mission Hill a Long Hard Climb The Washington Post p Style C1 a b Rehling William E 1996 05 20 Homer palooza from a Harvard perspective The Harvard Crimson Archived from the original on 2011 08 07 Retrieved 2010 07 29 Philp Tom 1987 05 13 Campus Humor Loses In Student Balloting Vote Against Magazine Funding Is No Joke San Jose Mercury News p Extra 12 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Ask Bill amp Josh NoHomers net 2005 11 02 Retrieved 2010 07 31 a b c d e f g Oakley Weinstein Interview Springfield Weekly Archived from the original on 2007 11 30 Retrieved 2010 07 06 Oakley Bill 2004 The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode Marge Gets a Job DVD 20th Century Fox a b c d e f Oakley Bill amp Weinstein Josh 2006 Easter egg Commentary for Lisa the Simpson in The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD 20th Century Fox Joshing around Sunday Herald Sun 2006 04 02 p F03 Oakley Bill 2004 DVD Commentary for Marge in Chains in The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2004 The Simpsons The Complete Fifth Season DVD commentary for the episode Treehouse of Horror IV DVD 20th Century Fox Martyn Warren Wood Adrian 2000 pringfield BBC Retrieved 2010 07 29 Martyn Warren Wood Adrian 2000 Lisa vs Malibu Stacy BBC Retrieved 2010 07 29 Martyn Warren Wood Adrian 2000 Sweet Seymour Skinner s Baadasssss Song BBC Retrieved 2010 07 29 Martyn Warren Wood Adrian 2000 Lady Bouvier s Lover BBC Retrieved 2010 07 29 Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode Sideshow Bob Roberts DVD 20th Century Fox Martyn Warren Wood Adrian 2000 Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy BBC Retrieved 2010 07 29 Weinstein Josh 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode Bart vs Australia DVD 20th Century Fox Mirkin David 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode Bart vs Australia DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode Bart vs Australia DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode Who Shot Mr Burns Part One DVD 20th Century Fox Weinstein Josh 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Who Shot Mr Burns Part Two DVD 20th Century Fox Mirkin David 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Who Shot Mr Burns Part Two DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Who Shot Mr Burns Part Two DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Home Sweet Homediddly Dum Doodily DVD 20th Century Fox Weinstein Josh 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode 22 Short Films About Springfield DVD 20th Century Fox a b c d Ask Bill and Josh 2 Q amp A Thread NoHomers net 2006 01 08 Retrieved 2010 07 26 Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Marge Be Not Proud DVD 20th Century Fox a b c Oakley Bill 2010 02 14 Outlook Portland Interview Interviewed by Rick Emerson Portland KRCW TV a href Template Cite interview html title Template Cite interview cite interview a Missing or empty title help a b c d e Weinstein Josh 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode Homer s Enemy DVD 20th Century Fox a b c Turner 2004 pp 99 106 Reardon Jim 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode Homer s Enemy DVD 20th Century Fox Brooks James L 2004 Bush vs Simpsons in The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD 20th Century Fox Weinstein Josh 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Two Bad Neighbors DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Two Bad Neighbors DVD 20th Century Fox Groening Matt 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode The Itchy amp Scratchy amp Poochie Show DVD 20th Century Fox Smith Yeardley 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode The Itchy amp Scratchy amp Poochie Show DVD 20th Century Fox McCampbell Marlene 1997 12 26 1997 Timeline Entertainment Weekly Retrieved 2007 03 13 The Simpsons 10 classic episodes BBC News 2010 01 14 Retrieved 2010 01 15 Oakley Bill 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode The City of New York vs Homer Simpson DVD 20th Century Fox Turner 2004 pp 41 42 Oakley Bill Weinstein Josh 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD Commentary for the episode The Principal and the Pauper DVD 20th Century Fox Oakley Bill 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD commentary for the episode Lisa the Simpson DVD 20th Century Fox a b c d e Primetime Emmy Awards Advanced Search Emmys org Archived from the original on 2009 04 03 Retrieved 2009 02 10 Oakley Bill 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode Mother Simpson DVD 20th Century Fox George Foster Peabody Award Winners PDF Peabody uga edu Archived from the original PDF on 2011 07 26 Retrieved 2010 07 26 Mirkin David 2005 The Simpsons The Complete Sixth Season DVD commentary for the episode Lisa s Wedding DVD 20th Century Fox Emmy winners in full BBC News 1998 09 14 Retrieved 2007 03 01 The Family Dynamic Entertainment Weekly 2003 01 29 Archived from the original on 2007 01 16 Retrieved 2010 07 26 Canning Robert 2009 08 04 The Simpsons Flashback You Only Move Twice Review IGN Retrieved 2010 07 14 Scott A O 2001 11 04 How The Simpsons Survives New York Times Retrieved 2012 04 11 Du Vernay Denise 2012 02 14 Best Simpsons Moments Castmembers Share Their Favorite Contributions to Celebrate the 500th Episode OC Weekly Archived from the original on 2013 10 12 Retrieved 2012 05 05 a b c Rizzo Francis 2005 11 29 Mission Hill The Complete Series DVD Talk McDaniel Mike 2003 07 25 Prime Time from LA UPN Gets Fresh Lineup Network goes after younger viewers with a family comedy and a lot of bad hair Houston Chronicle p 10 Speakers Portland Creative Conference Archived from the original on 2010 01 06 Retrieved 2010 07 23 NBC Books Mark Valley in Business Class Zap2it 2007 02 08 Archived from the original on 2011 05 22 Retrieved 2010 07 23 Seann William Scott to Star in The Optimist for New Line Cinema Time Warner 2005 01 12 Archived from the original on 2008 11 18 Retrieved 2010 07 23 Kit Borys 2004 03 29 Disney s Ruprecht coming to town The Hollywood Reporter Littleton Cynthia Schneider Michael 2008 05 11 Fox greenlights Fringe Variety Retrieved 2010 07 31 Sit Down Shut Up TV Interview WC 09 Mitch Hurwitz IGN Retrieved 2009 04 18 Basile Nancy Sit Down Shut Up Q amp A with Will Forte amp Mitchell Hurwitz About com Archived from the original on 2010 05 04 Retrieved 2010 01 16 Schneider Michael 2008 07 16 Bill Oakley exits Sit Down Shut Up Variety Retrieved 2008 07 28 Battaglio Stephen 2009 05 17 Is my favorite show cancelled TV Guide Archived from the original on 2010 01 02 Retrieved 2010 02 21 Garron Barry 2010 06 23 Futurama TV Review The Hollywood Reporter Archived from the original on 2018 01 03 Retrieved 2010 07 31 a b Youngs Ian 2013 04 30 Simpsons writer Josh Weinstein launches British TV show BBC News Retrieved 2013 05 01 Gandert Sean 2010 08 06 Futurama Review That Darn Katz 6 8 Paste Retrieved 2010 08 06 Marnell Blair 2011 07 08 Futurama 6 17 Law and Oracle CraveOnline Archived from the original on 2011 08 17 Retrieved 2011 08 20 Marnell Blair 2011 07 29 Futurama 6 20 All the Presidents Heads CraveOnline Archived from the original on 2012 09 28 Retrieved 2011 08 20 39th Annual Annie Nominations Annie Awards Archived from the original on 2009 12 04 Retrieved 2011 12 21 Villarreal Yvonne 2012 12 06 Writers Guild of America announces TV nominations The Los Angeles Times Retrieved 2013 03 05 Walker Arnott Ellie 2013 04 24 Simpsons writer to create new animated comedy for CBBC Radio Times Retrieved 2013 04 25 Siegel Tatiana 2012 04 04 Oakley and Weinstein team up for 22 Birthdays Chicago Tribune Retrieved 2012 04 16 Having a Takeaway with THE SIMPSONS Josh Weinstein YouTube Weinstein Josh 2006 The Simpsons The Complete Eighth Season DVD commentary for the episode El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer The Mysterious Voyage of Homer DVD 20th Century Fox Bibliography Turner Chris 2004 Planet Simpson How a Cartoon Masterpiece Documented an Era and Defined a Generation Foreword by Douglas Coupland 1st ed Toronto Random House Canada ISBN 978 0 679 31318 2 OCLC 55682258 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Josh Weinstein Josh Weinstein at IMDb Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Josh Weinstein amp oldid 1220802520, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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