David M. Stern
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

David Michael Stern is an American television
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...
. Among his first work in television was writing episodes of '' The Wonder Years'' in the late 1980s. He then proceeded to write several episodes of ''The Simpsons'' in the 1990s. In 2010, he developed the animated television series ''
Ugly Americans Ugly American or similar may refer to: *''The Ugly American'', a 1958 novel by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick * ''The Ugly American'' (film), a 1963 film starring Marlon Brando, based on the 1958 novel *Ugly American (pejorative), a term used ...
''. Stern is the younger brother of actor Daniel Stern, who served as the narrator of ''The Wonder Years''.


Career


Early work

Stern worked as a production assistant on the 1988 film ''
Mystic Pizza ''Mystic Pizza'' is a 1988 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Donald Petrie in his feature directorial debut, and starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts and Lili Taylor. It follows the coming-of-age of three young Portuguese-America ...
''. In a 2010 interview with
TV.com TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origin ...
, he revealed: "That was one of my first gigs in LA. I was shocked they gave me a credit because I lasted a week and then got canned. I was a runner, and they told me to go pick up this producer at San Vicente and something, and it turns out there are two San Vicentes in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and I had gone to the wrong one. They gave the assignment of picking up the most important producer on the movie to a guy who had just arrived in LA two weeks before." Stern got his writing break on the television
comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
'' The Wonder Years'', where he was an executive story consultant and wrote eight episodes from 1988 to 1990. He has said in an interview that "I was struggling when I got my break on ''The Wonder Years''; I like to remember it all happening like, "Cut to the next scene." There's an awful lot of blood and sweat in there, me doing massive rewrites on drafts of ''Wonder Years'' scripts on a typewriter, with less time than I've ever had in my life. I conveniently forget all that." Stern was nominated for a 1989
Primetime Emmy Award 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 ...
in the " Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" category for writing the episode "Loosiers" but lost to
Diane English Diane English (born May 18, 1948) is an American screenwriter, producer and director, best known for creating the television show ''Murphy Brown'' and writing and directing the 2008 feature film '' The Women''. Early life English was born in Buf ...
of ''
Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for ''FYI'', a ...
''. He was also nominated for a Humanitas Prize in the "30 Minute Category" for writing the episode "The Powers That Be".


''The Simpsons''

Stern then joined the writing staff of the animated television
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
''. He told TV.com that when he "went from ''The Wonder Years'' to ''The Simpsons'', I could not believe how much story they were packing into each episode. It taught me not to hold on to story—get the fun out of it and move on." During his time on that show, he particularly liked writing the character Marge Simpson and her twin-sisters
Patty and Selma Bouvier Patricia Maleficent "Patty" Bouvier and Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Discotheque-Simpson-D'Amico () are fictional characters in the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. They are identical Twin, twins and are voiced by Julie Kavne ...
, and therefore wrote several episodes revolving around them. Executive producer Mike Reiss said on the audio commentary for Stern's season two episode "
Principal Charming "Principal Charming" is the fourteenth episode of the second season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 14, 1991. In the episode, Marge asks Homer to ...
" (1991) that none of the staff members could relate on a personal level to the twins, but Stern "seemed to really hook in to them, so he did some great episodes featuring members of the
Bouvier family The Simpson family are the fictional characters featured in the animated television series ''The Simpsons''. The Simpsons are a nuclear family consisting of married couple Homer and Marge and their three children, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. T ...
." "
Homer Alone "Homer Alone" is the fifteenth episode of the The Simpsons (season 3), third season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the fiftieth episode overall. It originally aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network in ...
" (1992), which aired during the show's third season, was one of Stern's episodes that focused on Marge. At the time, he had noticed that most of the writers were pitching stories about Bart and Homer, and he thought a "deeper vein of comedy" could be reached by having Marge suffer from a nervous breakdown.Castellaneta, Dan. (2003). Commentary for "Homer Alone", in ''The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season'' VD 20th Century Fox. During the show's fourth season, Stern wrote the episode "
Selma's Choice "Selma's Choice" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 21, 1993. In the episode, Selma decides to have a b ...
" (1993), in which Selma decides she wants a baby. He wanted to go back to a "Patty and Selma episode" because he enjoyed "Principal Charming" and thought it was important to "keep these characters alive." In 1999, Stern was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the "
Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program is a Creative Arts Emmy Award which is given annually to an animated series. In the following list, the first titles listed in gold are the winners; those not in gold are nominees, which ...
" category for writing the season ten episode "
Viva Ned Flanders "Viva Ned Flanders" is the tenth episode of the tenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 10, 1999. In the episode, Ned Flanders, who is revealed t ...
", but lost to the episode "
And They Call It Bobby Love "And They Call It Bobby Love" is the second episode in the third season of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox animated series ''King of the Hill'' and the 37th episode overall, which aired on Fox on September 22, 1998. The episode's plot follows pr ...
" of '' King of the Hill''. Stern's last writing credit to date on ''The Simpsons'' was the season twenty-eight episode "
Kamp Krustier "Kamp Krustier" is the sixteenth episode of the twenty-eighth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'', and the 612th episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on March 5, 2017 and in the United ...
" (2017).


Further work

Stern was co-executive producer for the comedy drama detective television series ''
Monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
'' in 2002, and the sitcom ''
Oliver Beene ''Oliver Beene'' is an American sitcom that premiered on Fox on March 9, 2003. The show was created by Howard Gewirtz. Set in 1962 and 1963, the show chronicled the trials and tribulations of the 11-to-12-year-old Oliver Beene (played by Grant R ...
'' in 2004. In 2010, Stern developed the animated television series ''
Ugly Americans Ugly American or similar may refer to: *''The Ugly American'', a 1958 novel by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick * ''The Ugly American'' (film), a 1963 film starring Marlon Brando, based on the 1958 novel *Ugly American (pejorative), a term used ...
'' that airs on
Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
and is based on a web series called ''5ON''. The series revolves around a social worker employed by the Department of Integration in an alternate reality version of New York City inhabited by monsters and other creatures. Stern has commented that "Dan Powell, who had put together the 5ON thing, contacted me because he liked a particular Simpsons script I wrote Duffless"">Duffless.html" ;"title="Duffless">Duffless" I saw how I could keep the show grounded, but still make it expansive enough through this crazy world that I wouldn't get freaked out on episode three that I was out of stories. That's my biggest nightmare. If you're trying to create 100 episodes, you need to know you can go forever." Stern has commented that he considers ''Ugly Americans'' to be "a dream job, to write a limitless show where we can make anything happen. As long as it makes us laugh and makes other people laugh, I think that really is the dream." He has also noted that on the show, "We [the staff] have a lot of horror comedy elements that I don't see anywhere else. I wrote for ''The Simpsons'' for a few years, and ''Treehouse of Horror (series), Treehouse of Horror'' was always the highlight of the year, but I always sort of wanted more of that. But because of the structure of ''The Simpsons'', it wasn't really possible, being it was so specifically based on this grounded family."


Personal life

Stern is the brother of actor Daniel Stern, who provided the narrating adult voice of the main character Kevin Arnold on ''The Wonder Years''. The ''Simpsons'' episode "
Three Men and a Comic Book "Three Men and a Comic Book" is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the second season (and the ''de facto'' season finale) of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United S ...
" features a ''The Wonder Years'' parody, in which Bart stares into the distance after realizing that he has to get his first job, and an older version of Bart's voice is heard saying: "I didn't realize it at the time, but a little piece of my childhood had slipped away forever that day." Daniel Stern guest starred in the episode as the voice of the adult Bart, and David M. Stern helped the writers get the idioms and the wording of the parody right. He is
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stern, David M. Living people American television writers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) American male television writers