Josh Weinstein

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For other people with the same name, see Joshua Weinstein (disambiguation).
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Josh Weinstein
Weinstein in 2013
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

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.

Weinstein and Oakley eventually penned a

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

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

Weinstein was born and raised in

Harvard Lampoon as he worked on some of Lampoon's parody publications with Oakley over the summers between course years.[7]

Career

Weinstein did not land a job on a major comedy series, despite writing numerous

Los Angeles with him in 1991. When the show was canceled after three episodes, they were unemployed for a lengthy period.[9]

The Simpsons

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

After changing their

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

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

Oakley and Weinstein were appointed

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.

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

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."

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

Weinstein won three

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,

message board NoHomers.net.[9][31]

Mission Hill and other work

After Oakley and Weinstein left The Simpsons, they created

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,

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

Disney.[62]

Weinstein was due to serve with Oakley as an executive producer on the Fox animated television series

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

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

Weinstein married Lisa Simmons, a

Jewish ceremony in 1995.[3] They have two children, twins Molly and Simon, born in 1999.[78]

Credits

References

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  3. ^
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Bibliography

External links

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