David M. Stern
Encyclopedia
David M. Stern is an American television screenwriter
. 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
. Stern is the brother of actor Daniel Stern
.
. In a 2010 interview with TV.com
, 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
, 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
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
in the "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" category for writing the episode "Loosiers" but lost to Diane English
of Murphy Brown
. He was also nominated for a Humanitas Prize
in the "30 Minute Category" for writing the episode "The Powers That Be".
Stern then joined the writing staff of the animated television sitcom The Simpsons
. 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 onto 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, 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
" (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."
"Homer Alone
" (1992), which aired during the show's third season, was one 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. During the show's fourth season, Stern wrote the episode "Selma's Choice
" (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)
" category for writing the season ten episode "Viva Ned Flanders
", but lost to the episode "And They Call It Bobby Love" of King of the Hill
. Stern's last writing credit on The Simpsons was the season ten episode "Marge Simpson in: 'Screaming Yellow Honkers'" (1999).
in 2002, and the sitcom Oliver Beene
in 2004. In 2010, Stern developed the animated television series Ugly Americans
that airs on Comedy Central
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
"]. 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 "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 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."
, 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
" 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 for ever 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.
Screenwriting
Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is a freelance profession....
. Among his first work in television was writing episodes of The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII....
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 Americans (TV series)
Ugly Americans is an American animated television series created by Devin Clark and developed by David M. Stern. The program focuses on the life of Mark Lilly, a social worker employed by the Department of Integration, in an alternate reality version of New York City inhabited by monsters and other...
. Stern is the brother of actor Daniel Stern
Daniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
.
Early work
Stern worked as a production assistant on the film 1988 Mystic PizzaMystic Pizza
Mystic Pizza is a 1988 American coming of age film directed by Donald Petrie and starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, and Lili Taylor.The title of the film was based on a pizza shop that caught the eye of Hollywood screen writer, Amy Holden Jones...
. In a 2010 interview with TV.com
TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
, 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 Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, 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
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII....
, 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
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming...
in the "Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series" category for writing the episode "Loosiers" but lost to Diane English
Diane English
Diane English is an American film director, screenwriter and producer, known for creating the sitcom Murphy Brown. She also served as writer and executive producer of the sitcom My Sister Sam.-Life and career:...
of Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television...
. He was also nominated for a Humanitas Prize
Humanitas Prize
The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
in the "30 Minute Category" for writing the episode "The Powers That Be".
The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
. 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 onto story—get the fun out of it and move on." During his time on that show, he particularly liked writing the character Marge Simpson
Marge Simpson
Marjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and her twin-sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier, and therefore wrote several episodes revolving around them. Executive producer Mike Reiss
Mike Reiss
Michael "Mike" Reiss is an American television comedy writer. He served as a show-runner, writer and producer for the animated series The Simpsons and co-created the animated series The Critic...
said on the audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
for Stern's season two episode "Principal Charming
Principal Charming
"Principal Charming" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 14, 1991. In the episode, Marge's sister Selma is looking for a husband, so Marge orders Homer to help her find one...
" (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."
"Homer Alone
Homer Alone
"Homer Alone" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 6, 1992. In the episode, stress at home causes Marge to have a mental breakdown and she decides to go on a vacation...
" (1992), which aired during the show's third season, was one 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. During the show's fourth season, Stern wrote the episode "Selma's Choice
Selma's Choice
"Selma's Choice" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season and originally aired on the Fox network on January 21, 1993. In the episode, Selma decides to have a baby, inspired by her late aunt's wish that she would not spend her life alone. She experiences a life with children by...
" (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)
Primetime Emmy Award for 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 which is judged to have been the best...
" category for writing the season ten episode "Viva Ned Flanders
Viva Ned Flanders
"Viva Ned Flanders" is the tenth episode of The Simpsons tenth season. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 10, 1999. In the episode, Ned Flanders, who is revealed to be 60 years old, feels that he has not lived his life to the fullest...
", but lost to the episode "And They Call It Bobby Love" of King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
. Stern's last writing credit on The Simpsons was the season ten episode "Marge Simpson in: 'Screaming Yellow Honkers'" (1999).
Further work
Stern was co-executive producer for the comedy-drama detective television series MonkMonk (TV series)
Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
in 2002, and the sitcom Oliver Beene
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 , in first person perspective...
in 2004. In 2010, Stern developed the animated television series Ugly Americans
Ugly Americans (TV series)
Ugly Americans is an American animated television series created by Devin Clark and developed by David M. Stern. The program focuses on the life of Mark Lilly, a social worker employed by the Department of Integration, in an alternate reality version of New York City inhabited by monsters and other...
that airs on Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
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
"Duffless" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons fourth season and originally aired on the Fox network on February 18, 1993. After getting arrested for drunk driving, Homer tries to remain sober, at Marge's request. Meanwhile, Lisa attempts to prove that Bart is dumber than a hamster after he...
"]. 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 "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 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 SternDaniel Stern (actor)
Daniel Jacob Stern is an American film and television actor. He is known for his roles in the Hollywood films C.H.U.D., Diner, City Slickers and the first two Home Alone films, and as the narrator for the television series The Wonder Years.-Early life:Stern was born in Bethesda, Maryland to a...
, 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
"Three Men and a Comic Book" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons second season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 9, 1991...
" 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 for ever 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.