Peter Tolan
Encyclopedia
Peter James Tolan III is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...

, director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

, and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

Early life and career

Tolan was born in Scituate, Massachusetts
Scituate, Massachusetts
Scituate is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 18,133 at the 2010 census....

 where he was a perrenial favorite in the high school's dramatic productions. Before leaving to pursue a career in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...

, Tolan founded a theater group called YPST (Young People's Summer Theatre). The group performed Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musicals
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 and rehearsed at a local church. Within three years, the productions became so popular that additional rehearsal space had to be acquired and a second production added to accommodate the ever increasing enrollment. Tolan attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...

 for four years before dropping out to directly pursue theater. From college Tolan went to Minneapolis' Brave New Workshop (founded by improv great Dudley Riggs) at the suggestion of stage legend Stubby Kay who appeared with Tolan as a guest star in a UMass theater production.
The legend amongst acquaintances is that Peter swept floors at the theater until he was finally invited to rehearse with the troupe. While in Minneapolis, Tolan collaborated with then "up and coming" comedians such as Louie Anderson and Ken Ober who remained a long time friend. In the mid 80's, Tolan moved to New York City where he and fellow writer-performer Linda Wallem
Linda Wallem
-Background:Wallem was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Rockford, Illinois. She is also the sister of actor Stephen Wallem - who co-stars on her show Nurse Jackie, as a male nurse named Thor.-Early career:...

 formed a double act called Wallem & Tolan and began performing on the cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 circuit in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 at such venues as the Manhattan Punch Line. Wallem and Tolan's forte was cleverly written sketch material which included partially written, partially improvised banter between the two, often with comic twists and surprise endings. Broadway veteran Martin Charnin
Martin Charnin
Martin Charnin is an American lyricist, writer, and theatre director. Charnin's best-known work is as conceiver, director and lyricist of the hit musical Annie....

 caught the act and worked with the duo to present it as an Off Broadway called Laughing Matters in 1989.

Television

Tolan began his career writing for short-lived sitcoms Carol & Company
Carol & Company
Carol & Company is a comedy program airing on NBC-TV in the United States during 1990 and 1991.Carol & Company applied an unusual repertory approach to television comedy. Every week, Carol Burnett and her fellow players performed a different half-hour comedy playlet...

and Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here (U.S. TV series)
Wish You Were Here was an American sitcom that premiered on July 20, 1990 as a summer replacement on CBS in the 9:30pm slot which lasted for only six episodes...

. After writing for and co-producing the first six episodes of Home Improvement he began writing for the hit series 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...

, a three season tenure for which he would share an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series (1992, as co-producer). In 1992 Tolan began writing for the HBO program The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

, for which he received, in his capacity as co-/executive producer, three CableACE Awards for Comedy Series and an Emmy for co-writing (with series lead Garry Shandling
Garry Shandling
Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....

) the series finale "Flip".

After writing for several more programs (Ellen
Ellen (TV series)
Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...

, Buddies
Buddies (TV series)
Buddies is the name of a short-lived sitcom starring Dave Chappelle that aired on ABC in 1996.-Home Improvement connection:Comedians Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer attracted the attention of TV network executives with their guest appearance in the March 14, 1995 episode of ABC's highly rated sitcom...

, Good Advice
Good Advice (TV series)
Good Advice is an American situation comedy series that aired for two seasons on CBS from 1993 to 1994. It was co-created and executive produced by Danny Jacobson and starred Shelley Long and Treat Williams.-Synopsis:...

), and creating the short-lived sitcoms Style & Substance
Style & Substance
Style & Substance was a television situation comedy that premiered on CBS July 22, 1998.The show starred Jean Smart as Chelsea Stevens, a Martha Stewart-like star of a how-to home show, and Nancy McKeon as her producer, Jane Sokol, a small-town girl new to New York City...

and The George Wendt
George Wendt
George Robert Wendt III is an American actor, best known for the roles of Norm Peterson and Tug Clarke on the television shows Cheers and Modern Men.-Early life:...

 Show
, Tolan co-created the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 satiric comedy The Job
The Job (TV series)
The Job was a single-camera television comedy drama about a New York City police officer named Mike McNeil -- who indulges in adultery, alcohol, cigarettes and prescription drug abuse—and his fellow 'bumbling detective' pals...

with comedian Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...

, who would also star as an amoral and hedonistic NYPD detective. Though critically lauded, the series languished in the ratings and was canceled after two short seasons. Tolan went on to create the similarly short-lived sitcom Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central)
Wednesday 9:30 (8:30 Central)
Wednesday 9:30 is an American sitcom which aired on ABC in 2002. The series was created by Peter Tolan.-Premise:...

, a mid-season replacement about an idealistic television executive who joins a struggling network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...

, that was canceled by ABC after only five episodes aired. In 2004, however, Tolan found success with the FX drama Rescue Me
Rescue Me (TV series)
Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...

, again starring co-creator Denis Leary as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 firefighter
New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department or the Fire Department of the City of New York has the responsibility for protecting the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as providing first response...

 Tommy Gavin, who bears many similarities to Leary's character from The Job. The series has been well received by both critics and audiences, garnering Emmy nominations for Tolan and Leary and averaging 2.7 and 2.8 million viewers for its first and second seasons, respectively. It is currently (as of 2010) in its sixth season. Tolan, with former Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...

star Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry (actor)
Matthew Langford Perry is a Canadian-American actor and comedian, best known for his Emmy-nominated role as Chandler Bing on the popular, long-running NBC television sitcom Friends...

 has produced a pilot called The End of Steve, a dark-comedy about a depressed, foul-mouthed talk show host. It is currently being shopped to cable networks.

Film

Tolan has also found success in film, having written the hit comedy Analyze This
Analyze This
Analyze This is a 1999 gangster comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. The film stars Robert De Niro as a mafioso and Billy Crystal as a psychiatrist...

and its sequel
Analyze That
Analyze That is a 2002 mafia comedy film, and a sequel to the 1999 film Analyze This. The film was directed and co-written by Harold Ramis and stars Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal who respectively reprise their roles as mobster Paul Vitti and psychiatrist Ben Sobel.-Plot:Near the completion of...

 as well as the films My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear in supporting performances...

, Bedazzled
Bedazzled (2000 film)
Bedazzled is a 2000 film remake of the 1967 film Bedazzled , originally written by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, which was itself a comic retelling of the Faust legend...

, America's Sweethearts
America's Sweethearts
America's Sweethearts is a 2001 romantic comedy film, directed by Joe Roth, starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, John Cusack, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film also stars Keri Lynn Pratt, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Walken, and features a cameo appearance...

, Guess Who
Guess Who (film)
Guess Who is a 2005 American comedy film about race relations directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan. It is a loose remake of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, in the form of a romantic comedy...

and Just Like Heaven. In 2008 Tolan made his directorial debut with Finding Amanda
Finding Amanda
Finding Amanda is a 2008 comedy film directed by Peter Tolan and starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow. The plot revolves around a television producer with a penchant for drinking and gambling, who is sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to enter rehabilitation.Finding Amanda was...

, a semi-autobiographical film starring Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick is an American film and stage actor who, among other roles, played the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Adult Simba in The Lion King film series, and Leo Bloom in the film and Broadway productions of The Producers.He has won two Tony Awards, one in 1983 for his...

 and Brittany Snow.

Personal life

Tolan is married to editor Leslie Tolan, and has a daughter, Beatrice, and two sons, Ben and Petey, one from a previous marriage.

Filmography

  • Carol and Company (1990) (TV)
  • Wish You Were Here
    Wish You Were Here (U.S. TV series)
    Wish You Were Here was an American sitcom that premiered on July 20, 1990 as a summer replacement on CBS in the 9:30pm slot which lasted for only six episodes...

    (1990) (TV)
  • Home Improvement (1991) (TV)
  • 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...

    (1991–1993) (TV)
  • Good Advice
    Good Advice (TV series)
    Good Advice is an American situation comedy series that aired for two seasons on CBS from 1993 to 1994. It was co-created and executive produced by Danny Jacobson and starred Shelley Long and Treat Williams.-Synopsis:...

    (1994) (TV)
  • The George Wendt Show
    The George Wendt Show
    The George Wendt Show is an American television sitcom that aired on on CBS from March 8, to April 12, 1995. Based on the radio show Car Talk, the series was a star vehicle for George Wendt after co-starring in the NBC sitcom Cheers throughout its run...

    (TV)
  • Buddies
    Buddies (TV series)
    Buddies is the name of a short-lived sitcom starring Dave Chappelle that aired on ABC in 1996.-Home Improvement connection:Comedians Dave Chappelle and Jim Breuer attracted the attention of TV network executives with their guest appearance in the March 14, 1995 episode of ABC's highly rated sitcom...

    (TV)
  • My Fellow Americans
    My Fellow Americans
    My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear in supporting performances...

    (with E. Jack Kaplan and Richard Chapman
    Richard Chapman
    At the time of Queen Elizabeth I, Richard Chapman was the owner of a private shipyard at Deptford, had the title of 'Queen's Master Shipwright,' and had been involved in the construction of river defences along the Thames, along with Peter Pett and Mathew Baker, two other important shipwrights of...

    ) (1996)
  • Ellen
    Ellen (TV series)
    Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...

    (1997) (TV)
  • The Dave Chapelle Project (TV)
  • Style & Substance
    Style & Substance
    Style & Substance was a television situation comedy that premiered on CBS July 22, 1998.The show starred Jean Smart as Chelsea Stevens, a Martha Stewart-like star of a how-to home show, and Nancy McKeon as her producer, Jane Sokol, a small-town girl new to New York City...

    (TV)
  • The Larry Sanders Show
    The Larry Sanders Show
    The Larry Sanders Show is a satirical television sitcom that aired from August 1992 to May 1998 on the HBO cable television network in the United States. It starred stand-up comedian Garry Shandling as vain, neurotic talk show host Larry Sanders, and centered on the running of his TV show, and the...

    (1992–1998) (TV)
  • Analyze This
    Analyze This
    Analyze This is a 1999 gangster comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Kenneth Lonergan and Peter Tolan. The film stars Robert De Niro as a mafioso and Billy Crystal as a psychiatrist...

    (with Harold Ramis
    Harold Ramis
    Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...

     and Kenneth Lonergan
    Kenneth Lonergan
    Kenneth Lonergan is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.-Background and education:Born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, Lonergan began writing in high school at the Walden School .His first play, The Rennings Children, was chosen for the Young Playwright's Festival in...

    ) (1999)
  • What Planet Are You From?
    What Planet Are You From?
    What Planet Are You From? is a 2000 comedy film starring Garry Shandling and Annette Bening. It was directed by Mike Nichols.-Plot:A denizen of a faraway planet occupied only by highly evolved males is ordered to find a female human, impregnate her and bring the baby back to the planet...

    (with Garry Shandling
    Garry Shandling
    Garry Emmanuel Shandling is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is best known for his work in It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Larry Sanders Show....

    , Michael J. Leeson
    Michael J. Leeson
    Michael J. Leeson is an American screenwriter.-Filmography:*Love, American Style *All in the Family *The Partridge Family *The Odd Couple *Happy Days...

     and Ed Solomon
    Ed Solomon
    Ed Solomon is an American writer, producer and director. After graduating from Saratoga High School and UCLA, Solomon came to fame as one half of the writing duo that created the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its sequel.Solomon was born in Saratoga, California...

    ) (2000)
  • Bedazzled
    Bedazzled (2000 film)
    Bedazzled is a 2000 film remake of the 1967 film Bedazzled , originally written by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, which was itself a comic retelling of the Faust legend...

    (with Harold Ramis
    Harold Ramis
    Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...

     and Larry Gelbart
    Larry Gelbart
    Larry Simon Gelbart was an American television writer, playwright, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...

    ) (2000)
  • America's Sweethearts
    America's Sweethearts
    America's Sweethearts is a 2001 romantic comedy film, directed by Joe Roth, starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, John Cusack, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film also stars Keri Lynn Pratt, Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Seth Green, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Walken, and features a cameo appearance...

    (with Billy Crystal
    Billy Crystal
    William Edward "Billy" Crystal is an American actor, writer, producer, comedian and film director. He gained prominence in the 1970s for playing Jodie Dallas on the ABC sitcom Soap and became a Hollywood film star during the late 1980s and 1990s, appearing in the critical and box office successes...

    ) (2001)
  • My Adventures in Television (2002) (TV)
  • The Job
    The Job
    The Job may refer to:* The Job , a 1917 novel by Sinclair Lewis* The Job , a 1998 novel by Douglas Kennedy* The Job , an action film starring Daryl Hannah...

    (2001–2002) (TV) (also co-creator, with Denis Leary
    Denis Leary
    Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...

    )
  • Stealing Harvard
    Stealing Harvard
    Stealing Harvard is a 2002 crime comedy film directed by Bruce McCulloch, about a man who resorts to crime to pay for his niece's Harvard tuition....

    (with Martin Hynes
    Martin Hynes
    Martin Hynes is an American screenwriter, director, actor and producer of independent films.-Life and career:Hynes was born and raised in Eugene, Oregon and has a bachelors degree in history from Columbia University....

    ) (2002)
  • Analyze That
    Analyze That
    Analyze That is a 2002 mafia comedy film, and a sequel to the 1999 film Analyze This. The film was directed and co-written by Harold Ramis and stars Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal who respectively reprise their roles as mobster Paul Vitti and psychiatrist Ben Sobel.-Plot:Near the completion of...

    (with Harold Ramis
    Harold Ramis
    Harold Allen Ramis is an American actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters and Russell Ziskey in Stripes , both of which he also co-wrote...

     and Peter Steinfeld
    Peter Steinfeld
    Peter L. Steinfeld is an American screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for writing mystery film Drowning Mona , comedy film Be Cool and drama film 21 .-Early life:...

    ) (2002)
  • Phil at the Gate (with Phil Hendrie
    Phil Hendrie
    Philip Stephen Hendrie is an American radio personality. He is best known as the host of The Phil Hendrie Show, a comedy talk radio program that is syndicated throughout North America on Talk Radio Network...

    ) (2003) (TV)
  • Guess Who
    Guess Who
    Guess Who may refer to:*The Guess Who, a rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada*Guess Who is a 1972 album by B.B. King*Guess Who , a Romanian hip hop artist*Guess Who?, a 1980s guessing game made popular by the Milton Bradley Company...

    (with David Ronn and Jay Scherik) (2003)
  • Rescue Me
    Rescue Me (TV series)
    Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...

    (2004) (TV) (also co-creator, with Denis Leary
    Denis Leary
    Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...

    )
  • Just Like Heaven
    Just like Heaven
    Just Like Heaven is an American romantic comedy fantasy film released on September 16, 2005, in the United States and Canada.Set in San Francisco, it was directed by Mark Waters, starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jon Heder.It is based on the novel If Only It Were True by Marc Levy...

    (with Leslie Dixon
    Leslie Dixon
    Leslie Dixon is an American screenwriter and producer. Some of the screenplays she has written include: Outrageous Fortune, Overboard, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Thomas Crown Affair, Pay It Forward, and Hairspray. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for her Freaky Friday screenplay...

    ) (2005)
  • Fort Pit (2007) (TV)
  • Finding Amanda
    Finding Amanda
    Finding Amanda is a 2008 comedy film directed by Peter Tolan and starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Snow. The plot revolves around a television producer with a penchant for drinking and gambling, who is sent to Las Vegas to convince his troubled niece to enter rehabilitation.Finding Amanda was...

    (2008) (TV)
  • The End of Steve (2008) (TV)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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