In the early ’90s I was a comedian and an aspiring writer. I made my living in three ways: During the day, I worked for Comic Relief, producing benefits for the homeless at comedy clubs, for which I was paid $200 a week. I did stand-up comedy at the Improv and on the road. And I wrote jokes for other comedians, such as Roseanne Barr, Tom Arnold, Jeff Dunham, George Wallace, Taylor Negron, and Garry Shandling.
I was looking for my big break and it was not coming. Some of my friends were able to get jobs as staff writers on the TV show Roseanne, but I couldn’t seem to make that happen. Some of my other friends, such as David Spade and Rob Schneider, and later Adam Sandler, were hired to be writer/performers on Saturday Night Live, but I was never able to get them to hire me. Jim Carrey used to pay me out of his own pocket to write sketches with him for In Living Color, but I could never turn that into an official staff job.
I was frustrated and needed to make a move, so I decided to write a spec script, which is basically a sample of writing, in the hopes of getting hired to write for a sitcom. My two favorite television programs at the time were The Simpsons and Chris Elliott’s Get a Life. I sat down over the course of a month or two and wrote one spec episode of each program. At the time, I thought they came out really well, but when I sent them around town, I didn’t get hired by any of the shows I applied to and was only able to get one meeting, which was with David Mirkin at Get a Life, but I think I only got that meeting because Garry Shandling forced him to meet with me.
The only other feedback I got about my two spec scripts was from Mike Reiss and Al Jean, who were running The Simpsons. I was told that they had liked my scripts, but they didn’t need any writers at that moment. Even though it was a rejection, it did give me some self-esteem. The writers of my favorite show had said something positive. That wouldn’t pay my rent, but it was much better than the reaction I had gotten from every other show on television at the time, which was silence.
Being unable to find a staff job, I started working on a variety of projects, eventually including The Ben Stiller Show. After the show was canceled, which was just a few months into our run, I got a call from Mike Reiss who told me that he and Al were creating a new show called The Critic, and he wanted to know if I would like to join their staff. I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t just being nice when he’d said he liked my Simpsons spec. And twenty-two years later, Mike and Al called me and said they wanted to turn that spec into an actual Simpsons episode.
I re-read it and it was pretty weak, with a few moments of promise. The fact that Mike could see that promise in me when I was still a kid and that he was excited about it was career-changing for me. I certainly didn’t deserve to be in that room. I didn’t know anything about writing stories. I hadn’t earned my way in. But he saw something in me and was very enthusiastic about my writing and my career. When you’re young, you’re so thrilled to get a job that you don’t think much about what an incredibly giving gesture it is for someone to champion you and open that door for you.
When I was sitting in the writer’s room of The Critic, I was aware that I was sharing that space with some of the best comedy writers in the world. I was in awe on a daily basis. Most of all, I was in awe of Mike, who was endlessly funny and kind. Always in a great mood, he’d pitch line after line and was so funny that it made me scared to pitch at all, but I forced myself to and got an amazing comedy education from Mike, Al, and James Brooks. I have read and watched everything Mike has created, and he is an inspiration as a brilliant comic mind and as a genuinely fantastic person who has done nothing but make earth a happier place to live. God bless Mike Reiss.
—Judd Apatow