Mirkin was apprehensive about the job because he was aiming to work on Cheers, a show more focused on character-driven humor which Mirkin preferred writing, but felt he could not turn the opportunity down.

Mirkin " felt was where I belonged.

" A philosophy he carried in to his later work, Mirkin felt that " being the head writer ... was not enough ; you had to see the material through its execution – especially the weirder stuff.

The network executives disliked the pilot after seeing an initial run-through, but Mirkin felt that this was because they " didn't get " the show and opted not to change it.

In a 2004 interview with Animation Magazine, Mirkin stated that he felt that he " brought show back to a more story-oriented " approach and increased the focus on characters and their emotions, although " at the same time still keeping it surreal and weird ".

Mirkin suggested Maggie Simpson as the culprit because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member.

Mirkin decided it would make a great episode, where everyone in Springfield was a member of a Masonic society and Homer was left on the outside and felt neglected.

Mirkin said he felt the gremlin was well-done because he looked scary and " yet it looks like a completely organic Simpsons character ".

Üter, a character from Germany, also makes his first appearance on the show in this segment ; he was conceived as a one-time joke, but reappeared in later episodes because Mirkin felt he was " such a perfect stereotype ".

Mirkin suggested Maggie because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member.

Mirkin felt she was easy to work with because she was versatile and keen to do a lot of different things, and as Mirkin expressed it, " easily evil ".

Mirkin found the experience to be monotonous and unenjoyable and chose to abandon this career path.

James Berardinelli wrote that Mirkin " brings a lot of energy to the production, always keeping things moving ," while Jack Matthews of The Los Angeles Times says Mirkin " knew exactly what he had here and composed it like frames in a comic strip, ordering cheerful snow-cone colors for everything from the girls ' childlike outfits to the decor of a Laundromat.

Created by Brown, Charlie Coffey, and director and executive producer David Mirkin, it was a comedy about actress Julie Robbins ( Brown ), who in this initial story, goes to great lengths to land an interview with teen singer Kiki ( played by Kim Walker ) in the hopes of getting hired as a tabloid-TV celebrity journalist.

Fox was lukewarm about the idea, but Mirkin convinced them to order a pilot by understating how dark the show would be.

The show's production company TriStar Television refused, while Mirkin responded: " The thing about these parodies is they don't hurt a show.

According to David Mirkin, this is a joke about how " huge " Carrey's movies were at the time, and how he was not garnering much respect as an actor.

Mirkin came up with the idea while driving home from a rewrite early in the morning and listened to a religious radio station where they were talking about Freemasonry.

Mirkin was a big fan of the film and pushed for a segment about vampires inspired by the movie.

David Mirkin deliberately placed more graphic violence in the episode due to complaints about excessive violence in the show.

This was because Mirkin was angry about complaints by the United States Congress about the amount of violence in the show and their attempting to censor it.

Executive producer David Mirkin " loved " that the whole situation of Bart seeing the waiter injure himself and not telling the truth ties together with the Homer plot in that it causes Homer to get jury duty and then only caring about going to the hotel.

Mirkin considered Three's Company to have " a classic French farce structure ," as " the characters were so stupid they could never say anything clever.

Mirkin has been cited as introducing a more surreal element to the show's humor, as shown by his sole writing credit for the show, " Deep Space Homer ", which sees Homer Simpson go to space as part of a NASA program to restore interest in space exploration.

Mirkin intended to pursue a career in electrical engineering, which he saw as a more stable employment opportunity than writing or film making.

Mirkin had wanted to cast comedian Chris Elliott in the pilot, but was prevented by Fox, which wanted Elliott for another show.

According to Mirkin, many of the executives struggled to understand it and objected to the darkness and surrealism of the show's humor, which included the frequent death of Elliott's character, and regularly threatened to shut down production.

Unlike most single-camera shows, which have around six days to film, Mirkin had to film each episode in two days.

" Eventually, Mirkin was allowed to rewrite the script himself, which he did in a year's time.

The writers had particular fun writing over the top, melodramatic lines " tortured metaphors ," many of which were penned by producer David Mirkin.

Executive Producer David Mirkin even offered to have him make a brief appearance in a prerecorded bit in which he would be asked if he wanted to take part and he would respond, " No ," as an ironic punchline, but he refused.

Mirkin gave Peabody and Sherman cameo appearance in this segment, which was due to the show Rocky and His Friends being a major influence on The Simpsons.

David Mirkin said that Homer's line " Oh I wish, I wish I hadn't killed that fish " is one of his favorites in the show, and that the alternate future in which the family are rich " breaks heart every time ".

The opening segment of the episode, which features Fox Censor the censor being stabbed to death and was pitched by David Mirkin, had a difficult time getting through the real life censors.

Mirkin had McCartney record the recipe, which was later added in reverse over the original song.

The character, which was pitched by former show runner David Mirkin and portrayed by Castellaneta, has become one of the writers ' favourites, and was series animation director Jim Reardon's favourite joke of the entire season.

Mirkin liked the scene where Bart is punched by Nelson at the playground because Bart takes a while to recover, which made the scene more realistic.

Mirkin did not have time, but worked as writer and consultant on the show's first season, and later returned to direct the 1998 final season episode " The Beginning of the End ".

Mirkin conducted the show's writing sessions in one room, rather than splitting the writers into two groups, as later showrunners would do, and often worked late into the night.

Mirkin later said that recording with the McCartneys was one of the most " amazing " experiences of his life and considers the episode to be one of his favorites.

It was filmed on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City and directed by David Mirkin, who later said that Fox " couldn't have been less supportive " because they thought it would be too expensive.

Mirkin had just become a vegetarian himself, and later noted that many of Lisa's experiences in the episode were based on his own.

Mirkin later said that recording with the McCartneys was one of the most " amazing " experiences of his life.