The scene was directed by David Mirkin and was the first time a Simpsons character had been in the real world in the series.

Throughout his childhood, Mirkin had an interest in film, and explored both writing and filming.

Mirkin pitched to the series ' story editors for several years without success, because they had very limited script buying power.

" This meant Mirkin had to adapt his preference for character-driven comedy to fit the show ; it " forced you to put all the cleverness into the plot, a much more difficult thing to do.

It was the first nomination the show had received in that category and for the first episode Mirkin wrote as the series ' showrunner.

" 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.

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

Mirkin served as executive producer for the series, directed most of the episodes, wrote several of them, and oversaw the filming and production of them all, to ensure that they had the correct " tone ".

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

Mirkin had long wished to produce a sketch show, and designed The Edge to be " fast-paced " and " some skits overlap, end abruptly or are broken into segments ," in order to maintain attention.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Mirkin had been " forced off the show ," due to the negative reaction of Spelling and others, though in 2012, Mirkin stated that he left the series after refusing to accept a substantially reduced budget.

Due to the high staff departure at the end of season four, Mirkin " pretty much had to build show from the ground up again ," and noted that this " was exciting but also a big challenge.

In 2004, Mirkin stated that he " really wasn't at all intimidat to join show's writing crew ," because he " had worked with and written with " many of his fellow writers previously and concluded that, " took this show in a direction that is more personal to me.

" Lisa the Vegetarian " was approved by Mirkin after the story was pitched by Cohen ; Mirkin had just become a vegetarian himself, and so many of Lisa's experiences in the episode were based on his own.

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.

In 1999, several of the Fox executives who had disliked Get a Life came to Mirkin and apologized for the way they had treated the show, stating that they now found it funny.

In the early 1990s, Mirkin was in a relationship with actress Julie Brown, with whom he had worked on The Julie Show and The Edge ; the two considered getting married.

On 9 January 1913, Jacob had married Marie Mirkin, who came to Amsterdam from Warsaw in May 1913.

David Mirkin had the initial idea for the episode, Steve O ' Donnell was the lead writer, and Steven Dean Moore directed.

Mirkin had been the show runner during seasons five and six, but had been brought back to run two episodes during the ninth season.

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 worked on the concept for a long time, basing the story on NASA's Teacher in Space Project scheme to send ordinary civilians into space in order to spark interest amongst the general public.

The main group of writers that worked on the episode were Mirkin, O ' Donnell, Jace Richdale and Kevin Curran.

Mirkin thought it " worked really well ".

The Simpsons writer David Mirkin said that one of his favorite jokes on the show is the one where Grampa cycles down the street in high speed and shouts that he feels young again, and is then knocked flying from his bicycle after a doll's head flies into the spokes and falls into an open grave.

Mirkin stood down as showrunner after season six, but produced several subsequent episodes, co-wrote The Simpsons Movie ( 2007 ) and remains on the show as a consultant.

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 the experience " taught a lot about structure " which greatly aided his later work on character-focused shows.

Still hoping to work on Cheers, Mirkin sent a spec script of an episode of Taxi to Cheers writers Ken Levine and David Sacks.

The episodes were commissioned, but Mirkin's agent rejected the Cheers job without telling his client, failing to see why Mirkin would want to work on what was then the lowest-rated comedy on television.

Mirkin sacked the agent and signed on with Robb Rothman.

Mirkin wrote a freelance script and in 1984 beat seven other writers to a staff position on the series.

" Mirkin left Newhart in 1988, desiring to work on a single-camera sitcom.

However, Mirkin and Elliott refused to " on the essential goofiness of the show.

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 ".

Ortved — using interviews with writers Bob Kushell and Brent Forrester and Mirkin's assistant Charleen Easton — describes Mirkin as an " outsider " on the show, with the writing staff, at least initially, divided with respect to Mirkin's comedy and leadership style.

During re-writes, Mirkin and the other writers placed greater emphasis on the relationship between Homer and his family and on Homer's attempts to be a hero, but most of Mirkin's original script was retained.

After season six, Mirkin suggested Oakley and Weinstein take over as showrunners, but remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping them with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing, and attending table readings of the scripts.

Mirkin still works part-time on the show as a consultant, helping with the re-write process.

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

The idea for the episode came from James L. Brooks, who called David Mirkin and pitched the idea as traveling to the future and Lisa meeting the perfect guy, who in turn cannot stand her family.

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.

The episode was the second and last episode written by Steve O ' Donnell and was based on an idea from David Mirkin.

Mirkin, a " big " Peanuts fan, came up with the idea for the ending of " Bart Simpson's Dracula ".

The idea for the set piece with electric cars at the beginning of the episode came from Kevin Nealon, who was a friend of former showrunner David Mirkin.

Former The Simpsons < nowiki >'</ nowiki > show runner David Mirkin originally came up with the idea of Bart having a girlfriend that was more evil than he was.

David Mirkin, who was show runner at the time, originally had the idea of Bart having a girlfriend that was more evil than he was.

Mirkin gave the idea to Collier to write it with the help of the show's executive producer, James L. Brooks.