Al Jean

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Alfred Ernest Jean III (born January 9, 1961) is an American screenwriter and producer.

Jean is best known for his appearance on The Simpsons.

He was born and raised near Detroit, Michigan, and graduated from Harvard University in 1981.

Jean began writing in the 1980s with fellow Harvard alum Mike Reiss.

They worked as writers and producers on television shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, and It's Garry Shandling's Show. Jean was offered a writer on the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1989, alongside Reiss, and they became the first members of the show's original writing staff.

They appeared as showrunners on three (1991) and fourth (1992) seasons, but after season four, they left The Simpsons to create The Critic, an animated film criticy of film critic Jay Sherman.

It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 (then aired its second season on Fox in March 1995) and was well-received by critics, but viewers were unable to follow on, and only lasted for two seasons. Jean and Reiss signed a three-year contract with The Walt Disney Company in 1994 to produce other television shows for ABC, and the pair co-produced and executive produced Teen Angel, which was cancelled in its first season.

During the tenth season (1998), Jean returned full time to The Simpsons.

With the beginning of the thirteenth season without Reiss, he returned to showrunnerdom in 2001.

Jean was also one of the writers and producers who produced The Simpsons Movie, a comedy-length film based on the Simpsons Movie that was released in 2007.

Early life

Alfred Ernest Jean III was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 9, 1961. He was born in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and is of Irish descent. Jean started working at his father's hardware store at the age of 16 years old and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. When he landed at Harvard, Daryl Libow, one of Jean's freshman roommates, said he was a "math whiz," but "soon blossomed and discovered his comedic feet." Jean met fellow freshman Mike Reiss in Harvard Hall, befriended one another, and collaborated in their writing efforts for the humor magazine Harvard Lampoon. "They certainly loomed large around the newspaper," Jeff Martin, another Lampoon writer, wrote. They were both funny guys and remarkably polished comedy writers for the time. We were never surprised that they were on to be a success." The pair spent the majority of their time at the Lampoon, according to Jean, who also stated that "it was practically my second dorm room." He was later identified as vice president of the journal.

Personal life

Jean lives in Los Angeles, California, with his partner, television journalist Stephanie Gillis. Jean has two children as well.

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Career

After graduating in 1981, Jean and Reiss were recruited by the humor magazine National Lampoon. The pair began collaborating on various television programs during the 1980s. During this period, they served as writers and producers on television shows like The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, ALF, Sledge Hammer! It's Garry Shandling's Show. Jean was given a writer position on the animated sitcom The Simpsons, which is a series developed by Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, and Sam Simon, which is still on air today. Because it was a cartoon, many of Jean's friends were not keen on working on The Simpsons, and they did not think it would last long. Jean, on the other hand, was a fan of Groening, Brooks, and Simon, and so he joined Reiss together.

The pair was among the first writers of the original Simpsons' first season (1989-1990) and spent thirteen episodes on the series's first season (1989–90). Jean opined to himself that the series was the best project he had been involved with and wanted to continue working on it for the remainder of his professional career after debuting on television in December 1989. What he loved most about The Simpsons at the time was something he learned from Brooks' previous work: although the display was mainly based on humor, it had depth and warmth.

Although Jean has been credited as the sole writer of several episodes, he believes the process is mainly collaborative: "The principal writer [of an episode] has, in the majority, written 40% of the script." It's a team effort." Even if he or she only contributed to a small part of the final script, the writer who appeared in the episode's opening credits is the one who came up with the concept and wrote the first draft. Lisa Simpson is one of Jean's most favorite characters to write for, according to him. She is the person he most likes because of their common childhoods and the fact that he has a daughter.

Jean became the showrunner of The Simpsons' third season (1991-92) alongside Reiss. The showrunner has the ultimate responsibility of all of the steps that an episode goes through before it is published, including the script, the animation, voice acting, and the music. Jean, when he began his showrunning career, the only thing he did every day was "Don't blow it and screw up this thing everybody loves." "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" was Jean and Reiss' first episode, and they felt compelled to make it good, so much so that they did six to seven rewrites of the script in order to increase its comedy. Jean said he "kept thinking, "It's not strong enough." It's not good enough.' "We were definitely afraid," Reiss said. We had never run before, and they smacked us on this."

Jean and Reiss served as showrunners until the end of the fourth season in 1993. Since the show had already established itself in the first two seasons, they were able to give it more depth during their tenure. Many fans and commentators regard season three and four as the best seasons of The Simpsons, according to Jean. "Mike and Al are responsible for the best thing that has ever appeared on television, which was the third season of The Simpsons," Bill Oakley, another Simpsons writer, has written. Jay Kogen, a comedy writer, has said that "those years with Al Jean and Mike Reiss running it were really darn good." And then there are those that follow, and not so much. Some people did it better than others.

Jean and Reiss left The Simpsons after their fourth season to produce The Critic, an animated film critic Jay Sherman (voiced by Jon Lovitz); Brooks executive produced the film. It was first broadcast on ABC in January 1994 and was well received by critics, but after six weeks, it was suspended due to a lack of followers. It was restored in June 1994 and completed its initial production run. For its second season, the Critic was redirected to the Fox network. Brooks was able to make a crossover between It and The Critic since The Simpsons also aired on the television network.

"A Star Is Burns" (1995), Said crossover occurred. Groening was not keen on the crossover, referring it as a thirty-minute advertisement for The Critic. Al and Mike were two guys who worked their hearts out on this show for years, and Brooks said they stayed up until 4 a.m. to get it right. The point is that Matt's name has appeared on Mike and Al's scripts, and he has deserved praise for a lot of their good work. In fact, he is the direct beneficiary of their jobs. The Critic is their shot, and he should be assisting them." Groening's words made him "very sad" and that "this taints everything at the last minute," Reiss said. "Watch The Critic" isn't in this episode, but it doesn't say anything about it. "What bothers me about all of this is that now people may get the feeling that this Simpsons episode is less than good," Jean said. Even if the Critic never existed, it still stands on its own." The Critic was short-lived on Fox, broadcasting ten episodes before its cancellation. Only 23 episodes were made, and it appeared in 2000 with a series of ten Internet broadcast webisodes. Thanks to reruns on Comedy Central and the complete series on DVD, the series has since developed a following.

Jean and Reiss signed a three-year deal with The Walt Disney Company in 1994 to produce other television shows for ABC. Teen Angel, which was cancelled in its first season, was created and executive produced by the pair. "It was so diluted and overworked," Reiss said. I had 11 executives full-time showing me how to do my job." Both the Simpsons appeared on The Simpsons regularly, for example, they were allowed to write and produce four episodes of the series, including season eight's "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious) (1997).

During the tenth season (1998–99), Jean returned full-time to The Simpsons (1998–99). With the start of the thirteenth season in 2001, he became showrunner again, this time without Reiss. Jean referred to it as "a great job with a lot of responsibility," and "the fact that people adore it so much" is "great." "The hardest thing at this point is just thinking of new ideas," he says. People are so focused on things we've done before, so it's a challenge now to imagine a good idea but that hasn't been seen." Jean's return was initially lauded, with MSNBC's Jon Bonné remarking on the show's decision: "Jean, who took the show's leadership from executive producer Mike Scully in 2001, has led it away from its gag-heavy, Homer-centric incarnation...these are definitely better days for the show's long-time followers." However, some commentators have stated that the show's quality has continued to decline in recent years during Jean's tenure. "Well, it's likely that we've declined," Jean says in response to this criticism. I've been here the whole time, but I do remember in season two people's saying, "I've gone downhill." We may have stopped after episode 13 if we had listened to it. "I'm glad we didn't have to worry."

Jean was one of the writers and producers who contributed to The Simpsons Movie, a film that was released in 2007. In 2001, the show's voice cast agreed to direct the film, and the script was released. The Simpsons' producers were initially worried that filming a film would have a negative effect on the show, because they didn't have enough crews to concentrate their attention on both projects. As the program progressed, additional writers and animators were recruited to ensure that both the show and the film could be produced at the same time. Consequently, Groening and Brooks were able to invite Jean (who continued to work as show runner on the television show) to produce the film with them.

Jean appears on DVD audio commentaries for episodes with which he has collaborated. He told IGN that he likes doing them because he hasn't seen any of the episodes in ten to fifteen years, and that "it's sort of like a reunion to see some of the people that I worked with before," as he said.

He is joint showrunner with Matt Selman as of 2020. In "The Longest Daycare" by Simpsons, he has co-written/produced a number of Simpsons shorts, including "Maggie Simpson" (emmy nominated), "When Billie Met Lisa" (emmy nominated), and "Simpsons : Balenciega) (Won Clio).

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