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Jay Steven Kogen (born May 3, 1963) is an American comedy writer.

Early life[link]

Jay Steven Kogen was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is the son of Mad writer Arnie Kogen, and Sue Kogen (née Hirsch). His paternal grandparents, Samuel Kogen and Pauline Gorin, were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire (now Ukraine), while his maternal grandparents, Harold Hirsch and Ida "Chicky" Ellenberg, also Jewish, were born in New York. On his father's side, he is a distant relative of 1930's actor John Garfield.

In 1968 his family relocated to Los Angeles, California. In 1981 he graduated from Birmingham High School.

Career[link]

He has co-written several episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show and The Simpsons along with former writing partner Wallace Wolodarsky. Since then, he has written for several shows, including an Emmy Award winning stint at Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, George Lopez, and Malcolm in the Middle. Kogen also made an appearance in The Aristocrats. He was a consulting producer on The Class, co-writer of the Dave Foley/David Anthony Higgins 1997 film The Wrong Guy, as well as being a former stand-up comedian.

My World and Welcome to It: Executive Producers are Jay Kogen, Kim Tannenbaum, Barry Sonnenfeld & Mitch Hurwitz. Comedy based on James Thurber's collection of essays about being a dad in the 1960s. Production: Sony Pictures Television & Tantamount.

In 2009, He started working on the Nickelodeon TV series The Troop.

Personal life & family[link]

Kogen married Lynn "Brown" Mandell (better known as Brown Kogen) on May 31, 1997. They currently reside in Los Angeles, California with their son, Charlie (b. 2001).

Filmography[link]

The Simpsons

• "Homer's Odyssey"
• "Krusty Gets Busted"
• "Treehouse of Horror"
• "Bart the Daredevil"
• "Old Money"
• "Like Father, Like Clown"
• "Lisa the Greek"
• "Bart's Friend Falls in Love"
• "Treehouse of Horror III"
• "Last Exit to Springfield"

Malcolm in the Middle

• "Tiki Lounge"
• "College Recruiters"
• "Hal's Dentist"

External links[link]

• Jay Kogen at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article related to television in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Arnie Kogen is an American comedy writer and producer. He had written for TV, film, and a longtime writer for Mad Magazine.

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Kogen contributed to Mad soon after college at New York University. He moved on to writing for Candid Camera, The Les Crane Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

In 1965 he co-wrote the feature film Birds Do It, starring Soupy Sales.

He moved to California with his family in 1968. His many variety and sitcom credits include The Dean Martin Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Rich Little Show, The Tim Conway Show, The Golden Globes (1972–1975), Donny and Marie, An Evening at the Improv, Newhart, Empty Nest, and MADtv.

Kogen has written comedy material for many entertainers including Steve and Eydie, Totie Fields, Flip Wilson, Jackie Vernon, Sammy Davis, Jr., Debbie Reynolds, Connie Stevens and Shelley Berman.

Kogen has won 3 Emmy Awards (7 nominations) and one WGA Award (3 nominations).

His son Jay Kogen, also a comedy writer, was an original writer for the animated television series The Simpsons.

External links[link]

• Arnie Kogen at the Internet Movie Database
• Complete list of Kogen's articles for MAD Magazine
• Arnie Kogen quoted in history of MAD Magazine

This article about a television writer from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Alan Zweibel
Born	(1950-05-20) May 20, 1950 (age 62) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Author, Playwright, Screenwriter, Producer, Director, Actor
Spouse(s)	Robin Zweibel (1979-)
Children	Adam Zweibel (born 1981) Lindsay Zweibel (born 1984) Sari Zweibel (born 1989)
www.alanzweibel.com

Alan Zweibel (born May 20, 1950) is an American producer and writer who has worked on such productions as Saturday Night Live, PBS' Great Performances, and It's Garry Shandling's Show.

Early life[link]

Born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, Zweibel grew up in the New York City suburbs of Wantagh and Woodmere on Long Island.^[1] He graduated from George W. Hewlett High School in 1968 and The University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 1972.^[2]

Upon graduation from college, Zweibel started writing for stand-up comedians who paid him seven dollars a joke. He later compiled over 1,100 of them into a portfolio which he showed to producer Lorne Michaels who then hired Zweibel to be one of the original writers of a new show called Saturday Night Live.

Television[link]

During his five years at SNL (1975–1980), Zweibel wrote many memorable sketches including the Samurai for John Belushi, and helped to create the characters of Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella, both played by Gilda Radner. In fact, on Weekend Update, Radner read letters supposedly from Richard Feder of Fort Lee, New Jersey who in real life was Zweibel's brother-in-law and did live in Fort Lee, New Jersey.^[3]

Zweibel’s close friendship and collaboration with Gilda Radner extended beyond their tenure at Saturday Night Live - as her last television appearance was on an episode of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show which Zweibel co-created and produced. After Radner’s death from ovarian cancer, Zweibel wrote a bestselling book about their relationship titled Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner - a Sort of Love Story which he later adapted into an off-Broadway play.

Zweibel has won multiple Emmy, Writers Guild of America, and TV Critics awards for his work in television which also includes Monk and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Publishing, Theater and Film[link]

In addition to Bunny Bunny, Zweibel's other books include The Other Shulman - a novel that won the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor. His popular children’s book, Our Tree Named Steve, was a Scholastic Book Club selection that has been translated into eleven languages, and his young adult novel, North, was made into a movie directed by Rob Reiner. A collection of short stories and essays, Clothing Optional, was published by Villard in 2008.

In 2011 Price World Publishing dusted off some stories Zweibel had written years ago into the eBook "From the Bottom Drawer of: Alan Zweibel". Zweibel and Dave Barry collaborated to write the novel Lunatics to be released in January 2012. Universal Pictures acquired 'Lunatics' to produce as a film that will star Steve Carell. ^[4]

His humor has appeared in such diverse publications as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Op-Ed Page, The Huffington Post, and Mad Magazine.

In the theater, Zweibel’s work has appeared both on and off Broadway. On Broadway, he co-wrote Fame Becomes Me with Martin Short and collaborated with Billy Crystal on the Tony Award-winning production of 700 Sundays. Zweibel’s off-Broadway shows include Between Cars, Comic Dialogue, Bunny Bunny, and Happy.

His film credits include Dragnet, The Story of Us, and North which so infuriated film critic Roger Ebert that he penned a now-famous review, one line of which later served as the title of Ebert's book, I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie; Zweibel carries a clipping of the review in his wallet and reads it at public appearances to the delight of audiences.^[5]

Personal[link]

In 2009, Zweibel was awarded an honorary PhD. by the State University of New York and the following year, he was awarded the Ian McLellan Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award by the Writers Guild of America, East.

Zweibel and his wife Robin, who met while they were both working on Saturday Night Live, live in Short Hills, New Jersey. They have three children, Adam, Lindsay and Sari and two grandchildren Zachary and Alexis.

Bibliography[link]

• North (1984)
• Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner- A Sort of Love Story (1994)
• The Other Shulman: A Novel (2007)
• Our Tree Named Steve (2007)
• Clothing Optional: And Other Ways to Read These Stories (2008)
• From the Bottom Drawer of: Alan Zweibel (2011)
• Lunatics (2012)

Films[link]

• Gilda Live (with Anne Beatts, Lorne Michaels, Michael O'Donoghue, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Paul Shaffer, Don Novello and Rosie Shuster) (1980)
• Dragnet (with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Mankiewicz) (1987)
• North (with Andrew Scheinman) (1994) (also Producer)
• The Story of Us (with Jessie Nelson) (1999) (also Producer)
• Lunatics (with Dave Barry) (TBD)