Look up ari in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Ari may refer to:

People[link]

• Ari, electronic music composer
• Ari (name), a name in several languages
• Ari Behn (born 1972), Norwegian author and husband of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway
• Ari Emanuel (born 1961), American talent agent
• Ari Fleischer (born 1960), former White House Press Secretary for U.S. President George W. Bush
• Ari Folman (born 1962), Israeli film director, screenwriter and film score composer
• Ari Graynor (born 1983), American actress
• Ari Herstand, singer/songwriter
• Ari Hjelm (born 1962), Finnish football coach and former player
• Ari Jabotinsky (1910-1969), Revisionist Zionist activist, Israeli politician and academic
• Ari Koivunen (born 1984), Finnish heavy metal singer
• Ari Meyers (born 1969), American actress
• Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975), Greek shipping magnate and husband of Jacqueline Kennedy
• Ari Sulander (born 1969), Finnish ice hockey goaltender
• Ari Up (1962-2010), German-born singer
• Ari Vatanen (born 1952), Finnish politician and former rally driver
• Ari Þorgilsson (1067–1148), Iceland's most prominent medieval chronicler
• Ariclenes da Silva Ferreira (born 1985), Brazilian footballer
• Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534–1572), Jewish rabbinical scholar and mystic known also as Ari
• Ari, nickname for actress/singer Ariana Grande

Fictional characters[link]

• Ari Gold (Entourage), on the comedy-drama television series Entourage
• Ari, a clone in C. J. Cherryh's science fiction novels Cyteen and Regenesis
• Ari, protagonist of the role-playing computer game Okage: Shadow King
• Ari Batchelder, in the Maximum Ride novel series

Places[link]

• Ari, Abruzzo, a comune in Italy
• Ari, Indiana, an unincorporated town
• Ari (atoll), Maldives
• Ari Station, a skytrain station in Bangkok, Thailand

Languages[link]

• Ari language, a Papuan language of the Trans–New Guinea family
• IS) 639-3 code for the Arikara language, spoken by the Arikara people, mainly in North Dakota

Other uses[link]

• Aries (constellation) abbreviation, as standardized by the International Astronomical Union
• Ari-Motorfahrzeugbau GmbH, German automobile company, which in the 1920s manufactured the Arimofa and the two-stroke Ari (motorcycle)
• Ari (Արի) - a very old Armenian word meaning: Brave; Courageous ["Ariatsi" (arm.) – Aryan/Aryan-man (engl). "Ariakan" (arm.) – Aryan (engl.)]

See also[link]

• ARI (disambiguation)
• Ari Buddhism, the religious practice common in Burma prior to the eleventh century

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Josh Weinstein
Josh Weinstein in 1994
Born	Joshua Weinstein (1966-05-05) May 5, 1966 (age 46) Washington D.C., United States
Occupation	Television writer
Nationality	American
Period	1988-present
Genres	Comedy
Spouse(s)	Lisa Simmons (1995-present)

Josh Weinstein (born May 5, 1966) is an American television writer and producer, known for his work on the animated comedy series The Simpsons. Weinstein and Bill Oakley became best friends and writing partners at St. Albans High School; Weinstein then attended Stanford University and was editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral. He worked on several short-term media projects, including writing for the variety show Sunday Best, but was then unemployed for a long period.

Weinstein and Oakley eventually penned a spec script for Seinfeld, after which they wrote "Marge Gets a Job", an episode of The Simpsons. Subsequently, the two were hired to write for the show on a permanent basis in 1992. After they wrote episodes such as "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)", "Bart vs. Australia" and "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the two were appointed executive producers and showrunners for the seventh and eighth seasons of the show. They attempted to include several emotional episodes focusing on the Simpson family, as well as several high-concept episodes such as "Homer's Enemy", "Two Bad Neighbors" and "The Principal and the Pauper", winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for their work.

After they left The Simpsons, Oakley and Weinstein created Mission Hill. The show was plagued by promotional issues and was swiftly canceled. They worked as consulting producers on Futurama, then created The Mullets in 2003. The two wrote several unsuccessful TV pilots, and were due to serve as showrunners on Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009. Oakley left the project over a contract dispute, but Weinstein remained until it was canceled. He has since written for Futurama where he is currently co-executive producer. Weinstein is married to journalist Lisa Simmons.

Early life[link]

Weinstein was born and raised in Washington D.C.^[1] to Rosa and Harris Weinstein. His mother is the director of the Himmelfarb Mobile University which provides education for the elderly, while his father is a lawyer for Covington & Burling.^[2] He has a brother, Jacob, and a sister, Teme.^[3] Weinstein attended St. Albans High School in Washington D.C., where he met and became best friends with Bill Oakley in the eighth grade. The two created the school humor magazine The Alban Antic in 1983.^[4][5] He later attended Stanford University,^[6] where he served as editor-in-chief of the Stanford Chaparral.^[7] Weinstein is an honorary member of the Harvard Lampoon as he worked on some of Lampoon's parody publications with Oakley over the summers between course years.^[6]

Career[link]

Weinstein did not land a job on a major comedy series, as previous Harvard graduates who wrote for the Lampoon had done, despite writing numerous spec scripts for shows such as Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman; he moved back home to Washington D.C.^[5] There, he worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency, writing print adverts for such clients as IKEA.^[8] In their free time, Oakley and Weinstein wrote for local comedy groups, such as Gross National Product.^[5] In 1989, they moved to New York City after being hired to write for a game show on Ha!, before writing for a variety show on the network featuring Denis Leary.^[8] The two also wrote for the National Lampoon and Spy.^[4] An editor of Spy was hired by NBC to run the variety show Sunday Best, and took Oakley and Weinstein to Los Angeles with him in 1991. When the show was canceled after three episodes, they were unemployed for a lengthy period.^[8]

[edit] The Simpsons

As a writer[link]

After changing their agent,^[5] they wrote a spec script for Seinfeld, which was well received. Amongst those who liked it were Al Jean and Mike Reiss, showrunners of The Simpsons. There were no openings on the staff at the time, but Oakley and Weinstein were hired to write the episode "Marge Gets a Job", based on an idea by Conan O'Brien.^[8] The episode aired as part of season four.^[8][10] Their Seinfeld script and The Simpsons episode caught the attention of Diane English, and they were offered a job on a sitcom. Before they accepted this job, they were told that Jay Kogen and Wallace Wolodarsky were leaving The Simpsons, and then joined the writing staff on a permanent basis in 1992, in the third season of that show.^[8][11] They began as story editors.^[12] They were initially quiet and felt "intimidated", being in the same room as "10 of the greatest minds in comedy", but eventually started pitching jokes with confidence.^[8] They wrote their scripts together, working side-by-side at a computer.^[8] Their first episode as staff writers was "Marge in Chains", an existing idea that they were assigned. The first draft of the script was based on research about women in prison conducted by Oakley and Weinstein, making it "slightly more realistic" than the final version of the episode, in which many realistic elements were replaced.^[13]

After season four, most of the original staff left the show. Before David Mirkin arrived to take over as showrunner for season five, Oakley, Weinstein, O'Brien and Dan McGrath were the only writers working on the show and spent a month mapping out most of the season's episodes.^[11] Oakley and Weinstein wrote several episodes for season five, penning the "Terror at 5½ Feet" segment of "Treehouse of Horror IV",^[14] "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)",^[15] "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy",^[16] the show's 100th episode "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"^[17] and "Lady Bouvier's Lover".^[18] For season six they wrote "Sideshow Bob Roberts", basing much of the episode on the Watergate scandal, in which they had a great interest,^[19] as well as "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" and "Bart vs. Australia".^[20] For "Bart vs. Australia", the writing staff wanted to produce an episode in which the Simpsons family traveled to a foreign country; they selected Australia because they thought that everyone in Australia had a good sense of humor and "would get the jokes",^[21] with the episode being intentionally inaccurate.^[22] The episode proved somewhat controversial; some Australian fans said the episode was a mockery of their country. Shortly after it had aired, the Simpsons staff received over a hundred letters from Australians who were insulted by the episode.^[23] The pair wrote the two-part episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", which was initially proposed by series creator Matt Groening.^[24] While deciding who the culprit was, Oakley and Weinstein pitched Barney Gumble because he was a character that could go to jail and it could change the dynamic of the show.^[25] Mirkin suggested Maggie because he felt it was funnier and wanted the culprit to be a family member.^[26] Oakley and Weinstein were initially unsure about having Maggie as the culprit, and it was decided that the episode would end with Maggie shifting her eyes and making it look like it was not a complete accident.^[27]

As showrunner[link]

Oakley and Weinstein were appointed executive producers and showrunners of the seventh and eighth seasons. They were chosen partly because they had been with the show since the third season and understood many of its dynamics.^[11] The showrunner is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the show's production. Each episode takes ten months to produce, so the showrunner must "oversee many different episodes in different stages of production all at the same time", with roles including head writer, making notes on the storyboards and working with the voice actors, animators, editors and composers. Oakley and Weinstein often set two script-rewriting rooms in motion at the same time, delegating leadership in the rooms to writers such as Steve Tompkins and David Cohen.^[8] Mirkin, who had suggested that the two take over, remained on the show in an advisory capacity, helping Oakley and Weinstein with technical aspects of the show such as editing and sound mixing.^[8] When they took over the series, they wanted many of the episodes to be realistic ones that focused more on the five members of the Simpson family and explored their feelings and emotions towards each other.^[28] They wanted to produce Treehouse of Horror episodes, episodes about Sideshow Bob, Itchy & Scratchy and several "format-bending" episodes such as "22 Short Films About Springfield", for which Weinstein wrote the scene featuring Comic Book Guy and Milhouse Van Houten.^[29] They aimed for "at least two episodes per season that 'pushed the envelope', [and] expanded the definition of what an episode could be."^[8] This was a style they employed for both seasons they produced.^[30] Season eight featured several episodes in which focus was given to secondary characters and in which new issues were explored, such as divorce.^[30] Their preferred choice of guest stars were those with unique and interesting voices, and several of their guest stars were "old grizzled men with distinctive voices" such as R. Lee Ermey, Donald Sutherland, Kirk Douglas and Lawrence Tierney.^[31] Oakley considered season three to be the single greatest comedic season of television ever produced and so attempted to recreate the feel of that season for the two he ran,^[32] focusing on stories with real emotions and situations, as well as some off-the-wall episodes.^[8] Season three was their basis for Homer: "We liked Homer the way he was in the second and third seasons. That was what we consciously used as our model. Dimwitted, loving, hyper-enthusiastic, creatively goofy, parody of the American father – drawn with real emotions, though admittedly amplified. This was exemplified in "Mother Simpson", "Lisa the Iconoclast", "Diddly-Dum-Doodly", and a couple others. In some of the less reality-based episodes, i.e. the Beer Baron one – usually Swartzwelder's, we'd treat this stricture with a certain amount of latitude."^[9]

One of their most notable episodes was "Homer's Enemy", an episode designed to "push the envelope conceptually." The idea for "Homer's Enemy" was first conceived by Oakley who thought that Homer should have an enemy. This evolved into the concept of a "real world" co-worker who would either love or hate Homer. The writers chose the latter as they thought it would have funnier results.^[33] The result was the character of Frank Grimes, a man who has had to work hard all his life with nothing to show for it and is dismayed and embittered by Homer's success and comfort in spite of his inherent laziness and ignorance.^[33] "Homer's Enemy" explores the comic possibilities of a realistic character with a strong work ethic placed alongside Homer in a work environment. In the episode, Homer is portrayed as an everyman and the embodiment of the American spirit; however, in some scenes his negative characteristics and silliness are prominently highlighted.^[33][34] By the close of the episode, Grimes, a hard working and persevering "real American hero,"^[34] is relegated to the role of antagonist; the viewer is intended to be pleased that Homer has emerged victorious.^[34] Oakley says the episode was "hyper-meta" and focused on "parodying to some degree the Homer we don't like. That's one of the things that episode is supposed to illustrate -- "Homer gone wrong". Although, I would argue that in "Homer's Enemy" he's not even really even all that excessively stupid or immature, actually."^[9] Weinstein said: "We wanted to do an episode where the thinking was "What if a real life, normal person had to enter Homer's universe and deal with him?" I know this episode is controversial and divisive, but I just love it. It really feels like what would happen if a real, somewhat humorless human had to deal with Homer. There was some talk [on NoHomers.net] about the ending—we just did that because (a) it’s really funny and shocking, (2) we like the lesson of "sometimes, you just can't win"—the whole Frank Grimes episode is a study in frustration and hence Homer has the last laugh and (3) we wanted to show that in real life, being Homer Simpson could be really dangerous and life threatening, as Frank Grimes sadly learned."^[8] When the episode was first broadcast, many fans felt it was too dark, unfunny and that Homer was portrayed as overly bad-mannered.^[35] On the DVD commentary, Weinstein considers this episode one of the most controversial of the seasons he ran, as it involves sharp observational humor which many fans "didn't get."^[33] Weinstein also talks about a "generation gap"—the episode was originally panned by viewers, but has since become a favorite among fans who grew up with the show.^[33]

Other episodes included "Two Bad Neighbors", which sees Homer meet former President George H. W. Bush, a reference to the show's feud with the Bushes in the early 1990s.^[36] Weinstein said that the episode is often misunderstood. Many audiences expected a political satire, while the writers made special effort to keep the parody apolitical.^[37] Oakley stresses that "it's not a political attack, it's a personal attack!", and instead of criticizing Bush for his policies, the episode instead pokes fun at his "crotchetiness". Oakley described the episode as a companion piece to "Homer's Enemy", in that a character is juxtaposed alongside Homer and does not get along with him.^[38]

They considered working on the show to be similar to working in a bubble due to the lack of interference from the Fox network's executives, as is commonplace on other shows.^[11] This allowed them to produce any episodes they wanted, as Weinstein commented: "The great thing about The Simpsons is that we pretty much were able to get away with everything, so there weren't any episodes we really wanted to do that we couldn't do. Even the crazy high-concept ones like "Two Bad Neighbors" and "Homer's Enemy" we managed to put on the air because honestly there were no network execs there to stop us."^[8] Such was the network's limited input, when an executive suggested the staff introduce a new character to live with the Simpsons so as to "liven up the show",^[39] the staff rejected the idea and instead created the episode "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", inserting the one-time character Roy, with no explanation as to who he was, or why he was living with the family, as a reference to the executive's proposal.^[40] The episode, which marked the point at which The Simpsons surpassed The Flintstones for the number of episodes produced for an animated series,^[41] was named by the BBC as one of the ten most memorable episodes of the show. They noted "the writers used the opportunity to pay tribute to the art of animation and rail against network interference in their show."^[42] The intrusion of the network censors was limited: the normal procedure is for an episode's script to be sent to the censor and then faxed back with a list of lines and words that should be substituted, causing limited problems as often the offending lines are removed or changed for comedic purposes after animation. The episode "Homer's Phobia" drew the censor's objections. Its script came back with two pages of notes about almost every single line. The censors stated that they did not like the use of the word "gay", or the discussion of homosexuality at all, and closed with a paragraph which stated that "the topic and substance of this episode are unacceptable for broadcast". The censor problems ultimately came to nothing when the episode came back from animation in South Korea, the then-Fox president had just been fired and replaced, with the censors being replaced as well. The new censors sent back merely one line: "acceptable for broadcast".^[1]

Leaving the show[link]

Oakley and Weinstein stood down as showrunners after season eight because they "didn't want to break [the show]." Oakley said: "We always said we'd never do a joke that we'd done before."^[5] They felt the showrunner should not stay for more than two seasons.^[11] Due to the pressures of having to work on two seasons at once (writing season eight, whilst doing post-production of season seven), Oakley said that at least two episodes from season eight would ideally have been rewritten, had there been sufficient time,^[30] and that towards the end, they were "treading water".^[32] As they were working on post-production of season eight, they were credited as consulting producers for season nine, which was in its initial writing stages.^[8] Oakley stated that they contributed "somewhere between 0 and .0001%" of the season, only attending the table readings of the scripts.^[8] They produced three episodes held over from season eight, which aired as part of season nine: "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson",^[43] "The Principal and the Pauper" and "Lisa the Simpson". "The Principal and the Pauper" was negatively received due the sudden revelation that long-time character Seymour Skinner was actually an imposter. For example, in his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner describes "The Principal and the Pauper" as the "broadcast that marked [the] abrupt plunge" from The Simpsons' "Golden Age", which he says began in the middle of the show's third season. He calls the episode "[one of] the weakest episodes in Simpsons history".^[44] As such, they consider it the most controversial episode from their tenure as executive producers. He and Oakley advise viewers to treat "The Principal and the Pauper" as an "experiment". They surmise that the negative reception was partly due to the fact that it was not immediately apparent to viewers that this was such an episode (as opposed to, for example, "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase"). They describe the ending of the episode as an attempt to reset the continuity and allow fans to consider the episode on its own.^[45] "Lisa the Simpson" was their final involvement with the show. The duo wanted to end on a good note—Weinstein stated that the episode "was meant to embody the humor, depth, and emotions of The Simpsons,"—and they were pleased with the result.^[46]

Awards and critical reaction[link]

Weinstein won three Emmys for his work on The Simpsons, and shared them with the other producers.^[47] When Weinstein was the showrunner and executive producer, "Homer's Phobia" won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming One Hour or Less) in 1997.^[47] The previous year, "Treehouse of Horror VI" was submitted for the award. The staff felt the 3D animation sequence "Homer³" would have given it the edge. The episode eventually lost to Pinky and the Brain. Oakley later expressed regret about not submitting an episode with a more emotionally-driven plot, such as "Mother Simpson".^[48] In 1996, during season seven, the show received a Peabody Award.^[49] Weinstein shared the awards for "Lisa's Wedding" and "Trash of the Titans" in 1995 and 1998 respectively.^[47][50][51] Oakley and Weinstein themselves were nominated, along with the show's composer Alf Clausen, for the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics for writing "Señor Burns" from "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)".^[47]

Many of the episodes by Oakley and Weinstein are considered amongst the show's best. For example, in 2003, Entertainment Weekly included six episodes they produced ("Homer's Phobia", "A Fish Called Selma", "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", "22 Short Films About Springfield", "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" and "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show") and one episode they wrote ("Who Shot Mr. Burns?") as part of their list of the show's 25 best episodes.^[52] Robert Canning of IGN said the episode "You Only Move Twice" from season eight "may well be the greatest Simpsons episode of all time. In my book, it's at least tied," with "Marge vs. the Monorail".^[53] A. O. Scott described their era as "reach[ing] a pinnacle of zany self-reference with "22 Short Films About Springfield" and "Simpsons Spin-off Showcase"."^[54] Weinstein considers the line "Too crazy for Boy's Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town", from the episode "Treehouse of Horror VII" to be his favorite joke contribution to the show.^[55] The two are popular amongst the show's fans,^[9] and in the early days of the Internet, Oakley read and participated in fan discussion of the show on newsgroups such as alt.tv.simpsons.^[11][32] In 2005 and 2006, they participated in two question-and-answer sessions on the fan message board NoHomers.net.^[8][30]

[edit] Mission Hill and other work

After Oakley and Weinstein left The Simpsons, they created Mission Hill in 1997, a show about a hip, lazy, 24-year-old cartoonist named Andy French, and sold it to The WB for a fall 1999 debut.^[8][56] They pitched the show in 1998 "as an animated series for young adults with a sophisticated, 'Simpsons'-style sensibility." They aimed to make the show about realistic issues affecting young adults, which were too mature for The Simpsons.^[5] The network was impressed and initially ordered 13 episodes; they ordered five more once the first was completed.^[8] Oakley explained: "The audience we're going for is one that's sophisticated, that likes high and low humor, that's very savvy in animation. [But] this show is definitely a case where a lot of people don't get it. It's not setup, setup, setup, punch line. It's observational humor. It's jokes told in a weird way, in the background or with a bizarre sound effect."^[5] The show was plagued by "public relations" difficulties, which meant it was "tarnished" from the start. A badly-edited two-minute promotional video for the show, sent to advertisers in April 1999 for the annual upfronts, was poorly received. Oakley and Weinstein had been informed that the upfronts did not matter.^[5] Similarly, because no episodes were finished in time, journalists were not able to see anything of the show at the network's schedule presentation in July. Subsequently, as Weinstein commented to the Washington Post, "for seven months, the only impression people had of the show was based on a two-minute tape that looked terrible. Six major publications panned it before they even saw it." The pilot garnered largely negative reviews from publications such as The Deseret News; and earned a positive write-up in Variety.^[5] Furthermore, the show was forced to change from its originally planned title of The Downtowners due to its closeness to an MTV show.^[5] All of these factors combined to ensure the show received little attention, and the WB ran only a few commercials for it. Weinstein stated: "I don't know exactly why America doesn't know about this show. It's like Teen People came out with its fall preview, and we're not even in it."^[5] Mission Hill came at a time when the TV schedules were already saturated with animated shows; some of the response could be chalked up to its genre.^[9]

The show was put out on a Friday, a night on which the WB had never broadcast before, at 8:00 pm, a time Oakley felt was inappropriate,^[5] and aired in front of The Wayans Bros., The Jamie Foxx Show and The Steve Harvey Show, all shows with which Oakley felt it was "incompatible".^[8] The show's poor reviews and ratings of an average of 1.8 million led to its swift cancellation.^[9][56] Oakley concluded that the pair had been "very naive" with regard to producing the show,^[5] and that it "would've been better on cable anyway because it would never have appealed to a broad enough audience due to the subject matter."^[9] The 13 completed episodes were later aired on Cartoon Network's adult swim block and the show garnered a worldwide cult following. After lobbying from Oakley and Weinstein, the WB eventually released the series on DVD.^[4][8][56]

From 2001 to 2002, the two served as consulting producers on Futurama. They worked for two-and-a-half days a week, contributing jokes and helping with stories. They worked most substantially on the episodes "That's Lobstertainment!" and "Roswell That Ends Well".^[8] They produced The Mullets for UPN in 2003.^[57] Oakley and Weinstein have written and produced several television pilots. These include a CBS dramedy entitled 22 Birthdays, Business Class, a comedy for NBC about two traveling salesmen, The Funkhousers, an off-the-wall comedy for ABC about a close-knit family which was directed by Frank Oz and The Ruling Class for Fox, about a high school class who all got along, regardless of their social group.^[8][58][59] They have written two feature film screenplays: The Optimist for New Line Cinema, in which Seann William Scott was slated to star as a man born with no unhappiness gene,^[60] and Ruprecht, a Santa Claus-related comedy for Disney.^[61]

Weinstein was due to serve with Oakley as an executive producer on the Fox animated television series Sit Down, Shut Up in 2009, which was created by Mitchell Hurwitz.^[62] The show, which was based on an Australian program,^[63] featured cartoon characters on live-action backgrounds.^[64] However, Oakley ended his involvement with the show due to a contract dispute between the staff and Sony Pictures. Sony refused to offer a contract which operated under the complete terms of the Writers Guild of America. Weinstein continued working on the show.^[65] The show was canceled after 13 episodes.^[66] Weinstein is currently serving as a co-executive producer on the sixth season of Futurama following its revival on Comedy Central in 2010.^[67] He wrote the episodes "That Darn Katz!", "Law and Oracle" and "All the Presidents' Heads".^[68][69][70] He received an Annie Award nomination for Writing in a Television Production for the episode "All the Presidents' Heads".^[71]

Weinstein and Oakley will again team up to co-write and co-executive produce 22 Birthdays, the failed pilot they originally produced for CBS, as a pilot for Bravo. Doug Liman and Dave Bartis will also be co-executive producers. It is set to air in 2013.^[72]

Personal life[link]

Weinstein married Lisa Simmons, a West Coast editor of Cosmopolitan, in 1995.^[2] They have two children, Molly and Simon.^[73]

Credits[link]

• Sunday Best (1991) - writer
• The Simpsons (1992–1998) - writer, producer, story editor, supervising producer, consulting producer, executive producer, showrunner (all episodes with Bill Oakley)
  • "Marge Gets a Job"
  • "Marge in Chains"
  • "Treehouse of Horror IV" ("Terror at 5½ Feet" segment)
  • "$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)"
  • "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy"
  • "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song"
  • "Lady Bouvier's Lover"
  • "Sideshow Bob Roberts"
  • "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy"
  • "Bart vs. Australia"
  • "Who Shot Mr. Burns" (parts 1 & 2)
  • "22 Short Films About Springfield" (Milhouse and Comic Book Guy scenes)
• Mission Hill (1999–2002) - creator, writer, executive producer, voice of Toby Mundorf
  • "Pilot" (with Oakley)
• Futurama (2001–2002, 2010-) - consulting producer, executive producer, writer
  • "That Darn Katz!"
  • "Law and Oracle"
  • "All The Presidents' Heads"
• The Funkhousers (2001) - writer
• Ruling Class (2002) - writer
• The Mullets (2003) - creator, executive producer
• 22 Birthdays (2005) - writer
• Business Class (2007) - creator, writer
• Sit Down, Shut Up (2009) - executive producer, writer
  • "High School Musical Musical"

References[link]

External links[link]

• Josh Weinstein at the Internet Movie Database

Ari Vatanen

Ari Vatanen
Personal information
Nationality	Finnish
Born	(1952-04-27) 27 April 1952 (age 60)
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1974 – 1998, 2003
Teams	Ford, Opel, Peugeot, Subaru, BMW, Mitsubishi, Citroën
Rallies	101
Championships	1 (1981)
Rally wins	10
Podiums	27
Stage wins	527
Total points	518
First rally	1974 1000 Lakes Rally
First win	1980 Acropolis Rally
Last win	1985 Swedish Rally
Last rally	2003 Rally Finland

Ari Pieti Uolevi Vatanen ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 27 April 1952 in Tuupovaara) is a Finnish rally driver turned politician and Member of the European Parliament 1999–2009. Vatanen won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times.

Biography[link]

Vatanen drives a Ford Escort RS1800 at the 1978 1000 Lakes Rally.

Vatanen's 1981 RS1800.

Vatanen was born and grew up in rural Tuupovaara in Eastern Finland. His debut year in professional rallying was 1970, and he debuted in the World Rally Championship at the 1974 1000 Lakes Rally. His first international rally was the 1975 Rothmans 747 Rally in Jamaica driving a Datsun 120Y. He placed 12th with co-driver Gerry Phillips. He won the British Rally Championship in 1976 and 1980 with Peter Bryant and David Richards. In 1977, Vatanen became a regular privateer contestant in the WRC with a Ford Escort RS1800. For the 1979 season, he was signed by Rothmans Rally Team. Continuing with an RS1800, he took his debut win at the 1980 Acropolis Rally and became the World Rally Champion in 1981. From 1979 until the end of 1981, Vatanen was co-driven by David Richards, who went on to become chairman of Prodrive, the Banbury based motorsport team and one of the most influential figures in British (and worldwide) motorsport. In the 1982 season, Vatanen did not defend his title and competed in only three world rallies.

In 1984, Vatanen signed to drive the Peugeot 205 T16 for Peugeot's factory team. From the 1984 1000 Lakes Rally to 1985 Swedish Rally, Vatanen won five world rallies in a row. Close to death after a major accident on the 1985 Rally Argentina, Vatanen spent 18 months winning a personal health battle over serious injury and depression. He went on to make a complete recovery and his return to motorsport in 1987 saw him go on to win the Paris-Dakar Rally four times; with Peugeot in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and with Citroën in 1991. He became the centre of controversy when his car was stolen whilst leading the same rally in 1988.

Vatanen's Peugeot 405 T16 GR on display.

With Peugeot, Vatanen also won the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, after Peugeot stopped participating in the World Rally Championship in 1986, due to the demise of Group B rallying. Peugeot used the lessons learnt from its 205 T16 to create the 405 T16. With at least 600 bhp (447 kW), large aerofoils, four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering, Vatanen took the car up the hill in record time, his efforts being captured in the award-winning short film Climb Dance.

Vatanen's autobiography Every Second Counts, detailing his life and career up until that point, was published in 1988 (SAF Publishing, ISBN 0-946719-04-7) and instantly became a best seller.

Vatanen continued competing in the World Rally Championship more or less actively until the 1998 season. He drove for Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe in four events in 1989 and in five events in 1990. His best result with the Mitsubishi Galant VR-4 was second at the 1990 1000 Lakes Rally. From 1992 to 1993, he competed for Subaru in 11 events, finishing second three times, including on the debut event of the first Subaru Impreza in Finland. Vatanen briefly led the event before being overhauled by eventual winner Juha Kankkunen. Even so, he was dropped by the Subaru team at the end of the 1993 season in favour of Carlos Sainz.

The following year he returned to the wheel of a Ford, driving the Ford Escort Cosworth for a semi-private team, and then being co-opted into the Ford factory team where he stood in for the injured Francois Delecour. His most notable result that year was a podium finish on Rally Argentina, the first time he had contested the event since his accident there nine years previously.

The 1995 and 1996 seasons were quiet for Vatanen, whose career as a top-line driver was slowly drawing to a close. At the time there was a surplus of drivers and those late in their careers, such as Vatanen, tended to lose out in favour of younger talents. Nevertheless, he continued to contest a few events then and in subsequent years, his best result being a podium finish at the 1998 Safari Rally.^[1] He then briefly returned to a works Subaru for the season-ending Rally of Great Britain, marking his 100th World Rally Championship event.

Although he became much less active in rallying, his hunger for motorsport had not left him completely however, and Vatanen joined Nissan in the Paris-Dakar in 2003, finishing seventh. He also made an appearance at the 2003 Rally Finland with a Bozian Racing-prepared Peugeot 206 WRC, and finished eleventh. In 2004 and 2005, Vatanen drove the Dakar for Nissan as well, and in 2007 he made another attempt with Volkswagen, but retired on the seventh stage.^[2]

He currently holds the position of 'Club Patron' to the Ireland's Donegal Motor Club since 2002. He has a long association with the Donegal Motor Club and the Donegal International Rally, competing twice early in his career, 1975 and 1978.

Vatanen and Richards at the 2008 Colin McRae Forest Stages.

In September 2008, Vatanen took part in the Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally, a round of the Scottish Rally Championship centred in Perth in Scotland. His co-driver was once again David Richards and they competed in the same Rothmans sponsored Ford Escort RS1800 that they drove in 1981. He was one of a number of ex-world champions to take part in the event in memory of McRae, who died in 2007.

Political career[link]

Following his years of working with a French rally team, in 1993 he settled in southern France where he bought a farm and a winery. He soon developed an interest in politics, and in 1999 he was elected to the European Parliament from the list of the conservative Finnish National Coalition party, despite continuing to live in France. The issues he has worked on include car taxation, traffic policies, development aid, and agricultural policy.

In 2004 he was re-elected, this time from the list of the conservative French Union for a Popular Movement. In 2009 European Parliament elections Vatanen was again a National Coalition candidate in Finland, but he did not get elected this time.^[3]

In July 2009 Vatanen declared his interest in being a candidate to stand against Max Mosley in the FIA presidential elections in October, should current president Mosley decide to restand for another term.^[4] He later confirmed that he will run for the presidency.^[5] On 23 October 2009, Vatanen failed in his bid to be elected as president of the FIA, which was won by his former team boss at Peugeot, subsequently Scuderia Ferrari manager Jean Todt.^[6]

He is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.^[7]

WRC victories[link]

Number	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	27th Acropolis Rally	1980	David Richards	Ford Escort RS1800
2	28th Acropolis Rally	1981	David Richards	Ford Escort RS1800
3	3° Marlboro Rallye do Brasil	1981	David Richards	Ford Escort RS1800
4	31st 1000 Lakes Rally	1981	David Richards	Ford Escort RS1800
5	31st Marlboro Safari Rally	1983	Terry Harryman	Opel Ascona 400
6	34th 1000 Lakes Rally	1984	Terry Harryman	Peugeot 205 T16
7	26° Rallye Sanremo	1984	Terry Harryman	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
8	33rd Lombard RAC Rally	1984	Terry Harryman	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
9	53ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo	1985	Terry Harryman	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
10	35th International Swedish Rally	1985	Terry Harryman	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

WRC Results[link]