When was David Mirkin born?
David Mirkin
Mirkin wanted to produce a surreal, Monty Python-esque, single-camera comedy series. He had a development deal with Newhart's producers MTM Enterprises and persuaded them to buy the rights to produce a pilot for an American adaptation of the British sitcom The Young Ones.[10] The pilot was entitled Oh No, Not Them!, and featured Nigel Planer from the original series, as well as Jackie Earle Haley and Robert Bundy.[12][13] Mirkin had wanted to cast comedian Chris Elliott in the pilot, but was prevented by Fox, which wanted Elliott for another show. Oh No, Not Them!, in Mirkin's words, "tested through the floor" because it was too "surreal" and "sarcastic" and was not picked up.[10][12] Mirkin and Elliott decided to develop a show together, along with Adam Resnick. In 1990, they created the sitcom Get a Life, which was conceived as a dark, surreal, psychotic version of the cartoon Dennis the Menace.[12] The show stars Elliott as Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old newspaper delivery boy who still lives with his parents, and who is increasingly losing his grip on reality.[14][15] Fox was lukewarm about the idea, but Mirkin convinced them to order a pilot by understating how dark the show would be. 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. The executives enjoyed the finished pilot and it was aired.[12] However, throughout the show's run, the network's initially negative attitude prevailed. 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.[10][12] After its first season, on the insistence of the network, Chris moves out of his parents' garage, attempts to get additional jobs to his paper route, and attempts to get a girlfriend. However, Mirkin and Elliott refused to "[compromise on] the essential goofiness of the show".[16]