George Meyer

George Meyer

Raised in Tucson, Meyer attended Harvard University. There, after becoming president of the Harvard Lampoon, he graduated in 1978 with a degree in biochemistry. Abandoning plans to attend medical school, Meyer attempted to make money through dog racing but failed after two months. After a series of short-term jobs he was hired in 1981 by David Letterman, on the advice of two of Meyer's Harvard Lampoon cowriters, to join the writing team of his show Late Night with David Letterman.

Meyer left after two seasons and went on to write for The New Show, Not Necessarily the News and Saturday Night Live. Tired of life in New York, Meyer moved to Boulder, Colorado where he wrote a screenplay for a film for Letterman to star in. The project fell through and Meyer then founded the humor zine Army Man which garnered a strong following, although Meyer ended it after three issues. The producer Sam Simon was a fan and he hired Meyer to write for the animated sitcom The Simpsons in 1989. He has held a number of positions on the show and also cowrote The Simpsons Movie. Meyer is in a relationship with the writer Maria Semple and the two have a daughter.

Early life and education Born in Pennsylvania, United States in 1956, while his sister noted Meyer was frequently blamed for the family's problems. Due to its size, family activities were limited so Meyer watched lots of television and read Mad magazine. He grew up hoping to one day become either a priest or ballplayer. He was uninterested in television, only finding humor in Get Smart and Batman, where he appreciated its "loopy, irreverent humor."

Meyer attended Harvard University, where he served as president of the Harvard Lampoon. The fact that people took humor "very seriously" at the Lampoon "changed [Meyer's] life."

Meyer commented on his Roman Catholic upbringing in a 2000 New Yorker profile:

People talk about how horrible it is to be brought up Catholic, and it's all true. The main thing was that there was no sense of proportion. I would chew a piece of gum at school, and the nun would say, 'Jesus is very angry with you about that,' and on the wall behind her would be a dying, bleeding guy on a cross. That's a horrifying image to throw at a little kid. You really could almost think that your talking in line, say, was on a par with killing Jesus. In the room, according to Mike Reiss, writers would "involuntarily glance at Meyer for approval when they pitch lines of their own". In 2007, Meyer returned to co-write The Simpsons Movie, which he later had mixed feelings about: "We worked so hard, and people liked it, but it still feels slapdash to me."

Meyer has been credited with "thoroughly shap[ing] ... the comedic sensibility" of The Simpsons; while recounting how "a show that you have the writer's credit for will run, and the next day people will come up to you and tell you how great it was. Then they'll mention their two favorite lines, and both of them will be George's."

Meyer has a "deep suspicion of social institutions and tradition in general," which has affected the writing of his own episodes of The Simpsons such as "Homer the Heretic", "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" and "Bart vs. Thanksgiving".

Other work In addition to his work on The Simpsons, Meyer wrote, directed, and starred in his own play, Up Your Giggy, which ran for two weeks at a West Hollywood theater in 2002. In 2005, Meyer cowrote the TBS special Earth to America. Personal life Meyer is in a relationship with the writer Maria Semple. They lived together during the 1990s and broke up in 1999, Their child, named Poppy Valentina after Valentina Tereshkova, was born in 2003; Although raised a Catholic, Meyer hated it and later became agnostic. While working at The Simpsons he became an atheist, taking the advice of fellow writer Mike Reiss.

In 2006 he wrote a comic, cautionary opinion piece about the environment for BBC News. It begins:

Are you a hypocrite? Because I certainly am. I'm an animal lover who wears leather shoes; a vegetarian who can't resist smoked salmon. I badger my friends to see the Al Gore movie, but I also fly on fuel-gulping jets. Great clouds of hypocrisy swirl around me. But even a fraud has feelings. And this summer, I'm feeling uneasy; I'm starting to think that our culture's frenzied and mindless assault on the last shreds of nature may not be the wisest course.

Film and television credits Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1984) – writer Not Necessarily the News (1983–1986) – writer The New Show (1984) – writer Saturday Night Live (1985–1987) – writer Vanishing America (1986) – co-writer (with Rich Hall) The Simpsons (1989–2005) – writer and producer "The Crepes of Wrath" (along with Sam Simon, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti) (1990) "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" (1990) "Blood Feud" (1991) "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington" (1991) "Treehouse of Horror II" (contributor) (1991) "Separate Vocations" (1992) "Homer the Heretic" (1992) "Bart's Inner Child" (1993) "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" (along with Tom Martin, Brian Scully and Mike Scully) (1999) "Brother's Little Helper" (1999) "Behind the Laughter" (along with Tim Long, Mike Scully, and Matt Selman) (2000) "The Parent Rap" (along with Mike Scully) (2001) The Edge (1992–1993) – writer A.U.S.A. (2003) – consulting producer Complete Savages (2004–2005) – producer I Heart Huckabees (2004) – Credited (along with Maria Semple) as "Formal Couple". Earth To America (2005) – cowriter The Simpsons Movie (2007) – cowriter