Sam Simon
Year Title Medium Role
1979 The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle TV series Storyboard artist , writer
1979 Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids TV series Storyboard artist , writer
1981 Best of the West TV series Writer
1982 Barney Miller TV series Writer
1981-1983 Taxi TV series Executive story editor , showrunner , producer , writer
1982-1985 Cheers TV series Producer , writer
1984 Shaping Up TV series Creator , executive producer , writer
1987-1988 It 's Garry Shandling 's Show TV series Creative consultant , writer
1987-1989 The Tracey Ullman Show TV series Executive producer , writer
1989-1993 The Simpsons TV series Character designer , creative supervisor , developer , executive producer , showrunner , writer
1991 Sibs TV series Creator , writer
1991 The Super Feature film Writer
1993 Phenom TV series Creator , writer
1994-1995 The George Carlin Show TV series Co-creator , director , executive producer , showrunner , writer
1996 Men Behaving Badly TV series Director
1996 Bless This House TV series Creative consultant
1997 Friends TV series Director
1998-2003 The Drew Carey Show TV series Consulting producer , director , writer
1999 The Norm Show TV series Director
2000 The Michael Richards Show TV series Director
Credits
Samuel Michael Simon (June 6, 1955 - March 8, 2015) was an American director, producer, writer, animal rights activist and philanthropist, who co-developed the television series The Simpsons. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. Simon submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and he later became the series' showrunner. Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It's Garry Shandling's Show and other programs, as well as writing the 1991 film The Super. In 1989, Simon developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons with Matt Groening and James L. Brooks. Simon assembled the show's first writing team, co-wrote eight episodes and has been credited with developing [the show's] sensibility. Simon's relationship with Groening was strained and he left the show in 1993, negotiating a pay-off which saw him receive tens of millions of dollars from the show's revenue each year. The following year Simon co-created The George Carlin Show, before later working as a director on shows such as The Drew Carey Show. Simon won nine Primetime Emmy Awards for his television work. Simon turned to fields outside television in his later years. He regularly appeared on Howard Stern's radio shows, managed boxer Lamon Brewster and helped guide him to the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship in 2004, and was a regular poker player and six-time in the money finisher at the World Series of Poker. Simon founded the Sam Simon Foundation, which consists of a mobile veterinary clinic that goes into low-income neighborhoods offering free surgeries for cats and dogs several days per week, as well as a program that rescues and trains shelter dogs.