Michael J. Weithorn is an American writer, director, and producer known for his works including the long-running series The King of Queens.
Career
Michael J. Weithorn was born in Queens, New York, and attended high school in Port Washington. He attended and graduated Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Weithorn was one of several friends that met at Swarthmore and went out west in 1978 to join the entertainment industry: Neal Marlens and Carol Black and the late film producer Robert Newmyer. After arriving in Los Angeles and teaching high school for three years, Weithorn's first major writing opportunity was an episode of the television series Benson in 1981. In 1982 he passed up an opportunity to become part of the original writing staff of Late Night With David Letterman to work with producer Gary David Goldberg on Goldberg's new series Family Ties. From 1982 to 1986 Weithorn was a story consultant and then producer on 102 episodes of Family Ties, writing 26 of the episodes during his tenure on the show. During that same time, he also wrote episodes for other TV shows, including Cheers. He began creating TV series of his own after leaving Family Ties in 1986, including The Pursuit of Happiness, True Colors, South Central and Ned and Stacey. In 1998, he created The King of Queens with David Litt. The show ran until 2007, when Weithorn wrote the finale hour-long episode, "China Syndrome". In 2006, he co-created the Comedy Central animated web seriesThe Adventures of Baxter and McGuire, an episode of which was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2010 he wrote and directed the feature film A Little Help, which stars Jenna Fischer, Chris O'Donnell and Rob Benedict. In 2015, Weithorn created and executive produced the short-lived Fox midseason sitcom Weird Loners, which stars Becki Newton and Zachary Knighton.
Awards
Weithorn has been recognized several times for his work, including 5 Emmy nominations. In 1984 he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on Family Ties along with the show's other producers. One year later he was nominated again for Family Ties, both times in the Category of Outstanding Comedy Series. In 1986 he was nominated for two Emmys for Family Ties, one for producing and the other for Outstanding Writing In A Comedy Series. In 1989 he was nominated for another writing Emmy for his work on the TV series The Wonder Years. In 2007 he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Best Outstanding Broadband Program- Comedy for The Adventures of Baxter and McGuire. In 2010, his film A Little Help was the winner of best feature at several major film festivals. He won a Writer's Guild of America award in 1985 for his work on an episode of Cheers.
